IMP . CAES . P . LICINI . VALE
RIANI . PII . FELICIS . AVG
COLONI . COL . IVL . VENE
RIAE . CIRTAE . NOVAE . SIC
CAE . DD. PP.
The frieze of the temple of Venus was found and broken to pieces a very short time before my arrival. It was apparently the history of her amour with Adonis, and was upon white marble, worked with the utmost elegance, but the fragments were too inconsiderable to be able to venture upon a design from them. The Moors between Keff and Constantina being in rebellion, I turned eastward on November 5.
I passed Lorbus,[197] where are no antiquities; the walls seem to be modern, built badly out of the ancient materials. Arrived at Zowarin, about twelve miles, a very large extensive plain, the seat of the Welled Yagoube, who pay no tribute, but receive payment from the Bey. At the head of this plain is Welled Toauoun,[198] descendants of Welled Yacoube, but these are tributary and few in number. Five miles from Zowarin, passing a mountain through a wood of firs, we came to Zamfoure on the 6th November; a city in ruins that seems to be about three miles in circumference. Here we made drawings of a Corinthian temple, and a triumphal arch, the inscription on which shows it to be the Assuras and not Kiser,[199] as Dr. Shaw imagines. It is surrounded on every side but the south by a small river, which has the marks of having been a very large stream, its banks very high and perpendicular, and below it is the plain of Surse, as it is still called, a corruption probably of the ancient Assuras. This plain is the abode of the Welled Ali. Passing the plain, twelve miles to the north-east, we come to Jebbel Messouche,[200] on the other side of which, upon an eminence, is a small mean town, built from the fragments of a larger and ancient one, whose name is still called Zama,[201] and is probably the ancient capital of Juba; the small river Siliana runs below it, and empties itself in the Bagradas. Below are the wide plains of the Welled Own, where probably was gained the victory, which decided the fate of the capital.
Our friend Si Mohammed esh-Shabi confirmed in many curious respects the narrative of Bruce; he was particularly struck with the mention of the fact that this district was occupied by the Oulad Ali. His own tribe, that of the Drid, is one of makhsin, or hereditary soldiery. They wander all over the country with their flocks and camels, and as a rule possess no fixed residence and own no land in fee simple; his section of it however, that of Esh-Sabiah, purchased the territory which they now inhabit in the plain of Es-Sers, from the Oulad Ali, not very many years after Bruce’s visit, and the latter tribe has totally disappeared, at least from this part of the country. Then the ‘wood of firs,’ through which Bruce passed, was in the mountain of Bou Seliah; he was well aware that it had been covered at one time with Aleppo pines; but he assured me that not a single tree now remained. The Oulad Aoun still remain in their own frontiers, and as formerly, are exempt from taxation, like the Sidi Bou Ghanim, the Khomair, and several others, who are not required to pay taxes, simply because there is every reason to believe, that they would not consent to do so, and Government is not strong enough to enforce obedience.
FOOTNOTES:
[184]Temple, ii. p. 262.