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 This
town of libyan and then Punic origin sided with
carthage and thus had to pay a tribute when Rom
won A native town until HADRIAN (117-138) it was
made into a municipium by him in 128, and a
colonia in 188 under COMMODUS, which gave its
free citizens the status of roman citizens
 Made
rich by its wheat, thuburbo Maius reached
its apogee in the 2nd c with 10.000
inhabitants and galaxy of monuments: the forum,
built in 161-2, the capitol (168) and a number of
temples (Temple of pleace, T emple of Mercury,
Temple of B'a alat, Temple of Caelestis, Temple
of Saturn…) of which one later became a
basilica a market, 2baths( winter baths summer
baths), a palaestra and an amphitheatre.
In the 2 nd half of the 3rd C the town
delined It was partially rebuilt under
CONSTRANTIUS IL the following century ( the
Summer Baths in 361, the Forum in 376, and the
Winter Baths between 395 and 408)
In the 5 th C the town ( now a mere country
village) saw oil- presses installed among its
ruins; by the end of the Byzantine age, it was no
more.
(
- THE PALAESTRA OF
THE PETRON II
  Backing
onto the Summer Baths, the palaestra was
presented to the city in 225 by petronius Felix
and his sons.
- The palaestra was where people relaxed and
indulged in sports before going to the baths.
- It was surrounded on all4 sides by a Corinthian
portico made of grey marble pillars under
sandstone capitals.
- A'36 letters game'is carved in the south-eastern
corner.
-
 
 THE
BATHS
- The Winter Baths have a vestibule, 2
rooms, the frigidarium and its swimming pool,
latrines and several caldaria.
- The Summer Baths ( communicating with the
palaestra) are bigger, covering 2.800sq, m they
have a changing room, frigidarium and its 2
swimming pools, 2 tepidaria, dry sauna, destric
tarium, the great caldarium and its hot swimming
pools.
- The walls of the rooms had marble cladding and
the floors mosaic tiling.
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