Oea (/ˈiːə/;Ancient Greek:Ἐώα[1]) was an ancient city in present-dayTripoli,Libya. It was founded by thePhoenicians in the 7th century BC and later became aRoman–Berber colony.[2] As part of the RomanAfrica Nova province, Oea and surroundingTripolitania were prosperous. It reached its height in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when the city experienced a golden age under theSeveran dynasty in nearbyLeptis Magna.[3] The city was conquered by theRashidun Caliphate with thespread of Islam in the 7th century and came to be known asTripoli during the 9th century.
The city was founded in the 7th century BC by thePhoenicians, who gave it theLibyco-Berber nameOyat (Punic:𐤅𐤉𐤏𐤕,wyʿt),[4][5][6] suggesting that the city may have been built upon an existing nativeBerber village. The Phoenicians were probably attracted to the site by its natural harbour, flanked on the western shore by the small, easily defensiblepeninsula, on which they established their colony. The city then passed into the hands of the Greek rulers ofCyrenaica as Oea (Ancient Greek:Οἴα,Oía). Cyrene was a colony on the North African shore, a bit east of Tambroli and halfway toEgypt. TheCarthaginians later wrested it again from theGreeks.[citation needed]
By the later half of the 2nd century BC, Oea was conquered by theRomans, who included it in their province ofAfrica, and gave it the name ofRegio Syrtica. Around the beginning of the 3rd century AD, it became known as theRegio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities" (namely Oea (modern Tripoli ofLibya),Sabratha andLeptis Magna). It was probably raised to the rank of a separate province bySeptimius Severus, who was a native of Leptis Magna.
In spite of centuries of Roman habitation, the only visible Roman remains, apart from scatteredcolumns andcapitals (usually integrated in later buildings), is the Arch ofMarcus Aurelius from the 2nd century AD.[7] There are also remains of a little temple calledGenius Coloniae, conserved in Tripoli Museum.
The principal surviving monument (of Oea) is an elaborately ornamental quadrifrons archway dedicated to M. Aurelius and L. Verus in A.D. 163, the central stone dome of which was carried on flat slabs laid across the angles and was concealed externally within the masonry of an attic, now destroyed. Early drawings show this attic in turn supporting a circular pavilion, but this seems to have been a later Islamic addition. The arch stood at the intersection of the two main streets of the town and the adjoining streets and alleyways of the post-Classical town incorporate many elements of an orthogonal street plan. Near the arch are the remains of a temple dedicated to the Genius Colonine (A.D. 183–85), and the forum probably lay nearby. There was a monumental bath on or near the site of the present castle. The city walls, demolished in 1913, incorporated long stretches of the late antique defenses.Richard Stillwell. Perseus
The fact that Tripoli has been continuously inhabited, unlike Sabratha and Leptis Magna, has meant that the inhabitants have either quarried material from older buildings (destroying them in the process), or built on top of them, burying them beneath the streets, where they remain largely unexcavated.
Most of the Oea inhabitants continued to use thePhoenician language (mixed with autochthonous Libyan-Berber words) until the end of the 3rd century, even ifLatin was the official language and the one used by the elite in the city. Indeed, in the 6th century, when the city was ruled by the Byzantines, only a few were able to speak Latin and all the others spoke Berber, while Phoenician had disappeared. The Christian religion coexisted with the pagan religion of the Berber–Phoenicians until the mid-3rd century. The historian Mommsen wrote that only in the 4th century was Christianity adopted by the citizens of Oea as a whole. The city prospered mainly because Rome stopped bandits from plundering the countryside, but also because the Roman Empire – underTrajan and Septimius Severus – curbed unrest among local tribal groups by creating theLimes Tripolitanus and setting up towns such asGaerisa, forts such as Garbia, andcentenaria farms along the southern edge of the Oea territory.
The names of three bishops of Oea are recorded in extant documents. At theCouncil of Carthage (255), whichCyprian called to discuss baptism administered by heretics, Natalis of Oea spoke in his own name and on behalf of the bishops of Sabratha andLeptis Magna. Marinianus, aDonatist, was at thejoint meeting of Catholic and Donatist bishops in Carthage in 411, a time when Oea had no Catholic bishop. Cresconius was one of the Catholic bishops whomHuneric summoned to ameeting at Carthage in 484 and then exiled.Victor Vitensis says Cresconius was already bishop of Oea under King Genseric (428–467). He is mentioned in theRoman Martyrology under 28 November along with other victims of persecution by the Vandals.[8][9][10][11][12]
Thomas C. Oden says that a bishop of Oea, whom he does not name, was at theCouncil of Ephesus of 431.[13]
The diocese was mentioned in an early 8th-centuryNotitia Episcopatuum ofAlexandria and in that of Byzantine EmperorLeo VI the Wise at the end of the 9th century,[14] No longer a residential bishopric, Oea is today listed by theCatholic Church as atitular see.[15]
There is evidence that the Tripolitania region was in relative economic decline during the 5th and 6th centuries, in part due to the political unrest spreading across the Mediterranean world in the wake of the collapse of theWestern Roman Empire, as well as pressure from the invadingVandals. However the Byzantines, under emperorJustinian I, gave some prosperity to the city and probably created Christian churches for the local Berber population of the city and of the surroundings.[16] Indeed, Christianity remained in the Oea/Tripolis area until the 11th century, as can be deduced from archeological research done in the nearby oasis ofGefara (where a Christian community was ruled by a "iudex").[17]
According toAl-Baladhuri, Tripoli was, unlike Western North Africa, taken by the Muslims just afterAlexandria, in November 643. Retaken by the Byzantine army a few years later, Oea was finally conquered around 680. Even if partially destroyed, the city did not disappear under the sands in the next two centuries like Sabratha and Leptis Magna, but grew to be the capital ofTripolitania. In the 9th century the name "Oea" was replaced by the present name "Tripoli".
Immediately after theItalian conquest, the Italian administration carried out (mainly from 1919) conservation and restoration work in the city, and the Italian architectFlorestano Di Fausto rearranged the area around theArch of Marcus Aurelius in the 1930s.
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