Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "UTIQUE Village TUNISIA" .
UTIQUE (Village) TUNISIA
Utica (he Ituke, Polyb. i. 75; Ptol. iv. 3. § 6; Outike, Dion Cass.
xli. 41; Eth. Uticensis; Liv. xxix. 35; Caes. B.C. ii. 36), a colony founded by
the Tyrians on the N. coast of Zeugitana in Africa. (Vell. Pat. i. 2; Mela, i.
7; Justin. xviii. 4, &c.) The date of its foundation is said to have been a few
years after that of Gades, and 287 years before that of Carthage. (Vell. Pat.
l. c.; Aristot. Mirab. Ausc. 146; Gesenius, Monum. Script. Linguaeque Phoenic.
p. 291; Sil. Ital. Pun. iii. 241, sqq. &c.) Its name signified in Phoenician,
ancient, or noble (Hebrew, Gesen. ib. p. 420, and Thes. Ling. Heb. p. 1085). Utica
was situated near the mouth of the river Bagradas, or rather that of its western
arm, in the Bay of Carthage, and not far from the promontory of Apollo, which
forms the western boundary of the bay. (Strab. xvii. p. 832; Liv. l. c.; Ptol.
l. c.; Appian, B.C. ii. 44, seq.; Procop. B. V. ii. 15, &c.) It lay 27 miles NW.
of Carthage. (Itin. Ant. p. 22.) The distance is given as 60 stadia in Appian
(Pun. 75), which is probably an error for 160; and as a day's sail by sea. (Scylax,
Geogr. Min. i. p. 50, ed. Huds.) Both Utica and Tunes might be descried from Carthage.
(Strab. l. c.; Polyb. i. 73; Liv. xxx. 9.) Utica possessed a good harbour, or
rather harbours, made by art,with excellent anchorage and numerous landing places.
(Appian, l. c.; cf. Barth, Wanderungen durch die Kustenlander des Mittelmeers,
pp. 111, 125.) On the land side it was protected by steep hills, which, together
with the sea and its artificial defences, which were carefully kept up, rendered
it a very strong place. (Liv. xxix. 35; App. Pun. 16, 30, 75; Diod. xx. 54; Plut.
Cat. Min. 58.) The surrounding country was exceedingly fertile and well cultivated,
and produced abundance of corn, of which there was a great export trade to Rome.
(Liv. xxv. 31.) The hills behind the town, as well as the district near the present
Porto Farina, contained rich veins of various metals; and the coast was celebrated
for producing vast quantities of salt of a very peculiar quality. (Plin. xxxi.
7. s. 39; Caes. B.C. ii. 37; Polyb. xii. 3, seq.; Diod. xx. 8, &c.) Among the
buildings of the town, we hear of a temple of Jupiter (Plut. Cat. Min. 5) and
of one of Apollo, with its planks of Numidian cedar near twelve centuries old
(Plin. xvi. 40. s. 79); of a forum of Trajan, and a theatre outside the city.
(Tiro Prosper, ap. Morcelli, Afr. Christ. iii. p. 40; Caes. B.C. ii. 25.) The
tomb and statue of Cato on the sea-shore were extant in the time of Plutarch (Ib.
79). Shaw (Travels, vol. i. p. 160, seq.) has the merit of having first pointed
out the true situation of this celebrated city, the most important in N. Africa
after Carthage. Before the time of Shaw, it was sought sometimes at Biserta, sometimes
at Porto Farina; but that learned traveller fixed it near the little miserable
Duar, which has a holy tomb called Boo-shatter; and with this view many writers
have agreed (Falbe, Recherches sur l' Emplacement de Carthage, p. 66; Barth, Wanderungen,
&c. p. 109; Semilasso, pp. 39, 46; Ritter, Afrika, p. 913, &c.) Since the Roman
times the muddy stream of the Bagradas has deposited at its mouth a delta of from
3 to 4 miles in extent, so that the innermost recess of the Bay of Carthage, on
which ancient Utica was situated, as well as the eastern arm of the river itself,
have been converted into a broad morass, in which traces are still visible of
the quays which formerly lined the shore, and of the northern mole which enclosed
the harbour. More towards the E., at the margin of the chain of hills which at
an earlier period descended to the sea, may be discerned blocks of masonry belonging
to the ancient town wall. On the declivity of the hills towards the SE. are the
remains of six cisterns, or reservoirs, 136 feet long, 15 to 19 feet broad, and
20 to 30 feet deep, covered with a remarkably thin arched roof. These are connected
with an aqueduct, which may be traced several miles from Boo-shatter, in the direction
of the hills; but its most remarkable remains are a treble row of arches by which
it was carried over a ravine. These reservoirs may probably have served to furnish
water for a naumachia in the neighbouring amphitheatre, which is hollowed out
of the hills, and is capable of containing about 20,000 persons. The ancient site
of the city is covered with ruins. Near its centre rises the highest summit of
the chain of hills on which stood the citadel and, probably, also the ancient
temple of Apollo. The ruins of other temples and castles have been discovered,
as well as the site of the senate house (Plut. Cat. Min. 67), which has been thought
to be determined by the excavation of a number of statues. These are now preserved
in the museum at Leyden.
In the course of time, as is usual with such connections, Utica became
severed from the mother-city, and first appears in history as independent of it.
In the first commercial treaty between Rome and Carthage, in the year 509 B.C.
Utica was probably included in it among the allies of the Carthaginians (Polyb.
iii. 22); in the second, in B.C. 348, it is expressly named (ib. 24; Diodor. xvi.
69, who however confounds the two treaties), as well as in the alliance concluded
by Hannibal with Philip of Macedon in the Second Punic War, B.C. 215 (Polyb. viii.
9). Subsequently, however, Utica appears to have thrown off her dependence upon,
or perhaps we should rather call it her alliance with, Carthage, and, with other
cities of N. Africa, to have joined the Sicilian Agathocles, the opponent of Carthage;
to have afterwards revolted from that conqueror, butto have been again reduced
to obedience (Diod. xx. 17, 54: cf. Polyb. i. 82). In the First Punic War, Utica
remained faithful to Carthage; afterwards it joined the Libyans, but was compelled
to submit by the victorious Carthaginians (Polyb. ib. 88: Diod. Fr. xxv.). In
the Second Punic War also we find it in firm alliance with Carthage, to whose
fleets the excellent harbour of Utica was very serviceable. But this exposed it
to many attacks from the Romans, whose freebooting excursions were frequently
directed against it from Lilybaeum, as well as to a more regular, but fruitless
siege by Scipio himself (Liv. xxv. 31, xxvii. 5, xviii. 4, xxix. 35, xxx. 3, &c.;
Polyb. xiv. 2; Appian, Punic. 16, 25, 30). In the third war, however, the situation
of Carthage being now hopeless, the Uticenses indulged their ancient grudge against
that city, and made their submission to Rome by a separate embassy (Polyb. xxxvi.
1; Appian, Pun. 75, 110, 113). This step greatly increased the material prosperity
of Utica. After the destruction of Carthage, the Romans presented Utica with the
fertile district lying between that city and Hippo Diarrhytus. It became the chief
town of the province, the residence of the Roman governor, the principal emporium
for the Roman commerce, and the port of debarcation for the Roman armaments destined
to act in the interior of Africa. Owing to this intimate connection with Rome,
the name of Utica appears very frequently in the later history of the republic,
as in the accounts of the Jugurthine War, of the war carried on by Pompey at the
head of Sulla's faction, against the Marian party under Domitius and his ally
the Numidian king Iarbas, and in the struggle between Caesar and the Pompeians,
with their ally Juba. It is unnecessary to quote the numerous passages in which
the name of Utica occurs in relation to these events. In the last of these wars,
Utica was the scene of the celebrated death of the younger Cato, so often related
or adverted to by the ancients (Plut. Cat. Min. 58, seq.: Dion Cass. xliii. 10,
sqq.; Val. Max. iii. 2. § 14; Cic. pro Ligar. 1, &c.; cf. Dict. of Biogr. Vol.
I. p. 649). Augustus presented the Uticenses with the Roman civitas, partly as
a reward for the inclination which they had manifested for the party of his uncle,
and partly also to indemnify them for the rebuilding of Carthage (Dion Cass. xlix.
16; cf. Sext. Rufus, Brev. 4). We know nothing more of Utica till the time of
Hadrian, who visited N. Africa in his extensive travels, and at whose desire the
city changed its ancient constitution for that of a Roman colony (Spartian. Hadr.
13; Gell. N. Att. xvi. 13). Thus it appears in the Tab. Peut. with the appellation
of Colonia, as well as in an inscription preserved in the museum of Leyden (Cot.
Jul. Ael. Hadr. Utic., ap. Janssen, Mus. Lugd. Batav. Inscr. Gr. et Lat.). Septimius
Severus, an African by birth, endowed it, as well as Carthage and his birthplace
Leptis Magna, with the Jus Italicum. We find the bishops of Utica frequently mentioned
in the Christian period from the time of the great Synod under Cyprian of Carthage
in 256, down to 684, when a bishop of Utica appeared in the Council of Toledo.
The city is said to have witnessed the martyrdom of 300 persons at one time (cf.
Morcelli, Afr. Christ. i. p. 362, ii. p. 150; Munter, Primod. Eccl. Afr. p. 32;
Augustin, c. Donat. vii. 8). Utica probably fell with Carthage, into the hands
of the Vandals under Genseric in 439. Subsequently it was recovered by the Byzantine
emperors, but in the reign of the Chalif Abdelmalek was conquered by the Arabians
under Hassan; and though it appears to have been again recovered by John the prefect
or patrician, it finally sank under the power of the Saracens during the reign
of the same Chalif, and on its second capture was destroyed (cf. Papencordt, die
Vandal Herrschaft in Afr. p. 72, sq., 151, sq.; Weil, Gesch. der Chalifer, i.
p. 473, sqq.; Gibbon, Decl. and Fall, vi. 350, sqq. ed. Smith). The remains of
its marbles and columns were carried away in the preceding century, to serve as
materials for the great mosque of Tunis (Semilasso, p. 43.)
Several coins of Utica are extant bearing the heads of Tiberius or
Livia; a testimony perhaps of the gratitude of the city for the rights bestowed
upon it by Augustus (cf. Mionnet, Med. Ant. vi. p. 589; Supp. viii. p. 208).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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