Talk:Leptis Parva

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

. Leptis Parva (Lamta), 7z m. from Monastir, which is often confused by modern writers with Leptis Magna in their interpretations of ancient texts (Tissot, Geogr. comp. ii. 169), was, according to the Tabula Peutingeriana, 18 m. south of Hadrumetum. Evidently Phoenician in origin like Leptis Magna, it was in the Punic period of comparatively slight importance. Nevertheless, it had fortifications, and the French engineer, A. Daux, has discovered a probable line of ramparts Like its neighbour Hadrumetum, Leptis Parva declared for Rome after the last Punic War. Also after the fall of Carthage in 146 it preserved its autonomy and was declared a civitas libera et immunis (Appian, Punica, 94; i. 200; De bell. Afric. c. xii.). Julius Caesar made it the base of his operations before the battle of Thapsus in 46 (Ch. Tissot, Geogr. comp. ii. 728). Under the Empire Leptis Parva became extremely prosperous; its bishops appeared in the African councils from 258 onwards. In Justinian's reorganization of Africa we find that Leptis Parva was with Capsa one of the two residences of the Dux Byzacenae (Tissot, op. cit. p. 171). The town had coins under Augustus and Tiberius. On the obverse is the imperial effigy with a Latin legend, and on the reverse the Greek legend Aeiitic with the bust of Mercury (Lud. Muller, Numism. de l'anc. Afrique, ii. 49). The ruins extend along the sea-coast to the north-west of Lemta; the remains of docks, the amphitheatre and the acropolis can be distinguished; a Christian cemetery has furnished tombs adorned with curious mosaics.