The "Colosseum" Across the Sea

Van Deman Collection, JSTOR

If a tourist traveled to Tunisia today, they would be greeted with incredible scenery, rich culture, and French influence within a predominantly Islamic nation. However, if one were to visit cities such as Carthage and El Jem, they might be surprised to find Roman ruins. Indeed, at the peak of the Roman Empire's reign, Roman soldiers were stationed as North as England and as South as Egypt. Apart from their vast empire, the Romans are still famous to this day due to their advanced architecture and technology. Incredibly durable concrete, aqueducts, and strong arches just name a few of many Roman technological achievements.

Carthage, Tunisia, for example, is home to the remains of a once powerful and highly prized Roman city. The Romans took Carthage via warfare from the Phoenicians during the Third Punic War, later transforming the coastal city into a trading and architectural hotspot. Many impressive buildings were erected in the Roman style, and large cisterns stored water from aqueducts and rainfall.

Even after the Roman Empire collapsed, remnants of their influence stood the test of time. Societies throughout Europe and North Africa built around ruins and continued on with their lives. North Africa in particular is home to several sites of these Roman ruins, full of art and architecture created centuries ago. An entire book could be written on the people residing within these cities, their culture, and the roles each city played within the Roman Empire. For the sake of brevity, we will focus on the amphitheater at El Jem in Tunisia.

Matching One's Grandeur

Buildings and artworks such as mosaics and amphitheaters not only had importance in functionality and cultural expression. They also served as a means of boasting power, wealth, and ingenuity. This practice of having artworks and structures as an outward expression of one's wealth and influence was rather common among emperors, kings, and even nobility within Europe. As a matter of fact, even the Roman Catholic Church hired many well-known artists during the Medieval and Renaissance eras as a means of showing their political power, the scope of their riches, and their devotion to God.

Just as some empires and kingdoms boasted their power and wealth, others coveted and sought to destroy significant structures and artworks. Because of this, other amphitheaters were not as fortunate as El Jem's amphitheater and the Colosseum. The Roman Empire also participated in destroying their enemies' cities and edifices. They saw the construction of hundreds of amphitheaters and other functional forms of architecture, and the subsequent destruction at the hands of other kingdoms and empires.

Thysdrus

ARTSTOR Collection, JSTOR

Roman concrete helped preserve Roman architecture in Europe, and the same composite kept the amphitheater at El Jem in good condition despite its exposure to warfare and the elements. The amphitheater itself stands tall in the center of El Jem, surrounded by a beautiful sprawl of bright buildings and olive trees as far as the eye can see. The amphitheater itself was constructed around the second or third century C.E. and completed in the mid-third century. Incredibly, the entire structure is composed of stone blocks with no foundation. This freestanding building is a testament to Roman technological ingenuity. The amphitheater at El Jem is roughly the 12th largest surviving Roman amphitheater, with the Roman Colosseum at the top. Despite not making the top five or ten, it still towers over the surrounding cityscape and olive groves.

At this time, Rome referred to the city and surrounding area as Thysdrus. Even over one thousand years ago the sprawls of olive trees encircled the amphitheater and other structures. Like the Colosseum, the Thysdrus (El Jem) amphitheater served as a center for mass entertainment. Events held in Roman amphitheaters appealed to locals, passersby, and all other walks of life. Forms of entertainment within their walls ranged from violent battles to athletic competitions.

Thysdrus was also a part of a vast network of Roman trade routes that spanned all across Tunisia and conjoined into just a couple of main roads through the Sahara. The olive trees around the city provided additional value to Thysdrus. Olive oil was regularly exported around and outside of Tunisia, and still continues to be El Jem's primary export. While the Romans perhaps deemed the port city Carthage the most valuable North African city in the Roman Empire, Thysdrus easily became a popular location due to its grand amphitheater and olive groves.

A Berber's Last Stand

Even after the Roman Empire fell and other empires and kingdoms retook or conquered North Africa, the amphitheater remained. One such conquering involved a raging war between the Arabs and the Berbers. Many historians speculate that Kahina—queen of the Berbers during the seventh century C.E.—established and fortified the Thysdrus amphitheater as one of her army's last battles against the Arabs. Upon their arrival to Thysdrus, Kahina ordered her remaining loyal tribes to cut down the surrounding olive trees. Whether her intentions for this order involved utilizing the trees for fortifications or depreciating the value of the land for the encroaching Arabs remains unclear. One can only speculate the thoughts that went through Kahina's mind during her final living moments.

Hassan ibn al-Nu'man, a general within the Arab army that aided in the conquering and control of Tunisia, arrived to Thysdrus and beheld the sight of the fortified amphitheater. He demanded Kahina's surrender and conversion to the Islamic faith, but she refused and fought alongside her fellow warriors. She, accompanied by some of the surviving Berbers, soon fled from the amphitheater and traveled west, where the Arabs pursued and slayed her. While the Arabs succeeded in taking over Thysdrus and all of Tunisia, Kahina's story and her last major stand in the Thysdrus amphitheater still resonates with feminists and other admiring individuals around the world.

A Thousand Stories, a Thousand More

Van Deman Collection, JSTOR

In 1979, UNESCO declared the amphitheater at El Jem a World Heritage site. Prior to UNESCO's inscription, it was considered an archaeological site and fell under the protection of watchmen and other individuals that wanted to preserve the remains of the amphitheater. While locals removed some stones for the purpose of constructing domiciles and other buildings, the practice soon ceased, and the majority of the Roman edifice remains intact.

The story of the Berber queen Kahina is only one of many that took place within the city limits of El Jem. The amphitheater itself provided several purposes throughout the centuries and still serves as a reminder of the once expansive reach of the Roman Empire. This freestanding structure saw the rise and fall of The Romans, the Berbers, and many other groups and empires; under proper protection, it will continue to bear testament to the innovations of peoples from the age of antiquity.

Sources:

"Amphitheatre of El Jem." UNESCO. accessed on March 8, 2023. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/38/

Benario, Herbert W. “Amphitheatres of the Roman World.” The Classical Journal 76, no. 3 (1981): 255–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3297328.

Count Byron Khun de Prorok. “Ancient Trade Routes from Carthage into the Sahara.” Geographical Review 15, no. 2 (1925): 190–205. https://doi.org/10.2307/208470.

Humphrey, John H., and John Griffiths Pedley. “Roman Carthage.” Scientific American 238, no. 1 (1978): 110–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24955619.

Lea M. Stirling. “A New Portrait of Livia from Thysdrus (El Jem, Tunisia).” American Journal of Archaeology 116, no. 4 (2012): 625–47. https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.116.4.0625.

Rodd, Francis. “Kahena, Queen of the Berbers: ‘A Sketch of the Arab Invasion of Ifrikiya in the First Century of the Hijra.’” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London 3, no. 4 (1925): 729–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/607085.

Thysdrus (El Djem): Amphitheater: Aerial View. late 2nd C. A.D. https://jstor.org/stable/community.13909600.

Van Deman, Esther Boise, 1862-1937. [Modern Village of El-Jem (Tunisia) near the Roman Amphitheater of Thysdrus]. March 1913. https://jstor.org/stable/community.32078013.

Van Deman, Esther Boise, 1862-1937. [Thysdrus (Tunisia), the Watchman of the Archaeological Site on a Seat of the Amphitheater]. March 1913. https://jstor.org/stable/community.32077850.

Wilkins, Peter I. “Amphitheatres and Private Munificence in Roman Africa: A New Text from Thuburnica.” Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 75 (1988): 215–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20186974.