(modern Sabrata)
Foundation

A coastal city of Tripolitana (Tripolitania, Libya) in north Africa, the westernmost of the three cities (treis poleis) that gave the territory its name (Lepcis Magna and Oea were the others). Traditionally founded by the Phoenicians as a trading-post that served as an outlet for the products of the African hinterland, Sabratha possessed a small harbor- partly screened by a reef-- and was employed as a trading post by the Carthaginians, who established a permanent settlement there in the 4th century BC, making a living from grain and olives and perhaps also from tunny fishing. Sabratha was part of the short-lived Numidian kingdom of Massinissa before being Romanized.

To 0 AD

After the fall of Carthage (146), the town passed in due course under the control of the Roman province of Africa, forming the meeting point of the coastal thoroughfare and a road running south-southwest to Cydamus (Gadames), which controlled the Trans-Saharan caravan route, bringing gold, semi-precious stones, slaves, wild animals and ivory from the interior (there is a mosaic of an elephant in the office of the traders of Sabratha at Ostia). Sabratha was porbably declared a free city by Augustus, in common with the other two cities of the Tripolis, which had gained a new importance as the road head of food supplies to the Roman armies fighting the rebellious tribe of the Marmaridae in the south. To celebrate the occasion Sabratha issued a coinage bearing Roman and Phoenician inscriptions (c 7/6).

1st Century AD

Flavia Domitilla, the wife of Vespasian (AD 69-79) came from the place. On the landward side of the original Phoenician town- beside the harbor, of which extensive later installations have been uncovered- stood the forum superimposed on earlier constructions during the 1st Century AD (and later realligned). Of the same period are temples of Liber Pater and Serapis, a tribunal adorned with imperial statues, and an internally colonnaded basilica.

2nd Century AD

Elevated to the rank of a Roman colony- together with its associated cities- perhaps by Trajan (98-117), it reached the peak of its prosperity in the 2nd Century. The whole area underwent remodelling and transformation when a Capitolium, senate house, and public baths were added; while a new quarter, containing temples of Hercules and Isis (of earlier origin), was dominated by a theater, of which the restoration presents a unique impression of a Roman stage rising to a height of three orders and enriched by numerous sculptures. Many shops and storerooms (often revealing signs of upper storeys) and private residences (some with find mosaics) have also come to light. The novelist Apuleius stood trial for witchcraft at Sabratha c 155; his defence, the Apologia, has survived.

3rd Century AD

The city possessed a Christian bishop from 253.

4th Century AD

Attached to the province of Tripolitana in the later empire, it was sacked and gravely damaged by the southern tribe of the Austuriani (363/5), but subsequently rebuilt, although in the following century it decayed rapidly under Vandal occupation.

5th Century AD

After the sack by the Austurians the entire forum area was redesigned, including the basilica, which was again reconstructed in the 5th century to serve as one of the several churches for the city (there is also a catacomb). On the outskirts of Sabratha are villas, an amphitheater, remains of an aqueduct, and tombs.

Fall of Roman Empire

A revival that followed under the Byzantines was on a greatly reduced scale, and soon after the Arab conquest (643) the city ceased to exist.