 Entrance to the archaeological site of Bulla Regia | |
  Shown within Tunisia | |
| Location | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Region | Jendouba Governorate |
| Coordinates | 36°33′31″N8°45′14″E / 36.55861°N 8.75389°E /36.55861; 8.75389 |
| History | |
| Cultures | Berber, Punic, Numidian, Roman, Byzantine |
| Site notes | |
| Public access | Public tours, museum |
Bulla Regia was aBerber,Punic, andRoman town near present-dayJendouba,Tunisia. Its surviving ruins andarchaeological site are noted for theirHadrianic-era semi-subterranean housing, a protection from the fierce heat and effects of the sun. Many of themosaic floors have been left in place; others may be seen at theBardo Museum inTunis. There is also a small museum connected with the site.
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ThePunic name of the town appears on its currency asBBʿL (𐤁𐤁𐤏𐤋).[1] This has been suggested to have been a contraction ofBT BʿL (𐤁𐤕 𐤁𐤏𐤋), meaning "House" or "Temple ofBaal".[2][3]
The name Bulla Regia isLatin for "Royal Bulla". The epithet refers to its status as theNumidian capital underMasinissa. It was notionally refounded at the time of its elevation tocolony status and formally namedColonia Aelia Hadriana Augusta Bulla Regia after its imperial sponsorHadrian.
ABerber settlement probably predated thePunic one. Imported Greek ceramics dating to the 4th century BC have been found.
Carthage gained control over the town during the 3rd century BC, when inscriptions reveal that the inhabitants veneratedBaal Hammon and buried their dead in urns in the Punic style. A capital from a temple ofTanit is preserved at the site's museum.
Bulla Regia was part of the territory won forRome byScipio Africanus in 203 BC during theSecond Punic War. TheNumidian kingMasinissa "recovered the lands of his ancestors" (as noted in an inscription) and made Bulla his capital in 156 BC. One of his sons maintained a palace in the city. Under the Numidians, a regularized orthogonal grid street plan was imposed in thehellenistic manner on at least part of the earlier irregular system.[4]
The Romans assumed direct control in 46 BC, whenJulius Caesar organized theprovince ofAfrica and rewarded the (perhaps simply neutral) conduct of Bulla during the recentcivil war by making it afree city (Latin:civitas libera). UnderHadrian, it was raised to the status of aRoman colony and its citizens givenfull citizenship.
Bulla Regia slowly lost importance underByzantine rule. As elsewhere in the late empire, the local aristocracy found themselves in a position to increase the extent of their houses at the expense of public space: the House of the Fisherman was adapted to link two separateinsulae, turning a thoroughfare into a dead end. An earthquake destroyed Bulla Regia, collapsing its first floors into the subterranean floors.
Drifting sand protected the abandoned sites, which were forgotten until the first excavations were begun in 1906, in part spurred by the destruction of the monumental entrance to the Roman city.
Theforum, surrounded byporticoes, was excavated 1949–52. Its publicbasilica had anapse at each end. As acathedral, it had a highly unusual cruciformbaptismal font inserted in the center of the rear (west end) of its nave.[5] Its small amphitheater, the subject of a reproach in a sermon ofAugustine of Hippo, retains the crispness of its edges and steps because it lay buried until 1960–61.
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Bulla Regia is now an archeological site. There is a museum, and underground tours are available.[6] Restoration work aims to protect the buildings, which are well-preserved due to being largely built underground. Most of the elaborate polychrome mosaics are being conserved in-situ, allowing visitors to see them in their original architectural context. The Roman drainage system has been restored to keep the houses from flooding.[7]
In the uniquedomus architecture developed in the city, a ground-level storey, open to the warming winter sun, stood above a subterranean level, built round a two-storyatrium. Open-bottomed terracotta bottle-shapes were built into vaulting. Water sprinkled on the floors brought the colors of the mosaics to life while they provided cooling by evaporation.
In the House of the Hunt, thebasilica, with an apse at its head, a transept and dependent spaces opening into what would be thenave if it were a church, has been instanced (Thébert) as an example of the conjunction between public architecture and thedomus of the ruling class in the fourth century, spaces soon to beChristianized as churches and cathedrals.
The subtle colors and shading and the modelling of three-dimensional forms of the finest mosaics at Bulla Regia are not surpassed by any in North Africa, where the Roman art of mosaic floors reached its fullest development. The mosaic of ahaloedAmphitrite (House of Amphitrite) is often illustrated (seeimage above).
Bulla Regia was important enough to become abishopric,suffragan ofCarthage, which transformed the civilbasilica into its cathedral. Bulla Regia was theseat of an ancient bishopric bearing its name. The bishopric was founded during theRoman Empire and survived through theArianVandal Kingdom andOrthodoxByzantine Empire, only declined with the city and thearrival of Islam.
Thediocese was refounded in the 20th century asBullensium Regiorum, atitular see of theRoman Catholic Church.[8] Its bishops have included:
The excavations at Bulla Regia were published asLes ruines de Bulla Regia, A. Besaouch, R. Hanoune, and Y. Thébert, Rome, 1977.
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