The Antonin Thermal Baths at Carthage in Tunisia - Roman era archaeology - A UNESCO World Heritage site.
Heather and I enjoyed a pleasant January day visiting and walking around several of the historic sites around Carthage.
In 146 BC, at the Battle of Carthage, the Roman army led by the Roman general Scipio Africanus, defeated the Carthaginians and brought an end to the Punic Wars. The victorious Romans settled Carthage until they too were defeated, several hundred years later in the 5th century AD, by the Vandals.
The Roman Thermal Baths or Thermae, at Carthage are the largest of their kind on the African continent and indeed the largest outside of mainland Italy. Their construction was begun during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.
Apparently, Hadrian, tired of scandals among the Roman aristocracy, insisted that the baths at Carthage had two of everything, the purpose of which was to keep men and women separated in the baths.
The Antonin Thermae are named after Titus Aelius Hadrianus. Antoninus Pius was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian
The baths are situated on the coast of Carthage and were supplied with water from the Borj Jedid cisterns. These, in their turn, were fed with water from the Zaghouan Mountains via aqueducts, also constructed at the time of Emperor Hadrian.
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3 окт 2024
