The Military and Colonial Destruction of The Roman Landscape of North Africa

The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of
North Africa, 18301900
History of Warfare
VOLUME 98
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hw
The Military and Colonial

Destruction of the Roman
Landscape of North Africa,
18301900
By
Michael Greenhalgh
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Delamares view of the French occupying Stif, housed in tents, and with Roman ruins all
around, including a cistern in the foreground, and the late antique walls to the rear.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greenhalgh, Michael.
The military and colonial destruction of the Roman landscape of North Africa, 18301900 / by Michael
Greenhalgh.
pages cm. (History of warfare ; volume 98)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-24840-3 (hardback : alk. paper)ISBN 978-90-04-27163-0 (e-book) 1. Classical
antiquitiesDestruction and pillageAlgeriaHistory19th century. 2. AlgeriaAntiquities, Roman.
3. FranceColoniesAlgeria. 4. AlgeriaHistory18301962 I. Title.
DT281.G74 2014
939.703dc23
2014007083
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isbn 978 90 04 24840 3 (hardback)
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Contents
Prefaceix
Setting the Scene: Algeria in Context1
1 The French Conquest14
Introduction14
Planning & logistics15
A lack of knowledge16
A lack of planning18
Logistics and Supply20
Political and Military Control25
The Dpt de la Guerre and Reconnaissances29
Occupying the Ground32
The French as Successors to the Romans32
Roman Monuments and French Defences38
Surviving within Roman Structures41
Agriculture Roman and 19th-century43
Health and Welfare48
Civilising the Natives?48
Fighting the Natives51
Dealing with Colons and Speculators55
Colonisation or Abandonment?58
Reactions to the Occupation60
Scholars and Commissions60
A Forgotten Colony and War?65
The French-Language Press in Paris66
The Press in Britain and Germany67
The French-Language Press in Algeria68
Conclusion69
2 The Army Establishes Itself, Colonisation Begins75
The Army, Colonists and Roads75
Security76
Building or Repairing the Infrastructure77
Builders, Competence and Algerian Conditions77
Forts and Fortresses Roman and French82
Accommodation for Body and Spirit86
vi
contents
Byzantine Fortresses and French Scholarship87

Defences for Arabs and Colons89
Fountains and Water Supply92
The Arabs and Water94
The French and Water99
Water Capture and Storage102
Road, Bridge and Farm Building with Antiquities109
Prehistoric Antiquities112
Conclusion: Water and Roads113
3 183040: The Destruction of Algiers, Constantine and other
Early Settlements119
Algiers (Capitulated 5 July 1830)121
Constantine (Occupied 13 October 1837)125
Mda (Occupied 1830)133
Arzew/Arzeu (Occupied 1833)133
Bougie (Occupied 1833)134
Guelma (Occupied 10 November 1836)137
Tlemcen etc (Occupied 1836)141
Philippeville and Stora (Occupied 8 October 1838)145
Stif (First Entered 15 December 1838)150
Milah (Occupied 1838)155
Cherchel (Occupied by Vale 15 March 1840)155
Force majeure, plus a change...159
4 Ruins, Roads and Railways165
The Largest Quantity of Roman Ruins outside Asia Minor165
North African Sites Occupied or Unoccupied167
Officers and Soldiers Digging Together181
Roads184
Roman Roads in Algeria and Tunisia185
French Roads in Algeria and Tunisia187
Transport without Roads189
New Roads, or Refurbished Roman Roads?191
Railways197
The Ponts et Chausses201
5 Epigraphy, Topography and Mapping208
The Armys uses for Roman Inscriptions210
Army Camps, Route Marches and Inscriptions211
Inscriptions in Mosques and Houses214
Milestones216
contents
vii
Lon Renier, Inscriptions and the Mission Civilisatrice217

Inscriptions and International Recognition220
Professionals versus Amateurs225
Inscriptions versus Ruins227
Ruins Undescribed232
Inscriptions versus Archaeology234
Inscriptions and Museums versus Settlers and Entrepreneurs236
Destroy the Stone but Let me Transcribe it First!239
Mapping, Antiquities and Reconnaissances242
Map-making in France242
Early Map-making in Algeria243
Confusion and Delay248
The Brigades Topographiques and Antiquities250
Centuriation Unrecognised254
A Nest of Puzzles257
6 The Army Rebuilds Tebessa (First visited 1842)262
The Site and its Monuments262
The French Occupy the Site264
Extensive Building Work Begins266
Destruction by Ledger269
7 Building European Towns from the 1840s275
European Town Plans276
Building with Ruins277
French-Occupied Sites and their Transformation278
Orlansville (Settled 1843)279
Lambessa (First Visited during 1844)280
Aumale (Occupied 1846)285
Tipasa (Occupied 1854)286
Le Kef (Occupied 1881)288
Sfax (Occupied 1881)290
Sousse (Garrisoned 1881)290
Histoire du vandalisme: Les monuments dtruits de lart franais292
8 Planting Colonies299
The Bureaux Arabes302
The Mitidja306
Villages and Farms308
Agricultural Colonies309
Arab Villages311
French Villages314
viii
contents
Seriana: Documented Destruction320

Farms323
Si Monumentum Requiris...325
9 Algeria and Tunisia on Display329
Triumphalism and Collecting329
Collections of Roman Art in France and North Africa332
Hindsight: Napoleonic Art335
Ideas and Algerian Propaganda336
Representing Algeria and Tunisia: Exhibitions and Museums341
Restoring the Ancient Monuments?345
Museums348
Conclusion: L o nous passons, tout tombe356
Appendix: A Timeline and Some Statistics364
Bibliography370
Sources370
Modern Scholars413
Index425
Illustrations
Preface
Geographical Range: Although the main focus of this book is Algeria and Tunisia
(French from 1881), very occasional attention is paid to adjacent Morocco, plus
Tripolitania further east, since Roman North Africa covered all these areas.
Date Range: Although earlier travellers accounts will be employed to paint a picture
of the landscape before the French arrived, accounts from the French army and civilians provide the main sources. There is little point in scanning in detail beyond 1900,
by when the majority of settlements were in existence. Nor does the First World War
form a suitable cutoff, since the manpower needed for the conflict meant a diminution of archaeological activity. However, several publications of 1930, produced to
mark the centenary of the conquest, appear below and offer assessments of the French
achievement.
Measures, currency, spelling, titles: Distances in the sources are sometimes given in
leagues, and French lieues are a moveable feast, with one league approximately four
kilometres a further useful indication of the frequent vagueness about distances
until maps and distances in kilometres (abbreviated as km) were suitably entrenched
toward the end of the 19th century. Hectares are abbreviated as ha. One franc in
1830 = 2.2; in 1850 = 2.53; in 1860 1.99, and in 1900 2.37. Many spellings of sites vary
from author to author (e.g. Blida/Blidah, Cherchel/Cherchell, Tebessa/Tbessa, Tipasa/
Tipaza, Medea/Mdah/Mda), but have been left as written. I have often left French
military ranks as I found them; they do not in every case have exact English-language
equivalents, and the French ranks themselves varied over time.
Footnotes and endnotes: This book in both its printed and e-book versions divides
referencing between footnotes and endnotes. Footnotes at the bottom of the page are
reserved for references to modern scholarship, except in those few case where there is
lengthy quotation, in which case the material appears as a endnote. Endnotes, which
appear at the end of each chapter, are used to provide extensive material from pre1914 source or background material, backups (as it were) for statements which would
encumber the text unnecessarily. In the printed book, the endnote references, flagged
by square brackets, appear as simply author-date-page references, which the reader
if so inclined can then chase up via the bibliography. This also applies to references
to the army archives at Vincennes (Service Historique de la Dfense SHD), which
appear simply as carton references in the printed book, but in full (with details of individual carton items, and often quotations) in the e-book.
preface
The full endnotes available for the e-book are a particular feature of this book. They
offer some 300,000 words of source quotations and documentation, enlarging on the
explication of the books themes which appear in the text itself. As will be seen, quotations in the text usually form part of endnotes but only part, because the fuller context of ideas and opinions of which the quote is a part will help the reader to a better
understanding of the material. In other words, although one cannot write about the
past without interpreting it, such source quotations are an attempt to let the past have
its own say. In the e-book, therefore, the endnotes really come into their own, for they
appear in full. It is perfectly possible for aficionados to read the endnotes (with any
encapsulated quotes) of each chapter straight through without referring to the text
itself, since they contain a wide variety of contemporary information. And naturally, in
the e-book version text, footnotes and endnotes are fully searchable, providing much
better focus and more detail than even a competent index (and there is one of these as
well!) can hope to deliver.
Bibliography: Ranks and descriptions for soldiers, civil servants etc are given in the
various entries, just as they are flagged in the title-page of the books or articles cited.
Sometimes, if one officer has several entries, his rank changes over time. Most 19thcentury newpaper articles and some journal entries (many of which are written
anonymously, usually by editors) appear only in the endnotes, not in the bibliography;
they are generally given only by the works title and date of publication, unless the
correspondant is famous. These abbreviated references are to avoid overburdening an
already lengthy bibliography of source material.
The maps on the following pages show Roman Algeria, and the same country in the
mid-19th century. Both maps are divided into east and west sections, to achieve sufficient detail for the reader to identify towns, rivers and roads (roads in the earlier map
are purely notional).
Map 1
A map of French Algeria, by V. Levasseur, from his Atlas National Illustr des 86 Dpartements
et des Possessions de la France...avec le trac de toutes routes, chemins de fer et canaux,
Paris 1845.
map 23 Left and right sections of a map of Roman Algeria and Tunisia: Carte de lAfrique Propre
de la Numidie et dune Partie de la Mauritanie, dresse par M. Lapie, 1er Gographe du Roi,
et M. Lapie, Lieutenant Ingnieur, Paris 1829.
map 45
Left and right sections of the map of French Algeria, by V. Levasseur, from his Atlas National
Illustr des 86 Dpartements et des Possessions de la France...avec le trac de toutes routes,
chemins de fer et canaux, Paris 1845.
Setting the Scene: Algeria in Context

The Marshal [Thomas Robert Bugeaud] fully understands the secret
object of the French Government. It is found desirable to retain this colony, however burthensome, because it is a ready outlet for troublesome
and dangerous men in France, who find in it a field for their energies,
and most frequently a premature grave. It is, moreover, an object for
the frequent occupation of public attention, and a constant topic for the
journalists.[1] [1846]
This book studies the impact made by the French army and colonists (colons,
or pieds noirs) on the ancient landscape of Algeria (earlier called la Rgence
dAlger, and annexed to France in 1848) and its monuments.1 Enthusiasts such
as Chateaubriand saw this land as a ripe plum waiting to be picked, whereby
the perennial scourge of piracy would be obliterated.[2] The French would
dominate it in stages.[3] Algeria was known in previous centuries largely
through literary accounts2 and the occasional diplomacy, bombardment,3 and
invasion.4 Its towns and road network, developed by the Romans, were surely
1 Basset 1920 for an overview of French work in North Africa. Laronde and Golvin 2001, 206
217 for dictionary of principal sites. Excellent photographs, Golvins reconstructions of town
plans vol doiseau, and reconstructions of important monuments. Bullo 2002 for gazeteer, with plans, and brief typological surveys of 223232 Fora, 232236 Theatres, 236240
Commerce, 241246 Temples, 246248 Triumphal arches, 249250 Houses and 250254
Funerary monuments. Dondin-Payre 2002, 181188 for Algeria before the conquest, and 191
197 for the description and documentation of antiquities. Blas de Robles and Sintes 2003 for
well-illustrated survey of survivals, site by site. As an indication of their profusion, here are
the entertainment structures just around Bja: amphitheatres at Agbia, An Tounga, Djebba,
Dougga, Uchi Maius; theatres at An Tounga, Dougga, Thunigaba; circus at Dougga. For processes of Romanisation, see Africa Romana I 1983, con particolare riguardo alle radici, ai
fenomeni di conservazione e di sopravvivenza. For the countryside, Africa Romana XII 1996,
for Lorganizzazione dello spazio rurale nelle province del Nord Africa e nella Sardegna.
2 Turbet-Delof 1973. Brahimi 1976 with plentiful quotes, but divided into opinions on ethnography, sociology, politics, regards and finally judgments on history, ideology and literature. Africa Romana XIII 1998: Geografi, viaggiatori, militari nel Maghreb: alle origini
dellarcheologia nel Nord Africa.
3 Charles-Roux 1932: Algiers bombarded 1681 by Duquesne, 1688 by DEstres; Sousse and
Bizerta in 1770, Tripoli 1728. Various invasions also contemplated.
4 Bachelot 2011 for Louis XIVs invasion of Djidjelli in 1664: several thousand men were lost
before the French retreat left wounded, artillery, arms and food behind.
koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 4|doi .63/9789004271630_002
setting the scene: algeria in context
radically changed by the Arab invasions.5 This introductory scene-setting lays

out information essential for the reader to know in order fully to appreciate
the impact made by the French upon a landscape little altered for well over a
thousand years.
What follows is only tangentially about battles, military careers and equipment, and the often murky politics of colonisation. Its main focus is on the
destruction of a two-thousand-year-old environment by army and colonists
trying to survive in a hostile land, and importing those modernising European
concepts of housing, town development, and roads and railways without
which security and the hoped-for prosperity through commerce were impossible. The essential complement to such developments is the resistance of the
natives, who ensured that troops remained in Algeria.6 Much of the country
never knew long-term peace, for through shortsightedness there was to be no
equity for the natives, because cest le droit de la guerre.[4]
Apart from the controlling importance of the Romans and their achievement, several elements make up the mix of themes that set the scene for
the French in North Africa, namely Christians, Arabs, earlier invasions, and
expected trade. The Christian impact on late antique North Africa was large,
and was eventually studied.7 They built many splendid monuments, generally
re-using earlier structures or building-blocks, including temples.8 Solomons
great attempt in the 530s to re-secure the region for the Byzantine Empire
included the construction of a large number of fortresses, many of which survived into the 19th century, and some of which were to be re-used by the French
(and also by the allies in World War II). At Tebessa, for example, all the French
had to do was restore his walls.[5] There were so many Christian remains in,
for example, the Dpartement de Constantine, that Berthier believed the time
5 Mahjoubi 1986, 392, 394: un remodellage progressif, puis une mutation profonde qui avaient
dj assur, avant le VIIIe sicle, le passage de la cit antique la ville ou la bourgade rurale
mdivale...la carte routire, sous-tendu par des considrations militaires et conomiques,
notamment commerciales, permet dj de noter soit laffirmation de rseaux urbains antiques, soit lmergence de nouveaux rseaux.
6 For an overview, see Bouchne 2012, 1944, Peyroulou, Jean-Pierre et al., 18301880: la conqute coloniale et la rsistance des Algriens.
7 Zeiller 1931.
8 Sears 2011, 229: it is only with the Byzantine conquest in the 6th c. that widespread destruction of temples took place, for the incorporation of their masonry into fortifications, or for
the conversion of their remains into Christian churches.
and means to excavate them properly would not be available.9 Cyrenaica was
similarly endowed, with great use of spolia.10
The current occupiers of the land, the Arab invaders (from 640) and the
Berber natives, were in part pastoral nomads (the curse of the country, said
some,[6] while others maintained it was Algerian politics[7]), in part towndwellers, but their impact on the large quantities of Roman remains was
negligible;[8] for apart from a certain amount of re-use of prize marble elements, they were largely left alone. For earlier periods, it was also the case that
not all the natives wished to embrace Roman civilisation, which made some
long-lasting changes to the landscape.11 Interest in dismantling and reusing
ancient marbles was much lower in North Africa than among the countries
suzerains, the Ottoman Empire. Instead, they were looted by European nations,
France taking rare marbles from Leptis Magna in the late 17th century, some of
the column shafts possibly for cutting down and reusing for sculpture.[9]
North Africa had been a land of riches in the days of Rome, just as its shore
had harboured pirates. It was the target of several European military expeditions from the Crusades onwards, sometimes for territorial conquest, sometimes to control the endemic problem of piracy not least the Barbary Wars
fought by the United States (18011805 & 1815 against Tripolitania as well as
Algeria). These various European expeditions targeted the coast, not inland,
which was little known and little explored; an index of this is the set of questions which in 1826 the Socit de Gographie asked travellers to the region
to answer.[10] In 1828 the two-sheet map of Algeria and Tunis they published
underlined this lack of detailed knowledge.[11]
Increasing European commercial agressiveness from the 18th century put
the coastal cities into decline,12 so that by the 19th century North Africans were
buying from Europe goods they had once manufactured themselves, some from
ruins: les commandes considrables de briques vernisses et de carreaux de
marbre montrent quelle tait la dcadence de lindustrie des indignes, obligs
de recourir aux trangers pour des matriaux de construction, spciaux leur
architecture.[12] Trade was eventually to be a spinoff of military conquest by
the French but, as further east (Syria, Turkey), it was hitherto controlled by the
locals, with Europeans allowed only as factors. Invasion was thought by some
9
10
11
12
Berthier 1942, 9 hence he restricts his field survey to an area of 110 40km.
Duval 1989.
Bnabou 1976, 585: pour une grande partie des Africains, la sduction de la civilisation
romaine ne pouvait gure jouer...la prsence romaine jouait plutt comme un facteur
de rgression.
Bennoune 1988, 2627.
to be commercially and militarily advantageous au nom du progrs, au nom

de la bourgeoisie industrielle et commerante[13] as well as a way of repaying
the pirates. As Pananti wrote in 1818:
If the proposed colonization of Africa is gratifying to the philosopher,
man of science, and merchant, it is no less attractive to the enterprizing
soldier; who, in contributing to the grand work of bringing this boundless
region into the European family, would have the consolation to reflect,
that no country in the world is more likely to reward his labours with
future wealth and independence. Not to mention the amazing quantity
of the precious metals collected yearly in Africa, the cities on the seacoast are all extremely rich; and when I add, that two-thirds of the whole
have been plundered from inoffensive Christians, will any one deem me
unprincipled for sincerely wishing to see the plundered property restored
to the rightful owners?[14]
If one variation on this theme was that the native inhabitants of Tbessa were
descendants of the Romans,[15] a more insistent one was that the French were
descendants of the Romans, come to claim their inheritance. This notion was
taken to its extreme in Louis Bertrands lunatic notion that all the true Romans
emigrated north when the Arabs arrived, leaving only dross behind.13 Yet
another theme emphasised how much the Arabs owed to the remains left by
the Romans: Roma abbevera il beduino errante del deserto; Roma gli dona le
pietre per macinare il grano o macerare le olive; Roma, le centinaia di colonne
alle moschee; Roma i marmi preziosi alle reggie dei Bey.[16] As for the French
views of the natives, few were enlightened, most preferring to trade snap racial
judgments, vicious and generally condescending, based on ignorance.
It is important to emphasise right at the start of this book that, even if
some of it happened because of the cash-strapped exigencies of war and
peace, the French destruction of the ancient monuments of Algeria was not
unusual. There are plenty of examples illustrating the problem in France
itself,[17] and in the later 19th century some marble sections of the great walls
of Constantinople were dismantled for recycling their blocks.[18] But vandalism was particularly rife in Algeria, and sufficient to make Genseric turn in
his grave: ein teuflischer Krieg gegen Lebende und Todte, ein Verhhnen des
Ahnenstaubes, des Ruhmes, der Geschichte, der Wissenschaft,[19] as Wagner
wrote in 1841. Indeed, the preservation movements of 19th century Europe, and
13
Dridi and Andreose 2012, 10: cette interprtation pour le moins originale de lhistoire
nord-africaine.
the societies and commissions set up to husband them, were created precisely
because of the growing scale of destruction in countries such as Britain and
France. In France itself, then, prehistoric monuments were disappearing in
Brittany by 1843,[20] the walls of Sens were being sold off for building materials (including for railway construction) by 1848,[21] and Troyes had lost many
of her monuments by the mid-century.[22] And, of course, large parts of Cluny
had been dismantled during the Revolution[23] a crime as significant in the
church history of France as was to be the mauling and rape of Lambessa in
Algeria.
One feature made Algeria special, and hence the destruction of enormous
quantity of antiquities especially regrettable. Although ancient monuments
survived in other countries (Syria, Egypt, Anatolia and points east), they
were nowhere else so plentiful, calling forth amazement from visitors at how
ruins littered the landscape. The majority were obliterated when the French
transformed the landscape with Western infrastructure, towns and villages
and where cries of vandalism could also be associated with the anarchy of
archaeological research,[24] and the French described as more vandalic than
the Vandals themselves.[25] And if we shall meet Arabs who considered that,
just as the Romans had failed in Algeria, so would the French then this is but
a version of the Sic transit gloria mundi theme on which many travellers (just
as today) were wont to meditate.[26]
Most pre-20th-century military campaigns sat lightly on the landscape,
which was not permanently occupied, but could provide sustenance. Even some
colonial concerns could make similarly light demands, a prominent example
being British India. This was a balancing-trick, playing off local interests against
one another and with plenty of useful local resources, including sophisticated
towns and fortresses a largely peaceful, rich and industrious suzerainty demonstrated by the relatively small scale of both the British administration and
the British army (from 1858; previously the East India Company).[27] In Algeria,
however, the French decided to occupy and then to colonise a country whose
topography and military resources were unknown, whose natives were largely
hostile and warlike, and who did not usually fight European-fashion with fort
resses, artillery and roads (although Gnral Damrmont was killed by a cannonball while inspecting his batteries at Constantine in October 1837).
Survival in Algeria required the import of almost everything from metropolitan France, because there were no local industries or sources of supply
along the North African coast. Since the natives burned the crops[28] and poisoned the wells, the only useful local resources were her largely untouched
ancient monuments, especially her fortresses and spring water supply, which
had changed little since Roman and Early Christian times, for the population
there declined after Antiquity. But in Roman times the population had been
dense and the land fertile, and scholars such as Schulten counted a profusion
of sites in, for example, the Medjerda.[29]
Part of the modern population was nomadic, and uninterested in ancient
but still-existing settlements. The French made various attempts to settle
them,14 even suggesting that the excess tribal land after the natives had been
bribed to remain in one place could turn a profit for the government.[30] But
many other natives built their villages on top of ancient remains, just as the
French were to do with their towns and forts. The later occupation of Tunisia
(which will also be considered in this book) was to be easier and less costly,
partly because by 1881 the French Army was conversant with the local situation
and could at least contain it militarily.
For obvious reasons, just as the 1930 celebrations of the centenary of the
French occupation15 were an upbeat assessment of achievements (and of projects, tabulated in 1860[31]), so, in contrast, the interest of later 20th-century
historians in Algeria has largely concentrated on the conflicts of the 1950s,
then the French withdrawal and subsequent events. Triumphalism, much of
it unwarranted, had certainly been an element running through many commentaries on Algeria from 1830 onwards.16 After 1940, Dien Bien Phu and Suez,
this went out of fashion, to be replaced by Charles de Gaulles evocative yet
(deliberately?) illusional Algrie Franaise, and also by some decidedly wishful thinking about what had actually happened there,17 although the tendency
is to concentrate on the undeclared war prior to independence.18 But France
was in Algeria for well over a century, and the country could not function
without a continuing army presence.19 What happened to the army and the
colonists they protected is recorded in great detail not only in large numbers
of published books and the reports of learned societies, but also in the documentation gathered by the civilian administration and, especially, by the army,
this latter to be found in great quantities in the Army archives in Vincennes.
To take but one example, in 18601861 of the 44 subscribing members of the
14
15
16
17
18
19
Franc 1928, 289294.

Cantier 2012.
Salinas 1989, 279389: Les visions de lAlgrie et les mythes; 336340: LAlgrie: une nouvelle France.
Faivre 2007, 7: Ds la conqute, les militaires se sont proccups dtablir des relations
confiantes avec la population musulmane.
Aggoun 2010: only the first 110 pages of this 603-page book deal with the 19thC, and then
only in part as author very hot under the collar keeps jumping back and forth.
Porch 1981, 134168.
Socit Archologique de la Province de Constantine eight are connected with

the army, six are teachers, three are engineers (two of them with the Ponts
et Chausses) and twelve are civil administrators of various kinds,[32] some of
these last presumably to keep an eye on such dangerous intellectuals. Again,
in 1856 the meetings of the Socit Historique Algrienne (which published
the Revue Africaine) show the strong representation of army and engineers.[33]
The army officers and support personnel (doctors, interpreters, administrators) had frequently received a classical education. This was common currency
within the Ministry of War as well, whose personnel clearly welcomed reports
from their officers incorporating material on antiquities. Scores of these were
filed in the army archives, and retained. As well as villages for colonists, the
French settled many new towns, most of them on Roman sites. Naturally, these
recur continually throughout the following chapters, but brief site biographies also appear early in the chapters on Building Towns and on Planting
Colonies, so that the reader may the more easily compare the fate of the various sites.
As already suggested, one important feature of the invasion20 and occupation of Algeria, which had the potential to redeem the indignity of imperial
defeat the nation had suffered in the previous decades,21 is the vigour of published commentary on the possibilities and difficulties of French Algeria. The
question What should we be doing in Algeria? was posed again and again
during the 19th century, reflecting the indecision and vacillating policies of
the multiple governments under which France groaned throughout the century. Again, there is no clear and sustained statement of war and peace aims,
because there were none which were held consistently for more than a few
years. This lamentable lacuna gave free rein to the broad interest in debate
and commentary, informed, uninformed and whimsical, provided by deputies,
old soldiers, serving soldiers (usually anonymously), journalists, historians
and armchair strategists, many of whom saw the prominent Roman legacy as
a continuing reproach to the puny efforts of their compatriots, and who had
little compunction about criticising politicians, administrators, army or Arabs.
Given the confusing succession of so many governments, the confusing and
20
21
Nogures 1962 for a blow-by-blow account, well-referenced to published primary sources.

Guiral 1992, 1156 for general conditions, from weather and weapons to discipline, cruelty
and the locals.
Salinas 2005, 6.
complicated changes in administration,22 and the turnover of commanders23

in Algeria (who usually considered themselves wholly in charge) this is less
than surprising; but it considerably widened the field for commentary, to be
found in pamphlets (published in enormous quantities[34]) and books, newspapers and periodicals, which could sometimes offer a picturesque (they were
well-illustrated) and positive account of the French enterprise.[35] At no time
until the later 1950s, however, does Algeria seem to have been the prime concern of French government. Most citizens were simply not interested in the
colony, the main exception being army personnel, who saw service in Algeria as
a path to quicker promotion than was available at home,24 and the best chance
of getting into some fighting. Nor were they alone: two paths to promotion for
British officers are encapsulated in the toast: Heres to bloody wars and sickly
seasons! Saint-Arnaud is a good example of such acceleration: arriving aged
36 as a lieutenant in 1837, he was brigadier gnral in 1847, received his third
star in 1851, and was promoted Marshal of France in 1852. Commercial interests
also wished to develop Algerias admittedly great potential.25 And for some,
Roman rule had a much firmer grip on North Africa than did that of France.[36]
Without any firm Government planning, public opinion was there to offer
plenty of suggestions for ways of solving many difficult and some intractable
problems. What should be done with the Arabs, whose lands had been appropriated, and who often reacted violently assimilate, placate, move south, or
exterminate? Could the country be made healthier and easier to control by
building roads and draining marshes? Could sufficient quantities of high-quality colonists be enticed to settle, and return the country to the bread-basket
it had been in ancient times? The Romans had set up colonies of soldiers as
a way of protecting the crops and fighting off the local hordes so were military colonies the way to pacify French Algeria? As for the military, how many
22
23
24
25
Collot 1987: 3137 La complexit de ladministration franaise (18301848). 3844 Dual

administration, 18481870 military and civil, including bureaux arabes.
Guiral 1992, 5782 for pen-portraits of Bourmont and his successors Clauzel, Berthezne,
Savary, etc.
Guiral 1992, 109142: La nouvelle vague dofficiers africains better than their superannuated superiors because they got to know the country and the locals; 109117 for
Lamoricire: captain aged 24 in 1830; chef de bataillon 1833; lieut-colonel 1835, gnral de
brigade in 1840 aged 34. Frmaux 2006, 123138: Les officiers: la formation; 139165: Les
officiers entre deux mondes language, contact with locals, tribal conflicts, conflicts with
colonists. Julien 1986, 300303 Les carrires rapides.
Blaufarb 2002 to 1820; Chalmin 1957; Montagnon 2012, dedication 9: Aux 300,000 combattants de lArme dAfrique tombs pour la France de 1830 1962.
soldiers were sufficient, and for what containment, or expansion further

south?[37] As well as soldiering, should they have to work on civil projects?[38]
(They did frequently). Where were the soldiers to come from? The Foreign
Legion (officially the Rgiment tranger, founded 1831; in Algeria from 1832)26
was one thing but was training and equipping the locals in European fighting
techniques essential or, prospectively, a very dangerous idea?
All these questions and the problems they address will appear throughout
this book, because all of them have a bearing on the extent of the military presence in Algeria throughout the 19th century and, in their turn, on the survival
and destruction of elements of the ancient landscape of prestigious remains.
French commentators exposed the faults of French colonisation, even quoting them at length from British publications.[39] Remembering the disaster of
Guyana in 1763 (with its 85% attrition rate[40]), they were also well aware of
the exchequer costs of holding Algeria,[41] and frequently compared the setup
of the country unfavourably, and provided statistics, with British India,[42]
Canada or Australia,[43] not to mention the Irish diaspora.[44] As a commercial
proposition, Algeria was judged by 1854 to be unable to provide a return on
investment.[45] They also had a bad conscience about French colonial performance elsewhere,[46] not helped by British suspicions about the whole Algerian
adventure.[47] Not least was the 1804 episode when France sold an area of
North America five times the size of continental France to Thomas Jefferson
for about 4 cents per acre, a fire-sale which in English has the inadequate name
of the Louisiana Purchase. As Gaillard wrote in 1839, Personne nignore encore
que ce nest point lpe qui a soumis lInde aux Anglais, mais bien une compagnie de marchands, appuye par des baonnettes qui agissaient, et agissent,
encore sous ses ordres.[48] Whether Algeria had a suitable climate for European
colonists was doubtful, as demonstrated by the disappointing numbers who
stayed, and the many who returned to France (and elsewhere for not all the
colonists were French). Given the problems, the various colonising setups
tried in the early decades were decidedly shaky.[49] Many authors pointed out
that the French in Algeria faced problems unknown to (for example) British
colonisers;[50] but that itself was an argument for withdrawal, not for continuation. The British, for their part, could be decidedly dismissive of French colonising achievements, which were worse than spotty:
26
Porch 2010.
10
The French have never been successful in colonizing, and yet there are
no people more ambitious of possessing foreign settlements. Whatever
they have hitherto attempted in this way, has ultimately terminated to
our advantage. In war we have wrested from them colony after colony,
which they have not been able to reconquer.[51]
Once in Algeria, however, successive governments from 1830 onwards were
bullied into staying: national honour demanded it, as did commercial interests. And to maintain Frances colonising and commercial interests, a large
army was essential. If Guyot in 1885 exaggerated by saying that Algeria should
be pictured as a labourer ploughing a furrow with a soldier standing guard at
either end, the remark nevertheless reflects continuing disquiet at a waste of
resources for little gain. As a British commentator remarked in 1844, Of all
harvests that of laurels is the least profitable, when the land on which they are
gathered remains uncultivated and desolate...there are many better ways of
becoming definitively masters of a country than by strewing it with the bones
of eighty thousand soldiers.[52] Indeed, there were problems from the very
beginning: on the Armys model farm near Maison Carre in 1833, 600 harvesters had to be protected by a batallion of infantry and 350 Chasseurs dAfrique.27
A poster campaign was also initiated to attract troops for this kind of work.28
But happy colonists in the countryside were a chimaera: by 1900 over 60% of
them lived in the towns.29
Through archival documentation, published commentaries and histories,
and public debate (which continues to this day),30 we can follow not only the
various army campaigns in Algeria, but also the effect conquest and colonisation had on a near-pristine ancient landscape, as town-dwellers and colonists
from Europe took over tracts of a land whose population had hitherto lived
in scattered villages and only a few towns. Frances mission civilisatrice31 was
exact in the strict sense of town-building: she laid down many new fortressprotected towns in Algeria, and gradually much of the ancient landscape
27
28
29
30
31
Baroli 12992, 33.

Dufour 2011, 60: recruitment for the Infanterie Mtropolitaine, with poilu saying to the
colons in their field, Travaillez en paix nous veillons! and with the warning at the bottom, Cette affiche ne doit tre ni recouverte ni mise dans le commerce.
Prochaska 1990, 139140.
Prochaska 1990, 12, historiographical debate which revolves around the nature and consequences of French colonialism in Algeria...hinges on the causes of the Algerian war
and collapse of the Fourth Republic. The Algerian Revolution has been exported as a
revolutionary model throughout the Third World.
Aggoun 2010, 2748: La face noble des rapports entre la France et lAlgrie; 4978: Les
bienfaits de la colonisation: 200 ans de prvarication.
11
disappeared. This was the marteau de la civilisation described by Vayssettes

in 1862[53] civilisation which would be recompense aux sacrifices que lui a
couts sa conqute.[54] She brought hygiene and medecine with her, and practised marsh clearance and infrastructure building, thereby eventually ensuring
that a larger and more healthy local population would be even more difficult to
control, although the demography varied with disease, famine and war.32 For
some, this thought would be potent enough to defeat Arab nationalism and
religion.[55] For others, even an erstwhile member of the General Staff, Algeria
was a black hole into which Frances riches were being tipped.[56] Yet it was
archaeology (over which France was in competition with her neighbours)33
that Thierry-Mieg (who would certainly have been a master at writing grant
applications) maintained in 1861 could lay the path for the future by studying
the past:
Il est de la plus haute utilit de savoir ce qui existait autrefois, afin de
le rtablir dabord avant de viser de nouveaux progrs. Si nous avions
aujourdhui lAfrique des Romains, on ne se plaindrait pas en France du
budget de lAlgrie.[57]
The Monuments Historiques agreed with him, proposing in 1847 that students
in schools such as the Ponts et Chausses (which taught engineers to construct
and maintain the countrys road, bridge and rail infrastructure) should be
given some instruction in archaeology.[58] Indeed, as early as 1836 a speaker in
the Chamber was pointing to the opportunities this once-Roman land offered:
Une nouvelle carrire souvre nos archologues, nos rudits, mules ou
vtrans de lancien Institut dEgypte, sur cette terre dAfrique livre leurs
doctes explorations.[59] This theme continues throughout the century and, so
desperate seem scholars to appear of key relevance to North Africa that they
sometimes descend into something close to evangelistic overdrive such as
il appartient aux archologues, en nous renseignant sur le pass, de prparer lavenir.[60] In the event, linking archaeology to the future prosperity of
North Africa was either over-optimistic, or straightforward (self-)deception.
An illustration of this is Gsells 1902 Enqute administrative sur les travaux
hydrauliques anciens en Algrie, the aim of which was a census of such systems
32
33
Evans 2012, xixii: Two societies existed uneasily in conditions of mistrust, segregation,
and mutual incomprehension; a divide that was exacerbated by a further fundamental
factor: the demographic time bomb by 1954, 9 million to 1 million.
Chevalier 2002, 4663: Larchologie franaise face lAngleterre et lAllemagne (1842
1890); 395428: Du milieu du XIXe sicle la premire guerre mondiale: initiative individuelle et intervention de ltat.
12
with a view to making some of them work. Why it took 70 years before any
administration thought such a census worth-while is quite another question;
but it did not matter, since the majority of returns consistent ou se rsument
en ce simple mot Nant. Mais il faut dire que lenqute prescrite ne semble pas
avoir t faite partout avec le soin et la comptence dsirables.[61]
The ironies of the colonisation process are several. The first is that the
engineers built fortresses on the assumption that their hold on the country
would be challenged by other European nations; this never happened. The
second is that much of the literal spade work in discovering new antiquities was done by French officers, whose colleagues were destroying similar
antiquities in great quantities to provide civilised living conditions for soldiers
and colonists. The third is that, while we might call the 19th century the Age
of Museums (fuelled by archaeology, and vigorously pursued by the French
in Greece),34 the destruction of ancient Algeria was recorded in great detail
by scholars and archaeologists, some of whom were army officers, such as
Delamare.35 Particularly from mid-century, missions with various scholarly
purposes were despatched to Algeria and Tunisia under the auspices of the
government.[62] Laws were promulgated to protect the antiquities,36 but did
little to help, for Paris had no clear conception of how it wanted Algeria to
develop so there was no vision, no planning for what to do with such a landscape, let alone how to protect it. The fourth was the successful attempt to turn
the erstwhile Arab village-dwelling locals, who had generally been content to
live in mud-brick and rubble hovels, into Westernised town-dwellers, where
the thirst for building stone helped further deplete the stock of ancient monuments. Modernisation the updating of Algeria to keep accord with recently
developed European norms, carrying the Arabs with them wherever possible
clearly required changes. But what was to be their impact? A fifth irony is
that Frances population was actually declining throughout the 19th century,
whereas that of competitive states was rising,[63] so that exporting people to
Algeria (not to mention allowing Maltese and Italians to settle in large numbers) was shortsighted.[64]
34
35
36
Gran-Aymerich 2000; Grange 2000.

Dondin-Payre 1994B, 936 for biography; 83113 Bilan sur la collection des dessins du
Capitaine Delamare; Dondin-Payre 1998, Frmaux 2006, 167199: Science, savoir et pratique including archaeology. Niesseron 2003, 4857 for his drawings and Dondin-Payre
counted 2,500 drawings by him in Algeria 18401851; 5557: 193 plates engraved for his volume of the Exploration Scientifique, published 1850 to be accompanied by a commentary
by Lon Renier but this did not happen until Gsells commentary in 1912.
Dondin-Payre 2003, 166167 for a chronology of archaeological legislation.
13
Although powerful colonialist interests eventually developed, the military

remained a controlling force throughout the century. They had provided the
conquest, and their pacification projects for pacification necessarily followed conquest[65] intermixed with open warfare set a pattern that would
endure for decades. This ensured that colonists continued to require their protection, as so many towns and villages had to be built with defence in mind
new constructions which so frequently destroyed that Roman environment
which had been well-nigh intact when the French army landed on the beach
at Sidi-Ferruch on 16 June, 1830. It was, of course, the many thousands of troops
and colonists which caused damage to the monuments. An outline of the numbers involved will be found in the Appendix.
1 St_Marie_1846_261
2 Nettement_1858_415416
[ ]
3 Duval_1865_59
[ ]
4 Mathieu_de_Dombasle_
1838_16
[ ]
5 Gsell_1903_134
[ ]
6 Wilkin_1900_34
[ ]
7 Dailheu_1901_8
[ ]
8 Lunel_1869_2425
[ ]
9 Cagnat_1901_7778
[ ]
10 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris V
1826, 1826
[ ]
11 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris IX
1828, 297
[ ]
12 Masson_1903_538539
[ ]
13 Bir_1901_444
[ ]
14 Pananti_1818_413414
[ ]
15 Baudicour_1853_49
[ ]
16 Tumiati_1905_219
[ ]
17 Monuments_
Historiques_1844_30
[ ]
18 Giraud_1891
[ ]
19 Wagner_1841_I_296297
[ ]
20 Monuments_
Historiques_1843_
289290
[ ]
21 Monuments_
Historiques_1848_
5051
[ ]
[ ]
22]Monuments_
Historiques_1854_
299300
[ ]
23 Monuments_
Historiques_1851_113
[ ]
24 BCA_IV_1885_375
[ ]
25 Thierry-Mieg_1861_149
[ ]
26 Morell_1854_239
[ ]
1838_4
[ ]
28 Herbert_1881_157
[ ]
29 Schulten_19001901_
456
[ ]
30 Bouville_1850_45
[ ]
31 Roosmalen_1860_3132
[ ]
32 ASAPC_18601861_
VIIVIII
[ ]
33 RA I 1856, 12
[ ]
34 Le Charivari
22 September 1842, 1041
[ ]
35 LIllustration_
2_11_mars_1843
[ ]
36 Faucon_1893_II_240
[ ]
37 Bavoux_1841_I_23170
[ ]
38 Duvivier_1845_436
[ ]
39 Nolte_1884_157158
[ ]
40 Gaillard_1839_75
[ ]
41 Guerre__1855
[ ]
42 Guyot_1885_10
[
43]Annales_Colonisation_
1853_III_95108
[ ]
44 Boudin_1852_3
[ ]
45 Pulszky_1854_395396
[ ]
46 Milleret_1838_541
[ ]
47 Anon_1838_2021
[ ]
48 Gaillard_1839_7475
[ ]
49 Piquet_1914_149
[ ]
50 Lavolle_1851_77
[ ]
51 Anon_1838_3
[ ]
52 Recollections_1844_79
[ ]
53 RA 1862 issue 31, 2530
[ ]
54 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIV
1840, 391392
[ ]
55 Lainn_1847_2021
[ ]
56 Girot_1840_6
[ ]
57 ThierryMieg_1861_151152
[ ]
58 Monuments_
[ ]
59 Revue_Africaine_1836_
I_8889
[ ]
60 Diehl_1892_9798
[ ]
61 Gsell_1902_3
[ ]
62 AMSL Table gnrale XV
1890
[ ]
63 Bertillon 1911
[ ]
64 JDPL 4 October 1843
[ ]
65 Mmorial_
Gographique_1930_65
chapter 1
The French Conquest

Ds les premiers pas que nous avons faits en Algrie, les gnraux et
chefs militaires isols se sont sentis mal laise dans une contre dont
ils ne connaissaient rien; cest l une situation dont on ne tient pas assez
compte. Dans quelque coin de lEurope quon soit appel combattre,
il y a espoir pour notre tat-major de trouver lavance des cartes, des
livres, des renseignements expliquant le pays, tout au moins des voyageurs dont les rcits peuvent clairer. Lors de notre dbarquement SidiFerruch, nous navions pas ces ressources; on fut fort embarrass pour
tout.[1] [1858]
Introduction
This chapter covers the early years of the conquest, and fleshes out some of
the themes already introduced. Planning & logistics and Occupying the
ground approach Algeria largely from the Armys point of view, but inevitably influenced by the politics and intentions of mainland France. We shall discover that these were so confused that commanders did much as they pleased,
and the implementation of policies was rarely straightforward. The final section deals with Reactions to the occupation. Those from Paris offer a broad
range of opinions, while Britain is generally sceptical and sometimes scornful.
In Algeria, the local press is naturally favourable, presenting feel-good opinions for established colons, and also giving a window into the destruction and
sometimes preservation of antiquities.
The military and governance aspects of the conquest went in phases, and
these are easy to discern. The first task (during the 1830s) was to capture
important cities such as Algiers and Constantine, and intermediate fortified
camps. Bugeauds arrival in 1840 as Governor General begins the second phase,
with a two-pronged approach. He changed the existing sit-in-a-fortress ethos
by organising light formations which could fight a very mobile counterinsur
gency against Abd-el-Kader, accompanied by enormous destruction. He also
launched colonisation schemes, and resigned in 1846 because he could not
agree with the government on strategy for the future of Algeria, now seen by
some as a state of permanent war.[2] Instability followed, with seven generals
in fourteen months (May 1847September 1848), so the conquest slowed down,
the french conquest
15
if not colonisation. Then in 18528 there was further expansion under Marshal
Randon, who continued Bugeauds strategy and tactics.[3] Approaches differed
thereafter, as we shall see in subsequent chapters.
However, there is no temporal linkage between the phases just outlined and
the impact the invasion had on the monuments, for three reasons. The first
is that the Arab responses to French cruelties meant increasing numbers of
troops, but only according to political and financial decisions from Paris. The
second is that destruction of the monuments depended not on unenlightened
soldiers (many were very interested in antiquities), but on material shortages
which varied from place to place and from one year to another, again dependent on finance from Paris. The Military Engineers had to build with available
stone (usually from ruins) because they were cash-strapped and, in any case,
usually unable to transport materials because of the poor state of the roads.
The third is that varied rates of colonisation and the vagaries of administrators
meant that, rather than diminishing, destruction probably accelerated as time
passed. A narrative telling of conversion from vandalism to archaeology and
museums would be soothing, but impossibly dishonest. Certainly, archaeology
developed, its practitioners dug; some soldiers rescued antiquities; and museums were founded; but Roman monuments remained far down the pecking
order, and monuments disappeared, even from museums.

Planning & Logistics
The French invasion,1 seen as a delayed attempt to re-establish imperial

standing,2 began with a hesitant and uncertain occupation of the coastal
cities of Algiers (1830), Bne and Oran (1831), and Bougie (with two ancient
forts and ruined walls)[4] added in 1833. The invasion was badly led, badly
organised, dilatory, and slow to make any real progress in a land where they
were hated.[5] It broke basic rules of strategy, as a commentator reminds us for
1 Yver 1931 for a dispassionate account. Dufour 2011, 2027 for the conquest, and 3051 for the
Premiers titres de gloire, such as Mascara, Constantine and the battle of Isly. Decker_1844_II
for an excellent account of the French army in Algeria up to 1844, from a member of the
German General Staff.
2 Bessel 2010, 5: The French colonial empire...had almost disappeared by 1815, with only two
West Indian islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique; Senegal in West Africa; Bourbon in the
Indian Ocean; and a few trading posts in India remaining under French control. France also
suffered the loss of its naval power and the heavy burden of a war indemnity. The French
invasion of Algeria in 1830 represented a delayed attempt to re-establish imperial standing.
16
chapter 1
a more recent war: I have no confidence in improvised military adventures in

pursuit of undefined objectives.3 The default was both political and military.
First of all there was le dfaut dassignation dun but prcis nos entreprises.[6]
And when in those early years aucune vue gnrale ny prsidait, aucun plan
dfinitif ntait suivi, the French military often lost heavily.[7] Matters had
indeed started badly with the first Governor-General being the comte dErlon,
ce glorieux dbris de Waterloo.[8] The results: enormous expense and many
casualties from disease and sometimes battle, which led mainland France to
question the whole enterprise; military setbacks, including Clauzel's defeat
at Constantine in 1836 which led to his recall; and generally an arrogant (in
the true sense of the word) military, which formulated and executed its own
policies. The disaster of the first expedition to Constantine in November 1836
(which occasioned unwelcome comparisons with the retreat from Moscow)[9]
was exacerbated by badly-trained troops,[10] the French losing perhaps 1/20th
of the expeditionary corps in the venture.[11] The dbcle was caused in part by
bad preparation, for detailed work was needed before setting out, covering the
route and likely weather. In fact, the weather was terrible described as like a
Russian winter in which the troops slept without tents.[12] This has parallels
with Enver Pashas assumption of command of the Ottoman Third Army on
21 December 1914 and his attack on Russia in the Caucasus, with enormous loss
of life.

A Lack of Knowledge
Neither the Army nor the Government knew much about Algeria, its geography or inhabitants. Because there was no clear mission, tasks changed regularly. At least initially the Army was in Algeria for glory, but quickly its task
became nurturing in many cases, almost nursing colonies and protecting
them from the often far from peacable Arabs and Kabyles, who supposedly did
not know civilisation, a benefit which was pursuing them like an avenging
fury,[13] and which it was easy to contrast with their fanaticism.[14] Either they
must be completely subdued, or they would descend from time to time into
the plains...burning outposts and revolutionizing the country up to the very
walls of the French forts.[15] After all, nomadic Arabs represented the old world
immobile, obscur et froce. Nous sommes le monde nouveau, en marche dans
la lumire et la perfectibilit.[16] They were, certainly, des sauvages insoucieux du lendemain et destructeurs par nature.[17] As indeed were the French
themselves, who already had a bad track-record, including the destruction of
3 Lord George Wigg of the Falkland War, in a letter to The Times, 24 April 1982.
the french conquest
17
Roman monuments in France, as well as mediaeval castles and fortifications.4

The Army also identified with the Romans, their officers were sometimes
well read in Roman history,[18] and they frequently involved themselves in
archaeology[19] one of the themes of this book, set in the context of French
contributions to the development of this discipline.5 The list of officers who
studied antiquities is a long one, from the very first years of the conquest.[20]
Algeria was only one of the territories France acquired from 1830, and controlled with her Arme dAfrique.6
However, after a decade the concept of glory was threadbare, Desmichels
asking in 1839 pourquoi voudrions-nous nous engager dans une guerre
infructueuse, seulement pour acqurir un peu de gloire et pour annoncer par
des bulletins pompeux que nos troupes sont toujours dignes de ladmiration
du monde?[21] The bewilderment was compounded by the hazy knowledge
the French had about the country, except for what they could glean through
books.[22] Book-learning was a solid Enlightenment attitude, offering secondhand knowledge: Napoleon had taken a large library with him for the invasion
of Egypt. The French military naturally kept maps and plans of countries in
Europe with which they were likely to become involved, but had no up-to-date
or extensive collection of information about North Africa. Who, after all, would
risk an army in an unknown land? But this is just what the French did when
they invaded Algeria. As Rozet noted in 1833, Presque tous les voyageurs qui
ont pu pntrer dans les tats barbaresques ont trs peu vu par eux-mmes et
cest daprs les rcits dhommes dont ils comprenaient mal le langage, et dont
le moindre dfaut est de mentir, quils ont compos leurs livres.[23] But at least
they could visit the interior easily: not so the French who, as Peyssonnel pointed
out in 1838, had ensured by their excesses a state of permanent hostility.[24]
Yet blood and treasure had to be expended if the natives were ever to be convinced of French power and intentions,[25] and so the aims and activities of the
army changed almost from year to year.[26] But their knowledge of the country
4 Rau 1994, 183201.
5 Cf. various issues of Nouvelles de lArchologie: Coye, Nol, et al., eds, 110 December 2007,
with papers Pour une histoire de larchologie franaise. Blanc-Bijon, Vronique, ed., 124,
September 2011, La coopration franaise en Afrique. Galitzine-Loumphet, Alexandra,
et al., eds, 126 December 2011 and 128 June 2012, Archologie(s) en situation coloniale. DazAndreu 2007, 263275 for French Colonialism in North Africa. The Italian military was also
much involved with archaeology in Libya: Altekamp 2000, 97108, including army destruction of antiquities at various sites.
6 Clayton 1988, 4784: The Acquisition of Empire, 18301906; 197308 for the European and
North African regiments making up the Arme dAfrique; Griffith 1989, 3243.
18
chapter 1
did not improve markedly,[27] while their expenditure of blood and treasure
was enormous, as the British were only too keen to point out.[28]

A Lack of Planning
If the French knew so little about Algeria, would they be able to plan a successful invasion and any aftermath? For how does one plan without knowledge? The accounts which follow sometimes seem confused, with twists and
turns of policy to which the Army had to accommodate. This is because of
la dplorable instabilit des hommes et des systmes in Algeria.[29] The situation began chaotically, and thus it continued, with military governors general
18341858, ministers for Algeria and the colonies 18581860, back to military
governors 18601870, and then civilian governors general 18701900.7 Napoleon
III in 1865 counted failed attempts at prs de quinze systmes dorganisation
gnrale.[30] Dailheu counted 55 governors by 1901, unfortunates who had to
execute des ttonnements et des essais de toute nature dont quelques-uns
ont t pour elle de vritables calamits.[31] Further down the scale, it seemed
clear that there were far too many administrators in comparison with numbers
on the mainland.[32] A bureaucratic conquest seems to have been as much a
target as a military one.
Continual chopping and changing demonstrate that the French were often
far from clear about just what they were doing in Algeria, and exactly what
their war (and peace) aims were.8 Some commentators were soon convinced
that the state of war was permanent, and that a civil government was essential
to underline the legitimacy of the conquest.[33] An 1860 retrospective triumphalism affirmed that la nationalit arabe est dtruite, lancienne Rgence forme
une annexe de lEmpire Franais, et notre domination stend des frontires
du Maroc celles de Tunis, et du littoral au dsert. But it kept the sting for the
tail: Larme a conquis, pacifi, colonis lAlgrie; ce sera sa gloire ternelle!
Mais larme a fini sa tche; que feront les hommes dEtat?[34] That this question was still being posed thirty years after the initial landings is an eloquent
enough answer. Not, of course, that the Armys task was indeed finished by
that date.
7 Frmaux 2006, 83122: Le gouvernement militaire maintenance of local hierarchies; economic life and involvment of officers. Julien 1986, 501502 for listing of ministries of war
182071; 503505 for commanders in Algeria, and governors.
8 Frmaux 2002, 4569: Pourquoi se battre? including notions of honour and civilisation,
and war aims on both sides. Brower 2009, 2989: The peaceful expansion of total conquest.
Frmaux 2009, 14ff Face aux barbares.
the french conquest
19
Across the Channel, where contempt for the vanquished of Waterloo was
almost a bankable commodity, at least one English commentator writing in
1838 thought that the French hold on Algeria was shaky: it is probable that
Algiers cannot be long retained by France, and that, even if it be, it can only
tend to encumber her energies as a continental and military power her only
natural source of influence.[35] And in France itself it was stated not only that
Frances track-record in colonisation was bad,[36] but also that the new venture
was expensive:
Cest sans doute une chose fort grave pour les intrts de la France que
les dpenses normes auxquelles elle se livre pour une entreprise qui ne
peut avoir pour elle aucun but dutilit, pour la conqute dune possession qui na pour elle aucune valeur.[37]
indeed, the colony was a continuing drain on resources.[38] Colonisation in
Algeria would simply not work.[39] Where, after all, was the profit in such a
venture?[40] But French credibility was believed to be at stake, with withdrawal
representing a climb-down which would expose Frances weakness to her
commercial and political rivals.[41]
A crucial result of the lack of consistent war and peace aims, together with
frequent changes of ministers and government back home meant that generals in Algeria tended to rely on their own judgment, whether or not explicit
instructions were handed down from Paris. They often developed their own
strategy,9 and some sought to profit from their position. Thus Marshal Bertrand
Clauzel's command (18351836) saw private investment in land, and the use of
cheap local labour to make it productive.
Comes the hour, comes the man. The French were trained to fight against
European-style regular armies and, in spite of much relevant experience in the
Peninsular War, they found themselves ill-equipped to deal with the guerilla
warfare offered by Abd-el-Kader.10 Proclaimed emir at Mascara in 1832, he
was both a political and a military leader, consistent in his actions, chivalrous,
and an excellent administrator all traits which set him apart from and above
the French kaleidoscope of changing methods and intentions. For 15 years,
starting in 1832, this heroic figure blocked French expansion in the province
of Oran that is, all the West of Algeria. This fact was tacitly confirmed in
9
10
Frmaux 2002, 149175, 177208 for the management of the war, and its strategy. Sullivan
1983, 7793: Strategy, war and the conquest of Algeria.
Darmon 2009, 72100: Lheure dAbd el-Kader. Emerit 2002 for detailed narrative account
of Abd-el-Kader and the French; Arquilla 2011, ch. 6.
20
chapter 1
Bugeauds treaty with him in 1837, ceding two-thirds of the country, the Treaty
of Tafna. This was destinied to be broken by French expansionist plans, the
aphorism being that Lapptit vient en mangeant. Britain watched the situation closely, for the most barbarous, unjustifiable, and inhuman warfare
against Abd-el-Kader was damaging commerce.[42] Bugeaud admitted his
actions could be considered barbarous, but claimed he did what he did for the
benefit of his country.[43] The Expdition des Portes de Fer into the mountainous region of Kabylia was presented by the French as taking control of large
swathes of land. A division of 3,000 men and 1000 mules and horses in October
1839 crossed the Biban without firing a shot or losing a man or an animal, covering 280km in nine days. But in spite of its important place in the effort to
advance Bonapartist culture,11 this expedition broke the Treaty, and thereby
started the nine-year war with Abd-el-Kader, until 1847. As we shall see, supplying troops in the field would be difficult enough, but the war multiplied such
problems.

Logistics and Supply[44]

Les Arabes ne peuvent nous empcher davancer. Au retour, les vivres
manquent...les hommes tombent malades en route...les Arabes
attaquent avec fureur la queue de la colonne, dcapitent les malheureux
qui ne peuvent suivre, blessent un assez grand nombre des ntres, parce
quils tirent sur des masses...Voil la guerre; et quels en sont les rsultats? Nous lignorons, si ce nest que nos ressources spuisent sans fruit et
que notre arme est dcime sans utilit.[45] [1840]
Contributing to the manifold difficulties of the early years, and exacerbated

by poor planning, was the fact that the French knew neither the topography
of the country nor the size and warlike nature of the population they were to
confront.[46] Communications with France were initially slow, although semaphore and unreliable telegraph were in place by 1854.12 The difficulties with the
setup of the electric telegraph[47] indicate Paris desire to keep in touch with
11
12
Sessions 2011, 125173: The Blood of Brothers: Bonapartism and the Popular Culture of
Conquest.
Headrick 1991, 15 for the 1,498km semaphore, and the internal telegraph of 249km that
year, expanded to 3,179km by 1861. 1516 for unsuccessful attempts at an undersea cable in
1853, 1857, 1861 and 1864, and first direct reliable cable in 1870, then more in 1879, 1880, 1892
and 1893. 16: The French governments urge to communicate raced ahead of the capabilities of the new technology; they employed foreign firms to build them, thereby putting
the french conquest
21
her colony, as does the Ministry of Wars decision of 1844 to introduce semaphore to Algeria, pour prter son concours aux oprations militaires, as the
bureaucrats fondly hoped. These lasted until 1859 in the north,[48] and much
longer further south,[49] but seem to have been used to announce victories in
the field,[50] rather than their true function command and control from Paris.
Based on the false notion that the Moslems in North Africa knew nothing about fighting, one opinion from 1819 was that any invasion would be a
walkover: One hundred thousand European soldiers may safely march from
the Gut of Gibraltar to the Deserts of Lybia, and twenty thousand disciplined
troops can take possession and hold any of the kingdoms in the Barbary
States.[51] This was a delusion, for North Africa was a tough proposition for any
army, especially one which was ignorant about the country, badly equipped,
and needed to be resupplied by sea.[52] It was also a strange concept, when one
thinks of the Barbary pirates, who had created huge problems for centuries, and
who were one of the excuses for the invasion. Logistical problems appeared
immediately the French had to wade ashore when the baggage train landed in
1830,[53] for it included a new and untried two-wheeled cart.[54] Supplying an
army initially of 34,000 troops (against over 40,000 local troops) from across
the sea was difficult, and the materiel for the landing was immense.[55] Even in
1842 food supplies and forage came in part from the mainland;[56] and 50 years
later, Algeria was still represented a considerable financial loss.[57]
Moving the army around Algeria was difficult because of the few roads,
and supplying outposts put a strain on logistics for the whole century.[58]
A classic example was resupplying Milah in 1841, which required 4,300 horses
or mules and 900 bullocks, the latter for food.[59] Outposts of Medea were also
precarious in 1841, and under Kabyle attack.[60] Where possible, dumps of supplies were accumulated, some of which (called biscuitvilles from the tins used
to build shelters) developed into settlements, such as Aumale (see Chapter 7).
Occasionally, biscuit-tins formed an enceinte to corral prisoners after razzias.[61]
Added to movement problems were the broken bridges, the often inadequate
water supply, and the hostility of the natives. So, as Griffith remarks, the strain
of intensive activity took a heavy toll on French shoe-leather, manpower and,
especially, horseflesh.13 As much as a third of the army could be taken up with
such tasks.[62] If the French Army was used to fortress living, then it could have
13
off developing its own cable industry for two decades. It was a decision the French later
regretted.
Griffith 1989, 42: It was reckoned that after two operations the average battalion would
have shed about half of its men, but the rest would be acclimatised and battle-worthy. All
the horses, however, would have been effectively used up.
22
chapter 1
its fill in Algeria, and free movement outside them was the realm of their Arab
enemies even for Algiers, under Clauzel.[63] This was siege warfare (complemented by an endemic siege mentality vis--vis the Muslims),14 with the
French often pinned down:
Nous avions partout des postes de surveillance, des redoutes, des camps
retranchs, des blockhaus, et quelques centaines de mtres de ces
tablissements, il se passait journellement des dsordres que nous ne
pouvions empcher. Parmi les dmonstrations importantes qui avaient
t faites, on comptait la droute de la Macta, la retraite de Constantine,
et divers combats moins importants qui avaient tourn notre
dsavantage.[64]
Not just re-supply convoys, but each expedition, had to take food and other
supplies (sometimes including wood for cooking food, and for warming
troops in cold weather) with them, forming convoys that could be several kilometres in length; they also had to bring back sick and wounded in the baggage train. This was expensive in troops, as Bugeaud pointed out.[65] (Arguably,
the first push on Constantine was such a failure because there were insufficient troops to provide garrisons and supply-dumps along the route.)[66] The
Arabs, unsportingly, would let the troops pass, and then attack the baggage and
wounded.[67] The French got their first taste of the problem the moment they
first set foot on Algerian soil,[68] and it could never be completely countered. It
formed, suggests one soldier, 50 per cent of the fighting in Algeria.[69] Although
the balance was to change in the French favour with the introduction of the
Mini rifle in the 1850s, initially the enemy possessed muskets which carried
further than French weapons could reach. This eventually led the cartoonist
Cham to suggest in 1856 that such long guns could easily be converted into
railway tracks. At the conquest itself,
Des masses dArabes se montraient de tous cts, mais le plus souvent
de longues distances, hors de la porte des fusils dEurope. Les leurs,
dune longueur prodigieuse, portaient trs loin et trs juste, et ils sen servaient avec une adresse meurtrire.[70]
14
Evans 2012, 31: anti-Muslim racism was endemic to settler society. 3233: Anti-Muslim
prejudice also created a siege mentality...Muslims were seen as a law-and-order problem. They were not part of the historical and political landscape.
the french conquest
23
In consequence, as one author averred in 1836, Il serait dune grande importance de faire fabriquer pour les corps de larme dAfrique, des fusils et des
carabines dune porte au moins gale celle des ennemis.[71] Arab fighting
tactics[72] did not change, but the French eventually got used both to them and
the landscape, and casualties dropped[73] as they varied their own approach to
the problem.[74] But this still left the French producing pamphlets as late as 1873
warning that attacks on the rearguard were still the most frequent tactic.[75]
Modern armies expected to move around easily, using metalled roads and
(after the middle of the 19th century) railways.[76] They also expected to fight
according to well-understood European conventions, but European tactics
were no use against an enemy who simply melted away,[77] the Kabyles fighting
as it was suggested they did in the time of the Romans.[78] They avoided artillery, and attacked most unfairly only when they were sure of victory,[79] generally appearing only to devastate the rearguard.[80] For example, the Minister
of War spoke as follows in the Chamber in 1837:
Les indignes, ne connaissant dautres moyens de transport que les btes
de somme, pratiquaient dtroits sentiers, o notre matriel de guerre na
jamais pu passer quaprs des travaux pnibles, excuts par nos soldats.
Les routes ne sont pas seulement un moyen de communication: elles
assurent la soumission des populations; elles ouvrent le pays la civilisation qui le pntre plus lentement, mais plus srement que les armes.[81]
Such obstacles could be overcome, but only painfully, as when marble for the
palace being built by Ahmed Bey (ruled 18261837) at Constantine, imported
from Italy, was carried on pack-animals all the way from Bne, with the locals
along the way removing difficulties and smoothing the path.[82] But clearly an
army could not operate like that, and had to rely on the Gnie (the Military
Engineers) to repair old roads and build new ones. Unfortunately, working on
a shoestring budget (which accounts for some of the brutal reuse of ancient
monuments), they often erected jury-rigged structures which made it look to
the natives as if the French would not be staying.[83] However, as Fortin dIvry
stated explicitely, hot pursuit was no use unless one wanted a sword in the
guts; so this was going to be a fortress- and communication-based war[84]
except that there were few roads, and the Arabs had control of most of the
tracks. Hence long-distance expeditions were a feat of logistics.[85]
Movement was a relative term, because a fortress mentality soon developed in Algeria, one 1832 commentator advising that Naventurons pas notre
domination en lparpillant; soyons forts, inattaquables partout o nous nous
24
chapter 1
prsenterons. A ce prix seulement lAfrique est nous.[86] What is more, with

the elusive Arabs never offering pitched battle, but picking off soldiers whenever they ventured outside their fortifications, the French were to be marooned
in some of their fortresses. Inevitably, because the surroundings were often
unsafe, some garrisons were difficult to resupply, and se mouraient de fivres
et de nostalgie;[87] later in the century some isolated forts welcomed tourists
with open arms.[88] As Buret remarked in 1842, sending troops to Algeria et
les y laisser enferms dans des murailles et des blockhaus, ce nest pas faire
de loccupation tendue, mais de loccupation inutile a good example being
Bougie, which nest pas autre chose que la prison et le tombeau dune garnison
de 1,500 hommes. It was French fortress-building that spelled destruction for
so many strategically situated Roman and Byzantine sites. Only when it had to
did the Army go out on expedition in strength and sleep in tents (dangerously,
for many were attacked); much of the time they played hopscotch from fort
to fort, and these they kept developing until little that was antique remained.
Clusters of colonists villages and farms, under the protection of such forts,
completed the process of destruction in the vicinity. Tents remained common
even in base-camp, the Ministry boasting only in 1841 that tents had been abolished presque partout.[89]
Fortress-dwelling was an obvious error (a Sitzkrieg with many disadvantages,
condemned by Bugeaud in 1839)[90] but with a dangerous countryside and poor
communications, there was apparently no alternative. Money was lacking to
do the job properly because of competition from France itself. Napolon III
pointed out in 1865 that much fortification work needed to be done in France,
so Est-il donc possible de songer fortifier galement toutes les places de
lAlgrie?[91] War for the Arabs was a mobile, skirmishing affair, and not static
European fortress-work.[92] In a sense the Europeans were besieged behind
their walls, for they do not hold an inch of open ground without having to fire
a shot for it every day; and all they do is to seize on the towns, and endeavour to
utilize what they do not burn or destroy.[93] But equally the Arabs did not have
access to much mobile artillery; so excursions had to be in strength, because
there was probably an Arab behind every rock. Running the gauntlet of AbdEl-Kader was necessary to resupply Mda and Miliana in 1841, and then after
heavy fighting.[94] And a mobile war still meant, for the French, field artillery,
and moving this was difficult; under some circumstances, if rarely, it could be
pulled by animals; but frequently the gun was dismantled and the pieces carried by mules.[95]
the french conquest
25

Political and Military Control
But who was controlling the political and the military strategy? And what
was the political role of the military in the 19th century?15 Caustic opinions
on the French occupation are common, and the inevitable consequence of
government incompetence and dithering. Some commentators in 1832 criticised the venture for managing to make the natives contemptuous because
of French inaction,[96] then in 1836 for administrative disorder and barbarian
acts,[97] and in 1838 for parsimony and several misconceived expeditions.[98]
Some bald assessments of French misdeeds came from generals themselves,
such as Camou in 1851, regretting the destruction of mosques, public buildings
and even Moslem schools.[99] By 1860, one commentator summed up the problems as insufficient government action, colonists and funding.[100] And just as
government policies changed when governments fell and were replaced, so
did those of replaced army commanders. Bugeaud (Marshal of France from
1843) was under no illusions about the quality of the enemy he faced.[101] He
showed that brutality could win battles, his aim being the complete and lasting subjugation of the country;[102] although on one occasion his lack of pursuit puzzled a member of the German General Staff,[103] who wrote the best
account of French fighting in Algeria up to 1844, in this case for his colleagues
in Germany.[104] What is more, Bugeaud was confident that his way of waging
war was superior to that of the Romans.[105] He had initially been sceptical
about the whole enterprise of colonisation, for lAfrique est un legs funeste
fait par la restauration la rvolution de juillet...Je ne sais pas un homme de
sens qui, si lAfrique tait occuper, irait entraner la France dans une pareille
entreprise.[106] Unfortunately, he changed his mind, and his own colonisation
schemes exacerbated the war with Abd-el-Kader.
Because of indecision in Paris, we find the Army often ignoring whatever
instructions they received. In 1831 Clauzel, on his own initiative, signed a treaty
with the Bey of Tunis. Despite a direct order not to enter la Grande Kabylie, the
mountainous and almost unknown area near Algiers, Bugeaud did so, received
the submission of all the local chiefs, and then departed for France on 5 June
1847; nor was this the only instance: he became Duc dIsly (named for the site
of the battle, 14 August 1844) after pursuing Abd-el-Kader quite illegally
into Morocco. The 183839 Expdition des Portes de Fer into the Monts Bibans
15
Danopoulos & Watson 1996, 122142; see 137: Overseas exile, moreover, served both
to send away and to satisfy the most ambitious officers, giving them opportunities for
actions and profits, recycling to useful ends the tradition of military adventurism typical
of those times.
26
chapter 1
was another example of military brinkmanship and, as we shall see, had dire
consequences. But if policy was murky or disobeyed, what is very clear is that
colonisation skewed any balanced assessment of the antiquities of Algeria16
and it certainly skewed the later development of the country.17
Such unwarranted actions on the part of the military highlighted the basic
question: who was to exercise control in Algeria? Was it to be the politicians
back in Paris, or the generals on the ground, acting under their orders? Neither,
for one decided peculiarity is the relationship between French generals in
Algeria and politics at home, the former turning military insubordination into
a fine art,18 while the legislature also contained some of the same generals
fighting in Algeria. For some, war was prosecuted in Algeria in order to ensure
peace back in France.[107] For others, in Algeria Der pot de vin regiert Alles.[108]
While it is often the case that military officers subsequently assume political positions (Washington, Taylor, Pierce, Grant and Eisenhower in the USA;
Wellington, Macmillan, Churchill in the UK),19 in 19th-century France some
generals started as legislators then took commanding positions in Algeria, and
sometimes returned to legislate.20 So much for the hopeful principle of Cedant
16
Dondin-Payre 2003, 166: on ne peut, comme on le fait souvent, envisager comme un tout
le patrimoine de lAfrique du Nord car, en dpit dune certaine communaut de destin
historique, limpact de la colonisation a gauchi durablement la perception du patrimoine
algrien.
17 Bennoune 1988, 3585: The uneven development generated by colonialism. 3: The 1830
1880 period saw the emergence and slow development of a colonial capitalism which was
seriously thwarted by the resistance and elastic nature of the endogenous socio-political
organisation; it was also hampered by the inadequacy and incoherence of French agrarian, commercial and financial policies.
18 Andrew & Kanya-Forstner 1981, 10: It seemed to some observers that the whole French
Empire was a gigantic system of outdoor relief not, as in the British case, for the upper
orders but for the armed services.
19 In USA, Zachary Taylor Major General 18461849 then President 184950; Franklin
Pierce Brigadier general 184748 then President 185357; Grant commanding general
186469 then President 186977; Taft Secretary of War 190408 then President 190913;
Eisenhower SAC 194952 then President 195361; in the UK, Wellington, then PM 182830,
1834; Churchill 194045, and others who had founght in WWI.
20 Bourmont led the 1830 invasion, having been Minister of War; Clauzel sat in the Chamber
of Deputies 182730, and was then given command in Algeria 18357 as Governor General;
Rovigo was inspector-general of gendarmerie and a peer before being given command
in Algeria; Drouet dErlon was a peer from 1831, and the first GG 18345; Damrmont,
Clauzels replacement, a peer from 1837, also GG, died in front of Constantine; Vale
was GG 183741, Bugeaud, elected deputy 1831; in Algeria from 1836; was GG 18417.
Cavaignac was in Algeria from 1832, promoted gnral de division after the 1848
the french conquest
27
arma togae (Cicero, De Officiis I.22), and the separation of legislative from
executive powers, which even the Convention had tried to maintain. Holding
legislative positions, generals could then justify their actions in the Chamber,
as did Bugeaud, for example, in 1838, pushing his own colonisation plans.[109]
But self-justification was the least of the problems with such reciprocity, for
evidently opinions in the legislature continued to be swayed in favour of the
generals, and hence of a continuing and extended military presence in Algeria.
Even by 1836, according to Lamoricire (who was himself to be a successful
general there), nothing was heard of abandoning North Africa, the only debate
being whether the occupation would be purely military.[110] He warned that
many more than the scheduled 16,000 troops would be needed, that climate
and soldiers vegetating behind fortress walls would fill the hospitals, and that
resupply would be a great problem. But his advice was unwanted, and was
ignored.[111]
Can it be doubted that positive opinions and decisions might have been
different without an insistent military presence and pressure, or without the
evident divide-and-rule recipes of various soldiers?[112] An illustration of this is
the Tableau from the Ministry of War, distributed to the Chambers in 1841. This
aggressively upbeat publication, with appendices on commerce and industry,
was intended to convince that things were going well in Algeria surely by
telling the Chambers what they wanted to hear (it was paralleled, naturally,
by information booklets produced to seduce new colonists).[113] The same
occurred with the Commission of 1833, its members largely drawn from the
Chambers, who believed that no good could come of the Conquest, but that
Algeria should nevertheless be retained.[114]
With the legislature largely in their pocket, military men such as Clauzel
could therefore counter accusations that Algeria was simply for promenades
militaires entreprises dans lintrt des colons et des brocanteurs de terres:
not true, he averred, for the conquest was for the sovereignty of France
herself.[115] Yet Clauzel had another interest in Algeria, having invested in 1834
in a joint stock company, which was sure France would remain in Algeria:
Le moment est venu dappeler sur cette belle conqute les pacifiques spculations de lagriculture et du commerce.[116] Clauzel was serving himself, as well
as France; so proclamations about sovereignty and glory have to be set against
crude speculation, while this Commander-in-Chief (18357) urged his policies
Revolution; he refused not only the post of Minister of War, but then a marshals baton;
given executive powers 24 June 1848; candidate for election as President in the Second
Republic, beaten decisively by Louis-Napolon; elected deputy for Paris in 1852; GG of
Algeria FebApril 1848.
28
chapter 1
upon the Chamber of Deputies the very Chamber which wished to block
such practices.[117] In 1847 it was claimed, surely spuriously, that even hardened
opponents were now fully in favour of continuing to hold every inch of Algeria
territory.[118]
Some of the arguments deployed by the 1833 Commission were tendentious:
the army existed anyway, so why not use it in Algeria, and colonise the land
under the protection of troops?[119] And then why not employ friendly tribes
for most guard duties, and use soldiers on remand for heavy work?[120] Or Ce
que les Romains ont fait, pourquoi ne le ferions-nous pas, avec plus de moyens
et dintelligence?[121] Again, barracks would not cost much, because the troops
would only have to repel attacks from natives, and never fight outside their
protective walls.[122]
Of course, for reasons already explained, such snap judgments were made by
people who did not know much of the country, at a time when even venturing
outside the walls of Algiers could be dangerous but these were the judgments
the army wanted to hear, especially the call to glory[123] (which should not have
formed any part of the Commissions opinions). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
rapporteur for the Commission was a general, who envisioned Algeria with
facilities au moyen desquelles elle pourrait appuyer des oprations militaires
dans tout le midi de lEurope.[124] Perhaps he was thinking of the strategic
importance of Gibraltar, but why Algeria was a better location than Toulon is
not explained; and in the 1830s, this was dishonest make-believe, perhaps the
result, as Lamoricire suggested, of its members being flattered by being now
involved in government.[125]
Unfortunately but inevitably, such a positive report in 1833 set the tone
for later commissions, which were to be a continuing plague,[126] staffed by
pontifs and mistrusted by the colons.[127] An outstanding example is that of
1871,[128] which was a strange year in which to produce such good news, countered as it was by the reasons for insurrection in that year troops returned to
France; weakening and chopping and changing of administrations; the naturalisation of Jews but not Moslems; and the attitude of the colonists,[129] who
eventually organised vociferous pressure-groups.21
The natives in Algeria, who appreciated very well the power of public opinion and that of the Chambers, soon learned about the 1833 Commission, and
ensured that the researchers received a hot reception when they landed in
Algeria.[130] What is more, these picturesque barbarians quickly sent a spy to
Paris, to take the temperature of changing opinions: Il existe Paris un Maure
charg, par un comit tabli Alger, de se tenir au courant de tous les projets
21
Andrew & Kanya-Forstner 1974.
the french conquest
29
que le gouvernement forme sur lavenir de la colonie, et dobserver attentivement les fluctuations que lopinion publique subit ce sujet.[131] They no doubt
observed the same phenomenon as the British, namely that some newspapers
go stark mad the moment Algiers is mentioned, and talk of it as a source of
strength and dignity to the country, only to be relinquished at the price of a
general European war.[132]
But whatever the cost, the French were not going to leave, being judged in
1841 to be in a state of extraordinary mental blindness and fatuity...Algiers
the army would not now give up, even if the king were willing, and the popular
party at home find it too cheap a theme for singing their Marseillaise upon.[133]
The frequent bad conduct of the army in Algeria in razzias, enfumades and
the rest22 partly derives from its use as a kind of drain to run off the evil effervescence and unquiet spirits of the French army; and thus men who cannot
be managed in France are without further trouble incorporated into African
corps, while those regiments in their turn draft away their worst men for service on the frontier.[134] Indeed, punishment battalions formed a significant
part of the army,23 just as deserters, mostly from the Lgion trangre, bolstered Abd-el-Kaders ranks.[135]

The Dpt de la Guerre and Reconnaissances
How might the invasion have been better planned? Back in Paris the French
maintained the Dpt de la Guerre, founded by Louvois in 1688 to preserve
campaign plans, drawings, books and miscellaneous memoirs relating to the
likely sites of attack and defence. This institution did very well for European
wars, for the material they gathered was cumulative, and they were assiduous in collecting material on territories the military might need to access,
such as parts of the Ottoman Empire; they even collected data on the antiquities of metropolitan France.[136] But North Africa was an unknown, because
France had only ever attacked her by lobbing shells on her seaports and coastal
towns, and organising various small and coast-based punitive expeditions.
Invasion deep into the interior had never been considered, hence their reliance on ancient authors and ancient itineraries, as we shall see throughout
this book. Nevertheless, once in Algeria, the Dpt collected what it could
22
23
Julien 1986, 315321: La guerre inexpiable, razzias, enfumades, emmurements, la dvastation mthodique.
Kalifa 2009, 9397: Les bataillons dAfrique, corps dpreuve. These were light infantry
created in 1832 composante essentielle du dispositif disciplinaire de larme. Noted for
their bad conduct (they were in effect ex-prisoners on probation). By second Empire
there were 4,400 chasseurs and at the end of the 1880s over 5,500 men.
30
chapter 1
to be of help. Gnral Pelet, its director from 1830, collected intelligence on

the ancient road network, paying particular attention to viability for French
artillery;[137] and, planning ahead, persuaded the French Consul in Tunis to let
him have copies of the nombreux itinraires que vous avez pu rdiger laide
des rapports des voyageurs et des ouvrages anciens et modernes.[138] As early
as 1833, the officers of the Service Topographique were employed in drawing
Roman ruins witness the sketches of sites and inscriptions sent to Pelet by
Capitaine Levret from Oran on 18 July 1833, explicating the Itinraire de la
route dOran Azzeo. Again, the ruins were useful, for the French were able
quickly to erect a blockhaus nearby, sur une petite hauteur o on retrouve les
restes de constructions romaines.[139]
Once on the ground, written reconnaissances for filing and for staff use in
Algeria were de rigeur. These generally follow a set tabular pattern of columns
containing a listing of salient features, and sketches where necessary. The
Army in Algeria survived and sometimes prospered on the quality of its documentation and reconnaissances, which was usually high, and frequently set
in a well-researched historical context. Officers schooled in the classics were
often conscious of following in Roman footsteps, and noting down the antique
remains that could be of use to a modern army roads, bridges, aqueducts, cisterns, forts and signalling posts as well as those signs of antique colonisation
which encouraged at least some of their number to believe that a French occupation would be fruitful. A good example of the genre is G. Tatareaus 72-page
Mmoire sur la Province dOran, of 25 February 1833. This has a Description
Physique (116), Statistique (1739), listing all towns, agriculture, commerce
and also Roman ruins, 18. Communications (4057), Considrations Militaires
(5868) and Prcis Chronologique (6972). Two years later, he was to produce a
book-length account of the same province.[140]
Details of reconnaissances in Algeria and Tunisia will give the tone and
the horizons of French military thinking (which always had their usefulness
in mind), as well on the natives. The standard reconnaissance described a
route, with the various features encountered. An anonymous itinerary of 1842
detailed such a route from Algiers to Boghar.[141] It gives stages on the left-hand
page, with sketches of rivers, defences, villages where necessary; and notes on
specifics and on the road, on the right-hand opening. Some of the sketches
are detailed enough to be useful, such as those of the ruins at Doueira (24v),
the blockhouse (38v) at Belidah, and Belidah itself (52v), this last described
as gure en effet quune poche danciennes constructions. We are also given
(70v) a sketch of the aqueduct of Mda, with its two tiers of arches, and the
Ruines dun camp romain, dont lenceinte est dessine sur le sol par de grosses
pierres fleur de terre near to Bervnaguiah (88v89) an irregular rectangle
160 metres broad by 250 metres long. Nor was it unusual for officers to make
the french conquest
31
or commission sketches of archaeological features. On Clauzels expedition

against Mascara in 1835, a professional artist went along, and was to be seen
par nimporte quel temps, accroupi sur une pierre et prenant des notes sur un
grand album.[142] In 1850 Saint-Arnaud (who was to die in the Crimean War)
had two good artists attached to his column, and he sent some of their sketches
to his wife, as well as having his troops hear mass in front of the remains of a
Christian basilica.[143]
Other reconnaissances deal in part with sites rather than routes. The camp
at Khramis est lev sur les ruines dune poste Romaine et dans une position
bien choisie, et de facile dfense. The fitout of this camp by the current commanding officer noted that
Les fondations de toutes ces constructions ont t faites avec des blocs de
grs, de forme cubique et qui formaient le mur de lenceinte Romaine de
sorte que si plus tard on veut lever une tage sur ces constructions premires, on pourra faire supporter aux fondations le surcrot de maon
nerie sans quon ait craindre de les voir saffaisser.[144]
Milah is dfendue par une enceinte Romaine ou du moins construite avec des
pierres provenant de lancienne cit Romaine qui tait beaucoup plus tendue,
si lon juge par les ruines parses quon trouve en dehors des remparts actuels.
The report then gives the length and thickness of the walls: Sur plusieurs
points elle est en mauvais tat, mais on pourrait peu de frais, et au moyen des
pierres qui existent sur place, la rendre dfensive.[145] Between Constantine
and Stora, Les traces de la voie romaine qui longe les falaises entre Russicada
et Stora sont trs faciles suivre, les cules des ponts sur lesquels elle franchissait les ravins, sont encore en place et pourraient mme etre utilises that
is, the pillars are still in place, so the Military Engineers will just need to build
the roadway over them.[146] As for the fort at El-Zarour [near Orlansville]
there are
ruines romaines. Entrautres les restes dun chteau fort de forme rectangulaire flanqu dans les angles et au milieu des courtines par des tours
carres de diverses saillies. Les murs dont quelques-uns sont encore
debout ont plus de 2 mtres depaisseur...La position est excellente sous
le rapport militaire.
At Kamiz des Beni Ouragh, the French made a dpt: On y trouve des restes
de construction romaine et notamment une grande quantit de pierre de taille
faciles remettre en place.[147] Finally, condemning French lack of adventurousness, Prtot noted in 1834 that on est frapp de la facilit avec laquelle
32
chapter 1
les Romains parcouraient ce pays o nous semblons craindre aujourdhui de

mettre le pied et cependant, lexception de ltat des chemins, rien, presque rien ny est chang[148] and he goes on to note that natives are still an
unorganised rabble without real generals, forts or artillery.
Forty years later the basic requirements of a reconnaissance had not
changed, but rail and telegraphy had become a consideration, as may be
seen in an 18789 mmoire on the town and environs of Tunis,[149] and also
in the report of three captains on the road from Tunis to the Algerian frontier
(Rapport rsumant les tableaux ditinraire annexs au lev de la Route stratgique entre Tunis et la Frontire Algrienne), written in 1879 just before the
French occupation of Tunisia. This describes those features useful for troop
movement, such as food (gardens), water, possible defensive points (including
minarets) and sightlines, and of course the roads and the vehicles that could
be used.[150]
The link between reconnaissances, archaeology and maps will be pursued in
Chapter 6, because so many of the features documented on reconnaissances
forts, dams, ruins of farms have military and colonising applications, and are
not simply of archaeological interest.

Occupying the Ground

The French as Successors to the Romans
A chaque pas, nos savans et nos soldats rencontrent et admirent les
dbris de ce glorieux pass. Ce sont des fortifications, des aqueducs, des
restes damphithtres, des cintres de votes, des colonnes, des pans de
murailles et quelquefois des villes entires...comme pour nous exciter
relever ce vieux monde de ses ruines.[151] [1839]
Dans les Gaules surtout, on pourrait remonter, la rigueur, jusqu
lorigine des familles romaines qui sy sont tablies; la lgislation et la
civilisation romaines y existent; il y a un peuple romain en France, de
mme quil y a un peuple franc ct des dbris des Gaulois.[152] [1844]
To be the successors to the Romans meant that the French really did belong
in Algeria. But it was not only the French who sometimes traced their lineage
thus, for some Algerian tribes supposedly believed they too were descended
from the Romans.[153] Other natives, conveniently, were said to believe
that the French were descendants of the Peuple Roi, as the French often
call the Romans in their own accounts of Algeria. Hugonnet maintains in
1858 that he spoke to an Arab who immediately connected the French with
the Romans:
the french conquest
33
Nous ne savions pas autrefois ce que ctaient que ces longues lignes
paves, travers champs, maintenant que nous avons vu travailler les
Franais leurs routes, nous voyons bien ce que cest, les roumis sont
revenus prendre possession du pays de leurs anctres, dont ils ont
conserv les habitudes travailleuses.
This is surely the purest make-believe on Hugonnets part, yet he is honest
enough to report also that the Arabs believed that the French, like the Romans,
would eventually fail.[154] Others were even more realistic, opining that colonisation could not succeed: for the French were only like the Romans in being
war-like, but lived in towns whereas the Roman immediately planted crops;
above all, nous combattons sans trop savoir pourquoi, et nos chefs, pour donner matire quelques bulletins qui exaltent leur gloire.[155]
Echoing the anthropological interests of the 19th century and, perhaps,
the French fixation on Rome and its reach, there also were several attempts
to see various of the natives as descended from the Romans, at least in part
as a way of explaining their fighting excellence. This might have been a subconscious search in some cases for an opponent considered worthy, or just
a tributary of Romanticism (non-Orientalism, perhaps?). Hanoteau, in the
Military Engineers, found one family amongst the Beni Raten qui passe dans
le pays pour tre dorigine romaine, and others said to be descendants of early
Christians.[156] At Tagoust, a number of Shawfa tribes claim direct descent
from the Romans,[157] perhaps reminded of that heritage by the nearby marble quarries.[158] Playfair thought some berbers looked very much as if they
had been thawed out of marble statues of Roman emperors in the British
Museum.[159] Clamageran thought an Arab in a burnous looked like a Roman
consul in a toga,[160] Charvriat writes the same of the Kabyles,[161] and Leclerc
that Kabyles resembled marble columns.[162] Reboud even told berbers, when
he unearthed figured stelai, that these had ornamented the tombs of their
ancestors.[163]
But such Romanity could go much further than just pseudo ethnography.
The French army was plagued by armchair strategists back home, as well as by
influential parliamentarians, but also by the sometimes dubious, sometimes
misleading example of the Romans who had preceded them.24 One suggestion in 1833 was for the French to employ Roman techniques: to have local
tribes (hostages having been taken) feed French garrisons, and le maintien des
communications entre ces postes et Constantine, o une cavalerie nombreuse
24
Raven 1993 for overview. Decret and Fantar 1998, 140187: la Domination romaine; 188
242 Aspects politiques et socio-conomiques, including 199206 Paysages urbains, and
206210 Urbanisation et romanisation.
34
chapter 1
et toujours t prte marcher vers les points menacs.[164] Another commentator in 1888 noted that the Romans as masters of the Mediterranean first
took a secure base at Carthage, and then expanded; nor did they have religious problems, absorbing local polytheists into their structures. The French,
however, benefited from technologies unknown to their predecessors: le tir
rapide et la longue porte de nos armes feu, la clrit de nos transports
par eau ou par terre et de nos communications tlgraphiques.[165] All these
suggestions are over-simplistic for, not generally realising (or simply ignoring) the fact that the Romans had accomplished their task at great expense
in blood and treasure only over several centuries, only monkeying with the
figures could make French progress better than it actually was.[166] Conquest
would be a much bloodier affair than just following the Romans in text-book
fashion, although some were convinced by 1880 that the task was already
completed.[167]
Such impractical advice aside, the French were confronted in Algeria with
the very solid physical remains of the ancient occupation, often instanced by
the armchair theorists as a reproach to the slow progress of French troops.
These remains were scattered in great profusion,25 and were observed in the
early years of the conquest. Especially noted were military constructions such
as regularly spaced small forts and larger garrisons, with pottery, olive presses,
wells and mortars (for example around Tebessa),[168] and some remains of
Roman roads, one of the surviving markers throughout large parts of the
Empire.26 There were frequently Arab cemeteries within such ruins.[169] Such
groupings often received the local name henchir[170] with a local toponym,
partly because ruins usually indicated the presence of water.[171] These were to
be guides for French settlement:
Or lexprience des colonisations antrieures, non-seulement nous
montre lemploi que nous en devons faire pour des tablissements agricoles et guerriers, mais nous signale encore les lieux o nous pouvons la
diriger avec succs. Cest ainsi que les vieux dbris nous indiquent leur
25
26
Berthier 1942, 2335 romanisation: in the 238,231ha of the commune mixte of An

MLila, author counted 140 sets of Roman remains soit un lieu antique pour 1,680
hectares mostly on plains, hence a site every 4km. Then 39166 for an inventory of
Christian remain on the theree communes of An-Milia, Chateaudun du Rummel, and
Eulma.
http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/viaeromanae.html for an up-to-date bibliography and
useful internet links.
the french conquest
35
tour la place des nouvelles fondations...Ainsi la prsence des vieilles

constructions romaines nous appellera chaque pas dans la province de
Constantine, comme leur absence ou leur raret nous loignera de lintrieur de la province dOran.[172]
The frequency of such henchirs impelled enthusiasts to put the facile question:
the Roman army had conquered this land, so why should the French, torchbearers and descendants of the same civilisation, not do likewise? For Roman
forts, surely en les examinant de plus prs, en dterminant les corrlations
qui existent entre elles, on runirait des donnes trs prcises sur le systme
doccupation des Romains, et nous aurions puiser dans cette tude plus dun
utile enseignement.[173] This was really a form of Romanticism in action
hands across the centuries, trying to equal le Peuple Roi. A sub-text which is
exercised from time to time is that North Africa does not belong to the Arabs,
but to the French, as descendants (or so they liked to maintain) of the Romans.
A bizarre litmus test based on appreciation of Roman remains finds the French
as their protectors and the locals as an inferior race, precisely because they
have ignored them. So Bonnafont asks in 1846:
Nous comparions ces constructions grandioses et immobiles des
temps anciens avec ces habitations flottantes et fragiles des temps
actuels!...quand cet Arabe a pass sans motion pendant plus de mille
ans devant ces crations imposantes de lhomme; quand il a pu rester indiffrent tout ce que les Romains ont fait et excut devant lui
lorsque, disons-nous, ces monumens nont pu rien obtenir sur lesprit de
la population nomade de lAfrique...ne doit-on pas dsesprer de lamlioration de cette race qui sacrifie tout lhabitude de son goisme et la
manie de son indpendence individuelle?[174]
Saint-Arnaud, in one of his many sensitive moments, looked on the ruins of
Lambessa, and also pondered in Gibbonesque fashion the transitory nature
of all such splendour: Toutes ces inscriptions, toutes ces colonnes encore
debout me parlaient dun pass auprs duquel nous sommes petits, et je me
disais Ce nest pas la peine de se donner tant de mal pour crer, quand on voit
quelle est la fin des plus belles choses.[175] Pious sentiments indeed, but also
shot through with irony, because the French were to destroy immense quantities of Roman remains in their occupation of Algeria, and neglect o thers
(such as the Roman bridge at Constantine, which collapsed in 1857, and
was not rebuilt). They began early, with an attempt in 1831 to acquire antique
36
chapter 1
columns and marbles, already in reuse, from a demolished mosque in Algiers:

the Minister of War himself had requested them, and Lieut-Gnral Berthzune
replied that they were already earmarked for the new mosque and, in any case,
were of meagre beauty.[176]
The most romantic action of all was surely that of Colonel Carbuccia,27 of
the Foreign Legion who, approaching Lambessa in 1840, not only rebuilt the
ruined Roman tomb of a prefect of the Legio III Augusta, Quintus Flavius
Maximus, but added a dedicatory inscription to his predecessor and then
passed his troops in review in honour of that long-dead Roman and his
troops.[177] The French rarely seem to have followed the Roman enthusiasm
for commemorative monuments, but the Kabylie Expedition was so marked,
and with un monument compos de pierres romaines.[178] Barth suggests
that such isolated tombs were pour les populations environnantes un objet de
vnration et un sujet de sainte terreur.[179] This would be difficult to demonstrate but, if true, perhaps helped their survival.
Carbuccia was a vigorous, strong-headed and wayward commander,28 and
we shall meet him again several times. What he did at Lambessa was a political act, if a decidedly romantic one. Louis Bertrand was in no doubt about
the implications of Carbuccias actions, which were certainly intentional: ce
Corse, en se proclamant, devant le mausole de Flavius Maximus, lhritier et
le successeur du Romain, a vritablement renou lhistoire interrompue.[180]
Carbuccia knew the tympanum inscription of the Temple of Aesculapius at
Lambessa: Ce temple a t lev par la troisime lgion au dieu Esculape, pour
le remercier davoir conserv la sant son empereur, Septime-Svre.[181] He
also discovered the cult statue, and describes the honoured reception it was
accorded.[182] Bertrand himself, through his study of ancient Algeria, aimed to
lgitimiser la prsence franaise en crant une latinit africaine perdue que la
France serait charge de revivifier.29 And the care of the patrimony30 was, of
course, for long in the tender hands of the Army.31
27
28
29
30
31
Dondin-Payre 1996, 165: il convient de lui faire crdit davoir mis en vidence la densit
de loccupation romaine dans les Aurs, et davoir, avec obstination, donn limpulsion
de recherches qui, si elles avaient t poursuivies, auraient prserv le souvenir dun des
sites les plus remarquables dAlgrie. However, as this paper makes clear, Carbuccia was a
considerable and hotheaded handful, and rarely in favour with his superiors.
Porch 2010, 97114 for his deeds and misdeeds.
Alexandropoulos 2000, 466.
Niesseron 2003, passim.
Dondin-Payre 2003, 156159: La face--face; larme et la patrimoine.
the french conquest
37
Even at the end of the 19th century, by which time scholarship of the ruins
had revealed the full extent of the Roman occupation,[183] some believed that
the French had not done as well as the Romans, since the Army could not
keep the country safe and consistently open.[184] Comparison with Rome also
sowed and watered the seed of colonisation, given the over-optimistic view
of some that the Romans made the enterprise easy: Occups toute leur vie
de trois choses: lagriculture, la guerre et la politique, les Romains, devenus
colons, combattaient, labouraient et sorganisaient en mme temps.[185] The
Romans succeeded because they sent their best generals, as Desjobert wrote in
1844 but the enterprise still took a very long time.[186] As early as 1841, however, some commentators realised that the French did not yet know enough
about the country to make a success of colonisation,[187] while others simplistically thought that all would be well if the ruins were repopulated and the land
cultivated.[188]
Why were the French seduced by facile comparisons with the Roman
achievement? Two important aspects to the Roman imprint on the landscape
misled the enthusiasts. The first of these was that Roman occupation was
an exception to the normal trends of life in North Africa, and figures were of
course not available to indicate just how difficult and labour-intensive their
occupation had been, let alone how labour-intensive (even if with slave and
local labour) were the quarrying of stone, the building of roads, towns and
ports, and the provision of water. The second is that, as already noted, the
French tended to see themselves as the natural inheritors of Rome, who had
left similar monuments in France itself, and which the French also destroyed
there in great quantities. Such monuments combined to produce a perfect
picture of buildings surviving down the ages which must be admired and
studied if not necessarily imitated. The French should of course have realised
that, in spite of earthquakes and the passage of time, so many monuments
survived in North Africa because they were over-engineered in marble
and concrete. The Arabs did not build in the same manner, nor indeed did
the French, the latter frequently comparing Roman solidity and the puny constructions they themselves erected. As we shall see, in Algeria their building
and road engineers, even if in the Military Engineers, were often rank amateurs, drafted to the work because they were on the spot, and did not cost anything; and at first they were woefully ignorant of the harsh weather conditions
with which they would often need to contend.
But the splendour and solidity of the ancient monuments and ruins through
which the Army marched day after day, and in which they often took shelter, meant that they were under cultural as well as military pressure for they
could see the remains of the Roman presence all around them. Not that this
38
chapter 1
necessarily saved any monuments: Avant dexhumer les morts et les ruines,
il faut abriter et conserver les vivants, wrote Saint-Arnaud in 1844.32 Similar
adventurism and romanticized identification with the past was to take Italian
armies into Libya, where monuments were also destroyed, supported by a
stronger family rationale between Italians and ancient Romans.33 Officers
on campaign knew about the many ruined ancient towns. By asking the local
Arabs, who were mostly vague about their exact origin,[189] to point them at the
next ruin, Ils taient srs dy trouver, au milieu des dbris des constructions
romaines, une bonne position stratgique et de leau, soit la surface, soit
une faible profondeur.[190] Saint-Arnaud could write to his brother in 1851 from
his bivouac of Ziama, overlooking the tents amongst the ruins, with a successful action against the Kabyles behind him: Point de morts, peu de blesss: la
guerre est belle ainsi.[191] Such bivouacs required shelter, hence often ruins;
and Poir reminds us at the end of the century that it was not normal outside
Algeria to find soldiers cooperating in archaeology:
Ils ne la servent dordinaire quen frayant la route aux archologues. Je
noublie pas cependant que certains de nos officiers du corps doccupation ont pris got cette tche; en maints endroits, sur lemplacement
danciens postes romains, o ils se trouvaient camps, ils ont explor le
sol et dblay des monuments.[192]
This also happened in 1883 when officers of the 93e were camped on a necropolis at Bja:
En effet, les officiers de ce bataillon, commencrent par sonder le terrain
qui se trouvait proximit du bureau des renseignements, et, aprs une
demi-journe de travail, le capitaine Desblancs retirait dune chambre
spulcrale, une amphore...Plus tard, M. le lieutenant de Lespin, la
suite des fouilles quil avait faites, dcouvrait divers objets.[193]

Roman Monuments and French Defences
The French invaders were astonished by what they saw in Algeria,34 especially
by the robust monuments of the Romans. They were quick to gather infor32
33
34
Azan 1936, 470: letter to his brother, 20 December 1844.

Petricioli 1990; Altekamp 2000.
Dondin-Payre 2003, 147: Before the conquest aucune historiographie consquente ou
cohrente ne stant constitue, on ignore ce quon va trouver, et on stonne de ce quon
observe.
the french conquest
39
mation on the ground, recognising that such over-engineered and surviving

marvels could offer protection. The first investigation was sponsored by no less
than the Minister of War, the Duc de Dalmatie, writing to the Acadmie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as early as 1833. The French Army qui a rendu
la scurit au commerce de la Mditerrane et ouvert des voies nouvelles la
civilisation europenne, ne doit pas rester sans rsultat pour la science and
he offered a competition for scholars, reminding them also of the work that
troops had already completed: Le gouvernement a fait explorer une partie
des ctes occupes par nos troupes, et les travaux des officiers dtat-major et
des ingnieurs gographes de larme de terre et de la marine ont dj jet
quelques lumires sur des points obscurs de la gographie moderne.[194]
If most Arabs simply ignored the ancient monuments, the French could
not do likewise, because they needed to make use of them. The continuing
state of war affected the Roman monuments through the changing strategies of the different French commands. Marshal Sylvain-Charles Vale
(17731846) was an assiduous student of the Roman occupation of North
Africa;[195] he had constructed heavily fortified defences, often on Roman citadels (for example Cherchel, Mda, Miliana), and waited for the enemy. But
when Bugeaud replaced him in 1840, he opted for attack, with lightly-armed
mobile troops: this highlighted the importance of those Roman forts in the
province of Oran (Abd-el-Kaders stronghold) which could be used against a
guerilla campaign.35 1847 marks the end of this strategy, and also the recall of
Bugeaud, whose enthusiastic plans for the foundation of military colonies on
the Roman model had fallen on deaf ears in Paris, and failed on the ground in
Algeria,36 in spite of the great increase in troop numbers required. One opinion was that such military colonies might have worked when Bugeaud took
charge, since disorganised civilians would certainly have been unable to cope
with the onslaught of Abd-el-Kader.[196] But the concept was also understood
by some to situate such colonies as a strong military obstacle une ligne
infranchissable au moyen de camps permanents, qui se transformeraient en
Colonies militaires.[197]
It was frequently remarked that the founding of French settlements on top
of Roman ones was far from a coincidence; indeed, just a little excavation could
reveal, as at Orlansville in 1844, the walls of the Roman settlement standing
up to six metres high, some of them completely buried, with only a few large
35
36
Julien 1986, 164210 Bugeaud against Abd-el-Kader; ibid., 210269 Le gouvernement et la

colonisation au temps de Bugeaud et du duc dAumale (18401848).
Julien 1986, 210242 Bugeauds colonial policy.
40
chapter 1
blocks breaking the surface elsewhere.[198] Were these to be studied through

curiosity, or perhaps becaue the French believed they were the successors to
the Romans?37 After all, the Romans had also been opposed by the natives.
Given the date, it is reasonable to assume that this particular excavation was
organised in order to find building materials for the French fortifications or
housing. One reason for acting in such a cavalier fashion with the antiquities is that certain aesthetes disapproved of those dating from the decline of
Late Antiquity. Thus at Oran, the more sensitive souls certainly deplored the
fate of the amphitheatre, part-occupied by French troops for barracks, partstripped of marble by modern vandals; but they were equally pained by the
Chteau Neuf, built sometime during or after Late Antiquity, faites de pices
et de morceaux, sans art, sans got, et sans rgularit.[199] Such disapproval no
doubt made it easier to dismantle these structures for reuse, retaining perhaps
only a few of the incorporated inscriptions.
Everywhere they went, the French kept their eyes open for useful materials
and forts. At the oasis of El-Kantara (the bridge), there was a Roman bridge
in a good state of preservation in the 1850s.[200] No enceinte remained, but
a new one could be constructed from the debris, for the vicinity was full of
ruins: On rencontre ple-mle, dans les btisses en pis de loasis et dans la
mosque, des fragments de fts, de chapiteaux, de colonnes, des ornements
darchitecture.[201] Indeed, the locals huts were scattered around the ruins,
and des colonnes romaines tayent et consolident ces habitations misrables
qui scroulent sous les torrents de pluie.[202] In 1865 there were so many
antiquities protruding amongst the four villages which made up the site, that
Zaccone wished he had a waggon to cart the excellent sculptures away.[203] At
Tiaret, Cest en 1843 que le gnral Lamoricire, relevant les ruines romaines
Tiaret, commena le rtablissement dune ligne de postes;[204] for On a conserv dans lenceinte provisoire qui suivit le trace de la muraille de lancien
poste Romain, and simply rebuilt what had fallen down.
At Miliana and at Djidjelli, similar making-good took place.[205] At Djidjelli,
in spite of the poor state of the Roman walls, work was set in hand to repair
them, including digging down to the foundation; these were found to be in
good condition, and so the walls were rebuilt on top of them. These were
37
Dondin-Payre 1999, 186: Lintrt pour les antiquits romains ne nat pas dune curiosit
(on ne privilge pas du tout linsolite ou plutt le diffrent), mais bien au contraire dun
sentiment dappartenance un pass commun qui, au-del de la main mise politique, va
jusqu lappropriation par la France de ce pass.
the french conquest
41
fortement endommags et prsentaient dnormes brches. Sur le reste

du pourtour de la ville lancienne enceinte Romaine que lon reconnoit
assez bien cependant ne prsentait plus debout que quelques pans de
mur. Immdiatement on a entrepris la reconstruction de cette partie
denceinte depuis le premier flanc jusqu la roche de la partie ouest sur
une longeur de 140 mtres. Les fondations Romaines ont t retrouves
vers le niveau de la mer aprs des dblais considrables, elles toient en
assez bon tat pour servir de base de nouveaux murs et dailleurs leur
trace satisfaisoit assez bien aux exigeances de la dfense.[206]
This was a procedure already proposed in 1841.[207] But the town faced an
uncertain future. It was racked by disease, and surrounded by small forts
beyond which were Arab marauders. What is more, it lacked the needed commercial openings:
Ce nest pas certe lorsque tous les ans les colons soient ferrs par
lpidmie...ce nest pas lorsque la ville cerne par une ceinture de
blockhaus quon nose pas dpasser sans peine de vie quil ne servira dentrept des marchandises qui nont aucun dbouch et dont 800 hommes
de garnison et 200 ouvriers ne peuvent consommer la moiti.[208]
The blockhaus (the French use the German term hereafter blockhouse) was
a portable or at least demountable wooden guard-tower for a small number of
troops, and these were usually imported to Algeria from France.[209]
As an example of what soldiers had to suffer, here are some figures for
Sidi-Bel-Abbs, 80km to the south of Oran, and the HQ of the Ier Rgiment
tranger (of the Foreign Legion): 1845: last attack on the town by the OuledBrahim; 1846: 146 legionnaires die of disease; 1857: frozen spring; 1865: floods;
1866: drought, followed by locusts; 18678: snow during a rigorous winter.[210]
As Blanc remarked, La guerre ne connaissait plus de saisons; hiver comme
t, nous tions toujours en campagne.[211] Puckler-Muskau had visited Bougie
in 1839, where an officer showed him just how long-lived (from inscriptions)
some of the Romans had been: Now, epidemic fevers and the insupportable
heat of the summer carry off more men than the balls and yataghans of the
Arabs.[212]

Surviving within Roman Structures

Nos soldats nont pas abord un sommet, une gorge, un col de montagne,
ils nont pas camp sur un point stratgique, quils naient reconnu que les
aigles romaines les y avaient devancs.[213] [1859]
42
chapter 1
Because of the difficulties of supply, in a period when most armies aimed

to live off the land, Roman structures (forts, cisterns, aqueducts, fountains
and roads) were essential for the initial survival and protection of the army.
Any attempt to expand the conquest beyond Algiers and narrow regions of
the coast required the building of the infrastructure a modern army needed.
Shipping building materials from France (except for baulks of wood to build
blockhouses) was impossible, so material had to be found in Algeria. Given the
lack of viable roads for carts (let alone artillery), and hence little easy access to
quarries (this would come later), grateful eyes were turned toward Roman ruins,
which had several attractive characteristics. They were plentiful, and strung
out along skeletal roads (that is, the ancient roads that the French would have
to rebuild). Nobody owned them, so their re-use was easy and inconvenienced
nobody (dismantling Arab houses to get at ancient inscriptions would come
later). Finally earthquakes38 had helpfully brought many structures crashing
down and laid out the blocks like so many dominoes. They thereby assisted the
French, who lacked both heavy lifting equipment and sufficient skilled men to
demolish standing structures composed of enormous blocks.
The 19th century did not have the techniques to be certain which sets of
ruins had been brought down by earthquakes, which were frequent in North
Africa;[214] but they suspected that this was the cause of many such collapses.39
Announa, for example, had fresh-looking rather than decrepit ruins, hence on
croirait la ville renverse depuis peu par un tremblement de terre, plutt que
dtruite par laction du temps.[215] In the 1830s, the layout of some streets was
still discernible,[216] and in 1841 it was still possible to pick up bas-reliefs and
heads from statues on the site.[217] But by the 1880s the blocks were fast disappearing,[218] some into servicing the French village of Renier.[219] Buried under
about 1.20m of soil and sand, Saladin believed the monuments of Sbeitla had
been brought down by earthquakes, and Cest cette cause que jattribue le
dversement en dehors des murs des faces latrales des temples de Sbeitla,
les fissures qui existent du haut en bas dans leurs faades postrieures et la
ruine dune partie de la ville.[220] Sometimes earthquakes were man-made,
since undermining standing walls was the easiest and quickest way of bringing
them down, less dangerous than erecting scaffolding (if they had any), and less
exhausting than chipping away at rock-hard mortar. Near Gigthis was evidence
38
39
Guidoboni 1989. Unfortunately, reports from the Algeria/Tunisia region are scarce: cf.
Guidoboni and Comastri 2005, figs 148153 for maps by century, keyed to reports.
Di Vita 1980 for earthquakes in Tunisia in 306310 and 365. Di Vita 1990 for extended treatment of quakes in Tripolitania, well illustrated, with a detailed examination of evidence
provided by standing, fallen and re-erected monuments, including later repairs.
the french conquest
43
of such undermining,[221] and Carton had to tend workmen injured during

the unexplained fall of masonry.[222] Mac-Carthy thought that the great wallblocks at Bordj-Roumi had been toppled by undermining the lowest courses in
the search for metal.[223]
Because dismantling buildings is both more difficult and more dangerous
than erecting them, this made it relatively easy for the Armys amateur builders
to handle and rebuild existing structures into something defensive and then
barracks, hospitals, and churches. These activities will be examined in detail
in the next chapter, and their effect on the ancient ruins assessed. Roman quarries were also known, such as near Feriana,[224] at the Cap de Garde[225] and,
later, the quarries at Chemtou,[226] but transport was the big problem until well
into the 20th century. Chemtou, some 180km from a useful port, and lying in
the somewhat desolate Medjerda, was never to regain the favour it had seen in
Roman times,[227] in spite of the construction of a dedicated railway line.[228]
In 1902 the quarries were still much in the condition in which they were left
by the Romans.[229]
Fvrier notes that some 19th-century travellers were indeed fixated by forts,
castella and the like. These included Cagnat and Diehl, because they concentrated on strategy, and were misled by it: around Tebessa bien des forts dont
Gurin nous avait parl, taient des fermes dont je ne sais sil faut dire quelles
sont fortifies ou prennent laspect des forts. This might have occurred because
so many scholars were influenced by local archaeological societies with their
high numbers of army officers, so that Lorsque Diehl fit ses premires missions, cest sur linfrastructure militaire quil a d sappuyer, en particulier en
Tunisie, mais aussi dans le Constantinois.40

Agriculture Roman and 19th-century

La vie des soldats romains tait voue tous les genres de grands travaux.
Ceux laide desquels ils se fortifiaient en campagne taient tels, que
leurs camps retranchs ressemblaient des places fortes. Sans parler des
colonies militaires tablies sur les confins du territoire, les lgions dissmines au loin taient souvent obliges de cultiver le sol, pour assurer
leur subsistance.[230] [1847]
An important question for would-be 19th-century colonists was agriculture,

without which colonisation was pointless. Roman soldiers had been agriculturists, as well as builders of roads and forts, as Periers words above show.
40
Fvrier 1986, 8992, 98, 100.
44
chapter 1
For Masqueray (Director of the cole Suprieure des Lettres dAlger from 1880)
writing in 1886 of the Dpartement de Constantine, third-century Algeria must
have looked like contemporary Provence or Normandy, with farms scattered
around, and not fewer than 120,000 colonists.[231] Could the French army or
the colonists imitate them, and secure the country? A gauge of the questions
range was Enfantins 1843 suggestion that as many farmers as soldiers should
have been sent to Algeria from the start, admittedly at great cost, but that had
this been done elle serait compltement nous depuis longtemps.[232] Roman
settlements dotted the landscape, but had anything changed since their times
of prosperity?
Four sometimes interconnected elements came into play here, and will
recur throughout this book. The first was climate: had anything changed in
the landscape to render it less fertile? Not for Pananti in 1818, who averred that
is it not very natural to believe, that the consequent improvement in civilization and attention to agriculture, will render it still more productive?[233]
Nor for Gsell, who pointed to the evidence provided by lakes and Roman
bridges.[234] The second was the vagaries of water supply and forestation.
Gaffarel suggested that the Arabs had much depleted forestry resources.[235]
Several areas were observed as rich in Roman remains, but deforested, such as
in Telarma territory in the province of Constantine.[236] Looking toward the
prospects for successful colonisation, others saw the remains of water systems
in areas such as the Hodna,[237] which demonstrated they had once been fertile, and that the land had been healthy, its inhabitants long-lived.[238] Reading
life-and-death dates off ancient tombstones might well have been popular, and
perhaps helped convince queasy troops that their quarters really were healthy
and that, like their ancient forbears, they also would live to a ripe old age.[239]
Granger pointed out the remains of dams, capture basins, canals and aqueducts, but how by 1901 ce mme sol si riche jadis est souvent incapable de
subvenir aux besoins des misrables familles arabes qui saccrochent dsesprment lui.[240] One hopeful soul reckoned that if the French watered
Algeria properly, then la rpulsion prtendue de la race arabe contre toute
civilisation sdentaire, svanouira comme un mirage que la posie seule
pourra regretter[241] that is, someone who underestimated the Arabs abilities in water delivery. Few stopped to ponder how Arabs could possibly have
survived if they were not adept at dealing with water supply.
The third element was human intervention or other disasters which changed
the agricultural profile. Ibn Khaldun explained how not only Arab tribes (by
which he meant nomads), but also disease, depopulated the land, et tout le
pays cultiv changea daspect.[242] He notes the devastating effects of the 11th
century Beni-Hilal invasion and believes that because of them and their ilk
the french conquest
45
all that remained on the land were les traces dune ancienne civilisation, les
dbris de monuments et ddifices, les ruines de villes et de villages.[243] As
Baudicour pointed out, the land had been prosperous enough in earlier centuries for Europeans, who alimentaient leurs manufactures par les produits africains.[244] For Pellissier, the French had themselves contributed to a measure of
depopulation.[245] The fourth element was the nature and impact of Turkish
administration. Temple, writing of Tunisia in 1835, estimated an ancient population of 12 million, attributed the current lethargy to the Turkish yoke, and
suggested the country under a good government, assisted by laborious, active,
and enterprising subjects, might in a few short years be re-established, and
maintained in prosperity and affluence.[246]
Voices of reason tended to go to Roman example for their rationale, and
even for how to proceed with colonisation.[247] Thus Chef de Gnie Devay,
writing on 11 April 1844, from Mascara, which had been occupied on 30 May
1841, put the French efforts into their broader perspective. The French must
attach themselves to the soil of Algeria by establishing a prosperity based on
agriculture. Just where to do this in the valley of the Oued-el-Hammam was
indicated by the traces left by Roman domination: toute une ville est l pour
ainsi dire encore debout pour attester lantique prosprit du pays. He went
on to discuss the cost of erecting a dam to re-fructify the country around. He
had found remains of canals and dikes, which ne me laissent aucun doute sur
lexcution ancienne de cette disposition et sur la possibilit de son rtablissement avec le moins de frais possible puisque les massifs de cule et mme leurs
parements extrieurs existent encore. And he concluded by noting that such
work would help colonisation here, because nous nous mettrons enfin sur la
voie pratique rationelle et mthodique qui et assur aux Romains la possession indfinie de cette terre dAfrique et la Barbarie.[248]
However, Algeria in 1830 was far from being an uninhabited desert, at least
until French administration turned parts of the country into one.41 If they were
sitting on land the French required for colonising agriculture, what was to happen to the natives? The choices were assimilation, refoulement, or complete
destruction.[249] What about the Arab farmers? Fortin dIvry, in 1845, thought
the Arabs were able to beat European production on price,[250] while Bequet
thought them too primitive in their techniques, and the colonist farmers too
precarious to decide the matter.[251] Lack of progress by European colonistfarmers was underlined by Feuillide in 1856, who pointed out that Algeria,
supposedly the grain-mart for Europe, could not in fact feed herself.[252]
41
Cf. the famous speech Tacitus (Agricola) puts in the mouth of Calgacus: Auferre trucidare
rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
46
chapter 1
Even in 1865, a census of farm implements and machinery certainly showed

colonist mechanisation but the Arabs still had many more ploughs, wells and
mills,[253] and European colonists often sold out to them and went home.[254]
With modernisation, in other words, came mechanisation[255] and, with such
machines the need to clear fields of obstacles that hand-ploughing had been
able to avoid. This surely included clearing antiquities, if only into hedges. Yet
still in 1873 one author could maintain that Leurs terres sont aussi mal cultives, leurs troupeaux aussi mal soigns, aussi mal nourris quau premier jour
de notre conqute.[256] In 1883 it was reckoned that Arab land gave a third
less crop than that tended by Europeans and vignerons were now flocking in
from the Midi to escape phylloxera,[257] and developing vineyards which covered 150,000ha by 1914, yet another insult to the local Muslims. These are partexcuses, but perhaps also some recognition that colonisation itself had much
weakened the agriculture of the locals.
And to bring modernisation in the European manner, expropriation: the
policy of army-controlled reservations called refoulement, or cantonnement,
translated by one commentator as near-extermination,[258] and by another
as spoliation germinating the seeds of catastrophe[259] also weakened the
structure of the tribes, and often cheated them of their very survival.[260] For
this mise mort de lagriculture algrienne42 moved them off their ancestral
lands and forced them onto the lands of other natives. So, predictably, Il est
plus que certain, que pour chapper cette ruine les arabes auront recours
leur mthode ordinaire, la guerre.[261]
The natural reaction to disposession and pauperisation43 was for the natives
to fight back. As a result,
42
43
Henni 1982, 8: jusquen 18701880, lagriculture coloniale se constitue, par la violence guerrire et politique, une base foncre importante. Du point de vue conomique, son action
porte avant tout sur la paysannerie algrienne quelle affaiblit considrablement. 2530 for
cantonnement: 1848 Revolution and 1851 coup dtat trigger un mouvement dmigration
force des indsirables; with the consequence that cantonnement, 26: dtruit compltement lquilibre agro-pastorale. Les levans sdentaires deviennent nomades. La rduction des terres disponibles entrane lmiettement de la proprit, la vente plus riche
que soit ou non colon. Cest une rvolution rgressive et une mise mort de lagriculture
algrienne. Julien 1986, 404409 cantonnement as a way of getting good land cheaply,
including the great scandal of the concessions handed to e.g. Socit Genevoise.
Bouchne 2012, Nouschi, Andr, 189194: La dpossession foncire et la pauprisation
de la paysannerie algrienne. 192: Between 1878 and 1898, the natives lost 432,000ha, as
European villages were established.
the french conquest
47
Ce nest pas l, comme en Europe, entre deux armes que sagite la querelle; on a contre soi tout un peuple. Ce peuple, encore dans la barbarie,
ne connat pas, ne pratique pas les adoucissements apports chez les
nations europennes aux rigueurs de la guerre; il encourt ainsi de terribles reprsailles, et celles-ci frappent parfois des populations entires,
sans distinction dge ni de sexe.[262]
Hence Bugeauds 1847 affirmation that the colonists must live amongst the
locals, for Vous ne pouvez refouler les Arabes progressivement sans vous
vouer une longue guerre dextermination, qui peut dans certaines circonstances tourner contre vous.[263] Should we do as the Russians were doing,
wrote Lasnavres in 1865, qui, de nos jours, chassrent une population
denviron un demi-million dmes des montagnes du Caucase?[264] For Alexis
de Tocqueville, the flame of American democracy of which he wrote so eloquently did not apply to Algeria: il faudrait, pour se maintenir dans un pareil
pays, que nos troupes y restassent presque aussi nombreuses en temps de paix
quen temps de guerre, car il sagissait moins de vaincre un gouvernement que
de comprimer un peuple.[265] The conquest, in other words, should be total,
although he deplored some of the necessary methods used, predicting a
bloodbath if these did not change a clutch of contradictory wishes.44
Attempts were made at a variety of solutions, as we shall see. None of them
was wholly successful. But accepting the locals, as Ismal Urbain recommended
in 1862 En nous appropriant la terre, nous avons accept les habitants; nous
les avons admis dans notre grande unit politique[266] continued to meet
with various kinds of resistance. No wonder, given the frequently enunciated
opinion that the Arab must be kept inferior jusquau jour o, par des sentiments meilleurs, par des progrs rels dans ses travaux agricoles ou industriels,
il se serait rendu digne dtre trait lgal du peuple conqurant et civilisateur
qui a lev si haut la gloire et la richesse de la France.[267] Urbain was a military interpreter in Algeria who had learned Arabic in Egypt; he was political
adviser to the Duc dAumale 18431845, and was one of the few who not only
had sympathy with the Arabs, but knew and appreciated their culture and way
of life. Even as late as 1846, Arabic was not taught as a matter of course either
in military schools or the regiments.[268]
44
Letterio_2011_8893: Conquista e colonizzazione; 161214 Il secondo viaggio in Algera e i

due rapporti del 1847.
48
chapter 1

Health and Welfare
Crucial for the success of any colonisation plans was the physical survival of
soldiers and colonists. Out on campaign, because of the lack of roads the sick
and wounded had often to be carried on muleback,[269] for they could not be
left behind to the ministrations of the Arabs. Without the sterling work of the
medical services who, when on convoy, had to stay with the vulnerable baggage-train, yet more soldiers would have died.[270] The first health problem was
acclimatisation: thus when a regiment of 1,600 men arrived at Bne in 1836,
600 fell ill immediately and 200 had to remain at Guelma;[271] Campbell writes
that the 4,000-strong garrison there in 1833 had half of their number in hospital.[272] This was perhaps in part because the aqueducts had been destroyed as
the French assaulted the town, and they did not repair them, which rendered
the site very unhealthy.[273] We shall see that building hospitals was to be a priority for the army, but these were sometimes poor and badly equipped buildings which cannot have helped recovery.[274] The only meagre consolation for a
few of the dead was that they had their names inscribed on Roman stones.[275]
Death-rates could be startling. In 1843 the Army lost 94 men in battle, but over
4,600 from illness. At Boufarik in 1844 the death rate for that one year was over
7%.[276] This was not at all unusual, mortality throughout Algeria in 185051
being twice that in metropolitan France during the cholera epidemic of 1849
startling when Algeria had a younger age profile than the hexagon.[277] The
Army was even accused of shipping ill soldiers back to France to lighten the
mortality figures for North Africa.[278]
Colonists were even less well provided for, although they could share the
same dangers and climate as the troops, who were sometimes engaged to protect their villages. At Fondouk in June 1846, the new colony looked good, but
les sauterelles, le vent du dsert et les miasmes des marais se sont rus sur lui,
et trois mois aprs, le Fondouk ntait plus quun vaste cimetire avec quelques
malades ou mourants ayant peine la force de gmir sur les morts.[279]

Civilising the Natives?

La conqute a eu presque toujours pour but et pour rsultat effectif, dans
le pass, la destruction, la spoliation, lexploitation du vaincu...elle
doit avoir pour but une association avec le vaincu, qui lui soit, en dfinitive, aussi avantageuse quau vainqueur...la lgitimit de notre conqute ou du moins de notre occupation dAlgrie, ne peut tre soutenue
que si nous sommes les agents puissants de la civilisation africaine.[280]
[1843]
the french conquest
49
Bringing the natives into the French fold would obviously be less costly than
fighting them, but commentators were divided about whether this was even
possible, given continuing bloodbaths. Enfantin, author of the above quote,
wrote that bringers of civilisation should associate with the vanquished, not
kill them. Instead of the current rage de lextermination, the French should
take a leaf from the Roman book, and fructify the countryside: nous resserrons
un un les divers noeuds de ce rseau colonisateur dont la science politique
de Rome avait cru devoir enlacer sa conqute et fortifier sa domination.[281]
This was a much gentler approach than that suggested by Colonel Cavaignac
in 1839, Il faut donc, par une guerre immdiate plus prompte que meurtrire, soumettre les Arabes, et non les exterminer; car ils ne rsistent pas au
progrs.[282] For all its small scale however (for there were few grand battles),
French actions in Algeria set many of the natives against them from the start,
as Leblanc de Prbois chronicles in 1844:
Du moment quon sest aperu que cet ennemi tait le peuple arabe tout
entier, depuis le vieillard jusqu lenfant, cest loeuvre de la destruction
quon impose larme, la destruction dans tout ce quelle a de plus affligeant, de plus hideux. / Par le feu on dtruit les retraites, les ustensiles
de ces malheureux, par le fer on coupe les arbres, on gorge les bestiaux
et quelquefois des femmes. Le soldat, aigri par les souffrances quon lui
impose, devient cruel.[283]
In any case, for Urbain in 1862, Enfantins kind of hasty civilising of the natives
was but an excuse, and he reported that it was immediately recognised by
them as such, being nothing less than an attempt to dispossess them of land,
law and religion:
Ce quils constatent immdiatement, cest quon leur enlve une partie de
leurs moyens dexistence; quon les resserre sur le sol; quon les gne dans
leurs habitudes de culture pastorale; quon les dclare barbares, ignorants, perdus de vices, et que, sous prtexte de civilisation, on voudrait
les chasser hors de leurs coutumes, de leurs lois, de leurs croyances.
The answer is one which could not commend itself to entrenched French
administrators. For he suggests that as little as possible be changed: Il vaut
toujours mieux, dit un conomiste, quand on veut atteindre srement un tat
de choses nouveau, scarter le moins possible de ce qui existe, et chercher
dans la situation tout ce quelle peut offrir de moins dfavorable.[284] In the
50
chapter 1
same year, Prbois writes along similar lines, noting how the Arabs are essential to provide wheat and meat, but pressing the need for more colonisation to
outbalance them a demographic argument which will never work, given the
improving standards of health and medical care:
Dun autre ct il y a ncessit, pour assurer dfinitivement la France la
possession de lAlgrie, dy appeler une population franaise et non trangre, capable, par son nombre, de rsister toute agression de la part des
arabes et qui permette, sans que la colonisation puisse tre anantie, de
faire voluer larme.[285]
Unfortunately, the French Army did not distinguish itself by humane combat,
in part at least because there was no consistent policy on how the Arabs should
be treated either by the Army, or vis--vis the colonists. Certainly, disposessing them of their land for colonial agriculture was not the way to pacify anybody.45 And frequently the natives did not receive protection, for there were
inequalities in taxation, pay, access to officials, and freedom to congregate and
to travel.46 Adequate protection for colonists against the natives was difficult
to provide: in such a large land the Army could not be everywhere at once,
and what pleasure or profit was there in living in fortified villages? Or, for the
Army, behind fortified walls, when the surrounding countryside was unsafe?
No wonder many in Paris were confident that Europeans could never successfully colonise North Africa.
Sympathisers such as Urbain did not get very far. It was he who inspired
Napolon III to his Royaume Arabe idea, but his proposals ran into the sands
of Paris47 and his various suggestions (many in favour of a better treatment
of the natives) provoked outrage.48 Napolons Royaume Arabe might have
mitigated problems, but the notion had no chance of acceptance because, like
Urbain, he wished to gain the sympathy of the Arabs[286] hence the immediate antipathy of the colonists. Napolon wrote in a letter of 1863: LAlgrie nest
pas une colonie proprement dite, mais un royaume arabe. Les indignes ont
45
46
47
48
Frmaux 2002, 269294: Limpossible Algrie, wherein the author considers extermination, separation, assimilation and integration. Le Cour Grandmaison 2005, 137199: De la
guerre coloniale i.e. massacrer, ruiner terroriser.
Collot 1987, 267328: La rgime des liberts publiques.
Levallois 2001, 439480, LAlgrie et les arabophiles; 481525 for La bataille parisienne
pour un bon gouvernement indigne; 549583, Avec Tocqueville contre Bugeaud
(12 juillet 18469 septembre 1847).
Urbain 2002, 2229.
the french conquest
51
comme les colons un droit ma protection.49 He gave the numbers, and saw
a country made up of natives, Europeans and a vast army camp.[287] And when
he opined that Il faut cantonner les Europens et non les indignes, at least
it was a private remark.[288] The proposals of Duvernois, imprisoned on several
occasions for his sharp opinions on the deficiencies of French administration,
met the same fate.[289]
By the turn of the century, some commentators (without any noticeable
axes to grind) were still puzzled by the Arabs, who were incapable, it seemed,
of embracing French civilisation or of recreating the glory-days of Islam: tous
les Arabes de la classe leve sollicitent, tous ceux de la classe moyenne qumandent, tous ceux de la classe infrieure mendient.[290] For many, then,
fighting was the only possibility.

Fighting the Natives

La population y est tellement rduite que lapprciation la moins
inexacte de son chiffre soulve lincrdulit quand on lit des bulletins qui
reprsentent notre arme comme aux prises avec des ennemis srieux et
redoutables.[291] [1844]
Leblanc de Prbois, author of these words, was a captain on the General Staff
in Algeria. Fighting in Algeria 18301843, he was sent home for demanding the
establishment of a civil administration, and the incorporation of Algeria as
part of France, not as a colony. These were claims he continued to advocate
as a politician. Such over-stated (and inaccurate) confidence in French arms
suggested that fighting the natives would no longer be a problem. This was
partly (if temporarily) justified by the capture of Abd-el-Kaders smalla in 1843,
and by Bugeauds success at Isly in 1844. Yet Abd-el-Kader was not to surrender until the end of 1847, perhaps persuaded by Bugeauds get-tough approach.
Leblancs suggestion of such a small number of natives being easy to deal
with he then modifies. He writes of the Kabyles war as borne des attaques
impuissantes contre Bougie, Philippeville, Cherchel, Gigelli, Blida et Miliana,
thereby confirming that the French tactic hereabouts was to sit in fortresses.
Abd-el-Kader himself, just like the French, also saw the value of ruins for fortified settlements.[292] Kabylia was indeed near-impossible to dominate, and
49
Spillmann 1975, 110: Aprs llimination, en 1870, de lhomme de bonne volont que fut
Napolon III, la prpondrance franaise simposa pas trop en Algrie, ce qui nous valut,
quarte-vingt-douze ans plus tard, de perdre ce pays. Urbain had read the Emperors 1861
letter to Pellissier advocating the Arabs retain land not what was happening, of course.
52
chapter 1
the French tended simply to erect posts on the outskirts, as the Romans had
done.[293] By 1847, road-work planning was considered by some to be sufficient
to ensure la domination complte du pays[294] but it could not cope with
the fastnesses of Kabylia, in spite of its supposed 5,350km extent,[295] because
the calculation (was it deliberately misleading?) included all types of roads,
not just all-weather ones.
Again, the Arabs could not be fought by sitting in fortresses, let alone by
pitched battle, which they refused, leading the French into fastnesses and
traps where they could be slaughtered. If supplying such a large army could
scarcely be done consistently from France (to the country which had been the
granary of Rome),[296] no more could they easily live off the land. The natives,
using whatever retribution weapons came to hand, employed a scorched earth
policy (to match that of the French),50 and were often regarded with unease
and suspicion by travellers.51 Partly to compensate for incompatible fighting
methods, and partly to ease the burden on the French army, units of zouaves
and chasseurs dAfrique were raised soon after the conquest, and also auxiliaries, the tirailleurs algriens, called the turcos.52
Fighting the natives was therefore difficult. The French had of course
learned much about guerilla warfare in Spain; but that was almost a generation
previously, and Arab infantry and cavalry (the numbers of which the French
exaggerated, perhaps deliberately)[297] were a different proposition altogether.
Hence the French recruits were unprepared for confrontation not only with
the Algerian infrastructure (more difficult even than that they faced in Spain),
but also with the Arab methods which made use of it, which were just as difficult to deal with their lightness, knowledge of the country, and above all,
the sympathy of the seemingly tranquillised tribes.[298]
The French had neither regiments nor weaponry that could at first match
Arab assaults, for the Arabs would use tracks, and not accept combat if they
thought themselves likely to lose, instead melting into the landscape where
they could make use of their long and amazingly accurate muskets. Girot
reckoned the French wasted ammunition, and could not shoot straight; he
recommended a small number of trained carabiniers.[299] Artillery was little
use against such tactics, even if there had been roads along which it could be
dragged. Fighting and its dangers also meant that even by 1840 there were still
insufficient roads so manipulating artillery over mere tracks had to continue.
Bugeaud set his soldiers on constructing a few roads in 1842 although his
50
51
52
Bennoune 1988, 4041 for French policies, destructiveness and war crimes.
Salinas 1989, 207273: les indignes.
Clayton 1988 610, 199243, 244306 for regimental terminology.
the french conquest
53
preference (we might call him a landscape realist) was usually to travel light,
without carts, and to use pack-animals on tracks.[300]
Bugeauds own no-nonsense policies did not help the situation: la bonne
guerre fait tout marcher sa suite as he wrote to Guizot 27 October 1843, and
he was very wary about training up the natives in the arts of war,53 although
this was what the Romans had done, and it was acknowledged that they made
good soldiers.[301] The suggestion was in part another cost-cutting measure, to
free up French troops for mainland duty.[302] Canrobert believed that Bugeaud
should have given more time to work out his military colonies plan, but that
he faced fierce opposition back in Paris.[303] Another assessment was that he
was one of the most dangerous men ever to have set foot in Algeria54 but
also influential.55 What is certain is that his policies, and arrogant disregard
for instructions, did much to make Algeria a military enclave that was to be
forever beyond the full control of the government in Paris.56 What else might
France have been doing with her workers and her soldiers? Had the railwaybuilding effort been confined to France, would the Franco-Prussian War have
turned out differently or did the French in any case not take logistics seriously enough to defeat the Prussians?
Under Bugeaud as commander-in-chief from 1840, the occupying army was
now some 108,000 strong. Their duties were to secure conquered land, to push
south (fighting where necessary) to conquer yet more, and to protect colonists.
Bugeauds planning caused Alexis de Tocqueville to praise the wars execution as no less than a science. However, it was a bloodthirsty one, and many
commentators back home (plus some in the army, anonymously at first) commented that more blood was shed by attacks on civilians than by soldiers fighting Arabs.
Posterity would view French cruelty as equivalent to that of Cortez and
Pizarro: Depuis onze ans on a renvers les constructions, incendi les rcoltes,
dtruit les arbres, massacr les hommes, les femmes, les enfants, avec une furie
53
54
55
56
Germain 1955, 3146 Les moyens prconiss par B. pour soumettre les indignes; 275
284 Lorganisation militaire des indignes sous B. Je ne crois pas quil soit politique
dentretenir, chez le peuple dont nous avons fait la conqute, lesprit si minement guerrier qui le distingue...Je pense au contraire que...nous devons tendre affaiblir...cet
instinct quil pourrait diriger de nouveau contre nous (B to the Minister 30 July 1843).
Chickens eventually coming home to roost?
Brower 2009, 25: he did as much as any individual to intensify the scope and range of the
armys violence but also admitted the impossibility of exterminating them, and therefore of the need to live with them, and use their labour.
Guiral 1992, 143197 Bugeaud and those in his wake; 239249: Le dernier grand chef: le
marchal Randon et le passage au pouvoir civil i.e. from 1857.
Griffith 1989, 43; 116118 for military training under Bugeaud and his followers.
54
chapter 1
toujours croissante,[304] and modern scholars have not shrunk from detailing
its ferocity.57 In 1834 in the Chamber, M. de la Pisonnire charted French barbarism, broken promises, and mood swings from repression to emollience, so
that force de condescendance, des gens qui nont alors cess de nous craindre que pour nous mpriser.[305] Two years later, another speaker confirmed
this verdict: nos soldats, au lieu daller lcole de la bravoure et de lhonneur,
vont lcole de lincendie et du meurtre,[306] and even beheaded their
enemies during insurrections.[307] Similar devastation was still happening
in 1905, and the name of Attila invoked.[308]
The razzia, or destructive raid, the main occupation of French soldiers since
the conquest, was known in detail abroad, and thoroughly condemned.[309]
Its use drew the following conclusion from soldiers who had not lost their
humanity: beaucoup dofficiers et de soldats disent-ils tout haut que ce nest
pas une guerre quon fait en Afrique, mais des assassinats perptuels, un vritable brigandage,[310] and British opinion was that razzias cannot be defended
upon any ground of policy, civil or military.[311] Thus Saint-Arnaud wrote to his
wife in 1851, that On a jet les Kabyles dans les ravins et on leur a tu plus de
deux cents hommes, brl de superbes villages, et maintenant on coupe leurs
oliviers.[312] He admired the beautiful villages, but had no compunction about
burning them, writing to his wife in 1850: Je leur ai donn jusqu ce soir pour
payer les impts et les amendes que je leur inflige. Sils ne sexcutent pas, je
ferai comme Oueldja, jenverrai trois colonnes brler tout. Ce sera dommage,
car cest un beau pays.[313] And even when treaties were made, the French
broke them, so that some officers avoided contact with native chiefs because
they could not look them in the eye without blushing.[314] For others, however,
it was the natives who massacred, and who had to be stopped if the colony
were to be saved.[315]
Some of the French reprisals demonstrated their lack of knowledge of
the country, and of how the Arabs and Kabyles lived. For example, the French
tactic of burning crops was silly, and certainly not a way to make the natives
submit to French rule,[316] for extensive supplies were stored where the French
usually could not find them.[317] If the French destroyed everything, what
would they use to feed their own men and horses?[318] And if it took four years
to develop new crops, how were the natives, vagabondised through the razzias,
to eat in the meantime?[319] Dynamite could of course help the French to discover cunningly hidden silos of grain, but antiquities sometimes suffered in
the process.[320]
57
Frmeaux 2009, 453481 Lincroyable frocit de la conqute.
the french conquest
55
The aim of the conquest, even for sympathisers, was to transformer peu
peu le caractre des indignes, les amener sans violence sortir de leur apathie systmatique, et entrer enfin dans le grand mouvement civilisateur.[321]
However, apathetic was a frequent epithet for the natives.[322] Buret in 1842
was convinced that La France a donc pour mission de prsider la formation
dune nouvelle nation civilise, chrtienne but that this could be accomplished only by the twin and complementary weapons of war and colonisation.[323] As De Tocqueville pointed out in 1865, the Moslems did have pious
foundations and schools, and the French had systematically tried to destroy
them, while misappropriating their funds, so that nous avons rendu la socit
musulmane beaucoup plus misrable, plus dsordonne, plus ignorante et
plus barbare quelle ntait avant de nous connatre.[324] Where, then, was the
civilisation? Destroyed by the Arabs, was the usual response. For they loved
fighting, and could not be reconciled either to Christianity or to civilisation:
N, lev, organis pour dtruire, il parfait et entretient loeuvre de destruction laquelle il semble tre fatalement attach. Qua-t-il fait du sol
Algrien du nord de lAfrique, qui, avant sa fatale conqute, tait le pays
le plus civilis et le plus fertile du monde? Un dsert.[325]
France, wrote an officer in 1871, a protg les indignes contre les novateurs
outrance qui voulaient et veulent encore aujourdhui imposer le Code
Napolon au bout des baonnettes.[326] But this is essentially what happened,
over several decades. They made a Desert, but could never truthfully call it
Peace.

Dealing with Colons and Speculators
If the military was in Algeria to protect the colonists (why else should they stay,
except for reasons of national prestige?), there was rarely any question of the
military supplying colonists with the necessities of life. Except for the occasional publicised push to seduce new volunteers, and some extremely expensive aid schemes, colonists were expected to fend for themselves. Some early
colonists soon gave up because they could not feed or adequately house themselves; disease and sometimes locusts were rife, many colonists were incompetent, and Arab attacks were frequent. For the period 18661868, locusts, famine
and cholera stalked the land.58 But the country eventually got healthier, and
58
Darmon 2009, 228251: La catastrophie dmographique. Sari 1982: problems aggravated

by the 186465 insurrection, and the economics of mismanagement; 223234: result is
demographic downturn and the atrophy of town-living.
56
chapter 1
the numbers of natives greatly increased.59 What did not change was the support needed for the continuing Army occupation, whether the state was called
civilian or not. Ideville had written of the Army in 1842 that Elle seule a conquis le sol, elle seule le fcondera par la culture et pourra, par de grands travaux
publics, le prparer recevoir une nombreuse population civile; and he reiterated these sentiments forty years later for the country was still not at peace.[327]
Indeed, what the hopeful Lainn wrote in 1847 was never to come true:
Si, comme on la dit souvent, larme dAfrique cote cher, cest l une de
ces dpenses fcondes qui portent avec elles leur ddommagement. Par
sa prsence, par la protection, quelle tend partout, larme hte le dveloppement de la colonisation; celle-ci, de son ct, augmente le revenu
annuel de la colonie; ce revenu, insignifiant dans lorigine, mais chaque
jour plus important, arrivera solder la dpense, donnera mme plus
tard un excdant.[328]
However, given the disaffection of the natives, and the predominant French
attitudes to them, would any colonisation work? Because of administrative
chaos or conspiracy, Algeria was a paradise for speculators, which destructive army operations could only help.60 Algeria was in no sense a land without
people for a people without land; for in spite of many disparaging comments
by the French to the contrary,61 the land was already occupied by une population dense et laborieuse. The colony needed to attract other Europeans
who would work harder than the French imports, many of the latter often
being acknowledged to be badly motivated, lacking in the necessary skills, and
of low quality.62 For those sympathising with the natives, all colonists were
speculators or agitators.[329] These supicions were largely correct, and many
natives were bilked of their land and their livelihoods, further stoking opposition to the French, and a continuing state of war or at least skirmishes. There
was, according to Pierre Nora, no prospect of Algerian-French assimilation, for
the settlers attitude was take the land, take the people, take history well
59
60
61
62
Lardillier 1992, 93: 1.5m natives in 1831, 2.3m in 1856, 3.7m in 1896 and 8.5m in 1954, when
there were 1.1m Europeans.
Darmon 2009, 101120 Saccade, spculation, esclavagisme.
Le Cour Grandmaison 2005, 2994: laziness, piratry, sexual perversions, hygiene and
bestialisation.
Bouchne 2012, Sessions, Jennifer, 6470: Les colons avant la IIIe Rpublique: peupler et
mettre en valeur lAlgrie.
the french conquest
57
illustrated by the actions of Gnral Monck dUzer, at Bne, who developed

land speculation into a fine art.63
For their part, the colonists petitioned the Governor General as early
as 1840 invoking the incompatibility of native and European ways of life,
which ten years of benefits of all kinds had been unable to alter; they therefore begged that natives be kept out of the Mitidja Valley, except for day
labourers.64 Colonist distrust of some natives (often a true Arabophobia),65
and vice versa, is reflected in the types of commune set up by the French as
settlements.[330] Either the natives would indeed be assimilated, and lose
their culture, since France was stronger and civilised; or they would chase the
French out of Algeria.[331] To state in 1859 that there would be no refoulement,
replaced by assimilation and education, was make-believe.[332] A turning-point
which secured continuing colonisation was the creation of the Algerian lobby
by 1870, qui va tenir le haut du pav pendant trois quarts de sicle.66
Equally, the promises to the colonists did not match the reality, wrote
Eugne Lunel in 1869:
Il nest pas jusque dans leurs esprances de libert daction que les colons
naient t dus, car dans cette terre conquise o tout est encore chimre
la seule chose qui ne leur a pas t promise, mais quon leur a prodigue,
cest la prsence constante dun ennemi qui veille autour de la maison ou
du champ, cest la discipline militaire personnifie dans un capitaine de
larme remplissant dans le village les fonctions de maire et de magistrat
et qui les colons ont rendre compte de leurs actes.[333]
He summed up the general situation as follows:
Nous sommes obligs de reconnatre quaprs trente-huit annes doccupation, de sacrifices de toutes natures: 1. Nous sommes aussi trangers
la population arabe que lors de notre dbarquement; 2. Que si le chiffre
de la population et le commerce des trois principales villes du littoral ont
augment, il sont diminu partout ailleurs: 3. Que lAlgrie, au lieu dtre
une source de richesses, est une cause de dpenses; 4. Que lamlioration
63
64
65
66
Prochaska 1990, 6, 65.

Ruedy 1967, 103.
Julien 1986, 342345 Colons and Arabophobia.
Darmon 2009, 121, with the overarching problem of disease, this chapter 121140 entitled
Le Grand Mouroir; 252265 for the Lobby.
58
chapter 1
nest que partielle, et que lappauvrissement est gnral; 5. Que le mcontentement et le dcouragement rgnent partout en Algrie.[334]

Colonisation or Abandonment?67
Les Romains savaient vaincre, conqurir et coloniser; bien certainement
nous savons vaincre, et nous sommes les matres de garder nos conqutes;
mais savons-nous coloniser? (1834)[335]
In spite of ominous dithering,68 Paris soon developed a taste for making

Algeria into a colony which, it was believed, would offer several benefits. Both
the army and the Lgion trangre could conveniently rid the hexagon of
trouble-makers;69 and Algeria would indeed become in part a dumping ground
for ridding France of the poor, various undesirables, and orphaned and foundling children.[336] Political subversives (a crop which grew strong, active and
vociferous throughout the century) were also sent to Algeria. Such a population, nearly always sent against their will, would supposedly make Algeria (and
hence France) commercially prosperous.70 Sending political prisoners was in
itself probably a mistake, leading to the strong revolutionary and communistic element an English traveller saw in the country in 1872[337] and perhaps to
that spirit of rebellion which made Algerian colonists and their political leaders such a handful for Paris to deal with. At least (ironically) Algeria produced
iron generals who, having practised ruthless repression in Algeria, knew how
67
68
69
70
Liauzu 2007, 4567: Dbats algriens: conqurir, coloniser? (18301870); 69122: Pousse
imprialiste et anticolonialisme (18801914).
Spillmann 1975, 12 citing Clauzels Explications of 1837: Voil bientt sept ans que la France
a conquis Alger, et aprs sept ans la France se demande encore ce quon veut faire dAlger.
Pour ma part, je dclare que je lignore compltement; 2536 Instructions 18601864 to
Marshal Pellissier; 33 for quote.
Kalifa 2009, 117: En 1831 le gnral Clauzel recommende denvoyer dans larme dAfrique
tous ceux qui sont dans la misre ou qui peuvent nuire la tranquillit ou au repos publics. La cration, la mme anne, de la Lgion trangre participe galement ce mouvement de rgulation.
Schefer 1928, 185217: La pousse dexpansion (18341843). Salinas 2005, 1: investigates
the conception of empire and domestic society that shaped Frances colonial project in
Algeria...examines how emigration and settlement to the empire came to be a national
preoccupation of political economists, politicians, colonialists, and a wide range of social
commentators; 2785: Mobility and Society: Debates of Nation and Empire during the
July Monarchy 18301848.
the french conquest
59
to deal with rioters on the streets of Paris,[338] for example during 1848 and the
Commune.71
The French entered Algeria in 1830, and spent the next ten years in
irresolution72 over whether to stay or to abandon their conquest.73 By 1834, all
the French had wrought was devastation and ruins. And by 1844, it was clear
that the early promises of honneur, gloire, puissance et richesse had yet to
be met.[339] One of their problems was that the European world knew about
their territorial ambitions, and the British, especially, had worried for decades
about French commercial encroachments.[340] La cration dun gouvernement gnral dans lAfrique du Nord avait confirm lintention de conserver
et detendre notre conqute, puis de la tirer du chaos. Mais rien de plus. Some
army officers were convinced that the only successful colonisation would be
thanks to a military occupation of the country.[341] Yet here had been no colonisation, no peace, no real war, wrote one critic in 1838: On a manqu de plan, de
rsolution et de volont[342] or, rather, there had been seven plans in seven
years.[343] Bugeaud wrote that all the French had by 1838 was Algiers.[344] Even
the first commander thought colonies pointless, being simply a drag on the
State.74 Certainly, supplying the army for its own consumption was difficult
enough,75 and even by 1840 there was no port strong enough to be used in any
maritime war.[345] Duvernois suggested that the bills the French had to pay for
the colony should be headed POUR FRAIS DE GLOIRE NATIONALE,[346] and
a scarcely helpful suggestion in 1843 was that honest peasants should be sent,
so that such good people would drive out the current unsatisfactory flock of
would-be settlers: lautre race perverse et parasite sclipsera bientt.[347] But
was not a military government the obstacle to civilian progress, wrote Leblanc
in 1844?[348] One opinion as late as 1850 was that no serious colonies had yet
been established,[349] while the military suggested that the strategically important 800km of coastline, and good ports, should be brought into the profit-andloss account.[350]
Complaints about colonisation were still being voiced in the 1880s,[351] by
which time its administration was very complicated indeed,76 and the same
71
72
73
74
75
76
Bouchne 2012, Joly, Vincent, 127130: Les gnraux dAfrique et la rpression des troubles
rvolutionnaires de 1848.
Clayton 1988, 5259 for an overview of 18301848; quote 52.
Bouchne 2012, 5258, Blais, Hlne, Pourquoi la France a-t-elle conquis lAlgrie?
Ageron 2005, 53, Berthezne: les colonies najoutent rien la force des Etats. Ajoutentelles leur richesse? Elles ont toujours t onreuses la France.
Schefer 1928, 219; 219370: La formation de lAlgrie.
Leggewie 1979 for a comprehensively referenced summary, with many tables and diagrams, including those (746) laying out administrative responsibilities military, civil and
Arab, plus (143) the 1898ff semi-autonomous system.
60
chapter 1
excuses for its slow pace were still being trotted out, without any explanation
of why matters had not radically improved after sixty years.[352] Nor were parts
of the country much safer: Fort-National was not a colony, and the civilians
still had to live within the walls indeed tout est sacrifi aux ncessits de la
dfense.[353]
Since colonisation was a competitive business, periodicals were founded to
provide news of colonisation around the world, and were of course generally
upbeat.[354] Some officers interested in antiquities acted as cheerleaders for
colonisation, emphasising, as some of the scholars were to do, the utility of
the remaining ruins even as late as 1889, indicating what quantities were still
left and potentially useful.[355] Without planning, however, things rapidly fell
apart, and stayed that way for much of the century, with the army as whippingboy for mistakes and inadequacies, although much that was wrong with colonisation was the fault of the administrations bad management.[356] Thus the
colonists of Boufarik, in an 1842 letter to the Governor-General, hinted that
little was known about the difficulties of living in such a new colony.[357]
Had the French bothered to enquire sufficiently closely, evidence was also
available from the ruins themselves that establishing colonies was not necessarily going to be easy. There were isolated reports which underlined this fact:
in 1856 Capitaine de Lambilly could point to the failure of Byzantine colonies
and these actually built on top of Roman ones. It was the Byzantine forts, and
older, reused sculptured blocks, which proved his point: dans plusieurs de ces
ruines on reconnat les traces de ce second passage des Romains. On y voit,
et cela principalement dans les anciens forts, des pierres, les unes sculptes
et juxtaposes dont les sculptures ne correspondent pas entrelles, les autres
prsentent des inscriptions renverses, pierres qui dans la construction primitive devaient avoir une position plus normale et que les nouveaux Romains de
lOrient nauraient retirs des ruines que pour remplacer tant bien que mal,
soucieux avant tout de se crer un abri et un rempart.[358] In other words, the
Byzantines had faced military difficulties (hence their campaign of fortress
building), so it seemed possible that the French would also find the natives
often more than restless. However, the question of whether to continue the
attempt to colonise or simply to abandon the enterprise never received a satisfactory answer.

Reactions to the Occupation

Scholars and Commissions
In 1833 the Ministry of War set up a commission to investigate Roman settlement in Algeria, its report being published in 1835.[359] By 1837, the ancient
the french conquest
61
remains were already being called part of Frances patrimony.77 This was the
first signal that scholarly activity was viewed as important by the Ministry
of War conveniently so, for from the early years of the conquest, scholars
needed military protection if they were to visit and travel around Algeria. Since
the scholars had to follow in the steps of the military, this affected what they
found and also what they published. It seems inevitable that funding for scholarship (and arguably scholarly priorities, and what they actually saw), would
be mis-directed toward the interests of the military, prejudice and ignorance
included.
Thus Colonel Bory Saint Vincent, in 1838, thought the study of architecture
and sculpture in Africa to be superfluous, for
En Afrique les vagabonds du dsert rendaient toujours prcaire le sort
des colons contraints de sy garder; ctait des forteresses quon y levait.
Larchitecture militaire...est donc la seule dont on peut esprer trouver
quelques vestiges. Peu de temples, point de palais.78
Bory de Saint-Vincent was a celebrated naturalist, with the experience and
kudos of having commanded the Expdition Scientifique de More, which
produced an encyclopaedia-like collection of volumes. From 1830 he was chef
du bureau historique at the Dpt de la Guerre, and evidently a man of influence. He clearly believed it appropriate to make snap-judgments about what
was available for discovery in Algeria on the basis of no knowledge (he had
not visited the country), but with a decided leaning toward his own preoccupations he was in the Military Engineers. Borys view was far from unusual:
little of value was left in Algeria after centuries of barbarism, which ont tout
dtruit, tout ananti: peine reste-t-il quelques constructions romaines.[360]
Unfortunately from the standpoint of the monuments, he was put in charge of
the Algerian Commission. Naturally, therefore, in 1838 he wrote to the Minister
of War praising the work already done by the Dpt de la Guerre, promoting
the work of its members in such work:
Grce lducation que reoivent aujourdhui messieurs les officiers
dtat-major et la manire dont ils en profitent, il est inutile de chercher
hors du corps royal des gographes et des dessinateurs. Tous sont en tat
77
78
Dondin-Payre 2003, 151 In a circular from the Ministre de lIntrieur, 1837: les vestiges qui
attestent la grandeur des peuples de lAntiquit...qui font partie du patrimoine national
et du trsor intellectuel de la France; 1569: Le face--face: larme et le patrimoine;
Dondin-Payre 2003, 1545: appropriation and sometimes destruction of antiquities.
Dondin-Payre 1994, 30.
62
chapter 1
de bien relever ainsi que de figurer parfaitement le terrain; et comme

les moindres accidens de celui-ci sont scrupuleusement nots par leur
crayon, ils deviennent plus aptes que qui que ce soit retrouver les
ruines, fixer leur position juger de lpoque do elles datent, et de ce
que furent les monuments dont elles rendent tmoignage.[361]
Bory did indeed head the Commission. In fact, he was (quite deliberately) misselling the features of such a Commission, which could only write at a descriptive level far too general to be of use on the ground for marching soldiers.
Passing over the obvious point that collecting information on the country
was invariably done too late, the Army would continue to need descriptions
of sites and routes. Although he had argued that military personnel would
be preferable;[362] he was forced to accept civilians, and did at least send
uplifting reports back to base.[363] But even if he was sure that only a few
Roman ruins survived, this evidently did not make a Commission unnecessary: des collections de tout genre seront formes par ses soins, and their
mission would be to laborer les lmens dun monument encyclopdique.
Soldiers would be used except where they did not possess the necessary
specialisms.[364] What prestige the Army would gain from les succs dun corps
savant, tir en grande partie, de son sein mme![365] However, then comes the
conclusion: the Expdition de Constantine showed just how badly the country was known, demonstrating encore une inquitante mconnaissance du
terrain et des conditions climatiques,[366] and also of course the need for the
Commission Bory was proposing. And not only climate: in 1830 it was reported
that only a quarter of the route Algiers-Constantine had roads passable for
vehicles.[367] At least in part because it cost less, the Commission was to consist of 10 soldiers and 11 civilians, some of the latter administrators already
on a state payroll.79 Dondin-Payre notes that there was indeed an crasante
majorit de militaires, but suggests that this was because the Army se sentait
beaucoup plus concerne par lexploration dun territoire gographiquement
proche de la France, dont nul ne doutait que lannexion ft dfinitive.80
Arrived in Algeria itself, the members of the Commission Scientifique
(surely only those who were not military)[368] seem to have been treated at
arms length by at least some of the soldiery, who played tricks on them. For
79
80
Dondin-Payre 1994, 29, 3234; 7996 for brief biographies, including Bory de Saint
Vincent, Deshayes, Carette, Pellissier and Ravoisi. 6973 for list of communications on
antiquities made to the Acadmie des Inscriptions 18301850; 107131 Pices indites
propos des antiquits de lAlgrie de 1830 1860.
the french conquest
63
example, they concocted a rat with a trunk (by glueing a tail onto the nose)
because the natural historians, having read Pliny, were looking for just such a
creature. They were delighted to be handed one by obliging troops![369] They
were equally delighted by antique armour (pieces of rusted iron) and ancient
medals (doctored modern currency).[370]
Scholars of the day Walckenaer, Dureau de la Malle, de Sacy, Jomard,
Naudet and Raoul-Rochette laid plans to take advantage of the French presence in Algeria realising, perhaps, that this might be a reprise of the Expdition
de lEgypte, and thence spell employment, travel and fame. On that previous
expedition, however, the scholarly investigation formed part of the integrated
planning. Algeria was different, in that moves were made only after the conquest. This time around the Acadmie des Inscriptions determined in January
1834 (and including Tunisia and Cyrenaica) to
runir dans un recueil...toutes les antiquits trouves jusqu ce
jour...envoyer dans ces contres des archologues et des artistes munis
des instructions de lAcadmie, pour recueillir, dessiner et dcrire tous les
monuments qui sy trouvent encore; sen procurer le plus grand nombre
possible pour enrichir nos collections...dresser...une carte de lAfrique
septentrionelle.81
From this listing, taking back monuments for French museums was an
important task, conflicting with movements for the preservation of the
patrimony.82 In 1853 there was even a Muse Algrien in Paris, an enterprise of
the Ministre de la Guerre: but this was an exhibition of products (cereals, silk
etc.), not antiquities.[371]
There was sometimes a decided tension between the Minister of War and
the scholars, the latter thinking perhaps that mouthing political sentiments
and linking them to Roman Algeria,83 would be the easiest way to secure funding for travel and exploration, for much of which they would inevitably need
the help of the army. Thus in 1892 Diehl affirms that archaeology est une
admirable leon de politique exprimentale, and can quote Boissier to the
effect that knowledge of the Romans is useful, for en voyant ce quils ont fait,
nous apprenons ce que nous avons faire, and then, in a flight of fancy, Cette
81
82
83

Almi 2002, 6779: Redcouverte et prservation du patrimoine algrien, studied only
from the early 20th century.
Dondin-Payre 1994, 21: dterminer si loccupation de lAlgrie a chou, comme le pensent
les Chambres, ou si leffort mrite dtre poursuivi.
64
chapter 1
rsurrection des monuments antiques que nous poursuivons...nous fera connatre comment le peuple qui a su le mieux gouverner le monde sy est pris
pour tirer le meilleur parti de sa conqute.[372]
However, a thirst for funding cannot have been the whole story, for much of
the boosting was done by French army officers, who wrote extensively on archaeology.84 Many of them were products of Saint-Cyr or the cole Polytechnique,
and well understood that their presence, lgitimant lidentification de larme
franaise larme romaine sur le plan idologique, ils marquent leur prsence
pour prendre le relais de la colonisation romaine.85 Dr Louis Carton, an army
medical officer, was still talking up Tunisia in 1889: Jai cherch montrer
combien sont nombreux les enseignements que fournit ltude des ruines en
Tunisie...Les ruines de leurs tablissements constituent comme une carte
conomique.[373] Among earlier officer-scholars was Pricot de Sainte-Marie,
in the tat-major from 1834, and in Tunisia 18381848.86 Tunisia was never to
be given a Commission Scientifique such as that for Algeria,[374] although there
was an umbrella Commission du Nord de lAfrique, which included Egypt as
well.[375] Tunisias description partly depending on the work of scholars87 such
as Cagnat, Hron de Villefosse and Tissot, their work sometimes governmentfunded.88 But also, as in Algeria, a large number of army officers were later to
study antiquities in Tunisia, and publish their findings.[376]
If, as we have seen, Bory de Saint-Vincent was prejudiced against Algeria
before any Commission drew breath, part of the reason lies in France itself.
In 1830, the year of the invasion, the Government had appointed the first
Inspector of Historical Monuments (this was Prosper Mrime from 1834),
and then a commission in 1837 all as a result of the alarm provoked by
the wanton destruction of the French patrimony. The Commission des
Monuments Historiques (founded in 1837) themselves floated the idea of a
Commission Scientifique de lAlgrie89 in July 1845 (Borys earlier proposal
84
85
86
87
88
89
Bayle 1986, 1652: 211 texts out of 270 on North Africa, 48 on metropolitan France, and
11 on Indo-China. Useful tables, 25 spread of interests in N. Africa: 39 pre-Roman, 145
Roman, 1 post-Roman, 26 no precise period; 29 archaeological subjects: 102 excavations,
39 reconnaissances, 13 guides, 33 inscriptions, 13 grave-goods, 3 inventories; 40 publications by officers, one only: 73; 24: 30 officers; 1015: 4 officers; 59: 7 officers.
Niesseron 2003, 47: Linstrument militaire au service de larchologie.
Laporte 2002, 206216 for this officer, and 217272 for his son, in Tunisia 18731876.
See start of Source Bibliography for brief biographies of important scholars.
Bacha 2013, 3240 Tunisia: for the first archaeological research, and 4051 for research
at Carthage; 7176 for the work of Cagnat and his collaborators, 8588 for the mission of
Reinach and Babelon.
Dondin-Payre 1998, note 1 for bibliography.
the french conquest
65
was its h
arbinger). They asked the Minister of War to ensure protection for her
monuments including (curiously) her mediaeval monuments: had they any
more than a vague idea of what was in that country?[377] However, mainland
Frances lack of interest in Algeria is surely illustrated by the sloth with which
the Monuments Historiques got round to doing something about agitating for
antiquities protection in Algeria only from 1880 onwards.90 Busy protecting
monuments in France, if only a very few of them, little effective work was done
to protect those in Algeria and, later, Tunisia, although proper bureaucratic
measures were indeed initiated.91
But then, as Charmes noted in 1883, Ce nest pas la barbarie qui dtruit
les monuments, cest la civilisation, lorsquelle nest point contenue par la
science.[378] Again, and perhaps because the focus was on the parlous state of
monuments at home, the Algerian commission the Commission dExploration
Scientifique de lAlgrie92 has received little scholarly attention, and ne fait
objet, sauf exceptions, que de rapides mentions non commentes.93 What
is more, its large and lengthy volumes, which were efficiently published,[379]
seem to have had little impact in France as a whole, Broc suggesting that this
might be because such military-related missions (Mexico was another) were
tainted by their close relationship with both the military and with conquest
itself.[380] We shall, of course, continue to meet the scholars and the results of
the Commission Scientifique throughout this book.

A Forgotten Colony and War?
The Romans, whatever the alibis their previous occupation of the country
might offer to the French, were not responsible for the whimsical invasion
of Algeria in 1830 which, as we have seen, was executed without any initial
military strategy, extensive political aims, or concerted push for colonisation.
There never developed any consensus about what to do with the natives, nor
just how best to develop colonies let alone what part if any the Army should
play in Algerias affairs. Of course, colonisation plans had not counted on continuing opposition and bloodshed from displaced, cheated and impoverished
natives; but then, neither did the Army know at the start that it would in various ways be the nurse of that colonisation, and civil engineers to boot.
90
91
92
93
Niesseron 2003, 7284. Prime movers were Duthoit (18371889, in Algeria from 1872), and
Albert Ballu (18491939), named chief architect in 1889.
Niesseron 2003, 5862: Naissance dune conscience patrimoniale i.e. from the 1843
Service des Btiments civils (18431872).
Nordman 1998; Niesseron 2003, 2933.
66
chapter 1
The truth is that any vigorous discussion of Algeria was by special-interest

groups and individuals, and general public opinion in metropolitan France
was never much interested in the topic and this in an era of intense political
discussion and societal upheaval, laced by revolutions and the fall of empires.
Algeria was apparently not an issue to be fought over at home, for other concerns were much more pressing. But armies always like a good war, which
gives opportunities for rapid advancement unavailable to those languishing in
barracks back home. Algeria certainly provided rewards for efficient and ruthless officers, and in spite of the atrocious conditions under which the Army
lived, fought, and died (more from disease than from bullets), the casualty
lists never rang alarm bells, partly because some officers shipped hospitalised
soldiers back home to flatten the rolls a little.
In the growing army sizes of the 19th century, especially after the FrancoPrussian war, Algeria would remain a sore that itched persistently, but did not
alarm public opinion back home. Numbers were easily filled from Frances
population, and by the formation of the Foreign Legion. The raising of local
levies94 to deflate the numbers of dead Frenchmen was also contemplated;
this, Gaillard suggested in 1839, would be useful afin de diminuer, en cas de
guerre sur le continent, ou par raison dconomie, leffectif de larme dAfrique,
sans compromettre la possession de cette conqute.[381] Urbain was writing
much the same in 1862: Si la guerre clate en Europe, nous serons obligs
dimmobiliser en Algrie une partie de nos troupes mtropolitaines; mais on
appellera dans les armes actives ces rgiments indignes.[382] Such levies did
not turn the tide in the Franco-Prussian War, which was a trigger for insurrection in Algeria. And although some commentators produced multiple explanations for the continuing disquiet,[383] the fact was that the natives were alert
enough to take advantage of European war, and keep French troops pinned
down. The French, as a result, undertook colonisation with renewed determination, by way of compensation for her national humiliation .95

The French-Language Press in Paris
In Paris, the Journal des Dbats Politiques et Littraires was the authoritative
and detailed source of both debates and scholarly information on Algeria, and
is fascinating to follow for the twists and turns of government policy, of public
opinion, and of French encounters with the ancient monuments. It reported
the obliteration of Roman remains by some French settlements; the simple
94
95
Frmaux 2009, 121152: Using indigenous troops.

Jennings 2011, 198 after the Franco-Prussian War, by way of compensation for her national
humiliation, France duly set out to construct her Mediterranean Empire, a strategy that
was to have immense long-term costs and consequences.
the french conquest
67
re-erection in 1838 of Roman blocks at Fort-de-France, soon to be renamed

Philippeville;[384] the European houses already being built by 1839 at Bne;[385]
and how cunning Abd-el-Kader was careful to choose what had often been
Roman positions for his own strong points.[386] The journal noted in 1850
the desire for the Description de lgypte to be matched by a similar work for
Algeria,[387] just as it had noted the arrangements in 1843 for a Commission[388]
(for LExploration scientifique de lAlgrie), and reported the preliminaries
in 1838.[389]
But it also reported contrary opinions about the conquest. In spite of the
grand plans envisioned by the Duc dOrlans in 1839[390] and Vales decidedly premature announcement of the pacification of the Mitidja the following
year,[391] Algeria could still be characterised in the same year of 1840 as a balland-chain for France.[392] Her maps were still impossibly small-scale, and more
roads were projected than built[393] although officers were continually reporting and recording new antiquities.[394] Certainly, anyone reading in 1839 that
the Algiers-Constantine road was partout carrossable (part of it was Roman)
was being misled.[395] There were insufficient resources to go around: Biskara
needed fortifications and cannon in 1844, to the detriment of Lambessa.[396]
Pacification was still a topic in the Chamber in 1845,[397] towns still needed
defences in 1847;[398] and there were still insufficient settlers, a scheme even
being floated in 1843 to provide dowries for girls to be imported to marry
settlers.[399] The importance of Lambessa was recognised in 1844,[400] but this
did not stop its partial destruction in order to build a huge prison. And as late
as 1906 rumours that the colonial army (no details) was to be stood down and
various colonies sold to the Americans had to be denied,[401] while Bougie was
still concerned with its defences in 1907.[402]

The Press in Britain and Germany
Across the Channel, developments in Algeria were watched with a mixture of
scorn, distaste, sarcasm and apprehension. As The Times puzzled in 1844, It
really is melancholy that a nation with every capacity for forming a right judgment excepting common sense, and every virtue necessary for generous enterprise but perseverance, should have nothing to do, nothing to talk about.[403]
What were the military aims of this expanding power?[404] Vandalism and
indiscrimate massacre were identified early,[405] including a little occasional
wholesome severity.[406] Coercion of the natives into camps was deplored,[407]
and Bugeauds razzias condemned as a mere Spartan despotism.[408] For
these so easily transmuted into extermination,[409] sometimes via the enfumades, which were widely recognised and publicised as atrocities.[410] And
did Algeria improve the armys fighting qualities? Sickness was rife even in
the 1840s,[411] and the troubles with Abd-el-Kader mocked as the easy route for
68
chapter 1
army promotions.[412] This view changed with Frances excellent performance

in the Crimea, so that Algeria is already and will become more and more,
a nursery of armies,[413] adding to her military power in spite of her woeful
failures in colonisation.[414] Her enormous outlays of blood and treasure were
emphasised: the deficit in 1846[415] was much bigger in 1862.[416] All worth it, of
course, the British mocked, for a thousand bulletins, and Horace Vernets big
pictures.[417]
Germany naturally took great interest in her neighbour, and many French
books on travel and life in Algeria were translated.96 But she was also a military competitor, and German presses often reported events in North Africa in
similar terms to those in Britain. Frances adventure in North Africa also saw
plenty of German visitors, most significantly by Carl von Decker, a member
of the Prussian General Staff, who provides the best account of army strategy and results up to its publication date of 1844 (Algerien und die dortige
Kriegfhrung); other of Deckers books (on Abd-el-Kader, and on shrapnel)
were translated into French, but apparently not this one.

The French-Language Press in Algeria
If many on the mainland were inclined to ignore Algeria unless directly
involved militarily or commercially, the French-language press in Algeria
naturally reflects the worries and triumphs of the occupation. In July 1837,
Guelma was attacked by a well-equipped enemy, and restricted movement
so that venturing outside the walls without an escort was impossible.[418]
The taking of Constantine later the same year was seen as placing the seal
on the invasion,[419] and the garrisoning of Djemila along the way brought yet
more antiquities to notice.[420] In its turn, the conquest of Constantine led to
a renewed confidence: lavenir, jusquici sombre, de notre colonie, prendra un
tout autre aspect, et fera renatre la confiance l o rgnait dj une crainte
gnrale, mais sans fondement.[421] But the same journal, La Presse, reprinted
in 1839 a highly critical report on colonisation, its costs, and problems with the
Arabs, such that Algiers would soon be no more than a collection of liquorshops, and the haunt of bar-flies and soldiers.[422] Cynics still saw little hope
for prosperity by 1852: Roman cities had turned to dust, so why should French
ones not go the same way?[423] But optimism had to prevail, Tlemcen declaring
in 1863 how well Algerian products did in exhibitions.[424]
96
Messaoudi 2012, 1522 Publications rudites et institutions savantes for the German
interest in North Africa. Ruhe 2012, 101 note 15 for long list of French books on Algeria
translated for the German market. 108110 for Carl von Decker.
the french conquest
69
Where possible, the press in Algeria (and also Tunisia) naturally accentuated
the positive, and from it we can learn much about local archaeological activity and discoveries. Local antiquities were often featured (as at Tlemcen),[425]
but predatory army use of ancient blocks to build military facilities was
probably common in the 1840s.[426] By 1880, laws for the protection of monuments were being detailed at Stif,[427] evidently with the hope of protection
from any negligent administration or entrepreneurs; but at Bne the following
year, in spite of arrests, antiquities were still vanishing,[428] although some finds
survived at Stif itself,[429] including coins stuffed in an ostrich egg.[430] The
Courrier also printed letter from readers who wondered what had happened
to various pierres romaines perhaps the Military Engineers had reused
them, or had they been sold? They were, after all, a valuable commodity,[431]
and everybody knew this because it was normal for the same newspaper to
advertise properties for sale, and mention any Roman ruins to be included.[432]
Reading between the lines, the enthusiasm of the colons for antiquities continued naturally to be for their utility as easy-to-recycle building materials, there being evidently a race between colons and archaeologists as to
who got there first.[433] In addition, the colons met with unfair competition
from soldiers, paid by the state, and untaxed, so that the colons lost business
in, for example, building work.[434] Some concerns with the antique were
severely mercenary, such as the excavations of an ancient spring complex near
Khenchela in 1887, where the workmen were spurred on by rumours of hidden
treasure.[435]
Conclusion
It is evident that the French takeover of Algeria and then Tunisia proceeded
in distinct military and then civilian phases.97 Unfortunately, there is no close
cause-and-effect between such phases (however determined)[436] and the fate
of monuments, because this was affected not only by the tides of war, but also
by logistics, the varying numbers of colonists, the building of settlements and
97
Evans 2012, xiixiii three phases: army rule 183070, limited integration into the Third
Republics structures, and then financial autonomy for a settler-dominated Algerian
Assembly in 1900. Julien 1986, 64105 La priode dincertitude (18301834). Julien 1986,
106163 Loccupation restreinte et la colonisastion anarchique (18341840); 342387
LAlgrie sous la Deuxime Rpublique (18481852). 388452 LAlgrie sous le Second
Empire (18521870).
70
chapter 1
the attitudes of local administrations. It is not the case that vandalism stopped
after the first desperate decade (Chapter 2) when the Army was establishing itself. Indeed, destruction was continuous, and it was the Armys Military
Engineers who were responsible for much of it, their actions defended by the
Minister of War.98 Chapter 9 will outline a developing interest in antiquities
and museums, but there is no uniform progression from vandalism to museums, because of the activities discussed in Chapters 7 & 8, namely building
towns and planting colonies. As will be seen, much is known about the destruction caused by building French towns; but it is likely that far more is attributable to colonists, often set down and left to fend for themselves which often
included finding their own building materials.
Even if many problems remained, France was not officially going to desert
Algeria itself simply and disgracefully, abandon central control from Paris, to
the extent that it ever possessed any. It was to be the colonialist special-interest
groups which directed policy and drove fortunes in Algeria, rather than the
government and parliamentarians in Paris, where there was little general interest. Thus as late as 1886, the naval officer Louis Say could bemoan the weight
and inefficiency of the colonial administration, and the continuing lack of
policy:
Nous restons immobiles, nous usant en discussions byzantines et en
querelles intestines ternelles, cherchant depuis 1847 une politique intrieure quelconque, un procd de colonisation quel quil soit et ne trouvant rien parce que nous navons pas de Politique coloniale.[437]
98
Dondin-Payre 2003, 1578 letters of 1852 in CAOM F80 1587, Minister of Interior regretting that the Gnie ne sefforcent pas de concilier autant quil est en eux, les besoins du
service auquel ils sont attachs avec le respect des monuments si prcieux to which
the Minister of War replied that tous les monuments dignes dtre conservs ont t religieusement pargns; que ceux dont on sest servi comme carrires nont t dtruits que
parce quil y avait ncessit relle et que les archologues envoys par le dpartement de
linstruction publique ont reconnu quils ne prsentaient aucun intrt...Jajouterai que
cest notre arme et particulirement au zle de ses officiers que lon doit la dcouverte,
la conservation et mme la restauration dune foule de monuments romains.
71
the french conquest

1 Hugonnet_1858_56
2 Feline_1846_2
[ ]
3 Ribourt_1859_79
[ ]
4 LEcho de Bougie
1 June 1905
[ ]
5 Demonts_1921_187
[ ]
6 Baude_1841_I_VVIII
[ ]
7 Nolte_1884_4445
[ ]
8 Rousset_1900_I_323324
[ ]
9 Correch_1837_3
[ ]
10 Rousset_1900_II_137
[ ]
11 Blanc_1892_35
[ ]
12 Caraman_1843_5556
[ ]
13 Blanqui_1840_6
[ ]
14 Vitry_1900_7
[ ]
15 Walmsley_1858_340
[ ]
16 Touttaille_1866_1617
[ ]
17 Ancien_officier_1841_13
[ ]
18 Montaudon_1898_7
[ ]
19 Dondin-Payre 1991
[ ]
20 Revue_du_Cercle_
Militaire_1889_1138
[ ]
21 SHD H227
[ ]
22 SHD GR1M881
[ ]
23 Rozet_1833_I_VIIVIII
[ ]
24 Peyssonnel_1838_I_VII
[ ]
25 Plion_1838_15
[ ]
26 Decker_1844_I_3905
[ ]
27 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_
183
[ ]
184
[ ]
29 Paris_1840_6
[ ]
30 Napoleon_III_1865_7
[ ]
31 Dailheu_1901_70
[ ]
[ ]
33 Bavoux_1841_I_115122
[ ]
34 Fillias_1860_VVI
[ ]
35 Anon_1838_4
[ ]
36 De_Lacharire_1832_1, 4
[ ]
1838_27
[ ]
38 Recollections_1844_264
[ ]
39 Desjobert_1838_4
40]Gaillard_1839_6
41]Anon_1838_1011
[ ]
42 Scott_1842_IXX
[ ]
43 Baudicour_1853_
372373
[ ]
44 Decker_1844_II_11354
[ ]
45 Leblanc_de_Prbois_
1840_45
[ ]
46 Anon_1845_3
[ ]
47 Belloc_1889_221
[ ]
48 Belloc_1889_191192
[ ]
49 Gaudin_1887_17
[ ]
50 Belloc_1889_301302
[ ]
51 Noah_1819_393
[ ]
52 Plion_1838_101
[ ]
53 Thouvenin_1900_
283433
[ ]
54 Fernel_1830_2324
[ ]
55 Fernel_1830_316320
[ ]
56 RDM 30 March 1842
[ ]
57 Vignon_1887_3
[ ]
58 Pernot_1894_247
[ ]
59 Thoumas_1887_II_
183184
[ ]
60 JDPL 30 May 1841
[ ]
61 Guillaumet_1891_27
[ ]
62 Thoumas_1887_II_305
[ ]
63 Rousset_1900_I_22
[ ]
64 Spectateur_Militaire_
1859_427
[ ]
65 Bugeaud_1922_180181
[ ]
66 Orlans_1870_209
[ ]
67 Thoumas_1887_II_5253
[ ]
68 Ibid., 183
[ ]
69 Thoumas_1887_I_166
[ ]
70 Roy_1880,_153
[ ]
71 RA_1836_3841
[ ]
72 Decker_1846_9294
[ ]
73 Drohojowska_1848_191
[ ]
74 Decker_1844_II_70113.
155260
[ ]
75 Lapasset_ 1873_24
[ ]
76 Barbaud_1887_II_100104
[ ]
77 Desjobert_1838_60
78]Demonts_1921_246
79]Milleret_1838_574
[ ]
80 H_de_B_1834_70
[ ]
81 RA_1837_89
[ ]
82 Fraud_1867_10
[ ]
83 Girot_1840_144145
[ ]
84 Fortin dIvry_1845_57
[ ]
85 H_de_B_1834_71
[ ]
86 Chaudru_de_Raynal_
1832_103104
[ ]
1859_425426
[ ]
88 Gaudin_1887_5
[ ]
89 Guerre_Tableau_1841_
4657
[ ]
90 Bugeaud_1922_192193
[ ]
[ ]
92 Buret_1842_41, 46
[ ]
187188
[ ]
94 Schefer_1916_33
[ ]
95 Thoumas_1887_II_149
[ ]
96 De_Lacharire_1832_3
[ ]
97 Pellissier_1836_I_7980
[ ]
98 Milleret_1838_576
[ ]
[
100]Roosmalen_1860_32
[ ]
101 Decker_1844_II_260
[
102]Decker_1844_II_224225
[
103]Decker_1846_4950
[
104]Decker_1844_I_iii
[
105]Mauroy_1852_XIV
[
106]Desjobert_1844_1
[
107]Le Charivari March
1844, 310
[
108]Decker_1844_I_35
[
109]JDPL 9 June 1838
[ ]
110 Lamoricire_1836_31
[ ]
[ ]
112 Schefer_1916_35
[ ]
113 Guide_du_colon_1843
[ ]
1838_1
[ ]
115 JDPL 12 June 1836
[ ]
[ ]
72
116]Bull.Travaux.Compagnie
Algrienne de
Colonisation I, 1834
[ ]
117 Figaro_06_06_1836
[ ]
118 RDM 23 July 1847
[ ]
119 Commission_dAfrique_
1834B_29
[
120]Commission_dAfrique_
1834_50
[ ]
121 Commission_dAfrique_
1834B_199
[
122]Ibid., 406
[
123]Commission_dAfrique_
1834_Preface
[
124]Ibid., 85
[
125]Lamoricire_1836_15
[
126]Le Charivari 15 April
1842, 409
[
127]LAvenir de Tbessa
9 March 1924
[
128]Ville_1871
[
129]Officier_ 1871_67
[
[ ]
131 Ibid., 8ff
[
132]Anon_Blackwoods_
1841_198
[
133]Ibid., 199
[
134]Walmsley_1858_164
[
135]Guerre_Tableau_1841_11
[
136]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XVI
1841, 358
[
137]SHD Papiers Pelet,
carton 1319
[
138]Ibid.
[
139]SHD 3M541
[
140]SHD MR1316
[ ]
141 SHD 634/1314
[
142]Esquer_1929_3840
[
143]Saint-Arnaud_1858_272
[
144]SHD MR4/1315
[
145]SHD Gnie, 1H401
[
146]Ibid.,
[
147]SHD Gnie, 1H402
[
148]SHD MR33/1314
[
chapter 1
149]SHD 1M1321
150]Ibid.
[ ]
151 Guilbert_1839_118119
[
152]Leblanc_de_Prbois_
1844_16
[
153]Leroy-Beaulieu_1897_22
[
154]Hugonnet_1858_154
[
155]Devoisins_1840_3
[
156]Hanoteau_1861_174183
[
157]Hilton-Simpson_1921_91
[
158]Wilkin_1900_110111
[
159]Playfair_1877_70
[
160]Clamageran_1874_63
[ ]
161 Charvriat_1889_21
[
162]RA 1860 issue 24,
426433
[
163]Reboud_1876_154
[
164]Ancien_payeur_1833_
3132
[
165]Rambaud_1888_4
[
166]Mauroy_1852_24
[
167]Bourde_1880_110
[
168]Gunin_1908_76
[
169]Dureau_de_la_Malle_
1837_3233
[
170]Tissot_1888_56
[ ]
171 Schulten_19001901_457
[
172]Thomassy_1840_20
[
173]Davezac_1841_294
[
174]Bonnafont_1846_89,
1617
[
[
176]SHD 1H7
[
177]Schulten_19001901_
256257
[
178]SHD MR882 item 2
[
179]Barth_1863_30
[
180]Bertrand_1921_43
[ ]
181 Du_Barail_1897_I_367
[
182]Dondin-Payre 1996, 156
[
183]Gsell_1903_60
[
184]Frisch_1899_182
[
185]Gaillard_1839_74
[
187]Davezac_1841_269
188]Buret_1842_168169
[
189]Stutfield_1886_133
[
190]Charmes_1883B_4344
[ ]
191 Saint-Arnaud_1858_
336337
[
192]Poir_1892_142
[
193]Duraffourg_1887_223
[
1837_XXII
[
195]Orlans_1870_384386
[
196]Demonts_1919_1967
[
197]Feline_1846_12
[
198]SHD MR 1315 item 3
[
199]Ibid., item 13
[
200]Pellissier_1854_III_120
[
201]Hurabielle_1899_13
[
202]Boissire_1878_132
[
203]Zaccone_1865_9091
[
204]Robert_1891_289
[
205]SHD MR H229
[
206]SHD Gnie, 1H922
[
207]Ibid.
[
208]SHD MR1317
[
209]Grande Encyclopdie,
1886: BLOCKHAUS
[
210]Brunhes_1902_202
[ ]
211 Blanc_1892_71
[
212]Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_
343344
[
213]Duval_1859_16
[
214]Morell_1854_72
[
215]Davezac_1841_292
[
216]Excursions_1838_32
[
217]Wagner_1841_I_321322
[
218]Poulle_18861887_170
[
219]Bernelle_1892_501
[
220]Saladin_1893_67
[
221]Donau_1920_45
[
222]Carton_1894_3
[
223]Mac_Carthy_1851_212
[
224]Gurin_1862_I_297
[
225]Rozet_and_Carette_
1850_14
73
the french conquest

226]Lecocq_1912_353
227]Paulard_1893_40
[
228]Winckler_1892_5
[
229]Graham_1902_7576
[
230]Perier_1847_115116
[
231]Masqueray_1886_10
[
232]Enfantin_1843_211
[
233]Pananti_1818_413414
[
234]Gsell_1903_62
[
235]Gaffarel_1888_61
[
236]Fraud_1869_6
[
237]Payen_1864_2
[
238]Cosentino_1865_6970
[
239]SHD 1M1315
[
240]Granger_1901_IVV
[
241]Duval_1865_100
[
242]Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_
6667
[
243]Ibid., 312
[
244]Baudicour_1856_12
[
245]Pellissier_1836_I_292
[
246]Temple_1835_I_
224225
[
1840_6169
[
248]SHD Gnie, 1H403
[
249]Hrisson_1891_356
[
250]Fortin dIvry_1845_115
[
251]Bequet_1848_2425
[
252]Feuillide_1856_XXX
[
253]Duval_1865_131
[
254]Charmes_1883_331
[
255]Madinier_1856_142143
[
256]Anon_1873_2526
[
257]Afrique_Explore_1883_
54 January 1883
[
258]Anon_1841_34
[
1862_11
[
260]Ibid., 9
[
261]Ibid., 10
[
262]Lainn_1847_910
[
263]Bugeaud_1847_1415
[
264]Lasnavres_1865_113
265]Tocqueville_1865_430
266]Urbain_1862_3
[
267]Anon_1873_10
[
268]Feline_1846_18
[
269]Thoumas_1887_II_81
[
270]Ibid.
[
271]Milleret_1838_572
[
272]Campbell_1845_14
[
273]Morell_1854_207
[
274]Fillias_1860_247
[
275]Goyt_and_Reboud_
1881_212
[
276]Trumelet_1887B_298
[
277]Boudin_1852_10
[
278]Cambon_1885_119120
[
279]Fortin_dIvry_1846_172
[
280]Enfantin_1843_33
[
281]SHD Gnie, 1H403
[
282]Cavaignac_1839_156
[
1844_4344
[
284]Urbain_1862_19
[
285]Leblanc de Prbois_
1862_24
[
286]Napoleon_III_1865_8
[
287]Ibid., 9
[
288]Pillorget_1860
[
289]Duvernois_1858B_1617
[
290]Pimodan_1903_75
[
1844_23
[
292]Hugonnet_1860_206
[
293]Charvriat_1889_260
[
294]DHautpoul_1850_48
[
295]Ibid., 49
[
296]Coinze_1847_13
[
297]Decker_1846_1045
[
298]Recollections_1844_
256257
[
299]Girot_1840_129
[
300]Pernot_1894_246
[
301]Dino_1847_34
[
302]Antichan_1884_281
[
303]Bapst_1909_I_451
305]Chambre_des_Dput_
1834_239
[
306]RA_1836_101102
[
307]Hrisson_1891_1011
[
308]Hess_1905_106
[
309]Scott_1842_152153
[
310]Suchet_1840_305
[ ]
311 Anon_Blackwoods_
1841_196
[
[
313]Ibid., 289
[
314]Dutrne_1850_2122
[
315]Paris_1840_2
[
316]Rivoire_1840_10
[
317]Scott_1842_155
[
318]Hrisson_1891_248
[
319]Baudicour_1853_
480481
[
320]Chevillet_1896_110113
[
321]Ancien_cur_1866_12
[
322]Nodier_1844_129
[
323]Buret_1842_20
[
324]Tocqueville_1865_
436437
[
325]Touttaille_1866_15
[
326]Officier_1871_1
[
327]Ideville_II_1882_
260261
[
328]Lainn_1847_78
[
329]Warnier_1863_26
[
330]Devereux_1912_133134
[
331]Ancien_cur_1866_56
[
332]Ribourt_1859_29
[
333]Lunel_1869_14
[
334]Ibid., 20
[
335]H_de_B_1834_101102
[
1852_I_8495
[
337]Lady_Herbert_1872_
115116
[
338]Morell_1854_v
[
[
340]Anon_1838_78
74
341]SHD 1M1314
342]Milleret_1838_574
[
343]Ibid., 542
[
344]Bugeaud_1922_182
[
345]Rogniat_1840_57
[
346]Duvernois_1858B_2
[
347]Vicomte_1843_87
[
1844_126
[
349]Vesian_1850_30
[
350]Spectateur_Militaire_
1859_250
[
351]Say_1886_6
[
352]Journal Gnral de
lAlgrie 12 June 1890
[
353]Bourde_1880_226227
[
1852_I
[
355]Carton_1889_15
[
356]Duvernois_1858_351
[
357]Trumelet_1887B_
246247
[
358]SHD MR1317
[
359]Recherches_AIBL_1835
[
360]Monuments_
[
361]Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_
1838_2
[
362]Broc_1981_328329
[
1840_852853
[
1838_1
[
365]Ibid., 34
[
366]Broc_1981_326327
[
367]Boutin_1830_182
[
368]Broc_1981_329
[
369]Perret_1902_237
[
370]Blanc_1885_7071
[
1853_IV_226235
chapter 1
372]Diehl 1892, 56
373]Carton_1889_1415
[
374]Charmes_1883B_48
[
375]Berger_1892_1
[
376]Revue_du_Cercle_
Militaire_1889_1173
[
377]Berc 1979, 364
[
378]Charmes_1883B_47
[
379]Broc_1981_331
[
380]Broc_1981_353
[
381]Gaillard_1839_1
[
382]Urbain_1862_59
[
383]Officier_1871_7
[
384]JDPL 29 October 1838
[
385]Ibid., 2 April 1839
[
386]Ibid., 30 May 1841
[
387]Ibid., 25 June 1850
[
388]Ibid., 15 July 1843
[
389]Ibid., 23 November 1838
[
[
391]Ibid., 9 October 1840
[
392]Ibid., 15 May 1840
[
393]Ibid., 1 March 1840
[
[
[
396]Ibid., 28 June 1844
[
397]Ibid., 5 July 1845
[
398]Ibid., 7 January 1847
[
399]Ibid., 31 March 1843
[
400]Ibid., 17 March 1844
[
401]Ibid., 17 June 1906
[
402]LEcho de Bougie
12 May 1907
[
403]The Times 27 March
1844, 4
[
404]Blackwoods 55 March
1844, 291
[
405]The Times 24 April
1838, 4
[
406]Blackwoods 60
September 1846, 334
407]The Times 5 November

1840, 3
[
408]Ibid., 26 Sept 1842, 4
[
409]Ibid., 15 July 1845, 4
[
410]Ibid., 19 July 1845, 5
[ ]
411 Ibid., 22 August 1844, 5
[
412]Blackwoods 60
September 1846, 334
[
413]Ibid., 82 October 1857,
509
[
414]Ibid., 81 January 1857,
134
[
415]Ibid., 60 September
1846, 336
[
416]Ibid., 92 August 1862,
258
[
417]Ibid., 65 January 1849, 24
[
418]La Presse 3031 July 1837
[
[
420]JDPL 29 January 1839
[
421]La Presse 5 March 1838
[
[
423]JDPL 7 July 1852
[
424]Courrier de Tlemcen
4 April 1863
[
425]Ibid., 4 April 1863
[
426]JDPL 17 March 1844
[
427]Courrier de Stif
26 December 1880
[
428]Ibid., 25 August 1881
[
429]Ibid., 29 September 1881
[
430]JDPL 20 December 1837
[
431]Courrier de Setif
20 April 1882
[
432]Ibid., 16 July 1882
[
433]Ibid., 10 June 1883
[
434]JDPL 6 August 1848
[
435]Courrier de Tlemcen
30 December 1887
[
436]Dailheu_1901_67
[
437]Say_1886_9
chapter 2
The Army Establishes Itself, Colonisation Begins

The Army, Colonists and Roads
In Algeria the French tried to move too fast, pursuing the whirligig of establishment and security. Colonists needed to be secure, and therefore roads were of
prime importance. But colonies should also be established precisely in order
to establish security. This was what Bugeaud believed the Romans had done,
their veterans planted like trees on sand-dunes against the ever-encroaching
storm of natives. His plan for military colonies looked good on paper but, as
Bourin commented in 1887, he tried to move too fast: nos bataillons devaient
crer des routes, creuser des canaux, aider les vtrans dfricher leur terrain, btir leurs fermes, forer leurs puits. But there were no roads, colonels
decanted their drunkard troops into such colonies while France shunted
more and more colonists to America.[1] In other words, the cart went before
the horse, for La pierre ne manque pas en Afrique; mais pour btir en pierre,
il faut que le pays offre dj des routes solides et sres, des carrires ouvertes,
des fours chaux, des ouvriers nombreux, cest--dire que, pour construire
une maison, il faut avoir sa disposition un ensemble de forces et de travaux
qui ne peut se rencontrer que dans une petite socit.[2] Nevertheless, in 1843
Enfantin was proclaiming that military colonisation required 10,000 settlers
for the Mascara area alone[3] and they never arrived. But then his scheme
ordinary colonists and peaceful natives near the coast, soldier-colonists inland
to deal with disorderly tribes looked neat on paper but could not work in
practice.[4] Fabre, in 1847, sets down a plan for parcelling out land to such
military colonists again, pie in the sky, since the land would first have to be
wrested from the natives.[5] Such authors had either not read or had rejected
the 1840 Commission sur la Colonisation Militaire, which gave the plain facts:
60,000 troops in Algeria, hostile natives so Avant que les colons militaires
fussent en nombre, ils seraient crass par les Arabes, ou bien il faudrait une
arme de soldats pour protger cette arme de colons.[6] What is more, while
helping them, soldiers suffered just like the colonists.[7] Some authors, such as
Bonnal in 1847, did indeed point out in detail how unrealistic was the notion
of 10,000 colonists arriving each year for the next decade: huge amounts of
land would be needed (after the locals had been evicted), one hundred villages
would need ditches and defences, and so on.[8] But bad ideas never die, and
military colonisation was still being suggested in 1881.[9]
76
chapter 2
Security
Si nous nous tions hautement donn pour mission en Afrique le rtablissement et la protection de la libert, de la circulation, les vux
des peuples auraient partout accompagn nos armes. La force fait les
conqutes; lintelligence des besoins des vaincus les conserve.[10] [1841]
Security was a continuing problem in Algeria, and a continuing question was
whether one could reduce the army without compromising the safety and very
future of colonies.[11] Bugeaud, when he left Algeria in 1847, said he had indeed
provided it: Cette scurit, vous lavez; vous pouvez voyager en tous sens et
isolment jusqu 50 lieues et plus de la cte. As for the Army, Partout elle
aide les colons de son bras, de sa protection et de son budget.[12] To repeat, it
was soldier-colonies that some French commentators believed had provided
security in Roman Algeria,[13] although some disagreed.[14] But without security, in the 1840s, les capitaux sloignent, et les migrants europens prfrent
lAlgrie les vastes plaines de lAmrique.[15] Even the Constantine area was a
volcano waiting to explode.[16]
Roads and forts were essential for safety, as Plion noted in 1838: le pays que
nous occupons est sillonn par des routes qui facilitent les communications,
et couvert en partie par des camps qui assurent la scurit et les moyens de
dfense.[17] French strategists were of course quite correct in viewing roads
as essential for efficient fighting against the natives. But such roads were also
invasion routes, hence the strong forts and fortified towns the French also built.
Perhaps less predictable was that roads also offered ideal facilities for bandits,
who could be sure that their prey would come along them. Hence the frequent
comments in travel accounts that much of Algeria and also Tunisia remained
unsafe for decades, or that levels varied. In 1850, around Lambessa, an officer and four spahis accompanied Delamare on his explorations.[18] Delamare,
himself an army officer, certainly did some of his drawing excursions tagging
along with army expeditions; but whether this was always done, and whether
for safety rather than convenience, we do not know.[19] In 1852 Mauroy commented on how security had improved over the previous few years,[20] yet in
the same year Renier sometimes needed an escort while searching for inscriptions, and had to cut studies short when they wanted to move on.[21] In 1857
Berbrugger was given an escort by Bey Ahmed in Tunisia, and this had to be
beefed up for dangerous stretches.[22] But then, he was used to army accompaniment, having been secretary to Clauzel: in 1837 he had taken an escort of ten
soldiers with him to explore ruins at Cape Matifou.[23] Quesnoy felt safe in 1888
over all the conquered parts of Algeria, but warned that a return to the bad old
the army establishes itself, colonisation begins
77
days was still possible.[24] Security probably shaded into official oversight and
control, again with the military in control; so that when Lecoy de la Marche
wished to research a Roman road in the Gulf of Gabs in 1894, je membarquai
pour Gabs, muni de toutes les autorisations ncessaires, tant au point de vue
civil quau point de vue militaire, de conseils et de lettres de recommandation
de M. le colonel de Labonne, de M. le commandant Rebillet, de M. le commandant Coyne, while serving officers continued to be of help for various tasks.[25]
Saladin, exploring the country between Gafsa and Feriana the previous year,
was given an escort of hussars.[26]

Building or Repairing the Infrastructure

Builders, Competence and Algerian Conditions
Pacifying the country meant expansion southwards into those areas to which
the natives (having in some cases been dispossessed so that colonists could
work their land) now returned after French razzias their grab-and-burn raids.
A permanent infrastructure was required and, for a European army, this had
to mimic European conditions, with barracks, roads, churches, hospitals, and
an assured water supply. The main problem, of course, was insufficient funds.
As late as 1855 Chabaud-Latour was still calling for large expenditure on forts,
hospitals, arsenals and ports, pointing out that huge sums had been allocated
for the defences of Paris in 1841.[27]
But this also presented serious manpower and organisational problems.
The Army was in Algeria to fight; but it was unused to the conditions it found
there, and therefore it could not easily perform its usual tasks. It never had
sufficient skilled engineers in the right place at the right time, so that much of
the building was done by the troops some of it very badly indeed. But then,
were they building for the eternal occupation of Algeria? For several decades,
nobody knew, except for Marshal Vale, promising in 1838 that je formerai des
tablissements durables, in a pronouncement that smacks of the Res Gestae
Divi Augusti.[28] Bugeaud thought little of his inflated ideas.[29]
Everybody knew that some of the early building in Algeria was sub-standard,
whether because unskilled troops did the work, because some officers of the
Military Engineers were frankly incompetent, or because the French did not
understand or allow for local conditions which, with snow, ice, heat and torrential rain, played havoc with sloppy workmanship. In 1853, a monument was
to be erected at Blida to commemorate the stand of the 22 French troops of
26th Regiment on 11 April 1842 against 300 Arabs at Beni-Mered. This was an
obelisk, roman fashion, with the names thereon. However, a letter from the
78
chapter 2
Ministry of Finance 19 June 1845 shows it was made in Marseille and shipped
out in un navire de fort tonnage. Was this because the necessary expertise
did not exist in Algeria, rather than squeamishness about re-using antique
blocks?[30] One continuing problem was the variety and sheer quantity of work
the Engineers were expected to undertake. There was a perennial shortage of
funding, which affected the Engineers[31] and indeed the whole army which,
it was claimed, was under-funded for the number of troops on the ground.[32]
Another problem affecting especially the Military Engineers, was the belief,
surely unfounded, that Roman legionaries had themselves built many imposing structures in Algeria, including most of Timgad.[33]
Expertise was indeed lacking, as can be seen by the recruitment by the government of various buildings trades workmen throughout the 1840s. Some
no doubt went to Algeria with no intention of becoming colonists, simply of
working at premium pay rates, which were around twice those to be earned
in France itself.[34] But lists of emigrants 18411845 show some 30% from the
building trades, and 45% for road work, including unskilled men.1 One might
conclude from such figures that soldiers could not, would not or should not be
doing such work.
Bougie provides a good example of the problems. Still not secure by 1845,
the new French settlement already had 500 inhabitants, and the completion
of the town walls was recognised as being urgent, so masons were employed to
re-lay (and perhaps rework) Roman blocks, which had to be carted into place,
and to make good antique structures as foodstores. Part of the courtine must
go on top of the ruines bien conserves de la citadelle justinienne (La position
de ce rempart est parfaitement choisie). Rushed work was a problem because
it was set up on top of unstable infill: On ne peut sappuyer sur les ruines qui
sont en mortier de terre et fondees sur des remblais, so this would have to be
taken down, as well as several provisional buildings no longer needed. Luckily,
de beaux blocs tailler restent pied-doeuvre. Hence saving money by using
soldiers to build walls sometimes didnt work, even if it kept them from getting
bored:[35] as early as 1833 the Chef du Genie thought the dry-stone-wall work
very poor, and in need of a rebuild using ancient foundations.[36]
And at Philippeville, although much money had been poured into new
buildings, even as early as 1853 things were getting shaky, and were unworthy
of their Roman setting:
1 Sessions 2011 284, tables at 299.
79
Il eut t dsirable seulement que les constructions fussent faites avec un

tel soin quelles pussent pleinement satisfaire tous les besoins des services auxquels on les destinait. Cest ce qui nest pas toujours arriv. Ainsi
le magasin situ prs la porte Valle Constantine semble flchir quand
on emplit ses greniers; on ne peut charger sans danger les chambres du
btiment difi sur les rservoirs de Philippeville. Il est fcheux de voir
des constructions dhier menacer ruine, quand leurs bases romaines
bravent les sicles.[37]
What is more, for destruction and for ignorance, Poujoulat considered the
Gnie unequalled, and se montre civilis la faon du boulet qui va droit au
but, aux dpens de tout ce quil rencontre.[38] One complaint about bad building practice was at Mascara, which had been burned and ravaged by Clauzel in
1835, taken by Abd-el-Kader in 1837, and garrisoned by Bugeaud in May 1841. In
that winter of 18411842, when already ruinous barracks were collapsing, new
buildings put together with inappropriate mortar were suffering from rain, and
troops were being injured by collapsing walls: Tout est en dsarroi, par la faute
dun Gnie peu constructeur, qui avait difi grands frais, pendant lt avec
des matriaux manquant de solidit, et sans calculer les ventualits dun hiver
rigoureux.[39]
On many occasions, Roman forts were marked out for use in case there
was trouble during offensive actions. Thus a fort near Mactar was important
because it was situated on the line the Division would need to take if retreating to either Arzeu or Oran.[40] Characteristically, the rapporteur goes further,
admiring the pierres de taille de grande dimension, des fragmens de fortes
colonnes, une suite de votes le long de lescarpement, quelques restes encore
debout et plusieurs inscriptions, ne laissent aucune doute sur lexistence de
grandes et belles constructions dont chaque jour les derniers vestiges disparaissent sous de nombreux et vivans figuiers. At the same time, it was recognised
that the very size and quantity of the Roman blocks meant that the French
could plan for expansion. So at Khramis, in 1843, a fort went up on the ruins of
its Roman predecessor, in a well-chosen position; the French defences were,
as was usual in that period, smaller than the Roman ones. Nevertheless, large
Roman blocks were indeed used in the lower courses of the buildings (or possibly most of these were already in place?) de sorte que si plus tard on veut
lever une tage sur ces constructions premires, on pourra faire supporter
aux fondations le surcrot de maonnerie sans quon ait craindre de les voir
saffaisser.[41]
80
chapter 2
At Blida, which was sacked in 18301, and occupied by Vale in 1838, the earlier village was founded ex nihilo and given a rampart of pis. But the site was
encircled with two fortified camps in 1838, blockhouses having been provided
in 1836. New ramparts were erected in 1842.2 As at Algiers, the Moorish gardens
around Blida were destroyed by French troops.[42] The Roman ruins were also
to suffer, given the estimate of the travaux gigantesques required for roadmaking around the site.[43] Work was surely done in a hurry, and certainly without expertise: Trumelet reports a barracks put up in 1840 as already crumbling
24 years later although he is quick to underline that this was not the Military
Engineers usual standard of work.[44]
At Cherchel in 18401842, Chef de Gnie Thomas trod carefully.
Circumstances and experience demanded some limited action. He had some
lengths of the Roman wall pulled down because they were dangerous, and
nous avons la certitude quon ne pouvait en rien faire. He excused himself
by stating how useful the blocks would be for their building projects and,
in any case, comme Monument, il ne sera pas regretter.[45] The Directeur
des Fortifications then decided that sections of the ancient wall would offer
so few blocks that they were not worth demolishing, but also that Les ruines
du Cirque ne paraissent pas mriter quon y ait gard.[46] Thus conscience
doth make vandals of us all. At Cherchel, what is more, the ancient walls were
partly eaten by the air, ce qui compromet beaucoup sa solidarit.[47] Yet the
poor construction by Military Engineers could have been because of a lack
of tools some of Vales men having to rebuild outposts near Stif without
proper equipment.[48]
Perhaps the Engineers had studied Solomons enceintes too closely, and
drawn the conclusion that even hasty construction, as at Tebessa, could yet
stand for centuries. The French would reuse antique blocks, just as Solomons
engineers had done: On les utilisa tels quils taient et, ce quil semble, en
grande hte, car le ciment na t employ nulle part, et en certains points les
pierres paraissent avoir t simplement empiles.[49] Plenty of large structures,
such as theatres and amphitheatres were still available to provide reusable
blocks,3 as were Christian basilicas which had already provided one recycling.4
2 Deluze-Labruyre 1988, 2634: la ville prcoloniale; 3443: La ville colonise but nothing on
any Roman ruins.
3 Lachaux 1980 for succinct descriptions of structures in their current state, and sometimes
indications of where the material went (104: le Kef, to build barracks).
4 Gui 1992 for catalogue, each with an Etat actuel de la conservation, and with brief Histoire
des dcouvertes et bibliographie. Some structures seen by earlier travellers have now disappeared (cat 104 Zoui, seen by Masqueray in 1878; cat 80, Henchir Gountas, seen by Gsell in
81
In areas where materials such as wood was scarce, the French would also reuse
their own materials in later constructions[50] a characteristic, according to
Ibn Khaldun, of societies in decline.
At Guelma, Roman ruins dont le marchal Clauzel aimait tant invoquer le
glorieux souvenir,[51] came to the aid of the French. Here some of the walls still
stood to 6m in height,[52] but the enceinte was simply too large for the French
to deal with, for in 1835 they needed it to house only 200 men.[53] This was
not at first intended as a permanent settlement, for these men were walking
sick and wounded who could not keep up with Clauzels expedition.[54] During
this 1837 Expdition de Constantine, then, which included 20,400 men and an
immense amount of supplies, Le gnral de Rigny, qui commandait cette brigade, se fortifia dans une enceinte de ruines romaines, dbris informes dune
antique cit.[55] Capitaine Niel did not think this was a good idea, because they
set themselves in the ancient citadel, which was in any case miserable in bad
weather: Il eut donc bien mieux valu stablir sur la route mme que daller
chercher au loin des ruines qui dailleurs sont difficiles dfendre cause de
limmense carrire qui est auprs et des tas de pierres derriere lesquels on peut
sembusquer demi porte de fusil in other words, useful as the ruins were
for the speedy rebuilding of defensible forts, the sheer quantities of dbris
offered attackers too many positions from which to approach.[56] Later, to keep
the great effort of building Guelmas walls to a minimum, they refurbished only
its highest section.[57] Another reason for this might have been that other sections of the wall were unsafe, supposedly as a result of earthquakes[58] and
few of the troops were masons by profession. Indeed, in 1838 Colonel Duvivier
examined the foundations of Roman walls at Guelma, and found many of
them with the stones higgledy-piggledy, comme seraient quelques dominos,
placs de champ les uns sur les autres par des enfans.[59] Nevertheless, he was
well pleased with the quantities of blocks lying around (elles reprsenteraient
une valeur de plusieurs millions dans un pays routes et voitures) and just
waiting to be laid in place; clearly, he reused much, but conserved some items
for what was to become the museum.[60] He wanted a camp in the baths, and
towers in the enceinte for powder magazines.[61] Much of the enceinte was
Byzantine, hence perhaps its lack of stability; and Duvivier, who would be
a general by 1867, integrated the remains of the Baths in the new enceinte.
He was clearly interested in the towns origins, and delighted by its strategic position: Son emplacement est si beau et si stratgique, que le bon sens
des populations les y aura tablies de bonne heure.[62] It was a pity that (for
1894). Pallary 1894, 5 for Souik, where the Roman fortress seen by Ren de la Blanchre had
disappeared by the 1890s.
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structural reasons?) he could not re-use the 13 square towers in the Byzantine
enceinte.[63] But overall, the French made thorough use of suitable Byzantine
forts,[64] as we shall shortly see.

Forts and Fortresses Roman and French

Ce qui caractrise la colonisation romaine, cest le soin avec lequel les
centres militaires ou les villages de colons taient relis. La voie romaine,
avec sa large assise dempierrement et de dallage, avait toujours t considre comme un puissant moyen de domination. Les traces ou, plutt,
les jalons que lon retrouve partout en Algrie et en Tunisie, dans les stationes, les mantiones, vritables biscuitsvilles, garnisons, gtes dtapes
ou postes, prouvent que les chausses romaines, les viae calcatae, rpondaient toujours soit un plan densemble stratgique, soit une exploitation rationnelle de toute une rgion.[65] [1899]
The above quotation underlines the perennial problem with French forts,
usually on Roman sites: (re)building them was not impossible, but venturing
outside them could be very dangerous. Roads were an essential element in
the equation, but trying to construct these left workmen exposed to troublesome natives. If the Byzantines and the French often made use of previous
structures, what about the Romans? Not frequently, because there were fewer
structures to play with. But Waille suggests they did indeed fortify megalithic
remains at An Teukria and An Khebbaba.[66] How were such fortresses for the
French Army to be secured? The Romans had used the same complexion of
army, right down to the (non-gunpowder) artillery, so the extensive infrastructure they had left provided both a model for the present, and abundant materials close at hand; and their fortifications had employed many cubic metres
of stone, often in very large blocks, but already in easily reusable shapes.[67]
Some civilian commentators found this diet of fortresses boring, because les
vagabonds du dsert rendaient toujours prcaire le sort des colons contraints
de sy garder.[68] But since the principles of attack and defence do not change,
French officers viewed such structures with great interest. Indeed, some engineers were building towers at Cola in the 1840s, to the satisfaction of their
clients, the gunners.[69] More examples will appear in later chapters.
French small forts were often to be sited just where their Roman ancestors
had been, sometimes right on top of the earlier forts, simply by rebuilding their
tumbled walls and adding gun-platforms in the towers. Nous ne pouvons pas
avoir de meilleurs guides que les Romains, opined one commentator in 1833,
suggesting the Roman forts on the Stora-Constantine road be complemented
83
with intervening blockhouses.[70] Such forts were best collected by the military eye, Jomard in 1865 calculating that Carbuccia and his collaborators had
tracked down over forty.[71] But there were never sufficient forts, Decker pointing out, after a long account of Algiers and its defences, that many outposts
further afield were not connected to each other by roads.[72]
At many sites, it was only foundations that remained, because the French
had robbed out so much stone, with elements from other structures being
used to rebuild forts. Thus Gsell lists temples at eleven sites destroyed by the
French.[73] At Arzeu in 1838, raising defensive walls would be easy, for il y a sur
place dix fois plus de matriaux quil nen faudrait.[74] Around Guelma, similar
Roman fortified posts were still to be seen at the end of the century,[75] and the
commune mixte of Sedrata contained no fewer than three important Roman
towns.[76] Such fortified posts were also to be seen around Ammi-Moussa.[77]
This was a commune mixte (that is, containing natives as well as Europeans,
and governed by appointed or sometimes elected officials), and even in 1911
Lacave-Laplagne, the villages administrator, counted a large number of ruins
in the vicinity: Cette occupation et celle de la valle du Sensig donnent pour
tout le groupe un total de soixante-cinq ruines, dont cinq de quelque importance militaire.[78] At Djidjelli, which the troops occupied on 13 May 1839, the
troops were under canvas[79] until the flattened ruins of the walls were raised
by the troops, building on the ancient foundations.[80]
Souk-el-Arba, called by the French Fort Napolon, was occupied in 1857.
Building problems were presumably well past by then, when over 500 masons
military and civilian were building this, later called Fort National on the site
of the Kabyle village and quarrying fresh stone for it, as well as setting up
30 lime kilns for mortar.[81] Randon had the site studied before any building
was done, and wrote to the Minister of War describing the rapid progress.[82]
Of course, some of the masons were illiterate, so the less likely, perhaps, to
put aside inscribed blocks.[83] Such make-do-and-mend techniques served
well until the inevitable expansion of the army and the arrival of increasing
numbers of colonists. Just as important for survival within defending walls,
the Romans had secured water supply whether from springs, wells or cisterns. This new fort was built with a marvellous rapidity. In five months after
the first stone was laid, the small citadel town, with its imposing array of
numerous military buildings enclosed by walls, pierced by two handsome marble gateways, was completed as it now stands,[84] the marble obviously taken
from the local ruins. Predictably, as Carton reported in 1891, bien des ruines,
mme dune certaine importance, sont en voie de destruction rapide, cause
des progrs de la colonisation.[85] For the French therefore to follow here,
as elsewhere, in the steps of Rome was far from simply a pseudo-romantic
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identification: it was a stark necessity, and we shall see below how soldiers
deliberately sought out such defensive positions for protection, and for bases
from which to try to control the surrounding countryside. Of course, the downside of secure fortresses was that (at least in 1833) the Army stayed inside them,
and the Arabs noted the fact.[86]
So long as viability the ability to move around on conveniently-sited
roads was degraded, this was an extra persuasive argument for the preservation and improvement of still-standing ancient forts. This did indeed
happen during the first couple of decades after the conquest, and such forts
were adequate to counter the lightly-armed natives. Thus at Mactar in 1839
Lieutenant Malroy reported on the site, which was in a crucial position should
the Division have to cover its retreat, and had useable remains: une construction carre mieux conserve que les autres...On soccupa de dblayer les communications ncessaires la dfense, de rtablir les parties de lenceinte qui
lexigeraient et de former un rduit de la maison du Caid.[87] Capitaine Bordier,
the civil controler at Mactar, arrived on the site in 1887. Given that there was
snow on the ground for four months of the year, he quickly swapped his tent
for rooms fitted out in the baths (the prison was also located here), and then
apparently he had a house built from the ruins.[88] Two bedrooms for workmen were set up in the circus, and a building of undetermined use housed the
forest guard. Bordiers office was set up under Trajans triumphal arch (there
were two arches to choose between).[89] He probably did not hear mass in the
Christian basilica, which was not as well preserved.[90]
Such reliance on ancient structures appears to have been common knowledge, and much in evidence. Caraman says that on the first expedition to
Constantine in 1836 nous tions guids depuis Guelma par les dbris des
corps de garde dont les romains avaient jalonn la route de Bne
Constantine.[91] An author of 1854 affirmed that Le gnie militaire se guide
souvent sur ces indications des Romains pour ltablissement de nos propres
postes.[92] The smallest of these were blockhouses, and some roads fairly
bristled with them.[93]
Nor were French fortresses built only by their Army, and it was not only
the Army which sought out Roman ruins on which to build, but also colonists
and civil administrators. For the difficulties of colony establishment meant
that new settlements were themselves fortified, sometimes by soldiers, often
by the inhabitants. Because of inadequate planning many colonists, seduced
by sunny publicity, were simply shipped to Algeria, dumped in the countryside and told to build villages and to fortify them. Thus it was the colonists
themselves who mopped up large quantities of ruins that lay off the beaten
track off the main roads, that is, which joined developing towns and
85
cities. In 1847, one visitor saw these as simply des entrepts fortifis, the Army
having changed its role from aggressive operations to colony protection.[94]
In 1855 Lamping writes of the boasted French colony, but notes that cafs
and canteens are their only possessions beyond the fortified camps and the
range of the blockhouses, and these have to be supported by the military.[95]
Supported too well, for Bolle remarks as early as 1839 that all he saw as colons
were innkeepers, selling alcohol to soldiers.[96] Constantine, indeed, had a
Caf de lInscription Romaine (CIL VIII #6944). Blockhouses were generally
of wood, but on occasion, as at Oran, one was sited on top of the ruins of a
temple, and presumably used at least some of its stone blocks.[97]
As new towns and villages developed, as the Army sometimes topped
100,000 troops, and as conveniently sited ruins had long since been swallowed
into French re-builds, much more extensive building was required than any
ruins could feed. At Tebessa in 18721873, for example, the Army calculated the
costs of cutting up old stones, doing some demolition, and then using them
in the fortifications.[98]
Such reworkings by the French managed to destroy plenty of antiquities. At Tebessa, the sappers built their own Kasbah within the Byzantine
enceinte, clearing the ground and then erecting barracks.[99] Another site,
Lalla-Maghrnia near the Moroccan frontier, had a Roman enceinte of 400m
by 257m; Bedeau, commanding at Tlemcen, visited this site in November 1843,
and Le choix de cet emplacement fut ds lors arrt pour ltablissement dun
poste militaire et la construction dune redoute avec camp retranch.[100]
At Lambessa, an embarassed Fouquier noted that the French had destroyed
more in 15 years than the locals in ten centuries, implying a distinction
between Arab and French attitudes to monuments which cast the invaders in
a poor light, and which probably had the longevity of a topos: Nous trouvons
plus commode de prendre des pierres toutes tailles pour btir nos casernes
et nos hpitaux; nous dtruisons ainsi beaucoup, cest vrai, mais aussi nous
rdifions.[101] Details of the building work at Tebessa are dealt with below, in
their own chapter.
In addition, French military theorists feared an attack by European armies
arriving to take their prize colony from them. Although this did not happen,
it spelled the end of many Roman/Byzantine fortifications. This was because
modern artillery required modern fortifications, and because military engineers by their nature were addicted to building, modernisation and concrete.
As a result, antique enceintes which easily saw off the natives (who did not
possess much working artillery) went by the board, swallowed in concrete
swaddling which could cope with the threat from Europeans.
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Accommodation for Body and Spirit
When the French struck out into conquering more of the country than just
Algiers and its surroundings, they took a particular interest in Roman fortresses, as we shall soon see in greater detail. But because of the unfriendly
nature of the Algerian climate and most of its inhabitants, the lack of planning
from Paris, the acknowledgment that living under canvas was suitable only on
expeditions (when even the officers lived in great discomfort),[102] the oscillating troop numbers and the sky-high sickness lists, decent accommodation at
the home base (wherever that was) was always wanting.
The Army had initially to make do with existing structures, and initially
was a very elastic term. In Algiers, part of the solution was to shuffle building
usage between locals and troops. Thus a large mosque was taken over for soldiers accommodation. The Great Mosque, rue de la Marine, dating from the
10th century, was refurbished by the French military prisoners in 1838, but with
material from other mosques,[103] whether demolished by them or already
in ruins is unclear.[104] Certainly, as late as 1847 a mosque in the Kasbah was
still occupied by soldiers.[105] The El Saida mosque was demolished because
it was in the way of the new Place du Gouvernement the French wished to
establish, so this and a nearby palace were but a memory by the 1860s.[106] But
why build the new Place at all? Its construction also entailed the demolition
of many houses: to make un lieu de runion pour nos troupes, and a market,
writes Berteuil.[107] Another mosque was converted into a church, its ablution
fountain becoming a baptismal font.[108] The Kchaoua Mosque was destroyed
unnecessarily to give way to the Cathedral of Algiers car la dmolition a-telle remplac en solidit et en grandeur ce que lart italien avait orn avec des
colonnes romaines dune majest imposante?[109] The near-comprehensive
destruction of Arab Algiers will be discussed more fully in a later chapter.
If French bodies and spirits could be accommodated, this was not the case
with existing cemeteries. In 1836 they suffered for the greater good of roads and
traffic, for il tait impossible de les pargner, et lon ne devait pas, par respect
pour les morts, gner la libre circulation des vivants. And even if such cemeteries contained antiquities in reuse,[110] it was unnecessarily callous to use the
(Moslem) human remains as road infill.[111] However, this was a period when
bones were collected off battlefields such as Austerlitz, Iena and Waterloo, and
many of them taken to Yorkshire to be converted into fertiliser.5 Such locations no doubt produced fine flowers: the Jardin Marengo at Algiers was built
5 Le Cour Grandmaison 2005, 16870 for violation of Moslem cemeteries by the Ponts et
Chausses, and for bone collection.
87
directly on top of an Arab cemetery which had itself occupied the site of a
Roman one.

Byzantine Fortresses6 and French Scholarship
The Byzantines were the predecessors of the French in the rebuilding and
refurbishment of Roman fortresses and, indeed, many of these rebuilds7 suited
French purposes better than their source structures, since they were smaller,
in better condition because of their later date, and therefore easier to defend.
It is not unusual to find a Byzantine fortress inside just one section of a Roman
one, or in one corner of a Roman town (late antique fortifications in France
were of much the same, smaller size), with naturally more of them surviving
the further south one goes.[112] Unfortunately, such small settlements and correspondingly small populations could not protect distant villages. For Frisch
in 1899, the answer was to go to the past, and employ forts exterior to settlements, like the castella of the Byzantines, to protect colonists villages: Les
ouvrages que nous prconisons devraient tre extrieurs aux centres de colonisation et servir uniquement recueillir et couvrir, sur une position facile
dfendre, la population urbaine europenne. Ce sont les castella de la priode
byzantine, citadelles protgeant les localits ouvertes et leurs habitants.[113]
Such forts were to be found as far south as the Biskra region where, at Tolga,
the mosque a probablement t construite avec des ruines romaines quon y
trouve en grande quantit. Elle possde un chteau romain, dont les indignes
ont remplac la vote par une couche de terre. Le camp et les six tours quon y
montre encore prouvent que Rome y avait fond une colonie importante.[114]
Certainly, Roman blocks and inscriptions were reused in the village,[115] and
in surrounding settlements,[116] including the mosque at Liana, where palmtrunk columns supported ancient capitals.[117]
And indeed, Algeria did indeed have many such castella or outposts. They
protected roads and fertile valleys, such as on the Constantine-Batna road,[118]
and their regularity was noticed on the Expdition des Portes de Fer.[119]
Ksar or kasr, meaning fortress, is a frequent toponym for sites sometimes
located amongst and reusing elaborate Roman structures,[120] often indicating
later Arab settlement,[121] and usually strung out in series to defend the landscape.[122] Kasr-el-Felous (le chteau de la monnaie), near Sfax, was so called
parce quon y a trouv quelques pices dargent, et parce quils simaginent
que ce btiment renfermait jadis le trsor de cette cit dtruite.[123] At Zanfour,
not far from Le Kef, there were two enceintes, the smaller and later one partly
6 Pringle 1981; Fvrier 1983, for discussion of the state of scholarship.
7 Djelloul 1999, 1537 for a well-illustrated survey of Roman and Byzantine fortresses in Tunisia.
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built from damaged funerary inscriptions.[124] Graham and Ashbee found

Arabs here in 1887, loading old stones onto their beasts: They even offered
to break off any piece of carving or other ornamental work we might covet,
and to transport it at our pleasure. It appeared that these stones were being
removed to an adjacent plain for constructing a French military post.[125] This
was a pity, since Tissot enumerated here the remains of a temple, theatre and
two triumphal arches.[126] Haidra, in Tunisia, was another Byzantine fortress,
with some street paving intact when Shaw visited in 1757.[127] It was occupied
by Arabs, supposedly by some who fled the French invasion of Algeria,[128] and
in 1887 Saladin, pleading for the sites preservation, saw newly broken marble
blocks here (just as he did at Sbeitla), evidently piled up ready to go into new
building.[129]
Es-Souar (the ramparts) was another common toponym,[130] as was
idols,[131] even for broken walls.[132] Christian fort was a toponym in
Kabylia. Local interpreters pointed to surviving columns as evidence;[133] and
in one legend a Roumi gets the Christian girl only if he builds her father a
fortress.[134] Built with spolia, including large quantities of inscribed blocks,
apart from churches these structures were the only ones of imposing substance left behind from this period.[135] To do so, of course, the Byzantines
ruthlessly destroyed former structures, as at Dougga[136] just as French troops
were to do, labouring under an equally urgent military imperative. Sometimes
the blocks were reused uncut, thereby preserving many inscriptions whole,
as at Timgad, where Byzantine work was restricted to only one quarter of a
near-perfect Roman city.[137] If epigraphers could notionally bless them for
preserving inscriptions, which otherwise might have been lost, by placing
them in fortresses (for they produced exceptionally fine crops, as at Thagura
and Madaurus),[138] others condemned the Byzantines for destroying earlier
and better work. One example is the church at Announa: This specimen of
Byzantine architecture speaks volumes on the disastrous effects of the Vandal
invasion, which must have destroyed not only monuments, but the very appreciation of art.[139]
In 1861 those solitary Byzantine fortresses filled Moll, a captain in the
Gnie, with admiration: not only was their builder Solomon a strategist, he
declared, but les ingnieurs et lieutenants chargs de le seconder avaient
une vigueur dexcution incontestable et une connaissance approfondie de
lart de la guerre.[140] He puzzled about just who did the construction-work,
reckoning that Tebessa, for instance, would need about 800 workmen for
two years, and other groups for other forts raised in the same years and he
thought the work must have been done by locally-raised corves rather than by
soldiers.[141] Given the prevalent opinion about contemporary Arab building,
89
he cannot have imagined the French could contemplate such a solution, the
more so since the putative builders were the enemy against which the French
defences were being raised.
Thanks to the decidedly cozy dimensions of most Byzantine fortresses, it is
not surprising to find many of them, their walls still standing, offering protection to Arab villages. This was the case at Lamta, where the fortress became
the kasbah, the whole surrounded by gardens and marble remains.[142] At
Thapsus, near Mahdiya, the Arab villagers inside the enceinte had cleared
the area of stones, and built them into field walls, so they could plough.[143]
Henchir-Bou-Doukhan had a castellum with Arab graves inside it, and a
water supply.[144] At Tobna, a mosque and governors palace filled the Byzantine
fort.[145] At An Tounga, where the remains of several temples were visible, as
well as the Byzantine fortress,[146] excavation was made more difficult by the
Arab refusal to allow the diggers to clear the cacti, so they had to give up.[147]
In 1846 major parts of one temple were still standing there,[148] its portico columns scattered on the ground and these were monoliths.[149] Much larger
was the Byzantine fort at Tebessa, rebuilt by Solomon c.534, still occuped when
the French arrived, and still using Roman coinage,[150] as apparently were parts
of Tunisia into the 1860s.[151] (Roman coins and items from pagan necropoleis
were also reused in Moslem cemeteries.[152]) At Ksar-Baga the Byzantine fort
was now uninhabited, but had once been an Arab settlement; in 1875 Hron
de Villefosse borrowed thirty soldiers from Khenchela to dig out some ranked
marble columns, reused in what turned out to be a mosque.[153]
A variation has the French compared as destroyers of Roman monuments
to the Byzantines: On a dtruit beaucoup de monuments semblables pendant
la restauration byzantine, et on ne cesse pas de les dtruire aujourdhui.[154]
The topos also migrated easily into Tunisia, where Les Arabes nont presque
rien dtruit en Tunisie, mais ils nont rien entretenu.[155] The few years it
took for the French to destroy monuments startled and disgusted the scholars: at An el-Ksar, which once had a Byzantine fort, Tout a t dtruit depuis
trente ans.[156] And around Stif, the many ruins dtonnante civilisation ont
t dtruits par le vandalisme moderne, suscit par un vil mercantilisme et
encourag par lindiffrence;[157] the minaret built on Roman ruins at SidiYoussef, for example, had still been standing in the 1870s.[158]

Defences for Arabs and Colons
Because of the continuing dangers of colonial life, settlers villages, many of
which were on the plains, with flat, agricultural land, were usually fortified in
some way. In 1841 Bugeaud mandated a collection of agricultural colonies in
an arrt. These were usually of 5060 families, except for designated centres,
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and their initial defences were a ditch plus two or three towers.[159] Yet even
near army posts such villages were insecure: Robertville, a mere 24km from
Philippeville, was established in 1847, the 400 colonists living under canvas
and then in wooden barracks; it was surrounded by a crenellated wall, composition unknown.[160] Fouka, 49km from Algiers, and founded in 1842, was
soon abandoned by all but 15 of its soldier-colonists,[161] although there were
184 people living there in 1844.[162] Berbrugger had already dug for antiquities at the site in 1839, no doubt alerted by the colonists to what they had
already unearthed.[163] La Consulaire, 23km from Algiers, and built on top of
an ancient Roman farm, was decorated with Bugeauds coat-of-arms, plus agricultural implements.[164] After the abandonment of Bugeauds military colonisation scheme, troops were nevertheless employed to help clear agricultural
land, and build ditches to encircle villages.[165] In the process, colonists naturally encountered Roman remains (and used them for building), as well as, on
the Settara Plateau, the remains of fortresses.[166] At Tigava Municipium, in
Mauretania, the local schoolmistress, sur les lieux avant que les actes les plus
grossiers de vandalisme ne fussent commis, drew the remains of a large enclosure. But the colonists then took the stones for their own buildings.[167] This
also happened in the Maouna, where Roman ramparts, houses and streets visible in 1836 had by 1883 disappeared into the enceinte, church and presbytery
of a new colonial village.[168] At Ad Mercuri, Tissot reports that the theatre seen
in 1842 had gone by 1876, as had remains at other sites he knew.[169]
Mosques were frequently constructed in ancient (generally Byzantine) fortresses, reusing their materials, as at Bou-Derbala,[170] or Msilah,[171] or at the
still inhabited but semi-ruinous site of Inchilla with an important mosque,[172]
using Byzantine columns and capitals, also noticed by the military in the
1880s, possibly because of the remains of a defensive wall.[173] Some were converted basilicas, as at Sbiba,[174] others were fresh-built from large quantities
of local shafts, as at Gafsa.[175] At Mda, one of the three mosques remained a
mosque, a second became a church, and the minaret of the third was used as
a watchtower over the valley.[176] This was also the case at Guebba, where the
base of the minaret was antique,[177] and at Tozeur.[178] Near Hammamet, amid
the ruins of a Roman farm, a minaret was built on the octagonal structure of
a Roman mausoleum.[179] Diego de Haedo, writing in the early 17th century,
thought two of Algiers minarets were also Roman.[180]
Abandoned mosques were the easiest to deal with, Gurin describing in
1862 what he found in the deserted village of Belad-Djededa although the
mosques columns had already gone.[181] He had more luck at Belad-Belli,
where columns from the antecedant temple or church were still in place.[182]
At Djidjelli, various antiquities were noted in the ruined but picturesque
91
mosque, still part-standing in 1907.[183] At Henchir Lorbs, the walls of the

mosque (perhaps once a church) were down, and some of the supports were
milestones, which pleased Gurin.[184] At Zaghouan, a temple might have been
turned directly into a mosque without any intervening church.[185] At Ngaous,
both the moesques were built from Roman remains, with three ranks of
columns in one of them.[186]
Building mosques from antiquities was not just a mediaeval pastime,
since Hassan Bey did likewise in Constantine in the mid-18th century.[187]
The marble not the antiquity might have been the attraction of the shafts, for
Salah Beys beautification of the Sidi-el-Kettani Mosque in Constantine in the
same period involved importing shafts from Livorno, surely from the Carrara
quarries.[188] Getting materials from abroad was obviously smart, and sometimes perhaps said to have happened to enhance the prestige of the building
and its builder.[189]
The Arabs and Kabyles also built fortifications for their towns, but these
were not necessarily made from antiquities. Those of Kairouan, for example,
were largely of brick;[190] they displayed no antiquities,[191] although walls within
the town and the Great Mosque did have ancient inscriptions.[192] Recycling
was also in vogue here, digging up bricks from outside the enceinte (presumably from earlier town walls) and selling them locally, because they were better-made than their modern equivalents.[193] The nearby site of Sabra may have
been antique: its bloody columns were famous,[194] and its ruin-field nearly
reached to the walls of Kairouan when Berbrugger visited here in the 1850s.[195]
Gurin, in 1862, found the ground pock-marked by excavations to extract foundation blocks for reuse.[196] At Mahdiya, the walls were in part antique[197]
(like some of the port structures), of trs bel appareil, were reworked by the
Arabs and then the Spanish,[198] and were partly destroyed by the end of the
19th century.[199] At Bechilga/Zabi, the walls were pulled down and rebuilt at
least twice, reusing the cut blocks brought from the nearby antique site.[200] At
Akontas, in the Grande Kabylie, the village was built within an ancient fortification which was, in parts, double; and other examples of reuse of antiquities
survived in the same area.[201]
One element which often reused antiquities was the Kasbah, or fortresscum-seat-of-government within an Arab town, and distinct from any surrounding town walls. At Gafsa, several parts of the Roman walls were still
visible in 1888, and according to El-Bekri they were perfect in the 11th century;
but thereafter they were destroyed in wars, and large elements of them probably went into the Kasbah, where Rozet and Carette saw a lot of antique dbris
in 1850,[202] and Gurin provides further details in 1862.[203] Such was also perhaps the fate of the ancient paving slabs de larges dalles noires semblables
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celles des rues de Florence et de Naples which Leo Africanus admired in the
16th century.[204] By the 19th century, the crumbling Kasbah was being valiantly
defended by the Turks using cannon from the time of Charles V.[205] At Le Kef,
blocks from the ancient walls also went into the Kasbah, which Gurin in 1862
noted was sufficient to hold off Arabs, but no use against a European army.[206]
Fighting the French, whose methods were fortress-and-excursion, the Arabs
also needed to use walls for protection. The complex which caught the French
imagination was Sada, Abd-el-Kaders base, built on the ruins of a Roman
town,[207] taken by the French on 16 May 1843. He also occupied Taasa, in
Morocco, with a Roman capitol and two sets of partly ruinous walls; inevitably, just as churches were often built into temples or mosques, the mosque
was built from a church.[208] Fighting from 1832 to 1847, this leader was greatly
respected by the French as the modern Jugurtha, which we might call a mix of
Saladin and Rommel. The British (perversely?) much admired him, suggesting
he fought about 10,000 troops against the French 60,000.[209] French respect
grew when they tried to sap Sadas enceinte, and failed and then saw the
marble bas-reliefs and other decorations to the leaders house, described as
une vritable bonbonnire.[210] The Kabyles were also seen as autrement
vaillante et rsolue que la race arabe,[211] partly because their mountain fastnesses were a difficult nut to crack. Several of Chams cartoons make great play
of the mountaineering aspect of French troops getting anywhere near these
worthy opponents.

Fountains and Water Supply

Tous les bourgs qui parsment la plaine de Chateaudun [Chelghoum El
Aid] se sont installs aux lieux et places des anciens villages romains et
cela parce quils ont trouv des matriaux immdiatement utilisables et
quils nont eu qu reprendre les ouvrages anciens pour leur alimentation
en eau.8
This was the case in many areas of Algeria,9 for Algeria is a land arrose par des
cours deau faibles en t, torrentueux en hiver, o leau des pluies est inconnue
pendant la plus grande partie de lanne,[212] the rainfall variable according to
8 Arrus 1985, 29, citing Birebent, J., Aquae Romanae: recherches dhydraulique romaine dans lEst
algrien, Algiers 1962.
9 Shaw 1984, passim for the subtleties and uncertainties of the French interest in Roman water
supply.
93
locality. Crucially, the country was without navigable rivers, so that movement
at the conquest had to be via paths and tracks, or along the crumbling remains
of Roman roads. Had the French thought back to their accumulated colonising and fighting experience in North America, where it was indeed rivers and
lakes, not roads, which opened up the country until the railway arrived, they
might have thought more than twice about invading Algeria, or at least studied
more closely the Romans achievement to gather, conserve, and transport
water.[213]
Thankfully, however, the country was given plentiful wells and cisterns by the
Romans, who also tapped springs and developed them into fountains, placed
as regularly as possible along their roads. Thus Fouqier, going from Constantine
to Biskra, remarked that il nest pas une seule source prs de laquelle on ne
trouve des pierres romaines.[214] Grard, writing in 1860, suggests (fancifully?)
that fig-trees on ruined sites are the descendants of those the Roman planted,
and show how close to the surface is the water.[215] Nevertheless, his general
idea is correct, for it was obvious that many elements of Roman water supply
had survived, and were still working. At Teboursouk, reservoir and fountain
basins were still going in the 1890s.[216] Later, in Tunisia, Roman sources were
refurbished: Il arrive mme que, lorsquon veut amnager une source dans
la campagne, on retrouve en la curant les restes dun puits et des galeries de
drainage en excellent tat, quil ny a qu utiliser nouveau.[217] Repairing
ancient installations to keep them going was probably not unusual elsewhere,
at least in Byzantine times,10 and in Tunisia (if rather late) the French made
several studies of ancient hydraulics.11 After all, repairing Roman cisterns was
much cheaper than building new ones.[218]
Conceivably, some deforestation since ancient times made a land more
thirsty than the Romans had known, for trees retain water. Sometimes such
degradation was put by the French at the door of Arab idleness or Turkish
insouciance,[219] although it has been argued that notions of degradation
and untapped fertility are a con-trick of the French to justify expropriation of
land.12 But then, the Romans had made the land prosperous with water supply:
cest uniquement leurs travaux hydrauliques, barrages, canaux dirrigation,
rservoirs, citernes, que les Romains avaient d un tel dveloppement de leur
occupation.[220] Hence France had a duty to study Roman techniques: Il ny
aurait, du reste, qu restaurer les merveilleux travaux de canalisation con
struits il y a plusieurs sicles par les Romains, pour rendre aux Aurs une partie
10
11
12
Vannesse 2011 for 6thC reworking at Apamea; Provost 2011 for 7thC reworking at Philippi.
Jaidi 2000.
Davis 2007.
94
chapter 2
de leur ancienne fertilit.[221] By the end of the century there was, indeed, a
long list of towns better watered from the rebuilding of Roman supply systems.
[
222] This was also the answer proffered in the early 20th century to re-fructify
the south of Tunisia la Romaine: aujourdhui peine habit et presque compltement strile, une partie de la prosprit quil a connue autrefois et dont
tmoignent les nombreuses ruines que lon y rencontre, mme dans les points
les plus dserts et les plus reculs.[223] Indeed, even for Algeria, as Lasnavres
asked in 1865, was not colony-founding enormously costly precisely because
of the waterworks needed for this land o les fivres intermittentes commandent en souveraines?[224]

The Arabs and Water

L o nous passons, tout tombe...Et ces malheureuses populations,
aujourdhui si vivaces, si belles, que deviendront-elles? Elles iront toutes
mourir de misre sur le bord dune fontaine tarie; celles qui chapperont
au dsastre viendront stioler sous les miasmes de notre civilisation
infecte, et steindre bientt.[225] [1885]
De Montagnacs sombre assessment of noxious French influence indicates

the extent of the invaders manipulation of water assets. Colonisation moved
many Arabs off their land,[226] so some Arab re-settlements, he maintained,
should have been compared with those of (often incompetent) colonists. Thus
displaced, natives could also die through lack of water, which the French used
as a political and economic weapon.13 Some Europeans, indeed, forgetting
the centuries during which they had already survived, seemed to believe
that the Arabs did not know how to deal with water supply, and would have
to be aided by the colonial administration. Le Mis de Massol wrote in 1854
that Ce sera luvre du temps et de la colonisation europenne. Il ne faut
point compter sur le travaille de la population indigne. Les maisons et
villages arabes qui sur beaucoup de points ont t construits par les soins des
bureaux arabes, nauront pas de dure; car lArabe de la plaine nentretient
rien.[227]
Water was not easily transportable in sufficient quantities for excursions
of the Army columns, and finding safe and reliable fountains originally built
by the Romans became a daily necessity. Safe, of course, because Arabs also
drank water, and used it for their crops; so that their houses and villages, so frequently built amongst Roman remains, sat right over many of the best springs.
13
Arrus 1985, 286: La raret de leau tait consciemment organise par le systme coloniale.
95
Or, near Khenchela, over a hot spring and a Roman water mill,[228] where one
water source had been repaired, but not necessarily later than the Roman
period.[229] Wells were often refurbished with antiquities, and sarcophagi used
as fountain basins.[230] Sometimes their wells retained Roman names,[231]
as of course did many towns on Roman sites.[232] Arab water-wheels were
even studied by Frenchmen.[233] While not necessarily believing that such
systems should be long-lasting, any more than should their houses,[234] they
experimented with the restoration of Roman water systems, sometimes
encountering difficulties.[235] At Dougga, for example, the aqueducts were broken, but the Bedouin in the 1720s used a spring at the bottom of the town.[236]
One project from the start of the 18th-century for the River Bagrada involved
a twenty-two-arcade bridge (built from Roman spolia, of course), for feeding
no fewer than forty-four water mills; but only four were working when
Peyssonel reported.[237] Another, near Tebourba, entailed taking stones from
an amphitheatre to build a dam; but the structure did not last.[238] At Tebessa,
the 900m of Roman aqueduct had been repaired by the Arabs so that it still
fed the town.[239] As a note to this section, we should not discount the possibility of roads being repaired by the locals, acknowledging that these do not
get reported by travellers. But when a Tunisian general in 1857 wished to form
a causeway and bridge across the Oued Halk-el-Mengel, he did it just as the
French did, by taking the blocks from ruins:
Ces matriaux ont t malheureusement emprunts, du moins en trs
grande partie, des ruines romaines et notamment au Kasr dHergla,
vaste difice dorigine byzantine construit en blocages et revtu extrieurement dun appareil de gros blocs. Un pont romain, situ en aval dans
le voisinage, a t mis galement contribution. Il en a d tre dailleurs
ainsi des ruines de Zembra, situes proximit.[240]
Nomadic tribes, of course, often stayed near Roman sites where there were
wells and fountains.[241] Settled populations also benefited from earlier installations, which they naturally had to refurbish from time to time. This happened at Algiers, where the Turks did the work, and fed the multitude of baths
and fountains there.14 At Le Kef there flowed une fontaine monumentale
qui fournit encore aux habitants une eau trs-abondante, laquelle arrive au
14
Cherif-Seffadj 2008, 4962 for water in Icosium, and in the Ottoman city; 52 on the Roman
vestiges: ce systme dadduction tait certainement sans aucune mesure avec les travaux
complexes et ingnieux des autres villes romaines algriennes comme Cherchel, Tipaza,
Timgad ou Djemila.
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moyen dun grand canal souterrain,[242] moins une source quune rivire
sortant dune caverne laquelle les indignes attribuent une tendue de plus
de 6 milles.[243] In the Hodna, although neither Carton[244] nor Foucher[245]
believed the Arabs knew how to dig them, ancient artesian wells were known
to the locals: Ces puits artsiens sont chelonns des distances presque
gales, sur le parcours dun chemin de ceinture qui faisait le tour du lac
sans jamais sen loigner de plus de 5 6 kilomtres. Les indignes assurent
quau sud-ouest du lac il existe des fontaines du mme genre, entre autres
An-el-Amia.[246] At Mahdiya, some of the Roman cisterns were still in use at
the end of the 19th century.[247] At Algiers in the 17th century, it was a Moor
expelled from Spain who built two aqueducts supplying over one hundred
fountains.[248]
Several of the dams in Algeria, first built by the Romans, were then maintained or rebuilt by later inhabitants including for French colonists.[249] Some
dams were destroyed for their materials, such as the Mechtila reservoir, for
both road and railway construction[250] while conversely some antique sites,
such as Thuburbo Minus, were rifled to provide dam walls in the Medjerda long
before the French arrived, probably by transplanted Moors from Andaluca,[251]
especially the great blocks of the amphitheatre.[252] The Arabs also maintained
and restored Roman dam systems and their canals, as at Beni Ferah in the
Aurs.[253] However, they seem to have taken a toll on sarcophagi, taking some
to Lambessa to act as fountain-basins in their village there.[254]
Despite all this evidence of Arab maintenance the French, who obviously
did not think back to Hagar and Zamzam, formed a low opinion of the Arabs
water management. Peyssonnel, travelling in 17245, condemned their laziness, and was struck by their wives trailing out in the evening to find water
for man and beast.[255] Lamoricire in 1847 noted the mess around their
wells, full of trampled holes, and Ces trous finissent par former des mares
infectes, dont les infiltrations dlayent la terre ou la maonnerie de la paroi
intrieure du puits, jusqu ce quun boulement sen suive.[256] Payen, in 1864,
like Peyssonnel, condemned them for sending their women long distances
for water rather than repairing a nearby well.[257] This is surely extrapolated
from the odd instance into a general rule, for there are plenty of well-reported
examples to the contrary. At Souk-el-Arba, when the Roman supply dried up,
the Arabs dug an adjacent well.[258] Much more normal is the continuing use
of refurbished fountains in or near their villages,[259] sometimes beautified
with masonry.[260] Sometimes these had the remains of monumental Roman
masonry, as at Hammam-Lif.[261] And Priv, in his 1895 account, finds plenty of
Arab wells, some of them refurbished Roman ones.[262] With a lower population level, it was silly to reprove the locals for not maintaining aqueducts when,
97
as at Djebel-Sgao, a fountain was adequate for irrigation.[263] So when in 1892

Berger noted that leau, en effet, est un des grands leviers de la civilisation
he was correct; but he should by this date have read enough to know that to
proclaim that lislamisme a fait le vide dans les pays que ses armes ont soumis:
leau sen retire, les terres y tarissent was incorrect.[264]
So the disparaging French assessments just cited are far from being fair,
for several reasons. The first is that the Arabs, in Periers estimation, prenaient tant de soins pour se procurer de bonne eau potable, notamment dans
les villes, et pour assurer en tout temps cette consommation[265] and the
French did not do enough to imitate them. Indeed the French, indicted as taking little account of Roman irrigation schemes,[266] destroyed irrigation systems, as at Blida, where it took only a few years to degrade the gardens: les
canaux ont t bientt obstrus, les rigoles coupes, les bassins dmolis, et
les jardins dorangers menacs de prir. The colonists would have done nothing, and luckily the Government came to the rescue. As Buret writes in 1842,
cependant il ny avait rien crer ici, mais seulement imiter et refaire.[267]
Certainly, the Arabs did not adopt the ambitious town-development schemes
of the French, but just enough to get by. At El Djem15 in 1900, for example, Rey
noted that all the Roman water systems were broken because of lincurie de
leurs successeurs but has to admit that Actuellement El-Djem avec ses puits
et ses citernes a peine leau potable ncessaire ses 2000 habitants.[268] As
for the Kabyles, La construction de leurs fontaines, les formes et les peintures
de leurs poteries dnotent un certain got, une certaine perfection dans les
arts, de la part de leurs anctres, et rappellent les antiquits romaines.[269]
The second reason is that the Arabs (naturally) had a good track-record
in water-supply, as was quite clear from any consideration of the systems in
Andaluca, for some of which the communal organisations survives to this day.
Some of these no doubt derived from the Romans, whose systems were admired
by the Arabs such as Ibn Zenbel in the 10th century.[270] At Constantine, for
example, Marmol describes the great fountain with male and female heads,
saying it was of cold water so it must have been working.[271] Most Arabs certainly knew who had built the water systems that they restored. Mac-Carthy,
mediating in a water dispute in 1857, found that the Arabs regretted their lack
of instruments and skilled workmen. So who built that barrage up there, if it
wasnt you? he asked; and got the reply: O toi, qui la clef des coffres o les
Romains ont dpos leurs tefkeras (leurs crits) ne sais-tu pas que ce sont eux
qui ont lev ce sed, cette digue.[272] Contrariwise, Berbrugger told of some
Arabs who contradicted him over local ruins: these were not Roman, they said,
15
Slim 2000 for earlier travellers accounts of the amphitheatre and site.
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but Arab.[273] For some natives, indeed, the ancient blocks held treasures, but
only Christians could open them, as Carette reported from Kabylia[274] and
Cagnat and Saladin from Tunisia[275] because it was the Christians who were
believed to have built the great towns of North Africa, such as Volubilis.[276]
Legends were related about them.[277] In both Algeria and Libya, the French
and the Italians mistakenly thought Arab dams were badly built. In their arrogance, they built what they thought of as bigger and better ones, and suffered
various disasters.16
At Tangiers, the Arabs destroyed the Roman aqueducts when the Portuguese
arrived, suggesting that they must still have been in use.[278] At Bougie, it
appears as if the Hammadites restored the aqueducts and other waterworks,
which we know from an inscription were originally set up by an engineer
of the III Augusta, from Lambessa;[279] plentiful remains of the aqueduct
survive.17 The French had not even got their act together here by 1870, for there
were still 19 Roman cisterns waiting to be put into service, qui nont besoin que
de lgres rparations.[280] This was also the case near Gafsa in the 1890s.[281]
And the Arabs were still reworking Roman systems around Tunis in the early
20th century.[282]
Had the French stopped to think and then to observe, it was obvious that
the Arabs knew more than they did about water collection, otherwise towns
in desert-like plains would have been uninhabitable. Instead, Kairouan has the
famous Aghlabid Pools,[283] and each mosque and substantial house its own
cistern.[284] Many towns and villages were watered from what were probably
Roman cisterns.[285] At Tobna, water from the river was collected in a reservoir, and used for the population and the gardens.[286] Like the Turks, or those
modern-day Romans who can identify by taste the source of the water in the
fountains around the City, they might also have been connoisseurs of water
quality the only reason Carton could give for their choosiness at KasbahOum-Mezessar.[287] At Carthage and elsewhere, they used the dry cisterns to
shelter their flocks, and took their water from wells.[288] At Fesgu-es-Srra,
there were some large cisterns, and the Arabs used a Roman well, not far from
une source appele Ain-Roumi, ou fontaine du chrtien, dernier souvenir
de lantique population qui vcut en ces lieux.[289] So perhaps cisterns were
often too large for their needs, and the water from wells would taste better.
16
17
Shaw 1984, 153: in Libya they perceived local hydraulic schemes in the wadi valleys but
mistook the simple construction of the indigenous dams for poor technological development. Brushing aside the paltry efforts of the locals, they replaced earthen dikes with
fixed, concrete dams, only to meet with abject failure.
Grewe 1998, 135139.
99
A legend in the Oued Riou associated such a Roumi with the water supply
in the district,[290] and at one site called Bordj-Roumi the Arabs attributed the
fort, well and other ruins to Romans or Christians.[291] Another legend in the
Mehmel tells of how a queen promised her daughter to whoever brought water
to her castle, though whether the lucky man lived in Roman or Arabic times
is unclear.[292] At Tozeur, the Romans certainly built a barrage, but the water
supply was maintained in later centuries, witness the fertility of the oasis.[293]
This refurbishment is confirmed by the antique blocks which border most of
the irrigation canals of the oasis.[294]
Finally, although Duveyrier in 1881 pushes the analogy too far (perhaps
adapting it from the notion of colonists as the successors to the Romans), the
idea that Arabs lived on land once occupied by Roman farms and water supplies is an attractive one: partout, on trouve des ptres faisant brouter leurs
moutons lherbe qui pousse sur les ruines des villages, des fermes, des villas
des anciens colons romains. LArabe navait pas mme crer, difier; il lui
suffisait dentretenir loeuvre de ces matres quil avait vaincus, continuer
densemencer les champs de ceux quil possdait. This task was beyond them
in Tunisia, he explains, but for political reasons, as proved by their success in
Spain.[295]

The French and Water
Even with better roads and resupply by ship from France, water had to be
found locally and, although not all Roman fortifications had water,[296] Roman
cisterns remained a staple feature of French reconnaissances in Algeria and,
later, in Tunisia,[297] where there were great problems with water supply.[298]
For example, a reconnaissance in Tunisia in 1881 noted a Roman city 16km from
El Djem with two cisterns: Dans la plus grande des deux la vote est soutenue
par 74 gros piliers en pierre de taille dun mtre de ct. Les deux citernes se
communiquent entre elles.[299] A series of itineraries from Sousse punctiliously
note all antique cisterns en route;[300] and reconnaissances between Tunis and
Zaghouan (this latter the site of still-working Roman fountains) lists cisterns
still in use, some lined with de beaux blocs rectangulaires...belles pierres
de taille, the largest some 48 feet in length.[301] Such reliance upon Roman
water supplies was far from new: further up the coast, the cisterns of Carthage
were of inestimable help to the Emperor Charles V, camped before the walls
of Tunis; and some of these were also still in use in the later 19th century.[302]
Many French commanders were struck by the abundance of Roman fountains, and their usefulness for military operations.[303] However, the Arab
possession of many sources of water in Algeria sometimes rendered them
inaccessible to the French, who therefore needed to find and be able to defend
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their own supplies. Indeed, fountains were not as useful as wells if they had
to be fought over, which sometimes happened.[304] They eventually learned
the identical lesson: by controlling the water supply, they could control both
natives and colonists.[305] Several commentators thought the French did
too little, spending less on water supply than they did on colonisation,[306]
but others believed a study of Roman hydraulics would set them on the
correct path,[307] while thermal springs should prove a draw-card for attracting colonists.[308] This view was partly mistaken, because some water systems
could not be identified at ground level, and their discovery would need extensive research.18
In the towns or fortresses that they captured, French officers were often
confronted by flowing springs, but with the Roman conduits to fountains in
ruins. At Bne these were still in evidence, and it was cisterns that fed the
inhabitants,[309] and sometimes sheltered them and their livestock.[310] At
Tipasa in 1834, Colonel Prtot noted that there was water, et probablement
aussi des fontaines et des Aqueducs quon retrouverait sous les dblais, et que
lon pouvait restaurer.[311] This certainly happened in the following decades,
Ratheau praising one such restoration for its elegance: je vous citerai comme
type dlgance une fontaine dont on a retrouv et rassembl presque tous les
morceaux, et qui est un vritable chef duvre de got: nos architectes pourraient sen inspirer dans leurs fontaines publiques.[312] At Djidjelli by 1840, one
Roman fountain fed the troops gardens,[313] while another was discovered and
brought back into use when draining nearby land.[314] At Philippeville in 1850
the French uncovered a monumental fountain but apparently did not restore
it. They were then using some cisterns as food stores;[315] another was cleaned
up and restored by the Military Engineers, including its conduits to a source
4km from the town;[316] and the Fort dOrlans had its own cisterns.[317]
But most French efforts to secure water supplies were spasmodic and shortterm. Perhaps this is why Lestiboudois in 1853 bemoaned the fact that nous
navons presque rien fait en ce genre [building aqueducts]; nous sommes rests
admirateurs inactifs des Romains ou des Maures: on a retrouv et restaur les
18
Shaw 1984, 125126: In their singleminded search for hydraulic schemes which were
Roman the surveyors were attracted almost involuntarily to ruins which were readily and obviously recognizable as such. They collated the monumental systems which
were so pre-eminently suited to cataloguing in intricate and seemingly unending lists,
never questioning whether or not these water systems were to be connected with the
hypothetical more prosperous African past. The boring catalogues of countless wells,
cisterns, storage basins, and aqueducts rightly struck the intuitive and questioning Carton
as lacking any firm methodology or direction, and as arid as any desert in their monotonie
dsesprante.
101
rservoirs ou citernes du Vieil-Arzeu, de Tlemcen, de Stora, de Philippeville,

de Constantine qui donnent une si haute ide de la puissance des anciens
possesseurs de lAfrique.[318] Even the early Christians restored aqueducts, as
inscriptions at Chemtou proclaimed,[319] so why did not the French do so more
frequently? Eventually, however, fountains of Roman origin in French settlements would be rebuilt and decorated with antiquities, as at Cherchel[320]
and Guelma.[321] This generally meant refurbishment of supply and storage
facilities (aqueducts and cisterns). Thus at both Stora and Philippeville, it
was clear that supply could be provided by restoring the Roman cisterns.[322]
Just why waterworks at Tunis took so long is a mystery, but one author attributes it to the lackadaisical attitude of the Bey, even when provided with
French help.[323]
In the countryside, however, defensible way-stations, the modern equivalent
of the mansiones on Roman roads, were essential if communications and easy
movement were to be maintained. On campaign, the availability of water dictated both routes and bivouacs. Indeed, On nest presque jamais matre de sa
route,[324] and Il faut coucher sur un cours deau.[325] Fortunately, many fountains were still running, as a French column found at Aoun-el-Arba in 1841,[326]
or later travellers near Stif,[327] or at Sidi-Mohammed.[328] Indeed, the intelligent colonists seemed (perhaps naturally) to have a better idea about water
acquisition than the town-dwellers. The method was, of course, to look around
for Roman springs or wells. Near Auzia in 1896, a landowner dug for water,
and dcouvrit une belle fontaine romaine quil neut qu curer et rparer; la
source quil mit au jour donne une eau excellente et en grande quantit.[329]
Newspaper adverts selling houses could also make a point of mentioning
water, as did one for a property in 1889, 32km from Tunis: Deux puits, dont un
romain, avec eau abondante.[330] At the new village of Sig, a fte was organised
to celebrate the new water lock, designed by Capitaine Chapelain: Nothing
could be grander than the masonry of this work. It was more than a hundred
feet broad, built of great stone blocks, nearly all taken from Roman ruins.[331]
The local Arabs did their own celebrating, by riding along the irrigation channels firing their guns.[332] But at Souk-el-Mitou in 1870 things were going badly,
the colonists demanding help although leau est presque la surface du sol,
et seize fontaines romaines qui existaient ont t abandonnes.[333]
From the Conquest until the Ponts et Chausses took over for civilian
administration (the dates varying area to area) the task of the engineers
was not only to build, but also to discover and repair, or build, water supply
systems. Presumably this latter task was no part of their army training, and
they picked it up as they went along hence the often slow provision of permanent supplies. Indeed, it sometimes seemed as if they were expected to
do everything:
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chapter 2
Les officiers du gnie se sont faits architectes, agents voyers, conducteurs

des ponts et chausses. Ils ont ouvert les premires carrires, construit
des fours chaux, des pltrires, des briqueteries; cest eux que lon doit
la premire exploitation des belles forts de lAlgrie.[334]
In 1861 Fillias proclaimed that the glory of the Army was less in military success than in the works of peace: chaque anne, durant sept mois, cinquante
ou soixante mille hommes taient chelonns au travers de la contre, pour
ouvrir des routes, dsscher les marais, combler les fondrires, abaisser les
montagnes, faire des ponts, des barrages, btir dans les tribus des maisons de
commandement, sur les chemins des caravansrails, et crer dans le dsert
des oasis nouvelles[335] seven months only, because the weather made such
work impossible for the remainder of each year. This was but following what
the Arabs had done, sometimes building beside Roman roads by refurbishing
an antique structure, such as a Byzantine fortress.[336]
At Orlansville (settled in 1843), it took several years to trace and repair existing supplies, until when water was very expensive.[337] The antique remains
there were probably further devastated by the Gnies use in the winter of 1850
of plusieurs centaines dArabes faire des fouilles et dblayer le terrain sur
lequel devaient tre places les nouvelles constructions.[338] At Tebessa, by
1860 the French had heightened the Roman aqueduct (in use under the Turks),
restored the chteau deau, led pipes into the town, and even had enough to
water the gardens.[339] By 1885 with an expanding population, another chteau deau was constructed, and water piped into every European house.[340]
According to Pchot, all that was required was the repair of the existing Roman
system.[341] Near the town, at Henchir-El-Aussas, the restoration of the old
Roman settlement and its cisterns was contemplated (if only by an archaeologist), pour le grand bien des indignes.[342]

Water Capture and Storage
If fountains could supply an army on the march, town and barracks life
required much larger quantities. Aqueducts, like roads, were a tell-tale sign of
Roman occupation and, of course, many went underground for most of their
trajectory. Some were still working, and several had naturally been repaired by
the Arabs. As Shaw reminds us, these are systems for feeding people gathered
together in towns, and agricultural water systems were often much more difficult to discover and hence to refurbish.19
19
Shaw 1984, 133: The distinction between urban (consumptive) and rural (productive)
water systems, though recognized by some scholars at an early date, was more often than
not ignored, even in detailed recording of the aquae romanae.
103
The Romans had built large cisterns, often in series as at Carthage, and coated
them in waterproof cement. In many cases, these were easy to restore, after their
existing inhabitants (families, animals) had been expelled. Unfortunately, the
French dealt in a piecemeal manner with such surviving antiquities, leaving
each village or town to make its own arrangements. Very late, however, in 1896,
this changed, presumably because increased settlement led to an increasing
demand for water. A round-robin went out from the Governor General to all
communes, including native ones, giving instructions for finding and assessing
ancient cisterns and other local hydraulics. Predictably, most communes sent
in a null return,[343] although some detailed descriptions were received.[344]
Dams are simply open-air cisterns which capture rain and river water
directly. The Romans built them throughout Algeria, and their ruins were
still being refurbished in the early 20th century, as at the colonist village of
Carnot.[345] However, they were expensive and time-consuming to build,
Rousset proclaiming in 1882 that prosperity would be the result of State help:
Si lEtat offrait seulement des garanties dintrts, ou si la loi permettait la
vente aux Europens des terres laisses incultes par lindigne, les barrages
sortiraient du sol par enchantement, et avec eux la prosprit du pays et
des colons.[346] But who would provide des subsides pour ses routes, ses
barrages, ses reboisements, ses chemins de fer?[347] Hence the temptation,
voiced at Constantine, to restore Roman dams cheaply: Le travail serait peu
coteux, puisquon pourrait utiliser les importantes et solides constructions
qui affleurent encore le sol.[348] Nattes proposal for a farm-village at Tipasa,
on the other hand, seemed to envisage the need only to replace stones tumbled down by the current.[349] Much the same seems to have been the case
at Amourah (Dollfusville) although, comfortingly, this was itself located on a
Roman site.[350]

Zaghouan and the Aqueduct to Carthage
Zaghouan, with its triumphal arch and nymphaeum, incorporated many
antiquities in its more modern structures,[351] mosques as well as houses.[352]
The nymphaeum was in ruins, The columns are overthrown, the niches
are empty, and the carved capitals have been removed.[353] This was the
feed-point for the famous and very conspicuous aqueduct to Carthage, over
50km distant (as the bird flies, but the aqueduct meandered over 80km), part
of it built up on high arcades. It was a splendid piece of engineering, but its
length and the attraction of its blocks for reuse made its restoration a difficult proposition. Some complete arcades had fallen, and others had lost most
of their stones.[354] Some repairs were indeed made in later centuries, as
the tell-tale reuse of blocks with inscriptions indicated.[355] Attempts were
made to repair it under the early Arabs but, according to accounts, these
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were unsuccessful.[356] By El-Kairouanis day (the later 17thC), une partie de

cet aqueduc a t dtriore dans les guerres intestines dont notre pays a t
le thtre,[357] perhaps by abstracting some of its stones for fortifications; and
he underlined its great length.[358] In the French refurbishment, much of the
Roman structure could not of course be used, and iron pipes were to be substituted supposedly guaranteed by the entrepreneur for only three years![359]
Presumably this was another cost-cutting measure, for money was traditionally
lavished on frivolities rather than essentials.[360] Certainly, this resource was
much vandalised: as Gurin reported in 1862, les pieds-droits ont t presque
tous dpouills des belles pierres de taille qui les revtaient jadis[361] but
soon, he wrote, the aqueduct coulera de nouveau dans le canal rpar.[362] In
fact, one of the reasons that new underground piping was much used in the
refurbishment, was that it proved impractical to repair the arcaded section of
the aqueduct because so much of the stone had already been removed.
Water from Zaghouan was supplied by an aqueduct to Carthage. Well before
the French invasion of 1881, the French were undertaking waterworks at Tunis.
Gurin wrote in 1862 that they were en ce moment sous la direction claire
dingnieurs franais et sous lactive impulsion que leur donne le patronage de
M. le consul gnral de France. The Carthage aqueduct would deliver une eau
intarissable et limpide qui circulera par mille canaux travers la ville.[363] This
was accomplished by the Beys French engineer, and involved refurbishment
not only of sections of the Zaghouan aqueduct, but also of cisterns.[364] The
cost was large.[365]
Repairing the Zaghouan aqueduct was a project the French consul,
M. Roche, had pressed the Bey to undertake (with French engineers)[366] two
decades before the French took over Tunisia. Work was indeed started, but
abandoned, probably because of the hostility of the locals,[367] who may have
considered the arches of the aqueduct a good source of building materials.
This might also have been the reason for local hostility in 1732 to Hebenstreit
at nearby Bagia.[368]

Hot Springs
The Arabs were enthusiastic attendees at Roman hot and curative springs,[369]
and probably kept several flowing, even if their architectural adornments
were often left in a degraded condition: the Arabs call all the thermal springs
Hammam (baths a frequent toponym), and add the name of the next tribe
to designate the locality.[370] Paths leading to such a spring were a sure sign of
Arab use, as were adjacent Byzantine forts.[371] At Tobna, where in 1901 Arab
villagers were scrabbling amidst the dry land, there had been a well-watered
bath in the 13th century, part-built from the Roman ruins on the site, and
105
perhaps fed from the cisterns in the Byzantine fort.[372] El-Hamma was particularly popular, not least because it had four springs of hot water. It once had
several inscriptions, and plentiful Roman remains survived.[373] There were
unmistakeable signs of an Arabic bath, and also of its ruins having been reused
in the surrounding villages[374] a sure index of the sites populariy. Some
rebuilding would be therefore be a boon: cest encore faire uvre scientifique
que dlever logiquement ldifice franais sur les substructions romaines.[375]
Donau in 1908 reckoned the complex had been restored several times,[376] and
is surely correct: such a delicious setup would have continued in popularity
down the ages. This site was on a scale the Arabs easily got used to. As for the
large sets of Roman baths that graced smallish town sites, the Arabs probably
got to North Africa too late to save or restore any of them.20
The French quickly discovered Algerias hot springs, and they were of course
a prized relaxation for the troops.[377] Hammam-Berda was a favourite camp for
the French, and the troops quickly built a small fort from its ruins which could
hold a company.[378] The soldiers could also relax every day in the small Roman
basin (the larger one was in ruins).[379] Similarly Aquae Calidae was popular,
and the French restored the basins near to the ruins of the Roman post.[380]
The French published lists of them Bertherand counted 90 in 1860, suggested
selling bottled water from one[381] and targeted them as part of a putative
Algerian tourist industry. In 1878 Bertherand, a doctor, catalogued their curative
properties, and kept a weather eye open for other advantages, such as enough
water to turn a mill, or irrigate fields.[382] A special focus of French development plans was Hamman Meskoutine,[383] which had a Byzantine fort on the
site, and an Arabic marabout, plus a large quantity of ancient blocks many of
which had gone into local Arab houses.[384] (As Carette remarked, La pit
musulmane est paresseuse; quand elle honore ses derviches, cest toujours
aux dpens de lantiquit.[385]) This site was 40km from Guelma, supported
by the Emperor, and restored by the Duc dAumale as a curative bath for
wounded soldiers.[386] The hope was that it would eventually attract winter
trade, for the establishment rivalisera avec les plus beaux dEurope, et les
surpassera cause de la douceur du climat qui permettra de les frquenter
en plein hiver, dans la saison o ceux du continent sont ferms.[387] It also
possessed, naturally, ruines romaines qui fourniraient une grande quantit de
pierres tailles.[388] By 1891 the site had been much changed.[389] In terms of
travelling time, it was now nearer to Guelma, for by railway it was only 18km
20
Thbert 2003 for a well-illustrated typological catalogue; 421433 for Architecture thermale tardo-antique et mdivale; but little attention paid to the later history of such
structures, or to stone-robbing.
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distant[390] that same railway which had helped the sites development by
puncturing yet more channels in the ground.[391] By 1911 there was an Htel des
Bains here, antiquities gathered into its garden, and the ruined Roman baths
themselves.

Barracks and Hospitals

La colonisation franaise semble avoir tout autant dtruit, dans son activit pour btir, que les Arabes pendant leur domination de onze sicles.
La pire ennemie des monuments anciens, cest la civilisation, car devant
le nouveau le vieux doit se retirer.[392] [1900]
Schultens comment certainly applied to the French rush to construct shelter

for their troops. Barracks and hospitals go naturally together, because they
were the largest weather-tight buildings on any encampment and because
if a soldier wasnt on patrol or in his barracks, he was in the hospital. At the
invasion, troops were provided with tents, and decades later canvas was still in
use for expeditionary columns (which sometimes found antiquities while setting up their shelter).[393] Permanence demanded barracks and hospitals for,
if soldiers were to fight efficiently, they needed to be housed in dry and sanitary conditions, and cared for when they were wounded or ill. In Algeria, the
matter was especially pressing, since sickness killed more soldiers than enemy
action. If military medecine receives publicity for its good qualities only from
the Crimean Campaign, the French were well aware of the appalling sickness
and death rates of their troops from 1830 onwards.[394]
Medicine would eventually improve the life-expectancy and decrease the
perinatal mortality of the natives sufficiently for them to outnumber the
French more and more. In the early decades medical requirements meant
building hospitals and improving the health of their own troops. How was this
to be done? It was to be principally the work, yet again, of the Engineers
the Gnie Militaire.[395] If the eventual solution was to erect purpose-built
hospitals, the first one was to find a solid building suitable for conversion.
In Arab towns, however, public buildings similar to those in France (town
halls, market halls, theatres) did not exist. Community life took place in palaces and mosques (especially the latter), so these, often the only sizeable and
solid structures, were frequently requisitioned. Palaces made splendid HQs
for commanding generals; while mosques, often built on ancient foundations
or at least in part with ancient materials, could make fine hospitals, such as
the large mosque at the western end of the Kasbah at Algiers.[396] With their
arcading, what is more, they often looked like traditional French hospitals
107
(such as Beaune). Colonel Charon, in charge of the Gnie in Algeria, considered only the local architecture to be a suitable model for new constructions another reason for taking over mosques and converting them into
hospitals.[397]
Hospitals sometimes went up quickly, but were never adequate for the
numbers of sick and wounded. The Duc dOrlans supposedly hit the hospital
at Stif like a whirlwind, prescribing much for the amelioration of conditions
and care;[398] but whether this was just the traditional trope of the benevolent prince floating down on clouds of concern, and whether any improvement actually happened as a result, is impossible to determine. But he was
also vivement mu by hospital conditions at Constantine, and had the worst
cases transferred to the palace in which he was living.[399]
Because of the scale of sickness and injury, such makeshift accommodation was common. Cherchel, for example, had such a hospital by 1848,[400] and
this converted mosque boasted nearly a hundred columns of considerable
beauty, and of the hardest porphyry,[401] which a later commentator thought
to be green granite,[402] and another suggested came from a temple.[403]
Not only were the columns splendid, but their capitals were admirablement
sculpts.[404] The site was obviously rich in antiquities, because digging a
drain on the site in 1861 uncovered a large number of columns, capitals and
cornices, all in white marble.[405] But provision for the colonists was worse,
Barbier lamenting in 1855 their lack of churches and hospitals.[406] Some military colonies fared better, Qutin noting the low illness levels at Beni-Mered
because of hospitals as well as the necessary quinine sulphate.[407]
Some French travellers believed the Romans themselves had hospitals in
Algeria,[408] but many others were fully aware of the deplorable state of accommodation for their own soldiers for many years after the conquest. Algiers was
the exception, perhaps because it was the arrival point from France, and at
first make-and-mend applied along the coast, reusing Turkish positions.[409]
The army estimates for 1837[410] were of 5,300,000 francs for defensive works,
and 6,100,000 for barracks and hospitals a good indication, because it used
the term fortifications permanentes, that the French were now (as it were)
entrenched in Algeria. This permanence of construction was later (and
apparently without irony) compared to the solidity of Roman buildings[411]
although, as we frequently learn throughout this book, army work was shoddy.
Some French commentators may have had a conscience about their depradations, so cast aspersions on the living standards of the locals. Neveu-Derotrie,
for example, looking back on 1830 from 1878, disparaging the locals for their
masures infectes and the unused remains vou au repos par la paresse des
habitants.[412]
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Other towns needed smaller hospitals, but these were still built from ancient
blocks. Guelma was nothing but ruins when the French arrived in 1836, but by
1847 had three sets of barracks housing 900 men, plus a hospital for 120, and a
projected 50-plus houses.[413] At Cherchel, the blocks from the theatre went to
build barracks, so that by 1905 peu dhabitants savent-ils aujourdhui pourquoi
la rue qui mne ce trou bant sappelle rue du Thtre.[414] Oran, already
much mangled by centuries of European occupation, was further devastated
by the French, who built a barracks in the coliseum from Roman blocks, and
les vandales modernes tant passs par l, et ils ny ont laiss que ce quils
nont pas pu enlever.[415] At Le Kef it was blocks from the amphitheatre which
went to build barracks, the structure being unearthed following a dig ordered
by the commanding general.[416] Similarly Mda, reached in 1840, was nothing but a field of ruins, with more substructures discovered when the military
hospital was built.[417] Philippeville, another town built on ruins, still lacked
public buildings (prison, school, court) in 1848, but already had barracks for
4000 troops, and a military hospital for 800 to 900 men, giving some idea of
the alarming ratio of sick to duty-ready troops.[418] The cavalry barracks there
were constructed entirely from the blocks of the amphitheatre.[419] In 1859
building work at Stif, including the hospital rising from a sea of enormous
antique blocks, reminded one visitor of Virgils description of the building of
Carthage.[420] That hospital at Stif was certainly necessary: in 1842, one regiment had already spent two winters under canvas, and must have been thankful for the first barracks building yet no less than one-third of that structure
was given over to form the military hospital.[421] At Sousse, the Kasbah was
taken over for barracks, the only compensation being that les tirailleurs ont
runi dans leur salle dhonneur un vritable muse romain.[422]
Disparities between Roman grandeur and the plight of French troops
impressed the Duc dOrlans when he visited the magnificent ruins of
Djemila in 1839, used by the French for protection.[423] Some of the ruins,
according to local memory, had only recently collapsed.[424] He marked the
triumphal arch for transport to Paris, having the stones numbered, and wishing for it to be inscribed LARMEE DAFRIQUE A LA FRANCE.[425] But he also
contrasted such grandeur with the plight of his men: Il ny a ni casernes ni
hpital. Des hommes entasss sous des tentes malsaines, trop froides et trop
chaudes, excutant dans les chaleurs les plus fortes, comme pendant les pluies,
dimmenses travaux de terrassement, ont t dcims par la maladie.[426] No
wonder he wished his army to be commemorated: La garnison du camp de
Djemilah comprenait 600 hommes; elle fut attaque au mois de dcembre 1838
par plusieurs milliers dArabes et de Kabyles qui lenveloprent de toutes parts;
109
le terrain du camp tait domin par les alentours et protg par une simple
palissade; les Arabes avaient dtourn lunique source qui alimentait le camp,
en sorte que leau manquait. Fortunately, the siege was lifted by dArbouville
and the 26e Rgiment de Ligne.[427] But difficulties never entirely vanished:
Laurent Herbiets 2006 film Mon Colonel shows the pieds-noirs in 1956 going
for a picnic from Saint-Arnaud to Djemila, along a road recently swept by
troops, preceded by light tanks, and with an aircraft overhead.

Road, Bridge and Farm Building with Antiquities

Sagissait-il dtablir un camp, de btir une caserne, dempierrer une
route, de jeter un pont, ou de bien moins encore, dune maison reparer, dune grange branlante soutenir, sans hsiter, par conomie de
temps et dargent, on cherchait dans la mine la plus proche les matriaux
ncessaires, et, loin dintervenir pour arrter ces dmolitions dplorables,
ladministration elle-mme sen faisait complice. Dans les cahiers des
charges proposs aux entrepreneurs, elle prvoyait, autorisait et encourageait les travaux excuts en matriaux antiques, et, il y a quelques annes
peine, dans les cartons dun grand service public Alger, on trouvait la
liste mthodique et fort longue des monuments romains propres tre
exploits comme carrire![428] [1892]
Admiration for Roman monuments and roads did not prevent the administration from continually conspiring with entrepreneurs, as Diehl maintains. They
reused the ruins in their road-building (even, in one of their worst cases of
vandalism, an Arab cemetery at Algiers[429]). This was inevitable, unless they
were simply to repopulate the very same settlements and rebuild them.[430]
The overarching reason was cheapness, so we find Bugeaud in the Chamber in
1845 assuring the senators of the usefulness of his Army following three days
rest after campaigning: L, ils font une route, un difice, ils construisent un
pont. Ils travaillent toujours, quand ils ne combattent pas.[431] The push to use
soldiers for construction work was perhaps constant, the Chef de Gnie at Stif
in 1878 extolling speed as well as cheapness, whereas employing civilian contractors depleted the budget:
On a commis une grande erreur en cessant dutiliser les bras vigoureux
de larme, et un grand retard dans le dveloppement de la colonie
en confiant les travaux dont it sagit au service civil, vu que les moyens
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daction sont en gnral trs-restreints, et que les dpenses pour le personnel ne laissent pas que de faire de fortes brches dans les crdits
allous, et partout peu de travaux excuts.[432]
For if the road was not yet built, by definition materials could not be fetched
from the quarry; but since the new roads (as we have seen) usually followed
the ancient ones, and since the ancient ones were lined with ruins, engineers
and workmen military and civil simply reused what they found conveniently
close to hand. Thus whole Arab villages, and new French ones, as well as roads,
were constructed from nearby ruins.[433] This was the vandalisme des Services
publics, as Vars called the process in 1896.[434]
Any bonuses from French road-work were generally meagre, and involved
the fortuitous discovery of antiquities. Near Bordj-el-Messaoudi in the 1890s,
parts of a villa with mosaics and plaster were found, and two large marble
statues Seule la tte de lhomme a disparu, soit quelle ait t enleve, soit
enfuie que la fouille nait pas t pousse assez loin et quelle soit encore en
terre.[435] At Hergla, however, a new road cut through a mosaic, and this
was clearly done in full knowledge of the prominent ruins all around.[436]
And at Lambessa, road-workers uncovered parts of an important inscription while searching for materials.[437] In 1888 the cemetery near Ain-Tounga
yielded several inscriptions; here the entrepreneur informed the authorities
and, eventually, 426 stelai were unearthed.[438] So disruptive was road-making
that, in those areas where it declined over time, so also did the discovery of
inscriptions.[439]
Bridges were an integral part of road-building, and their construction often
involved reusing sections of Roman bridges, which might still have water running beneath them or, in several cases, be standing high and dry because the
bed of the river had moved, or because the rate of flow had changed.[440] In
most cases, as for the Seybouse (which was rich in Roman remains),[441] it was
a matter of sending engineers to confirm that the old Roman blocks could be
reused[442] for arched openings would probably have taken more skill than
was available locally to cut from fresh stone. Thus the French destroyed a
Roman bridge on the line of the Zaghouan-Carthage aqueduct at the Oued
Melian, where iron pipes replaced some sections of the ancient channel.
This conveniently left arcades for further plundering, which happened when
a bridge (which could apparently have been constructed higher up, leaving
the arcading standing) was built with its blocks.[443] In this case the French
engineers did indeed build arches, but these might also have been formed
from the Roman ones they demolished; in any case, the argument for building on the same spot rather than up-river (and thus leaving the remains of
111
the Roman bridge alone) was that they wished to place the new structure on
the solid foundations of the old one.[444] Blocks for another modern bridge
over the Oued Melian were taken from a nearby henchir, but their description resided by 1862 only in the memory of a local land-owner.[445] This indeed
constituted a mission civilisatrice of a different order, completed possibly
because of a lack of pile-driving expertise, but certainly in order to save money.
For the same reason, any nearby antiquities were reused for bridge-building,
as for the bridge over the Oued Semsen in 1886, for which a cemetery was
plundered.[446] Tissot in 1881 in the Bagrada Basin knew of one perfectly
preserved Roman bridge dmoli par nos ingnieurs, ces matriaux ont t
employs la construction dun nouveau pont auquel je souhaite la mme
dure and piles of ancient materials near the site of another bridge awaiting
construction.[447] But he also described in 1888 a three-arched bridge in the
valley of the Oued Badja, over the Medjerda, approached by the Roman road,
with pavements for pedestrians, and lacking only its guard-rails.[448] This survival was balaced by the disappearance of ruins to build a crossing over another
tributary, the Oued-Kessab: Les ruines de Novis Aquilianis ont presque compltement disparu...Cinq ou six fts de colonne et quelques pierres oublies
sont tout ce qui reste aujourdhui de la station romaine.[449]
In any discussion on reuse of antiquities, building roads can not be easily
separated from building farms. Most farms, after all, were established where
there was a road, water (usually a Roman spring or well) and Roman ruins.
Farms and villages will be dealt with at greater length in Chapter 8. Troops
were employed in building houses for colonists as well as roads; and Lunel in
1848 writes that both were done badly:
Ces maisons mal construites sont inhabitables; quant aux routes, elles
nexistent quen projet dans les cartons des officiers du gnie, dont le personnel se renouvelle chaque anne; des comits militaires, et non des
agriculteurs, ont dsign lemplacement des villages, qui, au lieu davantages agricoles, nen possdent que de stratgiques.[450]
Such precautions were necessary, of course, but protection is not always conducive to farming. Naturally, farm buildings and roads went together: there was
no point in having a farm if its produce could not efficiently be taken to market. Hence at Djebel-Sgao in 1881, a farm was described, near to un amoncellement assez considrable de pierres de dimensions diverses dont une partie est
entre dans les murs de la ferme et lautre a servi ferrer la route de Mila.[451]
Digging for stone could also turn up antiquities, which were then used to
decorate farms, as at An Tebinet.[452] In the years before the invention of the
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bulldozer, column-shafts were used for rolling the pebbled surface flat;[453] just
as, sliced up, they made excellent millstones. This appears to have happened
on a large scale at El Djem,[454] where it is possible that the columns of a very
fine temple were used, so that only its foundations remained by 1835.[455] This
is the site where, supposedly, Mohammed Bey used cannon to destroy enough
of the walls so that it could not be used as a refuge by bedouin.[456]

Prehistoric Antiquities
Although the theme of this book concentrates on Roman antiquities, prehistoric remains were a great discovery of the 19th century and were attractive
to scholars. In Algeria, where there were once some spectacular collections at
least as important as some of those in Brittany, they suffered alongside later
stones, being broken up and reused. Perhaps like centuriation, their invisibility in the early decades of the conquest illustrates the fact that not looking
leads to not seeing. As Fergusson points out in 1872, an author writing on the
subject ten years ago would have been fully justified in making the assertion
that there were no dolmens there. Yet now we know that they exist literally in
thousands.[457] This was certainly not an exaggeration, since Mac-Carthy in
1851 counted and measured 300 of them at one site.[458] Indeed dolmens, which
had surely been reused in later constructions for centuries, were not identified
as prehistoric until the early 1870s; but they then turned up in large quantities. At Sigus, for example, in 1881 dolmens were destroyed, dont les dalles
servaient faire les bons chemins du voisinage. But the scholars made less of a
song-and-dance about such antiquities because they did not bear Latin inscriptions, and therefore were unable to participate in the French-as-Romans
narrative.
In 1872 Commandant Payen reported that there were upward of 10,000
menhirs around the Stif region, one supposedly 52 feet high.[459] Such
numbers are a triumph of collecting that would put epigraphers to shame!
And soon enough, they were being regularly noted by scholars.[460] By 1888
Lieut-Colonel Mercier (an Engineer with the Brigades Topographiques, who
frequently published his findings) was collecting them vigorously, just as he
did inscriptions and other types of antiquities.[461] He was praised in military
journals for his work.[462] Bourjade, who saw many around Aumale, noted
the Arabs referred to them only as old stones, and that there seemed to be no
ancestral traditions associated with them.[463] And by 1900, as road-building
increased in Algeria, Signor Bellini and his men knew of a location Snam,
meaning idols or big stones and took the narrator there, where megalithic
113
remains were to be seen in profusion;[464] such monuments were to be studied

as intensively as Roman ones.21 Here he watched stones being broken up and
loaded onto camels, but managed to make some measurements, and at least
could gather some flint tools: Bellini, seeing us interested, stood by answering all questions to the best of his ability, and evidently sorry that his pocket
and his inclination pulled different ways: he promised to preserve from further
interference some of the finest jambs, and with that we had to be satisfied.[465]
Just as the reuse of Roman antiquities did not decline over time, neither did
that of prehistoric remains. On the plateau at Guyotville, near Algiers, an area
rich in various kinds of ruins,[466] by the 1890s there were only 18 dolmens out
of a known count of over 300 and which survived only because they were on
the property of M. le professeur Kuster qui sest fait un devoir de les conserver
la science.[467]
By late in the 19th century, some commentators were becoming disturbed
by the amount of damage occasioned not just by colonists, but by archaeologists as well. Leclerc de Pulligny explains:
En France aussi, nos vieux dolmens passaient pour renfermer des trsors,
mais ils taient respects ainsi que leurs lgendes, et ils seraient probablement encore intacts, sans le zle de certains savants de lcole moderne,
iconoclastes de profession, qui brisent, non pour clairer la science, mais
pour enrichir leur propre collection de quelques dbris de poterie ou de
silex dont nos muses regorgent aujourdhui.[468]
This was to continue with the specific advice of Cagnat and his colleagues in
1890, which evidently threw caution to the winds with, for example, instructions for dealing with Punic necropoleis: Si on a la bonne fortune den rencontrer une, il ne faudra pas hsiter y tenter des fouilles mthodiques a clear
invitation to plunder.[469]

Conclusion: Water and Roads
In 1830 the French Army did not plan for a permanent occupation of Algeria,
so it is unsurprising that many of its initial constructions and engineering
works in this unknown land were temporary and sometimes of very poor
quality; they impeded rather than aided the military actions against hostile
natives. The arrival of colonists was both to complicate and extend the tasks
21
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traditionally executed by an army. Neither colonists nor soldiers could have

survived without making extensive use of the ruined but much more substantial Roman infrastructure, and this reuse will be examined in depth in the following chapters. The two major factors in this establishment period are water
and roads. Despite the evident and frequent refurbishment by Arabs of fountains and cisterns, the French rarely listened to the locals who had lived there
for centuries, considering that they knew better. As the century wore on, yet
more Roman systems were repaired, studied and brought back into service.
And as the French thirst to occupy the wole of the country increased, so roads
became an even greater problem than water supply, and will be examined in
Chapter 4.
1 Bourin_1887_342343
2 Buret_1842_197198
[ ]
3 Enfantin_1843_228
[ ]
4 Ibid., 220
[ ]
5 Fabar_1847_26
[ ]
6 Anon_1841_45
[ ]
7 Duvivier_1845_444
[ ]
8 Bonnal_1847_1314
[ ]
9 Anon_1881_56
[ ]
10 Baude_1841_II_5960
[ ]
11 Lunel_1869_87
[ ]
12 Fillias_1860_324
[ ]
13 Moll_1845_I_251
[ ]
14 Desjobert_1844_1617
[ ]
15 Dino_1847_6
[ ]
1840_5
[ ]
17 Plion_1838_1314
[ ]
18 Delamare_1850B_12
[ ]
19 Gsell_1912_III
[ ]
20 Mauroy_1852_2829
[ ]
21 Renier_1852_337
[ ]
22 Berbrugger_1857_1415
[ ]
23 Wagner_1841_I_181
[ ]
24 Quesnoy_1888_X
[ ]
25 Lecoy_de_la_Marche_
1894
[ ]
26 Saladin_1893_102
[ ]
27 Chabaud-Latour_1855_
78
28]Fraud_1875_56 1838
29]Bugeaud_1922_224225
[ ]
30 CAOM 2N75 Monuments
antiquits, 1853
[ ]
31 RA_ 1837_11
[ ]
32 Schefer_1916_3031
[ ]
33 Graham_1902_171
[ ]
34 RDM 18 April 1847
[ ]
35 Feline_1846_13
[ ]
36 SHD Gnie 8.1 Bougie
18331840
[ ]
37 Lestiboudois_1853_
246247
[ ]
38 Poujoulat_1847_I_3435
[ ]
39 De_Montagnac_1885_
194195
[ ]
40 SHD MR1316 items 1415
[ ]
41 SHD MR1315 item 4
[ ]
42 St_Marie_1846_94
[ ]
43 SHD MR882 item 2
[ ]
44 Trumelet_1887_I_
291292
[ ]
45 SHD Gnie 8. 1 Cherchel
18404
[ ]
46 Ibid., Projets pour 1841
[ ]
47 SHD MR1314 35 Cherchel
[ ]
48 Anon_1845_94
[ ]
49 Sriziat_1886_39
[ ]
50 Graham_and_Ashbee_
1887_135
[ ]
[ ]
51]Rousset_1900_II_132
November 1835
[ ]
52 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_
105106
[ ]
53 Poujoulat_1847_I_299
[ ]
54 Ibid., 211
[ ]
55 Dieuzaide_1883_II_
131132
[ ]
56 Genie 8.1, Guelma,
Carton 1, 18371847
[ ]
57 Watbled_1870_269270
[ ]
58 Piesse_1862_470
[ ]
59 SHD H226 Mmoires
divers 18358
[ ]
60 LAvenir de Guelma
11 November 1926
[ ]
61 SHD H226 Mmoires
divers 18358
[ ]
62 Vigneral_1867_78
[ ]
63 Watbled_1870_277278
[ ]
64 Gsell_1901_II348349
[ ]
65 Frisch_1899_181
[ ]
66 Waille_1884_458
[ ]
67 Charmasson_1925_444
[ ]
68 Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_
1838_10
[ ]
69 Fabre_de_Navacelle_
1876B_25
[ ]
70 Ancien_payeur_1833_
3738

71 Jomard_1865_165166
72]Decker_1844_I_118241
[ ]
73 Gsell_1901_I_152
[ ]
74 Plion_1838_86
[ ]
75 Bernelle_1892_497
[ ]
76 Robert_1899_232
[ ]
77 Marchand_1895_213
[ ]
78 Lacave-Laplagne_1911_
2156
[ ]
79 Fraud_1870_7
[ ]
80 Ibid., 244
[ ]
81 Charmasson_1925_445
[ ]
82 Rousset_1889_II_368
[ ]
83 Waille_1884_457
[ ]
84 Crawford_1863_243
[ ]
85 Carton_1891_207
[ ]
86 Ancien_payeur_1833_34
[ ]
87 SHD GR 1M1316
[ ]
88 Carton_1894_14
[ ]
89 Monchicourt_1913_
462463
[ ]
90 Toulotte_1894_128129
[ ]
91 Caraman_1843_51: 1836
[ ]
92 Souvenirs dAfrique,
18541855; par le Dr X,
Lille 1856, 164
[ ]
93 Trumelet_1887B_154
[ ]
94 Dino_1847_3
[ ]
95 Lamping_1855_19
[ ]
96 Bolle_1839_113
[ ]
97 Desmichels_1835_27
[ ]
98 SHD Gnie 8.1 Tebessa
18421875
[ ]
99 Fraud_1874_446
[
100]Canal, J., Marnia (LallaMaghrnia), in Revue de
lAfrique franaise et des
antiquits africaines V
1887, 211227
[ ]
101 Fouquier_1846_144145
[
102]Blanc_1885_66
[
103]Wagner_1841_I_49
[
104]Anon_1863_42
[
105]Poujoulat_1847_I_36
[
106]Rogers_1865_62
107]Berteuil_1856_I_219
108]Berteuil_1856_I_222
[
109]Fabiani, Horace.
Souvenirs dAlgrie et
dOrient, Paris 1878, 12
[ ]
110 Vigneral_1867_56
[ ]
111 Pellissier_1836_II_7
[ ]
112 Diehl_1892_105
[ ]
113 Frisch_1899_191
[ ]
114 Hurabielle_1899_154
[ ]
1876_153
[ ]
116 Hurabielle_1899_103
[ ]
117 Ibid., 127
[ ]
118 Delamare_1850_5
[ ]
119 Nodier_1844_191
[
120]Cagnat_1888_31
[ ]
121 Gurin_1862_I_85
[
122]Ibid., 236237
[
123]Ibid., 161162
[
124]Gurin_1862_II_88, 93
[
125]Graham_and_Ashbee_
1887_163164
[
126]Tissot_1888_570571
[
127]Shaw_1757_118
[
128]Davis_1862_147148
[
129]Saladin_1887_180
[
130]Gurin_1862_II_351352
[ ]
131 Renou_1846
[
132]Bernet_1912_137138
[
133]Daumas_and_Fabar_
1847_1011
[
134]Derrien_1895_282
[
135]Gsell_1903_137
[
136]Merlin_1903_3
[
137]Cagnat_1891_210
[
138]Gsell_1922_97
[
139]Morell_1854_458
[
140]Moll_1861_208209
[ ]
141 Moll_18601861_
206207
[
142]Saladin_1893_11
[
143]Gurin_1862_I_129130
[
144]Lespinasse-Langeac_
1893_178
115
145]Granger_1901_68
146]Poinssot_1885_21
[
147]Carcopino_1907
[
148]Kennedy_1846_183184
[
149]Gurin_1862_II_155156
[
150]Barbier_1855_178
[ ]
151 RA 1860 issue 21, 232
[
152]Cagnat_et_al_1890_223
[
153]Hron_de_Villefosse_
1875_446
[
[
155]Gauckler_1896B_67
[
156]Gsell_and_Graillot_
1894B_82
[
157]Jacquot_1907_153
[
158]SHD 1M1321
[
159]Bequet_1848_182
[
160]Fraud_1875_371
[ ]
161 Barbier_1855_141
[
162]Gomot_1844_178
[
163]Anon_1863_78
[
164]Barbier_1855_119
[
165]Fillias_1860_293
[
166]Cat_1882_141
[
167]Reisser_1898_221222
[
168]Reboud_18831884_13
[
169]Tissot_1876_15
[
170]Vigneral_1867_60
[ ]
171 Desvaux_1909_142
[
172]Gurin_1862_I_153
[
173]SHD GR1M1322
[
174]Toulotte_1894_175
[
175]Saladin_1887_101
[
176]Teissier_1865B_108
[
177]RA 1858, issue 13,
Berbrugger, Itinraires
archologiques en
Tunisie, IIe et dernire
partie, 922
[
178]Gurin_1862_I_260261
[
179]Saladin_1886_102
[
180]Haedo_1612_fol 41v
[ ]
181 Gurin_1862_II_268
[
182]Ibid., 267
[
183]Jacquot_1907_160161
[ ]
116
184]Gurin_1862_II_7375
185]Lux_1882_178
[
186]Fraud_1860_191
[
187]Shaw_1757_55
[
188]Cherbonneau, Auguste,
Inscriptions arabes de la
province de Constantine,
in ASAPC 18571858,
70139
[
189]RA 1863/05, issue 39, 222
[
190]Gurin_1861_4
[ ]
191 Peyssonnel_1838_I_114
[
192]Cagnat_1884_37
[
193]Monlezun_1889_61
[
194]Berbrugger_1858_
195196
[
195]Berbrugger, A.,
Itinraires
archologiques en
Tunisie, 2, de Tunis
Nefta, in RA II 1857,
195214
[
196]Gurin_1862_II_335
[
197]RA 1874 issue 106
[
198]Saladin_1887_21
[
199]Cagnat_and_Saladin_
1894_44
[
200]Poulle_1861_206
[
201]Daumas_and_Fabar_
1847_1112
[
1850_44
[
203]Gurin_1862_I_274
[
204]Tissot_1888_665666
[
205]Anon_1892_124
[
206]Gurin_1862_II_53
[
207]Ideville_II_1882_318
[
208]Scott_1842_2425
[
1841_189
[
210]De_Montagnac_
1885_172
[ ]
211 Feuillide_1856_166
[
[
[
chapter 2
213]Reibel, Gaston, La
Rgence de Tunis vue par
un touriste franais, Blois
n.d. but after 1937, 34
[
214]Fouquier_1846_140
[
215]Grard, Jules
(18171864), LAfrique du
Nord: description, histoire,
arme, populations,
administration et
colonisation, chasses, le
Maroc..., Paris 1860, 11
[
216]Saladin_1892_443
[
217]Piquet_1914_412
[
218]Carton_1894_31
[
219]Gaffarel_1883_468
[
220]Toussaint_1904_127128
[
221]Fallot_1887_211
[
222]Faucon_1893_II_
221222
[
223]Toussaint_1906_
223224
[
[
225]De_Montagnac_1885_
427
[
[
227]Le_Mis_de_Massol_
1854_288291
[
228]Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1887_
30_December
[
[
230]Lespinasse-Langeac_
1893_176177
[
231]Bosredon_1878_1415
[
232]Wagner_1841_I_335336
[
233]Compte Rendu des
Sances de lAcadmie des
Sciences JanuaryJune
1840, 78.
[
[
235]Payen_1864_67
[
236]Peyssonnel_1838_I_131
[
237]Ibid., 99100
[
238]Shaw_1757_94
239]Fraud_1878B
[
240]Rouire_1893_334
[
241]Fraud_1869_23
[
242]Gurin_1862_II_54
[
243]Tissot_1888_379
[
244]Carton_1888_439
[
245]Foucher_1858_3334
[
246]Payen_1864_3
[
1894_45
[
248]Fillias_1860_183
[
249]Tinthoin_1954_232
[
250]Gsell_1902_49
[
251]Tissot_1881_99
[
252]Tissot_1888_248
[
253]Hilton-Simpson_1921_43
[
254]Carteron_1866_272
[
[
[
257]Payen_1864_3
[
258]Carton_1891_223
[
259]Carette_1848_285
[
260]Juge_dAlger_1859_234
[
261]Guyon_1864_16
[
262]Priv_1895
[
1881_66
[
264]Berger_1892_2
[
265]Perier_1847_164165
[
266]Vesian_1850_36
[
267]Buret_1842_207208
[
268]Rey_1900_60
[
269]Juge_dAlger_1859_260
[
270]Fagnan_1924_134
[
271]Marmol_1667_II_
440441
[
272]Mac-Carthy_1857_364
[
273]Boissire_1878_10
[
274]Carette_1848_162163
[
1894_306
[
276]Stutfield_1886_147
[
277]Fort_1907

278]Leclerc_1881_30
279]Fraud_1877_131132
[
280]Enqute_agricole_
1870_346
[
281]Goetschy_1894_586
[
282]Renault_1911
[
283]Marmol_1667_II_532
[
284]Gurin_1862_II_331
[
285]Esprandieu_1883_
3032
[
286]Granger_1901_77
[
287]Carton_1888_464
[
288]Bisson_1881_58
[
289]Berbrugger_1857_17
[
290]Derrien_1895_287
[
291]Mac_Carthy_1851_211
[
[
293]Gurin_1862_I_262
[
294]Tissot_1888_685
[
295]Duveyrier_1881_6869
[
296]Hugonnet_1860_131
[
297]SHD MR1321B, MR1322
& MR1323
[
298]Faucon_1893_II_221222
[
299]SHD MR 2H43
[
300]SHD MR1322
[
301]Ibid.
[
302]SHD MR1323
[
303]Castellane_1896_III_408
[
304]Du_Cheyron_1873_910
[
305]Brunhes_1902_177
[
306]Piquet_1914_276
[
307]Cosson_1856_40
[
1853_IV_8893
[
309]Fernel_1830_277
[
310]Caraman_1843_33
[ ]
311 SHD MR1314 item 33
[
312]Ratheau_1879_253
[
313]Suchet_1840_133
[
1855_VIII_191
[
315]Malte-Brun_1858_2021
[
316]Fraud_1875_463
317]Gaffarel_1883_670
318]Lestiboudois_1853_
187188
[
319]Tissot_1881_19
[
320]Bertrand_1905_177178
[
321]Tchihatchef_1880_
386387
[
322]SHD H230 bis, Algrie:
Mmoires divers 184459
[
323]Vitry_1900_116117
[
324]Fisquet_1842_1516
[
325]Ancien_officier_1841_17
[
326]Desvaux_1909_655
[
327]Carron_1859_98100
[
328]Bonnafont_1883_42
[
329]Robert_1896_293
[
330]Tunis-journal_1889_
13_June
[
331]Castellane_1853_II_132
[
332]Morell_1854_173
[
333]Enqute_agricole_1870_
222
[
[
335]Fillias_18611862_9091
[
[
337]Pontier_1850_54
[
338]Ibid., 2425
[
339]Moll_1860_75
[
340]Sriziat_1886_50
[
341]Pchot_1914_I_216
[
342]Gunin_1908_187
[
343]Gsell_1902_1
[
344]Ibid., 130131
[
345]Ibid., 2728
[
346]Rousset_1882_120
[
347]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_
1884_9293
[
348]Vars_18951896_294
[
349]Natte_1854_28
[
350]Gsell_1902_31
[
351]Gurin_1862_II_
292293
[
352]Desfontaines_1838_
II_96
117
353]Graham_1902_117
354]Ibid., 115
[
355]Gurin_1862_II_287
[
356]Cherbonneau_
18541855_122123
[
357]El-Kairouani_1845_
398399
[
358]Ibid., 32
[
359]Davis_1862_10
[
1887_29
[
361]Gurin_1862_II_192
[
362]Ibid., 295296
[
363]Gurin_1862_I_32
[
364]Bisson_1881_54
[
365]Rey_1900_23
[
366]Thierry-Mieg_1861_
6263
[
367]Thierry-Mieg_1861_77
[
368]Hebenstreit_1830_71
[
369]Guyon_1864_3
[
370]Pulszky_1854_88
[
1894_587
[
372]Granger_1901_68_84
[
373]Guyon_1864_66
[
374]Gurin_1862_I_235
[
375]Blanchet_1899_145146
[
376]Donau_1908_53
[
377]Wagner_1841_I_292
[
378]Devoisins_1840_4849
[
379]Pulszky_1854_88B
[
380]Quesnoy_1888_166
[
381]Bertherand_1878_4
[
382]Ibid., 13
[
383]Teissier_1865_36
[
384]Marty_and_Rouyer_
18901891_239240
[
385]Carette_1838_14
[
386]Marcotte_de_
Quivires_1855_97
[
387]Carron_1859_129130
[
388]Duval_1859_264
[
18901891_207
118
390]Bernelle_1892_507
18901891_214
[
392]Schulten_19001901_
458
[
393]Palat_1885_150
[
394]Decker_1844_II_126138
[
395]Charmasson_1925_439
[
396]Delvoux_1870_235
[
397]Picard 1994, 123123
[
398]Nodier_1844_130131
[
399]Ibid., 158160
[
400]Bequet_1848_352
[
401]Ansted_1854_200201
[
402]Boissier_1899_3132
[
403]Herbert_1881_168
[
404]Robert_1891_69
[
405]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_
1870_139
[
406]Barbier_1855_XXVIII
[
407]Qutin_1847_7273
[
408]Derrien_1895_284
[
409]Mauroy_1852_350
[
410]Revue Africaine 6,
August 1837, 14
[ ]
411 Bard_1854_37
[
412]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_
78
[
[
414]Waille_1905_72
[
415]SHD GR 1M1316
[
416]Esprandieu_1889_141
chapter 2
417]Piesse_1862_131
418]Bequet_1848_419420
[
419]Bliard_1854_5
[
420]Carron_1859_103
[
421]Fraud_18711872_9
[
422]Richardot_1905_3637
[
423]Rousset_1900_II_312
[
424]Nodier_1844_202203
[
425]Perret_1902_205
[
426]Orlans_1892_347348
[
427]Thoumas_1887_II_304
[
428]Diehl_1892_107
[
429]Blakesley_1859_79
[
430]Carron_1859_91
[
[
432]SHD GR1H910
[
[
434]Vars_1896_58
[
1894_313
[
436]Saladin_1886_3
[
437]Cagnat_1909_222
[
438]Berger_and_Cagnat_
1889_207208
[
439]Audollent_1890_498
[
1887_5656
[
441]Pulszky_1854_8990
[
1837_37
[
443]Graham_1902_109
[
444]Gurin_1862_II_279
445]Ibid., 372
446]Mercier_1886_456
[
447]Tissot_1881_9596
[
448]Tissot_1888_251
[
449]Tissot_1881_6364
[
450]Lunel_1869_1314
[
451]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_
7778
[
[
149150
[
454]Kennedy_1846_120121
[
455]Temple_1835_I_154
[
456]Devoulx_1874_251252
[
457]Fergusson_1872_395
[
458]Mac_Carthy_1851_208
[
459]Fergusson_1872_
396397
[
460]Reboud_1882_171
[
461]Mercier_1888_102
[
462]Revue du Cercle
Militaire 19, 1889, 11712
[
463]Bourjade_1891_56
[
464]Wilkin_1900_1214
[
465]Ibid., 1517
[
466]Robert_1891_40
[
467]Pallary_1894_78
[
1884_155
[
chapter 3
183040: The Destruction of Algiers, Constantine

and Other Early Settlements
Although the Military Engineers are said to have sometimes protected the
existing architecture,1 both Algiers and Constantine were comprehensively
destroyed by the French. This was not for the usual military purpose of devastating the enemy (their razzias and burnt earth excursions in the countryside surely assuaged that thirst)2 but, helped by the mindless vandalism of
French soldiers,[1] in order to modernise the country. Destruction also occurred
in a host of other settlements, some of them considered later in this chapter, all of them militarised because the countryside around both Algiers and
Constantine remained unsafe.
New building was also conceived as an important part of the mission
civilisatrice, which would introduce admiring locals to the new world the
French created. Part of modernisation is clearance of the old and outdated,
characterised by the evisceration of Paris by Haussmann,3 who nevertheless
exhibits an interest in antiquities in his two-volume autobiography. His
boulevards subsequently attracted the relatively benign interpretation of
Gucci-land; but they were designed for easy troop manoeuvring, cannon
included, and fulfilled this purpose under the Paris Commune of 1871. Public
safety was surely one of the reasons for similar modernisation in Algeria.
Readers could keep abreast of developments not only in Algeria (au milieu
de ces sauvages montagnes, devant ces hordes barbares, au pied de ces ruines
romaines[2]) but also in Paris thanks to highly illustrated magazines such as
(from 1843) LIllustration, using wood-engraving.[3] Great emphasis therein was
placed on the developing railway system in France (including the Paris metro),
but also on modern Paris, for this periodical published panoramic views of
various of the Boulevards de Paris, showing provincials and colons just what
an up-to-date town should look like.
1 Picard 1994, 122: les officiers du Gnie oeuvreront souvent contre les colons pour protger
lespace indigne restant.
2 Le Cour Grandmaison 2005, 146152 for razzias; 152161 for torture, mutilation and profanation. Brower 2009, 2126: The practices of total conquest local labour, razzias, extermination.
3 Rau 1994, 728738.
120
chapter 3
Alterations had to start with the main centres where high-ranking soldiers
and administrators would live. Arab architecture thereby suffered greatly,
sometimes through European rebuilding in towns,[4] so that we know less
about its nature in Algeria than the Description de lEgypte provided further
east. Hence although there are plenty of accounts in the French 19th-century
journals about things Arab, from architecture and literature to inscriptions and
ethnography; and although it is impossible to detect any animus against the
high points of Moslem architecture seen in North Africa, this did not prevent
extensive demolition of native monuments, which leaves a large hole in our
knowledge. Whereas we know a lot about Roman villas (which are generally
laid out in as predictable a fashion as chain motels), mediaeval Moslem palaces
and mosques now have to be studied via surviving remnants. Had the French
left Arab Algiers and Constantine alone, and simply tacked their European
sections onto the outside of the existing towns (as happened at Tunis), we
might well know much more.
Unfortunately, the French conversion of these two towns was extensive, and
Moslem monuments suffered along with the remains of Roman ones. Their
building of hospitals and barracks has already been introduced in Chapter
Two. As Pallary notes in the wider context, Il semble que tout le monde se
soit mis daccord pour favoriser loeuvre de destruction: les uns par cupidit,
dautres par inertie ou ignorance et enfin par plaisir.[5] Even the lime kilns
appeared in picturesque views.4 As Ibn Khaldun wrote in the late 14th century:
La grossiret des murs est devenue pour eux une seconde nature...Si
les Arabes ont besoin de pierres pour servir dappuis leurs marmites, ils
dgradent les btiments afin de se les procurer; sil leur faut du bois pour
en faire des piquets ou des soutiens de tente, ils dtruisent les toits des
maisons pour en avoir. Par la nature mme de leur vie, ils sont hostiles
tout ce qui est difice; or, construire des difices, cest faire le premier pas
dans la civilisation.[6]
But then he was writing about nomadic Arabs, not French soldiers and their
commanders.
4 Bruller 1994, 21: Ferdinand de Trel: Four chaux dans les environs dAlger pris de la Porte Babel-Oued and c.5m high.
121
Algiers (Capitulated 5 July 1830)
The first town to receive the militarising and then Europeanising attentions of
the French was of course Algiers,5 the key city because of its port.6 The French
soon repaired the port, threw in by the jetty enormous blocks of granite and
marble, and did likewise for the mole.[7] The Arab town (the state of which
in 1830 has been reconstructed on paper7) was part-built with Roman ruins
from the vicinity.[8] These surely included at least parts of the walls, as Diego de
Haedo,[9] Arvieux[10] and Paradis[11] observe; they also contained marble in their
lower levels.[12] Some ruins of this enceinte remained into the 1860s;[13] and the
towers once guarding the port included marble columns as strengtheners.[14]
Some palaces, when they were demolished, were also found to contain
antiquities.[15] As one author remarked, le prsent fait oublier le pass.[16]
But the supply of marble might not have lasted, for several authors assert that
many of the marble elements in the town had been imported ready-made from
Italy.[17] The town was well-supplied with baths;8 and before the French arrived
at Algiers, an ancient aqueduct feeding the town was still working, and Arvieux
says he counted 125 fountains.[18]
We have approving descriptions of its architecture long before the French
arrived: in the late 18th century, Paradis for example praising its marble
(imported from Livorno) and its tiles.[19] Some of these went into mosques,
others into the Beys palace, which became the French Palais du Gouvernement,
or of the Governor-General,[20] appropriated on the cheap, where the governor
lived in marble luxury.[21] The columns decorating this structure supposedly
came from Sardinia, into the Kasbah, and then were brought to this palace
by the French.[22] Inside the town, what is more, houses were knocked down
because the French wished to widen some streets.[23] By 1840, sections of
Algiers already looked like a town in Provence or Italy,[24] and the gallery of
the palace where the famous fan-blow insult was administered (the pathetic
excuse for the invasion) was reported three years later as stripped and
broken.[25]
5 Picard 1994 for overview of the transformation.

6 Cohen 2003, 46103 for the transformation of the city, but nothing on the buildings pulled
down in the process.
7 Raymond 1981, with plans from SHD Gnie archives, and details of what was knocked down.
8 Cherif-Seffadj 2008, plans 118 for schema of baths, water supply and fountains. Frequent
mention of architectural elements, but little on baths destruction via urban renewal.
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By 1893 picturesque sections of the town were destins disparatre

mesure quAlger sare et sembellit dans le got europen.[26] For Baraudon,
writing in the same year, the destruction of the Arab town, to be replaced by
French faadism, was regrettable,[27] and what the French built in its place
did little to balance their uncouth conduct.9 What is more, antiquities found
on ones property could be sold for profit.[28] Or, as Darmon puts it, saccage,
spculation, esclavagisme.10 In 1891 the town walls came down, the councillors calculating in advance just how much could be made by selling the land
thus freed.[29] Much earlier, Clauzel was implicated in the devastation of the
town, and autres iniquits dont le moindre fut lenlvement des marbres, des
colonnes, des coupes fontaines qui allrent embellir des chteaux en France.
But these were only taken, his aide stated, to lighten the generals old age
souvenirs of his activities.11 Common soldiers went looting, as some compensation for their fighting[30] and so did many of their officers.[31] It was a
civilian, M. Bresson, who a eu lheureuse pense de faire tourner au profit de
la science lexpdition de Constantine, and commissioned Berbrugger to take
manuscripts: un millier douvrages ont t rassembls, et vont, runis ceux
que M. Berbrugger avait dj rapports de Mascara, de Tlemcen et de Medeah,
offrir de prcieux documens ceux qui soccupent de lhistoire et de la littrature de ce curieux pays.[32] Sophisticated looting indeed!
Not all troops could be accommmodated inside Algiers itself, especially after
the abandonment of Sidi-Ferruch. Hence destruction had already started in 1830
when the troops, in bivouac outside the town, destroyed gardens and houses
in their search for wood for their campfires,[33] and looted wood and marble to
sell,[34] although some areas were no doubt cleared so as not to give cover to
the enemy. Spanish troops had done similar damage to marbled architecture
when they invaded Bne in 1535.[35] The soldiers also looted graves, writes
Wagner in 1841: they had done so during the siege of Constantine, but only to
9
10
11
Lesps 1930, 56 for available stone, and 99104 for the ancient city; 202211 for the early
demolitions of ten mosques, and the occupation of 62 others by civil and military services. 219: the covered March de Chartres projected for the locals, with 250 shops, pour
compenser les pertes que la destruction des divers souks, lors du percement des rues,
leur avait fait prouver; mais le dfaut dargent ne permit pas de donne suite ces bonnes
intentions.
Darmon 2009, 101120, with details of destruction, speculation and profiteering, usually at
the expense of the locals.
Ageron 2005, 15 his aide: Il faut supposer que la Nation franaise, bien avare pour quelle
trouve mauvais quun gnral en chef prenne en dtail des morceaux de marbre ngligs
de tous, reposant dans des coins, pour en faire un petit monument, fort exigu, qui lui rappelle dans ses vieux jours, ses voyages de lge mr.
123
find somewhere out of the weather to sleep.[36] The destruction stretched also
to kitchen gardens, of which there were only a few sited under the protection
of Algiers fortifications. Indeed, even the environs of Algiers were not permanently safe.[37] The French destruction went against their own interests, here
as at Bne, of which St-Marie wrote in 1846, The French have destroyed, but
they have created nothing for the future.[38] For example, garden produce was
naturally difficult to find, given the destruction around Algiers. Many supplies
were shipped in from France, and dining with the Governor General even as
late as 1847 was no pleasure, because he calculated how much each meal cost.
As for colonists and the progress of colonisation il se rpandait en railleries
poignantes contre ce mensonge criant so that even his patriotism was questioned.[39] Elsewhere, military farms seem to have been producing their own
food by 1845.[40] But these were officers concerns, not the initiative of the ordinary troops. So if by 1842 lexemple des Romains, les propritaires de France
aient aussi leurs villa en Algrie,[41] such enterprises were not helped by the
destructiveness of the Army.
Troops sought wood and trophies from the beautiful villas, whence the
owners fled. The French then bought such villas and their lands for a trifle,[42]
and Wagner explains the mechanics of the transactions.[43] Such speculation
was a favourite occupation of some army officers and, later, civil administrators.
Campbell, writing in 1845, was disgusted by the devastation, for Thus it was
that national property was acquired in France during the revolution![44] This
was not only criminal but short-sighted, because the troops also dismantled
aqueducts (presumably for stones to build ovens): Les aquducs ayant t
rompus en plusieurs endroits, presque toutes les fontaines tarirent, et larme
fut sur le point de manquer deau.[45]
Pckler-Muskau found the level of damage at Algiers scarcely imaginable,
instancing a villa outside the walls:
The marble fountains, the staircases inlaid with porcelain, were everywhere damaged, and so covered with dirt, that one feared to approach
them. The orange-trees that grew up in the extensive courts paved with
porcelain were mostly dead for want of care.[46]
There are frequent mentions of beautiful gardens in military accounts of
Algeria, and their destruction was shortsighted but probably routine. Trumelet
later exclaimed at the destruction of trees at Blida as late as the 1880s: Barbares
que nous sommes! incendier, dtruire en moins dune heure des arbres qui ont
mis des sicles pour pousser! Lantiquit paenne, qui apprciait la valeur de
lombre et de la verdure, avait plac les arbres sous la protection de la religion,
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en tablissant, comme article de foi, que la destine des Hamadryades dpendait de certains de ces arbres avec lesquels elles naissaient et mourraient, que
ces nymphes des bois avaient de la reconnaissance pour ceux qui les garantissaient de la mort, et quau contraire, ceux qui la leur donnaient en coupant, malgr leurs prires, les arbres quelles habitaient recevaient srement la
peine de leur crime.[47] By one estimate, such senseless destruction turned
more natives against the French than anything else.[48]
By 1832 the sappers were clearing away ruins in and around Algiers, and had
their eye on two mosques which, they believed, would serve as strongholds for
any rebellion.[49] The head of the Military Engineers in Algiers in 1836 wrote to
the Ministre de la Guerre to protest against the way the French were driving
roads right through the town without respecting existing structures,[50] but
to no effect. Pellissier points out that demolition was done without any due
process, and Moorish-style buildings were swiftly replaced by European ones.
This was a mistake: Il est seulement regretter que lon abandonne totalement
larchitecture arabe qui est si gracieuse et si bien approprie au climat, et quil
serait si facile, par quelques lgres modifications, de plier nos habitudes.[51]
Indeed, if we are to believe one commentator, the much vaunted mosqueinto-hospital in Algiers was little more than a stinking chimaera.[52] By 1839 the
gardens of the Dey had been converted into a hospital,[53] while the Kasbah
housed 13,000 troops, and its mosque was dilapidated.[54] As De Lapisse commented in 1837, o fut une ville, nous en levons une autre, le prsent fait
oublier le pass.[55] The Kasbah was much degraded after the French occupied
it,[56] for little discipline was enforced to counter the ravages of the troops.[57]
Soon after the conquest, six windmills were shipped from France (the army
needed bread), but were set up on the border of a Muslim cemetery, the miller taking funeral slabs when he needed materials.[58] Nor was this all, for the
French built a fort actually within a cemetery and, by 1854, The ground of
these cemeteries has been greatly encroached upon by French settlers; and it
is anticipated that all traces of them will gradually disappear.[59] This is at least
in part because the European population was increasing, and Les travaux de
construction dans les villes ont, au contraire de la culture, march avec une
activit incroyable.[60] Part of the process involved the French conning the
locals.[61] The same sad story could probably be repeated for many of the sites
the French settled and where, as at Mostaganem, it was linstallation du camp
qui ncessita la destruction de tout ce qui existait sur son emplacement.[62]
The building of the European town should have uncovered various antiquities
(as was to be the case at Constantine); but this was dependent on chercheurs
dvous watching as earth was turned over; and when they died or moved
away, little was reported, as happened at Algiers[63] and Sousse.[64]
125
Such destruction by the troops started a pattern, for much the same was
to happen at Mascara,[65] and also at Tlemcen and Guelma.[66] Exactly
the same was also going to happen at Miliana in 1841, where il ny a aux
environs de Miliana que des arbres fruitiers et quil est craindre quaprs
deux ans doccupation, surtout doccupation restreinte, il ne reste plus aucun
ressource en bois de construction et mme de chauffage.[67] The situation
was somewhat improved by the exertions of Saint-Arnaud, who was not only
putting a road into Miliana, but also planting crops: Mille bras travaillent
faire une route. Elle ne sera pas acheve dans un an, et dj jai dans ma tte
le projet de deux routes nouvelles et ltablissement de trois villages. Lavenir
de ce pays est immense, mais lor quil engloutira est incalculable. Nous vivons
sur une ville romaine, et nos tuniques mesquines flottent au mme vent qui
agitait ces amples tuniques et ces toges romaines si nobles. But virtue was
not quite its own reward, for he discovered antiquities while planting trees.[68]
And in 1833 Touffait, on the general staff, describes the beautiful gardens
at Bougie, where every house had one, with fruit trees and flowers: Il est
regretter que la plupart aient t ravags, et que de beaux arbres qui offraient
un ombrage si prcieux dans ces climats brulans aient t coups, abattus, tour
tour sacrifis la colre des vaincus et limprvoyance des vainqueurs.[69]
The French perhaps consoled themselves for their destruction by claiming
that the Hillaliens had also destroyed orchards.[70] Why was the new town
developed and the old one largely destroyed? Because mercantilism required
vandalism.[71]

Constantine (Occupied 13 October 1837)

Cest donc lexemple des Romains que nous devons suivre: cest sur
Constantine quil faut marcher. Cette ville, autrefois si forte, est
aujourdhui sans dfense, et ds que nous nous prsenterions devant
ses portes, elles nous seraient immdiatement ouvertes; cest un fait
incontestable.[72] [1833]
Constantine ne diffre gure de toute autre ville franaise que par la
Casbah, le quartier indigne. Il a une originalit propre appele disparatre le jour o lhygine et la salubrit publiques auront substitu des
rues spacieuses et ares aux petits rduits dans lesquels est agglomre
une population loge encore par corporations de mtiers. [1886][73]
Marmol describes Constantine as having plentiful antiquities, including a

triumphal arch and temples, some monuments similar to those he knew in
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Rome.[74] When the French went on their first expedition to conquer the town
in 1836 they knew nothing about its population, defensive strength or likely
resistance,[75] and presumably some of them thought it would be a walkover,
as in the opinion quoted directly above. The walls were revetted with ancient
cut stones, on which French cannonballs made little impact.[76] By the time
they had finished frenchifying the town, nothing was known archaeologically of what they had found and destroyed except by way of the precise but
brief descriptions of men like Cherbonneau and Poulle,[77] writing in the
Proceedings of the local Archaeological Society. So there was a direct trajectory from destruction to rebuilding, but without serious documentation. And
there were plenty of antiquities to be found in the town, were its structures to
be properly investigated.[78]
Constantines ancient monuments had already been much reused by the
Arabs well before the French occupation. Desfontaines described what he
saw in 17836: Les principales maisons sont construites avec les ruines de
lancienne ville. On observe des pierres trs bien tailles, un grand nombre de
colonnes calcaires, quelques-unes de marbre.[79] A mosque, the Djama el-Kbir,
had cippi and cornice sections in its minaret,[80] and may plausibly have been
built on top of a temple,[81] and there were several other discoveries in the early
1850s.[82] Salah Bey (17701792) beautified the city, although this involved the
demolition of a Roman portico,[83] and the use of other antiquities to repair
the Roman bridge over the Rummel. Because he did not like the price quoted
for stone to be imported from the Balearics, he also demolished an old fort,
presumably rich in spolia.[84] But Salah was to be outdone by the last Bey,
Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chrif, who determined to build a magnificent
palace; this would outshine anything locally, where the standard building
material was unbaked bricks.[85] The project entailed the destruction of
houses, and the import of freshly quarried marble (presumably the product
of the Carrara quarries) from Livorno,[86] including supposedly more than one
thousand columns.[87] But some of the material reused was probably local,
for a mason died when an arcade he was demolishing in the Kasbah fell on
him.[88] Nor was this the only accident, since the Bey sent workmen to Djemila
to dismantle the triumphal arch for reuse in his palace. Only when a section
fell to the ground was it realised that the structure was of stone, not marble,
which is what they were seeking so the demolition was abandoned.[89]
Henceforth the Bey also resorted to the standard despotic building method of
extorting whatever fine materials he could appropriate locally,[90] ignoring due
process just as the French were to do[91] and thereby depleting the Roman
antiquities of the area before the French even arrived. A suburb of the city,
127
built largely from antiquities, was destroyed by the Bey following the first, and
unsuccessful, French assault in 1836.
Clauzel occupied the town in 1837 after his first attempt (with too few
troops, and too late in the year) ended in failure.12 The French started depleting
the antiquities even before they conquered the town, burying a fallen colonel
under a marble slab.[92] Once inside, naturally, the palace of Salah Bey was
plundered. Some of its ruins survived into the 1860s,[93] although this was
also a period when alarm bells were sounded about the destruction of Islamic
antiquites: il faudrait se hter dtudier les monuments religieux qui se prtent
tant soit peu la description, avant que la pioche les abatte.[94] The final
effect of Salah Beys palace was of a huge hotch-potch of disparate elements,
especially in the capitals: Beaucoup sont mdiocrement sculpts ou peine
bauchs.[95] For Ibn Khaldun, such reuse from structure to structure (a standard practice in the mediaeval and later Islamic world) was a sign of decadence, of declining population, and of impending ruin.[96]
If for the French Russicada and Stora were one end of the route into the
interior, then Constantine itself was the other end, with ruins providing
some shelter in-between although Bugeaud criticises Vale for an expedition between the two in Decembers bad weather.[97] The willingness to reuse
Roman remains, of which there were plenty both to describe and reuse around
Constantine,[98] and the speed with which this was often done, is explained by
the early recognition on the part of the highest French officers that surviving
Roman remains could help fix their occupation of Algeria. Positive enthusiasm
is exemplified by the actions of Marshal Vale who, as part of his plan for the
consolidation of the North, sought a strong defensive position by establishing
his HQ in the Roman citadel (the Kasbah) at Constantine, the stones of which
were still in place. He wrote from there to the Minister of War on 8 Oct 1838
that other blocks were to be used to raise Fort de France, on the highest hill.[99]
When the French took the city in 1837, over 4,000 houses were destroyed,[100]
but this was only the start of the destruction. Naturally, setting up the Kasbah
and making it secure for the troops required some demolitions, so that one
commentator wrote that ce bijou de lAfrique franaise would completely disappear.[101] Kasbah and mosque walls contained many inscriptions (CIL VIII
#69402, 6964, 6998, 7014). Instructions included bringing down a minaret, a
keyed plan of houses to be demolished au moyen de dgager le plus tt possible le mur de la kasbah des maisons, and instructions were given that Le Chef
du Gnie soccupera dtablir une circulation non interrompue tout le long de
12
Guiral 1992, 8391.
128
chapter 3
ce mur denceinte.[102] Another element in the Gnies eagerness to destroy

continues the tradition of looting we have seen at Algiers: for in at least one
modest house, large amounts of money were found hidden in the walls.[103]
The convenience of reusing the Roman spolia is demonstrated by the speed
with which the new-old fort was refurbished: for only three days later, on
11 October, Vale could head another letter to the Minister Fort de France.
In this second letter he notes that he is following the Roman system of separate forts linked by chemins de ronde surrounding the city: Les Romains, qui
nous ont prcd sur le point de 2000 ans, avaient suivi le mme systme et
nous avons trouv sur plusieurs points les fondations de leurs ouvrages encore
intactes: elles nous servent a lever les retranchements qui doivent pour toujour loigner les Kabyles de lancienne Rusticade[104] the Kabyles being the
fierce tribesmen in the surrounding mountains.
The remainder of October 1838 was spent building the surrounding forts,
using the plentiful Roman blocks.[105] As for communications, Vale would use
the Roman road to Stif (nearly 100 miles from Constantine): elle a de leau
et du bois toutes les tapes. Nous avons dailleurs la certitude de retrouver
la voie romaine dans cette direction. Elle pourra tre utilise sur une grande
partie de son dveloppement et de notre communications, et sans exiger plus
de travail aura une solidit lpreuve du temps.[106] This assertion was denied
by the Commandant Suprieur du Gnie in 1864: probably because he had to
consider European attack with cannon, rather than native attack with guns,
he found them inconsistent, too thin, and easy to attack and Stora was no
better.[107]
By 1839, plans were afoot for simply heightening the walls of the Kasbah at
Constantine, and adding crenellations.[108] These walls were late Roman and
as the Colonel du Gnie recognised in 1853,[109] rigs semblablement sur les
ruines de lancien Capitole romain, et reconstruits par des mains inhabiles avec
les dbris des monuments romains. Il serait difficile dassigner aucune poque
lorigine de cette construction qui prsentait sur ses murs des vestiges de
tous les ges. In 1895, Vars tried to enumerate the Capitols monuments, but
had to admit that much had by then disappeared.[110] In another section of the
same wall, new building was to go directly on top of the Roman wall, et sera
dune grande utilit pour la construction de ce btiment, car elle est fonde
avec des pierres de taille normes sur un terrain fort ingal. To assist making
Constantine habitable, the Roman quarries at Mansourah were opened in
1840, for the light-weight and porous building stone, avec laquelle les Romains
ont construit les votes des citernes et qui pourra tre employ pour celles de
lhopital.[111]
129
If Algiers had lost all her visible antiquities by 1830, Constantine was built
with and on top of them. A hospital was built over existing ancient ruins, sparing
only the adjacent cisterns, in such good condition that most could quickly be
brought into service. Hence an area once the Roman capitol, then the Kasbah,
an area which lincurie des Turcs vint ajouter encore aux ruines que le temps
et la guerre avaient amonceles,[112] was finally completely built over by the
French. The military accommodation in the Kasbah in the 1720s included a
church,[113] but whatever was left of it when the French arrived was obliterated,
because force majeure demanded the reuse of its stones,[114] and plans to turn
it into a chapel for the hospital came to nothing.[115] No matter for the ruins
were again plundered for the repair of the fortifications.[116] Of all these ruins,
then, the only ones to be preserved were the 33 cisterns, 22 of which were in
a perfect state.[117] In 1839, the Duc dOrlans considered hospital and barrack
construction more urgent even than repairing the citys fortifications.[118]
By 1883, such work in the city had erased much of a complete quartier, ancient
remains included.[119] By 1891, the cisterns were in use, and also served a chateau
deau; there were now three barracks for infantry, engineers and artillery, and
an arsenal as well as the hospital.[120] None of these buildings was constructed
using dry stone in the Roman fashion; by 1838, indeed, lime was being quarried
near the city, to provide mortar for jointing the blocks.[121] In consequence,
nearly all the ancient monuments had disappeared by the time the meticulous
Tissot13 visited in 1888.[122]
In the early 1840s, Les ruines romaines y abondent, mais parses a et l,
sauf aux murailles de la ville.[123] Many of the antiquities, such as cisterns, were
underground, the Arabs believing that Constantine tout entire est btie sur
des arceaux artistement maonns.[124] Building work in Constantine in the
18th and early 19th century seems to have been substandard. For the repaired
Roman bridge collapsed at 7 a.m. on 18th March 1857, when the pier of the
upper stage nearest to the town suddenly gave way, with the two arches resting
upon it. It was found impossible to restore it; the bridge was in consequence
battered down with heavy artillery on the 30th of the same month.[125] So it
wasnt only the Military Engineers that were complicit in the destruction of
antiquities in Constantine; the gunners sometimes got their chance to help.
It was surmised that, since the ground level had risen since Salah Beys
building activites, plenty of ancient blocks probably still lay underground,
in spite of the depradations of the Military Engineers.[126] French officers
described the Roman remains they found in Constantine, strong as oaks,
13
Bendana 2000 for an overview biography of this diplomat and scholar.
130
chapter 3
sheltering Arab houses within their spread: A lintersection de deux rues, du

sein des constructions arabes, slancent trois grands arcs romains, formant
les trois cts contigus dun vaste carr. Non loin de l, un autre cintre, de
mme dimension, parat avoir appartenu au mme monument. Les premiers,
parfaitement simples, ne sont orns que de la beaut de leurs proportions et de
la magnificence de leurs matriaux; le dernier se distingue par une archivolte
et par quelques moulures.[127] Wagner, observing them within their later
structures, thought them like triumphal arches.[128] And Poulle writes wistfully
in 1869 about how profitable antiquities- and inscription-wise it would have
been to follow with eyes peeled the demolitions occasioned by the driving of
the new rue Impriale through the Arab quarter of the town.[129]
If in 1840 there were still well-preserved Roman ruins visible at
Constantine,[130] by 1863 these had gone, and the city was half-Arab, halfFrench, the mongrel creation of a civilised and half-civilised race.[131] What
is more, although the architect Ravoisi14 made some drawings in 18401842,15
Cherbonneau had remarked in 1854 that at Constantine il faudrait fouiller
dans ses entrailles et interroger, la pioche la main, la couche de dcombres
quont entasss les ges;[132] but few questioned what turned up during the
French rebuilding of the town. Consequently, here as elsewhere, archaeologists
often had to wait for municipal work on French streets, so as to have ancient
remains uncovered for them: inscriptions were discovered, for example, when
the foundations for the Htel de la Banque were being dug (CIL VIII #6969).
Similar waiting was also required at Thagaste in 1905, where Roquette eagerly
awaited the continuation of the street projected on the 1881 plan, for it fera
mettre jour sans aucun doute quelque document intressant pour lhistoire
de Thagaste.[133] Accounts were published in Constantines archaeological
journal, founded in 1853.16
By the time Cherbonneau got to Constantine (where he was named Professor
of Arabic in 1846), he was reduced to reading what Shaw had written in 1732
for, ntant venu Constantine quaprs la construction de lhpital militaire
et des deux casernes assises sur les citernes, jai perdu lavantage dexaminer
moi-mme ces restes de lantiquit.[134] Antiquities turned up occasionally
jen ai vu moi-mme de trs-beaux dans des dmolitions but the city did
14
15
16
Oulebsir 1994, 6065: Amable Ravoisi ou la qute de lantique. He produced 700 plates, of
which only 190 were published; Oulebsir 1998, 271: his plates were drawn not just for historical purposes but, in Ravoisi's words, afin de tirer des ces indications des consquences
utiles pour les tablissements ncessaires linstallation dune socit nouvelle.
Niesseron 2003, 3446.
Malarkey 1983 for an overview.
131
not care for what it had placed in the open-air muse de la ville.[135] By the
end of the century, the extensive range of barracks covered the Kasbah almost
completely, leaving only the cisterns.[136] It is obvious why the cisterns were
repaired[137] so that le gnie franais tait venu se mler au gnie romain.[138]
Otherwise, the army would have died of thirst. And yet some of these were
not in use until the 1860s, when Thierry-Mieg lamented that although he saw
within the city plusieurs btiments de construction romaine, au moins dans
lorigine, there was nothing to match Nmes, Arles, Orange or Rome.[139]
In 1884 Leclerc de Pulligy, an engineer, looked back with bitterness on the
insensate destruction of Constantine, the most precious type of berber town
in the country, and hoped that French archaeologists would carefully study
what was left:
Une longue rue droite traverse ces quartiers si pittoresques et va rejoindre
la partie europenne. Pour tracer cette voie soi-disant hyginique,
une dilit anime dun zle insens na pas hsit dtruire le type le
plus prcieux qui fut en Afrique dune vieille cit berbre, mutilant ces
curieuses maisons leves sur les assises, romaines, et faites de pis et de
briques durcies au soleil; les gracieuses arcatures de pierre; les fentres
moucharabieh, charmant souvenir de lOrient; les portes finement ciseles, surmontes de la main protectrice; les anciennes murailles sarrazines, ainsi que des difices remontant aux priodes vandale et romaine;
enfin saccageant ce qui avait rsist depuis des sicles aux attaques du
temps et des Barbares. /.../ Aujourdhui de trs rudits archologues ont
fait de Constantine un remarquable centre intellectuel...nous faisons
appel toute leur sollicitude pour la conservation de la vieille cit; nous
sommes convaincus quils sauront employer leur haute influence la prserver de nouvelles et inutiles mutilations.[140]
A decade later Vars, who was no less than vice president of the local
archaeological society, very sensibly condemned the first French who entered
the town for not making plans of the visible ruins and superstructures,[141]
complaining in 1895 that Il ne nous est rest aucune description des monuments dcouverts au cours des fouilles ncessites par la construction de notre
grand quartier militaire, and so he has to quote that architects description of
the Kasbah before its destruction, because nothing more survives.[142] But he
is blind to the beauties of Moslem architecture, the loss of which Leclerc de
Pulligny so much regretted. Indeed, his blinkered concern for only the ancient
town then led him to protest that not enough (rather than too little) of the
modern town had been turned over. His explanation was that, because of the
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great depth at which the ancient city lay, on navait pas puis la vritable
source: lpigraphie et les dcouvertes dues aux fouilles ncessites par la
construction de nos difices modernes. What was the answer? Why, to knock
down yet more of the native town:
Heureusement pour lantiquit, la plus grande partie de la surface de
Constantine recouvre encore les substructions inexplores de la ville
romaine. Il faudra bien se dcider un jour porter le pic des dmolisseurs dans les informes superstructures qui constituent la plus notable
partie de la ville, pour les remplacer par des difices plus confortables...
La socit archologique de Constantine...est donc appele de nombreuses dcouvertes qui ajouteront encore sa vieille rputation de science et de travail.[143]
Other Roman monuments outside the town, including a triumphal arch which
may have formed part of the hippodrome, disappeared when the railway station was constructed.[144] (Much the same happened at Philippeville.[145])
Vars may have had some part in what he describes as the grands travaux
communaux excuts Constantine, au cours des annes 1895 et 1896, for
he was adjoint to the Mayor, so perhaps complicit in a destruction that was
nevertheless fruitful in inscriptions. He also recommended a very sensible
approach to redevelopment, namely to clear everything, and then dresser le
plan de toutes les substructions qui y seraient dcouvertes et en faire la description...Malheureusement, cette proccupation est le moindre souci des
Pouvoirs publics.[146]
Two comments are in order here. The first is that (as so often) it seems to have
been the single-minded hunt for Roman remains and especially inscriptions
which narrowed Vars focus, just as it did that of some epigraphers. The second
is that by 1895 his neglect of things Moslem was decidedly old-fashioned, as
we can see from the programme of the Archaeological Section of the Congrs
Franais pour lAvancement des Sciences in 1896.[147] It was indeed the
publications of various archaeological societies, including that of Constantine,
which provided excellent scholarly papers on Moslem antiquities, some in
their turn also lost by the continuing desire to dig deeper, and to become
modern. At El-Djem, during the clearance work at the beginning of the 20th
century, Arab housing was cleared away: but at least it was described before it
was destroyed.[148]
133
Mda (Occupied 1830, Evacuated 1831; Base for Clauzel in 1836,

Occupied 1840)
French troops first occupied this beylik in late 1830, and installed a new bey in
1836. The Arab town was transformed into a French one in stages. This happened
gradually but relentlessly for, as one account has it, elle a t ventre par
des places et des rues, qui nont laiss dancien que ce qui na pas dpass
lalignement.[149] According to Decker, half the Arab houses were knocked
down to provide building materials.[150] In 1845 800 Europens sy escriment
relever les ruines de la ville.[151] As Carron ominously reported in 1859, La
pierre, la chaux, le sable, tout est l sous la main pour btir.[152] Because of the
transformation, we have little knowledge of Roman remains on this site. The
immense aqueduct of Roman construction was still working in 1846,[153] and
proves the high antiquity of the town,[154] although some authors suggested it
was later.[155] From the descriptions, and because its stone and brick matched
the makeup of some of the mosque minarets, it was repaired by the Arabs,
including one known restoration by Sultan Youssef-ben-Tachefin in 1156.[156]

Arzew/Arzeu (Occupied 1833)
This, the ancient Portus Magnus, not far from Oran, was little but ruins in 1783,
with only two inscriptions to be collected at that date.[157] But then, it had been
occupied by the Spanish, who built quays, presumably from the ruins, and
no doubt made use of the surviving Roman road.[158] The ancient town itself
was inland, with the remains of un grand nombre de monuments,[159] where
nothing is more common than to see the most miserable Arab huts adorned,
externally, with fragments of ancient columns of different orders.[160]
The new French settlement, proposed as a military colony by Bugeaud,
was built on top of this, and was provided with blocks and columns from that
site;[161] for, after all, lon naurait, pour y btir une ville, qu relever les dbris
de leurs demeures.[162] Naturally the new building led to more discoveries,
including mosaics; but Berbrugger in 1863 believed that these should be sent to
Algiers, because on a vu, par la rapide destruction des mosaques de la maison
romaine dcouverte en 1848, et par dautres exemples analogues, ce que ces
sortes de monuments deviennent quand on les laisse exposs laction des
mtores et sans une surveillance continuelle exerce sur place.[163] The local
inhabitants appear to have put French noses out of joint by refusing access
to their houses to study antiquities reused in them, including inscriptions:
jaloux de leur intrieur et redoutant pour leur tranquillit domestique les
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visites intresses des curieux ou des archologues, peut-tre aussi par un sentiment de haine invtre contre le Roumi et les monuments qui se rattachent
sa domination, ont eux-mmes mutil, martel et rendu mconnaissables
les fragments qui pouvaient offrir quelque intrt, et ils cachent avec soin les
dbris qui peuvent rester leur connaissance, parce quils craignent encore de
livrer au Roumi des trsors imaginaires.[164]
Little seems to have been left of Roman Oran when the town and Mersel-Kebir fell to the Spanish in 1509,[165] the more so because of a devastating
earthquake in 1790.[166] It was such a mess that, although they were working
on its strategic possibilities in the 1830s,[167] the French occupied it definitively
only much later. By 1911 it was being extended and embellished with feverish
zeal, as Baedeker writes. In the 1830s, it was naturally Arzew (round the next
headland to the east) where the French executed port works,[168] presumably
because Orans port was then a shambles. Roman spolia had, as usual, been
incorporated in later buildings, such as the Beys Palace, occupied by the
Military Commandant in 1884, its rooms soutenues par des colonnes torses
de marbre blanc.[169] But most building was new, Bernard maintaining in 1901
that the Spanish avaient la maladie de la pierre, just as did the French, destroying the Mosque de la Pcherie.[170]

Bougie (Occupied 1833[171])
Bougie was a large city in Roman times, Leo Africanus reckoning from its
ruins that it held 24,000 households.[172] This was a similar population to its
glory-days in the late 11th century under the Hammadites,[173] who had moved
here from the Kalaa of the Beni-Hammad. The Pisans, Genoese and Venetians
had trading-posts here. Just as at Kairouan/Sabra, ancient columns were
unearthed that (in this case) the Pope supposedly offered to buy a metaphor
for the richness of the marbled town itself.[174] However, this prosperity would
not last. The Moslem saint Sidi Touati showed the ruler, Sultan En-Nacer, what
Bougie would become when it declined Tout a disparu. On cherche en vain
leurs vestiges au milieu dun sol accident, couvert de dbris quenvahissent les
ronces.[175] According to Fraud, the citys glories were looted by the Spanish,
but destroyed at sea[176] a convenient counter to those who believe the French
when they arrived destroyed much in the town, and the surrounding villas.
In the 18th century, Bougie was admired for its mosques, and for une citadelle entoure de murailles couvertes dinscriptions trs-curieuses,[177] but its
population had declined and the aqueducts were broken, although supposedly
135
repairable.[178] By the citadel is possibly meant Fort Abd-el-Kader overlooking

the harbour, built with spolia, and thus renamed by the French.[179]
By 1835 Bougie was being cleared, first of Kabyle houses, then of ruins, which
went into new constructions, including roads and a new, smaller enceinte.[180]
In 1836 Chef dEscadron Lapne described the site, with its 2.5km of Roman
walls, cisterns and aqueducts, dbris of columns, and remains of a temple.[181]
And in 1837 Chef de Gnie Boutault noted not only inscriptions, columns and
cisterns, but also aqueducts, que les indignes assurent se prolonger quatre
fois autant, et tre ports, dans certains points, par des ponts trois tages.[182]
But because of the small size of the French force, he suggested that only the
Kasbah was to be occupied:
Pour la [this suggestion] favoriser, et enfin pour avoir un rduit dans le
cas o les dbris de la grande muraille viendraient tre force, on traa,
en mai 1835, un tranchement qui, partant de la Casbah, couronnant
lancienne muraille au dessus du camp infrieur...La grande muraille,
presquentirement dtruite depuis le camp retranch suprieur, et
faiblement protg par la Maison crnele suprieure, le Blockhaus des
Ruines.[183]
This would require a garrison of 1,500 men. Some of the French building was
not of good quality: the Chef de Gnie commented on the work to be done
in 1834 pour rtablir lancienne muraille de la Ville, Kasbah upwards. It had
been built up by soldats non maons en pierres sches and hence hopeless.
He wanted a rebuild, profiter des fondations de lancienne, the wall to be
8m by 1m thick. Indeed, so poor was some of the French building work that the
re-establishment of the whole ancient enceinte was contemplated.[184] This
would have been an enormous task.
In later years, gunpowder was used to blow up some of the Roman walls,
an aqueduct, and les dbris des immenses et beaux bassins.[185] Fraud (an
interpreter whose task it was to accompany the tat Major, and who consequently saw many sites and reported on them[186]) describes the remains in
1877 foundations of temples, a circus, capitals, funerary stelai, cisterns and
notes nostalgically that even the ancient walls were still recognisable a few
years previously.[187] Indeed, in 1854 the enceinte of the Roman city is still traceable far beyond the present enclosure.[188]
Inscriptions were certainly plentiful at Bougie, and a French officer recorded
some of them.[189] Unfortunately, some of its Arab houses and villas (in spite
of the French alibi given above) were also demolished for military reasons:
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Depuis ltablissement des Franais Bougie, cette ville a, ainsi que nous
lavons dj indiqu, perdu de son tendue, et un nombre considrable de ses
maisons, presque toutes les plus belles ou les mieux situes, ont t dmolies
soit par lordre du gnie militaire, afin dclairer les maisons de la place, soit
par suite de la rduction de lenceinte, soit enfin par suite de ce penchant la
destruction que lon rencontre chez presque tous nos soldats, mais dun autre
ct, des travaux immenses ont t excuts par nous sur ce point.[190] In 1852
Charles Martin provided an outline history of the area from ancient times,[191]
but did not mention the French demolitions.
By 1846 the French had a camp here with barracks, but still needed to sort
out water supply,[192] and what to do with the remains of the port,[193] which
nevertheless remained the best of the bunch in the region.[194] Yet even by 1858,
the French town was far from filling the Roman site.[195] Here as elsewhere,
useful blocks disappeared into thin air, Hron de Villefosse in 1875 not being
able to find an important inscription he had already copied: Tant que les
coupables ne seront pas svrement poursuivis, ils continueront leur uvre
de destruction.[196] The French seem to have begun well here, with the
Commandant writing to the General in 1837 that he intended to gather antiquities together on the Place Royale, where a fountain was also projected: Tout
cela sera un travail peu dispendieux, puisque nous avons tous les matriaux,
les ouvriers dart, et les corves ncssaires.[197]
It is a great pity that the French, when they settled here, had little or no
knowledge of the late 11th-century Hammadites, already mentioned, who
had brought with them moveables including antiquities,[198] with which they
decorated the palaces and villas of Bougie. But so rich was the site they abandoned that their successors were still extracting valuable marbles from it years
later.[199] The distant and remote site of the Kalaa was discovered by Europeans
only in 1897. As the Courrier de Tlemcen explained, the site was important
because no other Moslem ruins of this date and size (for the town held 80,000
inhabitants) were known in Algeria. Blanchet reached the ruins after a ride
of seven hours through the mountains, although de nombreux archologues avaient pass quelques kilomtres sans en souponner lexistence.[200]
The buildings here were large, sometimes columned, and impressive, such as
the palais du Gouvernement,[201] and the palace known as the Dar el-Bahr,
which was fed by elaborate waterworks.[202] A legend about the Kalaa recounts
how the sultan appointed a stone-cutter to bring materials from Roman ruins
over 35km distant; but the work went slowly, so a chain of workers was organised so that a loaf baked by the stone-cutters mother was still warm when it
reached him.[203]
137
In other words, the pity is not in the fact that the site of the Kalaa was discovered so late, but that the French learned so little about the transfer to Bougie
that the town and its surroundings suffered: they did not care to investigate
the remains of the mediaeval town, destroying them instead. Just as we know
so little about Arab villas because of the French destruction around Algiers,
so also we lack knowledge of what might have been much more important
and impressive structures (especially if the waterworks skills from the Kalaa
were transferred) at Bougie. As with the environs as well as the actual towns
of Algiers and Constantine, there was probably much to be learned about
post-antique occupation, had not the French trampled any evidence with their
rebuilding schemes.
Guelma[204] (Occupied 10 November 1836)
Il reste Guelma de nombreuses ruines de constructions romaines, et
notamment lenceinte de lancienne citadelle est assez bien conserve
pour y tablir en toute sret, contre les arabes, un poste. [1836]
As Correch indicates in the above quote, Guelmas ancient remains were useful. He explains that their importance was thrown into relief by the failed
First Expedition to Constantine, for some 200 sick were to be left here under
guard on the way to that town.[205] Guelma is roughly half-way between the
coast at Bne, and Constantine, and its crumbling walls (with a spring nearby)
could nevertheless provide essential protection for the troops, as eventually
would its chaos de dbris romains.[206] When first the troops bivouaced
near the site, Colonel Tournemine led a group across the river Seybouse to
examine the ruins.[207] The archives include letters pointing out the utility
of Guelmas ruins for defence.[208] One of these is included in Dureau de la
Malles account in the Journal des Dbats for 27 Oct. 1836, which suggests the
same. Arranging the ruins for French occupation was quickly done, as we know
from the Renseignement sur Constantine etc by the Commandant de Ranc:
Lenceinte de Guelma est faite en grosses pierres superposes, elle est en
partie croule, on travail [sic] en ce moment la relever, ce qui se fera sans
grandes difficults. And inside the walls is une grande quantit de pierres de
taille...quelques pans de mur contre lesquels on peut addosser des hangars.
These would make barracks for the troops. The same dossier contains a
transcribed account of Constantine par le voyageur Tchaw [sic], including transcribed inscriptions so the military was clearly interested in all the
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information they could get on the place. Tschaw is the English traveller Shaw,
and the carton contains his description of Constantines triumphal arch, called
le Chteau du Gant. Little was to be left after the French troops started building, Decker describing their companionable Schadenfreude as they destroyed:
Die Soldaten schleppten die Ueberreste der schnsten Granitsulen und
Tempelpfeiler von Porphyr mit echt soldatesker Schadenfreude die in der
Zerstrung einen Genuss findet zusammen.[209]
Clauzel had occupied Guelma on the retreat from the first 1836 Expdition
de Constantine, and marked the site for permanent occupation. It was then
simply a ruin-field,[210] without the Arab occupation (nor Kasbah) to be seen
on many other such sites. The Byzantine enceinte was the most conspicuous
monument.[211] In 1837 Lieut-Col Guillemain writing on the Expdition de
Constantine to the Minister of War, complained of the impossibility of carrying enough ammunition or provisions, and of the need for fortified pro
vision dumps on the road from Bne to Constantine. He emphasized the need
to reuse the Roman cisterns at Guelma, where dactives recherches devront
tre faites dans le but de retrouver ces prcieuses ressources. If they could
indeed be brought back into service, then Guelma semble dispos pour tre
la premire station entre Bne et Constantine.[212] He suggested such stations
should be constructed from wood, which was in very short supply in Algeria,
and shipped out as kits from Toulon (this actually happened, because we have
a report on them: 1837, but no exact date) although he admits that in some
parts it would be better to use the pierres sches that one finds.
How were the ruins to be managed, given the immense size of some of
the stones, and their own inadequate resources? The archives also contain
Lieutenant du Gnie Goys 15 February 1837 Note sur Guelma et les travaux
quon y fait. The first evening they were there the French troops set to work to
dblayer le pied des escarpes, de relever les brches en pierres sches pour se
mettre labri dun coup de main. Les tours quoique leurs votes sont dtruites
sont disposes de manire pouvoir faire le coup de fusil labri dun mur
de ronde; on a occup lancien amphithtre romain par une maison crenele
en pierres sches; une partie des anciens magasins romains a t recouverte
pour mettre labri les provisions. Again, as we see from a letter of 15 February
1837 by Lieut Col de Gnie Guillemain to the Minister of War, les ruines dun
ancien temple ont favoris ltablissement de quelques locaux propres aux
apprivoisonnements de vivres, les uns seront recouverts par une charpente et
une toiture en planches. Here as elsewhere, then, the Army from the Governor
General down (and sometimes up to the Minister of War) was well informed
about the numbers of antiquities in Algeria, their utility, and often their state
139
of preservation. But such floods of information do not seem to have advanced

monument preservation.
Soon after the occupation of Guelma, Capitaine Niel described the French
camp in the old citadel, dont lenceinte est en partie reste debout. La ville
tait beaucoup plus grande...son emplacement est recouverte dune masse
de pierres et dencombres qui en indiquent peu prs le contour. On remarque
sur plusieurs endroits des dbris de colonnes en marbre rouge, des chapiteaux
et dnormes pierres de taille qui appartenaient sans doute des monuments
publics. Les dcombres ayant relev le sol actuel denviron 1m50. Niel includes
sketches of the amphitheatre, of inscriptions, and of the walls, showing the
corner towers standing highest, the courtine lowest, most substantially intact.
But the abundant ruins offered good cover for snipers, and Niel wished the
French had established themselves on another site.[213] Commanders were on
the lookout for other groups of useful ruins as a way-station to Constantine,
and found them at Announa:
On trouve des pierres de taille en quantit considrable, une source excellente est ct. On pouvait donc y crer facilement un bon poste militaire...Relever le fort romain situ 3700 mtres de Guelma, lorganiser
pour recevoir une garnison de 40 hommes, avec une pice de canon
afft marin sur sa plate forme.[214]
To build the French fortress, Colonel Duvivier[215] (eventually a general, and
with a French settlement later named after him) was put in charge. As the
column retreated toward Bne, he was apparently left without tents or food,
and had to resist Arab attacks. He repaired the walls of the Byzantine fort by
doubling them to full height, and made barracks from the ruins.[216] The walls
were largely finished by 1848. He also built a hospital and stores, cleaned out
a well, and eventually piped in water from a spring outside the enceinte
Singulire vicissitude des choses humaines! commented Suchet in 1840.[217]
Naturally, Les ruines fournirent pour ces constructions des matriaux peu
altrs dans leur forme et prts tre remis en oeuvre,[218] but of course they
suffered greatly through his exertions, and most of them quickly went into
the necessary defensive walls.[219] Inscribed or sculpted antiquities evidently
did not survive this process, for as Pulszky relates in his account of meeting
Duvivier in 1841:
He complained of the destructiveness of his soldiers, who did not comply with his orders; but he declared that there was no remedy. He said,
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an old stone does not require so much time for fitting, as a new one to
be brought from the quarry; and whoever is acquainted with the endless toils of the African soldier, will, after all, find it natural, if he has no
antiquarian scruples against saving labour to deter him from destroying
ancient inscriptions.
Pulszky then comments on what he found there:
Provided that the soldiers raised the necessary fortifications and barracks
in the shortest time, they might have destroyed all the seven wonders of
antiquity. / But we must confess that this camp was most picturesque.
The houses, hospitals, stables, shops, and inns, built of the most different
stones, of polished porphyry, marble, basalt, and fragments of templecolumns, interspersed with antique Roman and modern French inscriptions, had something uncommon, surrounded as they were by ancient
ruins and African vegetation.[220]
In 1844 the plan of the new town was laid out, and a bridge over the Seybouse
built by the Gnie. But by 1848 the road from Bne was scarcely marked out,
and there were only 959 inhabitants,[221] with a planned strength of 7,000, and
this in spite of the fact that in 1847 the camp at Medjez Amar, some 12km distant, had been abandoned in favour of Guelma. By 1854 the houses in the town,
built largely from antique remains, contrasted with the pasteboard settlements of the colonists.[222] Some distance to the east of Guelma Hebenstreit
had seen in 1732 a large town of Roman ruins, with many inscriptions, and an
amphitheatre with ten ranks of seats intact:[223] did these ruins go to help build
the growing town of Guelma, leaving us with yet another unidentified site?
The occupation of Guelma was a black day for the monuments, wrote
Wagner in 1841.[224] Much of the destruction was casual, and carried out in
spite of orders to the contrary:
Es liegt in dem franzsischen Volk, aber unendlich mehr noch in der
franzsischen Armee und dem ganzen Tross, der ihr anhngt, ein unleugbarer Zerstrungsgeist, der stocktaub sich zeigte gegen alle strenge
Befehle erleuchteter Generale, gegen alles Mahnen und Bemhen
gebildeter Subalternofficiere, welche diesem Geist nie Einhalt zu thun
vermochten.[225]
And since the barracks were built directly over Roman structures, including
a house, a mosaic came to light in the courtyard as late as 1911.[226] What was
141
carefully preserved, of course, was the Byzantine enceinte, with its many spolia
blocks. The amphitheatre was still standing in part, although it a souffert des
premiers besoins de notre tablissement.[227] But Gastineau in 1865 thought
it still fine, and the theatre near-perfect, in spite of the fact that mprisant
lantiquit comme de vrais Yankees, le gnie et les habitants les ont utilises
pour lever maisons et btiments de ltat.[228] By 1859 it was reported that
the town was entirely modern, with parts of the baths and the theatre being
the only modest survivals.[229] Modern it was, with gas lighting by 1880, but yet
Nous rentrons dans lenceinte fortifie de la ville, qui, comme beaucoup de
celles construites depuis loccupation, est entoure de murs avec des meurtrires, de faon pouvoir sy enfermer et sy dfendre en cas dattaque.[230]
This refers to a section of the original Byzantine enceinte, which still had
breaches in the 1880s.[231] By 1896, the local newspaper called for fencing off the
ruins of thecirque romain...afin dempcher leur disparition bref dlai.[232]

Tlemcen Agadir El-Mansura (Occupied 1836 by Clauzel;

Occupied 1842 by Bugeaud)
Cest la seule ville de lAlgrie qui ait de vrais monuments arabes dun
rel intrt architectural...Seuls les monuments de Tlemcen sont parfois comparables aux beaux difices de lEspagne et du Caire.[233] [1901]
Near the Moroccan frontier, Tlemcen (founded 1081) was visited in 1836 by a
French expeditionary column which got into difficulties and was withdrawn
after the signing of the Treaty of Tafna the following year. Commandant Marey
had written a short description of the town in 1834.[234] Tlemcen was indeed an
important centre of Islamic architecture. Duthoit,17 a pupil of Viollet-le-Duc
sent to Algeria in 1872 to draw Arab monuments, in charge of the Timgad excavations in 1888, and eventually the first Architecte en Chef des Monuments
Historiques de lAlgrie, had reported in much the same terms in 1873. Bernards
opinion, quoted above, is a true estimate of the towns worth: a newspaper
claimed it had more antiquities than the whole of the rest of Algeria, and that
the railway would attract tourists.[235] Just how much the Military Engineers
destroyed is a matter for speculation.[236]
Part of the towns beauty derives from its use of marble, much of it retrieved
from the nearby Roman settlement of Pomaria. It is very close to two other
built but then abandoned foundations, namely Agadir (building from the 8th
17
Oulebsir 1994, 6571: Edmond Duthoit, ou le gothique retrouv.
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century) and El-Mansura (founded AD 1337), the latter with walls built on
large ancient blocks,[237] and excavated in 1861, revealing five marble columns
and capital fragments, as well as glazed pottery.[238] So, this was not a club
sandwich of successive settlements each on top of the previous one, but rather
a smorgasbord of foundations set amongst a narrow expanse of countryside.
(We might add here Lamoricire/Altava, once a Roman camp like Pomaria,
about 25km distant, another Roman settlement turned into a French colony
and named after the eponymous army officer, deputy, and Minister of War in
1848, which also yielded antiquities.[239]) All of these, Tlemcen included, took
some materials from the Roman settlement,[240] and a good number of the
prizes are still to be seen in the mosques of Tlemcen.
The first task for the French was to build town walls at Tlemcen for their
own protection. The old and crumbling walls of the enceinte royale (with who
knows what antiquities built into them?) were pulled down,[241] and a new set,
neuve et dun joli effet,[242] built in 18551856, embracing a new French quarter to the town. The existing walls were made of pis, but the Agadir Gate was
erected on a foundation of Roman blocks, dsesprant pour lantiquaire, qui
reconnaissant la forme dun cippe funraire ou dun autel votif, ne peut sempcher de maudire larchitecte sarrazin, dont la fantaisie a souvent plac les
inscriptions de manire forcer larchologue intrpide adopter la position
la plus gnante pour les dchiffrer.[243]
Capitaine de Tugny wrote an account of the antiquities of the Tlemcen
region in 1856,[244] but this was already too late to see some of its monuments.
In 1839, indeed, Pellissier was aware of the towns treasures, but from experience
already feared what the French impact was likely to be: Elle nous prsentait,
sur des bases romaines, les dbris de ces gracieuses constructions sarrazines,
qui tombent, mais ne vieillissent pas. He noted that notre contact, qui devrait
partout porter la vie, a t pour elle le plus funeste des flaux.[245] He was correct, for the French occupation saw the destruction of the Bab-el-Ahkbet Gate,
a reworked Roman triumphal arch, the blocks of which were still on the ground
when Canal wrote his 1891 report on the site.[246] The archaeologists here, as at
Constantine, had to stand around and wait for the demolitions if they were to
get a sighting of good Roman blocks: lorsquun pan de muraille ou une vieille
tour en pis se dmolit, quand on pratique des fouilles pour ldification des
charmantes villas qui mergent des frais ombrages du bois de Boulogne, on
dcouvre le plus souvent de grosses pierres de taille artistement quarries, qui
jalonnaient le castellum et la cit romaine.[247] Unfortunately the new walls
were not the end of the story, and Pimodan describes the unsatisfactory result
of the French efforts: En voulant moderniser Tlemcen, ils lui enlevrent sa
posie.[248]
143
Constructions in the new town reused any antiquities they could find, Canal
asking in 1891: Puis, aprs loccupation de Tlemcen par les Franais, que de
propritaires na-t-on pas vus prendre ces ruines en coupe rgle, extraire,
transporter et vendre des quantits considrables de pierres de taille romaines,
portant ou non des inscriptions, aux constructeurs de btiments et difices
publics ou privs?[249] Duthoit had already provided the answer in 1873. He was
a man of wide archaeological and architectural experience,[250] and noted that
some marble columns and capitals were disappearing. He was writing about
current events, not the distant past: Les magasins des btiments civils en possdent aussi, mais beaucoup de ces marbres prcieux ont t dbits et vendus
au commerce, je nose dire par qui.[251] Two informed guesses would arrive
either at the Army, or the civil administration; they come with a question: if
a man with the prestige and responsibilities of Duthoit did not dare to name
names, then who did? Such commentators had not of course seen the previous state of the citadel, partly levelled during the struggle against Charles V,
and the task furthered by the French, who installed there barracks, arsenal and
hospital.[252]
The Army destruction of the old town brought much of the underground
to light, with its delicate odours, apparently from dilapidated sewers: Chaque
coup de pioche donne dans le sous-sol de lantique cit, tout sillonn dgouts
en ruines devenus des puisards, fait fuir dans latmosphre des puanteurs nouvelles...De mme que le mendiant se venge de la richesse du passant avare
et superbe en lui lancant une vermine, les Arabes se vengent de notre pouvoir, en nous polluant de leur salet.[253] Insults apart Tlemcen, especially its
citadel, was not improved by the French: The destruction of the Mechouar,
or citadel, has been most complete...the Turks and time, and the Gnie
militaire, have spared nothing except the minaret of the mosque and the outer
walls.[254]
Tlemcen itself was but the centre of a series of small settlements, all of
which made use of antiquities. What happened to them under the French?
Agadir was just about deserted by the mid-19th century, because its inhabitants had left, and its building had been plundered during the Turkish period
to provide materials elsewhere,[255] although the mosques minaret preserved
antiquities in its lower courses.[256] In 1850 the site was still turning up antique
funerary stelai, carried there by the Arabs and now often used by the Jews for
their original purpose, as tombstones.[257] The Turks there were suspicious of
visiting epigraphers (where la mine en parat inpuisable), perhaps because
they were the ones making money by selling the marble. This was simply to
restrict a practice profitable to themselves: Les Turcs en faisaient commerce;
ils les vendaient aux juifs, qui, les trouvant toutes prpares pour servir de
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pierres spulcrales, les rendaient leur destination primitive et en ornaient

leurs tombeaux.[258] Pomaria and Agadir were still yielding inscriptions in the
1890s,[259] as was the Bois de Boulogne, just outside Tlemcen.[260] But such stelai sometimes did not survive even their reuse on graves; thus Berbrugger in
1857 did not find any of the blocks the inscriptions of which he had copied
twenty years previously, for they had been used yet again: Ces pierres ont t
employes, ce quon massure ici, dans des constructions publiques.[261]
Some of the areas monuments were indeed saved, since the French
occupation coincided with an increased awareness of what today might be
termed heritage issues. The minaret at Agadir, on its base of large Roman
blocks, some with inscriptions (many placed, horror of horrors, upside
down[262]), became a classified monument. But it had already lost most of its
coloured tiles, and marble colonettes: Cette base est entirement construite
avec dimmenses pierres de taille, rgulirement quarries et en partie couvertes dinscriptions latines. / Ce sont, consquemment des matriaux ayant
appartenu aux difices publics de lancienne ville romaine de Pomaria.[263]
Was El-Mansura saved? Some people recoiled against contemporary ideas
about restoration. In 1901 Bernard called it un des plus beaux cadavres de
ville qui se puissent voir and railed against the restoration of the minaret, among other such work: Encore faudrait-il viter que des restaurations
maladroites viennent rompre le charme, car il semble que nous ne connaissions, pour les monuments, dautre alternative que la destruction ou la
reconstruction. Et quelle reconstruction![264] It was a corpse in part because
ces magnifiques colonnes en marbre translucide found therein were by now
gracing museums.[265]
Tlemcen was to become a key centre for the French, and part of the reason
for this was the Roman infrastructure all around. In 1847 Chef de Gnie Gaubert,
pursuing possible sites for military colonisation, was intent on learning every
lesson he could from the Romans, whom he clearly admired, and in whose
footsteps he was proud to follow. Thus at Tlemcen, he observed the widespread
ruins: the French could rebuild the city, and re-establish it because it was on a
direct line from the Sahara to the sea. As for the position at Tikembritt, by the
Tafna river, les Romains avaient fond sur ce Mamelon, un fort dont les restes
sont encore trs visibles et dont lenceinte qui a un norme dveloppement est
encore parfaitement marque, les pierres de taille y abondent, et suffiraient
ltablissement dun poste moderne, car dans notre opinion, il serait inutile
de chercher imiter ce travail gigantesque. But if Tikembritt were to be
re-established, what about resupplying it? Was the river navigable that far? Yes,
and the Romans provided the answer once more: en examinant avec attention
145
les berges de la rive, on remarque au pied du rocher une petite anse qui offre
quelques traces de construction; tout porte croire que les Romains sen sont
servis comme point de dbarquement. Rien nempche dagir comme eux so
why do the reconnaissance completely oneself, when the Romans have already
done the work?[266]

Philippeville and Stora (Occupied 8 October 1838)

[Marshal Vale] comprit que, relever Russicada, ctait compltement
refaire loeuvre romaine, non en imitateur servile et passionn, mais
avec le gnie des choses utiles; que, placer sur ces ruines une ville franaise, ctait couvrir dune tte de pont la grande route stratgique de
la province, mais encore commencer la grande voie commerciale entre
les peuples pasteurs de la fconde Numidie et les manufactures de la
Mtropole.[267] [1838]
A glance at the map will show the key position of Constantine in the east
of Algeria, while any views of the vertiginous and rocky site of the city will
demonstrate its ability to withstand siege. Gnral Clauzels failed expedition
against Constantine, with much loss of life, provoked his recall in 1837. That
same year his successor, Danrmont, lost his life to a cannonball in that towns
expensive capture (where the defenders had 63 cannon defending the walls,
against the 17 French guns). The new commander, Marshal Vale, secured
the region by founding Philippeville (on the Gulf of Stora, some 3 miles from
the Roman port of Stora) as Constantines seaport. For this he was to use the
remains of the Roman city of Russicada quon y rencontrait chaque pas des
socles ou des chapiteaux, des statues dun beau travail[268] and Vale began
making the site defensible by reusing Roman stones, and by constructing Fortde-France.[269] The fort was dans une position qui parait aussi favorable la
dfense quaux nombreux tablissements civiles et militaires quon y formera
indubitablement par la suite. The Roman citadel was still useful: il est revtu,
sur presque tout son contour, avec dnormes pierres de grs que le temps
a dranges, mais qui, dans leur tat actuel, prsentent encore une dfense
respectable.[270] If the general officers had been reading the Army Mmoires
enthusiastically, they would have know that Colonel Prtot had noted in a
reconnaissance as early as 1834 that Stora peut redevenir en peu de tems ce
quil toit sous les Romains[271] that is, a port guarded by nearby Russicada.
The available ruins were quickly described by various of his officers in 1839:
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chapter 3
Magazins et citernes de Stora...en travaillant au dblayement et

au nivellement des terres du Fort de France, nous avons dterr des
colonnes de 3 4 metres de longueur...nous avons trouv aussi, dans
lemplacement qui avoisine le Drapeau, quantit de pierres tumulaires
portant toutes des inscriptions Romaines fort lisibles; plusieurs taient
en marbre dune seule pice, taills sur les quatre faces...Progrs
de la nouvelle ville: une centaine de baraques en bois et plusieurs en
maonnerie.[272]
The site was indeed rich in a great variety of ancient remains: et l surgissaient des cintres de votes, des restes de temples, et enfin des constructions
de formes bizarres, dont la destination primitive na pu encore tre assigne
avec certitude.[273] In 1840 Carette emphasised that this was not une ville
arabe dbaptise, but rather a collection of ruins in places five or six metres
deep.[274] The Baths boasted 10-metre columns.[275] In 1839 troops at first lived
under canvas and the Arabs, supposedly stupified by the taking of Constantine
by the French, sold them the site for 50 francs.[276] But the site quickly became
a typical French town, and many signs of the past were obliterated in the
process,[277] especially after the rebuilding of defences and forts: les pierres
romaines sont sur place; il ny a qu les relever.[278] By 1840, land values were
said to be forty times what they were under the Dey.[279]
Philippeville, over the ruins of the ancient Russicada, occupies a promontory
overlooking the Gulf of Stora, with the latter settlement the port for the
former.[280] A good port was essential, and it was recognised in 1838 that Stora had
to be defended from the promontory, with intermediate posts along the route
to the port. At Stora, when the French arrived, they found only a few deserted
straw huts, leaning on Roman cisterns fed by elaborate water systems,[281] and
temple ruins. Perhaps some of the water systems were still working, or at least
serviceable.[282] At Philippeville itself, when the French began their defensive
works, il ny avait que quelques mchantes maisons arabes, construites avec
les anciennes ruines, et qui depuis ont toutes t dtruites et rebties.[283] The
urgency of this work seems, according to the Duc dOrlans, to have increased
the sickness levels of the troops who did the building.[284] The Kabyles kept
their corn in the cisterns, and the French perhaps at first imitated them, but
then used them as magazines, and also as their HQ.[285] Several other solid
Roman buildings were also converted into storehouses.[286] The ruins around
the site were still magnificent in 1838[287] but not for much longer, although
the Gnie did restore one of the monumental cisterns in such a way that it
was praised as la fois un difice dune utilit prsente incontestable et un
modle curieux de restauration archologique.[288] Others were refurbished,
147
and the canalised feeds to them were replaced.[289] In earlier centuries the port
was sometimes called Port des Gnois by the inhabitants, since Genoa was
the first European state to trade here. However, in 1840 the story had become
more vague, for locals stated that the port was built by the Gnois, ou par les
Roumis, cest--dire les chrtiens, sans faire de distinction entre ces qualifications.[290] At the same date, water supply was seen as deficient, and the newlybuilt houses badly served, and unsuitable for the climate.[291]
At ancient Russicada, the troops were working on new accommodation as
soon as the site was occupied, and they btissaient des murs avec des dbris
qui dataient de deux mille ans et fortifiaient la place.[292] In 1838 some 3,000
troops were engaged on the fortifications and interior of the settlement
blockhouses first, then barracks because winter was approaching;[293] and des
pierres tailles depuis vingt sicles revtirent des murailles toutes neuves.[294]
But the walls evidently got priority, and stone buildings for housing took several
years. For after tents, in 1840 that first rebuilding was merely wooden cabins
for troops and the nearly 500 traders in food and wine.[295] (This parallels
Algiers, where the population doubled 18339, but the consumption of wine
quintupled.[296]) By 1840 the settlement had 4,000 inhabitants, and 10,000 by
1858,[297] all expansion surely meaning destruction of yet more remains. So
that although Leo Africanus had walked a Roman road down to Russicada,
following Vales decision of 1838 all such antiquities disappeared.[298]
By the end of the century, scholars were questioning whether such vandalism
had been necessary Ces superbes vestiges ntaient-ils pas, en effet, bien
loigns de lenceinte de la nouvelle ville, et pouvaient-ils mettre obstacle son
dveloppement? The answer was no, and the 3km of fortifications swallowed
all the blocks of the amphitheatre.[299] By 1888, the only antique monument
remaining was the theatre.[300] In constructing and repairing the defences of
Russicada, the Gnie destroyed at least one important monument, called the
Grand Edifice lOuest: Cest l un exemple de lincurie et du ddain pour
lantiquit dont, malgr les instructions prcises du marchal Vale, sest rendu
coupable le Gnie, dans les premiers temps de la conqute.[301]
When the ruins were dug for new constructions, plentiful worked stone,
column shafts, statues and inscriptions were unearthed,[302] and Fenech
records the excitement of discovering antiquities, even after a night disturbed by attack alerts.[303] The site had extensive Roman cisterns, as already
mentioned, but just how these were fed was not discovered until the early
1840s.[304] They were then restored for use,[305] following work by the Gnie on
repairing their vaulting.[306] By 1859 there were plans to refurbish more cisterns
under the theatre, but then larger ones were discovered up the hill, and that
plan was abandoned.[307]
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The rebuilding of Roman Russicada as Philippeville was quickly undertaken,

in order to protect communications between Constantine and the sea. Thus in
1838 was projected un ouvrage romain mis rapidement en tat de dfense et
qui servira de point de dpart des parapets en terre qui formira lenceinte de
la ville. The soldiers were to clear a still-functioning Roman cistern of the trees
that partially blocked it, so that le monument sera...rendu ladmiration
dont il est digne comme oeuvre dart et par sa remarquable conservation. The
vaults to other Romans cisterns were repaired in 1839,[308] and those below
what was to become Fort Royal, holding more than 10,000 cubic metres, were
refurbished after 1843.[309] The task of doing the actual work to re-establish the
Roman fortifications at Philippeville fell to the engineers, so we find Chef de
Bataillon Niel [later a Marshal of France] going over the ground at Stora (occupied 1838), and re-establishing both the ring of Roman forts, and the road from
Constantine to Stora, which avait t construite avec tant de soin que partout
on en suit les traces et que sur plusieurs points elle est si bien conserve quon
a peine croire quelle ait quinze sicles dexistence. On another stretch of the
same road at the Oued Baba, he discerned Roman improvement works, perhaps executed when Russicada rose to prosperity.[310] Niel had no hesitation
in invoking the Roman strategy for the defence of Stora, slightly adapted to
modern artillery: Pour occuper cette rade, il faudra faire comme les Romains
un tablissement Russicada, rtablir leur voie le long des falaises, la protger
par les postes ou des blockhaus, et enfin construire sur une des montagnes qui
domine Stora, un fortin avec des obusiers qui dfendra le mouillage.[311]
For building materials there were de fort beaux vestiges dun vaste cirque,
les loges de lamphithtre sont bien conserves[312] although Gsell says
the Gnie demolished the amphitheatre, said in 1838 to be near-perfect,[313]
jusquaux fondations.[314] Between the two sites were not only the remains
of four Roman bridges, which were dismantled for building materials, but also
plentiful remains of villas[315] qui disparaissent bientt, comme si elles avaient
honte de leur grandeur dchue.[316] This was unfortunate, since at least one
may have been spectacular,[317] but was nevertheless demolished by French
picks.[318] Again, as officers had already recognised, the Roman citadel still
formed a respectable defensive position, even with some of its huge blocks
displaced. So the French simply did what the Romans had done la disposition
des lieux nous a forc de suivre la trace des Romains, wrote Colonel Niel[319]
and took over and built up both sites. He had perhaps already gained the habit,
for his same reconnaissance reports on a Roman military post on the road from
Constantine, where une caserne retranche sur le mme emplaement et avec
les pierres de lancien poste romain suffirait pour garder cette position.[320]
149
A town for the French with a coat-of-arms of the cross over the crescentmeant paved streets (as of course had the Roman predecessor[321]), and in
1844 two large statues were unearthed by pavers only a few centimetres below
ground.[322] Several such streets helped obliterate ancient remains.[323] Hence
the French town by 1858 une cration toute franaise[324] was built by
plundering the Roman one, although this should not have been contemplated,
given the closeness of the Filfila marble quarries, which had been used by
the Romans for the original construction of the settlement.[325] Even a large
and splendid building, decorated with marble columns, went without even
being drawn.[326] Indeed, the Gnie did not keep any kind of record of what
they destroyed, leaving Vars in 1896 to guess at what might had been on the
site of the Military Hospital.[327] The Roman circus, still imposing in 1840,
with arcading and seating still in place, was being demolished in 1843 when
Delamare saw it,[328] and had gone twenty years later,[329] and le monument a
t, pierre pierre, enlev pour lrection de la ville moderne. Rien nen reste
plus que lnorme massif qui servait de base.[330] The theatre was in a worse
state, but yielded statues in excellent condition.[331] The baths, in the centre
of the Roman town, became storerooms for the military administration.[332]
Miscellaneous blocks, especially broken column shafts, but also statues and
bases, lay around for years, Andry in 1868[333] and Fraud in 1875[334] expressing
amazement at their quantity.
A museum was founded at Philippeville in 1859, and Roger talks it up in
1860: limportance scientifique et historique du Muse accrot chaque jour
comme par enchantement, grce au bon esprit des habitants de la ville et
de la banlieue. He passes quickly over quelques exceptions regrettables to
praise the reception of his requests to donate antiquities, noting that they have
understood that la loi a dclar proprit publique tous les objets dantiquit
qui se dcouvrent.[335] But in 1896 Vars noted that more capitals than columns
were displayed, because the columns were just too re-usable;[336] and many of
the works achvent de se dtriorer sous laction des intempries auxquelles
une administration imprvoyante les a exposes.[337] The harvest by 1904
was pathetic.[338] What a short-sighted attitude the inhabitants possessed, he
exclaimed, when their antiquities, if assiduously sought and conserved, could
make the town a centre: Les savants et les amateurs se fussent donn rendez-vous Philippeville, ce qui et imprim un vritable essor aux affaires
et incontestablement accru la prosprit gnrale.[339] Yet having a museum
did not prevent the wanton destruction of antiquities around the town, especially those of little use for modern life, such as sarcophagi.[340] It seems that
workmen were on the lookout for likely blocks of stone, and took whatever
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they could find. In consequence, on the farm of M. Lesueur, who wished to

conserve antiquities, a close watch had to be kept on the Kabyle workmen,[341]
and the whole mausoleum complex was fenced off [342] but it is not known
who caused so much destruction. More destruction occurred on 4 August 1914
when Philippeville, along with Bne, were the first French towns to be fired on,
by the German cruiser Goeben.

Stif (First Entered 15 December 1838)

Loccupation de cette importante position, rsolue depuis longtemps,
parat devoir devenir dfinitive: M. le marchal [Bugeaud] ordonne au
commandant du gnie de presser ltude du terrain et de commencer
immdiatement les travaux. / Pendant les journes suivantes, douze
cents travailleurs dinfanterie sont mis la disposition de M. le colonel
Bellonnet, commandant le gnie de larme.[343] [1844]
The site was already much knocked about by the 1730s,[344] not least because it
had provided building materials for nearby towns.[345] A report of 1832 on Stif
notes encore une btisse carre trs solide which could be used as a fortress,
or to house 800 men and that ruins on the road thither generally indicated
the existence of a fountain.[346] Indeed, Stif had the remains of a Roman and a
Byzantine enceinte, the former (1000m by 900m) only to foundation level, the
latter (450m by 300m) with walls of more than 3m in thickness and, according
to Bonnafont, parfaitement conservs.[347] The ancient acropolis (measuring
150m by 120m) was nearly intact.[348] Nor were the French the only ones to
try and reuse ancient fortifications; the Arabs did likewise at Teboursouk, in
Tunisia,[349] within which were found sous les vestiges apparents, les preuves
incontestables de cinq ou six rdifications successives.[350]
When the Constantine column entered Stif in December 1838, it saw a
ruined Turkish grain store built with antiquities, as well as the forts.[351] This
was to be repaired, and again used as a store plus a hospital, when Vale
occupied Stif in 1839.[352] He stayed six weeks, and left behind five artillery
companies in the citadel. This was during the course of the Bibans (or Portes de
Fer) Expedition of 1839 because of the strategic importance of this location
videmment la base temporaire doprations de larme qui doit manoevrer
dans le sud de la province. Before passing on, wrote Vale, je fis rparer le
fort romain qui existe encore; je lui donnai le nom de Fort dOrlans, et je
prescrivis de prparer des projets de constructions pour former autour un
vaste et important tablissement.[353] The ruins here were crucial for building
151
both new and old: on peut se faire une ide de son importance par les ruines
que nous dcouvrons tous les jours et au milieu desquelles existait encore il y
a quelques annes, une citadelle rectangulaire flanque de dix grosses tours.
On voit encore les dbris dune enceinte Grco-romaine, trs bien construite,
qui a pu tre restaure et faire partie de lenceinte actuelle[354] thus, partdestruction, part restoration.
When the French arrived to settle at Stif in 1839, their forces were so
small that they took possession of the later Byzantine enceinte (the citadel),
rather than the much larger Roman one, which was of 4km with 17 towers.[355]
This was restored for French use, autour duquel vinrent se grouper les
maisons qui constituent aujourdhui la ville nouvelle, and renamed thus,[356]
much to the pleasure of the Duc dOrlans.[357] The Roman fort itself une
citadelle rectangulaire flanque de dix grosses tours survived in part into the
1840s, but was not only too large for French purposes,[358] but largely foundations-only, having been partly dismantled in Late Antiquity to build its smaller
successor.[359] The Byzantine fort, called the wall of Belisarius, was of splendid blocks (although hastily constructed out of dbris of every sort[360]), next
to which the French additions to make it secure were much inferior:
Il est construit depuis le bas jusquau haut en pierres de taille, trs grandes
et parfaitement ajustes. Les Franais lont continu pour clorre Stif;
mais le mur que nous avons ajout nest, devant ce majestueux rempart,
quun mur de jardin.[361]
A plan of 1844 shows the relationship between the two enceintes;[362] and
another of 28 May 1846 shows the French also camped both inside the
Byzantine enceinte and inside the larger, earlier Roman one, less of which was
now visible. It was clearly fast disappearing: although a Mmoire of 1844 noted
the work needed to empcher la dgradation du mur romain,[363] another
of the same year pointed out that some dbris of Arab monuments had also
been found, but that Malheureusement les ruines que des sicles ont entasses les unes sur les autres ne sont mises jour que par les fouilles ncssites
par les constructions nouvelles.[364] Buildings the Turkish troops had used
were also refurbished.[365] The citadel would hold one thousand men, and it
was calculated that five hundred could therefore do building work each day,
completing the rough work in about three weeks, with a battalion improving
and tidying up in two or three months.[366] But such calculations were apparently optimistic. Perhaps because of Army incompetence in building, civilian
contractors were brought in at high rates to do the work.[367] Yet to be fair to the
soldiers, they were not building garden sheds: the walls of the newly named
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Fort dOrlans were over two metres thick and about nine metres high, with
many enormous collapsed blocks to be cleared.[368]
Hunting for inscriptions at Stif in the early 1840s occupied several
classically-minded soldiers,[369] although the quality of the stone meant that
many were difficult to read.[370] But such searches quickly became a thing of
the past: by the 1850s, so intensive had been French building activities that the
ancient town was, in a sense, history, even if its strategic location meant that
the site was considered important for military purposes. Thus when Chef du
Gnie Capitaine Antonin wrote a Mmoire militaire sur la Place de Stif dated
28 February 1857, this historical account was considered by a committee which
recommended on 4 January 1861 that it be put in the archives of the Gnie o il
sera utilement consult. The copy-document is signed by Charon, Gnral de
Division; Genet, secretary and Lieut-Col de Gnie; Charrier, Chef de Bataillon,
Chef dtat Major du Gnie en Algrie; and Randon, Secretary of State for
War.[371] This was all very pious because, to repeat, Antonins was a historical
account at least in part because the French had knocked so much down, as
is recorded in the archives: maonnerie en pierres romaines prises sur la
place et remplissage, under the heading Bardage des Pierres Romaines
bardage meaning carting or barrowing; rejointement des maonneries
Romaines...Maonnerie en pierres romaines prises sur place et mortier
ordinaire.[372]
Antonins 1857 Mmoire notes that Les ruines de sa premire enceinte
dont les fondations taient encore visibles notre arrive but no longer.[373]
In spite of the fact that this enceinte was some 460m west to east, and 310m
north to south, with walls standing to between 1.5m and 2m in height, little
now remained. Just where it went is not difficult to ascertain, if we accept that
an 1855 estimate of the cost for using its blocks elsewhere was indeed carried
out.[374] For sixteen years, wrote Antonin, Stif had been exploited as a quarry,
and was still far from exhausted. But then, he also noted that in 1857 there
were 178 masons and stone-cutters there. With the population rising from 3,164
in 1856, to 5,000 by 1866 and then 9,257 in 1876, the thirst for building materials is easily understood. The smaller Byzantine enceinte was also quickly
destroyed. An account of 1848 had described it as rectangular, with ten large
towers, which existait encore il y a quelques annes,[375] but had now disappeared. The working documents of the Gnie show that plenty of old stones
were still there for reuse up to the 1850s, but had apparently all gone by the
1870s.[376] Storage for dry goods was also in short supply at Stif, as an all-Algeria survey revealed in 1847; indeed, grain storage facilities were everywhere
deficient. Anciet silos were commonly used and, at Miliana, even an old
Mosque. At Stif, the Procs-Verbal notes the three Roman towers of the
153
enceinte converted into silos, where jusqu prsent conserv en parfait tat
le bl quon y a renferm.[377]
As the antiquities were destroyed, so the new town grew apace. Nous
lavons releve de ses ruines pour en faire un centre militaire dabord, puis
un centre civil et commercial,[378] wrote Clamageran in 1874. The town had
clearly expanded, and its population increased. Founded as a civilian centre
in 1847, in 1853 20,000ha in the environs were ceded to a private company
to encourage colonisation, and villages were founded.[379] By 1866, the town
had laspect de toutes les petites villes de France, with roads crossing at
right angles, boulevards, and a garden: Les nombreuses pierres et sculptures romaines qui le dcorent sont renverses et enfouies terre comme de
vraies ruines, et quelques fts, orns de chapiteaux qui ne sont pas les leurs,
entourent, lextrmit dune alle, une colonne supportant le buste du duc
dOrlans.[380] New villages founded in the vicinity of Stif also sat most conveniently on Roman ruins. At Lecombe (Ouled Agla), on a trouv, en creusant les
fondations des maisons, des traces nombreuses de loccupation romaine.[381]
By the late 1850s, the French town was rising at the expense of the Roman one,
surrounded by crenellated walls, and with the Byzantine fortress housing the
military establishment nearby on higher ground.[382] A periodical reported
in 1852 that the site contient de la pierre chaux, du sable, de nombreuses
ruines romaines qui fourniront de la pierre btir.[383] Why this emphasis on
lime plus ruins? The answer depends on who was making the statement. Thus
when Berbrugger is relayed in the same periodical describing land around
Tlemcen, the frequent references to ruins are presumably to flag the regions
fertility.[384] But prospective settlers at Stif and other sites might have been
expected to make the connection ruins = free material. And this was indeed
true: as Blaser related in 1855: On trouve o lon veut de bonnes pierres de
construction; on na qu les extraire des creux ou des tertres. On en sert aussi
de ruines et de dcombres.[385] One private company, the Socit agricole et
immobilire franco-africaine owned 120,000ha in the Enfida, between Tunis
and Sousse; one author counted 17 Roman towns on this territory, and Les
ruines, dont quelques-unes grandioses qui en subsistent, tmoignent du degr
de civilisation et de la richesse de leurs anciens habitants.[386] We may wonder
how many of the ruins noted by Belenet in the area survive today.[387]
In other words, absolutely no control was exercised over stone-robbing,
and we might suspect either that it was deliberately encouraged, or that the
colonists had no other source of easily usable stone. The necessary stones
were carted to the various building sites. In 1859 Carron had to pick his way
among great blocks on the new hospital site, and it reminded him of the birth
of Carthage (no less!), because he saw masons cutting up Roman blocks for
154
chapter 3
reuse.[388] So quickly did the new town expand that, by 1863, a visitor noted
that the significant ruins had gone or were still underground, except outside
the town, in the Promenade dOrlans, where the statue of the late Duke
presides over a goodly array of broken columns, fragments of friezes, mutilated
statues, and busts that made me sensibly feel that a nose is decidedly a highly
ornamental appendage to the human face.[389] Carteron found little to see in
the town in 1866, but liked the garden with its antiquities.[390] Even as late as
1879, just like the antiquities in Constantine and a series of other towns, they
were badly cared for.[391] Gsell visited in 1893, but les ruines que jai visites ne
prsentent quun intrt mdiocre.[392]
However, there was yet more to be discovered underground. In 1850 the
reuse of springs trouves dans les conduits romains had been suggested;[393]
and in 1908 an important chteau deau was discovered on Place Barral, and
sera le plus bel ornement de la ville lorsquil sera restaur et que les escaliers
seront amnags pour quon y accde de la place.[394] Fortunately, the French
buildings did not occupy all the Roman site, so that Christian basilicas could
be excavated in the early 1960s. Yet even outside the new town, the military
made a mess, for example in the champ de manuvre militaire: Un rseau
dense de tranches, fosss, fut creus qui a boulvers le terrain, parfois mme
trs profondment. Tant en ville que sur le champ de manoeuvre, seules les
dcouvertes fortuites et rduites ont t faites.18
But were the French interested in doing anything constructive with the
antiquities they found? At Stif, the answer is a mixture of yes and no. In the
early years, survival was at a premium; but even by the 1850s there was a lack
of enthusiasm. So when the ruins of a Temple of Diana were uncoverd at Stif,
the blocks were simply laid out on a boulevard, without any thought of reusing
them in any modern construction. And when the Porte Napolon was to be
finished (that is, a reworking of the existing Roman double archway: original
project dated 20 October 1853), the Directeur des Fortifications poured cold
water on the idea of having the date in Arabic numerals, which he thought
vulgar; and he thought the idea of a crowning eagle was un ornement
prtentieux, qui dans lexcution risque dtre grossier et ridicule.[395] Lack
of enthusiasm, downright hostility (il faut en finir avec cette porte[396]),
and difficulties in finding suitable blocks (as well no doubt as the need to
spend money on essentials rather than decoration) reduced the project from
columns, to pilasters, and finally to simple arches, with no decoration at all.
What a lack of panache!
18
Fvrier 1965, 2122.
155
Milah (Occupied 1838)
Here the Byzantine enceinte still stands, and was admired by Marmol.[397]
There were plenty of ruins to be seen in the late 1830s, when it was memorably
characterised as a sewer ringed by a Roman wall.[398] Destruction of the environment was already under way, for garden trees were cut down to form defensive barricades, houses demolished, and attempts made to use the ancient
walls:
Presque tout est crer pour ltablissement de la garnison, mais on
prouvera ici moins de difficults quailleurs, parcequon trouve sur
place la chaux, le pltre, et une briquetterie...Ds que le Chef du Gnie
recevra lordre dentrer en ville, il fera abattre les arbres des jardins pour
quon puisse y placer la troupe sous la tente, et ces arbres formeront des
abattis sur les lignes qui doivent tre plus tard fermes par des murs.
But there were communications and road problems: La Colonne a suivi
en venant Milah la route la plus courte; il serait extrmement difficile de
la rendre carrossable. Quoiquon ait trouv beaucoup de ruines de postes
romains on na jamais reconnu les traces de lancienne voie. On va soccuper de
chercher pour la route faire un trace prfrable celui que donne le chemin
des Arabes.[399] Niel writes of une piscine romaine assez bien conserve,
qui sappuie sur lenceinte. Elle est dfendue par une enceinte romaine, ou
du moins construite avec les pierres de lancienne cit romaine, qui tait
beaucoup plus tendue, si lon en juge par les ruines parses quon trouve en
dehors des remparts actuels.[400] During the Expdition des Portes de Fer
in 1839, the Duc dOrlans found the Arab town dirty: les rues ne sont que
des rivires dordures, les maisons sont remplies dun pied de fumier et sans
fentres none of which helped the hospital the French set up nearby.[401]
The French town was built adjacent to the Arab one, directly over an ancient
necropolis, which brought to light sculpted stones and inscriptions.[402] By 1881
there were no standing monuments to be seen except for the walls and a small
fountain.[403] Plenty of remains were built into the houses,[404] and plenty more
were dug up from the surrounding gardens[405] indeed, one garden became
the Archaeological Museum.[406]
Cherchel[407] (Occupied by Vale 15 March 1840)
La faute en est ladministration militaire qui rgit le pays. A lpoque de
la prise de Cherchell, tous ces dbris que vous voyez taient beaucoup
156
chapter 3
plus complets quils ne le sont lheure quil est, principalement dans

lintrieur de la ville, o, suivant les besoins journaliers de loccupation,
le gnie militaire est venu avec sa pioche, sa trouelle et son cordeau, et
a fouill partout sans prcaution, sans religion, comme un homme qui
ne voit dans une pierre, ft-elle admirablement sculpte, quun moellon
bon tailler...nous autres Franais civiliss nous y avons mis le marteau
et la pioche, et l o le marteau et la pioche taient impuissants, nous
avons fait jouer la mine, comme si, honteux de notre infriorit, jaloux et
humilis devant la majest des restes gigantesques des ouvrages romains,
notre conscience ne ft tranquille et notre repos assur quaprs avoir
tout bris, tout dtruit.[408] [1849]
Ibn Khaldun, after mentioning the mosques of Crdoba and Damascus, and
the aqueduct of Carthage, mentions the monuments of Cherchel[409] in the
same sentence as the Pyramids of Egypt.[410] Prtot visited the site in 1834,
compared what he saw with Marmols 16th-century account, and was frapp
de la facilit avec laquelle les Romains parcouraient ce pays o nous semblons
craindre aujourdhui de mettre le pied et cependant, lexception de ltat des
chemins, rien presque rien ny est chang.[411] When the French occupied the
site, three battalions held off the Arabs for four days,[412] presumably from
inside the Byzantine enceinte. Plans of the site from 1841 show Fort Royal, largely made out of great Roman blocks.[413] As late as 1848,[414] the French had
not found any suitable stone to burn for mortar,[415] so we must suspect they
burned antiquities instead.
Just as he did the town, so also in 1834 Prtot described the port.[416] In 1841
the foundations of a road leading to an island were reported.[417] Clearing
and rebuilding the Roman port, its remains visible under the water in good
weather,[418] was essential so that Miliana could be resupplied,[419] as well
as batalions on the route thither.[420] But this was a difficult task, because
it was artificial, and had been destroyed by sea and earthquakes. Projects
of 1843 and 1845 set the French to the task,[421] when they found embedded
column shafts,[422] which they did not realise were either part of the antique
strengthening of the ports walls, or the remains of a promontory temple.[423]
At the start of the work of 1847, two Roman galleys were recovered, which
immediately disintegrated.[424] But by the finish, the harbour could hold about
40 vessels of 100150 tons.[425]
By 1852 French construction was under way with a vengeance: for there were
five large lime kilns near the ruins of the baths,[426] no doubt to service the
magazines and hospital which were building nearby.[427] And by 18541855 a
project had been drawn up (labelled urgent) for bringing Roman cisterns back
157
into use.[428] Cherchel was already much healthier than most Algerian sites
but the ancient aqueducts needed to be put back in operation,[429] such as the
one just down the coast from the site.[430] Some of the new buildings do not
appear to have been well constructed. Perhaps it was a lack of good mortar that
prompted one visitor in 1855 to think that the three-storey barracks would not
survive one of the frequent earthquakes: constructions qui, soit dit en passant,
paraissent un peu aventures, puisque la nouvelle caserne a trois tages, et
que la ville a t dtruite, il y a peu dannes, par un des tremblements de terre
trs-frquents dans ces contres. Mais lavenir est ce dont on sembarrasse le
moins ici, et, pourvu quon pare aux ncessits du moment, on croit avoir tout
fait.[431] Or was it just badly built by soldier-amateurs? We lack further information from this precise period, because we have no independent (non-army)
and scholarly descriptions of the ruins. Why was this? An ungenerous explanation is that Vale had made a good job of destroying antiquities at Philippeville
in 1838, and there were no stray scholars there either to report his deeds; so this
may have been why he apparently did not allow members of the Commission
Scientifique to visit Cherchel, preferring members of his own clique.19 This
might not have been unusual: in 1857 Gnral Durrieu bade his officers to
accompany him on a visit to Roman remains in the province of Mascara, 24km
from their camp. The account remarks on how Roman occupation est crite
en nombreux caractres. They searched for inscriptions (they evidently read
Latin), but without success, pour percer le silence de ces tombes colossales.
Civilisation, they remarked, est comme le soleil, elle a ses nuits et ses jours, ses
plnitudes et ses clipses. On peut dire des romains quont habit lAfrique ce
quon dit des martyrs: Leur cendre fut une smence.[432]
Because the French settlement was about one-sixth of that of the ancient
town,[433] the ancient fortifications were too large for the French to defend. This
is presumably why there were so many remains around in 1858.[434] However,
plans from 1860[435] show the French ring of ten forts, seven of which are on the
line of the Roman walls. By the 1860s, there were settlers houses scattered near
the town,[436] perhaps the same ones who had taken building materials from
the Temple of Aesculapius, thereby destroying it.[437] A colonist had visited the
town in 1848 and enquired of M. Pharaon (a local interpreter), why there had
been no decent digs outside the town where a vast crowd of columns were to
be seen. The answer: because they were simply used for building materials.
19
Oulebsir 1998, 251, citing Ravoisi: le marchal ne voulut quaucun des membres de la
commission ly suivit, et en mme temps quil nous faisiant connatre ses intentions
cet gard, il organisait une petite commission scientifique, compose des ses officiers
privilgis.
158
chapter 3
The baths were near the port, and unfortunately close to the 1842 work
on the building of the military workshops, so that a magnificent portico
within the complex was destroyed.[438] By 1847 a makeshift museum had
been set up in a mosque, lments dun muse qui peut devenir un jour trsimportant.[439] Some antique statues were unearthed on the site in 1858, and
transported to the Grande Place, where ils taient en cet endroit, abandonns
aux intempries des saisons et aux dgradations de toute nature. Ils y sont
peut-tre encore[440] although the same authors note that a curator had
been appointed in 1856.[441] Some of these statues and heads went to the
museum in Algiers, but we cannot know what other antiquities might have
been unearthed at the same time: la plupart de ces fouilles furent faites sans
intelligence ni discernement. Les revtements de la piscine, un grand nombre
de dbris et de matriaux furent vendus des maons sans aucun souci de lart
ni des souvenirs historiques.[442] Such similar insouciance is recounted[443]
in Verneuil and Bugnots 1870 account, when they noted not only that Ces
magnifiques dbris, par une inconcevable incurie, ont t recouverts de terre,
sans aucun souci de conservation ni de recherches ultrieures. (Quesnoy
made the same point about Tunisia in 1888.[444]) Just what happened to the
Arab towns columned mosque is unclear; and no antiquities were noted there
in 1876.[445]
Hron de Villefosse visited the town in 1873, and was struck by the immense
number of fragments littering the ground but little of de restes plus imposants de larchitecture antique; mais cette absence sexplique facilement en
songeant toutes les descentes dont la cte dAfrique a t le thtre,[446] politely not mentioning French destruction. But he did see Roman houses, one
with a pool, the layout of which were still clear.[447] In 1875 Gaskell could still
pick out the remains of theatre, baths and amphitheatre, while the actual site
of the ancient city is now either waste or cultivated land; here and there is a
peasants house built with the stones and pillars of temples, which have been
used to construct farmhouses and Arab huts.[448] When the French arrived,
the theatre was perfect except for the scaenae frons,[449] but was destroyed by
the behemoth that was the Army, with its urgent need for barracks.[450] The
contour of the amphitheatre was recognisable in 1870, presumably because the
remaining blocks were too large for the French to shift[451] although much
more had gone by 1905.[452] The theatre was partly hidden by 1905 when the site
(for some reason not under the control of the State) had two houses built on its
stage and was still yielding antiquities for the local museum.[453] Also found
there were sufficient fragments to indicate that the theatre had been very richly
decorated;[454] and two column shafts, part sawn into veneer slabs, presumably
during Late Antiquity.[455] An Arab house there was also constructed from its
159
materials.[456] Such discoveries, as well as enriching the museum, also went

into a spolia fountain in the Esplanade;[457] these included colossal heads.[458]
An index of how negligent the local French had been about the site is
Wailles 1886 excavation of what he believed to be a palace, perhaps that
of Juba himself,[459] with admirably preserved statues, as the newspapers
reported.[460] In a later dig, he found antiquities that might have graced Cyrene
or Pergamum[461] so how much had been lost by exposure of earlier finds to
the weather? Of the statues unearthed, were indeed many of them replicas of
Greek statuary ordered by Juba for the embellishment of his city?[462] These
finds excited the young Beul in 1858 precisely because they looked Greek, not
Roman, and he considered Roman material inferior to Greek. Unfortunately,
find-spots were vague or non-existent; but the recent catalogue of finds lists
406 items, including six colossal heads of water gods.20 Cherchels villas also
included splendid mosaics suggesting, together with the recovered sculpture,
just how sophisticated the area must have been.21 Thus in 1873 materials excavated from the property of the Spanish Vice-Consul, including mosaics, sculpture and columns, probably indicated a villa site.[463] As late as 1886 statues
were still turning up on the site: Waille found two, and placed them in the
local museum; but he had to bargain with colonists for two more, which he
bought piously so that elles ne soient vendues des trangers et ne sen aillent
en Angleterre ou en Sude, comme cela, je crois, sest dj produit.[464] Nor
was Cherchel the only site boasting high-quality work.22 Why did Capitaine
Clout use military prisoners for clearance at Cherchel in 1890?[465] Were they
not liable to be negligent in their attitude to antiquities? But beggars could not
be choosers, and perhaps they were no worse than the Gnie: Waille was also
helped in his excavations by prisoners, as well as by an engineering team from
the Gnie.[466]

Force majeure, plus a change...
Several of the town-biographies demonstrate how some of the building the

French did in the first decade in Algeria was essential for the well-being of
20
21
22
Landwehr 19932008 passim.

Ferdi 2005, 1720 for history of the sites study from Ravoisi in the 1840s; has 195
entries, and catalogues material now gone, with remarks such as dtruite, sans doute
dtruite, etc.
Sintes and Rebahi 2003, for statues, and 178210 for mosaics that can stand comparison
with those of Antakya.
160
chapter 3
soldiers, and their protection against native marauders. We might expect

matters to change in subsequent decades but, thanks in part to the example set
by Bugeaud of vicious and continuing war, the country rarely experienced that
peace which could have enabled new constructions on new sites in a prosperous countryside. Instead, given the continuing dangers, force majeure required
the continuing destruction of antiquities to provide facilities for the Army and
for civilian colons. We shall see in Chapters 7 & 8 that destruction continued
apace, and even increased as the century wore on.
Such radical conversions into French towns were necessarily advertisements
for the bulldozing aspect of the mission civilisatrice, and were also influenced
by the renewal of so many towns in 19th-century mainland France. The Turks
also built in Algiers, and used Roman monuments in so doing[467] although
they sometimes blamed the Arabs for such destruction.[468] Roman architecture
was also obliterated and, if little of it survived by 1830 in Algiers, there were
plentiful remains in Constantine, but these largely vanished without being
properly described let alone drawn. The only upside of the destruction was a
mournful one: the archaeologists followed the demolition battalions like birds
behind the plough, rejoicing in whatever inscriptions, architectural members
and other antique scraps the works of clearance revealed.
1 Bolle_1839_4546
2 LIllustration_1_4_
mars_1843
[ ]
3 Ibid.
[ ]
4 Blakesley_1859_21
[ ]
5 Pallary_1894_3
[ ]
6 Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_
310311
[ ]
7 Morell_1854_66
[ ]
8 Piesse_1862_82
[ ]
9 Haedo_1612_fol 4rff
[ ]
10 Arvieux_1735_V_219
[ ]
11 Paradis, Venture de
(17391799), Alger au
XVIIIe sicle, Fagnan, E.,
ed., Algiers 1898, 2
[ ]
12 Panati_1818_113
[ ]
13 Brard_1867_106
[ ]
14 Morgan_1728_II_462
[ ]
15 RA 1857 issue 4, in the
Chronique, 305
16]Revue Africaine 1837, 73

17 Delvoux_1870_155
[ ]
18 Arvieux_1735_V_222223
[ ]
19 Paradis, Venture de
(17391799), Alger au
XVIIIe sicle, Fagnan, E.,
ed., Algiers 1898, 121
[ ]
20 Berteuil_1856_I_222
[ ]
21 Vicomte_1843_70
[ ]
22 Tchihatchef_1880_8485
[ ]
23 Pckler-Muskau_1839_
I_21
[ ]
24 Blanqui_1840_5
[ ]
25 Vicomte_1843_59
[ ]
26 Lombay_1893_30
[ ]
27 Baraudon_1893_4
[ ]
28 RA 1858, issue 13, 68
[ ]
29 Ville dAlger, Conseil
municipal, Drasement
partiel des fortifications
Voies et moyens
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
dexcution Emprunt de
17 millions 500,000 francs.
Rapport de la commission.
Dcembre 1891, Algiers
1891
[ ]
30 La Dpche Tunisienne
24 May 1897
[ ]
31 Quatrebarbes_1831_64
[ ]
32 Revue Africaine 6, August
1837, 125126
[ ]
33 Wagner_1841_II_162
[ ]
34 Pulszky_1854_4344
[ ]
35 Bouyac_1891_55
[ ]
36 Wagner_1841_I_95
[ ]
1840_2
[ ]
38 St_Marie_1846_212 Bne
[ ]
39 Veuillot_1847_8
[ ]
[ ]
41 Urtis, M.-L.-Bonav.,
Opinion mise par

M. Urtis,...devant la
Commission de
colonisation de lAlgrie,
la sance du 12 mars
1842, 33, 36
[ ]
42 Pulszky_1854_4344
[ ]
43 Wagner_1841_I_135136
[ ]
44 Campbell_1845_94
[ ]
[ ]
I_149
[ ]
47 Trumelet_1887_I_7
[ ]
48 La nouvelle Gloire
franaise, rcits des
combats et hauts faits
militaires de larme
dAfrique, depuis la
prise dAlger jusqu la
dfense de Mazagran,
contenant un prcis
historique et
chronologique complet
de lAlgrie, Paris 1840, 123
[ ]
49 Berteuil_1856_II_160
[ ]
50 Picard 1994, 125
[ ]
[ ]
1840_45
[ ]
I_144
[ ]
54 Ibid., 2829
[ ]
55 Revue Africaine 6,
August 1837, De Lapisse,
Ch., Varits: Alger,
7388
[ ]
56 Bonnafont_1883_8283
[ ]
57 Rogers_1865_3637
[ ]
[ ]
59 Morell_1854_81
[ ]
[ ]
61 Tocqueville_1865_441
[ ]
62 Thireau 1912, 1314
[ ]
63 Gavault_1894_66
[ ]
64 Carton_1905_54
65]Pellissier_1836_I_
292293
[ ]
66 Pulszky_1854_90
[ ]
67 SHD 1M1314
[ ]
68 Saint-Arnaud_1858_5
[ ]
69 SHD GR1M881
[ ]
70 Vitry_1900_40
[ ]
71 Guillaumet_1891_269
[ ]
72 Ancien_payeur_1833_
2930
[ ]
73 Boucher_1886_12
[ ]
74 Marmol_1667_II_440
[ ]
75 Caraman_1843_30 1836
[ ]
76 Devoisins_1840_7879
[ ]
77 Poulle_1869_674675
[ ]
78 Devoisins_1840_89
[ ]
79 Desfontaines_1838_II_
215 travelled 17836
[ ]
80 Cherbonneau_1857_3738
[ ]
81 Cherbonneau_1854_123
[ ]
82 Ibid., 121
[ ]
83 Piesse_1862_384
[ ]
84 Ibid., 377
[ ]
85 St_Marie_1846_240
[ ]
86 Baraudon_1893_129
[ ]
87 Rgis_1880_130
[ ]
88 Fraud_1867_15
[ ]
89 Barbier_1855_182
[ ]
90 Fraud_1867_14
[ ]
91 Mercier_1903_380381
[ ]
92 Bapst_1909_I_305 1837
[ ]
93 Carteron_1866_257258
[ ]
94 RA 1868 issue 68, 121133
[ ]
95 Fraud_1867_1920
[ ]
96 Ibn_Khaldun_II_1865_
276277
[ ]
97 Bugeaud_1922_211212
[ ]
98 SHD GR 1M882
[ ]
99 SHD Gnie, 1H58
[
100]Blakesley_1859_276277
[ ]
101 Charvriat_1889_208209
[
102]SHD Gnie, 1H58
[
103]Wagner_1841_I_346347
[
104]SHD Gnie 1H805
[
161
105]SHD Gnie, 1H58

106]Ibid.
[
107]SHD Gnie, 1H833
[
108]SHD Gnie 1H805
[
109]Ibid.
[ ]
110 Vars_1895_30
[ ]
111 SHD Gnie 1H805 1840
[ ]
112 Malte-Brun_1858_15
[ ]
travelled 172425
[ ]
114 Carron_1859_84
[ ]
115 Suchet_1840_29930
[ ]
116 Excursions_1838_72
[ ]
117 Rozet_and_Carette
1850_112
[ ]
118 Orlans_1892_315
[ ]
119 Bonnafont_1883_349
[
120]Robert_1891_139
[ ]
121 Expdition_de_
Constantine_1838_218
[
122]Tissot_1888_394395
[
123]Fortin_dIvry_1845_155
[
124]Cherbonneau_1854_128
[
125]Playfair_1890_190191
[
126]Poulle_1869_672673
[
127]Expdition_de_
[
128]Wagner_1841_I_348
[
129]Poulle_1869_671
[
130]Suchet_1840_2627
[ ]
131 Crawford_1863_316317
[
[
133]Rouquette_1905_5253
[
[
135]Ratheau_1879_180181
[
136]Baraudon_1893_123124
[
137]Bequet_1848_416
[
138]Carron_1859_84
[
146147
[
1884_190191
[ ]
141 Vars_1895_15
[
142]Ibid., 2021
162
143]Ibid., 1895_V
144]Playfair_1890_189
[
145]Ibid., 120
[
146]Vars_18951896_251
[
147]Revue Tunisienne,
Organe de lInstitut de
Carthage III, Tunis 1896,
163
[
148]Gadrat_1910_108
[
149]http://piedsnoirsaujourdhui.com/
medea.html
[
150]Decker_1844_I_160161
[ ]
151 Fortin_dIvry_1845_149
[
152]Carron_1859_54
[
153]St_Marie_1846_105
[
154]Lamping_1855_48
[
155]Morell_1854_119
[
156]Rogers_1865_215
[
157]Desfontaines_1830_338
[
158]St_Marie_1846_187
[
159]Desmichels_1835_24
[
160]St_Marie_1846_188
[ ]
161 Pallary 1894, 5
[
162]Baude_1841_II-146
[
[
164]Piesse_1862_301
[
165]SHD GR 1M1316
[
166]Ibid.
[
167]Ibid.
[
168]Desmichels_1835_36
[
1884_12
[
170]Bernard_1901_265
[ ]
171 SHD GR1M881
[
172]Leo_Africanus_1896_700
[
1850_24
[
174]Fraud_1877_157158
[
175]Ibid., 9697
[
176]Ibid., 246
[
177]Anon_1785_133134
[
178]Arvieux_1735_V_239
[
179]Tchihatchef_1880_239
chapter 3
180]SHD MR1319
181]SHD MR881
[
182]SHD GR 1H48
[
183]Ibid.
[
184]SHD Gnie 8.1 Bougie
18331840
[
185]Masselot_1865_187
[
186]Fraud_1860_188
[
187]Fraud_1877_130131
[
188]Ansted_1854_200
[
189]SHD MR1317
[
190]Ibid.
[ ]
191 Ibid.,
[
192]St_Marie_1846_200
[
193]Lieussou_1850_66
[
194]Rozet_and_Carette
1850_102
[
195]Mac_Carthy_1858_429
[
1875_409
[
197]SHD GR 1H48
[
198]Blanchet_1908_4
[
199]Ibid., 3
[
200]Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1897_11_June
[
201]Robert_1903B_225
[
202]Fagnan_1900_101
[
203]Robert_1903B_231232
[
204]http://www.piedsnoirsaujourdhui.com/
guelma.html
[
205]Correch_1837_117
[
206]Orlans_1870_204
[
207]Correch_1837_104
[
208]SHD Gnie, 1H400
[
209]Decker_1844_I_180181
[
210]Wagner_1841_I_294_295
[ ]
211 Morell_1854_455
[
212]SHD Gnie, 1H400
[
213]SHD Gnie 8.1
Guelma 183747
[
214]SHD Gnie 8.1
Constantine 183640
[
215]Bapst_1909_I_283
216]Pulszky_1854_8990
217]Suchet_1840_225
[
218]Watbled_1870_467468
[
219]Devoisins_1840_118119
[
220]Pulszky_1854_9091
[
221]Bequet_1848_431432
[
222]Morell_1854_239240
[
[
224]Wagner_1841_I_
299300
[
225]Ibid., 295296
[
226]Ballu_1911_95
[
[
228]Gastineau_1865_89
[
[
230]Domet-Adanson_&_
Gautier_1881
[
[
232]LAvenir de Guelma
31 December 1896
[
233]Bernard_1901_275
[
234]SHD GR1M881
[
235]La_Tafna_1887_13_April
[
236]Pimodan_1903_97
[
237]Lombay_1893_303
[
238]Revue Africaine III
1861, 148
[
239]Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1886_22_Jan
[
240]Monuments_
[
241]Pimodan_1902_99
[
242]Lombay_1893_261262
[
243]Bargs_1859_167168
[
244]Monuments_
Historiques_1856_
477489
[
245]Pellissier_1839_III_52
[
246]Canal_1891_281283
[
247]Ibid., 323
[
248]Pimodan_1903_6364
[
249]Canal_1891_321
[
250]Grande Encyclopdie:
DUTHOIT

251]Duthoit_1873
[
253]Pimodan_1902_63
[
254]Playfair_1890_258
[
255]Bargs_1859_180
[
256]Leclercq_1881_173
[
257]Canal_1891_306
[
258]Bargs_1859_166167
[
259]Canal_1891_294
[
260]Ibid., 297298
[
261]RA II 1857, 62
[
262]Canal_1891_284286
[
263]Ibid., 283284
[
264]Bernard_1901_276
[
265]Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1863_4_April
[
266]SHD Gnie 1H756
[
267]Fraud_1875_5657
[
268]Fenech_1852_13
[
269]Dieuzaide_1883_II_
363364
[
270]SHD Gnie 8. 1
Mmoires gnraux
[
[
272]SHD MR1317
[
1850_35
[
274]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIII
1840, 240244
[
275]Fenech_1852_2829
[
276]Fenech_1867_34
[
277]Mmorial_
Gographique
_1930_Plates 2021
[
278]JDPL 29 October 1838
[
279]Ibid., 25 July 1840
[
280]Lestre_de_Rey_1904
[
281]Vars_1896_914
[
282]Nodier_1844_129
[
283]Carteron_1866_2627
[
284]Nodier_1844_121122
[
285]Wagner_1841_I_231232
[
286]Pulszky_1854_7273
[
287]Vars_1896_46
[
[
1850_37
[
289]Vars_1896_6768
[
290]Delamare_1858_1718
[
291]Blanqui_1840_8788
[
292]Poujoulat_1847_I_
237238
[
293]Fraud_1875_59
[
294]Robert_1891_162
[
295]Suchet_1840_12
[
1841_186
[
297]Malte-Brun_1858_2122
[
298]Barbier_1855_193
[
299]Vars_1896_125126
[
300]Tissot_1888_104
[
301]Vars_1896_6263
[
1850_18
[
303]Fenech_1867_5
[
304]Poujoulat_1847_II_
312313
[
305]Morell_1854_200
[
306]SHD Gnie 8.1
Philippeville 183940
[
307]Bertrand_1903_108
[
308]SHD Gnie 8.1
Philippeville 183940
[
309]SHD H230bis,
Mmoires divers 184459
[
310]SHD H227 Mmoires
divers 1839
[ ]
311 SHD Gnie 8.1 Mmoires
gnraux
[
312]Le_Mis_de_Massol_
1860_178
[
313]Vars_1896_1
[
314]Gsell_1901_I_201
[
315]Delamare_1858_25
[
316]Bliard_1854_13
[
317]Delamare_1858_3444
[
318]Ibid., 2630
[
319]SHD MR H227
[
320]Ibid.
[
163
322]Bliard_1854_56
[
323]Fraud_1875_462
[
324]Mac_Carthy_1858_
434435
[
325]Gsell_1901_I_108
[
326]Vars_1896_63
[
327]Ibid., 116117
[
328]Dondin-Payre_1994_
1718
[
329]Fenech_1867_155
[
330]Fraud_1875_83
[
331]Carron_1859_64
[
332]Fraud_1875_8485
[
333]Andry_1868_136
[
334]Fraud_1875_8283
[
335]Roget_1860_3
[
336]Vars_1896_193
[
337]Claparde_1896_89
[
338]Bertrand_1903_190
[
339]Vars_1896_205
[
340]Bertrand_1903_526
[
341]Ibid., 524
[
342]Ibid., 536537
[
343]Nodier_1844_218
[
344]Shaw_1738_107
[
345]Carron_1859_99100
[
346]SHD, Papiers Pelet 1319
[
[
1850_116117
[
[
350]Chabassire_1866_113
[
351]Fraud_18711872_7
[
352]Ibid., 8
[
353]JDPL 13 November 1839
[
354]SHD MR1314
[
355]SHD MR H229
[
356]Barbier_1855_180
[
357]Anon_1845_9596
[
358]SHD MR 1317
[
359]Nodier_1844_221
[
360]Zouave_1860_79
[
361]Carron_1859_113
164
362]SHD Gnie, 1H910
363]Ibid.
[
364]Ibid.
[
365]Nodier_1844_216217
[
366]Ibid., 224
[
367]Fraud_18711872_10
[
368]Nodier_1844_223224
[
369]Desvaux_1909_227
[
370]Nodier_1844_222
[
371]SHD Gnie, 1H910
[
372]SHD Gnie 8.1 Stif
18457
[
373]SHD Gnie, 1H910
[
374]Ibid.
[
375]SHD MR1317
[
376]SHD GR1H910
[
377]SHD Gnie, 1H415
[
378]Clamageran_1874_
187188
[
379]Fraud_18711872_1617
[
380]Carteron_1866_407408
[
381]Audollent_1890B_40
[
382]Ratheau_1879_191192
[
1852_II_102
[
1854_V_183187
[
1856_IX_252257
[
386]Paulard_1893_60
[
387]Belenet_1887_201, 213
[
388]Carron_1859_103
[
389]Crawford_1863_283
[
390]Carteron_1866_
407408
[
391]Ratheau_1879_192
[
392]Gsell_1893_80
[
393]SHD MR 1317
[
394]Ballu_1909_7980
[
395]SHD Gnie, 1H910
[
396]Ibid.
[
397]Marmol_1667_II_441
[
398]Orlans_1870_397
[
399]SHD Gnie, 1H58
[
400]SHD Carton H227
chapter 3
401]Orlans_1892_329330
402]Mercier_1885_566
[
403]Rgis_1880_98
[
1881_37
[
405]Goyt_1882_139
[
1881_39
[
407]EB11_6_83
[
408]Beauc_1997_77
[
409]RA_1870_130144
[
410]Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863
_360
[ ]
411 SHD MR1314
[
412]SHD MR1315
[
413]SHD Gnie 8.1 Cherchel
18404
[
414]Beauc_1997_6163,
7680
[
415]Renou_1848_216
[
416]SHD MR1314
[
417]Ibid.
[
418]Barbier_1855_151
[
419]Bequet_1848_146
[
420]Ideville_II_1882_
482483
[
421]Lieussou_1850_3233
[
1850_8384
[
423]Marcotte_de_
Quivires_1855_24B
[
1870_135
[
425]Gaffarel_1883_501
[
18461857
[
427]Ibid.
[
428]Ibid.
[
429]Buret_1842_227
[
430]Lestiboudois_1853_93
[
431]Marcotte_de_Quivires_
1855_24
[
[
433]Ballu_1916_168
[
434]Mac_Carthy_1858_338

18581875
[
436]Crawford_1863_
194195
[
437]Flaux_1865_282
[
1870_140
[
439]Marmier_1847_145
[
1870_139
[
441]Ibid., 163
[
442]Ibid., 141
[
443]Guigniaut_1859_1718
[
444]Quesnoy_1888_348
[
445]Fabre_de_
Navacelle_1876_42
[
446]Hron_de_
Villefosse_1875_391392
[
447]Ibid., 393
[
448]Gaskell_1875_149150
[
449]Verneuil_and_
Bugnot_1870_138
[
450]Beauc_1997_79
[
451]Verneuil_and_
Bugnot_1870_137
[
452]Bertrand_1905_188
[
453]Waille_1905_7172
[
454]Ballu_1905_76
[
455]Waille_1905_75
[
456]Ballu_1912_468
[
457]Ayer_1911_8586
[
458]Dor_1895_26
[
459]Waille_1886_121122
[
460]Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1887_27_May
[
461]Waille_1902_6
[
462]Graham_1902_31
[
463]RA 1872 issue 96,
Chronique, 478479
[
464]Waille_1886_124
[
[
466]Waille_1902_40
[
[
468]Carteron_1866_
229230
chapter 4
Ruins, Roads and Railways

The Largest Quantity of Roman Ruins Outside Asia Minor

On conoit ds lors quon puisse trouver l des villes entires, telles
que Lambessa ou Tbessa, mieux conserves quen Europe, parce
quelles nont subi que les ravages du temps. Il ne faudrait pourtant pas
se faire illusion: ce sont bien des ruines, et quoique dores par le soleil
dAfrique, elles ne peuvent plus servir qu attirer des archologues ou des
touristes.[1] [1861]
It was the imposition of new building for soldiers and colons that destroyed
many ancient monuments. Thus by only 25 years after the initial conquest, it
was estimated that the French had put into Algeria 5350km of roads faites ou
projetes; aqueducts totalling 132,941 metres, offering 24,108,310 litres of water
daily; and by 1850, 869 btiments dutilit publique tels que fontaines, lavis,
abreuvoirs, halles marchs, abattoirs, ppinires, hospitaux, glises, mosques,
coles, lyces, salles dasile etc; in addition were built 20 lighthouses; barracks
for 40,000 men, and military hospitals for 5,000.[2] A considerable amount of
this building would have been on top of the Roman infrastructure of public
works[3] digging out fountains, repairing cisterns and aqueduct, roads and
forts, so these figures should be taken with a considerable pinch of salt, as we
shall see. It is such large-scale building, provoked in large part by an expanded
military presence for further conquest, and in support of colonisation, which
put intolerable pressure on the ancient monuments. Much of the material
destroyed was stone building blocks, a great loss because they represented
the skeleton of ancient settlement, and their destruction or re-cutting meant
that reconstructing ancient monuments, even only on paper, was made
impossible. Also destroyed in large quantities were the plentiful inscriptions
funerary and civic, by which the Romans had proclaimed the permanence
of their civilisation, and which the Byzantines had frequently reused in
decorative display by incorporating them in the walls of the fortresses they
built. Monuments already in ruins, their blocks and columns collapsed like
dominoes (the dangerous task of dismantling accomplished by earthquake or
old age), were especially vulnerable to reuse.
This chapter first sketches the great extent of ancient ruins in North Africa,
and then examines sites occupied by locals when the French arrived, as well as
166
chapter 4
others deserted except for occasional nomads. After setting these in context by
a brief overview of ruins studied by the Army, it then passes to two juggernauts
which probably destroyed as many antiquities as did the rebuilding of sites by
the French namely roads and railways. Both of these often devoured ruins,
because both tended to run over the ground covered by ancient roads.[4] And
both, in their turn, made access to ancient sites quicker and more convenient,
hence were engines in the destruction of yet more antiquities. Similar
devastation occurred in metropolitan France, and on a larger scale, because
there were more kilometres of both roads and railways built. Both the Ponts et
Chausses and the Gnie militaire were responsible.1
Untouched by Europeans since Late Antiquity and the Byzantine era, and
inhabited by peoples largely uninterested in ancient remains, North Africa
was rich in impressive ruins, even if some ignorant commentators opined that
vainement lcrivain recherche des yeux un monument quelconque model
sur le grandiose des constructions de la vieille Rome; ses yeux ne rencontrent
rien, rien que le dsert dans sa nudit, le dsert sans bornes et sans fin.[5] For
in fact even small areas, such as that around Dougga, could reveal large quantities of antiquities.2 At Djemila and Timgad, there were statues in profusion in
the Forum, but all have now gone, their pedestals marking where they stood.3
The remains were frequently drawn, and eventually semi-protected by the
Commission des Monuments Historiques.4 So where did such quantities of
statues and other antiquities go? Mostly into the lime-kilns: on a fait de la chaux
avec des statues de Caesarea; Naraggara, Thagora et Auzia ont t engloutis
dans les casernes. [Masqueray] a vu scier les marbres du temple dEusculape
Lambse, et dans cette dernire localit les monuments enferms dans le
praetorium ont tellement souffert que lEtat sest dcid faire transporter les
plus prcieux et protger efficacement celles qui sont restes Lambse.[6]
1 Rau 1994, 669675.
2 Vos 2000, 20 for list of what they found: 186 fattorie, 7 fortezze, 5 torri, 5 recinti, 5 marabout,
3 templi, 2 ville, 8 strade, 4 miliari, 161 opere idrauliche, 128 pozzi e 7 ponti dellacquedotto
pubblico di Dougga.
3 Zimmer 1989; statues documented by the inscriptions, by Wesch-Klein, Gabriele, 5486. Not
even one fragment of a statue can he illustrate, although some must have been splendid,
such as east side of Timgad Forum (Abb.22), with five quadrigas and an equestrian statue; or
Cuicul, with one quadriga, two equestrian statues, etc (Abb.14).
4 Koumas and Nafa 2003, 1557 for overview of Les explorations scientifiques; 6385 for the
Monuments Historiques, and then the departments of Oran (91119), Algiers (121165) and
Constantine (167195), with illustrations which help underline French interest in Islamic as
well as in ancient monuments.
167
But the Duc dOrlans at Djemila also chose three capitals he fancied, and had
them sent to Paris.[7]
Algeria contained monuments the like of which had disappeared from
European soil centuries before. Travellers in earlier centuries, and throughout
the 19th century, write of groups of ruins every few kilometres; of the frequent
remains of Roman bridges, roads and their milestones, fountains and cisterns;
of plentiful inscriptions by which the deeds of the Roman army could be
traced; and of a landscape little altered for centuries except where Roman
installations scattered through now-dry areas or in marshes bespoke of the
degradation or abandonment of sophisticated water supply systems. For
example, at Le Kef many of the houses were built from antique blocks, and
several appeared to be reworked Roman or Byzantine structures.
The 18th century in Europe saw the opening of museums, and their stocking
with classical materials, followed in the 19th century by the development of
archaeology and anthropology two disciplines of interest and use to the
French army in North Africa. Archaeology helped augment the picture of
Roman civilization the remains of which had hitherto been known by survivals
in Europe. Digging and publication also helped archaeology bolster the image
of the modern army and its achievements. Anthropology helped develop not
only the picture of prehistoric peoples and their monuments, but also that of
current populations, who needed to be understood if they were to be tamed,
and then incorporated into various sections of the army. However, there are
indications that Algeria did not receive the attention it deserved, even from
French scholars, because they were focussed on digging in Italy, Greece and
Turkey.5 However, as Barbier de Meynard said at the Acadmie des Inscriptions
in November 1889, there were digging difficulties in such countries so young
scholars should be directed to Algeria.[8]

North African Sites Occupied and Unoccupied
As we shall see in Chapter 6, ancient sites occupied and developed by the
French quickly lost the majority of their monuments. Sites inhabited by Arabs
seem to have fared much better. Those which remained occupied were usually far from the fighting areas, and were just villages, with the locals living
amongst the ruins. Unoccupied sites, including small villages, were left thus for
good reasons distance from roads, difficult water supply, lack of agricultural
land, hostile locals. The following accounts will emphasise how little damage,
5 Chevallier 2002, 83112: French archaeology in the Ottoman Empire.
168
chapter 4
in comparison to the French, the natives did to the monuments, because of

course they did not impose an alien town setup, instead living among the ruins
and in a sense thereby maintaining them.
There are plenty of instances of Arabs building farms and various properties
from ruins. Near Constantine, in 1756, one owner utilisa les ruines des anciens
tablissements romains en crant, sur ce point, quelques vastes gourbis pour
abriter ses chevaux.[9] At Mechta-el-Arfaoui, some ancient blocks remained
standing, while others had been used for houses.[10] Near Gigthis, an ancient
farms materials went toward building Arab houses.[11] The tribe of the Ouled
Abed built a series of small villages amongst the ruins of a large Roman town,[12]
and the Balta did likewise, planting gardens around the outskirts.[13] At NabelKedim, the best materials from the ancient town had gone to build the Arab
town, and many walls had been flattened so the land would take wheat and the
plough.[14] On the site of Takianous, some houses were still to be seen peeping
out from the palm groves, and the sheik told of more large walls buried under
the sands.[15] In other cases, however, the locals simply imitated Europeans:
one sheik at Oued Taria had several houses built for him by a European, for
he wanted un bordj bti leuropenne...Cest aussi M. Carr de Miliana qui
les a difies, en mettant contribution les nombreux matriaux antiques
qui jonchent le sol sur un espace trs-tendu.[16] Some materials could have
come from Miliana itself, which was rich in antiquities,[17] including stelai and
sculptures.[18]
The examples below show the diversity of settlement types found by the
French in North Africa. Dougga is an important ancient site well off the
beaten track, and occupied by a small village. Mahdiya is a sea port much
mauled in the 16th century, which did not recover much prosperity until
the 1890s, but whose remains in that century probably offered wonders to
any alert investigator. Sbeitla because of its remoteness was visited occasionally by nomad tents, and kept many of its antiquities where sites nearer to
19th-century expansion lost theirs. Leptis Magna, deserted, sand-entombed,
and far away, is introduced as the site in North Africa which most interested
the marble-thirsty French in the 17th and 18th centuries. Finally, Tunis and
then Carthage are considered. Tunis was too large for its old city to be much
altered by the French, and Carthage is discussed as the most famous city in
North Africa, the excavations and then the development of which are a microcosm of changing attitudes to looting, archaeology and then seaside town
development.
169
Dougga
The site became a Byzantine stronghold, with earlier materials used in its
construction.6 Peyssonnel visited the site in 17241725, noticed the important
mausoleum with the Latin and Phoenician inscriptions (which he thought
to be Hebrew), and wrote of les dbris de plusieurs palais et de plusieurs
temples qui annoncent avoir t superbes.[19] Captain Kennedy visited the
site in 1846, described the various remains, and saw Behind the house of the
Sheick, who uses it as a cattle fold, are the ruins of a magnificent temple.[20]
Several houses in the town were built on top of Roman remains, and reused
them in their construction,[21] one inscription spoiled because it had been
placed next to the fireplace in a hut.[22] At least one house still used the floor
of the original building.[23] The ancient town had become an Arab village, as
Saladin remarks[24] but its walls were not of brick or pis, but taken from
the monuments on which they sat,[25] although with much damage to mosaic
floors, statues and wall decoration.[26] A Byzantine fortress was constructed on
the Capitol, making strong walls from antique blocks,[27] and helping to protect
the still-standing temples.
However, distance did indeed lend enchantment to the view for Graham and
Ashbee in 1887, since in the town itself they found Mud, over a foot deep in
many places, rendered the narrow streets and lanes almost impassable...The
temple, so beautiful at a distance, is befouled by ordure, and rude stone walls
of miserable dwellings are clustered round its noble remains.[28] A decade
later Trumet de Fontarce was equally appalled by the dirt and stench.[29]
The site was dug by Alfred Merlin from 1901, and work proceeded for several
years, although the last campaign in 1920 did not achieve much because of
price inflation caused by the Great War,[30] which considerably slowed down
digging in Algeria as well.[31] The years of digging revealed houses, water
conduits and the rest under the later dbris,[32] and by purchase entailed
the nearly complete clearance of Arab houses from the site.[33] But not quite
all: a few were left intact so the excavation team could live in them, in the
cause of science.[34] However, because the focus was on Antiquity, no interest
was taken in the Arab constructions. But Thomas Reades crime (for he was
the well-known despoiler of an important bilingual inscription here) came
round again, Merlin suggesting that he might also have lifted whole mosaic
6 Golvin and Khanoussi 2005, 177182 for the destroyed Sanctuary of Caelestis, and material
used in the fort.
170
chapter 4
floors: Nous ne saurions le raffirmer. Toujours est-il quil serait vivement

souhaiter.[35] He would certainly have been in tune with travellers who rapidly
destroyed mosaics by carrying away tesserae as souvenirs, as at Lambessa,[36]
or through simple lack of care, as at Beni-Hassen.[37] Cagnat wanted every
one photographed, otherwise men, weather or animals would rapidly destroy
them.[38]
Mahdiya
After Kairouan was destroyed in 1048 during the Hilalian invasions, Mahdiya
increased in importance as a port on a peninsula with strong fortifications.7
Eventually the town was overshadowed by Tunis. Marble shafts were to be seen
in the harbour defences, large granite missiles lay all around;[39] and in 1829
Filippi saw beaucoup de restes dantiquits, des chapiteaux, des entablemens
et des morceaux entiers de murailles appartenantes un Temple.[40] But, by
the 1860s, her palaces lay in ruins, and the only remaining splendour to be
seen was offered by the columns in the apparently rebuilt mosque;[41] mostly
covered in whitewash,[42] they begged comparison with those of Kairouan.
The town, in fact, had not recovered from the depradations of Charles V, who
blew up the fortress on the peninsula.[43] By the 1890s, the town was growing
again, its port working, and the region rich in crops.[44] Why was this important
town and its region not studied thoroughly until after the First World War?
An insufficient number of inscriptions, perhaps, to interest French scholars.
But a more powerful reason was probably that the peninsula on which the old
town lay was only partly occupied by houses, and was very easily defensible,
so there was no need for the excavation and buildings which uncovered so
many antiquities on other sites. Thus Juff, Chef de Bataillon, reported on the
peninsula in 1883, including Moslem cemeteries, tombstones, and cisterns:
A linspection des ruines, il est facile de se convaincre que toute la force
et lactivit de Medhia se trouvaient autrefois concentres sur cette partie
aujourdhui dserte qui comprend le Vieux Port et deux autres petites
baies.
His downbeat assessment of the Great Mosque might also have put some
scholars off: une varit bizarre de colonnes provenant des ruines antiques
et dont chacune est surmonte dun chapiteau diffrent. Les sculptures sont
gnralement dtriores mais le style en est suffisamment reconnaissable.
Deux seulement sont dans un tat de bonne conservation.[45]
7 Djelloul 1999, 5459.
171
Sbeitla
Sbeitla/Sufetula in later Roman centuries was an important point on the road
network, but was apparently deserted when Peyssonnel passed by in 17245.[46]
Its monuments were saved by its remoteness in this nomad country, for even in
the 1880s there is little doubt that if any settled population had existed within a
radius of twenty miles, and any means of transport over a country now difficult
of access at most seasons, the few buildings still remaining would long since
have been overthrown.[47] It was also too far from ordinary Arab settlements
to make its remains worth carting away,[48] although granite columns were
apparently taken to Tunis by the Bey.[49] The town layout was easy to follow,[50]
and nearby sites were equally rich in antiquities: Henchir-Souk had the remains
of olive-pressing;[51] Ksar-Hahmoun had a splendid figured mausoleum.[52]
Towards the end of the century Dubiez, gomtre du Service des domaines,
surveyed the 95,000ha bought around Sbeitla by the State and, to the north,
west and south registered les traces de soixante-dix ruines, pouvant se classer ainsi: 3 villes, 15 centres importants, 46 bourgades, 6 huileries, and the
remains of over 1,000 olive presses an indication of the richness of the region
in Antiquity.[53] Near Feriana, farms and olive presses were decorated by nowwild olive trees.[54] Such profusion cannot have been unusual: Winckler found
16 presses at just one then anonymous site.[55] And fortunately, a project in the
1860s to build a town here from the ancient remains failed during a period of
military turmoil.[56] What is more, in 1862 when Gurin visited the site it was
covered in sand, with only a Moslem shrine in view.[57] Cagnat and Saladin
stayed here, and in the adjacent proto-palace structure, when they came here
to dig in the early 1890s.[58]
The importance of the site in Byzantine times is underlined by the finds
of lieutenant Boy in 1888 in the rebuilt walls of the amphitheatre namely
statue bases absolument noyes dans du mortier.[59] The ruins were consequently safe from the French architect Saladin in 1887, for he only had nine
men to help him, and reckoned he needed 150/200 men for three to four months, not to mention equipment, in order to dblayer une partie de ces ruines
et obtenir des rsultats intressants.[60]

Leptis Magna
Far along the North African coast in present-day Libya, a country where
important ruins were close to the sea,8 lies Leptis, which deserves a short
mention here because this easily accessible site contained myriad antiquities
which were attractive to Europeans, and were carried home in as large
8 Di Vita 1983.
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numbers as their ships could manage. Here we may form a better picture
of French antiquities collecting before 1830 than anywhere else except for
Greece and Asia Minor. But if much of the architecture at Leptis was from the
Lower Empire, why is it that so little of what must have been similar if smaller
constructions received so little attention in Algeria?
France had treaties with Tripoli, signed in 1692 and renewed in 1720,[61]
allowing them to tirer de la ville de Lbida toutes les colonnes de marbre
quils pourraient trouver dans ledit lieu. This did not mention statues, which
French agents were buying in nearby Tripoli, the seat of government, in
1681.[62] One 1694 report published in Paris described the site of Leptis, including the port, and its columns and green veneer, indicating that the French
were even then excavating antiquities.[63] Consul Claude Lemaire, at Tripoli
in 17051706, wrote a long description home of the towns glories, including
one large temple in which he counted more than 200 columns.[64] Some similar spolia had evidently gone into palaces at Tripoli itself, where a Turkish
palazzo garden was decorated with antique marble statues.[65] Lemaire
reported the harbour as silted up, and accessible to not much more than small
boats; so any antiquities would have to be ferried to a ship anchored offshore.
Working for five months (presumably these were indeed his consular duties?)
Lemaire shifted three enormous columns to the port, but could not get them
embarked, making do with mutilated statues instead.[66] In 1759 le comte de
Caylus wrote about this site (which he never visited himself), citing Consul
Lemaires work,[67] and cataloguing some of the smaller finds in his Recueil
dAntiquits.[68]
Interest in the site only increased in the 19th century, with descriptions by
Blaquire in 1813[69] and El-Abbassi in 1816,[70] the latter noting that the French
Consul has visited to copy inscriptions. By this date the British were masters
of the Mediterranean, and in 1816 the Bashaw of Tripoli had offered columns
at Leptis to the British King. Captain Smyth examined them in that year, and
returned in 1817 with a suitable ship, but found that many shafts had been
broken or mutilated to form mill-stones. Instead, he began digging, but came
across what might have been the dbris of lime-burning: he had soon the
mortification of perceiving, that other barbarians had preceded the Arabs in
the work of destruction, instigated either by iconoclastic zeal or by vindictive
feeling [by locals]. From whatever cause it had proceeded, the destruction
appeared to have been complete. Most of the statues were found either broken
to pieces or chipped into shapeless masses. The arabesque ornaments had
been defaced, the acanthus -leaves and volutes knocked off the fallen capitals,
and even part of the pavements torn up, the massy shafts of the columns alone
remaining entire.[71] There is an outside possibility that flutings and the like
173
were knocked off antique blocks for apotropaic purposes.[72] But this did not
upset some connoisseurs, for the period of the principal grandeur of the city
must have been posterior to the Augustan age, and when taste was on the
decline. Several of the mutilated colossal statues are in the very worst style
of the Lower Empire.[73] Smyth did manage to carry off 37 columns, but the
three great cipollino shafts defeated him just as they had previously Consul
Lemaire.[74] (They were still there in 1905: what happened to them?[75])
Nevertheless, quantities of antiquities left the site for the British Museum on
a specially commissioned frigate in the later 19th century, and Notre consul
gnral Tripoli, M. Fraud, dont la passion pour larchologie est bien connue,
est vraiment dsespr de ne pouvoir suivre lexemple de lAngleterre et contribuer ainsi enrichir les muses franais dobjets nouveaux.[76]

Tunis and Carthage
Tunis remained an Arab town because her 17th-century Turkish-built walls
were strong, and there was no need for the French to build another set. Indeed,
Tunis was too large for the French to destroy and rebuild, and they tacked a
European quarter onto the town (much the same happened at Cairo). The
French Protectorate of Tunisia from 1881 gave important government posts
to their own nationals: the resident-general became the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and the commander of the garrison the Minister for War. Since Tunis
was not an ancient site, few ancient remains were to found lying around,
although there were many built into the structures inside the town, many
taken from Carthage or Utica.[77] In the 1570s, columns were taken to Sicily
from her mosques,[78] while the Sahab-et-Taba Mosque (built by HamoudahPacha in the late 18th century) took materials from Carthage and other ancient
sites, the shafts being sent to Italy to be polished.[79] As a Christian, Tissot
was forbidden from entering the towns mosques, but he was assured that les
nombreux dbris des ruines de Carthage...figurent dans plusieurs mosques
sous forme de colonnes, corniches, sculptures, pierres tumulaires, etc.[80]
The Bardo Palace was decorated with slabs of the rarest marbles taken from
Carthage and Utica.[81]
Nearby Carthage, largely buried under soil and sand, and occupied by a
scatter of small villages, was not the only site to supply Tunis with building
materials. They were easily shipped from Cape Bon by sea, from the nearby
ancient site. As Gurin wrote in 1862:
Les ruines dune ancienne ville entirement dtruite et abandonne;
elle est counue parmi les indignes sous la dnomination de Merassa
(le petit port). Les vestiges de cette petite cit maritime disparaissent
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tous les jours de plus en plus, les blocs les plus considrables qui y
jonchent le sol tant incessamment transportes par mer la Goulette,
et de l Tunis. Lemplacement quelle occupait est aujourdhui tout parsem de fosses qui ont t pratiques dans le but dextraire des maisons
et des difices renverss jusquaux pierres des assises infrieures et des
fondations.[82]
Unlike Tunis, Carthage was indeed an ancient site, and a large one; some Arabs
make-believed that it was built by their ancestors.[83] This is a leitmotif in
epigraphy, and Cherbonneau comments as follows on Arab accounts of the
site: De quel il virent-ils les merveilles des civilisations teintes? Comment
sexpliqurent-ils le problme de lantiquit? Il serait intressant de rechercher leurs impressions dans les auteurs que nous avons entre les mains, et
dexaminer sils taient enfin parvenus, laide de lrudition, comprendre
la constitution sociale des Grecs, des Romains et des Phniciens.[84] Resident
Europeans could easily accumulate large collections there. In the early 19th
century Capitaine Humbert, an engineer for the Bey, spent nearly twenty years
living near Carthage, and valued his collection (not all of it from that site) at
$20,000.[85]
During the Middle Ages Carthage lost large quantities of marble to building
sites all around the Mediterranean but, as a topos has it, the supplies were
inexhaustible. Early Arabic accounts tell of the riches to be seen at La Malga,
including the amphitheatre[86] and the complex known as Les Deux Soeurs.[87]
Desfontaines, travelling in 1783, could find aucun reste de monument antique
qui indique mme la place quelle occupait autrefois.[88] This was at least in
part because the site, conveniently next to not only the sea, but also a sheltered
lagoon (La Goletta, a pestilential lagoon that acted as Tunis sewer[89]), had
provided materials for several European building projects during the Middle
Ages and later, such as Pisa[90] and Genoa,[91] not to mention Venice and
Versailles,[92] and perhaps Damascus.[93] Indeed, just about everybody around
the Mediterranean was involved, so conveniently located was the site.[94]
Her monuments, especially the cisterns, were already famous in the 14th
century: Ibn Khaldun saw parts of them them being demolished (with great
difficulty, presumably on account of the cement) for building materials. The
ransackers, sweating blood and water as he remarks, seem to have been
specifically after shaped keystone and vault components in particular.[95]
In these and other underground tunnels, in the 1730s the locals habitent sous
terre la manire des rats.[96] The cisterns at La Malga (part of Carthage)
continued in similar use,[97] while those at Bordj El-Djedid were put back in
use by French engineers in 1887.[98] According to Vicomte Begouens account
175
of 1731, some at least of the cisterns were full of water, although he doesnt state
that the locals were drawing it.[99]
In previous centuries there were plenty of remains above-ground to satisfy
searchers. By the 19th century, however, a distinctions needed to be made
between what could be seen above ground, and what was buried. El-Kairouani
in 1681 described Carthages theatre (amphitheatre) and its decorations; and
stated that cette ville contenait une si grande quantit de marbre que, quand
mme toutes les populations de lAfrique se seraient runies pour lenlever,
elles nauraient pu en venir bout. Aujourdhui il nen reste pas mme de vestige [above ground].[100] This is at least in part because of Charles Vs 1535
seizure of La Goletta, already fortified by Kheireddin just before the attack,
and further built up from Carthages ruins by the Emperor. The fortress itself
was remodelled by the Turks, and the (reused ancient) block with Charles
coat of arms was reused again as a threshold.[101] It was supposedly during the
16th century that many marbles were sent to Italy, and an 1880 assessment
reckoned yet again that the site was now exhausted:
Telles sont les causes qui ont rduit les restes de Carthage aux traces
peine perceptibles aujourdhui, et il est craindre quaprs avoir subi
laction dagents destructeurs plus formidables et plus persvrants que
tous ceux qui ont jamais affect une ville quelconque de lantiquit, le sol
carthaginois, sur lequel la maldiction du ciel semble planer, ne puisse
plus fournir de dcouvertes importantes de nouvelles fouilles et de
nouvelles tudes.[102]
But if little was visible above the ground, there were still antiquities to be dug
for, not least because in some areas, according to Reinach and Babelon in 1887,
the ruins but surely very few of them lay some eight metres beneath the
present ground level.[103] Much of the site was sparsely covered with small
villages, and Arabs flocks roamed there.[104] The soil was for large stretches
undisturbed: it was this feature that allowed the Danish Consul to make a plan
of Carthage, although he had to prepare this on the quiet, believing the area
was dangerous and the authorities suspicious:
Jai d moi-mme renoncer toute action qui aurait attir les regards:
ainsi le rseau des triangles fut mesur avec un sextant de trois pouces
de rayon; il me fallut choisir des lieux dserts pour stations principales;
les difices publics et les maisons les plus remarquables qui mauraient le
mieux servi me furent interdits, parce que je ne pouvais y pntrer sans
danger, ou que jy aurais t rencontr par des curieux fanatiques.[105]
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In consequence Falbe was the first to write the first account of centuriation,
which nobody in Algeria (or anywhere else) seems to have noticed before its
publication in 1833. (See 2547, the discussion of centuriation.) Indeed, Falbe
had to make do with the surface, because in 1833 he could not get permission
to dig at Carthage[106] his map was indeed displacement therapy of great
importance to the developing knowledge of Roman Africa, and its existence
proves that in most areas the ruins cannot have been much underground or he
could never have identified sufficient traces to plot the centuriation. However,
travellers ennui could still kill visits: Tchihatchef tells of un illustre crivain
qui, se trouvant Tunis, avait cru pouvoir se dispenser de les visiter, de mme
qutant au Caire il stait content de charger un ami du soin dinscrire son
nom sur les pyramides.[107]
That the soil of Carthage was far from exhausted, and seemed to offer great
opportunities for profitable excavation, is demonstrated by the materials the
Bey took out of it throughout the 19th century and, later, for public works.[108]
A variety of column shafts was still visible under water in 1855 in the galley
harbour, or cothon:[109] if these were not part of the shipsheds structure, were
they spolia that escaped while being loading for export? (The Romans did build
some decorative port buildings, as at Leptis Magna.[110]) The Bey Mohammed
es-Saddok (18591882) had given his minister Khreddine the monopoly to
exploit the ruins of Carthage, et le ministre, collectionnant au petit bonheur,
ne faisait gure dacquisition que pour les disperser bientt en les donnant,
ou plutt en les vendant.[111] What is more, large tracts were private property,
and getting digging permission took time.[112] (Saladin encountered a similar
problem near Lamta, where permission to dig was only received on the
understanding that the owner got les pierres brutes qui seraient retires des
fouilles.[113]) The identical problem amongst more general depradations[114]
existed in France itself, where in 1842 the Monuments Historiques wished
all mayors to stop the destruction of monuments remarquables on private
land.[115] Presumably, if the monuments in question were not remarkable, then
their destruction did not matter.
In fact, the embargo on digging experienced by Falbe soon changed, because
the Bey was perenially short of funds. To exploit what seemed a promising site,
a society (of which Falbe was a member) was founded in 1838 at Paris, den
importer, en France, tous les objets dart et de sciences que ces fouilles pourront
faire dcouvrir. This was blatant looting, for the cases of antiquities were to be
opened once arrived in Paris, and the contents divided among the subscribers
in a fashion which would have satisfied even the pirates of Treasure Island: A
chaque envoi dobjets, et tous les trois mois, en cas de non rsultat des fouilles,
il y aura runion gnrale de toutes les parties co-intresses...Sil y a un
177
envoi dobjets, les caisses devront tre ouvertes et inventories par le comit
qui dcidera sil y a lieu ou non den proposer le partage.[116] The come-on in
the publicity was that the soil of Italy had been exhausted of its antiquities,
and Que ne doit-on pas attendre dun sol vierge encore[117] which was either
ignorance or deliberate disinformation about the history of the site. As Carton
succinctly put it, nothing was ever published, and La naissance en fut aussi
bruyante que la dure phmre. What is more, what was excavated vanished
to the four winds:
Cest ces explorateurs quappartient le triste privilge davoir t les
premiers savants qui aient mis sac la grande ruine. On enlve trente
et une caisses de mosaques, de peintures et de vases antiques, et,
pour comble de malheur, ces actes de vandalisme archologique sont
demeurs inutiles: on ne sait ce que sont devenus ces objets![118]
Looting and free enterprise were evidently the order of the day. The year following the Falbe et al. society, in 1839, Pckler-Muskau came across a small
group digging for the Governor of La Goletta, and selling material to visiting ships.[119] The English Consul was also involved with the site, employing
a Maltese artist to make from the recovered antiquities decorative pieces to
be sold in England as evocative souvenirs: he has made excellent use of the
neighbourhood of Carthage, and the talent of a Maltese artist, for the execution of a number of beautiful works in the costly antique marbles that are
found here in great plenty. Tables, vases, jewel-cases, paper-weights, chessboards, &c. were arranged in the most tasteful manner in his residence.[120]
This would have been infra dig (to coin a phrase) for Beul, who considered
Roman stuff beneath him, and sought only the earlier Phoenician material![121]
Such unsupervised digging continued throughout the century. In 1862,
Davis, who was digging on behalf of the British Museum, returned to Carthage
after an absence. He asked his foreman what he had found, and the foreman
conveniently responded:
Nothing, master...but stones which I sell for building purposes. Hundreds
of Hajaara have been at work among the ruins since your departure, and
not one has found the least object worth notice. Nothing was found here
before you came, and nothing has been found since you left.[122]
Not surprisingly, the BMs Trustees felt they were not getting value for money,
and Davis funds were stopped.[123] Digging deep could also be dangerous.
Trumet de Fontarce in 1896, on a mission to study tombs Punic to Christian,[124]
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blamed the extraction of marbles from underground for making surviving

ruins unstable, and therefore dangerous to dig.[125] Elsewhere, for example
at Teboursouk, it was the sheer depth of reuse that made the excavation
unsafe.[126]
Cardinal Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, solved digging permission
problems by purchasing some of the land. He sought in 1881 to institute proper
excavations. Some of them would involve reworking areas already rebuilt
with spolia, such as the Chapel of S. Louis on the Byrsa hill (rich in ruins to
be explored9), which trampled over a temple.[127] Lavigerie had to raise funds
from inscriptions sold to the Bibliothque Nationale,[128] and then resurrected
something very like the 1838 proposal for a Society, a Socit pour lexploration
et les fouilles du sol de lancienne Carthage, and using arguments identical to
those of Falbes society:
Ce sol, tant vierge et nayant jamais t remu, fournirait un grand
nombre dobjets dart romains et et mme puniques. Ces derniers, fort
rares dans les collections, auraient une valeur commerciale trs-grande,
qui rcompenserait avantageusement les avances faites pour ces fouilles.
On retirerait la fois un profit considrable de ces travaux et beaucoup
de matriaux utiles.[129]
And most importantly, Le consentement du bey de Tunis est assur pour lexcution des fouilles et pour lexportation des objets quelles auront produits.[130]
This was only the first of several proposals to ranimer les ruines not only of
Carthage, but of other cities in Roman North Africa.10
If archaeological attention was directed toward Carthage, so also was that
of modern builders, for the area was targeted from the beginning of the 20th
century as a seaside resort, eventually housing some splendid villas (such as Le
Corbusiers Villa Baizeau, designed in 1928). Hence rather than diminishing in
that more museum-sensitive age, the destruction of antiquities by entrepreneurs increased.[131] Some plots were already laid out in 1906, and a tram line
projected, with the result that des cafs-concerts vont remplacer des ruines
que toute lEurope venait voir. En vrit, les Tunisois ne laissent pas, comme
on la dit, teindre leur volcan: ils lteignent de leurs propres mains![132] As
we might guess from accounts from elsewhere in North Africa, new building
nearly always meant danger for surviving ruins and this is what continued to
happen at Carthage.[133] The developers kept affirming that there was nothing
left to be found there, all the while carting away materials after mosaics,
9
10
Deneauve 1977 for a history of the hills exploration since 1859.

Dridi and Andreose 2012 passim.
179
columns and statues had been looted and a whole quarter of the ancient city
went within a year from 1907.[134]
The Bey got to the area before the French villa-dwellers, however: he built
a palace at La Marsa (overlooking Sidi Bou Said) in the late 1890s, and il y
eut pendant une longue suite de temps 40 ou 50 chariots occups chaque
jour, suivant le vieil usage, ruiner les murs pour lever les constructions du
Bey.[135] Here there arises one of the contradictions of modern life, for Carton
also suggested prettying up sites such as La Malga (a village on the track to
Carthage, and then notoriously grubby) with de jolis squares, at the same
time as setting aside pendant quil en est temps encore, un vaste champ dexploration quon mettra, sil le faut, plus dun sicle raliser.[136] This sounds
almost like Give the tourists a theme park, and we can get on with the serious
digging.
But Carthage was closer and, as development of Tunis and the area increased,
reuse of whatever could be found at Carthage continued past the end of the
19th century: Even to-day the depredation continues, and every time that
chance brings to light an antique stone, it is immediately carried away by those
who are erecting some building in the vicinity.[137] As Carton recognised in
1906, Europeans had set a bad example to the locals by mutilating part of the
site; but the locals had also developed cunning to avert the attention of the
Service des Antiquits, by digging deeper, and only extracting big blocks when
they had well and truly mutilated them:
Sur la colline situe entre Byrsa et lOdon, slevait un monument con
sidrable. Ctait, a crit Falbe, le plus important de ceux de Carthage,
avec les thermes dAntonin. Le R.P. Delattre y a trouv un hypocauste
montrant quil sagit de bains. Ce monument a compltement disparu. On
la ras pour btir un difice moderne sur son emplacement. / Le grand
monument, encore vierge de fouilles mthodiques, quest lhippodrome,
a t coup en trois par le chemin de fer et par la route de La Goulette
La Marsa.[138]
Not for nothing does a modern author discuss excavations at Carthage under
the heading Archaeology as Destruction, writing of broader problems with
the archaeological program at Carthage...The treatment of Jewish (and nonJewish) archaeological materials in colonial French and modern North Africa
has further curtailed modern scholars abilities to accurately analyze the
artifacts themselves.11
11
Stern 2008, 1115; quote from 1112; 611, 201 for the amateurism of early digs.
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Utica
North of Tunis lies Utica,[139] an important Phoenician trading post and capital
of the Roman province of Africa 14629 BC. Carthages nearness to the developing town of Tunis in a sense protected the remains of Utica, just as in part did
its silted harbour, Porto Farina, deserted in Marmols day.[140] But only partly,
because materials were indeed shipped thence to Tunis.[141]
Clearly, by the 19th century, Carthage was not supplying all the materials
Tunis needed to grow, so Utica was explored. At Tunis in 1819, a new mosque
was building with shafts excavated from this site.[142] Statues were also found
there while searching for materials with which to build Goletta harbour. These
went to the Minister of Marine, and attempts by the English Consul-General
in Palermo to purchase them were unsuccessful.[143] At Utica, the buildings
had been under the sand in the later 18th century,[144] but digging to supply
Tunis meant that much was to be seen above ground by Daux in the 1860s.[145]
However, some of the plums, such as porphyry columns, had gone fifteen years
later.[146] Gurin, visiting in 1862, found a large structure, called the Sultans
palace by the locals; he saw the characteristic exploration holes and marble
dbris, but could not discover what it had been, so extensively had the search
for materials largely demolished it.[147] Hrisson, in 1881, condemned the
destruction practised on architectural members by the locals: Le reste, depuis
douze sicles, sert de carrire lArabe ignorant qui fait de la chaux avec des
chapiteaux et des fts de marbre prcieux pour badigeonner sa hutte de pis
ou construire un vulgaire marabout. But he writes that help was at hand, for
Heureusement nous assistons la revanche trop tardive de la civilisation sur
la barbarie, et de nouveaux envahisseurs viennent rendre la vie ces belles
contres que lIslamisme a transformes, partout o il sest tabli, en funbres
ncropoles.[148] What misdirected self-congratulation, given that his eyes
must surely have told him that it was civilised Europeans, not natives, who had
destroyed antiquities on a large scale. He was himself complicit in this, digging and finding de belles maisons romaines ornes de marbres, de mosaques
et de colonnes, et de nombreuses statues brises. He took such a statue, and
also mosaics: Nous en avons rapport de trs curieuses videmment dues
dhabiles artistes grecs.[149]
In 1908 parts of this site were still in private hands, and Carton was thankful
that one owner, M. de Chabannes, comprend le rle lev que les circon
stances lui permettent et lui font un devoir de jouer ici, et les services quil
peut rendre la science. Leaving aside the question of whether such an
important site should still have been in private hands by this date, Carton
continued:
181
Le Muse dUtique sera certainement un des plus intressants de

lAfrique du Nord, si on continue y recueillir avec le mme soin tout ce
quon trouvera dans les ruines. Sil mtait seulement permis dexprimer
un voeu, je souhaiterais quon prt les mesures ncessaires pour conserver et protger sur place les restes de villas et dautres constructions
ornes de mosaques quon dcouvrira et surtout quon ft un catalogue
o seraient consigns et dessins, ou photographis, tous les objets du
Muse dUtique.[150]
Utica did indeed have a small museum by 1925, but most signal discoveries
went to the Louvre, as did the marble collected by Hron de Villefosse in 1875.
In 1990 was formed the Muse National dUtique, with one Punic and one
Roman room, perhaps a sad indication of just how much had already been
taken from the site, leaving little behind. And also from the environs: at SidiAbdallah, on the Lake of Bizerta, an arsenal was built at the end of the 19th
century. Gauckler writes: Jai vu moi-mme cet endroit, il y a peu dannes
encore, en 1896, une grande porte cintre en grand appareil qui se dressait
presque intacte jusqu 3 mtres de hauteur au-dessus du sol moderne, au
milieu dautres constructions en blocage. Le tout a disparu aujourdhui.[151]
Trying to preserve such monuments continued to be a struggle.12

Officers and Soldiers Digging Together

Lhistoire des spultures puniques est encore claire par les dcouvertes
faites Sousse...MM. les officiers qui prirent le plus de part cette
dcouverte sont MM. les gnraux Bertrand et Riu, le colonel Vincent, le
commandant Dechizelle aujourdhui lieutenant-colonel du 27 chasseurs
alpins, le Dr Collignon, chirurgien-major de lhpital de Sousse.[152] [1896]
Ancient topography and battles long ago linked modern soldiers yet more
closely to their forbears in the same land, and facing similar problems of battle,
shelter and water. As we shall see in greater detail in the next chapter, classical inscriptions, at first sight arcane, were frequently studied by the troops,
especially the officers, who could associate themselves with the past by transcribing them. Inscriptions could sometimes have a more practical use for the
Army as well: they could help with the naming the ancient settlements, and
sometimes with tracing the movements of the various Roman legions, which
12 Bacha 2013, 151248 Gauckler on la lutte pour le maintien des institutions. Vers la patrimonialisation des monuments islamiques, 18921905.
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could affect the 19th-century Armys views not only of communications but of
strategy as well. Soldiers dig, when the shovel becomes more important than
the gun. In Algeria, digging was first done through sheer necessity erecting
secure shelter, latrines, etc. and only later for pleasure. It was the officers
who had the pleasure, and the troops who wielded the shovels. Since, as we
have already learned, many French encampments were in the midst of Roman
ruins, the digging brought many antiquities to light.
The French officer-class, far from home, and often barracked in the middle
of ancient ruins, were immediately familiar with the uses to which ancient
structures could be put for defence, and many of this classically-aware military
developed or extended an interest in archaeology, and explored the untouched
ancient structures lying in great quantities around the landscape. Naturally,
because they were dependent upon the military for everything apart from the
air they breathed, artists interests paralleled military ones, Oulebsir suggesting
la constitution dun savoir sur les monuments de lAlgrie selon une grille de
lecture qui rpondait aux objectifs fixs par les militaires.[153] And she also
notes that Contraint de suivre les colonnes de larme et spectateur impuissant du vandalisme perptr par les soldats, A. Ravoisi a dessin en priorit
les difices susceptibles dtre dtruits ou transforms.[154] Hence Ravoisi,
with his three grand-in-folio volumes, has been seen as a bridge between past
and present.13 Sometimes soldiers performed transformations of their own,
through enthusiasm rather than foresight: at Satifis, for example, the French
village took all the antiquities except for sections of a basilica, the lieutenant
who dug the site piling the excavated earth at the entrance, thereby obscuring
further features of the structure.[155]
Carbuccia had his soldiers dig at Lambessa, and claimed that they did
so willingly, and without extra pay.[156] At least one was a graduate of the
Ecole Polytechnique.[157] Some soldiers evidently dug very fast: at Oppidum
Novum, over 20 cubic metres was dug out in three hours by fifteen zouaves
and a sergeant[158] nearly bulldozer speed and, no doubt, quality. The
Minister of War, sensibly, had the Acadmie des Inscriptions acknowledge the
archaeological work done by Carbuccia and his troops.[159] Scholarly societies
also owed many of their papers to the Army; the Revue Algrienne wrote in
1885:
13 Oulebsir 1999, 304306: La mission dAmable Ravoisi en Algrie and its 3 grand infolio volumes. 314 both expeditions have established un parallle entre le prsent du XIXe
sicle et le pass antique...une image de lespace mditerranen comme le lieu de rencontre des civilisations.
183
Jusquici, les membres de lArme et les fonctionnaires de ltat ont,

presque seuls, apport le tribut de leurs labeurs loeuvre commune.
Il suffira de jeter un coup doeil sur la Table de la Revue pour apprcier
les services qui ont t rendus par cette lite de travailleurs. / La Socit
Algrienne fut fonde le 7 avril 1856, par les soins de M. Berbrugger, sous
les auspices de M. le Marchal Randon, gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie,
qui appuya de toute son autorit une cration dont il comprenait
limportance.[160]
Randon had gone to Algeria as a colonel in 1838, and was promoted Marchal
de Camp and then Gnral de Division in 1847, having fought Abd-el-Kader.
He therefore knew plenty about fighting in Algeria and, after eight months as
Minister for War, returned to Algeria as Governor General 18511858, promoted
Marchal de France in 1856. Archaeology certainly took hold of the Army
further east as well, where the Service Archologique de lArme dOrient
(founded by Gnral Sarrail in 1915) investigated prehistoric mounds around
Thessaloniki, and then the Byzantine monuments of that city, especially S.
George.[161] In 1919 Sergeat Rey, the Armys archiviste palographe, reported to
the Acadmie des Inscriptions that their work had increased the number of
known prehistoric tumuli from 29 to 76.[162]
The Navy of course got fewer opportunities to dig, but did manage extensive
excavations on the island of Djerba. At the site of El-Kantara14 so extensive
that, by 1912, the ruins could be described as extensive but unimportant. The
commandant of the Gladiateur arrived in 1881, landing men equipped with
tools, who discovered six columns, apparently part of a circular building: mais
toutes les parties sculptes, telles que les socles et les chapiteaux, avaient disparu. / Le pilote me dit cet gard que, quinze ans auparavant, un navire
vapeur, dont la nationalit est reste inconnue, avait explor ces ruines et enlev
les principaux vestiges artistiques.[163] The Commandant explained that Nous
navions pas les moyens ncessaires pour arriver un rsultat srieux, and
suggested that, properly equipped, on pourrait arracher la terre quelquesuns de ces vestiges de lart romain.[164] Reinach and Babelon photographed 15
life-size statues here in 1884,[165] but later excavations revealed only six badly
mutilated statues, and a mosaic.[166] Here again we find an archaeological site,
apparently with some excellent antiquities and, according to Tissot, of some
five kilometres around,[167] trashed by a series of thoughtless and inconclusive
digs, and never properly recorded.
14 The name means bridge, and the most famous of the several identical toponyms is the
oasis of El-Kantara, 171km south of Constantine, approaching the Sahara.
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If early excavation by the Army was to retrieve materials for immediate

building reuse, more relaxed years suggested serious investigation of the
abundant ancient sites, using the manpower provided by their troops, or by
local Arabs. This was archaeology 19th-century fashion, usually more interested
in retrieved goods than in the history of architecture or art but the retrievals
often went to decorate messes, or into small museums. Reports of such finds
flooded back to Paris, many of them from digs organised by army officers;
archaeologists from the hexagon would also arrive to travel safe regions,
sometimes protected by troops, and to compile catalogues. Many manuscript
reports survive in the Army Archives in Vincennes.
Roads
Roads (and later railways) were acknowledged as the only way French troops
could control a large native population, and speedily counteract trouble.[168]
But at the Conquest itself a dearth of useable roads was the greatest problem
the French faced in their attempts to move freely around Algeria and then
Tunisia. It was a problem for which they were ill-prepared: after all, by 1830
the existence of reasonably viable roads was taken for granted in much of
Europe. But in North Africa they were faced by a series of puzzling problems
without many attractive solutions. Why not build roads from new, employing
those modernising industrial techniques for which the 19th century regarded
itself so highly? Why not open quarries? Here a circular argument applies: the
road network, some of it basically Roman but degraded into tracks, would
not support wheeled transport, and certainly not artillery; hence materials
necessary for building roads could not easily be obtained from quarries
because of the lack of existing roads. So Roman ruins were used instead, as
they were also to be in railway construction because railways usually took a
similar trajectory to the ancient roads and bridges, roads they sometimes (and
very conveniently) shadowed.
Building good roads requires the avoidance or mitigation of water and
gradient problems, and the Romans had plenty to teach the French. Except in
those few instances where Roman gradients were too steep for artillery, French
engineers had their roads follow the ancient ones and, as already stated, reuse
their materials. Such road-building perhaps encouraged the French Army to
view their conquest even more through Roman eyes, as along the route they
came across milestones and inscriptions. Indeed, the study of Roman roads
was to form one of the elements of the work of the Brigades Topographiques
(see below, Chapter 5).
185
French attention to Roman roads was also essential for two other reasons.
The first was that they could help explicate ancient geography: Il faudrait
dcrire avec soin ces voies militaires anciennes partout o lon en remarquera
des traces, wrote Dureau de la Malle in 1837.[169] But the spinoff from this was
strategic if romantic in its vagueness: of the Roman remains son squelette est
entier, and ltude de leur systme doccupation nous serait bien utile; car
ce nest quen marchant sur leurs traces que nous tirerons parti de lAlgrie et
surtout de la province de Constantine.[170]

Roman Roads in Algeria and Tunisia

Les routes romaines sont tres communes en Algrie; les cits, les castellum, ou stations fortifies, et les routes surtout se rencontrent chaque
pas. Chaque col, chaque position importante tait pourvu dune station
qui consistait en un fort carr construit en fortes pierres de taille...Il
rsulte des observations que les Romains avaient trois routes stratgiques
parallles entre-elles, et la mer.[171]
The Romans built roads in Algeria for commercial as well as military reasons,
and sections of many were still visible when the French arrived,[172] although
an apparently useable one near Algiers was not only broken up, but too steep
for heavy wheeled traffic.[173] The Arabs were familiar with them even when
they did not use them, naming one the cart road because of the wheel-ruts
to be seen on the road from the Refana quarries.[174] The French through their
reading knew there would be Roman roads in Algeria, but at first they probably
underestimated their extent because little was known of the country except
for the region around Algiers.[175] This naturally changed after the capture
of Constantine.[176] Salama notes the Armys interest in making use of the
ancient itineraries where they could (although this did not always work[177]),
trying them out on the Constantine expedition: Ce ft mme un vnement
mmorable lorsque le premier vhicule franais, la caliche du marechal Vale,
roula sur lantique chausse romaine au col des Oliviers entre Constantine et
Stora. On sen glorifia Paris.[178] As well they might, because it helped them to
forget the 1836 expedition, when at least part of the reason for the ignominious
retreat was that equipment, ammunition and food did not arrive in good time:
tous nos quipages stant trouvs arrts par les obstacles quopposaient des
chemins dfoncs et des torrents grossis quil fallait passer gu, ce qui taient
devenu momentanment impraticables.[179] Just what the author meant by
practicable was driven home by the work needing to be done along the way:
On adoucit des rampes, on consolide des gus par dpaisses couches de
pierres et de gros gravier.[180]
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However, following ancient roads could be difficult, since sections unused

for well over a millennium were soon lost beneath thickly overspreading
brambles, as St. Marie found near Mda in 1846.[181] Identifying Roman
remains was also sometimes tricky the encampment erected by troops
building the Mda-Blida road being easily mistaken for a group of Roman
ruins.[182] Along such roads, regular forts underlined the same lesson: Les
Romains choisissaient bien leurs points de dfense; les restes des fortifications
de ce peuple le prouvent. Nous ferons bien doccuper les mmes.[183] On
the 1837 Expdition de Constantine,[184] Canrobert clearly identified with
the Romans when the troops approached the antique-named Monte de la
Dixime, en souvenir de la dixime lgion romaine qui avait longtemps camp
en ce lieu, and the Gnie built up missing parts of the road so that it would
take artillery.[185] On the second Expedition, the need for decent roads was yet
more pressing, given the personnel and baggage train required. Perhaps to
heroicise their achievements, the later French official line was that Quand les
Franais occuprent lAlgrie, en 1830, on ny connaissait plus que des sentiers
trs troits pour les cavaliers, les pitons et les btes de somme, mais qui suffisaient alors aux besoins des Arabes. A quelques rares exceptions prs, les cours
deau taient traverss gu.[186] But good roads were still in short supply in
1925,15 let alone in 1887 and the roads in Tunisia looked like ancient Gaul
before the Romans.[187]
Roman roads were certainly intended for vehicles as well as for troops.[188]
Lost stretches could often be reconstructed by ruling a line between points
where they were visible,[189] but in some areas their surface tended to stay
free of undergrowth: Rien na chang dans cette solitude depuis douze
sicles: la voie romaine est telle que lont parcourue les derniers courriers des
gouverneurs byzantins de Carthage et les premiers claireurs de linvasion
arabe.[190] Roman roads were a particular interest of the antiquarian-minded
Napolon III.[191] However, they could still be dangerous. In 1887 a short-sighted
gentleman took a wrong turn down a Roman road, and fell eight metres into a
lime kiln, breaking both legs.[192]
As already noted, the Arabs, qui navaient aucune ide des moyens de
transport perfectionns en usage chez les peuples civiliss,[193] did not maintain
Roman roads. Instead, they used paths which sometimes went parallel to them,
often for topographical ease, but sometimes with sinuosits capricieuses,[194]
which were often as chaotic as mazes.[195] There are some ancient sites (such
15 Salinas 1989, 4552: Un choix alatoire: routes, sentiers et pistes building 18301860; yet
in 1925, 47: 6,400km of routes nationales versus France, with 80,000km. Gives plenty of
examples of hard going.
187
as Coreva) with ancient road and bridge, but no Arab settlement, perhaps
because the river was not fordable here,[196] or because they could use a boat, as
frequently was the case.[197] Pananti even believed that the Turks deliberately
did not repair roads, since these would allow invaders easier access[198]
although Fabre de Navacelle in 1876 approaching Mda used la vieille
route turque ou romaine pave mme dans quelques endroits,[199] so presumably thought the Turks did indeed pave some roads. Sometimes it seemed
likely (but was tricky to prove) that Roman roads simply degraded into Arab
tracks.[200] Animals, not carts, were used for Arab transport, and their efficient
use was difficult when weather turned the tracks into a sea of mud.[201] The
Roman roads were still useful to them, however, for they took the stones to
protect buried corpses from the attention of jackals.[202] And blocks from the
kerbs of Roman roads (those for the road surface itself were often irregular,
and very large) were useful for building houses, so that Carton noted in 1901
that jtais guid trs surement, pour retrouver la direction de la grande voie
de Carthage, par une tranche longitudinale dextraction place dans le prolongement de la bordure.[203] These kerbstones sometimes protruded from
any surrounding vegetation, and were cut in regular blocks, hence ideal for
building.[204] On roads in well-cultivated areas, they went quickly.[205]
The French discovered that, by following some Arab paths, which were
believed to be degraded Roman roads,[206] they could find Roman farms and
other structures to left and right[207] paths which had once been, or had
been next to, Roman roads. Such structures must be Roman not Arab, donns
loutillage primitif dont ils disposent et leur indiffrence bien connue pour
ce genre de travaux.[208] The French quickly discovered that any haughty
attitude to Arab paths was misplaced, for they were ideal for harrassing French
convoys or attacking towns and villages.[209] After all, paved roads were useful
only for invasion, attack, and delivering the French mission civilisatrice not
for defence.

French Roads in Algeria and Tunisia
The crucial questions the French had to ask about Roman roads in Algeria were
twofold, namely, Could such roads be repaired, and at what cost? and Would they
take artillery? The answer to the first question was almost invariably affirmative: repairing Roman roads was cheaper than building new ones. Indeed, the
French recognition of the travaux gigantesques frequently needed to build
roads helps further to explain their interest in the Roman achievement.[210]
Thus in 1832, Lieut-Gnral Pelet already knew that the Roman road between
the bay of Stora (the port) and Constantine (a little over 50 miles) could be
repaired: les dgradations que les pluies y ont occasionnes pendant une
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longue dure de sicles, lont ruine comme toutes les autres voies du mme
genre en Barbarie. Mais laide de quelques travaux, on parviendra facilement
en rattacher les parties interrompues et la rendre praticable lartillerie. Il
ne faut pas perdre de vue que notre artillerie a acquis aujourdhui une notabilit qui ne connat presque plus dobstacles.[211] This was later confirmed,
when Gnral Berthzune remarked in a letter of 8 November 1839 that the trip
between Stora and Constantine took 4 days, but that le chemin est assez bon
et parat permettre dy mener de lartillerie. Capitaine Niel gives the context:
dj du temps des Romains, une belle voie tait ouverte dans cette direction,
et elle avait t construite avec tant de soin que partout on en suit les traces et
que sur plusieurs points elle est si bien conserve quon a peine croire quelle
ait quinze sicles dexistence. On another stretch at the Oued Baba, Niel notes
(with an eye to French commerce) that il est hors de doute que sur plusieurs
points de cette traverse on aperoit la trace des travaux quavaient t excuts des Romains pour lamliorer the suggested reason being the coming of
prosperity to Russicada (hence to the Stora region as far as Constantine), and
the need to transport wheat.[212]
The answer to the second question, however, depended on the route followed. Whilst Roman roads were splendid on the flat, and able to take the
pounding that guns and limbers inflicted, they frequently marched in a straight
line over the hills, often involving gradients too steep for artillery to manage.
So for most areas of a very hilly country (and, to make things more difficult,
generally corrugated East to West), new, linking stretches of road needed to
be constructed another trigger for depradations on any conveniently sited
Roman remains, no matter how spectacular. The French possessed one advantage that the Romans lacked namely gunpowder. This meant that they could
build near-level roads where the Romans simply had to go over or go round, as
Marshal Valle reports to the Minister of War on 26 October 1838, concerning
the road from Constantine to Stora:
On a suivi dans presque tout le dveloppement qui est de plus de cinq
mille mtres le trace de lancien sentier Romain; ce quon a fait nest
quun sentier non plus les houlets chargs y passent facilement. Dans la
suite, il faudra penser une voie plus large, plus directe, moins ondule.
La Poudre nous permettra de faire cette gard ce qui et t presque
impossible aux Romains. Un pont simple et solide bti par eux sur le plus
considrable des ruisseaux qui tombent dans la mer entre Russicada et
Stora, subsiste encore, et nous a t un grand secours.[213]
Duvivier, indeed, had made the reconnaissance on which this report might
have been based. He writes that traces of the Roman road were easy to follow;
189
the piers for bridges are still in place, and could be used. He gives details of the
roman road construction: currently they cannot use it for carriages because
of the displacement of the stones, but la voie romaine peut sans de grands
travaux tre rtablie et devenir carrossable de Constantine jusqua Stora, and
there is also plenty of wood and water along the way.[214] Gunpowder also
meant that the French could move mountains: but by 1859 they had not yet
improved the harbour at Bne, instead blasting rocks and constructing batteries to defend the town against some imaginary enemy, although the whole
trade of the place is not equal to that of the poorest fishing-town on the south
coast of England.[215] The effort would have been better directed to improving
the roads.

Transport without Roads
If the first priority following the French conquest was security within protecting
walls, and shelter in decent housing (barracks and hospitals) the next one, if
this large and mountainous country were to be conquered and held, was roads,
to be followed by a host of public works.[216] An intermediate stage (putting
off at least some road construction) would have been to take up Carbuccias
suggestion of 1853 of using dromedaries rather than mules for transport.[217]
This did not happen, even though he gave several reasons in favour of his
proposal. These included endurance characteristics, greater availability, easier
feeding and maintenance, lower cost and greater longevity.[218] So why did this
not gain much traction with the authorities? The Army was used to mules, so
they were a known quantity; but perhaps Carbuccias suggestions went down
as badly with authorities as did his map-making (as we shall see in the next
chapter). Nevertheless, some dromedaries were indeed used to supply the
Army road-gangs on the Stif-Bougie route in the same period.[219] Arguably,
dromedaries were likely to be more useful, because they were cheaper than
mules, and carried more 200 litres of water per beast.[220] In 1910, at least
one gunner thought they could be very useful down in the Sahara, where wellspaced wells were short and roads non-existant; and where, unlike mules, they
could live off the land.[221]
Because of a shortage of good roads, animal transport was naturally
common in North Africa. In Morocco, for example, Moulay Ismael planned
to build a whole new town, and dimmenses caravanes furent employes au
transport des pierres de la montagne, but the project foundered when he
died in 1727, and piles of stone blocks were simply left at the deserted worksite
after only the trenches and foundations had been dug.[222] To make loads
animals could carry, blocks were if possible cut down: at Henchir Lorbs,
for example, column shafts were sawn down, but then for some reason
abandoned.[223] At Mead el de Demmed, after negotiating the holes where the
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locals were mining for saltpetre amongst the ruins (for the Arabs also needed
gunpowder[224]), the French took advantage of the excavations, and came
across some inscriptions, and Lune des pierres que nous destinions au muse
dAlger se trouvant tre trop volumineuse pour tre transporte Djelfa par les
chameaux, un seul coup de pioche heureusement appliqu sur lun des angles
la partagea en deux dalles rgulires[225] whether accidentally or on purpose
is not stated. Ruins must have been well known as places from which to gather
saltpetre. At Doucen in 1876, an oasis to the west of Zab in the Dpartement
de Constantine, Fabre de Navacelle came across the local workmen not simply
examining the ruins, but turning them over to extract saltpetre, in a veritable
industry: Ils ont boulevers de vastes ruines romaines, et contrairement lhabitude du pays, la ville ou le bourg antique nest pas rest l comme il tait
tomb.[226]
One advantage of a lack of good roads was the preservation of antiquities
which would otherwise have been plundered by Arabs or French. One such
site was Haouch Khima in Tunisia, which Saladin suggested had not changed
since the Arab invasions: Les Arabes ny ont lev aucune construction, ils
ny ont donc pas pris de la pierre ou des colonnes, elle est reste dans ltat o
linvasion la laisse, et si les murs des maisons se sont effondrs, les directions
en sont encore parfaitement visibles.[227] At Gasr-el-Rey, near El-Djem, il y
a encore dnormes blocs de marbre peine dgrossis et qui indiquent lexistence dun chantier dont les travaux ont t brusquement interrompus,[228]
presumably either because no transport was available, or the nearby amphitheatre meant that such extra blocks were superfluous.
Equally, in cases where the ancient road had degraded, antiquities lay
around: on the road from Chemtou to Tabarca, for example, shafts broken in
transit stayed by the road for over 1500 years.[229] Even when a Belgian firm
reopened the Roman quarries in 1888 (quarries 4km from a railway station, but
180km from the nearest port) the project foundered, being unable to compete
with imports from Carrara.[230] The quarries at Felfela, a mere 7km from water,
should have been able to beat Carrara (20km from the sea), but could not do so
because of the lack of suitable docking.[231]
The same lack of viable roads saved antiquities elsewhere in North Africa
from all but the most determined and well-funded. At Cyrene, only some 16km
from the sea, and with the remains of a Roman road leading there, the British
Museum nevetheless funded Smyth and Porcher to the tune of 100 for getting
their antiquities on board the Assurance: le seul chemin par o lon pt les
transporter sans rencontrer des ravins et des accidents de terrain difficiles
surmonter, tait lancienne route dApollonia.[232]
191
New Roads, or Refurbished Roman Roads?

Chaque anne, durant sept mois, cinquante ou soixante mille hommes taient chelonns au travers de la contre pour ouvrir des routes,
desscher les marais, combler les fondrires, abaisser les montagnes,
faire des ponts, des barrages, btir dans les tribus des maisons de commandement, sur les chemins des caravansrails, et crer, dans le dsert,
des oasis nouvelles.[233] [1865]
After all, this is what Roman soldiers did so why not the French? Before
invading Algeria, the French were familiar with Roman roads and their construction, because both French and Italians had even conducted excavations
on stretches of such roads in France and Italy in the 18th century to try and
learn how they were made, so that they could perhaps build likewise. Taking
materials from Roman roads to build new ones was possibly routine in France:
for example, this practice was suspected in the Moselle in 1841.[234] But in fact,
Roman techniques were too costly in labour to be employed for anything more
than the repair of existing roads.
In Algeria, Roman roads abounded, some in good or repairable condition,
but most missing their substantial blocks, or buried under earth or brush. Any
earlier intelligence was useful, and it is characteristic of French needs that it
was the Tabula Peutingeriana, a mediaeval copy of a highly diagrammatic map
of the Roman world that came to their aid to help them locate the network of
Roman roads. That they were using the copy of a source perhaps 1500 years
old underlines the lack of modern maps, a point made in Pellissiers Mmoire
sur la Gographie ancienne de lAlgrie.[235] Remarking on the great number of
ruins on the road from Constantine to Stif, he noted that first making a largescale map, un simple rapprochement entre cette carte et la table de Peutinger
suffira pour leur donner, avec exactitude, les noms qui leur conviennent. Note
that here there seems to be a trusting willingness to have the Tabula annotate
the modern map, and not vice versa, which we might surely have expected,
given the superiority of 19th-century mapmaking over the schematic Michelinguide-like approach of the Tabula Peutingeriana.
As an index of the progress the conquest was making, and to underline
the importance of roadmaking, it was the subject of announcements by the
Minister of War in the Chamber. For example in 1837, trumpeting a road the
Army had made from Bne to Constantine: Une autre route non moins importante est celle qui a t ouverte par larme, entre Bne et Constantine; ces deux
villes ne peuvent rester sans communications constamment praticables,[236]
just as the Duc dOrlans went from Oran to Algiers and from Algiers to Stora
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by sea for the Expdition des Portes de Fer. But they were still reachable only
by sea in 1850, because so many overland routes were simply not safe.[237] Not
that coverage of the country went quickly, or got anywhere near the Roman
coverage. Nevertheless French-constructed roads, especially in the early years,
were praised, as was the Gnie for their work[238] not that long-term strategy
formed at first any part of the road-building programme.
In such good repair were some Roman roads that distances could be measured in Roman miles, on the maps produced by the Service Topographique of
the Army. At Oran in 1837, for example, Capitaine dtat Major de Martimprey
provides a map of the Province, marking ancient cities and roads, and using
this measure, with scales in kilometres and leagues alongside it.[239] Roman
milestones survived in large quantities to confirm such scales.
Indeed, transport for the French depended on the lie of the land, mortars
being carried in carts along surviving stretches of ancient road around
Algiers but on muleback around Constantine.[240] Most simple tracks
were useless for French vehicles, especially military ones, although mule
tracks sometimes sufficed for some operations and, indeed, were sometimes
maintained by the Army.[241] But for waggons and heavy loads new roads or
refurbished Roman ones were essential: Les routes ne sont pas seulement un
moyen de communication: elles assurent la soumission des populations; elles
ouvrent le pays la civilisation qui le pntre plus lentement, mais plus srement que les armes.[242] Or, more hopefully, new roads would convince the
locals that the French were there to stay.[243] Nevertheless, it was over some
of the most dangerous stretches such as Cherchel to Miliana and Algiers to
Constantine that the Engineers had to withstand attacks while they made
good the road.[244] Given that part of Vales grand plan decades previously
was les communications entre la Mitidja et la valle du Chlif une fois
tablies, les forces arabes seraient refoules vers louest, et, leurs points dappui
successivement dtruits, elles finiraient par tre ananties,[245] such problems
demonstrate how slow were progress and safety.
In 1830 the French came across stretches of Roman road around Algiers,
leading to the Fort de lEmpereur,[246] one of which was baptised chemin
romain.[247] They found they were viable for artillery, although short[248] and
one account notes ominously that Les voitures passrent dabord sans beaucoup de difficults.[249] But this might have been because the gunners were
afraid the noise of the wheels rumbling on the Roman surface would alert the
enemy.[250] Thenceforth the French came across Roman roads everywhere, for
example during Niels reconnaissance of the Constantine-Stora road in 1838,
when sur plusieurs points elle est si bien conserve quon a peine croire
quelle ait quinze siecles dexistence.[251] Dureau de la Malle in 1837 simply
quoted Leo Africanus about the road, plus Gnral Boyers opinion, that
193
Stora to Constantine could be covered in 16/18 hours for the infantry, and was
practicable for the artillery.[252] Another author judged that this selfsame road,
over its 16 leagues, was practicable for artillery.[253]
A continuing problem was that the Gnie had neither the skills nor the men
for road-work, as became apparent when several roads they built degraded
fast after bad weather, especially rain and ice. They also lacked heavy lifting
equipment, expressing wonderment at the sheer size of the blocks in some
of the earlier fortifications they refurbished. As one commentator noted, this
was not a task for which the Army was qualified, since soldiers would make
mediocre labourers, and any labourers enlisted would make mediocre soldiers:
Ainsi le mot darme industrielle qui commence prendre place dans le langage
moderne, est tout simplement un non-sens.[254] At Blida in 1848, for example, a
lieutenant on the general staff commented that a lot of work would need to be
done to deal with the winter rains on the roads: Des travaux gigantesques ont
t faits, en trs peu de temps, mais il reste encore beaucoup faire.[255] One
result of such ill-prepared staffing was that, in spite of some good deeds such as
re-erecting milestones,[256] the monuments would inevitably suffer at the hands
of all those building the new Algeria, in what in 1892 Diehl calls fifty years of vandalism.[257] This term covered not only disappearance through reuse, such as
plundering ruins to build new bridges,[258] but also some of the Gnies restorations, such as the Roman bridge at El-Kantara.[259] Small crossings were no big
problem, however, for the sappers could quickly erect and dismatle temporary
structures.[260]
One far from helpful suggestion in 1847 from an army officer (who recognised
that not all soldiers had the necessary practical skills) was the equivalent of
throwing the baby into the deep end of the pool: set a garrison at their required
location, and leave them there without possible relief until they had built the
necessary barracks and hospitals:
Si javais t gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie, toutes les fois que jaurais
cru devoir occuper un point du territoire, jaurais, ds le premier jour de
loccupation, signifi aux troupes composant la garnison de ce nouveau
poste quelles ne devaient pas sattendre tre releves dans six mois,
dans un an, mais seulement aprs avoir termin les travaux dont je leur
confiais lexcution: caserne, hpital, manutention, etc.[261]
If this version of tough love was merely silly, it was echoed in the work to which,
as we have seen, the Army was routinely put in Algeria when they were not
fighting, from clearing land for colonists to the various types of engineering
work, including making roads.
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If the French were marching in the steps of the Romans, then why not
restore their network of roads throughout the country? This very rarely
happened, due to a lack of skill, materials, and manpower, not to mention the
degraded and plundered state of most such Roman survivals. Carrette in 1844
refers sarcastically to one of the roads from Constantine as a route royale
but goes on to point out that the French road simply paralleled the Roman
one, pour spargner la peine de dblayer les pierres qui lencombrent.[262]
Fortin dIvry the following year underlines the magnitude of the task: Le
gnie militaire a fait preuve de talent et de zle, mais toutes les difficults ne
peuvent pas tre vaincues en quelques annes[263] although Quesnoy could
write in 1888 that toutes les routes ont t ouvertes par eux.[264] Qutin in
1847 is more upbeat (politically correct?), suggesting that old roads have been
widened and repaired especially around garrisons, where le voyageur est certain de trouver de bonnes routes presque toutes carrossables...Les anciennes
voies romaines ont, dans plusieurs localits, servi de base au trac de ces utiles
constructions.[265] Malte-Brun, a geographer with a decided interest in progress, thought the Philippeville-Constantine road aussi sre et aussi frquente que nos grandes routes impriales. It had replaced the Roman road, and
this in its turn would soon be replaced by the railway, qui mettra Constantine
deux heures, peine, de la mer. Les distances seront ainsi encore rapproches,
les moyens de communication, rendus moins pnibles, profiteront la
colonisation; lindustrie et le commerce y trouveront de nouvelles facilits
dexpansion, et de ce jour datera pour la province de Constantine une re
nouvelle de prosprit.[266] Such was also Napolon IIIs wish.16 Even in 1899,
Frisch could point out that French roads could not equal the fountain-rich
Roman ones, because Combien de nos routes et de nos pistes principales sont
dpourvues deau sur des parcours de 30 40 kilomtres![267] Dr Carton, how
ever, still enthusiastic in 1889 about how useful antiquities could be to colonists, still believed Roman roads had merely to be repaired to be useful.[268]
In spite of the self-confidence related above, lack of viable roads continued
to dog communications for decades after the conquest. Lacretelle noted in
1865 that aucune de nos routes ne va droit la mer en suivant les valles des
fleuves; et cest peine si nous avons bauch le trac de quelques kilomtres
de routes transversales qui relieront un jour, sil plat Dieu, nos villes de lintrieur.[269] In the same year Duvernois claimed that the whole country had no
more than 100km of roads usable throughout the year.[270] Indeed, some commentators did not believe the Armys assertions about road building, Leblanc
16
Spillmann 1975, 11, with less emphasis to be placed on agriculture.
195
de Prbois suggesting in 1844 that il ne sagit au reste que de sentendre sur

ce quon appelle route.[271] Eight years later Mauroy knew, and stated that
there were over 300 leagues of roads built by the Army.[272] Duvernois, how
ever, could squash such optimism in 1858 by advising against winter travel
ils pourraient apprendre leurs dpens connatre ce quon appelle route en
Algrie.[273]
That this was a suitable assessment is seen from the fact that the Army was
still doing road-building work in Algeria two generations later: Roads, bridges,
irrigation works, the building of barrages, and the sinking of wells are among
the active labours of the French army.[274] Things were to go even faster in
Tunisia, where Faucon claims 900km of roads were built or upgraded 1883
1893.[275] But even here it was pointed out in 1881 how inflated were the proclamations of road construction, for Larme elle-mme tait nglige, et lon
appelait grandes routes des sentiers courant par monts et par vaux et forant
de traverser les rivires gu; ces sentiers ne sont indiqus que par les traces
laisses par les voyageurs suivant, depuis des sicles, une mme direction.[276]
The following year Lux repeated the accusation, writing of La plupart des
routes tunisiennes qui, je crois, nont pas vu un cantonnier depuis la conqute
romaine, as he knew from being rattled around in carriages.[277] Maupassant
thought the same after travelling from Tunis to Kairouan in 1888.[278]
Domination and the spread of civilisation aside, Army expertise and
achievement were decidedly not to original Roman specifications, whether
for roads or for building fortresses or houses. Reconstructing Roman roads
block by block was not possible because sometimes, as already noted, the
Arabs had carried off the (generally) uniform-sized blocks for their own
building purposes, so the surface had to be metalled with whatever materials
came to hand and they often came from Roman ruins. And throughout the
19th century, the Army was seen as a way of saving money for colonisation, their
building work in 1847 calculated to cost about one-quarter that of employing
civilian contractors,[279] who frequently had to be used, their employment
increasing in later decades. Contractors could charge a premium because they
were in short supply and, anyway, knew that their results were better.
From the early years, the effects of weather on roads were a big problem, and
scarcely diminished, because sometimes the work of the Gnie did not outlast
their making good. Thus Vale had to inform the Minister of War in 1837,
during the Expdition de Constantine, that the batteries on the Mansourah
plateau were out of action, because la pluie avait enlev une partie du terrain
de remblai de la route prpare par le gnie, et elle tait devenue impraticable.
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Au jour, limpossibilit douvrir le feu fut reconnue.[280] Algeria, indeed, was

not that sunny Mediterranean land of the later come-hither colonist brochures;
and frost, ice, heavy rain and flooding meant that many French Army roads
degraded into ruts and puddles very quickly. Chanony, touring Algeria in 1853,
was disgusted that just one day of heavy rain meant that neither man nor horse
could get from Mda to Miliana:
Partons pour Mdiah. Cest impossible, me dit-on. Les terres sont
dtrempes par les dernires pluies: ni hommes ni chevaux ne peuvent
y passer! H bien, faiseurs de grandes routes que lon ne peut faire, que
direz-vous de votre systme? Comment, entre deux villes si importantes,
si peu loignes lune de lautre, si peu loignes dAlger, un jour de pluie
suffit pour intercepter toute communication, mme des cavaliers,
mme des pitons. Et vous btissez des villages dans de tels lieux et
vous y appelez des colons.[281]
The Report to the Minister of War on that 1837 Second Expedition to
Constantine had made exactly the same point: la difficult des chemins, que
deux jours de pluie seulement suffisaient pour rendre impracticables[282]
chemins here perhaps meaning simply paths.
Naturally such army-built roads took a pounding from the heavy ammunition
and artillery vehicles that had necessitated their very construction. Hence
French roads were not the equal of Roman ones in durability, and on many
flat stretches we may assume that the Army continued to use surviving Roman
roads for their artillery. Watbled had experience of several French-built roads
in 1870, and noted that
Nos routes modernes dAfrique dont nous sommes si fiers paraissent
bien peu de chose ct de ces constructions gigantesques. Quelques
annes dabandon suffiraient pour effacer jusqu la trace de nos travaux
modernes, tandis que les voies romaines subsistent encore aprs tant de
sicles, et malgr toutes les causes de destruction qui semblent conspirer
les faire disparatre.[283]
Niel, writing in 1839, believed he saw a Roman road destroyed by rain, but
presumably this took centuries.[284] But still the army had to continue building
roads, presumably because there were areas that civilian contractors would
find too dangerous. In 1852, for example, troops were used as road-repair gangs
around Oran,[285] and to construct a road on a high pass between Djidjelli and
Milah, finishing 14km in ten days.[286] The number of troops is not known, but
197
there were presumably few Roman materials around, and perhaps the road
was merely makeshift, in order to get the guns and supply wagons through. In
1857, battalions of troops worked for 18 days to build a road from Tizi-Ouzou to
Souk-el-Arba and in 17 days built a road 2m wide and 28km in length, surely
using antiquities.[287]
Nor, in spite of making some of their reconnaissances in a wagon rather
than on horseback in order to test viability,[288] did the Army learn its lesson
quickly. For roads continued to be very bad in places. In 1877, a visiting botanist
gave a graphic account of transport problems around Hamman-el-Lif: Bien
que le temps se ft remis au beau depuis plusieurs jours, nous ne tardmes
pas reconnatre que rien navait t exagr dans le tableau que lon mavait
fait des chemins. A tout instant, nos voitures entrant dans la boue jusquaux
essieux, nous tions forcs de couper travers champs ou de mettre pied
terre pour viter les passages trop dangereux.[289] A Reichstag Deputy related
in 1883 how coach travellers simply had to get out and push if they were to make
progress.[290] Around Tabarca in 1888 not all roads were passable by carriages.[291]
At Hammamet, in 1896, there were the same problems: sous linfluence
probable de pluies persistantes venant aggraver linconvnient dune circulation peut-tre trop htive.[292] Even by this date not all Gnie roads were
strong enough for all weights of traffic,[293] and this in spite of the profligate use
of ancient blocks: les pierres qui ont t sorties de terre pour tre employes
dans les constructions nouvelles.[294] Strategy ruled much road construction
but, even at the end of the century, this was imperfect: et la plupart des routes
de lintrieur, construites avant tout dans le but dtablir de faciles communications entre les places et les points stratgiques, sont toujours dans un
tat fort imparfait.[295] Near Teboursouk in 1896, an early group traveller no
doubt exaggerated the excitement of the road no cafs (hence a cold chicken
for nourishment), mud on the road and a vehicle saved from a hurtling
descent only by running into a conveniently sited Arab house.[296] This was
some improvement from the 1870s (before the French takeover), when the
same maeandering Arab tracks we have noted for Algeria were much in
evidence.[297] But if roads were so bad that commerce was nearly impossible,
as one author complained in 1858, what was the alternative? Why, to build
railways instead.[298]
Railways
If roads were early recognised as essential for the military control of Algeria,
railways were to be another of her indices of modernisation, essential for
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supporting colonisation, and for commerce and tourism. The change happened
over a generation, so that the same visitor on successive tours of the country
could travel first on foot or horse, and then later by coach and train.[299] By
1892, railway excursions from Paris and Marseille were being advertised,[300]
and bathing beaches soon promoted to leaven the mix of antiquities.[301]
Indeed some Europeans, from what they had witnessed back home, believed
in the fructifying potential of railways.[302] They would perhaps encourage
colonisation, increasing the still hesitant flow of immigrants. Chabaud-Latour
suggested in 1855 that 1,500km of line were needed.[303] And as Duvernois had
remarked in 1856, le chemin de fer na plus pour but de satisfaire des intrts,
mais de les crer; ce nest plus un moyen de transport pour les denres produites, cest un instrument de colonisation et de peuplement.[304] Madinier
agreed railways were the quickest way of encouraging colonisation, as
experience in North America proved.[305] And in some areas, it was not only
the colonists and administration, but the natives as well, who pressed for
railways.[306]
But railway construction went slowly, not least because engines, rolling
stock and rails had to be imported from France.[307] By 1878 there were 1,334km
of track exploits ou en cours dexcution[308] but their continuing scarcity
meant in 1883, for a visiting German, that the French grip on much of Algeria
continued to be tenuous, and he compared the remains of the Roman roads
with the current state of transport:
Si lAlgrie avait des chemins de fer pntrant du littoral lintrieur du
Sahara, jusquaux confins les plus reculs des possessions franaises, les
soulvements des indignes seraient moins frquents et ne pourraient
prendre une extension inquitante pour la colonisation...En labsence
de bonnes routes, les concentrations de troupes tranent en longueur, la
rpression des mouvements insurrectionnels devient bien difficile, surtout contre des populations nomades.[309]
Already in 1856, Madinier had noted that there were insufficient roads for
the needs of agriculture, commerce or industry. Since Algeria possessed no
lengthily navigable rivers, this already threw the attention on the need to develop railways.[310] By the end of the century, at least some settlements were being
developed only after the railway had arrived,[311] but railway-building into the
south, for defensive purposes, was still going slowly.[312] Fortified stations were
a feature in the Sud Oranais,[313] very expensive to build, and sometimes also
protected by block-houses.[314] By 1904, there were only 4,055km of line in both
199
Algeria and Tunisia[315] and, by 1913, in comparison, only some 4,500km of

routes nationales.17
Unlike roads, some built by the Army and the Ponts et Chausses, others
by civilian contractors, railways in Algeria and then Tunisia were all built by
independent contractors, presumably because special skills were needed.
Many contractors set up lucrative deals with the Government for running as
well as building them.18 But the Army gained some benefit from the railways:
to check their usefulness for the movement of troops, by the 1880s some
reconnaissances, once done on horseback, were now done by railway.[316] If the
Army had shown itself eager to reuse antique materials throughout its years in
Algeria, the road and railway entrepreneurs did likewise, and for exactly the
same reasons convenience and cheapness, for ces derniers industriels ne
sont que trop insensibles au spectacle des ruines.[317] Some railway contracts
handed large areas surrounding the proposed route over to the contractors, in
the sweetest of deals.[318]
The main advantages of railway construction for the antiquities of Algeria
and Tunisia were that the prestigious sites such as Tebessa and Lambessa
were publicised as tourist attractions, and that a few antiquarian-conscious
engineers communicated what they found to the archaeologists, some of whom
also (like their colleagues carefully watching demolition in towns) followed
the railway work as it progressed, for what they might pick up en route. They
also led one quickly to new sites: je lavais reconnu en chemin de fer depuis
longtemps avant de le voir de prs, writes Carton of one monument.[319]
Tourists were a two-edged sword, however, and descended like a razzia,
vandalising monuments at Lambessa, the worst offenders being naturally
the English with their rage iconoclaste.[320]
Just as modern roads followed ancient ones, especially across flat land, so
did railways: in Antiquity, villages and towns grew up along the roads (or the
road was subsequently built to link them). Thus on the Tunis-Algeria route
lay a series of towns and villages renfermant presque tous de vastes ruines
romaines et construits en partie de leurs dcombres.[321] Builders went
through the landscape like a vacuum cleaner, and although a few objects from
cemeteries were recorded,[322] most antiquities simply disappeared within a
17 Bouchne 2012, 180.
18 Guignard 2010, 129137: Des conventions ferroviaires monstrueuses with a full set of
economic details. 133: les compagnies ont donc intrt surlever les forfaits, construire
au plus bas prix et ne surtout rien entreprendre pour amliorer lexploitation so they
skimp on materials, and on the radius of line curvature.
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few years. Henchir Tembra was near the Le Kef line, and by 1908 les entrepreneurs nont pas manqu de lexploiter comme carrire. At Ksar Kalaba, which
used to be an important ruin, Presque toutes les pierres...ont t prises
pour la route de Batna-Constantine et pour le chemin de fer. Nous y avons
cependant trouv deux bornes milliaires.[323] Unfortunately, the Service des
Antiquits was powerless, inept[324] and, perhaps more to the point, na jamais
empch lutilisation de vestiges sans intrt. So what was the epigraphers
prayer? Merely that, instead of hiding their criminality by reusing inscriptions
face-inwards, les inscriptions soient places, sans tre mutiles et le texte au
dehors, dans les murs des ponceaux et des gares.[325] Prehistoric monuments
(in which Algeria was once rich) also suffered from railway building, as near
the village of An-Tahamimine,[326] and also at Laverdure.[327]
Very frequently, railway construction brought antiquities to light, and
there are plentiful accounts in the literature. In the Bagrada in 1881, a tomb
monument came up during the les fouilles quon a pratiques sur ce point
pour obtenir les matriaux ncessaires la ligne ferre and here the dig can
refer only to likely antique materials.[328] At Inkermann in 1888, the tracks cut
through 10ha of ruins with the remains of a fortress; more ruins were found
when this French village was founded, and yet more from a dig near the railway
station.[329] At Mina in 1916, the engineer excavated a 5m column and other
antiquities to decorate his garden at the railway station.[330] The engineer at
Gafsa made a collection of antiquities found en route, and presented it to the
Museum in Sousse.[331] On the Sousse-Kairouan route, railway work dcouvrit
les traces dune ancienne voie romaine sur laquelle on tablit la voie ferre.[332]
But, in the majority of reports, it is not stated what happened to unearthed
antiquities for example to the remains of a Roman bridge, and the monticule
de dcombres uncovered in the Bagrada Basin in 1881.[333] From experience,
scholars like Gsell knew full well the likely extent of the destruction: bad
weather prevented a tour south-east of Stif in 1893, but this surely did not
matter, for the area had been stripped: du reste la plupart des pierres de ces
ruines ont t dplaces ou dtruites pour tre employes dans des maisons
modernes ou sur des routes.[334] Tissot, on the other hand, planned for the
same problem in advance by choosing his route carefully and anticipating
seeing antiquities before they vanished. He knew enough about the ways of
the world to make a study-tour to those parts of Tunisia where the antiquities
of which he knew would be destroyed by the coming railway: Jai tenu visiter
ces ruines avant quelles neussent pri.[335] But he also noted bridges and tunnels constructed expressly for the railways.[336]
It is of the nature of such piratical behaviour that we do not often know
what antiquities disappeared thanks to the entrepreneurs, no doubt because
201
they were exposed to view for only as long as it took for them to get reused.
Occasionally actual standing monuments were destroyed, such as the triumphal arch at Bulla Regia, the blocks of which had to be carried only 4km to the
line of the railway.[337] Tissot had described the monument in 1881,[338] and
Cagnat had illustrated it in 1882, but nine years later Carton could not even
find its location.[339] Graham, in 1902, described the plundering by the railway
company as lamentable.[340] Similar destruction was visited on parts of the
Zaghouan-Carthage aqueduct. Combien dautres fragments prcieux nont
pas d succomber aussi, comme jadis en Algrie, lindiffrence aveugle du
gnie militaire![341] In some of these instances, Graham and Ashbee maintain
that the railway was thrust through regardless of the antiquities A slight
deviation in both cases would have prevented these acts of Vandalism.[342]
Not that deviation would generally do much good. Carton estimated that
everything within 3km of a new road or railway would be devastated by the
entrepreneurs[343] and Tissot gives details of the fort at Hammam-Darradji,
recognisable in 1853, but sold by the local sheik to the railway, and il a t
dmoli pierre pierre.[344]
For reasons of topography, as we have seen, the railway route frequently
followed the route of the Roman road. Antiquities probably escaped destruction
where this was not the case, as when part of the Roman trajectory was judged
too steep for the tramway (chemin de fer decauville a light rail system)
between Sousse and Kairouan.[345] But only part, for on the plain le trac suit
une voie romaine encore empierre sur la majeure partie de son tendue.[346]
The account keeps referring to the chausse, which was surely the Roman
one[347] so presumably where practicable the railway was built directly over
the Roman road; elsewhere, stones were lifted from the Roman surface to lay
a new railway bed.[348] The nearby site was Henchir Sidi-el-Hani, containing a
Moslem shrine in the midst of the Roman ruins.[349] Where a modern road was
driven next to a railway, this could be double trouble for the antiquities, ruins
being reused for both of them. Gsell and Graillot note disappearances in the
north of the Aurs.[350]

The Ponts et Chausses
Who was to build such early roads but the Army? A later answer was to be
commercial entrepreneurs, as we shall see, but in the first decades the task
was undertaken by the Army and the Ponts et Chausses. The Corps de Ponts
et Chausses was founded in 1716, given a school to train its engineers in 1747,
and its products played an important part in the establishment of a viable
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infrastructure in Algeria and Tunisia. But it was a government organisation

that presumably reflected government attitudes and concerns; so that just
as the administration was apparently happy to see Roman remains reused
in colonist villages and towns, so were the Ponts et Chausses. Indeed, on
several occasions even late in the century it was accused, in contravention of
Antiquities laws,19 of turning a blind eye or even conspiring with workmen
to destroy ruins. For example near Sigus in 1895, when les entrepreneurs de
la route qui traverse le village de Sigus ont dtruit, sous loeil bienveillant des
Ponts et Chausses et des autres Services de ltat, les belles ruines qui subsistaient encore.[351] The Abb Fabre did a count of inscriptions discovered here
up to 1897: 188 had been discovered and, by 1909, only eight remained.[352]
But the Ponts et Chausses were probably reusing ruins from the conquest
onward, since they probably had no other resources to hand. Up to 1835, when
the strategic aim was to link outposts adequately with Algiers, il travaille
relier fortement les villes, les camps fortifis et les tablissemens de lintrieur
avec la capitale, par un systme complet de voies de communications.[353]
This was far from completed even by 1839, partly because of problems with
security, and also the need for other stretches of road. Thus the Gnie was
ordered in 1838 to excuter une route carrossable de Bne la Seybouse,
hauteur de Ghelma, et mme au del en crant quelques points de sret.[354]
By 1843 the Ponts et Chausses and the Gnie were being praised for building
military roads qui rivalisent celles de nos pays civiliss de lEurope[355] but
this was a great exaggeration. Fortin dIvrys assessment in 1845 was more
accurately vague: il a fallu dtourner les eaux, ouvrir les carrires, tracer des
routes, ou au moins aplanir les grands obstacles,[356] but he does not assess
how much of this work had been completed. In several early instances, and
aprs sept ou huit sicles de la domination la plus barbare,[357] Roman roads
were where possible repaired by Army levies, so that Jacquot, studying roads
around Stif in 1907, concluded that most of the roads the Army built were
indeed refurbished Roman ones.[358]
If roads were to be constructed efficiently, then accommodation had to
be found for the workmen, who naturally did not like tents in which they
froze. This frequently involved destruction, as when M. Cartier in 1856 built
them a lodging near El Hamma: Lemplacement marqu tait porte dun
groupe de ruines dans lequel ou ne pouvait viter de prendre des matriaux,
the alibi being that En choisissant les pierres les moins mutiles, on dterra
un petit bloc de calcaire jurassique, de forme rectangulaire, et portant une
19
Dondin-Payre 2003, 1667 Chronologie: mise en place de la lgislation archologique en

Algrie, 1845 onwards.
203
inscription latine parfaitement conserve.[359] This sounds good, but such

inscriptions were the occasionally surviving trophies discovered, it must
be underlined, while searching for antique blocks which did indeed then
get reused.[360] This is clear from Audollents flagging of the find-spot of an
inscription near Tixter in 1890, when L, comme en bien dautres endroits,
les ruines romaines avaient paru lentrepreneur une carrire dexploitation
facile.[361]
For one commentator, writing in 1847 about the corps (and not just in
Algeria), the Romans would have left nothing for archaeologists to admire
had they used the Ponts et Chausses (incompetent and slow) instead of the
army to do the building.[362] Rousset in 1882 made similar criticisms: it seemed
a cardinal error for the Military Engineers to have handed roadwork over to
the Ponts et Chausses, which was underfunded, could not tap free labour as
could the Army, could scarcely pay for native labour, and suffered from the
high transport costs that their road-building was intended to mitigate:
Les ponts et chausss se trouvaient donc chargs de continuer luvre
militaire, et larme dut se dsintresser de ces travaux. Ce fut peut-tre
une faute et un malheur pour la colonie...les ponts et chausses neurent
pas consacrer aux routes des sommes proportionnes aux normes travaux quil fallait entreprendre partout la fois. La main-duvre, mme
indigne, revenait un prix lev. Il fallut aller lentement et laisser pendant bien des annes les intrts agricoles en souffrance. Labsence des
routes, le haut prix des transports dos de mulets avilissaient en tel
ou tel canton une production qui faisait grand dfaut sur les marchs
voisins...La main-duvre militaire aurait pu tre employe beaucoup plus longtemps et pourrait tre employe encore en beaucoup
dendroits.[363]
This assessment might serve as a summary of the difficulties faced by infrastructure establishment and maintenance in North Africa, as well as for the
despair of those trying to generate the conditions for agricultural and commercial prosperity. The Roman ruins were bound to suffer because of the deadly
combination of shortage of funds and the general administrative insouciance.
The ancient towns we examined in the early section of this chapter survived
because they were remote. But any ruins in or near the path of road or railway
were often destroyed and then the increased viability brought more people
into the area, whereupon the destruction could only increase. Native labourers
could be an unknown quantity, sometimes being unwilling to work once they
had earned enough to satisfy their needs.[364]
204
2 SHD 1K214/131
[ ]
3 Toutain_1896_7681
[ ]
4 Ibid., 133143
[ ]
5 Fisquet_1842_20
[ ]
6 Pallary 1894, 4
[ ]
7 Nodier_1844_199
[ ]
8 Audollent_1890B_5
[ ]
9 Fraud_1869_40
[ ]
10 Vigneral_1867_72
[ ]
11 Donau_1920_4546
[ ]
12 Cibot_1870_11
[ ]
13 Winckler_1888_67
[ ]
14 Gurin_1862_II_248
[ ]
15 Gurin_1862_I_252253
[ ]
16 RA I 1856, 339
[ ]
17 Rogers_1865_232233
[ ]
18 SHD 1M1314
[ ]
travelled 172425
[ ]
20 Kennedy_1846_187, 188
[ ]
21 Cagnat_and_Saladin_
1894_295
[ ]
22 Merlin_1903_92
[ ]
23 Carton_1898B_235
[ ]
24 Saladin_1892_448
[ ]
25 Richardot_1905_142
[ ]
26 Merlin_1903_13
[ ]
27 Merlin_1903_22
[ ]
1887_171
[ ]
29 Trumet_de_Fontarce_
1896_160
[ ]
30 BACTHS 1920, CCX
[ ]
31 Ballu_1915_100
[ ]
32 Merlin_1902_375
[ ]
33 Merlin_1903_23
[ ]
34 Carton_1905B_62
[ ]
35 Merlin_1903_3839
[ ]
36 Leclercq_1881_229
[ ]
37 Saladin_1886_2324
[ ]
38 Cagnat_et_al_1890_222
[ ]
39 Temple_1835_I_139
[ ]
40 Filippi_1926_578
chapter 4
41]Gurin_1862_I_143
42]Saladin_1893_21
[ ]
43 Fraud_1876B_497498
[ ]
44 Lorin_1896_570
[ ]
45 SHD 1M1321
[ ]
[ ]
1887_141
[ ]
48 Cambon_1885_130131
[ ]
49 Filippi_1926_413414
[ ]
50 Tissot_1888_613614
[ ]
51 Lespinasse-Langeac_
1893_174
[ ]
52 Ibid., 176
[ ]
53 Gauckler_1897_385386
[ ]
54 Winckler_1893_14
[ ]
55 Ibid., 13
[ ]
56 Monchicourt_1913_314
[ ]
57 Gurin_1862_I_267
[ ]
1894_127
[ ]
59 Cagnat_1888_67
[ ]
60 Saladin_1887_68
[ ]
61 Rouard_de_Card_1906_
240241
[ ]
62 Omont_1902_309310
[ ]
63 Cagnat_1901_6768
[ ]
64 Omont_1902_10451046
[ ]
65 Tumiati_1905_51
[ ]
66 Omont_1902_1046
[ ]
67 Caylus_III_1759_215216
[ ]
68 Ibid., 216
[ ]
69 Blaquire_1813_19
[ ]
70 El-Abbassi_1816_II_171
[ ]
71 Conder_1830_6263
[ ]
72 Monchicourt_1913_246
[ ]
73 Conder_1830_64
[ ]
74 Ibid., 65
[ ]
75 Tumiati_1905_222
[ ]
76 Bisson_1881_16
[ ]
77 Fagnan_1900_1819
[ ]
78 Fagnan_1924_393
[ ]
79 Temple_1835_I_172
[ ]
80 Tchihatchef_1880_485
81]Kennedy_1846_155
82]Gurin_1862_II_214
[ ]
83 El-Kairouani_1845_29
[ ]
84 Cherbonneau_1854
1855_119120
[ ]
85 Noah_1819_264
[ ]
86 Fagnan_1900_21
[ ]
87 Ibid., 22
[ ]
88 Desfontaines_1830_193
[ ]
89 Crapelet _1876_10
[ ]
90 Rambaud_1888_95
[ ]
91 Pellissier_1853_236
[ ]
92 Flaux_1865_273
[ ]
93 Fagnan_1924_9
[ ]
94 Carton_1906B_389392
[ ]
95 Ibn_Khaldun_
II_1865_247
[ ]
96 Hebenstreit_1830_8485
[ ]
97 Baraudon_1893_276
[ ]
98 Poir_1892_122
[ ]
99 Begouen_1898
[
100]El-Kairouani_1845_52
[ ]
[
102]Tchihatchef_1880_
537538
[
103]Reinach_and_Babelon_
1887_9
[
104]Thierry-Mieg_1861_89
[
105]Falbe_1833_3
[
106]Ibid., Avertissement
[
107]Tchihatchef_1880_538
[
108]Poir_1892_121122
[
109]Marcotte_de_Quivires_
1855_293
[ ]
110 Laronde_1988_345346
[ ]
29 Aug 1896
[ ]
112 Reinach_and_Babelon_
1887_67
[ ]
113 Saladin_1893_1314
[ ]
114 Monuments_
[ ]
115 Monuments_
[ ]
[ ]
205

116]Excursions_1838_XV
XVI
[ ]
117 Ibid., XIIIXIV
[ ]
118 Carton_1906B_392
[ ]
II_227228
[
120]Ibid., 236237
[ ]
121 Flaux_1865_278
[
122]Davis_1862_5
[
123]Flaux_1865_277278
[
124]Trumet_de_Fontarce_
1896_56
[
125]Ibid., 130
[
[
127]Sevestre_1874_701702
[
128]Lavigerie_1881_49
[
129]Ibid., 5556
[
130]Ibid., 56
[ ]
131 Carton_1906_37
[
132]Carton_1906B_403
[
133]Ibid., 392
[
134]Carton_1908B_182
[
1896_131
[
136]Carton_1906_3738
[
137]Boissier_1899_53
[
138]Carton_1906B_402
[
139]Hrisson_1881_275279
[
140]Marmol_1667_II_445
[ ]
141 Simond_1887_50
[
142]Noah_1819_324325
[
143]Blaquire_1813_189190
[
144]Desfontaines_1838_II_90
[
145]Daux_1876_183
[
146]Hrisson_1881_77
[
147]Gurin_1862_II_8
[
148]Hrisson_1881_6364
[
149]Ibid., 8789
[
150]Carton_1908C_3435, 38
[ ]
151 Gauckler_1907_399
[
1896_231
[
153]Oulebsir_1994_7374
[
154]Oulebsir_1994_6465
[
155]Gsell_1895_39
156]Dondin-Payre 1996, 156
[
157]Raoul-Rochette_et_al_
1851_339
[
158]RA 1859 issue 15, 225
[
159]Jomard_1865_161
[
160]RA Table Gnrale 1856
1881, 1885 VVI
[ ]
161 Mendel_1918_9
[
162]Homolle_1919_125
[
163]Gladiateur_1881_357358
[
164]Ibid., 358
[
165]Postel_1885_54
[
Militaire_1889_1169
[
167]Tissot_1884_197198
[
168]Duvaux_1903
[
1837_3738
[
170]Orlans_1892_343
[ ]
171 SHD 1315 items 1113
[
172]Exposition_Coloniale_
1906_7
[
173]Demonts_1921_204
[
174]Sriziat_1886_31
[
175]Boutin_1830_179
[
176]Morell_1854_460
[
177]Salama_1951_105
[
178]Ibid., 104105
[
179]Caraman_1843_5960
[
180]Expdition_de_
[ ]
181 St_Marie_1846_117
[
182]Trumelet_1887_II_
110111
[
183]Castellane1896_III_
152 1838
[
184]Pernot_1894_261272
[
185]Bapst_1909_I_287
[
186]Gouvernement_
Gnral_1906_7
[
187]Barbaud_1887_I_88
[
188]Gaffarel_1883_503
[
189]Mercier_1885_554
190]Tissot_1888_444
191]F_1865_328329
[
192]La_Tafna_1887_19_April
[
193]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_
67
[
1850_153
[
195]Carrette_1844_117118
[
196]Tissot_1888_452
[
197]Hurabielle_1899_104
[
198]Pananti_1818_110
[
199]Fabre_de_Navacelle_
1876_77
[
200]Winckler_1894_370371
[
201]Boutin_1830_213
[
202]Delamare_1850B_4
[
203]Carton_1901_176203
[
204]Watbled_1870_274275
[
205]BSA_Sousse_IV_1907_29
[
206]Mercier_1888_102
[
207]Mercier_1885_331332
[
208]Demaeght_1888_154
[
209]Gaillard_1839_3
[
[ ]
211 SHD Papiers Pelet
carton 1319
[
212]SHD H227
[
213]SHD Gnie, 1H58
[
214]SHD Gnie 8.1
Constantine 183640
[
[
216]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_8ff
[
217]Carbuccia_1853_113
[
218]Ibid., 1213
[
219]Fraud_18711872_12
[
220]Pernot_1894_284288
[
221]Voinot_1910_58
[
222]Rey_1844_74
[
223]Gurin_1862_II_76
[
224]Mauroy_1845/6_168
[
225]Arnaud_1863_4266
[
226]Fabre_de_Navacelle_
1876_170
[
227]Saladin_1887_138
206
228]Ibid., 26
229]Winckler_1892_157158
[
230]Faucon_1893_II_125126
[
231]Bliard_1854_21
[
232]Beul_1875_80
[
233]Teissier_1865_44
[
234]Monuments_
Historiques_1841_70
[
235]MR1314 item 16
[
236]RA 6, August 1837, 9
[
1850_17
[
238]Du_Barail_1897_I_
175: 1842
[
239]SHD MR881
[
240]Thoumas_1887_149
[
241]Mercier_1886_457
[
242]RA 1837, 89
[
243]Gouvernement_
Gnral_1906_8
[
244]Pernot_1894_282
[
245]Schefer_1916_21
[
246]Fernel_1830_58
[
247]Ibid., 64
[
248]Qutin_1847_226
[
249]Fernel_1830_237
[
[
251]SHD MR H227
[
1837_2324
[
253]Expdition_de_
Constantine_1838_34
[
1848_VIII
[
255]SHD GR 1M882
[
1894_244
[
257]Diehl_1892_106
[
258]Vigneral_1867_6
[
259]Gsell_1901_II_7
[
260]SHD Genie 15.1
Campagnes 18141848
[
261]Army_Officer_1847_28
[
262]Carrette_1844_120
chapter 4
263]Fortin_dIvry_1845B_109
264]Quesnoy_1888_191192
[
265]Qutin_1847_7778
[
266]Malte-Brun_1858_6
[
267]Frisch_1899_182183
[
268]Carton_1889_13
[
269]Lacretelle_1865_19
[
270]Duvernois_1856
[
1844_121122
[
272]Mauroy_1852_30
[
273]Duvernois_1858_
187188
[
274]Phillips_1909_79
[
275]Faucon_1893_II_139140
[
276]Duveyrier_1881_28
[
277]Lux_1882_111
[
278]Maupassant_1997_
1945
[
279]Army_Officer_1847_26
[
280]Expdition_de_
Constantine_1838_32
[
281]Chanony_1853_58
[
282]Thouvenin_1900_334
[
283]Watbled_1870_277
[
284]SHD MR H227
[
285]Zouave_1860_71
[
286]Ibid., 105106
[
287]Rousset_1889_II_367
[
288]SHD 1M1321
[
289]Domet-Adanson_
1877_347382
[
290]Grad_1883_18
[
291]Winckler_1888_87
[
1896_90
[
293]Jacquot_1907_64
[
294]Cagnat_1884_139
[
295]Frisch_1899_182
[
296]Lorin_1896_538
[
297]Sevestre_1874_710
[
298]Duvernois_1858_
310311
[
299]Andry_1868_V
300]Journal Gnral de
lAlgrie 21 January
1892
[
301]Le Petit Kabyle
9 May 1897
[
302]Playfair_1890_251
[
303]Chabaud-Latour_
1855_1114
[
304]Duvernois_1856
[
305]Madinier_1856_42
[
306]Lanessan_1887_199
[
307]Picardet_1888_501
[
308]Neveu-Derotrie_
1878_44
[
309]Grad_1883_13
[
310]Madinier_1856_41
[ ]
311 Carton_1894_4
[
312]Frisch_1899_9091
[
313]Gaudin_1887_10
[
314]Bernard_1887_304
[
315]G_1904_428429
[
316]SHD 1M1321
[
317]Domergue_1893_152
[
1854_VI_99101
[
319]Carton_1910_8997
[
320]Bourquelot_1881_
294295
[
321]Rambaud_1888_134
[
322]RA 1870 issue 81,
Chronique, 301
[
1894B_8485
[
324]Diehl_1892_121
[
325]Carton_1908B_180181
[
326]Mercier_1888_102103
[
327]Ibid., 102
[
328]Tissot_1881_31
[
329]Demaeght_1888_183
[
330]Pellet_1916_286
[
331]BACTHS_1905_CL
[
332]Picardet_1888_598
[
333]Tissot_1881_9394
[
334]Gsell_1893_263
207

335]Tissot_1881_1
336]Ibid., 87
[
1887_188
[
338]Tissot_1881_38
[
339]Carton_1891_207B
[
340]Graham_1902_7172
[
341]Poir_1892_138139
[
1887_38
[
343]Carton_1908B_180
[
344]Tissot_1888_260
[
345]Picardet_1888_561
346]Ibid., 505
347]Ibid., 533
[
348]Ibid., 534
[
349]Cagnat_1884_39
[
1894B_81
[
351]Vars_18951896_301
[
352]SGAPO_XXV_1905_
248258
[
353]Guilbert_1839_9091
[
354]Expdition_de_
Constantine_1838_60
[
355]Vicomte_1843_78
356]Fortin dIvry_1845_113
357]Expdition_de_
Constantine_1838_4
[
358]Jacquot_1907_35
[
359]RA I 1856, 315
[
360]Poulle_18901891_
370371
[
[
362]Cantagrel_1847_22
[
363]Rousset_1882_4647
[
364]Walmsley_1858_
124125
chapter 5
Epigraphy, Topography and Mapping

Depuis loccupation franaise, le Nord de lAfrique a produit plus de
monuments pigraphiques que le reste de limmense territoire autrefois
soumis aux Romains. Les Franais commencrent lexploration scientifique ds les premires annes de la conqute, et il faut leur rendre
cette justice quils lont faite avec un grand zle: officiers, particuliers et
savants envoys en mission nont cess depuis cinquante ans et ne cessent
encore, de recueillir en Algrie et en Tunisie une quantit norme dinscriptions.[1] [1892]
Inscriptions are very plentiful in North Africa, and have naturally been the subject of much scholarly attention.1 This chapter argues that they were a siren
song for classicists in North Africa, for they were collected by the thousand, but
that the focus was generally the words, rather than the context that is, the
monuments. Just when the epigraphers were busily reconstructing ancient
Rome on paper, their fellow countrymen were destroying the monuments
themselves. In other words, epigraphers were interested in prizing and reconstructing damaged inscriptions but not in damaged buildings. Transcribed,
the inscriptions survived; pilfered, the ruins which housed them did not.
In other word inscriptions, like sirens, blow scholars off-course, leading them
to ignore the survival of monuments they should have been strenuously
protecting.
Indeed, how were the French to justify their conquest of Algeria other than
as the bringers of civilisation? For Ibn Khaldun, Arab nomads were not neutral,
but actually opposed to civilisation; and, rather like French soldiers at Algiers,
Si les Arabes ont besoin de pierres pour servir dappuis leurs marmites, ils
dgradent les btiments afin de se les procurer; sil leur faut du bois pour en
faire des piquets ou des soutiens de tente, ils dtruisent les toits des maisons
pour en avoir.[2] The French would make the old stones live again, but note the
future tense in this patriotic cry of 1860: Nous revendiquons la succession des
lgions des Csars. Partout o se posera le pied de la France, les cits romaines
renatront.[3] To find in 1859 la conqute de 1830 plus glorieuse pour la civilisation que celle de 645 pour lIslamisme is pushing the envelope rather; but the
author was only complaining that the French (unlike the Romans) had not yet
1 See the conferences under the title Africa Romana, especially IIIV for 198587.
koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 4|doi 10.1163/9789004271630_007
Epigraphy, Topography And Mapping
209
erected any monuments glorifying their conquest.[4] How might epigraphy be

utilised to justify their work? One answer is that as late as 1861 they were cutting up inscriptions so as to pave the Place de lEglise at Bougie.[5]
The occupation of North Africa destroyed so many ancient remains that the
only intact (or easily completable) monuments to survive were indeed
inscriptions, which could be carried back to France on paper, the actual stone
being of less importance once the inscription was published (and many did
indeed go missing, as we shall see). For architectural history developed slowly,
and so did the desire to preserve earlier buildings. Inscriptions could generally
be collected without too much difficulty, and were a proof of learning and
of travelling effort, give or take the odd ladder, or Arab wielding a shovel
or lever much better than picture postcards, which were invented c.1840, but
uncommon before the 1870s.
Reflecting such epigraphical interests, an emphasis on inscriptions was
made by French funding bodies, and the Missions Scientifiques et Littraires
(which studied not only Algeria, but elsewhere in the Mediterranean[6]). Such
missions included the following:
1852: Renier, charg dune mission en Algrie pour y rechercher les monuments pigraphiques: Des fouilles considrables, entreprises pour la
construction dun thtre, sur lemplacement du forum de lantique Rusicade, venaient de mettre au jour les substructions dune magnifique basilique. Outre un nombre assez considrable de dbris darchitecture dune
grande richesse, on y avait dcouvert linscription suivante.[7] Renier is
amongst the most important, industrious and influential epigraphers the
French produced,[8] and collected together, with extensive transcriptions
from the military, large numbers of texts.[9]
1860: M. Victor Gurin, docteur s lettres, agrg des classes suprieures,
est charg dune mission gratuite dans la rgence de Tunis, leffet de
recueillir les inscriptions qui peuvent intresser lhistoire et la gographie. Mission gratuite generally means the scholars got travel and subsistence expenses but nothing else.
1874: M. Hron de Villefosse est charg dune mission en Tunisie, afin de
recueillir, soit par la copie, soit par lestampage, les inscriptions latines
qui sy rencontrent.
210
chapter 5
1877: M. labb Henri Thdenat, lve de lcole pratique des HautesEtudes, est charg dune mission gratuite en Algrie dans le but dtudier
les inscriptions et les monuments romains.
1880: M. Poinssot, avocat, dlgu de la Socit archologique de Constantine, est charg dune mission gratuite ayant pour objet de rechercher,
dans la petite Kabylie, la province de Constantine et la Tunisie, les restes
antiques qui subsistent encore dans ces rgions, de recueillir et destamper des inscriptions.

The Armys uses for Roman Inscriptions

Dans le sicle o nous sommes, il faut que la science marche toujours la
suite de la guerre...Nos officiers des armes savantes ne ngligeront
point, sans doute, de rapporter ces dpouilles instructives des temps
passs. [1836][10]
Inscriptions had been the tell-tale sign of Roman reach and occupation for
centuries, and Marmol used them to identify sites as Roman, for example at
Ned Roma,[11] at Sargel,[12] and at Tebessa.[13] They were to be found at these
sites in very large quantities. The scholars sent on missions such as those outlined above generally followed the expeditionary columns.2 Prominent were
Cagnat and Renier, the latter helping to save at least a part of Lambessa and, in
1859, providing not only a list of sites with such ruins, but also instructions on
how to deal with them.[14] Army officers on campaign, frequently bivouacing
among ruins,[15] were yet more interested in the remains if they included
inscriptions, although sometimes these were illusory, as Saint-Arnaud reported
at Raz-Gueber in 1850: Hier, nous avons reconnu les ruines dune grande ville.
Jy ai envoy trois compagnies pour fouiller, rien ne dit encore le nom de tous
ces lieux divers.[16] Marshal Soult, however, had already declared that he did
not understand Roman inscriptions, because he didnt know Italian.[17]
From the early years in Algeria, monuments and inscriptions were seen as
inspirational, and artists and archaeologists who dealt with them pourront
puiser ces sources certaines de belles inspirations, et planter de nouveaux
jalons pour diriger lhistorien.[18] Even during periods of heavy fighting,
soldiers took an interest in inscriptions. To do so, they had to get out of Algiers,
2 Bouchenaki 1990, 5355, instances the army doctor F. Cardaillac, in Algeria 18361840,
18531859.
211
a town which had been conspicuously free of any visible antiquities for at least
a century,[19] although some inscriptions would be discovered when scholars
started examining the houses more closely.[20]
Strange as it might at first sight seem that a modern army should interest
itself with blocks of stone nearly two thousand years old, they had in fact several reasons for concerning themselves with Roman inscriptions. The first, and
most romantic, was that they provided a positive way of identifying emotionally with the past: where once the Roman trod, and conquered, so now did the
French! The second was more political, and linked the Romans with the French
mission civilisatrice, although scholars should perhaps have taken the time
to learn more about resistance to Romanisation.3 What did the intervening
centuries of perceived decline matter, now that civilisation had returned to
Algeria? Was this not the gift to the country which would wipe away the murderous stains of the conquest and subsequent repression? The third was that
certain inscriptions (given the absence of suitable modern maps) could allow
the military to pinpoint their position according to the Tabula Peutingeriana.
Certainly, officers often took up inscription-hunting with enthusiasm, so that
an 1892 newspaper could affirm that at the club, dismissing card games, they
sent for the Corpus Inscriptionum instead.[21] Presumably such officers collected inscriptions in notebooks; but by 1920 classes were held by scholars
showing such officers about to depart for North Africa just how to make
squeezes of them,[22] which were impressions in papier mch which gave an
accurate negative impression of the incuse letters of the inscription.

Army Camps, Route Marches and Inscriptions
An index of French interest in epigraphy is the copying of stones in hostile
country. Frequently, soldiers came across inscriptions as they built or tidied
up their camps, or made a halt while on campaign. Rozet, a Capitaine on the
General Staff, spent sixteen months in Algeria, and kept in a notebook details
of everything he had seen since the last halt.[23] In 1840, reporting on the expedition to Miliana, Gnral Bellormet not only copied an inscription proving the
identity of the site, but also suggested to the head Engineer that he unearth a
Corinthian capital there.[24] Plenty of antiquities, including inscriptions, were
still lying around in 1850, by which date there were over 2,400 inhabitants.[25]
Clauzel, in his report of 1837 on Guelma, which the First Expdition de
Constantine occupied on its return, pointed out its extensive remains, not
only because he admired them, but also surely because, as a colleague noted,
3 Bnabou 1976 military (67251), religious (255380). 394425 for urbanisation. 42769 for
tribes, cantonment, and Roman control via praefecti gentes.
212
chapter 5
Toutes les pierres sont l; il ny aurait qu les runir[26] that is, to erect defensive works. On the march to Constantine, Caraman visited the same ruins with
a conquerors stance: Je me disais que nous venions notre tour envahir ces
rgions lointaines, et leur imposer le joug du vainqueur.[27] But even then, as
he wandered around the ruins, he saw the Military Engineers reusing some of
the blocks to erect ramparts.[28] During the Expdition des Portes de Fer into
Kabylia in 1839, the Duc dOrlans was interested enough to note the antiquities around Stora, and was already sizing them up for scholarship: La commission scientifique aura de la besogne ici. Indeed it would, because of the
quantities of unrecorded monuments and inscriptions; but its scholars were
far from helped by this lunatic escapade which, by its blatant march through
Kabylia, had re-ignited the war with Abd-el-Kader, and severely restricted the
parts of Algeria they could investigate in safety.[29] The Duke (who evidently
had a good eye for detail) also pointed out that the Gnie was setting itself
up very nicely, and appropriating antiquities not just to shelter the troops,
but for arguably frivolous purposes: Mais le gnie sempare de tout ce qui est
joli et sen fait une espce de petit palais. Plusieurs maisons sont entirement
construites en pierres tumulaires romaines, et vont devenir des boutiques.[30]
Inscribed gravestones were evidently handy for house-building but had the
scholars seen them before this happened?
During the second (and successful) 1837 Expdition de Constantine, officers
left their bivouac to investigate nearby ruins.[31] So did Canrobert at MedjezAmar, on the Seybouse, in 1837.[32] Once Constantine was taken, they copied
inscriptions in the walls of its houses.[33] Perhaps they had read earlier travellers such as Blaquire, who in 1811 saw the town crammed with inscriptions
and ancient ruins.[34] Even the French assault helped with inscriptions,
more of which were unearthed when the city walls needed to be repaired.[35]
By the 1850s veritable teams of scholars were at work there, discovering and
transcribing,[36] and the work continued as building European houses revealed
yet more.[37]
In 1847, Lieutenant Bartel wrote a history of Bougie, including drawings of
the site and transcriptions of inscriptions.[38] At Guelma, in the same years, we
are assured that there was great respect for the monuments, and quelques
ingnieurs apportrent dans lemploi de ces dbris historiques un respect et
une sollicitude qui mritent toute la reconnaissance du monde savant. The
artillery officer whose task it was to build barracks certainly reused inscribed
blocks in their building, but de manire en assurer la conservation et en
mme temps en faciliter ltude.[39] Not all officers were so careful. Indeed,
the story is told of soldiers who cooked up and antiqued a stone on which
they wrote an inscription (Z. LVD. FEC. OCT. D. S. POL) which fascinated one
213
member of the Commission Scientifique, who could not decipher it understandably, since it referred to an infantryman spending eight days in the glasshouse.[40] Again, sometimes inscriptions were read rather too literally, as in
1860 when Moll asserted (like the inscription) that Tebessa had indeed been
completely in ruins before the Byzantines got there.[41] Nevertheless, in spite of
some mistakes, the Commission did give a kick-start to the development of
epigraphy in France.4
When on campaign, officers particularly interested in inscriptions ensured
that they had draughtsmen to hand when they came across interesting anti
quities. This was apparently the working practice of Carbuccia, and each
soldier was thereby transform pour ainsi dire en antiquaire improvis, docile
la direction qui lui tait imprime, excutait avec empressement, mme avec
joie, les ordres du commandant. Carbuccia also took the matter of placenames very seriously: Noublions pas dajouter que le colonel Carbuccia a
recueilli et fait crire soigneusement, en arabe, de la main des indignes, tous
les noms de lieux des ruines, au nombre denviron 300.[42] Whether most of
the troops were quite as ecstatic about antiquities as this account suggests cannot be verified; but we do know that Carbuccias helpers included a lieutenant
colonel and a chef de bataillon, a capitaine adjutant-major, a lieutenant and a
sub-lieutenant, a sergeant and a corporal.[43] What he accomplished in under
two-and-a-half years, thanks to the help of his educated assistants, was indeed
impressive.[44] To believe Saint-Martin, writing in 1863, the Army continued
Carbuccias tradition, and on a vu des compagnies de nos braves soldats,
dposant le fusil pour manier la pioche, travailler avec lardeur de vritables
archologues the results being published in handsome volumes.[45]
To set against this benevolent vision is the fact that some actions to preserve
inscriptions did not outlast their creator. Thus at Aumale the Chef de Gnie at
least arranged them so they could be studied but these were simply piled up
when the garrison changed,[46] and it was a soldier who offered to transcribe
them.[47] Could a better system be devised? Although he must have been well
aware of the destructive nature of many of the Military Engineers activities, in
1856 Berbrugger suggested they and other entities such as the Ponts et
Chausses take charge of gathering together antiquities and putting them in
sheds in each town:
Une commission archologique permanente, prise pour chaque localit
dans le personnel du Gnie, des Ponts-et-Chausses, des Btiments civils,
etc., veillerait la rentre des objets de collection, leur arrangement et
4 Gran-Aymerich 2012, 122125.
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leur conservation....Il ny aurait pas de personnel payer et les

dpenses de matriel se borneraient la construction de quelques hangars peu coteux pour mettre les objets de collection labri des injures
de lair, des frais de transport pour faire arriver ces objets du lieu de
dcouverte au local de conservation. Les moyens dont le service du Gnie
dispose lui permettraient datteindre ce double rsultat, sans quil ft
ncessaire de grever le budget dune dpense de quelque importance.[48]
This solution would indeed be cheap, because the only outlay would be the
cost of erecting the sheds; and both Military Engineers and Ponts et Chausses
would have the lifting and carting gear necessary to transfer the antiquities
(which would have been mostly inscriptions) to the various collection points.
Enthusiasts also acted alone to save antiquities, and this must have been
common. Thus at Masqueray Charrier hitched a lift for a milestone from a
detachment of zouaves.[49] Army brawn was also needed to view many of the
inscriptions, as Wagner noted at Guelma in 1841: Fr die Untersucher dieser
Ruinen ist daher erste Bedingung einer grndlichen umfassenden Arbeit, dass
man ihnen eine hinreichende Zahl krftiger Arbeiter an die Seite gebe, mit
deren Beistand sie unter dem Steinhaufen nach Herzenslust stbern knnten,
ohne das Geringste zu zerstren.[50] Unfortunately, Berbruggers suggestion
did not bear any official fruit, because any shepherding of inscriptions by
the Military Engineers was due to the devotion of individual officers, and the
organisation itself presumably did not believe that such collecting formed any
part of their essential duties.

Inscriptions in Mosques and Houses
As well as recording inscriptions discovered in groups of ruins while on campaign, interested army officers quickly realised that the locals had often reused
them in building their houses and mosques, often with extensive use of inscriptions, the flat and small blocks of which were easy to handle. For scholars in
the later 19th century, then, mosques (and Arab houses) were a particular focus
of interest, because they were often built from antiquities (as at Medea[51]),
including inscriptions, with milestones used as column shafts, occasionally in
shrines, such as that of Sidi Bou Attila[52] or Sidi Ben Rhelouf.[53] All these were
of great interest because they could sometimes identify antique sites:
Il faudra donc, au lieu de ngliger ces constructions cause de leur date
rcente et de leur dlabrement, les examiner avec grand soin. / Les pierres
antiques portant des sculptures ou des inscriptions ont gnralement t
employes, cause de leurs dimensions, dans les parties de la btisse qui
215
rclament de grosses pierres, cest--dire comme linteaux de porte,

comme montants, comme seuils. Les bornes milliaires ou les cippes funraires hexagonaux ont t souvent utiliss comme colonnes dans ldifice; on grattera lgrement la chaux dont ils sont couverts, surtout dans
les koubbas, pour sassurer sils ne portent pas dinscriptions.[54]
But only sometimes, for making them into an axle-cum-roller dragged by oxen
meant that they could be used far away from the road they once marked.[55]
Similarly, Berbrugger warns that inscriptions found at modern French sites for
building materials may well have been moved, and therefore be misleading,
because the inscriptions did not in fact refer to the site at which the stone now
resided:
Les ruines antiques, situes porte des centres de populations modernes,
ont t et sont encore mises contribution pour les matriaux de
construction. De l, un dplacement de pierres, qui oblige larchologue
se tenir en garde, quant la provenance des documents pigraphiques
quil rencontre dans les cits arabes ou franaises.[56]
For scholars, the great problem with mosques was that neither Christians nor
Jews were generally allowed to enter them until late in the 19th century,
depending on location. In war, of course, mosques were easy to enter because
might is right. Special permission could sometimes be obtained; conditions
became easier as the century progressed; mosques opened during French
suzerainty in Tunisia. But during periods of peace entry into mosques was generally forbidden to non-believers. Peyssonnel, travelling in 17241725, itched to
get his hands on Latin manuscripts and marble inscriptions said to be in two of
the mosques of Sousse;[57] he found the Moors from Andaluca much more
accommodating.[58] In non-combatant years, traditions of hospitality sometimes extended to Christians: Pellissier, in 1853, was not allowed to erect his
tent at Tehent, the villagers lodging him in their mosque.[59] But this was the
exception, and Gurin experienced the mosque problem at Bja in 1862[60]
and at Kairouan the previous year,[61] as did Saladin at Sousse in 1887[62] and
Tissot at Gafsa as late as 1888.[63] The situation at Kairouan changed in 1881,
with a French garrison camped within the walls, and le gnral qui y reprsente
la France accorde aux voyageurs, sous sa protection, le privilge de voir leur
aise ces monuments.[64] This allowed Chevillet to discover the large numbers
of antiquities reused in the houses of the town.[65] In 1887 Duraffourg got into
the mosque at Bja as a personal favour from the Cadi:
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Je lui demande de me montrer les inscriptions Romaines qui sy

trouvaient, il me rpondit quil serait fort difficile de les voir, quelles
taient caches ou recouvertes de chaux. Aprs avoir srieusement
insist, il me conduisit lextrieur de la mosque et, muni dune chelle
et de plusieurs morceaux de fer destins faire disparatre la chaux
qui recouvrait la plupart des caractres qui se trouvaient gravs sur une
pierre assez large, je pus lire dans deux endroits diffrents les inscriptions
suivantes.[66]
The inscriptions probably came from the Roman remains on or near the site
of which Bja was built,[67] and this was a most defensible place in the early
16th century.[68]
An unquenchable thirst for recording inscriptions dates from well before
French Algeria. Kairouan, a holy city, was particularly difficult. In 1738, when
Christians were not allowed even in its precincts, Shaw complained that
I could not be informed of one single inscription.[69] In 1830 and 1840, one
traveller could not get in even though he had the written order of the Bey; the
next was stoned in the streets; a third, also carrying a written order, deemed it
prudent not to enter the city.[70] Indeed, only the French consul could gain
entry, and Gurin expresses frustration at the meagre inscription harvest from
nearby Sabra.[71] Over time, entry to mosques and private houses got easier in
both Algeria and Tunisia, so that eventually Saladin could observe the great
quantities of antiquities reused in the buildings and walls of Kairouan.[72]
But far away from the seat of government entry could be difficult or even dangerous.[73] Or the converse, an English missionary even receiving an invitation
to preach in three mosques in Kabylia.[74] Most inscriptions sought were of
course Latin, but scholars were also active in encouraging the collection of
Arabic inscriptions, not to mention the study of languages such as Berber
(Arabic being well known to many French scholars and interpreters).[75]
Milestones
One of the most useful aids to discovering the names and locations of groups
of ruins was the Roman practice of locating milestones along their roads
which, of course, indicated distance as well as names. Except for some reuse
as ersatz-columns in mosques and houses, they survived from ancient times
particularly well because, being often of common stone, they were generally not worth chopping up, and were no use for the lime kilns. They were
one of the features of Cagnats how-to-do-it instructions to travellers and
archaeologists.[76] Assuming they had not been moved, milestones could
sometimes be married to those sections of the Tabula Peutingeriana and the
217
Antonine Itinerary dealing with Algeria and then Tunisia. Usually lighter
than marble shafts, they were easier to collect for reuse (for example in
mosques[77]), and Cagnat even came across a group of four by the side of
the Carthage-Tebessa road,[78] presumably gathered there for reuse but, for
some reason, abandoned. At Smendou, Goyt and Rebond found a collection
of milestones carted there from ruins, and had to spend time working out
their original locations.[79] Unfortunately, because of their relative lightness,
and when near 19th-century building locations, they tended to disappear,
presumably for further reuse, after their inscriptions had been noted. This
happened in the Aurs,[80] and near Gabs.[81] But sometimes they had been
encased in stands or bases so that, if toppled over, they could be impossible to
read without lifting equipment.[82]

Lon Renier, Inscriptions and the Mission Civilisatrice
The sacred mission of the French was to peel back the boundaries of barbarism and, whether they liked it or not, to have the Arabs rentrer dans la marche
intgrale de lhumanit.[83]. They were blessed by their self-identification with
the Romans and the civilisation they implanted there. After all, what were they
doing but sweeping aside centuries of underdevelopment, and replacing them
with modernity and its advantages? Lon Renier is the scholar who provides
the most persuasive justification for inscription-collecting in North Africa.
Such a mission was helped by the convenient fiction (already noted) that
the French were the successors of the Romans, returned to claim their heritage. Fenech recorded this at Philippeville, claiming the Arabs recognised their
right to the land.[84] In a variation, one Arabs excuse for breaking up inscribed
stones was so that the returning Roumi (the French) would not be able to find
their titles to land and property in Algeria.[85] And indeed, the French had a
better title to the country than the Arabs, because ces barbares ont tout
dtruit, tout brl, tout tu, tout rendu la mort.[86] According to Lon Renier,
the Arabs themselves saw Roman monuments, and especially their inscriptions, as notre titre le plus lgitime la possession de lAlgrie, for he met a
sheik who told his fellows that the French were indeed descendants of the
Roumi. Their presence in Algeria was legitimate, for they had returned to take
back what was their own: Les roumis, leur dit-il, sont vraiment les fils des
Romains, et lorsquils ont pris ce pays, ils nont fait que reprendre le bien de
leurs pres.[87] As a response in a famous British trial has it, he would say that,
wouldnt he? and we cannot know whether Reniers interlocutor was simply
being polite. On Reniers side, similar sentiments were expressed by locals in
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Asia Minor, and for the same reason. Perhaps it was the magic of semi-
indestructible written stones which clinched the truth of the Roman-to-Roumi
nexus, as well as seeing them consulting books or notebooks in which, surely,
magic instructions were written.
By affirming that the French Army was (almost) a continuation of the
Roman legions, Renier not only sought to legitimate the conquest, as already
noted; he also linked the French mission with his own main interest in life,
namely epigraphy. This was a brilliant piece of advertising, from the very man
to have at ones side when writing grant applications; and the message was to
be reinforced by the quantity and calibre of its lite officer-corps and crowd of
scholars in the country. The Army was to play a key rle in delivering the
mission civilisatrice because of the qualities of its soldiers:
On y rencontre des savants, des rudits, des littrateurs, des artistes, des
lgistes, etc.; on est surtout heureux dy avoir sa disposition une foule de
jeunes gens sortant des coles, parmi lesquels quelques-uns ont conserv
le got de ltude et du travail, et recherchent les occasions de rendre des
services, mme en dehors des occupations simplement militaires.[88]
Cunningly, Renier also deployed the argument that scholarly Europe was
awaiting news of inscriptions in Algeria:
Il ne sagit point ici de dcouvertes lointaines, pouvant tre faites par
dautres aussi bien que par nous, et dont la science profiterait galement,
quelle que fut la nation qui les fit: il sagit de sauver dune destruction
imminente de prcieux monuments dcouverts par nous sur un territoire
qui nous appartient, et que nous seuls pouvons, que nous seuls devons
mettre la disposition de lEurope rudite.[89]
The context for this assertion, which was true, is explained in Reniers
obituary.[90] Indeed, there was much Europe-wide interest in what was to be
found in Algeria, but Reniers argument would, as we shall see, boomerang to
the detriment of French scholarship.
The next step in Reniers argument was easy, given the resources available. How, he writes, was civilisation in Algeria to be measured? Obviously, by
counting up Roman inscriptions! This is the epigraphical equivalent of counting up scholarly citation for something like the British Universities Research
Assessment exercise. 30,000 came from the city of Rome, 1,500 from England
(another of many disparaging remarks about England) but by 1894 more than
20,000 had been found in Algeria.[91] Renier was a veritable titan, summarising
219
his inscription-collecting in 1851 at over 3,000 items, of which at least 2,700

were published for the first time.[92] Some epigraphers were apparently interested only in inscriptions they considered important, while others collected
as many as possible. Poinsset, for example, was praised for collecting over 500
in Tunisia.[93] Gurin reported on his inscription-search for eight months over
une grande partie of Tunisia, and racks up 568 of them, of which 536 are
Latin, remarking coyly that Les unes sont indites, les autres, au contraire, ont
dj t publies.[94] He then confesses that some of them are of little importance, and deeper study of Tunisia is needed;[95] so why not spend more time
on the ruins themselves, for which his work is also praised?[96] The answer,
already forshadowed, is that the inscription generally seemed more important
to the scholarly community than the monument supporting it. Hence Renier
argued for an inscription, easily transportable because on several stones, to go
from Batna to the Louvre, because Ce nest point un de ces monuments locaux
qui perdent une partie de leur intrt, lorsquils ont t dplacs.[97]
The problem with inscriptions, of course, is that they do not make pretty
pictures to hang on walls or print in magazines, so in this respect Renier had
the wrong emphasis. Fortunately other Frenchmen wanted to publicise their
conquests, especially spectacular ones. Paintings were one way (as in the various displays of very large battle pieces at Versailles),[98] but ancient cities were
more attractive. Thus in 1842 Gnral de Ngrier wrote an enthusiastic
report about Tbessa, a different hand annotating the report, recommending
that these notes should be published mme lithographis au Dpt de la
Guerre en nombre dexemplaires suffisant pour pouvoir tre rpandues et
insres avec les plans au Moniteur[99] which was done.[100]
Renier was eventually to achieve an epitaph in the form of a village named
after him and built in part from inscriptions he would certainly have liked to
preserve, and his village appeared to offer what was projected as lasting fame.
It would be pleasant to believe that this naming happened thanks to an administrator with a wicked sense of humour, as a way of getting back at the scholar
for railing so hard and so often against destructive colonists. For the village was
by the Oued-Cherf, a plateau with numerous Roman ruins occupying some
forty hectares all around, indeed this was rich in megalithic as well as Roman
remains.[101] The new village put paid to all that:
Ces ruines sont, en gnral, absolument dvastes par suite de la continuit des labeurs et de la construction sur leur superficie de cinq grands
bordjs arabes et du village franais dnomm Renier, en souvenir de
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larchologue distingu dont les travaux furent si remarquables. / Elles ne

renferment aucun monument debout.[102]
But it got yet worse, for the colons (whom Renier had hoped would signal especially epigraphic finds discovered during their building activities) not only sold
old stones to an entrepreneur, but destroyed everything they found while
building their houses and tilling their land:
Henchir-Loulou (Renier) renferme galement de nombreux vestiges de
constructions romaines, dont une surtout devait tre considrable, tant
donn la quantit de pierres de taille qui en a t extraite pour tre vendue par le colon concessionnaire du lot sur lequel se trouve cette
construction. / En construisant leurs maisons, en crant leurs jardins, les
colons ont mis dcouvert des citernes en ciment, de grands bassins en
pierres de taille, des pierres inscriptions. Tous ces souvenirs du pass
ont t malheureusement dtruits par une incroyable aberration et ont
disparu sans profit pour lpigraphie et la gographie compare.[103]

Inscriptions and International Recognition
One reason for the French focus on epigraphy is that, as intimated by Renier, it
formed in the 19th century an important part of the concerns of the international scholarly community. Just as some Arabs believed inscriptions proved
that Algeria was once their country, so the collection of a rich crop (and it was
to be very rich indeed) would help legitimise the French presence amongst the
European states, and glorify them among the nations. But the French were to
find that the foreign gaze was very persistent and not always accompanied by
compliments, because of the chaos and destruction which reigned over anti
quities in Algeria. Unfortunately, the legitimisation argument should have
been supported by some kind of systematic programme both for the preservation of finds and for the protection through vigilance and laws of what still lay
in groups of ruins visible or below the soil. Even the scholars must have known
that, without any change in administrative practices, their efforts were doomed
to failure.
Apart from self-interest, then, one of the reasons archaeologists concentrated on inscriptions was that they knew that the scholarly eyes of Europe
were upon them. Thanks to rapacious colonists and entrepreneurs, they could
not even control what happened in Algeria and Tunisia, let alone European
opinion. The problem came to international attention when Gustav Wilmans,
221
in his Preface to the vol VIII of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (published
in 1881, a decade after the Franco-Prussian War, and by Germans), exposed to
the learned world that neither administrators and colonists ont aucun souci
des monuments, et bien souvent ils contribuent leur ruine. For Lambessa,
complaints are made not only about destruction of monuments by the troops,
but also about the lethargic publication of those inscriptions which managed
to survive.[104] The Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine, editorialising in 1884,
could only accept Wilmans strictures:
Dj Wilmans a crit un ouvrage, Die Lagerstaedte Afrikas, pour dnoncer
au monde le vandalisme dont les Franais font partout preuve en Algrie,
et leffroyable destruction que tout le monde lenvi, gnie militaire, particuliers, entrepreneurs, agriculteurs, agents des ponts-et-chausses, a
fait pendant cinquante ans, et fait encore, des plus beaux monuments de
lantiquit. M. Schmidt, son continuateur, dans un rcent Rapport lAcadmie de Berlin, a cit nombre de faits semblables, tels que la destruction
du monument des Sittius prs de Collo. Voil ce que les trangers voient
chez nous. Il ne restait plus qu leur faire dire que notre occupation en
Tunisie a pour premier effet de livrer ce pays de pareils ravages!
The Bulletin points out here that the guilt was to be shared shared by a wide
range of interested parties, military and civil, official and private, and concludes that En prsence des nations savantes, si soigneuses de leur pass et
qui nous devancent dans la science, sous les yeux de lAllemagne, de lItalie, de
lAngleterre, la France donne l un spectacle qui est vritablement honteux.[105]
As Poulle writes of Lambessa in the same year (accepting some early demolitions there to house and defend the troops), it was the administration that was
at fault: Nous nhsitons pas le dire, dans de pareils cas, ladministration se
fait complice des dmolisseurs. Au lieu de faire figurer dans ses bordereaux de
travaux des prix applicables aux ouvrages excuts en matriaux antiques, elle
devrait insrer dans ses cahiers des charges une clause interdisant formellement aux entrepreneurs lemploi de ces matriaux.[106]
Returning to Reniers linking of inscriptions and the mission civilisatrice,
the brilliance of the link faded as the century progressed. As we have just seen,
the Germans publicised far from complimentary accounts of how antiquities
were treated in Algeria. And to add insult to injury the relevant volume of the
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum was edited in 1881 by Mommsen (who had
planned the CIL from 1847), not a Frenchman. This was perhaps in part
because of the rupture caused by the Franco-Prussian War, but a more likely
explanation is that the Germans were better trained, that the French realised
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the fact5 and that they needed Teutonic rigour to complete the task. Additional
reasons were that Renier did not get on with Mommsen, and that Renier was
too much of a perfectionist.[107] According to Diehl in 1892 there was French
negligence and slowness in the run-up to publication:
Le recueil des Inscriptions dAfrique, achev par les soins de Mommsen,
paraissait en 1881 dans le Corpus de Berlin. Du coup, tous les travaux
antrieurs passaient, sinon en oubli, du moins au second rang. Pendant
quarante annes, par de fructueuses explorations, par de laborieuses
recherches, par des ouvrages remarquables, nous avions patiemment
pos les fondements de larcheologie africaine, et fait de cette tude une
science toute franaise; et, aprs tant defforts, nous avions, par notre
negligence, par nos lenteurs, par labsence dune direction gnrale et
prcise, laiss lAllemagne la gloire dachever loeuvre et de fixer en un
monument dfinitif lpigraphie de lAfrique du Nord.[108]
Since it was overwhelmingly French military and civilians who had braved the
country, found the inscriptions (often under difficult conditions), and first
published them, this was a decided defeat for French scholarship, on what a
cynic might term a monumental scale. Masqueray even called French collaborators les courtiers de lAllemagne,6 for Germans occupied the main ground
of the project just as her best epigraphers had invaded Paris from the beginning of the century. Karl-Benedikt Hase, who was in Paris from 1801, and a
member of the Acadmie des Inscriptions, was the principal point of reference
for epigraphy in France until Lon Renier came on the scene.7
After all, in conquering Algeria, France had contracted both with civilised
nations and with Posterity lobligation morale de mettre la disposition
des savants tous les documents qui peuvent jeter quelque jour sur lhistoire
de cette contre.[109] Fine words, but Vars was only one of many scholars
wondering how, after the destruction they had wrought on the antiquities
(as at Russicada) the French could hold their head up in the international
5 Gran-Aymerich 2012, 125133 for the story of the CIL entre rivalit voile et collaboration
discrte, 18431863. Author points out that archaeology is associated with philology in
German universities, hence scholars such as Jahn and Mommsen whereas no such education yet existed in France.
6 Nordmann 2012, 35.
7 Gran-Aymerich & Ungern-Sternberg 2012, 245; 37381 for his bio-bibliography.
223
c ommunity.[110] Blaming the destruction of inscriptions on the locals or the

colons was a blatant piece of shifting the blame.
What is more, as with colonisation, the bringing of civilisation seemed to be
a very slow process, for Schulten was still asking in 1904 when the task would
be completed.[111] He had already suggested three years previously that colonisation and civilisation would add conviction to the French conquest: pour
lgitimer son occupation, mettre en avant quelle a entrepris la mission de rendre ces pays leur ancienne splendeur.[112] For those spoilsports unwilling to
consider simply the reputation of France in the international community,
civilisation was measured by the respect held for the past, and by building. But
at Russicada in 1838, as elsewhere, monuments were wantonly destroyed, as an
index of vandalism by the army rather than of civilisation:
Mais, hlas! si notre gloire militaire na pas t atteinte, notre honneur de
peuple civilis a subi dans ce vallon un de ses plus graves checs. Cest
nous-mmes qui avons port des mains impies sur ces grands restes de
lAntiquit. Cest le Gnie militaire qui a prononc et mis excution
lodieuse sentence de destruction.[113]
Diehl tries to balance the achievement of the French occupation against the
downside of vandalism, but the latter is preponderant for, as archaeologists
toiled to document the monuments, les colons travaillaient sans relche les
anantir; et le mme gouvernement qui encourageait les recherches
archologiques et faisait les frais des publications savantes sinquitait peu, par
une singulire contradiction, darrter les dsastreuses pratiques dun vandalisme inou.[114]
It was the publication of the Corpus and similar volumes that threw
into high relief just how many inscriptions were being lost. Poulle visited
Ain-Kebira in 1890 and tried to find some already-listed stones, but without
success and saw only a few collected together by the local Ponts et Chausses
Engineer into his garden.[115] Audollent in the same year noted of this site that
Cest lors de la cration des nouveaux villages que les inscriptions se dcouvrent en plus grand nombre and went on to explain why there were none left:
Les besoins des colons nont pas chang; aussi ladministration tablit-elle souvent les villages modernes lendroit mme o se trouvait la ville antique.[116]
Nor were the French subsequently offered a bite at the inscriptional cherry.
Relevant here is the publication by Johannes Schmidt, of Halle, charg par
lAcadmie royale de continuer le huitime volume du Recueil des inscriptions
romaines.[117] Under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Berlin, he had
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travelled in Algeria and Tunisia in the winter of 18821883.[118] The result, published early in 1883, provided what might ruefully have been considered a
series of pices justificatives for the publication of volume VIII of the CIL by
the Germans.[119] Schmidt noted the need for laws in Algeria effectively preventing destruction of antiquities, and that French scholars were thinking
along similar lines. They had entered vehement protests against the destruction (Saladin is one example[120]); and Schmidt gave a devastating and accurate
account of the problems in both countries. He writes in French, certainly the
international language of diplomacy, but perhaps so that his corruscating
remarks might reach further than bilingual scholars, and into the depths of
French administration. The blame for the continuing destruction he places
firmly on European expansion:
Combien de ruines romaines la ligne franco-tunisienne avec ses ponts et
ses gares a dj fait disparatre! Si lon ne prend temps des mesures nergiques, les documents antiques de la Tunisie seront bientt aussi mal
traits que ceux de lAlgrie...Les maons et les entrepreneurs de chemins publics sont les ennemis jurs de lantiquit.
He gives plenty of examples of disasters, and concludes: Personne, connaissant les choses, ne contredira mon affirmation, savoir que sans cesse chaque
route ou chaque voie ferre construite en Algrie exige le sacrifice de nombreuses pierres inscrites que lon mure dans les ponts, que lon emploie dans les
fondations ou mme que lon rduit en petits morceaux. As for local museums, they could be less than useless: Daprs ce qui sest pass jusquici,
envoyer une chose an Muse de Bne quivaut la vouer la destruction.[121]
Mac-Carthy agreed, for such destructions (he gives a long list) compromettent, de la manire la plus grave, la base mme des tudes historiques
because they obliterate information on settlement and topography.[122] In spite
of continuing losses, however, Schmidts Supplement to volume VIII appeared
in 1891, containing 6,690 new entries, only a few of which were corrections:
Officiers de larme doccupation, savants indignes, pigraphistes doutremer chargs de missions en Afrique, tous ont contribu, avec le mme zle et
le mme succs, recueillir ce gros trsor dinscriptions.[123]
How were losses of inscriptions to be kept to a minimum? One suggestion
was predicated on the completely false idea that it was the Arabs who were
responsible for the major part of destruction. Blanchet, in El Djem in 1895,
thought that holding a weekly March aux Pierres was the way to go, with an
inspector purchasing inscribed stones, so that the locals would not break them
225
up or put them in the kilns and that ten or twenty additions would thereby
be made to the Corpus every week:
Quand les habitants dEl-Djem auront acquis de la sorte le respect de
lantique, il sera plus ais de relever les inscriptions sur place et de commencer une tude mthodique de Thysdrus; je serais fort heureux si mon
sjour parmi eux peut avoir contribu les engager en cette voie.[124]
This genuinely idiotic idea demonstrates that Blanchet, who was on an official
expedition, knew little about the problems of the recuperation of antiquities
in Tunisia, let alone that it was not the locals who were the principal vandals.
It is not known whether his idea was put into practice, let alone whether it
yielded any inscriptions.

Professionals versus Amateurs

Victor Hugo a oubli dinscrire parmi ses Misrables linfortun qui passe
sa vie dchiffrer, reconstruire et expliquer des lambeaux dinscriptions
antiques que les sicles et le vandalisme se sont accords tendre tour
tour sur leur double lit de Procuste. Et, cependant, quel labeur plus digne
de compassion que celui-l![125]
It takes a real expert to give advice to would-be epigraphers and in the same
words put them firmly in their place. Epigraphers perhaps thought of themselves as a hermetic brotherhood, point-scoring off those tedious fellows who
had transcribed incorrectly, such as Shaw but then, he was English.[126] Mockheroics could also hymn the rigours of what was considered such essential
work:
To be a good copyist in 1864 required LA DFIANCE ABSOLUE DE SOIMME[127] that is, a warning to keep off the grass, in elegant lapidary
capitals. This attitude of de-haut-en-bas is deliciously expressed in the 1892
summary of the CIL by Waltzing (Professor of Latin Rhetoric), the very first
words of the Preface of which read:
Les gens du mtier ne trouveront dans ces pages rien quils ne connaissent
dj. Ce nest pas eux que nous nous adressons, mais bien aux profanes
dsireux de connatre lune des plus grandioses entreprises scientifiques
du XIXe sicle, et tous ceux qui voudraient sorienter dans un domaine
encore peu connu, du moins en notre pays. Les notes bibliographiques et
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autres, qui ne visent du reste nullement puiser la matire, sont uniquement destines ces derniers.
A generation earlier Berbrugger had warned off beginners from trying to interpret inscriptions, for they were naive enough to believe that all that was needed
was knowledge of the classics and of abbreviations: Le tmraire! il ignore
donc que les plus habiles et les plus expriments nobtiennent pas toujours
cet heureux rsultat.[128] In the above quote, the gens du mtier are marked
out as superior to Berbruggers intended readers, and even the footnotes have
been rigged condescendingly to accommodate the neophyte. Revising mistakes was of course essential Renier worked so that les inscriptions antrieurement connues furent soigneusement rvises.[129] But might not some of
that effort have been invested in studying architecture and town planning?
Saint-Martin, in 1875, acknowledged Shaws great contribution, and states
accurately that the French have surpassed what he did, largely thanks to the
harassment of Government by members of influential scholarly societies.[130]
However, scholarly hermeticism had gone by the board by the 1880s, perhaps because it was realised just how fast inscriptions were disappearing; so
that the instructions provided in 1890 to archaeologists and travellers by
Cagnat and his colleagues were much more friendly. Avant de copier les
inscriptions ou de relever les monuments qui y existent, get hold of a local
(perhaps give him a cigarette), and have him take you round the site, and name
it. He will know if the site has been dug, and how many inscriptions are to be
found there.[131] Caution was perhaps required. Occasionally Arabs had the
peculiar idea that impressions of inscriptions might in some magical fashion
be as much to do with treasure as the inscriptions themselves: this happened
to Cagnat at Henchir Guergour when the Arab sent to do the work came back
with only four, because the locals had torn up the rest.[132] As Pallary (in his
book on vandalism!) has it, Jai souvent ouvert des tombes anciennes et jamais
je ny ai trouv des objets de valeur.[133] Thus the onus on picking out antiquities and inscriptions goes from the visitor (does he speak and understand
Arabic? Read Latin?) to the locals, in an attempt to gather as much material as
possible at third hand. Again, locals should be paid for inscriptions newly
unearthed and on a sliding scale according to importance but go with them
to the marble, otherwise they would bring in blocks from elsewhere in order to
earn their money, thus confusing the topography.[134]
But of what use were data retrieved in this fashion, at second or even third
hand, likely to be? Colonel Rousset, for example, obviously had a lower opinion
of Arabs than did Cagnat, condemning the je ne sais pas dune race qui ne
227
comprend mme pas quil puisse y avoir l quelque chose chercher.

Inscriptions, ruines, temples encore debout, etc., nattirent pas plus son attention que le rocher que la nature a fait sortir l ou l.[135] Or, as another misinformed Westerner has it, the Arabs have a holy horror of wielding a trowel.[136]
This was nonsense, and many sites were identified to scholars by Arabs, who
generally knew full well what was to be found on their territory.[137] Rouquette
checked the recollections of an old man at Thagaste, where he had camped
with his tribe, against the descriptions of Randon and Berbrugger, and found
that they matched exactly.[138]

Inscriptions versus Ruins
An impression gained from some epigraphers accounts is that they did not
mind what happened to the monuments, or indeed sometimes to the actual
inscriptions, as long as these had been correctly transcribed: if the operation
were a success, it did not matter if the patient died. Even Gaucklers account of
stopping entrepreneurs dismantling the circular mausoleum of Ksar-Menara
(a round Roman tower near Hammamet) had, for him, a positive result: Les
travaux commencs ont eu, du moins, un heureux rsultat, celui de faire
dcouvrir une nouvelle pitaphe appartenant la mme srie que celles qui
sont publies.[139] This was some consolation, but the monuments cornice,
and the small altars seen by Shaw, had gone when Gurin described the structure in 1862.[140]
With this impression in mind, there are four problems with Reniers emphasis on inscriptions an emphasis which was to continue, as we see throughout
this book. The first was that the value of an inscription is (quite naturally) in
its text. This can be copied onto paper; a squeeze can be taken, or a photograph. In other words, the support itself can diminish in importance once the
inscription has been copied. The second problem is that the physical inscriptions could be collected together into museums, although Army help would
often be needed because of their weight: the inscription would be separated
from its context. The third is that there were thousands of inscriptions to be
copied, an embarras de richesses that equated quantity with scholarly virtue, industry and usefulness. The fourth is a result of all these, namely that
the hunt for inscriptions diminished concentration on the monuments on
which they were displayed. Not only in the beginning, the Word was indeed
God, and insufficient attention was accorded by 19th-century archaeologists
to monumental architecture and town planning in Roman Algeria let alone
the later Byzantine or modern native structures in which they were often to be
found in re-use. After all, these were the very words of the ancients speaking
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across the centuries a worthy accompaniment to and enlargement of the

ancient authors.
That the emphasis of epigraphers was on the text, not the stone, let alone
any group of ruins in which it was to be found, can be seen from Cagnats 1890
instructions, outlined above, which boil down to asking the locals, and searching for uncopied material:
On senquerra auprs des indignes des pierres avec inscriptions que
contient la ruine et on leur demandera si elles ont dj t souvent
copies; sils ne peuvent ou ne veulent pas rpondre avec prcision, on
examinera si elles sont trs visibles; en ce cas il y a des chances pour
quelles soient dj connues. Lorsquelles sont enterres en partie, on
regardera si la terre qui les recouvre a dj t carte par suite dune
fouille et ramene par les pluies ou le vent; quand elle semble navoir pas
encore t remue, cest que la pierre na jamais attir lattention des
voyageurs et quelle est indite.[141]
Scouring through such instructions brings up a mention of Byzantine forts and
native structures inside them; this is not for their inherent qualities, but rather
that elles ont t la plupart du temps construites de pierres romaines et surtout de pierres inscriptions, plus soigneusement tailles que les autres...Il
sera bon de les examiner, pierre par pierre, si lon veut tre sr de faire une
rcolte pigraphique abondante, et de ne pas laisser chapper de fragments
importants.[142]
Quatremre de Quincy said that museums were the death of art, but he
might have said the same of classical epigraphy. Inscriptions provided an outof-tune siren song for the monuments of North Africa, for they were collected
by the thousand, and the focus was generally the words, rather than the context; much the same happened in Asia Minor.8 Many scholars also focussed on
inscriptions to the exclusion of ruins themselves. Audollent in 1890, for example, boasted of finding nearly 150 inscriptions in Algeria even before he started
digging, and recommended local museums be used to house them to counteract vandalism but he points only to statues and inscriptions, not to the ruins
themselves.[143] Colonel Ratheau in 1879 got bored by oasis villages, writing of
the Oasis of Sidi Okba:
8 Le Roy 1990, 2312 for the scholars sent from the Ecole dAthnes 18761890, and their work
on the Temple of Zeus Panormos at Stratonikeia, where 400 texts were transcribed in more
than fifteen days. 234: But then less work in Asia Minor 18901914, because of a concentration
on Delphi and Delos.
229
Qui a vu un village doasis en a vu dix; cest toujours le mme mode denceinte, les mmes rues troites, tortueuses, avec des passages couverts,
les mmes maisons terrasses, simple rez-de-chausse, construites en
pis et bton,
and perked up only when he found protecting walls qui offrent de nombreux restes de monuments romains, et des fragments dinscription[144] but
probably only because he had written a treatise on fortification. Sidi Okba has
the oldest mosque in Algeria, and the shrine of its eponymous founder, who
built Kairouan but Islamic antiquities were evidently far outside this visitors
narrow focus. Even Gsell, when he visits the ruine considrable of Henchir de
la Mechta-Si-Salah, and does indeed reproduce a plan of the church, has nothing to say about the Roman well or the numerous olive presses to be found
there: Je nai trouv dans cette vaste ruine que trois inscriptions, mal graves
et sans intrt.[145]
Hence the monuments suffered more than would have been the case had
epigraphers interested themselves somewhat more in architecture (perhaps
also in Moslem architecture).9 Epigraphers were interested in reconstructing
damaged inscriptions but not damaged buildings. Transcribed, the inscriptions survived; pilfered, the ruins which housed them did not. This was a
decided blind spot: was it imagined that buildings were simply convenient
notice-boards for inscriptions? Or was it rather the other way around that the
inscriptions were the notice-boards for the buildings, and the achievements of
their erectors?
Impatience with an overly exclusive interest in inscriptions began early, a
sceptic doubting whether the conquest of a few stones would interest the ordinary soldier.[146] Noting that inscriptions comes immediately after insanity
in the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, let us examine what damage such differently focussed epigraphers (as the phrase might be today)
helped inflict on monuments while their attention lay elsewhere. At Henchir
Nadja, for example, in 1885, Poinssot finds a large site, and notes cisterns, columns, foundations and the rest, but only one inscription. He does not bother
to describe these several hectares of ruins, concentrating instead on the one
inscription.[147] Similarly, when excavation gave the option of either retaining
des restants de btisses byzantines or finding more inscriptions by destroying
them, the inscriptions were sure to win.[148] When Gurin visited HenchirBaha in 1862, he spent three hours looking for an inscription to identify the
site but had apparently no interest in working out and describing the archi9 Marais 1931.
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tecture of the ruins, mentioning only de gros blocs appartenant des monuments anciens, et dont quelques-uns, lgamment sculpts, paraissent
provenir dun temple.[149] A similar impatience may have led in part to Paul
Gaucklers sacking from the Tunisian antiquities service in 1905, a newspaper
claiming that Il est tout fait inutile de le remplacer par quelque savant, dont
le rle se bornera publier dinnombrables petites brochures o stalera son
rudition dpigraphiste. Il nous faut la tte de ce Service un homme intelligent, de sens pratique, et qui ne passera pas des mois plir sur une
inscription.10
There is another reason for the blinkered vision of some epigraphers: they
were in thrall to the Army, which was often needed on expeditions for protection against natives, and a main interest of the army was fortifications. As
Berbrugger put it in 1856, the exploratory columns were a strait-jacket for
scholars, and il leur fallut donc se borner glaner sur les traces de larme,
lorsque souvent ils auraient pu recueillir dabondantes moissons en scartant
un peu de la ligne oblige des oprations militaires.[150] For Fvrier, Les
archologues et historiens sont donc prisonniers dune srie de visions qui leur
viennent dailleurs que des textes pigraphiques ou du simple inventaire
archologique11 they saw and enthused about monuments of importance to
the army. Epigraphers could also be semi-prisoners to the Army, who sometimes reused inscriptions and placed them on buildings in restricted areas,
as happened at Algiers; gaining access put the scholars yet more in the
Armys debt.[151]
The epigraphers may indeed have been out on a limb, since the Congrs des
Socits Savantes in 1890 noted that most effort in North Africa had indeed
been directed to inscriptions:
Le Comit pense que ltude des monuments darchitecture, dont les
ruines se dressent encore en si grand nombre en Algrie et en Tunisie,
pourrait fournir des rsultats non moins intressants. Il appelle notamment lattention des travailleurs sur les difices chrtiens des premiers
sicles, dont les restes ont pu tre signals jusquici par divers explorateurs, mais qui nont point fait lobjet dune tude archologique
dtaille.[152]
Mac-Carthy, sometime keeper of the library and museum at Algiers, notes that
inscriptions have improved knowledge of the countrys past and of Roman
10
11
Gutron 2010, 109.

Fvrier 1986, 101.
231
administration; but he emphasises the importance of monuments with their

broader impact on the landscape,
dans ses rapports avec les populations indignes, sur le dveloppement
quy prirent les arts et lindustrie, sur les transformations successives
dune civilisation dont les formes ont vari et dont les physionomies
caractristiques appartiennent aux plus intimes manifestations de lhumanit.[153]
In view of Mac-Carthys assertion, what do we find at Lambessa, undoubtedly
the most important Roman legionary site in North Africa? That, once again,
Les fouilles navaient dailleurs quun but, demi avou, dterrer des inscriptions. It is this blinkered focus that certainly retrieved a rich harvest but les
monuments o elles taient trouves restaient la plupart du temps indits.[154]
Only occasionally may we link inscriptions with a beneficent effect on monuments. Thus in 1840 Colonel Carbuccia is the honourable exception. He found
a ruined tomb near Lambessa: the inscription designated the dead soldier as
Q. Flavius Maximus, commander of the Legio III Augusta. The French colonel
had his soldiers rebuild the mausoleum, and then fire an honour salvo, thereby
rendering to his Roman colleague, sleeping there some 1700 years, full military
honours as his direct successor for the very same desert tribes fought by the
Romans were those he believed his own soldiers faced. Rebuilding the monument (a most unusual practice) and replacing the commanders ashes in his
tomb was a metaphor for the rebuilding the French would do in Algeria; he
included on the monument a new inscription establishing what amounted to
a blood-link between Roman legionaries and French troops. Piesse suggests
that the monument reconstruction was done pour prserver ce monument
dune destruction imminente.[155]
Carbuccia, who was to die of disease in the Dardanelles before he got to the
war in the Crimea, was a headstrong officer, with a passion for all aspects of
archaeology which put most epigraphers to shame. He was an excellent organiser, and inspiring to his men, being given in 1848 the task of exploring and
mapping the sub-division of Batna ce vaste espace qui na pas moins de 1,200
lieues carres, exploration qui dailleurs tait ncessaire sous le point de vue
militaire et stratgique, and he ordered his officers, NCOs and troops to note
and measure tous les monuments, toutes les pierres sculptes et crites, toutes
les bornes milliaires, tous les vestiges laisss par la domination romaine.[156]
At Kesseria, near the Medrassen, he made a dig, and found a mosaic in a basilica, which he then covered with earth and had drawn by Lieutenant Vienot
the following year.[157] But in the meantime it had been damaged by Arabs, so
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il appliqua le principe de la solidarit des tribus cet acte de vandalisme: celle

des coupables ne les ayant pas livrs ou fait connatre dans les huit jours, fut
punie svrement. Berbrugger comments ruefully, Il est triste dtre oblig
davouer que les dlits de ce genre sont beaucoup plus communs parmi nos
europens civiliss que parmi les indignes barbares![158] a constant theme
of his.[159] In view of the sorry history of monument protection laws in France
itself,12 and their late introduction in (for example) Tunisia,13 few would have
expected that the various campaigns and public pronouncements of epigraphers, together with promulgated laws, would have slowed or even stopped the
brutal reuse of antiquities. Indeed, little if anything seems to have happened:
inscriptions were still being built into French workmans huts at the end of the
19th century.[160] Carbuccias contribution here is to place inscriptions in their
monumental context, rather than the usual stamp-collecting ploy of prizing
the inscription and ignoring the context.

Ruins Undescribed
An indication of one type of epigraphic mentality is that sites which apparently did not contain visible inscriptions were inspected cursorily and then
abandoned. Desvaux, a cavalry general, bivouaced at Hammamet-Arko in 1841,
with its numerous Roman remains but toutes mes recherches nont pu my
faire trouver une seule inscription.[161] At Chrugrag Desvaux found des
dessins dornement sculpts sur la pierre et de style byzantin, but did not
describe them;[162] and near Bordj Hamza he came across a fortress but did
not describe it, being more interested in two of its inscriptions, which he transcribed.[163] Indeed, Desvaux dcrit avec humour, en archologue et en voyageur qui sait voir...pigraphiste consomm.[164]
Such closely-focussed attitudes are common. In 1881, exploring around
Milah and Constantine, Goyt and Reboud found plenty of stones at Beni-Zied,
but couldnt be bothered searching properly: Ce nest pas que les pierres fissent dfaut, mais ltat du sol, les ronces et les hautes herbes rendaient toute
recherche impossible,[165] perhaps because there were no soldiers or Arabs on
hand to do the spade-work. This is hardly the spirit that conquered an empire.
Or Ratheau on a Roman road near Tiddis, where he discovered a necropolis,
but did not describe it, simply noting that it had une quantit norme de
pierres tumulaires...nous navions pas le temps de nous en occuper.[166]
Nor was he impressed by the Byzantine fort, for on reconnat bien vite la trace
12
13
Rau 1994, 497520, 11381143 and passim.

Bacha 2013, 34851 list of official decrees on Monuments Historiques 18851920.
233
dune main barbare.[167] (Tiddis, only 16km from Constantine as the bird flies,
escaped early Arabisation, and the sappers dug part of the site in 1852.)14 Or
Gurin at Oued-et-Oudin in 1862, where are to be found the remains of a
Byzantine fort but Je consacre une demi-heure lexamen de cet henchir,
sans y trouver aucune trace dinscription antique, which we may interpret as
henchirs being worthwhile only if they carry inscriptions.[168] The same scholar
at Oudena found not even a fragment of an inscription in this city, which was
large comme le prouvent les divers monuments dont jai signal les
dbris.[169] Near the zaoua of Sidi-Ahmed, he found five-kilometres-worth of
ancient city, did indeed pace out the length of the theatre remains, and noted
cisterns and a triumphal arch. But he did not describe any of the remains, and
left the sites after 2.5ha, sans y avoir dcouvert la moindre inscription.[170] At
Henchir-el-Akhrount, with a five-kilometre spread of ruins, he was led on by
his guide, who said that there were plenty of stones with inscriptions. However,
all he found were plusieurs chapiteaux gisants terre, ainsi que devant cinq
ou six morceaux de corniche lgamment sculpts, dont les moulures leur
paraissaient tre autant de caractres ayant une signification particulire.[171]
As for the provenance of the cornices, or nature of the capitals not a word.
Renier is just as single-minded. He went to the site of a large ancient town
near An-Bda, and Jy ai vu beaucoup de colonnes, entires ou brises, des
chapiteaux corinthiens, des fragments de frise dune grande richesse, mais
dune poque un peu basse but does not describe any of them. He is more
interested in why there were no inscriptions: ces ruines ont t largement
exploites pour la construction des forts dAn-Bda, et les blocs portant des
inscriptions sont toujours les premiers que choisissent les maons et les tailleurs de pierre.[172] At El Djem in 1899, Blanchet offered to pay for inscriptions,
but the locals brought him architectural members, which apparently did not
interest him.[173] Even Tissot, a fine scholar, visiting the ruins of Henchir Kasbat
in 1856, was attracted by rumours of a lengthy inscription, but found it had
already been broken up and reused in a bridge over the Meliana. Fortunately,
the workmen had unearthed an inscription soon to go into the same bridgework; he copied this, but press par le temps, jeus le regret de ne pouvoir lever
le plan exact de ces ruines intressantes, mais je ne dsespre pas de combler
un jour cette lacune.[174] In other words, inscriptions should take up ones
time, and monuments only if the opportunity presents itself.
Fortunately, however, a convention developed in the course of the 19th century whereby groups of ruins were indeed described, even if cursorily. This can
14
Berthier 2000, with excellent panoramas of the site; author reckons site completely forgotten in early 20thC, and the first real digs are in the 1940s.
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be seen in Beuls account of Smyth and Porchers collecting expedition to

Cyrene for the British Museum. They had the right to extract and carry off
antiquities: Que les officiers de marine, qui voulaient doter le muse britannique de monuments dignes dy tre transports, se soient attachs uniquement la dcouverte de ces monuments, ctait leur droit. But European
scholarship expected more, writes Beul: nous nexigeons ni un sacrifice, ni un
mnagement de plus ce que nous demandons, cest de dcrire, cest de fournir
larchologie des dtails qui ne cotent rien, quon observe chemin faisant,
que lon consigne dans quelques pages, et qui serviront soit aux rudits, dans
leur cabinet, soit aux futurs explorateurs.[175]

Inscriptions versus Archaeology
One spinoff of the focus on inscriptions rather than on ruins was a misdirection of archaeological effort right up to the First World War. The reasons for
this go beyond an overweening preference for the written word of Antiquity,
already explained and illustrated, and involve not only the mind-set of classicists but also the evisceration of so many sites on which they could have practised their trade by studying the relationship of what they found to existing,
largely book-knowledge. Yet even this strikes false, because the majority of
classicists were non-practical, and apparently uninterested in digging. Stefan
Altekamp has reviewed the track-record of classicists up to the present day,
and finds them still largely separated from actual digging, ignorant of the principles of excavation, and therefore unable either to control excavation or to
profit from its discoveries.[176] Tell-tale signs of this split he suggests are the
affiliation of classical archaeology to art history, classical philology or ancient
history, rather than to digging: Classical archaeology does not train field
archaeologists of its own, but, of course, it is conducting excavations. Actually,
nobody will direct an excavation without any experience, but some will do so
without sufficient preparation and nearly all lacking the background of a
reflected common standard.[177] He is surely correct to conclude that it is
architecture which provides the greatest difficulties of interpretation on-site,
for which the majority of classicists are in no way equipped.
Is this critique applicable to Algeria and Tunisia in the 19th century? Yes,
decidedly so. For although we find some draughstmen interested in architecture (Delamare) and some architects interested in ruins (Salomon), the great
majority of epigraphers neglected both, as we have already seen. For the cynic,
this would be because the French had obliterated anything worth studying or
excavating, and therefore conveniently avoided any far-reaching excavation at
all; but such a stance would be extreme. Rather, we might ask why it is that,
235
with so much labour on tap (soldiers, prisoners, who spent so much time
building forts, roads and villages),15 so little was adequately recovered, studied
and preserved except for the 20th-century excavations at Timgad? The answer
lies at Lambessa, where just such large amounts of labour were indeed available, but were used mainly to build the prison. Without the efforts of Renier
and Carbuccia, even less would survive than the skeletal remains to be seen
today.
Such attitudes toward epigraphy and excavation were to continue throughout the 20th century, and critically to colour what was known about North
Africa. The over-emphasis on epigraphy is characterised by Shaw: inasmuch
as the epigraphy happens to exist in such abundance, it has been exploited in
preference to any other type of evidence. This predilection has led to an imbalance in North African studies that would be hard to match in any other region
of the Empire. This in its turn, because of its focus on what was found in towns
(the towns the French turned over and rebuilt) unfortunately placed a brake
on the study of the countryside.16 Yet more unfortunately, Shaw emphasises
archaeologys use as a political tool imported into North Africa: In its subservience to dominant academic ideologies archaeology was so suffused with their
priorities that it never clearly separated its own identity and interests from
those of the fields, principally political history, of which it formed a colonial
study.17 Hence his conclusion that advances in North African archaeology
have been fairly dismal.
From the above we must conclude that especially in Algeria but also in
Tunisia, the French missed a great opportunity to explore in depth both town
and countryside in Antiquity, as well as conserving and unearthing some
important monuments. We need not fall into the trap of measuring 19thcentury achievements against todays expectations. Throughout this book
there have been plentiful references to villas, statues, temples, theatres, baths
and the rest; but very little has survived because we have also read repeatedly
of French demolition.
The few surviving statues from Cherchel, part of what might have been a
much larger hoard, stand as silent testimony to their (probably) destroyed
brothers and sisters, as also do the bare-cupboard glories of Algerian and
Tunisian museums. We learn of mosaics found and used as decorative items in
15
16
17
Kalifa 2009, 117: by 1846 2000 prisoners and 1200 on report were building roads, and the
generals wanted 1200 more LAfrique est devenue une terre de bagne.
Shaw 1980 33, 34, 38.
Ibid., 31.
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army messes, and also sometimes published in full colour in local journals. But
then, mosaics could be used as nothing other than pictures, for their tesserae
were of no use in building. Even today, important mosaics certainly survive in
North Africa but, before post WWII excavations at Carthage and elsewhere,
what has happened to the villas (or sometimes baths, or even palaces) in
which they were to be found? There is one record at Hippo of the discovery of
two mosaics in 1887, and a marble floor beneath that: dun parquet fait de
dalles de marbre rose dont nous avons gard un chantillon; but there is no
record of what happened to them.[178] Why do we have mosaics without their
context? Because, to repeat, mosaics were decorative, but other villa elements
were simply useful, and so were reused. Go to El Djem, and look at the mosaics
in the museum; then try to find the villas in the vicinity from which they were
taken. The fact that the same applies to the (frequently much higher-quality)
survivals at Antioch, in Asia Minor (due here to what we might call misconceived excavation targets) is no consolation.
So the fairly dismal state of North African archaeology asserted by Shaw in
1980, although much changed by enterprising work during the past generation,
can be traced back to French attitudes and actions following the conquest of
Algeria. Certainly, the cull of inscriptions was spectacular, but their muchtrumpeted importance led in consequence to a neglect of the larger picture.
This in itself is more than curious. For, if Roman inscriptions were to be prized,
why not the architectural contexts in which they were to be found? Is not
Antiquity a package, to be studied warts and all?

Inscriptions and Museums versus Settlers and Entrepreneurs
Inscriptions were always carved into a flat surface which was generally a small
and manageable block, so different from knobbly cornices or other unwieldy
architectural members. (Inscribed altars and statue pedestals are the exception, because they were large and heavy, which is why so many of them survive.) Such small blocks were highly prized by later builders, as is obvious from
the fact that the great majority of inscriptions were transcribed in their new
resting place in later walls. The fact that many had been set inscription-inward
was a continuing tease for epigraphers, who could often identify such likely
blocks by their marble, but not see what was written on them. Other problems
were size and weight. As Gurin discovered in 1862, large and long inscriptions
tended to survive, sometimes underground, because of the work needed to cut
them up,[179] or buried in the house foundations of accommodating Arabs.[180]
Sometimes, however, blocks were broken and cut down sufficiently to be
moved by camel, as Beechey found at Benghazi,[181] a site from which statues
went to Paris at the end of the 17th century.[182]
237
But what was to be done with the thousands of inscriptions in Algeria and
Tunisia? Road and railway workers did their best to keep the numbers down,
but should not important inscriptions go into museums? Bugeaud had projected protection for the monuments of Algeria in 1844, when il adressait aux
diverses autorits une circulaire relative la conservation des monuments historiques et des restes dantiquits. And in 1847 it was suggested that in agreements with concessionaries building in Algeria there should be inserted une
clause destine sauvegarder le droit de ltat sur les antiquits et objets dart
dcouverts ou dcouvrir dans les fouilles prives. After all, what about the
mission civilisatrice? LAlgrie, devenue une terre franaise, ne devait cependant pas tre ainsi dpouille de ses richesses archologiques, comme si elle
tait encore un pachalik de la Porte ottomane.[183] Ironically, most pachaliks
had a much better track record.
Berbrugger reckoned there were no real museums in the 1850s, and antiquities were condemned to degrade in the open air, so that their care should be
handed over to the Military Engineers. The fact that the Gnie had been well
known as great destroyers of inscriptions in their building work was ignored:
Il suffirait de charger spcialement le Gnie de recueillir et de conserver
les antiquits dans chaque endroit. Cest le service qui possde, en personnel et en matriel, les plus puissants moyens daction pour atteindre
le but quon se propose. Cest lui qui fait excuter sur chaque point les
premiers et les plus importants travaux et qui a, par consquent, les plus
frquentes occasions de faire des dcouvertes; il a une influence naturelle
sur les entrepreneurs quil emploie souvent et qui, aprs lui, sont le plus
mme de faire des trouvailles archologiques intressantes.[184]
Mac-Carthy had to make a similar plea in 1885, quon veuille bien prendre
quelques mesures nergiques pour la conservation des derniers vestiges de
lantiquit pars la surface de lAlgrie.[185] Some small museums were
founded: at Le Kef, thanks to the French Consul and the garrison officers[186]
and jinsisterai particulirement sur le profit que la science archologique
peut retirer du concours de nos officiers.[187]
In part as a reflection of the unreliability of North African museums, very
important inscriptions were collected for the Louvre or the British Museum. A
conspicuous example was the unfortunate extraction from Dougga of the
famous bilingual inscription., taken in 1842 by Thomas Reade, the British
Consul, for the British Museum, where it resides today. He had locals detach it
from its place so it might be sawed thinner for easier transport but they made
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a mess of the whole task, and seriously damaged the monument itself.[188]
So keen were the French at targetting foreigners for vandalism that
another account of this British atrocity appears twenty[189] and again thirty
years later.[190] However, more than one piece at Dougga was considered
museum-worthy. Even 40 years later, Hrisson arrived with permission to carry
off a tympanum bas-relief, but got cold feet when he saw it was not conveniently on the ground and, having seen what Reade had done to the mausoleum, developed sententiousness: nous profitons de cette occasion pour
maudire une fois de plus les Vandales modernes, quelle que soit leur nationalit, qui dtruisent un monument pour enrichir un muse.[191] This is nationalistic hypocrisy of a high order: would he himself not destroy, at least in part, a
monument by taking part of it to a museum?
If ancient sites were at danger from colonists and entrepreneurs, were
museums the suitable refuges for antiquities that they were supposed to be?
Diehl, very sour about the state of antiquities in Algeria, wrote bluntly in 1892
that they were not safe: sending anything to Bne was to seal its destruction;
and Il y en a o un homme prudent ne dposera pas un objet de valeur,
craignant quil ne sy trouve ni en lumire, ni peut-tre en sret.[192] He tells
two lurid tales of neglect of inscriptions at Constantine. For the first, the mayor
savisa que ctaient l des pierres inutiles, qui pouvaient tre de dfaite avantageuse, et il en vendit la plus grande part un entrepreneur comme matriaux
de construction; elles ont servi a faire du macadam. For the second, an important inscription was found, and M. Poulle
le fit disposer avec soin dans la cour de la mairie. Il croyait lavoir ainsi
preserv: il tait loin de compte. Quelques mois plus tard, des rparations
durent tre faites au btiment municipal, et lon y mit les ouvriers. Peu de
jours aprs, par une consquence naturelle, linscription avait disparu.
Sans avertir ni consulter personne, les maons lavaient juge de bonne
prise, et, tout aussitt, elle avait t mise en pices et employe la
construction dun mur.
Diehl then passes to Philippeville, describing a museum founded by an amateur which deteriorated after his death. And Quant aux menus objets, ils
furent jets ple-mle dans des corbeilles, et le gardien charg de leur conservation offrait complaisamment aux visiteurs dhumeur gnreuse den
emporter un ou deux en manire de souvenir.[193] Nor were high-sounding
commissions any use, neither the Commission du Nord de lAfrique, founded
in 1882, nor the Commission de Tunisie, founded in 1883: fine for scholarly
239
advice but, pour rorganiser enfin ces muses labandon, il fallait autre
chose: des lois svres assurant la conservation des antiquits, une administration spciale organise dans le pays mme et charge de faire appliquer ces
mesures protectrices.[194] Scholars such as Gauckler, charg de sassurer de
ltat des collections formes sur certains points de la province dAlger, could
make catalogues, and perhaps neglected museums such as Cherchel could be
improved:
Nous esprons que dsormais, dans ces provinces de lAlgrie, qui comptaient au nombre des plus clbres de lEmpire romain, les vestiges du
pass seront religieusement conservs.[195]

Destroy the Stone but Let me Transcribe it First!

Mais tout est encore faire pour les inscriptions, qui forment la vritable
richesse de notre terre dAfrique et qui, mme les plus modestes en apparence, sont dun intrt capital pour la science...Peut-tre et-il fallu
que la destruction de toute pierre crite ft, en principe, punie par la loi,
et que la constatation du dlit ft confie tous les agents, quels quils
fussent, de la force publique; la science y et beaucoup gagn, et la perte
eut t mince pour les colons et les entrepreneurs.[196] [1893]
To preserve such a valuable resource, this quotation suggests that law and public action were necessary. But note that this is all in the past, nostalgic tense for,
by 1893, such measures were useless, because they would simply not be applied
against la manie de destruction de beaucoup dentrepreneurs et mme de
colons[197] which, as we have seen, continued and probably increased.
Epigraphers attitudes to the monuments surely helped the acceptance of
such a destructive state of affairs. For as we have seen, the devils contract for
epigraphers was that the message trumped the medium. Once safely and accurately transcribed, the block of stone declined in interest, and we find epigraphers making versions of this contract with colonists and entrepreneurs: let
me transcribe that stone before you destroy it!
The flat slabs suitable for inscriptions were attractive, to repeat yet again, for
(re-)building purposes, and there was plentiful evidence that this was where
hundreds, and probably thousands, ended up. Resolutions were frequently
passed by learned societies that the practice should be stopped, and existing
laws enforced. For Charles Robert, in 1884, cest par elles, en effet, tant les
auteurs anciens sont peu explicites, que nous pntrons dans lhistoire administrative et militaire dune des plus importantes parties du monde romain.
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One great source of newly discovered inscriptions was the construction of

villages for colonists, the trick being to get there in time to read them, and
before they had been destroyed and reused for building (see below, Chapter 7).
Epigraphers clearly hovered like hawks over such worksites, and recorded their
disappointment when their wait was in vain.[198] Impatience could therefore
be shown when, as at Aumale, some inscriptions were recovered from demolitions, but others were known to be concealed in still-standing buildings.[199]
Cagnat advised inscription-hunters (and searchers for all types of antiquities)
to interrogate the owners of stones translated to colonist properties as to
their source;[200] but one might wonder just how accommodating such colonists would be, surely knowing that anything they had appropriated was illegal, and belonged to the state. Poulle pointed out that, as the supply of available
inscriptions was diminishing, the best way to get new ones was to dig, but that
this was expensive, and scholars had neither the time nor the money for the
practice. However, La cration des villages, la construction des routes font sortir du sol bien des documents dont pourrait enrichir la science[201] documents here referring to inscriptions.
As early as 1846, the Journal des Dbats was pondering the conservation of
monuments in Algeria, and relayed Texiers suggestion of a task-force to draw
recently discovered antiquities: Les instructions du ministre de la guerre
sopposent, en gnral, la destruction des monumens antiques...si, par la
force des choses, les monumens se trouvaient dtruits, leur description serait
au moins consigne dans un registre officiel, et ainsi conserve pour la
science.[202] This is perilously close to supine acceptance of destruction as
long as the antiquities have been recorded and drawn. Which, indeed was what
Texier, Inspecteur gnral des btiments civils in Algeria from 1843, was given
the task of establishing in 1846 a Tableau statistique des monuments de
lAlgrie, the work to include restoration, reconstruction and maintenance.
This never appeared, but was succeeded by a variety of measures to protect the
monuments.18 Perhaps Texier (best known for his expeditions to Asia Minor in
1834, 1835, 1836 and 1839, and his publications therefrom), was simply being
realistic, having seen so much destruction in that other part of the Roman
Empire. After all, he was a scholar of authority with a chair at the Collge de
France from 1840, and membership of the Acadmie des Inscriptions et BellesLettres from 1855.
18
Niesseron 2003, 60; 6485: La dpartmentalisation de 1870 et la mise en place des

Monuments Historiques; 6468: socits savantes; 6970: the Ecole franaise de Rome,
founded 1875, will send missions to Algeria from 1889.
241
The alternative to Texiers stance was to shut ones eyes to what was happening, as Baudicour, promoting colonisation, did in 1856. He not only maintained
that museums had been opened (it depends on the definition), but that les
trsors de lart nont point t sacrifis aux besoins du moment. Si quelquefois
les matriaux des ruines romaines ont t utiliss, aucune inscription, aucun
objet curieux na t perdu; des fouilles faites avec intelligence ont mme souvent fait dcouvrir de belles mosaques par-dessous des dbris de colonnes, de
chapiteaux, de bas-reliefs et de statues antiques.[203] Here he was repeating
what he must have known to be lies.
We have already seen how archaeologists and scholarly travellers were frequently in the position of supplicants to those in authority. By the later 19th
century, as public works activities expanded, in the hunt for inscriptions, it was
now the entrepreneurs who had the upper hand. The scholars had to crawl,
either to the engineers themselves or to the administrators, just as in earlier
decades they had to crawl to the army if they wanted to accompany sorties and
receive protection. This was the exact equivalent of scholars waiting in
Constantine or Algiers for demolitions which might throw up antiquities,[204]
and for which Poulle provided the generally applicable maxim in 1891: plus de
dmolitions, plus de dblaiements, plus de dcouvertes.[205] Thus, during
the construction of a railway line around Lambiridi, praise is heaped on
M. Gauthier, sous-prfet of Batna, because by his actions he managed to halt
la dvastation complte[206] complete, not partial, of the antiquities
unearthed. De la Blanchre comforted himself in 1883 with the round-robin on
the protection of antiquities issued by the sous-prfet of Oran, and noted that
MM. les gnraux Louis, de Tlemcen, et Gand, de Mascara, se sont mis ma
disposition de la manire la plus obligeante, et MM. les commandants suprieurs des cercles de Sada et de Tiaret ont spontanment promis de continuer
me faire savoir ce quon dcouvrirait en territoire de commandement.[207] At
Sigus it was the railway engineer who did the discovering;[208] and similarly
Cagnat must be grateful to Aubert, chief railway engineer in Tunisia, for giving
him la copie de toutes les inscriptions trouves le long de la ligne du chemin
de fer depuis le dbut des travaux, de celles, du moins, dont il a eu connaissance.[209] Swallowing just copies must have been hard: Cagnat did not see the
stones to copy them himself; he does not know if the stones survived (he
assumed they did not?); and best practice (which had already gone out of the
window, as we have seen) mandated either an expert doing the copying, or
squeezes taken (an operation requiring time, since the stone had to be wellcleaned beforehand). He needed inscriptions to identify sites, but his interest
was focussed more on the words than on the surviving remains.[210]
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chapter 5
Mapping, Antiquities and Reconnaissances

Map-making in France
Mapmaking is always an essential tool of colonial control as well as of scholarship.19 Mapping involving antiquities began in France in the 18th century.
It may even be that the vogue for archaeological knowledge amongst the military may have developed after the production of the Carte Gnrale de la
France, called the Carte de lAcadmie, which was funded by an Act of
Association in 1756.[211] For this project, printed questionnaires were prepared,
asking for names of hamlets, villages, chteaux, rivers, mills, water-mills and
roads. Respondents were also to be questioned about Arbres, Piliers de Justice,
Croix, Calvaires, Poteaux, Bornes etc et qui par leur hauteur et position servent
dindication dans le Pais de sparation de Justices, Territoires, vchs,
Intendances. That is, although many of the items instanced are potentially of
antiquarian interest, their only point in this operation is as boundary markers.
Because by 1793, a review showed that by that date some sections of the Carte
de France had seen as few as one impression pulled, most 11 or under, very few
20, and the highest 40, the Comite du Salut Public determined[212] to systematise such works into a Dpot gnral de toutes les cartes, plans, mmoires et
ouvrages relatifs la gographie, topographie et hydrographie considre sous
tous les points de vue dutilit publique. Importantly, this grand plan would
include groups of artists charged with map- and plan-making, and divided into
five divisions of geography, namely (1) astronomique, (2) historique et politique, (3) physique et economique, (4) itinraire par terre et communications
par mer and (5) militaire. Such attitudes were fine-tuned by the time of the
1841 Carte de France which, like it 18th-century predecessor, was written according to predetermined chapter headings: 1. Physical Description; 2. Statistics;
5. History. This section of the Carte often starts with political events, and then
goes on to archaeology, beginning with generalities, and then discussing monuments by period and date. Some entries are probably valuable, because quoting from memoires which may not be printed or published, or discussing
monuments since destroyed or altered.[213] This project may also offer some of
the earliest accounts of Gallic antiquities,[214] the metropolitan equivalent of
the late Roman materials common in Algeria.
From hints in the documents it might be the case that not all officers had
patience with such a historically-based approach to the present. In 1836 Toscan
19
Bouchne 2012, Deprest, Florence, 274277: La gographie, a sert coloniser? Des gographes en situation coloniale.
243
de Terrail, on the General Staff in Algeria, prepared 111 pages of Notes sur
lAfrique[215] for his colleagues. He preceded them with an Avertissement
which reveals his frustration with any over-emphasis on history:
Comme on pourrait trouver que la partie historique de ces notes remonte
une poque trop recule, quelle embrasse des vnements trops connus
ou qui nont pas un rapport assez immdiat avec le pays design sous le
nom de rgence dAlger, la table ci-dessous facilitera les moyen de ngliger tout ce qui serait jug inutile.
The account he offers is purely historical, with nothing at all on the archaeology of the country, and it is impossible to know whether his comments are
straight, ironic or simply facetious. Those of Decker, a member of the German
General Staff, offers several harsh opinions on the French equivalent, and on
the maps they had to use.[216]
Armies march on maps as well as their stomachs and the French Army was
becoming used to high-quality maps for mainland France and indeed Europe.
Yet map-making for Asia and America was far in advance of that for North
Africa, presumably because the region was perceived as being of lesser interest. No post-antique maps of North Africa survived except for sketchy naval
charts of coastal areas and a few wildly inaccurate atlas pages. The fact that the
only two maps which named towns and gave distances were post-antique copies of ancient maps underlines the problem. The example not only of the
British Ordnance Survey, but also that of the excellent maps of France produced by various members of the Cassini dynasty, impelled them to replace
the sketch-maps of the earliest decades in Algeria with carefully triangulated,
accurate maps. The Ministry of War in 1882 issued practical instructions for
triangulation, with advice on clothing (including packing a flannel shirt)
and drawing materials. Topographers were instructed to include ancient
remains.[217] But this was half a century after the conquest, and still parts of
Algeria, such as north of the Aurs, were scantily mapped.[218]

Early Map-making in Algeria
So what map did the army use at Sidi Ferruch? The story is stranger than fiction. Because Napoleon wished to attack the Dey, Captain Boutin went in 1808
and did draw a map, but this was destroyed. He re-drew it from memory, targetting Sidi Ferruch as suitable for the landings but he got heights and distances
wrong, causing confusion at the actual landings.[219]
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Dj dans ltat actuel des choses, larchologie, partout o nous pouvons

pntrer, vient en aide de la gographie. En effet, les Arabes laissent prir
plutt quils ne dtruisent, les ruines des anciennes monuments sont restes sur place, et ce nest jamais sans fruit quon les fouille. Mais, dans
cette contre dsole, des ruines couvrent souvent dautres ruines. Au
dessus de la gographie ancienne, si nous pouvons nous exprimer ainsi,
la gographie Sarrazine, elle aussi, a ses obscurits. Combien de villes
encore debout du temps de Lo lAfricain et de Marmol, nont-elles pas si
compltement disparu, que lemplacement en est presquaussi difficile
retrouver que celui des villes Carthaginoises de Scylax? [220] [1843]
Proof of the crucial need for reconnaissances and archaeology to join together
in order to supplement inaedquate modern maps of Algeria comes from this
quotation by Pellissier, a member of the Scientific Commission on Algeria. The
finding of relevant inscriptions is crucial to the process, which involves comparing what is to be seen on the ground with accounts in the ancient authors
(Strabo, Ptolemy), and the Tabula Peutingeriana. His concern is to identify
cities from antiquity, as a way of setting up his notional route maps but when
he mentions ruins it is very matter-of-fact, and he does not describe them.
Remarking on the great number of ruins on the road from Constantine to Stif,
he notes that first making a large-scale map, and then un simple rapprochement entre cette carte et la table de Peutinger suffira pour leur donner, avec
exactitude, les noms qui leur conviennent. Before we laugh at the use of a
mediaeval copy of an ancient map as a method of checking modern mapmaking, and suspect that the French did not value accuracy in such work, it is as well
to assess the problems the French faced in Russia and in Egypt, for both of
which countries useful maps were rare. In 1812, the French began not only the
invasion of Russia, but the preparation of a map of Russia, in at least 121 sheets.
For Egypt, they prepared a map of 47 sheets, including letterpress for 8011 Arabic
words and 13,694 capital and roman words.[221] But in all cases Russia, Egypt,
and Algeria, the map-making proceeded during the invasion, not before it.
In the early years, therefore, the French army had to advance blind, mapping as they went, and sometimes under fire at Mda Aide-major De La
Roche even earned the Lgion dHonneur, fighting on the same land he was
measuring.[222] As Bugeaud remarked, Nous avons march lpe dans une
main, le mtre dans lautre.[223] Military reconnaissance is a term that suggests, of course, that country was first mapped and then recognised as an
informational prelude to any serious military manoeuvres, an index of their
245
problems being that it took nearly three years to make a suitable map of the
environs of Algiers itself.[224]
The French in Algeria necessarily put the cart before the horse, because they
had no useful maps, for Algeria was little more than a geographical
expression.20 It was the manoeuvres themselves (often in strength because of
armed opposition) that preceded any adequate mapping. Perhaps the French
were misled by the much easier mapping of the Morea; but this was done after
the 30 October 1828 armistice, and the area covered, in 18 maps, is tiny compared with Algeria.21 If even maps for the area around Algiers were long in
appearing, then the same conditions appeared to the Commission Scientifique
which, in spite of a valiant publication effort, was never completed, because in
the 1840s des zones entires sont dangereuses et fermes, cette fois de facto,
aux travaux de la Commission.22
Such reconnaissances in the face of the enemy were required prior to further penetration into the unknown to chart topography and potentially useful
structures such as Roman and Byzantine forts, bridges, etc. The Ordnance
Survey had incorporated ancient remains not only as useful reference points,
but because of the antiquarian bent of the various map-makers. French reconnaissances, such as the work of the specialist Brigades Topographiques, also
included antiquarian-inclined officers, who reported on and published archaeological material that they came across in their work.
Hence in such survey work, archaeology coincided with necessity and
utility. The French soldier did not march carrying stakes with which to throw
up a defensible camp every night, as the Romans had done so they needed
existing structures in which to shelter for whatever length of time. These were
generally defensible Roman ruins, sometimes actual forts or even temples,
including an assured water supply nearby, from springs or cisterns. Again,
identifying ancient water sources was necessary because maps needed such
recognisable features but, more importantly, because they learned from
experience that such antique features could actually be useful in preserving
life and limb. As Cagnat wrote in 1891, Les brigades topographiques dAlgrie
et de Tunisie ont continu cette anne recueillir des renseignements
20
21
22
Clayton 1988, 50.

Satas 199, 105129; The thematic maps included settlements, fortresses, churches, chapels
and monasteries, water courses and water-mills and also antiquities (fig.10) including
ruins and quarries.
Nordmann 1999, 147.
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archologiques dans les rgions quelles ont visites. M. le gnral Derrcagaix

a bien voulu en faire profiter le Comit des travaux historiques. Les observations de MM. les officiers sont accompagnes de cartes fort soignes et dun
relev exact de toutes les ruines grandes et petites quils ont rencontres.[225]
As we have already determined (Chapter 1), reconnaissances including
notices of antiquities were considered useful as opposed to simply academic,
for knowledge of surviving antiquities became essential to the Armys safety,
signalling, food storage and water supply. They are as important as inscriptions
for completing the picture of the ancient landscape. Treading in the footsteps
of the Romans a topos we keep meeting throughout this book convinced
many French soldiers and colonisers that what their predecessors had accomplished was used as a guide for strategy in war and colonisation, as well as
providing an invidious comparison with which to taunt those commanders
whose actions were not consonant with Roman actions and achievements.
Chef de Gnie Devay, writing from Mascara on 11 April 1844, provides a considered review of what the French were doing in Algeria, based on his reconaissance of the Habra, to the West of Algiers. Certain of the manifold links with
the Roman past, he discusses the cost of erecting a dam to re-fructify the
country around (and such a dam was indeed built). He has also found canals
and dikes, which ne me laissent aucun doute sur lexcution ancienne de cette
disposition et sur la possibilit de son rtablissement avec le moins de frais
possible puisque les massifs de cule et mme leurs parements extrieurs existent encore. He concludes by noting that such work would help colonisation
here, et nous nous mettrons enfin sur la voie pratique rationelle et mthodique
qui et assur aux Romains la possession indfinie de cette terre dAfrique et la
Barbarie...nous resserrons un un les divers noeuds de ce rseau colonisateur dont la science politique de Rome avait cru devoir enlacer sa conqute et
fortifier sa domination.[226]
Another energetic soldier whose work demonstrates the link between
antiquities and military necessity is Capitaine Niel, who we have already met
on various duties, including reconnoitering the environs of Guelma in 1837,
where he criticised the reuse of this site as unsafe. Not that Niel was against the
reuse of Roman remains either toward the war effort or in bolstering a rationale for the French occupation. He reconnoitred the route from Bne to Ras el
Akba in 1837,[227] marking Roman ruins and roads on his sketch. He noted that
the great marshy plain to the south of Bne must have been fertile under the
Romans, since on trouve par plusieurs points des ruines qui prouvent quelle
tait habite, et ensuite on voit trs bien prs du pont de Constantine la trace
dun canal. Two years later, he reconnoitred Constantine to Nedes, to deter-
247
mine whether a road was practicable between Constantine and Bne, via the
camp at LArrouch.[228] After recognising the many Roman remains so far to the
south that the French were unlikely to occupy them for a long time to come,
Niel noted the conveniently situated Roman fortified posts along the way: Si
des postes fortifis taient jugs ncessaires entre les camps dtape, on pourrait en construire avec les ruines mme de celui quavaient tabli les Romains
sur la rive gauche de loued Addarak dont il surveillait la valle suprieure.
And then, just as in the time of the Romans, with the military in place, and
under their protection, les colons Franais favoriss par un si beau pays, pourraient enfin se livrer la culture de la terre. And during the years 18379 he
made several reconnaissances in the province of Constantine, all of which
include useful comments on the antiquities.[229]
Of Constantine itself Niel notes: Les constructions ont presque entirement disparu; mais on peut voir, par les traces qui en sont restes, quil en a
exist de colossales...un mur romain suivait le trac actuel de lenceinte, qui
est parfaitement dtermin par la nature. At Milah he admires une piscine
romaine assez bien conserve, qui sappuie sur lenceinte. Elle est dfendue par
une enceinte romaine, ou du moins construite avec les pierres de lancienne
cit romaine, qui tait beaucoup plus tendue, si lon en juge par les ruines
parses quon trouve en dehors des remparts actuels. As for Djemila, Les
ruines de Djemilah prsentent plus dintrt que toutes celles quon a trouv en
Afrique jusqu ce jour. Aucune occupation barbare na succd sur ce point
celle des Romains. Le temps seul a dtruit les monuments. Aussi on peut
admirer leur belle architecture et retrouver toutes leurs formes en runissant
les pierres parses autour deux. For Stif, the enceinte is described: Les matriaux sont sur place mais il faudrait les engins ncessaires pour remuer les
normes pierres de taille des Romains. That is, he really is looking at the whole
setup with a practical eye, because he needs to determine what work would be
required to put the defences in order for a batallion of 600 men. As for the citadel of Stif, he correctly sees that these walls are from une seconde occupation...Des pierres tumulaires, des chapiteaux, et des fts de colonnes, forment
parement dans les murs des deux enceintes and the very size of the ruin
field indicates the importance of the Roman city. For Guelma, he notes the
large quantity of columns of red marble and beautiful cornices. The citadel is
une reconstruction faite avec des pierres prises dans les difices dj ruines,
and had already been occupied by the first Constantine expedition in 1836.
The mapping requirements of the army in Algeria went hand-in-hand, then,
with the exploration of the antique remains, especially inscriptions, and those
remains were important way-points and even refuges for the hard-pressed
248
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military. The attitude to inscriptions discussed above surfaces clearly in the

myriad army documents from an army that functioned through paperwork.
We learn through their dossiers what was to be built, with what materials, at
what cost, and to what effect. Given the transport difficulties, these reconnaissance accounts acknowledge the usefulness of on-site ancient materials, which
frequently figure in plans for new buildings, generally conceived by the engineers, and then running the gauntlet of the army administration. From such
formal documents, we learn a lot about attitudes to the past and the requirements of the present.

Confusion and Delay
By 1840 a map of Algiers and Oran, Bougie and Constantine had been produced, and this showed ancient monuments. But it was on too small a scale for
extensive military use, although it had been prepared par M. le commandant
Saint-Hypolite daprs les travaux des officiers dtat-major, pour servir
lintelligence des oprations militaires dans lAlgrie.[230] Thus an urgent
necessity during the early years of the conquest was the creation of a whole
collection of good maps which, given the extent of the conquest by 1843, would
be very expensive to prepare, since they would require incursions into enemy
territory. This was the opinion of the head of the Service Topographique in his
1843 Annual Report. Hence the project modelled on the Carte dtat major de
la France, thought up in 1808 to counter the deficiencies of the Cassini map,
and the project given to the Dpt de la Guerre in 1817. From this evolved the
1:400,000 Algeria map, begun in 1837. From the beginning, this map incorporated Roman ruins, designated by RR. Although some such ruin grouping
may have given useful topographical information, Blais suggests that la densit des RR tmoigne tout de mme dun regard particulirement aiguis
envers les traces du pass making them, with marabouts, les deux piliers de
la cartographie coloniale du territoire algrien.23 Dureau de la Malle, writing
in 1837, thought much the same: officers interested in antiquities would delineate them as accurately and in as much detail as they expended on making
their maps.[231]
But the need for good maps turned out to be a prospective wish, seen in
Colonel Carettes 1844 work on roads in Algeria and Tunisia: Nous ne mentionnons ni les historiens et les gographes de lantiquit, ni ces deux monuments
prcieux connus lun sous le nom de Table de Peutinger, lautre sous celui
dItinraire dAntonin. Nous ne nous occupons que de la gographie moderne,
et seulement dans ses rapports avec la gographie actuelle though he does
23
Blais 2008, 124126, 132.
249
go on to consider El Bekri, Edrisi and other authors such as Leo and Marmol,
then Peyssonel (17345), Desfontaines (17836) and the abb Poiret (17856).
The reader then realises that this is not actual in any up-to-date sense, but a
compilation of likely routes, which he then describes, given in leagues. Where
his sources vary, he takes an average. Naturally, he refers to French army reconnaissances where these have been done; but there is no suggestion that he has
covered all the routes he tabulates.[232]
Although progress was made around Algiers and during expeditions,[233]
even by 1865 the Dpt de la Guerre had not delivered an acceptably accurate
map of the whole of Algeria. This was eagerly awaited,[234] and enthusiasts
wrote in with detailed of settlements that had been omitted from earlier
Dpt maps.[235] Two decades later, un certain nombre of maps had been
prepared.[236] So when Vivien de Saint-Martin declared in 1875 that Le pays a
t lev pied pied par nos officiers et nos ingnieurs, mesure que nos armes
nous ouvraient laccs de nouveaux cantons...le territoire algrien nous est
aussi connu que nos propres dpartements dans la plus grande partie de sa
vaste tendue, he was being over-optimistic and, as a well-read geographer,
should have known better.[237] In 1882 the Ministry of War issued instructions
to army topographers: perhaps because the work was still dangerous, they
should always be accompanied by local guides;[238] the types of antiquity to be
recorded were to be megaliths, Phoenician, Roman (including inscriptions),
Spanish, and Arab[239] together with les emplacements de redoutes, camps
ou retranchements construits ou occups par larme franaise pendant la
priode de la conqute.[240] This was surely not for any antiquarian purpose,
but because they might yet again come in useful.
One might have assumed from the above that any good map would be welcomed by the Army, but this is apparently not the case. One conspicuous
example is Carbuccias technically advanced map of the Batna Subdivision,
drawn by 1850, praised to the skies by reputable scholars,[241] but which
remained unpublished by the Ministre de la Guerre and certainly not
because it was of inferior quality. Part of the problem was that Carbuccia was
not only an impetuous military maverick (not least in the 1849 Zaatcha campaign[242]), but he was also suspected of spending more time on archaeology
than on his military duties and to add insult to injury employing his soldiers on historical tasks rather than strictly military ones.24 Certainly,
Carbuccias map covered an immense area, but nevertheless an area across
24
Colonna 1998, 6668 for possibilities; 67: le caractre dexhaustivit de la carte et surtout
des fouilles entreprises par Carbuccia qui lui donnent cette coloration dinutilit coteuse et dplace que semble manifester la raction du Ministre de la Guerre. Jealous
250
chapter 5
which operations might be necessary.[243] Not to publish it was crass stupidity:

the administration strikes back, indeed.
The Dpts 1857 map of Tunisia, based on earlier work, and although useful
to archaeologists, did not cover the whole country reliably, since some unsafe
areas were avoided,[244] and others were mapped thanks to the initiative of
army officers.[245] Hence when the French occupied Tunisia, the lacunae in the
1857 map were complemented by the information in Gurins 1862 account of
the Regency.[246] With the signing of the Bardo Treaty in 1881, the prospect for
map-making in Tunisia was bright: provisional maps based on the 1857 were
produced under Colonel (later Gnral) Perrier, with the aim of producing a
map at 1:200,000, qui devait relguer au rang des curiosits tous les documents
gographiques antrieurs. The problems of map-making were eternally ones
of partial coverage and of insufficient or unverified detail. So not only did
archaeologists use the Armys maps but vice versa as well. At Perriers encouragement, des centaines dexplorateurs taient luvre en mme temps, officiers topographes, officiers archologues, missionnaires de lInstitut, et la
moisson tait tellement abondante quon ne savait quels magasins la confier.[247] Eventually a carte archologique of Tunisia was produced at 1:50,000,
and praised in 1901 by Schulten,[248] who had been very critical of the way
antiquities had been mistreated in earlier decades.

The Brigades Topographiques and Antiquities
Mapmaking was an essential task for any army and, as outlined above, especially important for Algeria, for which there were no detailed maps at all.
Mapmaking was also a concern of the scholars, who would delight in comparing ancient geography with apposite hints found in inscriptions. Colonel Bory
de Saint Vincent (botanist, future president of the Commission Scientifique)25
saw this as misguided, minuting in 1838 that
les savans qui soccupent dantiquit au fond de leur cabinet, et les vieux
auteurs sous les yeux, pensant dbrouiller la gographie ancienne sans le
secours dune bonne carte moderne ne font que sessayer dans les tnbres.
25
machinations from the professional mapmakers of the Brigades Topographiques may

also be suspected.
Bourguet 1998, 139157, 273287, 299310 and passim for his various activities in Algeria
and elsewhere.
251
Sensibly, then, the task of mapmaking went to the Brigades Topographiques,

whose earlier map-making work had neglected the marking of antiquities:
Lors de ltablissement des premires feuilles de la carte (18691870) et au
moment de la reprise des travaux (18791881), on nattachait aucune importance ces vestiges des temps anciens, et les gisements de ruines nont pas t
relevs; on manque, par suite, de donnes prcises sur les environs immdiats
dAlger, de Mdah, dOran et de Philippeville.[249]
However, one curious aspect of map-making (and perhaps indicative of the
broader confusion) is that in the early years there was apparently no attempt
to aggregate information from reconnaissances onto complete maps, which
would have been possible given the work of soldiers such as Niel, already considered. Indeed, the interest individual soldiers might have taken in ruins in
early decades was not formalised until 1882, and enlarged in 18834, when
instructions on how to recognise various kinds of ruins were issued, et une
mthode destampage leur fut indique pointing to a continuing emphasis
on inscriptions.[250] Why were such instructions issued? We have, after all, seen
so many officers perfectly capable of dealing with ruins and inscriptions as
they related to Army needs. Several explanations suggest themselves: by the
1880s new officer intakes were less sensitive to the past; officialdom was
responding to the alarms sounded by Renier and his colleagues over the previous decades; or attention to ruins was recognised as the easiest way of accumulating the information required for good map-making. Schulten, writing in
1901, suggests in optimistic fashion that the military had indeed turned over a
new leaf, and that this was some compensation for previous destruction:
Si, en son temps, loccupation militaire a caus un grave prjudice aux
monuments, de nos jours les officiers franais, principalement par les
levs topographiques du pays et la recherche activement pousse des
ruines dans ce pays, sont devenus les collaborateurs indispensables de
ceux qui recherchent les antiquits africaines.[251]
Certainly, the Brigades Topographiques made many contributions to the mapping of Tunisia, and Cagnat rightly sings their praises in his report of 1896 to
the Acadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. He proceeds to hope that Les
renseignements venus des brigades topographiques nous permettront un jour
dentreprendre le mme travail pour lAlgrie; et cest peut-tre elles quil faudra encore avoir recours quand nous voudrons tablir une carte dtaille de
lemplacement de Carthage[252] but they had already been in Algeria for
nearly 70 years!
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Advances in map-making were due to the experience and energy of Constant

Mercier. He was in Algeria 18567 and then in France, working on the Carte de
France, and then again in the later 1860s also in Algeria. In 1879 he was put in
charge of topographical surveys in Algeria, and worked fast, paying due attention to antiquities as well. By 1881 he was a Lieutenant-Colonel, and head of the
Brigades Topographiques for the invasion of Tunisia. Mercier was now in
charge of the direction and collation of archaeological information and, armed
with instructions and descriptions, the Brigades now made up for earlier omissions, making excuses for previous lapses:
Presss par le temps, et manquant des connaissances spciales ncessaires, ils ngligeaient souvent des pierres parses sur le sol qui ntaient
autres que des dbris de monument, et auxquelles ils navaient prt
aucune attention.[253]
One of Merciers own particular interest was Roman roads and fortified positions.[254] Individual officers were encouraged to send squeezes of important
inscriptions to Paris. What is more, the details of the terrain were studied onsite by Mercier and his officers, and an exhaustive mmoire prepared
sur laspect gnral du pays, son orographie, ses richesses vgtales ou
minralogiques, ses cultures; sur la description des ctes, le rgime des
eaux, la nature des voies de communication, le chiffre de la population,
les races, les langues, les religions, etc.[255]
Several of the Brigades officers were indeed assiduous in collecting inscriptions; Toussaint, in charge of the 2me Brigade, reported on ruins of farms and
villas,[256] and he and his group collected 103 inscriptions at 107 locations.[257]
Naturally, more attention was paid to areas where colonist villages were being
developed, such as Irzer-Amokrau (a mere 3km from the Roman settlement),[258] or Ouellaba, where the Gnie was building the settlement with
stones from adjacent ruins.[259] Indeed, Toussaint made many scholarly contributions to Algeria, presumably teaching his Brigade as he went. He explained
the military importance of Besseriani;[260] identified and described many
henchirs,[261] many of which were named for recent colonist settlers.[262] This
is an indication of how convenient the settlement process could be: find a
henchir with useful stones and build a village there!
The work of the Brigades sometimes involved the rescuing of inscriptions,
as happened in the Maouna in 1883, during the building of a colonist village
and the reuse of many antique blocks.[263] Ren Cagnat paid homage to such
253
rescue work,26 reports of which for example for Vicus Juliani,[264] Sidi
Khalifa,[265] and Malliana[266] appeared regularly in archaeological periodicals. By heaping the Brigades with praise, more and fuller reports of archaeologial finds would drop in the archaeologists laps.[267] Hron de Villefosse was
careful to praise their work to the skies at the 1905 Congrs des Socits
savantes at Algiers concluding, perhaps with fingers crossed, that
Le service gographique de larme a prt aussi aux recherches un
concours empress. Si nous connaissons exactement le trac des voies
romaines du Sud, les ruines quelles traversent et les moindres vestiges
relevs dans les parages lointains o notre colonisation na pris quune
extension restreinte, nous le devons ces officiers laborieux qui travaillent avec patience rectifier la carte de ltat-major...A maintes
reprises, ils ont pu rsoudre sur place plus dun problme difficile...Ds
les premiers temps de la conqute, lpoque hroque de lexploration
algrienne, notre arme sest passionne pour larchologie, et cette noble
passion ne sest jamais teinte.[268]
Ignoring the suggestion that there ever was a heroic period of Algerian exploration, by the late 19th century it is certain that the problems of dealing with
the recording and preservation of antiquities concerned the whole population
of Algeria and Tunisia, and not just the Brigades Topographiques. For while
these were out mapping and recording around the countryside, settlers and
entrepreneurs were still destroying antiquities for small- and large-scale building. Presumably the fillip given to archaeological research in the Brigades, and
acknowledged by Tissot,[269] was caused at least in part by the publication of
CIL VIII by the Germans in 1881, and by Schultens devastating account published early in 1883 on how antiquities were mis-handled in Algeria, and
already discussed. These decided shocks to French scholarly pride may have
provoked plans for action by various scholars and even administrators, and the
Acadmie des Inscription et Belles-Lettres sprang to life in 1884 denouncing
the continuing destruction in Tunisia:
Un tel tat de choses a le droit dmouvoir les archologues franais; les
savants trangers eux-mmes le signalent et sen plaignent. Nous nassisterons pas sans protester ces actes de vandalisme. Pourquoi ne pas imiter lexemple du Danemark, de lItalie, de la Grce et dautres Etats, qui
protgent par des lois et des rglements les antiquits que porte leur sol?
26
Ennabli 1990, 39.
254
chapter 5
LAcadmie na-t-elle pas le devoir dmettre, ladresse du gouvernement, un voeu dans ce sens?[270]
Nevertheless, when the German published a supplement to CIL VIII, the French
had to grin and bear it.[271]

Centuriation Unrecognised
The puzzle presented by centuriation in Algeria, unrecognised in the 19th century, is a comprehensive one. Much of the French military and then civil effort
in Algeria and Tunisia was devoted to mapping. Much of the scholarly effort
was devoted to epigraphy. Much of the colonialisation effort was devoted to
laying out villages and some towns. Land administration was an accessible
scholarly topic, and land-markers with inscriptions were recognised and transcribed.[272] The practice of centuriation among the Romans was well known:
Poulle, for example, discusses one example of its implementation,[273] but does
not seem to have tried to hunt down other inscriptions which might give clues
about the extent of its use in Algeria. There was much study of rural hydraulic
systems informing French attempts to refurbish such systems and use them
themselves. In addition boundary markers were in use in Algerian villages in
1900, though from the reports[274] we cannot know whether these had anything
to do with Roman layouts.
The Romans frequently laid out agricultural land on a regular grid, and
sometimes these plots were allocated to army veterans planting a new colony.
The grid would incorporate roads (parallel at less than a kilometre apart),
paths, and individual holdings, all regular and alike. There are significant
amounts of centuriation not only in Spain and Northern Italy but also in
Algeria and Tunisia. With the introduction of aerial photography in the early
1900s, their study took off,27 and flourished after the Second World War.28
But the principles of centuriation were already well-known to classicists
from ancient literature, and in 1833 Christian Tuxen Falbe, a Danish diplomat
at Tunis, published his Recherches sur lemplacement de Carthage. He was
able to measure and plot some sections of the site because there was so
27
28
Cf. Morizot 1997 (most photos 19561962): Bien que ralises des fins militaires, elle se
rvle constituer un instrument prcieux pour larchologie, en raison de leur chelle trs
dtaille, le plus souvent de lordre de 1/5000. En effet, une couverture pareille chelle
na pas t renouvele depuis lors.
Caillemer and Chevallier 1954 for review of progress thus far; Caillemer and Chevallier
1957 for Tunisia; Soyer 1973 & 1976; Trousset 1977 & 1978.
255
little settlement on it, and he made there the first modern discovery of
centuriation.[275] Later scholars such as Schulten recognised the veracity of
Falbes observations,[276] and sought to extend them by researches in the landscape, for example at Carthage[277] and Sousse.[278]
Cataloguing wealth, field-areas and yields had obviously been important
for taxation purposes since well before the Domesday Book;[279] such land
surveys cadastres were common in France, and were also to be used in
Algeria, as indeed were markers for plotting out new villages. Similar ancient
markers were also known.[280] What is puzzling is that for some 70 years
nobody seems to have applied what Falbe did at Carthage to other areas in
North Africa, for the first accounts appear in 1902 and following years.[281]
Carton, however, in 1906, and without recourse to aerial photography, recognised elements of centuriation at Colonia Thuburnica:
Dautre part, jai t frapp depuis longtemps de la forme quy ont les
champs situs dans la plaine, au pied de la ville antique: ce sont de longs
rectangles, dirigs du Nord au Sud, formant deux ou trois alignements
spars par des pistes, et dont le plus septentrional sappuie sur la voie de
Carthage Hippone. Enfin, dans chaque proprit ou plutt dans chaque
groupe de champs, proprit dune famille, on trouve les restes dune
exploitation agricole. / Il sagit donc trs nettement, ici, danciens allotissements dont chacun eut autrefois sa ferme.[282]
Perhaps all was needed was some high ground from which to contemplate the
ruins of Roman settlements and the surrounding land.29 The military, of
course, if they were to operate efficiently, always needed to know the lie of the
land; on occasion they used balloons, and Carbuccia and his staff produced a
view of Lambessa drawn from a balloon.30
Gsell, writing the history of Roman Algeria in 1928, notes that Les documents qui attestent lexistence dun cadastre par centuries dans les provinces
africaines sont assez nombreux[283] but he refers to papers by Schulten,
Toutaina and Barthel, and not to documents in the form of inscriptions from
Algeria. He goes on to note that Des dcouvertes pigraphiques et ltude des
29
30
Peyras 1983, figs. 13 for the layout of the valley of the Oued Tine, with surrounding high
land.
Dondin-Payre 1996, fig. 1, drawing in the Institut de France, annotated by Carbuccia prise
300 m dlvation du sol.
256
chapter 5
excellentes cartes dresses par le Service gographique de lArme ont fait connatre en Tunisie deux centuriations antiques, but does not date their work
except by referring to CIL VIII of 1883 and one might wonder whether he is
being coy with fait connatre.[284] He notes the century that has passed since
Falbes work,[285] but does not explain why it passed, in this respect, in such
masterly inactivity by those professing to understand and explain the Roman
occupation through inscriptions.
Although the Brigades Topographiques had been instructed to pay attention
to epigraphy, this does not explain the failure to recognise centuriation. Both
countries have hilly and mountainous regions with snow, and from such vantage-points centuriation shows up well under snow. Berbrugger, amongst others, was very clear that Les Romains avaient si bien choisi leurs lieux
dtablissements que lon est toujours sr de rencontrer leurs traces quand on
fonde une exploitation agricole, etc., un bon endroit[286] but apparently
without recognising any repeated symmetry. Even when spolia-rich tablissements isols were on the land the French were resettling,[287] no discovery of
centuriation was made. Roman towns were a grid, and in the countryside
observations were sometimes made of parallel roads such as the ruins of
Medinet-Zian in 1862[288] but no conclusions were drawn therefrom.
Noting that Schulten, Toutain and others did not have the benefit of aerial
photography (they did everything at ground level), the question is therefore
the following. Why were French scholars, especially epigraphers, apparently
ignorant of the great extent of centuriation in the landscapes they traversed
hunting for inscriptions? Several non-exclusive answers suggest themselves.
1.
2.
3.
In no cases were centuriations visible on the ground to the naked eye. As

Saumagne writes in 1929 of centuriation near El Djem, Elles ne sauraient
tre discernes sur le terrain par un oeil que naurait point prvenu
lexamen des clichs photographiques, and had escaped the attention
cependant sagace of the Brigades Topographiques.[289]
The Brigades Topographiques were primarily concerned with the military topography of the lands they surveyed, and that interest in the
ancient landscape, its complexion and inscriptions (or knowledge of
these?), was very much a sideline, or confined to very few officers.
The maps produced by the Brigades were selective, or only showed what
the makers thought was there, or wanted to see. Dureau de la Malle, giving written instructions to the Brigades in 1837, recommends paying particular attention to milestones, distances and names but says nothing
of looking beyond the roads and into the fields.[290]
4.
5.
257
Civil administrators, presumably conversant with cadastration back in

France, did not expect to see any in Algeria or Tunisia, so did not look for
it. But what about classically-minded soldiers helping with the layout of
colonist villages over Roman remains why did they never connect certain inscriptions with the lie of the land? After all, Roman cantonment
required cadastration, and the French should have known about it.
The answer, of course, is that what one does not seek one invariably does
not find.
The scholars investigating inscriptions in the landscape simply did not
link ruins, roads and milestones together. Cagnat, for example, described
the stones reused in ruins on either side of the road from Le Kef to Bja,
but draws no conclusion.[291] Raoul-Rochette refers to Carbuccias work
in rediscovering Roman forts and plentiful milestones, but does not ask
himself what they were guarding.[292]
Hence a final question. With such a scholarly focus on Roman Africa, and on
collecting its inscriptions, why was the lie of the land evidently ignored?
In fact, it was not completely ignored, since markers were used to lay out the
areas for colonists smallholdings (one commentator protesting that an entrepreneur had removed 800 of them[293]). The answer is perhaps that no scholars
thought of trying to unite the various pieces of evidence: farm ruins, oil presses,
dams, wells, roads, inscriptions. So did they only collect inscriptions, without
studying them? They were vitally concerned to discover toponyms, so as to be
able to link the ruins they visited to what they found on the ancient maps. But
studying how the inscriptions they found related to the other features of the
landscape does not seem to have occurred to them.

A Nest of Puzzles
This chapter has demonstrated the important place held by epigraphy in
French scholarly exertions in North Africa, which it held in part because of its
key rle in establishing topography and hence the making of maps. But it has
also uncovered several puzzles and missed opportunities in the process.
The first and most important was that so many scholars gave greater credence to text over monument, whether because of their narrow focus or
because of the prevalent opinion that Roman architecture was not worth very
much, so that all but standing monuments could safely be ignored. In North
Africa such architecture was by definition provincial; but then so was the epigraphy, so it is a puzzle why they were not considered of equal importance, as
part of the concerto that is the antique past.
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The second is the decided mis-fire over the recording of inscriptions. Here
the epigraphers faced first one dilemma, and then a second one which contradicted the first. Their first dilemma was the highly specialised nature of their
work, and many are the academic dog-fights gleefully correcting the transcriptions of their predecessors. This led them at first to call for only qualified epigraphers to do the transcribing. But this exclusive and scholarly attitude had to
be contradicted when they realised they faced a rapidly diminishing number
of inscriptions because so many were being piled into the kilns to make lime,
or reused in buildings or road and railway work. Without scholarly manpower
to gather in inscriptions before they disappeared, they turned somersault, and
tranformed the dilemmas into two unsatisfactory solutions. The first was that
absolutely everyone should be encouraged to record inscriptions before they
were destroyed, preferably by taking a squeeze or a photograph; and the second was that destruction was impossible to prevent, so that collusion with the
destroyers themselves would at least preserve the text, just before the block
itself was destroyed or reused.
This was a mess, just like most of the French relationship with antiquities in
Algeria. Lon Renier, who protested loudly, held, after all, from 1861 the Chair
of Epigraphy and Roman Antiquities at the Collge de France and, from 1864,
at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. At Lambessa he had observed the
beginning of destruction there, and forseen just how widespread it would
become. Could he and other scholars have done more? Probably not: he and
his colleagues made frequent complaints to the various commissions and
scholarly bodies and, long after Reniers death in 1885, were still making them
in 1914. The answer is surely that successive administrations in Paris and North
Africa did not give a fig for antiquities. They sent out scholars to record and
collect inscriptions, helped almost continuously by the Army and their own
antiquarian enthusiasts. But dealing with standing antiquities let alone ruins
was another matter: the odd inscription-writing scholar was cheap, but the restoration and reconstruction of monuments was expensive too expensive in
those permanently cash-strapped times.
The third puzzle relates to centuriation, many traces of which inscriptionalert scholars could probably have seen from hilly ground, and without the
need for aerial photography. In a country still strewn with Roman farms and
allotments, French scholars missed the opportunity to study without later
overlays (as was the situation with centuriation in Europe) a landscape large
parts of which remained unaltered since Late Antiquity.
259

1 Waltzing_1892_124125
2 Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_
310311
[ ]
3 Bertrand_1903_60
[ ]
4 Duval_1859_278
[ ]
5 RA 1861 issue 25, 76
[ ]
6 AMSL_XV_1890
[ ]
7 Renier_1852_318, 322
[ ]
8 Waltzing_1892_6777
[ ]
9 Wallon_1890_516
[ ]
10 JDPL 27 December 1836
[ ]
11 Marmol_1667_II_325
[ ]
12 Ibid., 393
[ ]
13 Ibid., 442
[ ]
14 Renier_1859_207
[ ]
15 Montaudon_1898_39, 42
[ ]
16 Saint-Arnaud_1858_271
[ ]
17 Le Charivari November
1842, 1230
[ ]
18 JDPL 13 November 1839
[ ]
19 Morgan_1728_I_212213
[ ]
20 Anon_1863_46
[ ]
21 LIndpendant de
Mostaganem_7_Aug_1892
[ ]
22 BACTHS_1920_
CCVIICCVIII
[ ]
23 Rozet_1833_I_IX
[ ]
24 SHD Gnie 15.1
Campagnes
18141848
[ ]
1850_123
[ ]
26 Dureau_de_la_Malle_
1837_2829
[ ]
27 Caraman_1843_4445
[ ]
28 Ibid., 45
[ ]
29 RA I 1856, 6
[ ]
30 Orlans_1892_281282
[ ]
31 Expdition_de_
[ ]
32 Bapst_1909_I_284 in 1837
[ ]
33 Expdition_de_
34]Blaquire_1813_144
1837_263
[ ]
36 Malte-Brun_1858_1415
[ ]
[ ]
38 SHD MR1317
[ ]
39 Rozet_and_Carette_
1850_54
[ ]
40 Perret_1902_238
[ ]
41 Moll_18601861_195196
[ ]
42 Raoul-Rochette_et_al_
1851_339
[ ]
43 Ibid., 342343
[ ]
44 Jomard_1865_164
[ ]
45 Saint-Martin_1863_99
[ ]
46 RA 1857 issue 8, 110
[ ]
47 Ibid., issue 4, in the
Chronique, 307
[ ]
[ ]
49 Ballu_1919_54
[ ]
50 Wagner_1841_I_300301
[ ]
51 Demonts_1921_236
[ ]
52 Poinssot_1885_99
[ ]
53 Donau_1908_58
[ ]
54 Cagnat_et_al_1890_
222223
[ ]
55 Tissot_1888_351352
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
58 Ibid., 102
[ ]
[ ]
60 Gurin_1862_II_3940
[ ]
61 Gurin_1861_45
[ ]
62 Saladin_1887_4
[ ]
63 Tissot_1888_667668
[ ]
64 Simond_1887_5153
[ ]
65 Chevillet_1896_8487
[ ]
66 Duraffourg_1887_219
[ ]
67 Ibid., 218
[ ]
68 Leo_Africanus_1896_713
[ ]
69 Shaw_1757_116
[ ]
70 Boddy_1885_6
[ ]
71 Gurin_1862_II_336337
72]Saladin_1887_29
73]Hase_1863_334
[ ]
74 Afrique_
Explore_1883_17
[ ]
75 Barbier_de_Meynard_
1883_11
[ ]
[ ]
77 Gurin_1862_II_159
[ ]
78 Cagnat_1886_131
[ ]
79 Goyt_1882
[ ]
80 Gsell_and_Graillot_
1893_481
[ ]
81 Toussaint_1908_400
[ ]
1894_175
[ ]
83 Fabvier_1847_4
[ ]
84 Fenech_1852_89
[ ]
85 Brieux_1912_96
[ ]
86 Ibid., 95
[ ]
87 Boissire_1878_910
[ ]
1859_420
[ ]
89 Renier_1851C_61
[ ]
90 Wallon_1890_513514
[ ]
91 Schulten_19001901_
457458
[ ]
92 Renier_1851B_474475
[ ]
93 Tissot_1883
[ ]
94 Gurin_1862_I_V
[ ]
95 Ibid., VII
[ ]
96 Hase_1863_797
[ ]
97 Renier_1851_221222
[ ]
98 Souli_185961
[ ]
99 SHD MR1317
[
100]Ibid.
[ ]
101 Bernelle_1893_54
[
102]Ibid., 8283
[
103]Ibid., 8485
[
104]CIL VIII 285
[
105]BCA _1884_241
[
106]Poulle_1884_209210
[
107]Waltzing_1892_7475
[
108]Diehl_1892_104
[ ]
[ ]
260
109]Renier_1851C_58
110]Vars_1896_127
[ ]
111 Schulten_1904_36
[ ]
112 Schulten_19001901_
255256
[ ]
113 Vars_1896_124125
[ ]
114 Diehl 1892, 712, 1320
[ ]
115 Poulle_18901891_389
[ ]
116 Audollent_1890B_76
[ ]
117 Schmidt_1883_394
[ ]
118 Ibid., 40
[ ]
119 Waltzing_1892_125126
[
120]Saladin_1887_225
[ ]
121 Schmidt_1883_398399
[
122]Mac-Carthy_1885B_214
[
123]Cagnat_1891_543
[
124]Blanchet_1899_113
[
125]RA 1864/03, issue 44, 145
[
126]Berbrugger_1864B_229
[
127]Ibid., 235
[
128]Ibid., 227
[
129]Saint-Martin_1875_
486487
[
130]Ibid., 486
[ ]
131 Cagnat_et_al_1890_
217218
[
132]Cagnat_1883_68
[
133]Pallary_1894_6
[
[
135]Rousset_1882_12
[
136]Lux_1882_3132
[
137]Derrien_1895_285
[
138]Rouquette_1905_50
[
139]Gauckler_1901_147
[
140]Gurin_1862_I_8283
[ ]
[
142]Ibid., 220
[
[
144]Ratheau_1879_156
[
145]Gsell_1893_176
[
146]JDPL 5 August 1837
[
147]Poinssot_1885_174
[
148]Hinglais_1905_244
[
149]Gurin_1862_II_3536
chapter 5
150]RA I 1856, 5
151]RA 1873, 492493
[
152]Bulletin du Comit 1890,
LXVIIILXXII
[
153]Mac-Carthy_1885B_213
[
154]Janon_1973_194B
[
155]Piesse_1862_422
[
1851_338339
[
157]Berbrugger_1864C_194
[
158]Ibid., 196
[
159]RA 1857 issue 4, 242
[
160]Gauckler_1896_298299
[ ]
161 Desvaux_1909_602
[
162]Ibid., 658
[
163]Ibid., 89
[
164]Ibid., 582
[
165]Goyt_and_
Reboud_1881_6
[
166]Ratheau_1879_185
[
167]Ibid., 183
[
168]Gurin_1862_II_239
[
169]Ibid., 284
[
170]Gurin_1862_I_165166
[ ]
171 Gurin_1862_I_301
[
172]Renier_1852_336337
[
173]Blanchet_1899_109
[
174]Tissot_1857_418
[
175]Beul_1875_8586
[
176]Altekamp_2004_143
[
177]Ibid., 147
[
178]Bouyac_1891_2122
[
179]Gurin_1862_I_371
[
180]Ibid., 207
[ ]
181 Conder_1830_99100
[
182]Omont_1902_310
[
183]RA I 1856, 7
[
184]Berbrugger_1856_
152153
[
185]Mac_Carthy_1885_6
[
186]Saladin_1893_207208
[
187]Saladin_1887_27
[
188]Gurin_1862_II_120121
[
189]Hrisson_1881_127
1894_292
[ ]
191 Hrisson_1881_133
[
192]Diehl_1892_110
[
193]Ibid., 109
[
194]Ibid., 121122
[
195]Cardaillac_1891_122
[
196]Anonymous_Editor_
1893_1920
[
197]Schulten_19001901_257
[
1881_42
[
199]Mercier_1868_91
[
[
201]Poulle_18901891_
305306
[
202]JDPL 3 December 1846
[
[
204]Gavault_1894_65
[
205]Poulle_18901891_307
[
206]Pallu_de_Lessart_
1886_13
[
207]De_la_Blanchre_
1883_6
[
208]Poulle_18861887_170
[
209]Cagnat_1882_144
[
210]Cagnat_1888_1
[ ]
211 SHD 3M395
[
212]SHD 3M277
[
213]SHD MR1298
[
214]SHD MR1298
[
215]SHD MR881
[
216]Decker_1844_I_4752
[
217]Guerre_1882_49
[
1893_462
[
219]Mmorial_
Gographique_1930_34
[
220]SHD MR1314
[
221]SHD 3M262
[
222]Mmorial_
Gographique_1930_13
[
223]Ibid., 1930_1
[
224]Ibid., 1920
[
261

225]Cagnat_1891_549
226]SHD Gnie, 1H403
[
227]SHD Gnie 8.1
Constantine 18361840
[
228]Ibid.
[
229]SHD H227
[
230]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIII
1840, 192
[
1837_198
[
232]Carette_1844B_viii
[
233]Perrier_1883_12
[
234]Saint-Martin_1865_115
[
1881_4
[
236]Perrier_1883_2
[
237]Saint-Martin_1875_484
[
238]Guerre_1882_5051
[
239]Ibid., 5760
[
240]Ibid., 49
[
241]Raoul-Rochette_
1851_343
[
242]Blanc_1892_101103
[
243]Jomard_1865_162
[
244]Tissot_1888_VII
[
245]Cagnat_1888_110
[
246]Tissot_1888_XII
[
247]Ibid., XX
248]Schulten_19001901_457
249]Mercier_1885_329
[
250]Ibid., 329
[
251]Schulten_19001901_259
[
252]Cagnat_1896_5734
[
Militaire_1889_1171
[
254]Ibid., 11711172
[
255]Perrier_1883_5
[
256]Toussaint_1898_200
[
257]Cagnat_1893_203
[
258]Mercier_1887_474475
[
259]Ibid., 468
[
260]Toussaint_and_
Guneau_1907_322
[
[
262]Ibid., 404
[
263]Reboud_18831884_
1415
[
264]Mercier_1887_461462
[
265]Mercier_1885_566
[
266]Mercier_1888_96
[
267]Cagnat_1891_549
[
1905_188
[
269]Tissot_1885_257
[
270]BCA _1884_31
[
271]Schmidt_2001_11
272]Gunin_1908_165
273]Poulle_1878_383384
[
274]Wilkin_1900_126
[
275]Falbe_1833_55
[
276]Schulten_1902_140141
[
277]Ibid., 146
[
278]Ibid., 163, 165
[
279]EB11 CADASTRE
[
280]Borne limite: RNMSADC
1882, 314
[
281]Schulten_1902; Toutain_
1907; and Barthel_1911
[
282]BACTHS_1906_CXCI
[
283]Gsell_1928_13
[
284]Ibid., 15
[
285]Ibid., 1617
[
[
287]Poulle_18901891_374
[
288]Gurin_1862_I_220221
[
289]Saumagne_1929_
307308
[
1837_198199
[
291]Cagnat_1888_90
[
1851_340341
[
293]Domergue_1893_
144145
chapter 6
The Army Rebuilds Tebessa (First visited 1842)[1]

Tebessa, a garrison town that was the first headquarters of the Roman Third
Legion, has its own chapter for several reasons. It sits in a key location near
to the Tunisian border, and its site has probably been continuously occupied
since Roman times, not least because its Byzantine fort remained in excellent
condition, and other now useless buildings such as the theatre provided convenient building materials. A comprehensive collection of documents from the
Armys occupation, especially the extensive work done there by the Military
Engineers, allows us to chart what happened to some of her monuments,
almost year by year. They sometimes explain why the Army behaved as they
did, reflecting the various army attitudes toward the ancient monuments and
the antiquities, including inscriptions, discovered here.

The Site and its Monuments
Tebessa, the ancient Theveste, was enclosed in AD535 by Byzantine walls, built
by Solomon, who also restored the earlier basilica complex.[2] The Roman
enceinte had been completely destroyed by the Vandals, who had razed it
to the ground.[3] Solomon built strong walls,[4] which were rich in antiquities, and which the French could see were similar to the walls of Guelma and
Stif.[5] Roman buildings were of course used for these walls which, forming
an enceinte of 320m 280m, were smaller than their predecessors.[6] Some
monumental architecture went into his walls, and yet more was made part of
the defences. The most notable inclusion was the earlier Triumphal Arch of
Caracalla of AD214,[7] part of which became a watchtower, and had its passageways blocked.[8] It formed part of the fortifications,[9] but it was of stone, not
marble[10] perhaps another reason for its survival to this day.
The Byzantine reworking of the town was an attempt to keep a smaller population safe from predators, and it was still in use when the French arrived,
for it contained the Arab town.[11] As an indication of the quantities of ruins
still available for reuse, there might have been 40,000 inhabitants in the much
larger Roman town.[12] The basilica complex, well outside the Byzantine walls
but within the Roman ones, was a sturdy structure, and Solomon surrounded
it with its own strong wall, with fourteen towers.[13] It evidently served as
a kind of mini-fortress with gates, and was subsequently occupied by Arab
The Army rebuilds Tebessa
263
families.[14] Moll, a captain in the Gnie, surveying the ruins in 1860, uses stonetypes (rather than style) to distinguish between Roman monuments, and those
erected or reworked by Solomon.[15]
As drawn by Lieut-Gnral de Ngrier in 1842, it is clear that the Byzantine
enceinte was in a remarkably good condition. But an auxiliary fort, projecting
from its late Roman predecessor, was soon planned and, by 1852, the Byzantine
work was described by Gnral dArtois in his summary of Engineers work
throughout Algeria as in a poor state, yet nevertheless peut tre conserve
longtemps avec quelque entretien, grace aux fortes dimensions des matriaux superposs les uns sur les autres, presque partout sans mortier; although
some of the 56 cubic-metre blocks recourant ces vides ne se soutiennent que par un miracle dquilibre.[16] It seems, therefore, as if the French
abstracted some of the blocks from the Byzantine enceinte for their new
structures.
The monuments of Tebessa were noted well before the city was garrisoned
which it of course owed to its strategic location on a defensive line between
the Hodna and the sea.[17] This included the 32km of traceable ancient road
leading to Bir-Oum-Ali in Tunisia,[18] and prestigious ancient sites in the area,
some with the remains of Byzantine fortresses and churches.[19] Out on patrol
during 1842 in what was as yet unconquered territory, and far from safety, time
was taken to record the citys antiquities. Still occuped by Arabs, Tebessa was
first sketched by de Ngriers column, whilst encamped under the citys walls,
probably in order to show what needed doing in order to repair the fortifications for occupation. Time was also taken to explore the environs of Tebessa;
and eventually the Commandant du Gnie at Constantine wrote a 3-page letter to Charon, Colonel de Gnie at Algiers, detailing the finds and reproducing
the two inscriptions. Obviously from friend to friend (signed mille amitis),
and therefore demonstrating the antiquarian interests of the two officers, it is
three-quarters on the Tebessa remains, including the arc de triomphe, debout
et bien conserv. La pret de cette architecture de lordre Corinthien et la
richesse des dessins rappellent les beaux temps de Rome.[20] Perhaps with a
view to publication, Gnral de Ngrier himself wrote five pages of description
of the Roman city, with measurements of wall-heights and tower dimensions.
De Ngriers description appeared in the Moniteur (29 June 1842), noting inside
the town near the El-Kedim Gate a petit temple conserv tout entier dont
la forme et les dtails darchitecture rappellent la maison Carre de Nmes,
with monolithic columns in red marble. This was to be called the Temple of
Minerva, the best-preserved Roman temple in Algeria (Baedeker, 1911), and
it was a soap-factory, a canteen and a prison, amongst other uses,[21] before it
became the museum.[22]
264

chapter 6
The French Occupy the Site
The French Army faced three recurrent problems with Roman and Byzantine
enceintes. These are exemplified at Tebessa, the best-preserved of them all,[23]
probably because it had been continuously inhabited by the Arabs. The first is
that much of the stonework, especially in the towers of Tebessas enceinte, was
too unsteady to take artillery; and strengthening required demolition and the
scavenging of Roman blocks. Presumably there is a difference between what
looks solid to an archaeologist, and to an artillery officer. Moll assessed the
masonry in 1862, especially of the towers, to be dans un tat de conservation
remarquable, et il est facile de voir que lingnieur a mis beaucoup de soin
leur construction.[24]
The second problem was the need to deploy firearms right around the courtine, rather than just ballistae from the towers, as the Romans had done. This
necessitated protection for the soldiers that is, crenellations. How were these
to be provided? In 1858, it was proposed to dismantle completely stretches of
the Byzantine walls, and relay them more firmly; this was reckoned too expensive, so jointoyer avec soin le parement extrieur de ces murs that is, pointing with mortar seems to have been substituted. It seems possible that not
all the towers of the enceinte (see below) were put in order,[25] perhaps only
a few being refurbished to take artillery. As for a proposal to lower the height
of the walls for the soldiers to deploy their weapons over it, la vritable force
de la place de Tbessa doit consister dans son rduit, dont les maonneries
anciennes sont fort leves et coteux de percer des crneaux dans des murs
de pierre de taille de cette paisseur; et leur usage serait incommode. Il serait
prfrable de draser les murs actuels la hauteur des terre pleins, et de faire
les murs au dessus en maonnerie de mollons.[26]
The third problem concerned weighing up the possibility that an attacker
might approach the defences with cannon, in which case the stronger the
defences were the better. Tebessas position near to the Tunisian border
caused anxieties, and it is perhaps these which provoked the plan of 18523
to throw the Arabs out of the Kasbah (the old Byzantine fortress), to remake
the Roman wall there with antique blocks to a height of four metres, and to
establish a European colony outside the fort with water drawn through existing Roman pipes, as well as repairing an ancient aqueduct.[27] All this would
be easy: lancienne muraille bien quen assez mauvais tat de conservation,
peut encore prsenter un obstacle suffisant dans le cas dune attaque faite
par une troupe indigne gnralement sur les lieux; de la pierre de taille en
265
a bondance et pouvant tre mise immdiatement en oeuvre presque sans le

secours des tailleurs de pierre.[28] This accords with Lieut de Gnie Massons
Mmoire Militaire sur lExpedition de Tebessa en 1846, where he describes the
Byzantine enceinte at Tebessa, sketches what would need to be done to repair
it, and suggests using the Kasbah for troups, as well as refurbishing the water
conduit, and so on.[29]
In June 1841 the French bivouaced outside Tebessa, and the commandant
allowed half the officers at a time to visit the site.[30] Desvaux was charmed,
and was led around by local children who showed him the monuments,
including inscriptions.[31] He proclaimed that cette religion de lIslam vient
reconnatre la domination de ces Roumi qui, pour eux, sont les descendants
directs des fondateurs de la ville; cette religion chrtienne si belle, si charitable quand on ne la torture pas, vivra ct du mahomtisme dans les lieux
o elle florissait autrefois, le glorieux drapeau brillera sur ces ruines, pour
dire que, si quelque peuple peut marcher sur les traces des Romains, cest le
peuple franais![32] Desvaux and his three companions then stood and deciphered Solomons famous inscription.[33] In 1842 the French returned, and
made drawings of the site;[34] and the locals, we are assured, furent heureux
de trouver aide et protection en change de leur soumission nos armes.[35]
In that same year, Ngrier formally accepted the submission of the Arabs
here, and included copies of six important Latin inscriptions in his report
to Paris.[36]
Gnral Charon suggested in 1848 that the French army occupy Tebessa,
dont les communications avec le littoral traversera les trritoires des Maractas
et des Mannenchas, et laissera ainsi Guelma lOuest. Soukaras, on the BneTebessa road, 25 leagues from Bne, has good water, and les matriaux propres
aux constructions, tels que pierres chaux, moellons btir, pierres de taille,
y sont abondants...On trouve Mda-Ouzonch qui est lancienne Madaure
des ruines considrables et les matriaux de construction sont fort abondants lexception toutefois des longues pices de bois...Lemplacement de
lancienne cit serait trs propre pour une ville nouvelle que lon pouvait faire
trs rgulire. Guelma is similar, in that here also the Byzantine enceinte was
reused for the French defences: lenceinte du poste est forme dune muraille
crenele flanque de tours; elle est construite avec les matriaux trouves sur
place. Le poste militaire offre une surface de 5 hectares environ: Plusieurs
voies romaines aboutissaient autrefois Kalama...en parcourant le pays on
retrouve quelques vestiges de ces anciennes voies qui peuvent faciliter ltude
de voies nouvelles carrossables.[37]
266

chapter 6
Extensive Building Work Begins
In 1852 the enceinte was examined by an inspecting general, and could be used
en attendant quon puisse excuter lenceinte telle quelle est projete...malgr
son mauvais tat, peut tre conserve longtemps avec quelque entretien, grce
aux fortes dimensions des matriaux superposs les uns sur les autres, presque
partout sans mortier.[38] In fact, the Byzantine enceinte was not replaced, and
remains to this day. As always, money was apparently tight, indicated most
clearly by the result of discussions by the French engineers over what to do
with the Arch of Caracalla. In 1860 Moll considered Solomon had done easily
avoidable damage to the triumphal arch by simply building it into his walls
rather than projecting them on a slightly different heading: il transforma de
cette manire en porte de ville et tour de flanquement, ce bel difice dont
les restes devaient encore tre magnifiques. Vandalisme byzantin (quon
nous pardonne celle alliance de mots un peu barbare, cest le cas o jamais
de lemployer) que lingnieur de Justinien aurait pu viter facilement.[39]
A Gnie drawing of 1863 shows the state of the site around the Arch,[40] and
the following year it is referred to as a monument historique; and marked for
preservation. However, there was evidently a struggle over who would pay for
any work needed to preserve or move it the Army or the civil administration.
The Army case was that moving the Arch would disturb the fortifications:
le dplacement de cette partie de lenceinte intresse particulirement la
conservation dun monument historique et de lespace rserv aux constructions civiles tant trs reserr Tebessa, cest au service civile provoquer la
modification ou le dplacement de la partie 912 de lenceinte et en supporter les frais (underlined)![41] It stayed where it was, thereby saving the cost of
either removal elsewhere, or rebuilding the wall around it. The French then did
their best to restore it to its original state,[42] just as they did with the Temple
of Minerva, described by Fagnan in 1900 as un temple que lon dirait bti
dhier;[43] which it partly was for, up to 1880, la savante commission qui veille
la conservation de nos trsors archologiques na montr jusquici pour les
difices africains quun amour purement platonique.[44] But first, of course,
they had to throw out the Arab families living there.[45]
In the 1870s, the pace of engineering work increased. Whereas from 1865, on
sest content de mettre lenceinte byzantine labri de lescalade en y fermant
de nombreuses brches et en lui donnant partout une hauteur minimum de
6 mtres au dessus du chemin de ronde extrieur,[46] much more extensive
work was required, in order (for example) to lower the Roman Towers 9 & 12
to courtine level, because they were in any case overlooked. Between 1865 and
1871, the Byzantine enceinte was blocked up to improve security,[47] and by 1872
267
the Engineers were developing an amount of conservation consciousness, for

its towers were referred to as jusqu un certain point de vritables monuments
historiques.[48]
The Arch of Caracalla might have been saved, but building the modern
town involved demolishing many monuments, including doing more damage
to the amphitheatre, some blocks from which Solomon had already reused in
his defences;[49] the Arabs had reused others, and almost nothing was left of
the structure by the end of the 19th century.[50] Like so many Arab towns and
villages, Tebessa was surrounded by gardens on three sides when the French
arrived. These were soon demolished,[51] and the resident population moved
where necessary so the French could undertake building work, and plant their
own gardens which also housed some antiquities.[52] This was both good and
bad: good that such antiquities were protected; but bad for the uninscribed
blocks from the towers of the Byzantine enceinte which were filched to build
such garden walls.[53] Some antiquities went into the nearby settlement of
Zaoua, whither some Arabs had been forced to move because ltablissement
des Franais et les alignements des rues ont dpossds de tout ou partie de
leurs maison.[54] But then the local inhabitants were not considered important, if considered at all. Indeed, an 1863 French plan of the site shows the
monuments but not the houses of the local population.[55] Nor does Molls
1860 assessment and description of the plentiful Roman ruins take them into
account.[56] For him, they represented the backward past: it was Islam as a religion that prevented improvement or progress, but things had now changed.
After all, this would be the mission civilisatrice in action: La prosprite et
labondance y renatront; ce sera le travail lent, mais infaillible de notre civilisation moderne. Telle est la mission glorieuse de la France. Quel honneur
davoir t un des pionniers obscurs de cette uvre de rgnration![57] Not
that many Arab houses were necessarily demolished immediately: instead
they were simply avoided, Sriziat noting in 1886 that the Roman monuments
dominent comme des gants les masures arabes qui forment la plus grande
partie de la ville.[58] Some clearance was evidently necessary, however, for
those hovels in the Basilica complex so completely filled it when the French
occupied the site[59] that it was impossible to discover the characteristics of
the basilica/temple/church without removing them. This happened in 1888
1892 so that the basilica and its surrounding structures could be investigated,
but large parts of the church itself had already gone. So completely had they
smothered some parts that even the portico had been obscured: Il faut dire,
puisque jen suis sur ce sujet, que ces huttes arabes encombraient compltement, non seulement le temple, mais ses abords et ses dpendances; aussi ce
nest que plus tard que lon dcouvrit le portique dentre dont il reste debout,
268
chapter 6
et bien conserve, une longueur de 8 10 mtres. Ce portique sert actuellement

dentre un marabout sis dans la rue Caracalla.[60]
Not that visitors were impressed by the new French town, erected at the
expense of the Roman ruins which once scattered the site. The modern town,
which is within the walls of the Byzantine citadel, boasts nothing of interest
save a church built out of the ancient ruins.[61] The nothing of interest is an
indication of how much was destroyed by the French, for Leo Africanus in 1526
describes several impressive remains,[62] and Desvaux was amazed by what he
saw in 1841: cest incroyable! a crve les yeux.[63] Two Roman piscines were
discovered in 1886.[64]
Outside the town there was a Roman road, showing in some sections wheelruts from the carts which had fetched stone from any of several quarries in
the vicinity.[65] The French certainly used quarried stone (see below), but
the ruins were not to last, because they represented less work and time to be
expended than cutting and carting fresh stone. By 1855 civilian contractors
were at work erecting buildings for the military, and colonists to do trade
with the soldiers.[66] In the 1860s and 1870s the Byzantine walls were still in
relatively good condition,[67] including fifty surviving towers but these were
regularly pulled down for housing and garden-wall materials,[68] in spite of the
caveats of the Military Engineers, mentioned above. Indeed, there were plenty
of ruins for reuse all around, Fraud in 1874 estimating that the ancient town
housed 30/40,000 people, whereas the modern one had no more than 2,000.[69]
But the Gnie still used ancient remains in its structures, as entries in CIL VIII
indicate: a threshold near to the barracks (#1853), and others discovered when
Arab houses were demolished (#2005, 2017).
Tebessa was the centre of a well-settled area, so the ruins in the environs
suffered as well. Bosredon mentions inscriptions at Bir-Oum-Ali, on the
route between Gafsa and Tebessa, but doesnt bother to describe the ruins,[70]
which had largely disappeared by 1908;[71] Sriziat notices the ruins of Old
Tebessa, but building fortifications, and vingt ans doccupation franaise
ont fait disparatre plus de ruines que deux sicles sous les rgimes prcdents.[72] At Cheria, between Khenchela and Tebessa, a complete Byzantine
fort had disappeared since the 1880s, and another one at Henchir-Metkids
in the same time-frame: Les ruines des environs de Tasbent, An-el-Ouksir,
An-Kiah, Dehiret-Tasbent, Souma-Tasbent, noffrent plus que des vestiges peu
apparents: les pierres en ont t utilises par les indignes la construction de
leurs gourbis. At Henchir-Sed an entrepreneur carried off the materials, as
also happened to other groups of ruins in the area.[73]
269
Destruction by Ledger
As already noted, the Army archives for Tebessa are extensive, giving details of
building work, and of the destruction this often involved. This site, like many
others, was chosen by the French for strategic reasons, and strengthening
the defences was both important and urgent. It was also complicated by a
monument, the Arch of Caracalla, which even the French army did not have
the chutzpah to demolish, the more so since several of her officers were alert
to its value. Thanks to the archival documentation, we can follow almost year
by year the decision-making that left some parts of the antique site intact, and
demolished others destruction by ledger, indeed, and by military vandals.
Hron de Villefosse, visiting the town in 1880, gives a balanced account of the
depradations committed by the French on the monuments. Noticing also the
incompetent building work that further damaged the walls, he can nevertheless
point to some officers, for il ne faut pas oublier tout ce que larchologie et
lhistoire doivent de reconnaissance dautres officiers de ce corps distingu,
surtout en ce qui concerne les monuments africains.[74] He was evidently
being diplomatic, for the editor of the Corpus, who visited at the same time,
rails against the bloody-minded obstructionism of the military there.[75]
For the French army, pitting themselves against Byzantine building work
required determination and calculation. Moll, wishing to apporter une
pierre ldifice historique de notre Colonie africaine,[76] made the following
calculations for the building of Solomons enceinte, after giving dimensions of
the work, including the foundations:[77]
On obtient donc en comptant: 1 journe de travailleur pour 5m3 de
fouilles; 7 journes de travailleur pour 1m3 de maonnerie de lenceinte;
9 journes, cause de llvation, pour 1m3 de maonnerie des tours.
1 Fouilles enceinte...3,570m 13,720 journes tours 900m 3,180; 2 maonnerie enceinte 26,180m3 183,260 tours...12,960m3 116,640; 3 Taille des
pierres, environ 70,000m3, en faisant observer que toutes les pierres de
taille provenaient des ruines de lancienne ville et que, par suite, beaucoup dentre elles navaient besoin que dune simple bauche pour
pouvoir tre employes: soit 35,000 journes [total of above] 335,800
journes. / II a donc fallu, tout au plus, deux campagnes pour parachever
louvrage. En mettant 260 journes de travail par campagne, 520 pour les
deux, le nombre de travailleurs employs par jour est donc de 648, plus
150 200 ouvriers employs aux ouvrages militaires intrieurs (caserne,
magasin). On a, ds lors, employ 800 850 travailleurs pendant deux ans
(539540). / Si lon considre que ce travail se fit partout en mme temps
270
chapter 6
et que larme ne comprenait que 12 15,000 hommes, il faut convenir

que ces ouvriers taient des indignes ou des esclaves maures.
If this seems at first sight a useless piece of back-of-the-envelope calculation, it
is in fact very propos: the French were faced with rebuilding tasks identical to
those the Byzantines had experienced. They were also using spolia, and were
perennially short both of muscle and of skilled craftsmen. Experienced masons
were indeed needed, since several of the ancient courtines and towers had
to be both underpinned and strengthened for modern artillery. Molls apparently sketchy calculations make very good sense when set against the estimates made by the Military Engineers for work at Tebessa. Some of the ancient
blocks needed both adjustment and realignment,[78] and the work required
for them was extensive, and detailed in the Gnie documents in Vincennes. It
is excerpted here in note form, and demonstrates that large quantities of old
blocks were reused in the process:
Etat estimatif des dpenses faire aux fortifications, projets pour 18623,
quotes for bauchage pierres de ruines, 230 cubic metres. Quotes for
demolition of a tower, plus another 150 cubic metres of pierres de ruine
for the courtine. Similar accounts are frequent from these years, from
18601.
Apostilles du Directeur 30 December 1863, 5: a suggestion to put the
south faade of the arch in the enceinte et que sur les trois autres faces il
serait dgag et dbarrasse des constructions byzantines qui obstruent
les arceaux latraux.
Etat estimatif, Projets pour 18645: Pour lescarpe du bastion, Pierre de
taille de ruines: 380 cubic metres; ditto escarpe de la courtine 9-10-11 for
730 cubic metres; ditto pour lescarpe de louvrage en cornes 11-570 cubic
metres in all, 1680 cubic metres of pierres de taille de ruines! This is
distinguishable from newly cut stone, which is called pierre de taille
lEtat. Same area: totals of 2045, 1275 and 103 cubic metres for unspecified
parements. All this work required dmolition de lancien mur de la
courtine 9-10-11 jusqu louvrage en cours, and that itself entailed dmolition et bardage de maonnerie de pierres de taille to the tune of 700
cubic metres, and another 140 for the ouvrage cornes.
Mmoire sur les projets pour 18645, 6: proposal to deal with the massif de la tour 11 pour isoler larc de triomphe de Caracalla et lenvelopper
dun ouvrage a cornes. They could site riflemen on top of the arch, but
this would be difficult to access. A separate proposal is to isolate the monument, a solution already agreed to by the Commandant du Gnie, and
271
put off only for economic reasons: Depuis cette poque dimportants
travaux de consolidation et de dblais excuts sur les fonds des budgets
civils ont permis de dgager compltement le pied du monument, de raccorder lancien sol romain avec la ville, la rue de rempart et le terrain
extrieur...Nous ferons remarquer en outre, quen appuyant lenceinte
au monument, on avait dmolir, dans un avenir peut tre peu loign,
les extremits des deux courtines neuves construire, que le prix des terrains va chaque jour en slevant Tbessa. But even if isolating the arch
would be cheaper, this did not happen. In projects they are now using far
more antique stones than new ones: Maonnerie de pierres de taille
lEtat: Livres 141.5; ditto de ruines 3048.44; Taille plane, rustique 2013.78;
Transport of pierre de ruines: 1429.83; Total: 6633.20 Livres.
Etat Sommaire des projets pour 18701, 2: work began on the wall in
1862, when courtines 78 and 89 on sostitua cette partie de la vieille
enceinte un mur compltement neuf. 3: Ministerial decision of 9 March
1868 to arm the place.
Reworking the ancient fortifications was expensive. Thus the Etat estimatif
des dpenses faire aux fortifications, projets pour 18623, quotes, p.1, for 230
cubic metres of reworking of stones from the ruins (bauchage de pierres de
ruines) for the demolition and rebuilding of a tower, plus another 150 cubic
metres of pierres de ruine for the courtine. Work began on the wall in 1862,
when courtines 78 and 89 were demolished, and a completely new section of wall closed the gap, following a ministerial decision of 9 March 1868
to strengthen the fortifications. Indeed, just how seriously the three problems listed above were taken may have been something of a moveable feast,
depending on local circumstances. Thus when heavy rains provoked a landslip
which brought down a 14.5 metre stretch of Byzantine wall (courtine sections
1112) at Tebessa on 4 March 1880, the ancient blocks were put back exactly
as they were suggesting either that funds were very short, or that Byzantine
walls still provided an adequate defence. The second is the more likely, because
the Byzantine enceinte was improved by the addition of a chemin de ronde
on top in 1878[79] an addition the Engineers had been requesting for twenty
years.
The Arch of Caracalla remained a problem; the Director of Engineers suggested in 1862 incorporating its south facade in the enceinte, et que sur les
trois autres faces il serait dgag et dbarrasse des constructions byzantines
qui obstruent les arceaux latraux;[80] but the Commandant Suprieur in
the following year notes that any alterations must relate to the conservation
of this historic monument. This was the more pressing because the engineers
272
chapter 6
projected encasing the arch within a new star-shaped defence (ouvrage

cornes). If this was bluff, it seems to have worked, for funds were found to
isolate the Arch, and this proposition was evidently sold because it was the
cheaper option, given the rising price of land in the area. Given the need for
defence, the Gnie evidently produced some strong arguments and they
were used to being heeded.[81]
The rising price of land in the area is matched by the large sums for labour,
much of it difficult, grappling with ancient blocks. The heavy equipment
needed to handle such massive weights would have been extensive, and we
do not know if it was locally available. Nevertheless, by this date some officers were evidently becoming less than comfortable with the extensive
damage their work afforded the ancient monuments, and the archives indicate this unease. Indeed, this solution was projected with some trepidation,
because ces tours, souvenirs de loccupation romaine, sont jusqu un certain
point de vritables monuments historiques, quil convient de ne pas dnaturer plus quil nest absolument ncssaire. Included in the documentation
are pen and wash plans and elevations of both these towers, both of which
have already been modified for canon embrasures, and the note that the stonework to be used as parement nu de pierres de ruines, rustique pour surfaces
planes.[82]
When we put such costs together with the 400 cubic metres of antique
blocks reworked and reused in 18623 alone (see above), the continuing scale
of destruction, year after year, is obviously gigantic and these figures are only
for military reuse: equally high figures are generated by the buildings erected
to service the needs of the colonists. The large cost of maonnerie indicates
reworking of Roman blocks, while the large cost of transport suggests that
these did not come from Tebessa itself. A good candidate for a source of large
Roman blocks is Kalaa, some 37 miles to the north-west, where in 1852 les pentes jusqu la plaine sont couvertes de ruines Romaines. There are the ruins of
a late Roman fort, and between Kalaa and Ain Ksiba a Roman monument with
walls still two to three metres in height and, nearby, a Marabout au milieu de
vastes ruines Romaines, qui ont servi le construire.[83]
By the 1880s, it at first appears that the wind had changed in favour of preserving the monuments at Tebessa, but this was probably just a cost-saving
measure witness the notes of the Chef du Gnie in 1887, regarding the
Byzantine infill to the Roman theatre, using column-shafts some one metre in
diameter. This, he avers,
273
constitue sans contredit une des parties les plus pittoresques de lenceinte
et prsente, au point de vue archologique; un spcimen des plus intressants des procds expditifs de construction employs par Solomon
pour se retrancher dans Tbessa...Les piliers du thtre sont en mauvais tat. A ce titre, ils sont conserver prcieusement, conformment
toutes les instructions laisses dans la place par les Inspecteurs gnraux
du Gnie, qui ont toujours recommand de ne pas enlever lenceinte
son caractre actuel. Cest pour nous conformer lesprit de ces instructions que nous avons laiss subsister non seulement les filires du thatre, mais encore les colonnes accumules par les byzantins. Du reste, ces
colonnes psent environ 5 6000 kilogrammes chacune et leur enlvement entranerait une dpense assez considrable.[84]
Given the history of the defences at Tebessa, recounted above, this officers
piety is touching; and in spite of any desire on the part of Inspectors General to
retain the monuments (which is not reflected in the archives), much was lost.
The Arch of Caracalla, the Temple of Minerva on the old Forum, and Solomons
Byzantine citadel (with some of the later additions removed), survive today
sentinels to the change to a civil administration in 1870, with a museums and
collecting policy, rather than to any change of heart on the part of the French
army.
18421875
[ ]
2 Moll_18601861_210211
[ ]
3 Maitrot_1909_135
[ ]
4 Graham_1902_46
[ ]
5 Desvaux_1909_665666
[ ]
6 Moll_1861_204
[ ]
7 Girol_1866_183184
[ ]
8 Fraud_1874_439
[ ]
9 Moll_1860_74
[ ]
10 Ibid., 55
[ ]
11 Ibid., 28
[ ]
12 Fraud_1878B
[ ]
13 Ibid., 438
[ ]
14 Girol_1866_209210
[ ]
15 Moll_18581859_79
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
17 Cagnat_1909B_134135
[ ]
18]Bosredon_1878_3
19]Gunin_1908_97
[ ]
20 SHD Gnie, 1H402
[ ]
21 Maitrot_1909_71
[ ]
22 Gsell_1901_I_133134
[ ]
23 Cagnat_1909B_136137
[ ]
24 Delair_1875, 12930
[ ]
25 Hron_de_Villefosse_
1880_10
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
1880_15
[ ]
28 SHD Gnie 1H878
[ ]
29 SHD Gnie 1H 403
[ ]
30 Desvaux_1909_660
1 June 1841
[ ]
31 Ibid., 668
[ ]
32 Ibid., 664665
33]Ibid., 667
34]SHD, Gnie 8.1 Tebessa
18421875
[ ]
35 Moll_1861_219
[ ]
36 Gsell_1922_287
[ ]
37 SHD H229
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
39 Moll_1860_74
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
41 Ibid.
[ ]
42 Sriziat_1886_4849
[ ]
43 Fagnan_1900_90
[ ]
1880_20
[ ]
45 Ibid., 2023
[ ]
18421875
274
47]Ibid.
48]Ibid.
[ ]
49 Moll_1860_41
[ ]
1880_1415
[ ]
51 Moll_1860_75
[ ]
1880_10
[ ]
53 Ibid., 26
[ ]
54 Fraud_1874_439
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
56 Moll_1860_28
[ ]
57 Moll_18581859_8586
[ ]
58 Sriziat_1886_49
[ ]
59 Maitrot_1909_56970
chapter 6
60]Ibid., 7071
61]EB11_26_487
[ ]
62 Leo_Africanus_
1896_710
[ ]
63 Desvaux_1909_659
[ ]
64 Le_Courrier_de_
Tlemcen_1886_
5_November
[ ]
65 Maitrot_1909_56
[ ]
66 Barbier_1855_178179
[ ]
67 Delair_1875_12930
[ ]
68 Moll_18601861_199
[ ]
69 Fraud_1874_436
[ ]
70 Bosredon_1878_10
[ ]
71 Gunin_1908_94
[ ]
72 Sriziat_1886_3435
73]Gunin_1908_109,
114116, 112, 126
[ ]
1880_11
[ ]
75 CIL VIII 217
[ ]
76 Moll_1860_26
[ ]
77 Maitrot_1909_141142
[ ]
18601
[ ]
79 SHD cf. Gnie 1H878
[ ]
18421875
[ ]
81 Ibid.
[ ]
82 Ibid.
[ ]
83 SHD MR882 item 2
[ ]
84 SHD Gnie 1H878
chapter 7
Building European Towns from the 1840s

Telle est la puissance naturelle de la disposition gographique des lieux,
que les Franais, renouvelant en Afrique lentreprise conqurante et
colonisatrice du peuple-roi, ont d, dans le plus grand nombre de cas,
occuper les mmes campements que les Romains, habiter les mmes
villes, rveiller des souvenirs et rajeunir des noms oublis depuis quatorze sicles presque partout les monuments encore debout de la conqute romaine ou des ruines accumules sur le sol...En vain quelques
gnraux conseillrent dabandonner les anciennes villes et den fonder
de nouvelles mieux appropries aux besoins et aux srets de la civilisation moderne; ces conseils ne purent triompher de la tradition, plus fidle
interprte de la topographie. Une ville est un effet de la nature autant que
de la volont humaine.[1] [1865]
Frisch confirmed Duvals observation in 1899:
La question dAfrique nest pas une question dexpditions, cest une
affaire dtablissements; cest, en un mot, une question de moellons. Les
Romains lavaient envisage ainsi, et leur domination est crite sur le sol,
parsem de voies romaines et de constructions de toute espce. Nous ne
serons matres du pays quen suivant leurs traces, cest--dire en commenant par nous tablir solidement l o nous sommes et en faisant des
routes pour communiquer avec nos tablissements de lintrieur et en les
rendant ainsi de vritables (et non point dillusoires) bases doprations
pour la guerre lointaine, si elle est ncessaire.[2]
And indeed, the mark the French made on the land was by building towns,
roads and railways, as well as extensive agricultural holdings. It is one of the
themes of this book that the Romans had shown them the way:1 as ThierryMieg wrote with pardonable exaggeration, Pas une ville moderne, pas un
village, qui ne repose sur des fondations romaines...on a pris le sage parti,
lorsquon veut fonder un centre de colonisation ou doccupation, de chercher
les traces des Romains, et de btir sur leurs ruines. On sen est toujours bien
1 Africa Romana X 1992: Civitas: lorganizzazione dello spazio urbano nelle province romane
del Nord Africa e nella Sardegna.
276
chapter 7
trouv.[3] What is more, such ancient settlements survived in startlingly large

numbers: a census in 1883 tant dans la commune mixte que dans le cercle de
Sada found nearly 100 villes, villages ou hameaux antiques,[4] so there were
the remains of several thousands scattered over North Africa.

European Town Plans
One feature of colonialism in Algeria as elsewhere was the desire to live in

European-style houses on European-style streets, eventually to be provided
with sewerage, tapped water and street lighting. These I shall call European
towns (because that is what they looked like), and this was the fashion in which
the Army laid out their towns. The colonisers soldiers, administrators, towndwelling colonists keeping shops did not live with the natives; and towns
developed with European and Arab quarters. The majority of Arab towns (and
a good many of their villages) were built on top of Roman ruins, not only for
shelter and re-use of materials, but also because of the water supply that was
invariably nearby. This fact is important for our theme. Laying out European
streets for European-style houses (and then the various mod. cons) required
deep foundations which disturbed antiquities much more than did most Arab
constructions. It was normal for European houses to have cellars and hence
deep foundations; very abnormal for Arab houses in Algeria.
In the early years of the occupation the French Army was not in the business
of building mosques, but church worship was considered important for troops
and settlers. In the early decades, therefore, the make-and-mend policy for
re-using the past was easily accomplished by simply using mosques, at first
without much internal conversion. Although this was not always as brutal
as it sounds (for there were plenty of ruinous mosques that could be used)
conversions often made short work of what was there before. Thus at Announa
in 1866, Carteron was shown the Kasbah and Mosque cest--dire lglise et
la forteresse.[5] At Inchla, the church may have been converted directly into a
fortress.[6]
The regular street-layouts of French towns of post-mediaeval centuries
contrast completely with their mediaeval configurations, which were more
akin to traditional North African towns. Some new grid-pattern layouts in
France date from the 16th and 17th centuries (usually just small sections of
towns), and most from the 18th and 19th centuries, when hygiene and traffic
conspired to demolish most sets of mediaeval town walls. The French took
these modernising ideas with them to North Africa. They were never interested
in living in Arab quarters, let alone ordinary Arab houses, so built their own;
277
and, of course, they needed town (or village) walls for defence. Hence the
re-introduction of the grid pattern into North Africa2 where the Romans had
already implanted it; thus at Stif slvent les constructions civiles, coupes
par des rues qui se croisent perpendiculairement.[7] When it was suggested to
a Military Engineers officer at Philippeville that the French layout was much
inferior to the underlying Roman one because it fought against the contours
rather than adapting to them, he replied that the French system was better: but
Tout le monde ne sera pas de son avis. Lamour des lignes droites et des angles
droits, avec le dfaut dtudes pratiques, ont produit de bien mauvais rsultats
dans les crations franaises![8]
In all cases it would have been impossible simply to rebuild Roman towns,
because they were by now mostly blocks strewn around the undergrowth; and
although conversions could sometimes find uses for Roman monuments, most
of these were as far removed from contemporary French as they were from
Arabic life temples, theatres, baths, circuses, nymphaea. Pellissier found
French engineers too systematic, and certainly insensitive to what they
found, but rather ont mis cette malheureuse ville sur le lit de Procuste, taillant
et coupant sans tre arrts par aucune considration.[9] Many of the alterations wrought by the French, as well as some illustrations of the ruins, are to be
found in Algerias abundant iconography.3

Building with Ruins
As we have already seen, the dilemma facing any builders in Algeria was
finding a cheap and convenient source of materials, given the dearth of good
roads. Shipping in such materials from metropolitan France would have been
prohibitively costly, although some wood, and pre-constructed knock-down
blockhouses did indeed come by sea. Nor was the continually improving
transport infrastructure to give respite to the ruins, since building that
infrastructure required ever more materials the larger it got. So if scholarly and
museological sentiment were against the destruction of ruins, builders were all
for it. Large projects were in the hands of the Military Engineers, the Ponts et
Chausses, or civilian commercial contractors, who were responsible for great
and growing destruction even if, in a few individual cases, they saved some
antiquities for the scholars, perhaps to keep them quiet, or to keep them in
2 Oulebsir 1992, 100102 and following plates for French use of Roman grid layouts in their new
towns and villages.
3 Esquer 2002, for Matharels lithographs: #700 Cherchel from the sea, #708 Stora, #710 Bne
from the ruins of Hippone, #714 Saida with the fort of Abd-el-Kader.
278
chapter 7
their debt. Azan suggests4 that the desire to conserve the monuments of the
past arose (bien tard pour beaucoup de plus belles cits!) when pacification
was well advanced; but desire, as we continue to observe, is less than fulfilment.
Les maons et les entrepreneurs de travaux publics convertissent en
moellons et en cailloutis tout ce que leur fournissent les ruines, quils exploitent
sans droits et sans discernement, observed the Archaeological Society in
Constantine in 1878.[10] There were even newspaper campaigns against the
destruction, La Dpche Tunisienne reporting in 1900 to its indulgent readers
that Les dgts ont t arrts le jour mme de la publication de la lettre que
nous avons insre, et lentrepreneur aura rpondre du dlit qui a t commis
sous sa responsabilit.[11] But newspapers also carried advertisements for
property, such as one near Tunis in 1889, which included Nombreuses ruines
romaines.[12] Discounting an interest in the picturesque, we can be sure that
this is an oblique reference to the facilities available on site.
Chiefly concerned with public works,5 ruins destroyed by entrepreneurs
went into roads, bridges and railways.[13] The building of a railway near the
Oued bou Heurtma in 1880 had local ruins devastated for several months;[14] a
road to Guelma in 1888 swallowed many funerary antiquities.[15] There was no
point in having a road without the necessary bridges, so a Byzantine fortress
(still standing in 1856) went to build the bridge at Halk el Menzel.[16]
The relationship between ruins and new building work could sometimes be
incestuous. At El Djem, the exterior was apparently largely intact until c.1695.[17]
Yet in 1902, compounding the destruction, it was agreed that the rubble
extracted from digging in the amphitheatre would make up the hardcore for
the new railway station[18] and presumably clearing out those stones of no
interest we have already encountered on several occasions. Shops set against
the structure had recently been destroyed, and wire stretched across the
entrances to prevent stone-robbing,[19] because the locals liked the stone, and
took it for their own buildings.[20] This presumably explains the disappearance
of le tour des murailles et une infinit de ruines which Filippi noted in
1826.[21]

French-Occupied Sites and their Transformation
As already explained in Chapter 3, at first because of the continuing lack of

security in various parts of Algeria, we cannot expect (nor do we find) and
change of heart over the continuing destruction of antiquities. But the proof
4 Azan 1936, 471.
5 Franc 1928, 321330 for such works in the 1840s.
279
of an endemic nonchalance is to be seen in the relatively safe centres of Le Kef

and Sousse where, in spite of some museological activity, large quantities of
Roman material continued to be lost.

Orlansville (Settled 1843)

Lgosme ou lintrt particulier lont emport sur lintrt gnral: chacun a cru devoir sapproprier les objets les plus rares; statuettes en bronze,
cames, anneaux, bracelets, armes; mdailles, tout a disparu. On serait
port croire que de nouveaux Vandales avaient pass par la![22] [1850]
Immediately recognised as the site of a large Roman settlement, building work

for the French occupation uncovered large quantities of antique remains, some
of them standing to 6m, but completely buried.[23] But they did not last long:
Pontier, in the above quotation, demonstrates how little time it took for the
French to strip this site of portable antiquities, just as the large blocks vanished
into new French constructions.[24] As always, of course, speed was of the
essence. Bugeaud had made a rendezvous with Gentil (travelling from Mosta
ganem) at this site in 1842,[25] no doubt recognising its strategic importance, and
he wanted the work pushing forward fast: Grosse entreprise qui demandait
de grands travaux, dont il voulait soccuper, toute affaire cessante.[26] Indeed,
when it was settled, the soldiers congratulated themselves on the site, for Les
Romains, comme vous le savez, monsieur, choisissaient merveille leur point
de dfense.[27] Canrobert believed that the idea of building directly on top of a
Roman town was, in the 19th century, a new idea.[28]
The initial rush was to fortify the site for 1843 campaigning, when Gnral
de La Moricire was also trying to secure a line of forts near Tiaret, en relevant
aussi des ruines romaines.[29] When the batallion of zouaves moved out on
1 May, Colonel Cavaignac was put in charge, sur lemplacement de lancienne
colonie romaine connue sous le nom de Castellum Mauritanicum.[30] Even
though les chasseurs firent loffice de maons, de charpentiers et de couvreurs to hurry up the building with winter approaching, Cavaignac himself
was housed in a wood-and-tar-paper building.[31]
As well as ruins, limestone suitable for making mortar was found nearby, and
a tileworks established[32] tiles being one element of Roman antiquity usually
too damaged to reuse. They also got a Roman reservoir working again.[33] The
Arabs had not settled here, so it was easy to establish European-style roads in
the town ce que lon navait pas vu depuis les Romains.[34] And by 1855 it was
une ville toute franaise, with everything the Army needed hospital, barracks, stables, shops etc and luckily les fouilles ncessites par la construction
de la ville ont amen plusieurs dcouvertes prcieuses.[35] Indeed, some
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of these structures were presque entirement achevs by 1844, when the

European civilian population was around 500.[36]
Strategically, this settlement would secure the road between Algiers
and Oran, and also the shore, because Tns, some 50km distant, was also
occupied.[37] This also was once a Roman town, and was still picturesque; but
most remains vanished when the Gnie set up lime kilns. As at Orlansville,
the new inhabitants simply dug up the old town, and built the new town with
its remains.[38] Cat, in 1882, knew there was no point in going there for antiquities, for Tns depuis longtemps occupe par nos troupes, a vu son sol remu
en tous sens.[39] The French sappers had to build a road from Tns to get their
carts there. Troops then began building work at both sites:
Des baraques, des puits, des ouvrages de fortification et des magasins
permanents pour larme; on construisait des fours pain et chaux,
une tuilerie; on transportait des bois; on crait des jardins; on fouillait les
ruines romaines, dont on employait les matriaux, et on transformait les
vieilles citernes en caves, en magasins et en prisons.[40]
Because of the extent of French destruction, we cannot know how much
was lost. This classical site was known by the Arabs as the Idols (El-Esnam)
because of the large numbers of antique statues to be seen there,[41] or perhaps
because of late antique figured funerary stelai.[42] Other sites had the same toponym for the same reason.[43]

Lambessa (First Visited during 1844)
Lambessa, the HQ of the Legio III Augusta,6 contained in 17241725 beaucoup
de statues et une foule dautres choses merveilleuses.[44] The Arabs had lived
amongst the ruins for centuries, constructing a mosque which made use of
temple ruins.[45] Still in 1845, Ces ruines sont presque vierges encore,[46] and
Rozet and Carette judged Lambessa the most important site in Algeria,[47]
partly because Linsouciance arabe et le climat de lAlgrie ont prserv ces
souvenirs du pass comme aurait pu le faire la lave dHerculanum ou le cendre
de Pompi.[48] Rebuilt structures included the small mosque, in which an inscription was found (CIL VIII #2722). The site in fact included three military
camps, for the Legio III Augusta (81 AD), the auxiliary cohorts, and Hadrians
later camp (c.129 AD).
6 Bnabou 1976, 557564 for the three garrison towns of III Augusta Ammaedra, Theveste
and Lambessa.
281
It was first visited by the French (including Commandant Delamare) in

February 1844, to several expressions of wonder at this largely intact legionary
fortress and complex, and was quickly studied by Boissonet and Carbuccia.[49]
As early as 1847, two lieutenants were suggesting Batna as a better strategic
location for French troops,[50] and also expressing their vifs regrets sur la
ngligeance qui laisse tomber les ruines et disperser ces restes dune poque
qui nest plus. It should become une ferme rgimentaire organise sur une
vaste chelle.[51] A French village would soon be established here, founded
in 1848 as an agricultural colony. This was settled by convicts deported from
France, who proved awkward, and difficult to handle; living in sheds built from
the antiquities, many of them refused to work, and insisted on their right to
military rations. The village reused many stones from the ancient site the
Mairie, for example, was built with stones taken from the Septizonium nymphaeum. This was 7km distant from the camp, along a road rich in ancient
villas.[52]
At this juncture, archaeology conflicted with political requirements. Given
ever-increasing numbers of prisoners at Lambessa (including des victimes du
coup dEtat de dcembre, coupables davoir dfendu la Constitution rpublicaine contre une bande daventuriers sans scrupule[53]), the administration
considered that having deportees on the loose was not satisfactory. Their
swift resolution to the problem was the decision to build a prison for political detainees[54] directly over part of the site of Lambessa, beginning in 1851,
using the antique blocks lying all around. Saint-Arnaud, a great admirer of the
beauties of the site, apparently tried to get its location changed, and surely did
not intend its final placement.[55] Renier, meanwhile, recognised Lambessa as
likely to be exceptionally rich in inscriptions,[56] but could only hope that clearance of the site would not destroy too much. Much of the work was done by
Arab prisoners,[57] and also by political detainees.[58] The Foreign Legion also
helped clearing the site, their contribution by 1851 estimated at 14,000 mandays.[59] As a result, by 1855 lantique cit a t dgage de la plus grande partie des dcombres sous lesquels elle tait ensevelie, and plenty of antiquities
were still lying around in 1880.[60]
For Renier, digging was necessary to uncover decent inscriptions, for he
knew that the treasures would lie underground, those on the surface often
being badly eroded.[61] But he had no funds for such an excavation, hence
his dependence on scavenging during the site clearance already mentioned.
It is of course an irony that the prisoners brought to Lambessa to inhabit a
prison the construction of which had destroyed such important parts of the
site should now be turning it over to uncover perhaps fewer inscriptions than
had gone into its building. Luckily, one of the political prisoners has left an
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account of the dig there: Leurs tmoignages se rvlent essentiels quand ils
portent sur des monuments qui ont aujourdhui peu prs disparu.[62] In 1861,
Thierry-Mieg saw a detachment of engineers bringing tombs to light, and sur
le vaste emplacement de cette ville, jadis puissante et prospre, on ne voit que
quelques champs de pommes de terre plants par les colons franais.[63] By
1865, statues and other antiquities had been gathered into a makeshift museum
in the Praetorium,[64] although their exact provenance was often unclear[65] a
sloppiness which continued with later speculative excavations.[66] When the
Emperor visited in June of that year, he recommended particular attention be
paid to the Roman roads and the layout of the legionary camp.[67]
So the Maison Centrale de Correction was indeed built. With an astounding genius for destruction, the prison using the best blocks that could be
found on the site was erected diagonally over parts of the Roman camp itself,
especially the south-west corner.[68] This destroyed parts of it,[69] especially the
barracks,[70] in some cases right down to the foundations.[71] Perhaps this was
done so that the blocks perceived as easiest to reuse could be close to hand.
The Engineers refurbished the old Roman water conduits, found to be in good
repair, to supply the prison.[72] As elsewhere in Algeria, destructive works such
as the building of the prison could hope to throw up inscriptions, and a rich
crop is listed in CIL VIII (e.g. #2728, 2749), although the Capitaine du Gnie also
placed one in the faade of his house (#2729). In 1852 Renier duly waited for
some to be unearthed[73] and, indeed, he had found nearly 200 inscriptions,[74]
to put with the 800 he had discovered the previous year.[75] Colonel Carbuccia
was on hand in 1850 and, like the prefect in the school playing-ground, had
(destructive) work by the prisoners suspended while Renier was searching for
material, and lent three companies of his legionnaires to help, and do the digging where necessary.[76]
Indeed, Renier had already written to the Minister in 1851 warning him of
how many inscriptions would be destroyed for building work unless some
action was taken,[77] as well as advising on statues found near Lambessa which
he thought should go to Paris.[78] He predicted correctly that many of them
would be destroyed, not least because in those few regions such as this where
there was no limestone[79] for making mortar, convenient marble slabs (as
well, no doubt, as statues, which were easy to break up) went so easily into the
kilns.[80] To add insult to injury, the workmen brought in to build the prison
also constructed their own houses from the antiquities,[81] as also happened
in the small nearby town of Verecunda,[82] which itself sat on a Roman site,
and was producing antiquities. Pierre-Auguste Napolon, praising Carbuccias
dig in 1850, also pointed out how many materials were available on-site for the
new arrivals.[83] The confusion which started thus early seems to have marred
283
knowledge of the site ever since.[84] It also extended to the nature and extent of
damage to the site; one visitor in 1881, having described the prison without any
adverse remarks, then lambasted tourists for their tricks, especially (of course)
English tourists qui, sous prtexte de remporter un souvenir palpable de leur
excursion, laissent des traces de leurs dprdations dans tous les endroits
clbres o ils passent.[85] He evidently did not consider the prison itself a
souvenir palpable of such vandalism. But he might have wondered why, if
the site was encore littralement jonch de tombeaux, there was only one
fragmentary mosaic to be admired in its courtyard.[86]
Grotesquely, it was the Director of the prison, M. Barnond, who was
in charge of the conservation of finds around the site: he noted that La
main-doeuvre ne me fera jamais dfaut, and how cheap it would be to use
prisoners.[87] This solved Molls 1858 worry about how expensive excavation
would be at Lambessa, but of course introduced many others: des fouilles
considrables et un talent dobservation que nous sommes loin de possder,
seraient de premire ncessit pour arriver un rsultat satisfaisant[88]
excavations that could no longer be prosecuted once the prison had been built.
Barnond no doubt did his best. In the prisons garden, antiquities found un
abri contre les mutilations de passants ignorants et anims dun inexplicable
besoin de destruction.[89] He also did some digging, in 1864 uncovering a pristine Roman mausoleum.[90] By 1884, Lambessa for tourists included an inspection of the Praetorium, walking beside the walls of the prison, and glancing at
lentre du petit village europen, qui attend encore ses jours prospres,[91]
which would never arrive.
In 1914 Pchot described the prison as a crime: le vandalisme des gens qui,
sans se rendre compte de leur forfait, ont dtruit une des richesses archologiques les plus remarquables et les plus compltes qui aient jamais exist
dans le monde entier;[92] or, as Claparde had already remarked in 1896, les
Vandales ont toujours des successeurs.[93] And Lambessa was far from the only
prison in Algeria, let alone the only one on a site devastated for materials. At
Aumale, bath remains and a mosaic were fouilles, vandalises, sous les ordres
de la direction du Pnitencier.[94] But this was par for the course when the new
town was building, for by the end of the 19th century the 163 inscriptions published and catalogued, and displayed on the Esplanade dIsly, overlooking the
sea, had been reduced to 93[95] some indication that scholars were correct
to distrust some of the museums collected around Algeria. Nevertheless, it
seemed to Flaux in 1865 that Lambessa could be un but aux excursions des
savants et des touristes, and that it would yield more than Carthage, a site the
remains of which sont, depuis des sicles, lobjet des investigations du peuple
le plus avide et le plus destructeur de lunivers.[96] As late as 1931, Albertini
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could protest that antiquities laws had not been effective: Des faits regrettables de mutilation et de destruction continuent se produire.[97]
Quite apart from the crime of building the prison from Lambessas ruins in
the first place, the authorities were nonchalant about antiquities subsequently
discovered. Amphitheatre, temples, nymphaeum and much else disappeared,
as Renier had warned in 1850 they would:
On a sci les marbres du temple dEsculape, on a dmoli le Nympheum
si curieux pour lever un btiment communal, on a martel et bris les
inscriptions: plus de la moiti des textes pigraphiques jadis recueillis par
Lon Renier a aujourdhui disparu.[98]
Although the statues of Aesculapius and Hygea were saved, parts of their
temple went as hard-core for making roads.[99] A splendid Four Seasons mosaic
(or rather ce qui reste de la belle mosaque) was covered by a shed by 1884,
but up to then had suffered much from the weather.[100] This was but a small
part of the devastation on a site far distant from most of the bureaucracy, assuming they cared. For example, when the French arrived the amphitheatre was
in good condition, but by 1888 at the site aujourdhui on en chercherait vainement le moindre fragment and it was easy to see where its stones had been
reused.[101] Yet, even if excavation were itself praiseworthy, it was pointless
unless the materials brought to light were protected and conserved: excavation, in other words, degraded antiquities, as was clear from the ongoing ruination of the Baths.[102] By 1881 these were down to their foundations, but Nous
y avons ramass de beaux chantillons de mosaques et des restes de poteries, writes a traveller.[103] The triumphal arches of the site also suffered.[104]
Travellers liked Lambessa, but Poulle suggests that the scholarly world paid
insufficient attention to it and, especially, to Lon Reniers reports on the site,
for he was unable in 1884 even to find copies of what Renier had written.[105]
Because of the French overbuilding of the city, Lambessa fades from view.
Charles Gates surveyed the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East,
Greece and Rome,7 and chose ten provincial Roman cities to discuss, namely
Athens, Ephesus, Pergamon, Perge, Palmyra, Jerash, and Leptis Magna, Nmes,
London and Trier. But no Lambessa, perhaps because it is so far off the bettertrodden tourist routes; and the only mention Algeria gets in the whole book is
a short inscription from Timgad.
7 Gates 2011.
285

Aumale (Occupied 1846)
This strong point had been important in ancient times, as the traces of Roman
roads indicated.[106] In Byzantine times, materials from the Capitol had been
dismantled to form part of the ramparts,[107] and the site was rich in ruins in
the 18th century.[108] These were explored by a military expedition in 1843, and
plenty were found which could be useful, including a ruinous Turkish fort
built from antiquities. The survivals on this site were indeed impressive, but
the Turkish fort was apparently too small to be of permanent use.[109] This had
been built from spolia; it was still standing in 1840, but the cole des garons
soon obliterated it.[110] Parts of the ancient walls were still standing in 1843,
and a sculpted frieze was also to be seen.[111] Now it was needed by the French
because of dangers from the locals: comme nous avions abandonn tous
les forts construits par les Turcs pour les tenir en bride, ils pouvaient sagiter
impunment, dans une troue immense, entre Mdah et Stif.[112]
Cest en 1846 seulement que le gouvernement se dcida tablir sur les
ruines dAuzia et de Sour-Rozlan un poste militaire permanent, qui prit le nom
dAumale.[113] When founding new towns, the French often gave them personal names. Aumale, ancient Auzia, was named after the Duke, who was to be
Governor-General from 1847. Aumale had started as a biscuit-ville a town
with houses built from biscuit boxes filled with sand,[114] some of which started
as provision-dumps.[115] This was not idyllic for the French officers, who were
kept busy seeking and cutting wooden beams, and unearthing and shaping
stone blocks,[116] some of which might have come from the plentiful ruins
immediately outside Aumale,[117] and in the environs as well.
A plan of the ruins was drawn up in 1846, and the usefulness of the walls
described: Lenceinte seule quoiquelle nait point t compltement pargne,
encadre encore cet amas de dbris...dans une grande partie de son pourtour,
elle slve sur quelques points deux ou trois mtres du sol, traceant des
lignes tres irrgulires sur les bords dun escarpement...La regularit de cette
disposition, la beaut et luniformit des blocs de pierre dont la muraille tait
construit, donnent une grande ide de ce travail.[118] The blocks are 6278cm
high, with a length of 68136cm, set without cement, but with metal ties and,
as we have seen, admired by the lieutenant making the report.
By 1855 the site became chef-lieu de la 3e subdivision militaire de la
province dAlger. Many of the Roman ruins had been built over, such as some
important structure in the centre, covered by the church;[119] or had gone, and
ont fourni et fournissent encore de bons matriaux pour les constructions
modernes, while the surroundings offered limestone for the kilns.[120] Nearby
ruins were also investigated for materials, and many taken. Rapidum,[121]
for example, the military camp of the Sardinian Cohort, with a town later
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diminished to a village, was dug by Berbruggers 50 workmen for inscriptions

in 1855, finding 30 in several hours. Later finds were disseminated around
Aumale.8 In the process of construction, by the 1860s they were building over
some ancient cemeteries,[122] and native prisoners were being used to help
clear the site.[123] Entrepreneurs were extracting blocks from the site by the late
1870s,[124] perhaps for the public buildings of this Commune Mixte, and wells
and cisterns, as well as other antiquities, were discovered.[125]
Few antiquities were saved during the building of the French town, even
the ovens built from spolia from the Byzantine fortress being demolished in
1867.[126] The Gnie uncovered in the spahi camp a mosaic of Leda and the
Swan in 1853, which Berbrugger wanted to take to Algiers.[127] Colonel Eix,
commanding this subdivision 18851886, had the soldiers carry antiquities to
the Esplanade dIsly, and some of these were incorporated by 1912 in a small
museum unfortunately too late, for la plupart des monuments ont t abandonns ou dtruits pendant la construction de la ville.[128] Monuments in the
area were also lost, such as in the French village of An-Bessem, where the
ancient fort was disappearing fast.[129] Turnover of destroyed antiquities here
could be very fast. Renier complained in 1882 that inscriptions copied in 1881
and published in 1882, were no longer to be found, car elles taient devenues
pierres btir. Il ajoutait que la plupart des inscriptions releves et publies par
lui-mme nexistaient plus. Ltranger nous en fait un reproche: Il serait donc
dsirable, ajoutait-il, que lon tablt en Algrie des muses o les monuments,
ds quils seraient dcouverts, pussent tre mis labri.[130]

Tipasa (Occupied 1854)
This small port, an outlet for the western Mitidja, was occupied by Arabs, who
had ploughed and grown crops in amongst the ruins. Arabs had also occupied
the Basilica of S. Salsa, presumably for centuries, building fires and leaving
pottery behind them.[131] In 1854 Chanony described how intensively this was
done, the ruins transforms par les Kabyles, en jardins trs-bien cultivs,
plants de salades et lgumes, parmi lesquels domine la fve de marais. Pas
une parcelle de terrain nest perdue dans toute lenceinte et ses faubourgs
and he believed that the concrete mixture leached out of the ruins must have
made for good growing soil.[132] Perhaps the French so frequently described
gardens and their produce because this was often at a premium (as a result
of the destructiveness of some troops?), and they were hungry for fresh food.
8 Laporte 1989, 59, citing Ballus 1905 Report: Le maire dAumale a promis de rechercher
les objets antiques provenant de Rapidum qui sont dissmins chez plusieurs habitants
dAumale, dans le but de les runir au Muse rcemment cr.
287
Also for water, and the colons did manage to make use of a Roman aqueduct to
ensure a feeble supply.[133] Already in 1834 Colonel Prtot had marked the site
as an intermediate station Algiers-Cherchel, and confirmed the usefulness of
the ruins: Les matriaux provenant de lancienne ville suffiraient et au del,
aux nouvelles constructions, le bois et le feu excepts, quil faudrait se procurer.[134] Apart from the walls, most of the ruins were close to the ground,
perhaps toppled by earthquakes.[135]
From the start of French occupation, antiquities were identified. Charles
Natte, a propritaire-colon who owned land there, sized up the site, approved
the 2km of ramparts (easy to repair from materials lying around) and the cisterns, now mostly burrows for rabbits.[136] He projected refurbishment and use
of a Christian basilica,[137] as well as a port, and plenty of materials on site
toutes les conditions exiges pour lassiette dune ville; abandonne linsouciance de la fatalit et lignorance des peuplades indignes.[138] He went on
to identify forum, amphitheatre and theatre, this last already down to ground
level reconnaissable sa forme, des matriaux et des fondations au niveau
du sol, en dsignent seuls lemplacement.[139]
But the identification was not always for preservation, but rather to identify building materials. Stone had already been taken for the building of
the agricultural village of Marengo (one of the 42 colonies projected by the
19 September 1848 law[140]), 12km distant, and Barbier maintains that much
went to Algiers and Blida under the Turks.[141] Presumably several rich sets
of ruins in the environs were also plundered.[142] Selling the materials found
during land clearance for agriculture was part of the process of developing a
farm village here;[143] naturally, antiquities disappeared quickly.[144]
The French occupation put paid to many of the remaining monuments,
because Une population quasi fixe de carriers, tailleurs de pierre...terrassiers et manoeuvres exploitent la ville romaine elle-mme sans respect pour
les monuments les mieux conservs.[145] By 1867, all that was left above ground
were some fine bricks, and a basilica, the Eglise de lEst.[146] But les collectionneurs dantiquits sapprovisionneront aisment et conomiquement
Tipasa, and bricks were taken away as souvenirs.[147] This is because colonists such as Natte had ransacked the site. He has mentioned so many stones,
columns, blocks in his description that the sous-entendu is surely that they
will be used in building his village particularly since his personnel includes
deux maons and deux tailleurs de pierres. Perhaps he also sold materials,
since he writes of le commerce des pierres et matriaux, dont il faut dblayer
le sol.[148] Nevertheless, in 1866 a member of the Service Topographique was
seeking funds to dig at nearby Khemissa[149] and, by 1902 a lot of work had
been done there, including uncovering the forum.[150] And why not a French
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farm-village inside a set of Roman walls? At Tipasa he had already noted the
extensive remains of fortifications (Il serait facile de les rparer, car les matriaux sont sur place), with plenty of ruined buildings and cisterns.[151]
Good intentions for the site of Tipasa itself came rather too late. Even in
the 1880s, there was hope for the archaeologists, so vast was the ancient site.
And later, Tipasa was lucky to have in M. Trmaux, a proprietor, and indeed
the welcoming mayor.[152] He collected antiquities and made them available to
scholars and other visitors,[153] as well as permitting excavation of a funerary
basilica on his land.[154] This represented a complete change from those such as
Natte, who destroyed them. Trmauxs interest appears to have declined from
the late 1880s, perhaps because fewer exciting discoveries were being made
now that ploughing the fields had turned up all they were likely to find.[155]
But a public museum was eventually established.[156] The funerary Basilica of
S. Salsa was indeed dug in the 1890s, and various bases and other materials,
used by the Arabs in building their houses, collected from the interior and surroundings.[157]

Le Kef (Occupied 1881)
The Roman colony of Sicca Venerias position at an important road-junction
gave it great strategic importance, and its fortifications and Kasbah got
knocked about in wars. Its inhabitants in earlier years were not friendly to
foreigners (Peyssonnel was stoned there in 17241725[158]), and some antique
statues were deliberately destroyed.[159] Just as the whole region was thick
with antiquities,[160] so was the town, for la cit est tout entire btie de
pierres antiques; quelques-unes des maisons mmes ne sont autre chose que
des difices romains ou byzantins transforms.[161] It was a treasurehouse
of inscriptions, for There is scarcely a house which does not possess one or
more of these inscribed stones built into the walls, and votive pedestals and
tumulary pillars in stone or marble are more numerous here than in any other
town of the Regency.[162] In 1862 Gurin copied a large number of inscriptions
reused in the Jewish cemetery,[163] although several of these had disappeared
within two decades.[164] Nor were these just flat slabs, but funerary altars and
statue bases.[165] At Kasserine, he described an important tomb monument,
which had been largely destroyed in the first half of the century.[166] Here
Carton also encountered a Frenchman living in a rock-cut tomb, and studying
how to repair a Roman aqueduct.[167]
Le Kef also had ruins of Christian monuments. Kennedy came across
instances of the cross prominently displayed, which did not seem to bother
the locals;[168] and a church outside the walls in the upper part of town
was projected for repair and reuse by the military almoner.[169] The Arabs
289
naturally reused buildings as well as fragmentary remains. The Great Mosque

incorporated a Christian basilica, and the process of conversion had little
damaged it.[170]
The French occupied the town in 1881, and indeed injected some vigour into
local life, having found it in a bad way because of recent famine and cholera.
They refurbished both an ancient fountain (which had apparently never
stopped flowing), and also eleven or more Roman cisterns,[171] which were
equipped with settlement tanks.[172] This work did not happen until the mid1880s, before which the cisterns were used as the troops sports club.[173] LieutCol. Mercier was commissioned in September 1883 to investigate the feeds for
the cisterns, but had to keep close control over his workmen:
Je fis creuser le sol quelque distance, esprant ainsi mettre nu une partie de ce conduit, et je crus lavoir rencontr lorsque les ouvriers vinrent
mavertir que leurs coups de pioche portaient sur une solide maonnerie. /
Jordonnais de continuer les travaux avec prcaution; malheureusement,
dans leur impatience dtre fixs sur la nature de leur dcouverte, les
ouvriers ne tinrent aucun compte de ma recommandation et profitrent
de mon absence pour dmolir et enlever une partie de la construction.[174]
Much of the French building was outside the old walls and successful
colonisation was confidently predicted.[175] Inside the walls, however, both
European and Arab houses were still being constructed with antiquities in the
late 1880s.[176] In 1883, Cagnat could still not get access to the mosques, although
the Tunisian Government did give him permission to enter the Kasbah.[177] But
he also had the frustrating experience of an important inscription discovered
before his arrival disappear into house-building a few days after his departure
luckily he had photographed it.[178]
Near to Le Kef was the Roman town of Lares/Lorbeus, supposedly destroyed
during the Hilalien invasion of 1048. But it retained large quantities of
antiquities, Marmol reporting in the 1530s that lon y voit encore aujourdhuy
les ruines des anciens edifices, de grandes statues de pierre, & des tables
dalbastre avec des inscriptions Latines, et des niches faites dans les murailles,
qui estoient toutes de grosse pierre de taille. Il y reste encore vn chasteau, o
sont quelques canons de bronze.[179] Leo Africanus wrote that euerie where
vpon the walles are sentences in Latin letters engrauen: the towne-walles are
most artificially and sumptuously built.[180] As well as the remains of the
fortress, Filippi saw the temple remains in 1829, and calculated it had more
than 100 columns.[181] But by the later 19th century, when Esprandieu visited
the site, all that was left were the town walls, a large basilica, and cisterns.[182]
290
chapter 7

Sfax (Occupied 1881)
South of Sousse, at Sfax, the ancient materials to build that town came from
various sites in the vicinity. Little remains to be seen of antiquity in Sfax itself:
many of the materials went into the Kasbah and various mosque walls.[183]
These survive, and were flanked by a European town layout to the south, and a
military camp immediately adjacent to the walls to their north.
The two most important sites for sourcing materials were the facing
Kerkenna Islands, and Thina/Thaenae. On Meninx Island, some statues
were discovered when a local landowner was digging for house-building
materials.[184] Thina/Thaenae was once the main port for the export of olive oil
and, in consequence, grew large, with an enceinte of nearly 4km, and 84 towers,
still visible in 1908, although mostly flat to the ground, its ruins having been
scoured for the buildings of Sfax.[185] Much had already gone by 1862, when
Gurin visited, finding little of interest either inside or outside the enceinte.
[
186] But when the site was dug just before the First World War, the ruins were
reported to be between 4m and 6m below the surface; so perhaps much still
remains to be retrieved.[187]

Sousse (Garrisoned 1881)
This, the chief seaport on the Gulf of Hammamet, was by 1900 the most
important after Tunis and Sfax. The town is interesting for our theme because,
when the French garrisoned the town in 1881, there were none of the warlike
pressures exerted on their predecessors during the early decades in Algeria. In
the 16th century, Sousse had boasted the Vice-Roys palace, and both Kasbah[188]
and the town itself[189] were protected by strong walls. Peyssonnel thought the
town walls late antique[190] but, like the town, they suffered from bombardment
by Spaniards (1537, 1550), the French (1769) and the Venetians (1783) an index
of the towns importance.9 Tissot thought the walls Phoenician in origin, and
recognised similar stones in the walls of the 11th century Kasbah.[191] This was
presumably fed by large monuments. For example, the towns amphitheatre
had been described by El-Bekri: Ce vaste difice, de construction antique, est
pos sur des votes trs-larges et trs-hautes, dont les cintres sont en pierre
ponce, substance assez lgre pour flotter sur leau et que lon tire du volcan
de la Sicile. Autour du Melb se trouvent un grand nombre de votes communiquant les unes avec les autres. But by 1862 Il nen reste plus aujourdhui le
moindre vestige.[192] Nearby ancient sites such as Knicia also had all not just
some, but all of their building blocks removed for Arab building, leaving only
9 Djelloul 1999, 4247 for illustrations of her fortifications at various periods.
291
dbris behind: Placs sur la rive gauche de lOued-Amdoum, elles couvrent

un rectangle de 600 mtres de long sur 400 ou 500 mtres de large. Les monuments ont presque tous disparu, il nen reste plus que quelques dbris.[193]
Saladin believed that the town was built on ancient foundations, and
that road-work would reveal its grid-plan.[194] It did not. Nevertheless, spolia
columns and other antiquities were scattered around the town,[195] although
often concealed under whitewash[196] (indicating a structural rather than
a decorative importance), and there was enough antique material in the
environs in 1853 for Pellissier to pave the floor of an apartment in the French
Consulate.[197] Antiquities were still being built into new houses at Sousse
in the 1870s.[198] Gurin, in 1862, took the quantities of antiquities built into
its structures as proof positive that this was surely Hadrumetum[199] which
indeed it was. Much disappeared during the French occupation, just as it had
done in the centuries when Arabs had used the town and neighbourhood ruins
as quarries. Dr Carton summed it up in 1901: Il a fallu un travail rellement
colossal pour que les monuments innombrables qui couvraient le plateau
aient t ainsi dtruits.[200]
Barracks life here must have been pleasant, and some officers and other
ranks not only engaged in archaeological digging, but also published their
results (especially in the local archaeological journal, the Bulletin de la
Socit archologique de Sousse),[201] as well as sending their reports to the
Dpt de la Guerre.[202] They also set up regimental museums, by 1896 the
salle dhonneur of the 4e Tirailleurs having a mosaic as its centrepiece.[203]
This earned a bouquet from Rey in 1900: nous ne pouvons nous empcher
de rendre un hommage mrit aux efforts de ces soldats et officiers dont
lesprit investigateur a si puissamment second luvre des archologues et
des pigraphistes.[204]
The French garrison officers and troops were instrumental in making
several discoveries outside the town, and then publishing them. This was
partly because barracks and other military buildings were erected directly
over antique cemeteries and villas. In the early 1880s a necropolis was found
to the west of the town, by the artillery park, although some of the finds
were broken by Arabs seeking treasure.[205] In 1889 excavations were pursued
enthusiastically by Palat, a lieutenant of hussars:
Entre autres choses, ses travailleurs mirent dcouvert une chambre
spulcrale ayant environ deux mtres dans toutes ses dimensions, et
meuble: dune urne ossements, de deux assiettes de terre rouge, dun
piaf profond, dune fiole de terre, de deux gargoulettes, dune lampe et de
divers menus objets.
292
chapter 7
Then, egged on by Gnral Bertrand, Lieutenant Daily opened another

dozen tombs in the same area,[206] in the teeth of difficulties erected by
administrators.[207]
Research by army officers continued at Sousse into the 20th century.
Commandant Hannezo wrote in 1905 as follows: il y a lieu de citer encore en
ville, en plus de la Sofra el du Kaouat-el-Koubba, les nombreuses colonnes
romaines en marbre et en pierre, avec chapiteaux de tous ordres, qui abondent
soit dans lintrieur, soit lextrieur des maisons, dans les rues, les tablissements publics, etc.[208] Lieutenant Grange contribued a map in 1903
un agrandissement de la carte de Sousse et des environs publie dans lAtlas
archologique. Toutes les ruines romaines y ont t reportes and invited
others to complete it.[209] Sergent Moreau of the 4e Tirailleurs lectured to
the Society in 1907, passing round his discoveries in the cemeteries while he
did so.[210] Trumet de Fontarce gives another roll of honour in 1896: MM. les
officiers qui prirent le plus de part cette dcouverte sont MM. les gnraux
Bertrand et Riu, le colonel Vincent, le commandant Dechizelle aujourdhui
lieutenant-colonel du 27 chasseurs alpins, le Dr. Collignon, chirurgien-major
de lhpital de Sousse.[211] A Christian necropolis stretched to the south.[212]
In the same period the remains of a large monument were found near the
cavalry barracks, and a mosaic it contained sent to Paris in 1884.[213] But even
when the French got into the mosques here, the dearth of inscriptions was a
disappointment.[214]

Histoire du vandalisme: Les monuments dtruits de lart franais
This is the title of a book by Louis Rau (18811961), published in two volumes
in 1959, and expanded in 1994 with ample examples of more vandalism since
its first publication. For the treatment of the material, Il tait naturel de commencer par Paris et lle de France, immediately setting up two categories of
the best and the rest (Paris et environs and Province are two categories much
used). The text also has a section considering the displacement of artworks
from their setting, called (inevitably?) Les mfaits de lElginisme. Although
of course more can be written about later periods because more details are
known, this book devotes pp. 233613 to the Revolution and Napoleon, and
then pp. 619837 to the period from the Restoration to World War One over
200 pages for the long 19th century. There are no excuses, just a mournful and
well-illustrated catalogue of destruction.
The three Dpartements of Alger, Oran and Constantine were part of
France from 1848, sending representatives and senators to Paris. But in Raus
treatment, Algeria receives less than one page, noting that the Army in Africa
293
used exactly the same methods as the Gnie in metropolitan France, for
they faced similar problems, such as road and railway construction. Plentiful
evidence of destruction was available, but clearly Rau had enough material
from the hexagon itself, and which he could illustrate with prints and drawings.
As the present book shows, any history of vandalism would find plenty of
additional material in Algeria. And although a detailed examination would be
necessary to prove the case, it seems that at the very period when metropolitan
France was striving to limit similar destruction, it continued apace in Algeria.
The new building in France was usually because of the modernising of towns
freed from their enclosing fortification walls, but in Algeria not only were
towns being modernised, as we have seen above, but even in the last decades
of the century ancient materials were available for reuse, the practice well
documented by administrators, sceptical commentators, and archaeologists
trying to rescue items from the general wreck. This chapter concludes with
several examples which might usefully have been included in Raus book.
In 1882 the Sous-Prfet of Mascara sent a round-robin to all administrators
and engineers in his region deploring the destruction of antiquities, and suggesting he created a special service to deal with the matter:
Il nest malheureusement que trop vrai quun grand nombre de ruines et
de pierres recouvertes dinscriptions antiques, dont le classement serait
prcieux pour la science, sont dtruites et disparaissent sans avoir t
reconnues. Jai pu vrifier par moi-mme que beaucoup dEuropens ne
se faisaient aucun scrupule de les employer leurs constructions, bien
qu elles ne leur appartinssent pas...Les procs-verbaux dresss contre
les dlinquants me seraient adresss, et transmis par moi lautorit
judiciaire.[215]
This was indeed movement but not necessarily progress since the Law notoriously did nothing to stop or punish destruction, much of which was by colonists and entrepreneurs destroying easily-handled small material rather than
large monuments. Poulle, writing in 1891, was unconvinced:
La loi pour la conservation des monuments historiques est absolument insuffisante pour lAlgrie. Elle donne bien au service spcial le
moyen de sopposer toute entreprise sur un monument class, mais
elle nempche pas le colon de dtruire une inscription qui relate un fait
historique; lentrepreneur de rduire en cailloutis des inscriptions ou
des bas-reliefs trouvs dans des ruines rencontres sur son chemin ou
des distances plus ou moins grandes; un spculateur de faire de la chaux
294
chapter 7
avec une statue; celui-l de construire une prison avec les gradins dun
amphithtre.[216]
Mac-Carthys idea in 1885 of collecting antiquities into a guarded enclosure on
each and every commune sounds plausible, but could not of course undo any
prior destruction.[217] Then in 1890 Cagnat and his colleagues in the Comit des
Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques issued Conseils aux archologues et aux
voyageurs, noting breezily that Etre du mtier nest pas toujours ncessaire.
What a change this was from previous keep-off-the-grass injunctions! They
advised the use of photography for accuracy, all reports to be gathered together
and published for the glory of French scholarship; this suggestion ends with
the unfortunate if not Freudian metaphor that pour arriver ce but, il faut
que chacun apporte sa pierre luvre commune.[218] Photography was by
the 1860s not just a touristic but also a scholarly tool,10 with many applications
for the army.[219] By this date the equipment could be carried easily on a
mule[220] and an added advantage that it could give army officers something
useful to do.[221] Photography was of course recognised as a useful medium for
publicity: for example, a collection of 448 images of Algeria and Tunisia, patronised by Napolon III, was published in 1859.[222] Cameras were also useful for
recording not only standing monuments, but also the extent of continuing destruction, as at El Djem, where it could au moins servir constater ltat actuel
dun monument vou une destruction journalire des plus dplorables.[223]
Indeed, amateurs tourists were encouraged by Cagnat and his colleagues to
participate, and to bring back photographs as souvenirs but the advice also
refers to old stones: ces cailloux sont des fragments de civilisations disparues,
et les dcouvrir cest leur donner une nouvelle vie.[224] In 1908 for digging the
Tunisian site of Thyna, the army officers (officiers toujours en qute doccupations pouvant largir leur horizon intellectuel) were recognised as amateurs;
the Direction des Antiquits happily used such amateurs to do the digging, so
long as the divisional Gnral did not object.[225]
By 1904, the years when colons and army at Tbessa were one big happy
family were over, for the railway had arrived and, if Roman remains were to be
treasured, not so with the Byzantine enceinte, which was hindering modern
living, just as the Gnie (thankfully) opposed its demolition: Cest entendu
quon conserve tout ce qui porte un cachet romain, mais quon dmolisse, sur
le champ, cette enceinte byzantine qui ne mrite mme pas un souvenir et
10
Lyons 2005, heavily centred on Athens, Rome and Egypt, which is a fair balance. 4047
for Benjamin Spackmans photolithographs for Newtons 1863 History of discoveries at
Halicarnassus.
295
que le bon cur Delapart traitait si spirituellement, denceinte spulcrale. Avec

elle doivent svanouir les servitudes militaires qui plus que nos remparts nous
empchent de construire et de nous tendre en dehors des portes.[226] Algiers
was agitating to rid herself of her own servitudes (military fire zones) at the
same period, so that modern buildings could be erected;[227] but some remained
a decade later.[228] Napolon III had already called attention to the problem in
1865.[229] Ruins were more precarious elsewhere, LAvenir de Bougie suggesting
in 1883 that those at Ziama should be used to build a port.[230] The ruins of
the Roman water supply and cisterns at Bougie itself were being restored by
1909, the flow helped by a steam pump.[231] But there were still concerns about
maintaining the defence of the town.[232] As we have seen, modern living was
a key element in destruction, as Oulebsir notes: les attirances vers une tradition ou une modernit dont les significations se rduisent des interprtations
en surfaces...contribuent ce que le patrimoine urbain en Algrie noccupe
quune infime place des proccupations des autorits concernes.11
As we might expect, wins on the one hand were balanced by losses on the
other. In 1892 Diehl, as well as relaying demands for strict anti-vandalism
laws,[233] gives chapter and verse on the military in Tunisia as a hive of
archaeological activity, naming the officers concerned as well as where they
were working.[234] This was indeed the land of cockaigne for archaeologists,
as Cambon exclaimed.[235] However, the law of 1888 had clearly not been
applied.[236] The picture was far from perfect, Tissot noting a bronze head,
among other antiquities, that had gone missing during an army dig on the island
of Djerba.[237] What is more Seriana, a mere 8km from Constantine, was being
used as a quarry as late as 1893: Quelques personnes ont protest, mais il leur a
t rpondu que les ruines de Seriana navaient pas dimportance.[238] Saladin,
who had toured the country in 1885, thought monuments in Tunisia were
most in danger from the Arabs, and from antiquities hunters, and advised the
Minister of Public Instruction to develop suitable penalties;[239] so presumably
this architect did not think to examine closely colonists building activities.
When another law for the protection of historical monuments arrived late in
1913, the costs of protection and preservation were to be borne by departments
and communes hence a law packed with good intentions, and with those
very locals known to filch antiquities for building materials supposedly paying
for their protection.[240] So once again, administrative movement, but little
progress.
11
Oulebsir 1992, 3.
296
1 Duval_1865_84
2 Frisch_1899_181
[ ]
3 Thierry-Mieg_1861_
150151
[ ]
4 De_la_Blanchre_1883_13
[ ]
5 Carteron_1866_228229
[ ]
6 Kennedy_1846_107108
[ ]
7 RA 1860 issue 24, 426433
[ ]
8 Lestiboudois_1853_238
[ ]
[ ]
10 Recueil_de_Notices_
Constantine_VIII_1878_
VII
[ ]
23 Aug 1900
[ ]
12 Tunis-journal_1889_
13_June
[ ]
13 Annales_Colonisation_
1854VI_88
[ ]
14 Tissot_1881_61
[ ]
15 Mercier_1888_116
[ ]
16 Hannezo_1907_125132
[ ]
17 Gurin_1862_I_9192
[ ]
18 Gadrat_1910_103
[ ]
19 Carton_1906_3839
[ ]
20 Saladin_1893_25
[ ]
21 Filippi_1926_574
[ ]
22 Marmier_1847_94
[ ]
23 SHD MR1315
[ ]
24 Mmorial_Gographique
_1930_Pl_22
[ ]
25 Ideville_II_1882_394
[ ]
26 Du_
Barail_1897_I_193194
[ ]
27 Marmier_1847_138
[ ]
28 Bapst_1909_I_410411
[ ]
29 Esterhazy_1849_167
[ ]
30 Montaudon_1898_71
[ ]
31 Bapst_1909_I_412413
[ ]
32 Ideville_II_1882_399
[ ]
33 Reisser_1900_49
[ ]
34 Ibid., 48
[ ]
35 Barbier_1855_153
[ ]
36 Gomot_1844_195
[ ]
[ ]
chapter 7
37]Martimprey_1886_
153154
[ ]
1850_85
[ ]
39 Cat_1882_137
[ ]
40 Bourin_1887_321
[ ]
41 SHD MR1315
[ ]
42 Reisser_1900_50
[ ]
43 RA 1860 issue 21, 237238
[ ]
travelled 172425
[ ]
45 Dureau_de_la_Malle_
1837_49
[ ]
46 Fortin_dIvry_1845_153
[ ]
1850_196
[ ]
1876_146
[ ]
[ ]
50 SHD MR1317
[ ]
51 Ibid.
[ ]
[ ]
53 Courrier de Setif
17 April 1881
[ ]
54 Tardieu_1890_15
[ ]
55 Saint-Arnaud_1858_
262263
[ ]
56 Renier_1851C_58
[ ]
57 ASAPC 1862, VII
[ ]
58 Beury_1894_95
[ ]
59 Raoul-Rochette_et_al_
1851_341
[ ]
60 Bourquelot_1881_293
[ ]
61 Wallon_1890_538539
[ ]
62 Janon_1973_194
[ ]
63 Thierry-Mieg_1861_
196197
[ ]
64 Zaccone_1865_2728
[ ]
65 Cagnat_1909_252
[ ]
66 Poulle_1884_203
[ ]
67 Barnond_1866_240
[ ]
68 Cagnat_1909_222
[ ]
69 Poulle_1884_184
[ ]
70 Cagnat_1909_272
[
71 Ibid., 219
[ ]
73 Renier_1852_322
[ ]
74 Ibid., 326
[ ]
1875_414
[ ]
76 Renier_1850_654655
[ ]
77 Renier_1851C_59
[ ]
78 Renier_1851_217
[ ]
79 Renou_1848_214
[ ]
80 Renier_1851C_60
[ ]
81 Carteron_1866_270
[ ]
82 Renier_1859_217
[ ]
83 Bonaparte_2007_43
[ ]
84 Janon_1973_193
[ ]
85 Bourquelot_1881_
294295
[ ]
86 Tardieu_1890_18
[ ]
87 Barnond_1866_243
[ ]
88 Moll_18571858_157162
[ ]
89 Fallot_1887_218219
[ ]
90 RA 1864 issue 45,
Chronique, 188
[ ]
91 Poulle_1884_179
[ ]
92 Pchot_1914_I_237
[ ]
93 Claparde_1896_7172
[ ]
94 Parrs_1912_27
[ ]
95 Robert_1896_288289
[ ]
96 Flaux_1865_282283
[ ]
97 Albertini_1931
[ ]
98 Diehl_1892_106
[ ]
99 Poulle_1884_198
[
100]Ibid., 190
[ ]
101 Ibid., 208
[
102]Ibid., 189
[
103]Leclercq_1881_229
[
104]Ibid., 230
[
105]Poulle_1884_206207
[
106]Bourjade_1891_9
[
107]Ballu_1919_5354
[
[
109]Robert_1901_135
[ ]
110 Parrs_1912_33
[ ]
111 Desvaux_1909_9
[ ]
[
297

112]Du_Barail_1897_I_
260270
[ ]
113 Piesse_1862_162163
[ ]
114 Bapst_1909_I_467
[ ]
115 Grande Encylopdie:
BISCUITVILLE
[ ]
[ ]
117 Parrs_1912_13
[ ]
118 MR1315
[ ]
119 RA 1867 issue 63, 247
[
120]Barbier_1855_166167
[ ]
121 RA 1859 issue 20 94104
[
122]Mercier_1868_94
[
123]Ibid., 92
[
124]Parrs_1912_78
[
125]Ibid., 24
[
126]RA 1867 issue 63,
Chronique, 244
[
127]Mercier_1868_9899
[
128]Parrs_1912_58
[
129]Robert_1903C_49
[
130]Wallon_1890_536
[ ]
131 Saint-Grand_1892_470
[
132]Chanony_1853_45
[
133]Desprez_1875_50
[
134]SHD MR1314/33
[
135]Ratheau_1879_252
[
136]Natte_1854_1819
[
137]Ibid., 2223
[
138]Ibid., 3132
[
139]Ibid., 24
[
140]http://www.piedsnoirsaujourdhui.com/
marengo.html
[ ]
141 Barbier_1855_154
[
[
143]Natte_1854_41
[
144]Desprez_1875_72
[
145]Duval_1859_131
[
146]Brard_1867_138
[
147]Desprez_1875_5455
[
148]Natte_1854_41, 43
[
[
150]Ballu_1905_77
[
151]Natte_1854_1819
1884_154
[
153]Bull_Archologique_
1889_266
[
154]Saint-Grand_1892_467
[
[
156]http://www.museetipasa.art.dz/
[
157]Gsell_1893_42
[
[
159]Conder_1830_272
[
[ ]
1894_204
[
1887_192
[
163]Gurin_1862_II_56
[
164]Cagnat_1882_106107
[
1894_209
[
166]Gurin_1862_I_322
[
167]Carton_1894_2223
[
168]Kennedy_1846_195196
[
1894_208
[
170]Denis_1893_145
[ ]
171 Carton_1894_10
[
172]Esprandieu_1889_
138139
[
1887_191192
[
174]Mercier_1885_570
[
175]Lorin_1896_542
[
1887_191
[
177]Cagnat_1883_37
[
178]Cagnat_1884_58
[
179]Marmol_1667_II_529
530
[
[ ]
181 Filippi_1926_390391
[
182]Esprandieu_1883_39, 41
[
183]Tissot_1888_189190
184]Pellissier_1853_308
185]Barrier_and_Benson_
1908_2223
[
186]Gurin_1862_I_177
[
187]Fortier_and_Malabar_
1910_94
[
188]Marmol_1667_II_496
[
189]Leo_Africanus_1896_
727
[
190]Peyssonnel_1838_I_
3132
[ ]
191 Tissot_1888_152153
[
192]Gurin_1862_I_108
[
193]Molins_1894_366368
[
194]Saladin_1886_45
[
195]Desfontaines_1838_
II_111
[
1887_62
[
197]Pellissier_1853_258259
[
198]Fraud_1876B_497
[
199]Gurin_1862_I_115
[
200]Carton_1901_176203
[
201]BSA_Sousse_III_1905_16
[
202]SHD GR1M1322
[
203]Lorin_1896_574
[
204]Rey_1900_5354
[
205]Palat_1885_151
[
Militaire_1889_11701171
[
207]Maupassant_1997_224
[
208]Hannezo_1905_153167
[
209]BSA_Sousse_I_1903_19
[
[ ]
211 Trumet_de_Fontarce_
1896_231
[
212]Tissot_1888_157
[
213]Palat_1885_151
[
214]Cagnat_1886_9
[
215]De_la_Blanchre_1883_
45
[
216]Poulle_18901891_306
[
217]Mac-Carthy_1885B_
214215
298
219]Lacombe_1861_145
[
220]Ibid., 149
[
221]Ibid., 151
[
222]Moulin_1859
[
223]Domet-Adanson_
1877_351
[
[
225]Bureau_1908_210211
[
226]LAvenir de Tbessa
17 January 1904
[
[
chapter 7
227]Bull. Municipal. Alger
20 September 1897
[
228]Bull. Municip. Alger
15 May 1908
[
229]Napoleon_III_1865_48
[
230]LAvenir de Bougie
29 August 1883
[
231]LEcho de Bougie
7 November 1909
[
232]Ibid., 5 December 1907
[
233]Diehl_1892_122
[
234]Ibid., 115
235]Cambon_1885_129130
[
236]Bulletin du Comit
1888, 2731
[
237]Tissot_1885_266
[
238]Anonymous_Editor_
1893_89
[
239]Saladin_1893_225
[
240]Viviani_1914_XXXVII
XLVIII
chapter 8
Planting Colonies
LAfrique franaise est pleine de dbris du temps des Csars... un sol qui
renverse les difices par ses tremblements de terre...au milieu dun
peuple qui ddaigne de btir, des villes clbres sont arrives jusqu
notre sicle presque intactes, ou du moins telles que les trouva le lendemain de leur destruction; mais depuis 1830 les colons, ignorants, insouciants, brutaux, et dailleurs pauvres et presss de btir, leur ont fait plus
de mal que les Berbres et les Arabes en mille annes. [1886][1]
From the first landings, with which the French government during a fit of
ennui tried to distract peoples attention from poor government by filling
their eyes with the sight of glamorous foreign adventures,1 colonisation was
on the agenda. The French conquest caused a seismic upheaval not just in the
fate of Roman antiquities, but also in the local populations, who had arguably
been prosperous after the fall of Rome and during later invasions.2 Following
the incursions by the French Army, they were exploited, and their land sometimes removed by pseudo-legal means: between 18301934, 972 centres of colonisation were established, and 1,648,677ha of land expropriated from the local
peasantry3 a move condemned as short-sighted by several important figures,
who noted that the locals would be forced to fight to preserve their very
1 Roberts 1929, 176.
2 Thbert and Biget 1990, 575, 577: Nous voudrions ici dfendre lide que ce rle central jou
par lAfrique en Mditerrane partir de la seconde moiti du IIe sicle est une ralit qui
dure jusquau XIIIe sicle...La prosprit de cette histoire urbaine nest modifie ni par la
conqute arabe ni par linvasion hilaliene both of which events the authors see as myths.
3 Bennoune 1988, 4849. Most land-transfer transactions were unequal, since 49: The market
favours the group that possesses political power and military might. Ruedy 1967, 84: by 1841
Native and other landowners could be dispossessed by the state for the purpose of granting
lands free to colons 14,304ha thus by 1852; and a total of 364,341ha of domanial land had
been turned over to the Colonisation Service by the spring of 1852, Henni 1982, 1525:
Colonisation et spoliation foncire. Sessions 2011, 319 for the consequences of land transfer.
Evans 2012, 1948 The Long Hatreds. Deals with the Muslims, Jews and settlers, plus demography. Notes that the 1873 law which privileged private not tribal ownership was (23) the
instrument for an all-out land-grab...between 1880 and 1908, vast estates, totalling 451,000
hectares, were purchased by Europeans at little cost. Plus 687,000 hectares amassed as punishment for 1871 uprising, and given to colons by the state.
300
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existence.4 They were taxed; their religious orders weakened; and they were
schooled by French education5 as a way of assimilating them6 but then,
assimilation was still being proposed in 1901.[2] The laws worked against native
ownership of property, as une machine de guerre efficace contre la proprit
et la paysannerie algriennes.7 Even when they fulfilled their obligations, the
interests of the colonisers were opposed to those of the natives, for La colonisation a pour but un accroissement dinfluence politique et de la ralisation de
profits dordre conomique.8 The divide between the colonials and the locals
was a vast and juridical gulf. The locals were French subjects, not citizens.9
Together with the abuse of power went administrative paralysis, fraud, corruption and violence,10 with complaints even by local Arabs.11 The senatus4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Ruedy 1967, 105: Pellissier de Reynaud saw in sequestration and demolitions a perfidious
failure to abive by agreements solemnly contracted. Berthezne saw that property was as
sacred to a Muslim as to a Frenchman...General Bedeau saw that the social and economic bases of Maghribi tribalism could not withstand rigorous cantonnement. The
chief of them all, Bugeaud, saw that refoulement would breed desperation...continual
war until the extermination of the native people or the conquering people. A few heard
his words. Most did not. Urbain 2002, 13 for the shock of this military interpreter at
French attempts to destroy tribal society, and to grab land: tribes in the Constantinois in
1861 were emigrating to Tunisia.
Bennoune 1988, 28 cites an 1845 assertion that at least the same proportion of males could
read and write as in rural France.
Zouzou 2001, 437530 Les instruments de lexploitation coloniale et leur incidence sur la
situation des Algriens, incl. 439475, La dpossession par limposition [i.e. taxes] and
477530 Les populations face aux annes de crise; 531713 Lacquisition des terres au
profit de la colonisation; 715809 La conqute morale i.e. through education, and the
weakening of religious orders; 1003 concludes that LAurs affirma ainsi sa vocation
davoir t au cours ses sicles le bastion de la resistance algrienne et le foyer de la lutte
o trouveraient refuge tous les enivrs dindpendance et de libert. Le Cour Grandmaison
2005, 201275: LEtat colonial: un tat dexception permanante.
Henni 1982, 39, referring to the laws of 16 June 1851, the Senatus Consulte of 1863, and the
Loi Warnier of 1873.
Morand 1931, 307, then lists in detail the manifold abuses dealt out to the locals.
Le Cour Grandmaison 2010, 5565.
Bouchne 2012, Brower, Benjamin, 5863: Les violences de la conqute.
Guignard 2010, 104168 La capture de linvestissement public for the enormous costs of
the infrastructure; 261324 le filtre de la dnonciation locale; 120153 Les manires de
sarroger largent public; 171177 redistribution of land; 177179 building speculation.
Brower 2009 for the Sahara, and index entries for massacres, rape, sexual violence, slaves
and extermination. Aggoun 2010, 1726: Lhistoire de lAlgrie, entre silence et mensonges.
Bennoune 1988, 3639 for examples of the unusual violence with which towns were
conquered, and of the depopulation which resulted.
Planting Colonies
301
consulte of 1865 in fact invited Moslems as well as Jews to apply for citizenship,
but takeup was poor.12 Algerian Jews were naturalised en masse in 1870.13 The
Army also manufactured a gulf between itself and the Romans they sometimes
sought to emulate, by massive destruction of antique remains,14 the main
theme of this book.
By the 1840s the French were clearly in Algeria to stay, and confirmed this by
the planting of colonies. But the manpower costs remained great. Not everyone believed the Army was there to protect colonists: Bugeaud15 was himself
the originator of military colonies on the ground, o le colon tait soldat et o
le village tait caserne.[3] But the idea was enthusiastically supported long
before he arrived in Algeria.[4] However, these colonies did not work.16 Bugeaud
addressed colonists in 1846 as follows:
Nous avons beaucoup incendi, beaucoup dtruit...jai la conviction
que jai accompli une uvre utile mon pays...Larme nest pas faite
pour protger les intrts des colons, mais pour marcher la conqute de
lAlgrie et sillustrer par des victoires.[5]
All very grand, but he had admitted in 1843 that Larme ne peut tre rduite
sans quau pralable on ait cr une force attache au sol, qui puisse remplacer
les troupes permanentes quon supprimera.[6] But Bugeaud had the answer:
colonise Brittany and the Landes instead.[7] He might have been right, since
Duval calculated that even by 1865 Europeans occupied only a half-million
hectares in Algeria, the size of one large dpartement in France.[8]
12
13
14
15
16
Lardillier 1992, 33: by 1870 200 natives (of 3m) and 152 Jews (of 33,000) were citizens:
ces mesures navaient pas en effet tenu compte de limpossibilit pour les naturaliss de
conserver leur statut coranique ou mosaque. Bouchne 2012, Guignard, Didier, 7682:
Le snatus-consulte de 1863: la dislocation programme de la socit rurale algrienne.
Prochaska 1990, 138, Jews naturalised en masse in 1870: the veneer of French citizenship
could not hide the fact that the Jews resembled the Muslims more than the Christians.
Dondin-Payre 1991, 142: Trs concerne par les observations archologiques auxquelles
elle ntait ni contrainte ni destine, larme fut, inversement, lorigine de multiples
destructions. Certes, elle ne fut pas seule, mais charge de raliser des fortifications, des
ports, des routes, des ponts, des habitations, elle utilisa avec prdilection les matriaux
sa disposition immdiate, cest--dire des pierres tailles, quelles fussent inscrites ou non.
Le Gnie constituait le rouage essentiel de ce dispositif.
Bois 1997, 261316, 355405, 407469, 471527 for B. and Algeria.
Lardillier 1992, 22, relaying the summary of Louis Veuillot, Bugeauds secretary, in 1853:
Les militaires ne se fixaient pas en Algrie, et ne faisaient pas la souche, les civils ne
venaient pas.
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The French also faced serious colonising competition for countries more
attractive than warring Algeria, and were well aware of how Algeria was draining the treasury. They looked nervously at British success with emigrants to
North America and to Australia. The Annales de la Colonisation Algrienne,
Bulletin Mensuel de la Colonisation franaise et trangre makes clear in its title
that the French were in an international competition. The very first words of
the first issue in 1852 make it clear that they were losing: LAustralie est 5,000
lieus des ctes de lAngleterre, et depuis vingt ans est devenue une riche et
prospre colonie; lAlgrie nest qu trente-six heures des ctes de la France, et
lAlgrie est, pour ainsi dire, encore crer, Australia commercially successful,
and Algeria not. For example, in 1885 38,000 left Great Britain for Australia and
New Zealand but only 4,000 Europeans settled in Algeria.17
The Roman argument led to travellers studying the equipment the Romans
had used in their own colonies, from houses, cisterns and oil presses to mausolea.[9] All these French colonists would also need, only with mausolea downgraded to ordinary cemeteries. Cynically but accurately, Gnral Duviver in the
late 1830s declared cemeteries to be the only growing colonies in Algeria.[10]
In consequence, when later travellers visit Roman sites, such as Thiglat in 1879,
they find that everything (except for the cisterns holes cannot be reused on a
different site) has been stripped by the colonists for nearby Le Kseur, no doubt
named (the fortress) after the now-vanished ancient remains.[11]
This chapter begins with a brief account of the Bureaux Arabes and how
they helped both colonists and Arabs. Since land often had to be properly prepared to be worth colonising, the clearance and settlement of the Mitidja is
then discussed (although characteristically this was done in a rush). We then
examine how villages both French and Arab fared, and the impact their establishment or expansion had on the antiquities. If most of the large ancient monuments were on sites taken over by the French, this was not always the case;
and it was villages, often newly-founded on Roman sites, that were responsible
for changing the complexion of much of the Algerian landscape for ever.

The Bureaux Arabes18

Il est trs-important surtout pour les tudes de gographie compare
de connatre exactement les gisements de ruines romaines ou autres, qui
se rencontrent en si grand nombre sur le sol de lAlgrie. Nos correspon-
17
18
Lardillier 1992, 47.

Yver 1955; Frmaux 1993; Lorcin 1995, 7985; Clayton 1988, 6065.
Planting Colonies
303
dants des provinces [military officers] sont particulirement mme de

faire ce travail; notre tche doit se borner leur fournir quelques indications cet gard. / Ils trouveront dans tous les registres de statistique des
bureaux arabes, une colonne consacre ce genre de renseignements.
Cest une base essentielle de recherches.[12]
In the above quotation from 1856, Berbrugger was certainly correct about the
value of recording collections of Roman ruins. Some scholars were repeating
work the Bureaux had already undertaken: Nous les citons ici pour ne pas
exposer nos correspondants recommencer un travail dj fait. Nous ne doutons pas dailleurs, quils ne trouvent chez MM. les Chefs dtat-major et ceux
des bureaux arabes la complaisance que nous avons prouve nous-mme
quand nous avons eu besoin de consulter cette partie de leurs archives. Such
records were a virtuous contribution to scholarship; but given the examples
already instanced, and those to follow in this chapter, about the brazen reuse
of antiquities winked at by various administrations, we might also suspect that
the Bureaux lists could be and were used as finding-lists for cash-strapped
administrators and colonists short of necessary building materials. For example, in some instances the search for suitable Roman sites on top of which new
colonies could be built was extensively studied. Thus in 1848 three officers (one
interested in archaeology, another a topographer), and accompanied by an
interpreter, spent six weeks examining territory, and came up not only with
a map of archaeological remains, but also with proposed sites for colonies,
and a separate map of their locations,[13] examining ruins afin dtablir une
comparaison instructive entre ce quils ont fait et ce que nous faisons et
voulons faire.[14]
The Bureaux represented an important initiative in the administration of
Algeria, designed to suit the mores of the country.19 They offered des officiers
dvous, capables, connaissant la langue, familiers avec les murs des Arabes,
et on les tablit sur tous les points du territoire militaire divis en cercles, avec
une mission de guerre et de justice en mme temps,[15] and which their supporters saw as the indispensable concomitant to military expansion and pacification,[16] and much cheaper than any civil administration could be.[17] For
some, the work they did was simply irreplaceable,[18] a bulwark against anarchy and disorder.[19] Lamoricire had experimented with the idea in 1833, and
this was formalised in 1844.[20] Staffed initially by army officers, they were a
link between the natives and the Army, providing intelligence and collecting
taxes. They were intended to promote agriculture for the natives, and to help
19
Letterio 2011, 4648, for De Tocqueville ideas on suitable practices in Algeria.
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them, avoir des agents spciaux pour administrer les indignes sous la direction de lautorit suprieure.[21] Over time, its members were civilian or military, depending on the complexion of the territory they were administering.
Arguably, they were the glue which held together French domination of the
interior,[22] but they were also part of a broader semi-juridical strategy to control and where possible to exploit the locals.20 There were 91,000 troops in
Algeria in 1845 to counter the threat of Abd-el-Kader, who did not surrender
until 1847. His fall was arguably bad for the locals, thereby enfeebled, so that
now the State could concentrate on the political control of the population,
before assuming a dominant economic control. Dans cette tche, writes
Frmaux, larme dAfrique est appele tenir un rle de plus en plus administratif, au dtriment de ses missions purement militaires. Limportance confre aux bureaux arabes symbolise ce changement dorientation.21 One
continuing problem was that the Bureaux were never provided with fixed rules
or duties; so that the administration laissa aux officiers des bureaux arabes le
choix des mesures adopter, tche dont ils sacquittrent avec plus ou moins
de zle et plus ou moins de succs selon leur temprament et les circonstances.22
By 1870, there were some 50 Bureaux throughout Algeria, but their supporters
had often to fend off attacks on their very existence.[23] It certainly seemed a
cushy route to advancement: by 1858 16 of its officers were generals, one of
them fighting a court-case against four Algerian newspapers, and losing.[24]
Leclerc de Puligny summed up in 1884, regretting their decline, as well as the
continuing need for military force.[25]
Many of the Bureaux officers helped the natives in their legal and administrative struggles against European colonists, and sometimes obtained impressive results. But their work and results continued to be contentious.23 Naturally,
successes for natives were seen by the colonists as competition for their own
production; and therefore they considered that the Bureaux were a threat and
should be disbanded. Similarly, some Bureaux officers thought the colonists
were a threat to the natives, and they should go back to Europe.[26] Unfortunately,
the Bureau officers were piggy-in-the-middle between Arabs and colonists,
even if part of their mission, according to Piesse in 1862, was to amener les
indignes, par des amliorations lentes et progressives, se ranger sous les
20
21
22
23
Bouchne 2012, Thnault, Sylvie, 200206: Le code de lindignat. 205: punishment by

forced work was introduced in 1897, and gave 600,000 days between 1898 and 1910.
Frmaux 1977, 12, 24; Frmaux 2006, 325.
Yver 1955, 573.
Lorcin 1995, 7985; Darmon 2009, 204277 Le second empire. LAlgrie des gnraux et
des Bureaux arabes. 214222 La dictatoire des Bureaux Arabes.
Planting Colonies
305
mmes errements administratifs que la population europenne.[27] For such

work they seem to have been better prepared, and more efficient, than civil
administrators in mixed communes. As Couty wrote in 1895, countering the
backwash of poor opinions from the settlers:
Les Franais Algriens ne peuvent sempcher de reconnatre que les officiers des bureaux Arabes avaient, et ont toujours en territoire militaire,
sur les indignes, une autorit srieuse; et que cette autorit les Administrateurs, nont pas russi lacqurir. On est donc en droit de se demander
si la substitution partielle de lun lautre rgime na pas t une faute. /
En pays conquis, la mission dadministrer les indignes appartient tout
dabord larme conqurante qui, seule, y reprsente la nation. Plus tard,
cette mission est dvolue llment civil, et cela de plus en plus, au fur
et mesure de son dveloppement dans le pays.[28]
Since the 1848 Constitution provided for colonist deputies to Parliament, a
campaign led to Randons resignation in 1858, at least in part because of the
Bureaux Arabes.24 Henceforth it would frequently be the colonists who dictated Algerian policy, to the inevitable and continuing disadvantage of the
locals. In fact, the Bureaux were often badly staffed by untrained youngsters,
who perhaps saw them as the path to advancement;[29] even the man in
charge force dexprimenter sur la nature vivante, il sest instruit, il sest
clair was often incompetent, part of an administration that was not fit for
purpose.[30] The setting into which officers was thrown could also be strenuous, Hugonnet going to un cercle habit par des tribus montagnardes
remuantes, et constamment en lutte avec les populations du pays voisin.[31]
He kept the locals busy, however, getting them to build two fountains for the
market, using some convenient Roman ruins.[32]
In spite of manifold difficulties, however, especially the colonists themselves, any balanced assessment would conclude that the French could not
have held Algeria without this institution: ils ont fait redouter nos armes aux
lieux mmes o elles navaient pas paru et fait aimer partout notre justice,
notre dsintressement et notre loyaut.[33] In the words of one hopeful commentator in 1852, the Arab character was being moulded by French soldiers:
Il cde malgr lui linfluence de la civilisation europenne. Un officier
suivi de quelques soldats parcourt les tribus, entend leur plaintes, rgle leurs
diffrends.[34]
24
Clayton 1988, 6065 for overview of the military in Algeria, 18481870.
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chapter 8
The Mitidja
If towns were to become centres of administration and of Army garrisons, the

main work was to be done in the fields around villages and farms, for colonisation had to be agricultural, and be able to secure and police the land, before it
could be commercial, let alone industrial.[35] While many settlements were
built on existing permanently inhabited sites, one big exception is the great
plain of the Mitidja, of some 130,000ha.25 This had long been used for crops
and summer houses by the inhabitants of Algiers, and long been known to be
unhealthy.[36] From the French point of view, being close to Algiers it seemed
an ideal target for colonisation and apparently (though not in fact, as we shall
see) easy to protect. Its soil was such that it had the potential to become prime
agricultural land Frances kitchen garden[37] so it was to be improved, and
the marshes drained,26 with great strides made by 1850,[38] partly in order to
secure a road Algiers-Blida.
The reason for its unhealthy state when the French arrived was that Roman
and later drainage systems had been neglected.[39] That the region had been
inhabited in previous centuries was shown by the many remains of earlier
structures, including luxurious villas and drainage developed by the Moors
expelled from Andaluca.[40] Since the plain was adjacent to Algiers, its colonisation went ahead in something of a rush. The French began in 1834 to put in
the infrastructure to protect the plain. In that year the Foreign Legion built
part of the Algiers-Blida road.
By 1841 Bugeauds contribution to the Mitidja was a series of drainage
trenches, which had to be protected by a blockhouse every 500m 86 blockhouses in all to increase security and promote settlement,[41] for venturing
out here was as dangerous as it was from Algiers.[42] There were even calls to
surround the whole plain with a wall, or a deep ditch,[43] although there was
personnel only for much smaller enceintes.[44]
By 1848 the area was protected by strategic towns.[45] This was a mistake, but
no more so than the Expdition des Portes de Fer, which caused Abd-el-Kader
to start fighting again. For not only did he loot, raid, burn and decapitate, but
the results made the newspapers in Paris: on leur envoie dAlger cent fois
plus de cris et de larmes pour un colon imprudent dcapit ou pour un troupeau de vaches enlev, que pour deux cents soldats expirant de la fivre dans
25
26
Bouchne 2012, Cte, Marc, Lexploitation de la Mitidja, vitrine de lentreprise coloniale?

for details of the expropriation and expulsion involved.
Baroli 1992, 51: 20km of canals dug here 18301860, which brought 11,000ha into
cultivation.
Planting Colonies
307
les ambulances et les hpitaux. In the late 1840s, thanks to administrative

rigidity and presumably not a little naked fear, colonists were being sent far
from Algiers, leaving much of the Mitidja uncultivated.[46]
Once again, the cart had been placed before the horse, the colons facing an
uncertain struggle with the climate and the inhabitants.[47] For surely a region
should be pacified before it was settled?[48] Not only that, surely it should also
be drained? In the mid-1840s, in spite of drainage trenches, soldiers were still
dying of fever in the Mitidja, protecting would-be colonists from Arab
incursions:
Behold that large trench: it is the common grave for the soldiers who have
perished in the hospitals, from being confined in the pestilential quarters
of the Mitidja, supplied by the Model Farm, or some other farm, worked
out by a company of shareholders! Under the present defective system,
agriculture can hold out but little interest to the colonist. To the army,
Africa is a vast field of battle. The soldier passes through it and returns to
France. For the speculator it is an open field for swindling. No person in
the colony thinks seriously of the real interests or future prospects of
France.[49]
By 1873, however, and after some attacks in 187127 (a knock-on effect from the
Franco-Prussian War[50]), the Mitidja was being promoted as a showcase for
the sterling work of the Army. One was invited to admire les travaux
dassainissement, les jetes, les ponts, les routes, les dfrichements dus au concours de notre arme au profit des colons comparable to the glories of the
Beauce (with its rolling wheatfields) in France.[51] But then, Autrefois entirement soumise au joug des trangers qui y dtenaient 80% des terres, elle a t
faonne aux besoins exclusifs de la colonisation.28
Roman ruins went into some of the Mitidja villages. The Domaine de la
Reghaia, for example, was built from materials on site: pierre, sable, tuiles et
briques; this farm was certainly attacked, so perhaps antique materials helped
its defence.29 As well as more blockhouses, some villages and properties, such
as Boufarik, were fortified after the devastation of Abd-el-Kader.30 Boufarik
27
28
29
30
Bouchne 2012, Salhi, Mohammed Brahim, 103109: Linsurrection de 1871.

Mutin 1977, 6; 2032 for its development 18561952.
Franc 1928, 312316, 436440.
Franc 1928, 2044 water and drainage; 4749 Roman remains; 5556 Moorish irrigation
around Blida; 81228 colonisation from Clauzel in 1830 to 1842; 188190 for Vales blockhouses. Plate opp.248: Blida in 1844 with surrounding military emplacements and block-
308
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faced not only Abd-el-Kader, but fever and then the draining of the adjacent
marshes.31 The town started in 1838 as a bazar of small tradesmen right next
to the army camp, but collecting stone for erecting decent buildings was hazardous, and wood and lime had to come from Algiers.[52] Even soldiers from the
camp, searching for stone a mere ten minutes away, needed a protecting
escort[53] and yet still some were killed.[54]

Villages and Farms

En effet, si au moyen de ces villages nous obtenions la paisible possession, la possession agricole de la Mitidjah, des plaines de Bne, du plateau de Stif, des environs dOran; si nous avions l de vritables tribus
sdentaires et chrtiennes, vivant du sol, sy tablissant toujours, et
pouvant, pendant une guerre europenne, augmenter en Algrie la petite
arme quelle y nourrirait; si elles taient composes dhommes braves et
valides, laborieux et moraux, capables de manier le fusil comme la charrue, ayant dfendre des enfants, une patrie, une foi! Alors nos principales villes se garderaient peu prs par elles-mmes, et nous jouirions
dj, sans trop de sacrifices, des avantages quelles nous promettent sous
le rapport maritime.[55] [1847]
As well as towns which the French would occupy (see Chapter 7), the Romans
built many villages across Algeria and Tunisia. Their remains were often used
by colonisers as marker-clues to agricultural fertility and water supply, and by
critics as a reproach either for the foolhardiness of attempting what the
Romans had done, or for the slow pace of successful colonisation or, in neutral
guise, the promise held out to Europeans by such riches.[56] As was asserted in
1853, nos officiers du gnie naboutissent qu rendre hommage aux premiers
conqurants, et ne tracent lenceinte dun village franais que pour dterrer
une ville romaine.[57] Olive presses were a tell-tale sign of ancient occupation,[58] with the proviso that changes in ground cover had altered the microclimate, so that not all settlements built on top of Roman ones were sure to
succeed.[59] Piquet maintains that by 1914 the French had planted 18m trees,
31
houses. Boufarik in 1848, with a fortified military camp right next to its less-broad layout
of streets.
Gautier 1930, 1387 Le phnomne colonial de 1830 1930 au village de Boufarik; 3947 for
attacks; 4761 for fever, and draining of marshes. 71: in 1885, the 6,000 natives there cultivate 986ha while the 6,000 Europeans cultivate 4,792ha.
Planting Colonies
309
against the Romans 40m plus.[60] Overall, however, the results of observing the
remains of the Roman landscape suggested that Il semble que, sur presque
tous les points de lAlgrie, la civilisation franaise ne fasse que reprendre,
aprs bien des sicles dintervalles, loeuvre de la civilisation romaine interrompue par la barbarie.[61] Developers thought the same way: at Akbeil village,
for instance, Roman ruins gave witness that this was a well-placed settlement,
so that dj plusieurs riches capitalistes en ont demand la concession au
Gouvernement.[62] At Kenchala, the French village mopped up many of the
antiquities, and some of the houses were decorated with antique dbris and
inscriptions: Le bordj du commandant suprieur ne contient que quelques
inscriptions et tables doffrandes. La cour de la maison Parrasols est dcore,
dune manire trs pittoresque, dun grand nombre de dbris antiques.[63]
At Oued Djilma the decoration seems to have been fancier, for this French settlement even made a monumental entrance to the village out of columns,
capitals and friezes.[64]

Agricultural Colonies
Il faut donc nous tablir, et nous tablir tout dun coup, en force, sur plusieurs points quon choisirait dabord parmi les plus cultivs. Le gouverneur, clair par nos checs et par son bon sens, pense que la colonisation
doit tre implante en quelque sorte toute faite; quil faut donner aux
colons non pas des promesses et la ressource de vendre du vin aux soldats qui les protgent, mais de bonnes maisons, un village bti et fortifi,
des champs protgs contre les invasions de lennemi. [1847]
Bugeaud, who studied Roman history intently, suggested in 1841: Commenons

la colonisation par agglomrations dans des villages dfensifs.[65] Veuillot,
who toured Algeria in 1847, echoes in the above quotation Bugeauds suggestions, that villages might grow into towns, and provide peace but his tone is
not hopeful.[66] In 1848 Bugeaud laid out plans for a series of agricultural colonies, which were to take the form of defended villages, some of them in the
Mitidja.32 This was one of several theories for the establishment and good
management of Algeria.33 Such colonies were often the work of the military,
who built the enceinte, public buildings and sometimes houses;34 but in their
32
33
34
Franc 1928, 231248.

Almi 2002, 914 for Fouririsme et Saint-simonisme; 2539 for the Association Saintsimonienne. 1524 for overview of ideas of Bugeaud, the Bureaux Arabes, and Lamoricire.
Baroli 1992, 4757.
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early years they were a disaster because of a lack of planning. And they were
By almost any practical measure...an abysmal failure.35 Indeed, settling colonists far from military centres, on land expropriated from the locals, was a
recipe for disaster.[67] Unemployment and hunger were only part of the result,
for some villages (each to be under the charge of a soldier) had not even been
mapped out when the would-be colonists arrived. So the soldiers were ejected
from their barracks to sleep in tents, and the colonists took over the barracks.
Unfortunately, the model houses took no account of local conditions, let alone
of available materials. Indeed, neither military nor official villages were a success, and Il en a t de mme pour les grandes cultures essayes par des socits de capitalistes, ou par de riches particuliers although small-scale
cultivation often worked well.[68] Disease was also a problem: the new village
of Magenta, for example, needed work to make it habitable during the summer;[69] and there were many other debilitating ailments among the colons.[70]
One settlement targeted for a military colony was Cola, near Tipasa. First
occupied by Vale in 1838. Colonel Prtot had already reconnoitred the site in
1834, and noted its ruins: Il est bti au pied dune Montagne sur les ruines
dune ville plus considrable que les Romains avaient entoure de murailles et
dont lenceinte, anciennement dtruite par les Goths, na jamais t releve.[71]
But Lamping in 1855 was very dubious that soldiers would take to the peasantand-plough life:
The only means of establishing a permanent colony in Africa would be
for the French Government to send over, at some expense it is true, a
number of real agricultural families from the north of France, or, better
still, from Germany. The southern Frenchmen are totally unfit for colonists. The only kind of agriculture which they would be able to pursue
with any profit is the cultivation of the grape, and this is strictly prohibited, for fear of injuring the mother country. Hitherto the Government
never seems to have been really in earnest about the colonisation of
Africa.[72]
Another site was the town of Mostaganem. No doubt the surrounding villages
received additional population when the French went about their building
work at Mostaganem in 1846: La ville sagrandit tous les jours, les constructions nouvelles slvent de tous les cts et remplacent les anciens maisons
arabes. La population indigne, en grande partie, abandonne la ville pour
stablir Tigarit, dont les ruines aujourdhui releves prsentent laspect dune
cit nouvelle.[73]
35
Sessions 2011, 317.
Planting Colonies
311
The French could learn lessons from the Romans about how to defend such
villages[74] one solution being to cluster them around towns,[75] another to
provide strong links between villages and military outposts and roads, as the
Romans had done.[76] In 1842 village life was still dangerous in some areas: but
around Cherchel and in the Mitidja there was a lull, and the tribes cessaient
de faire des incursions sur nos fermes, de tuer nos colons et de piller nos
quelques allis indignes dvous notre cause.[77] Hence some posts were
erected to guard roads, such as that at Bordj-bou-Areridj overlooking the StifAumale road, where lieutenant-colonel dArgent built everything from the
ruins on-site, put in plantations, and started horse-raising.[78] This was essential, of course, because of the enormous and continuing Army demand for
mounts. Boghar was also fortified with ruins in 1843, as a base for the exploration of the Chlif.[79] As late as 1880 Lieutenant-Colonel Mercier was recommending for some areas farms with a lot of land but still la ferme devient un
petit fort facilement dfendable.[80]
Certainly, over the previous decades, soldiers had frequently been detached
to keep watch over colonists and their holdings.[81] This was probably what the
Romans did, and surveys of Roman establishments found fortified farms interspersed with guard-posts,[82] suggesting that the Romans also had trouble with
their natives. The fortified farm of Ammi-Moussa, for example, not far from
Mostaganem, had a 300m wall and four guard-posts,[83] and Roman military
towns at strategic points were also ringed by guard-posts[84] not far from the
French pattern for fortified villages. But this had been attained by reusing
almost all the local ruins.[85] And one problem often remained: there were
insufficient roads (and fewer telegraphs) to ensure the proper functioning of
colonies as commercial entities.[86] One author declared in 1858 that there
were no more than 100km of all-weather roads throughout Algeria and that
transport of goods cost two-and-a-half times what it cost in metropolitan
France.[87] Under such a dearth, colons fared badly: by 1875 Tipasa was a failing
enterprise because it took too long to build suitable roads, and there was no
point in growing crops which cost more than their sale price or what the land
was worth.[88]

Arab Villages
Les pierres de taille dont tout le mamelon tait autrefois jonch avaient
t converties en moellons et employes dans les constructions du village
de Bou-Tllis et des fermes environnantes.[89] [1888]
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At the ruins of the ancient Crispae, there was nothing to be seen on the ground
when Demaeght visited but, as the sheik told him, this was because so much
had been reused in local villages and farms. Some villages had been settled by
Arabs, and Bliard in 1854 gives a list of 133 villages qui sont autant de crations nouvelles ou dimportantes restaurations des cits musulmanes.[90]
Some of these no doubt sprang up because settlement policies had cleared
natives off their ancestral land. There were also villages which had at one
time been occupied by Arabs, but were now deserted, such as Tengar,[91] or
the nymphaeum at Henchir-An-Kasba.[92] Frequently such sites were reoccupied by colonists, and the ruins replaced by crude French constructions.[93]
In the Medjerda, by the 1880s there were large tracts of ancient ruins, but
few inhabitants,[94] and in some parts the Arabs only held markets, having no
settled communities.[95]
Arabs could astutely play the same game as the French settlers by joining
the housing club, and the French sometimes then congratulated themselves
that the natives were building houses becoming civilised, no less [96] and
building villages just like French ones, the Arabs even employing French workmen.[97] Occasionally, French troops even erected stone houses for Arab notables for the aggrandisement of France,[98] perhaps because (again) such
constructions might give them a taste for French civilisation. What is more, the
French rebuilt some of the settlements they had destroyed during the war with
Abd-el-Kader: an Army officer went round to indiquer les emplacements les
plus favorables pour les tablissements projets, which included groups of
ruins.[99] So why not let the Army do the work? They had destroyed, so let them
rebuild as well.
The French commentators somehow missed the ample evidence that
sophisticated locals had been building stone and marble houses for centuries
but, of course, what information we have about recent Arab building frequently comes from them. Mohamed ben Cherfeddine, near a Roman road,
a construit, depuis loccupation franaise, une habitation difie uniquement
avec des blocs romains, et sous laquelle on voit une citerne romaine.[100]
Indeed, Duval recognised in 1865 that when the French erected establishments
on Roman ruins, Berbers and Arabs did likewise, all rejecting the calls of occupying generals to choose new, virgin sites, for ces conseils ne purent triompher
de la tradition, plus fidle interprte de la topographie. Une ville est un effet de
la nature autant que de la volont humaine.[101] After all, Roman underground
rooms made cosy houses, as Esprandieu found at Hamman-Zouakra in
Tunisia;[102] at Mareth, the standing walls of the Roman settlement were incorporated into the Arab houses.[103] In some regions, even those with a strong
Planting Colonies
313
Roman presence, not all natives chose to use Roman construction methods.36
But then, near Tunis the Bey in the early 18th century had already built himself
a palace with a marble doorway made from ruins.[104] This also seems to have
happened at Madaurus, where Lautorit, bien mal inspire, ayant tolr la
construction de deux grandes maisons par lex-cad des Mahatla et son frre,
adjoint indigne actuel du douar de Mdaourouch, il en est rsult un pillage
quasi mthodique de ces belles ruines.[105]
Toussaint, in his 1908 summary of the work of the Brigades Topographiques,
lists many Arab villages built on ruins, or with ruins adjacent.[106] Some were
set within what had once been walled towns, such as Telmine.[107] Many such
Arab villages were rich in antiquities, as Gsell and Graillot reported in the
Aurs,[108] and Pellissier discovered near the River Bagrada in 17241725: On
nous assura quil y avait dans les mosques et dans les maisons particulires
dautres inscriptions que nous ne pmes voir.[109] Mater was another such
village, with a population of 2,800 in 1862, in a region rich in antiquities, and
built with them.[110] At Milah, Rgis admired the garden walls, all built from
antique blocks, as were the walls and gateway to the settlement.[111] At Ngaous
in 1859, Fraud found the village and its fountains beautiful, if dirty; and La
maison du cad, la seule qui soit peu prs confortable, est solidement construite en maonnerie, sur danciennes votes romaines, servant aujourdhui
dcuries: elle est accompagne dun superbe jardin, quarrose une rigole o
leau coule en permanence.[112] Tourists could also purchase antiquities from
villages set on ruins, as Kennedy did at Hergla in 1846;[113] since the site was so
much bigger than the Arab village that sat inside it, many antiquities were
probably unearthed during cultivation.[114] (The Bedouin were alert to the possibilities of the antiquities trade by the early 19th century.[115])
Some villages sitting on ruins had been abandoned or were much diminished, such as Krich-el-Oued.[116] Others nearby had perhaps grown in size,
in this case on a Roman site: le village plus considrable de Medjez-el-Bab,
qui peut compter une population de quinze cents mes. Cette dernire
localit a t une ville romaine dont on voit encore quelques restes, entre
autres une porte ou petit arc de triomphe do le village moderne a pris son
nom, car Medjez-el-Bab signifie, en arabe, le passage ou gu de la porte.[117]
36
Jemma-Gouzon 1989, 188 On observe que, bien que la colonisation romaine ait pntr,
semble-t-il, assez profondment le massif aurasien, et ait marqu son organisation et sa
production agricoles...les populations Chaouya nont fait pratiquement aucun emprunt
technologique, en matire de construction, au monde latin.
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However, soon only the old cisterns would be left,[118] for sections of the gate
quickly went into colonists houses, and it had gone completely by 1879:
Aujourdhui inscription, arc, pilastres ont t dtruits; il ne reste plus sur
lemplacement de ldifice antique que quelques grosses pierres parses;
elles seront bientt utilises dans quelque construction moderne, et personne ne pourra se douter quil y avait jadis cet endroit une porte romaine;
il nen restera comme souvenir que le nom du village moderne.[119]
The settlement had 1,800 inhabitants by 1885, and the destruction of the
remaining ruins continued: Ses maisons sont bties avec des pierres de taille
pilles aux ruines sur lesquelles elle a surgi.[120] Nearby was an Arab-built
bridge of eight arches, two hundred paces long, built with spolia, including
tomb-slabs.[121] At Beled-Djededa, a mosque had been made from a Roman
mausoleum, on the site of a Roman farm.[122] At El-Baali, the Arab houses were
well-built from antique blocks, and the well reputed to be Roman.[123] At
Bechilga/Zabi, an important inscription still had to be inspected in an Arab
house.[124]
Ain-Temouchent, on the Oran-Tlemcen road, was a Roman colony which
had been used as a military post. This was set up in 1851 as a new village mixte,
with intact Roman cisterns[125] and a forest nearby every material needed for
development.[126] Here the Gnie se rserva rigoureusement tout ce qui, provenant des fouilles, pouvait intresser lart; cest ainsi que lon put mettre de ct
un certain nombre dinscriptions lapidaires et quelques autres objets non
moins prcieux pour la science archologique.[127] The village lay on a bed of
good limestone, but other stone sources included material from o lon a pris
la pierre pour construire la fontaine romaine dont on voit les ruines vis--vis
dAn-Khial, gauche de la route, en allant Tlemcen. / Beaucoup de pierres de
taille ont t transportes de cet endroit pour la construction des maisons de
Temouchent.[128] Not only that, but part of the citadel was exposed in 1882,
and sold to a landowner for building material.[129] Presumably ruins were
reused because this was the easy solution although Roman marble quarries,
with detached pieces lying around, were available nearby, and an Italian quarryman from Carrara as well.[130]

French Villages
Trying to house new colonist arrivals required the establishment of villages,
usually fortified, with suitable surrounding land for agriculture or husbandry.
They could live in tents for a short time, but solid housing was essential. Wood
was scarce because forests were much depleted, but walls could be made from
Planting Colonies
315
whatever materials lay around. These were generally Roman blocks, although
sometimes dolmens were destroyed.[131] These structures including nearby
tumuli were investigated by army officers as early as the 1860s.[132] However,
these were disappearing fast, and excavations were needed.[133] There is little
point in attempting to establish a trajectory similar to that for the Army (from
making-do with Roman materials to eventually fresh-quarrying new blocks, as
happened at Tebessa), because this did not often happen. For in spite of the
few instances piously recorded of colonists preserving antiquities, this was far
from the norm for people of whom the majority had very little education and
often needed to protect themselves against marauding natives. Thus on occasion groups of ruins were completely destroyed, as at Safia: Cette route remplace la voie romaine, que lon a retrouve, et vient passer dans le nouveau
centre de lHenchir-Zarouria, dont il ne reste que lemplacement. Les entrepreneurs et les colons en ont enlev jusqu la dernire pierre. / On ne trouve dans
le village actuel aucun objet dart digne dintrt.[134] Lambessa was being
plundered by colonists as early as 1865, and Flaux tells what happened to a
stone he saw:
Ce quil y a de plus triste, cest que ce monument a t dtruit depuis
notre occupation. Les colons franais ont arrach de ce lieu sacr les
pierres qui ont servi construire leurs maisons. De pareils actes de
vandalisme se commettent encore tous les jours. La personne qui me
guidait travers les ruines de Lambessa voulait me faire prendre une
inscription de porte grave sur une pierre servant jadis de chapiteau et
jonchant aujourdhui le sol. Vains efforts! Pendant la nuit, la pierre avait
t brise avec un marteau de fer et une partie des fragments avait t
emporte.[135]
Such breaking-up continued vigorously so that if, years previously, old colonists who had seen the amphitheatre with its seats nearly intact, now saw it
largely destroyed by 1884.[136] Nevertheless, a newspaper could proclaim in
1892 that Les colons algriens que les allemands ont compar aux Vandales,
sont aujourdhui de passionns conservateurs dantiquits.[137] Yet at some
sites, the colonists had cleared everything away, including the foundations.[138]
The promotion of colonisation by underlining the availability of free building
materials was often quite shameless. 1853 saw the construction of new villages
on the Algiers-Dellys road, and the Annales de la Colonisation enthused as follows: De nombreuses ruines romaines attestent, au surplus, lancienne prosprit de cette contre; et les nouveaux colons trouveront, pour ainsi dire,
pied doeuvre, les matriaux ncessaires pour construire leurs habitations.[139]
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In 1844 Bugeaud marked out Dellys with the locations for French buildings,
and did this easily, because la ville mauresque de Dellys existait encore sur les
ruines dune ancienne colonie romaine.[140] Later boosters for the Dellys area
even believed that a settlement could be built and, at the same time, archaeologists satisfied: en effet, la ville romaine fournira dexcellents matriaux
pour la construction, tout en permettant aux archologues de rserver les
pierres qui pourraient offrir quelque intrt.[141]
However, there were endemic problems which no administration seemed
willing or indeed able to solve. Even as late as the 1850s (by when one might
have thought the administration better organised), many colonists were simply dumped on their land, and told to build a village. At An-Sdidia, in 1856,
the colonists had to cut wood during the night not to use it, but to sell it in
Mostaganem, otherwise they would have starved.[142] An author writing from
Paris in the same year gave details of the normes sacrifices pour ltablissement
des premiers colons europens,[143] made by the French Government in
money and goods so presumably he did not really know what was happening
on the ground. And in 1850 people were starving, as Saint-Arnaud wrote to his
son: but still, it was a beautiful country![144] Yet talking up colonisation was a
noble calling for the French, and Urbain in 1862 praises both colonists and
administrators for what they had achieved;[145] Lunel, on the other hand, notes
in 1869 that hostile natives still make life a misery, and that villages were really
ruled by army personnel.[146]
Unfortunately, the achievement was usually at the expense of the ancient
ruins. In 1867 Vigneral, a Capitaine on the General Staff, did a survey of Roman
ruins around Bne, where the town itself was rich in reused antiquities;[147]
and another of Kabylia, noting cases of modern reuse, with detailed comments
that both visitors and archaeologists would often make, for example:
Bou-Sba: En 1845, le colonel de Tourville (note manuscrite) signale
cette ruine comme importante... / Aujourdhui, la construction du
village franais a fait disparatre presque tous les vestiges antiques...
Henchir-Bir-Abdallah: vestiges confus dun centre agricole assez considrable; grand nombre de blocs taills encore debout et en aligmenent;
dautres ont t employs la construction dune ferme au milieu mme
des ruines...Ksar-Bou-Zar: Signal par le gnral Duvivier...Depuis
cette poque, une partie des matriaux (belles pierres tailles) a t
encore enleve pour servir la construction dun bordj voisin...
Bordj-ben-Zerguin: beaucoup de matriaux ont t employs aux
constructions modernes.[148]
Planting Colonies
317
Both Vignerals volumes offer detailed listings site by site, some of which he
has seen himself, other reported by such as Berbrugger or Gnral Duvivier.
He provides a map of the Guelma area which underlines the sheer quantity of
remains, for he grades his blobs according to the extent of the ruins less than
1ha, 15ha, 510ha, 1015ha and finally above 15ha. Military remains are indicated by a flag.[149]
Vigneral does not suggest that he has really provided a ruin-map for the use
of stone-seeking colonists; but at the least his comments show just how extensive such stone looting really was, and how routine. At El-Malah Ses maisons
sont parses le long du chemin; toutes ont t bties avec des pierres de taille
tires du sol, and ancient coins were dug up at the same time.[150] In some
cases there were simply too many antiquities to reuse, or antiquities in useless
shapes, which survived because they could not easily be converted. In the commune mixte of Safia, the farms were bties sur des ruines dtablissements
agricoles: on peut voir encore des sarcophages, des citernes et des mos
aques.[151] The 1871 Colonisation Commission for the Province of Algiers listed
villages to be created, and the advantages of their position and prs des
ruines dun ancien village romain was a typical recommendation of many
such itemised accounts:
Item 42 Amoura: Ville crer auprs du confluent de loued Habenne et
du Chlif sur la route carrossable de Mda Miliana. Ruines romaines
considrables, sources nombreuses, excellentes terres. Item 68 An
Benian: Village crer auprs des ruines dun barrage romain; excellente position un caravansrail sy trouve. Item 79 Amellaguen: Village
construire prs des ruines dun ancien village romain. Item 91 SourDjouab: Village construire auprs de ruines romaines dans une position
bien choisie.[152]
The backwash came when such villages were constructed, their monuments
destroyed, and scholars left with the scraps, as happened at Bir Hadada in
1859,[153] and at An Kebira (Prigotville) in 1890,[154] where at least the local
Ponts et Chausses official had conserved some inscriptions.[155] Or at
Wattignies, where Toutes les maisons actuelles sont construites avec des
pierres quarries prises sur place, but everything was so damaged that the
description of the remaining ruins could be no more than that they suggested
lancienne existence de quelque chose qui fut plus quun fortin.[156] Elsewhere,
folk memory had to serve for what sites looked like in even the recent past.
At the village of Bordj-Rdir, les colons et les entrepreneurs eurent tt fait
de disperser ces restes encore imposants de la civilisation romaine, and
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la maison forestire a t difie presque exactement sur les fondations dun

ancien tablissement romain, un castrum colossal whereas Il y a environ
vingt ans, il existait la place de ces gros cubes de maonnerie moderne, des
ruines fort importantes dont lune delles, en croire les indignes, se dressait
plusieurs mtres de hauteur.[157]
Entrepreneurs often undertook the construction of villages as well as roads
and then railways, and their reputation for destructiveness put that of the
Army in the shade. A maritime village founded near Fouka in 1845 saw the
developer take the money, sell off the materials, and run.[158] Official embargos
against exploiting ruins seem sometimes to have had no effect: at An-el-Bordj,
inscriptions transcribed in previous decades had disappeared by 1905: Jen ai
vu seulement trois sur dix-sept qui ont t publies. Il est vrai que depuis peu
de temps on a reconstruit, au moyen de pierres tires des ruines, la fontaine
dAn-el-Bordj, ainsi que plusieurs maisons. / LAdministration, avertie, a fait
dfense, depuis un an ou deux, aux entrepreneurs de la rgion dextraire de
nouvelles pierres des ruines.[159] Hence En labsence de toute sanction, ne
serait-il pas naf de notre part desprer voir cder lintrt des entrepreneurs
devant celui de la science?[160] Just as epigraphers hung around to see any
inscriptions that had survived the attention of entrepreneurs, so a local sheik
at Bordj-Beda could show archaeologists les restes antiques qui ont chapp
aux fouilles de lentrepreneur du bordj.[161] But the construction of the railway
near this site did not spare a large necropolis.[162]
The new villages built on or near Roman remains were quickly identified by
archaeologists as the front line in the battle to preserve elements of the past,
especially inscriptions. Condescending archaeologists tried to interest colonists in the antiquities they dug up, and tried a theme we have already seen,
namely the longevity of the countrys ancient inhabitants. They pointed out
the details in inscriptions, surely thereby hoping (very naively) to instil a new
respect for such harbingers of good news. Thus, in 1878, funerary inscriptions
rassurent nos vaillants colons sur les conditions de salubrit de leur nouvelle
patrie.[163] This ludicrous attempt to equate Roman with contemporary conditions was gainsaid by the very high mortality rates in French colonies which
the colonists themselves were in an ideal position to understand. The Army
also suffered elevated level of sickness, and their officers sometimes tried to
persuade themselves that things were getting better. In 1841 at Miliana (which
had a resupply problem), the Captain of engineers believed that Malgr les
malheurs de la premire occupation, on ne saurait prtendre que le climat de
Miliana est insalubre car aux mmes poques de lanne, la dernire garnison
na perdu en 5 mois que 61 hommes y compris les blesss et dont 26 avaient t
vacus par les diverses colonnes.[164] And at the village of Sidi-Khelifa in 1881,
Planting Colonies
319
we learn that Depuis que lAdministrateur de la commune leur a fait connatre

limportance de ces vieux monuments, les colons sempressent de lui signaler
leurs trouvailles.[165] A likely story, indeed; more probable were the results at
the commune mixte des Maadid, where the ruins of Kherbet-et-Trab were
plundered by the settlers la dcouverte de trs nombreux vestiges, dont plusieurs malheureusement ont disparu dans la maonnerie des maisons actuelles.[166] The same author suggested at a different settlement that Les travaux
effectus par les nouveaux colons amneront probablement la dcouverte
dinscriptions et autres documents intressants,[167] but that at a third Les
matriaux de cette ruine ont t utiliss par les colons.[168] Hence very few
inscriptions reached the scholars, for often they were reused as soon as they
were found.[169]
The big mistake antiquities-wise that the administrators made was to allow
or even encourage the reuse of antique materials, because this ensured the
destruction of everything suitable. Duval wrote in 1859 of the foundatin of AnRouiba that there were plentiful ruins, and les nouveaux colons trouveront,
pour ainsi dire, pied doeuvre les matriaux ncessaires leurs habitations.[170] Some administrators recognised what was happening and, at Tizgirt
in 1891, funds were provided to colonists leffet de sauvegarder les restes
existants, de les rassembler et den rechercher de nouveaux au moyen de
fouilles mthodiques.[171] Just how successful this scheme was in unknown.
As Diehl comments in 1892, Toutes les plaintes, tous les reproches, toutes
les protestations demeuraient sans effet; et les dfenseurs les plus zls des
antiquits algriennes, fatigus de recommencer sans fin et sans succs une
lutte visiblement inutile, abandonnaient la partie, et se resignaient de guerre
lasse au vandalisme des entrepreneurs publics.[172] By then the fight and the
monuments had been well and truly lost. But it was not too late to fight a
rearguard action against the foreign invaders into French scholarly preserves;
so when the American Journal of Archaeology reported in 1912 on Schultens 1911
description of vandalism in Algeria, the Commission de lAfrique du Nords
earlier protest was also cited, to the effect that
Luvre poursuivie par la science franaise en Afrique depuis trente
ans...pour sauver les ruines et pour dvelopper les muses, prouvent
tous ceux qui sont au courant de nos publications que les autorits, loin
de se dsintresser des antiquits, ont fait tout ce qui tait en leur pouvoir pour en assurer la conservation, et y ont russi autant quil est matriellement possible de le faire.[173]
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In other words, it was not materially possible to do much. How could it be

otherwise, remarked Audollent in 1890: the greatest number of inscriptions
were turned up as new villages were built, and ladministration tablit-elle
souvent les villages modernes lendroit mme o se trouvait la ville
antique.[174] Even the great sites were still being plundered. From the Socit
Archologique de Constantine in 1884 came details of the destruction of
Lambessas Nymphaeum by colonists and the intelligence that il existe, dans
les cartons dun grand service public Alger, une liste des monuments romains
propres tre exploits comme carrires.[175] In the face of such an entrenched
and crass attitude from an organisation supposedly dedicated to preservation,
as well as from the Government itself, was there any point in swimming against
the stream? What price for the monuments les colons travaillaient sans
relche les anantir when the very Government supporting learned societies does so little, and when pendant cinquante ans environ la domination
franaise a t plus dsastreuse aux monuments algriens que de longs sicles
de barbarie musulmane?[176]

Seriana: Documented Destruction

Lentreprise des travaux publics ne recule devant aucun moyen pour se
procurer au meilleur prix, sans travail pnible et sans frais dextraction,
les matriaux qui lui sont ncessaires pour les constructions, le pavage
des rues et ltablissement des routes...toute pierre qui nest pas enracine dans le sol, quelle soit un objet dart, un document dpigraphie ou
une simple borne de lotissement, est immdiatement enleve et transporte sur ses chantiers...Cest la ruine et la dvastation.[177] [1893]
Seriana is a new village constructed in a region once rich in Roman remains,

most of which are now destroyed; it is to the north of Batna, at equal distances
between it, Lambaesis, and Diana. The ancient name was Lamiggium, wrote
Lambert Playfair in his 1895 Supplement to his Bibliography of Algeria.
Although the area had earlier been hit by riots in 1871,[178] the site was chosen
for colonisation in 1879, and was later called called Pasteur. We have an 1885
protest by Charles Robert to the Acadmie des Inscriptions, who targets the
mediaeval lobby with his scorn:
Quelques personnes ont protest, mais il leur a t rpondu que les ruines
de Seriana navaient pas dimportance. On envisage trop souvent, en effet,
les antiquits de notre terre dAfrique au point de vue exclusif de lart; or,
sil convient de ne conserver en France que des glises romanes ou
Planting Colonies
321
gothiques dun certain mrite architectural, il ne faut pas oublier quen

Afrique la plus modeste inscription a parfois un intrt capital au point
de vue de lhistoire, de la gographie et de la connaissance des races
diverses qui vivaient dans cette partie du monde romain.[179]
Then Domergue produced a comprehensive report on what had happened,
which he wrote in tones of measured outrage in 1892. It presents a devastating
and detailed picture of just how quickly a site could be stripped and just about
vanish under new constructions enough to make an archaeologists heart
bleed, wrote Cagnat.[180] Domergue was not just some passing traveller, but an
official there during the creation and layout of the colony, charg de la division du sol sur tous les points dune vaste tendue. In 1879 the site offrait sur
plus de deux cents hectares dtendue limage dune ncropole antique, couverte de nombreux dbris,[181] and he informed the administrators of the fact;
they laughed at him, and questioned his competence. Je fus le tmoin impuissant et attrist de cette dvastation, he writes, and comment luvre de
destruction qui a marqu la fondation du village de Seriana persiste encore et
na pas cess de nos jours.[182] The destruction at this site obliterated sections
of a large cemetery with some elegant figured and inscribed tombs;[183] these
included a family complex with stone sarcophagi and human remains.[184]
When digging the foundations for their houses, the colons discovered a collection of inscribed tiles which were probably a rarity, although now we shall
never know. Wagonloads of them were taken for reuse:
Un des meilleurs colons de Seriana, M. Calvire estime que plusieurs
fourgons auraient peine suffi pour la transporter; ces livres, retrouvs,
ont t dtruits ou utiliss comme moellons dans les nouvelles constructions. Le spcimen que ce colon en a gard a t soumis notre examen
et celui de M. le commandant Payen. / Il faut esprer que la bibliothque de Seriana nest pas encore puise et que ce qui reste de ses
tablettes antiques, si elles sont retrouves, nous sera prcieusement
conserv.[185]
The Byzantine fort had been transformed into a demolition site. There were
statue fragments littered around it,[186] and Domergue caught sections of an
important funerary monument, with a good funerary inscription, being
dragged off to the kilns.[187] The whole area of the fort was being reduced
quickly, and offre mme limage dun chantier ouvert au public, o les matriaux choisis prennent souvent la forme dernire et o saccumulent leurs
dbris.[188] Cemeteries were, of course, a particular focus of looters attention,
322
chapter 8
with the natives doing the looting and presumably selling the tomb contents to
the French.[189] Tombs with apparently high-quality mosaics, such as Peysonnel
reported seeing in the 1720s near Tunis, naturally suffered.[190] Searching tumuli
for materials could also throw up saleable antiquities.[191]
In other words, at Seriana it was administrators as well as simple colonists
who were responsible for the destruction of antiquities. This is a long tradition,
as we have seen, with the military at Stif affirming that Tous nos villages
modernes sont btis sur les ruines danciennes constructions.[192] Domergue
notes how the laying-out of a village has devastated them,[193] how lentreprise
des travaux publics ne recule devant aucun moyen pour se procurer au meilleur prix, sans travail pnible et sans frais dextraction, les matriaux qui lui
sont ncessaires pour les constructions, and goes on to describe two years of
carts carrying away large quantities of antiquities. Upon his complaining, on
nous rpondit que ces ruines romaines noffraient aucun intrt archologique,
et la destruction continua avec une ardeur sans gale:
Dans un pays o les roches de toute nature sont si massives et si abondantes quil pourrait servir de carrire la plus vaste des entreprises, lentrepreneur brise impitoyablement tout ce qui reste de lantique ncropole
romaine, arrache de leurs lits souterrains les tombeaux des anciens pour
les rduire en cailloux et sme la dvastation sur les restes de cette vieille
cit, aussi grande, si lon en juge par ltendue de ses vestiges, que Lam
bsis et Diana. Ses vhicules, fourgons et tombereaux, parcourent en
tout sens le territoire...Deux cents indignes et autant de bourriquots
font cette besogne. La corve dure depuis deux ans et se renouvelle tous
les jours. Plus de trois cents pierres moules, la plupart inscrites, ont dj
t dtruites; on fait du cailloutis avec des statues et huit cents bornes qui
fixaient le travail de lotissement et dterminaient les lots des futurs
colons sont aujourdhui sur les chantiers de construction et vont passer
sous le marteau...Jappelle lattention de lautorit suprieure sur les
faits que jai lhonneur de signaler. [194]
Plagued beyond bearing by the destruction he had seen and tried to prevent,
his description of the finished colonist village is heavy in sarcasm: de belle
maonnerie faite avec des matriaux de choix...Nous parlons seulement des
inscriptions que le hasard de la construction rend apparentes...presque
toutes les maisons de Seriana contiennent quelque intressant dbris...des
fragments de colonnes et des chapiteaux qui servent ordinairement de siges
aux nombreuses familles de nos braves colons.[195] In 1894 Pallary wondered
why such thieves were not prosecuted for so public an activity, needing
Planting Colonies
323
wagons, animal teams, and workmen. And, naturally, tous les objets provenant de fouilles devraient tre confisqus au profit de lEtat.[196] But the refrain
that certain areas ne prsentent aucun intrt archologique is a popular one
throughout the century.[197]
Under such circumstances, with rapacious colonists and a thoughtless and
brutal administration, Domergue could do nothing to protect the antiquities.
So he did the only two things possible: he filled his notebooks with detailed
references to antiquities incorporated in the new structures,[198] and then he
wrote it all up. Glossing his distasteful experiences, and trying to extract something useful from them, he would tell the Socit Archologique de Constantine,
to whom he presented his report, that antiquities found on colonised land
belonged to the State, and that Il faut rappeler tout de suite cette prescription
salutaire ceux qui lont oublie et il faut le faire administrativement.[199]
Domergue is the only author who provides such chapter-and-verse exactitude
on this small site, which is why the majority of references to it come from his
report. Certainly, Pallu de Lessarts breezy assertion of 1886 that M. Bedouet a
veill jusquici avec un soin jaloux la conservation des restes de lancienne
Seriana, was quickly disproved, since the remains all disappeared into the new
colony.[200] Domergues report is important for our theme, for whereas the
majority of references by other authors to reuse and misuse of antiquities are
passing ones as they travelled on elsewhere, he was on the spot, was involved
professionally, was meticulous, and concentrated on the one village.
Not surprisingly, archaeologists travelling around such villages frequently
raised the alarm about how many and how fast antiquities were being swallowed up into French colonies. Carton, indeed, wanted a patrolling and
mounted archaeological hit squad, capable de surprendre les entrepreneurs
dans leurs chantiers.[201] But then, he knew what he was talking about, noting
in the same year of 1906 the depradations they were causing at Carthage
itself.[202] However, the entrepreneurs were ahead of him: in 1889 a Tunis newspaper was advertising des leons de coupe de pierres et dappareils the
latter presumably being lifting machines aux Entrepreneurs, Maons et
Tailleurs de Pierres.[203] In 1903 Robert made a list of ruins in danger, pointing
out how inspired the Administration had been to build nine villages near
important sets of ruins[204] but then, officials faced a continuing peopleproblem, and generally took the easiest and cheapest route to solving it.
Farms
Isolated self-standing Roman farms were scattered in great numbers across
Algeria and, as we have seen, the French were soon alert to their potential for
colonial settlement, since a water supply was guaranteed, and the soil likely to
324
chapter 8
be productive. Such newly established enterprises also reused plenty of anti

quities, the strong argument here being that suitable roads for carrying in
fresh-cut stone were likely to be lacking.
Thus at Djebel-Sgao M. Laumesfeld was rewarded for building on top of a
Roman villa by finding an artistically worked silver box.[205] M. Tranchiers
farm near Cheraa got its blocks from a ruin 50m higher up the slope ideal for
rolling down.[206] Near Seriana, an ancient hamlet was used to build a farm at
An-Yagou,[207] and possibly also the ruins of a Byzantine fort some 300m distant.[208] M. Tourniers farm in the basin of the Oued-Guebli slve sur les
ruines dune terme romaine, dont les restes renfermaient des colonnes, des
chapiteaux et des pierres portant des inscriptions.[209] On the banks of the
Khelidj tributary to the Seybouse, six farms stood au milieu des ruines
danciens tablissements agricoles o lon recueille chaque jour monnaies,
lampes, vases en terre, fragments de plomb, de marbre blanc conservant
encore quelques restes dinscriptions.[210] Also by the Seybouse, M. Verdiers
property sat on top of ruin:
De grosses pierres de taille dont il stait servi tout naturellement pour ses
constructions...quen maints endroits sa maison, ses curies et ses hangars reposaient sur une ligne de pierres de taille trouves en place et
quil na eu qu relier entrelles par du mortier pour en faire de solides
fondations.[211]
Near Zin, an Italian colonist uncovered the walls of a Roman farm and storehouses, which when cleared out stood to 2.5m or 3m and then simply built
them up into a new farm.[212] So just as an important villa stood here in Roman
times, so was it almost replicated in the 19th century, sometimes stone for
stone.[213] Near Guelma, a retired chef descadron built himself a villa on top of
Roman remains, presumably using some of the stones that still stood there in
1867.[214] Near Orlansville, an 1845 military farm was in decline a decade later,
but Commandant Vincent was making a success of his villa-cum-farm.[215]
Near Tipasa in 1866, a Roman fort was part-demolished to build a house, and
the Ponts-et-Chausses caused further damage on the site.[216] One farm even
incorporated the foundations of a small triumphal arch.[217] At Casae, in the
northern Aurs, Byzantine as well as older antiquities were reused in farm
buildings.[218] Since some farms were large properties, some had antique ruins
on their land which were pointed out in tourist guides[219] but one might
wonder how many had already reused blocks so conveniently to hand. A conspicuous example of such an important site was Uthina, between Zaghouan
and Tunis. Discoveries were made here in 1846 by Rousseau, Gurin and
Planting Colonies
325
Playfair; and Capt. Driant and Col. Abria, from the brigades Topographiques,
dug the site in 1891. One owner had his house built into the Capitol, and was
suggesting a museum here as early as 1894, two years after Paul Gauckler, the
Director of the Service des Antiquits de Tunisie, had classed several of the
buildings as historical monuments. Nevertheless, the site was only expropriated from its private owners after 1946 and again in 1962.37 Gauckler had better
luck at Carthage, where he was able to take over a dig from a local sheik, and
excavate an important cemetery.[220]

Si Monumentum Requiris...
As with roads and water supply, the Roman argument provided convincing
directions about where to settle colonists as well as soldiers. Where the Romans
had trod, and planted towns, villages and farms, aqueducts and fountains,
there would French colonies be established. Villagers were often cognisant of
the history of their settlement, even as they destroyed it: erecting a ten-metre
column-shaft in one village near Cherchel[221] was perhaps intended as a permanent reminder of Roman origins.
However, as Rambaud remarked in 1888, security was an ongoing problem,
as was the settling of the 15m hectares and the availability of resources to pay
for it.[222] But how was this to be done? Already in 1840, Rogniat had suggested
a complete defensive ring around les cent lieues carres qui forment le territoire actuel dAlger[223] which was evidently impractical, but implemented
in part for the villages of the Mitidja. Again, Bouville in 1850 already believed
colonisation was very expensive and badly organised, and that few so-called
colonists were actually still ploughing the land.[224] And as late as 1865,
Lasnavres declared that colonisation was still not working, and that puisque
lamour-propre national nous impose malheureusement la ncessit de la conserver, contentons-nous de la gouverner militairement.[225] Some sensitive
souls even realised that the natives did not appreciate being thrown off their
land by colonists.[226] But, as we have seen, towns and villages continued to be
founded, and a once-rich countryside sacked for reusable antiquities. Modern
life, of course, required substantial accommodation in stone, and services such
as a church, town hall, hospital and theatre. Arabs very rarely lived in stonebuilt constructions, and their settlements lay lightly on the landscape, as testified by the huge numbers of antiquities surviving in 1830. By 1900, thanks to the
heavy French presence, the inscription on Sir Christopher Wrens tomb in the
37
Ben Hassen and Maurin 1998, 2136; fig 5. For Ducroquets house built into the vestibule
of the Capitol; for current research see
http://www.docartis.com/pagina2/UTHINA-fine-2-5-2011.pdf.
326
chapter 8
crypt of St. Pauls Cathedral Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice could

no longer describe an impoverished landscape. There was little left to be seen,
because so many monuments had been destroyed during a thoughtless
occupation.
1 Reclus_1886_604
2 Dailheu_1901_17
[ ]
3 Du_Barail_1897_I_316
[ ]
4 Chaudru_de_
Raynal_1832_
144145
[ ]
5 Nettement_1870_240
[ ]
6 Piquet_1914_146
[ ]
7 Ideville_I_1881_183
[ ]
8 Duval_1865_130
[ ]
9 Cagnat_1886_6
[ ]
10 Lasnavres_1865_138139
[ ]
11 Ratheau_1879_209210
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
15 Molnes_1885B_36
[ ]
16 Foucher_1858_11
[ ]
17 Molnes_1885B_3940
[ ]
18 Ribourt_1859_50
[ ]
[ ]
20 Foucher_1858_1516
[ ]
21 Ibid., 20
[ ]
22 Ibid., 11
[ ]
23 Ibid., 78
[ ]
24 Wolf_1871
[ ]
25 Leclerc_de_Pulligny_
1884_253254
[ ]
26 Warnier_1863_24
[ ]
27 Piesse_1862_CLXXI
[ ]
28 Couty_1895_34
[ ]
29 Duvernois_1858_106107
[ ]
30 Ibid., 108
[ ]
31 Hugonnet_1858_3
[ ]
32 Ibid., 139140
[ ]
33 Thoumas_1887_I_
260261
34]Mauroy_1852_3132
1856_X
[ ]
36 Desfontaines_1830_318
[ ]
37 Zouave_1860_73
[ ]
38 DHautpoul_1850_51
[ ]
[ ]
40 Gomot_1844_142143
[ ]
41 Trumelet_1887B_241
[ ]
42 Bolle_1839_7273
[ ]
43 Roy_1880_349350
[ ]
44 Rivoire_1840_6
[ ]
45 Bequet_1848_263
[ ]
46 Le_Pays_de_
Bourjolly_1849_1112
[ ]
47 Anon_
Blackwoods_1841_185
[ ]
48 Baude_1841_II_231232
[ ]
49 St_Marie_1846_228229
[ ]
50 Du_Cheyron_1873_149
[ ]
51 Anon_1873_6364
[ ]
52 Trumelet_1887B_150151
[ ]
53 Ibid., 8788
[ ]
54 Ibid., 174
[ ]
55 Veuillot_1847_148149
[ ]
56 Rousset_1882_85
[ ]
[ ]
58 Gsell_and_
Graillot_1894_591592
[ ]
59 Carton_1894_23
[ ]
60 Piquet_1914_3
[ ]
61 Andry_1868_111
[ ]
62 Lamoricire_1848_
145146
[ ]
63 Gsell_and_
Graillot_1893_500502
[ ]
64 Saladin_1893_51
66]Veuillot_1847_148149
[ ]
67 Le_Pays_de_
Bourjolly_1849_911
[ ]
68 Nolte_1884_133134
[ ]
69 Playfair_1890_271
[ ]
70 Anon_1848_7
[ ]
71 SHD MR1314
[ ]
72 Lamping_1855_74
[ ]
73 SHD GR 1M1316
[ ]
74 Rousset_1882_3536
[ ]
75 Robert_1903_61
[ ]
76 Frisch_1899_181
[ ]
[ ]
78 Barbier_1855_184185
[ ]
[ ]
80 Mercier_1880_9596
[ ]
[ ]
82 Rufer_1907_323
[ ]
83 Marchand_1895_209210
[ ]
84 Marchand_1895_215216
[ ]
85 LacaveLaplagne_1911_2156
[ ]
86 DHautpoul_1850_44
[ ]
87 Revue de lOrient VII
1858, 337
[ ]
88 Desprez_1875_4950
[ ]
89 Demaeght_1888_165
[ ]
90 Bliard_1854_6
[ ]
[ ]
92 Claretie_1893_263264
[ ]
93 Anon_1848_14
[ ]
94 Gaffarel_1883_675
[ ]
95 Lorin_1896_540
[ ]
96 Annales de la
Colonisation I 1852,
178183
[ ]
[ ]
327
Planting Colonies
97]Anon_1852_164165
98]Castellane_1853_II_170
171
[ ]
99 Rousset_1889_I_304305
1844
[
100]Donau_1908_54
[ ]
101 Duval_1865_84
[
102]Esprandieu_1883_13
[
103]Carton_1888_440
[
[
105]Robert_1899_256
[
106]Toussaint_1908_402403
[
107]Gurin_1862_I_243244
[
1894B_42
[
142143
[ ]
110 Gurin_1862_II_3335
[ ]
111 Rgis_1880_ 99100
[ ]
112 Fraud_1860_190
[ ]
113 Kennedy_1846_6162
[ ]
114 Tissot_1888_145
[ ]
115 Blaquire_1813_189
[ ]
116 Gurin_1862_II_183
[ ]
[ ]
118 Gurin_1862_II_172
[ ]
1894_340341
[
120]Postel_1885_69
[ ]
1894_341
[
122]Saladin_1887_2
[
123]Wilkin_1900_134
[
124]Poulle_1861_195
[
125]Lestiboudois_1853_75
[
126]Barbier_1855_253
[
127]Fey_1859_421
[
128]Fey_1859_426427
[
129]Pallary 1894, 45
[
130]Baudicour_1856_7475
[ ]
131 Gsell_1901_I_1314
[
132]Nelnetz_1865_82
[
[
134]Reboud_18861887_29
135]Flaux_1865_281282
136]Poulle_1884_193
[
137]LIndpendant de
Mostaganem 7 August
1892B
[
138]Gauckler_1907_386
[
1853_IV_304
[
487
[ ]
141 Vialar_1880_2639
[
142]Piesse_1862_303
[
[
[
145]Urbain_1862_VVI
[
146]Lunel_1869_14
[
147]Carette_1838_13
[
148]Vigneral_1867_3, 5, 14, 22
[
149]Vigneral_1868 passim
[
150]Goyt_and_
Reboud_1881_78
[ ]
151 Reboud_18861887_4
[
152]Ville_1871
[
153]Fraud_1860_189
[
[
155]Gsell_1895_43
[
156]Reisser_1898_220
[
157]Loizillon_1901_119120
[
158]Barbier_1855_142
[
159]Hinglais_1905_256
[
160]Ibid.
[ ]
161 Goyt_and_
Reboud_1881_19
[
[
163]Recueil_de_Notices_
Constantine_VIII_1878_VI
[
164]SHD 1M1314
[
165]Goyt_and_
Reboud_1881_18
[
166]Robert_1903_6465
[
167]Ibid., 76
[
168]Ibid., 82
[
169]RA I 1856, 56
[
170]Duval_1859_196
171]Bourlier_&_
Gavault_1891_512
[
172]Diehl_1892_112
[
173]Commission_de_
lAfrique_du_Nord_1910_
CCVIIICCIX
[
[
175]BCA_IV_1885_194
[
176]Diehl_1892_105
[
177]Domergue_1893_
144145
[
178]Gsell_1894_17ff
[
179]Robert_1885_23
[
180]Gsell_1894_23
[ ]
181 Domergue_1893_117
[
182]Ibid., 114115
[
183]Ibid., 120
[
184]Ibid., 152B
[
185]Ibid., 132133
[
186]Ibid., 119
[
187]Ibid., 145
[
188]Ibid., 162
[
189]Toussaint_and_
Guneau_1907_334
[
179180
[ ]
191 Carton 1905B_168186
[
192]SHD GR1H910
[
193]Domergue_1893_
143144
[
194]Ibid., 144145
[
195]Ibid., 160
[
196]Pallary_1894_1213
[
197]Bulletin Officiel 1866,
604
[
198]Domergue_1893_121
[
199]Ibid., 164165
[
200]Pallu_de_Lessart_
1886_73
[
201]Carton_1906_39
[
202]Carton_1906B_388
[
203]Tunis-journal_1889_
8_Oct
[
204]Robert_1903_58
[
328
1881_52
[
206]Luciani_18831884_
8081
[
207]Gsell_and_
Graillot_1894B_7374
[
1894_526
[
209]Reboud_1882_169170
[
210]Reboud_1876_4950
[
chapter 8
211]Papier_1886_99
212]Carton_1888_442
[
213]Papier_1886_9495
[
214]RA 1867 issue 65,
Chronique, 396
[
215]RA 1857 issue 6,
435436
[
216]RA 1866 issue 58,
Chronique, 306307
[
[
[
218]Gsell_and_
Graillot_1894B_76
[
219]Jacquot_1907_82
[
220]Gauckler_1896C_151
[
221]Dor_1895_46, 57
[
222]Rambaud_1888_91
[
223]Rogniat_1840_56
[
224]Bouville_1850_34
[
[
226]Charmes_1883_329
[
CHAPTER 9
Algeria and Tunisia on Display

Dans la connaissance de ces splendides vestiges du pass qui couvrent
le sol de la Tunisie et en font comme un vaste muse o les vases, les
sculptures, sont remplacs par des monuments entiers, il y a aussi une
question de patriotisme. / A ce point de vue la Tunisie peut rivaliser avec
lItalie pour attirer les touristes. En faisant mieux connatre ces beauts
de notre Afrique nous dtournerons un peu son profit le courant des
voyageurs et drainerons leur argent vers notre colonie.[1] [1894]
Promoting North Africas monuments was one path to the acceptance of
French colonisation on the European stage, to be affirmed by attracting tourists as well as scholars.1 The problem was that by centurys end so many sites
and monuments had been altered into European-type towns and villages, so
that much less remained to be seen than had amazed the first invaders in 1830.
In many instances, as we shall see, the reality could not live up to the publicity,
although the summaries of French scholarly work were decidedly up-beat,
spreading lamour de la science et le got des recherches.[2]

Triumphalism and Collecting
Invoking the illustrious names of Metellus, Marius and Sulla, an 1836 periodical used the term civilisation seventy times and declared that Tout est grand,
tout est imposant, tout est magique dans cette conqute.[3] A theme we have
heared several times, and repeated here in 1848, is that all that was needed for
success was that lEurope y verse son trop plein, que la France y envoie chaque
anne un nombre considrable de colons, et bientt notre conqute ralisera
toutes les esprances que lon en a conues.[4] A characteristic of such triumphalism is that the same platitudes were repeated decade after decade, often
with a profligate use of the future tense: no longer a colony, Algeria was a magnificent empire (1845);[5] Algeria would be the cradle of civilisation for the
whole continent (1861);[6] England could not have done as much in as short a
1 Bacha 2013, 1767 Tunisia: Les monuments historiques au XIXe sicle vus par les Europens:
de la dcouverte la patrimonialisation.
330
chapter 9
time (1863);[7] France would succeed just like the Romans (1894);[8] and that
would indeed be her glory (1907).[9]
Army officers continued their interest in antiquities, both in Algeria and in
Tunisia,[10] and were well-supplied with reference books;[11] Roman roads,
sometimes a useful tool for underlining the primitive nature of French communications[12] were frequently rediscovered,[13] as well as mosaics,[14] and the
foundations of monuments[15] more stark contrasts with what the French
were erecting.[16] As early as 1842, enormous cases of antiquities were arriving
in Paris,[17] and the quality of finds at Cherchell was dawning on scholars.[18]
Not that much of the best material would stay in Algeria, the Ministry of War
stipulating in regard to finds at Philippeville in 1854 that it se rserve la facult
de rclamer la possession des antiquits quil dsirerait placer au muse
algrien institu Paris ou dans tous les autres muses nationaux.[19]
In 1905, Hron de Villefosse reviewed French achievements in Algeria, where
eventually On comprenait cependant en haut lieu que lAlgrie ne devait pas
tre dpouille de toutes ses richesses et quil fallait en organiser la mise en
valeur pour en assurer le respect. On introduisit dans les actes de concession
une clause destine sauvegarder les droits de lEtat sur les objets dcouverts.[20] What is more:
En parcourant nos provinces africaines, en admirant les difices antiques
qui en forment la parure et lattrait, en visitant les muses organiss par
les soins de nos confrres algriens, on peut apprcier plus compltement les efforts accomplis depuis trente ans pour sauvegarder les
richesses archologiques dont se glorifie lAlgrie.[21]
This was of course far too late for a statement that destruction of monuments
should not have taken place, let alone to lend credibility to the notion of
30 years of efforts to safeguard what was left. These were illusions, as Hron
must well have known. Always conscious of the reactions of the international
community to French possessions and deeds, wherever possible a positive spin
was therefore placed on the successes of the conquest, one of which was the
uncovering of antiquities. Cardinal Lavigerie promoted Carthage and its excavation, as we have seen; but far greater than his interest in mere loot was the
prestige of France: Elle ne doit pas se laisser prcder par les autres nations,
dans les recherches dart, dhistoire, darchologie, auxquelles cette terre convie tous ses visiteurs.[22]
By the beginning of the 20th century, then, the scholars had the history of
French Algeria suitably sanitised. Hron de Villefosse, addressing the Congrs
des Socits savantes at Algiers in 1905, made the place sound like an earthly
Algeria And Tunisia On Display
331
paradise, for La cration rapide de nouveaux villages en territoire civil, sur des
points occups prcdemment par les Romains, la facilit des communications
devenue de plus en plus grande, lappui que les pouvoirs publics prtaient aux
recherches, contriburent favoriser cet lan scientifique. But how could this
be? Because Les Algriens, tous ceux que les hasards de leur carrire civile ou
militaire avaient fixs dans ce pays, mirent leur honneur signaler et respecter
les souvenirs des civilisations disparues.[23] Not only that, but we find Diehl in
1892 arguing that the conquest of Algeria was not simply military, but archaeological as well, for nos officiers dAfrique comprirent tout lintrt et toute
limportance de ces magnifiques ruines romaines que chaque expdition nouvelle offrait.[24] But as with all the best mis-information there are sufficient
grains of truth in both statements to give an appearance of conviction.
However, the French had one path to international prestige which they did
not take, namely the collecting for her museums in North Africa and in mainland France of prestigious antiquities found in her possessions. The Duc
dOrlans wanted the Djemila triumphal arch transported to Paris and
heroicised, but this never happened. Beul remarked, writing of Cyrenaica in
1875 and detailing what the British were shipping home, that La Cyrnaque
contient encore, pour les archologues, des secrets attrayants et des promesses
certaines. Les Anglais ne lignorent pas, et ils ont, de plus que nous, lactivit
pratique et lesprit dentreprendre.[25] He then praises Elgins haul of antiquities, for lon est convaincu quil faut arracher les chefs-doeuvre antiques
lincurie barbare des musulmans and, after all, the French had also been to the
fore in plundering the Levant.[26] So did not the French army and her cohorts
of archaeologists and administrators miss a grand opportunity in territories
they had conquered, and where they had plenty of muscle available not only to
strong-arm possessions from the locals, but also to transport them? For newspaper opinion, tourism was the answer, attracted by the antiquities preserved
by the colonists:
Que le Louvre reoive, en don gracieux, quelques morceaux particulirement rares ou dlicats, cest une attention dont il faut savoir gr nos
colons. / Leur droit de garder le reste nest pas contestable. / Dailleurs,
cest dans leurs cadres quil faut voir les antiquits de lAfrique franaise,
sous le soleil qui en illumine les dtails...Et plus le tourisme africain,
savant ou profane sera en faveur, mieux on connatra notre magnifique
domaine trop ignor, et notre colonisation trop souvent calomnie.[27]
The incontestable right of colonists, enunciated in this quotation from
Le National in 1892, is coupled with the certainly misplaced confidence that
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rare pieces would be kept for museums. Given the building needs of the colons,
and their generally low level of education, the result was that huge quantities
of ruins disappeared into their houses. Jealousy over attempts by archaeologists to investigate (and perhaps cart away) some of their ruins naturally
impeded sensible and comprehensive digs. At Oran in 1899, then, excavations
lasting 15 days were undertaken to supply the museum with new specimens,
which it did. But Elles auraient t plus fructueuses encore sil avait pu les
entreprendre vers la partie centrale de lantique cit, dans les terrains voisins
du forum, dcouvert et dblay en partie il y a trois ans; mais il a d y renoncer
en prsence des prtentions peu acceptables des propritaires de ces
terrains.[28] In the majority of cases, however, we can be confident that colons,
far from calling the attention of archaeologists to ancient blocks on their land,
kept very quiet about them, reusing them as needs dictated.

Collections of Roman Art in France and North Africa
In spite of the manifold opportunities offered by North Africa, there is a distinct and embarrassing gap between what remained there, in comparison with
survivals in mainland France. This can easily be seen by examining the splendid Recueil Gnral des Bas-Reliefs de la Gaule Romaine. This treats the veritable
lepers of Roman sculpture materials many of them collected as France performed her 19th-century spring-cleaning and modernisation, pulling down late
antique walls, and laying out boulevards. In other words, the period of their
collection exactly parallels Frances actions in North Africa. In the Introduction
to his 1907 volume of the collection, mile Esprandieu writes:
Quel dommage, disait, il y a une douzaine dannes, M. Camille Jullian,
que nous ne possdions pas un catalogue complet de toutes les sculptures gallo-romaines, statues et bas-reliefs, religieuses et civiles, politiques et funraires, conserves en si grand nombre dans nos muses
provinciaux! Quel plus grand dommage encore quon nen publie pas,
avec reproductions, un Corpus dtaill, analogue celui que M. Le Blant
a donn pour les sarcophages chrtiens! On aurait l une merveilleuse
collection, unique peut-tre, pour lhistoire de nos antiquits nationales.
This Professor at the Universit de Bordeaux was correct. Esprandieu himself
took part in the occupation of Tunisia; he was praised for the site-plans
he drew,[29] and he published several papers and books on inscriptions in
France as well as Africa, before writing his monumental survey of bas-reliefs,
with each relief illustrated with drawings or photographs, in eleven volumes,
333
19071938. He wrote the Introduction to the final volume in 1934, when he was
67 years old, and his volumes catalogue 8,597 items.
Esprandieu has indeed granted Jullians wish, but the awkward question is
why no such similar photographic collection exists (or was even contemplated)
for collections in Algeria and Tunisia. The general excuse of low quality or
worthlessness will not stand, because to the committed Graecophile nothing is
lower in quality than Gallic bas-reliefs, as reflected in the atrocious way many
such collections in France have until recently been treated.
To build our own Esprandieu for North Africa would simply not be possible, as can be ascertained by scanning the series Muses et Collections
Archologiques de lAlgrie et de la Tunisie, produced under the umbrella
Description de lAfrique du Nord entreprise par ordre de M. le Ministre de
lInstruction Publique et des Beaux-Arts. The volumes, published from 1890,
call themselves catalogues, but the plates are few and poor, large and impressive items rare, and there is no complete listing of what the museums supposedly contained. De la Blanchre, the general editor,2 lays out the problem in
the first volume, devoted to Algiers, complaining in terms which will already
be very familiar from preceding chapters, namely brutal destruction and
administrative chaos:
Les muses dAlgrie sont plus riches quon ne le pense, et plus riches
quils ne le paraissent. Ils devraient ltre cent fois plus. La millime partie
des trsors qui ont t barbarement dtruits, ou que lon a laisss se
perdre, depuis un demi-sicle, dans notre colonie, suffisait former
dincomparables collections. Ce qui a fait dfaut, ce nest pas la bonne
volont: il y a toujours eu une grande somme. Rpartie, au caprice de la
fortune, entre quelques administrateurs, quelques officiers, quelques
savants, quelques propritaires, gens de got; ce qui nexistait pas, et ce
qui manque encore, ctait lensemble, la direction, lunit de vues, la
suite dans laction.[30]
Why, for example, was not more made of the collections at Cherchel:
Elle est plus riche elle seule que toutes les autres collections algriennes
runies, et la valeur des oeuvres quelle renferme est en rapport avec leur
nombre...il en est dautres, assez nombreuses, qui frappent premire
2 Bacha 2013, 69149 Tunisia: La cration des institutions patrimoniales. La Blanchre ou
lantiquit lhonneur 188192.
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vue par la beaut de leurs formes et de leurts proportions, oeuvres dune

lgance tout hellnique et telles que lon ne rencontre que bien rarement de semblables en Afrique.[31]
The story generally seems to be one of pockets of enthusiasm suffocated by
inertia, with outcomes which support the opinion of scholars such as Schmidt
that North African museums were best avoided. That is, when they survived:
for in 1889 antiquities from the Algiers Museum were actually sold off for derisory sums.[32] A good example of the problems of collecting and protecting
artworks in North Africa is provided by Pellissiers visit to Zian, on the Bay of
Djerba, in 1846. After an hour he had found nothing. Then he saw and counted
ten statues in a trench, which he secured for France:
Je mempressai, aprs avoir fait cette dcouverte, dcrire Tunis, pour
demander au bey la concession de ces statues et, en gnral, de tout ce
que les fouilles pourraient produire sur ce point. Son altesse me la
trs-gracieusement accorde; de sorte que toutes les antiquits de Zian
sont dsormais proprits franaises, et pourront tre enleves quand
on le voudra. Lopration serait peu coteuse, car Zian est peu loign
de la mer.[33]
Such expeditious enthusiasm went to waste, however; although the artworks
had been embarked on the Sentinelle in 1851, in 1887 Reinach and Babelon
could find no trace of them:
Nous navons pas trouv trace de ces uvres dart dans le catalogue des
sculptures du Louvre publi par M. Froehner. Sont-elles arrives au
muse? Sont-elles restes dans un arsenal maritime? Cest une question
qui vaudrait la peine dtre tudie, mais sur laquelle nous devons nous
contenter dattirer lattention.[34]
Indeed, when this pair arrived on the site, they found five large headless
statues,[35] perhaps from the same complex. Tissot in 1888 repeated the story of
the export of the ten statues to France,[36] but it appears that up to this time
nobody knew what had happened to them. Occasionally, shipments went
astray, even in France. In 1892 Diehl gave an account of twelve (not ten) marble
statues for the Louvre that lay undisturbed for thirty-five years in the dockyard
at Toulon,[37] and which were probably the Zian marbles, simply miscounted.
We might believe that such negligence was an exception; but it is nevertheless
an attitude that puts either the administration or the supposed thirst for
335
museum-quality antiquities under a shadow. In fact, Toulon might have had

a track-record as a temporary graveyard for North African marbles: already
in 1694 a fort grand nombre of columns lay there, which should have been
in Paris.[38] Even in 1890, Cagnat suggested all statues and bas-reliefs encountered should be photographed, for On peut les considrer tous ou presque
tous comme indits.[39] What an admission to have to make why was it necessary? Because prevalent opinion was against Roman art and architecture
in favour of that of Greece. This is exemplified in the concerns of RaoulRochette and Karl-Benedikt Hase (archaeologist and epigrapher respectively)
and other scholars: Algeria forms only a small part of their concerns in their
exchange of letters.3
Hence Paul Bourde, a journalist for the Moniteur Universel, could report that
most museums in Algeria were no more than quelques dbris, morceaux de
statue, fts de colonnes, stles votives, inscriptions funraires, disposs pour
leffet pittoresque dans un jardin, and that the whole country lacked any highquality work: Je ne crois pas quil soit sorti de lAfrique un seul antique clbre.
Il faut donc renoncer chercher des motions artistiques dans les muses
algriens ils ne peuvent satisfaire que la curiosit de larchologue.[40]

Hindsight: Napoleonic Art
By the mid-19th century, interest in verismo is complicated by the widening use
of photography, and the publication of highly-illustrated books and periodicals. Whereas in the 18th century such books had been for the lite, because
they were expensive, and periodicals were scantily illustrated, in the 19th century the readership was broader, and publication numbers much greater.
LIllustration: Journal Universel, for example, a weekly began on 4 March 1843,
inspired by the Illustrated London News (from 14 May 1842), employed the best
draughtsmen, and had a print-run in the region of 16,000 copies. Le Tour du
Monde: Nouveau journal des voyages, ran from 1860, was illustr par nos plus
clbres artistes, and was also profusely illustrated.
We do not need to invoke the extremely shaky notion of orientalism to
explain 19th-century Western attitudes to the Middle East: Algeria, like Asia
Minor (and South America and the Far East) were judged in need of the benefits of civilization, often by their leaders as well. Straightforward reportage of
the orient was begun by Napolons Description de lgypte, in 23 volumes
(first edition, 18091818) and then 37 volumes (second edition, 18211826) produced by 167 scholars who accompanied his invasion. Conventionally, it was
Napolon in Egypt who triggered orientalism, because this was arguably the
3 Gran-Aymerich & Ungern-Sternberg 2012.
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first Western conquest in the East since Lepanto in 1571. But the published
results are surely straightforward, very well-illustrated and generally highquality scholarship, immune to the footnoting of narrow-minded Saidists.
The invasion of Egypt was of course an ignominous military and naval disaster, but the propaganda was brilliant, and just what Algeria needed but never
received. The artistic mix for Algeria was to be little different from that under
Napolon, but there was no genius available to conduct the orchestra of praise.
The Exploration scientifique de lAlgrie was published in 39 volumes between
1844 and 1867. Both publications continued the luxury tradition of the 18th
century, but their contents percolated down to a general readership in publications such as LIllustration. Since one of the precepts of orientalism is a prejudiced view of the natives (wherever they might be) as part of a softening-up
process for colonialism, this cannot apply to Algeria, where succeeding generations were famously uncertain about whether to colonise or simply get out.
French administrations were simply too disorganized to form a colonial plan
and stick to it; and if there was indeed a vast conspiracy la Clinton, then
everyone was in on it, from administrators to draughtsmen for popular periodicals. It is much more sensible to view 19th-century interest in the exotic as
just that, whether targeted on Algeria or in the Middle or Far East. The lazy
natives could indeed be used as an argument for the benefits of French civilization, but also presented as merely picturesque. Are physical types and landscapes sometimes stereotyped? Of course, because this is how pictures are
made, so that the artist may convey that which is typical. The same applies to
the representation of battles, with a continuing interest in accurate reportage
of faces, uniforms and horses, some of the information provided by the
soldiers themselves, as we shall shortly see.

Ideas and Algerian Propaganda
The crucial point dividing the propaganda artworks produced under Napoleon
from those of Algeria by the likes of Horace Vernet is not any difference in their
interest in verismo: Antoine Gros and Jacques-Louis David were as concerned
with accuracy in the portrayal of Syria and Egypt as were Vernet and
LIllustration in Algeria (the huge range of Vernets illustrative material can be
judged from the sale of his effects.[41]) Rather, it is the quality of the ideas guiding any propaganda. David Dowds Pageant-master of the Republic: JacquesLouis David and the French Revolution (1948) indicates a controlling hand; and
what David did for the Republic was also done later for Napolon by Gros and
Vivant Denon, the latter a scholar, archaeologist, first director of the Louvre
(from 1802), and a prodigious organizer of programmatic art. For Algeria,
decade after decade, there is no such guiding hand, because there is no long-
337
lasting government, therefore no long-lasting head of state, and hence no consistent policy toward that country. With such chopping and changing, there
can therefore be no consistent propaganda. Napolon perhaps controlled his
own propaganda or, at the very least, knew a good thing when he saw one (or
two: namely David and Denon). Algerias generals were sometimes fted in
paint and print, but none of them lasted long enough to create an enduring
impression; and, of course, none of them was head of state. Indeed, when
there were so few victories to depict, what a pity that Denon did not live long
enough to establish and control the representation of French success in
Algeria! Again, press conditions changed radically during the 19th century,
even if censorship famously tried to suppress Daumiers Gargantua in 1831, a
caricature of the King which earned him six months in prison. A main task for
propaganda is to convince its consumers that all are united in sharing the sentiments it proclaims, and it works only under a strictly controlled press, such as
Napolon enjoyed. But the print media were far too vigorous to be muted,
whether books, pamphlets or cartoons; and a glance at the source bibliography
for this book will demonstrate the publication of diametrically opposed opinions in the same years. Under such conditions, no consistent propaganda was
possible, the more so because there is no evidence that the French public was
interested in Algeria and what happened there. Certainly, vested interests were
many, as in any opening for money-making; but the whole enterprise con
tinued to be a drain on the French economy. Here settler statistics are telling:
getting rid of trouble-makers, orphans and the undesirable poor was one thing;
but why did Maltese, Spaniards, Italians and Germans make up such a proportion of settlers? And why did France export farmers in the first place? There
was no potato famine, and plentiful evidence of development possibilities in
many areas of France itself, plus secure statistics of a declining birth-rate
nation-wide, which should have given any planners pause for thought and
then action.
Although we cannot know whether it would have made colonisation any
more popular, one trick the government and military missed was extolling
French deeds in Algeria with a consistent advertising campaign supported by
mapmakers and artists. The Galerie des Batailles at Versailles, for example,
ends with Wagram in 1809,[42] its opening commemmorated by a medal with
the suitably vague inscription A Toutes Les Gloires De La France.4 The
Algerian material is in one of the Salles dAfrique (created by Louis-Philippe),
4 Gaehtghens 1984, 5; 247255 Le coteux politique du cycle. 2478 stops in 1809, and nothing
from Restoration, Spain or Africa is represented. Ainsi les batailles peuvent-elles tre considres avec un certain recul par rapport lhistoire...La reprsentation des batailles
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but none of it (including Vernets immense Capture de la Smala dAbdelkader,

16 Mai 1843) is in any sense triumphalist, and celebrates Frances feat of arms in
a restrained fasion. Tastes had changed, and thus the tone changes over time
with, for example, les batailles, combats et siges livrs par larme franaise
(16281887) listed by the Ministry of War.[43] These include several commissions for Algeria, in which landscape views and uniforms the picturesque
had greater prominence than battles,[44] not least because war in Algeria was
generally a matter of ambushes, skirmishes and razzias.
Such reticence is far different from Napoleons policy, which had been for
triumphalism, the motor for stunning (if dishonest or wishful) battle paintings
from the European and Egyptian campaigns. Thus a new kind of war reporting
(conventionally believed to have begun much later, in the Crimea) was set in
place. The Report to the Emperor from the Minister of War on the Dpt de la
Guerre, An XII, proclaims that
Les arts aussi ont t appels, ou ont trouv au Dpt dutiles secours
pour peindre les hauts faits de nos armes et les sites qui en furent les
tmoins; des artistes habiles sont en Italie, en Allemagne et sur les ctes
de lOcan, occups prendres des vues des champs de bataille, villes,
positions et camps illustrs par vos armes...30 vues prises en Egypte ou
en Syrie enrichissent encore cette collection qui saugmente journellement et qui doit fournir la gravure les sujets les plus intressans. Cest l
que le Capitaine du gnie LeJeune, lingnieur gographe Dalbe et le
peintre Vernet ont trouv les lmens de ces tableaux o leurs talent
sassocie la gloire des armes dont il retrace les exploits.[45]
It is not difficult to see the growth of the Dpt under Napoleon (and hence
the nature of some Napoleonic painting) as an extension of his own interest in
cartography a concern of any good commander. With an eye to future conquests, he sent geographical missions to Persia and to Algeria: here Boutin
wrote in 1808 a Reconnaissance gnrale des villes, forts et batteries dAlger...
pour servir au projet de descente et dtablissement dfinitif dans ce pays,
with 15 maps, which was no doubt used in planning the 1830 invasion.
Napoleons passion for maps and literature is seen in the build-up of the
Dpt de la Guerre while he was in command, as well as in what he took to
Russia. Topography was carefully delineated, and helped the confection of
battle paintings back in Paris by artists who had never left the country. Exactly
istoriques navant donc pas pour but de lgitimer les actes de Louis-Philippe en les faisant
h
entrer dans la tradition historique.
339
the same modus operandi was to be used to the construction of similar works
in Algeria.[46] Nor were collections such as Napoleon formed merely for show.
Indeed, they were misused, and items went astray. Thus a letter to the Minister
of War, le Comte de Blacers, Paris, August 1814, unsigned but presumably from
the Director of the Dpt de la Guerre, stipulated that now peace had come
only copies would be released from the Dpt; the same memo notes that
Napoleon
a exig quon traint en Russie...deux fourgons de cartes, mmoires,
livres, etc. Un troisime fourgon rempli de mmes objets tait la suite
de ltat major gnral. La majeure partie de ces cartes parmi lesquelles
se trouvait la carte manuscrite de lAllemagne en 400 feuilles, a peine
termine et qui avait cout 160,000 francs, appartenait au Dpt de la
Guerre.[47]
By 1814 there were over 1,000 engraved plates in the Dpt,[48] and it was suggested maps and other material should be sold: this favorisera lmulation des
savants et des artistes et concoura la perfection de la science topographique.
But now there occurred a change which, while in no way against the spirit of
existing practice, consolidated the work of the Dpt into two tasks which we
might call preparative and commemorative the former to service the prospective and actual needs of the army, the latter to act as a publicity machine,
documenting the militarys deeds for historical and ideological purposes.
Hence on 20 October 1817, the Minister of War decreed a division of the service
into historical and topographical sections, and the formation of a consultative
committee to oversee the work, and debate questions sent to it by the Minister
of War on for example topography, military reconnaissances and the education of the personnel, as well as sur les questions dart relatives la topographie.[49] (Perhaps this simply formalised existing job-descriptions, since in
1796 we already find not only 13 artistes graveurs and 10 savants in astronomy,
maths, geometry and bibliography, but also two historiographes militaires.[50])
They were going to sell the cartes et ouvrages du Dpt...destin couvrir les
frais de collage des cartes, de lachat et rparation des instrumens et autres
objets darts, sans que le montant de ce produit puisse, en aucun cas, tre
depass par celui des dpenses (Article 7), a recognition of the large costs of
the operation. They evidently did so, witness a printed catalogue of the material on sale, dated Paris 1815.[51] The same suggestion had already been made on
12 brumaire An VIII, in an attempt dentretenir et damliorer un tablissement utile sans aucun appel de fonds publics another argument being that
the English had always sold maps, even during wartime.[52] There must have
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been some sales even before the 1817 division cited above, since there is
recorded an agreement of 16 November 1815 with Charles Piquet to sell Dpt
materials, renewed on 4 August 1829.[53] The sales served to keep before the
public the glorious victories of the Napoleonic period. Piquets printed catalogue offers a wide range of material, including Italie, vues de champs de
bataille, combats...pendant les campagnes des Franais en 1796, 1797 et
1800, graves daprs les aquarelles dessinnes sur les lieux par lIngnieurgographe Bagetti, et appartenant au Dpt de la Guerre, 67 planches et 1 table
reparties en 17 livraisons de 4 feuilles, 340 francs. Une livraison parait mensuellement depuis le 25 juin 1829. The blurb for this recalls that
Toutes portent des noms de lieux que le souvenir de nos triomphes a rendus populaires; toutes reprsentent des faits darmes importans, des sites
qui ont ajout a ces faits darmes un mrite nouveau, ou enfin, sous
quelque autre rapport, des vnemens dignes de mmoire, et elles ont
une liaison intime avec les Plans de batailles de cette mme arme
dItalie, qui vont tre publis. Les excutions ordonnes et commences
en 1806, et termines en 1814, appartient des artistes la plupart merits,
tels que Pillement, Fortier, Desaulx, etc.
Keeping artists in the field was recognised to be of value to the Dpt in both
augmenting the stock of useful sketches, and also in scouting for materials in
foreign lands. Thus the Director stipulated[54] that the Ingnieurs Artistes
note the terminology in the Dpt and in the Etats Majors Gnraux des
Armes must take account of toutes les oprations militaires rlatives la
topographie et lhistorique militaires et mme celles qui sans tre de cette
comptence immdiate peuvent avoir une application utile pour le Dpt.
They are to make vues perspectives, to keep the Dpt informed about les
diverses Cartes topographiques et gographiques du Pays que lArme parcourt, and to be on the lookout for suitable material (manuscript and printed)
in the countries they visited. Museums were of course the periods mechanism
for channelling and lauding collective memory (which is what Denon was
doing with the Eylau conmmission), so it is not surprising that a decree of
An II[55] suggested that the Dpt material should be formed into a Muse de
la Gographie et Hydrographie. This came to nothing, as did likewise the plans
the following year to put all historical materials in the river wing of the Louvre.
But the historical way of thinking persisted: a paper-recycling push of 22
Nivoise An V from the Minister of War stipulates that all paper collected seront
dposs aux archives pour y constater leur inutilit.[56]
341
The work of the Dpt de la Guerre at this period demonstrates one area in
which the increasingly complicated and documentation-thirsty attitudes of
the army influence the appearance of some officially promoted art, especially
that intended to hymn the achievements of French feats of arms. But it is noteworthy that the Napoleonic tradition does not carry into the 1830s and the
invasion of Algeria, and is in stark contrast to the lack of promotion of Algerian
material. Indeed, by the end of the century Cagnat complained of a lack of
energy in archaeological research in Algeria, with attention focussed on
Tunisia.[57] But nevertheless, as he pointed out, what was achieved was all surface archaeology, with no serious digs at all.[58]

Representing Algeria and Tunisia: Exhibitions and Museums

Le champ dexploration est en Algrie dune fcondit immense...de
travaux hydrauliques, de barrages, de ponts, daqueducs, de temples, de
monuments grandioses, enfin de fortifications de diffrents ges et
peuples...pigraphie...monnaies authentiques.[59]
By the later 19th century, some areas of Algeria were able to profit from the
fame of their antiquities. Algeria featured in the Paris Exposition Universelle in
1878, its archaeology and history emphasised in the above quote. The 1889
exhibition at the Invalides included material from Tunisia, not just Roman, but
Arabic as well not only a reproduction of the mihrab from Kairouan, but also
une faade de Kairouan, orne dlgantes vrandahs et de portes aux mille
clous, formant arabesques.[60] LAvenir de Tbessa could write in 1900 of newly
uncovered mosaics,[61] and of Timgad at the Exposition Universelle.[62] In 1903
a tour was organised for the Syndicat de la Presse,[63] and the mosaics were
featured.[64]
If in spite of the enthusiasms of some, the tepid support received by North
African museums is a mystery, then so also is the representation of antiquities
in Algeria and Tunisia for the public in France. When Europeans visited sites
with Greek and Roman architecture, they frequently produced drawings and
then prints of what they had seen for publication. Such sites in Greece, Asia
Minor and Syria were seen by connoisseurs soon after their rapporteurs
returned home. In Algeria, many plans and drawings were made of a host of
sites by the Army, and are to be seen to this day in the Army archives at
Vincennes. Extensive collections of such drawings were made by Delamare
and Ravoisi, as we shall see, but were not fully published. Why not? While
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acknowledging that we cannot prove a negative, possible explanations include

the following: ruined sites were of no interest to any colonial push, so the drawings were unattractive to any except classicists and travellers; by the time colonisation gathered steam with its own publicity campaigns, the drawings were
already out of date, because the Army and earlier colons had already destroyed
many of the remains represented. Again, perhaps the Army considered plans
and drawings to be military secrets, and brought their influence to bear to control the extensive collection just mentioned; or even that colonisation was to
emphasise the new, not the old.
The overarching reason for such a poor showing, however, seems to have
been the low regard in which Roman provincial art and architecture were held.
Poulle practically yawned over the architecture of Lambessa and Timgad (for
lItalie et la Provence nous ont lgu, de ce ct, des modles qui ne nous laissent plus rien apprendre), but he did recognise the opportunity such ruins
provided to en reconstituer les lignes principales et de se faire ainsi une ide
de ce qutait une cit lpoque des empereurs.[65] However, the puzzle
remains, for the Army continued to be hymned as late as 1889 for its careful
treatment of ancient monuments:
Notre patriotique et savante arme, larme qui, aprs avoir arrach la
barbarie les trois belles provinces qui forment aujourdhui lAfrique franaise, a su y maintenir notre domination, et, ds les premiers jours, sest si
activement employe, de concert avec la population et les fonctionnaires
civils, rechercher, conserver et expliquer les nombreux monuments
laide desquels on crira quelque jour son histoire, cest--dire un incomparable trsor historique.[66]
Admittedly such praise comes from its own acolytes; but surely this was sufficient to underpin a credible publicity effort via the publication of surviving
ancient remains? So what was published to celebrate French achievements?
The prints of Dauzats and Raffet were entirely different, in the Napoleonic
tradition of glorifying French achievements. This they did very successfully,
although Raffet had never set foot in Algeria he was in the Crimea when
Constantine was taken,[67] and had learned about army manouvres by watching the siege of Antwerp and military evolutions at Compigne Camp.[68] The
verismo in their works came from their liaising with serving officers interviewed in France; so details of uniforms, flags and heroic physiognomies would
be accurate. But there was nothing of value to the heroic tradition in the small
views of ruins scattered through (for example) Nodiers 1844 Journal de
lExpdition des Portes de Fer, authored by another man who had never set foot
343
in Algeria, although its meat was formed from the diaries of the Duc dOrlans.
Indeed, of the three artists whose works were printed therein, only one
(Dauzats) had been in Algeria, and his sketches are picturesque, rather than
simply objective records.[69] The large-scale paintings of Horace Vernet were
indeed by a man who had set foot on Algerian soil many times, and their cost
and impact were part of a broader plan for selling Algeria to public opinion
back home.5
Bravura triumphal prints were bound to be popular, but one problem with
Delamares and Ravoisis documentary approach was that some of the first
antiquities sent back to Paris did not meet with universal approval. Delamare,
for example, completed the best set of drawings we have of Algerian sites in
18401845, but his collection of objects met with a very dusty reception, as
being of low quality, a standard reaction to Algerian antiquities.6 This was perhaps due to the routine belief that things Roman were by definition inferior to
things Greek. Before the 1860s, what is more, photography was not much used
on archaeological digs, and there were also technical problems (which took
time to solve) in reproducing photographs in publications; drawings such as
those by Delamare offered superior detail.7 Like the Brigades Topographiques,
Vernet assistait aux expditions, prparait ses croquis sous le coup de feu,
vivait, mangeait, dormait dans les tentes, au milieu des Arabes, et revenait,
imbu de couleur locale, se remettre en face de sa toile,[70] and entertained
native chiefs in his Versailles studio, wherein were to be found tous les souvenirs, toutes les joies, toutes les habitudes de la tente, du dsert, de la patrie.[71]
So disappointment with portable antiquities might be another reason why
Delamares drawings of standing antiquities and their ruins were published
only in part, and the volume of descriptive text promised by Lon Renier never
appeared.[72] This was strange on the part of this high-turnover author, who
found time during the 1850s to direct the dig at Lambessa but part of a phenomenon well known to Bugeaud: Ces savants mettent le dsordre partout
avec leurs exigences, dans lintrt de leurs grands travaux, quils ne publient
jamais.[73] Renier even published the 1859 Instructions pour la recherche des
antiquits en Algrie. So why not publish the Delamare commentary and his
excellent drawings in greater profusion? Is it too cynical to suggest a bad conscience over what had already disappeared before Renier was to take up the
task? Certainly, instances of ruins recorded by Delamare which had completely
5 Sessions 2011, 208263: Selling Algeria: Speculation and the Colonial Landscape.
6 Dondin-Payre 2003, 148 & note 7 for the contested quality of finds from Algeria.
7 Feyler 1987, 1024, 10441045.
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disappeared half a century later are probably not rare.[74] Delamare had left for
France in May 1845, but it still took five years to publish some of his drawings.
And when Gsell finally published the commentary in 1912, it was replete with
notes on what had been destroyed in the meantime, even though Gsell concentrates on antiquities in towns, plus the odd conspicuous funerary monument.[75] More would have been known about sites such as Lambessa (and
perhaps the building of the prison not contemplated) had more of Delamares
drawings been published.[76] Destruction of inscriptions could also be roughly
measured, as when Gsell in 1924 counted up what Berbrugger recorded in 1836
at Guelma, many of which had vanished.[77]
The same arguments may apply to the excellent drawings of Amable
Ravoisi, who was in Algeria 18401842, the first occasion on which an architect was sent there for this purpose; he had already done similar work in 1829
1830, on the Expdition Scientifique de More. He was apparently not popular
with the army, and suffered obstruction; but this may well have been because
he saw as his task dtudier les antiquits qui se trouvaient prcisment au
milieu ou prs des villes occups par les troupes, avant leur adaptation pour de
nouveaux usages, ou leur destruction et leur mutilation. He frequently arrived
too late at a site, monuments having already been destroyed by soldiers in
search of building materials. Since in some cases he had to make his drawings
of monuments from descriptions provided by the selfsame officers who had
presided over their destruction, La conservation des vestiges de lAlgrie, pratique inexistant au dbut de la conqute, en restait au stade de la conservation
sur papier.8 Was the Army perhaps sheepish about their activities, and saw the
civilian architect as persona non grata as somebody actually drawing the
detritus they created, or trying to rebuild it on paper as revived evidence of
now-dead and disappeared blocks?
Certainly, the architects planned four volumes grand in-folio, each of
250 pages of text and plates, was whittled back to three volumes, with a total of
190 plates and for this he had submitted over 700 drawings.9 Funds were evidently short, and it was the representation of Moslem architecture which suffered most.[78] The gulf between Delamares thousands of drawings and what
actually got published is also huge; it is not known for a fact why so little was
published nor yet what happened to the collection of drawings in the Louvre
noted by Gsell in his 1912 volume of explicatory text. Once again, Delamare
drew what he saw, and not just the plums. If what he drew was in the course of
8 Oulebsir 1998, 253, 254, with examples from Ravoisis own text.
9 Oulebsir 1998, 255260 for details.
345
being destroyed, or already gone, he indicated the fact on the drawings10

proof positive that it was the French, not the Arabs, who were the great vandals
in Algeria. Indeed, several of the volumes for the Expdition Scientifique tra
velled a long and rocky road from fieldwork in Algeria to eventual p
ublication.11
It is important to note that the Minister of War in 18345, the Marchal duc de
Trvise, as well as seeking knowledge of the Romans in North Africa, navait
pas perdu de vue de quelle importance il tait la fois pour la science et
ladministration de bien connatre galement tout ce qui se rapporte
ltablissement des Arabes en Afrique, et des Turcs sur la cte dAlger.
But, before further investigations were made, wrote the Minister of War in
1835, il me parait ncessaire dattendre les progrs ultrieurs et la consolidation de lautorit franaise en Afrique.[79] Consolidation arrived but, all too
often, publication did not; and Cagnat in 1896 can point to important materials
known in public and private collections for nearly half a century which had
not been published.[80]

Restoring the Ancient Monuments?

On a mis fin aux dprdations archologiques comme le faisait lord Elgin,
car, dans lintervalle, ltude des monuments anciens a cess dtre un
sport pour devenir une science.[81]
For Schulten in this quote of 1900, collecting antiquities had ceased to be the
sport of the rich, and was now an occupation in which countries such as France
and Germany invested large sums of money. How was that science prosecuted
for the monuments of North Africa? In Libya from 1911, the Italians developed
rules for the conservation of antiquities, sent their best archaeologists to dig
there, and gathered information from the dismantling of the walls of Tripoli.12
In Algeria and Tunisia, however, as we have just seen, straightforward recording and collecting often went by the board, and so also did dealing sensibly
with standing monuments or comprehensive piles of ruins. For the development of museum-consciousness in the course of the 19th century, this entailed
an obvious corollary. If ancient works of art were sufficiently esteemed to be
museified, what should be done with the monuments which had housed
them? The French had helpfully solved part of that dilemma by their destructions, but some ruins were left to be treated, or mis-treated. Restoration was a
10
11
12

Nordman 1998.
Altekamp 2000, 4766: Rechtsnormen; 9196 for the walls of Tripoli.
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hot topic in 19th-century France, as it was in Britain. In both countries, preservation and restoration movements (not at all the same thing!) developed in
reaction to the observable disintegration and mishandling of what were coming to be called historical monuments. In France Viollet-le-Duc and his ilk
knew what mediaeval churches should have looked like, so re-built them; reusable ruins had long since disappeared, so walls often had to be built anew.
Such maltreatment pained purists, and gave way, for instance, to explosions
about the maltreatment of Orange:
Bref on nous donnera un monument tout neuf qui joindra aux agrments
du confort la beaut dune vignette pour manuel darchologie. / Ainsi
seront satisfaits quelques badauds amis du bric brac, quelques rimeurs
auxquels il faut un sous-Odon et quelques hteliers dsireux de tondre
les htes du Bayreuth franais.[82]
Gungl was not alone, for Wilkin in 1900 protested that the arch at Timgad was
being restored out of all recognition, just like the bridge at El Kantara, and
ruminated on the British and French both getting things wrong:
The French frequently err as much in this direction as we too often do in
the other. They renovate according to their ideas of what should be there;
we neglect without any ideas at all. Both processes produce the destruction of ancient monuments.[83]
Similarly, Leclerc de Pulligny groaned when expensive new blocks were cut for
the Praetorium at Lambessa, quand il ny avait qu se baisser, pour rlever les
anciennes assises.[84] In Algeria, indeed, there were plentiful heaps waiting for
resurrection on other sites as well, although in many cases too much material
had been plundered to make restoration possible the theatre at Carthage, for
instance, laquelle est moins dune ruine que dune dmolition.[85]
There is plentiful evidence of how the insouciance of the 19th and early 20th
centuries adversely affected once-rich sites. Even today, Bulla Regia, for example, is not fully dug, and the sites history has been fitful and whimsical, not
helped by the complete flattening of two temples.13 The Baths of Julia Memna
were excavated in 1889; and when work was renewed in 1955, on procde alors
13
Beschaouch 1977, 16: trop de zones vierges occupent encore jusquau coeur du site pour
que lon puisse se faire une ide prcise de lurbanisme...Actuellement, on ne voit sur le
site de Bulla Regia que des maisons dhabitation et des difices publics. Le hasard de la
fouille na pas encore permis le dgagement de boutiques srement identifis, lexception
347
essentiellement une restauration rendue urgente par ltat du monument.

Attitudes to Islamic architecture were mixed, but luckily we find Maupassant
in admiration at the glories of Kairouan.[86] In 1899 Carton wrote contrasing
the richness of Tunisia with the entirely avoidable devastation of Algeria:
Capitoles encore debout, portes triomphales, monuments publics levs
il y a 1,800 ans, y semblent abandonns dhier...ce pays, pendant les premires annes de notre occupation, a connu quelques-unes des vicissitudes que je viens dindiquer et qui ont priv lEurope de tant de
monuments antiques. La fivre de construction qui a svi dans les centres
de nouvelle formation, lirrespectueuse rapacit des entrepreneurs, souvent renforce dune sorte de haine contre les restes du pass, y ont caus
dirrparables dgts.[87]
It is for archaeologists to consider whether more of the riches that Carton
predicted for Tunisia have been revealed over the century and more since he
wrote rather, that so many of the antiquities so diligently recorded by Gurin
in his eight-months tour in 1862 have also disappeared:
Chemin faisant, jai recueilli jour par jour, heure par heure, et le plus souvent minute par minute, comme le prouve la suite continue de mon journal, toutes les notes, tous les renseignements, toutes les inscriptions qui
pouvaient jeter une lumire plus grande sur la gographie et en mme
temps sur lhistoire des localits que je visitais tour tour.[88]
In relative terms, however, monuments in Tunisia, a French protectorate from
1881 (and until 1956), fared better than those in Algeria. By 1881 the army was
better organised, archaeological studies tended to be more thorough,14 and an
interest in preservation rather than destruction prevailed. This was not just of
the monuments, but of French hegemony as well, in the face of British and
Italian influence, the matter being settled at the Congress of Berlin in 1878,
necessarily infusing the practice of archaeology with a political dimension.15
Nevertheless, the 1881 invasion was effected by 28,000 troops, and some considerable naval activity. Much had disappeared from Tunisia by this date, especially from Carthage, which was dug not only for knowledge but also for profit.
14
15
du march public, ni dinstallations industrielles, si ce nest quelques vestiges de meules

et pressoirs non en place et de fours tardifs.
Arnaud 2000.
Gran-Aymerich 2000 for an overview.
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But we might also echo Poirs lament of 1892, and ask how the monuments
above and underground have fared in the century since he wrote:
Sans doute presque tous les monuments de valeur, du moins ceux qui
taient apparents, ont disparu depuis longtemps...Mais, sous le sol de
cette ancienne province dAfrique, qui fut si riche...que de statues, de
mosaques, de bas-reliefs et de chapiteaux ne reste-t-il pas dcouvrir,
malgr tant de fouilles dj faites?[89]
Museums
To furnish good museums, objects of value need to be recognised, collected
and transported. In 1891 Cardaillac stated his understanding of the task of
archaeologists in Algeria, in light of its structures brought down by time, vandals and earthquakes:
Le but des archologues est de reconstituer ces dbris du pass et de restituer leur nom et leur caractre ces ruines reprsentant des cits autrefois brillantes et peuples, qui aujourdhui dorment, sous une paisse
couche de cendre, du pesant sommeil de loubli.[90]
This was not going to happen, not least because of the devils bargain between
scholars and builders that has already been discussed and illustrated. Yet even
in 1892 Diehl, generously but lacking the necessary animal cunning let alone
subtlety, could still write that on admet volontiers que les matriaux sans
valeur, les blocs pars en si grand nombre sur lemplacement de toute ville
antique, soient mis sans discussion la disposition des entrepreneurs et des
colons. In any case, interesting blocks were simply chiselled flat to remove the
evidence, and masons freely admitted that ils en ont eux-mmes cass
pas mal.[91] The notation sans valeur begs the question: useless for what? It
illustrates the continuing lack of interest by the French in the reconstruction
of monuments except for the most prestigious predominantly those in towns
or very close to them. Dougga was an exception, because so much of its limestone structure survived.16 Was Diehl perhaps simply echoing official policy,
knowing on which side his bread was buttered? In 1884 Poulle noted how upset
the Ministre de lInstruction Publique was by vandalism, and issued suitable
instructions to the Prefects. But the Commission des Monuments Historiques,
in the very act of excavating,
16
Golvin and Khanoussi 2005, 102103 for 1896 and 1904 photos of early reconstruction work.
349
a fait mettre de ct tous les matriaux sans valeur et pouvant, sans

inconvnients, tre employs dans les constructions modernes; plusieurs
milliers de mtres cubes de pierres et de moellons ont t, de ce chef, mis
la disposition des colons et des entrepreneurs. La routine est si forte,
lhabitude si bien prise, que nous en avons vu venir arracher des pierres
dans les ruines, au pied mme des approvisionnements tablis leur
intention.[92]
Weak administrative procedures (and sometimes none at all) are characteristic of various efforts successfully to establish museums in Algeria. Success or
failure often resides in the enthusiasms (or lack of them) in the various muni
cipalities, plus the tensions between conservation and reuse. This is not at all
strange, for exactly the same characteristics inform the Armys handling of
antiquities, and conservation therefore relies on individual whim rather than
any fixed procedures. Some officers became decidedly proprietorial in trying to
keep to themselves the results of their reconnaissances and local digs. When in
early 1837 Colonel Duvivier prit le commandement de Guelma il fit paratre
un ordre du jour par lequel il ordonnait de conserver les inscriptions, sculptures et mdailles, en un mot tous les objets dantiquit que pouvaient faire
dcouvrir les fouilles pratiques dans lintrt de la dfense de la place. He
designated Capitaine du Gnie Haquet to look after them. But then a visiting
archaeologist appeared: M. Berbrugger qui, comme vous savez, sest livr sur
les lieux des recherches scientifiques, with the consequence that some of the
material that should have been collected by the army was being witheld and
being shown to Berbrugger instead. Capitaine Chagny wrote a letter to the
Governor General,[93] protesting that this was a waste of time: individually, the
antiquities meant nothing; but assembled as they had been by Haquet et
tudis avec tout le soin et lattention quils mritent, ils deviendront des documens des jalons prcieux pour lhistoire encore incertaine de cette partie de
lAfrique. He therefore petitioned the Governor General, apparently without
success, for another Ordre du Jour giving to Haquet everything found since the
foundation of the Place, et de tous ceux que les fouilles et les recherches
venir feraient encore dcouvrir.
Such petty jealousies and interventions must have been frequent, but clearly
something more formal was required if any of Algerias antiquities were to be
saved and protected. Signed by Jrome Napolon, an Envoi dinstructions relatives aux recherches archologiques, dated 31 December 1858 offered handson advice and instructions from Renier to the various public functionaries of
Algeria. The French need to investigate and protect the past, and Public Works
could do this at little cost, and then gather the finds into local museums:
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LAlgerie gard de nombreux vestiges de la domination romaine; malheureusement ces curieux dbris disparaissent chaque jour, et les notions
prcises quils pouvaient fournir sur lorganisation politique et administrative des colonies romaines sanantissent avec eux. Je mintresse particulirement aux tudes qui ont pour objet de reconstituer lhistoire du
pass de notre colonie...Les travaux dutilit publique et prive qui
sexcutent ou vont sexcuter en Algrie permettront, sans depnse spciale, de faire de nombreuses fouilles et de retrouver beaucoup dinscriptions prcieuses pour lhistorien et le gographe...Quant aux monuments
eux-mmes, lorsquils ne seront pas, comme les bornes milliaires, de
nature rester en place, ils devront etre transports dans le centre de
population le plus voisin [hitherto, most had gone to the Muse dAlger,
which was costly, and damaged them this must cease]. Chaque localit
doit conserver les monuments rlatifs son histoire particulire.
Les municipalits devront assurer la conservation des dbris historiques
recueillis sur leur territoire, et en former de collections publiques.
Lorsque ces collections sont assez considrables, comme elles le sont
dj ou le seront immdiatement Constantine, Philippeville,
Guelma, Souk-Harras, Stif, Cherchell et Aumale, la garde en devra
tre confie un conservateur spcial, lequel sera en meme temps charg
de veiller la conservation des monuments darchitecture subsistant
encore dans la ville ou dans les environs.
La formation et lentretien de ces collections devront, en tout tat de
cause, rester la charge des municipalits...Je recommande aux officiers des bureaux topographiques de noter avec soin, sur les cartes et
plans de leurs subdivisions, la direction des voies romaines, lemplacement des ruines, des bornes milliaires, et de tous les monuments que lon
pourra dcouvrir.
This plan offers various themes or sub-texts that we have already met in earlier
chapters. First, scant interest in the monuments themselves, and their possible
beauty unless they could enlighten the organisation politique et administrative des colonies romaines. Second, the money to be saved (but at what cost to
the antiquities?) by having Les travaux dutilit publique et prive do the
heavy lifting. Third, the collection of everything of interest into museums,
except for milestones, which should continue doing their job. Next, a focus on
museums, with the praiseworthy but (as experience would make clear) impractical notions that Les municipalits devront assurer la conservation des dbris
351
historiques recueillis sur leur territoire, with a curator charg de veiller la

conservation des monuments darchitecture subsistant encore dans la ville ou
dans les environs. And finally, if Public Works were doing the heavy lifting
then get the Bureaux Topographiques to do the legwork. The advice gave no
hint of understanding that the preservation of antiquities would not only cost
municipalities money they often could not afford, but actually ran counter to
their interests of being able to do their building projects on the cheap because
it would throw a spotlight on just how much material was being misappropriated for reuse (and, who knows, funds correspondingly diverted into various
pockets).
Unfortunately, in spite of the supposed post-Renaissance interest in ruins,
the vague concern was with newly-constructed ruins (follies) and with loot
from graves and ancient sites not with ancient structures. No interest was
shown in Algeria in rebuilding any ruins except for fortresses (which had a
practical use); and little interest in mainland France except for what were
recognised as exceptional if dilapidated structures, such as Vzelay or
Carcassonne. Indeed, the 19th century saw many sets of town walls in France
demolished, as inimical to fresh air, proper sewers, roads and railways: so no
wonder that so many Algerian ruins were demolished almost without a second
thought. There were exceptions, such as the commandant at Thelepte
(Medinet-el-Kedima) in 1889, who wished to create a museum of the Roman
military town by producing exact plans and then having archaeologists and
architects study them.[94] And Audollent affirms that the colonists at the village of Tiklat (created in 1872) were so proud of the inscriptions found there
that they wanted to build their own museum: Les transporter Bougie, on ne
saurait songer le faire sans sexposer au mcontentement des colons[95] a
tall story, surely, but just possibly in this case an exception to the general digestion of inscriptions into new buildings.
One variation on this theme was the removal of antiquities from Arab villages, supposedly to assemble them into a museum. Thus at Tatahouine, in
Tunisia, Au dbut de loccupation militaire de la rgion, quelques fragments
de corniches, des pierres grossirement sculptes purent tre soustraites par
les officiers du poste au vandalisme des indignes. But here crops up the constant problem with amateur collections, namely that details are not passed on
when the responsible officers move elsewhere: Les officiers qui avaient pris
lheureuse initiative de recueillir ces pierres omirent de transmettre leurs
successeurs des renseignements sur leur provenance. Lorigine exacte de ces
dbris tait dautant plus difficile dterminer quaucun deux ne prsentait
dinscription; mais leur examen donnait supposer quils avaient d appartenir des monuments puniques ou no-puniques.[96] The Socit Historique
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Algrienne was alert to the problem and, as well as hoping that standing monuments might be conserved, wish to prvenir autant que possible, la dispersion des autres dans des collections particulires o ils demeurent sans utilit
pour la science.[97] The situation was yet more confused at Tatahouine because
the natives had apparently been encouraged in the first place to build using
ruins: Les indignes qui ont coopr au dveloppement assez rapide de ce
petit centre commercial prlevrent les matriaux qui leur taient ncessaires
dans les ruines avoisinantes, thereby leaving the adjacent ancient site
largely bare.[98]
Museums, by their very existence, introduced the idea that certain antiquities had a price, and could therefore be sold. So that if colonists stopped reusing
antiquities and learned to prize them, this was not necessarily for their value to
scholarship, but for their cash value. And an engine of conversion from antiquity to cash was the railway. In 1916 Pellet recounts his visit to the ruins of Mina,
where the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de ltat was seeking earth for an
embankment, and came across antiquities during the excavation. Only the
heaviest stones seem to have survived, for Beaucoup de ceux-ci, ma-t-on
affirm, ont t emports pendant les travaux par les ouvriers et les visiteurs
qui les ont conservs ou vendus, while others had been piled up at the railway
station, presumably for selling on elsewhere, if not for some museum.[99]
Trawling for museums, by diplomats as well as scholars, was rife elsewhere in
the Mediterranean as well.17
If collecting antiquities for transport to the Louvre or elsewhere in Europe
entailed logistical difficulties, what about museums founded in the various
towns the French built right on top of Roman ruins where transport problems were negligible? These were difficult to control, it being explained in 1859
that the conservators dilemma was that few favoured a centralised museum,
one half wanting everything to go to the Louvre, the other half wanting everything to remain local.[100] Guelma got the worst of all worlds, with some antiquities going to Paris, some to Bne, Constantine and Algiers and many being
destroyed or used as building materials.[101] Other materials were brought to
Guelma from deserted sites, where les uvres dterres auraient bien vite t
dtruites par lArabe.[102]
Unfortunately the destruction wrought in earlier decades was capped by a
general indifference to museums and collecting, in spite of some exceptions
noted throughout this book. The result of such insouciant vandalism was that
towns that possessed important specimens when the French arrived nurtured
17
Thobie 2000, 93100 Lenrichissement des muses nationaux, with details of deals, and
smuggling.
353
museums housing mostly scraps of decidely mediocre quality. With good collections, what a draw-card such towns would be! As Vars wrote of Russicada in
1896, Ils eussent aisment constitu, en raison de labondance des vestiges
quils ont rencontrs, un vritable centre dattraction et dtude, non seulement pour les archologues de profession, mais encore pour une innombrable
quantit de gens du monde qui, sans tre vritablement entendus sur
lantiquit, sintressent pourtant tout ce qui la rappelle.[103]
One reason for the prevalent lack of interest in collecting for museums
might have been that many scholars considered that (with the exception of
the sculptures of Cherchel) the figured monuments unearthed were of low
quality. Berbruggers excavations at Cape Matifou in the late 1830s produced
antiquities, but all of them either greatly damaged, or of no artistical value.
The period of the bloom of the Province of Africa was not that of the bloom
of art.[104] Cagnat in 1890 was passing similar value judgments: lAfrique na
pas encore donn de monuments figurs qui prsentent une relle valeur
artistique, meaning that the work did not look Greek although they had
une valeur pour qui voudrait faire lhistoire de lart africain.[105] We may perhaps also assume that such attitudes further emphasised the attention to be
given to inscriptions over architecture and sculpture. The Germans evidently
thought differently, were digging in Algeria in June 1914 and, according to the
French, not only smuggling artefacts back home, but also gathering military
intelligence.[106]
So the conclusion must be that a great opportunity was missed in Algeria to
bring surviving monuments to life either in well-organised and well-filled
museums, or by some reconstruction of the ancient monuments themselves.
The French Army certainly did some reconstruction in the interests of defence,
but this was accompanied by a distinct disinclination to incorporate them into
modern constructions for decorative or emblematic reasons. The Armys and
colonists use of antiquities is much more pedestrian and, because of the numbers of troops and settlers to be serviced, extremely destructive. Poir sees the
dilemma in relative terms: he could forgive the 16th century plundering of
Rome because the results were decidedly not pedestrian.[107] It is difficult not
to imagine what the Roman and Byzantine fortresses of Algeria would have
looked like today had Napoleon been in charge or, indeed, that PageantMaster of the French Republic during the Revolution, whose genius he recognised, namely Jacques-Louis David. Paris today bears many signs of Napoleonic
triumphalism (Champs Elyses, Arcs de Triomphe du Carrousel and de lEtoile,
the Colonne de la Grande Arme in Place Vendme). But where, except for the
names of some streets and metro stations, are the memorials to Frances conquest of Algeria, and of that Roman heritage that the soldiers and scholars
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were so quick to claim? With the broader canvas of Algeria on which to work,
the Roman triumphs of her monuments would surely have been melded with
contemporary needs, in an echo of the exploitation of their antique heritage
by mediaeval Italian City-Republics. Instead, in a failure of nerve, of imagination, or of both, Algeria was not to be commemmorated in monuments.
1 Carton_ 1894_30
2 Hron de Villefosse,
Discours, in BACTHS 1905,
Paris 1905, LXXVIIIXCIV
[ ]
3 RA_1836: term civilisation
used 70 times
[ ]
4 Drohojowska_1848_350
[ ]
[ ]
6 Moll_1861_221
[ ]
7 Saint-Martin_1863_101
[ ]
8 Carton_1894_21
[ ]
9 Rufer_1907_366
[ ]
10 Tunis-Journal 16 & 18 July
1889
[ ]
11 JDPL 27 December 1845
[ ]
12 Ibid., 17 September 1850
[ ]
13 Ibid., 5 June 1887
[ ]
14 Ibid., 21 October 1851
[ ]
15 JDPL 30 August 1849
[ ]
16 Ibid., 20 September 1839
[ ]
17 Ibid., 24 July 1842
[ ]
18 Ibid., 24 Jan 1844
[ ]
19 Bertrand_1903_187
[ ]
20 Hron_de_
Villefosse_1905_179
[ ]
21 Ibid., 19
[ ]
22 Lavigerie_1881_78
[ ]
23 Hron_de_
Villefosse_1905_182
[ ]
24 Diehl_1892_99
[ ]
25 Beul_1875_83
[ ]
26 Ibid., 238
[ ]
27 LIndpendant de
Mostaganem_7_
Aug_1892C
[ ]
28 Demaeght_1899_485
29]Tissot_1885_259
30]De_la_Blanchre_1890_3
[ ]
31 Gauckler_1895_50
[ ]
32 Marye_1899_II
[ ]
[ ]
34 Reinach_and_
Babelon_1887_54
[ ]
35 Ibid., 5556
[ ]
36 Tissot_1888_206207
[ ]
37 Diehl_1892_111
[ ]
38 Cagnat_1901_63
[ ]
[ ]
40 Bourde_1880_5455
[ ]
41 Vernet_ 1852
[ ]
42 Prat_1930_18
[ ]
43 Guerre_1901
[ ]
44 Esquer_1929_37
[ ]
45 SHD 2M5
[ ]
46 Esquer_1929_38
[ ]
47 SHD MR1978
[ ]
48 Ibid.
[ ]
49 SHD 3M278
[ ]
50 SHD 3M293
[ ]
51 SHD 3M258
[ ]
52 SHD 3M277
[ ]
53 SHD 3M258
[ ]
54 SHD 3M277
[ ]
55 SHD 2M4
[ ]
56 Ibid.
[ ]
57 Cagnat_1896_567
[ ]
58 Ibid., 561
[ ]
59 Fraud_1878_6
[ ]
60 Journal Gnral 24
October 1889
[ ]
61 LAvenir de Tbessa
24 June 1900
62]Ibid., 22 June 1900

[ ]
64 Ibid., 15 November 1903
[ ]
65 Poulle_1884_207208
[ ]
66 Revue_du_Cercle_
Militaire_1889_1137
[ ]
67 Esquer_1929_4345
[ ]
68 Ibid., 52
[ ]
69 Ibid., 54
[ ]
70 Mirecourt_1857_4849
[ ]
71 Ibid., 7677
[ ]
72 Gsell_1912_IV
[ ]
73 Ibid., IIIII
[ ]
74 Jacquot_1907_110
[ ]
75 Gsell_1912 passim for
destruction
[ ]
76 Janon_1973_193194
[ ]
77 Gsell_1922_20
[ ]
78 Oulebsir_1994_65
[ ]
79 Dureau_de_la_
Malle_1837_XIIXIII
[ ]
80 Cagnat_1896_5678
[ ]
81 Schulten_19001901_254
[ ]
82 Gungl_1906_242243
[ ]
83 Wilkin_1900_145146
[ ]
84 Leclerc_de_
Pulligny_1884_202
[ ]
85 Gungl_1906_244
[ ]
86 Maupassant_1997_
212213
[ ]
87 Carton_1899_134
[ ]
88 Gurin_1862_II_379380
[ ]
89 Poir_1892_138
[ ]
90 Cardaillac_1891_122
[ ]
91 Diehl_1892_107108
[ ]
92 Poulle_1884_209210
[ ]
[ ]
355

93]SHD Gnie. 1H50
94]Revue_du_Cercle_
Militaire_1889_11691170
[ ]
95 Audollent_1890_423
[ ]
96 Tribalet_1901_284285
[ ]
97 RA 14 Algier 1870, 7
98]Tribalet_1901_284
99]Pellet_1916_285
[
100]RA 1859 issue 20,
105109
[ ]
101 Pachtre_1909_1
[
102]Ibid., 3
103]Vars_1896_205
104]Pulszky_1854_60
[
[
106]Mlia_1918_1112
[
107]Poir_1892_139
Conclusion: L o nofus passons, tout tombe[1]

Car, il faut le reconnatre, ce sont ceux-l mme qui se disent les hritiers
des Romains en Afrique qui ont fait disparatre les plus beaux tmoignages de leurs droits ce patrimoine, les difices laisss par leurs pr
dcesseurs et que, par une ironie du sort, les ravisseurs eux-mmes
avaient respect...Fort heureusement, pour lhonneur de la science
franaise, la faute commise en Algrie a profit la Tunisie et amen la
cration dun Service qui recueille et protge les vestiges du pass
dune faon sinon complte, en raison des faibles ressources dont il dispose, du moins dans une mesure suffisante pour viter dirrparables
pertes.[2] [1899]
Cartons acknowledgment that the French destroyed the best Roman monuments comes nearly seventy years after the Conquest. Carton worked late in
the century, and we cannot know what Roman, let alone Islamic monuments,
were destroyed without trace, description or drawing from 1830 onwards.
Such obscurity extends to the reasons for continuing occupation following
the invasion. Was North Africa conquered to provide a commercial outlet
for the products of French factories? As a source of produce with which to
enrich the hexagon? As a land for colonists who would ensure prosperity by
keeping the natives under, or at bay? Or were the colonies to become dumpinggrounds for the poor and inadequate sweepings of French streets? There is no
clear answer, because policies were for ever changing although the colonists
always had the upper hand over the natives, who were frequently displaced so
that Europeans could farm their land. Founding towns was easy, because that
was what the 19th century knew plenty about, with models provided in the
illustrated periodicals. But how to deal with colonies and colonists, not to
mention the natives, was an ongoing and insoluble problem. Indeed, as several
commentators continued to ask throughout the century, was France capable
of ruling an empire? Many answered in the negative, and Tacitus bleak assessment of Galba (omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset) springs
to mind.
This confusion stemmed from the lack of an overall plan for the founding of
colonies, although a barrage of publications suggested how colonies should be
formed and managed. Indeed, there was generally no true central management of colonies, let alone any equitable distribution or donation of land or
government funding. Many would-be colonists migrated to Algeria because of
the high 1840s unemployment levels in Paris, but it was shortsighted of the
Conclusion: L o nous passons, tout tombe
357
Government to try and sweep such a huge problem across the sea. There were
over 37,000 of them in Algeria by 1841, and 200,000 by 1870. However, many new
arrivals had no agricultural skills, and so opened shops and cafs in the towns
and villages; and many of those trying to run a farm nearly starved. Medical
details are difficult to come by, but it seems likely that many were at least badly
nourished and even sickly, and therefore the more susceptible to the diseases
in Algeria (such as malaria and cholera) waiting to kill them. The colons safety
and prosperity varied from area to area, depending on the local army priorities.
Military colonies, on the Roman model, were suggested and even tried but
failed. Government ineptitude created chaos, which increased when, from
1848, Algeria was administered as part of France. Just as the army could not be
supplied from France, neither a fortiori could the colonists, who were also
forced to re-use Roman facilities as well.
Distance has not lent enchantment to modern views regarding France in
Algeria. Her contribution to the First World War was great,1 but growing unrest
soured the metropolitan view of the colony. There was an undeclared war from
1954, ably serviced by native Algerians trained in fighting with the French army
in World War II and Indo-China. By 1956 unrest required 512,000 French troops
in Algeria. Then came the 1958 military coup, which brought De Gaulle to
power, and then the failed Generals putsch of 1961, which attempted to remove
him in order to ensure that France retained her colony. These events had a
great and continuing impact on France in both culture and politics, reflected
in factual accounts as well as in fiction and film.2 Once out of Algeria, a controverse mmorielle autour de la colonisation,3 developed as right-wing official
France attempted to paint a more positive picture of their involvment in
Algeria in the face of mounting revisionist criticism in research by left-wing
French and Algerians. On Armistice Day in 1996 President Chirac, dedicating a
memorial to military and civilian dead in North Africa 19521962, spoke of
toutes celles qui ont contribu la grandeur de notre pays en incarnant
loeuvre civilisatrice de la France. Nous ne saurions oublier que ces soldats
1 Darmon 2009, 593614 LAlgrie dans la Grande Guerre.

2 Dine 1994.
3 Bertrand 2006, 12: On se propose ici de dcrire lemergence dune controverse mmorielle
autour de la colonisation cest--dire dun espace de dbats idologiques et partisans structur par des revendications visant principalement susciter la reconnaissance, par les
authorits publiques, dinterprtations spcifiques, car slectives, du processus de domination
coloniale.
358
furent aussi des pionniers, des btisseurs...Traces matrielles, certes,

mais aussi apport intellectuel, spirutuel, culturel.4
In 2003 Philippe Douste-Blazy (Minister of Culture 19957) proposed emphasising the good that France did in Algeria savoir-faire, science, technology,
culture, language and cest en grande partie grce leur courage et leur got
dentreprendre que le pays sest dvelopp, a suggestion bolstered by a law.5 Le
Cour Grandmaison, writing two years later, can only protest against this stance:
Envers et contre tout, ces reprsentants dfendent le mythe dune colonisation gnreuse et civilisatrice conforme aux idaux que la France
est rpute avoir toujours dfendus en cette terre algrienne. Singulire poque, trange conception du devoir de mmoire, remarquable
example qui illustre, jusqu la caricature, la puissance de reprsentations idologiques quaucun vnement, fait ou argument ne parvient
entamer. De l cet aveuglement pris pour une preuve de courage et de
lucidit. Extraordinaire persistance enfin de ce pass-prsent qui, inlassablement, continue daffecter notre actualit.6
Were we to follow Douste-Blazys recipe, this book would have detailed the
monuments protected and saved by the French in Algeria and Tunisia grce
leur courage et leur got dentreprendre and displayed in museums in both
countries and in France. But the truth, as Le Cour Grandmaisons indictment
suggests, is entirely different. Modern treatments of Algerian and Tunisian
monuments concentrate, quite naturally, on what survives. But the archaeologists and travellers of the 19th century (from Germany and Britain as well as
from France) were very clear that the violence done by the State, the Army and
the colonists to the ancient remains obliterated large quantities of antiquities,
and their intimate knowledge of what went on derived in some cases from
complicity in destruction. The depradations were visible, well known, and frequently reported to those supposedly in power at various levels of the chain of
command. But such sometimes impassioned reports had little effect, because
without the reuse of Roman monuments the Army could not have conquered
4 Cited in Bertrand 2006, 29.
5 Bertrand 2006, 1746 La gense de la loi du 23 fvrier 2005: Linvention dune politique de la
mmoire. Article 4: Les programmes scolaires reconnaissent en particulier le rle positif de
la prsence franaise outremer, notamment en Afrique du Nord but the same Article suggests only that programs of university research give such presence la place quelle mrite.
6 Le Cour Grandmaison 2005, 335336.
359
the land, and the colonists, albeit in relatively small numbers, could not have
stayed there. The French did indeed introduce science, technology and culture, but it was these very engines of modernism that further destroyed the
ancient past, helped by parsimony, ignorance, nonchalance, profiteering and
neglect. In a supreme example of this, the Service des Antiquits de lAlgrie
lost its mauresque villa to road-widening in 1956.[3]
Why, although they did export some archaeologists from the cole Franaise
in Rome to dig in Algeria,[4] did France never found an archaeological institute
in Algeria itself? Of course, such schools are by tradition abroad, in centres
offering fruitful science. Then again, the French established no school in Asia
Minor, for Athens was comfortable and civilised, Algeria perhaps considered
less so. As a result, it was sometimes French Algerians who became authorities
on Algerian antiquities, as well as visiting scholars from Paris. Without French
intervention, could we expect more groups of significant ruins, some rebuilt, to
survive in Algeria and Tunisia today? Or would we see yet more objects in
museums, and all sites denuded of their movable contents? Probably so, given
the inexorable march of museums and their vector, mass tourism. The con
clusion must be that the French, their occupation largely destructive rather
than constructive, did not value Algerian antiquities sufficiently, while German
archaeologists collected assiduously just as they did in Asia Minor, filling their
own museums.
What a pity that France, whose army was part-dedicated to comparisons
with Roman arms and civilisation that could redound to her credit and legitimate her conquest of Algeria, saved funds by destroying antiquities, when a
little forethought would have made their preservation easy.[5] As well as
destroying such potential symbols in the process of planting colonies, they
also did wilful and permanent damage to the existing society. Cest ainsi que
disparaissent les grandes choses de ce monde: le marteau et le carnage dabord,
lindiffrence, la profanation et loubli ensuite, wrote Gastineau in 1865, of
early Christians, Vandals and Arabs; but he might just as well have been writing
of his contemporaries, whose new villages he condemned as Potemkin constructions.[6] What a pity, also, that relatively so little interest was taken in
either Byzantine fortresses or Christian churches, which had often survived in
larger numbers and in better condition than their pagan predecessors.
What might Algeria have been without French army or colonists? As in Asia
Minor, that would have depended on the degree and pace of modernisation
which, as the French agreed, destroyed more antiquities than over a mill
ennium of Arab occupation. If destruction is one engine of modernisation,
museums are another, because the active and often aggressive collecting of
prizes clears sites of some of their interest. Thus we might well expect Algerian
360
museums to have been better filled with high-quality statues, and with m
osaics
of Antakya quality. Unfortunately, however, museums are themselves a seductive engine for removing antiquities from their setting and lessening meaning.
This has not helped present-day Algeria, which earns about one percent of
GDP from tourism.
The French and Roman belief in their civilising influence survives into the
20th century, echoed by the Italians in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, the
Governor of Libya, Italo Balbo himself, proclaimed in print that
attraverso le vicende storiche, dallorigine di Roma al Medioevo fino
allera moderna, balzer una verit storica irrefragabile: linfluenza civilizzatrice dellItalia sulla Tripolitania attraverso i secoli, costante e
ininterrotta.
and a commentator pointed out, in his study of relations between Venice and
the Regence of Algiers that Venice seppe tenere alto il prestigio dellItalia e
portare un nuovo soffio di vita civile. Fino agli ultimi anni essa seppe far risp
ettare i trattati e mantanere fra quei popoli alto il concetto della superiorit
delle gente latine.7 Without such sentiments, and the reassurance provided by
the evidence of what they construed as the Roman success in colonising
Algeria, the French would surely never have stayed the course.
The French produced two unconvincing alibis for the state of the monuments in late 19th century Algeria and Tunisia. One was the destruction
wrought by the Byzantines in response to the Vandals, although it was clear
that their rebuildings preserved elements of many buildings. The other was the
Arabs, although anyone could observe that their buildings consumed few
antiquities. The new Vandals were the French: L o nous passons, tout
tombe, as De Montagnac wrote in 1885. Certainly, the mission civilisatrice frequently included not only demolition of buildings but also complete obliteration of antiquities. As the plentiful documentation illustrating this account
has shown, contemporaries knew full well the levels of destruction they were
causing in North Africa. Only a few scholars tried to mitigate or halt it, for central government and local administrations permitted or even encouraged
destruction, as a way of simplifying colony-building and of keeping down
infrastructure costs.
Yet only a few hints of the story told here appear in 20th-century accounts,
because some sites remain standing in part, and because the study and
7 Cappovin, G., Tripoli e Venezia del secolo XVIII, Verbania 1942, 2930; Balbo is quoted from the
preface to Toschi, P., Le fonte inedite della storia della Tripolitania, 1934.
361
promotion of the past survives by consideration of survivals, not destruction.

And what country, in our age of patrimony, heritage, museums and tourism
could admit to such depradations? They are best left unstated, along with any
qualms about the unwarranted restorations or even reconstructions which disfigure so many monuments ancient and mediaeval.8 Compare Turkeys monuments under the Ottomans with Algerias under the French: the former often
survive for a host of reasons sometimes disconnected from any appreciation of
the classical past.9 The latter, under the aegis of the mission civilisatrice, and
investigated by a race who considered themselves related perhaps physically
and certainly spiritually to the ancient Romans, frequently did not.
An indication that several of the problems charted in this book were never
satisfactorily solved is the regularity with which they re-appear decade after
decade like signature tunes in a tragic opera (Gtterdmmerung?). The instability of colonies is one recurring theme. Vandalism is another, introduced in
the very first issue of the American Journal of Archaeology in 1885, which was
worried that Tunisia, now to be thrown open again to civilization, (that is,
French civilisation!) was to be subject to the same destruction well known from
Algeria:
Since the French conquest, much as has been done by men of learning to
catalogue and interpret these remains and to collect the smaller ones, the
government has not taken efficacious measures to preserve its precious
heritage from wanton destruction. Through the ignorance and rapacity
of individuals and local authorities, and in some cases by military ordinance, roads have been paved with inscriptions, statues burned for lime,
and countless architectural monuments destroyed.[7]
Another theme was that some Arabs thought ancient ruins proved the legitimacy of French conquest. It is doubtful whether any natives really believed
their conquerors identification with the ancient Romans and their remains,
which was surely a French romantic fantasy and justification for colonisation.
For such a belief would be a large step to their eventual acceptance of French
domination and a step backwards, for could not the French Empire fail
just like the Roman one?[8] A variation on this same theme has the natives
8 Rau 1994 is an honourable exception, which rails against the destruction under the Fifth
Republic, including (10241027) archaeological sites. Jean-Michel Leniauds darwinisme patrimonial is reprinted at 11381143.
9 Greenhalgh 2013.
362
predicting the future by observing how the mission civilisatrice of the Romans
themselves had ended in ruins. Hugonnet, head of one of the Bureaux Arabes,
claims he picked up this sentiment as early as 1858, recording the fragility and
uncertainty of progress in Algeria:
Jai entendu dire des indignes: Nous ne savions pas autrefois ce que
ctaient que ces longues lignes paves, travers champs, maintenant que
nous avons vu travailler les Franais leurs routes, nous voyons bien ce
que cest, les Roumis sont revenus prendre possession du pays de leurs
anctres, dont ils ont conserv les habitudes travailleuses...Le musulman pense intrieurement cette autre chose: Tout cela a dj disparu
une fois, devant lhabitant de la tente (car il sattribue lexpulsion des
Romains), donc, il peut bien arriver une seconde disparition.[9]
This Roumi refrain was an old one, and Gaston Boissier re-introduces it as late
as 1891 as a justification for archaeological digs:
Les indignes nous appellent des Roumis; ils nous regardent comme les
descendants et les hritiers de ceux qui les ont si longtemps gouverns et
dont ils gardent confusment un grand souvenir. Acceptons lhritage,
Messieurs; nous y trouverons notre profit. Du moment que nous nous
rattachons ce pass glorieux, nous ne sommes plus tout fait des trangers, des intrus, des gens arrivs dhier, quune heureuse aventure a jets
sur un sol inconnu.[10]
But just as the ring returns to the Rhine Maidens at the end of Wagners
Gtterdmmerung (Ihr in der Flut / lset ihn auf, / und lauter bewahrt / das
lichte Gold, / das euch zum Unheil geraubt, sings Brnnhilde), so the wheel of
North African occupation turns again. Abd-El-Kader gave it an unsuccessful
spin. Hugonnet predicts another revolution, concluding his 1858 account by
averring that those remaining ruins of the grandeur that once was Rome
should be seen not as proof of permanence but rather of instability.
Another army officer uttered the phrase Vive Algrie franaise! in
Mostaganem exactly one century later, but claimed the words simply slipped
out. In 1962 that same General De Gaulle finally extricated France from
Algeria, and the savage wars of peace that had continued almost non-stop
since 1830 came to an uncertain end.
363

1 De_Montagnac_1885_427B
2 Carton_1899_134135
[ ]
3 Lassus_1956_49
[ ]
4 Grenier_1948_409
5 Bastide_1880_388389
6 Gastineau_1865_5859
[ ]
7 AJA I 1885, 90
[ ]
8 Leclercq_1881_231
9 Hugonnet_1858_154
10]Bulletin Archeologique
1891, LII
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
Appendix: A Timeline and Some Statistics

Some dates will help elucidate the French experience in 19th-century North Africa;
they are accompanied by figures1 which are sometimes rubbery, and followed by explicatory notes.
1815 9 July Second Restoration. 181524 Reign of Louis XVIII
1824 Accession of Charles X
1830 July Revolution; abdication of Charles X; coronation of Louis-Philippe
183040: Loccupation restreinte: invasion, capture of strategic towns such as
Mda, Bougie, Guelma, Constantine
Invasion 16 June 1830: 35,000 men, 4,000 horses, 70,000 tons of materiel
Army numbers: 1831: 18,000; 1837: 34,000 then 42,000; 1840: 58,000
1831 Creation of Lgion trangre: 2,700 men by 1832
1836 November: Clauzel attacks Constantine with 8,700 troops
1837 October: Second attack on Constantine with 20,400 men (16,000 fighting
troops)
1837 Bugeaud signs Treaty of Tafna with Abd-el-Kader; two of its 15 articles included
(6 & 7) delivery of food supplies to the French, and for Abd-el-Kader to buy arms
and powder in France
1839 October; the French crossing of the Biban breaks the Treaty of Tafna, and Abdel-Khader renews war for 9 years. He has 50,000 troops (10,000 regular and 40,000
local volunteers)
Health: 183034 8,322 men died of disease and cold
Antiquities: many dismantled to provide shelter/protection for troops
1840 Bugeaud reorganizes the army into light formations; fights mobile counter
insurgency; most of his attacks use over 7,000 men; promotes the best officers
Changarnier, Bedeau, Lamoricire
Army numbers: large increases required by Bugeaud: see table below
Health: in 1840 9,686 deaths from disease etc.; in 1841 over half the 1,200-strong garrison of Miliana died; 1847 400 doctors, 2,000 nurses, 11,700 beds in 38 hospitals
1840: Colonisation: large increases promoted by Bugeaud: see table below
1846: 106,000 troops are protection 100,000 colons
Antiquities: bivouacs on Roman sites; materials reused to build European towns
1 Mainly extracted from Weygand 1961, Clayton 1988, Pedroncini 1992 and Serman & Bertaud
1998; Clayton 1988, 610 for regimental terminology; 199243 European; 244306 N. African;
211212 penal battalions.
365
appendix: a timeline and some statistics
1846 September: troops of Abd-el-Kader crush the French at Sidi-Brahim

1847 December: Abd-el-Kader surrenders
1848 February Revolution
Army, June: Repression of revolt by General Cavaignac, from Algeria
1851 2 December Coup dtat of Louis-Napolon Bonaparte
185270 Emperor Napolon III
Army numbers: 18545 310,000 French troops in Crimea, over 100,000 with experience of Algeria
Colonisation: start of vigorous and extensive settlement construction
Insurrections 185865: General de Martimprey uses 15,000 men for the Beni Snassen
revolt, of whom 3,500 die of cholera
Health 186669: cholera, famine locusts kill perhaps 1/5th of the population
Antiquities: continue to suffer as occupation expands and settlements increase
1870 September Defeat by Prussia at Sedan; Siege of Paris; Third Republic
Army in Algeria reduced to 43,000 men, due to mobilisation against Prussia
1871 March Election of Paris Commune; then defeat of Commune by government troops
1871: revolts in Kabylia, Aurs, etc.
Army numbers: 70,000 in 1880; 80,000 in 1903
Colonisation: reaches 200,000 only in 1900
18813 Invasion of Tunisia with 28,000 troops: only several dozen killed, but over
1,000 dead from typhoid; 35,000 troops needed for southern Tunisia
1881 insurrection in the Sud-Oranais
Antiquities: some saved by laws, and recording by scholars
19141918 First World War
195462 Algerian War
1962 3 July: de Gaulle recognises Algerian independence
The following (incomplete) table[1] gives numbers for troops and colons in Algeria, and
shows that Bugeauds policies (aggressive war and large-scale colonisation) did not
work. The colons were Maltese, Spanish and Italian as well as from France, and deaths
and departures accounted for well over half the total of births and new arrivals:
Year
1840
1841
1842
1843
Troops
61,231
72,000
83,281
86,014
Colons
28,736
35,727
46,098
58,985
Births
1,451
1,873
Arrivals
25,073
37,548
Deaths
2,340
2,172
Departures
15,380
17,101
(Continued)
366
table (Continued)
Year
Troops
Colons
Births
Arrivals
Deaths
Departures
1844
1845
1846
Totals
90,221
106,186
104,808
95,321
99,800
109,400
2,583
2,709
2,650
11,266
41,951
43,000
47,315
194,887
3,108
3,357
3,922
14,899
23,917
29,648
31,673
117,722
Army numbers: In termfs of numbers, Algeria was a relatively slight drain on Frances
military resources,2 given the high and rising casualty lists of the 19th-century wars in
which France was engaged, exacerbated by increasingly destructive weaponry and
mitigated by medical services that could not however keep up. Crossing the Berezina
River in 1812 during the retreat from Moscow cost the Grande Arme some 25,000
dead, by which stage Napoleon had only about 40,000 of the initial perhaps 600,000
men who had crossed the Nieman River into Russia. In the Crimea, France lost some
100,000 of her 310,000 complement, while the Russians lost some 65,000 killed or
wounded in Sebastopol alone. For the Franco-Prussian war (which reduced troops in
Algeria to 43,000), the French fielded at the start some 400,000 troops; 156,000 French
troops died, and 170,000 were captured at Metz alone. Cold and hunger killed over
3,000 Parisians every week in January 1871. After that war, compulsory military service
was introduced.
In comparison, the 37,000 troops who invaded Algeria out of the army establishment of 300,000 formed a small commitment. Nevertheless, the occupation of the
Algiers, and then expansion from the coastal regions, was bloody and expensive. Had
planning been better (barracks, hospitals, medical services), the drain on men would
have been miniscule: it has been calculated that between 1831 and 1851, 92,329 died in
hospital, and only 3,336 in battle.3 The causes included diseases such as malaria4 and
lack of medical care.5 Improvements came only slowly, for by 1870 the army had lost
150,000 men. As for the wider carnage, Urbain states in 1862 that the previous 32 years
2 Frmaux 2002, 255256 for some comparisons with other wars: 18301871: 150,000 dead, of
which 50,000 for 18401847; Crimea: 95,000; Franco-Prussian War, 18701871: 140,000; 1954
1962, fewer than 25,000 out of 2m called to the colours compare 300,000 troops served
18401847.
3 Bennoune 1988, 42 for table of casualties.
4 Cohen 1983.
5 Darmon 2009, 121140 Le grand mouroir charting mortality, plague, dysentry, typhus,
cholera.
367
had killed, at a conservative estimate, over 480,000 people, not just soldiers. The troops
suffered most at first but then, as barracks and hospitals were built, it was the civilians
who fell sick in greater proportion and the natives, in the war 18301847 probably lost
over 500,000 souls.[2]
Expeditions in force required relatively large numbers of troops: Clauzels failed
1836 attack on Constantine involved 8,700 troops; the Second Expedition requiring
20,400 men, including 16,000 combattants, 5000 animals and 60 pieces of artillery
with a baggage train for Artillery and Engineers requiring 300 vehicles and 600 mules.[3]
Arab & Kabyle numbers: The increased size of the French Army since 1840 (by 1847
including 7,048 native troops) was the result of the need to counter the very effective
Arab cavalry: La force relle du pays, celle que nous navons pas encore atteinte, ce
sont les Arabes, les cavaliers arabes, dont le nombre est denviron 25,000 dans toute
lAlgrie.[4] Where was the French cavalry to fight them? Sitting in barracks, with 400
untrained recruits and 500 horses, complained one divisional general in 1849.[5] Just
how many Arabs were under arms is impossible to say. By 1839 Abd-el-Kader perhaps
had an army of over 10,000 men.6 At the Battle of Isly in 1844, they were supposedly
45,000 strong against Bugeauds 8,000.
Colonist numbers: Bugeauds years in Algeria saw colonists jump from 17,000 to some
100,000,7 but the demography varied over the years.8 In 1844 Leblanc de Prbois was
quite sure that the figures did not add up, and that projections for colonists were far
too optimistic: A quoi sert de dvouer cette uvre strile une arme de prs de
100,000 hommes et dy dpenser prs de 100 millions par an, pour semparer de terrains
que nous ne pourrons utiliser avant des sicles.[6] Help schemes by the Government
did not help much, even for housing. In one scheme, only 2,157 of the 4,502 required
houses had been built by the end of June 1849 and there was no money to build the
rest. By the next month, 1,100 colonists had already abandoned the setup and gone
home, and by the end of the year 4,200 had decided to do so.9 Indeed, the low colonia6 Clayton 1988, 55.
7 Sullivan 1983, 7793 for his strategy; 117141: Military organisation, militarism and the death
of the juste milieu, explaining Bugeauds preference for a rigorously trained professional
army over conscripted levies.
8 Bouchne 2012, Kateb, Kamel, 8288: Le bilan dmographique de la conqute de lAlgrie
(18301880).
9 Bel 1997, 2539 unemployment; 109137 arriving in the villages; 124125 model houses; 163, 174
for survival figures. Lardillier 1992, 24 for the results of the 1848 Association Nationale decree
for agricultural colonies: land, tools, grain and animals were gifted, but of the 20,000 arrivals
18481850, 10,000 stayed, 3,000 died, and 7,000 returned to France. Of the 10,000 remaining,
3,071 were concessionnaires of which only 1,851 cultivated the land; and 831 old soldiers.
368
lisation figures continue to shock today.10 The figures also show that many soldiers
were in Algeria as security guards for the colons. In 1850 Rozet and Carette did a count
of ratios of soldier-to-colonist, showing the proportion reducing from 62:1 in 1830, 6:1 in
1831, 3:1 in 1834, and 2:1 in 1839. Yet even in 1846 the ratio had only just dipped below
parity, at 10:11.[7] It was calculated that an army of 75,000 men was necessary to keep the
interior tribes pacified.[8]
How far should we trust colonising figures? The paper projection of new French
villages and towns, if not necessarily the physical results, were impressive.11 In 1865
Teissier listed in the Province of Oran 75 towns or villages, of which only 7 existed at
the time of the conquest and in the province of Constantine 59, of which only
6 existed at the conquest.[9] For the province of Algiers, the count was 89 against 9
and et si lon compte, en moyenne, 1,000 hectares cultivs autour de chaque village, on
trouve le chiffre considrable de 100,000 hectares dfrichs ou remis en culture, en
35 ans.[10] These paper figures are, of course, difficult to prove or disprove. In some
cases, as at Sig,12 the army did pitch in to help the colonists build solidly before winter
set in: the soldiers instantly became lime-burners, stone-cutters, masons, and labourers; and a few months later any one who passed through St. Denis-du-Sig, would not
have known it; the village was transformed.[11]
Colonisation, and perceptions of its success or failure, do indeed boil down to numbers and costs. An excellent roundup of colonising problems is provided by Guyot in
1885, supported by devastating statistics on wastage and appalling organisation so
bad that some colonists, provided with livestock and a house, ate the former and dismantled the latter to provide wood for heating and Les plus tenaces empruntrent
sur leur concession, la firent cultiver par des Arabes et, au bout des cinq ans exigs
pour quils en devinssent propritaires, la vendirent et disparurent.[12] As for numbers,
from the supposed figure of 233,900 inhabitants needed to be deducted soldiers and
administrators, eventually leaving a mere 135,000 immigrants, and of these 29,455
sont des concessionnaires qui ont cot ltat 59,836,000 francs, soit 2,031 fr. par
tte.[13] So in fact there were fewer than 100,000 self-supporting French colonists in
Algeria, and Guyot conjures up a cartoon of a ploughman guarded by a soldier at each
10
11
12
Lardillier 1992, 78: 1876 census shows only 244,749 Europeans, of which 155,727 are
French. Numbers climb slowly: 1831: 3,228; 1854: 124,401; 1864: 235,000; 1871: 245,000; 1886:
489,000; 1896: 578,000; 1900: 620,000. The bump in 1886 is due to the phylloxera pest of
18801881: Lardillier 1992, 42 for figures.
Arrus 1985, 33 Table 5 for list of towns created or enlarged 18301900. 35: 120 villages created 18401850, 80 created 18501860, but only 21 in the following decade: La colonisation
est en crise, les colons abandonnent depuis longtemps les centres trop loigns des axes
de communication. 1848: Government hopes to transfer 100,000 unemployed Parisians to
Algeria; 13,500 go, but most know nothing about agriculture.
Almi 2002, 4156 for the buildings of the Union agricole du Sig, and other settlements.
369
end of the furrow: Vous riez et vous vous criez: Cest une caricature. Pas du tout:
Cest le tableau exact de lAlgrie.[14] Masqueray, the following year, presented the contradictory view of their bettering the Roman achievement, with his total of 377,000
European immigrants, which he thought gave European domination over the
Mediterranean: dans un sicle, nous ferons quilibre tous les Orientaux qui les ont
prcds depuis le commencement de la domination byzantine.[15]
1 Materials for this table

from Pellissier_de_
Reynaud_III_1854_2478
[ ]
2 Urbain_1862_4748
[ ]
3 Thouvenin_1900_327
[ ]
4 Leblanc_de_
Prbois_1844_3435
[ ]
5 Le_Pays_de_
Bourjolly_1849_27
[ ]
6 Leblanc_de_
Prbois_1844_119120
[ ]
7 Rozet_and_
Carette_1850_105106
[ ]
8 Fillias_1860_286 Bugeaud
writes in 1842
[ ]
9 Teissier_1865B_116, 186
[ ]
10 Teissier_1865B_3
[ ]
11 Castellane_1853_II_138
[ ]
12] Guyot_1885_3334
13] Guyot_1885_3637
[ ]
14 Guyot_1885_38
[ ]
15 Masqueray_1886_13
[
[
Bibliography
Sources
Ranks for soldiers, and job descriptions for civil servants etc. are given in the entries
below, especially where they are flagged in the works cited; such ranks and descriptions change from time to time. Occasionally, biographical details are relayed from
Tardieu 1890, who included a bio/bibliograpical supplement to his account of Algeria.
If there is only a single or a couple of quotations from a particular work (usually a
periodical), that work does not appear in the bibliography, but only as a reference in
the endnote. EB11 with a volume number refers to the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica. Likewise, newpaper articles and some journal entries (many of which
are written anonymously, usually by editors) appear only in the endnotes, not in
the bibliography; they are generally given only by the works title and date of publication, unless the correspondant is famous. *B* before an entry indicates a useful
bibliography.
The Main Published Journals and other Sources for Our Theme Are
Archives des Missions Scientifiques et littraires, 1850ff, hereafter AMSL.

Bulletin archologique (du Comit des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques), 1883ff.,
abbreviated as BACTHS.
Bulletin de la Socit archologique de Sousse: anonymous entries in this periodical are
entered as BSA_Sousse_vol_year. Named entries abbreviated as BSA Sousse.
LAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 1857ff. Abbreviated as AIBL.
Exploration scientifique de lAlgrie pendant les annes 1840, 1841, 1842, publie par ordre
du gouvernement et avec le concours dune commission acadmique, Paris, Impr.
royale, 18441867, 39 vols.
Journal des Dbats Politiques et Littraires abbreviated as JDPL.
Recueil de Notices et Mmoires de la Socit Archologique du Dpartement de
Constantine, 1853ff. Abbreviated as RNMSADC.
Revue Africaine, 1856ff. Another Revue Africaine (plus on the title page: Recueil consacr
aux intrts matriels et moraux des possessions franaises en Afrique, et au succs de
la colonisation dAlger) was published 18361838, and is also cited as Revue Africaine
with the earlier dates.
Socit de Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran. Hereafter SGAPO.
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371
Notes on Important Scholars
Louis-Adrien Berbrugger, (Paris 1801, Mustapha 1869). Secretary to Clauzel from 1835,
but resigns when Damrmont replaces Clauzel. 1837 sent on a mission to Guelma.
Librarian at Algiers. Membre correspondant de lInstitut;
Ren Cagnat, (Paris 1852Paris 1937), ENS 1873, Chair at the Collge de France. 1885 publishes his Cours dpigraphie Latine. 1888 founds lAnne pigraphique. Government
in 1890 gives him oversight of museums in North Africa, and of local epigraphical research. Contributes 19061927 to the Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas
pertinentes;
Stphane Gsell, (Paris 1861 Paris 1932), ENS 1883, then Ecole franaise de Rome;
thence to Algeria, at the Ecole Suprieure des Lettres at Algiers. Named Inspecteur
des Antiquits de lAlgrie, Directeur du Muse Central des Antiquits Algriennes,
membre de la Commission de lAfrique du Nord, etc. Reorganised Archaeological
Museum at Algiers, directed dig at Tipasa. Chair of Histoire de lAfrique du Nord
at the Collge de France, 19121932. His Histoire ancienne de lAfrique du Nord published 19131929;
Hron de Villefosse, by 1918 Conservateur des antiquits grecques et romaines,
Membre de lInstitut;
Lon Renier: (Charleville 1809, Paris 1885). Under-Librarian at the Sorbonne from 1847,
then asked by Institut in 1852 to collect the Roman inscriptions of Algeria. Chair at
Collge de France from 1861, created by influence of the Emperor; and in 1864 at
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes;
Henri Saladin (18511923), architect. Grand Prix de Rome 1855, Ecole franaise
dAthnes, and archaeological mission in Macedonia 1861. 18821883 with Cagnat
in Tunisia for the Ministre de lInstruction Publique. Son oeuvre la plus clbre
est la construction du palais tunisien pour lexposition universelle de 1889. Ce
projet darchitecte orientaliste est dj rcompens par une mdaille dargent
lexposition de Bruxelles en 1888. Writes on Moslem as well as Roman architecture;
Charles Texier (Versailles 1802 Paris 1871), EBA in 1823. Inspecteur des Travaux publics at paris in 1827. 182829 Acadmie des Inscriptions sends him to Frjus to dig;
1833 mission to Asia Minor then (1839) to Armenia, Persia and Mesopotamia. 1840
Professeur supplant dArchologie at the Collge de France, and 1843, Inspecteur
Gnral des Btiments Civils in Algeria.
LAfrique explore et civilise, Journal mensuel, Geneva & Paris 1881. Useful for books
reviews on Algeria & Tunisia. Entered as Afrique_Explore.
LAfrique franaise du Nord. Bibliographie militaire des ouvrages franais ou traduits en
franais, I & II, Paris 1930, III & IV, Paris 1935. 9,446 items in all. Items 10761104 for
Bugeaud and colonisation; 28612968 for discussions on whether to continue with
372
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Index
Abd-el-Kader14, 1920, 245, 39, 51, 678,
79, 92, 183, 212, 277, 304, 3068, 312, 362
agriculture10, 27, 30, 37, 436, 194, 198,
275, 287, 303, 307, 310, 314
colonists436, 50, 8990, 111, 167, 221,
254, 306
farms ancient & modern446, 90,
99, 109, 111, 168, 171, 252, 2578, 2878,
3068, 31012, 314, 317, 3235
fertility44, 55, 87, 93, 99, 153, 246,
308
implements46, 89, 160, 168, 288, 325
An-el-Bordj318
Algeria
climate7, 9, 16, 22, 27, 37, 44, 48, 62,
81, 86, 187, 193, 195, 200
exploration623, 76, 1789, 231, 247,
311, 341
Algeria, French conquest1415, 17, 19, 21,
23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 361
Algeria, rivers30, 923, 95, 98, 110, 137,
144, 185, 187, 195, 198, 242, 313
Algiers, destruction of86, 119, 121, 123, 125,
127, 129, 131, 133, 135, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145
Andaluca967, 306
Announa42, 88, 139, 276
antiquities
and Arabs88, 112, 132, 168, 248, 272,
280
collecting & trade288, 2945, 313, 331,
345, 352, 360
destruction & survival45, 1416,
378, 615, 835, 13942, 16771, 17882,
20810, 21921, 22631, 23740, 2867,
2935, 3448
destruction by army & colons856,
120, 124, 1267, 130, 142, 199, 2401,
2701, 294, 300, 360
and entrepreneurs104, 10910, 2003,
2201, 224, 227, 236, 2389, 241, 253,
257, 278, 318, 323, 3489
looting122, 128, 168, 1767, 200, 322,
330, 351
prehistoric5, 11213, 183, 200, 315
Aquae Romanae92, 102
Arabs8, 12, 224, 323, 44, 467, 501, 54,

889, 912, 94, 968, 1045, 217, 312
Arabs, French attitudes to8, 11, 16, 447,
4950, 567, 61, 67, 923, 96, 280, 287, 300,
331, 336
archaeology5, 1112, 15, 17, 38, 634,
1678, 1824, 231, 234, 2445, 253, 281, 341,
347
archaeologists1112, 21516, 220, 223,
2267, 250, 253, 291, 2935, 316, 318,
3302, 3356, 3468, 3589
German359
excavations3840, 89, 91, 1589,
16870, 176, 1789, 1834, 1901, 2345,
2814, 31415, 330, 332, 3489
local societies43, 69, 126, 1302,
2356, 253, 278, 291, 359
see also Bureaux Arabes
Army1718, 201, 23, 39, 47, 4952, 75,
150, 1913, 1956, 301, 304, 307, 340, 342
(and colons), housing55, 81, 84, 86,
945, 140, 147, 150, 157, 2201, 282, 285,
309, 314, 321
battles
Isly25, 51
Sidi-Ferruch13
smalla of Abd el-Kader51, 338
Brigades Topographiques245, 24950
Dpt de la Guerre2930, 61, 187, 219,
242, 24850, 291, 33841
everyday life
barracks40, 43, 77, 7980, 1068,
129, 131, 1367, 13940, 143, 1578,
279, 282, 2912, 310
building37, 43, 88, 107, 109, 129,
151, 189
biscuit-tins21, 285
food1, 212, 32, 100, 123, 139, 147,
185, 246, 286
hospitals43, 48, 77, 1068, 120, 124,
129, 13940, 143, 14950, 153, 1556,
189, 193, 307
housing2, 40, 129, 147, 189, 268,
314, 422
tents16, 24, 38, 106, 139, 147, 202
426
General Staff11, 51, 125, 193, 211, 243,
316
general officers14, 19, 257, 37, 235,
294, 304
interpreters7, 47, 88, 135, 157, 216,
300, 303
logistics14, 201, 23, 53, 69
Military Engineers (the Gnie)1067,
1278, 1356, 138, 1401, 14350, 152,
1556, 1925, 2012, 21214, 221, 263,
2656, 2723
model farms10, 123, 307, 324
native soldiers9, 66
officers
and antiquities7, 17, 30, 38, 64,
767, 157, 1814, 21014, 2456,
2502, 269, 2912, 2945, 3301
promotion8, 66, 68, 304
strategy1415, 19, 25, 30, 39, 43, 656,
68, 85, 182, 197, 246
bivouacs38, 101, 122, 210, 212
blockhouses22, 24, 30, 412, 80,
835, 135, 1478, 198, 277, 3067
bulletins17, 33, 51, 68
camps31, 67, 76, 81, 1089, 124, 136,
140, 157, 183, 211, 247, 249, 2801, 308
enfumades29, 67
expeditions16, 20, 22, 245, 29, 63,
84, 86, 99, 106, 1267, 137, 145, 150,
182, 1856, 196, 210, 230, 240, 247,
249, 343
Expdition des Portes de Fer
20, 25, 87, 150, 155, 192, 212, 306,
342
Expditions de Constantine20,
25, 62, 81, 87, 122, 138, 186, 192,
195, 21112, 306, 342
fortress mentality14, 234, 92
infrastructure11, 42, 77, 82, 2023,
277, 306, 360
intelligence30, 76, 191, 248, 303,
320
razzias201, 29, 54, 119, 199, 338
reconnaissances2930, 32, 64,
99, 124, 145, 188, 197, 199, 212, 242,
2448, 251, 269, 3389
transport
baggage train212, 48, 186
camels113, 236
dromedaries189
index
horses201, 54, 196, 198, 336
mules201, 24, 48, 189, 192, 294
wagons21, 185, 192, 197
weapons & ammunition7, 22, 34,
512, 138, 156, 185, 190, 196, 264, 343
artillery24, 30, 32, 52, 82, 126,
1289, 145, 184, 1868, 1923, 1967,
264, 289, 291
mobile24
modern85, 148, 270
carbines52
magazines81, 146, 156
Mini rifle22
Asia Minor228, 236, 240, 335, 341, 359
Athens284, 359
Audollent, Auguste203, 223, 228, 320,
351
Aumale21, 112, 213, 240, 283, 2856
Aurs36, 93, 96, 201, 217, 243, 313
Babelon, Ernest64, 175, 183, 334
barbarians25, 28, 49, 55, 119, 123, 217, 233,
320
Batna219, 231, 241, 249, 281
Berbrugger, Louis-Adrien901, 97, 122,
144, 153, 21315, 2267, 230, 232, 237, 286,
344, 349, 353, 365
Berthezne, Lieut-Gnral8, 36, 59, 188,
300
Beul, Charles Ernest159, 177, 234, 331
Bibans20, 25, 150
Bne15, 23, 48, 57, 67, 69, 100, 140, 150,
189, 191, 202, 238, 316
Bory de Saint-Vincent, Colonel J-B-G-M
612, 64, 250
Boufarik48, 60, 3078
bridges11, 301, 95, 1012, 10911, 1824,
187, 189, 191, 193, 199203, 21314, 2234,
2456, 2778
El Kantara40, 183, 193, 346
Roman35, 40, 44, 11011, 126, 129, 148,
167, 193, 200
Turkish95
Bugeaud, Marshal Thomas-Robert1415,
20, 22, 247, 39, 47, 51, 53, 59, 757, 79,
8990, 3001, 306, 309
building
French1012, 108, 111, 126, 135, 141, 151,
154, 276, 285, 287, 289, 310, 312, 31617
masons78, 81, 83, 126, 1523, 270, 348
index
materials290
lime kilns75, 83, 102, 120, 129, 133,
153, 155, 166, 186, 21516, 225, 258,
265, 280, 282, 285 308, 321
mortar42, 789, 83, 129, 152, 1567,
171, 2634, 266, 279, 282, 324
tiles & bricks91, 121, 126, 133, 144,
169, 287, 321
wood22, 42, 81, 85, 1223, 138, 147,
189, 277, 279, 285, 308, 314, 316
Roman30, 35, 38, 61, 137
workmen43, 53, 69, 77, 84, 88, 110, 190,
193, 202, 2323, 282, 286, 289, 291
Bulla Regia201, 346
Bureaux Arabes8, 94, 3025, 309, 362
Cagnat, Ren43, 98, 113, 1701, 201, 210,
21617, 226, 228, 2401, 245, 2512, 257,
289, 294
Carbuccia, Colonel Jean-LucSbastien36, 83, 182, 189, 213, 2312,
235, 249, 255, 257, 2812
Carette, Colonel Antoine-ErnestHippolyte91, 98, 105, 146, 248, 280
Carrara marble quarries91, 126, 190, 314
Carthage34, 989, 103, 153, 168, 17380,
2545, 323, 325, 330, 347
La Goletta1745, 177, 180
La Malga174, 179
La Marsa179
Cavaignac, Gnral Louis-Eugne26,
279
centuriation112, 176, 2548
Charon, Gnral G.107, 152, 263, 265
Cherbonneau, Auguste126, 130, 174
Cherchel51, 80, 101, 1078, 1567, 159, 235,
239, 311, 325, 333, 353
Clauzel, Marshal Bertrand16, 19, 22, 257,
31, 76, 79, 81, 122, 127, 133, 138, 141, 145, 365
Cola82, 310
colonisation10, 1415, 257, 37, 436,
50, 5560, 646, 68, 935, 99101, 198,
299302, 30511, 31517
America9, 76, 198, 302
Australia9, 302
speculators556, 307
and trade3, 134, 189, 268
colonists & colonies610, 279, 468,
501, 5360, 6770, 758, 835, 8990,
23840, 3015, 307, 30912, 31423, 3569
427
agricultural89, 281, 309
military8, 39, 75, 107, 133, 144, 301,
310, 357
Roman87, 255, 350
villages103, 202, 219, 252, 257, 3089,
311, 325
Commission des Monuments Historiques
11, 645, 141, 166, 176, 348
Commission dExploration Scientifique de
lAlgrie62, 645, 157, 21213, 245,
250
Commissions278, 602, 645, 67, 75,
157, 166, 213, 238, 245, 319, 348, 365
Constantine223, 35, 68, 91, 97, 125,
12732, 137, 160, 212, 238
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum85, 127,
130, 211, 2215, 2534, 256, 2689, 280, 282
Crimean War31, 68, 106, 231, 338, 342
Damrmont, Gnral C. M. D.5, 365
David, Jacques-Louis336
Delamare, A-H-A12, 38, 76, 149, 234, 281,
341, 3434
Denon, Vivant337, 340
Desfontaines, Ren Louiche126, 174, 249
Desvaux, Gnral232, 265, 268
Diehl, Charles43, 63, 109, 193, 2223, 238,
295, 319, 334, 348
Djemila68, 1089, 126, 1667
Djerba183, 295, 334
Djidjelli40, 83, 90, 100, 196
Dougga88, 95, 166, 1689, 2378, 348
Dureau de la Malle, J-B-J-R63, 137, 185,
192, 248, 256
Duthoit, Edmond141, 143
Duvernois, Clment51, 59, 1945, 198
Duvivier, Gnral Franciade-Fleurus81,
139, 188, 302, 317
earthquakes37, 42, 81, 134, 1567, 165,
287, 299, 348
cole Franaise dAthnes228
cole Franaise de Rome240, 359, 365
cole Polytechnique64, 182
cole Pratique des Hautes Etudes258,
365
cole Suprieure des Lettres dAlger44,
365
El Djem97, 99, 112, 132, 2245, 236, 256,
278, 294
428
El-Mansura1412, 144
epigraphy & epigraphers412, 878, 110,
112, 132, 140, 1434, 2089, 211, 213, 21523,
225, 22737, 23941, 2539
Esprandieu, Emile289, 312, 3323
Expdition Scientifique de More61,
3445
Exploration Scientifique de lAlgrie12,
65, 67, 244, 336
See also Army, strategy, expeditions
Fabre de Navacelle, Colonel Henri75,
187, 190
Falbe, C-T1767, 255
Fraud, Louis-Charles1345, 149, 173,
268, 313
Foreign Legion9, 29, 36, 41, 58, 66, 2812,
306
forts56, 234, 302, 403, 767, 79,
824, 8790, 99100, 1268, 1446, 150, 165,
16970, 2767
French14, 16, 24, 27, 67, 80, 825, 88,
96, 128, 135, 139, 148, 156, 197
Roman15, 84, 281, 286
Turkish285
France
academies39, 63, 167, 1823, 222, 240,
242, 251, 253, 320
administration78, 15, 18, 5960, 62,
6970, 21921, 2578, 2923, 3037, 316,
31819, 3213, 334, 336
citizenship3001
engineers104, 110, 174, 184, 266, 277
exhibitions63, 68, 341, 365
finance24, 78, 104, 111, 128, 143, 154,
195, 240, 266, 316, 318, 345, 350, 422
government68, 10, 12, 14, 16, 1920,
25, 28, 299, 310, 316, 320, 337, 357,
3601
finances9, 15, 21, 53, 55, 69, 104,
203, 272, 301, 356
governors general14, 18, 26, 57,
103, 121, 123, 138, 183, 349
ministries1819, 61, 124, 128, 152,
173, 183, 240, 282, 333, 358
Finance78
Public Instruction295, 333,
348, 365
index
War21, 234, 267, 36, 39, 601,
63, 65, 138, 188, 191, 1956, 249,
33840, 345
policies8, 25, 66, 202
manpower19, 21, 37, 778, 82, 97, 184,
194, 258, 312
metropolitan5, 29, 48, 58, 66, 166, 184,
277, 293, 311, 356
mission civilisatrice10, 47, 55, 111, 119,
160, 211, 21718, 221, 237, 267, 3602
modernisation2, 12, 46, 85, 119, 184,
197, 293, 314, 332, 359
scholars1112, 601, 635, 112, 20812,
21420, 222, 2278, 230, 233, 23941,
2578, 32930, 3346, 3523
treaties25, 54, 172
Bardo250
Tafna20, 141
Franco-Prussian War53, 66, 221, 307
French, native attitudes to3, 17, 23, 25,
28, 32, 52, 54, 56, 98, 124, 198, 304, 312,
361
Gafsa77, 901, 98, 200, 215, 268
gardens32, 89, 978, 100, 102, 106, 1225,
151, 1535, 200, 223, 267, 280, 286, 335
Gauckler, Paul181, 227, 239, 325
General Staff, German15, 25, 68, 243
Greece12, 167, 172, 284, 335, 341, 343
Gros, Antoine336
Gsell, Stphane1112, 44, 80, 83, 148, 154,
2001, 229, 255, 313, 344, 365
Guelma68, 81, 83, 108, 13740, 21112, 214,
2467, 265, 324, 344, 352
guerilla warfare1920, 224, 39, 52, 55,
68, 139
Gurin, Victor-Honor43, 902, 104, 171,
173, 180, 209, 21516, 219, 227, 229, 233, 236,
288, 2901
Hammamet90, 197, 227
Hase, Karl-Benedikt222
health & disease8, 11, 16, 41, 44, 48, 50, 55,
66, 1067, 157, 231, 289, 357, 41920
famine11, 55, 289, 337
henchirs80, 89, 91, 102, 171, 189, 2001,
226, 229, 233, 268, 312
Hergla95, 110, 313
index
Hrisson, Maurice dIrisson180, 238
Hron de Villefosse64, 89, 136, 158, 181,
253, 269, 330, 365
Hodna44, 96, 263
housing, Arab42, 44, 105, 124, 1323, 135,
146, 158, 214, 219, 2678, 276, 310, 312, 314
Hugonnet, Captain Ferdinand323, 305,
362
Ibn Khaldun44, 81, 120, 127, 156, 174, 208
Jews & antiquities28, 143, 179, 215, 288, 301
Kabylia & Kabyles16, 201, 23, 25, 33,
36, 38, 512, 54, 83, 88, 912, 978, 128, 135,
146, 212
Kairouan/Sabra91, 98, 134, 170, 195, 201,
21516, 229, 341, 347
Kalaa of the Beni-Hammad134, 1367,
272
Khenchela69, 89, 95, 268, 309
Lamoricire, Gnral8, 278, 40, 142, 279,
303, 309
Lavigerie, Cardinal178, 330
Le Kef92, 95, 108, 167, 200, 237, 279,
2889
legions
Roman43, 78, 181, 186, 218
Roman, III Augusta36, 98, 231, 262,
280
Leo Africanus92, 134, 147, 192, 268, 289
Louis-Philippe337
Mac-Carthy, Oscar43, 97, 112, 224, 2301,
237, 294
Mahdiya91, 96, 168, 170
maps & mapmaking3, 17, 32, 42, 67, 100,
145, 176, 1912, 211, 2425, 24851, 2567,
303, 3379
Cassini dynasty243, 248
Tabula Peutingeriana191, 211, 216,
244, 248
Marmol97, 125, 1556, 180, 210, 249, 289
Mascara31, 45, 79, 122, 125, 157, 293
Masqueray, Emile44, 80, 166, 222
Mda21, 24, 30, 39, 90, 108, 122, 133,
1867, 196, 214, 244, 251, 285
medical see under health & disease
429
Medjerda6, 43, 96, 111, 312
Mercier, Lieut-Colonel Constant112, 252,
311
Milah21, 31, 111, 155, 196, 232, 313
Miliana24, 40, 125, 152, 156, 168, 192, 196,
211, 318
mission civilatrice see under France, mission
civilatrice
Mitidja57, 67, 192, 286, 302, 3067, 309,
311, 325
Moll, Charles-Auguste, Capitaine du
Gnie88, 213, 2634, 2667, 26970,
283
Mommsen, Theodor2212
monuments
Arab120, 131, 141, 151, 169, 229, 276,
312, 344
funerary34, 867, 89, 109, 124, 170
minarets32, 8990, 1267, 1434
mosques36, 867, 8992, 1067,
1202, 124, 126, 1423, 158, 170, 173,
21417, 276, 280, 289
attitudes to85, 232, 236, 262, 347
Byzantine60, 812, 8790, 1045,
1389, 141, 1503, 1556, 169, 2323,
2628, 2701, 2856, 324, 35960
churches43, 77, 86, 88, 902, 107, 129,
229, 263, 2678, 276, 285, 288, 325
laws protecting12, 65, 69, 202, 220,
224, 232, 239, 241, 284, 293, 295
palaces61, 86, 89, 1067, 1201, 1267,
136, 159, 16970, 172, 179, 212, 236, 313
reconstruction128, 1445, 150, 195,
231, 240, 247, 258, 318, 348, 353, 361
Roman3840, 119, 121, 155, 160, 230,
234, 257, 263, 267, 272, 277, 342, 345,
3523
amphitheatres40, 80, 956, 108,
13941, 1478, 158, 171, 1745, 190,
267, 278, 284, 287, 315
aqueducts30, 42, 44, 48, 956, 98,
1004, 1335, 165, 325, 341
baths81, 84, 95, 1046, 121, 141,
146, 149, 156, 158, 2356, 277, 2834,
346
circuses1, 80, 84, 135, 141, 149
columns40, 86, 8891, 107, 11112,
1335, 1424, 1467, 149, 1534,
1568, 1703, 17980, 247, 335
430
funerary1, 33, 36, 90, 157, 200, 226,
231, 2823, 288, 292, 314, 3212, 344
mosaics133, 16970, 177, 180,
2834, 317, 322, 341, 348
temples83, 85, 889, 912, 1256,
135, 138, 140, 154, 156, 158, 16970,
172, 2667, 284
theatres1, 80, 88, 90, 106, 108, 141,
147, 149, 158, 233, 235, 262, 272, 277
triumphal arches84, 88, 103, 108,
1256, 132, 138, 142, 201, 2623, 266,
2702, 314, 324, 331
museums12, 15, 149, 1589, 181, 224,
2278, 2369, 2823, 286, 32935, 3401,
34853, 35861, 365
regimental108, 2912
Napolon17, 243, 292, 336, 3389, 353
and art335, 338, 3402, 353
Napolon III18, 24, 50, 186, 194, 2945
Ngrier, Gnral de219, 263, 265
Niel, Marshal81, 139, 148, 188, 192, 196,
2467, 251
Nmes131, 263, 284
Okba, Sidi2289
Oppidum Novum182
Oran15, 30, 35, 3940, 85, 108, 192, 196,
241, 332
Ordnance Survey243, 245
orientalism3356
Orlans, Duc d67, 100, 1078, 129, 146,
151, 153, 155, 167, 191, 212, 331, 343
Orlansville39, 102, 27980, 324
Ottoman Empire3, 16, 29, 361
Pellissier de Reynaud, Edmond45, 51,
124, 142, 191, 215, 244, 277, 291, 300, 313, 334
Peyssonnel, Jean-Andr17, 956, 171, 215,
249, 288, 290, 322
Philippeville67, 78, 1001, 108, 1456,
14850, 157, 217, 238, 277, 330
Phoenicians177, 180, 249
photography227, 256, 258, 294, 332, 343
aerial2545
piracy1, 34
ports
and the French37, 43, 59, 77, 121, 136,
1457, 156, 158, 170, 187, 2867, 290, 295
French, Arzew79, 83, 1334
index
Roman
Cherchel156
Leptis Magna176
Mahdiya91, 168, 170
Oran134
Portus Magnus133
Stora145
Utica180
Prbois, Leblanc de4951, 59, 1945
press
cartoons337
Cham22, 92
magazines119
Illustrated London News335
Le Tour du Monde335
LIllustration335
newspapers78, 14, 29, 689, 101, 141,
159, 278, 304, 306, 315, 323, 331, 335, 341
Prtot, Colonel31, 100, 145, 156, 287, 310
prisons & prisoners24, 67, 84, 86, 108,
159, 235, 263, 2804, 337, 344
quarries423, 110, 140, 152, 184, 190, 245,
268, 291, 295
Roman37, 43, 83, 128, 184, 190, 314
railways223, 1056, 1657, 169, 171, 173,
175, 1835, 1935, 197201, 203, 241, 278, 318,
3512
stations132, 190, 200, 278, 352
Randon, Marshal53, 83, 152, 183, 227, 305
Raoul-Rochette, Dsir63, 257, 335
Ravoisi, Amable62, 130, 157, 159, 182, 341,
3434
Reboud, Victor33, 73, 232
Reinach, Salomon175, 183, 334
Renier, Lon12, 76, 20910, 21720, 222,
2267, 233, 235, 251, 258, 2812, 284, 286,
343, 349
roads203, 303, 52, 757, 814, 1013,
10911, 11314, 148, 1657, 18497, 199203,
2469, 2568, 2778
built with ruins10910, 112, 184, 203
French-built23, 52, 1878, 192, 194,
196, 199, 201
Roman network77, 84, 1012, 166, 171,
1848, 1902, 194, 196, 198, 2012, 263,
268, 282, 285
Algiers-Blida306
Algiers-Constantine62, 67
431
index
Algiers-Dellys315
Aumale-Stif311
Batna-Constantine200
Bja-Le Kef257
Blida-Mda186
Bne-Ras el Akba246
Bne-Tebessa265
Bougie-Stif189
Carthage-Tebessa217
Cherchel-Miliana192
Constantine-Batna87
Constantine-Philippeville82, 192,
194
Oran-Tlemcen314
Sousse-Kairouan200
Tunis-Algeria199
milestones91, 167, 184, 192, 214, 21617,
2567, 350
re-erecting193
tracks23, 523, 93, 179, 184, 187, 192
transport15, 23, 34, 43, 88, 93, 143, 166,
171, 187, 18990, 192, 198, 237, 352
wheeled vehicles32, 40, 42, 53, 62,
75, 1857, 192, 197, 268, 280, 3223, 332
Roman models for 19thC35, 379, 412,
82, 92, 95, 99, 1024, 136, 140, 154, 157, 279,
282, 3023
Rozet, Claude-Antoine17, 72, 91, 211, 280
ruins
groups of167, 214, 216, 220, 233, 268,
312
Roman30, 801, 84, 101, 104, 136, 140,
182, 184, 186, 201, 203, 303, 307, 309
and treasure87, 98, 113, 226, 281, 291
see also antiquities & archaeology
Sada92, 241, 276
Saladin, Henri42, 77, 88, 92, 98, 169, 171,
176, 190, 21516, 224, 291, 295, 365
Sbeitla42, 88, 168, 171
Schulten, Adolf6, 106, 223, 2501, 253,
2556, 319, 345
Seriana295, 3204
Stif69, 80, 89, 101, 1078, 112, 1504, 191,
200, 202, 247, 277
settlements
Arab89, 94, 99, 104, 11011, 171
French578, 84, 87, 140, 1423, 1467,
149, 306, 308, 310, 31214, 316, 319, 323,
325
Roman39, 44, 1412, 152, 1658, 1734,

181, 184, 186, 252, 255, 276, 279, 281, 288
Sfax87, 290
Shaw, Thomas88, 92, 98, 100, 102, 130, 216,
225, 227, 2356
statistics9, 30, 240, 242
Stora & Russicada31, 127, 1458, 185,
1878, 212, 2223
Tabarca190, 197
Tebessa4, 26271, 273, 294, 341
Teboursouk93, 150, 178, 197
telegraphy201
Texier, Charles2401, 365
Timgad78, 88, 141, 166, 235, 284, 3412,
346
Tipasa100, 103, 2868, 311, 324
Tissot, Charles Joseph64, 88, 90, 111, 129,
173, 183, 2001, 215, 233, 253, 290, 295, 334
Tlemcen689, 85, 101, 122, 125, 128, 1414,
153
Tobna89, 98, 104
Tocqueville, Alexis de47, 53, 55
Toulon28, 138, 3345
tourism24, 68, 141, 165, 179, 1989, 283,
294, 313, 329, 331, 35961
hotels106, 346
railway excursions198
towns
ancient & modern57, 945, 1023,
11922, 1247, 12934, 1367, 1403,
14950, 1534, 1568, 16971, 2767,
28891, 30811
Arab87, 89, 91, 1212, 124, 133, 135, 141,
144, 168, 173, 262, 267, 310, 316
French, strategic10, 76, 78, 83, 91, 122,
142, 262, 289, 306, 351
Roman83, 87, 92, 149, 153, 256, 262,
27980
see also villages
Tozeur90, 99
travellers5, 85, 108, 154, 157, 198, 226, 229,
268, 283, 288, 316
Tripolitania3, 168, 1713, 176, 284, 345, 360
Tunis32, 989, 101, 104, 120, 1701, 1734,
176, 17880, 209, 254, 278, 313, 322, 334
Urbain, Ismal47, 4951, 66, 300, 316
Utica173, 1801
432
Vale, Marshal Sylvain-Charles26, 39, 67,
77, 80, 1278, 145, 147, 150, 157, 185, 188, 192,
195, 310
vandalism45, 67, 70, 8990, 10810, 223,
2256, 228, 238, 283, 2923, 319, 348, 3512,
35961
Vars, Charles110, 128, 1312, 149, 222
Vernet, Horace68, 336, 338, 343
villages
Arab12, 54, 8990, 94, 110, 169, 311,
313, 351
French34, 39, 42, 75, 78, 133, 139, 182,
281, 2867, 309, 311, 314, 317, 323
villages ancient & modern57, 845, 87,
8991, 96, 989, 1678, 199200, 219, 2545,
2757, 3012, 30618, 3203, 325
see also towns
villas ancient & modern99, 110, 120, 123,
1347, 142, 148, 159, 1789, 236, 252, 281, 291,
306, 324
walls, Byzantine2, 4, 3940, 81, 83, 126,
128, 137, 139, 142, 262, 264, 266, 2689, 271
see also forts
water supply44, 924, 96105, 11011,
11314, 121, 123, 1289, 1367, 139, 1467, 167,
1756, 2456, 2645
aqueducts956, 98, 1012, 123, 2878
Carthage104, 156
Zaghouan1034
bottled105
index
canals445, 96, 99, 104, 1423, 246,
282, 306
cisterns93, 96105, 12831, 135, 138,
1468, 165, 167, 170, 1745, 2869, 302,
312, 314, 317
dams32, 445, 93, 959, 1023, 191,
195, 246, 257, 341
drains93, 107, 3067
fountains94, 96101, 103, 114, 1223,
165, 281, 284, 312, 318, 320
pipes102, 104, 110, 154, 264
Roman5, 11, 83, 93, 95, 97, 99100, 167,
295, 341
springs69, 93, 101, 104, 111
thermal100, 1045
Hammam-Berda105
Hammam-Darradji201
Hammam-Lif96
Hamman Meskoutine105
Hamman-Zouakra312
Hamoudah-Pacha173
water mills95, 242, 245
wells5, 34, 46, 83, 93, 958, 1001, 189,
195, 202, 252, 257, 286, 313
artesian96
weapons & ammunition, gunpowder135,
1889
dynamite54
Wilmans, Gustav221
Zaghouan91, 1034
Illustrations
2
Braun and Hogenbergs 1575 view of Algiers (1. top) , and of the Tunis outskirts (2. centre) and
sections down to the sea (3. bottom). Algiers walls are part-imagination, but the Western
fortresses to seaward of Tunis (as well as parts of the town itself ) were built from local materials
namely, the ruins of Carthage.
Seaside destruction was

greater and earlier than
that inland. At Carthage,
4. left, many of the ruins
had been taken centuries
before to build nearby
Tunis, and ships docked
here to take marble to
building sites around the
Mediterranean.
Nevertheless, deep digging
in the 19th century meant
there was still plenty to be
unearthed at Carthage.
Inland, it was French

military necessity which
destroyed Roman ruins.
5. below, Aumale in 1846,
with the ruins of ancient
Auzia marked and the
soldiers still probably living
in tents in the camp.
6. top right: Djemila in 1846, with a small

fort for 800 men and an outpost for 60 men,
both on high ground, the latter probably built
with ruins.
7. centre: Guelma in 1846, with foundations
and walls for a new village blocked out.
8. bottom: view of Guelma in Delamares
collection from the early 1840s, with French
barracks and storehouses sheltering within
the ancient walls. All such early views and
plans are important historical records, for
the ancient landscape they chart was
inexorably replaced by European town
layouts, and the majority of antiquities
vanished in their construction.
Constantine was a town built in part

from ruins, and seen here in views by
Delamare and Ravoisi in the early
1840s. When the French arrived her
walls (11. centre and 13. lower right)
were formidable, the more so
because of the columns inserted to
prevent sapping. Other antiquities
were used as columns (such as
funerary altars: 9. left) and
to support doorway canopies
(10. middle and 12. lower left). The
French rebuilding destroyed most
such structures without adequately
recording them. Their replacements
were anodyne 19th-century Western
houses and streets.
10
12
11
13
14
15
16
14. top left: antiquities at Milah.

15. centre left: Khamissa (Calama)
cemetery, 40km from Guelma.
16. bottom left: Ain Temouchent.
17. bottom right: the Ribat, a fortified
monastery at Sousse, the entrance
decorated with spolia. Smaller sites also
harboured many antiquities, whether
these were just sketched (as by Delamare
in the early 1840s at Milah: note the
Byzantine capital), or the inscriptions
recorded, as at Djemila, recorded in 1839
on the expedition into Kabylia. Many
such antiquities, inscriptions especially,
disappeared into new French villages,
such as that conveniently adjacent to the
site of Ain Temouchent, 72km SE of Oran,
bottom left. As Fey wrote in 1859: Enfin, le
village sleva; les pierres de taille qui
peraient le sol servirent tous les
travaux militaires ainsi quaux constructions particulires, mais le service du
gnie se rserva rigoureusement tout ce
qui, provenant des fouilles, pouvait
intresser lart; cest ainsi que lon put
mettre de ct un certain nombre
dinscriptions lapidaires et quelques
autres objets non moins prcieux pour la
science archologique.
17
18
Philippeville and Stora. 18. top:
Delamares early 1840s plate of altars
found during its construction. 19. left:
Philippeville as a planned French
town, showing how the modern
European grid-plan must necessarily
obliterate anything Roman
underneath. 20. bottom are
Delamares views of Roman cisterns at
nearby Stora, which the French will
part-restore, although they will destroy
several Roman villas in the area, as
Philippevilles port is developed, and
building materials extracted for the
new European town.
19
20
21
22
21. top: Philippeville: the theatre in

1901, and its state (22. middle left)
when Ravoisi sketched it in
the early 1840s. 23. bottom is
Delamares view of a Roman villa at
nearby Stora, with the road to
Philippeville threading into the
distance, and vaults of cisterns
(presumably from more villas)
top right.
23
24
24, 25, 26. Stif was
sketched by Delamare in the
early 1840s, when the Army
camped within and outside
the ancient walls. Some new
buildings are already to be
seen. Blocks lie all around,
which might indicate a lack
of building skill on the part
of the military but
certainly do show the plight
of the Army, which had to
rely on tents in a variable
climate.
26
25
27
28
Announa, 27. top and 28. middle, its triumphal arch shown in a print by Ravoisi of 1846 and a
photo of 1901, showing the continuing dismantling of the structure. 29. bottom: at Cherchel, also
1846, and with the new town in the distance, men are digging perhaps for antique blocks, because
the brick-and-concrete vaults of the structure above them have already been stripped of anything
useful, such as marble veneer.
29
30
Tebessa. 30. top and 31. centre:

The triumphal arch, forming
part of the Byzantine walls, and
seen from the exterior (top) and
interior (middle): note the
crenellated towers punctuating
the walls. 32. bottom: the
town-plan of 1898 shows the
Byzantine fortress diagonally
centre, the Zaouia to its south
(where some of the materials of
the Roman town were reused),
and the basilica to the northeast, just past the railway
station. A section of the Roman
ramparts is on a line east of the
Zaouia, indicating the larger
settlement plundered by
Solomon for building his walls.
The small photos and drawings
on this and other pages show
how finds were publicised, the
archaeologists carrying small
cameras around, and therefore
producing only small prints,
some used in books and scholarly
papers, others (like 30 & 31) for
the newly popular craze of
postcards a sure sign of the
opining of the area to tourists.
31
32
33
35
37
36
34
Tebessa. 33. top left: The interior of

the walls with arcades blocked up by
column-stumps, perhaps from the
theatre. 34. bottom is the Temple of
Minerva, which had various uses
until its restoration. top right and the
two centre images are from Heron de
Villefosse 1880 account of Tebessa in
Le Tour du Monde: this popular
periodical was well illustrated, with
plates often made indirectly from
photographs, producing a low quality
reproduction. 35. top right: an
ancient aqueduct in Arab gardens;
36. middle left: a sarcophagus from
the Basilica; 37. middle right: Arab
gardener in charge of water supply
proof positive that the locals had such
supply under control, sometimes with
refurbished ancient aqueducts.
38
38. Timgad: the Byzantine fortress photographed in 1901, and 39. an 1893-94 plan of the city, with the same
fortress well outside the main ruins to the right.
39
40
40. top: Kairouan, prayer-hall of Sidi Okba Mosque: note the ancient capitals reused as capitals and as bases.
Some of these may have come from as far away as Carthage. 41. below, Tunis, the el-Zitouna Mosque, with
reused column sets, some perhaps also taken from nearby Carthage. This mosque, founded 732, rivals that of
Kairouan. Old Tunis retains a mediaeval layout thankfully untouched by the French, for it was already well
defended by strong walls, and the French built a European suburb.
41
44
43
42
Carthage, on the sea near Tunis,

was fed by an impressive aqueduct
(42. bottom, in a view of 1851). Its ruins
continued to produce antiquities, and
the Muse Lavigerie (43. centre) was
founded here in 1875. But the ruins
would never be safe, for the area, such
as the ancient cothon, with shipsheds
and circular pool (44. top) was ideal
for seaside villas, the building of which
from the early 20th century destroyed
many of Carthages outskirts, and
reused some of its remaining materials.
45
The many cartoons of Cham (181879) included some sharp comments on Frances engagement in Algeria.
45. top left, 1857, soldier to Kabyle: France wants to associate you with her glorious works so off you go, son
and find some mortar!. Top right, 1857: Certain signs by which the Kabyles can recognise that good weather
has returned (i.e. the French come out of their fortresses and fire at them). 46. bottom left, 1858,: My dear
Kabyle, you want to make powder speak but just take a look at our orators!. Bottom right, 1858: Grab hold
son, these are the tools for road work in Kabylia: you clear away with this one, then continue with the other its
no more complicated than that!
46
47
Lambessa. 47. top, an aerial view showing the prison, and how much other space was available for a less
vandalic siting. 48. bottom left: a plan of this large site, showing how the prison marches over the Roman
camp. 49 & 50. bottom right: two views of an Arab house at Lambessa, in which antiquities are preserved
rather than destroyed by being recut, as was the case with the prison. Were there once more houses like this
in Algeria and Tunisia?
49
48
50
51
52
53
51. top left: Chasseurs dAfrique

bringing civilisation to the locals, in a
print of 1891. 52. top right: Abd-ElKader in later years, first imprisoned
and then pensioned off by the French.
53 & 54 centre and bottom:
the March on Constantine,
20 November 1836; and the Retreat
from Constantine, both illustrated
by Raffet, and showing conditions
far from Napoleonic glory. Going,
the troops march into a snowstorm,
which is too much for horses and
men; returning, the sluggish carloads
of wounded, struggling over tracks
not paved roads, are harried by the
Arabs. But Raffet was never in
Algeria; as his biographer Armand
Dayot writes, Raffet nassista pas au
sige de Constantine, cest par la
lecture des bulletins militaires, et
surtout par des renseignements
que lui fournissaient des officiers
de ses amis attachs au corps
expditionnaire quil connut
les divers pisodes traits si
magistralement, dans cet album de
12 planches, qui compte parmi ses
uvres les plus remarquables. So
much for the Napoleonic invention of
accurate battle representation!
54
55
55. top: Maatria, temple on the capitol, photographed by Cagnat in 1898: a good example of the quality
material available, surviving here because of its distance from new settlements. For the current state of the
site see http://www.docartis.com/Sem%20Tunisia/A00068_Henchir%20Maatria.htm
56. bottom: a colony in the Mornag plain near Tunis, seen in 1907, with the railway running down the main
street.
56
59
57
60
57 & 58. left top and bottom: bronze
cannon, both cast at Algiers in 1581, and
taken by the French as prizes in 1830, now in
the Muse de la Guerre, Paris. The lower left
one fired an 11kg ball, probably carved from
granite and marble column shafts. Cannon
also formed part of Algerias horizons in
Chams two 1863 cartoons here. 59. top right:
Model farm for use in the Province of
Constantine a blockhouse, with a mortar
pulled by a sheep. 60. below: Plough for use
by Algerian colonists with a cannon on a
limber behind, Arabs in the background.
58
61
Guns were de rigeur in Algeria, as Chams cartoons demonstrate. Railways, a sure sign of progress, were the
easiest way for the natives to take pot-shots at the French without getting any accurate fire in return and
of course to emigrate to France to colonise the Landes. 61. top left, 1858: The railway administration begs
the passengers not to put their head out of the window. top right, soldier to Arab: I say, give me your gun
and Ill send it to the country, so they can start a railway [using the gun as a rail]. 62. bottom left, 1857:
Arab missing the train with his carbine. 63. bottom right, 1863: Reaction to the departure of French
colonists back to France: the Bedouin sign up to come and colonise the Landes and the Sologne.
63
62
64
64. top left: the heavily sanitised

basilica site at Tebessa, filled with
Arab housing when the French
arrived. 65. centre: Sousse
(Hadrumetum) seen in a plan of
1888. The area to the north of the
Arab town, nestling in one corner of
earlier walls, was still occupied in
1911 by the French military camp;
and here several finds of antiquities
(including mosaics) were made.
66. bottom: road-building in
Algeria was a continuing problem,
as these cartoons by Cham of c.1860
demonstrate. Left, soldier at the
precipice: Say, corporal, I cant
advance any further: must I
continue the road? I have no
orders so continue advancing.
right, officer to a zouave climbing
the rocks, and pointing to the road
Hey, zouave, here is a road to go
right through Kabylia. Sir,
walking along roads annoys me,
and Im used to places without
roads suits me better.
65
66
67
How did Dugga preserve so many of its Roman structures, such as the
capitol temple, 67. top left? Partly because some were built into the
Byzantine fort (69. centre right). Others were rearranged into Arab
housing, 70. bottom right. The Neo-Punic cippus, 68. top right, was
photographed in 1892 in the house of Salah Ben Lecheb. Dugga was
also the site of an important mausoleum, 71. bottom left, drawn in its
1893 state, and reconstructed: the French took delight in reminding
their readers that the structure had been much ruined by an
Englishman using incompetent workmen, who extracted the
important bilingual inscription for the British Museum.
69
71
70
68
72
72. top: Zaghouan, the source

for the Carthage aqueduct, in
the early 1850s., showing how
elaborate Roman fountains
could be. 73. centre and
74. bottom, by Ravoisi, 1846:
Constantine and Cherchell .
The plan of Constantine
shows how the Arab streets
overlay the Roman
monuments, which were in
part discovered during
French clearances, although
simply drawn rather than
recovered. Cherchell was a
defended Arab town, and
the Roman monuments
(amphitheatre, baths, etc.)
were soon to disappear
completely.
73
74
75. top left, Cham cartoon:

Essential clothing at the
Hamman Mescoutine Baths.
These were converted ancient
baths of which the French had
high hopes for tourist
development; but bathing in 1863
required having a gun to hand.
76. centre: the Roman baths
themselves, with adjacent
Byzantine fort. 77. bottom:
Ravoisis 1846 plan of Guelma,
where the French were much
safer than at Roman thermal
springs and cultivated gardens
outside the walls, probably as a
main source of fresh vegetables.
75
76
77
78
80
79
Roman farms were scattered in great profusion
around the countryside of Algeria. top 78. left
and 79. right: Roman oil press, and Roman
farm, photographed in 1900. 80. centre: Arab
well, using animals for the work, photographed
in 1897. 81. bottom: reconstruction of an
ancient oil press (there were hundreds to be
seen), of 1881. Many farms both Arab and
(later) European were set up directly on Roman
ruins, for there water was sure to be available.
81
82
Byzantine fortifications in
North Africa often made use
of previous structures,
sometimes encasing and
thereby somewhat protecting
them. This was the case with
the capitol temples at Sbeitla
(82. top left), photographed
in 1911, and the triumphal
arch at Haidra (83. centre),
in a photo of 1909, with
Saladins enthusiastic
reconstruction of the site
84. bottom left, from the
popular periodical Tour du
Monde. In many cases, of
course, Roman buildings
were dismantled to make
forts, as at Ain Tounga,
85. bottom right.
83
84
85
86
The monuments of North Africa were often

mangled by later reuse. The quadrifrons
triumphal arch at Tripoli (86. top left) had
various lives, including as a coffee-house;
but it survives to this day. The Gafsa mosque,
87. centre, certainly uses antique columns
and capitals but, as in many such structures,
these have been whitewashed over. This was
a practice particularly annoying to
epigraphers straining to read ancient
messages, but gratifying in that many
decorated and even figured antiquities were
not destroyed, but simply covered. The great
amphitheatre at El Djem (88. bottom) was
used as a fortress and then part-dismantled
for Arab housing. But the sheer size of some
Roman blocks (89. below: a fantasy of 1844
showing the cross triumphing over pagan
ruins) explains why they survive: too big to
move, too complicated to cut down for reuse.
87
89
88
90
91
92
90. top left: Medea in 1840, in a

publication of 1891 the romanticised
form in which much of North Africa was
delivered to the reading and browsing
public. 91. centre: Delamares wide view
of Stif in the early 1840s. 92. bottom: the
French garrison at the centre of Stifs
sets of ancient walls, as seen in Ravoisis
1846 plan. The French are sheltering
behind and within various ancient walls
and other ruins, which fall before their
continuing thirst for building materials.
The survival of antiquities in or near French settlements

depended on civic or private initiative just as did their
destruction. 93. top left: the fountain in the square at
Cherchell, made of Roman ruins; photo of 1911. 94. centre:
initiative taken by an inhabitant of Tipaza to form a small
museum, in the Parc Trmaux, and made into a postcard.
95. bottom: Constantine also collected some antiquities into
a park at the Square de la Brche, seen here in a postcard of
1895 but we can only be dismayed at the number and
quality of fragments preserved from what was once a rich
Roman site.
93
94
95
96
97
French army officers and archaeologists recording the antiquities of North Africa came across myriad groups
of ruins, known to the locals as henchirs, and so common that they were often abbreviated to H in reports.
Henchir Khima, 96. top left, near to Feriana, seen in an 1898 photo, was all that remained of a town. Like
many, this H had the remains of tombs, interesting inscriptions, and a cemetery. Le Kef, 98. bottom, had a
relatively strong fortress and a complex of later walls also made from earlier blocks. The Roman fountain,
97. top right, with its large antique blocks, was still working when Cagnat photographed it in 1882.
98
99
100
101
99. top left: the Byzantine fort of Ksar Bagai, plan of

1873, with a mosque reusing ancient columns inside.
100. top right and 101. centre: Byzantine fort of Tobna,
with reused inscriptions (occasionally inverted), and
room inside for a mosque and a palace. 102. bottom:
Guelma in 1846: large blocks lie on the ground, and the
standing structures are of covered concrete core not
yet worth the labour or danger of demolishing.
102
103
103. top: Constantine, in a plan of 1837,
just after the town was taken, showing
a completely Arab layout, with few
traces above ground of the towns
Roman origins. These will be
discovered as the French demolish and
remodel. 104. bottom: Delamares
184045 view outside the walls shows
the still-surviving Roman setting, with
altars and tombs scattered around.
105. centre: Orlansville, in a plan of
1844. The French streets march over the
landscape without regard either for
any Roman ruins, or indeed for the lie
of the land. Constantine was to be
Frenchified in similar fashion, with
broad, straight avenues.
104
105
appendix
[ ]
1 St_Marie_1846_261: The Marshal [Bugeaud] fully understands the secret object of the
French Government. It is found desirable to retain this colony, however burthensome, because
it is a ready outlet for troublesome and dangerous men in France, who find in it a field for their
energies, and most frequently a premature grave. It is, moreover, an object for the frequent
occupation of public attention, and a constant topic for the journlists. Finally, Africa affords a
manoeuvring field for an army of 100,000 men, part of which must be recruited every year; and
to such an extent has been the mortality, that with the exception of some regiments of heavy
cavalry, every corps in the French service has been decimated in Africa.
[ ]
2 Nettement_1858_415416 Villemain relaying the words of Chateaubriand: La prise dAlger,
conue et excute avec tant de prestesse guerrire, tant dnergie prudente dans les chefs, tant
dardeur dans les troupes, la prise dAlger, apportant au trsor franais plus que lindemnit
de tous les frais de guerre, marquait, en mme temps, une poque nouvelle et trop longtemps
diffre dans la politique europenne. Elle supprimait cette honte et ce dommage qui, durant
des sicles polis, laissaient subsister, trois journes des ports de France et dItalie, la piraterie, la barbarie froce et lesclavage. Elle renouvelait, pour la cte septentrionale de lAfrique,
cette colonisation civile et chrtienne qui, de la fin du premier sicle au commencement du cinquime, avait donn de si grands hommes lempire et lglise, un Septime Svre, un Cyprien,
un Augustin. Elle rendait au gnie et aux arts de lEurope une terre si fconde et si voisine, o
stait appuye la dcadence de Rome, et o la France, aprs tant de pertes, allait retrouver une
cole intrieure de guerre et une source de puissance.
[ ]
3 Duval_1865_59 Esquisse de la conqute: 1 Occupation du littoral 18301837; 2
Occupation de lintrieur du Tell 18391843; 3 Occupation de la ligne frontire du Tell et du
Sahara 18431845. 4 Occupation de la frontire marocaine 18441847; 5 Occupation de la frontire tunisienne 18461852; 6 Occupation des hauts plateaux et des oasis sahariennes 1852
1857; 7 Occupation de la Kabylie 18421857; 8 Domination de la limite saharienne.
[ ]
4 Mathieu_de_Dombasle_1838_16: Je nai rien dit encore de lobstacle le plus grave que
rencontrerait la France dans lexcution de ses projets de colonisation: cest la population qui
occupait ce pays avant notre arrive, et qui croyait bien le possder aussi lgitimement que nous
possdons le territoire franais. Pour la question de droit et dquit, on ne parait pas sen occuper; cest le droit de la guerre, cest--dire le droit que peut se donner lui-mme celui qui a des
canons et des bayonnettes, contre toute population dont il convoite le territoire.
[ ]
5 Gsell_1903_134: Les remparts de Stif, de Guelma, de Timgad, de Tbessa, de Ksar-Sbhi,
de Madaure et de bien dautres lieux attestent lactivit prodigieuse de leunuque Solomon, qui
fit excuter tous ces travaux au nom de Justinien. La ville arabe de Mila sabrite encore derrire
une enceinte btie par les Grecs; les citadelles franaises de Guelma et de Stif sont danciennes
citadelles byzantines, rpares et remanies; pour mettre Tbessa en tat de dfense, nos ingnieurs militaires nont eu qu restaurer les murs de Solomon.
[ ]
6 Wilkin_1900_34: The nomad Arab is the curse of the country. Indolent, vicious, and
unprogressive, he will burn a mile of forest to provide a few acres of bad pasturage for his flocks;
and as Sir Lambert Playfair, who knew Algeria better than any modern Englishman, remarked,
will, when he attempts agriculture, plough round a thistle rather than root it up. With the destruction of the forests the rainfall is cither absent or, if present, immediately thrown off the
barren hills into the shotts the great salt pans of the interior, bearing with it millions of cubic
feet of invaluable alluvium. Planting is the great need of these districts woods, forests
anything that will give shade and hold moisture...[as for trees]. All these are native to the
full endnote texts setting the scene: algeria in context

country and would thrive; slowly and surely if only the destructive Arab and his locust swarms
of goats could be relegated to their natural habitat the Sahara.
[ ]
7 Dailheu_1901_8: comme nous lavons dj indiqu, les incertitudes furent trs nombreuses, trop nombreuses. LAlgrie a subi le dfaut desprit de suite qui est inhrent au caractre
franais quand il organise, mais qui, pour lAlgrie en particulier, est principalement d aux fluctuations irraisonnes de lopinion publique. Bien des rformes nont t opres que sous cette
pression: cest ainsi quen 1840 on rclama lassimilation, qui fut accorde en 1848; cest ainsi
encore quen 1850 on proposa un ministre spcial, qui fut cr en 1858; cest ainsi enfin quen
1860 on demanda un gouvernement civil quon tablit la chute de lempire. Le vritable flau
de lAlgrie, cest la politique. Situe quelques heures de Marseille, en rapports constants, journaliers avec la mre-patrie, elle a subi le contre-coup direct de tous les mouvements et de toutes
les agitations prouvs par celle-ci, si bien que lon a vu souvent linfluence gouvernementale se
dplacer dAlger Paris et de Paris Alger selon que les ides politiques gnrales prouvaient
des oscillations que ne rglaient pas toujours les intrts de lAlgrie mme. Doit-on stonner,
ds lors, que la question algrienne ait t depuis longtemps et trop facilement rsolue pour
tout le monde et par tout le monde?
[ ]
8 Lunel_1869_2425 on la question algrienne: Le Berbre est actif, laborieux, courageux,
intelligent et probe; il est religieux mais sans excs, tandis que lArabe est paresseux, fourbe,
pillard et fanatique; si ce dernier montre une grande bravoure dans les combats, cest moins
par esprit chevaleresque, ainsi quil se plat a le dire, que par vanit, et pour que ses exploits
soient chants par les mnestrels de la tribu; cest surtout enfin dans lespoir de dpouiller le
vaincu...De terribles calamits, telles que de frquentes apparitions de cholra, des inondations, des nues de sauterelles, enfin des disettes, ont dvast ce malheureux pays. LArabe na
su rien prvoir, rien viter, rien reparer; il sest couch, a prie et a succomb. / Le Berbre, au
contraire, a su parer plusieurs de ces flaux, et par son nergie et. son travail il sertira encore
victorieux de ces luttes inattendues auxquelles ladversit pourrait encore le soumettre. Il en
rsulte alors que, quand le mal de celui-ci sera rpar, le mal de lArabe ne fera quaccrotre, si la
France ne vient pas perptuellement son secours.
[ ]
9 Cagnat_1901_7778 relaying a 1694 account of Leptis Magna, on the Magazin des Marbres
in Paris: Le nom seul de ce magasin en indique la nature. Cest l que le roi faisait runir les
marbres ncessaires ses constructions et aux oeuvres dart dont il ordonnait lexcution. Il en
est question dans des lettres ou des documents du temps. Ainsi, Chantelou, crivant Colbert
en 1665, lui raconte quil a men le Bernin pour choisir un bloc de marbre, dont le sculpteur
devait faire un buste, dans les diffrents dpts de marbres de Paris Et sommes alls ensemble
chercher parmi les marbres qui sont devant les Tuilleries. / Ce document et dautres analogues
nous font prvoir le sort qui fut rserv aux colonnes de Lebda. Des recherches que M. Michon
a bien voulu faire mon intention dans les archives du Louvre et des renseignements que M.de
Nolhac a eu lamabilit de me donner, il rsulte, en effet, quelles ne furent ni portes au Louvre
ni employes dans les constructions de Versailles, acheves en 1694. Il est plus que probable
quelles furent dbites en dtail pour les statuaires. Ce ne furent pas dailleurs les dernires
quon emprunta aux ruines de Leptis. Barth raconte que, postrieurement, trente-sept colonnes,
dun seul morceau de marbre prcieux, furent dbarques en Angleterre et que, en 1720, la suite
dune convention spciale, le roi en fit prendre un nouveau chargement, un plein chargement,
lequel fut apport Paris pour lembellissement de Saint-Germain-des-Prs, ce qui nempche
appendix
pas, ajoute-t-il, quon en ait enlev dautres par units. Ce pillage des ruines de la cte dAfrique,
officiel ou officieux, est des plus instructifs. Comment stonner aprs cela que les restes de
Carthage aient presque compltement disparu! Etiam periere ruinae!
[ ]
10 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris V 1826, 1826 for Algiers and Tunis: a long list of geographical and
anthropological questions to be answered by travelers an index of how little known was the
region before 1830. The Society prints long lists of Questions proposs aux voyageurs et toutes
les personnes qui sintressent au progrs de la gographie Persia, Armenia, Poland, Texas,
Brazil, Tripolitania. They also include questions for France, in this case Basse-Bretagne.
[ ]
11 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris IX 1828, 297: Carte compare des rgences dAlger et de Tunis, dresse
par le chevalier Lapie, premier gographe du Roi. Paris, 1828. Piquet. Sur cette carte en deux
feuilles, les noms anciens ont t revus par M. Hase, membre de lInstitut, et les noms arabes,
par M. Amdie Jaubert, professeur de langue turque lcole royale et spciale des langues orientales. Un plan de la ville et des environs dAlger, qui se trouve comme accessoire sur lune des
feuilles de cette belle carte, ajoute encore son utilit.
[ ]
12 Masson, Paul, Histoire des tablissements et du commerce franais dans lAfrique barbaresque (15601793) (Algrie, Tunisie, Tripolitaine, Maroc), Paris 1903, 538539 for the Compagnie
dAfrique: Voici, par exemple, la liste des commissions donnes par divers particuliers lagent
de Bne, le 10 dcembre 1780: / Pour le bey: 1 pistolet mont en or, 1 en argent, 400 canons de
fusil, 800 rottes poivre, 25 de cannelle, 15 giroffl es, 5.000 rottes fer plat, 54 rames de papier,
400 picks damas ordinaire, rouge, vert, bleu, violet, 50 pices londrin carlate, 50 pices londrin
second, bleu, violet, marron, vert, violet. Pour Aggi Bram bacha, fils de lancien bey; 2.000 briques
vernisses, peintes fleurs, 200 carreaux de marbre. / Pour Sidi Krelitneguet, Constantine: 100
carreaux de marbre. Pour Assembacha: 1 paire pistolets monts en or (le canon comme ceux
reus en dernier lieu, valeur 450 liv.), 5.000 briques peintes et vernisses, 200 carreaux marbre,
2 alambics de verre pour faire de lessence de rose, 4 globes ou verrines des plus belles en verre
blanc. / Pour Sidi Achmet Barradia, mufti Bonne: 2 douzaines mouchoirs de soie, couleurs
vives, 100 planches bois du Nord, 10 picks drap bleu de roi, 1 miroir, 12 quinteaux fer, 1 petit
trbuchet et ses poids pour peser les monnaies trangres, 1 petite balance, 2 caisses sirop de
capillaire, 1 rame papier, 7 picks drap rouge. / Pour Sidi Aggi Messaoud de Raggi, mercanti du
bey: 2 douzaines mouchoirs de soie, couleurs vives, 4 caisses sirop de capillaire, 1 zinzellire
de gaze pour un lit 2 places, 3 paires lunettes des meilleures, 4 boites th vert du meilleur,
200 briques vernisses et peintes. / Pour Mohamet ben Couscali, grand crivain du bey: 450
carreaux de marbre, 15 grandes pierres dardoise. / Pour Mustapha ben Osman, de Constantine:
12 creusets de grs, propres fondre les matires dorfvrerie. / Pour Sidi Aggi Comar Chincheri,
cad de Bonne: 2 fauteuils de velours cramoisi, 6 chaises de paille, 1 lit 2 places peint et dor
la mode de Gennes, mais sans figure, 1 zinzelire de maugarbine pour ledit lit, 1 montre
sonnerie rptition en argent, 3 miroirs cadre dor, 4 caisses sirop de capillaire, 2 douzaines
mouchoirs de soie, 37 packs de drap, 2 pices toile de Hollande fine. / Pour laga des Deyres:
1 douzaine mouchoirs de soie. Pour Osman, tabarquin, votre drogman: 3 miroirs couronnement. Ce document est curieux; il montre quels taient les gots de laristocratie de Bne et de
Constantine: les armes, les draps et toffes de luxe, les miroirs taient particulirement priss;
les commandes considrables de briques vernisses et de carreaux de marbre montrent quelle
tait la dcadence de lindustrie des indignes, obligs de recourir aux trangers pour des matriaux de construction, spciaux leur architecture.

[ ]
13 Bir_1901_444: cette expdition (Algrie) mme ntait quune partie dun large plan
national qui et remani la carte de lEurope et rtabli notre prpondrance. Cest au nom du
progrs, au nom de la bourgeoisie industrielle et commerante, effraye de je ne sais quels fantmes dancien rgime, quon a renvers la monarchie, et il se trouve que la conqute dAlger,
hritage de cette monarchie proscrite, cre au commerce et lindustrie de nouveaux dbouchs, vivifie le littoral de la Mditerrane et ouvre un nouveau champ, un champ magnifique,
la civilisation et au progrs.
[ ]
14 Pananti_1818_413414 If the proposed colonization of Africa is gratifying to the philosopher, man of science, and merchant, it is no less attractive to the enterprizing soldier; who,
in contributing to the grand work of bringing this boundless region into the European family,
would have the consolation to reflect, that no country in the world is more likely to reward
his labours with future wealth and independence. Not to mention the amazing quantity of the
precious metals collected yearly in Africa, the cities on the sea-coast are all extremely rich; and
when I add, that two-thirds of the whole have been plundered from inoffensive Christians, will
any one deem me unprincipled for sincerely wishing to see the plundered property restored
to the rightful owners? Yes, it is no trifling source of satisfaction to reflect, that unlike most
modern expeditions which have, from the enormous expence attending them, almost ruined
some countries, those sent to the coast of northern Africa, will not only be paid for by the
treasures which abound there; but every individual concerned may safely calculate on being
enriched for the remainder of his life.
[ ]
15 Baudicour_1853_49: Au sud-est de Guelma, sur les frontires de Tunis, se trouve Tebessa,
autre cit des Romains. Ses habitants nont aucun lien avec les Arabes des campagnes environnantes; il semble quils soient une postrit des anciens matres du monde. A notre arrive, les
monnaies romaines y avaient encore cours.
[ ]
16 Tumiati_1905_219: Larabo che vive giorno per giorno, nellattesa del fatale svolgersi delle
cose, ignorer sempre a quale sorgente attingesse il genio di Roma. Creare per leternit questa
formula profondamente romana, non avr mai significato per la razza araba. Essa prende ci che
trova sulla sua strada, senza pensare se lasci dietro a s la morte o la vita: spoglia dalle piante la
terra per imbastirne edifici che il vento cancella, o per alimentarne la fiammata di un giorno;
alleva il gregge, perch le dia lindispensabile allesistenza, col minimo dispendio di fatica; se ha
sete, cerca i pozzi gi creati da Roma; e se vuol fabbricare templi o palagi, rapisce le colonne e
le pietre agli avanzi romani. / E Roma abbevera il beduino errante del deserto; Roma gli dona
le pietre per macinare il grano o macerare le olive; Roma, le centinaia di colonne alle moschee;
Roma i marmi preziosi alle reggie dei Bey. E lArabo di ricambio, non sa che mutilare le statue
degli Dei che incontra sul suo cammino, spezzandone il volto e le mani, percosso da un senso
di paura; non sa che logorare con le sue corde rugose, le labbra dei pozzi, che si aprono con un
sorriso di sfida e di vittoria, l dove passarono le legioni.
[ ]
17 Monuments_Historiques_1844_30: Aprs avoir constat les travaux sagement excuts,
cest pour nous un devoir pnible de faire connatre les rparations de mauvais got et les destructions qui nous ont affligs rcemment. / Lenceinte gallo-romaine de Beauvais qui donnait
cette ville un caractre antique et glorieux disparat chaque jour sous la pioche de louvrier,
malgr les ardentes rclamations des archologues. / Nous devons aussi protester contre lemploi de lasphalte pour le pavage des monuments religieux ou an moins des plates-formes qui
couronnent les chapelles et les collatraux; nous blmons lusage des diffrents ciments colors
appendix
ainsi que des mastics dinvention moderne: nous regrettons vivement de ntre pas de lavis de
M. Rame sur ce point et davoir blmer lemploi quil a fait de lasphalte dans les cathdrales de
Senlis et de Noyon. Ibid., as a supplement, separately paginated: Rponse quelques demandes
adresses au Directeur de la Socite Franaise, 7: Nous avons aussi nous lever contre la destruction des pavs anciens des glises: on fait disparatre chaque jour des pierres tombales
effigies graves au trait, au lieu de les laisser au milieu des pavs nouveaux: cest un trs-grand
mal; et quand on vient nous demander dapprouver les pavs carrs noirs et blancs pour les
glises, nous nous rcrions contre les partisans de ce systme qui dtermine lanantissement
des pavages anciens et la violation des tombes les plus curieuses et les plus respectables. Il faut,
quand il y a ncessit de repaver les glises, soigneusement mnageries pierres tombales et remplacer les pierres uses par des pierres de mme nature et de mme dimension.
[ ]
18 Giraud, Hippolyte, De Marseille Constantinople. Notes dalbum, in Socit de
Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XI, 1891, Oran 1891, 179204. See 200, walls of
Constantinople: Ces murailles de Justinien et dHeraclius sont des carrires inpuisables de
marbre. Quelques artistes ont tabli des ateliers de marbrerie dans les environs. On agrandit la
brche de Mahomet II, et les blocs byzantins sont transforms en pierres dvier. / Les murailles
fournissent aussi des cippes aux cimetires.
[ ]
19 Wagner_1841_I_296297 vandalism: Es ist gewissermassen ein Ammenmord, einen
blhenden Fruchtbaum niederzusbeln, der in seinen Eingeweiden fr den dummen Zerstrer
selbst so viele knftige Nahrung trgt. Aber es ist ein teuflischer Krieg gegen Lebende und
Todte, ein Verhhnen des Ahnenstaubes, des Ruhmes, der Geschichte, der Wissenschaft, wenn
man die Tempelsulen umstrzt, weil sie dem Weinkeller im Wege standen, wenn man Altre
zusammenbricht, weil sie die besten Bausteine liefern, und ihre Inschriften mit dem Meissel
abhmmert, weil glatte Steine zum Pflaster sich besser fgen, wenn man diese Geschichtstafeln,
diese einzigen Urkunden, die noch heute erzhlen, was Calama gewesen, wer diesen Marmor
und Granit zum Tempel aufgerichtet, wer herrschte ber diese einst blhende Gegend, wenn
man diese beredten Zeugen einer gewaltigen Vergangenheit mit ein paar rohen Hammerhieben
wieder zu stummen Steinblcken schlgt o der Schmach und des Krmergeistes! Warum
scheucht die Hyne, die alte Ruinenwchterin, die fremden Eindringlinge nicht von ihrer
wrdigern Residenz? Warum erbebt der alte Berg nicht zum zweitenmale, um die Schnder
der Monumentskelete mit dem letzten Gemuersturz zu zerschmettern? Hat dieses Gebirge
durch seine Katastrophe die Calamenser einst vor dem Barbarenjoch bewahrt, warum erdonnert es jetzt nicht, ihre freien Grber zu retten? Der Vandalenvergleich ist eigentlich fr die
zerstrenden Soldaten und Kneipenwirthe Frankreichs nicht einmal passend. Genserich selbst
wrde in seinem Sarge sich umkehren, hrte er seine grimmigen Barbarenhorden, welche die
Kunstwerke Roms zertrmmerten, weil sie durch ihren Contact eine Verweichlichung ihrer
Kriegerkraft, eine Gefahr fr ihre Freiheit besorgten, den heutigen Eroberern Numidiens an die
Seite stellen, welche nur zerstren aus kleinkrmerischem Eigennutz, die mit eben so wenig
Skrupel aus beschriebenen Denksteinen Pferdestlle bauen und an der korinthischen Sule ihre
Marketenderschilde aushngen. Edler noch dnkt mir der Fanatismus des Vandalen fr seine
krftige Barbarei, des Sarazenen religise Wuth gegen die Tempel Andersglubiger, als diese
Verheerung von Alterthmern zu einem schbigen, selbstschtigen Gebrauch.
[ ]
20 Monuments_Historiques_1843_289290: M. de Caumont, aprs avoir pos en principe
que le but principal des sances de la Socit de Vannes doit tre de prendre des mesures pour la

conservation des monuments de cette contre, rend compte dune excursion quil a faite la veille
Carnac et Locmariaker; il a vu que les monuments de Carnac sont toujours exposs la destruction, que le terrain sur lequel ils se trouvent nest point proprit publique, mais appartient
des particuliers; il stonne que le gouvernement ou le dpartement naient pas encore achet le
sol qui porte des monuments si prcieux: il croit aussi quil faudrait le plus tt possible prposer
un ou deux gardes-champtres la garde de toutes ces pierres, dont quelques-unes ont t tout
rcemment employes dans des constructions.
[ ]
21 Monuments_Historiques_1848_5051 at Sens: des fragments de murailles antiques trouvs fleur de terre, dans la plaine qui environne le massif de fondations connu sous le nom de la
Motte-du-Ciar, fragments dont la dmolition sachevait rapidement...La ville de Sens, en effet,
qui est propritaire du massif de la Motte-du-Ciar, a cd un particulier, moyennant une redevance, le droit den extraire les pierres; et lpoque o nous commencions notre exploration, le
cessionnaire, dans lespoir que le chemin de fer emploierait les matriaux, redoublait dactivit
dans sa dmolition.
[ ]
22 Monuments_Historiques_1854_299300: En quelques annes Troyes a perdu les deux
tiers de ses richesses monumentales et presque tous les trsors artistiques. / Quatre glises
paroissiales, une glise collgiale, six glises conventuelles, dix chapelles, le palais de ses vieux
comtes et les trsors non-seulement de ces glises dtruites, mais encore de celles qui ont survcu cet pouvantable cataclysme, voil, Messieurs, les dommages cruels que tous nos regrets
ne parviendront pas rparer.
[ ]
23 Monuments_Historiques_1851_113 Cluny and the Revolution: Mais cette poque de
triste mmoire, on ne pensait qu dtruire, le gnie du mal planait sur la France consterne
et sentourait partout de dcombres et de ruines. On voulait surtout faire disparatre les chefsduvre que lart chrtien du moyen-ge avait crs avec tant de magnificence et de recherche.
La basilique de Cluny, qui tait la plus vaste du monde, avant la construction de St. Pierre de
Rome, devait surtout servir de pture aux vandales du temps. Sa destruction fut dcide, une
vente la livra la vile spculation de la bande noire; et cet admirable monument du XIe sicle,
que vingt-cinq ans avaient suffi peine lever est tomb en peu dannes sous le marteau des
barbares.
[ ]
24 Bulletin de correspondance africaine IV 1885, 375, relaying the Journal Asiatique July
1885: Nous y relevons, entre autres choses, ce cri dalarme, cho des voeux de lAcadmie des
Inscriptions: Les ruines vont vite en Tunisie, comme dans toute lAfrique du Nord. Des voix
autorises se sont dj leves, mais en vain, contre le vandalisme des ingnieurs et aussi contre
lanarchie de la recherche archologique, qui, si lon ny prend garde, fera bien vite pour la disparition du pass autant quont fait des sicles de barbarie.
[ ]
25 Thierry-Mieg_1861_149 at Constantine: Larchologie a trouv en Afrique un champ
dune richesse inpuisable tous les jours on y dcouvre des matriaux plus nombreux. Le vandalisme europen, cent fois plus terrible que le vandalisme des Vandales, na pu faire disparatre
encore les nombreux vestiges de la domination romaine. Les monuments abandonns lair ou
enfouis sous le sol ont t plus quailleurs respects par lhomme.
[ ]
26 Morell_1854_239 Guelma: As the traveller slowly wends his way up the winding road
to this French post, and beholds strewn around him vast blocks of fine stone, skilfully squared
by the Roman chisel, mingled with fragments of marble columns, he can but meditate on the
instability of human power, and how the might of nations is entombed by time.
appendix
[ ]
27 Mathieu_de_Dombasle_1838_4: LAngleterre a fait dimmenses sacrifices pour conqurir
et pour tendre ses possessions dans lInde...Mais, voyez comme le thtre tait habilement
choisi: une civiisation toute faite, une industrie fort avance sous beaucoup de rapports, une
production immense dobjets qui formaient la matire du plus riche commerce; voil ce que
lAngleterre trouvait tout tabli dans les Indes orientales.
[ ]
28 Herbert_1881_157: Jallais oublier une des causes les plus srieuses de linsuccs des
colons franais: je veux parler des incendies. Il arrive trop frquemment que, lorsque les rcoltes
ont atteint leur parfaite maturit, les Arabes viennent en cachette y mettre le feu, et dtruisent
ainsi en une seule nuit toutes les esprances de lagriculteur. On nous montra aux environs de
Marengo toute une tendue de pays bois, noirci par le feu et compltement perdu. En vrit, il
y a l de quoi dcourager le colon le plus entreprenant.
[ ]
29 Schulten_19001901_456 writing on Roman Africa: Densit de la population. Quantit
des ruines. LAfrique romaine, compare non seulement avec son tat actuel, mais encore avec
les pays civiliss modernes, prsentait une population trs dense. Dans une valle latrale de la
Medjerda, sur une zone denviron 55 kilomtres carrs (55,000 hectares) on trouve un groupe
de dix villes, dont la distance de lune lautre slve peine quelques kilomtres. Une personne qui connat fond le pays estime quen cette rgion les centres importants seraient aussi
rapprochs entre eux que les villages des environs de Paris. Plus au sud, sur les plateaux qui
forment transition entre le massif montagneux au sud de la Medjerda et les steppes, et qui vont
se terminer au sud dans le pays des lacs sals et au sud-est la mer, les villes se trouvent encore
si denses, une distance de 30 40 kilomtres, quon peut aisment, en une journe de route,
arriver de lune lautre. Tout au dessous, dans la rgion des steppes proprement dites, les distances sont sensiblement plus grandes: cette rgion ntait pas une contre municipale, mais
bien seigneuriale. Entre les rares villes de cette rgion se trouve une quantit dtablissements
plus petits, des fermes et des villages; sur une route de 34 kilomtres, on a trouv trente-deux
tablissements de ce genre.
[ ]
30 Bouville_1850_45: LArabe qui erre sous le soleil avec son btail, et qui par consquent
ne rserve pas dengrais pour rgnrer la puissance du sol, sapproprie une tendue de terrains
15 ou 20 fois plus grande que la proportion de sa culture, et chaque anne la tribu ou le douar
se dplace dans une certaine circonscription pour revenir au bout de 15 ou 20 ans sur le terrain
repos quil a dj labour. / Si on lui avait enseign faire mieux, chaque tribu se fixant sur un
terrain, et cultivant comme en Europe, pourrait laisser la disposition de ltat un immense
excdant, quand bien mme lexemple produirait le doublement de la population par la survenance probable de Tunisiens et de Marocains. Ibid., 6 proposal: Toute famille Arabe ou Kabyle
qui, dans le terme de un an ou quinze mois, aura construit une habitation conforme au modle,
enclos de cactus une contenance de 2 hectares, aprs avoir comp1tement prpar la charrue
Belge et plant cette superficie daprs les prescriptions du manuel, et aprs avoir achet ses
fournitures de bois de construction aux chantiers de ltat, ainsi que ses jeunes arbres, aux ppinires du gouvernement, recevra une prime de ****.
[ ]
31 Roosmalen_1860_3132: Rsum de nos projets sur lAlgrie: 1 Cration de colonies
gnrales dagriculture; 2 Cration de colonies agricoles pour les orphelins et les enfants
trouvs; 3 Cration de colonies agricoles spciales pour les jeunes dtenus; 4 Choix de chefs
qui, indpendamment de lagriculture, aient fait des tudes srieuses en administration et en
ducation; 5 Voies de communication, de chemins de fer, de canaux, de bassins, etc., pour
tout le pays; 6 Un btiment vapeur conduisant de la cte dAlger, prs du Maroc, la cte

dEspagne, prs de Gibraltar; 7 Un chemin de fer, de ce dernier point, longeant les ctes dEspagne, se rattachant aux villes sur le parcours, et se joignant aux chemins de fer de la France;
8 Lagrandissement du bassin devant Alger. Constructions en harmonie avec limportance que
doit avoir cette capitale. Bibliothques, grands muses, salles de spectacle, et tout ce qui peut
attirer et occuper les trangers; 9 Un palais imprial au haut de la monte du milieu de la ville,
prs de la Casbah; 10 Une statue colossale de Napolon III, rige par souscription, et place
sur lesplanade napolonienne; 11 Nomination du prince imprial la vice-royaut de lAlgrie.
[ ]
32 Annuaire de la Socit archologique de la province de Constantine, 18601861, VIIVIII
for list of Membres titulaires for 18601861: MM. Arnolet, imprimeur-libraire; Astri, inspecteur
primaire du dpartement; Bche (Paul-Eugne), homme de lettres; Belcour, lieutenant, adjoint
au bureau arabe de La Galle; Brosselard, sous-prfet de Tlemcen; Challamel (A.), librairediteur Paris; Cherbonneau, professeur darabe Constantine; Cordonnier, adjoint au maire
de Constantine; Duclos de Fondeville, professeur de rhtorique au collge de Constantine;
Faudon, juge dinstruction au tribunal de 1er instance de Constantine; Fraud an, interprte
militaire; Ferrie (labb), cur d Bra (Tlemcen); Gadot, pharmacien; Gillotte, dfenseur,
adjoint au maire; Ginsburg, missionnaire vanglique; Haramboure, procureur imprial;
Joffre, juge de paix Constantine; Lambert, secrtaire de la Municipalit; Lamouroux, conseiller de Prfecture; Lannoy (de), ingnieur en chef des ponts et chausses de la province de
Constantine; Laureau, inspecteur des btiments civils, Guelma; Leriez, ingnieur des ponts
et chausses Constantine; Leclerc (L.), mdecin-major de 2e classe; Lichtlin, conservateur
du service des eaux et forts; Limbry, interprte asserment; Luc, dfenseur; Marchand, instituteur communal; Marle, imprimeur-libraire; Meurs, architecte en chef du dpartement;
Mvus, ingnieur en chef des mines du dpartement; Moll (Charles-Auguste), capitaine du
gnie, Tbessa; Moussard, professeur au Collge de Constantine; Nicolle, conservateur des
hypothques, Stif; Olivier, principal du collge de Constantine; Payen, commandant suprieur du cercle de Bordj-bou-Arrridj; Pelletier, inspecteur des btiments civils, Stif; Pigalle,
capitaine, Biskara; Remond, architecte de larrondissement de Constantine; Seguy-Villevaleix,
maire de Constantine; Vayssettes, professeur au Lyce imprial arabe, Alger; Vicrey, employ
du service municipal; Vital, mdecin en chef des hpitaux militaires; Viviez, inspecteur des
domaines, Constantine; Yanville (d) capitaine au 6e lanciers, Maubeuge. Of the 44 names,
8 are connected with the army, 6 are teachers, 12 are civil administrators of various kinds, and
three are engineers (two of them with the Ponts et Chausses).
[ ]
33 RA I 1856, 12: 2e Sance, samedi, 8 mars [1856] (prsidence de M.Berbrugger). Deux
nouveaux membres assistent cette sance. Ce sont MM. Galinier, chef descadron dtatmajor, aide-de-camp de M. le marchal comte Landon, et Mac-Carthy, ingnieur-gographe.
14: 6e Sance, 6 juin 1856, (prsidence de M. Berbrugger). Les nouveaux membres prsents
sont: MM.Ville, ingnieur en chef des mines; Liogier, artiste-peintre; labb Suchet, archidiacre;
Barat, professeur de physique au lyce imprial; Verdalle, aide-major au 13e hataillon de chasseurs pied. M. le docteur Perron, membre correspondant du Caire, assiste la sance.
[ ]
34 Le Charivari 22 September 1842, 1041: A quoi bon, direz-vous, une brochure sur lAlgrie?
M. Charles Dupin, baron et prsident de la societ de statistique, a calcul que si on runissait toutes les brochures publies sur lAfrique Paris seulement, elles rempliraient trois fois le
ventre de llphant de la Bastille.
[ ]
35 LIllustration_2_11_mars_1843, in the first year of publication, a long piece on Algeria,
with description of the country, its rivers, mountains and towns: La France entretient main-
appendix
tenant en Algrie une arme de quatre-vingt mille hommes; elle y dpense annuellement plus
de 80 millions. / Quel but se propose-t-elle en faisant, depuis bientt treize annes, tant de
laborieux efforts, tant de lourds sacrifices? quelle compensation a-t-elle le droit den attendre?
quel ddommagement est-elle fonde en esprer? / Cest videmment de crer dans le nord de
lAfrique une colonie dautant plus puissante, quelle est plus voisine de la mtropole; ou plutt
cest de fonder sur lautre rive de la Mditerrane, deux journes de distance de Marseille et
de Toulon, un nouvel et durable empire sur cette terre dsormais et pour toujours franaise,
suivant lexpression du discours de la couronne, louverture des Chambres, le 27 dcembre
1841...Nous ferons en mme temps passer sous les yeux de nos lecteurs, sans en ngliger un
seul, les vnements contemporains, politiques, militaires et civils, qui seront de nature les
intresser, en attestant une amlioration ou un progrs dans la situation du pays. Monuments
anciens et modernes, types des diffrentes races, Maures des villes, Arabes des plaines, Kabales
des montagnes, moeurs, usages, costumes, ameublements, armes, vues de villes, crations de
villages, travaux de ports, routes, desschements, tablissements dutilit publique, camps,
bivouacs, combats et razzias, portraits des principaux personnages franais et indignes, de quel
intrt ne serait-il pas de voir tous ces sujets fidlement reprsents par des dessins excuts
sur les lieux mmes? Nos lecteurs assisteraient ainsi, en quelque sorte, la fondation de notre
empire africain; ils le verraient chaque jour grandir, se dvelopper, et jeter dans le sol des racines
de plus en plus profondes.
[ ]
36 Faucon_1893_II_240: On nous jette sans cesse la tte luvre des Romains en Afrique.
Lexemple est le plus souvent mal choisi, tant donn les conditions trs diffrentes dans lesquelles nous nous y trouvons. Leur principe dadministration nen est pas moins retenir: Rome
gouvernait, elle nadministrait pas.
[ ]
37 Bavoux_1841_I_23170 Algeria: Systme militaire.
[ ]
38 Duvivier_1845_436: Mon opinion, en outre, sur les travaux manuels imposs larme
dAfrique dj vous est en grande partie connue par mes diverses publications. Voici ma rponse.
/ Ce qui est illgal et inique en France, lest galement en Algrie. Si le colon proprement dit, qui
lui est venu volontairement, est lgalement sous le rgime des ordonnances, larme, elle, est
sous le rgime de la loi. / Aucune ordonnance na, du reste, impos au soldat en Algrie le travail
non militaire; mais il existe au contraire des semi-ordonnances ministrielles qui le proscrivent.
[ ]
39 Nolte_1884_157158 writing on colonial wars, citing H. Suckau in the Revue britannique
for May 1870: Un crivain de la Revue britannique a rsum les causes morales de linfriorit
coloniale des Franais: 1. Dfaut de persistance; 2. Ingratitude pour les services rendus dans
les pays lointains; 3. Abandon dans ces contres des gnraux et des troupes, quon laisse souvent manquer de renforts et de fournitures militaires; 4. Ignorance ou dfaut dorganisation; 5.
Ignorance et abus dans lexercice de la domination; 6. Manque de tact envers les vaincus ou les
allis quon froisse au lieu de se les attacher et dont on prtend changer la civilisation, les murs
et la religion (le Franais ltranger est toujours lhomme lger de Montesquieu demandant:
Comment peut-on tre Persan?); 7. Oubli du grand principe des Romains, le premier en
matire de colonisation, le principe de tolrance; 8. Privation de la vie politique pour la colonie
soumise au rgime militaire; 9. Enfin, suppression des liberts ncessaires. / Nous sommes loin
daccepter sans rserve toutes ces critiques, car la France passe avec raison pour mnager les
pays conquis avec beaucoup plus de sollicitude que lAngleterre ou la Hollande. Il nen est pas
moins vrai que la plupart de ces reproches adresss la colonisation franaise sont fonds. Nous
nhsitons pas reconnatre que les Franais ne sentendent pas administrer, rendre produc-

tives, faire valoir leurs possessions doutre-mer. En France, on fait remonter la responsabilit
de cet tat de choses au gouvernement.
[ ]
40 Gaillard_1839_75: Faut-il rappeler quen 1763, douze mille Franais furent transports
la Guyane, colonie trs-susceptible dun grand dveloppement, quils cotrent lEtat vingt-six
millions, et que la misre, la famine, le dsespoir les rduisirent deux mille aprs une anne
de sjour.
[ ]
41 France. Ministre de la guerre, Comptes gnraux prsents par le ministre de la guerre
pour lexercice 1853, Paris 1855. The message throughout is the high cost of governing and maintaining Algeria. 1: effectives men/horses interior (282,913 / 70,327) Italy (9,785 / 1,500) Algeria
(69,453 / 14,615); 5: Ateliers de condamns au boulet ou aux travaux publics cost 43,601f in
Algeria, nothing in France; military prisons cost 55,000f in France, 10,300f in Algeria. Doul 1930
for the Budgets de lEtat, with conspicuous deficits throughout; 89: 18341840 receipts hover
around 1.6m to 2.1m, but civil expenses rise from 376,000 to 3.95m, and military from 17m to 62m.
Defecit for 1840 is over 64m. 141: for 18401847 budget: receipts 1.9m to 12.9m, civil expenses
3.9m to 16.6m, military expenses 62.5 to 91.5m 1847 deficit is 95.3m. For 18471871 the deficit
ranges from 53m to 93m.
[ ]
42 Guyot_1885_10 Britain: Nous sommes jaloux de ce vaste domaine, et nous voulons en
avoir un semblable lui opposer, tout prix. Nous ne calculons plus, nous ncoutons que la
passion. Nous voulons des annexions, dont nous voyons seulement ltendue, sans nous inquiter de la qualit. Nous ngligeons, en mme temps, dexaminer les conditions spciales qui ont
fait de lAngleterre la plus grande puissance coloniale du globe. Nous ne savons pas distinguer
les cts positifs et les cts factices de cette puissance; nous croyons que toutes ses colonies
sont un dbouch pour sa population et que, sans elles, elle naurait pas de commerce. Nous
jugeons toutes ces choses daprs nos sentiments, daprs des ides prconues et non aprs
examen. Ibid., 29 British India: Daprs le recensement de 1881, la population totale de lInde est
de 253,891,000 personnes; sur ce chiffre, 85,444 personnes dont 75,456 du sexe masculin et 12,088
du sexe fminin sont dorigine anglaise; 56,646 sont des soldats: il reste donc moins de 30,000
Anglais civils. Si on ajoute ce chiffre les autres Europens ns dans lInde, on arrive au chiffre
de 142,612. Le chiffre des Europens est donc comme 1 1790.
[ ]
43 Annales_Colonisation_1853_III_95108: Statistique de la Nouvelles-Galles du Sud. The
same periodical demonstrated an almost frenetic requirement to show Algeria as a success:
VII_3834: les progrs de la province dAlger prouvs par des chiffres viz. production and
prices.
[ ]
44 Boudin_1852_3 for statistics of Algeria: Ainsi, au 31 dcembre 1851, cest--dire vingt ans
aprs la conqute, lAlgrie comptait 131,283 habitants europens, dont 66,050 Franais et 65,233
trangers. Ce chiffre reprsente un peu moins de la septime partie de la population de Paris,
et juste 100,000 individus en moins que la seule migration irlandaise de lanne 1851, qui sest
leve 251,323 personnes.
[ ]
45 Pulszky_1854_395396: On the whole, therefore, the results of the colonization are not
very splendid as regards agriculture. Not one-tenth of the ground available for culture has as yet
been taken up, though France has spent millions upon millions to advance the welfare of the
colony. Indeed, thirty-four places have been fortified, barracks have been constructed for 70,000
soldiers and for 20,000 horses, and hospitals for 12,000 invalids, to the extent of 2,500,000. We
have already mentioned the net of high-roads, and the works of drainage and irrigation; many
old Roman aqueducts have been repaired, new ones built, immense works undertaken for the
appendix
extension and safety of the ports of Algiers and Bona, churches, mosques, fountains, hospitals,
orphan-houses, schools, bridges, light-houses, and wharfs raised, and villages constructed. The
sums spent in this way amounted, according to the French Blue-books, to above 4,600,000.
Above 7,000,000 sterling, have therefore been expended with lavish hands for works of public
utility in Algeria in the course of twenty years. The sacrifices of France were great, but the present generation will scarcely get a fair return for them.
[ ]
46 Milleret_1838_541: Qui ne connat la faiblesse et linconsquence de notre conduite dans
le Canada, dans lInde, sur le Mississipi et dans la Louisiane. Qui ne se rappelle conunent nous
avons abandonn leurs propres forces les Montcalm, les Dupleix, les Labourdonnaye!...Voyez
quel parti nous tirons de notre colonie de la Guiane et ce que les Hollandais ont su faire de la
leur; voyez enfin si nous avons su utiliser la Corse, depuis prs de soixante-dix ans quelle est
sous notre domination! Le rgne des lois y est-il tabli sur des bases solides? La proprit y estelle garantie? les routes y sont-elles sres? Nullement. Ce sont de contumaces, des meurtriers
qui sont les souverains de cette le: pour la parcourir et la traverser, il faut se livrer aux brigands
et se placer sous leur patronage. Cest le lieu dexil ou dexpiation des fonctionnaires publics; et
si, par hasard, un prfet, aprs un assez long sjour, commence sinitier toutes les ressources
que possde ce dpartement et obtenir lestime et la confiance des habitans, on se hte de le
rappeler, au lieu de le laisser dans le pays, tout en llevant une classe suprieure. En un mot,
un peuple qui, en soixante-dix ans, na pu soumettre entirement 200,000 Corses, pourra fort
difficilement soumettre 3 millions et demi dArabes et de Kabales.
[ ]
47 Anon_1838_2021 after relating British diplomatic conversations with the French:
History even the history of France, replete though it be with what in plain English may be
called diplomatic humbug presents no example of confidence betrayed, and of rising suspicion baffled, more complete than that which we have now laid before the reader. The results
we need not state. Algiers was reduced the Dey was expelled money, more than sufficient to
indemnify France for any injuries which she had received by the destruction of what she called
her establishments, was found in the citadel a new system of government, exclusively French,
has been established in the town the representatives of the allies of France have never been
consulted upon that, or upon any other system for the regulation of the regency the Turkish
Pasha who was to govern it, is a French officer the citadel is garrisoned to this hour by French
troops Constantine has been added to the French possessions in that quarter the whole province has been enrolled as a portion of the French empire Frenchmen have been encouraged
to emigrate thither for the purpose of colonization; and if French ambition should be ultimately
foiled of its object, they cannot, at all events, complain that they encountered any impediments
to their projects from the administration of the Duke of Wellington the only administration
that could have effectually marred their purpose without hazarding a war.
[ ]
48 Gaillard_1839_7475: Personne nignore encore que ce nest point lpe qui a soumis
lInde aux Anglais, mais bien une compagnie de marchands, appuye par des baonnettes qui
agissaient, et agissent, encore sous ses ordres. Et, nest-ce pas l une preuve de plus en faveur, des
ides politiques? Nest-ce pas dmontrer que la guerre ne doit se faire que lorsquelle est la dernire raison, la ncessit impose? Transporter la fois sur le sol africain des milliers de colons,
ce serait la guerre de tous les jours, de tous les instants, la guerre avec acharnement puisque
chaque tribu a une patrie dfendre; et cinquante mille soldats, qui coteront quarante millions par an, sans compter les sinistres; si frquents la guerre, ne suffiraient peut-tre pas; car,

ce peuple est comme la mer: il souvre pour laisser passer, la masse qui savance et se referme
aussitt derrire elle.
[ ]
49 Piquet_1914_149 colonisation efforts: Les rsultats au point de vue du peuplement furent
dailleurs remarquables. En 1842, 7 centres furent fonds; en 1843, 14; en 1844, 17. En 1843 taient
dbarqus 14,137 immigrants; en 1849, il en arrivait 46,000. Ctait une vritable mare humaine
qui dferlait sur les ctes africaines. / Il est incontestable que cet effort a fait faire un grand pas
ltablissement de la France et la constitution dune race franaise en Berbrie. Mais le systme adopt tait loin dtre parfait. La petite colonisation ainsi comprise nallait pas sans bien
des dboires, bien des insuccs; trop souvent le petit colon, aprs des luttes striles, se voyait
dpossd par ladministration ou expropri par ses cranciers. En 1848, sur 150,000 hectares
concds, 23,000 seulement taient possds en vertu dun titre dfinitif, et bien des migrants
taient rentrs en France.
[ ]
50 Lavolle, C., Algrie. La colonisation franaise, in Revue de lOrient 9, 1851, 7686
reprinted from LIllustration, 17 Jan 1851, 77: A ceux qui parlent sans cesse des colonies anglaises,
hollandaises, espagnoles pour dnigrer notre conqute algrienne, il faut rappeler que ces colonies ne se trouvent pas et ne se sont jamais trouves dans les mmes conditions que la ntre;
que leurs heureux possesseurs nont pas eu lutter contre les obstacles que nous rencontrons
en Algrie, obstacles que multiplient sous nos pas la nature du sol, la configuration du territoire,
les habitudes guerrires et le fanatisme religieux de la population soumettre, les embarras
politiques et financiers de la mtropole, et, enfin, ce dcouragement fatal dont je parlais tout
lheure, et qui peut bien, on me laccordera, retarder, sinon arrter compltement, le succs de
luvre la plus sage et la plus fconde.
[ ]
51 Anon_1838_3: The French have never been successful in colonizing, and yet there are no
people more ambitious of possessing foreign settlements. Whatever they have hitherto attempted in this way, has ultimately terminated to our advantage. In war we have wrested from them
colony after colony, which they have not been able to reconquer; and if we were to look forward
calmly to the interests of a selfish policy, we would contemplate their efforts to establish their
power at Algiers, as so many steps, more likely to involve them in a vast useless expenditure, and
in national embarrassment, than to any improvement in their position as a maritime power. The
possession of Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu, will always enable us to keep up a powerful fleet in the
Mediterranean. If occasion required, it would not perhaps be impracticable for us to cut off all
communication between France and the Barbary coast, and, moreover, to add Algiers itself to
our strongholds in that sea.
[ ]
52 Recollections_1844_79: Of all harvests that of laurels is the least profitable, when the
land on which they are gathered remains uncultivated and desolate...there are many better
ways of becoming definitively masters of a country than by strewing it with the bones of eighty
thousand soldiers. By 1842 there were 40,000 Europeans in Algeria, and nearly 80,000 soldiers.
[ ]
53 RA 1862 issue 31, 2530, Vayssettes, E., De Teniet El-Had Tiharet. 2829: Tiharet, dont
je nai pas moccuper ici comme, ville moderne, dresse ses murs sur une des croupes mridionales du Djebel Guezoula, langle de deux ravins, et a t en partie btie sur lemplacement
dune ancienne ville romaine. Aujourdhui, avec les constructions qui les recouvrent il serait difficile de se faire une ide de ce que furent ces ruines, si la position des lieux, telle quelle apparut
notre arme, lorsquen 1843 eut lieu la prise de possession, ne nous avait t conserve dans
un plan dress cette poque et qui a paru dans le Spectateur militaire, (tome XXXV, septembre
1843). Ce fut l une prcaution bien sage et qui malheureusement na pas toujours t prise dans
appendix
les diverses transformations opres dans ce pays, par suite des ncessits de la conqute ou des
besoins de la colonisation. / De cet ensemble de ruines que lon voyait en 1843, et dont le plan
nous a conserv limage, il ne reste plus maintenant quune partie du Castellum. A en juger par
les dimensions des murs, ce devait tre un difice considrable: car ils ne mesurent pas moins
de 2 mtres 50 dpaisseur. Ils sont en moellons couls dans du bton. Ces murs taient flanqus
de deux tours qui, sous le marteau de la civilisation, ne tarderont pas se niveler avec le sol.
Lune a t convertie en four briques et se crevasse de toute part; lautre croule sous les efforts
ritrs de la pioche qui,chaque jour, y fait une nouvelle troue. Ainsi disparaissent, un un, les
monuments que lantiquit nous avait lgus. Ceux qui avaient brav les efforts dissolvants du
temps, nont pu trouver grce devant la civilisation moderne. Encore quelques annes, et il ne
restera plus rien que ce que les hommes dvous la science auront pu recueillir et sauver du
naufrage. Cest, dit-on, le progrs moderne qui le veut ainsi: subissons la loi du progrs.
[ ]
54 Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIV 1840, 391392, account by Berthelot, secretary-general: En prsence des vnements qui saccomplissent, nous sommes heureux de voir se consolider notre
puissance dans le poste militaire o nous avons plant nos drapeaux. Notre conqute de lAlgerie
marche aujourdhui vers son but; rien ne peut plus sopposer maintenant au dveloppement
dune prosprit acquise par tant dhroiques efforts, Lexprience du pass est un garant de
1avenir, et la force des choses, qui nous pousse en avant, empche tout mouvement rtrograde.
La France, en appliquant cette contre un systeme doccupation devenu irrvocable, en runissant dans sa main puissante le faisceau des intrts divers, en donnant aux tribus parses le
lien de sa protection, la confiance de sa justice et de son humanit, aprs leur avoir montr tout
ce que peut une volont forte, la France, dis-je, conduira bonne fin son oeuvre de civilisation,
et trouvera alors des compensations aux sacrifices que lui a couts sa conqute.
[ ]
55 Lainn_1847_2021 Abd-el-Kader: Les deux races, mles par la guerre, ont t amenes
sapprcier; les vainqueurs ont t prserv, fort heureusement, du danger de trop mpriser
les vaincus, et ils ont chapp la fatale tentation den finir, une fois pour toutes, par lextermination des indignes. / Mais le plus grand service quAbd-el-Kader ait rendu la France, cest
davoir montr, par son exemple, de quelle manire la guerre devait tre entendue et conduite
en Algrie, et davoir rvl lui-mme les secret de sa longue rsistance et les moyens den venir
bout. En effet, ce nest pas sur des ressources matrielles quil sest principalement appuy; ces
ressources lui ont totalement manqu, ou tout au plus les a-t-il eues fort insuffisantes: son grand
talent, sa grande force, a t demployer surtout des moyens moraux. Cest au nom dune ide,
cest pour le maintien de la religion et de lindpendance de son pays, quil a russi faire accepter aux indignes les plus durs sacrifices; cest par leur patience, par leur dvoment prouvs quil sest successivement relev de ses checs; et lui-mme a apport la prparation et
laccomplissement de ses desseins, une intelligence, une tnacit, un esprit de suite qui ont d
commander lestime. Que ce soit l pour la France une utile leon: au principe dAbd-el-Kader,
lide de la nationalit arabe, quelle oppose une ide, un principe suprieur, de la civilisation
et du progrs gnral; quelle ait, autant et meilleur droit que ce barbare, foi dans la bont de
sa cause; quelle entreprenne fermement de la faire triompher, et elle finira bien par avoir raison
dAbd-el-Kader et de tous ceux qui pourraient tre tents de suivre son exemple.
[ ]
56 Girot_1840_6: Cette terre promise, que nous tions si empresss de rendre aux bienfaits
et aux merveilles de notre civilisation, est reste barbare comme devant. Elle est devenue un
gouffre o vont sengloutir la meilleure portion des richesses nationales. Un pareil tat de choses
est tout la fois une calamit pour la France et pour la colonie, car on ne peut obtenir de rsul-

tats rels et durables quen faisant les choses propos et en ayant la persvrance de poursuivre
et de consommer lexcution de ce quon a entrepris.
[ ]
57 Thierry-Mieg_1861_151152 archaeology & colonisation: On comprend ds lors tout lintrt qui sattache pour lavenir de notre coionisation, et en dehors des exigences de la science,
aux tudes archologiques. Les antiquaires ne sont pas ici comme en bien dautres endroits, des
gens dplacs et mal leur aise au milieu du XIXe sicle, le regard tourn en arrire, regrettant
ce qui nest plus, et ne se consolant de la disparition du bon vieux temps quen se plongeant avec
dlices dans une admiration bate pour ses reliques. Ils sont en Afrique les vrais pionniers de
la civilisation. Dans un pays comme celui-ci, qui a joui autrefois dune civilisation relativement
avance, o on a excut de grands travaux publics, des oeuvres dart, et on peut le dire, des
entreprises grandioses en tout genre pour faire de la nature une servante docile; o plus tard
tout ce qui avait t fait a t dtruit ou bien est tomb de soi-mme dans une dcadence de plus
en plus profonde, il est de la plus haute utilit savoir ce qui existait autrefois, afin de le rtablir
dabord avant de viser de nouveaux progrs. Si nous avions aujourdhui lAfrique des Romains,
on ne se plaindrait pas en France du budget de lAlgrie.
[ ]
58 Monuments_Historiques_1847_390391: Sur la proposition de M. le comte de Mrode,
lassemble met le vu que, dans les coles publiques, surtout celles dont les lves doivent
avoir un jour une influence quelconque sur le sort et la conservation des monuments anciens,
comme les coles des ponts-et-chausses, normales et les sminaires, il soit cr un enseignement spcial ayant larchologie pour objet, et que, dans les coles spciales de dessin, on se
serve de modles emprunts aux formes architecturales usites dans tous les temps, et particulirement pendant la priode du moyen -ge.
[ ]
59 Revue_Africaine_1836_I_8889: M. Dupin an, au nom de lInstitut royal de France,
parle ainsi de lAfrique dans le discours au roi: Une nouvelle carrire souvre nos archologues,
nos rudits, mules ou vtrans de lancien Institut dEgypte, sur cette terre dAfrique livre
leurs doctes explorations, dans ce pays tmoin jadis de la grandeur romaine, o lon retrouve
chaque pas, dans des lieux aujourdhui dserts, les ruines de cits autrefois puissantes, des
cirques, des thermes, des dbris de palais et de monumens qui rvlent le gnie de ce peuple
roi des autres peuples, et nous montrent sa puissance jusque dans cette contre o Rome, dj
devenue vnale, eut le malheur denvoyer Calpurnius et de rencontrer Jugurtha! ( Moniteur du
3 janvier.)
[ ]
60 Diehl_1892_9798: En Afrique, comme le remarquait M. Boissier, en termes aussi justes
quingnieux, lexemple des Romains peut nous tre fort utile: en voyant ce quils ont fait, nous
apprenons ce que nous avons faire. Cette resurrection des monuments antiques que nous poursuivons nest pas seulement une satisfaction que nous accordons la curiosit des antiquaires,
ou mme, une dette de reconnaissance paye a nos devanciers: cest une faon denqute qui
nous fera connatre comment le peuple qui a su le mieux gouverner le monde sy est pris pour
tirer le meilleur parti de sa conqute. Et, rappelant ce que Rome a fait pour la tranquillit et la
prosprit de lAfrique, retrouvant dans cette vieille histoire de loccupation romaine toutes les
difficultes, toutes les hesitations que nous avons connues, M. Boissier montrait excellemment
quelles leons ce pass pent donner au present, quels services peut rendre ltude de ces monuments antiques, si elle parvient drober aux Romains quelques-uns des secrets auxquels ils
ont d leur puissance, comment, en profitant de lexprience des autres, ce qui est un moyen
sur dviter beaucoup derreurs, en nous mettant sur les pas du peuple le plus prudent, le plus
appendix
habile qui fut jamais, nous pouvons esprer de russir comme lui, et comment enfin, dans cet
effort commun qui precipite vers lAfrique lactivit des nations europennes, une part doit
tre rserve aux savants, ct des soldats, des administrateurs, des politiques, puisquen
effet il appartient aux archologues, en nous renseignant sur le pass, de prparer lavenir.
[ ]
61 Gsell_1902_3: Parmi les rponses envoyes au Gouvernement gnral, la plupart
consistent ou se rsument en ce simple mot Nant. Mais il faut dire que lenqute prescrite ne
semble pas avoir t faite partout avec le soin et la comptence dsirables: ce dont on ne saurait
faire un reproche des personnes en gnral fort trangres larchologie et absorbes par
leurs nombreux devoirs administratifs. Nous avons cependant pu extraire une srie de notices
utiles du dossier relatif cette enqute, dossier qui nous a t remis il y a quelques mois. / Elles
forment la matire du prsent fascicule.
[ ]
62 Table gnrale des Archives des Missions Scientifiques et Littraires, series 3, XV, Paris
1890. Some of the missions by year: 1858: M. Landois, inspecteur de lAcadmie de Paris, est
charg dune mission en Algrie, pour recherches historiques et archologiques; M. Alfred
Vieyra, auditeur de Ier classe au Conseil dtat, chevalier de la Lgion dhonneur, est charg
dune mission gratuite Tunis, leffet de se livrer des recherches sur lhistoire, les murs et les
monuments de cette Rgence; 1860: M. Eugne Loudun, sous-bibliothcaire la bibliothque de
lArsenal, est charg, titre gratuit, dune mission en Algrie, leffet de se livrer des recherches
archologiques; 1871: M. le docteur Chalvet, agrg de la Facult de mdecine de Paris, est
charg dune mission scientifique en Algrie, ayant pour objet dy tudier les conditions hyginiques les plus favorables linstallation des colons europens et au rgime sanitaire des enfants
ns dans la colonie; 1872: M. Duthoit, architecte, est charg dune mission en Algrie ayant pour
but de visiter et de dessiner les monuments arabes qui subsistent encore sur les divers points
de lAlgrie; 1874: M. de Sainte-Marie est charg dune mission en Tunisie, pour recherches pigraphiques sur lemplacement de Byrsa, de Mgare et de Malga; M. Domet-Adanson est charg
dune mission en Tunisie, leffet dy faire des recherches dhistoire naturelle, darchologie, etc.,
en mme temps que des observations mtorologiques; M. de Sainte-Marie est charg dune
mission en Tunisie, pour recherches pigraphiques sur lemplacement de Byrsa, de Mgare et de
Malga; 1875: M. de Sainte-Marie, drogman de lambassade de France Tunis, est charg dune
nouvelle mission en Tunisie pour continuer ses recherches pigraphiques sur lemplacement de
Carthage; 1877: M. Hron de Villefosse, attach au muse du Louvre, est charg dune mission
gratuite en Algrie dans le but de faire des recherches archologiques Tbessa et dans les environs; 1878: M. J. Vaurabourg, architecte la Banque de France, est charg dune mission gratuite
en Algrie, leffet de poursuivre une tude comparative et pratique de lart arabe et de rapporter des croquis de voyage, cots et disposs la manire propre des architectes de lcole des
Beaux-Arts; 1881: M. le comte dHrisson est charg dune mission gratuite leffet de pratiquer
des fouilles archologiques en Turquie et en Tunisie, et principalement Utique; M. Cagnat,
docteur es lettres, et M. Gasselin, consul, sont chargs dune mission historique et archologique
en Tunisie; 1882: M. Bourmanc, architecte, est adjoint la mission scientifique de M. Ren
Cagnat, en Tunisie; 1883: M. Henri Saladin, architecte diplm du gouvernement, est adjoint
en qualit darchitecte, la mission scientifique de M. Cagnat, en Tunisie; M. Joseph Letaille est
charg dune mission en Tunisie et en Tripolitaine, leffet dy effectuer des recherches archologiques; M. Salomon Reinach, lve en cong de lcole dAthnes, est attach la mission
archologique de Tunisie; 1884: MM. Salomon Reinach, ancien membre de lcole franaise

dAthnes, actuellement en cong, et Babelon, attach la Bibliothque nationale, sont chargs
dune mission archologique en Tunisie; 1885: MM. Ren Cagnat, professeur la Facult des
lettres de Douai, et Salomon Reinach, ancien membre de lEcole franaise dAthnes, sont chargs dune mission scientifique dans la Rgence de Tunis, leffet dy entreprendre des recherches
archologiques; M. de La Blanchre, professeur de Facult, ancien membre de lcole de
Rome, membre de la Commission archologique de la Tunisie, est charg dune mission dans
la Rgence de Tunis, leffet de centraliser les travaux scientifiques dj entrepris et de prparer des recherches nouvelles dans le domaine de larchologie, de lhistoire et des sciences en
gnral; M. Saladin, architecte diplm du gouvernement, est charg dune mission en Tunisie,
leffet de poursuivre ltude quil a commence des monuments anciens de la Rgence au point
de vue spcial de larchitecture; 1886: M. Ren Cagnat, professeur la Facult des lettres de
Douai, membre de la Commission de Tunisie, est charg dune mission archologique dans la
rgion de Tunis; M. Joseph Letaille est charg dune mission archologique en Tunisie, dans la
rgion du Kef; 1887: M. le capitaine Rvillet est charg dune mission leffet dtudier, dans le
sud de la Tunisie, lancienne occupation romaine; 1888: M. Cagnat, professeur au Collge de
France, membre de la Commission de Tunisie, est charg dune mission archologique dans la
Rgence de Tunis.
[ ]
63 Bertillon, Jacques (18511922). La dpopulation de la France: ses consquences, ses causes,
mesures prendre pour la combattre, Paris 1911. He and his father have been Cassandra on the
subject for half a century, he writes. Population going down for a century, whereas that of all
other countries except Ireland was rising whereas in 1700 France had 20m, Empire dAllemagne
19m, and Great Britain 8/10m. In 1789 France 26m, GB & Ireland 12m, Russia 25m, Empire dAllemagne 28m. 43: Voulez-vous voir un pays qui a des colonies, mais na pas de colons? Regardez la
France with over 1m foreigners in France by 1906.
[ ]
64 JDPL 4 October 1843: Du 1er au 20 septembre dernier, il est arriv dans lAlgrie 537
ouvriers exerant diverses professions. Au 1er avril de cette anne, le chiffre de la population
europenne, dans lAlgrie, slevait 45,877 mes, tant Franais qutrangers, savoir 19,209
Franais, 5,056 Anglais, 14,931 Espagnols, 4,966 Italiens, 1,715 Allemands, 7 Grecs et Russes.
[ ]
65 Mmorial_Gographique_1930_65 after surrender of Abd-el-Kader La conqute de
lAlgrie est maintenant acheve...Loeuvre de pacification commence.
appendix
[ ]
1 Hugonnet_1858_56: Ds les premiers pas que nous avons faits en Algrie, les gnraux
et chefs militaires isols se sont sentis mal laise dans une contre dont ils ne connaissaient
rien; cest l une situation dont on ne tient pas assez compte. Dans quelque coin de lEurope
quon soit appel combattre, il y a espoir pour notre tat-inajor de trouver lavance des cartes,
des livres, des renseignements expliquant le pays, tout au moins des voyageurs dont les rcits
peuvent clairer. Lors de notre dbarquement Sidi-Ferruch, nous navions pas ces ressources;
on fut fort embarrass pour tout.
[ ]
2 Feline_1846_2 On a pu, pendant longtemps, considrer la guerre en Algrie comme une
affaire temporaire...Il nest plus possible de se bercer dune telle illusion.
[ ]
3 Ribourt_1859_79 the four periods of occupation: 1e Priode. De 1830 1841, La mtropole, encore incertaine et comme embarrasse du magnifque prsent que la Restauration expirante lui a lgu, change incessamment les chefs et les systmes. En dix ans, neuf commandants
en chef ou gouverneurs gnraux se succdent a Alger. Les rnes du gouvernement colonial
flottent comme la pense des pouvoirs publics en France. Larme est admirable de dvouement
et dardeur; et ses chefs, avec de faibles ressources, accomplissent de grandes choses, comme la
prise de Constantine, ou la dernire gargousse fut brule avant lassaut. Mais ces exploits effrayent
la mtropole autant quils la rjouissent. On parle doccupation restreinte. On semble croire quil
suffirait de tenir lAlgrie par le bord. 2e Priode. De 1841 a 1847. Un sentiment plus juste des
devoirs imposes un grand pays, par son honneur et ses intrts vritables, triomphe enfin,
et, dans les derniers jours de lanne 1840, le marchal Bugeaud est envoy en Afrique, avec la
mission de conqurir et de coloniser. Le marchal resta six ans et demi dans lAlgrie, et, suivant
la devise quil avait adopte: ense et aratro, la servit bien par lpe et par la charrue. Il crasa
la grande insurrection excite par Abd-el-Kader, prouva au Maroc sa faiblesse et notre force,
dompta louest, entrouvrit le sud et entama dans lest un coin de la grande Kabylie. En mme
temps, il avait attire des colons, fonde des villages, ouvert des routes et pousse vivement la colonie dans la voie du progrs agricole. Que net-il pas fait pour elle, avec son activit et le lgitime
ascendant quil avait conquis sur les colons et sur les soldats, sans les difficults qui lui furent
suscites de Paris et qui le dcidrent quitter lAlgrie? 3e Priode. De 1847 a 1852. Ce long
et glorieux commandement se termina le 30 mai 1847, et ft remplace par celui du duc dAumale,
qui apporta lAlgrie lordonnance de septembre 1847. Cette ordonnance mrite dtre signale,
quoi-quelle nait pas eu une longue existence lgale, parce quelle montrait une vive sollicitude
pour tous les intrts de la colonie et quelle a t suivie, sinon dans sa lettre, du moins dans son
esprit, par les successeurs du prince. Mais, quelques mois aprs, la rvolution de fvrier clata;
les gouverneurs se succdrent a Alger plus rapidement encore que dans la premire priode.
Sept gnraux en quatorze mois (mai 1847 septembre 1848) sigent tour a tour au palais du
gouvernement. Avec cette instabilit dans le pouvoir suprme, le mouvement imprime par le
marchal Bugeaud se ralentit. La conqute sarrte, sauf quelques coups quil fallait bien frapper
de temps autre pour conserver nos armes leur prestige, comme Zaatcha et dans la petite
Kabylie. La colonisation seule, grce aux 50 millions votes par lAssemble constituante pour les
colonies agricoles, fait quelques progrs mls de dceptions nombreuses. 4e Priode. De 1852
a 1858. Une nouvelle priode de prs de sept annes est remplie tout entire par un seul commandement, celui du marchal Randon, qui continue loeuvre du marchal Bugeaud. Alors, sur
du lendemain, on reprend les longs projets et les tudes srieuses. La conqute est acheve dans
lest et dans le sud, comme elle lavait t dans louest, et la colonie peut se dvelopper au sein de
full endnote texts chapter 1

la scurit la plus profonde, avec ses prfets, ses maires, sa tlgraphie lectrique et bientt ses
chemins de fer, tout comme si elle est fait partie de la vieille et bonne terre de France.
[ ]
4 LEcho de Bougie 1 June 1905. Reporting a punitive expedition against piracy in 1664, claiming to cite les chroniques du temps: Ds que nous emes doubl le cap, la ville nous apparut!
Quoi, ctait l cette cit dont le nom seul faisait frmir les navigateurs? / De son enceinte fortifie il ne restait plus que deux forts, un dominant la ville, lautre la plage. Des ruines stendent
sur une superficie considrable de territoire montrait que cette cit avait du tre une ville peuple et prospre. Ibid., 22 July 1906. Relays Ren Desfontaines writing about Bougie in 1785: Cette
ville fut jadis fameuse. Daucuns la comparent aux cits dtruites de Ninive et Babylonne. Le fait
est que les ruines dune enceinte de plus de trois mille arpents sont encore debout pour attester
la grandeur de la ville disparue.
[ ]
5 Demonts_1921_187, relaying Baudens account of the 1831 corps expditionnaire: Lanne
1831 marqua le brusque arrt de la conqute, puis le recul de nos troupes et leur refoulement dans
la banlieue de cette ville o elles simmobilisrent durant plusieurs annes. De ce brusque changement, les causes sont en gnral connues: la politique hsitante de la Monarchie de Juillet,
le rappel de la plus grande partie du corps expditionnaire, le caractre faible et la dfiance du
commandant en chef, le Gnral Berthezne. Au lieu de succs ininterrompus qui seuls auraient
pu en imposer aux Arabes, on eprouva un chec, et cette dfaite suffit pour nous faire perdre
notre prestige et rveiller le fanatisme et la haine contre les Roumis; les vaincus reprirent leurs
illusions. En quelques jours, ou mieux en quelques heures, des avantages chrement obtenus
furent perdus. La seconde expdition de Mda, imparfaitement organise et plus mdiocrement conduite, tmoigna de notre impuissance et de notre indcision; les consquences en
furent redoutables non seulement pour nos armes, mais surtout pour notre politique africaine.
[ ]
6 Baude_1841_I_VVIII: Quand on compare ce qui, aprs dix ans, nous revient de lAlgrie,
laccroissement de force et de richesse dont nous aurions pu, avec ce quelle nous a cot,
doter le territoire franais, on se dfend mal dun sentiment de regret, et lon avoue que si nous
ne devions jamais occuper la cte dAfrique dautres conditions, rien ne serait si sage et si
urgent que de labandonner. Nous continuons cependant, sans regarder en avant ni en arrire,
marcher dans la voie obscure o nous sommes engags; nous accumulons les mcomptes, sans
entrevoir les fruits ni le terme de tant de sacrifices, et nous semblons attendre quun caprice de
la fortune nous dispense de la responsabilit dune dtermination rflchie...Lincertitude de
notre marche en Afrique tient des causes trs-diverses, dont la principale est le dfaut dassignation dun but prcis nos entreprises. Ce nest point assez de dclarer en termes gnraux
que notre honneur et notre intrt exigent lachvement de la conqute: il importe de dfinir
clairement en quoi consistent les intrts franais en Afrique. Quand on ne sait pas bien par
o lon veut finir, on sait moins encore comment commencer et poursuivre, et, dans lespce, la
dtermination du but faciliterait singulirement celle des moyens de latteindre.
[ ]
7 Nolte_1884_4445 writing on colonial wars, razzias and repression in 1835: Cette svre
rpression natteignait pas celui qui lavait attire sur les Hadjoutes et les tribus voisines. Il en
rsulta qu Abd-el-Kader persvra dans ses tentatives pour accrotre sa domination, soumettant par la force ceux qui lui opposaient de la rsistance. En juin 1835, deux tribus des environs
dOran implorrent lappui du gnral dErlon contre Abd-el-Kader. Le gnral Trzel, successeur
du gnral Desmichels, se porta immdiatement sur les lieux avec 2,500 hommes et 6 pices de
canon. Le 26 juin, il rencontra, sur les bords du Sig, lmir qui tait la tte de 8,000 cavaliers
et de 4,000 fantassins. Laction sengagea; mais la disproportion des forces des deux adversaires
appendix
tait trop grande pour que les Franais eussent quelque chance de succs. En effet, sous le choc
imptueux des cavaliers arabes, leur avant-garde plia, et le gnral Trzel, pour viter une dfaite
gnrale et certaine, dut cder la place lennemi et se retirer quelque distance. Le lendemain,
il se mit en marche pour revenir Oran. Le 28, comme la colonne franaise traversait un troit
passage, compris entre des collines boises et les marais de la Macta, Abd-el-Kader fondit tout
coup sur elle avec toutes ses troupes. Les Franais essayrent de combattre, mais leurs adversaires taient trop nombreux. Bientt la panique sempara deux et ils fuirent en dsordre jusqu
Arzew. Ils eurent en cette occasion 350 hommes tus, 380 blesss, 17 furent faits prisonniers;
ils perdirent en outre tout leur matriel. / Ce grave chec valut au comte dErlon son rappel en
France. Au surplus, cette guerre dAfrique, toujours capricieuse et faite sans ensemble, offrait
plutt un tmoignage du courage des soldats franais que des mrites de leurs chefs. Aucune
vue gnrale ny prsidait, aucun plan dfinitif ntait suivi. Soldats et officiers de rang infrieur
accomplissaient chaque jour quelque action dclat, mais les hauts chefs restaient dans linaction. Les gloires taient individuelles, et par cela mme striles; si les bras taient vigoureux, la
tte faisait dfaut.
[ ]
8 Rousset_1900_I_323324: Une ordonnance royale, du 22 juillet 1834, dcida quun gouverneur gnral serait charg de ladministration des possessions franaises dans le nord de
lAfrique. Qui allait-ce tre? Le marchal Clauzel, le gnral Guilleminot, le duc Decazes? Car
lide dun gouverneur gnral civil ne dplaisait ni beaucoup de dputs, ni mme quelquesuns des ministres. Le marchal Soult, il est vrai, avait dclar quil ne signerait jamais lordre de
faire commander une arme de 30,000 hommes par un fonctionnaire civil; mais, depuis le 18
juillet, il ntait plus ministre de la guerre. Enfin, la surprise gnrale, le choix du gouvernement
tomba sur le lieutenant gnral Drouet, comte dErlon. Ce glorieux dbris de Waterloo navait
pas moins de soixante-neuf ans. Ctait le marchal Grard, successeur du marchal Soult, qui,
parmi les candidats, avait fait choisir le plus g, un vieux camarade de 1815.
[ ]
9 Correch_1837_3: La France tait loin de sattendre que la petite arme que le marchal
Clausel avait runie trouverait son Moscow sur les ctes dAfrique, aussi en a-t-elle t vivement
affecte.
[ ]
10 Rousset_1900_II_137 retreat from Constantine: Le jour tirait sa fin quand la tte de
colonne atteignit le plateau de Somma. L se dressait, solitaire et imposant dans sa ruine, un
monument romain dont la silhouette puissante se dtachait sur un fond de nuages; mais ni le
temps ni la circonstance ne se prtaient gure aux jouissances des archologues. Cette nuit du 20
au 21 novembre fut horrible. Les hommes, imprvoyants comme dhabitude, avaient gaspille ou
jet sur la route leur provision de bois; mourant de faim et de froid, enfoncs dans la fange glace jusqu mi-jambes, ils essayaient de dormir debout, serrs, appuys les uns contre les autres;
ceux qui perdaient lquilibre ne se relevaient pas;on les entendait quelque temps geindre, puis
on ne les entendait plus; on pensait quils avaient succomb au sommeil: ils avaient succomb
la mort. A laube gristre du lendemain, on eut mettre en terre une vingtaine de cadavres.
[ ]
11 Blanc_1892_35, in Algeria from 1835 until (at least) 1852, reckons first expedition to
Constantine: 164 dead from wounds or from the cold or hunger, 277 killed, 64 missing, 298
wounded that is, 1/20th of the expeditionary corps.
[ ]
12 Caraman_1843_5556 1836, on the first expedition to Constantine: La nuit que nous passmes prs du monument de la Somma, 5 lieues de Constantine, fut vritablement pouvantable: les lments semblaient dchans contre nous; une violente tempte accompagne de
torrents de pluie, prcda la neige et les frimas dont nous nous vmes environns et couverts

au point du jour; le contre toute entire prsentait laspect de la Russie pendant lhiver; les
plaines comme les montagnes avaient pris cette triste livre des climats du Nord, que je mattendais gure retrouver sous le ciel de lAfrique. tendus sur le sol dtremp, et demi gel de
froid, javais mis ma tte labri, en lenveloppant dune portion de couvertures, et je cherchais
conserver ainsi un peu de chaleur. Je parvins dormir, parce que dans presque toutes les situations, quelques fcheuses quelles soient, le sommeil vient plus ou moins laide de lhumanit
souffrante; mais je ne puis rendre ce que jprouvais lorsque je me vis, mon rveil, couvert
dune couche paisse de givre mle de neige et de grle, sous laquelle, tout raide de froid, et
pouvant peine me lever, je devais prsenter assez lapparence singulire dun marron glac. Je
reconnus cependant que ctait cette trange enveloppe que je devais le peu de chaleur que
javais pu conserver, car elle mavait prserv de cette humidit glaciale, bien plus fatale encore
ceux qui sen trouvaient pntrs.
[ ]
13 Blanqui_1840_6: Les Maures ont beau se barricader et surveiller leurs demeures cernes
de toutes parts; la civilisation les poursuit, renverse toutes les barrires, fait tomber tous les
voiles et sinstalle sur les ruines de leurs maisons bientt rebties en arcades, avec de grands
jours sur la rue et tous les autres embarras de la publicit.
[ ]
14 Vitry_1900_7: Mais si lon peut affirmer que le fanatisme muslman a rsist aux sicles
qui se sont succd, on peut dire aussi que les traces de la civilisation romaine nont pas compltement disparu en Tunisie et que, par elles, cette civilisation triomphe encore de nos jours.
[ ]
15 Walmsley_1858_340: I had never properly understood the reason of this determined
attempt to subdue the wild ridges of Kabylia until the lieutenant of Chasseurs enlightened me;
and it will be seen at once that with such neighbours as the Beni Yenni and the Beni Baten
no half-measures could be followed. Either they must be completely subdued, or they would
descend from time to time into the plains as they had done under the leading of Hadj Omar,
burning outposts and revolutionizing the country up to the very walls of the French forts.
[ ]
16 Touttaille_1866_1617 experiences of a soldier-workman: Tous les moyens employs
depuis 1830 ont chou. Guerre, politique, rigueurs, douceurs, rpression, bienfaits. Toutes les
conceptions de la sagesse, de la puissance et du gnie de la France, sont venus se briser contre la
nature des choses, LEmpereur lui-mme y a mis sa forte main, et on lui a rpondu par linsurrection et lincendie. Pourquoi? Parce que entre lArabe nomade et nous, il ny a point dassimilation,
point de fusion, point de transaction, point dentente possibles. / Il rprsente lancien monde
immobile obscur et froce. / Nous sommes le monde nouveau, eu marche dans la lumire et
la perfectibilit. / Il est labrutissement, lesclavage et le fanatisme, Nous sommes le progrs, la
libert et la tolrance. / Il est lasservissement par la violence. / Nous sommes lmancipation par
la persuation. / Ainsi donc, entre les deux races point de compromis posible. Il faut que lune
des deux supprime lautre, ou la faonne sa manire dtre et de faire. / La France a incontestablement le droit de neutraliser, de courber ou dcarter par tous les moyens, les lments qui
entravent sa marche civilisatrice et sa colonisation dans ce pays, rendu par elle lhumanit. /
Dun autre ct, il est bien temps quelle fasse de lAlgrie autre chose quune chane qui dchire
ses flancs; quun boulet qui paralyse son essort et ses forces depuis plus de 35 ans. / Si la force
doit tre employe elle le sera, celle fois du moins, au service de la justice et de lhumanit. Elle
qui a si soin ont fait triompher linjustice et liniquit.
[ ]
17 Ancien_officier_1841_13: Devant les Romains, un ordre quelconque; devant nous,
dsordre absolu. Devant les Romains, des villes et des cultivateurs autant que le pays le comportait; devant nous le dsert largi par la main des Turcs, comme partout o ils ont rgn.
appendix
Partout le nomade vainqueur et le cultivateur vaincu. Ainsi sans rappeler et mettre en opposition lavantage quont eu les Romains de trouver dans le peuple conquis les mmes moeurs, la
mme religion et lobstacle invincible que nous rencontrons dans des circonstances contraires,
nous avons de plus contre nous de nous prsenter, hommes dordre et de travail, devant des
sauvages insoucieux du lendemain et destructeurs par nature.
[ ]
18 Montaudon_1898_7: Saint-Cyr (1836). 26e de ligne (1838). 75e de ligne (1841). N et
lev au fond dune province agreste et un peu arrire, je navais jamais eu occasion, pendant
ma vie de collge, de voir un seul uniforme de soldat; mais ltude de lhistoire, la lecture des
ouvrages classiques, o lon potisait les hauts faits militaires des Grecs et des Romains, avaient
beaucoup frapp ma jeune imagination et fait natre en moi le vague dsir dembrasser la carrire des armes.
[ ]
19 Dondin-Payre 1991, rsum: La participation de larme lexploration archologique
de lAlgrie fut particulirement marquante. Elle sexplique par la poursuite dune tradition
intellectuelle (matrialise notamment par les investigations qui accompagnrent lexpdition dEgypte: cration en 1840 de la Commission dexploration scientifique de lAlgrie), par la
main-mise sur le territoire dune arme qui disposait seule du matriel et des hommes ncessaires, mais aussi, dans le domaine de larchologie classique, par le dsir de lArme dAfrique
de recueillir lhritage de l exercitus Africae dont elle se voulait digne. Signalant les vestiges, les
restaurant loccasion (quand des contraintes concrtes plus pressantes namenaient pas leur
destruction), tablissant des parallles avec la marche des lgions romaines quelle se flattait de
surpasser, se louant de la superposition des centres de colonisation romains et franais, lArme
dAfrique justifiait son oeuvre par une rfrence constante sa devancire, dont elle renouvelait
les ralisations, militaires ou civiles, esprant tirer une gloire comparable.
[ ]
20 Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_1138: Il nous a paru attrayant, de rechercher quelle
a t, dans ce grand mouvement scientifique, la part de notre arme. Elle fut, elle est encore
considrable, et il faudrait des volumes si lon voulait, sans en omettre aucune, rsumer les
dcouvertes dues des officiers. Nous nous bornerons donc rappeler ici, avec quelques dtails,
celles de ces dcouvertes qui honorent le plus leurs auteurs et qui, en raison.de leur importance ou de leur originalit, nous ont paru mriter une tude particulire. Then gives examples:
11381139 Le Madrasen; 1139: Les Djedar (tombs): Dabondants dtails sur ces ruines ont t
donns en 1856, dans la Revue africaine, par le capitaine Henri Bernard, qui tait attach M., le
gnral de Lamoricire, lors de son expdition dans la Mina, en 1842. Le sergent-major Bordier
a pntr le premier dans lune delles et leur a attribu une origine antrieure aux poques
romaines et byzantines; M. le capitaine du gnie Picavet sest rangea cet avis; 11391140 les
travaux hydrauliques anciens dans le Hodna; 1140 La basilique de Tbessa: Cest M. le chef
de bataillon Seriziat, commandant suprieur du cercle de Tbessa, que lon dut, vers 1868, la
connaissance complte de cet important monument. Des fragments de colonnes et de statues
y ont t recueillis, ainsi quune vasque en pierres de taille/recouverte de plaques de marbre,
dont les plus petits fragments ont t ramasss avec soin. Un curieux sarcophage, en marbre
translucide et orn de sculptures, a t prserv de mme dune destruction certaine, par l zle
clair du commandant Seriziat, qui la fait transporter Tbessa. Mais les belles mosaques,
qui ornaient le sol de la nef principale, attirrent surtout son attention: elles ont t dessines
par M. de Bosredon, adjoint au bureau arabe de Tbessa, et publies dans le Recueil des notices
de la Socit archologique de Constantine...Que seraient devenus ces prcieux chantillons
si des mains moins habiles avaient fouill la terre qui, depuis des sicles, les recouvrait? Car la

mise jour de ces dlicats vestiges exige des prcautions infinies. Le commandant Seriziat ne
sy mnageait pas; 11401141 Autres travaux de M. le commandant Payen: Cet officier suprieur
tait et est encore un des plus infatigables Collaborateurs du Comit des travaux historiques.
Nous ne croyons pas quil aitlaiss passer une seule anne sans apportera ldifice commun sa
part de matriaux.
[ ]
21 SHD H227, General Desmichels, Rflexions sur ltat actuel de lAlgrie, sous les rapports
militaires et politiques suivies dun nouveau systme doccupation de ce pays, 7th October 1839,
fol 7r.
[ ]
22 SHD GR1M881 11 Toscan du Terrail, Mmoire historique sur lAlgrie depuis les guerres
puniques jusquau commencement de 1836 for an overview of French knowledge of the country,
nearly all of which naturally came from books.
[ ]
23 Rozet_1833_I_VIIVIII: Presque tous les voyageurs qui ont pu pntrer dans les tats barbaresques ont trs peu vu par eux-mmes et cest daprs les rcits dhommes dont ils comprenaient mal le langage, et dont le moindre dfaut est de mentir, quils ont compos leurs livres.
Quelques captifs qui navaient jamais perdu de vue les murailles dAlger, en racontant les maux
quils avaient soufferts et tout ce quils avaient vu dans ce repaire de pirates, se sont crus obligs
dy joindre la description de toute la rgence, comme sils en eussent visit les diffrentes parties. Les consuls europens rsidans en Barbarie, ont aussi publi plusieurs ouvrages sur cette
contre mais, ou ils se sont borns dcrire les villes dans lesquelles ils vivaient, ou ce quils ont
dit sur le reste du pays est trs inexact. Enfin, aprs le succs de la grande expdition envoye
par Charles X pour dtruire des pirates qui, depuis trois sicles, faisaient la terreur des nations
civilises, on a vu paratre beaucoup de mmoires et mme des ouvrages complets sur toute la
rgence, crits par des hommes qui ntaient rests que deux mois en Afrique.
[ ]
24 Peyssonnel_1838_I_VII travelled 172425: Loccupation des ctes septentrionales de
lAfrique par les troupes franaises a bien peu ajout, jusqu prsent, la connaissance quon
avait dj de lintrieur du pays. Le fait mme de loccupation, et, il faut le dire, les excs qui
en ont souvent t la suite, nous tiennent depuis sept ans dans un tat permanent dhostilit,
non-seulement vis--vis des peuplades africaines y mais encore vis--vis de leurs chefs et de
leurs marabouts. Doit-on stonner que nous nayons plus, pour visiter lintrieur de lAfrique,
les facilits quassurait aux voyageurs du sicle dernier la bienveillante protection des autorits
barbaresques?
[ ]
25 Plion_1838_15 Considrations politiques et militaires sur lAlgrie: Larme sest charge
de prouver aux Arabes la puissance de la France pour conqurir; cest aux Chambres leur
prouver quelles veulent conserver. Elles le feront dans lintrt du pays dabord, et ensuite pour
tre consquentes avec elles-mmes; car, pourquoi faire des conqutes au prix de nos trsors et
de notre sang, si ce nest pour les garder et les rendre profitables? Pourquoi entreprendre, si ce
nest pour achever et pour jouir? La prise de Constantine a eu en Afrique dimmenses rsultats
matriels et moraux. Les dlibrations des Chambres, auxquelles assiste un reprsentant de la
nationalit arabe, nauront pas un moindre retentissement.
[ ]
26 Decker_1844_I_3905 for a chronology 183037; Decker_1844_II_292304 chronology
183743.
[ ]
27 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_183: It is somewhat surprising, that after eleven years possession of Algiers by Europeans, and after so long an intercourse more or less precarious, it is
true with the inhabitants of Northern Africa, so little accurate information should have been
hitherto laid before the public concerning the social condition and internal government of the
appendix
various tribes which people ancient Barbary. We have had numerous descriptions of the town
of Algiers, and of some other French settlements on the coast; and from the Paris journals the
press throughout Europe has continually borrowed statements of the progress of the French
arms...But of the interior of Algeria of the history and manners of the Kabyles, the Berbers, the
Arabs of the life and actions of that very remarkable man whose instinctive talents, aided by his
undaunted courage, has enabled him to keep the forces of France in check for so many years; of
all this we have little or no published information upon which we can rely.
[ ]
28 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_184: The history of the conquest of Algiers will have more
attention paid to it in future times than it has as yet obtained: for that event, however trifling
the immediate pretext of it was, will bring about either the formation of a new and independent
European power in Africa, or will end in the driving out of the present invaders, and will thus
act in a mortal manner on the existence and prosperity of the French nation. Far from proving
an easy conquest or a peaceable possession, the attempt to keep Algeria under her dominion,
has caused France an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, without as yet producing
any but the most insignificant results in a politico-economical sense; and it still forces her to a
perpetual exertion of military strength, favourable neither to her own domestic tranquillity nor
her public honour.
[ ]
29 Paris_1840_6: Personne ne conteste que si dheureuses inspirations sont venues aux
huit gouverneurs que la colonie a possds depuis 1830, leffet nen ait t aussitt dtruit par la
dplorable instabilit des hommes et des systmes. Ltude du pass pourrait donc, la rigueur,
nous conduire la dcouverte de la seule voie capable de rparer nos fautes.
[ ]
30 Napoleon_III_1865_7: Sous tous les gouvernements qui se sont succd, et mme depuis
rtablissement de lEmpire, prs de quinze systmes dorganisation gnrale ont t essays, lun
renversant lautre, penchant tantt vers le civil, tantt vers le militaire, tantt vers lArabe, tantt vers le colon, produisant au fond beaucoup de trouble dans les esprits et fort peu de bien
pratique. Il sagit aujourdhui de substituer laction la discussion. On a bien assez lgifr pour
lAlgrie.
[ ]
31 Dailheu_1901_70 governing very difficult: Plac la tte de notre grande colonie, apparemment pour en tudier sur place les vux, les aspirations et les besoins, un gouverneur
ne peut les exposer sans danger quautant quil aura la certitude dtre en parfaite communion dides avec ceux-l mmes quil est charg dclairer! / Depuis soixante et onze ans que
lAlgrie est conquise, elle na cess dtre soumise, comme nous avons dj eu occasion de le
dire, au dsastreux rgime des ttonnements et des essais de toute nature dont quelques-uns ont
t pour elle de vritables calamits. / Le premier remde quil faut apporter ltat de choses
actuel, cest assurer la stabilit du gouvernement. Cinquante-cinq gouverneurs militaires ou
civils ont successivement puis leurs efforts et certainement le moins bien dou dentre eux
et fait un gouverneur modle si on lui avait donn le temps de sinstruire en lui laissant, pendant de longues annes, lexercice du pouvoir et si les changements dhumeur de la mtropole ne
lavaient pas entrav et paralys dans son uvre. / Pourquoi ne donnerait-on pas aux pouvoirs
du gouverneur gnral une dure limite, comme cela a lieu en Angleterre pour le vice-roi des
Indes ? Celui-ci est nomm pour sept ans.
[ ]
32 Napoleon_III_1865_49: Il suffit de jeter les yeux sur lAnnuaire administratif de lAlgrie
pour juger de la trop grande quantit de fonctionnaires dont se compose le gouvernement civil. /
Dans toute lAlgrie, pour administrer 192,000 Europens rpartis en 71 communes, il y a 3 prfets, 13 sous-prfets, 15 commissaires civils, total, 31 hauts fonctionnaires, non compris la nue de

chefs de bureau et demploys divers. Certains arrondissements, en France, pour un chiffre gal
de population, nont quun sous-prfet.
[ ]
33 Bavoux_1841_I_115122 Algeria: Avantages du systme de guerre permanente; 122:
Lgitimit de notre titre de Conqute; 171198: a civil government to be substituted for the unintelligent wielding of the sabre.
[ ]
34 Fillias_1860_VVI: Il y a trente ans, la Mditerrane appartenait aux corsaires, et les
Etats brbaresques taient peine connus de quelques explorateurs. Alors la milice turque tait
toute-puissante Alger; le chef de lOdjeac traitait dgal gal avec les souverains dEurope, et
faisait vendre en place publique, ou jeter dans les bagnes les chrtiens tombs en son pouvoir. /
Aujourdhui, la nationalit arabe est dtruite, lancienne Rgence forme une annexe de lEmpire
Franais, et notre domination stend des frontires du Maroc celles de Tunis, et du littoral au
dsert. / La lutte a dur trente ans. Nous en avons racont toutes les phases, et si nous avions
mettre une pigraphe en tte de ce volume, nous cririons: Larme a conquis, pacifi, colonis lAlgrie; ce sera sa gloire ternelle! / Mais larme a fini sa tche; que feront les hommes
dEtat?
[ ]
35 Anon_1838_4: it is probable that Algiers cannot be long retained by France, and that,
even if it be, it can only tend to encumber her energies as a continental and military power her
only natural source of influence.
[ ]
36 De_Lacharire_1832_1, 4: Lexprience a prouv le peu dhabilet du gouvernement franais en matire de colonisation. Aucune puissance na eu, sous ce rapport, de plus grands avantages que la France; aucune na moins su en profiter. and cites Louisiana, Canada, Martinique,
Santo Domingo etc....Quoi quil en soit, nous avons pens quil tait de notre devoir, et comme
colon et comme franais, de jeter un coup dil sur toutes nos possessions doutre-mer; de
signaler les causes qui nuisent leur prosprit, celles qui peuvent contribuer leur bonheur,
et fixer lattention de la France sur les immenses avantages commerciaux et maritimes quelle
possde depuis la conqute dAlger. Cf also 726 Chap II: Des causes qui ont empch la France
de russir dans la fondation de ses colonies.
[ ]
37 Mathieu_de_Dombasle_1838_27: cest sans doute une chose fort grave pour les intrts
de la France que les dpenses normes auxquelles elle se livre pour une entreprise qui ne peut
avoir pour elle aucun but dutilit, pour la conqute dune possession qui na pour elle aucune
valeur.
[ ]
38 Recollections_1844_264 Reckons the accounting at GBP26,800,000; against which
treasure from Algiers GBP2,189,480 and revenue 18311843 at GBP1,840,000 leaving a loss of
GBP22,870,520.
[ ]
39 Desjobert_1838_4: Nous avons principalement combattu les ides de colonisation, ides
nes du plus complet oubli des faits qui ont couvert le globe; ces faits, nous les avons rappels,
et ils prouvent que la France ne peut tenter en Afrique, qui repousse toute colonisation, ce qui,
autre part, na russi que par exception et dans des circonstances favorables. Lignorance et la
cupidit seules peuvent confondre ensemble, pour appuyer lide fixe de colonisation, des tats
sociaux ou politiques qui nont aucun rapport avecla chimre caresse par les colonistes. / Ces
faits prouvent que nous ne pouvons coloniser la faon des Grecs et des Romains; quil est
impossible dintroduire Alger le mode de gouvernement des Anglais dans lInde; quAlger ne
possde aucun des lmens de colonisation qui font la prosprit des tats-Unis dAmrique;
quon ne peut tablir, ni sous le rapport du sol y ni sous celui des habitans, aucune comparaison
entre Alger et lEgypte; que les colonies pnales sont aujourdhui condamnes comme moyen
appendix
pnitentiaire; et quenfin le rgime colonial ne peut tre introduit en Afrique au moment o il
croule de toutes parts, aux acclamations unanimes des colonies et des mtropoles.
[ ]
40 Gaillard_1839_6: Il est impossible que nous occupions encore longtemps la cte
dAfrique dune manire aussi onreuse pour la France. Il faut enfin que ce pays nous profite, ou
au moins couvre le supplment de dpenses que larme et les colons occassionnent. Ce nest
point ici le lieu de poser les principes dune organisation militaire et politique; mais il faut avoir
une sphre daction tellement labri des excursions des Arabes, que lon puisse enfin soccuper
de colonisation.
[ ]
41 Anon_1838_1011: It is possible that the views of the French government, in the first
instance, did not extend beyond those which it then professed to entertain. If so, they were,
however, very speedily enlarged. Discussion led to a very general opinion, that the time had
arrived when the existence of a piratical power, such as the Algerine regency then undoubtedly
was, ought no longer to be tolerated. The interests of Christendom required that it should be
effectually put down. It became apparent, moreover, that the moral authority of the monarchy
in France was every day becoming more feeble. It was undermined by conspiracy. It was libelled
with impunity and with great ability by the press. It was resisted in the second chamber of the
legislature by a powerful, well organized, and constantly increasing opposition. A diversion of
the public mind from domestic politics to foreign war. might, at such a season, be particularly
useful. The French people, always aspiring to military renown, and still full of the recollections
of Napoleons brilliant though transitory conquests, might be successfully courted through the
hopes of a new enterprise. A similar experiment had been; lately made in Spain; and though the
results were equivocal, still the chance of glory which Algiers held out, was not to be declined.
[ ]
42 Colonel Scott, A journal of a residence in the Esmailla of Abd-El-Kader: and of travels in
Morocco and Algiers, London 1842, IXX A most barbarous, unjustifiable, and inhuman warfare has been and still is carried on in Algiers, which cannot nor ever will be attended with any
ultimate benefit to the French nation; but it ruins British commerce in that part of the world,
as seven millions sterling are about the average of the exports and imports of Algiers, including
also the territory occupied by the French and that under the dominion of the Emir.
[ ]
43 Baudicour_1853_372373 Bugeaud in 1846: Quelques jours aprs, le marchal convoquait la milice nationale et rendait compte aux colons de ses derniers exploits. Nous avons,
leur disait-il, beaucoup incendi, beaucoup dtruit. Peut-tre me traitera-t-on de barbare; mais
je me place au-dessus des reproches de la presse, quand jai la conviction que jaccomplis une
uvre utile mon pays.
[ ]
44 Decker_1844_II_11354 for an excellent summary of logistics and hospitals.
[ ]
45 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1840_45: Veut-on savoir ce que dix ans dexprience nous ont
appris? Veut-on savoir ce quest la guerre en Afrique? Le voici: / On part en grand nombre, les
soldats chargs outre-mesure de vivres et de cartouches; on marche pendant plusieurs jours
sans se battre ou en se battant; car, les Arabes ne peuvent nous empcher davancer. Au retour,
les vivres manquent; tout le monde est demi et mme au quart de ration; les hommes tombent
malades en route, encombrent les ambulances, et quand elles sont pleines, ils restent en arrire
mourons et sans force. Larme marche toujours dun pas inexorable; les Arabes attaquent avec
fureur la queue de la colonne, dcapitent les malheureux qui ne peuvent suivre, blessent un
assez grand nombre des ntres, parce quils tirent sur des masses. On ordonne de belles charges
de cavalerie qui, la plupart du temps, natteignent personne; le canon tonne. On arrive enfin,
laissant une longue trace de boue et de sang. Nanmoins, on a vaincu, les bulletins le disent; plu-

sieurs malheureux se sont suicids de dsespoir, et les hpitaux sencombrent des vainqueurs. /
Voil la guerre; et quels en sont les rsultats? Nous lignorons, si ce nest que nos ressources
spuisent sans fruit et que notre arme est dcime sans utilit. Quelques chefs y acquirent
des grades; cest vrai. Mais nos soldats, quelle est leur rcompense? La mort! / Nous ne croyons
pas quil soit un seul militaire de bonne foi qui pense autrement que nous, et qui, pntr de la
ncessit de la colonisation, ne regrette le fatal emploi des sommes normes que nous jetons au
vent dans ce malheureux pays.
[ ]
46 Anon_1845_3 lists the problems faced by the military: 1 La topographie de lAlgrie est
des plus difficiles sur une trs-grande partie de sa surface; 2 Elle est occupe par des populations bien plus nombreuses quon ne le croyait, 3 Et sans contredit les plus belliqueuses du
monde; 4 Dans ce peuple, tous les hommes sont guerriers depuis leur adolescence jusqu leur
extrme vieillesse; chacun pris individuellement est un homme de guerre redoutable, etc., etc.
[ ]
47 Belloc_1889_221 electric telegraph: La ligne devait passer par le port de la Spezzia (prs
Gnes), la Corse et la Sardaigne, et aboutir la cte dAfrique entre la ville de Bne et la frontire de Tunis. Commence en 1854, arrte par deux insuccs en 1855 et 1856, cette belle ligne
sous-marine fut mene bonne fin au mois de septembre 1867. Mais peu aprs, la rupture du
conducteur ncessita une reprise de travaux qui ne furent pas plus heureux. but then line opened and worked from October 1857. Direct France-Algeria submarine cable dates from June 1871.
[ ]
48 Belloc_1889_191192: Tandis que la tlgraphie arienne (i.e. semaphore, by sight) tait
sur le point de disparatre en France, le gouvernement rsolut de lintroduire en Algrie pour
prter son concours aux oprations militaires. / M. Alexandre, fonctionnaire de ladministration,
fut charg daller tudier sur place ltablissement de grandes lignes et dorganiser le personnel
ncessaire, et, au mois de juin 1844, le Ministre de la guerre prit un arrt organisant dfinitivement la tlgraphie dans toute la colonie. / Lexcution du rseau algrien et lorganisation du
service furent confies M. Csar Lair, en 1844. Dix ans plus tard, les lignes partant dAlger desservaient les stations suivantes: / Du ct de louest et du sud-ouest: Blidah, Milianah, Medeah,
Cherche!, Tenez, Orlansville, Mostaganem, Oran, Sidi-bel-Abbs et Tlemcen; / Du ct de lest:
Aumale, Dellys, Bougie, Stif, Constantine, Philippeville, Guelma, Bne; / Du ct du sud-est:
Batna, Biskra. / Ces diffrentes stations taient gnralement plus loignes les unes des autres
quen France; la puret de latmosphre avait permis de les distancer de 10 12 kilomtres en
moyenne. Le dernier poste de tlgraphie arienne fut dmoli en Algrie, en 1859, par M. Csar
Lair, qui avait construit la premire station.
[ ]
49 Gaudin_1887_17 in the Sud Oranais: around Mchria, telegraphy: Tout le monde sait
les services que rend en temps de guerre la tlgraphie optique. Dans ce pays sauvage elle est
employe en permanence et les principales garnisons sont relies entre elles par un rseau de
postes optiques solidement construits et pourvus de puissants appareils.
[ ]
50 Belloc_1889_301302: Lors de lexpdition de Kabylie, en 1857, le gnral, depuis marchal Randon, ft appel aux ressources de la tlgraphie, qui devint ambulante et suivit la colonne
expditionnaire dans ses volutions. La communication fut assure avec Alger au moyen dune
ligne arienne que lon improvisa en suivant la marche des troupes, et cest par cette voie que le
commandant en chef put annoncer, le 24 mai 1867, loccupation du Djurjura.
[ ]
51 Noah_1819_393: When we reflect on the wonderful battles fought by the ancients in
this country [North Africa], and their extraordinary results, when we examine their armies, and
the characters of their generals, we cannot but pause in wonder at the contrast. Since the entire
destruction of Carthage, no great battle has been fought in Barbary; the spirited skirmishes of
Charles the Fifth with the Algerines and Tunisians, cannot be compared to any of the contests
appendix
between the Romans and the Carthagenians, and since the reign of that accomplished Spanish
monarch, nothing but marauding parties, and their indifferent results have been known. It is
reasonable to infer, that the Mussulmen in the north of Africa, are wholly ignorant of the military art; they will not receive instructions from a civilized person, and have none amongst themselves capable of placing a squadron in the field. One hundred thousand European soldiers
may safely march from the Gut of Gibraltar to the Deserts of Lybia, and twenty thousand disciplined troops can take possession and hold any of the kingdoms in the Barbary States.
[ ]
52 Plion_1838_101 Considrations politiques et militaires sur lAlgrie: En rsumant les faits
principaux de notre occupation de lAlgrie, nous trouvons dabord un systme mal dfini par
ignorance du pays, par consquent rien de fixe ni darrt dans les mesures administratives et
militaires; une occupation restreinte par ncessit, entranant la formation de foyers de rsistance dans lintrieur, et par suite entravant le commerce, les relations avec les indignes et le
dveloppement de la civilisation; enfin lobligation de ravitailler par mer, et celle de faire des
expditions dautant plus onreuses que nos moyens ne nous permettent pas den assurer les
rsultats.
[ ]
53 Thouvenin_1900_283433 for Algeria. 285 for the 1830 expeditions train des quipages
militaires: 851 personnel; 694 chevaux de selle et de trait; 636 mulets de bt; 128 caissons 2
roues; 128 caissons 4 roues. 307308 for the expedition to take Mascara, November 1835: 700
camels were hired with their drivers, but 900 chevaux dattelage were also needed.
[ ]
54 Fernel_1830_2324: On organisa, pour le service des transports de ladministration, deux
brigades, chacune de trois cents mulets de bt, et deux compagnies de voitures dquipage, comprenant, lune, cent vingt-huit voitures quatre roues, lautre, le mme nombre de voitures
deux roues. On tira les voitures quatre roues des ateliers du gouvernement; les autres furent
construites Paris, daprs un nouveau modle...M. Dennie avait pens que des voitures
deux roues offriraient de grands avantages dans les terrains sablonneux que lon sattendait
rencontrer sur la cte dAfrique. Les faits ne rpondirent quimparfaitement ses conjectures:
sur beaucoup de points o les pentes taient rapides et le sol rocailleux, les voitures quatre
roues auraient t prfrables.
[ ]
55 Fernel_1830_316320 for the materiel carried on the 1830 expedition. This included, for
the artillery, 62 cannon (3024, 1620, 1212 and 30,000, 20000 and 12,000 rounds respectively),
several mortars, 14 forges, 100 munition and 20 cannonball wagons, 276400 pierres fusil dinfanterie, 8,000 shovels. For the Gnie, 10,060 shovels, 8540 picks. For the administration, 128
four-wheel caissons, and 128 two-wheel ones; 180,000 bricks, 3,000kg of soup tablets, and two
months supply of food and forage for after landing, weight 4,320 metric tonnes.
[ ]
56 RDM 30 March 1842: et pour les troupes charges de le garder, tant que nos soldats et
leurs chevaux ne pourront subsister que des denres et des fourrages que la mre-patrie leur
envoie, lAlgrie nest pour nous quune conqute incertaine.
[ ]
57 Vignon_1887_3 Table of Contents: De 1830 1886, la France a dpens 4,764,336,754 fr.
en Algrie. Pendant cette mme priode les recettes du Trsor dans notre colonie ont t de
1,161,612,503 fr. Comparaison entre les dpenses faites par la France en Algrie et les dpenses
faites par lAngleterre en Nouvelle-Zlande. LAngleterre na dpens que 168,347,525 fr. dans
sa colonie. Les emprunts de la Nouvelle-Zlande. Elle paye 40 millions par an en Angleterre.
LAlgrie cote plus de 20 millions en 1886 pour ses seules dpenses civiles.
[ ]
58 Pernot_1894_247: supplying two postes 550 leagues apart, each of 1,0002,000 men,
needed a convoy every four days 20 vehicles, or 200 mules (and, for food, 30 bullocks) guarded
by a batallion of infantry and a canon.

[ ]
59 Thoumas_1887_II_183184: Dans la plupart des expditions qui prcdrent la prise
de commandement du marchal Bugeaud, les convois comprenaient des milliers de btes de
somme; il est vrai que les colonnesne se bornaient pas emmener avec elles leurs bagageset les
vivres destins leur propre subsistance. Le but mme de lexpdition tait souvent le ravitaillement dune place cerne par les Arabes, et le ravitaillement de la seule ville de Milianah a donn
lieu trois ou quatre expditions demeures clbres dans les fastes de la colonie. Dans celle qui
fut dirige par le gnral Baraguey dHilliers en 1841, le convoi ne comprenait pas moins de 4,300
chevaux ou mulets et 900 boeufs.
[ ]
60 JDPL 30 May 1841: Bourrar, dpt de Mdah est situ une journe de marche de la
ville, dans la province de Habide, sur des ruines romaines. On y arrive par un chemin montagneux et malais o on ne rencontre pas une seule source deau. Bourrar a servi quelque temps
dhpital et de dpt darmes. Mais, lapproche des Franais, tout le matriel a t transport
Tkedempt il ny est rest quune poigne dhommes avec trois canons de petit calibre. Cette
petite garnison se dfend avec beaucoup de peine contre les Kabyles des environs, aux mains de
qui la forteresse est peut-tre dj tombe.
[ ]
61 Guillaumet_1891_27 Razzia in the Djebel-Nadour, not dated: Notre camp a pris une
physionomie singulire. Au centre sont parqus les prisonniers, dans une enceinte forme par
lalignement de toutes les caisses biscuit et de tous les sacs dorge runis.
[ ]
62 Thoumas_1887_II_305: Lorsquun dtachement dune certaine force, bataillon, rgiment
ou mme brigade, tait envoy sur un point qui devait tre occup en permanence, il tait gnralement accompagn dune colonne plus forte, destine lescorter et dun long convoi portant
les vivres quil devait garder pour lui. Les vivres puiss, il fallait une expdition pour les remplacer Plusieurs de ces ravitaillements, comme nous lavons dj dit, sont rests clbres. En outre,
les troupes renfermes dans les camps et dans les postes taient compltement bloques. Le
marchal Vale avait tellement multipli les camps, que le tiers de larme tait employ les
garder (10,000 pour la seule division dAlger, sans compter les garnisons des villes), et cependant
toutes les garnisons taient trop faibles et ne pouvaient quelquefois sortir, mme pour protger la correspondance, sans sexposer tre enleves. Au camp dOued-Lallah, le 21 septembre
1838, un piquet qui avait t envoy au-devant des cavaliers qui apportaient la correspondanc,
fut attaqu par 1,800 hommes. Le commandant du camp voulait sortir avec 132 hommes; il fut
entour, forma le carr et regagna grandpeine le camp, ayant plus de 108 hommes tus ou
blesss, dont 2 officiers.On pourrait multiplier presque indfiniment ces exemples.
[ ]
63 Rousset_1900_I_22 under Clauzel: Il ntait pas prudent de saventurer hors des murailles
dAlger sans escorte; des soldats isols, des officiers, avaient t assaillis en de mme des lignes
franaises. Il navait pas t malais de dsarmer les Maures citadins; mais les assassins venaient
videmment du dehors. La seule prcaution quon pt raisonnablement prendre fut dexiger
des gens de la campagne qui voulaient entrer en ville, quils dposassent leurs armes dans des
postes expressment dsigns; tout indigne arm encourait la peine de mort sil tait pris dans
lintrieur des lignes.
[ ]
64 Spectateur_Militaire_1859_427: Outre les villes indiques plus haut, nous avions partout
des postes de surveillance, des redoutes, ds camps retranchs, des blockhauss, et quelques
centaines de mtres de ces tablissements, il se passait journellement des dsordres que nous ne
pouvions empcher. Parmi les dmonstrations importantes qui avaient t faites, on comptait la
droute de la Macta, la retraite de Constantine, et divers combats moins importants qui avaient
tourn notre dsavantage. Ces checs donnaient rflchir et compensaient en partie nos
appendix
succs. Ceux-ci, toujours chrement achets, navaient amen aucun rsultat durable lorsquils
avaient eu lieu en rase campagne.
[ ]
65 Bugeaud_1922_180181, Letter to Colonel dEsclaibes, May 1838: M. le marchal Vale dit
bien quil ne veut pas la guerre, et que la paix qui la suivrait ne pourrait diffrer beaucoup de
celle que fai faite, quelque habile et ferme que ft le ngociateur. Ce sont ses propres expressions. Cependant je crois quil se laisse entraner parle parti de la guerre. Eh! mon Dieu, moimme je serais du parti de la guerre, si je voyais quon pt la faire avec succs. Mais que feront-ils,
quoiquon ait runi devant Alger 26 bataillons? Ils savanceront dans la province deTitteri jusqu
Mda et Miliana. Ils feront quelques courses passagres sur le Chlif qui naboutiront rien qu
perdre beaucoup dhommes et dpenser beaucoup dargent, et lhiver prochain on sera bloqu
Mda et Miliana, si les garnisons ne sont que de l,500 ou 2,000 hommes. Si elles sont plus nombreuses, il faudra une colonne de 6 8,000 hommes toujours en mouvement pour les ravitailler.
Lactivit de cette colonne ne pourra mme y suffire. Leffectif actuel, qui dans la province dAlger
est de 25,000 hommes environ, sera fortement rduit par la campagne quon prpare. Il faudra
demander de nouvelles troupes et ce nest pas avec moins de 30,000 hommes quon peut tenir
Mda et Miliana dune manire un peu sre. Encore si lon portait la puissance dAbd-el-Kader
une atteinte un peu srieuse; mais non, il nen sera pas moins fort, car on le laissera parfaitement
matre de tout le pays qui lui fournit une arme quand il en veut une.
[ ]
66 Orlans_1870_209 Duc dOrlans in Africa 18359, Constantine in 1836: Le marchal
laissa cependant une garnison Guelma; la force des choses lobligeait, malgr lui, schelonner, et obir ainsi ces principes fondamentaux de lart militaire dont il nest permis personne de scarter. Il et fallu appliquer au reste de la route ce systme prudent et sr, et occuper
successivement les positions intermdiaires; mais le temps, limit la quantit de vivres, allait
manquer; le gnral en chef rsolut de pointer le plus rapidement possible sur Constantine.
Les ruines romaines semes tout le long du chemin, les vestiges de forteresses nombreuses et
rapproches et dtablissements thermaux pour les blesss et pour les malades, les dbris dune
route toute militaire passant par la crte des montagnes, depuis Hippone jusqu Cirta, semblaient avertir le marchal que, dans la guerre contre la nature, le climat et les barbares, on ne
nglige pas impunment la mthode, seule arme qui puisse triompher de tels obstacles.
[ ]
67 Thoumas_1887_II_5253: Les nombreuses campagnes de larme dAfrique, depuis 1830
jusqu ce jour, et le ravitaillement des places bloques donnrent lieu de grandes difficults, les
transports ne pouvant se faire qu dos de mulet. Les convois qui suivaient nos colonnes, emportant avec elles des vivres pour toute la dure de lexpdition, grossis encore par les ambulances,
furent souvent une cause dembarras et de luttes sanglantes, les Arabes ayant pour habitude
dattaquer le convoi aprs avoir laiss passer la colonne de combat. Cest ainsi que sont rests
clbres le ravitaillement de Milianah en 1840 par le gnral Changarnier, ceux de Milianah et
de Mdah par le mme en 1841, et la triste affaire de la Macta, o le convoi du gnral Trezel fut
envahi par les Arabes, et nos blesss massacres. On a vu cette poque des convois de plusieurs
kilomtres de longueur; les Arabes eux-mmes, tmoin Bon-Amena dans le Sud oranais, en ont
souvent trana daussi longs leur suite.
[ ]
68 Thoumas_1887_II_183: Nous verrons les guerres dAfrique dvelopper dmesurment les
convois. Ctait une ncessit et un mal invitable. Des colonnes restant en expdition pendant
plusieurs semaines dans un pays qui ne prsentait aucune ressource, taient obliges demmener avec elles tous leurs abris et leurs moyens de subsistance, souvent mme de chauffage, et
comme ces colonnes ne trouvaient pour ainsi dire jamais de routes de voitures, il sensuivait de

longues files de btes de somme. Lattaque et la dfense des convois ont jou un rle considrable dans lhistoire de la conqute de lAlgrie. Ds le dbarquement de larme Sidi Ferruch,
les convois envoys du camp aux troupes du sige eurent compter avec les surprises et les
embuscades des Arabes. La brigade Bertier, marchant de Staouli sur le plateau de Sidi Khalef,
lors de linvestissement dAlger, repoussait victorieusement les attaques de la masse des Arabes,
mais derrire elle ses bagages taient pills et enlevs par leurs coureurs.
[ ]
69 Thoumas_1887_I_166: Il a fallu les longues guerres de lAlgrie, les preuves incessantes
de dvouement donnes par le train des quipages et les dangers courus par lui dans un pays
o lattaque et la dfense des convois faisaient la moiti de la guerre, pour mettre fin ces prventions et donner au train, dans la grande famille militaire, la place que lui ont value tant de
services rendus.
[ ]
70 Roy, J.-J.-E., LAlgrie depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu nos jours, 4th ed., Paris 1880,
153 on the invasion itself: Le 15, la pointe du jour, un feu de tirailleurs sengagea sur toute la
ligne davant-postes; dans cette premire escarmouche nos soldats purent reconnatre lennemi
quils auraient combattre dsormais, et apprcier les difficults et les dangers de cette guerre.
Des masses dArabes se montraient de tous cts, mais le plus souvent de longues distances,
hors de la porte des fusils dEurope. Les leurs, dune longueur prodigieuse, portaient trs loin
et trs juste, et ils sen servaient avec une adresse meurtrire. Abrits derrire les broussailles ou
monts sur des chevaux rapides, et changeant continuellement de place, ils chappaient toute
attaque rgulire et mutilaient dune manire atroce les soldats qui tombaient entre leurs mains.
Plus tard, il nous a fallu crer des corps spciaux, et les armer de carabines grande porte, pour
dtruire ce genre de supriorit que les Arabes avaient sur nous.
[ ]
71 Revue Africaine, nd but perhaps 1836, 3841, Anon, Arme dAfrique: amliorations,
39: Larmement exige des changemens. Les longs fusils des Arabes ont une plus grande porte que les ntres, ils attaquent par ce moyen de grandes distances, et aprs avoir fait feu ils
sloignent au grand galop. Il serait dune grande importance de faire fabriquer pour les corps
de larme dAfrique, des fusils et des carabines dune porte au moins gale celle des ennemis.
[ ]
72 Decker_1846_9294 for Arab cavalry tactics.
[ ]
73 Drohojowska, Mme la contesse, LHistoire de lAlgrie raconte a la jeunesse, Paris 1848,
191: Laspect admirable et nouveau pour nos troupes de la riche nature africaine attirait, malgr
les dangers, bien des curieux hors des lignes fortifies; malheur eux, les Arabes les massacraient sans piti. Arms de fusils beaucoup plus longs que ceux des Franais, habiles profiter
du moindre pli de terrain, dun arbre, dun buisson, pour sy cacher et ajuster leur victime, les
indignes nous faisaient un grand mal et nprouvaient presque aucune perte. Depuis dix-sept
ans leur tactique est reste la mme, mais elle est devenue moins meurtrire depuis que nous
avons acquis lhabitude des lieux.
[ ]
74 Decker_1844_II_70113. 155260 for French tactics, including expeditions and razzias.
Ibid. I_26282 for assessment of Arab horses, and Arab and Kabyle as fighters, followed by a
section (2827) on tactics. As he writes of Bugeauds system, II_228, only time will tell.
[ ]
75 Lapasset_ 1873_24 fighting in four categories, then explicated in detail: All troops engaged
rare; avant-garde engaged peu srieux; arrire-garde ce sont les plus frquents; les razzias.
[ ]
76 Barbaud_1887_II_100104 for railways in Algeria and Tunisia.
[ ]
77 Desjobert_1838_60: Que peut notre supriorit militaire? Que peut la tactique europenne contre un ennemi insaisissable, qui fait aujourdhui la guerre comme il la faisait aux
Romains?
appendix
[ ]
78 Demonts_1921_246, relaying Baudens account of the 1831 corps expditionnaire. The
Kabyles at war: Ces Barbaresques font encore la guerre comme du temps des Romains; alors,
comme aujourdhui, ils avaient pour systme de cerner leur ennemi de toutes parts, de ne jamais
rsister une attaque srieuse, de ne combattre quavec des forces suprieures et de se tenir, le
plus souvent, cachs dans des buissons ou des embuscades. Ils restent tendus terre, prennent
un point dappui avec la main gauche sur un corps solide, tel quune grosse branche darbre, puis
appuyant leur fusil sur le bras ainsi fix, ils ajustent avec soin et manquent rarement le but; ils
sont conomes de leur poudre et ne la dpensent point inutilement ; malgr leur barbarie, ces
peuples honorent la mmoire des braves: mourir les armes la main est un grand honneur,
tandis que la honte sattache la mmoire de quiconque meurt de vieillesse.
[ ]
79 Milleret_1838_574: Nous nous croyons au dessus des Arabes dans lart de la guerre; et
nous ne comprenons pas encore leur mode de combattre; ils vitent notre artillerie et nos bataillons serrs quils regardent eomme des citadelles ambulantes; quand elles arrivent, ils ouvrent
les rangs, les laissent passer et cherchent surprendre les hommes isols; ils nattaquent que
quand ils sont suprieurs en nombre ou srs de la victoire. On peut dire, en quelque sorte, que
nos lourdes colonnes ne produisent sur eux dautre effet que celui quexerce sur la mer le sillage
dun navire; quand il savance, les flots sentrouvrent pour le laisser voguer, puis se referment
aussitt; aprs le passage il nen reste aucune trace.
[ ]
80 H_de_B_1834_70: Quand notre colonne se dploie pour se mettre en bataille, aprs avoir
pass le dfil, on ne voit lennemi dans aucune direction. On a fait dix lieues par une chaleur;
souvent accablante, on trouve rarement de leau pour se dsaltrer; et lon na obtenu aucun
rsultat. Il ny a dans ce genre singulier de guerre, avec un ennemi qui naccepte point de bataille
et qui ne tient jamais, quune seule chance de combat, cest le moment de la retraite. A peine le
signal est-il donn, peine la contre-marche est-elle prononce, que dj les Arabes attaquent
en tte, en queue et en flancs.
[ ]
81 Revue Africaine, [title page sic], 1837, 89: Quand la France a pris possession de
lancienne rgence, les voies romaines si nombreuses, dont la contre tait autrefois sillonne,
avaient peu prs disparu. Les indignes, ne connaissant dautres moyens de transport que les
btes de somme, pratiquaient dtroits sentiers, o notre matriel de guerre na jamais pu passer
quaprs des travaux pnibles, excuts par nos soldats. Les routes ne sont pas seulement un
moyeu d communication: elles assurent la soumission des populations; elles ouvrent le pays
la civilisation qui le pntre plus lentement, mais plus srement que les armes. / Avec les
faibles prlvemens quil a t possible doprer sur les fonds des services civils, ladministration
algrienne a fait les plus grands efforts pour prparer les communications dAlger avec lintrieur, dans les diverses directions indiques par les besoins de ltablissement et de la dfense.
Ainsi ont t ouvertes et ferres, sur une petite partie de leur parcours, les routes dAlger Blidah
etColah, aux limites du territoire rserv vers lOued-el-Kaddara et les montagnes de BeniMoussa; mais la tche tait trop au-dessus des ressources disponibles.
[ ]
82 Fraud_1867_10 on the Palace at Constantine: Un Gnois, nomm Schiaffino, qui faisait Bne un grand commerce dexportation de grains, fut ensuite mand Constantine et
charg dacheter, en Italie, les marbres et tout ce qui tait ncessaire pour dcorer une maison
fastueuse. / Ds que tous ces objets eurent t dbarqus Bne, le bey mit la disposition de
Schiaffino les hommes et les mulets ncessaires pour leur transport. / Les colonnes et autres
pices de marbre taient soigneusement emballes dans des caisses, auxquelles on adapta de
longues perches formant comme une sorte de brancard que portaient des mulets. La crainte de

mcontenter le bey tait telle, que des populations entires marchrent avec ce convoi, applanissant les passages difficiles, soutenant les charges pour viter les cahots, et maintenant une
allure rgulire la marche des mulets. Chose remarquable, cest que, malgr la maladresse habituelle des indignes, leur manque densemble dans les moindres oprations, tous les matriaux
parvinrent intacts Constantine. Il ny avait, cette poque, aucune route trace entre Bne et
cette ville, et les indignes ne disposaient dautres moyens de transport que le dos des mulets
ou des chameaux; on doit juger par l de la difficult que prsentait une semblable opration,
travers un pays souvent montueux et dune quarantaine de lieues de parcours.
[ ]
83 Girot_1840_144145: En comparant nos retranchements eu terre, nos baraques de bois
et nos murs en pis, aux solides et magnifiques ouvrages levs par les Espagnols, on ne peut
dabord se dfendre de lide que nous navons jamais eu lintention srieuse de nous tablir dfinitivement sur cette vieille terre, et dy renouveler loeuvre des Romains. / On aurait tort cependant den faire un sujet grave de reproches au gnie militaire, qui naurait pas mieux demand
que de faire du permanent et du grandiose, sil en avait eu le temps et la facult. Cette arme, qui
sest rendue fort utile et qui a beaucoup fait avec les crdits restreints mis sa disposition, a d
soccuper dabord de ce quil y avait de plus urgent pour tablir, loger les troupes et les mettre
couvert des attaques de lennemi: sil a t fait des dpenses inutiles et beaucoup de travaux
provisoires, cela a sans doute tenu aux circonstances de la guerre et au manque de fixit dans
lide primordiale qui aurait d prsider notre tablissement colonial.
[ ]
84 Fortin dIvry_1845_57: De l notre systme actuel de guerre et doccupation, le seul qui
puisse donner la scurit non-seulement la rgion des plateaux, mais aussi au littoral et
quelques valles basses qui lavoisinent; car il ne suffit pas de poursuivre les Arabes jusque dans
la rgion des plateaux et jusquau disert, il faut, si on ne veut tre immdiatement ramen lpe
dans les reins, occuper les positions dominantes et les passages du grand et du petit Atlas (ce qui
arrive maintenant de Sebdon Batna) et mme faire plus, occuper les points de ressources et
dapprovisionnement dans le Sahara comme Biskara et Laghouat.
[ ]
85 H_de_B_1834_71: Il est encore plus difficile de faire des expditions lointaines, car les
Arabes se retireront toujours en sagglomrant, et reculeront jusquau dsert, sil le faut; pour ce
genre dexpdition, dans un pays o il ny a ni villes, ni villages, il est ncessaire de se faire accompagner dun matriel indispensable; il faut des vivres, des munitions, des effets de campement,
et nous dirons bientt pourquoi; il faut enfin des prolonges et des ambulances; et comment
faire mouvoir tout cet attirail dans un pays dnu de routes, de ressources locales et de tous
moyens de communications?
[ ]
86 Chaudru_de_Raynal_1832_103104: Enfin on a song soumettre de suite lintrieur par
des expditions militaires dans les beylicks de Titterie, de Constantine et dOran. Cette opinion
parat prendre plus de consistance que les deux autres; on dit mme quil est srieusement
question dune expdition sur Constantine. Le projet me semblerait au moins prmatur. Outre
les difficults de lentreprise, dans un pays dont la population belliqueuse nous harclerait sans
cesse, o nous ne trouverions pas de route praticable pour notre artillerie et nos quipages (1),
o les subsistances fuiraient devant nous, dtruites ou entranes par les hordes nomades que
nous aurions combattre, les consquences de la victoire ne seraient pas elles-mmes assures.
Comment, en effet, nous maintenir, rpandus en petit nombre sur la surface immense dun pays
ennemi? A chaque heure notre existence serait compromise, et le moindre chec essuy par nos
troupes, relevant le courage des populations, leur inspirerait le mpris de nos armes, laudace et
appendix
la rvolte. Naventurons pas notre domination en lparpillant; soyons forts, inattaquables partout o nous nous prsenterons. A ce prix seulement lAfrique est nous. Footnote: Il existe en
Barbarie un grand nombre de voies romaines qui fournissent sans doute un moyen de communication facile pour linfanterie, la cavalerie et les btes de somme; mais, ds quon entre dans les
montagnes, lescarpement de ces routes et les degrs en pierres qui schelonnent la distance
de deux ou trois toises les uns des autres, rendent la marche trs pnible et ne permettent pas
surtout de se faire accompagner par des voitures.
[ ]
87 Spectateur_Militaire_1859_425426: De 1830 1839, on avait rudement guerroy en
Algrie; cest mme lpoque de la guerre la plus fertile en incidents propres faire valoir les
combattants. La lutte, mieux conduite depuis lors, na prsent que des succs plus facilement dcisifs qui exigeaient moins dhrosme. / A quoi nous avait mens toute cette phase
belliqueuse de neuf ans? Nous occupions, il est vrai, sur la cte, Oran, Mostaganem, Cherchel,
Alger, Bougie, Bne; Philippeville se fondait. Dans lintrieur, nous vons pris, puis abandonn,
Tlemcen, Mascara, Miliana, Mda; nous tions Blida, Guelma, Constantine, Stif. Mais il
faut savoir ce que cest que loccupation dune ville en Afrique, lorsque lon nest pas matre des
populations qui lenvironnent et que celles-ci sont hostiles. Notre installation dans des ailles qui,
partout ailleurs, nous auraient livr peu prs le pays tout entier, ne paraissait pas avoir ici la
moindre importance. Il fallait y laisser de trs nombreuses garnisons qui ne pouvaient agir loin
hors de la place; et qui se mouraient de fivres et de nostalgie. Bougie tait bloque troitement;
les autres villes ne protgeaient quun rayon de peu dtendue autour et en dehors de leurs murs
denceinte. Lorsquon 18391840 on roccupa Mda et Miliana, tout le monde sait de combien
dhommes nous tions obligs de payer chacun des ravitaillements de ces places, et les combats
meurtriers qui eurent lieu cette occasion au Teniat de Mouzaa et ailleurs.
[ ]
88 Gaudin_1887_5 in the Sud Oranais: On ne peut gure, en Algrie, voyager sans quelques
recommandations militaires; dans le Sud Oranais la chose me parat tout fait impraticable. /
Mais, en revanche, quel charmant accueil vous trouverez dans tous les endroits o quelques
attaches avec la garnison vous auront donn accs!
[ ]
89 Ministre_Tableau_1841_4657 for the building work undertaken by the gnie in 1840;
much work to solidify things: Presque partout lusage de la tente avait pu tre supprim.
[ ]
90 Bugeaud_1922_192193, Letter to Pierre Genty de Bussy, Intendant militaire, July 1839: On
mcrit dAlger que si lon na pas fait la guerre, cest quon nen a plus les moyens. La presque totalit de leffectif est paralyse par loccupation permanente dune multitude de points. Djidjelli
est venu augmenter la pnurie de troupes mobiles. En outre, on a fait prir ou laiss prir les
moyens de transports, et sans cela point de guerre. / Vous voyez quil na servi rien que jai dit et
crit jusqu satit: Peu, trs peu de postes permanents, qui ne gardent qu la porte du fusil
et absorbent leffectif de deux manires: premirement par les garnisons des postes, secondement en exigeant toute laction des troupes disponibles pour porter manger aux garnisons.
Tenez-vous toujours prts la guerre, ayant toujours au grand complet votre cavalerie et le train
des quipages, car avec les Arabes on peut sattendre la guerre tout instant, et point de guerre
en Afrique sans de nombreuses btes de somme.
[ ]
91 Napoleon_III_1865_82 Fortifications: Il nest pas douteux que le rle du gnie militaire
est de chercher avec les ressources de son art mettre les ctes et les places de lAlgrie dans le
meilleur tat de dfense possible; mais tout est subordonn aux moyens dont la mtropole peut
disposer, et il y a lieu de considrer si lutilit des travaux est en rapport avec la dpense. Or, en

France, nous avons de grandes places terminer; nous avons mme, en raison de la nouvelle
artillerie, des fortifications refaire. Est-il donc possible de songer fortifier galement toutes
les places de lAlgrie?
[ ]
92 Buret_1842_41, 46.
[ ]
93 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_187188: Medeah, Milianah, and Maskarah: all the inhabitants
of the three latter towns have fled, and every thing has been confiscated. The French do not hold
an inch of open ground without having to fire a shot for it every day; and all they do is to seize
on the towns, and endeavour to utilize what they do not burn or destroy. The feelings of hatred
thus engendered against them, and the total absence of all attempts at conciliation, must have
produced a degree of hostility in the lawful owners of the land, which will not be eradicated
perhaps for centuries.
[ ]
94 Schefer_1916_33 writing on Vale, Bugeaud et Soult, May 1841: Le ravitaillement de
Mdah et de Milianah, avec qui les communications demeuraient incertaines, simposait
dabord. Malgr la rsistance oppose, deux convois entrrent dans Mdah en mars et en avril.
Une colonne, dont faisaient partie les ducs dAumale et de Nemours, quitta ensuite Blidah par la
valle du Chlif, et, aprs avoir culbut les troupes dAbd-el-Kader, donna la main la garnison
de Milianah. Entre temps, Bugeaud, fidle son systme, faisait vacuer les postes secondaires
dans la province de Constantine puis, les troupes concentres, le gnral Ngrier poussait une
colonne vers Msilla, o linfluence dAbd-el-Kader prdominait encore et obtenait la soumission de nombreuses tribus. Dans la province dOran, le Gouverneur gnral partait lui-mme
de Mostaganem, le 18 mai, dtruisait, le 25, Takdempt o Ab-el-Kader avait tabli son principal
dpt darmes et, cinq jours aprs, entrait de vive force dans Mascara o il installait une garnison. Pour confirmer ces succs, une srie doprations complmentaires sengagrent enfin sans
dsemparer dans les trois provinces et notamment dans le Titteri o le gnral Baraguay dIlliers
allait dtruire Boghar et Thazat.
[ ]
95 Thoumas_1887_II_149: Toutes les guerres dAlgrie, de 1830 1857, furent faites avec des
batteries dobusiers de 12e, tantt atteles, tantt portes. La question de savoir sil tait prfrable datteler les pices ou de les porter dos de mulet,a donn lieu bien des discussions.
videmment, le mode prfrer dpendait de la nature du pays gnralement, dans la province dAlger, on prfrait marcher avec les pices atteles, dans la province de Constantine,
au contraire, on employait le transport dos. Ce dernier mode exigeait, chez les canonniers,
une grande habitude du transport, et certaines batteries possdaient cette habitude dune faon
remarquable. / Lartillerie de montagne devait videmment suivre les progrs delartillerie de
campagne. Lobusier de 12e pesait 100 kilogr., son afftt avait le mme poids.
[ ]
96 De_Lacharire_1832_3: Dix -huit mois se sont dj couls depuis la conqute dAlger.
La nouvelle province est deux pas de nous. On a beaucoup vant limportance de cette acquisition et elle est effectivement importante. Qua-t-on fait pour la coloniser? Non-seulement on
na pas avanc, mais on a rtrograd. Les cabales et les bdouins, que la conqute avait frapps
de terreur, ont appris nous mpriser. Nous navons mme pas russi dans ltablissement dune
ferme modle. Nos fautes, les revers qui en ont t la suite, ont dtruit lenvie qui commenait
se rpandre en France, daller stablir dans ces plaines fertiles do les Romains tiraient tant
de grains.
[ ]
97 Pellissier_1836_I_7980: Jamais, peut-tre, une occupation ne sest faite avec autant de
dsordre administratif que celle dAlger, mme dans les sicles les plus barbares. Les hordes du
Nord, qui sarrachrent les dbris de lempire romain, se conduisirent avec plus de sagesse et de
appendix
raison que nous navons fait en Afrique. Les Francs dans les Gaules, les Goths en Espagne et en
Italie; eurent le bon esprit de conserver ce qui existait, tant dans leur intrt que dans celui des
nations soumises. Lorsque les Arabes remplacrent ces derniers en Espagne, ils ne se htrent
pas non plus de tout dtruire; il nous tait rserv de donner lexemple dune telle extravagance.
[ ]
98 Milleret_1838_576: Avant de rcapituler les objections souleves contre la soumission et
loccupation de la rgence et dy rpondre, htons-nous de dire que, pour effectuer une pareille
conqute, il faut tre rsolu vaincre beaucoup dobstacles, livrer un grand nombre de combats, supporter quelques checs et quelques mcomptes, dpenser beaucoup dargent; quil
faut enfin sarmer de courage et de dcision et avoir autant de sagesse que de prudence. Que si
lon nest pas dtermin remplir toutes ces conditions pendant un certain nombre dannes,
voici ce qui arrivera: Au lieu de pousser nos conqutes et de nous tablir solidement, nous
aguerrirons les Arabes, nous nous attirerons leur mpris, et aprs avoir perdu un grand nombre
de soldats dans des marches, des contremarches, des expditions sans but et mal combines,
nous finirons par tre contraints dabandonner honteusement la terre dAfrique.
[ ]
99 Baudicour_1853_476 General Camou in 1851: Comme lapproche de notre arme les
malheureuses populations quittaient leurs villages dans le doute de nos vritables intentions,
on disait au kad de faire rentrer tous ses subordonns dans leurs maisons. Si, malgr les efforts
de leur chef, les Kabyles ne se conformaient pas cette injonction, ou bien sils ne runissaient
pas la somme exige, ils taient, sans plus dexplication, considrs comme insurgs, et immdiatement les soldats recevaient lordre daller mettre le feu aux maisons. Plus de 300 villages
ont ainsi t dtruits dans cette expdition. Beaucoup de ces villages taient trs petits, mais
quelques-uns avaient une certaine importance; on y remarquait des mosques et dautres difices publics. Auprs de quelques-uns taient des coles, des zaouas. Sans sinquiter de la clbrit des marabouts et de linfluence quils pouvaient avoir dans le voisinage, ces asiles taient
dvasts comme le reste.
[
100]Roosmalen_1860_32: Ltat, aprs avoir dpens un million dhommes, deux milliards
de francs, navait ni assez fait, ni assez peupl, ni assez dpens. Malgr son luxe de rouages et
de personnel administratif, qui aurait sulfi au gouvernement de plus de dix millions dmes, et
mme cause de cela, il avait surtout mal fait, mal peupl, mal dpens, sans choix, sans unit
de vues, sans cohsion densemble, sans continuit dexcution, flottant au souffle de tous les
projets, de tous les systmes On pouvait se demander ce qutaient alles y faire les populations
que ltat y avait pousses; ce quoi avaient servi les deux milliards que la France lui avait jets.
Ce que les populations y sont alles faire? Se ruiner et mourir.
[ ]
101 Decker_1844_II_260 for Bugeauds remark on the Arabs: Dass ihnen nichts als Disziplin
und Organisation fehlte, um die Eingeborenen zu den furchtbarsten Kriegen zu machen.
[
102]Decker_1844_II_224225 for Bugeauds plans, and his distribution of 80,000 troops
around the country 65,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 7,000 artillery. These are divided almost
equally between Algiers, Oran and Constantine.
[
103]Decker_1846_4950 Ald-el-Kader defeated 6 July 1836 on banks of the Sikak river, when
the French took six flags. But why no pursuit by the French (under Bugeaud)? Pourquoi eut-il le
temps jusquau mois daot 1837 de rparer ses pertes, crer ses fabriques darmes et de poudre,
en un mot, continuer vigoureusement la guerre?
[
104]Decker_1844_I_iii: Ein Krieg der nun schon ber 13 Jahre dauert und dessen Ende
noch gar nicht abzusehen ist mufs unbedenklich neben dem allgemeinen historischen auch
das besondere Interesse jedes gebildeten Kriegsmannes in Anspruch nehmen Der franzsisch

afrikanische Krieg wird berdies auf einem nur wenig bekannten Schauplatz und in so ganz
eigenthmlicher Weise gefhrt dafs er schon deshalb unsre Aufmerksamkeit fesselt Es entstand
daher in mir der Gedanke diesen merkwrdigen Krieg wissenschaftlich zu bearbeiten theils
zu meiner eigenen Belehrung theils weil ich glaubte meinen deutschen Waffenbrdern einen
Dienst damit zu erweisen Diese Bearbeitung stiefs indessen auf mancherlei Schwierigkeiten
eber das Kriegsland jenseits des Mittelmeers fehlt es immer noch an gengenden Nachrichten
und wenn gleich dem Bearbeiter eine Menge von Materialien vorzuliegen scheinen so sind
doch die wenigsten derselben ganz zuverlssig Wollte ich daher eine klare Anschauung vom
Kriegsschauplatz und berhaupt von dem dortigen Stande der Dinge gewinnen so blieb nichts
brig als selbst nach Afrika zu reisen.
[
105]Mauroy_1852_XIV Letter from Bugeaud to the author, 22 Feb 1845: Je savais que nous
allions plus vite que les Romains, que notre systme de guerre est plus intelligent que le leur.
Jai dit souvent de ces choses-l dans mes correspondances. Mais vous le dmontrez, lhistoire
la main, de manire a convaincre les plus incrdules; je vous en remercie pour la France, pour
larme dAfrique et pour moi.
[
106]Desjobert_1844_1: Il est aujourdhui peu dhommes, parmi ceux qui se sont occups
srieusement des affaires du pays, qui ne dplorent les consquences de lexpdition de 1830. La
plupart rptent avec M. le marchal Bugeaud que lAfrique est un legs funeste fait par la restauration la rvolution de juillet, et disent avec M. Thiers: Je ne sais pas un homme de sens qui,
si lAfrique tait occuper, irait entraner la France dans une pareille entreprise.
[
107]Le Charivari March 1844, 310: Un journal accuse le ministre de faire la guerre pour la
guerre en Algrie. Eh non! ils font la guerre l-bas pour avoir la paix ici.
[
108]Decker_1844_I_35 In a letter re. conditions under Bugeaud: general Bugeaud liegt mit
eiserner Hand auf der Administration, kann uber nicht durchdringen, weil diese mit den Pariser
Machthabern im Ministerium eng zusammenhngt. Der pot de vin regiert Alles.
[
109]JDPL 9 June 1838. Bugeaud to the Chamber: Cependant il faudrait bien sentendre. La
guerre ne se fait pas avec de la sensibilit; la guerre ne se compose pas seulement de combats; la
guerre est aussi une attaque aux intrts. Or, il ny a pas dautre intrt saisir en Afrique que les
moissons...Je fis donc la paix. Le gouvernement la ratifie et je crois Messieurs, que cela a t
un bonheur pour les affaires de lAfrique. Messieurs, pour fonder quelque chose en colonisation,
il faut tre en paix avec ses voisins, ou avoir soumis ses voisins. Je ne crois pas quil soit possible
de coloniser en prsence des Arabes, de faire de lagriculture lombre des camps retranchs ou
des blockaus. On peut faire des jardinages, mais on ne fait pas de lagriculture on ne fonde pas
des villages on ne fait pas de lagriculture, quand il faut avoir le fusil dune main et la bche de
lautre.
[ ]
110 Lamoricire_1836_31: Aujourdhui, dans la Chambre, il ne se trouve plus de voix pour
proposer labandon dAlger, tant la ncessit de loccupation est un fait reconnu. Deux avis seulement partagent srieusement les membres de lassemble; les uns veulent loccupation purement militaire des principaux points de la rgence; les autres dsirent que le gouvernement,
sans prter aux colons dautre appui quune protection suffisante pour assurer leur tranquillit,
travaille avec persvrance tablir solidement son influence parmi les populations indignes.
[ ]
111 Lamoricire_1836_3536: Quant au nombre de troupes ncessaire pour nous assurer
la possession de ces quatre points, admettant que nous soyons en paix avec toutes les puissances maritimes, je crois quen fixant la force de leur garnison pour Oran 4,500 hommes,
appendix
Alger 6,000, Bougie 2,000, Bone 3,500, je crois, dis-je, rester au-dessous des besoins de
la ralit. Pour sen convaincre il suffit seulement de considrer la ncessit de se dfendre
contre les populations indignes, qui, nous voyant ainsi nous renfermer dans nos villes, concevraient pour nous le plus profond mpris, et dans lespoir quelles nourrissaient incessamment
de nous chasser de leur territoire, seraient constamment occupes harceler nos garnisons.
Ajoutons ces observations, les maladies, suite du climat, et les effets funestes de la nostalgie qui
semparerait coup sr de soldats condamns vgter entre les murs troits de leur brlante
prison, et certes on reconnatra quun chiffre de 16,000 hommes nest pas suffisant pour occuper
les quatre points militaires de la rgence. Quant aux dpenses, ltat continuel dhostilit qui
existerait ncessairement entre les indignes et nos garnisons, empcherait constamment ces
dernires de sapprovisionner dans le pays ou du moins de pouvoir jamais compter sur cette
ressource. Nos troupes seraient donc obliges de tirer de France tout ce dont elles pourraient
avoir besoin.
[ ]
112 Schefer_1916_35 discord: Touchant ladministration, celui-ci [Soult] avait, en outre et
chose remarquable, une prfrence certaine pour les fonctionnaires civils. Bugeaud, par contre,
voulait la haute main aux militaires. Guizot enfin; qui intervenait activement, tout au moins
en sous-main, proposait de diviser le pays en deux zones dont lune serait compltement europenne, tandis que les Arabes administreraient eux-mmes lautre ide ingnieuse peut-tre,
manifestement inspire par lancienne occupation restreinte, mais que le gouverneur gnral dclarait premptoirement irralisable.
[ ]
113 Guide du colon et de louvrier en Algrie, rdig daprs les documents officiels, Paris 1843.
Very upbeat account, victory and civilisation. 100pp of 16mo with basic information on the system of colonisation inb the various provinces, then suitable crops. 3043 Des srets et garanties, des ressources et avantages que lAlgrie offre aux colons secure villages, great countryside,
roads, salubrity, good water, hospitals, churches, free land and building concessions including
materials: cf. 38 la pierre btir est, dailleurs, partout porte des colons, et ils peuvent lextraire volont. Colons are also to be loaned animals, and given tools and seeds, quelquefois
titre gratuit. Also tax concessions, and Facult donne aux colons de laisser prendre hypothques sur leurs concessions. 4471 formalities and transport arrangements. 856 wages per
diem in Algeria: carpenters, masons, stone-cutters, pavers, painters, bakers etc.
[ ]
114 Mathieu_de_Dombasle_1838_1: Or, il parait que les commissaires [sent in 1833] exprimaient peu prs unanimement le regret que la France ft engage dans cette entreprise, dont
les rsultats ne devaient pas tre favorables ses intrts; mais la conclusion unanime tait quil
faut conserver cette conqute.
[ ]
115 JDPL 12 June 1836: Amde Jaubert on soldier mortality and illness, then on liberties
in Algeria: Vous voyez que votre commission sest leve avec autant dnergie quil dpendait
delle contre les promenades militaires entreprises dans lintrt des colons et des brocanteurs
de terres. Cest la conclusion formelle que je tire du passage que je viens de lire. To which Clausel
replies: On a dit encore que nous faisions des promenades militaires dans lintrt des colons.
Messieurs, nous nen faisons que dans le ntre, dans lintrt de la souverainet du pays, de la
souverainet de la France. Cest donc pour nous et non pour tes colons.
[ ]
116 Bulletin des travaux de la Compagnie Algrienne de Colonisation I, 1834, with list of
actionnaires, the Duc dOrlans taking 20 shares = 20,000fr. Includes useful summary of current political opinions on what to do with Algeria. This mob is in no doubt, 15: Alger est la

France; plus de doute, plus dincertitudes, le gouvernement a prononc.../ Le moment est venu
dappeler sur cette belle conqute les pacifiques spculations de lagriculture et du commerce.
Actionnaires include Clauzel.
[ ]
117 Figaro_06_06_1836 Le marchal Clausel est surtout mcontent dune motion quon veut
faire la chambre des dputs, qui tendrait interdire aux fonctionnaires publics de lAlgrie le
droit de faire en Afrique des acquisitions territoriales.
[ ]
118 RDM 23 July 1847: Les adversaires les plus dcids de notre tablissement en Afrique,
ceux-l mme qui nauraient pas hsit vacuer lAlgrie, lorsque nous y tions en paix avec
tout le monde, ne voudraient pas aujourdhui abandonner un pouce de terrain.
[ ]
119 Commission_dAfrique_1834B_29: Lobjection la plus forte contre la colonisation est
celle de la dpense, mais cette dpense est toute dans lemploi dune arme; si vous lavez en
Afrique, vous ne laurez pas en France; dailleurs elle pourra tre tous les jours rduite. Un systme de pacification me parat devoir tre suivi avec avantage: il obtiendra bientt dheureux
rsultats; mais cest justement pour y arriver quil faut stablir militairement, et quil faut coloniser sous la protection des troupes.
[
120]Commission_dAfrique_1834_50 as for roads, Plusieurs lignes principales sont traces et
dj en voie dexcution au moyen de larme...non-seulement elles ont une grande utilit stratgique, mais encore quelles lient entre eux les principaux points o la colonisation agricole
peut le plus convenablement stablir. 87: Il est probable que lon pourrait confier aux tribus
amies la garde des postes intermdiaires. This could be done, he estimates (88) with 28,100 men,
then goes on to advise incorporation of indigenous cavalry in bthe French army (NB there had
been some chasseurs algriens recruited in 1831). 8990 for public works, including fortifications; for this troops should be used for travaux salubres, also companies de discipline (i.e. army
types imprisoned), and also forats the three groups to be kept separate.
[ ]
121 Commission_dAfrique_1834B_199: Dans aucune partie de la rgence, la puissance franaise naura autant de facilits pour stendre et se dvelopper. On peut aller jusquaux portes
de Constantine et mme au-del, sans rencontrer des obstacles naturels; presque toujours en
plaine ou par des chemins aisment praticables, mme pour lartillerie. Les Romains nous ont
montr le chemin: on na qu suivre les traces de leurs stations militaires, les vestiges de leurs
camps. Ils marquent leur marche progressive dans lintrieur et tmoignent hautement de leur
systme doccupation. Ce que les Romains ont fait, pourquoi ne le ferions nous pas, avec plus de
moyens et dintelligence?
[
122]Commission_dAfrique_1834B_406: Les travaux de fortification seraient peu de chose,
pour le moment du moins, puisquil suffirait dentretenir, dans chacune de ces villes, une enceinte
capable de rsister aux attaques des indignes. Les casernes seraient peu dispendieuses, puisque
les garnisons, qui nauraient jamais faire la guerre au dehors, et qui nauraient qu repousser
des troupes irrgulires, seraient peu nombreuses.
[
123]Commission_dAfrique_1834_Preface: La France inquite et indcise prouve le besoin
de sclairer; elle sait que sa gloire et ses intrts matriels sont vivement engags. Deals with
colonists rich and poor, and with the natives, roads and ports, then passes on to types of agriculture to be adopted.
[
124]Commission_dAfrique_1834_85 General Bonnet, rapporteur for the commission: Sous
le rapport militaire la France peut tirer de grands avantages de loccupation de la Rgence. Elle
y trouve des places fortes, des rades excellentes, au moyen desquelles elle pourrait appuyer des
oprations militaires dans tout le midi de lEurope.
appendix
[
125]Lamoricire_1836_15: les membres des deux commissions avaient t flatts de limportance que leur donnait une position qui les avait mis mme de simmiscer dans la partie active
du gouvernement; et les dputs, par une raction naturelle, navaient pas t insensibles, l
marque de confiance: accorde quelques, uns de leurs collgues. La Chambre semblait donc
dispose sassocier aux vues du ministre qui, adoptant les bases proposes par la commission,
convainquit lassemble de la ncessit de loccupation et obtint par suite les fonds indispensables pour sontenir lexistence phmre de notre colonie.
[
126]Le Charivari 15 April 1842, 409: Ce ntait point assez du simoun, des Bdouins, des sauterelles...il fallait encore que lAlgrie ft soumise au flau dune commission...Noy dans cet
ocan de commissions, lAlgrie se dbat, mais en vain; pour dcider son sort on attend toujours
un rapport qui narrive jamais.
[
127]LAvenir de Tbessa 9 March 1924. Protests about a housing commission: On sait quen
fait dimmeubles Tbessa il nexiste que des fondouks et des ruines o les gens faute de mieux
sentassent les uns sur les autres et nous ne voyons pas comment ces ruines romaines, remises
en quilibre et rgimentes par les modernes occupants, ont pu tre assimiles des maisons
de rapport et prendre une valeur qui na jamais existe que dans la cervelle des pontifs formant
la commission.
[
128]Rapport densemble sur les travaux de la commission de colonization et dimmigration de
la Province dAlger, Algiers 1871. Construction work to be completed around Algiers (from the
reports numbered entries), including a lot of villages burned by insurgents 110 villages in the
list, by number: 42 Amoura: ruines romaines considrables; 5053, 59 five villages to be built
along the railway line; 68 An Benian: Village crer auprs des ruines dun barrage romain;
71 Bordj-Boura: ditto; 79 Amellaguen: Village construire prs des ruines dun ancien village
romain; 91 Sour-Djouab: ditto. p. 31: Les 100 villages comprennent 9000 familles qui a raison de
5 membres par famille, constitueront une population nouvelle de 45,000 habitants.
[
129]LAlgrie devant lAssemble nationale. Causes des insurrections algriennes; par un officier de larme dAfrique. 1871, 67 for causes which he goes on to discuss in detail: nous attribuons linsurrection actuelle aux causes matrielles suivantes: 1 Dpart de toutes les troupes
pour France; 2 Affaiblissement du principe dautorit; 3 Changement successif de personnel
et de systmes; 4 Naturalisation des Isralites; 5 Attitude des Europens.
[
130]Lamoricire_1836_12: Informs long-temps lavance de larrive des membres de la
commission, les Maures dAlger avaient us de toutes leurs ressources pour prparer ceux-ci
une rception qui put leur faire prendre une ide tout--fait dfavorable des dispositions des
populations notre gard, et jeter dans leur esprit des doutes sur la possibilit de nous tablir
jamais solidement dans lintrieur des terres.
[ ]
131 Lamoricire_1836_8ff for Des effets des discussions de la Chambre sur la Colonie. 1011:
Minister wished to proceed so that French honour was not compromised: Ce furent, je crois, ces
considrations qui engagrent le marchal Soult envoyer en Afrique, vers la fin de 1833, une
commission compose en grande partie de membres des deux Chambres. Elle devait observer
le pays, les dispositions de ses habitans, et par ses travaux fixer les ides du gouvernement sur la
possibilit, lutilit de la conservation de la rgence, et sur les moyens les plus convenables pour
atteindre ce rsultat. Un grand apparat accompagna cette commission, dont le voyage, annonc
long-temps lavance, dut veiller toute lattention des indignes. Ceux-ci sont informs dune
manire surprenante, pour les personnes qui nont pas t mme den pntrer les causes, de
tout ce qui se passe en France au sujet de lAfrique. Ces causes sont cependant faciles saisir. Il

existe Paris un Maure charg, par un comit tabli Alger, de se tenir au courant de tous les
projets que le gouvernement forme sur lavenir de la colonie, et dobserver attentivement les
fluctuations que lopinion publique subit ce sujet. Daprs les rapports de cet agent trs-bien
inform, les membres du comit, habitant la rgence, sont constamment mme de rpandre
en quelques instans dans le pays les bruits quils jugent les plus capables dopposer lexcution
des vues adoptes par le pouvoir des obstacles redoutables.
[
132]Anon_Blackwoods_1841_198 after emphasizing the drain on the finances of France:
It is no wonder that under these circumstances some of the more clear-sighted of the French
deputies should call for a change of system, and for an abandonment of the attempt to colonize
a country that never can be French. The most sensible of the politico-economists now in the
French legislature see fully, that Algiers does not tend to help the country out of its present
financial difficulties, and that it only keeps open a perpetual door for ministerial intrigue and
profligacy. Some recommend that the inland towns should all be given up; that France should
retain two or three ports alone, and should form such treaties with chiefs of tribes as to hold
them in a kind of tributary subjection; but in other respects to leave the country to itself and to
its own resources. Others are for going on with what they call the system of colonization, and, as
a preliminary to it, with the complete subjugation of the country a thing more than chimerical.
Some of the organs of public opinion in France, sensible enough on other points, go stark mad
the moment Algiers is mentioned, and talk of it as a source of strength and dignity to the country, only to be relinquished at the price of a general European war. The Dbats [JDPL], commonly
the organ of whatever ministry happen to be in power, has been lately talking of the necessity
of there being a French Africa just as there is a British India; and has bepraised the French
nation for following up, at the price of blood and trouble, the destinies which her own genius
and providence have opened for her!
[
133]Anon_Blackwoods_1841_199: If the French are pleased with their conquest they must
be in a state of extraordinary mental blindness and fatuity: they are keeping up an immense
army, and a large civil establishment, at a yearly increasing cost, and with a daily diminution of
national honour; while a few thousands of the wild children of the desert laugh them to scorn,
and show that they have in reality done nothing more than verified the old Joe Miller of catching a Tartar. The real cause of the continuation of this system is, that the Government dares not
offend the army; and that it is obliged to find an outlet for that restless spirit by which sooner
or later it must itself be consumed. France is now entirely prostrate at the foot of the sovereign
who sits on an usurped throne, and who is kept on it only by the force of 400,000 bayonets; she
is doomed within a few years to be again degraded beneath the ascendancy of a fierce unprincipled democracy, and to assume the aspect of a military republic; but Algiers the army would
not now give up, even if the king were willing, and the popular party at home find it too cheap
a theme for singing their Marseillaise upon, and for insulting the more respectable powers of
Europe, to make it possible for the deputies to vote as they are inclined in this matter.
[
134]Walmsley_1858_164 Major Deval at Tiziouzou: He assured me he had enough to do to
keep his men in order, who were, he said, the off-scourings of the Algerine army, men of such
bad character that their presence could not be borne within their regiments, and who were
therefore sent to this out-of-the-way spot to keep them out of harms way. The Algerine army
itself serves as a kind of drain to run off the evil effervescence and unquiet spirits of the French
army; and thus men who cannot be managed in France are without further trouble incorpo-
appendix
rated into African corps, while those regiments in their turn draft away their worst men for service on the frontier.
[
135]Ministre_Tableau_1841_11: Abd-el-Kader organising regular batallions, and having men
trained by deserters, mostly from the Lgion trangre: Lart de la guerre est videmment en
progress chez les indignes non soumis; et cependant ce que nous aurions en redouter est
compens par de rels avantages. Lennemi est devenu plus facilement saisissable, et ses corps
rguliers ont beaucoup souffert en plusieurs rencontres.
[
136]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XVI 1841, 358: Travaux particuliers des officiers dtat-major. Par
leurs divers services, les officiers du corps royal dtat-major augmentent journellement les
connaissances gographiques. Quelques uns voyagent en Orient, et fournissent la science de
bons renseignements. Ceux qui sont attachs au Dpt lvent la nouvelle carte de France; mais
ils ne bornent pas leurs occupations cette opration trigonomtrique. Les uns mettent profit
leurs connaissances gologiques, et dcrivent les formations diverses des dpartements quils
parcourent; dautres soccupent avec succs de recherches archologiques, et font faire des progrs la gographie ancienne. Ils indiquent sur leurs travaux les voies gauloises, les chausses
romaines, les lieux de campement et de station, ainsi que les vestiges des monuments de tous
les ges, Cest ainsi que la position du Noviodunum des Bituriges a t rectifie, et que la station
de Roranum situe 16 lieues gauloises de Poitiers, lancienne Limonum, a t dtermin par la
dcouverte dune colonne milliaire. Le Spectateur Militaire et le Bulletin de la Socit des antiquaires de lOuest contiennent sur ces points de gographie ancienne deux Mmoires dun haut
intrt pour ltude historique des localits dans les parties de la Gaule quon dsignait sous le
nom de premire et seconde Aquitaine.
[
137]SHD Papiers Pelet (Jean-Jacques-Germain, Lieutenant Gnral et Directeur du Dpt
de la Guerre from 1830), supplement, Algerie 18321850, carton 1319, contains detached,
unsigned pages on military preparations in Algeria. cf. 39 on the Roman road between Stora and
Constantine: les dgradations que les pluies y ont occasionnes pendant une longue dure de
sicles, lont ruine comme toutes les autres voies du mme genre en Barbarie. Mais laide de
quelques travaux, on parviendra facilement en rattacher les parties interrompues et la rendre
praticable lartillerie. Il ne faut pas perdre de vue que notre artillerie a acquis aujourdhui
une notabilit qui ne connait presque plus dobstacles. The same opinion is to be found in a
mmoire of 8 November 1839 by general Berthezune, extract of letter rather, in which he notes
that the trip between Stora and Constantine takes 4 days, but that Le chemin est assez bon et
parat permettre dy mener de lartillerie.
[
138]Pelet is not beyond cadging information from his friends. Letter dated 8 February 1832 to
M. de Lesseps, Consul general et Charg dAffaires Tunis. Pelet is making a map of the country,
mesure que notre domination se consolide Alger and Jai pens que vous consentierez
dans lintrt gnral du service et de la science, me faire part des richesses de votre portefeuille, me donner connaissance des nombreux itinraires que vous avez pu rdiger laide
des rapports des voyageurs et des ouvrages anciens et modernes qui traitent de la gographie
de ces contres.
[
139]SHD 3M541, Dpt de la Guerre: Algrie 18301836.
[
140]SHD MR1316, item 12;1316 item 6, G. Tatareau, Voyage dans la Province dOran, 5
September 1835, 266 pages plus index .
[ ]
141 SHD 634/1314 Itinraire de la route dAlger Boghar, dated 1842.

[
142]Esquer_1929_3840: Lors de lexpdition du marchal Clauzel contre Mascara en 1835,
le capitaine Gent fut charg de dessiner les vues des principaux camps et de lattaque de
la ville. Alexandre Gent avait fait en 1830 la campagne dAlger comme lieutenant au 30e de
Ligne. Capitaine la Lgion Etrangre, puis au 51e de Ligne il a sjourn en Algrie du 14 juin
1830 au 30 octobre 1831, de 1833 juin 1835 et de novembre 1835 au 22 mai 1837. / Durant lexpdition de Mascara, raconte le futur marchal Canrobert, on le vit par nimporte quel temps,
accroupi sur une pierre et prenant des notes sur un grand album. Il tait toujours accompagn
dun affreux moricaud mont sur un mulet et dont les longues jambes, maigres et velues, pendaient ngligemment terre. Il tenait le cheval du capitaine lors de ses arrts et lui servait de
guide. / Genet se proposa de composer un Atlas de la province dOran qui devait comprendre
300 planches lithographies en trois teintes la manire dHarding et quinze feuilles de texte.
Dix vues taient dj excutes en septembre 1838 et louvrage ddi au Roi devait paratre dans
le courant de lanne 1830. La publication resta ltat de projet et cest dans lAlgrie pittoresque
de Berbrugger, parue en 1844, que Gent utilisa quelques-unes de ses tudes, aussi bien celles de
Mascara et dOran que celles de Bne et de Constantine. Lors de la premire expdition contre
cette ville en 1836, il avait t charg en effet, comme Mascara, de dessiner les vues des principaux points qui seront occups par nos troupes et celles des actions les plus importantes qui
pourront avoir lieu....Larme qui marchait sur Mascara comptait dans ses rangs un autre
peintre que le capitaine Gent. Claude-Thodore Leblanc, capitaine du gnie, avait t lve de
Charlet en mme temps que Raffet. Dun sjour de trois ans en Grce et dans le Levant, il avait
rapport 32 croquis daprs nature publis en 1834 chez Gilbert. / Employ en Algrie la suite
du duc dOrlans (27 octobre 1835 au 18 janvier 1836), puis attach ltat-Major du marchal
Clauzel (16 aot 1836), il fut bless mortellement Constantine, le 10 novembre 1837. Son ami
Raffet a immortalis sa mort, et il figure, son crayon la main, dans un des tableaux de Vernet
(Constantine. Dpart des colonnes dassaut). Son album, Expdition de Mascara (Gibaut diteur), comprend douze lithographies dont il existe des tirages en noir et en couleurs.
[
143]Saint-Arnaud_1858_272 to his brother, May 1850, bivouac of Raz-Gueber: Javais dj vu
des ruines en Grce, en Italie, en Asie; mais elles mimpressionnaient moins. Peut-tre mon
admiration pour lantique tait-elle moins dveloppe, en raison de mon peu de rflexion peuttre aussi que je trouve les ruines plus dignes dattention mesure que je me rapproche delles?
Cest un langage bien potique et bien profond que celui de ces normes pierres sculaires qui
sont restes debout au milieu des temptes et de la destruction des mondes. / Je rapporterai
ma femme un curieux album. Jai un dessinateur attach ma colonne. Cest un jeune fourrier aux chasseurs qui a t lcole polytechnique, renvoy pour opinion. Son crayon nest pas
rouge. Jai aussi, dans la lgion trangre, un ex-officier hongrois que jai fait sergent; il dessine
fort bien. / Jai un aumnier, labb Parabre, que je viens de faire recevoir chevalier de la Lgion
dhonneur devant la deuxime brigade. Il va nous dire la messe en face dun vieux temple chrtien. Toute larme y assistera. Est-ce que tu ne trouves pas quon lve mieux son me vers Dieu
en plein air que dans une glise le vrai temple de Dieu, cest la nature. He had indeed seen the
ruins of Greece, having gone in 1822 to help the Greeks in their War of Independence, but lasting
there less than a year.
[
144]SHD MR4/1315, Capitaine Koch, Mmoire sur le Leve la Boussule des environs du
Camp de Khramis des Beni Ouracs, October 1843.
[
145]SHD Gnie, 1H401: Reconnaissances expditions, 18389; Reconnaissance faite sur
Milah 1013 Feb 1838.
appendix
[
146]SHD Gnie, 1H401: Reconnaissances expditions, 18389, Reconnaissance faite du 6 au
12 avril [1838] entre Constantine et Stora, 58.
[
147]SHD Gnie, 1H402, Reconnaissances et expeditions, 1840 1843, Rapport sur les travaux
executes par les troupes du Gnie du 17 mai au 15 juillet 1843.
[
148]SHD MR33/1314 Colonel Prtot, Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Rgence dAlger,
considres dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure du
pays, 7 January 1834.
[
149]SHD 1M1321, 18781879, i.e. before the invasion, so this is a utilitarian report, with practically nothing on antiquities. Le Commandant Perrier, Mmoire sur la place et les environs de
Tunis, avec un lev topographique...par MM. les Capitaines Derrien, Koszuyski & Verthaut. 2:
double walls, in some places up to 15m in height. 34: Chemins de fer. 4: good drinking water,
and the aqueduc gigantesque...a t remplac par une canalisation souterraine avec syphons
nombreux, restaure dans ces dernires annes...sur tout le parcours du canal et de distance
en distance, sont disposes des robinets qui permettent dalimenter 25 fontaines ou Seballas,
recouvertes dune Kouba. 5: Lignes tlgraphiques. 7: leaving la Goulette, Sur la droite la route
de Carthage, et sur les bords de la mer, sur un sol presque plat, schelonnent des palais et des
villas entours de jardins. 11: La place de Tunis est admirablement protge...elle pouvait offrir
une rsistance formidable.
[
150]SHD 1M1321 Mission de Tunisie, 1879. par MM. les Capitaines Derrien, Koszuyski &
Verthaut, Rapport rsumant les tableaux ditinraire annexs au lev de la Route stratgique
entre Tunis et la Frontire Algrienne, fait sur la direction de M. le Commandant Perrier. Useful
for a description of the countryside, well, fountains, gardens, etc 2: Tunis to Tebourba: La route
est en terrain naturel, empierre seulement par intervalles, au moyen de matriaux tirs dune
ancienne voie romaine; elle est dune largeur trs variable, cause de lhabitude quont les
Tunisiens, dempieter sur les bords des chemins, lorsque dans la saison humide, ces derniers se
sont creuss en ornires il ny a, ni chausse au milieu, ni fosss lateraux. 910 village of Medjezel-Bab, Les maisons sont en bonne maonnerie, construites, pour la plupart, de matriaux
anciens, et couvertes en tuiles fabriques sur place. Il y a une belle mosque, plusieurs marabouts, et les restes dun ancien arc de triomphe. From Medjez-el-Bab to Testour, 11: le chemin,
qui prsente en beaucoup de points des traces des anciens empierrements romains...ruines de
Chehoud el Batal, ainsi nommes (faux tmoignage), de faux tmoins chtis par Allah. 12 Au
del de Hongnia, il ny a plus quun chemin unique, lancienne voie romaine...Cette partie est
plus dfonce que la prcdente; des travaux damlioration y seraient ncessaires. 13 Testour,
after mentioning the ruined Roman bridge: Il y a beaucoup dautres ruines anciennes parses
dans les rues, et cest aussi avec danciens matriaux quont t construits les neuf minarets de
la ville, dont plusieurs, il est vrai, sont en ruines. 1415 An Tounga and its hill: proximit de
deux sources qui en descendent, et qui forment une magnifique fontaine borde darbres, leur
origine...Lemplacement serait trs bonne pour un campement. 1819 Bordj Messaudi is a caravanserai with good water, and a well inside it. Lemplacement mme du caravansrail est celui
dun ancien chteau romain. Il y a des vues au loin sur toute la plaine. 20 on the way to Le Kef:
on traverse lOued Kedin, prs dun vieux pont romain ruin; on passa gu, ct dune source
abondante. 27ff Rsum, fine for a small column: 27: Elle a pu tre suivi, dun bout lautre, par
deux voitures suspendues, atteles 4 chevaux, et par des charettes italiennes deux roues, non
suspendues, un cheval.

[ ]
151 Guilbert_1839_118119: A chaque pas, nos savans et nos soldats rencontrent et admirent
les dbris de ce glorieux pass. Ce sont des fortifications, des aqueducs, des restes damphithtres, des cintres de votes, des colonnes, des pans de murailles et quelquefois des villes
entires qui se profilent ct des galeries vivantes formes par les tiges des palmiers, ou planent au-dessus des halliers pais et des hautes herbes du sol, comme pour nous exciter relever
ce vieux monde de ses ruines.
[
152]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_16: Dans les Gaules surtout, on pourrait remonter, la
rigueur, jusqu lorigine des familles romaines qui sy sont tablies; la lgislation et la civilisation romaines y existent; il y a un peuple romain en France, de mme quil y a un peuple franc
ct des dbris des Gaulois.
[
153]Leroy-Beaulieu_1897_22: Les habitants de Tbessa, tout dvous quils soient lislamisme, se disent fils de Romains; ils se servaient encore en 1842 de monnaies romaines, lors de
lentre de nos soldats dans leur ville. Dans les montagnes de lAurs on trouve aussi des tribus
qui passent pour descendre des Romains. Lobservation scientifique rcente a dmenti ltrange
affirmation de feu le docteur Bertillon que les Romains aient t consums jusquau dernier par
le brlant soleil dAfrique.
[
154]Hugonnet_1858_154: il est bon de noter que lun des arguments employs le plus volontiers par ceux qui prchent le progrs, nous est au contraire une chose nuisible en Algrie. Je
veux parler des vestiges de la grandeur romaine, des nombreuses ruines ddifices et de routes
laisses par les enfants de Romulus. Jai entendu dire des indignes: Nous ne savions pas
autrefois ce que ctaient que ces longues lignes paves, travers champs, maintenant que nous
avons vu travailler les Franais leurs routes, nous voyons bien ce que cest, les roumis sont
revenus prendre possession du pays de leurs anctres, dont ils ont conserv les habitudes travailleuses. Cest trs-bien; mais quand nous disons: Voyez ces ruines, considrez comment
nos pres staient tablis partout, comment ils avaient civilis tout le pays, jusquaux confins du
Sahara, au milieu desquels on trouve encore des amas de dcombres; le musulman pense intrieurement cette autre chose: Tout cela a dj disparu une fois, devant lhabitant de la tente
(car il sattribue lexpulsion des Romains), donc, il peut bien arriver une seconde disparition.
[
155]Devoisins_1840_3: Nous citons tout propos les Romains, pour et contre loccupation
de lAfrique, bien que nous nayons de similitude avec ce peuple minemment conqurant, que
celle de la valeur guerrire; ce qui ne suffit pas la transformation de nos conqutes en provinces productives. Les Romains se battaient pour acqurir des terres o ils stablissaient immdiatement en cultivateurs, ils fuyaient les villes pour les campagnes: nous, au contraire, nous
combattons sans trop savoir pourquoi, et nos chefs, pour donner matire quelques bulletins
qui exaltent leur gloire.
[
156]Hanoteau, A., chef de bataillon du gnie, Archologie du territoire des Beni Raten,
in RA V 1861, 174183. See 180: Une circonstance assez curieuse faire remarquer, cest que les
terrains dAguemmoun Oubekkar et ceux dOurthi n-Taroumrnant, o se trouvent les ruines n
7, sont, depuis un temps immmorial, la proprit de la famille Abekkar, qui passe dans le pays
pour tre dorigine romaine. Elle forme maintenant, sous le nomdIbekkaren, pluriel dAbekkar,
une fraction du village dIril Guefri. Cette famille nest pas la seule laquelle on attribue une origine romaine. Outre les Ait Bida, du village de Taourit Aden, chez les At Fraoucen, signals par
M. le lieutenant-colonel Wolff, on trouve encore, chez les Bni Raten, au village des Ait Ferah,
une fraction appele les Ali Salem, que lon dit issue des anciens chrtiens; les At Kode des
Bni Djenad auraient aussi, daprs les traditions, la mme origine.
appendix
[
157]Hilton-Simpson_1921_91: I spent most of the few days we passed at Tagoust in obtaining from the chief some notes upon the history of some of the Shawfa tribes to add to those I
had obtained elsewhere, which, while scarcely of sufficient interest to warrant their inclusion in
these pages, are noteworthy in that they corroborated some statements made by other natives
that a number of Shawfa tribes claim direct descent from the Romans.
[
158]Wilkin_1900_110111: Near the little village of Tagoust the ground is seamed in all directions with white and shining veins of excellent marble. Tagoust itself is built of white marble
blocks rudely chipped and knocked into position with a simple iron hammer. The clay is red,
saturated probably with iron that has also in some instances stained the veins of marble with
beautiful shades of brown and rose, and of this clay the mortar is made by the simple expedient of digging a hole in the ground, filling it with water, stirring, and kneading the result to the
proper consistency. The marble has already been quarried in places, but at present transport by
mule over the existing tracks is more expensive than so heavy a commodity can bear. It remains
to be seen whether the new mule road will make the industry the success it should be with a
railway within twenty miles and the growing towns of Biskra and El Kantara demanding good
and ornamental material for new houses.
[
159]Playfair_1877_70 he liked his hosts at Batna, as perfect specimens of berber nobility as
it is possible to imagine, and looked, indeed, as if they had been thawed out of marble statues of
Roman emperors in the British Museum.
[
160]Clamageran_1874_63: Au moment de prendre le train pour Relizane, nous fmes
tmoins la gare, dans la salle dattente, dune scne pathtique. Un chef arabe allait partir avec
nous par le chemin de fer. Ctait un beau vieillard barbe blanche, aux yeux vifs, drap dans son
burnous comme un consul romain dans sa toge.
[ ]
161 Charvriat_1889_21: Somme toute, le Kabyle, si diffrent de lArabe sous tant dautres
rapports, shabille peu prs comme lui. Cest un personnage lextrieur antique et comme un
fils de patriarche, qui se draperait dans la toge romaine.
[
162]RA 1860 issue 24, 426433, Dr. Leclerc, Campagne de Kabilie, en 1850. 431: Des
groupes de Kabiles assis sur les croupes que nous laissions notre gauche, nous regardaient
silencieusement passer. Il fallait sen approcher ou les observer attentivement pour se dire que
ces masses blanchtres taient des tres vivants et non point des pierres de taille ou des fts de
colonnes antiques fichs en terre.
[
163]Reboud, V., Excursion archologique dans les cercles de Guelma, de Souk-Ahras et
de Lacalle, in RNMSADC 2 series 7, Constantine 1876, 154. See 44 Necropolis of Chabet-elMekous, where they find 8 figured stelai: A ceux qui portent les caractres de la race berbre,
nous ne manquons pas de dire que ces pierres, ges peut-tre de 2,000 ans, ornaient les tombes
de leurs anctres dont les noms sont reproduits en lettres de leur antique alphabet. / Cest en
vain que nous cherchons les renseigner; ils se retirent persuads que nos travaux ont pour but
la dcouverte dun trsor. Cest leurs yeux lunique raison qui puisse expliquer la prsence, sur
leur territoire, dun aussi grand nombre dliommcs douze arms de pelles et de pioches.
[
164]Ancien_payeur_1833_3132: Aussitt Constantine en notre pouvoir, on se serait, limitation des Romains, empar des positions fortifies par eux, au nord et au midi, le long des
deux Atlas, et qui sont encore les clefs de ces montagnes. On y aurait plac, comme ces anciens
matres du monde, des garnisons sous la sauve-garde et la responsabilit des tribus environnantes, auxquelles on imposait, sous peine dtre traites militairement, lobligation de fournir,
aux prix de l contre, les denres ncessaires aux troupes de ces postes avancs. Des otages,

pris dans les principales familles du pays; et quelques mesures rigoureuses, en cas de besoin,
assuraient le maintien des communications entre ces postes et Constantine, o une cavalerie
nombreuse et toujours t prte marcher vers les points menacs.
[
165]Rambaud_1888_4: La conqute romaine compare & la conqute franaise. Les
Romains avaient sur nous plusieurs avantages. Tandis que nous avons attaqu lAlgrie de front,
nous heurtant aux murailles parallles de lAtlas qui en dfendent les terrasses et les plaines,
obligs de franchir chaque expdition de dangereux dfils, Rome, une fois matresse de
Carthage, avait dans le nord-est du massif de lAtlas une excellente base doprations, et, par les
valles longitudinales qui souvrent sur les rivages carthaginois, elle pouvait pntrer jusquau
coeur de la Numidie et en tourner les retranchements naturels. En second lieu, elle navait pas
vaincre lhostilit religieuse des habitants, dont les croyances polythistes pouvaient sadapter
aisment au vieux culte latin. Enfin, dj matresse de presque tout le monde mditerranen,
elle navait aucune puissance rivale mnager, et elle tait libre de diriger ses meilleures forces
en Afrique. De notre ct, nous lemportons sur nos prdcesseurs romains par les moyens perfectionns dont nous disposons pour lattaque et la domination: le tir rapide et la longue porte
de nos armes feu, la clrit de nos transports par eau ou par terre et de nos communications
tlgraphiques. Mais tous ces engins, qui assurent notre supriorit matrielle, pourraient se
retourner contre nous il ny a quune scurit vritable pour le vainqueur, cest de rgner dans le
coeur du vaincu.
[
166]Mauroy_1852_24: Nous ne parlerons pas des dix premires annes de la conqute,
annes fcondes et glorieuses cependant, o larme prend Constantine, franchit les Portes-deFer, sinstalle Cherchell, Mdah, Milianah, et commence ces grands travaux dutilit publique
qui prparent et consolident loeuvre de la colonisation...Nous avons hte darriver aux rsultats dj obtenus, et nous disons: Voila quatorze ans seulement que nous sommes en Afrique!
Quest-ce que les Romains possdaient en Afrique au bout de quatorze ans?
[
167]Bourde_1880_110: Les Romains avaient mis cinq sicles amnager ce beau pays. Je suis
convaincu quavant cinquante ans nous laurons restaur.
[
168]Gunin_1908_76 around Tebessa: Bien rares sont les ruines qui ne prsentent pas des
vestiges de pressoirs. Leau tait, certainement, sous la domination romaine, plus abondante
quaujourdhui. De nombreux puits antiques dblays de nos jours sont demeurs a sec. Des
sources, actuellement de dbit insignifiant, alimentaient autrefois des groupes dhabitations
importants. Il faut reconnatre que les Romains ont su remarquablement utiliser les eaux du
ciel comme celles du sol, conduire les unes et les autres dans des rservoirs, les retenir dans les
valles, les diriger vers leurs cultures et leurs plantations.
[
169]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_3233: Sur toute la route de Bne Constantine, on observe
des traces de postes militaires que les Romains avaient tablis en ce pays. Ces constructions sont
de deux sortes: les premires et les plus frquentes sont des enceintes carres avec un parapet de
trois quatre pieds de haut, en fortes pierres tailles qui paraissent presque toutes de la mme
dimension. M. Baude ma assur que ces petits corps-de-garde, btis pour 20 hommes peu prs,
sont chelonns de 500 en 500 toises. Les autres, plus considrables et qui se retrouvent peu
prs de 4 lieues en 4 lieues, paraissent avoir t des camps retranchs qui fournissaient la garnison des petits postes intermdiaires. M.Baude a calcul quils povaient contenir de 100 150
hommes. On y trouve des moulins huile, des auges et des mortiers en pierre. A en juger par
les ruines qui avoisinent ces postes, des constructions plus lgres ont d exister aux alentours.
On y rencontre encore de la poterie romaine grossire, et despace en espace, quelques restes
appendix
de lancienne voie. Les Arabes placent assez souvent leurs cimetires auprs des ruines dont je
viens de parler. Quote from Baude, Moniteur Algrien, 24 December, 1836.
[
170]Tissot_1888_56: note: Le mot Henchir, emprunt la langue berbre, dsigne, dans le
dialecte tunisien, une ferme, une terre cultive; et comme les terres les plus fertiles sont toujours indiques par des vestiges dtablissements antiques, ce mme mot signifie, par extension,
un amas de ruines, une ruine. Ce dernier sens est mme le plus usit, el il est devenu si gnral
que, dans le langage familier, Henchir et vieille femme sont synonymes. / On donne le
nom de sabbla, dans la rgence de Tunis, des abreuvoirs construits le long des routes et qui
remplacent les citernes du rseau routier romain. There are well over 500 references to henchirs
in this volume. Gurin_1862_I_84 for Tunisia: Je ferai observer ici, une fois pour toutes, au lecteur
que le terme dhenchir est employ en Tunisie pour signifier une ferme et en mme temps une
ruine. Cette dernire acception est mme la plus usite.
[ ]
171 Schulten_19001901_457 writing on Roman Africa: Les henchirs En outre, lorsquon
prend en main une carte de lAlgrie ou de la Tunisie modernes, on constate quune grande
quantit de localits contiennent le mot arabe henchir. Cet mot henchir dsigne une ferme et
surtout une localit susceptible dtre cultive, mais, par suite galement, une ruine, parce que
depuis longtemps les Arabes ont fait lexprience quau voisinage des ruines romaines on trouve
toujours de leau et que le terrain est propice la culture. La quantit de ces noms est une preuve
vidente de la richesse de lAfrique du Nord en ruines romaines, cest--dire de la densit de la
population.
[
172]Thomassy, Raymond (Marie-Joseph-Raymond), De la Colonisation militaire de lAlgrie,
Paris 1840, 20: Or lexprience des colonisations antrieures, non-seulement nous montre lemploi que nous en devons faire pour des tablissements agricoles et guerriers, mais nous signale
encore les lieux o nous pouvons la diriger avec succs. Cest ainsi que les vieux dbris nous
indiquent leur tour la place des nouvelles fondations; car il nest pas jusquaux pierres, tmoins
irrcusables du pass, qui ne soient des conseillers infaillibles pour lavenir. Cest elles, en effet,
qui prennent la parole l o les antcdents historiques nous manquent, o les crivains de
lantiquit nous font dfaut, et o les contemporains nont rien nous apprendre. Les ruines
qui sont encore debout doivent donc nous guider aussi dans nos essais: clairsemes et peine
visibles dans louest de la Rgence, elles sont aussi imposantes que nombreuses dans la partie
orientale. Ainsi la prsence des vieilles constructions romaines nous appellera chaque pas
dans la province de Constantine, comme leur absence ou leur raret nous loignera de lintrieur de la province dOran.
[
173]Davezac_1841_294 on the route Constantine-Ras-el-Akba, citing Baude (reviewing
Baron Baude, LAlgrie, 2 vols, Paris 1841): des ruines, dont quelques-unes sont fort tendues, sy
montrent chaque pas ce ne sont plus des constructions rustiques et ngliges comme celles
dHippone; la pierre de taille est partout employe, et lon ne peut pas supposer que dans de
telles habitations on net pas porte au moins le combustible ncessaire la cuisson des aliments. / Parmi ces constructions, on en distingue qui, leur position, taient videmment des
postes militaires; en les examinant de plus prs, en dterminant les corrlations qui existent
entre elles, on runirait des donnes trs-prcises sur le systme doccupation des Romains, et
nous aurions puiser dans cette tude plus dun utile enseignement.
[
174]Dr. Bonnafont, Rflexions sur lAlgrie, particulirement sur la Province de Constantine,
sur lorigine de cette ville,...etc, Paris 1846, 89, 1617, writing on the ruins of Tiffech, in the valley
of Mersouk-Khaal, he observed that Nous comparions ces constructions grandioses et immo-

biles des temps anciens avec ces habitations flottantes et fragiles des temps actuels!...quand
cet Arabe a pass sans motion pendant plus de mille ans devant ces crations imposantes de
lhomme; quand il a pu rester indiffrent tout ce que les Romains ont fait et excut devant
lui; lorsque le temple de Sigus, la citadelle de Tiffech, le pont de Constantine, lenceinte de
Miliah, les citernes et le cirque de Russicata, et par dessus tout le thtre et le superbe arc de
triomphe de Jmilah nont rveill dans lme engourdie de ce peuple stationnaire et indiffrent
aucun genre de progrs en faveur de ce que nous appelons civilisation; lorsque, disons-nous, ces
monumens nont pu rien obtenir sur lesprit de la population nomade de lAfrique...ne doit-on
pas dsesprer de lamlioration de cette race qui sacrifie tout a lhabitude de son goisme et la
manie de son indpendence individuelle? (p. 89, 1617).
[
175]Saint-Arnaud_1858_260 to his wife, May 1850: je rentre de Lambessa o jai pass huit
heures dans une admiration continuelle. Ces ruines magnifiques ont produit sur moi un effet
inconcevable. Dj dispos aux ides srieuses, je me suis trouv au milieu des restes morts
dune ville jadis florissante. Toutes ces inscriptions, toutes ces colonnes encore debout me partaient dun pass auprs duquel nous sommes petits, et je me disais Ce nest pas la peine de
se donner tant de mal pour crer, quand on voit quelle est la fin des plus belles choses. Nous
avons djeun prs du temple dEsculape, et la musique de la lgion venait frapper les chos si
longtemps muets des ruines de Lambessa. Jai donn M. Couenes un petit morceau de marbre
catcin pris sur les ruines du temple dEsculape. Il te le remettra comme un souvenir qui te dise
que partout je pense toi. Je suis arriv hier cinq heures et demie Bathna, aprs avoir t
travers par la pluie qui nous a tremps depuis midi jusqu quatre heures.
[
176]SHD 1H7 Gnie, Correspondance en France, correspondance interieure, etc etc marsmai 1831. Letter from Lieut-General Berthzune to Minister of War, Marchal le Duc de Dalmatie,
8 june 1831.
[
177]Schulten_19001901_256257 writing on Roman Africa: Actualit historique. Si cette
anecdote a t peut-tre influence par ce quelle doit prouver, il en existe dautres sans parti
pris, parce quelles prouvent seulement que les Franais sont de fait les successeurs des Romains,
ce que personne ne contestera. Le cas suivant peut servir de pice de justification cette actualit historique. Lorsque larme franaise, en 1840, atteignit dans le sud de lAlgrie la forteresse
de Lambaesis, on aperut un tombeau trs lev: linscription dsignait le dfunt comme le chef
de la IIIe Lgion Auguste. Le colonel franais fit relever le mausole par ses soldats et excuter
une salve dhonneur; il rendit son camarade romain, qui dormait depuis mille sept cents ans,
les honneurs militaires comme son successeur direct; car ces mmes tribus du dsert, que lofficier romain avait combattues, taient ses adversaires. Cette histoire est une belle preuve de la
pit quprouvent les nations romanes lgard de leurs aeux romains et en mme temps une
puissante dmonstration du fier sentiment que la France, tout connue jadis larme romaine, ait
plant ses tendards aux contins du Sahara et ait gal les Romains dans ses succs militaires.
[
178]SHD MR882 item 2 Le Capitaine Amadieu, Expedition de Kabylie: colonne de Lourmel,
1850, 70 pages. In the midst of their troubles with the Arabs, the French could even erect monuments, e.g. 33: Un monument compos de pierres romaines a t lev Ain Bouha (probably
Routa) par la colonne. Ce monument fort simple dailleurs consacre le souvenir des travaux de la
colonne en marquant les corps qui y ont pris part.
[
179]Barth_1863_30 travelled 184955, Ensched El Soufet: Cette forteresse, voue aux grands
orages historiques qui ont pass sur ces contres pendant des sicles, noffre plus aujourdhui
que quelques ruines. Par contre, le tombeau romain Ensched El Soufet, est assez bien conserv
appendix
et, comme la plupart de ces anciens monuments solitaires, est pour les populations environnantes un objet de vnration et un sujet de sainte terreur. Par malheur, il ne porte aucune inscription, ce qui ne nous permit pas de savoir la mmoire de quel personnage il avait t lev.
Le style en semble appartenir au deuxime sicle de lre chrtienne et il est vraisemblable que
ce tombeau fut celui de quelque commandant de la forteresse vers lpoque dAntonin.
[
180]Louis Bertrand, Les villes dor: Algerie et Tunisie romaines, Paris 1921, 43, says Boissire
(in his Algerie Romaine) recounts the deed of a colonel, later General Carbuccia. On raconte
donc que le colonel, arrivant Lambse, apercut, dans le voisinage de lancien camp romain, le
mausole en ruines dun prfet de la IIIe Lgion, Quintus Flavius Maximus. Il ordonna quon
relevt ldicule, puis, la tte de son rgiment, il dfila devant le tombeau de cet antique frre
darmes et fit rendre les honneurs militaires ce soldat de Rome par les soldats de la France.
Jignore ce que fut et ce que devint le general Carbuccia. Mais il sied de ladmirer pour ce seul
fait. Son acte revt une haute signification historique. Il nest sans doute pas le premier officier franais qui ait eu, en Afrique, devant une ruine romaine, le sentiment de la continuit
latine...Mais ce Corse, en se proclamant, devant le mausole de Flavius Maximus, lhritier et
le successeur du Romain, a vritablement renou lhistoire interrompue. Comme le moderne
Csar, son compatriote, il a revendiqu pour les Gaules lhritage latin labandon.
[ ]
181 Du_Barail_1897_I_367 Carbuccia at Lambessa: A Batna, il sadonna larchologie,
fouilla les vastes ruines romaines de Lambessa et y fit des dcouvertes intressantes. La troisime lgion romaine, celle quon appelait la Lgion Auguste vengeresse parce quelle avait
veng les dsastres subis par Varrus, a t longtemps tablie Lambessa, o lon trouve chaque
pas ses traces. On y voit encore un temple, fort beau, sur le fronton duquel on a rtabli linscription latine primitive, dont voici la traduction: Ce temple a t lev par la troisime lgion au
dieu Esculape, pour le remercier davoir conserv la sant son empereur, Septime-Svre.
[
182]Dondin-Payre 1996, 156: Leffet produit sur nos soldats par la dcouverte dEsculape fut
magique. Le Gnie prta un camion, ladministration huit chevaux, et avec une escorte dhonneur dun escadron de cavalerie, je conduisis nos statues triomphalement Batna, aux acclamations de toute la garnison, de toute la population et au bruit de la fantasia des Arabes surpris
de voir ce nouveau culte que je fis expliquer publiquement par le Capitaine Marmier chef du
bureau arabe de Batna. Ce fut rellement un jour de fte pour le pays. / En attendant que le chef
doeuvre puisse orner la premire place qui sera cre dans notre ville naissante, Esculape a t
expos dans le jardin de lhtel de la Subdivision, o il ne cesse dtre lobjet de ladmiration de
tous les Arabes de toute la province. Un grand nombre nest venu Batna que pour voir cette
statue et celle dHygie.
[
183]Gsell_1903_60 what Rome did for Algeria: Des villes slevrent dans des lieux auparavant dserts, ou occups seulement par des marchs ou des hameaux: Mascula, Bagai,
Thamugadi, Verecunda, Lambsis, Diana Veteranorum, Lamasba, etc., au nord et au nord-ouest
de lAurs; Gemellae, Badiae, Majores, sur la lisire septentrionale du Sahara. Les soldats furent
mme employs les construire: ce fut la troisime lgion qui fonda Thamugadi. On pensa
que le voisinage des troupes impriales tait suffisant pour garantir leur scurit: Thamugadi,
Diana Veteranorum, Bagai stendaient dans des plaines largement ouvertes. Parmi ces villes,
quelques-unes reurent de suite une constitution municipale romaine, dautres lattendirent
plus ou moins longtemps, presque toutes lobtinrent. Plusieurs dentre elles devinrent trs prospres: Lambse et Diana ont laiss de belles ruines; Timgad, en partie dblaye, est un tmoignage loquent de luvre civilisatrice de Rome dans le sud de lAlgrie.

[
184]Frisch_1899_182 on the defence of Algeria: Compare la ntre, loeuvre des Romains
ne provoque-t-elle pas des comparaisons dsobligeantes pour nous? Nous navons mme pas
encore ouvert, comme il convient, le pays nos colonnes et notre artillerie, et la plupart des
routes de lintrieur, construites avant tout dans le but dtablir de faciles communications entre
les places et les points stratgiques, sont toujours dans un tat fort imparfait.
[
185]Gaillard_1839_74: Surely an idealistic view of Roman colonisation: Tout romain tant,
ou ayant t soldat, la colonie se trouvait dfendue par elle-mme; la domination assure par
le courage et lintrt des colons, et surtout encore par les ides politiques que chacun avait
acquis en participant plus o moins directement au maniement des affaires de ltat. Occups
toute leur vie de trois choses: lagriculture, la guerre et la politique, les Romains, devenus colons,
combattaient, labouraient et sorganisaient en mme temps. De l, ce dveloppement de grandeur si admirable, si sduisant au premier coup doeil; celle facilit de conqurir et de conserver,
et de l aussi ces vastes provinces dAfrique, acquises par mille combats, mais soumises par la
politique, conserves et dveloppes par cette puissance si ferme et si sre dans sa marche, si
persvrante dans son but, quelle atteint toujours; car une pense parcourt le monde, et en
ce moment, japprends, hlas! jusquo peut aller une arme. / Nous ne sommes point encore
dans la position des Grecs, et nous ne pouvons tre Romains! Nos lois, sur le recrutement et nos
moeurs sy opposent.
[
186]Desjobert_1838_103 M. Mle [Prsident du Conseil] sest rappel que les Romains avaient
mis cette oeuvre deux cent quarante ans, et y avaient employ leurs plus habiles gnraux, les
deux Scipions, Marius, Sylla, Csar, Pompe, Auguste, Agrippa.
[
187]Davezac_1841_269 reviewing Baron Baude, LAlgrie, 2 vols, Paris 1841, and citing Baude:
Il nous reste apprendre plus que nous ne savons sur cette mystrieuse contre. Toutefois, ce
qui est encore cach corresponda ce qui se montre dcouvert, et nous envoyons assez pour
tre endroit daffirmer quil ny a point lieu de dsesprer de notre entreprise. Les causes de la
strilit de notre occupation ne sont en effet point inhrentes au pays: les bases naturelles de
son ancienne prosprit ne sont pas dtruites; son sol est toujours fcond; la mer qui baigne ses
rivages est toujours la plus frquente du monde, les races que nous y retrouvons ne sont pas
moins disciplinables que sous les Romains ou au moyen-ge. Pour y rappeler la civilisation et
se faire comprendre de ses habitants actuels, il ne faut peut-tre que se pntrer de leurs ides,
sassocier leurs intrts, et, si jose le dire, se reporter, sur certains sujets, de quelques sicles
en arrire.
[
188]Buret_1842_168169: En Afrique, nous heurtons chaque pas les ruines de la domination romaine; comprendrons-nous enfin lenseignement de ces nobles dbris, qui nous crient,
du milieu de leur dsolation, que, pour tre matre en ces lieux, il faut les peupler et les cultiver?
[
189]Stutfield_1886_133: No Moor has any interest in antiquities or archaeology of any sort.
They seem to have but two answers to questions as to the origin of buildings, Dar del Sultan
(Sultans palace), or The Christians did it. The latter is so far true that nearly every building of
any architectural merit at all owes its origin to Christian hands.
[
190]Charmes_1883B_4344: Personne nignore le rle que la Tunisie a jou sous la domination romaine. Grenier de Rome, elle jouissait dune prosprit telle qu on la regardait comme
la province africaine par excellence, lAfrique propre, ainsi que latteste le nom que lui donnent
encore les Arabes: Africa. Des villes innombrables la couvraient, et ses ctes, dune si grande
tendue, taient parsemes de ports, o ses produits venaient sembarquer pour gagner lItalie.
Aussi est-il impossible aujourdhui dy faire un pas sans y rencontrer des arcs de triomphe, des
appendix
amphithtres, des aqueducs, des pavs de mosaque, des fragments de statues et de colonnes,
rappelant la splendeur de son ancienne civilisation. Les emplacements des villes dtruites sont
mme si nombreux que nos officiers, lorsquils taient en pays conquis et ne savaient o aller
camper, se faisaient indiquer par les Arabes la prochaine ruine. Ils taient srs dy trouver, au
milieu des dbris des constructions romaines, une bonne position stratgique et de leau, soit
la surface, soit une faible profondeur.
[ ]
191 Saint-Arnaud_1858_336337 to his brother, June 1851, bivouac of Ziama: Je tcris du
milieu des ruines de Ziama, entre lOued-Ziama et lOued-Mansouria, limite extrme du cercle
de Djidjelli. Je vois Bougie, jy serais en deux heures par mer. / Jai une mosaque a dix pas de moi,
et sous mes yeux un bel aqueduc et un cirque. Nulle colonne franaise ntait venue ici ni dans
tout le pays que je parcours depuis un mois. Le Titan mapporte un ravitaillement ncessaire, il
est devant mon camp. Le tableau est pittoresque une ville de tentes sur les ruines de la vieilleThoba, un port improvis auprs du port de Mansouria, la mer anime par tous les soldats qui
sy baignent, la gaiet quentretient le succs; car hier, le canon grondait encore et les Kabyles
fuyaient leurs villages et abandonnaient leurs troupeaux. Point de morts, peu de blesss: la
guerre est belle ainsi.
[
192]Poir_1892_142: On nest pas habitu voir nos soldats cooprer eux-mmes avec tant
de succs la science archologique; ils ne la servent dordinaire quen frayant la route aux
archologues. Je noublie pas cependant que certains de nos officiers du corps doccupation ont
pris got cette tche; en maints endroits, sur lemplacement danciens postes romains, o ils se
trouvaient camps, ils ont explor le sol et dblay des monuments. Jai visit prs de Sousse des
ncropoles nopuniques quils ont exhumes. Cest aussi un militaire, le capitaine dHrisson,
qui a dirig, et avec beaucoup de comptence, dans deux missions par lui remplies, en 1881 et
1884, les fouilles faites Utique, o nous passerons tout lheure.
[
193]Duraffourg_1887_223 Bja: In 1883 after Capt Vincent found a tomb underneath his
lodging on the camp: un lion et courant le long dune source qui dcoule dun rocher. Ces diffrents objets taient assez bien conservs. Cette premire dcouverte devait non seulement
encourager le capitaine Vincent poursuivre ses recherches, mais encore attirer lattention de
MM. les officiers du 92e (2e bataillon) qui se trouvaient camps sur cette ncropole. En effet,
les officiers de ce bataillon, commencrent par sonder le terrain qui se trouvait proximit du
bureau des renseignements, et, aprs une demi-journe de travail, le capitaine Desblancs retirait
dune chambre spulcrale, une amphore de l m,20 de hauteur, et 0,85 centim. de circonfrence
( la partie centrale), ferme sa partie suprieure avec un enduit de pltre. Plus tard, M. le
lieutenant de Lespin, la suite des fouilles quil avait faites, dcouvrait divers objets, tels que:
lacrymatoires, amphores, lampes, monnaies, coupes et un sarcophage denfant ayant environ
(T,80 cent, de longueur et 0,50 cent, de largeur...Ne voulant pas laisser le soin mes camarades
demporter tout ce quils avaient trouv, et dsireux de possder quelques uns de ces objets
comme souvenir de la ncropole de Bja. Jai demand et obtenu deux lacrymatoires et une
amphore que je conserve prcieusement.
[
194]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_XXII: Le 18 novembre 1833, M. le marchal duc de Dalmatie,
ministre de la guerre, crivait lAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: / Loccupation
de la rgence dAlger, par les troupes franaises, qui a rendu la scurit au commerce de la
Mditerrane et ouvert des voies nouvelles la civilisation europenne, ne doit pas rester sans
rsultat pour la science, et, de son ct, la science elle-mme peut concourir cette uvre de
civilisation qui commence en Afrique sous la protection de nos armes. Quelques personnes,

qui soccupent avec une attention claire ds affaires dAlger, mont signale, et jai senti moimme les avantages que, sous ce double rapport, pourraient offrir une bonne gographie de
la Mauritanie, sous la civilisation antique, et une histoire de la colonisation des Romains dans
cette contre, des institutions quils y avaient fondes, des rapports qui staient tablis entre eux
et les indignes. / Je nai pas besoin dinsister sur lintrt scientifique de ces recherches; celui
quelles auraient pour ladministration nest pas moins vident. Les circonstances naturelles qui
avaient dtermin les Romains stendre dans telle ou telle direction, la fertilit respective des
terres, le cours des rivires, le gisement des montagnes, les attrages des ctes, nont pas chang;
les Kabayles daujourdhui ont conserv le type des murs et du caractre des peuples qui habitaient leur pays, il y a deux mille ans; et il me semble dune utilit relle, dtudier les circonstances sous linfluence desquelles se dveloppa la population de certaines villes, de retrouver
le trac des routes antiques, de constater par la viabilit passe des rivires aujourdhui obstrues, par la salinit des contres que nous trouvons inhabitables, la possibilit quil y aurait
de se replacer dans des conditions galement favorables..../ De son ct, ladministration est
en mesure doffrir un concours qui ne sera pas sans avantage. Le gouvernement a fait explorer
une partie des ctes occupes par nos troupes, et les travaux des officiers dtat-major et des
ingnieurs gographes de larme de terre et de la marine ont dj jet quelques lumires sur
des points obscurs de la gographie moderne. Je mempresserai de mettre la disposition de
lacadmie, ce que possde cet gard mon dpartement, etc.
[
195]Orlans_1870_384386 Duc dOrlans in Africa 18359: Ce fut la trace commune de ces
peuples vraiment dominateurs [Romans] que le marchal Vale se proposa de suivre lorsquil
entreprit loccupation de la province de Constantine. Laction des sicles avait respect les vestiges de la domination romaine. Ce magnifique squelette (grandia ossa) tait encore entier, et
ses dbris servirent de conducteurs dans ce labyrinthe. / Les Romains, en partant de Carthage,
avaient coup le pays par trois lignes parallles, unies par des voies perpendiculaires qui divisaient toute la contre en autant de cases dchiquier.../ Le marchal Vale, sachant mesurer
sagement son uvre ses moyens, ne tenta point de relever en entier cet difice colossal qui
avait cot des sicles de travail une puissance sans bornes; il se contenta dentreprendre le
rtablissement de la ligne centrale qui unissait Constantine et Alger, ainsi que les embranchements destins la soutenir, et qui se dirigent vers la mer; car elle tait trop longue pour tre
alimente par les deux bouts seulement.
[
196]Demonts_1919_1967 editorial comment: Que se propose de dmontrer Bugeaud?
Trois choses, nous semble-t-il, qui senchanent troitement. Pour lui, lAlgrie est dabord dans
une situation telle quun gros effort militaire y est urgent: la France de son ct a intrt ce
qu cet effort militaire sajoute un dveloppement simultan de la colonisation. Puis le seul
mode de coloniser, capable dans les circonstances prsentes damener des rsultats immdiats
ou prochains, est ltablissement de Lgions colonisatrices dont il indique les caractres essentiels...Sil y a eu un moment dans lhistoire de la colonie o le principe des Lgions militaires a
paru juste et mme ralisable, cest prcisment lorsque Bugeaud a pris le commandement des
troupes dAfrique. Alors en effet la scurit ntait nulle part: les indignes ntaient ni soumis,
ni disposs la soumission le gouvernement franais et les chefs militaires qui staient succd
Alger avaient laiss sorganiser dans lancienne Rgence un royaume arabe avec Abd-el-Kader
ils en avaient mme, par une singulire aberration, favoris les progrs territoriaux et larmement. Comment supposer que, sous la menace dattaques toujours possibles de tribus fires,
belliqueuses et fanatiques, des colons civils sans cohsion, sans discipline et sans direction
appendix
pourraient sinstaller et se maintenir. Seuls des groupements solides, organiss, bien arms et
commands par des chefs militaires, avaient quelques chances de repousser les incursions des
indignes.
[
197]Feline_1846_12 il y a des positions que nos troupes doivent toujours occuper...une
ligne infranchissable au moyen de camps permanentes, qui se transformeraient en Colonies
militaires.
[
198]SHD MR 1315 item 3: Considrations militaires sur les nouveaux tablissements de la province dAlger, 1 February 1844. by M. de Lallemand.
[
199]SHD MR1316 item 13: Mmoire descriptif et militaire sur Oran et ses environs..., November
1839, by de Granout, 52 pages; 19 for quote.
[
200]Pellissier_1854_III_120: Le village dEl-Kantara tire son nom dun fort beau pont romain,
en bon tat de conservation. Ces restes du pass semblaient proclamer le droit de la civilisation
occidentale reprendre possession dun sol qui lui a si longtemps appartenu.
[
201]Hurabielle_1899_13 around Biskra: El Kantara, le Calceus Herculis des Romains, devait
tre une position militaire importante. On rencontre ple-mle, dans les btisses en pis de
loasis et dans la mosque, des fragments de fts, de chapiteaux, de colonnes, des ornements
darchitecture; lcurie dun cabaret franais situ sur la route, lenseigne: Au retour du Sahara,
est un btiment romain.
[
202]Boissire_1878_132 on the Roman conquest and administration: Arriv loasis dEl-Kantara, en me promenant dans les ruelles tranges de cette vieille station militaire que les Romains
avaient place sous la protection dHercule, japercevais, non sans tonnement, ple-mle dans
ces masures de pis, des fragments de fts, des chapiteaux, des colonnettes antiques, dbris surprenants dun autre ge! Ainsi, la place de ces huttes de terre, de ces tanires obscures faites
dune boue sche au soleil, slevaient des constructions romaines; et des colonnes romaines
tayent et consolident ces habitations misrables qui scroulent sous les torrents de pluie!
[
203]Zaccone_1865_9091 El-Kantara: Aprs le djeuner jallai visiter lintrieur de loasis qui
comprend quatre villages et autant de cheicks; dun deux maccompagna. En parcourant le lit
sec du torrent, japerus quelques fragments de colonne et dentablement qui prsentaient des
dtails de sculpture dun ordre avanc. Que navais-je des fourgons ma disposition! jaurais
ramass ces derniers tmoins de la grandeur romaine que les sables finiront par engloutir.
[
204]Robert_1891_289: Tiaret, qui signifie station en berbre, se trouve prs de la limite
du Tell et des Hauts-Plateaux, sur un point culminant do lon embrasse une trs grande tendue; on aperoit le Djebel-Goudjila, le Djebel-Amour et le Nador. Cest en 1843 que le gnral
Lamoricire, relevant les ruines romaines Tiaret, commena le rtablissement dune ligne de
postes. Cest de l quAbd-el-Kader slana contre nous, lorigine de la lutte.
[
205]SHD MR H229, General Charon, Mmoire militaire sur lAlgrie, 1848, p. 344, 1879,
275ff.
[
206]SHD Gnie, 1H922: DjiDjelli, considrations gnrales, fortifications de la place 1840
1876: Mmoire to Minister of War from Villeneuve, 2 regiment Legion Etrangere, 21 jan 1842, p. 2
for a report on the abundant stone; ibid., P. Durand de Villers, Lieut de Gnie, 24 august 1849,
Djidjelli: Mmoire gnrale sur les emplacements occups par les troupes, 89 for overview of
the state of the Roman walls. These were fortement endommags et prsentaient dnormes
brches. Sur le reste du pourtour de la ville lancienne enceinte Romaine que lon reconnoit
assez bien cependant ne prsentait plus debout que quelques pans de mur. Immdiatement on
a entrepris la reconstruction de cette partie denceinte depuis le premier flanc jusquau roche de

la partie ouest sur une longeur de 140 mtres. Les fondations Romaines ont t retrouves vers
le niveau de la mer aprs des dblais considrables, elles toient en assez bon tat pour servir
de base de nouveaux murs et dailleurs leur trace satisfaisoit assez bien aux exigeances de la
dfense.
[
207]SHD Gnie, 1H922: DjiDjelli, considrations gnrales, fortifications de la place 1840
1876: Mmoire sur ltat actuel de la place, sur les travaux excuts en 1840 et sur ceux que lon
propose pour 1841, Captain du Gnie Mally, april 1841.
[
208]SHD MR1317 anon, undated (1843 latest date in text), Historique de Djidjeli, 9: what is
the future for this town? ce nest pas certe lorsque tous les ans les colons soient ferrs par lpidmie...ce nest pas lorsque la ville cerne par une ceinture de blockhaus quon nose pas dpasser
sans peine de vie quil ne servira dentrept des marchandises qui nont aucun dbouch et
dont 800 hommes de garnison et 200 ouvriers ne peuvent consommer la moiti, etc...
[
209]La Grande Encyclopdie, 1886: BLOCKHAUS: Ce mot dsigne un abri dfensif blind,
muni dune toiture lpreuve, et pouvant tre dfendu isolment. Le blockhaus a quelque analogie avec lancienne bretche, qui tait une tour de bois dmontable...Lusage du blockhaus
sest gnralis en Europe partir des guerres de Frdric II de Prusse, et les Anglais employrent
cet ouvrage de fortification en Amrique, dans la guerre de lIndpendance. Voici la description du blockhaus tel quil se construit de nos jours. Les parois sont composes de pices de
bois qnarries de 30 35 centim. de ct, lorsque lon na redouter que les feux dinfanterie.
Ces pices de bois sont places verticalement, jointives et enfonces en terre de 80 centim. 1
mtre. A leur partie infrieure, ces poutrelles sont runies et consolides par une pice de bois
horizontale nomme semelle; une autre pice appele chapeau les runit de mme leur partie
suprieure....Un toit ordinaire recouvre ce blociiliaus tage, qui a t employ en Algrie
ds 1830, par le gnral Valle. Il tait dmontable et fabriqu en France. Il pouvait contenir 18
hommes; son poids tait de 8,600 kilog.
[
210]Brunhes_1902_202 Sidi-Bel-Abbs: Bel-Abbs a t cr de toutes pices, ex nihilo, il
y a un demi-sicle; les conditions gographiques taient loin dtre toutes favorables; et nous
naurions qu rappeler les preuves et les dsastres qui faillirent ruiner et dcourager tout
jamais les premiers colons, la dsastreuse gele du printemps 1857, les inondations de 1865, la
scheresse de 1866 et linvasion de sauterelles qui en fut la consquence, le cholra de 1867, la
rigueur de lhiver et les neiges abondantes de 18671868, pour indiquer quels malheurs rpts
et quels maux extrmes ont t soumis et peuvent tre encore exposs les habitants de cette
rgion: la prosprit actuelle de Bel-Abbs est en vrit une conqute de leffort persvrant des
colons et qui peut tre revendiqu bon droit comme une des belles uvres de la colonisation
officielle franaise en Berbrie.
[ ]
211 Blanc_1892_71 1842, in Algeria from 1835 until (at least) 1852, campaign: La guerre ne
connaissait plus de saisons; hiver comme t, nous tions toujours en campagne.
[
212]Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_343344 goes to Bougie from Algiers, by steamer: the artillery
commandant points out longevity inscriptions here: 80, 88, and 95. Now, epidemic fevers and
the insupportable heat of the summer carry off more men than the balls and yataghans of the
Arabs.
[
213]Duval_1859_16: Nos soldats nont pas abord un sommet, une gorge, un col de montagne,
ils nont pas camp sur un point stratgique, quils naient reconnu que les aigles romaines les y
avaient devancs. / Ce nest quau midi de la Mauritanie que nous avons dpass les Romains, en
avanant dans le Sahara algrien des distances quils ne paraissent pas avoir atteintes.
appendix
[
214]Morell_1854_72 Earthquakes: three-quarters of Algiers destroyed by quake; 1825 quake
threw down the walls of Oran and Blida. 123 at Cherchel that Andalusian Moors, driven from
Spain by the unchristian intolerance of that age, built a city on this spot in the fifteenth century,
which was thrown down by an earthquake in 1738. 155156 Oran also quaked in 1790 & 1791.
[
215]Davezac_1841_292 Announa, relaying Baude (reviewing Baron Baude, LAlgrie, 2 vols,
Paris 1841): Cette singulire ville, dont le nom antique est ignor, semble navoir t btie, en
dehors de toute communication, que pour faire jouir ses habitants dune dlicieuse vue sur la
valle de la Seybous. Elle est construite en pierres de taille: un arc de triomphe, simple et de bon
got, est encore entier; vis--vis est une faade quune inscription tronque, grave lextrieur,
et une croix, font reconnatre pour celle dun temple paen converti en glise; plusieurs arcades
dun bel aqueduc sont aussi debout. Le sol est jonch de dbris entre lesquels se distinguent
ceux dun vaste difice dont le plan est encore dessin par les soubassements de ses colonnes.
Ces ruines sont beaucoup mieux conserves que celles de Calama: on croirait la ville renverse
depuis peu par un tremblement de terre, plutt que dtruite par laction du temps.
[
216]Excursions_1838_32 Announa: La superficie tout entire de lancienne ville est parseme
de blocs de pierres sculpts ou crits, et occupe par plusieurs ruines ddifices dont quelquesunes ne sont point sans intrt. Nous avons dessin les plus remarquables, entre autres: les
restes dune glise chrtienne, grossirement construite avec les matriaux dun difice plus
ancien. Dans lintrieur, derrire les parois de lentre, sont deux colonnes corinthiennes. On
trouve beaucoup dinscriptions Announah, presque toutes spulcrales et de peu dintrt. On
distingue encore parfaitement la direction de plusieurs rues.
[
217]Wagner_1841_I_321322 Annona: Einzelne Trmmer liegen, wie schon erwhnt, bis
auf den Gebirgsweg, den die Armee eingeschlagen, zerstreut. Ich fhlte mich von solchem
Alterthmlereifer erfasst, dass ich beim Besteigen des Engpasses, mein Pferd am Zgel fhrend,
bald da bald dort einen alten beschriebenen Stein ergriff und hinter meinen Sattel laden wollte.
Immer warf ich ihn wieder weg, wenn ich, ihn betrachtend, von seinem geringen Werth mich
berzeugte. Endlich behielt ich aber doch den ziemlich beschdigten Kopf einer menschlichen
Figur in halberhobener Arbeit und hatte fast Lust, ihn die Reise nach Constantine und von dort
zurck nach Bona machen zu lassen. Ein Officier des Geniecorps, der viel fter und loger als
ich in den Ruinen gestbert, fragte mich lchelnd, ob ich die Figur vielleicht fr die Glyptothek
des Knigs von Baiern aufbewahren wollte. Da sah ich noch einmal in die groben Zge des halb
verstmmelten Kopfes und warf diesen wieder weg. Ueberhaupt bemerkte ich unter den numidischen Ruinen zwar der imposanten Bauwerke viele, von feinen Kunstwerken, wie Statuen,
Basreliefs, Mosaik, aber nichts, was einer besondern Erwhnung verdiente.
[
218]Poulle_18861887_170: Aprs les ruines de Guelma (Calama), celles dAnnouna sont, de
beaucoup, les plus importantes de toute la rgion; mais le temps ne les pargne pas, et lon ne
retrouve plus aujourdhui tous les monuments dont M. Delamare a publi les dessins; le plus
intressant et celui qui tait le mieux conserv, la porte triomphale du sud, a perdu lune de ses
arcades depuis quatre ou cinq ans et est rduit moiti. Quelques fouilles avaient t faites par
le gnral Creuly pour dgager le pied de deux arcs de triomphe, et par Mgr Robert dans lglise,
dont la faade est presque entire; ces dernires ont mis labside dcouvert. On pourrait esprer des rsultats utiles de recherches qui seraient effectues sur certains points.
[
219]Bernelle_1892_501 Announa: Au sud, stagent les collines sur lesquelles taient situs
les diffrents quartiers de la ville et sa ncropole, et que longeait la voie romaine de Cirta
Tipaza, dont le trac a servi la construction du chemin actuel conduisant au village de Renier. /

A ses pieds, se trouve le tableau central contenant les monuments, encore en partie debout. Au
premier plan, une porte double deux arceaux et pilastres cannels, moiti renverse. Un peu
plus loin, sur la droite, lest, une porte dun seul arceau, pilastres corinthiens, galement
moiti renverse. Au centre du plateau, une porte triomphale forme par un arc en plein cintre
de 4 mtres douverture. Elle a 7 mtres de hauteur: un peu plus loin encore, un btiment, dont
la face ouest est en partie assez bien conserve et prsente deux portes cintres. / Enfin, louest
du plateau, surplombant le ressaut rocheux, les vestiges des gros murs de lacropole. / Nous
avons dblay, en grande partie, lespace compris entre la porte double du sud et larc triomphal
du nord. Une large voie dalle de 10 mtres de largeur va de lune lautre sur une distance de 165
mtres et semble se continuer vers le nord, au del de larc triomphal jusquau btiment deux
portes cintres. Vers le milieu et gauche, des murs rass au-dessous du niveau actuel des ruines
prsentent des enceintes rectangulaires dessinant des btiments.
[
220]Saladin_1893_67 Sbeitla: Toute la surtace du sol, mme au del des trois temples, est
couverte de dbris de toute sorte. Combien avons-nous remarqu de fragments intressants
dessiner et que nous navons pas eu le temps de noter par un croquis ou une photographie! De
tous cts, on aperoit des pierres debout ce sont ou des montants de porte (on voit la trace
des dispositions adoptes pour la fermeture de celles-ci au moyen de loquets ou de verrous),
ou des pierres de grand appareil formant lossature de la construction dont les remplissages en
blocage (comme dans lglise de Kasr el-Hamar) ont t dtruits, ce qui se remarque fort bien
en certains endroits quon a fouills; partir du niveau du sol, le mur en blocage est intact. Le
sol antique se trouve 1m,20, peu prs, au-dessous du sol moderne. / Les villes de la cte ont
toujours t peuples, et les monuments antiques y ont souvent servi de carrires, mme aprs
la conqute arabe, ce qui explique leur destruction; les villes de lintrieur, au contraire, comme
Sbetla, Hadra, Kasrine, Haouch Khima et Feriana, que nous verrons plus loin, ont t abandonnes. La destruction brutale des difices et des plantations doliviers, les massacres et la misre,
les ont dpeuples presque subitement. Tout a t ruin, sauf un petit nombre ddifices. Les
ruines ont t recouvertes peu peu par la terre, les sables apports par le vent ou par les pluies.
Insensiblement le sol sest exhauss en protgeant ces restes, comme les cendres et les boues du
Vsuve ont prserv Pompi. Les populations qui habitent cette contre tant essentiellement
nomades et ne demeurant que peu de temps au mme endroit, les ruines nont pas servi de carrires comme dans le Nord ou sur la cte (a Hadra, Sbeita, Kasrine), on na construit quun
trs petit nombre de maisons et dans ces temps derniers seulement); les ruines de ces villes ont
donc t respectes et sont peu prs restes telles quelles talent lpoque de linvasion arabe.
La principale cause de destruction des monuments qui taient rests debout aprs linvasion
arabe a t probablement une suite de tremblements de terre. Cest cette cause que jattribue
le dversement en dehors des murs des faces latrales des temples de Sbeitla, les fissures qui
existent du haut en bas dans leurs faades postrieures et la ruine dune partie de la ville.
[
221]Donau_1920_45 around Gigthis: Les ruines dHenchir-Chelagou, lextrme pointe de
la presqule, montrent les restes de quelques constructions en bordure de la falaise, en grande
partie dtruites par les boulements de cette falaise et par les indignes qui en ont tir les matriaux ncessaires aux constructions voisines appartenant Si Mohammed Chellakhi, notaire de
Djerba.
[
222]Carton_1894_3 Tunisia, Medjerda river: Lorsque jtais mdecin de la voie ferre et
charg daller, par suite, de station en station donner mes soins aux employs de la Compagnie,
appendix
jai t arrt plus dune fois par lcroulement dun pont, par la destruction dun mur qui empchaient le passage des trains.
[
223]Mac_Carthy_1851_212 Bordj-Roumi: Les pierres employes aussi bien dans la construction des murs du Bordj que dans celle du puits, sont toutes trs-fortes; elles ont toujours plus
dun mtre de longueur, souvent 1 mtre 50 centimtres et jusqu 1 mtre 68 centimtres, 40,
50, et 60 centimtres de largeur sur autant dpaisseur. Jen ai compt plus de 250. Elles avaient
toutes t prpares avec soin, et on voit encore trs-nettement les dimensions de linstrument
qui avait servi les boucharder; ctait un marteau en fer rainures de 45 millimtres en carr.
Toutes avaient t jointes au moyen de forts crampons, et cest mme l une des causes principales qui auront amen la destruction de ldifice, car les sauvages qui les premiers se sont rus
sur le pays, pour se procurer le fer ou le bronze de ces crampons, nont gure laiss de pierres en
place; ils semblent mme stre servis pour cela dun procd assez simple: attaquant les pierres
des bases, ils ont amen ainsi lcroulement de toutes les parties suprieures; les angles sont
tombs tout dune pice et celui du sud-ouest est mme encore peu prs tout entier sur le sol;
il ma permis de voir que sa hauteur minimum devait tre dau moins 3 mtres. Je viens de dire
quon avait mis un grand soin dans lappareil des pierres du Bordj, je dois ajouter quon y avait
aussi dploy un certain luxe darchitecture; on retrouve et l les morceaux de la corniche
qui terminait ldifice. La porte dentre ma paru tre sur la face nord. / Tel est lensemble des
ruines de lHannaah. Bientt les colons franais vont venir semparer de ces mmes positions,
occupes il y a bien longtemps par les colons romains et qui depuis lors restaient ignores au
milieu de la solitude.
[
224]Gurin_1862_I_297 Feriana: A six heures du matin, je pars avec Malaspina et deux
guides, pour aller tudier dans le voisinage les ruines immenses qui sont situes au nord et au
nord-ouest de Feriana. Nous longeons dabord loued Bou-Hava; puis, franchissant son lit dont
les eaux qui ne tarissent jamais fertilisent les jardins de Feriana, nous arrivons, vers six heures
vingt minutes, de vastes carrires creuses dans une montagne nomme Makta-el-Bethouma.
Elles annoncent par elles seules que la ville, btie avec les matriaux qui en ont t tirs, tait
trs-considrable. Des flancs tout entiers de la montagne ont t coups verticalement par la
main de lhomme; ailleurs, de profondes excavations ont t pratiques horizontalement; partout gisent encore sur le sol dnormes blocs dtaches.
[
225]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_14 Cap de Garde: Tout prs de l, dans un des ravins qui sillonnent la masse rocheuse du cap, il existe une carrire de marbre blanc, qui dut tre exploite
pendant des sicles par les Romains, a en juger par la haute et profonde excavation taille pic
dans le banc calcaire. On y retrouve la trace encore frache du ciseau des carriers. Quelques
colonnes bauches gisent abandonnes sur la rampe qui servait lextraction des blocs. Les
Arabes, profitant des dbris de pierres accumuls en ce lieu par les travaux de lantiquit,en ont
construit un petit marabout que la pit des fidles couvert doripeaux.
[
226]Lecocq_1912_353: Le IIe sicle de lempire parat avoir t lpoque de lapoge des
marbres de Simitthu. Cest celle date en effet quappartiennent la plupart des blocs quon a
retrouvs soit dans lemporium de Rome, soit Tivoli dans les somptueuses constructions de
la villa dHadrien. / Dans les carrires ou dans les ruines de la ville aucun bloc portant une date
postrieure la fin du IIe sicle na t trouv, au contraire les marques du IIe sont trs nombreuses. / Il est impossible den conclure que lexploitation de ces carrires ait t brusquement
arrte. Les textes que nous avons cits prouvent que pendant le IIe sicle le marmor numi-

dium tait encore trs rpandu dans le monde romain. Mais en regard de ces textes il en est un
autre fort curieux qui remonte la mme poque et qui semble indiquer que les carrires de
marbre cette date en Afrique taient tombes en dcadence. Saint Cyprien [Ad Demetrianum,
3] veut disculper les chrtiens des maux dont on les accuse, il affirme que le monde vieillit et
que la nature se fatigue: Pendant lhiver il ne tombe plus assez deau pour nourrir les semences
dposes au fond des sillons, en t les rayons du soleil ne sont plus assez chauds pour faire
mrir les moissons. Les carrires fatigues et trop fouilles deviennent pauvres en marbre.
Cette dernire phrase ne commente-t-elle pas pour ainsi dire labsence dans les carrires et
dans les monuments de Simitthu de tout bloc extrait pendant le IIIe sicle? Les carrires stant
appauvries, ladministration impriale ne ngligeait rien ni ne laissait sur place aucune parcelle
de marbre: tout tait expdi au del des mers par les soins des procurateurs.
[
227]Paulard_1893_40: Dans le Nord de la Rgence, les carrires de marbre sont nombreuses;
la plus renomme est celle de Schemtou, dont les marbres jaunes taient trs rputs, lpoque
romaine. / Cette carrire est situe dans la valle de laMedjerdah, quelques kilomtres de la
station de lOued Mliz. / La distance de 180 kilomtres, qui spare la carrire de Schemtou
du port dembarquement, est un grand obstacle au dveloppement de son exploitation. /
Lvaluation des marbres extraire, des collines de Schemtou, est de plus de vingt-cinq millions
de mtres cubes.
[
228]Winckler_1892_5: La Compagnie franco-belge qui exploite les carrires de marbres
de Chemtou a fait construire une ligne ferre reliant ces carrires au chemin de fer de BneGuelma; le point de bifurcation se trouve prs de la petite station de loued Mlis.
[
229]Graham_1902_7576: The quarries at Chemtou are much in the condition in which
they were left by the Romans at the time of the Vandal invasion of the country in the fifth century. Half-quarried blocks lie side by side in the yawning chasms of the rocks, with the masons
marks still legible, and far down the cavernous abyss can be seen the preparations for working
one of those lordly monoliths, which still excite our admiration in Rome and elsewhere. One
thing very noticeable at the quarries of Simittu is the absence of economy in the extraction and
working of marble. But it must be remembered that imperial edicts overruled laws of economy,
and that, if an order were given for so many columns from any particular quarry, they had to be
produced regardless of cost Of the use of marble at Simittu there are no indications, except in
the construction of the aqueduct which conveyed the water to the town, a distance of about five
miles, and this is mostly built with waste marble from the quarries. Some portions have been
reconstructed, probably during the Byzantine occupation in the sixth century; and it is lamentable to add that a number of inscribed stones with their faces inwards have been built into
the piers. Some years ago these quarries were actively worked by a Belgian company, and operations were conducted on a lai^e scale. It is a matter of regret that success did not attend their
efforts, and that further proceedings were stopped. The increasing demand for coloured marbles
as a material will probably lead to a reopening of the works. The products are unusually varied,
bearing Italian names well known to marble merchants, such as marmor bianco, giallo avorio,
giallo canarino, giallo paonazzo, rosa carnagione, breccia dorata, breccia sanguigna, bianco e
nero antico.
[
230]Perier_1847_115116 the Romans in North Africa: Parmi ces grands travaux, les uns ont
pour objet la dfense proprement dite, ou dans les camps ou dans les places; les autres, le trac
des routes, la construction de villages, de btiments ou postes militaires; dautres encore des
dfrichements et des cultures. Quant aux travaux de desschement et dassainissement des
appendix
marais, les condamns et disciplinaires seuls, et les indignes simultanment, devront y concourir. Ladjonction de ces derniers aurait en outre pour avantage de leur donner lexemple du travail, en les initiant nos industries, nos murs. Cest ainsi que, par un contact permanent
avec leurs armes, les Romains sappliquaient soumettre les peuples des provinces conquises,
tout en les utilisant. / La vie des soldats romains tait voue tous les genres de grands travaux.
Ceux laide desquels ils se fortifiaient en campagne taient tels, que leurs camps retranchs
ressemblaient des places fortes. Sans parler des colonies militaires tablies sur les confins
du territoire, les lgions dissmines au loin taient souvent obliges de cultiver le sol, pour
assurer leur subsistance, et transportaient dans ce but un attirail considrable. Plusieurs des
magnifiques voies qui sillonnaient lempire taient, en partie au moins, luvre de leurs loisirs
pendant la paix. Tantt, ctaient des ouvrages dfensifs, quils levaient: des murailles devenues historiques, et quelquefois longues de dix-neuf et mme de quatre-vingts milles; tantt,
des vaisseaux, des digues, des ponts, des palais, des temples quils construisaient; des marais
quils desschaient, des plantations dont ils dotaient les provinces. Partout larme laissait sur
ses traces des forteresses, des villes, des monuments, des moissons.
[
231]Masqueray_1886_10 Nous pouvons juger encore aujourdhui des effets vraiment prodigieux de ce systme de colonisation, Ce ne sont pas seulement des arcs, des thtres, des cirques,
des temples et des aqueducs quil nous faut admirer on Afrique; bien plus surprenantes sont
les petites ruines de villas et de maisons romaines qui en couvrent tant de valles et de plaines
maintenant dsertes, si bien quau IIIe sicle de notre re, la Maurtanie devait ressembler la
Provence, et la Numidie ou lAfrica la Normandie contemporaine. Que lon prenne au hasard,
quon tudie par exemple dans le dpartement de Constantine la rgion aujourdhui aride ou
marcageuse qui stend de Batna An-Beda, et de Khenchela aux Aould-Rahmoun. Lambse,
Thamgad, Claudi, Mascula, Bagaia, Sigus, Casas, sy levaient autrefois et se reliaient par des
routes jalonnes de fermes. Elles comptaient ensemble au moins 120,000 Europens, dix fois
plus environ que nos petites villes qui les remplacent.
[
232]Enfantin_1843_211 on the Colonisation de lAlgrie: Et pourtant il me parait vident
que si, depuis douze ans, nous avions envoy en Algrie autant dagriculteurs que nous y ayons
envoy de soldats, si nous avions mme dpens pour ces agriculteurs la mme somme que nous
avons dpense pour nos soldats, lAlgrie nous aurait cot en argent le double de ce quelle
nous cote, mais elle serait compltement nous depuis longtemps.
[
233]Pananti_1818_413414 as well as punishing the Barbary pirates: And it is a curious fact,
that during those years most unfavourable to European crops, they are sure to be remarkably
abundant in Barbary. Should this fine region ever become the patrimony, either by conquest
or colonization, of emigrants from Europe, is it not very natural to believe, that the consequent
improvement in civilization and attention to agriculture, will render it still more productive?
I might, indeed, enlarge almost to infinity on the innumerable advantages which Europe must
derive from establishing a reciprocity of interests between itself and Africa. With respect to
those supplies in the mere way of commerce, which we should receive from northern Africa,
they would consist in nearly all those articles, whether of necessity or luxury, which we now
derive from every part of the habitable globe. If the proposed colonization of Africa is gratifying
to the philosopher, man of science, and merchant, it is no less attractive to the enterprizing soldier; who, in contributing to the grand work of bringing this boundless region into the European
family, would have the consolation to reflect, that no country in the world is more likely to reward
his labours with future wealth and independence. Not to mention the amazing quantity of the

precious metals collected yearly in Africa, the cities on the sea-coast are all extremely rich; and
when I add, that two-thirds of the whole have been plundered from inoffensive Christians, will
any one deem me unprincipled for sincerely wishing to see the plundered property restored to
the rightful owners? Yes, it is no trifling source of satisfaction to reflect, that unlike most modern expeditions which have, from the enormous expence attending them, almost ruined some
countries, those sent to the coast of northern Africa, will not only be paid for by the treasures
which abound there; but every individual concerned may safely calculate on being enriched for
the remainder of his life.
[
234]Gsell_1903_62 Algeria: On sest souvent demand si la principale cause de cette prosprit ne fut pas un climat plus favorable la culture que le climat daujourdhui. Nous devons
avouer que nous manquons des informations ncessaires pour rpondre avec certitude
cette question. Nanmoins, il ne semble pas que les pluies aient t plus frquentes en Algrie
dans lantiquit, que la saison sche y ait t plus courte. Les lacs du centre de la province de
Constantine ntaient pas plus tendus: les ruines qui bordent leurs rives actuelles le prouvent.
Les ponts romains qui subsistent et l sur les rivires ne furent pas construits pour traverser
des lits plus larges, ni pour rsister des courants plus forts.
[
235]Gaffarel_1888_61: Sous les Romains, lAlgrie tait trs boise: les musulmans ont ruin
ses ressources forestires. En 1879, il ne restait que 2,257,272 hectares de forts, ingalement
rparties dans les trois provinces. Ces forts peuvent tre divises en trois zones: celle du littoral
ou des broussailles, la zone entre le littoral et les montagnes o la futaie commence se montrer,
et la zone du Sud au lon rencontre de vastes forts.
[
236]Fraud_1869_6 on the tribes in the Province of Constantine: Un grand nombre de
ruines parsment le territoire des Telarma, et prouvent dune manire vidente que ces plaines,
aujourdhui dpourvues darbres et de maisons, mais dune grande fertilit, furent jadis couvertes de villages, sinon de villes. Il existe aussi, et l, des vestiges de postes ou forteresses
destines garder les principaux passages et assurer la libre communication des routes.
[
237]Payen_1864_2 ancient hydraulics: Quel est ce pays, dont le nom nest pas indiqu par
lhistorien de loccupation grco-romaine?...Lorientation semble le dsigner, et dailleurs la
qualification de grande et fertile contre ne peut appartenir quau Hodna, encore aujourdhui
dans les mmes conditions agricoles, et o lattention du voyageur moderne est attire chaque
pas par des ruines de villes, de postes, de camps fortifis, des tronons de routes, des fragments
de mosaques, etc., constatant quune civilisation avance y a fait un sjour de plusieurs sicles.
Ibid., 14 ancient hydraulics, writing of the Hodna, Province de Constantine: Aprs avoir reconnu
lexistence de tant de vestiges importants de constructions hydrauliques, excutes dans le
double but de satisfaire aux besoins de centres de population et darroser, au moyen dirrigations
abondantes, plus de 100,000 hectares de terres naturellement fcondes, nest-on pas en droit de
croire ltat florissant de lagriculture de la plaine du Hodna dans lantiquit.
[
238]Cosentino_1865_6970 Coup doeil dun colonisateur: Tout le monde sait quau
temps des Romains lAfrique ne passa jamais pour avoir un climat malsain, Les hommes, dit
Salluste, y sont sains, agiles, rsistent la fatigue. La plupart arrivent une extrme vieillesse. /
Ce fait nous a t confirm par tous les archologues modernes, qui ont dcouvert danciennes
pierres de sarcophages et des inscriptions, aussi bien par les faits observs en Algrie sur tous
les points du territoire. / Nous navons jamais lu dans lhistoire ancienne que ce climat ait, en
aucun temps, empch laccroissement de la population, nonobstant de nombreuses invasions
diverses poques, qui ont produit le mlange des races sans quaucune delles ait dgnr.
appendix
[
239]SHD 1M1315 5 December 1846, at Aumale, Richard, Sous-Lieutenant, Inspection
Gnrale, 19 Je termine cette notice par une observation qui me parat dune importance incontestable jai le rsultat du relev de lge des dfunts sur 58 pitaphes with a woman dying at
130 heading the list, then tqwo of 90/91 years, five of 80/85, etc. de supposer que lemplacement dAuzia assez salubre.
[
240]Granger_1901_IVV Tobna: la trace indestructible dune installation rurale solidement
tablie sur tous les points du Hodna, parat dnoncer que lagriculture y a t en honneur; on
peut, en effet, en juger par la multiplicit des vestiges de hameaux et dhabitations isoles, probablement des fermes ou des exploitations agricoles, prs desquelles on rencontre souvent, soit
un puits ensabl, soit une citerne et toujours des auges en pierre de taille. / On remarque encore,
au point o les grandes valles dbouchent dans le Hodna, des vestiges de constructions hydrauliques que lon retrouve aussi, plus bas, au milieu des terres et des ruines romaines, vestiges qui
appartiennent des barrages, des bassins de retenue dans le premier cas; des canaux,
des aqueducs et des citernes dans le deuxime...Souvent un monticule cache une ruine. Sa
surface dpouille de toute vgtation est recouverte de dbris de poteries grossires; quelques
pierres mergent et l. Si on ouvre une tranche de seulement 0m30 de profondeur, des restes
de maonneries en pierres de rivires, des auges, des moulins mains, des margelles de puits
apparaissent. / Le nombre de ces constructions accuse la nombreuse population qui, sous la
domination romaine, non seulement vivait des produits du sol, mais encore en faisait le commerce. / Aujourdhui, ce mme sol si riche jadis est souvent incapable de subvenir aux besoins
des misrables familles arabes qui saccrochent dsesprment lui. . / On est tent dattribuer
la diffrence, entre la fertilit prsente et celle des poques romaines et byzantines, un changement considrable dans les conditions climatriques...Le principal agent de la fertilit devait
tre surtout lutilisation et la sage distribution de toutes les eaux pluviales et fluviales.
[
241]Duval_1865_100 writing on the state of French possessions in Algeria: En Afrique, o la
terre est toujours fertile, sous laction des feux du soleil, quand leau la fconde, cest leau qui
est la principale cause de stabilit, tandis que dans les steppes asiatiques, exposes lexcs
dhumidit et de froid, cest la fertilit du sol sous une temprature modre qui aura le plus
dattrait pour les nomades. On entrevoit la conclusion pratique de cette loi naturelle de la distribution des populations. Que les nouveaux conqurants de lAlgrie construisent des barrages,
creusent des canaux et des aqueducs, lvent des fontaines, recherchent les sources, quils
concdent ou vendent le sol en toute proprit, quils en garantissent la paisible jouissance
(condition qui manquait sous les Turcs et entretenait la vie nomade) et la rpulsion prtendue
de la race arabe contre toute civilisation sdentaire, svanouira comme un mirage que la posie
seule pourra regretter. Quant la politique et la science, elles se loueront de dcouvrir dans la
nature des principes de rapprochement et de fusion. De lAlgrie, ces lois et ces pratiques conciliantes pourront passer dans toute lAfrique septentrionale et mme dans lAsie, o le dfaut de
scurit et dindustrie a laiss la horde nomade se reformer, en maintes contres, sur les ruines
des villes antiques.
[
242]Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_6667 problems in the Maghreb in the 9thc AH (1397ff): Mais
aujourdhui, je veux dire la fin du viiie sicle, la situation du Maghreb a subi une rvolution
profonde, ainsi que nous le voyons, et a t totalement bouleverse: des nations berbres, habitant ce pays depuis les temps les plus reculs, ont t remplaces par des tribus arabes qui,
dans le ve sicle, avaient envahi cette contre, et qui, par leur grand nombre et par leur force,
avaient subjugu les populations, enlev une grande partie de leur territoire et partag avec elles

la jouissance des pays dont elles conservaient encore la possession. Ajoutons cela que, vers le
milieu de ce viiie sicle, une peste terrible vint fondre sur les peuples de lOrient et de lOccident;
elle maltraita cruellement les nations, emporta une grande partie de cette gnration, entrana
et dtruisit les plus beaux rsultats de la civilisation. Elle se montra lorsque les empires taient
dans une poque de dcadence et approchaient du terme de leur existence; elle brisa leurs
forces, amortit leur vigueur, affaiblit leur puissance, au point quils taient menacs dune destruction complte. La culture des terres sarrta, faute dhommes; les villes furent dpeuples,
les difices tombrent en ruine, les chemins seffacrent, les monuments disparurent; les maisons, les villages, restrent sans habitants; les nations et les tribus perdirent leurs forces, et tout
le pays cultiv changea daspect.
[
243]Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_312 Voyez tous les pays que les Arabes ont conquis depuis les
sicles les plus recids: la civilisation en a disparu, ainsi que la population; le sol mme parat
avoir chang de nature. Dans le Ymen, tous les centres de la population sont abandonns,
lexception de quelques grandes villes; dans lIrac arabe, il en est de mme; toutes les belles
cultures dont les Perses lavaient couvert ont cess dexister. De nos jours, la Syrie est ruine;
lIfrkiya et le Maghreb souffrent encore des dvastations commises par les Arabes. Au cinquime
sicle de lhgire, les Beni-Hilal et les Solem y firent irruption, et, pendant trois sicles et demi,
ils ont continu sacharner sur ces pays; aussi la dvastation et la solitude y rgnent encore.
Avant cette invasion, toute la rgion qui stend depuis le pays des Noirs jusqu la Mditerrane
tait bien habite: les traces dune ancienne civilisation, les dbris de monuments et ddifices,
les ruines de villes et de villages sont l pour lattester.
[
244]Baudicour_1856_12 writing on colonisation: Linvasion arabe avait bien boulevers
les riches colonies romaines, elle avait accumul des ruines, mais elle navait pu changer le sol
qui, malgr lindolence et lincurie de ses nouveaux conqurants, malgr leurs querelles et leurs
brigandages, nen restait pas moins une des principales ressources du commerce europen. Au
temps de leur prosprit, les Pisans, les Gnois, les Vnitiens, alimentaient leurs manufactures
par les produits africains. LAfrique nourrissait encore ces opulentes rpubliques du moyen ge,
comme elle avait nourri Rome dans sa splendeur.
[
245]Pellissier_1836_I_292: En parcourant le pays, on rencontre frquemment des ruines
de vastes et belles constructions, qui ont d tre les centres de riches exploitations agricoles,
dtruites par les guerres intestines, ou par les fautes dune dplorable administration. On y voit
aussi les tristes cadavres de ces cits qui steignirent successivement lorsque le sceptre sortit
dIsmal. / Notre arrive en Afrique a puissamment contribu dpeupler les villes qui existaient encore cette poque.
[
246]Temple_1835_I_224225 of Tunisia: From the great number of ancient towns, whose
ruins are seen scattered over the face of the whole country, but which now stand in the midst of
vast solitudes, tenanted solely by the lion, the wolf, and the hyaena from the known fertility of
the soil, a fertility whose effects at present appear to be beyond the power of nature to produce;
from the immense armies which were maintained by the former lords of the land, and from the
strong and numerous colonies sent forth to extend on foreign and conquered shores the empire
and power of the mother country, I should not hesitate in saying that during the height of its
former prosperity, this fair realm supported a population of 12,000,000 of inhabitants; a number, which under a good government, assisted by laborious, active, and enterprising subjects,
might in a few short years be re-established, and maintained in prosperity and affluence. At
appendix
present agriculture may be said to be entirely neglected and abandoned, no person daring to
cultivate more ground than is sufficient to supply his own immediate wants, and to pay his taxes
to government.
[
247]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1840_6169, chap III: Proposition dun systme doccupation militaire imit des Romains, et pouvant assurer la possession relle du territoire.
[
248]SHD Gnie, 1H403, Reconnaissances, expditions 1844 1847, Reconnaissance de
lHabra, 3, 11, 14: Puisquil est donn la phase actuelle de notre domination africaine de provoquer dengager toutes les grandes questions qui tiennent lessor futur de ce pays, engageons
encore celle-ci qui prouvera que nous nous attachons au sol et que nous voulons fonder sa prosprit sur des bases certaines et indpendantes de touts vnements extrieurs. Ici comme dans
toutes les localits ou les penses et les projets utiles nous inspirent nous retrouvons lexemple
des dominations antrieures. La premire dont les renseignements sont encore la crits sur le
sol, la plus grande, la plus instructive de toutes, la domination Romaine a laiss dans ces lieux
des traces incontestables de son passage dans la valle de lOued-el-Hammam toute une ville
est l pour ainsi dire encore debout pour attester lantique prosprit du pays. He goes on to
discuss the cost of erecting a dam to re-fructify the country around (and such a dam was indeed
built). He has also found canals and dikes, which ne me laissent aucun doute sur lexcution
ancienne de cette disposition et sur la possibilit de son rtablissement avec le moins de frais
possible puisque les massifs de cule et mme leurs parements extrieurs existent encore; quils
paraissent solides et que lon peut y appuyer en toute securite un canal porte sur arc en bois
et en fer...[such work would help colonisation here] et nous nous mettrons enfin sur la voie
pratique rationnelle et mthodique qui eut assur aux Romains la possession indfinie de cette
terre dAfrique et la Barbarie. La rage de lextermination ne staient conjures avec un ensemble
tel que ceux qui se prtendent sages croient ne pouvoir expliquer cette oeuvre immense de
destruction quen en faisant honneur lintervention de la providence nous resserrons un un
les divers nuds de ce rseau colonisateur dont la science politique de Rome avait cru devoir
enlacer sa conqute et fortifier sa domination.
[
249]Hrisson_1891_356: Depuis que lAlgrie est en notre possession, trois moyens ont t
proposs pour asseoir dfinitivement notre conqute: / Lassimilation, cest--dire la civilisation
des Arabes dont nous venons de voir la difficult, pour ne pas dire limpossibilit absolue; / Leur
refoulement dans le dsert; / Leur destruction complte. / Ces deux dernires faons dagir, qui
ont eu de chauds partisans et tendent, toutes les deux, au mme rsultat, ne nous paraissent
pas dignes de discussion. Les dnoncer suffit pour quune nation comme la France les repousse.
[
250]Fortin dIvry_1845_115: La grande difficult de la culture europenne en Algrie est
celle-ci: que les crales ne doivent point en tre pour le moment la base comme en Europe;
car en ce point les Arabes sont dans de meilleures conditions que nous. Ils ont des terres abondantes au del de ce qui est ncessaire, ils ont des bestiaux pour les cultiver; ils ne comptent
pour rien leur temps et pour presque rien leurs transports, de telle faon que longtemps encore
ils livreront les crales meilleur compte que nous.
[
251]Bequet_1848_2425: Crales. LAfrique tait clbre autrefois par labondance de ses
rcoltes en crales, qui avait fait de ses provinces lun des greniers du peuple romain. La culture
arabe est trop peu avance; la culture europenne est encore trop mal assise, pour que lon
puisse dcider dune manire absolue sil nous sera possible de faire renatre cette fcondit.
Quoi quil en soit, noui ne voyons pas les motifs srieux qui devraient nous interdire cet espoir.

[
252]Feuillide_1856_XXX: Oui, lAlgrie, cette terre du bl, cette terre fconde, qui aurait d
tre depuis la pacification ce quelle serait demain, aujourdhui, si on voulait, le march aux
grains et aux farines de lEurope occidentale; lAlgrie, cette antique mamelle nourricire du
monde romain, quon nommait lennemie de la faim, dont lorgueil consistait rassasier qui tait
affam; lAlgrie a t, durant douze annes de son rgime actuel, rduite dpenser quatorze
millions par an pour nourrir sa population!
[
253]Duval_1865_131 writing on the state of French possessions in Algeria, Agricultural
materials: approximation numrique et renseignements agricoles, Instruments de culture.
Europens / Indignes: Charrues: 16,603 / 266,680; Chariots et charrettes: 11,804 / 70; Machines
faucher, faner, moissonner: 81 / 0; Machines mange et vapeur: 183 / Puits et norias: 5,770 /
9,280; Nombre des maisons, moulins, etc: 21,016 / 102,951.
[
254]Charmes_1883_331: Presque tous les petits colons en Algrie finissent par vendre leurs
terres aux Arabes. Mais la grande culture, lexploitation des forts, de lalfa et des mines, le
reboisement, les travaux publics, la mise en valeur des terres aujourdhui striles, lindustrie, le
commerce, en un mot tout ce qui demande le secours du credit europen, constitue un champ
dactivit immense qui nous appartient en propre, que personne ne nous disputera et qui nous
donnera les plus magnifiques moissons. Cest de ce ct quil faudrait concentrer nos efforts.
[
255]Madinier_1856_142143 writing on agriculture, commerce and industry: Comme on le
voit, lintroduction dans notre colonie de machines agricoles propres la culture extensive est
dune haute importance, et leur multiplication fera cesser cet tat dinfriorit qui semble tre le
partage de nos colons alors quils se livrent aux cultures crales.
[
256]Anon_1873_2526 Les Arabes et la colonisation: The Arabs: Ns et levs parmi nous,
sous notre domination humaine et chrtienne, leurs enfants nous combattent comme nous ont
combattus leurs anctres, comme nous combattront leurs enfants. / Aucun des exemples donns par nos industrieux et courageux colons ne leur a servi. / Leurs terres sont aussi mal cultives, leurs troupeaux aussi mal soigns, aussi mal nourris quau premier jour de notre conqute.
Du reste, nous pouvons aisment nous rendre compte de la nature improgressive, de lesprit
rtrograde, du temprament inerte des Arabes: il nous suffit de comparer leurs cultures et leurs
levages aux domaines et aux fermes des colons. / Les vastes mais striles et mornes rgions
quils occupent, leur ngligence, leur malpropret, le dfaut dentente de leurs campements forment un contraste visible avec les centres o apparaissent le gnie, la prvoyance et le labeur
des Europens.
[
257]Afrique_Explore_1883_54 for January 1883: On peut reprocher ce pays de manquer
dhumidit, mais combien de contres qui prsentent ce dsavantage nen sont pas moins productives! LAlgrie 11 ou 12 millions dhectares de terres cultivables; cest peu prs le tiers
de ce quil y en a en France; les Europens en possdent plus du dixime, et les meilleures.
Les pturages et les crales occupent la plus grande partie de ces terrains, mais la culture des
crales ne stend gure. Sur les terres des Europens, la rcolte est relativement dun tiers plus
leve que sur celles des indignes. Ce nest que depuis sept ou huit ans que lon sest mis cultiver la vigne. Les premiers colons lui prfraient le coton, qui produit 15 fois moins. La question
des vignobles en Algrie est lordre du jour, maintenant quun implacable ennemi sacharne la
destruction des vignes franaises. Il y a aujourdhui 17,000 planteurs pour 24,000 hectares; cest
encore peu de chose, toutefois le mouvement est donn; des socits financires se fondent, et
les vignerons du midi de la France se transportent en foule en Afrique.
appendix
[
258]Anon_1841_34 commission sur la colonisation militaire: Si nous interrogeons lhistoire
des peuples modernes, nous trouvons deux modes de colonisation pratiqus avec succs par la
nation la plus constamment triomphante dans ces sortes dentreprises. Le premier consiste
refouler la population du territoire conquis, ou pour mieux dire, lexterminer peu peu. On
substitue ainsi la race europenne la race indigne. Les Anglais lont fait dans lAmrique du
Nord, et les tats-Unis ont t fonds. Mais ce moyen rpugne galement aux principes et aux
antcdents de la France, outre quil peut paratre impraticable quiconque connat le caractre
tenace et guerrier des tribus arabes, leur nombre qui slve plusieurs millions, et la configuration du pays quelles habitent. Le second mode consiste exploiter le sol par la race indigne, en
semparant des produits au moyen dun monopole crasant. Cest le systme suivi par les Anglais
dans leurs colonies des Indes-Orientales. Mais la paisible race des Hindous ressemble aussi
peu aux belliqueuses peuplades africaines, que le sol indien savamment cultiv, au sol nglig
de lAlgrie. La nature des produits ne diffre pas moins, de sorte quon ne peut plus discuter
srieusement une pareille exploitation. / Lauteur du projet, vous le savez, propose un troisime
systme, qui consisterait tablir, ct de la population indigne, une population franaise,
agricole et guerrire, attache au sol par lusufruit, la dfense du sol par le service militaire.
Sans entrer pour le moment dans lexamen dtaill de ce systme, votre commission regrette
de ne pouvoir adopter le point de dpart de lauteur du projet, limpossibilit de la colonisation
civile. M. Thomassy se fonde sur lexprience des dix dernires annes, pour soutenir quelle est
dsormais impraticable. Votre commission conteste cette exprience, en faisant observer que
jamais la colonisation civile na t tente dans les conditions les plus ordinaires de succs.
[
259]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1862_11: Le cantonnement, ntant donc pas un moyen rapidement praticable pour activer le peuplement, du pays, reste ce quil est, savoir: une spoliation qui
contient le germe dune grande catastrophe.
[
260]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1862_9: Le cantonnement consiste en ceci: Assurer chaque
famille arabe la proprit dun lot de terre jug suffisant pour subvenir sa subsistance, moyennant la cession force lEtat de tout le reste du sol. / Veut-on savoir en quoi consiste le lot de
terre assign chaque famille arabe par le cantonnement? / Nous en trouvons un aperu dans
la brochure de M. le colonel Ribourt. / Il dit, page 61, 28.000 hectares servirent indemniser
2.232 familles indignes ce qui fait 12 hectares et demi par famille. / A ce sujet, nous ferons
une rflexion qui frappera sans doute le lecteur. / Le Tell; ou la partie cultivable de lAlgrie,
contient environ 12 millions dhectares. La population indigne sur cet espace est daprs les
statistiques, denviron 2 millions dmes. / Supposons la famille arabe compose de 8 personns,
(car les nomades ont presque tous plusieurs femmes), les 2 millions dArabes forment 250,000
familles. / Ces familles jouissent donc en moyenne chacune de 48 hectares, consquemment,
leur attribuer 12 hect., cest les priver des trois quarts de leurs ressources, cest les faire passer
brusquement de ltat nomade celui de petits propritaires fonciers, sans les avoir prpares,
par une bonne entente de la culture tirer de leurs terres le meilleur parti possible. Cest, selon
nous avoir dcrt leur ruine. Aussi les funestes rsultats de cette mesure inconsidre nont-ils
pas tard se manifester. Ne pouvant plus nourrir leurs bestiaux, les familles cantonnes ont t
obliges de les vendre vil prix. / Puis lusure, ce flau de nos campagnes en France, est venue
sabattre sur elles.
[
261]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1862_10: Quand le moment d lexpropriation sera venu, les populations cantonnes retomberont satis feu ni lieu au milieu des arabes non cantonns. On se

ferait une trange illusion en croyant que cet avenir ne causera aucune motion. Il est plus que
certain, que pour chapper cette ruine les arabes auront recours leur mthode ordinaire, la
guerre. Mais cette fois-ci la guerre sera implacable, car ils combattront pro aris et focis. Ce ne
seront plus des groupes isols plus ou moins nombreux, que nous aurons vaicre, mais une force
que M. le gnral Daumas value 300,000 fantassins et 80 mille cavaliers.
[
262]Lainn_1847_910: Un autre danger tient la nature mme de la guerre qui se fait en
Algrie. Ce nest pas l, comme en Europe, entre deux armes que sagite la querelle; on a contre
soi tout un peuple. Ce peuple, encore dans la barbarie, ne connat pas, ne pratique pas les adoucissements apports chez les nations europennes aux rigueurs de la guerre; il encourt ainsi de
terribles reprsailles, et celles-ci frappent parfois des populations entires, sans distinction dge
ni de sexe. Nest-il pas craindre que dans ces luttes acharnes, o lon veut la fois battre et
ruiner lennemi, le soldat ne sendurcisse lexcs et ne finisse par devenir avide et impitoyable?
Cest aux Chefs, cet gard, combattre les mauvais penchants, modrer les colres, adoucir,
dans la limite possible, les mesures de rigueur, sopposer enfin avec nergie des excs dont la
rptition finirait par ternir lhonneur du drapeau.
[
263]Bugeaud_1847_1415: Vous ne pouvez refouler les Arabes progressivement sans vous
vouer une longue guerre dextermination, qui peut dans certaines circonstances tourner
contre vous. Il faut donc vivre avec eux, vous mler avec eux, les faire entrer dans votre socit.
Telle est aussi la doctrine du Conseil suprieur dAdministration, et plusieurs travaux sont dj
prpars pour entrer dans cette voie autour dAlger. / Le Conseil veut resserrer les Arabes sur le
territoire quils occupent, afin de faire place la colonisation europenne: mais il ne veut pas
comme vous, blesser en eux tous les sentiments humains; il ne veut pas les enlever aux lieux
qui les ont vu natre; il ne veut pas les loigner du tombeau de leurs anctres; il ne vont pas,
comme vous le proposez, les dplacer plusieurs fois, ce qui les pousserait au dsespoir. Il pense,
que le meilleur moyen de les rendre moins belliqueux, dadoucir leurs moeurs, de changer leurs
habitudes agricoles, de les rendre moins prompts la rvolte; cest de les intercaler dans votre
colonisation et de les attacher au sol par lattrait de la proprit btie, et par lamour des cultures
sdentaires et soignes.
[
264]Lasnavres_1865_113 on the difficulties of colony-founding: Nous avons dit plus haut
que les fivres intermittentes et le fanatisme musulman taient les deux ennemis qui attendaient nos colons sur cette possession africaine qui a t, jusqu prsent, une calamit pour
la mtropole. Mopposerez-vous que si le Gouvernement franais sattachait mettre en relief,
dans des publications populaires crites en franais et en arabe, les nombreux points de contact
qui existent entre notre religion et le Koran, le rapprochement deviendrait facile et les prjugs
religieux tomberaient deux-mmes? Ce sont l de belles thories qui ne peuvent natre qu
Paris, mais qui ne pourraient fructifier de lautre ct de la Mditerrane. Devrions-nous imiter
les Russes qui, de nos jours, chassrent une population denviron un demi-million dmes des
montagnes du Caucase et de faire des provinces dOran, dAlger et de Constantine une vritable
solitude limitation de la Gorgie, de la Circassie et de la Mingrlie? ou bien de refouler les
Arabes quelque part, dans le dsert, par exemple, et de les dtruire par la famine comme les
Amricains du Nord ont ananti les Indiens par labus de leau-de-vie?
[
265]Tocqueville_1865_430, in his Report to the Chamber of Deputies on credits requested
for Algeria, 24 May 1847: Nous avons dabord reconnu que nous navions pas en face de nous une
vritable arme, mais la population elle-mme. La vue de cette premire vrit nous a bientt
conduit la connaissance de cette autre, savoir, que tant que cette population nous serait aussi
appendix
hostile quaujourdhui, il faudrait, pour se maintenir dans un pareil pays, que nos troupes y restassent presque aussi nombreuses en temps de paix quen temps de guerre, car il sagissait moins
de vaincre un gouvernement que de comprimer un peuple.
[
266]Urbain_1862_3 writing on colons and natives: Jusquau moment o le pays a t annex
la France, on pouvait considrer les indignes comme des vaincus, auxquels on accordait gnreusement le maintien des formes extrieures de leur organisation sociale. Mais, la terre tant
devenue franaise, la situation se trouve radicalement modifie, car notre droit politique ne
peut admettre sur une partie de lEmpire lexistence dune population qui ne serait ni nationale,
ni trangre, dont les droits ne seraient pas garantis par notre pacte fondamental, htes tolrs
par une sorte de transaction tacite, mais spars de nous aussi bien dans le pass que dans lavenir, Non, la position des indignes ne peut pas, ne doit pas tre telle. Ils ne sont pas des htes
nayant vis-vis de nous que des devoirs; ils ne sont pas des trangers. Ils ont tous les droits la
qualification de rgnicoles. En nous appropriant la terre, nous avons accept les habitants; nous
les avons admis dans notre grande unit politique.
[
267]Anon_1873_10 Les Arabes et la colonisation: Relevez, par tous les moyens possibles, le
prestige des Franais, militaires et colons. / LArabe doit tre constamment plac, vis--vis du
colon, dans une situation rationnelle dinfriorit, jusquau jour o, par des sentiments meilleurs, par des progrs rels dans ses travaux agricoles ou industriels, il se serait rendu digne dtre
trait lgal du peuple conqurant et civilisateur qui a lev si haut la gloire et la richesse de
la France.
[
268]Feline_1846_18 need to teach Arabic in military schools and in the regiments.
[
269]Thoumas_1887_81: La lente conqute des trois provinces de lAlgrie et les expditions
incessantes auxquelles cette conqute donna lieu furent pour le corps de sant loccasion dacqurir des droits incontestables lautonomie quil avait rclame avec tant dinsistance. Dans
ces expditions, les engagements meurtriers peuplaient souvent moins les ambulances et les
hpitaux militaires que ne le faisaient la fvre, la dysenterie et toutes les maladies causes par
lintemprie des saisons. Larme ne pouvait y laisser derrire elle ni malades ni blesss, et, faute
de routes carrossables, il fallait transporter les uns et les autres dos de mulet. De l dinterminables convois et des difficults de toutes sortes que les mdecins militaires surmontrent
force de zle et de dvouement. Le sjour en Algrie fut pendant de longues annes le stage
obligatoire des mdecins sorrtant de lcole du Val-de-Grce.
[
270]Thoumas_1887_II_81: La lente conqute des trois provinces de lAlgrie et les expditions incessantes aux quelles cette conqute donna lieu furent pour le corps de sant loccasion
dacqurir des droits incontestables lautonomie quil avait rclame avec tant dinsistance.
Dans ces expditions, les engagements meurtriers peuplaient souvent moins les ambulances et
les hpitaux militaires que ne le faisaient la fivre, la dysenterie et toutes les maladies causes
par lintemprie des saisons. Larme ne pouvait y laisser derrire elle ni malades ni blesss,
et, faute de routes carrossables, il fallait transporter les uns et les autres dos de mulet. De l
dinterminables convois et des difficults de toutes sortes que les mdecins militaires surmontrent force de zle et de dvouement.
[
271]Milleret_1838_572: Il est dautant plus urgent de remdier cette contagion que, sur un
rgiment arriv Bne en 1836 avec 1,600 hommes, 600 sont tombs malades ds leur arrive, et
200 autres sont rests Guelma. Ainsi, avant dentrer en campagne, la moiti de leffectif tait
hors de service. Final fault authorising Clauzel to try and taker Constantine without sufficient
troops.

[
272]Campbell_1845_14 Bne: At first, and for a considerable time, the mortality at Bona
was frightful; in the January of 1833 the garrison, four thousand in number, had exactly two
thousand in the hospital. Even in 1834, the number of invalids was not diminished, but the
deaths were much fewer. A repaired aqueduct now brings better water into the town; the hospitals have much improved, as well as the barracks of the soldiers; greater attention is also paid to
prevent the soldiers from poisoning themselves with strong liquors and with fruits.
[
273]Morell_1854_207 Bne: An additional cause of insalubrity is presented by the scarcity
of water, the aqueducts having been destroyed in 1832, when Bona was taken by the French, who
have only lately attempted to remedy the evil. Baron Baude states, that it used to have seven
fountains carefully kept up under the Turks; but in 1841 there was only one; and every household had to go half a quarter of a league from the ramparts every day to get theirs. The fact is, that
in 1832 Achmet-Bey wished to destroy Bona, and cut all the water-conduits.
[
274]Fillias_1860_247: Nos tablissements dans les villes ont port longtemps lempreinte du
provisoire. Ainsi, le mode de construction dont on a fait le plus frquent usage est celui de la
maison de planches et de briques, de la baraque de campement, quil faut laisser sa destination. Mais nous en tions aux expdients de limprovisation, il faut le dire, et la ncessit faisait
loi. Tout le monde sait que ce genre dhabitation ne dfend efficacement ni de la chaleur, ni de
lhumidit, ni des intempries; souvent mme, comme il ne comporte, en gnral, quun rezde-chausse, il expose, sans intermdiaire, lhumide impression du sol, dont il est si ncessaire
de se garantir; de plus, il occupe beaucoup despace, sans offrir jamais des conditions favorables
la salubrit des logements. Aussi les baraques sont-elles successivement abandonnes, et
doivent-elles partout faire place des btiments en maonnerie.
[
275]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_212 excursions around Milah and Constantine, Cuiculum:
Nous devons signaler la ncropole franaise o lon voit des noms de soldats et dofficiers du
camp de Djemila gravs sur des pierres romaines; la plus remarquable est celle du capitaine
Escany, du 22e de Ligne, qui commandait le camp lors du passage de de la Mare. Linsalubrit
devint si funeste que lautorit militaire donna lordre dabandonner la Kasbah, aujourdhui en
ruine.
[
276]Trumelet_1887B_298 Boufarik in 1844: La population de Bou-Farik qui, au 31 dcembre,
est de 1370 habitants, se dcompose en: Franais 890; trangers 480; Ce chiffre se divise luimme en:Hommes 950; Femmes 236; Enfants 184; La moyenne des dcs pendant lanne a
t de 1/13e. Au 31 dcembre, la Milice se compose de deux compagnies de Chasseurs et dune
section de Pompiers. Son effectif est de: 8 officiers, 19 sous-officiers, 26 caporaux, 264 Miliciens,
1 tambour.
[
277]Boudin_1852_10 for statistics of Algeria: il est facile de voir combien est contraire la
vrit lassertion de certaines personnes qui osent encore affirmer, en opposition avec lvidence
des faits, que la mortalit europenne diminue en Algrie. Non seulement elle a montr une
marche manifestement croissante, non seulement elle a plus que dcim la population en 1849,
mais encore elles est maintenue en 1850 et 1851 dans un chiffre deux fois plus fort que celui de la
mortalit de la population en France pendant lanne du cholra de 1849. Ibid., 20 for mortality,
point by point: 13. Dans lestimation de la mortalit de la population europenne, il y a considrer que 1e cette population ne compte quune faible proportion de vieillards 2e que la mortalit
relle est considrablement attnue par les rentres en Europe pour cause de sant, rentres
suivies tantt de rtablissement plus ou moins complet, tantt du dcs des individus. / 14. De
appendix
1837 1846, la mortalit de larme dans les hpitaux de lAlgrie sest leve, anne moyenne,
plus de 77 dcs sur 1,000 hommes; en 1849, elle a dpass 100 dcs sur 1,000. / 15 La mortalit
de larme dans les hpitaux de lAlgrie, de 1837 1846, est la mortalit de la population civile
mle ge de 20 30 ans, en France. Comme 77 10; de larme servant en France comme 77
19; de larme servant dans les autres colonies franaises comme 77 39.
[
278]Cambon_1885_119120 speaking to the general in Sousse: Daprs lui, tout nest pas pour
le mieux dans ce satan pays; le gaspillage et la corruption seuls y fleurissent plantureusement.
Nos pauvres soldats y meurent comme des mouches; le cimetire franais rcemment cr
Sousse est encombr dj de leurs tombes, et lon na trouv quun moyen de diminuer le nombre
des dcs dans les garnisons, cest dvacuer immdiatement sur la France tous les hommes
srieusement malades; de cette faon, ils meurent en France et ne figurent point au dossier de
la Tunisie.
[
279]Fortin_dIvry_1846_172: Jai revu Fondouk, bourg nouveau fond lextrmit de la
Mitidjah (route de Constantine ), dont javais vu au mois de juin les premires baraques et les
habitants bien portants et esprant en lavenir; mais les sauterelles, le vent du dsert et les
miasmes des marais se sont rus sur lui, et trois mois aprs, le Fondouk ntait plus quun vaste
cimetire avec quelques malades ou mourants ayant peine la force de gmir sur les morts.
Les deux tiers dune population de 5 600 personnes ont pri sur les lieux, sur la route dAlger
ou Alger mme, et cependant de nouveaux colons sont venus, bien quen petit nombre, les
constructions sachvent, les boulevards se plantent, et la mort steigne pour un temps. Le
Fondouk a de lavenir; cest le seul tablissement lEst sur la route de Constantine et de la
Kabylie. Ce sera un jour un lieu de commerce, dentrept et agricole.
[
280]Enfantin_1843_33 on the Colonisation de lAlgrie: On ne saurait trop le rpter, la
conqute a eu presque toujours pour but et pour rsultat effectif, dans le pass, la destruction,
la spoliation, lexploitation du vaincu; quelquefois elle sest heureusement borne un partage
(avantageux, il est vrai, au vainqueur ) dun sol et dun climat dsirs; chez nous elle peut, et
jose dire quelle doit avoir pour but une association avec le vaincu, qui lui soit, en dfinitive,
aussi avantageuse quau vainqueur. / Noublions pas que, dans notre sicle, la lgitimit de notre
conqute ou du moins de notre occupation dAlgrie, ne peut tre soutenue que si nous sommes
les agents puissants de la civilisation africaine.
[
281]SHD Gnie, 1H403, Reconnaissances, expeditions 1844 1847. Reconnaissance de
lHabra, 11 April 1844: author has also found canals and dikes, which ne me laissent aucun doute
sur lexecution ancienne de cette disposition et sur la possibilite de son retablissement avec le
moins de frais possible puisque les massifs de culee et meme leurs parements exterieurs existent
encore; quils paraissent solides et que lon peut y appuyer en toute securite un canal porte
sur arc en bois et en fer. He concludes by noting that such work would help colonisation here,
et nous nous mettrons enfin sur la voie pratique rationelle et methodique qui eut assure aux
Romains la possession indefinie de cette terre dAfrique et la Barbarie. La rage de lextermination
ne setaient conjurees avec un ensemble tel que ceux qui se pretendent sages croient ne pouvoir
expliquer cette oeuvre immense de destruction quen en faisant honneur a lintervention de la
providence nous resserrons un a un les divers noeuds de ce reseau colonisateur dont la science
politique de Rome avait cru devoir enlacer sa conquete et fortifier sa domination.
[
282]Cavaignac_1839_156: La France a le droit de conserver la rgence; son intrt la
pousse loccuper compltement. Si elle ne veut quune occupation partielle, il lui faut coloniser

cette partie. La colonie manquera son but, parce quelle envahira progressivement le pays par
lextermination des indignes. Il faut donc, par une guerre immdiate plus prompte que meurtrire, soumettre les Arabes, et non les exterminer; car ils ne rsistent pas au progrs.
[
283]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_4344: Dans lorigine de la conqute, alors quon ntait pas
encore clair sur limpuissance du peuple arabe, la guerre se concevait; on croyait avoir affaire
un ennemi quon pourrait battre et amener capitulation. Mais du moment quon sest aperu
que cet ennemi tait le peuple arabe tout entier, depuis le vieillard jusqu lenfant, cest loeuvre
de la destruction quon impose larme, la destruction dans tout ce quelle a de plus affligeant,
de plus hideux. / Par le feu on dtruit les retraites, les ustensiles de ces malheureux, par le fer
on coupe les arbres, on gorge les bestiaux et quelquefois des femmes. Le soldat, aigri par les
souffrances quon lui impose, devient cruel.
[
284]Urbain_1862_19 writing on colons and natives: En effet, on redoute les haines irrconciliables des indignes, et on ne trouve rien de mieux, pour les conjurer et les apaiser, que dexciter
plus vivement encore les griefs et les ressentiments. Larrire-pense de hter la civilisation est
une excuse qui ne peut avoir pour eux une grande valeur. Ce quils constatent immdiatement,
cest quon leur enlve une partie de leurs moyens dexistence; quon les resserre sur le sol; quon
les gne dans leurs habitudes de culture pastorale; quon les dclare barbares, ignorants, perdus
de vices, et que, sous prtexte de civilisation, on voudrait les chasser hors de leurs coutumes,
de leurs lois, de leurs croyances. Moins de bons sentiments, et des procds plus bienveillants,
feraient mieux leur affaire. Que dire de notre sagesse? Nous voulons fconder la terre, lui faire
rendre tous ses trsors, et nous navons pas de meilleur expdient recommander que de
changer, la fois, louvrier, linstrument de travail, la semence, le mode de culture, sans nous
inquiter si le sol et le climat seront pour ou contre ces changements! Il vaut toujours mieux,
dit un conomiste, quand on veut atteindre srement un tat de choses nouveau, scarter le
moins possible de ce qui existe, et chercher dans la situation tout ce quelle peut offrir de moins
dfavorable.
[
285]Leblanc de Prbois_1862_24 Langueur de lAlgrie: Il existe une population arabe
que nous ne pouvons supprimer, que dis-je supprimer, quil faut prcieusement conserver, car
sans elle nous naurions ni bl ni bestiaux, les deux premiers lments de lexistence. Dun autre
ct il y a ncessit, pour assurer dfinitivement la France la possession de lAlgrie, dy appeler
une population franaise et non trangre, capable, par son nombre, de rsister toute agression de la part des arabes et qui permette, sans que la colonisation puisse tre anantie, de faire
voluer larme, de la rassembler sur le littoral pour rsister toute ventualit dattaque par
mer ou sur les frontires, particulirement sur celle de louest, pour prvenir les difficults que
pourraient nous suscister deux puissances qui ont videmment des vues sur le Maroc.
[
286]Napoleon_III_1865_8: Mon programme se rsume en peu de mots: gagner la sympathie
des Arabes par des bienfaits positifs, attirer de nouveaux colons par des exemples de prosprit relle parmi les anciens. utiliser les ressources de lAfrique en produits et en hommes;
arriver par l diminuer notre arme et nos dpenses. Ibid 33: 1. Dclarer que les Arabes sont
Franais, puisque lAlgrie est territoire franais, mais quils continueront dtre rgis par leur
statut civil, conformment la loi musulmane; que, cependant, les Arabes qui voudront tre
admis au bnfice de la loi civile franaise seront, sur leur demande, sans conditions de stage,
investis des droits de citoyens franais. / 2. Proclamer ladmissibilit des Arabes tous les
emplois militaires de lEmpire et tous les emplois civils en Algrie. / 3. Excuter loyalement le
snatus-consulte en respectant les droits acquis des Arabes.
appendix
[
287]Napoleon_III_1865_9: La population de lAlgrie se dcompose peu prs de la manire
suivante: Indignes 2,580,267 / Europens 192,546 / Arme 76,000 / Ce pays est donc la fois
un royaume arabe, une colonie europenne et un camp franais. Il est essentiel de considrer
lAlgrie sous ces trois aspects: au point de vue indigne, colonial et militaire. Then goes into
laws, taxes, usury, justice and pauperisation.
[
288]Pillorget, Ren, Les deux voyages de Napolon III en Algrie (1860 et 1865), on line at
http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/deux_voyages_Napoleon_III Napolon,
who wanted a royaume arabe, and declared himself just as much Emperor of the natives as of
the Europeans, also let slip in a private conversation that Il faut cantonner les Europens et non
les indignes such politics enraged the colons, and as the Empire fell with the war of 1870, so
did the bureaux arabes.
[
289]Duvernois_1858B_1617: La difficult de recruter le personnel me touche peu: je suis
certain que vous navez qu frapper du pied le sol pour en faire jaillir des nues daspirants, car
en France tout le monde dsire plus ou moins tre gouvernement. Aussi trouverez-vous bien
certainement plus de prfets, de sous-prfets et de commis quil ne vous en faudra. Que vos
choix soient tous excellents du premier coup, nul ne saurait le garantir; mais il est certain que
vos dlgus vaudront au moins les officiers des affaires arabes, pris au hasard dans les rangs de
larme. Tous ne sauront pas parler la langue arabe, mais il suffit, au moins dans le principe, que
chaque prfecture ou sous-prfecture compte un ou deux employs sachant cette langue. Or, il
y aura en Algrie, quinze dpartements et environ une vingtaine darrondissements: il faudra
donc en tout soixante employs connaissant la langue arabe. Ds prsent, on peut les trouver
dans les prfectures algriennes o dans les commissariats civils.
[
290]Pimodan_1903_75: Au moral, les mes des Arabes, leurs ides, leurs manires de voir, de
sentir, de discuter, de juger toutes choses, ont-elles chang notre contact? Il ny parat gure,
mme parmi ceux que des motifs divers mettent en relations continuelles avec les Europens.
Sils prennent de nous quelques sentiments, ce sont nos dfauts bien plus que nos qualits. Leur
race, prserve par sa religion de lalcoolisme, flau des peuples infrieurs et vaincus, crot et
multiplie encore, mais son esprit us semble incapable de toute volution, soit en avant vers
notre civilisation, soit en arrire vers lantique civilisation arabe. Sa grandeur si vante, sa
noblesse ne sont que de vaines apparences. A quelques exceptions prs, tous les Arabes de la
classe leve sollicitent, tous ceux de la classe moyenne qumandent, tous ceux de la classe
infrieure mendient.
[
291]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_23: Autrefois le nom de lAfrique tait couvert de villes; il nen
est plus de mme en Algrie. Il n y existe que 9 ou 10 villes qui mritent ce nom et peu prs
autant de bourgades bties misrablement. La population y est tellement rduite que lapprciation la moins inexacte de son chiffre soulve lincrdulit quand on lit des bulletins qui reprsentent notre arme comme aux prises avec des ennemis srieux et redoutables.
[
292]Hugonnet_1860_206: Abd-el-Kader tablit le sige de son gouvernement Tagdempt,
ville quil difia sur les ruines dune cit romaine et non loin de notre poste actuel de Tiaret, dans
une position plus centrale que Mascara. Lemplacement choisi est en outre dfendu naturellement par sa situation.
[
293]Charvriat_1889_260: Les Romains, en effet, nayant jamais subjugu les montagnards
du Djurdjura, ont t obligs dentourer leur territoire dune enceinte de postes militaires dont
les traces ont t rcemment retrouves sur plusieurs points.

[
294]DHautpoul_1850_48: Depuis la disparition des voies romaines, il ny avait plus en
Algrie de routes qui mritassent ce nom. / On en tablit de plus ou moins larges, au fur et
mesure que le besoin sen faisait sentir, soit pour former des tablissements militaires ou agricoles, soit pour faciliter la marche des corps darme. / Ce ne furent dabord que des chemins
ouverts en simples terrassements; mais, plus tard, ils furent modifis et se rattachrent un
systme gnral de voies de communication, conu en vue de la domination complte du pays,
du maintien de la pacification et de la colonisation future. / Ce systme gnral, adopt ds 1847,
prsente un rseau complet au triple point de vue and then details them.
[
295]DHautpoul_1850_49: Ce rseau de voies de communication se rsume en cinq mille
trois cent cinquante kilomtres, dont 450 kilomtres sont actuellement ltat dentretien ou
empierrs; 250 terrasss, mais sans empierrement; 450 pentes rgles; 1650 ouverts par de
simples travaux de campagne, et 2,250 ltat dtude plus ou moins avance. / Le moment nest
pas loign o ces routes, sur le parcours desquelles ont t construits 80 ponts, dont 22 en
maonnerie et 58 en charpente, et prs de 300 ponceaux, seront dfinitivement classes, comme
dans la mtropole, en routes nationales, dpartementales et chemins vicinaux.
[
296]Coinze_1847_13: Si lon veut imiter les Romains dans leur manire dadministrer, il
faut dabord avoir obtenu des rsultats conformes ceux quils obtenaient de leurs colonies.
Lhistoire nous apprend que lAfrique tait le grenier de Rome; lAlgrie est-elle le grenier de la
France? Bien loin de l, la France est oblige dtre celui de lAlgrie.
[
297]Decker_1846_1045 Abd-el-Kaders numbers uncertain: at the Tafna interview 1 July
1837, he had perhaps 8,000 horse and perhaps same infantry. In 1840, reckons he had 8000 infantry and 2000 cavalry but the French official view was that he had 39,925 horse and 33,220 foot!
[
298]Recollections_1844_256257 the French are at present compelled to put forth an overwhelming force to defeat the efforts of an enemy in actual numbers far inferior, but nevertheless difficult to overcome, not so much from their bravery, which, in truth, is of little or no avail
against European discipline, as from their lightness, knowledge of the country, and above all, the
sympathy of the seemingly tranquillised tribes.
[
299]Girot_1840_129: Il serait bien souhaiter quon et en Afrique une certaine quantit
de troupes armes de carabines, et exerces tirera une grande porte. Nos soldats ny sont pas
habiles, et leurs fusils ne sy prtent gure; aussi, ils usent inutilement une bien grande quantit
de cartouches. Je suis persuad que 100 carabiniers, bons tireurs, produiraient plus deffet par
leur feu que 1,000 soldats ordinaires.
[
300]Pernot_1894_246: two-wheeled carts generally used in preference to four-wheeled, and
the backs of animals as well.
[
301]Dino_1847_34: Personne nignore que les Romains remplissaient le vide de leurs lgions
en y introduisant les populations conquises. LAutriche maintient la Hongrie par des rgiments
lombards, la Lombardie par des rgiments hongrois. Les Anglais ont une arme de cipayes.
Pourquoi ne tenterions-nous pas un essai de ce genre? LArabe, nous lavons dit, a toutes les
conditions requises pour faire un bon soldat: courage, ruse, patience et sobrit. Dira-t-ou que
le fanatisme leur fera repousser lide de servir des chrtiens? Mais nos pres nont-ils pas vu un
rgiment de mameluks venir en France la suite de notre glorieuse arme dEgypte? Lempereur
de Russie nest-il pas entour de corps circassiens, tartares et perses, tous mahomtans?
[
302]Antichan_1884_281 on Tunisia: le gouvernement doit se proccuper de la cration
dune force indigne qui nous permette tout la fois de rduire les charges de loccupation et
de rappeler les troupes ncessaires la mobilisation de notre arme nationale. / Cette force,
appendix
dont lorganisation vient mme de commencer, se composera dlments franais et indignes;
elle comprendra de linfanterie, de la cavalerie et de lartillerie de campagne. / Dans chacune
des armes, sauf lartillerie, exclusivement rserve aux Franais, les indignes seront en nombre
sensiblement gal au nombre des Franais, cadres et troupe. / En raison de leur service spcial,
les officiers seront monts.
[
303]Bapst_1909_I_451 Canrobert: Nous voil donc au milieu de lanne 1847. Luvre du
marchal Bugeaud est accomplie, la conqute est faite. Abd-el-Kader est rduit limpuissance.
Dun moment lautre, il va venir se livrer nous. Quant la colonisation, le marchal la mene
aussi rapidement que possible. Sentant luvre de guerre termine, il voulait sen occuper exclusivement. Son plan tait emprunt aux souvenirs de lantiquit romaine: il pensait crer des
colonies militaires comme les Romains en avaient eu dans ce pays. / Il est difficile de juger la
valeur de la conception du marchal, car il neut pas le loisir de la raliser. Il trouva chez les
conseillers de Louis-Philippe une opposition acharne, invincible, et il sestima impuissant la
surmonter.
[
304]Desjobert_1844_44 French destructiveness: On ne fera pas ici le tableau de tous ces
massacres, de toutes ces destructions. Il en a t assez dit autre part; le gnral Duvivier, qui en
tait le tmoin, sexprime ainsi: Depuis onze ans on a renvers les constructions, incendi les
rcoltes, dtruit les arbres, massacr les hommes, les femmes, les enfants, avec une furie toujours
croissante. Les bulletins, les rapports officiels, qui en ont tir vanit, existeront tout jamais
comme, pices accusatrices. Croit-on que la postrit ne nous en demandera pas compte; quelle
ne nous fltrira pas encore plus quelle na fltri les compagnons de Cortez et de Pizarre?
[
305]Colonisation de lex-rgence dAlger, documents officiels dposs sur le bureau de la
Chambre des Dputs...avec une carte de ltat dAlger, Paris 1834, 239 M. de la Pisonnires
speech to the chamber, 20 April 1834: Nous avons massacr des gens porteurs de nos saufconduits, gorg sur un soupon des populations entires qui se sont ensuite trouves innocentes; nous avons mis en jugement des hommes rputs saints dans le pays, des hommes
vnrs, parce quils avaient assez de courage pour venir sexposer nos fureurs, afin dintercder en faveur de leurs malheureux compatriotes: il sest trouv des juges pour les condamner et
des hommes civiliss pour les faire excuter. Nous avons plong dans des cachots des chefs de
tribus, parce que ces tribus avaient donn lasile de lhospitalit nos dserteurs; nous avons
dcor la trahison du nom de ngociation, qualifi dactes diplomatiques dodieux guet-pens;
en un mot, nous avons dbord en barbarie les barbares que nous venions civiliser, et nous nous
plaignons de navoir pas russi auprs deux! Mais nous avons t nos plus cruels ennemis en
Afrique! Et aprs tous ces garcmens de la violence, nous avons chang tout coup de systme
pour nous lancer dans lexcs contraire; nous avons trembl devant un acte de rigueur mrit;
nous avons voulu ramener nous, force de condescendance, des gens qui nont alors cess de
nous craindre que pour nous mpriser.
[
306]Revue Africaine, recueil consacr aux intrts matriels et moraux des possessions
franaises en Afrique et au succs de la colonisation dAlger, nd but perhaps 1836, 101102
M. de Laboulie, speaking in the chamber on 10 June, 1836: Nous sommes venus en Afrique pour
dtruire un mal gnral, la piraterie; nous avons voulu implanter sur cette cte, qui a possd
pendant mille ans la civilisation romaine, une civilisation plus perfectionne encore, la civilisation franaise. Eh bien, quy allons-nous apprendre? nous y apprenons la guerre des tems
barbares, nous dit-on, et nos soldats, au lieu daller lcole de la bravoure et de lhonneur, vont
lcole de lincendie et du meurtre. / Il y a plus encore, comme si la civilisation tait destine

porter avec elle ce quelle a de plus mauvais, en mme tems que ce quelle peut avoir de bon,
nous sommes alls porter en ces contres lexemple du crime qui ny existe pas.
[
307]Hrisson_1891_1011 quelling insurrections: Le sang avait coul flots dans cette lutte
o nos soldats avaient fini par adopter labominable usage de leurs adversaires, qui coupaient
la tte aux cadavres tombs entre leurs mains, et recevaient de leurs chefs le prix de ces hideux
trophes. Jai entendu raconter par un officier des plus brillants de larme dAfrique, quil avait
djeun souvent avec son gnral, sans songer quon avait jet dans un coin de sa tente plusieurs
sacs remplis de ttes coupes. On shabitue tout, ajoutait-il, et nous ny pensions plus.
[
308]Hess_1905_106: Vous avez vu laffaire de dbut. Vous savez quil ny avait l rien de civilisateur. Vous savez aussi que dans la suite de nos moyens daction les considrations dhumanit
furent toujours ngliges; quil ny eut aucun progrs moral dans lemploi de nos moyens pacificateurs; que le seul progrs fut dans lefficacit de nos instruments de destruction. In-Rhar
qui est dhier pointe le record. 1,200 personnes, de tout ge, hommes, femmes, enfants montrant
peu dempressement recevoir notre civilisation, notre libration, notre protection, pour tre
bien srs quils ny chapperont pas, on en tue 1,038. Cest de louvrage propre et rapide. A navrer
les mnes de Rovigo, de Plissier...et dAttila.
[
309]Scott_1842_152153: The reader may not probably be aware of what the French term a
razia. I shall therefore inform him, that it signifies an expedition made against any particular
tribe, with the most Christian intention to kill the male part, burn and destroy everything which
cannot be removed, and bring off the women and children prisoners. To ensure success to expeditions of this nature, they are conducted with the greatest secrecy, steps are taken to surround
those thus devoted to destruction by such forces that escape is impossible, and they first become
aware of the danger they are in, when their assailants drums are heard beating an unpleasant
reveille, having been surprised with a cunning which would do credit to a Mohawk Indian.
[
310]Suchet_1840_305: Peut-tre ne savez vous pas ce que cest quune razzia. Cest une dvastation complte, cest--dire que des soldais franais tombent sur une tribu, brlent les tentes
ou les gourbis (cabanes en feuillages), tuent les hommes, les femmes et les enfants, pillent ce
quil y a prendre, et emmnent les troupeaux, ordinairement la seule richesse des Arabes, et
aussi le seul rsultat positf de la razzia. Voil en rsum quoi se rduisent toutes les oprations
militaires en Algrie, depuis plus de dix ans. Aussi, beaucoup dofficiers et de soldats disent-ils
tout haut que ce nest pas une guerre quon fait en Afrique, mais des assassinats perptuels, un
vritable brigandage.
[ ]
311 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_196: The system of razias, like the Highland forays of former
days only infinitely more cruel and wanton cannot be defended upon any ground of policy, civil
or military: they irritate the natives without subjecting them, and they cause losses of men and
materiel only to those who make them. As for the produce of the forays, it is sold and divided
among the captors, by whom it is instantly squandered, and among whom it tends only to promote those habits of reckless debauchery and cruelty which the African war is fast generating
among the French soldiery.
[
312]Saint-Arnaud_1858_341 to his wife, June 1851, bivouac of Tabenna, chez les Ouled-Habibi:
Je les [the ben-Habibi] ai fait attaquer par deux colonnes que Luzy et Marutaz ont vigoureusement menes. Ils ont bien compris mes instructions. On a jet les Kabyles dans les ravins et on
leur a tu plus de deux cents hommes, brl de superbes villages, et maintenant on coupe leurs
oliviers. Croirais-tu quaujourdhui 24 juin, en Afrique, nous avons un brouillard tel que deux fois
appendix
jai t oblig darrter mes colonnes et de suspendre.le combat? Mes troupes deviennent excellentes; il ny a plus qua leur montrer lennemi. Cette colonne sera terrible la fin de lexpdition.
[
313]Saint-Arnaud_1858_289 to his wife, June 1850, bivouac of Senef: Chre Louise, je suis
bivouaqu par une chaleur de quarante degrs, au milieu de vingt villages superbes, qui ne se
sont jamais bien soumis, qui ont plus dune faute se reprocher et que je vais punir en une fois
de toutes leurs iniquits. Les premiers villages taient froids et arrivaient lentement me saluer.
Je les ai si mal mens, que les autres sont arrive en masse. Je leur ai donn jusqu ce soir pour
payer les impts et les amendes que je leur inflige. Sils ne sexcutent pas, je ferai comme
Oueldja, jenverrai trois colonnes brler tout. Ce sera dommage, car cest un beau pays. Je crois
et jespre quils payeront. 290291: Tous tes villages ont pay hier soir et ils ont bien fait, je les
aurais anantis.
[
314]Commission des colonies agricoles de lAlgrie. Rapport...par M. Dutrne, son reprsentant dans la commission dinspection de ces colonies forme par le ministre de la Guerre en excution de la loi du 19 mai 1849, Paris 1850, 2122: Nos soldats, nos vrais hommes de guerre dans tous
les grades, ces braves qui aiment enlever des positions, mais par les armes, mais loyalement,
gmissent de ces razzias administratives faites sur des populations soumises, et qui, leur grand
pril, nous ont souvent donn preuve de leur dvouement. Jai entendu, et je ne suis pas le
seul, des officiers suprieurs, trs suprieurs, dclarer quils vitaient de rencontrer des chefs
arabes soumis leur commandement, parce quils ne pouvaient supporter leurs regards sans
rougir, attendu que des engagements formels, pris avec ces chefs, ntaient point respects. Si les
Arabes se trouvent fort plaindre davoir notre arme en prsence le jour du combat, ils sont
fort heureux dy trouver, pour les jours de paix, dhonorables, dimposants dfenseurs, contre les
loups-cerviers, si imprudemment dmusels, soit dit en passant, par la loi dusure.
[
315]Paris_1840_2: pour tous sans exception, le massacre de nos soldats, de nos colons, des
tribus nos allies, le pillage et la dvastation de nos tablissements, sont une calamit publique
devant laquelle on oubliera toute divergence dopinions, afin de pourvoir la plus urgente ncessit du moment, au salut de la colonie.
[
316]Rivoire_1840_10: Lpoque la plus favorable pour nos oprations ne dure gnralement
quune quarantaine de jours, compter du 1er mai. Alors les chaleurs ne sont pas excessives, les
moissons couvrent la terre, les herbes pour les chevaux ne sont pas dessches et se coupent
facilement, les sources coulent encore. Si les Arabes ne se soumettent pas par la crainte de voir
dtruire leurs moissons, ils ne sen loigneront pas tous pour venir nous combattre.
[
317]Scott_1842_155 reprisals by Abd-el-Kaders irregulars at Mascara, who behead 14 of 16
French captives after a French razia: This was to be attributed to the irregular troops of Mascara,
who had suffered most from the French razias against their corn-fields, which had been
destroyed when the wheat was just fit for reaping; but, if the object of this wanton destruction
was with the view of starving the Arabs out, it was a foolish one, as they have enough grain in
their pits to last them for several years.
[
318]Hrisson_1891_248, Quoting General Yusuf, from his De la Guerre en Afrique, 1851: Jadis,
jtais un trs zl partisan de la destruction des rcoltes; jai reconnu depuis combien grande
tait mon erreur. Quaud nous croyions dtruire les rcoltes de lennemi, ctait notre propre
bien que nous brlions, car une seule campagne ne sufft pas pour en finir avec les Arabes.
Lexprience de dix-neuf ans nous le prouve. Or, si, dans une premire expdition, vous dtruisez tout, que vous vidiez compltement les silos, en un mot que vous mettiez la ruine partout,

quelles ressources trouverez-vous lorsque vous serez obligs de revenir? Rien, absolument rien,
si ce nest les traces peine effaces de vos incendies! Avec quoi, ds lors, nourrir et les hommes
et les chevaux?
[
319]Baudicour_1853_480481 after the razzia: Il faudra quarante annes peut-tre pour que
les nouveaux plants prennent le dveloppement des anciens. En attendant, avec quoi achetront-ils leur pain? Dun autre ct, leurs maisons sont dtruites; dpouills de tout, ont-ils les
moyens de les relever? Mais, du reste, quoi bon le faire, puisque le coin de terre o ils taient
installs ne peut plus les nourrir? Les voil donc tout jamais dtachs du sol qui les fixait:
lavenir vous naurez plus leur demander dimpt; bien loin de l, de ces gens bien tablis
vous avez fait des vagabonds qui nauront dautre ressource que daller piller leurs voisins plus
sages ou plus heureux, que vos armes expditionnaires nauront pas visits. Si quelque fanatique vient surgir lanne suivante, quauront-ils de mieux faire que de sattacher ses pas et
de tenter fortune?
[
320]Chevillet_1896_110113 leaves France in 1881; at Kars-el-Mads: Tout prs sont plusieurs
tombeaux, entours de quelques pans de vieilles murailles romaines, que nous faisons sauter
la dynamite, pour voir si, aux alentours, il ny aurait pas quelques silos remplis de grain. so they
destroy the tombs as well.
[
321]Ancien_cur_1866_12: Pour couper, en dautres termes, pour ruiner insensiblement ce
quon veut bien appeler la nationalit arabe, je lai dit et jy ajouterai encore, rien nest plus ais,
si nous le voulons; pour recoudre, cest--dire, transformer peu peu le caractre des indignes,
les amener sans violence sortir de leur apathie systmatique, et entrer enfin dans le grand
mouvement civilisateur qui entrane aujourdhui tous les peuples, se confondre et sassimiler
avec nous, jessaierai de le dire aussi. Je le ferai sans passion, sans aigreur, et avec lunique dsir
dtre utile, car si jaime la France, jai aussi un grand faible pour les Arabes.
[
322]Nodier_1844_129 Stora: Lapathie des Arabes, leur ddain pour les dbris des monuments dun autre ge, leur ignorance des arts, tout les porte voir ces ruines avec insouciance, et
sans quun zle malhabile ou une fureur insense de destruction leur inspire lide de rdifier
ou de dtruire: laction du temps nest aide ni contrarie par personne.
[
323]Buret_1842_20. And see 168: the Roman system of colonisation is the only way to secure
Algeria, because La conqute romaine ne passait pas avec la victoire sur les provinces conqueses,
elle sy fixait, sy tablissait solidement par la colonisation.
[
324]Tocqueville_1865_436437, in his Report to the Chamber of Deputies on credits
requested for Algeria, 24 May 1847: La socit musulmane, en Afrique, ntait pas incivilise;
elle avait seulement une civilisation arrire et imparfaite. Il existait dans son sein un grand
nombre de fondations pieuses, ayant pour objet de pourvoir aux besoins de la charit ou de
linstruction publique. Partout nous avons mis la main sur ces revenus en les dtournant en partie de leurs anciens usages; nous avons rduit les tablissements charitables, laiss tomber les
coles, dispers les sminaires. Autour de nous les lumires se sont teintes, le recrutement des
hommes de religion et des hommes de loi a cess; cest--dire que nous avons rendu la socit
musulmane beaucoup plus misrable, plus dsordonne, plus ignorante et plus barbare quelle
ntait avant de nous connatre.
[
325]Touttaille_1866_15 experiences of a soldier-workman: Si la France avait eu faire un
peuple susceptible de fusion, dassimilation, ou seulement de flexibilit, les moyens de persuasion, de justice et de douceur, fortement tays quelle a employs jusqu ce jour, auraient
amen depuis longtemps le triomphe de ses droits et la rcompense de ses travaux. / Mais elle
appendix
se trouve en prsence dune race immobile dans ses tnbres. Ennemi irrconciliable de notre
civilisation et du nom chrtien, lArabe puise, dans la sombre puissance de son fanatisme, des
lments implacables de rsistance et dagression. N, lev, organis pour dtruire, il parfait et
entretien loeuvre de destruction laquelle il semble tre fatalement attach. Qua-t-il fait du sol
Algrien du nord de lAfrique, qui, avant sa fatale conqute, tait le pays le plus civilis et le plus
fertile du monde? Un dsert.
[
326]Officier_1871_1: LAlgrie est habite par 2,500,000 indignes, et par 220,000 Europens,
de toutes nationalits. / Les Franais comptent dans le chiffre de 220,000 pour la moiti environ.
/ Ds les premiers jours de la conqute, les Europens, franais ou trangers, naturaliss ou non,
ont revendiqu pour eux-mmes le gouvernement des indignes, sous la rubrique: Application
du rgime civil. / Cette appellation nest point vraie. Les Europens dAlgrie savent fort bien
que le titre, Rgime civil, est de nature faire natre une confusion dont ils esprent profiter. Ils
savent que cela signifie subordination de lintrt franais lintrt algrien, asservissement de
lindigne par leuropen. / En effet, ds que la Providence eut fait tomber entre nos mains le
sort des indignes musulmans, les graves problmes que toute conqute soulve se sont poss
nous; ils peuvent se rsumer ainsi: / La France laissera-t-elle aux indignes leurs lois, leurs
moeurs, leur religion, leurs proprits, en se rservant le gouvernement politique, la perception
des impts, la rpression des crimes et dlits et le droit dinnover tout ce qui peut amliorer la
race indigne et la prparer la vie civilise? / Ou bien dniera-t-elle aux vaincus ces grandes
choses que le christianisme nous a appris respecter et dont nous nous sommes montrs les
ardents dfenseurs, chaque fois quune nationalit a t opprime? / Jusqu ce jour et malgr
tous les efforts des Europens, la France est reste fidle aux traditions de son pass. Elle a protg les indignes contre les novateurs outrance qui voulaient et veulent encore aujourdhui
imposer le Code Napolon au bout des baonnettes.
[
327]Ideville_II_1882_260261 quoting from his 1842. LAlgrie: Du moyen de conserver et
dutiliser cette conqute: Larme est tout en Afrique, disait-il: elle seule a dtruit, elle seule
peut difier. Elle seule a conquis le sol, elle seule le fcondera par la culture et pourra, par de
grands travaux publics, le prparer recevoir une nombreuse population civile. / Pour quelle
accomplisse celte double tche, il ne faut que deux choses: maintenir son effectif au chiffre
actuel et conserver en Afrique le rgime militaire qui y est en vigueur. Ce dernier point est l
plus important. Comme larme est tout en Afrique, il ny a de possible que le pouvoir militaire.
[
328]Lainn_1847_78: On a demand la rduction de larme dAfrique en invoquant des
motifs divers, comme la possibilit dune guerre en Europe, lurgence, des conomies, etc., etc. Il
est certain quavec le temps larme; devenant de moins en:moins ncessaire, pourra, et devra
tre, rduite. Mais il est galement certain quen prsence des populations dcidment au sourdement hostiles, et lorsque la colonisation ne fait quede natre, la rductionne peut soprer que
graduellement et avec les plus grandes prcautions. / Dailleurs, si, comme on la dit souvent,
larme dAfrique cote cher, cest l une de ces dpenses fcondes qui portent avec elles leur
ddommagement. Par sa prsence, par la protection, quelle tend partout, larme hte le dveloppement de la colonisation; celle-ci, de son ct, augmente le revenu annuel de l colonie; ce
revenu, insignifiant dans lorigine, mais chaque jour plus important, arrivera solder la dpense,
donnera mme plus tard un excdant; et, en dfinitive, en maintenant larme sur un pied respectable, on naura fait que hter lpoque o la colonie cessera dtre onreuse.
[
329]Warnier_1863_26: Les auteurs de lAlgrie pour les Algriens, et de lAlgrie franaise
(indignes et immigrants) ne voient dans les colons que des spculateurs, des agiteurs, qui ne

demandent grands cris le cantonnement des tribus que pour voir souvrir un vaste champ de
spculation sur les biens ruraux, et vendre aux indignes, un prix lev, les terres que lEtat leur
aurait donnes gratuitement; il doit tre bien permis aux colons de se demander si, dans ce cas
particulier, on ne prterait pas aux autres le mal dont on est soi-mme atteint.
[
330]Devereux, Roy, Aspects of Algeria, historical, political, colonial, London 1912, 133134:
The commune mixte is an arbitrary territorial unit resembling the French arrondissement
in size, and the whole seventy-five then created contained about seventy thousand Europeans
drowned by nearly three million Arabs. Three other kinds of communes still exist in Algeria
the commune de plein exercice, where Europeans are in a large majority, the commune mixte
du territoire du commandement, midway between the civil government of the north and the
military region of the south, and the commune indigne, a collection of douars or Arab villages
administered by a French mayor and a mixed council of soldiers and natives. These microcosms
are included in the three departments Alger, Constantine and Oran, into which Algeria is divided. But, as Professor Girault points out in his masterly analysis of colonial legislation, these
triplicate divisions are purely artificial, and correspond to no geographical or numerical necessity. Their towns are ruled by a series of prefets and sous-prefets seconded in the rural districts
by a host of administrate urs and minor officials, who endeavour to adapt to the heterogeneous
population of a growing colony the complicated mechanism of a system transported from the
metropolis. The history of its changes and ramifications would fill a volume.
[
331]Ancien_cur_1866_56: Et quoique maintenant nous ne voulions pas de cette tche,
que mus par une pense gnreuse, nous la repoussions mme de toutes nos forces, il viendra
un jour o le soin de notre conservation et la dfense de nos intrts, nous obligeront, malgr
nous, laccomplir. Telle est, en effet, la loi de lexprience dmontre par lhistoire. Chaque fois
quun peuple barbare sest trouv en contact habituel avec une nation civilise, il a t dtruit,
repouss, ou absorb par elle; ou bien lui-mme a t le plus fort, et alors adieu la civilisation!
II en sera de mme en Algrie: ou les Arabes, ralisant leurs esprances, parviendront nous en
chasser, ou ils cesseront dy exister comme peuple, ou bien ils consentiront tre absorbs par
nous, devenir chrtiens, franais et civiliss.
[
332]Ribourt_1859_29: Le temps ou quelques insenss parlaient de refouler les Arabes
comme les peuples de lUnion amricaine refoulent devant eux et exterminent les peuplades
indignes est depuis longtemps pass; nous mettons, au contraire, notre honneur a les appeler
nous, les lever notre civilisation. Cest pourquoi ladministration donna une si srieuse
attention aux choses de linstruction publique. Lpe avait soumis les corps, ctait lenseignement conqurir les mes.
[
333]Lunel_1869_14: Il nest pas jusque dans leurs esprances de libert daction que les
colons naient t dus, car dans cette terre conquise o tout est encore chimre la seule chose
qui ne leur a pas t promise, mais quon leur a prodigue, cest la prsence constante dun
ennemi qui veille autour de la maison ou du champ, cest la discipline militaire personnifie
dans un capitaine de larme remplissant dans le village les fonctions de maire et de magistrat et
qui les colons ont rendre compte de leurs actes.
[
334]Lunel_1869_20 on la question algrienne: Si, par suite, nous examinons la situation
dune manire approfondie, nous sommes obligs de reconnatre quaprs trente-huit annes
doccupation, de sacrifices de toutes natures: 1. Nous sommes aussi trangers la population
arabe que lors de notre dbarquement; 2. Que si le chiffre de la population et le commerce des
appendix
trois principales villes du littoral ont augment, il sont diminue partout ailleurs: 3. Que lAlgrie,
au lieu dtre une source de richesses, est une cause de dpenses; 4. Que lamlioration nest que
partielle, et que lappauvrissement est gnral; 5. Que le mcontentement et le dcouragement
rgnent partout en Algrie.
[
335]H_de_B_1834_101102: On a trac et fait de belles routes dans les environs dAlger; on
a rpar Oran une grande partie des belles fortifications construites par les Espagnols; on a
pareillement reconstruit, pour ainsi dire, la plupart des forts qui entourent Alger; on a lev
quelques ouvrages de campagne Bne, Boujia, Mostaghanem, mais cest pour et par
larme que ces divers travaux ont t excuts, et il est de fait que si nous venions abandonner
la rgence en ce moment, lexception de ces travaux militaires nous ne laisserions aprs nous
que la dvastation et des ruines; nous le rptons, parce que cest l vrit, nous navons rien
su conserver, nous navons fait que dmolir et dtruire, ravager et dboiser le pays; quelques
constructions en planches venues de Trieste, et qui ont cot fort cher, seront peut-tre Bne
les seuls monuments que nous laisserons aux Maures pour tmoigner de notre sjour auprs
des colossales ruines dHippone. Les Romains savaient vaincre, conqurir et coloniser; bien
certainement nous savons vaincre, et nous sommes les matres de garder nos conqutes; mais
savons-nous coloniser?
[
336]Annales_Colonisation_1852_I_8495 Colonisation de lAlgrie par les enfants trouvs
in an attempt to mitigate the 76% death rate of such children in metropolitan France.
[
337]Lady_Herbert_1872_115116: The whole subject of French colonisation in Algeria
seems to have been misunderstood; but while it is not difficult to find fault with the present
uncultivated state of three-fourths of this beautiful country, it is not so easy to find a remedy.
Some people attribute it entirely to the military government of the country. But we must recollect first, that Algeria had to be conquered, step by step, from the Arabs: next, that a civil authority is rarely respected by those warlike tribes, whose sole idea of power consists in a greater or
lesser number of guns. They laugh at a Frenchman in a frock-coat, said one very intelligent man
to me, with whom I had a long talk on this subject, but a uniform at once ensures their respect.
On the other hand, it has been a great mistake to send from France as colonists, men without
capital, and often broken down in character, health, and fortunes. Algeria has been looked upon
by the Imperial Government, less as a colony than as a place for dports and political offenders,
whose misdemeanours were not sufficiently grave to entitle them to banishment to Cayenne,
but who still were dangerous to the peace of France. Hence the strong revolutionary and communistic element now existing in that country: and hence also, the multitudes of Cafes and
Billiards which meet one at every turn, often half in ruins; but the keeping of which seems
to be the only employment for which such a class of persons is fitted. But even respectable
colonists or emigrants have great difficulties to contend with, though they are stated differently
by different people. One man attributed his failure to the cumbrous duties and prohibitions of
the French Custom House, and the heavy differential port dues levied on all foreign shipping.
French colonists, he remarked, pay enormously for everything they consume or use, if not produced in Algeria; while they have to sell at a much less profit when they export, on account of
the absurdly heavy port dues and freight and commission expenses.
[
338]Morell_1854_v: As to the advantages derivable from European colonies in Africa,
South or North, they are yet a matter of expectation. Hitherto the moderns have certainly suffered more and done less than the Romans in African campaigns. Algeria, the granary of Rome,

has been the grave of the French soldier; and yet a nursery for a goodly crop of iron men of the
Changarnier stamp, who have done brave service in the streets of Paris. The French Regency
may be looked upon as an issue to relieve the apoplectic symptoms of the mother country, and
a drain for her floating capital; but as to any positive returns derived by France for her outlay in
that quarter, we confess ourselves unable to discover them, except in the shape of cotton and the
above African chiefs, who have sharpened their wits and whetted their swords, as well as their
appetite for slaughter, in Algerian razzias. That the future will show better things, is our firm
belief. Algeria and Morocco, under an enlightened sway, and pacified, might in all probability
yield glorious crops, and afford a noble field for commercial speculation.
[
339]Desjobert_1844_3: Les calculs du gouvernement et la chaleureuse persistance de
lintrt priv ont ainsi concouru abuser le pays et entretenir des esprances trompeuses. /
On a promis une conqute facile qui demandait peu de temps et peu de troupes. / On a promis
la population franaise les avantages dun pays nouveau, qui devait tre pour les malheureux
une heureuse patrie. / On a promis au commerce de nouveaux dbouchs et la marine une
navigation nouvelle. DAlger nous devions dominer le commerce des Indes. / On faisait brillera
nos yeux limage dore dune colonie prospre. / Nous appelions la civilisation des peuples
barbares et au christianisme une nation dinfidles. / Confiante en ces promesses, lopinion
publique avait raison de vouloir ce qui devait apporter la France honneur, gloire, puissance et
richesse. / Si on avait laiss percer la vrit, lopinion publique aurait repouss une chimre si
fatale au pays.
[
340]Anon_1838_78, French projects for colonising Africa presented by Xavier Golberry, an
engineer, after his tour of Senegal in 1785: This new French Africa would embrace the whole
course of the Niger, as described by Park, Clapperton, and the Landers; of the Senegal; of part of
the Gambia; a very considerable portion of Nubia, Ethiopia, and Egypt, the whole of Tripoli, the
greater part of the regencies of Tunis and Algiers; and, in fact, the whole of central and western
Africa, a country abounding in ivory, in gold mines, and forests which produce the best gum in
the world a country capable, according to all that we have learned of it from our own enterprising travellers, of producing the sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, rice, spices,
and timber of every description...Now, we do not go so far as to charge the present government of France with entertaining the extravagant project sketched out by M. Golberry. We conceive, however, that the late proceedings at Algiers, the extension of their conquests as far as
Coustantine, and the interference with British rights on the western coast by the French authorities of Senegal, to which we shall have occasion by and by to allude, are matters that require the
vigilant attention of the cabinet, and legislature, and people of this country. There has been a
singular degree of predominance, or rather, to give it its right name, of usurpation, attempted to
be carried into effect by the Senegal government since the surrender of Algiers, upon which they
never ventured before; and we can only say, that if it be submitted to by England, no schemes
of aggrandizement can be imagined too gigantic for France to accomplish hereafter in western
and central Africa.
[
341]SHD 1M1314 1 Sept 1836, L. de Margadal, Capitaine dtat Major, aide de camp du Gnral
Occupation militaire dAfrique appliqu au dveloppement de la colonisation.
[
342]Milleret_1838_574: Nous nen finirions pas sil fallait rcapituler toutes nos erreurs: quil
suffise de dire avec M. le prsident du cabinet du 22 fvrier: Nous navons eu en Afrique ni la
colonisation, ni loccupation grande ou petite, ni la paix ni la guerre, mais la guerre mal faite.
appendix
Avec M. le prsident du cabinet du 15 avril: On a agi avec irrsolution, avec mollesse et sans
avoir de projets arrts. Enfin avec M. Guizot: On a manqu de plan, de rsolution et de
volont.
[
343]Milleret_1838_542: Maintenant nous nous htons de dclarer avec une profonde
conviction que la soumission de lAlgrie et sa conservation comme province franaise sont non
seulement chose trs possible, mais en mme temps chose glorieuse et utile, ainsi que nous
esprons le dmontrer dans les chapitres qui vont suivre. / Cependant depuis sept ans que nous
possdons Alger, et aprs avoir chang sept huit fois de systme et de plans, nous ne savons pas
encore ce que nous y ferons; et aux yeux des Arabes et des Europens nous avons lair, au moins,
dtre fort embarrasss de notre conqute. then proceeds to an overview of the country, and
(568ff) the faults the Government has committed since the invasion, viz. not organised for war,
no system for Africa, lousy accommodation for the soldiers, etc.
[
344]Bugeaud_1922_182, Letter to Colonel dEsclaibes, May 1838: Mon ami, la Restauration se
targue de nous avoir donn lAlgrie, elle ne nous a donn quAlger et elle nous a fait un funeste
prsent. Je crains quil ne soit pour la monarchie de Juillet ce que lEspagne a t pour lEmpire.
Avec une nation qui se paye de grands mots et qui a la vellit des grandes choses avec les petites
passions et la parcimonie des piciers, on ne saura prendre aucun grand parti sur lAfrique. On
ne saura ni sen aller, ni agir de manire crer quelque chose...pour nos neveux.
[
345]Rogniat_1840_57: loccupation tendue est dangereuse, en ce quelle dgarnit la France
de nombreuses troupes, et fonde grands frais sur les sables dAfrique, un chafaudage qui
scroulerait la premire guerre maritime; elle est ruineuse, en ce quelle cote beaucoup plus
quon ne peut se promettre de retirer des misrables populations africaines. Il est donc prudent
de borner nos efforts et nos sacrifices, quant prsent, la colonisation dun territoire fertile sur
les ctes dAfrique, et dy ajouter seulement la construction dun port militaire. Sachons replier
nos voiles propos, pour viter de faire naufrage sur les rives africaines; sauf les dployer derechef plus tard au souffle bienfaisant dune civilisation naissante.
[
346]Duvernois_1858B_2: Depuis vingt-huit ans, lAlgrie vit au jour le jour, sans quelle ni
personne sache trop pourquoi ni comment elle vit. Le public sen est aperu depuis longtemps et
voit fort bien les causes qui empchent la Colonie de prosprer. Il paie, bon an mal an, 50 ou 60
millions de dficit, sans se demander si cela est bien ncessaire, heureux seulement quon mette
en tte de la carte payer: POUR FRAIS DE GLOIRE NATIONALE. Mais l se borne lamnit de
ce bon public, et si lon vient lui parler dmigrer en Algrie ou dy placer ses capitaux, il hausse
ls paules.
[
347]Vicomte_1843_87: La France se montrera digne delle en prenant des moyens vigoureux
pour coloniser cette Algrie toujours au berceau; nanmoins le plus difficile est termin; il ne
faut quenvoyer ici dhonntes paysans, et lautre race perverse et parasite sclipsera bientt,
puisque les moins mauvais reviendront eux-mmes par de la fermet et par de bons exemples,
et que les maladies, filles de lintemprance, auront promptement fait justice des autres.
[
348]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_126: Dans son ouvrage sur lAlgrie, M. le marchal Bugeaud
disait que le gouvernement militaire nempchait pas la cration des autorits civiles ni leur jeu.
Nous lui demandons pardon de ntre pas de son avis. Sous le gouvernement militaire, la commune ne peut exister, car elle constitue un pouvoir et des droits indpendants de son autorit;
ce quil ne veut pas. Tandis quau contraire la cration des autorits civiles et judiciaires indpendantes ne peut gner en rien laction du pouvoir militaire. Elles ne lempchent en aucune

faon dagir dans sa spcialit la plus large possible. / Le gouvernement militaire est donc par sa
nature, lobstacle invincible au progrs, en ce quil touffe leur naissance toutes les garanties
que rclament les citoyens, en ce quil ne peut comprendre que la cration des pouvoirs civils
parfaitement semblables ceux de la France, loin de lentraver viendrait en aide laction de
larme, en dchargeant ses chefs du souci dune besogne administrative pour laquelle ils ne
peuvent avoir toute laptitude ncessaire, et pour laquelle le temps leur fait dfaut.
[
349]Vesian_1850_30: Sans en excepter la ferme des Trappistes on pourrait dire avec vrit
quil ny a pas en encore en Afrique dessai de colonisation vraiment srieux. On ne peut en effet
donner ce nom des travaux entrepris dans des conditions qui rendaient le succs impossible.
Les besoins dargent, le prix lev de la main-doeuvre, le mauvais choix des lieux, lignorance
des ressources du sol, des moyens et du genre de culture, enfin le manque deau pour arroser les
terres sont autant de causes de ruine pour le colon de lAlgrie, et ces causes nous les avons rencontres presque partout. The Trappist farm was at Staoueli, with 200/250 workers, workshops,
flour-mill, cattle, vines etc.
[
350]Spectateur_Militaire_1859_250: Cest le cas de faire remarquer combien les dtracteurs
de notre colonie mconnaissent limportance de la conqute que nous avons accomplie de
lautre ct de la Mditerrane. Dans tous les comptes comparatif de produits et de dpenses
que nos statisticiens, voire mme nos conomistes, ont tablis propos de lAlgrie, la dpense
remporte toujours, parce quon omet de faire figurer au milieu des chiffres certaines valuations
quil est difficile de prciser, mais qui nen ont pas moins une valeur considrable. Comment ne
pas reconnatre, par exemple, lextrme utilit pour notre marine davoir sa disposition dans la
Mditerrane une cte de plus de 800 kilomtres, qui prsente quelques bonnes rades?
[
351]Say_1886_6 writing on colonial politics: Eh bien. Messieurs, je suis rest profondment
attrist: pas de politique intrieure; pas de politique extrieure; pas mme de programme gnral de colonisation; presque partout des villages officiels en ruine; partout des plaintes; peu de
chemins de fer; pas de vie, pas dactivit coloniale, rien de ce qui fait le charme et lattrait des
colonies anglaises. Et avec cela, au nombre de 138,000, nos malheureux colons noys au milieu
de 2,344,000 indignes et lAlgrie divise en deux clans dchans lun contre lautre: Les arabophiles, les arabophobes. Le rgime militaire, le rgime civil.
[
352]Journal Gnral de lAlgrie et de la Tunisie 12 June 1890. La colonisation en Algrie. On
a toujours paru surpris que ls progrs de l colonisation aient t aussi lents en Algrie; mais
pour avoir lexplication de ce fait, il suffit de se rendre compte de ltat o se trouvait le pays
lpoque de la conqute; comment aurait-il pu se dvelopper quand il ntait reli la Mrepatrie que par quelques courriers partant des intervalles loigns, quand les ports principaux,
dont lamnagement est aujourdhui termin, existaient peine, quand limmigrant, au moment
o il dbarquait, ne trouvait ni routes, ni moyens de transport bon march? En 1830, lorsque les
Franais occuprent lAlgrie, il ne restait plus rien des nombreuses voies, de communications
tablies par les Romains, et dont le rseau embrassait 7,900 kilomtres. Les Arabes navaient
leur disposition que des sentiers frays par les pitons, les cavaliers et les btes de somme; les
rivires, sauf quelques exceptions, devaient tre traverses gu. Tout tait donc faire.
[
353]Bourde_1880_226227: Fort-National est un poste purement militaire, nullement une
colonie. Les habitants civils qui sont venus sy fixer, au nombre de 257, sont obligs de rsider dans lenceinte. Tout est sacrifi aux ncessits de la dfense, et les constructions militaires
occupent les deux tiers de lemplacement.
appendix
[
354]Annales_Colonisation_1852_I: includes Prcis de lhistoire de la colonisation franaise
en Algrie; and, in several parts, Situation actuelle de la colonisation en Algrie. Chronicles
progress in town- and road-building, but also the occasional failure (such as 149150:
Le Fondouk).
[
355]Carton_1889_15: Marchons donc sur les traces des anciens, et suivons la voie dans
laquelle nous nous sommes engags en utilisant laqueduc, en rparant les citernes de Carthage
et nul doute quen un temps relativement court, si on envisage le nombre de sicles quil a fallu
aux premiers occupants pour obtenir le mme rsultat, nous naarrivions rendre ce pays sa
splendeur dautrefois.
[
356]Duvernois_1858_351: Sil sagissait de recruter des migrants pour lAlgrie on devrait
leur dire: / Allez en Algrie, vous y serez peu prs aussi libre quen Russie, on vous dira le
nombre exact des arbres que vous devez planter, le nombre exact des pierres qui doivent former
votre maison; vous trouverez des terres, si on a le loisir de vous en donner; vous ne les attendrez que six mois, si vous avez du bonheur, mais vous les attendrez peut-tre deux ou trois ans.
Quant vos produits, vous les transporterez comme vous pourrez, car, en Algrie, il ny a ni voies
ferres, ni routes. Vous expdierez vos produits en France sils sont compris dans le tableau A ou
dans le tableau B annex la loi de 1851. Vous les expdierez ltranger, si la sortie nen est pas
prohibe. Voyez, tels et tels sont alls en Algrie il y a deux ans, et avant quil scoule six mois ils
pourront, sans doute, avoir des terres. Allez, mes amis, partez pour lAlgrie.
[
357]Trumelet_1887B_246247 Boufarik: Colonists of Bou-Farik to the Governor General,
February 1842: Si vous daigniez, Monsieur le Gouverneur, venir nous visiter Bou-Farik, vous
pourriez juger de ltendue de nos efforts par les travaux que nous avons excuts; vous sauriez
ce quil nous en a cot pour nous y tablir, et ce quil nous a fallu dnergie pour y rester: selon
nos moyens, il nous a fallu acheter Alger bois et chaux, et faire transporter grands frais ces
matriaux Bou-Farik; on vous dirait encore que les environs de Bou-Farik nont ni pierre ni
sable, quil faut les aller chercher fort loin, et risquer sa tte pour se les procurer. / Aussi avonsnous dpens jusqu notre dernier sou pour la construction de nos maisons, lesquelles sont,
prsent, couvertes en tuiles au lieu de ltre en paille comme elles ltaient dabord. Faut-il
stonner si la grande culture laissait dsirer avant la reprise des hostilits?
[
358]SHD MR1317/100101, Capitaine de Laubilly, Mmoire sur Ain Beida et ses environs
(Province de Constantine), 16 October 1856, 41 pages. 23ff.
[
359]Recherches_AIBL_1835; quickly expanded to include the Arabs and Turks in North
Africa. Offers an excellent ancient-author-based overview of the Romans in N. Africa, but not
on any extensive personal knowledge of the country, and with very little from post-antique
travellers. Lists Romans colonies military and civil, and the problem of settling nomads into
agriculture.
[
360]Monuments_Historiques_1856_478: Il semble donc de quelque opportunit et de
quelque intrt, au moment o lanivre colonisatrice commence, de rechercher les vestiges et
les monuments laisss sur cette terre par nos prdcesseurs, les Romains, et den tirer, sil y a lieu,
quelque profit. Malheureusement, au point de vue de lart, il nest pas possible de retrouver, dans
la partie fort restreinte dont nous allons nous occuper, des restes de quelque importance. Nous
ne serons pas plus heureux, au point de vue de lagriculture, et ce point est regrettable pour nos
colons. Le sjour, pendant plusieurs sicles aprs la domination romaine, de tribus barbares et
nomades sur le sol de la province dOran en gnral, et sur celui de Tlemcen on particulier, les

sanglantes guerres qui ont divis les nombreux possesseurs qui se sont successivement disput
le pays, ont tout dtruit, tout ananti: peine reste-t-il quelques constructions romaines, peine
est-il possible de retrouver quelques pierres tumulaires, chappes, comme par miracle, ces
diverses convulsions.
[
361]Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_1838_2: Le gnral directeur du dpt de la guerre, pntr
de telles ides, na donc point attendu quil ft question dorganiser une commission scientifique dAlgrie, pour soccuper de la gographie africaine. Grce lducation que reoivent
aujourdhui messieurs les officiers dtat-major et la manire dont ils en profitent, il est inutile
de chercher hors du corps royal des gographes et des dessinateurs. Tous sont en tat de bien
relever ainsi que de figurer parfaitement le terrain;et comme les moindres accidens de celui-ci
sont scrupuleusement nots par leur crayon, ils deviennent plus aptes que qui que ce soit
retrouver les ruines, fixer leur position juger de lpoque do elles datent, et de ce que furent
les monuments dont elles rendent tmoignnage.
[
362]Broc_1981_328329 on the Algerian commission: Pour le choix du personnel scientifique, Bory tire les consquences de son exprience grecque. Les savants seront recruts autant
que possible parmi les officiers de larme...Jai t moi-mme tmoin, en More, du zle couronn de succs, avec lequel les officiers de la ligne et du corps mdical soccupaient dhistoire
naturelle, de physique, dantiquit. / Trois raisons militent en faveur de cette option: 1. Les
membres de la commission peuvent tre exposs courir des dangers de guerre, auxquels
on ne peut exposer des civils. 2. Le gouvernement fera des conomies puisquil naura payer
que quelques supplments de solde et quelques indemnits. 3. Enfin et surtout: lobissance et
la discipline seront garanties. Dailleurs, la Marine dans les voyages scientifiques quelle organise
ne recrute-t-elle pas essentiellement parmi son propre personnel? Ces sages prcautions permettront dliminer les candidats incapables et infidles, les parasites puissamment protgs et une multitude de prtendants dsireux de voir du pays sans bourse dlier...En fait,
rien ne se passe comme lavait imagin Bory: il est bien dsign en 1839 comme directeur de
la Commission exploratrice dAlgrie, mais il doit se contenter dun personnel trs htrogne.
Parmi la vingtaine de membres nomms en aot 1839 se trouvent, part peu prs gale, militaires et civils.
[
363]Bory de Saint-Vincent, Suite du Rapport trimestriel sur les travaux de la Commission
explorative et scientifique dAlgrie, in Compte Rendu des Sances de lAcadmie des Sciences
6 January 1840, 852853: Alger, sous le rapport des antiquits, noffre gure plus rien qui mrite
quon sy arrte, si ce nest dans les points o son histoire se peut rattacher celle de la population originaire de la Barbarie et des invasions qui la modifirent, sans nanmoins la mtamorphoser entirement. La gographie antique de son massif demeure galement compltement
connue, grce aux travaux de MM. les officiers dtat-major, qui en ont fait de si belles cartes.
Jai donc cru devoir diriger sur dautres points ceux de mes savants collaborateurs qui dans la
Commission sont plus spcialement chargs dinterroger les tmoignages des temps passs.
Gardant pour maccompagner Cherchell, o je comptais me rendre ce mois-ci, MM. Berbrugger
et Pellissier, qui staient spcialement prpars ltude de cette antique Csare, jai expdi
sur lantique Cirtha, M. le capitaine du gnie Carette; et comme on peut voyager en toute sret
une grande distance de Constantine, jai complt autour de notre savant antiquaire, une colonie scientifique, qui se compose de MM. Morelet, Enfantin, Ravoisi, Renou, Lucas, Durrieu de
Maisonneuve, Levaillant, Deneveu et Delamarre; lui ayant adjoint le docteur Perrier, toutes les
branches de la science sy trouvent reprsentes.
appendix
[
364]Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_1838_1 on the scientific commission: their task is to contribuer faire bien connatre une contre dont ltude importe non seulement la puissance qui
ordonna lexploration, mais encore luniversalit du monde savant. Le pass doit tre interrog
par elle autant que ltat prsent des choses; des collections de tout genre seront formes par
ses soins; on ny laissera rien chapper, les moindres faits ayant souvent leur importance et pouvant servir remplir des lacunes demeures entre ceux quon avait dj, mais imparfaitement
observs; une commission scientifique enfin, sil est permis de sexprimer ainsi, est faite pour
laborer les lmens dun monument encyclopdique. Ibid., 7: Lorsque larme ne fournira pas
une spcialit ncessite pour la circonstance et quil faudra la chercher hors de ses rangs, on
la choisira entre les capacits incontestables, parmi de vritables savans vous aux progrs des
connaissances humaines et reconnus pour ne point tre les cratures ou les hommes de personnages influens qui voudraient avoir un agent ou leur collecteur particulier dans lentreprise; on
les choisira parmi des auteurs qui, ayant fait leurs preuves nacceptent demplois que pour les
remplir dans lintrt commun.
[
365]Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_1838_34: Indpendamment du lustre que rpandraient sur
ltat militaire de la France les succs dun corps savant, tir en grande partie, de son sein mme,
dautres considrations me paraissent devoir dterminer le gouvernement complter, autant
quil pourra le faire, la commission exploratrice par des militaires. / Il y trouvera dabord de
lconomie, puisquil ne sera plus question que dajouter un supplment de solde et quelques
indemnits subordination laquelle les militaires sont habitus, dont ils sentent la ncessit,
et qui, pour la russite des oprations dune commission exploratrice en pays insoumis, nest
pas moinsindispensable quelle lest dans toute autre branche du service. / Cest ici le lieu de le
dclarer; aucune commission du genre de celle quil est question denvoyer dans nos possessions doutre mer na rempli jusqu ce jour compltement lhonorable mission dont elle fut
charge. Nentendant accuser qui que ce soit, ni faire le procs du pass, il me suffira davouer
quayant moi-mme dirig une opration analogue, la publication qui en fut le rsultat, que
lEurope savante a daign accueillir favorablement, qui ma valu lhonneur de siger lInstitut
ainsi que dillustres suffrages, et que je crois tre la meilleure de toutes celles de sa catgorie,
nest pas beaucoup prs ce quelle devrait tre, et nquivaut pas en perfection aux dpenses
quelle occasiona.
[
366]Broc_1981_326327 on the Algerian commission, Bory de Saint-Vincent, after the success of the Morea Expedition, wants to look after the Algerian one as well: Cest une offre de
services peine dguise pour de futures missions que Bory, par son exprience, se croit apte
diriger. / Deux ans plus tard [1838], il rcidive et, ayant appris que le gouvernement se prparait lancer une grande enqute en Algrie, il bombarde son ministre dune Note sur la
Commission exploratrice et scientifique dAlgrie (16 octobre 1838). La ncessit dune meilleure
connaissance du pays se faisait sentir depuis 1830. Les Franais avaient dbarqu dans un pays
sur lequel on se faisait les ides les plus fantaisistes: lAlgrie tait prsente par certains comme
un rocher sans ressources peupl de btes froces, par dautres comme un vert bocage o
gambadaient zbres, gazelles et chameaux. Il avait fallu exhumer la hte de vieilles relations de
voyages datant du XVIIIe sicle ou de lEmpire. Pourtant, ds 1830, les ingnieurs-gographes sont
au travail, mais la malheureuse expdition sur Constantine (novembre 1836) montre encore une
inquitante mconnaissance du terrain et des conditions climatiques. Do lide dune exploration systmatique de lAlgrie dont le but principal serait, selon Bory, de runir compltement
et dans le moins de temps possible ce qui peut contribuer faire bien connatre une contre.

367]Boutin_1830_182.
368]Broc_1981_329 for a list of Commission members: Au nombre des premiers, quelques
rescaps de More comme le capitaine Baccuet, peintre de paysage, ou le gologue Puillon
de Boblaye qui servira de conseiller. Sy ajoutent linfatigable capitaine Carette, secrtaire de la
Commission, et le capitaine Pellissier de Reynaud qui quittera larme pour la diplomatie. La
plupart de ces militaires, notons-le, sont de bons arabisants et se sont fait connatre comme
officiers des bureaux arabes. Parmi les civils ( 500 F de traitement par mois), on remarque le Dr
Prier, spcialiste dhygine coloniale, les naturalistes Fournel, Ravergie et Renou, larchologue
Ravoisi, ancien de More, et surtout les rudits Berbrugger et Warnier. Lon Berbrugger (1801
1869), secrtaire du marchal Clauzel, est le fondateur de la Bibliothque et du Muse dAlger;
il peut tre considr comme le premier historien et le premier archologue de la Rgence.
Auguste Warnier (18101875), tour tour mdecin, diplomate, savant, homme politique, a t
surnomm par ses par ses contemporains le dictionnaire vivant de lAlgrie.
[
369]Perret_1902_237 Lhistoire du rat trompe est devenue lgendaire dans larme
dAfrique. En 1836, le gouvernement envoya en Algrie une commission scientifique compose
de gologues, de botanistes, darchologues, etc. Un de ces savants avait lu dans Pline que dans
la Mauritanie csarenne (capitale Csara, aujourdhui Cherchell, au sud-ouest dAlger) existaient des rats ayant au bout du nez un appendice flexible, cest--dire des rats trompe. Les
zphyrs [viz light infantry] sabattirent tous sur la commission et lui jourent quantit de tours
pendables, lui fournissant des fer cheval travaills de faon ressembler des armes antiques,
de vieilles pierres sur lesquelles ils avaient grav des inscriptions indchiffrables, de vieux sous
transforms en mdailles: ces soi-disant antiquits leur taient payes fort cher. Lun deux qui
avait su capter la confiance du savant amateur des rats trompe, sengagea lui en procurer,
affirmant quil en avait vu.
[
370]Blanc_1885_7071: Peu dannes aprs la conqute, le gouvernement envoya en
Algrie une commission scientifique, charge de recherches de toute sorte: historiques, gologiques, botaniques, zoologiques,etc. Leur arrive fit sensation et mit en veil limagination
de nos hommes. On ne peut pas se faire une ide des innombrables carottes tires ces dlgus de lInstitut, aussi simples et nafs que savants, des quantits de vieux sous transforms
en mdailles, des morceaux de vieux fer rouill transforms en dbris darmes antiques. Les
savants taient ravis, merveills des riches collections dont ils allaient enrichir nos muses, et
souriaient aux gros volumes quils allaient publier avec cartes et planches. Les zphyrs [viz light
infantry], fournisseurs patents de ces messieurs, riaient gorge dploye du succs de leurs
ruses et buvaient gaiement le prix de leur industrie.
[
371]Annales_Colonisation_1853_IV_226235, reported by Hippolyte Peut, editor of this
periodical.
[
372]Diehl 1892, 56. He continues, 7: Ds les premiers jours de loccupation, nos officiers
dAfrique comprirent tout intrt et toute limportance de ces magnifiques ruines romaines que
chaque expdition nouvelle offrait presque intactes encore, leurs yeux blouis that is, they
turned themselves into improvising archaeologists, and dug and drew.
[
373]Carton_1889_1415. He divides his targets into olives, forests, cereals, mineral baths,
mines, building materials, roads and water (wells, barrages, springs, cisterns and aqueducts).
[
374]Charmes_1883B_48: Il est indispensable de procder immdiatement une exploration gnrale et complte de la Tunisie, qui nous fera connatre sans retard tout ce que ce pays
renferme de monuments intressant lart et lhistoire. La tradition des armes franaises a t
[
[
appendix
jusqu ici que, chaque fois qu elles ont pntr dans une contre illustre jadis par une grande
civilisation, une mission scientifique les accompagnt ou les suivt de trs prs. Cest ainsi que
la commission dEgypte dcouvrait lantiquit gyptienne, tandis que Bonaparte battait les
Mameluks, et que, plus tard, la commission de More, pendant que nos soldats assuraient lindpendance de la Grce, trouvait la premire les merveilles dOlympie, que les Allemands viennent
de mettre tout entires la lumire. En Algrie mme, lexploration du pays, bien quimparfaite,
a t accomplie ds que nous avons t matres de notre grande colonie africaine. Nous avons le
devoir de suivre ces exemples en Tunisie, et de montrer que nos conqutes profitent toujours
la science et la civilisation.
[
375]Berger_1892_1 reviewing Conseils aux archologues et aux voyageurs. Instructions adresses par le Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques aux correspondants du ministre de
linstruction publique, Paris, Leroux, 1890: Si lon peut reprocher quelquefois ladministration
de ne pas assez tirer parti des ressources quelle pourrait trouver en dehors delle-mme et de
dcourager linitiative individuelle, ce reproche ne peut sadresser au ministre de linstruction
publique en cette circonstance. La commission du nord de lAfrique, quil a institue auprs du
comit des travaux historiques, a pris pour tche de provoquer et de diriger les fouilles, et den
centraliser les rsultats. Larme, les sciences naturelles, la gographie, larchologie, lpigraphie
sy trouvent reprsentes. La runion dhommes de comptences si diverses permet denvisager
sous leurs aspects multiples les questions qui intressent lAfrique ancienne. Cest la continuation de lexploration archologique de lAlgrie, entreprise au lendemain de la conqute et qui
tait reste malheureusement inacheve. Dabord limite la Tunisie, la commission a vu sa
sphre dactivit stendre lAlgrie, et, derrire lAlgrie, elle pntre aussi loin que les tribus
berbres, dans cet hinterland qui nous est dvolu par la configuration gographique de notre
colonie africaine. / Pour exploiter ce vaste domaine, ce nest pas trop des efforts combins de nos
officiers et de tous ceux que leur carrire ou que des occupations momentanes appellent en
Afrique. Ce ne sont pas les bonnes volonts qui manquent, mais elles ont besoin dtre diriges.
On ne sait pas chercher sans lavoir appris; il faut, cela comme a toute chose, une prparation.
Comment sy prendre pour faire de la photographie? Quel matriel emporter? Comment dresser le plan dun terrain ou relever les lignes principales dun difice? Quest-ce quune inscription berbre, phnicienne, latine, arabe? A quoi les reconnat-on? Quelles sont les principales
monnaies antiques quon trouve en Afrique? Quels sont les-diffrents genres darchitecture qui
sy sont succd? A quoi distingue-t-on un monument punique dun monument byzantin? Et
surtout, o et comment faut-il chercher?
[
376]Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_1173: Autres travaux executs par les officiers du Corps
Expditionnaire, dernires annes: l La colonne du gnral Jamais ayant t appele sjourner Bou-Ghrara du: 30 mai au 14 juin 1882, des fouilles ont t faites cet endroit sous la
direction du capitaine du gnie Xardel. On releva des inscriptions qui firent connatre le nom de
la ville antique, Gightis, dont Bou-Ghrara marque aujourdhui lemplacement. 2 M. Monlezun,
capitaine adjudant-major au 4e zouaves, sest occup des ruines de Tacape (Gabs). On lui doit
une excellente tude sur ces ruines, accompagne dune carte des environs de Tacape. 3 M. le
capitaine Bordier, commandant la premire compagnie mixte de Tunisie, sest rendu, au mois
doctobre 1884, dHammamet, o il campait, jusqu Souk-el-Arba, lieu qui avait t choisi pour
champ de manoeuvres. Durant le trajet, laller et au retour, il a consacr les quelques loisirs
que lui laissaient ses fonctions des recherches archologiques. Aid de son sous-lieutenant,
M. Tauzia de Lespin, il fit un grand nombre de dcouvertes intressantes. 4 M. le lieutenant

Barry a tudi les ruines de Yonga et celles du territoire entre Mactcur et Bja, et lon doit M.
le capitaine Roy, du 38 de ligne, une curieuse inscription milliaire de la voie romaine de Tacape
Capsa. En mme temps, M. le capitaine du gnie Duval envoyait au ministre de lInstruction
publique dexcellentes photographies dinscriptions provenant de Bja, dAn-Zaga et de Ksar
Mezouar, et M. Esprandieu, lieutenant au 17 rgiment dinfanterie, rdigeait une note sur
des fouilles excutes sous sa direction aux citernes du Kef. 5 M. le lieutenant de Belenet est
lauteur de notes trs compltes sur lEnfida et la valle de lOued-Marouf. Il les a prises pendant
les quatre mois quil a passs dans les brigades topographiques et a relev et transcrit au cours
de cette campagne trente inscriptions de toute nature. 6 La part de M. le lieutenant Boy nest
pas moins belle: il a fourni des notes, des dessins, des photographies sur diverses parties du nord
de la Tunisie. Douze des inscriptions releves par lui sont indites. On sait, a dit M. Cagnat
ce sujet, quels services M. Boy a dj rendus larchologie tunisienne. Il est souhaitable que
nous ayons bientt une nouvelle occasion de len remercier. 7 M. le capitaine Bordier, aid de
quelques tirailleurs mis sa disposition par M. le commandant le Peilleux, a fouill le lieu dit
Henchir-Lekal, prs de Zaghouan. Il en a tir des vases cinraires, des vases lacrymatoires, des
chapiteaux, des bronzes carthaginois et romains et des monnaies. Cet officier a explor aussi
Henchir-Braham, Henchir-Chrif et Henchir-el-Gra do il a encore extrait diffrents objets de
collection. Enfin, depuis quil a t nomm contrleur civil Mactear, il na cess de soccuper des antiquits et particulirement de lpigraphie de cette ville; il a revu toutes les inscriptions dj connues, il a fait transporter autour de sa maison les plus importantes et en a envoy
dautres au muse Alaou de Tunis. 8 Le nom de M. le capitaine Winkler revient souvent dans
les publications relatives larchologie tunisienne. On a de lui huit inscriptions indites, la
photographie dune mosaque, malheureusement trs mutile, et des notes assez tendues sur
les ruines romaines de la Kroumirie. Il a aussi tudi en dtail les restes romains existant dans
les valles de lOued-Rhezela et de lOued-Gourgourat. 9 Signalons enfin les travaux de M. le
capitaine Sauret, sur les ruines voisines de Constantine; ceux de M. le capitaine Janin de Gabriac
sur la rgion de Khamissa; la reproduction en couleur de la mosaque dHammam-Lif, excute
par les soins de M. le capitaine de Prudhomme et publie dans la Revue archologique de 1884;
lexploration des tombeaux de Bja, par M. le capitaine Vincent.
[
377]Berc 1979, 364: Le Prsident rsumant les diffrentes propositions propose de nommer une Commission scientifique de lAlgrie, dans le cas o des renseignements soumis par le
Ministre de la Guerre et par lenvoy de M. Ravoisi ne seraient pas suffisants, ce serait alors le
cas denvoyer M. lInspecteur Gnral. Toutefois avant de commencer les dmarches pour le classement, M. le Prsident pense quil faudrait demander M. le Ministre de la Guerre de vouloir
lui donner des ordres pour que les monuments du Moyen Age aussi bien que les restes antiques
soient scupuleusement respects.
[
378]Charmes_1883B_47: Il est urgent de se mettre luvre. Tant que la Tunisie tait
peu prs ferme lEurope, ses ruines ne couraient que peu de risques. Ce nest pas la barbarie
qui dtruit les monuments, cest la civilisation, lorsqu elle nest point contenue par la science.
On sait combien dobjets intressants pour lhistoire ont pri dans lOrient grec depuis que les
Europens y pntrent librement. Nous devons reconnatre, non sans quelque tristesse, que la
partie de lAfrique sur laquelle sest tendue notre conqute na pas compltement chapp au
mme pril. / LAlgrie a vu disparatre, sous notre domination, de nombreux documents que
lindiffrence des Arabes avait prservs de la destruction; dautres, sans disparatre, attendent
appendix
encore que nous les livrions la curiosit rudite. Il est pnible de lire dans certains recueils allemands que la France na rempli quen partie, ou mme na pas rempli du tout, les devoirs que la
conqute de lAlgrie lui imposait envers la science. Le reproche est assurment exagr, mais on
noserait dire quil soit tout fait injuste. / Nous ne pouvons pas nous exposer, en ce qui concerne
la Tunisie, une accusation de mme nature. Prcisment parce que nous navons point annex
la Tunisie, et que nous nous sommes borns y tablir notre protectorat, nos rivaux y suivent,
avec plus dattention encore quen Algrie, la conduite que nous allons y tenir. Beaucoup se prparent peut-tre nous en disputer la conqute scientifique. Il faut se hter, si nous ne voulons
tre devancs. Pour viter les destructions maladroites, pour empcher mme quun zle peu
clair ne compromette par des recherches mal faites les trsors scientifiques que nous avons
le devoir de prserver, notre Ministre rsident a soumis au Bey, qui la immdiatement sign, un
dcret rglant les conditions sans lesquelles on ne saurait entreprendre des fouilles.
[
379]Broc_1981_331 on the Algerian commission: Fin 1842dbut 1843, alors que Bugeaud est
toujours proconsul, les travaux sur le terrain sachvent et les membres de la Commission se
dispersent: les officiers rejoignent leurs corps, la plupart des civils regagnent la France (Enfantin
est rentr ds octobre 1841), Berbrugger se fixe Alger, Renou et Warnier sont envoys en mission
au Maroc, Pellissier de Reynaud est nomm consul de France Sousse et il poursuit ses investigations scientifiques en Tunisie. En 1844, paraissent les premiers volumes de lExploration scientifique de lAlgrie. Sur ce point, au moins, Bory de Saint-Vincent peut tre satisfait: dans lespace
de quatre ou cinq ans les rsultats de la section des Sciences historiques et gographiques seront
publis.
[
380]Broc_1981_353 on the Algerian commission: Les missions scientifiques que nous venons
dvoquer ont eu infiniment moins de retentissement auprs des savants et du public que les
grands voyages maritimes contemporains, nous pensons en particulier aux circumnavigations
de Freycinet, de Duperrey, de Dumont dUrville. On peut sinterroger sur cette sorte de dsaffection. Peut-tre, le savant qui suit les armes et qui travaille sous la protection des fusils souffret-il aux yeux de lopinion dun prjug dfavorable? Ne se compromet-il pas en se mettant trop
visiblement au service dune politique? Ou alors, y aurait-il les bonnes expditions militaires,
qui sont des guerres de libration (la More), et les mauvaises (Algrie, Mexique) qui sont
des guerres de conqute?
[
381]Gaillard_1839_1: La ncessit de crer en Afrique des corps auxiliaires composs dindignes peut se dmontrer: 1 Par la configuration du sol et par le climat; 2 Par les usages et les
moeurs des habitants; 3) Par le besoin darriver une organisation de ce pays, au moins dans un
rayon assez tendu, pour que larme doccupation et les colons puissent y trouver les ressources
ncessaires leur existence, sils venaient, tre spars momentanment de la mtropole; 4
Afin de diminuer, en cas de guerre sur le continent, ou par raison dconomie, leffectif de larme
dAfrique, sans compromettre la possession de cette conqute.
[
382]Urbain_1862_59 writing on colons and natives: Larme dAlgrie a fourni la meilleure
preuve de limportance de la guerre contre les tribus, en amenant auprs delle, sur les champs
de bataille europens, les indignes quelle avait vaincus, puis disciplins. Le courage et le
dvouement de ces tirailleurs amis ont montr quels ennemis ils avaient t. Si la guerre clate
en Europe, nous serons obligs dimmobiliser en Algrie une partie de nos troupes mtropolitaines; mais on appellera dans les armes actives ces rgiments indignes, avant-garde redoutable pour clairer nos mouvements. Cest une compensation qui a sa valeur.

[
383]Officier_1871_7: Laissant de ct la tendance naturelle qui pousse tout peuple vaincu
secouer le joug du conqurant, la haine invtre des musulmans contre les chrtiens, et lespoir
secret que nourriront encore pendant bien longtemps les Arabes de se soustraire notre domination, ds quune circonstance favorable se prsentera pour eux, nous attribuons linsurrection actuelle aux causes matrielles suivantes: 1 Dpart de toutes les troupes pour France;
2 Affaiblissement du principe dautorit; 3 Changement successif de personnel et de systmes; 4 Naturalisation des Isralites; 5 Attitude des Europens...Aprs les dsastres de
Sdan, toutes les troupes qui pouvaient quitter lAlgrie, sans que la scurit du pays ft compromise, ont t diriges le plus rapidement possible sur le thtre de la guerre. Deux rgiments par
province seulement ont t gards dans la colonie.
[
384]JDPL 29 October 1838. Le Fort-de-France, dfendu dj par sa position, sera bientt compltement revtu. Les travailleurs nont qu relever les pierres qui formaient lenceinte romaine.
Dans lenceinte basse on a construit des fours qui seront prochainement en activit. Les soldats
ont ramass des briques romaines qui servent la construction de ces fours. Lhpital slvera
sur la partie est du fort, et sera dans une position trs saine. / La ville, laquelle M. le marchal
Vale propose de donner le nom de Philippeville, stendra sur les versans des montagnes dont
les crtes sont occupes par nos ouvrages.
[
385]JDPL 2 April 1839. La nouvelle ville prs de Stora, Philippeville est en ce moment, on
peut le dire, le point de lAfrique o il rgne le plus de mouvement les travaux de construction
se poursuivent avec une grande activit et les colons y arrivent en foule. Bone dj envoy une
partie de sa population. On lve de fort jolies maisons; la ville, dans quelque temps, offrira un
aspect riant; les environs sont dj assez bien cultivs.
[
386]JDPL 30 May 1841. After the Treaty of Tafna, Abd-el-Kader: Ces quatre villes, dj mal
dfendues par la nature, avaient vu seffacer sous les pas de nos armes les derniers vestiges
de leurs antiques remparts; relever ces grandes fortifications tait dans le principe une uvre
longue et dispendieuse. Mais un obstacle bien plus srieux empcha lmir de prendre ces
villes pour bases de sa puissance naissante, trop faible encore pour songer nous opposer une
rsistance compacte, il tait aussi trop clairvoyant pour confier sa fortune, ses munitions, ses
fabriques des populations de hadars (gens des villes), artisans ou commerans, galement
prompts la panique toujours prts abandonner leurs foyers au premier signal du danger;
preuve vidente, quen dpit de tous les efforts de lmir ces populations nont pas encore adopt
sa fortune. Il chercha donc peu de distance de chacune de ces villes une position o lart, aid
de la nature, pt, sans trop defforts et rapidement lever une forteresse labri dun coup de
main. Ces fortifications qui devaient dabord servir de dpt darmes et de munitions, et, dans
un moment de crise, offrir lmir un asile difficile forcer, devaient en mme temps assurer sa
domination sur les Kabiles des environs, et enfin devenir avec le temps les noyaux de nouvelles
cits. / Cest en vue de cette prudente spculation que commencrent en mme temps les travaux de Seyda, de Bourrar, de Taza et de Tekedempt; la prise de dAn-Madhy semble le complment ncessaire de ce plan. / Pour le choix de lemplacement convenable, les traces laisses sur
le sol par les Romains taient de prcieuses indications que lmir na pas nglig de suivre. / Les
quatre forts ont t construits peu prt sur le mme modle, dans une position analogue, et
tous daprs un systme aussi conomique quexpditif. Un carr de maonnerie, ouvert par une
seule porte et variant dun mtre un mtre et demi dpaisseur, portant S 7 mtres de hauteur,
avec 50 60 mtres de face; chaque angle une tourelle ou une gurite; au centre de lenceinte,
une place entoure de hangars et de magasins assis sur de grandes cuves. Pour matriaux, un
appendix
mlange mal-digr de pierres, de sable et dune trs petite quantit de chaux; pour architectes,
les secrtaires de lmir pour ouvriers tous les prisonniers, des rengats des hommes pris tour
tour en corve dans les douars voisins.
[
387]JDPL 25 June 1850. Le gouvernement franais a depuis longtemps form le projet de
publier une description de lAlgrie analogue, sil nest possible de dire comparable, la grande
description de lEgypte qui nous reste comme le plus glorieux monument et le seul rsultat de
notre expdition au pays des Pyramides des hommes spciaux ont t forms en commission
scientifique et chargs daller tudier sur les lieux mmes tout ce que lAlgrie offre de curieux et
de particulier soit dans les sciences naturelles, soit dans les sciences gographiques et archologiques. Les plus satisfaisantes dcouvertes ont bientt stimul et rcompens les savans vous
cette belle tache. De toutes parts, sur la cte et dans lintrieur, dans les provinces o len
ignorait que les Romains eussent jamais pntr, des inscriptions, des tombeaux, des routes, des
ponts, des thtres, des temples, des arcs-de-triomphe sont venus attester la prise de possession
complte et loccupation sculaire de lancienne Numidie par les vainqueurs de Carthage. Alger,
position alors sans importance, a retrouv, grce larchologie, son ancien nom dIcosium;
Cherchell est redevenu indubitablement Julia Caesarea; Bne a vu dgager de son sol les vestiges
immenses dHippo regia et de la ville de saint Augustin. Stif, Constantine, Djimilah, lancien
Cuiculum, Tens, Lambesa, Bougie lancienne Saldo, ont montr que lAlgrie tait plus riche en
antiquits romaines que toute lItalie septentrionale, et quun voyage dans lAfrique franaise
sera bientt le complment indispensable du voyage dItalie pour le touriste ou lesa.vant qui
veulent faire une tude srieuse de larchitecture, et des antiquits romaines. / La maison Gide et
Baudry a t charge dans luvre collective de LExploration scientifique de lAlgrie de publier
lArchogie par M. Delamarre, chef descadron dartillerie, membre de la commission scientifique de lAlgrie, dont les dcouvertes archologiques ont, diverses reprises, attir lattention
de lInstitut. Onze livraisons de ce magnifique ouvrage ont dj paru. En attendant limpression
du texte qui doit en expliquer les planches, nous signalerons parmi les feuilles qui intressent
le plus vivement lart et lantiquit la belle mosaque de Philippeville. les innombrables et grandioses ruines du pays des Haraktas si souvent signale dans les bulletins de notre guerre dAfrique,
les antiquits de la route de Stif Constantine, la porte, les votes et les constructions diverses
de Bougie au centre de la Kabylie, ville considrable dans lantiquit, qui doit grandir de nos
jours, peut tre aux dpens dAlger, et dont le regrettable marchal Bugeaud avait compris toute
limportance commerciale et militaire.
[
388]JDPL 15 July 1843. Meeting 10 July in the Ministre de lInstruction Publique, with the
members of the Commission: M. le Ministre, aprs avoir indiqu sommairement le but de la
runion, a rappel le beau travail dpigraphie grecque entrepris, il y a quelques annes chez
une nation voisine. Il sagirait aujourdhui de faire, dans des proportions plus tendues encore,
le mme travail pour lpigraphie latine, en rassemblant tout ce que renferment les grandes collections de Reinesius, de Gruter, de Muratori, de Morcelli, et tant dautres collections partielles
auxquelles se joindraient les rsultats disperss dans une fouie de recueils rcens, et tout ce que
donnerait une investigation actuelle suivie sur divers points la fois. Lintrt dun tel travail
non seulement pour lhistoire, mais pour les tudes de la langue et larchologie, na pas besoin
dtre dmontr. Si lon considre en ce moment mme ce que lhistoire politique et civile reoit
de lumire dune publication toute spciale, le beau travail de M Letronne sur les inscriptions
grecs de lEgypte, on jugera sans peine quels secours offrirait la science un recueil moins neuf
et moins original, il est vrai, mais infiniment plus vaste. / Il semble que la France, qui a conserv

dans sa langue, dans ses moeurs, dans ses lois, dans ses arts, tant de vestiges de la civilisation
romaine, est particulirement appele ce travail. Ce qui ajouterait pour elle lintrt dun tel
projet, cest le fait de la domination franaise en Algrie, et la possibilit de runir et de complter les inscriptions dj si nombreuses recueillies en Afrique par la vigilance de ladministration
de la guerre. Cette publication, qui aurait encore une grande valeur, mme borne France et
ses possessions, parait toutefois devoir stendre plus loin et embrasser tout le territoire do
lancienne socit romaine. / Quant au mode dexcution, cette entreprise serait trop vaste et
trop onreuse pour tenter lindustrie prive et, en ce qui concerne une savante Acadmie, dj
charge de tant de travaux importans pour lhistoire nationale.
[
389]JDPL 23 November 1838 Bory de Saint-Vincent on his Commission: Le gnral directeur
du dpt de la guerre na point attendu quil ft question dorganiser une commission scientifique dAlgrie, pour soccuper de la gographie africaine. Grce lducation que reoivent
aujourdhui Messieurs les officiers dtat-major et la manire dont ils en profitent il est inutile
de chercher hors du corps royal des gographes et des dessinateurs. Tous sont en tat de bien
relever, ainsi que de figurer parfaitement le terrain. / Non seulement ils dtermineront le site
des ruines de divers ges, et rechercheront ce quelles purent tre, mais encore ils en rendront
laspect avec les dtails, et lorsquils en auront mesur les diverses parties, ils nauront garde de
perdre un temps prcieux tenter de ces restaurations sur le papier, o se complaisent seuls
des entrepreneurs de btimens qui sen veulent faire des prospectus. La brigade gographique
pourrait donc au besoin tenir lieu de ces coteuses sections darchitecture, dont lutilit rpond
rarement aux normes dpenses quelles occasionnent, et qui furent toujours des causes de
retard dans les publications postrieures. / Indpendamment du lustre que rpandraient sur
ltat militaire de la France les succs dun corps savant, tir en grande partie de son sein mme
dautres considrations me paraissent devoir dterminer le gouvernement complter, autant
quil pourra le faire, la commission exploratrice par des militaires. / Il y trouvera dabord de lconomie, puisquil ne sera plus gestion que dajouter un supplment de solde et quelques indemnits au traitement de chacun pour lever ce traitement au taux quil est dusage daccorder en
de telles circonstances. / On trouvera une raison plus puissante encore dans la subordination
laquelle les militaires sont habitus dont ils sentent la ncssit et qui pour la russite des oprations dune commission exploratrice en pays insoumis.
[
390]JDPL 13 November 1839. Report on the Duc dOrlans at Algiers etc, writing of Milah:
la fertilit du sol et lindustrie des habitans, y a toujours maintenu un centre de population. Les
montagnes entre Milah et Djimitah qui tait dj une grande ville sous des derniers Csars, prsentent de nombreux fragmens de marbres numidiques. Des coquillages fossiles dune conservation parfaite et des fragmens de sel gemme ont t recueillis dans le trajet. Dans ces contres
nouvelles, un champ vaste, est ouvert aux savans: le gologue peut maintenant complter lhistoire naturelle de lAfrique; lartiste et larchologue, en parcourant ces villes, en dessinant ces
monumens romains encore debout, en dchiffrant tes inscriptions votives dont ils sont couverts,
pourront puiser ces sources certaines de belles inspirations, et planter de nouveaux jalons
pour diriger lhistorien.
[
391]JDPL 9 October 1840. Proclamation by Vale relayed by the Moniteur Algrien: Nous,
marchal de France, gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie. / Considrant que les habitans indignes
de la ville de Cherchel qui nont pas reparu depuis la prise de cette place, ont abandonn leurs
proprits pour se joindre aux ennemis de la France; considrant que les maisons de Cherchel
et les terres qui entourent cette place ne peuvent rester dans un tat complet dabandon; consi-
appendix
drant, dautre part quil importe de donner la population europenne qui se fixe en Afrique
des tablissemens qui puissent subvenir aux besoins de la colonie; vu lurgence etc. / Toutes
les proprits situes dans la ville de Cherchel et dans la zone du territoire de cette place, qui
nauront pas t rclame au 1er octobre prochain seront sequestres et runies au domaine de
lEtat.
[
392]JDPL 15 May 1840. Telegraphic dispatch by Vale from Cherchel, sent 9 May. Then from
Toulon 13 May: Larme a parcouru toute la plaine de la Mitidja et les valles de lOued-el-Hachem et de lOued-Bellac. Cinq combats trs honorables pour les troupes, ont eu lieu. Lennemi
a perdu beaucoup de monde...Les princes se portent bien etc. Piscatory to the Chamber:
LAfrique est pour nous un affaiblissement lintrieur, un affaiblissement aux yeux de lEurope.
Cest un boulet que nous tranons. (Nouveaux murmures. Quelques voix Cest vrai! ) LAfrique est
un rocher avec un peu deau et de terre. On veut nous comparer aux Romains; mais les Romains
navaient pas triompher en Afrique des mmes obstacles que nous, et encore nont-ils t
matres du pays quau bout dun sicle!
[
393]JDPL 1 March 1840. Les belles cartes du nord de lAfrique excutes par les ingnieurs
et les officiers dtat-major de larme franaise avec un talent remarquable et travers tant de
fatigues et de prils, mritent lattention du monde savant en mme temps quelles se recommandent delles-mmes aux personnes qui veulent suivre la marche des expditions militaires,
ou sclairer sur la gographie et la topographie de ces vastes rgions auxquelles la conqute
europenne ouvre dsormais un nouvel avenir. Sans entrer dans plus de dtails sur le mrite
de ces travaux godsiques, nous nous bornerons faire connatre la srie de cartes et de plans
dj publis par le dpt de la guerre sous la direction du gnral Pelet, second par le colonel
Lapie et daprs les levs des officiers de larme dAfrique. En voici lnumration: Carte de
lAlgrie en trois grandes feuilles, prsentant les trois provinces dAlger, dOran et de Constantine;
grande carte dtaille du massif dAlger divis en quatorze communes rurales carte routire des
environs dAlger, prsentant le dveloppement des huit grandes routes excutes par larme
carte particulire de la province de Constantine prsentant la nouvelle division politique et
administrative, les routes traces ou projetes et lemplacement des camps; grande carte dtaille du territoire dAlger compris entre Medah Miliana, Scherchel et le cours de lIsser cette
carte acquiert en ce moment le plus haut degr dintrt puisquelle reprsente la rgion qui
est aujourdhui le thtre des combats journaliers de nos troupes et qui va devenir celui des
premires oprations offensives; elle a t dresse par M. de Saint-Hippolyte, chef descadron,
directeur des travaux topographiques larme dAfrique. Ce beau travail fait le plus grand honneur cet officier, auteur, en outre dun projet de canal de ceinture devant servir la fois la
dfense et lirrigation de la Mitidja.
[
394]JDPL 23 October 1839. Le lendemain, mercredi 9 (october), M. le duc dOrlans parcourut la route de Philippeville Stora, sur laquelle on rencontre de nombreuses ruines romaines.
Cette route a t parfaitement trace par nos officiers de gnie qui en rparant les ponts
romains, semblent vouloir runir ainsi les efforts de deux civilisations spares par des sicles.
Le prince, aprs avoir visit la ligne des blokaus qui dfendent cette route, et ne font de Stora et
de Philippeville quun seul tablissement dont lensemble est beau et la dfense facile, voulut
voir aussi les hpitaux, ou plutt les barraques en bois o sont entasss les malades, et dont
lencombrement et linsuffisance font vivement desirer une prompte amlioration.
[
395]JDPL 23 October 1839. The Duc dOrlans and Vale en route to Constantine: A Eddis,
les Kabyles de Menana, qui navaient jamais fait acte de soumission aucune puissance, vinrent

au-devant du prince pour lui rendre hommage, apportant processionnellemnt du miel, des
vases remplis de lait et de couss-coussou. L, le pays commence se dpouiller de sa verdure,
et il est rare de voir des arbres quelques uns cependant, qui se montrent isols de loin on loin,
prouvent que le pays pourrait tre bois et cest l sans doute un des points do dpend lavenir
de cette vaste province, o le manque de bois et deau, consquence mutuelle et malheureuse,
est un des plus grands obstacles au dveloppement de la civilisation. La route, partout carrossable, suit dans de grandes tendues lancienne voie romaine, dont la chausse est en quelques
parties trs bien conserve.
[
396]JDPL 28 June 1844. On crit de Constantine, le 15 juin: On travaille toujours ltablissement du nouveau camp de Lambessa, vers la limite du Tell, sur la route de Biskara. Ce camp, qui
deviendra quelque jour une ville, est assis dans la vaste plaine de Lambessa, nom dune ancienne
et grande ville romaine dont il reste encore un grand templeet dantiques colonnes cette plaine
est au pied des montagnes de lAurs, deux lieues de Bathena et vingt-cinq lieues de Biskara.
Ce camp sera fortifie par de grandes et fortes redoutes qui auront des pices de canon de 24.
[
397]JDPL 5 July 1845. General le Comte de Castellane, in the Chamber, on pacification:
On voit par l que la paix est loin dtre conquise en Afrique le tort est davoir voulu tendre
nos possessions notre arme, plus que quintuple depuis quinze ans, est impuissante tenir
en respect ces populations parses sur un si grand territoire, et notre argent va sengouffrer
dans des sables. Le marchal Bugeaud a fait de grandes choses, dit-on nous ne le nions pas
mais le marchal Clausel, qui, lui, ne disposait que de peu de forces militaires, a su nanmoins
maintenir notre conqute sur un pied respectable, et les sacrifices quil nous demandait taient
bien moins grands.
[
398]JDPL 7 January 1847. Le Moniteur Algrien reprints a review of Algeria at the end of 1846:
Nos villes nouvelles et nos postes fonds depuis deux ou trois ans ne peuvent exercer lattraction
des villes anciennes. Nos rapports avec les populations qui les entourent sont moins frquens ou
moins intimes que dans le rayon dAlger ou dOran, par exemple; mais cette attraction fait des
progrs rapides, et les nuances qui existent seffacent de plus en plus. / Nous ne parlerons point
aujourdhui de lagrandissement de nos villes, de lachvement de leurs dfenses, de la construction des routes, des ponts, travaux immenses dont la masse et lensemble frappent lesprit des
Arabes et ne leur permettent plus de rvoquer en doute notre ferme rsolution de rester les
matres en Algrie. / Nous nopposerons point cette situation, avec une trop grande confiance
celle dAbd-eI-Kader. Son parti se dsorganise visiblement chaque jour.
[
399]JDPL 31 March 1843. M. le gouverneur-gnral de lAlgrie a demand un crdit M. le
marchal ministre de la guerre pour doter encore cette anne quarante demoiselles qui seront
maries des colons militaires. Vingt de ces jeunes filles, auxquelles on fera une dot de 500
fr., seront envoyes la nouvelle colonie militaire de Beni-Mered. Un pareil nombre de colons
seront dirigs sur Marseille avec une recommandation pour M. le maire de cette ville. Le dpartement du Var aura fournir vingt jeunes filles pour An-Fouka, ou se trouvent dj un pareil
nombre de mnages forms lanne dernire.
[
400]JDPL 17 March 1844. Le journal lAlgrie contient les dtails suivans sur lexpdition de
Biskara. / Le 24 fvrir, pendant que le duc dAumale consacrait au travail la journe de repos
donne aux troupes, le duc de Montpensier allait visiter les ruines de Lambaesa cette ville o la
3e lgion auguste tait tablie. Le nom moderne de ces ruines, situes deux lieues et demie
lest du camp, est Tezzoulets. Nous y avons vu debout beaucoup de monumens remarquables;
un temple la Victoire qui a t suppos par Bruce comme ayant servi loger les lphans;
appendix
un temple Esculape avec son inscription entire, telle que la rapporte Peyssonnel un thtre,
un amphithtre, des restes daquduc, des portes triomphales, une quantit immense de tombeaux et dinscriptions, que linfatigable capitaine Delamarre a copies en grande partie. Ces
ruines, qui peuvent couvrir une surface de deux trois lieues de tour montrant bien limportance de cette position lentre du dfil qui fait communiquer le Tell avec le Sahara, et promettent des dcouvertes importantes si on a le temps de les exploiter.
[
401]JDPL 17 June 1906. Au ministre des colonies on dment de la faon la plus formelle le
bruit daprs lequel il serait question de la suppression de larme coloniale et de la vente de plusieurs colonies au gouvernement amricain. / On fait remarquer, en outre, que larme coloniale
dpend du ministre de la guerre et nest que prte au service colonial.
[
402]LEcho de Bougie 12 May 1907. Defence is still a serious business, but now fighting against
the thirst for building: Il sera donc dsormais permis de btir sur le polygone dsign ci-dessus
condition de se soumettre aux dispositions de larticle 27 du dcret du 10 aot 1853. Cela veut
dire quen cas de sige lautorit militaire aura le droit de dmolir les constructions difies sans
que les propritaires puissent prtendre aucune indemnit. / Ny aurait-il pas mieux faire
que de sen tenir une solution aussi alatoire? / Ne pourrait-on pas essayer de faire prsenter
au Parlement un projet de loi qui supprimerait la zone des servitudes en avant du front 46 de
lenceinte? / Nous pensons tout en laissant aux hommes comptents le soin de se prononcer
que la zone des fortifications offrirait en cet endroit assez de dcouvert aux dfenseurs de la
place, tant donn le genre dassaillants que lon peut avoir la prtention de repousser...Nous
voudrions bien savoir au surplus dans quelles conditions la Municipalit demanderait le dclassment complet de la partie de lenceinte comprise entre la Casbah et la porte Fouka.
[
403]The Times 27 March 1844, 4: Our neighbours across the Channel are really to be pitied...Algeria occupies a few minds, but since few who go there, except the Royal Dukes, ever
return, the contagion does not spread...It really is melancholy that a nation with every capacity
for forming a right judgment excepting common sense, and every virtue necessary for generous
enterprise but perseverance, should have nothing to do, nothing to talk about.
[
404]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 55 March 1844, 291: The possession of Algeria should
direct the eye of Europe to the ulterior objects of France: the first change of masters in Egypt,
must be looked to with national anxiety.
[
405]The Times 24 April 1838, 4: What, then, are the fruits of these Vandal aggressions in
North Africa? The prostration of the power of France, the misdirection of her energies, the perversion of her feelings of justice, the separation of France from co-operation with England.
Cavaignac and Bugeaud used the technique as well. i.e. indiscriminate massacre.
[
406]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 60 September 1846, 334: their treatment of the
natives has been uniformly considerate, their anxiety to avoid bloodshed painfully intense, their
military operations have been invariably successful, and in their countless triumphs, modestly
recorded in the veracious bulletins of a Bugeaud, they have ever shown themselves generous
and magnanimous conquerors. The result of their humane and judicious colonial administration, and of a little occasional wholesome severity on the part of Colonal Pelissier, or some other
intrepid officer, is most satisfactory and evident.
[
407]The Times 5 November 1840, 3: reprints large sections of pamphlet by Major-General
Ltang on Means to ensure French domination in Algeria namely coercive measures
against the Arabs, putting the army into large camps, and that mobile columns should have
12,000/14,000 troops.

[
408]The Times 26 Sept 1842, 4: relays Bugeauds pamphlet on Rendering useful the conquest of Algeria. Bugeaud thinks impossible to have a civil government there without a population of 400,000 to 500,000 Europeans: his proposed military government, to be carried on by
men hardened by the brutalizing cruelty of razzias and their consequences, cannot therefore be
other than a mere Spartan despotism.
[
409]The Times 15 July 1845, 4: War has its conventional rights and its laws of mercy, but
in Algeria it is waged with indiscriminate license against the private possessions and the lives
of every native tribe which still dares to feed its flocks in freedom amongst its native mountains. This is not war, but the slaughter of a population by those who have assumed the power
of governing the land; and its end is not victory, but extermination. Blackwoods Edinburgh
Magazine 65 January 1849, 21: The extermination of the Arabs was always the real aim of
Marshal Bugeaud; he took little pains to cloak his system, and is too great a blunderer to have
succeeded, had he taken more...He had ridden into power and importance on the shoulders
of the persecuted Arabs, by a system of razzias and village-burning, of wholesale slaughter and
relentless oppression.
[
410]The Times 19 July 1845, 5: Atrocities of the French Army in Algeria, with several
reports relaying the conduct of Col. Pelissier at Dahra, when he blocked about 1,000 natives in a
cave and suffocated them one of several so-called enfumades in 1844/1845.
[ ]
411 The Times 22 August 1844, 5: from their own correspondent: All the writers who have
blessed the world by scribbling on Afrique Franais are nearly unanimous in reprobating the
war system in Algeria. Nor the the Arme dAfrique necessarily to be good in European battles:
these troops aguerrs in Africa, whilst losing all the practice of European warfare, are so feeble
and inefficient in the long run, that Abd-el-Kader, with 1,000 horse, and half as many infantry,
is capable of finding employent for 100,000 French troops by the peculiar system of warfare
which he adopts...I can tell you that on the best, or official authority, that often at Oran there
has been 2,000 sick at once in the hospitals...Every new acquisition on the coast is turned into
a hospital.
[
412]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 60 September 1846, 334: As to Abd-el-Kader, the
grand instigator of these unjustifiable outbreaks, he is a troublesome and discontented barbarian, always kicking up a devil of a hubbub, usually appearing where least desired, but, when
wanted, never to be found. and goes on to relate how Bugeaud, when a colonel wanted to
capture him, emphasized that to Abd-el-Kader most of your brother officers are indebted for
their chances of promotion.
[
413]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 82 October 1857, 509: In the late war (Crimea),
Europe for the first time got proof of the great addition which her African conquests had made
to the military resources of France. Algeria is already and will become more and more, a nursery
of armies.
[
414]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 81 January 1857, 134: The French have never been
good colonizers, and the British at sea cost them all their transmarine settlements...Algeria...is
a country needing military organization, in which the French excel, rather than civil statesmanship, in which they are comparatively deficient...The possession of Algeria has already greatly
added to the military power of France.
[
415]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 60 September 1846, 336: Algeria is the safety-valve
by which the superfluous steam of the national character is in some measure let off; it affords a
appendix
point de mire (i.e. of attention) for the people, occupation for the army, a subject of discussion
for the newspapers. Doubtless a large section of the French nation, or at least of its more sensible and thinking classes, would gladly witness the abandonment of a colony which has already
cost more than there is any probability of its yielding for years to come...Algeria is at once the
leech and the toy.
[
416]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 92 August 1862, 258: the accumulated deficit on the
eight years ending in 1859 amounted to the enormous sum of 122,000,000 sterling. The eighteen
years of Louis Philippes reign showed a deficit only amounting to about half that sum; so that
the average deficit under the Empire has been nearly five times greater than the immediately
preceding regime.
[
417]Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 65 January 1849, 24: What do we gain from all this
expenditure of gold and blood? The unreasonable mortals! Had they not gained a Duke of Isly
and a Moorish pavilion? M. Desjobert surely forgets these inestimable acquisitions when he
asks and answers the question: what remains of all our victories? A thousand bulletins, and
Horace Vernets big pictures.
[
418]La Presse 3031 July 1837: Nous apprenons que Guelma vient dtre attaqu par plus de
5,000 hommes de cavalerie. La garnison a bravement repouss lattaque, mais nous y avons fait
une perte de plus de 60 hommes, tant tus que blesss; vous voyez que nous jouissons de peu
de repos, Deux jours ne se passent point sans quelque alerte. Les ennemis rdent autour de nos
camps et pient le moment de nous attaquer. Nous ne pouvons franchir le peu despace qui les
spare sans de fortes escortes. Nous nous dfions des tribus amies; celles qui nous sont hostiles
emploient tous les moyens imaginables pour dtacher tout ce qui nest pas contre nous. Le gnral Trzel montre une trs grande activit il a des espions partout, et il djoue par son habilet
tous les complots trame mais ils se renouvellent souvent; il est craindre que quelque chose
lui chappe un jour, et que nous soyons dans la suite victime de ces mille et une conspirations
qui sourdissent contre les Franais. Ce qui tonne, cest de voir nos ennemis bien arms, bien
quips et bien approvisionns en munitions. Do leur vient tout cela? cest la question que
chacun se fait ici.
[
419]La Presse 29 October 1837 Bne, 18 juillet. La prise de Constantine dissipe tous les nuages
que des jalousies naturelles ou des passions de parti tenaient accumuls sur lavenir des possessions franaises en Afrique. Ce triomphe met au dfi tous les mauvais vouloirs, et lpreuve
toutes les bonnes intentions. Gouvernement, chambres et partis, tout le monde est oblige de
se dcider. La question dAfrique est, tout entire, ranime par cet vnement qui commande
tous les intrts une solution, une solution claire, positive, solennelle, traduite en actes et en
chiffres. Il ny a plus dsormais de place pour des quivoques, des sous-entendus, des malentendus. Il faut sexpliquer; il faut vouloir; il faut excuter. Que fera-t-on de Constantine? demandet-on de toute part. Et cette question renferme celle-ci quon a si mal pose depuis sept ans Que
fera-t-on dAlger? Pour nous, et nous croyons le savoir, pour le gouvernement aussi, la question
ainsi pose devant les chambres et devant le pays, il ny a pas hsiter sur la rponse; on gardera
Constantine, parce quon veut garder Alger; parce quAlger nacquiert de valeur relle que par
Constantine; parce que Constantine est le prix, la rcompense de la conqute dAlger.
[
420]JDPL 29 January 1839, Report from Constantine, 28 December 1838, signed T. Urbain.
Comme le gouverneur-gnral avait ordonn de laisser une garnison Djemilah, une journe
fut employe reconnatre lemplacement et chercher le parti quon pourrait tirer des ruines

romaines pour notre tablissement...Laccs difficile de Djemilah doit, dans lhiver, lorsque
tombe la neige rendre les communications impassibles, il ny avait rien dans les ruines dont
on pt tirer parti pour les magasins ou les fortifications. Mais si je devais vous parier de ce
point, comme un amateur dantiquits, je vous dirais quon na pas encore trouv en Algrie
des ruines plus intressantes que celles de Djemilah. Ce quil y a de plus remarquable, cest un
arc de triomphe magnifique et parfaitement conserv. Les sculptures de la corniche des chapitaux et des frises appartiennent lordre corinthien et rappellent les plus beaux travaux de
Rome...Toutes les dispositions ayant t prises pour presser larrive du Cheikh-el-Arab
Constantine nous entrmes le 50 novembre sur te territoire des Haractas. Le camp fut dress
An-Adjeladj, o nous reconnmes les ruines dune citadelle romaine et dun petit temple. Il
est rare, dans cette partie de la province que lon ne rencontre pas des ruines romaines auprs
de chaque source. Leau a t, de tout temps, la vie de ce pays. Elle tait ncessaire aux Romains
comme nous aujourdhui cest ce qui fait quon est souvent oblig de camper dans des endroits
dsavantageux sous le point de vue militaire. Les Romains, qui navaient qu se mettre hors
de porte des traits, pouvaient stablir plus impunment au fond des valles; cependant leurs
postes taient toujours plus forts quand ils gardaient une source.
[
421]La Presse 5 March 1838 Plusieurs compagnies se forment dans le but de hter les travaux
de la colonisation en Algrie, il y a mme lieu desprer que les concessions de la Rassanta (lands
near Algiers) faite par le domaine au prince de Mis vont tre exploites au commencement de la
campagne prochaine. Arriv Marseille, le prince y a trouv une vive sympathie et les ressources
ncessaires pour reprendre dutiles travaux, que des circonstances indpendantes de sa volont,
avaient fait suspendre. Tout porte croire que cette anne portera ses fruits, et que le temps nest
plus loign o notre colonie africaine pourra prsenter des produits territoriaux qui dtermineront sans doute les banquiers et capitalistes y verser une partie du numraire quils ont leur
disposition, et qui fconderait le sol fertile de lAlgrie. Cest ainsi que lavenir, jusquici sombre,
de notre colonie, prendra un tout autre aspect, et fera renaitre la confiance l o rgnait dj une
crainte gnrale, mais sans fondement.
[
422]La Presse 27 November 1839 reprints Blanquis report to the Acadmie des Sciences
Morales et Politiques: Il ny a plus de doute sur le caractre immuable de la possession politique; il ne faut plus quil en reste sur celui de la proprit prive. Nous avons t envers les
Arabes dune longanimit digne de la puissance de notre pays mais il ne nous est pas permis de
sacrifier plus long-temps au vain espoir dune fusion impossible la marche nergique et dcide
de la colonisation. Nous ne pouvons remettre des barbares, autrement qu titre dinstrumens,
la moindre part dune tche aussi haute et aussi belle. LAlgrie doit cesser dtre livre aux querelles funestes et striles qui divisent les colons et le gouvernement, les colons et les Arabes,
et malheureusement les colons entre eux. Cest un dplorable spectacle que celui des procs
dans lesquels on consomme tant de forces et de capitaux. Si cette situation devait continuer
quelque temps encore, il ny aurait plus Alger que des cabaretiers, des plaideurs et des soldats;
il faudrait perdre lespoir dy fixer des colons. Les colons eux aussi, et mme les plus habiles, ont
commis leur tour de bien graves erreurs, dont la responsabilit ne saurait retomber sur le gouvernement. / Lexprience doit leur avoir dmontr que leur mode dexploitation na pas toujours
t appropri aux circonstances et ltat de la contre.
[
423]JDPL 7 July 1852. Paul de Molnes (Dieudonn-Jean-Baptiste-Paul Gaschon, dit Paul de
Molnes, army officer, e.g. captain in the Chasseurs dAfrique) writes: Mais il y a un grand doute
qui pse sur lavenir de notre conqute; le voici: Triompherons-nous autrement que par la force
appendix
du peuple qui nous obit aujourdhui? Certainement nous navons point de mpris pour la force,
nous croyons quelle sert le droit plus souvent quelle ne lopprime; nous reconnaissons seulement que pour agir dans sa toute-puissance, pour fonder des uvres durables et respectes,
il faut quelle soit linstrument dune pense visible et pare dun attrait de justice. La pense
franaise pntrera-t-elle un jour dans les curs que nos armes ont effrays? / Ces dbris du
monde romain que rencontrent sans cesse nos troupes ont parfois lair de funestes avertissemens. Une civilisation a sombr dj dans cet ocan humain on nous avanons de nouveau. Il
faut que ce souvenir nous mette en garde contre une aveugle confiance, sans faire natre en nous
le dcouragement. Dans ses relations avec les indignes, la France cherche carter les illusions
de toutes les natures celles qui promettent une fcondit merveilleuse ses efforts, aussi bien
que celles qui frappent davance de strilit chacune de ses entreprises. Ainsi un fait sest accompli rcemment dont le commandement qui rgit lAfrique ne sexagre point la porte et essaie
toutefois de tirer parti.
[
424]Courrier de Tlemcen 4 April 1863. Report to the Senate: Dans ce long rapport, M. Dupin
constate que 99 sur 100 nont pas en France la plus lgre ide du progrs accompli en Algrie
ni des services que les colons peuvent rendre la France. Les expositions de 1851, 1856 et 1862
ont cependant dmontr que lAlgrie avait avantageusement lutt contre lunivers entier et
stait montre suprieure la France mme, puisque ses trois dpartements oui obtenu autant
de mdailles dhonneur que huit dpartements franais, malgr limmense diffrence de la
population.
[
425]Courrier de Tlemcen 4 April 1863. La Mosque et le minaret de Mansourah sont situe
sur un petit mamelon du ct de louest. La mosque, rectangle de 100 mtres sur 60, orient
du nord-est; au sud-ouest, ne prsente plus aujourdhui que son mur en pis qui tait perc
de treize portes. / Les fouilles faites lintrieur ont amen la dcouverte de ces magnifiques
colonnes en marbre translucide dont les muses dAlger, de Tlemcen et lexposition permanente
des produits algriens Paris possdent quelques-unes.
[
426]JDPL 17 March 1844. On lit dans lAkhbar dAlger du 10 mars: On travaille toujours avec
ardeur aux fouilles dOrlansville on vient de dcouvrir une balance romaine tellement ronge
dans certaines parties, que la tige nest plus quune ligne de quelques millimtres dpaisseur;
la rouille et le vert-de-gris donnent cette balance une teinte inimitable qui constate son antiquit...Ces fouilles, du reste, sont loin davoir limportance quon leur supposait; le principal
avantage quon en a retir jusqu ce jour consiste se procurer dimmenses pierres de taille
qui ont dj servi la construction des casernes dinfanterie, de la manutention, et qui servent
encore lhpital auquel on travaille actuellement.
[
427]Courrier de Stif 26 December 1880. Une circulaire publie, le mois dernier, dans le
recueil des actes de la Prfecture, rappelle les dispositions de la loi sur la conservation des
monuments historiques. Quand, tout lheure, de grands travaux publics vont tre entrepris
sur une vaste chelle et quen ce moment de nouveaux villages sont dj en construction, nous
croyons utile de rsumer les prescriptions de la susdite loi, afin que personne nen ignore dans
larrondissement et ftire que de prcieux dbris dantiquits, de dcouvertes antrieures ou que
lon dcouvrira tantt soient toujours parfaitement respects. / Nul fonctionnaire on agent
de lautorit, et encore moins les particuliers et les entrepreneurs de travaux ou leurs ouvriers,
nont le droit de disposer des monuments, objets dart et dbris de lantiquit, sons quel prtexte
que ce soit, et quel que soit dailleurs leur peu dimportance apparente, sans, au pralable, avoir
satisfait aux conditions qui en garantirent la conservation et rservent les droits de ltat. / En

consquence, les restes dantiquits ne pourront jamais tre dmolis ou briss, et les objets dart
emports sans lautorisation de lautorit comptente. / Les travaux dutilit publique qui sexcutent ou vont sexcuter permettront, il ny a aucun doute de retrouver nombre de sculptures,
mosaques, objets divers et un riche contingent dinscriptions dun prix prcieux pour lhistoire
et la gographie de lAlgrie; il importe donc que ces intressants vestiges dun brillant pass
soient garantis de toute atteinte de dilapidation, de destruction et dparpillement. / En rsum,
dans tous les domaines publics et privs et de mme sur les concessions particulires, lEtat se
rserve expressment la proprit des objets dart, mosaques, bas-reliefs, statues, sculptures,
pigraphes, mdailles, etc., etc., qui y existent et que des fouilles ou autres travaux mettront
dcouvert. Il est enjoint aux communes den assurer la conservation. / La remise en mmoire de
cette loi ne saurait manquer, sommes-nous certains, de produire le rsultat attendu des hommes
de haut mrite qui lont labor: lAlgrie a lhonneur de marcher en tte des nations dans tout
ce qui a rapport au dveloppement de linstruction primaire; elle ne voudra pas rester au second
rang dans la recherche de son pass et de son histoire. Tantt donc, nous esprons avoir enregistrer de nouveaux progrs, du moins pour les diffrentes contres de la lgion stifinne.
[
428]Courrier de Stif 25 August 1881. Bne. Vendredi dernier, dit la Seybouse, un terrassier
kabyle qui travaillait aux fouilles des fondations de la maison que M. Housset va construire sur le
cours National, rencontra du pic de sa pioche une petite jarre dont le goulot fut bris par le choc
de son outil. Il schappa de la jarre une vritable pluie dor. Les autres ouvriers du chantier et les
curieux qui se trouvaient l se prcipitrent sur ce trsor, et, pendant que linventeur luttait avec
lun deux enlevrent jusqu la dernire des pices que renfermait la jarre: Bon nombre darrestations furent opres par la police, pour essayer de ressaisir les monnaies drobes, mais cest
peine si lon put retrouver, par ce moyen, une cinquantaine de pices. / Toutes sont des pices
arabes frappes Bougie, il y a environ 300 ans...Elles nont pas d circuler, car elles ont lapparence de pices sortant de la Monnaie. Leur valeur, poids de lor, est de 12 francs 50. / Daprs le
cube quaccuse la jarre, il devait y avoir 4,000 pices, qui reprsentait une valeur de 50,000 francs.
[
429]Courrier de Stif 29 September 1881. Trouvaille. Dans les fouilles quils pratiquent sur
la place Barral, les cantonniers ont dcouvert un vritable nid de pices Romaines de toutes
dimensions et frappes pour la plupart leffigie de Constantin. / Ces pices comptent donc
environ 15 sicles dexistence.
[
430]JDPL 20 December 1837, Moniteur Algrien for 9 December: Une dcouverte assez singulire vient dtre faite dans la province de lOuest. Des Juifs taient occups nettoyer une
fontaine sur le territoire de la tribu des Oulad-Sidi-Kaied (entre Oran et Tlemcen); dans le cours
de leur travail, ils trouvrent un uf dautruche dont la partie suprieure avait t perce, puis
bouche avec du coton. Ils sempressrent denlever ce lger obstacle, et ne furent pas mdiocrement surpris en voyant rouler leurs pieds vingt mdailles romaines en argent. Heureusement
pour la science, le rcit de cette trouvaille arriva jusqu M. Sol, sous-intendant .civil dOran, qui
se hta dacheter toutes ces pices et de les envoyer M. Bresson, intendant civil. Elles sont arrives ici rcemment et sont destines au muse dAlger. / M. Bresson, ce que lon assure, a donn
des instructions pressantes tous les fonctionnaires civils qui administrent sous ses ordres les
diffrentes parties de lAlgrie, pour quils recueillent avec le plus grand soin tous les objets dantiquit dont lexistence pourrait leur tre rvle. Une sollicitude aussi honorable pour la science
sera comprise, il nest pas permis den douter; et le muse, que lon doit ouvrir dici peu de
temps, ne tardera pas senrichir de matriaux intressans pour ltude des antiquits locales.
appendix
[
431]Courrier de Setif 20 April 1882 Nous trouvons dans la boite du Journal les questions suivantes poser qui de droit./ Monsieur le Rdacteur, Que sont donc devenues les nombreuses
pierres Romaines qui se trouvaient, il y a quelque temps, la sortie de la porte de Bougie. A-t-on
construit un immeuble avec elles? Les a-t-on vendues administrativement? Vous aurez peine, je
crois, trouver rponse toutes ces questions; cependant je pense quelles doivent tre poses. /
Agrez etc. / X. / Notre laconique correspondant a mille lois raison de nous faire ces questions. /
Comme lui nous avons constat la disparition de ces blocs, et nous faisons uvre de bonne justice en signalant cet escamotage ladministration. / Pour nous, et jusqu preuve du contraire,
nous pouvons supposer que le petit fourbi des familles entre pour beaucoup dans la disparition prcite. / On ne voudra pas, nous lesprons, faire longtemps subsister un doute semblable
et notre correspondant aura une rponse. Courrier de Setif 27 April 1882 A propos des pierres
romaines. Il ya quelque temps, un de nos correspondants nous priait de demander ladministration du Gnie, ce que prouvaient bien tre devenues les nombreuses pierres Romaines,
qui bordaient la route la sortie de la porte de Bougie, ajoutons entre parenthse, que notre
correspondant oubliait de parler dautres pierres qui se trouvaient la sortie de la porte dAlger,
et qui galement ont t escamotes.
[
432]Courrier de Setif 16 July 1882 Selling un lot urbain at Raz-el-Ma, including de 34 hectares
de terres labourables de bonne qualit, avec ruines romaines et jardin.
[
433]Courrier de Stif 10 June 1883. Dimportantes et trs intressantes ruines romaines
viennent dtre dcouvertes aux Ouled-Agla (Medjana). En fouillant le sol du communal, les
colons se sont trouv en prsence dun temple trs-vaste et trs bien conserv. / Daprs les renseignements que nous avons recueillis auprs dun colon de nos amis, ce temple indique que
ctait en cet endroit que les Romains incinraient leurs morts. / Une pierre tumulaire trouve
dans cette salle donne en quelque sorte raison notre ami. / Nous engageons les colons qui
voudraient continuer les fouilles agir avec la plus grande circonspection, car certainement cet
endroit qui autrefois portait le nom de oculus marinus mnage de trs-belles surprises nos
archologues. / De son ct, la socit darchologie ne pourrait-elle faire le sacrifice de quelques
milliers de francs, pour dblayer ce terrain ensabl depuis des sicles?
[
434]JDPL 6 August 1848. M. Ceyrat, rapporteur du comit de lAlgrie: Plusieurs habitans
de Tenez en Algrie rclament contre la concurrence fcheuse que leur font pour les travaux
les soldats de la garnison. Les officiers emploient des animaux au service du gouvernement (on
rit), ils btissent des maisons avec les bras des soldats, ne paient aucun impt, et reoivent une
indemnit de logement de 25 fr. par mois; le tout au grand prjudice des colons.
[
435]Courrier de Tlemcen 30 December 1887. A six kilomtres de Khenchela, existe une petite
rivire connue sous le nom de Fontaine-Chaude et tout--fait digne dadmiration. / On supposait
que les habitants de lantique Mascula devaient avoir tabli des bains dans le voisinage et les
Khenchelois navaient rien tant coeur que de voir mettre dcouvert les travaux jadis excuts
par leurs devanciers les Romains. Grce lintelligence et au zl de lexcellent conducteur des
Ponts et Chausses, M. Masseport, gnreusement appuy par la Commission municipale, on
sest mis loeuvre. / Lessai a russi au-del de toute esprance. Qui let cru? A droite de la
rivire se trouve un vaste bassin deau bouillante et sulfureuse, et quatre mtres de profondeur
environ, on a dcouvert un canal de cent mtres de long. / Mais voici le comble: un gourbi est
l, debout, il gne, on le dmolit, on fouille, on creuse et la profondeur de six mtres, que
trouve-t-on? Je vous le donne en cent. Un moulin vieux de seize sicles, dont les meules servent

actuellement de tables aux ouvriers. Les murs intacts, les chambres, les corridors, les escaliers
bien conservs. / On poursuit activement les fouilles. / Les ouvriers travaillent avec courage et
surtout avec lespoir de dcouvrir le fameux trsor qui, daprs la lgende, y aurait t cach au
fond dune cave par Scipion (le second Africain. Dj beaucoup de voyageurs et de touristes
ont visit ces magnifiques monuments ternels tmoins de la prosprit de notre rgion sous
loccupation romaine. / Tous les jours, les habitants de Khenchela contemplent avec une lgitime satisfaction le va et vient des voitures qui, maigri les ingalits du terrain, font le voyage
de la Fontaine-Chaude. / Bientt, nous lesprons, on y fera une belle route carrossable et alors
non-seulement de lAlgrie et del Tunisie, mais de la France et de tous les coins du monde, nous
verrons accourir Khenchela des foules de visiteurs de tout rang et de toute qualit. (reprinted
from Progrs de lAlgrie.)
[
436]Dailheu_1901_67: Il fallut donc tout dabord courir au plus press et tablir un mode
quelconque de gouvernement; lhistoire ne dmentira certainement pas cette parole, que
pronona en 1831 le gnral Clauzel. Mais aujourdhui, personne noserait plus mettre lide
dabandonner lAlgrie; ce temps-l est pass et la France a trop chrement pay sa conqute, en
hommes et en argent, pour y renoncer maintenant; cependant les incertitudes durent encore,
et continuent de causer des perturbations regrettables ; mais il semble bien quelles soient dues
presque exclusivement au manque absolu dune ligne de conduite ferme et nette. Toutes les
solutions, aujourdhui prconises, ont t exprimentes successivement; bien plus, lesprit de
chacun des systmes, qui ont t appliqus ou proposs, a persist, en sorte que lorganisation
actuelle nest quune rsultante trange tenant des uns et des autres. Depuis soixante-dix ans, en
effet, lAlgrie na pas subi moins de dix rgimes qui se sont succd sans se complter ou sans
toujours sabroger. Elle a t considre tour tour comme un territoire occup (18301834),
comme une possession (18341848), comme un groupe de dpartements doutre-mer (1848
1858), comme une colonie (18581860), comme un royaume arabe (18601870) pour devenir un
prolongement de la France depuis 1871: lheure prsente elle se trouve de nouveau soumise aux
essais administratifs dune volution organique.
[
437]Say_1886_9: Rgime civil ou Rgime militaire, administrateurs ou officiers, prfets ou
gnraux, commissaires civils ou Bureaux arabes, cest ternellement la mme chose. Cest toujours lAlgrie touffe par une organisation administrative plus puissante que celle des Romains
dont on a tant vant les splendeurs, mais qui na laiss que des ruines. / Notre colonisation en
Algrie est une occupation militaire du Tell. Nous restons enclavs entre la mer et les HautsPlateaux, parqus dans une bande de terre troite, sans progrs possible et sans vitalit; nous
restons immobiles, nous usant en discussions byzantines et en querelles intestines ternelles,
cherchant depuis 1847 une politique intrieure quelconque, un procd de colonisation quel
quil soit et ne trouvant rien parce que nous navons pas de Politique coloniale.
appendix
[ ]
1 Bourin_1887_342343 Bugeaud and his military colonies: La seconde partie du plan de
Bugeaud consistait dans la rsurrection des colonies romaines constitues avec les vtrans militaires: ense et aratro. Pour recruter les nouveaux cultivateurs, on faisait passer dans les corps un
tat nominatif remplir; tous les rgiments fournirent leur contingent pour peupler les centres
dsigns, sortes de marches allemandes ou de presidios espagnols qui devaient doter lAlgrie
dune population vigoureuse, acclimate, aguerrie, susceptible de constituer, au del du cordon
militaire et sous la protection de nos colonnes mobiles, une solide barrire en de de laquelle
les colons venus de France eussent trouv une scurit complte. Ce plan tait dautant plus
sduisant...sur le papier, que, dans les intervalles des sorties militaires, nos bataillons devaient
crer des routes, creuser des canaux, aider les vtrans dfricher leur terrain, btir leurs
fermes, forer leurs puits, etc. Dans la pratique, on alla trop vite, cest malheureusement dans
nos traditions; on remua trop de terre du premier coup; on eut le tort de sattaquer aux terrains
marcageux de certaines plaines basses; la fivre accourut au grand galop. Joignez ce redoutable facteur de dmoralisation labsence de routes, les habitudes dintemprance (certains colonels se dbarrassaient de leurs mauvais sujets au profit de la colonisation), lindiffrence de la
mre patrie, qui laissait scouler le courant dmigration vers lAmrique, et lopposition froce
faite Bugeaud par les dputs et les journaux de la mtropole, et vous aurez lexplication de
linsuccs du systme Bugeaud, qui mritait pourtant des essais plus srieux et plus persvrants. On ne souponna pas que linsuccs pouvait provenir dune erreur dapplication; on subissait une dception, le dcouragement devait suivre en entranant la condamnation du systme,
cest encore dans nos traditions.
[ ]
2 Buret_1842_197198: Or, le sol offert aux migrants est peu prs nu comme le dsert,
et avant de le dfricher il faut sy construire une maison. La pierre ne manque pas en Afrique;
mais pour btir en pierre, il faut que le pays offre dj des routes solides et sres, des carrires
ouvertes, des fours chaux, des ouvriers nombreux, cest--dire que, pour construire une maison, il faut avoir sa disposition un ensemble de forces et de travaux qui ne peut se rencontrer
que dans une petite socit. Aussi, malgr la raret et la chert du bois, on construit en Afrique
des cabanes en planches au lieu de maisons. Dans toutes les villes occupes, lexception dAlger,
Oran, Mostaganem, Bougie, Blidah, les Europens nont lev que des abris de planches;
et sils construisent de vritables maisons Alger, cest que l seulement se trouvent runis les
lments matriels ncessaires ltablissement dune socit. Hors des murs dAlger, dans sa
banlieue, on ne compte que quatrevingts maisons en pierres, construites depuis la conqute.
Pour que lhomme civilis stablt facilement en Afrique, de manire supporter linfluence
dun nouveau climat, il faudrait donc quil y trouvt, son arrive, des maisons dj construites
ou les moyens den construire; la colonisation individuelle est enferme dans un cercle vicieux,
car il lui faut pour russir ce quelle ne peut pas emporter avec elle, les ressources dune socit
civilise.
[ ]
3 Enfantin_1843_228 writing on the Colonisation de lAlgrie, Mascara etc.: La colonisation
militaire de Mascara et de la route de cette ville la mer est ncessaire, ai-je dit, et exige dix
mille colons militaires; il en faut trois mille dans les plaines du Sig, de lHabra et de la Mina, la
hauteur du fort Prgaux; trois mille du fort Prgaux jusque prs de Mascara, soit que la route
passe par le Bordj, soit quelle traverse le dfil o a eu lieu laffaire darrire-garde du 1er juin 1841;
et enfin quatre mille dans Mascara et autour de cette ville. / Rappelons-nous que ces dix mille
colons sont appuys de dix mille soldats, et je demande si vingt mille hommes, habilement placs sur une route aussi courte, nen seront pas matres, surtout en observant que Mostaghanem

aura une garnison de deux mille hommes, trs-suffisante pour dfendre l ville et sa banlieue
une assez grande distance, et que les colonies, tant militaires, pourraient garder leurs villages
et mme les postes militaires, pendant que les garnisons de ces postes rayonneraient ou se runiraient par fortes colonnes, si des expditions taient ncessaires. Noublions pas, en outre,
que nous avons suppos, sur la route de Mda Tlemcen, deux colonnes mobiles de six mille
hommes, toujours disponibles. / Telle est luvre militaire et coloniale la plus importante qui
doive tre accomplie immdiatement, selon moi, dans la province dOran.
[ ]
4 Enfantin_1843_220 on the Colonisation de lAlgrie, his suggestion: la double population,
indigne et europenne, se diviserait naturellement, peu peu, de la manire suivante: les plus
pacifiques des indignes seraint dans la zone du littoral, au milieu de la population civile europenne, et les plus militaires des colons europens vivraient dans la zone intrieure, ct des
tribus indignes les plus belliqueuses; ou, en dautres termes, les tribus les plus soumises, celles
qui pourraient le mieux sassocier nous, tendraient se rapprocher de la cte; tandis quau
contraire nous aurions toujours, prs des tribus le plus indpendantes, le plus turbulentes, une
population europenne militaire, compose de soldats colons, qui maintiendrait ces tribus dans
lordre et la soumission.
[ ]
5 Fabar_1847_26: Dans notre hypothse, ltat se proposerait dinstaller ses frais sur ce
grand territoire trois cents colons militaires, et six officiers, de les loger dans un village central;
puis, de mnager leurs cts, et sous leur protection, une large place au dveloppement de la
colonisation libre. / Le lot de chaque colon militaire serait fix 8 hectares, celui des officiers
varierait de 20 30; ce qui donne 2,400 hectares pour la troupe, et en moyenne de 150 pour les
officiers, c. 2,550 hect. / Le village doit contenir dabord les 300 colons militaires, et comme chacun deux reprsente une famille, nous lui consacrerons 20m. sur 10m, ou 200m.c. Pour les 300,
60,000m.c., cest--dire 6 hectares. Maintenant, rservons un quartier pour les commerants de
tout genre et les divers ouvriers dart quattirera ncessairement un centre de produits agricoles.
Pourvoyons largement ces besoins venir; car, en raison du choix minutieux de cette localit,
nest-il pas bien possible que du camp agricole sorte un jour une ville importante?
[ ]
6 Anon_1841_45 Commission sur la colonisation militaire: Il ne faut pas oublier dans
quelle situation se trouve notre conqute aujourdhui mme; soixante mille soldats suffisent
peine pour la garder, comment vingt mille colons suffiraient-ils pour la cultiver et la dfendre?
Avant que les colons militaires fussent en nombre, ils seraient crass par les Arabes, ou bien il
faudrait une arme de soldats pour protger cette arme de colons. Quant la fusion des deux
races, des deux religions, des deux, lois, des deux nationalits, elle est encore loin dans lavenir,
et il serait imprudent de fonder un systme sur un tat de choses que nous appelons de tous
nos voeux, mais qui nest pas ralis. Jusqu prsent, un fait domine en Afrique, la domination militaire, qui prpare bien faiblement lalliance entre le peuple conqurant et le peuple
conquis. Votre commission, tout en admirant les brillantes promesses de lauteur du projet qui
voit lOrient prpar pour une colonie europenne, se propose donc un but plus modeste. Elle
ne repousse aucune esprance pour lavenir, ne condamne aucun systme; mais instruite par le
pass, elle se dfie des expriences qui ne portent pas avec elles une pleine scurit; elle croit
les colonies militaires, bonnes en elles-mmes, mais elle ne connat pas un point de lancienne
rgence o lon puisse les tablir sans tre imprvoyant.
[ ]
7 Duvivier_1845_444: Quant vos travaux colonisateurs, si vous voulez savoir ce quils ont
fait pour le soldat, enqurez-vous de toutes les causes du deuil de leurs familles; ces familles
sont en France, ct de vous.
appendix
[ ]
8 Bonnal_1847_1314 on colonisation: Daprs cette premire donne de cent mille hommes
et de dix ans, il faut placer dix mille colons chaque anne. Chaque village se composera de cent
soldats, ce qui porte cent le nombre des centres qnil y aura lieu de crer. Se rend-on bien
compte de ce que cent villages constituer ncessitent dtudes pralables et de travaux effectifs? / En premier lieu, il faudrait arpenter pour ces cent villages, raison de mille hectares
chacun, cent mille hectares; il faudrait dplacer la population indigne et lui trouver des compensations; il faudrait chercher et choisir les emplacements des centres; comprendre davance
et au milieu de cette prcipitation exclusive des faits accomplis qui vous guident, les intrts
crs et venir quils pourraient dvelopper et dont ils devraient devenir le sige aprs les avoir
fait natre; il faudrait pralablement ouvrir les routes principales dbouchant dun centre commun et se bifurquant ensuite pour aboutir chaque poste sparment; il faudrait en ouvrir
encore de transversales pour relier directement entre eux ces cent villages. / Il faudrait lever des
murailles avec fosss autour de chacun deux, cest--dire, quil y aurait lieu denceindre environ
quinze hectares par village, chiffre voulu; il faudrait excuter tous les travaux relatifs aux eaux et
amener celles-ci dans les centres lorsquelles ne sy trouveraient pas, ce qui arrive le plus souvent,
et construire les fontaines aprs les aqueducs, les ponts, les barrages, etc. Il faudrait lever cent
maisons dans chaque village, cest dire dix mille habitations appropries ltat dagriculteur,
cela chaque anne, sans compter les constructions communes, celles destines aux autorits,
les magasins, les hpitaux, les glises, les coles, etc. Il faudrait faire tout cela en un an! / Eh
bien! les quatre-vingt mille hommes de larme dAfrique, le corps de ltat-major et celui du
gnie seraient peine suffisants pour accomplir cette oeuvre gigantesque. Que deviendrait alors,
pendant dix ans, la dfense gnrale? / Dans les observations qui prcdent, nous navons indiqu que les difficults fondamentales et saillantes; mais il en est une quon ne doit pas perdre
de vue: la colonisation militaire dans lintrieur est matriellement et moralement impossible
cause de la colonisation civile du littoral qui, dune part, lcraserait de sa concurrence, et, de
lautre, lui rendrait insupportable un rgime exceptionnel en dehors de nos murs et de nos
institutions.
[ ]
9 Anon_1881_56 colonisation by the army: Les soldats-colons seront pris dans les diffrentes armes, et de prfrence dans les corps en garnison en Algrie, dans lesquels les hommes
sont accoutums au pays, ses moeurs, ses hommes et son climat. Ils devront en gnral
avoir la profession de cultivateur. / Des sous-officiers dlite accompagneront les soldats-colons
la compagnie, un par concession. / Ces sous-officiers conserveront le droit au rengagement. /
Aprs quils auront pass quatre ans au moins la compagnie, lEtat leur accordera un lot de
village. / Les sous-officiers ou soldats seront, au moment de leur dpart des rgiments, classs
ainsi: en cong illimit, employ la colonisation militaire de lAlgrie.
[ ]
10 Baude_1841_II_5960: Dans un pays o les changes lointains et la locomotion sont la
condition dexistence des populations, la libert de la circulation est le premier de tous les biens
sociaux; cest aussi celui qui donne le plus de prise aux oppresseurs, et il devait tre le plus attaqu. Les richesses du pays ne pouvaient pas se transporter incessamment sans exciter le brigandage: la proie attire les ravisseurs; mais aprs une exprience cruelle, elle cesse de soffrir eux:
cest ce qui est arriv dans toute lAfrique septentrionale, et particulirement en Numidie. Quand
les dsordres sociaux ont arrt la circulation, la dcadence du pays sest prcipite, lancienne
prosprit, dont laccumulation des ruines romaines offre de si clatants tmoignages, a disparu,
et le pays est tomb ltat o nous le voyons. / Si nous nous tions hautement donn pour
mission en Afrique le rtablissement et la protection de la libert, de la circulation, les vux des

peuples auraient partout accompagn nos armes. La force fait les conqutes; lintelligence des
besoins des vaincus les conserve.
[ ]
11 Lunel_1869_87: Lentretien en Algrie dun gros corps darme, environ 80,000 hommes,
a t la cause de la majeure partie des dpenses contre lesquelles lopinion publique na cess
de protester. Il y a donc lieu dexaminer sil ne serait pas possible de diminuer leffectif de nos
troupes sans compromettre la scurit et lavenir de la colonie.
[ ]
12 Fillias_1860_324 Bugeaud to the colonists on his departure in 1847: Jetez un coup dil
sur la proclamation que je vous ai adresse en fvrier 1841, mon arrive en Afrique; vous verrez
que jai dpass de beaucoup le programme que je mtais trac. Javais dit que le drapeau de
la France devait seul planer sur lAlgrie: deux fois lmir a t refoul dans le Maroc, et notre
domination stend, sur le pays des Arabes, de la frontire de Tunis celle du Maroc, de la mer
120 ou 130 lieues dans le petit dsert. / Javais dit que je serais colonisateur ardent. tendez vos
regards au del du cercle dAlger, voyez ces villes fondes ou releves de leurs ruines; voyez les
routes, les ponts, les difices de toute nature, les barrages, les conduites deau, les villages qui ont
surgi, et dites si nous navons pas fait en colonisation, au milieu dune guerre ardue, plus quon
navait le droit dattendre en raison des moyens exigus qui ont t mis notre disposition. / Mais
ce qui est colonisateur et administratif au-dessus de tout, cest la scurit. Cette scurit, vous
lavez; vous pouvez voyager en tous sens et isolment jusqu 50 lieues et plus de la cte; les
Arabes gardent eux-mmes les routes par des postes chelonns de deux lieues en deux lieues;
ces postes vous offrent le soir un asile sr, et si vous voulez aller dans le douar voisin, vous y
trouverez une hospitalit gnreuse. Les tribus font elles-mmes la police, et il est fort rare quun
crime ou un dlit reste impuni. Par les mmes raisons, le commerce entier du pays vous est
ouvert; sil nest pas plus considrable, il faut lattribuer aux maux de la guerre et ce que les
Arabes consomment peu; mais il tend grandir tous les jours par les bienfaits de la pacification.
Larme, pour ouvrir les voies la colonisation, ne cesse de travailler que lorsquil est ncessaire
de prendre les armes. Partout elle aide les colons de son bras, de sa protection et de son budget.
[ ]
13 Moll_1845_I_251: Lhistoire nous apprend, au contraire, et les ruines qui couvrent lAlgrie
viennent le confirmer, que les Romains avaient dissmin une foule de colonies sur toute la surface du pays. Probablement simples stations militaires dans le dbut, elles devinrent bientt des
centres de colonisation, des villes, par la runion dindividus et de familles dorigines diverses,
que les vnements avaient pousss en Afrique, et que le besoin de scurit et la prsence de
consommateurs militaires portaient stablir autour et sous la protection de ces stations.
[ ]
14 Desjobert_1844_1617: M. le gnral Duvivier, consultant lhistoire, interrogeant pendant
son sjour en Afrique les ruines que les Romains y ont laisses, pense aussi que loccupation
romaine ne fut jamais accompagne de scurit; qu toutes les poques elle fut prcaire, quil
ny eut jamais de fusion entre les Romains et la population indigne. / Aujourdhui les divers
peuples du littoral de la Mditerrane ayant de lanalogie avec lAlgrie prsentent la mme
rsistance au dominateur tranger. Cette rsistance existe mme lorsque ce dominateur est
coreligionnaire.
[ ]
15 Dino_1847_6 on colonisation: La principale garantie dont a besoin la colonisation est
la scurit; sans elle, les capitaux sloignent, et les migrants europens prfrent lAlgrie
les vastes plaines de lAmrique, o ils nont du moins lutter que contre la nature. La prsence
sur le territoire dune arme nombreuse, aguerrie et discipline, est donc rigoureusement indispensable, bien que nous soyons fort loin dadmettre, avec M. le gouverneur gnral, quil faudra
appendix
probablement accrotre notre force militaire, au fur et mesure que stendront les intrts
individuels protger.
[ ]
16 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1840_5: La province de Constantine, quon vous reprsente comme
tranquille et soumise, est un volcan prt vomir la lave. On vous rpte, chaque jour, quelle
prospre; il nen est rien; on ne peut y circuler sans de fortes escortes.
[ ]
17 Plion_1838_1314 Considrations politiques et militaires sur lAlgrie: A notre arrive
en Afrique, lignorance complte o nous tions de lorganisation gouvernementale que nous
venions de briser, donna lieu bien des erreurs. trangers aux usages et la langue, nous
nous trouvmes entirement la merci des interprtes pour toutes nos relations avec les indignes; notre marche administrative se ressentit de cette fausse position. Beaucoup de mesures
urgentes furent ngliges, et ladministration ne commena devenir vritablement rationnelle
que lorsque nous emes acquis une connaissance plus exacte des localits; aujourdhui, le pays
que nous occupons est sillonn par des routes qui facilitent les communications, et couvert
en partie par des camps qui assurent la scurit et les moyens de dfense. Maintenant, nous
connaissons les secrets ressorts quil faut faire mouvoir, la langue arabe nous est devenue plus
familire, et nos rapports avec les indignes plus faciles. Dj, une jeune gnration, leve sous
nos auspices, sidentifie avec nos moeurs, et permet dentrevoir lpoque o la fusion entre les
vainqueurs et les vaincus doit faire un tout compact, une population franaise et dvoue de ces
lmens divers.
[ ]
18 Delamare_1850B_12 Somewhere near Lambessa, While at Oum-el-Asnab: Pendant notre
exploration, un marabout, du nom de Bel-Cadi, cheik des environs, venu au camp pour complimenter notre commandant, stant offert pour nous conduire visiter les ruines de son douair,
nous partmes avec un jeune officier dartillerie, M. Choppin, et une escorte de quatre spahis.
Les ruines que lon voit dans le lieu o nous fmes conduits sont assez remarquables; nous ny
rencontrmes ni inscriptions, ni sculptures, mais de beaux fragments darchitecture, et quelques
fts de colonnes monolithes de 3m 20 de longueur. Le monument le moins ruin est un reste
de bassin carr, form par de trs-longues pierres (2 3 mtres) places de champ, sengageant
les unes dans les autres, tenon et mortaise; un petit escalier extrieur de trois marches, de
construction semblable, sert dentre.
[ ]
19 Gsell_1912_III for details of Delamares travels: Voici les renseignements que jai pu recneillir sur lemploi du temps de lauteur, surtout daprs les dates inscrites en marge dun certain nombre de dessins originaux: 1840. Mars: Philippeville. Avril: Sigus; dans ce mme mois
Delamare prit part lexpdition du gnral Galbois chez les Harakla (rgion dAin Beda et
de la Meskiana). Mai: route de Constantine Stif; dans la fin du mme mois, pointe sur Ras
el Oued. Pendant lt et une partie de lautomne: sjour Stif (o Delamare tait en septembreoctobre). Aot: visite Djemila. Novembre: Constantine; route de Constantine Bne.
1841. Marsavril: Philippeville. Au cours de cette anne, sjour Constantine. 1842. Janvier:
Announa. Janvierfvrier: Guelma. Fvrier: route de Guelma Bne. Fvrier-mars: La Calle.
Marsavril: Bne. Avril: Philippeville; route de Pliilippeville Constantine. Mai: Constantine,
o Delamare fit un sjour prolong (il y tait en juillet). 1843. Avrilmai: Philippeville; en avril,
visite Collo. Mai: route de Philippeville Constantine; Announa. Cette anne-l, probablement pendant lt, sjours Guelma, Bne, Constantine. Octobre: route de Constantine Stif.
Octobre, novembre, dcembre: Stif. Du 15 au 23 novembre: Djemila; du 24 au 30: Mons. 1844.
Dpart de Constantine en fvrier, pour participer lexpdition du duc dAumale dans le sud de la

province de Constantine; visite du Mdracen, de Lambse, dEl Kantara, de Biskra, de Tobna, de
Ngaous. Juin: retour Constantine. Juillet: route de Constantine Philippeville: Juilletaot:
Philippeville. Septembre: Dellys. Septembreoctobre: Bougie. Octobre: Djidjeli. Novembre
dcembre: Philippeville. 1845. Mars. Route de Philippeville Bne; Guelma, Ain Nechma. Avril
mai: Philippeville. Le 15 mai, dpart pour la France.
[ ]
20 Mauroy_1852_2829: Il y a quatre ans encore, nous tions comme assigs dans le petit
nombre de points que nous occupions. On ne pouvait sortir dAlger sans une escorte militaire;
il fallait une petite arme pour se rendre Bouffarik, et les maraudeurs hadjoutes, infestant
la Mitidjah, rpandaient la terreur jusquaux portes de la capitale. Aujourdhui vous traversez
la plaine sans nul danger: vous y trouvez une population laborieuse, dfrichant la terre, ou
construisant des villages. La route est couverte douvriers, de colons, de laboureurs, et lactivit
de lEuropen y a mme transport lomnibus. De Blidah, gravissez lAtlas: parcourez ces gorges
sauvages o tant de sang fut vers. Cest partout la mme scurit: quelques soldats, des marchands, des femmes qui vont Mdah, Milianah, Boghar, plus de quarante lieues dAlger.
Point de postes franais, point de protection apparente; le voyageur bivouaque en plein air, ou
va chercher lhospitalit sous une tente nagure ennemie.
[ ]
21 Renier_1852_337 charg dune mission en Algrie pour y rechercher les monuments pigraphiques: NB the dangerous situation required a military escort: Nos bivouacs du 8 et du 9,
An-Sedjera et la Meskiana, ne mont rien offert de remarquable; mais celui du 10, au Hammam
dOccous, ma fait voir les ruines les plus considrables et les plus intressantes que nous eussions rencontres depuis notre dpart de Constantine. Ces ruines sont certainement celles des
Aquae Caesaris, indiques dans la Table Thodosienne comme se trouvant sept milles louest
de Theveste, indication fausse videmment, puisque, entre ces ruines et Tbessa, il y a pour
plus de six heures de marche, mais qui ne peut induire en erreur, car il ny a pas dautre source
thermale ou minrale dans les environs; celle-ci est dailleurs extrmement abondante; elle est
lgrement sulfureuse, et sa temprature est denviron 40 centigrades. Elle sort, par un canal
en pierres de taille, des dcombres dun trs-grand difice, qui parat avoir t ltablissement
des bains. / Le Hammam dOccous aurait mrit une longue exploration. Malheureusement,
le dtachement y tait arriv la nuit; il le quitta le lendemain neuf heures, et il ny avait
pas possibilit de rester en arrire, ce point tant un des plus dangereux de la route, fort peu
sre en gnral, dAn-Bda Tbessa. Je nai donc pu disposer que de quelques heures pour
visiter ces ruines; mais je compte y retourner si les circonstances me le permettent. / Depuis le
Hammam jusqu Tbessa, o nous arrivmes trois heures aprs midi, on suit constamment
la voie romaine, sur les bords de laquelle on rencontre, de distance en distance, des amas de
dcombres. An-Chabrou, o Mannert plaait les Aquae Caesaris, ne prsente que des traces de
constructions insignifiantes et un petit fort de lpoque byzantine.
[ ]
22 Berbrugger_1857_1415: Dans cette deuxime partie de mes voyages en Tunisie, jtais
mieux accompagn que dans la premire: le Bey Ahmed, dans son extrme bienveillance, et,
sans doute, la sollicitation de M. le baron de This, alors consul-gnral de France, homme
aussi aimable quinstruit, le Bey mavait donn pour escorte six hnba ou gendarmes cheval,
le bache-chaouche du khaifa de Sid Ahmed Zecrok, gouverneur du Djerid, et un de ses propres
mamlouks, dans son costume hybride. Avec le chaouche que javais amen dAlger, nous formions donc une caravane de dix personnes. Ce nombre, qui parut souvent trop considrable
nos htes, sleva jusquau chiffre de soixante, quand notre route nous amena dans le voisinage
dangereux du pays des Nememcha.
appendix
[ ]
23 Wagner_1841_I_181: Eine gnstige Gelegenheit zeigte sich mir wenige Wochen nach meiner Ankunft, die Ruinen der rmischen Stadt Rusgonia, auch Rustonium, Rusgauia und Rustisia
genannt, welche zehn Stunden stlich von Algier bei dem Cap Matifu liegt, zu besuchen. Herr
Adrian Berbrugger, Secretr des Marschalls Clauzel, ein sehr eifriger Altertumsforscher, hatte
nmlich von der Regierung den Auftrag erhalten, dort Nachgrabungen zu veranstalten. Er begab
sich im Januar 1837 mit einer Escorte von zehn Soldaten nach dem Fort Matifu, einem alten
runden Thurme bei dem Cap gleiches Namens gelegen, etablirte sich dort mit seinen Arbeitern,
und begann sein mhseliges Unternehmen mit einem Eifer und einer Unverdrossenheit, die
ihm die grsste Ehre machen.
[ ]
24 Quesnoy_1888_X Prface: Aujourdhui notre scurit parat bien tablie, on voyage
en voiture, cheval, de nuit, de jour, dans toutes les directions, jusquaux extrmes limites de
notre occupation, sans tre expos, mme une insulte; mais il ne faudrait pas croire cependant quaucun retour aux anciens errements nest possible. La prsence dun inspir est toujours craindre; un fanatique parlant au nom de la religion pourra encore tre cout pendant
longtemps.
[ ]
25 Lecoy de la Marche, H., Recherche dune voie romaine du golfe de Gabs vers Ghadams,
par M. le lieutenant Lecoy de La Marche, in BACTHS 1894, 389413. See 391: Avant de quitter
Tunis, je me prsentai M. le gnral Leclerc, commandant la brigade doccupation. Il voulut
bien, sur la demande de M. le commandant Rebillet, mautoriser pousser jusqu Medeina;
mais il imposa mes reconnaissances une limite en de de la frontire tripolitaine: cette ligne
idale tait dtermine par Medeina. Gasser-ben-Guerdane, Ogla-Morra, Remada, Kanbout. /
Enfin, le 9 novembre, je membarquai pour Gabs, muni de toutes les autorisations ncessaires,
tant au point de vue civil quau point de vue militaire, de conseils et de lettres de recommandation de M. le colonel de Labonne, de M. le commandant Rebillet, de M. le commandant Coyne.
Jemmenais avec moi un Arabe algrien, sortant du 4e rgiment de tirailleurs, que M. le commandant Rebillet mavait recommand comme interprte. Fort intelligent, trs instruit dans les
deux langues, Soumali-Hamma-Sadock aurait t capable de me rendre de trs grands services
sil avait eu de la bonne volont; mais il resta trs peu de temps avec moi et je dois dire que je
regrettai mdiocrement son dpart. 393: Henchir-el-Aouer. Le 24, M. le lieutenant Perrin me
fit voir Medeina et deux autres gisements assez importants. Le premier porte le nom de Henchirel-Aouer: cest une enceinte carre de 30 mtres de ct environ, situe 300 mtres de la mer
et 11 kilomtres au nord-est de Gasser-ben-Guerdane. Les murs sont compltement dtruits,
et avec les dbris les Arabes ont construit au centre cette sorte de fortification ronde, en pierres
sches, quils appellent un lahiel. Cest l, je crois, que M. le lieutenant Doumerc a trouv une
jarre antique absolument intacte, de 1m. 10 environ de hauteur, que jai vue Zarzis.
[ ]
26 Saladin_1893_102 Gafsa to Feriana: M. le gnral Philibert et M. le gnral Herv, qui lui
succdait Gafsa, nous donnrent une escorte de hussards pour explorer toute cette contre
dserte; quils reoivent tous deux lhommage de notre reconnaissance pour lamabilit avec
laquelle ils nous ont aids de tout leur pouvoir dans notre mission.
[ ]
27 Chabaud-Latour_1855_78: large sums on fortifying Paris: over 273m allocated in 1841.
Quand les travaux de fortifications et dtablissements militaires seront termins, quand les
ports de lAlgrie offriront des abris srs nos vaisseaux, le long de cette admirable base dopration que nous donnent 250 lieues de ctes, pour agir soit sur la mer Mditerrane, soit dans
lintrieur de lAfrique; quand le sol de lAlgrie sera sillonn de routes carrossables que lartillerie et les convois pourront parcourir rapidement en toute saison; quand la colonisation tendra

ses ramifications le long de toutes ces routes, englobant les tribus indignes dans un rseau serr
de mailles europennes, alors la conqute de lAlgrie sera acheve, les rvoltes y deviendront
impossibles; le chiffre de larme doccupation pourra tre rduit, et les ressources centuples
de la colonie viendront ddommager la France de tous les sacrifices quelle se sera imposs dans
laccomplissement de cette grande lche, qui lui est providentiellement chue, de conqurir le
continent africain au christianisme et la civilization. He wants 50m for fortifications, hospitals,
arsenals, etc., plus 100m for ports, and 70m for roads, plus 50m for colons villages and 30m for
edifices publics.
[ ]
28 Fraud_1875_56 1838 on Philippeville: Le marchal Vale, qui voulait que la France refit
lAfrique romaine, savait que, des crations de nos devanciers, la plus importante pour assurer
la domination extrieure, tait celle qui donnerait un port et une route facile vers la ville capitale sculaire de la Numidie. Il avait dit: Sous mes ordres, larme ne parcourra pas laventure les provinces africaines, sans laisser plus de traces aprs elle que nen laissent les navires
sur la Mditerrane...Partout o se posera le pied de la France, je formerai des tablissements
durables. Les villes qui existent encore, je les agrandirai, je leur prparerai une prosprit inconnue sur cette terre depuis des sicles et, si la Providence me donne le temps daccomplir cette
oeuvre, je laisserai sur le sol africain des traces profondes de mon passage.
[ ]
29 Bugeaud_1922_224225, Letter to Pierre Genty de Bussy, Intendant militaire, August
1840: Le ministre a-t-il t rellement sduit par les rapports et les proclamations du marchal
V...? Que dit-il aujourdhui des rsultats de la campagne? On appelle gorgement, assassinat,
lenlvement dune compagnie. Cest un fait de guerre qui annonce que lennemi na gure t
abattu par la campagne glorieuse et que loccupation des clefs de la Mtidjah (Miliana et Mda)
ne lempche pas de porter la guerre aux portes dAlger. / Pour se consoler, on parle de la prosprit de la province de Constanline. Quelle prosprit, grands dieux! Cest moins mauvais quailleurs et voil tout. / Pauvre natioul qui veut tre trompe et qui trouve toujours des jongleurs
pour le faire!
[ ]
30 CAOM 2N75 Monuments antiquits, 1853: monument to be erected at (Blidah) BeniMered to commemorate the stand of the 22 French of 26th Regiment 11 April 1842 against 300
Arabs. This was an obelisk, roman fashion, with the names thereon. However, a letter from
Ministry of Finance 19 June 1845 shows it was made in Marseille and shipped out in un navire
de fort tonnage. Was this because the necessary expertise did not exist in Algeria, rather than
squeamishness about re-using antique blocks?
[ ]
31 Revue Africaine, Recueil consacr aux intrts matriels et moraux des possessions franaises en Afrique, et au succs de la colonisation dAlger, 1837, 11, the Minister in the Chamber:
Le crdit annuel port au budget dAfrique pour le matriel du gnie doit pourvoir aux travaux
les plus nombreux et les plus varis. Alger na que des dfenses imparfaites, et la plupart de ses
tablissemens militaires ou sont insuffisans, ou exigent des amliorations importantes; Oran
sort peine des ruines; Bougie ne serait quun amas de dcombres, si lindustrie de la garnison
nen avait su tirer parti; Bone, malgr des travaux persvrans, est bien loin de possder encore
les fortifications et les btimens correspondant limportance quelle a eue depuis les premiers
jours de loccupation, et que vient daccrotre la prise de Constantine.
[ ]
32 Schefer_1916_3031 writing on Vale, Bugeaud et Soult, January 1841: Un pareil programme exige des moyens considrables Soult soccupe de les procurer. Ce nest un mystre pour
personne que larme dAfrique compte plus de 60,000 Europens, alors que le budget vot nen
prvoyait que 38,000. En dposant celui de 1842, Soult y maintient le mme chiffre, sans dissimu-
appendix
ler dailleurs son caractre fictif, non plus que son insuffisance certaine. Avec cette dsinvolture
parlementaire dont il tait coutumier, il laisse clairement entendre que sa proposition est de
pure forme et quil pourvoiera cote que cote aux besoins. Et de fait, tandis que la commission du budget stonne, dailleurs timidement, des renforts partent constamment. Les effectifs
europens, qui taient de 65,000 hommes au 1er janvier 1841, seront de 68,000 au 1er avril, de
74,000 au 1er juillet les troupes, auxiliaires et indignes passeront, dans le mme temps, de 3,500
4,500 hommes, si bien que les forces rellement ncessaires seront toujours en temps voulu
la disposition du gouverneur.
[ ]
33 Graham_1902_171: The activity of the Roman soldier, wherever he was quartered, was
unbounded. In times of peace he made those magnificent highways, portions of which still
greet the travellers eye and excite his admiration as he journeys across the silent plains of North
Africa. He constructed fortifications which would have endured to the present day, if they could
have escaped the ravages of the Vandals or the wanton neglect of the Arabs. He built bridges
and aqueducts in a manner that no other nation has surpassed. Temples and triumphal arches,
fountains and baths, theatres and colonnades arose at the bidding of an Emperor, while works of
utility and adornment were raised by loyal citizens as enduring memorials of affection for their
country. Inscriptions inform us that the building of the city of Thamugas was almost entirely the
work of the third legion, and such was the skill of the designers and artificers in their ranks that
we find their services employed elsewhere. Soldiers under the Empire, especially in the second
and third centuries, appear to have been well cared for and well paid.
[ ]
34 RDM 18 April 1847: Dans ltat prsent de lAlgrie, le prix de la main-duvre est en
moyenne le double de ce quil est en France, et les prtentions de louvrier slvent naturellement mesure quon lloign des centres de population, o sa scurit est plus grande.
[ ]
35 Feline_1846_13 the soldiers do the building to stop them getting bored.
[ ]
36 SHD Gnie art 8.1, Bougie, Carton 1: 18331840, Vivien, Chef du Genie, Projets pour 1834,
Mmoire sur la place de Bougie, p. 1424 for good descriptions of the Kasbah, walls and forts;
ibid., Capitaine de Gnie en Chef Boutauli, Notes sur Bougie, 19 mai 1837, p. 1112 for a description of the Roman city. Apostilles du Directeur, Projets Gnraux pour 1834, for rebuilding the
whole of the Roman enceinte, as well as forts in the vicinity, and cisterns as well. Here seven
layers of city from the Phoenicians onwards were supposedly recorded: cf. SHD 1H47: Gnie,
letter of 23 Sept 1836 from the Colonel of the 45th at Bougie. Also SHD 8387/1317 Ch. Martin,
Histoire de la subdivision de Stif et des cercles de Bougie et Djidjelly, 1852, 78 pages. A useful
historical summary from Punic times onwards to the French Occupation.
[ ]
37 Lestiboudois_1853_246247: Les magasins militaires, manutentions, etc., ncessit premire de loccupation, ont t tablis sur de larges bases; on ne peut regretter les sommes quon
y a consacres. Il eut t dsirable seulement que les constructions fussent faites avec un tel soin
quelles pussent pleinement satisfaire tous les besoins des services auxquels on les destinait.
Cest ce qui nest pas toujours arriv. Ainsi le magasin situ prs la porte Valle Constantine
semble flchir quand on emplit ses greniers; on ne peut charger sans danger les chambres du
btiment difi sur les rservoirs de Philippeville. Il est fcheux de voir des constructions dhier
menacer ruine, quand leurs bases romaines bravent les sicles.
[ ]
38 Poujoulat_1847_I_3435: Il y a de saintes gens, en Algrie, qui, peu verses dans larchologie, voient des glises partout. Les messieurs du gnie tombent dans un excs contraire et
nient volontiers toute dcouverte dglises, comme pour se mettre leur aise et ne pas avoir les
respecter. On a vu des pavs dglise en mosaque se changer en vergers; on y creusait des trous

et puis on y plantait; les lieux o jadis la prire avait flchi le genou devenaient ainsi des lieux
indiffrents. De belles colonnes de granit ont t souvent converties en moellons, et la mine a
fait sauter de beaux dbris pour les rduire aux dimensions des pierres propres construire.
Parfois le gnie militaire se montre civilis la faon du boulet qui va droit au but, aux dpens
de tout ce quil rencontre. Le gouvernement qui verse tant de millions dans lAlgrie nencourait
pas la maldiction des Chambres pour avoir donn des soins suffisants lantiquit chrtienne
et lantiquit romaine en Afrique. Quatre cents francs avaient t affects pour les fouilles de
limmense Julie Csare! Cest se moquer de la majest des souvenirs. Mais cette parcimonie
lgard des sicles antiques ne saurait tre que passagre, et la cration dun muse algrien
Paris, ct du muse gyptien, nous rpond des soins qui seront donns la conservation des
monuments africains.
[ ]
39 De_Montagnac_1885_194195 In Mascara Dec 1841 to Feb 1842: Nous voil dans les neiges,
dans les glaces; les dgels sensuivent, les pluies, les ouragans; enfin tout le cortge horrible de
la saison rigoureuse dfile sans piti avec ses hordes de calamits. Devant cette pouvantable
dbcle de latmosphre en courroux, nos malheureuses baraques en ruine scroulent, les nouveaux difices construits, pendant lt, avec du simple mortier, se dlayent sous les torrents de
pluie qui crvent de partout; de tous les cts des boulements, des croulements, des accidents, des sinistres; ce sont des bestiaux crass sous les dcombres, des hommes assomms
par des murailles qui saffaissent; enfin cest un vritable dsastre. Nos magasins se remplissent
deau, nos vivres se dtriorent, nos fours scroulent, nos moulins mal outills se brisent. Tout
est en dsarroi, par la faute dun gnie peu constructeur, qui avait difi grands frais, pendant
lt avec des matriaux manquant de solidit, et sans calculer les ventualits dun hiver rigoureux. Lexprience de quelques gens du pays aurait pourtant pu guider nos ingnieurs militaires;
mais leur morgue indlbile les a jets dans une fausse voie, dont nous sortons boueux et tremps jusquaux os. Pauvre gnie! qui na pas mme les connaissances pratiques du dernier des
matres maons.
[ ]
40 SHD MR1316 items 1415: Lieutenant Malroy, Mmoire dune reconnaissance de positions
dfensives sur la Macta, 2 November 1839, 9 pages & envoi.
[ ]
41 SHD MR1315 item 4, Mmoire sur le Leve la Boussule des environs du Camp de Khramis
des Beni Ouracs, by Capitaine Koch, October 1843, 2.
[ ]
42 St_Marie_1846_94 the gardens around Blida: In the centre of one of these gardens we
saw the ruins of a Moorish house, which, judging from the broken fragments of marble columns,
scattered on the ground, appeared to have been the residence of some rich landowner who had
been either killed or banished. The dilapidated walls, indented with bullets, formed, with the
help of some planks of wood, a sort of inn, where a party of soldiers were, even at that early
hour, drinking wine.
[ ]
43 SHD MR882 item 2 Lieutenant Grangez, Mmoire historique et militaire sur la ville de
Blida, June 1848, 30 pages. cf. 23 for a description of the travaux gigantesques required for
road-making around Blida.
[ ]
44 Trumelet_1887_I_291292 Blida: Lanne suivante, en 1840, le mamelon de Mimich fut
fortifi, et on y construisit une caserne qui fut occupe jusquen 1861. Aujourdhui ce nest plus
quune ruine qui, en dpit des tais, menace de saffaisser sur elle-mme si le marteau du dmolisseur tarde encore quelque temps faire son oeuvre(1). / Cest tout ce quil reste, en dehors de
la ville, des nombreux ouvrages rappelant lpoque de loccupation de Blida, et le mauvais tat
prmatur de cette construction, qui na pourtant que vingt-quatre ans dge, laisserait supposer
appendix
que le Gnie de 1840 na jamais eu la prtention de faire accroire que cette caserne a t btie
par les Romains. / Il est de toute justice dajouter que la dfectuosit que nous signalons nest
point dans les habitudes de cette arme savante, et quil y aurait ingratitude de la part de lAlgrie
mconnatre que cest au Gnie quelle doit, peu prs, tous ses travaux et ses tablissements
dutilit publique, dont quelques-uns sont de vritables et remarquables monuments qui dfieront, nous en sommes certain, la dent destructive du Temps. (1) Cette caserne a t restaure
depuis; elle sert aujourdhui loger la section de discipline du 1er de Tirailleurs algriens.
[ ]
45 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Cherchel, Carton 1, 18404. Fortifications, Projets pour 1842.
16: Lenceinte de la ville. Le chef du Gnie dans les projets pour 1841...relie le mur denceinte
au fort Royale dont il propose la rparation et lamlioration...il se trouve en assez mauvais
tat...nous avons la certitude quon ne pouvait en rien faire, nous avons mme jug prudent de
prvenir des accidents par la dmolition de certaines parties dont la chute tait moment...on
ne doit le considrer que comme un empilement de pierres de taille destin fournir en partie
au besoins de nos constructions. Il faut en mme temps voir que comme Monument, il ne sera
pas regretter. Il devient des lors superflu de relier le mur denceinte au fort Royal. This memo
signed by Capitaine Chef de Gnie Cherchel Thomas.
[ ]
46 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Cherchel, Carton 1, 18404. Apostilles du Directeur des
Fortifications, Projets pour 1841, 9: trace of the Roman wall of Julia Caesarea: la feuille du dessin
du chef de gnie indique lemplacement de cette muraille.10: la muraille romaine eut offert des
ruines qui au moyen de peu de travaux eussent pu tre utiliss. Le Directeur avait pench pour
sen tenir cette enceinte, mais il y a si peu de maonnerie qui puisse tre utilis quil a cru
devoir abandonner cette ide. 11: De plus sur toute la ligne de crtes on verrait utiliser soigneusement les restes de la muraille romaine lescarper et en faire obstacle i.e. build on top of
it? 25: Les ruines du Cirque ne paraissent pas mriter quon y ait gard. Le chef du Gnie parat
tre de cet avis. Il ne faudra donc pas en tenir compte.
[ ]
47 SHD MR1314 35 Mmoire on Cherchel dated 1834, notes (23) its fortes murailles en
grosses pierres taillees of some 67 metres high, its fortress with 1215 metre walls. 4: Les
murailles du fort sont formes de trs grosses pierres de taille que le tems et laction de lair ont
ronges en partie, ce qui compromet beaucoup sa solidarit. 5: Vers le Sud-Est sur la Crete a
12 ou 15.00 metres de la ville des ruines appeles Bouj-en-Nadous (fort de la Vigie) paraissent etre
du meme age que celles de lancienne ville.
[ ]
48 Anon_1845_94 Vale: Puis il revint planter le premier piquet des camps de Redjas et
de Ferdjivouah. Puis, appel Stif, il y est laiss en extrme avant-poste avec 150 hommes du
brave 23e de ligne. Ces deux troupes rivalisent entre elles pour relever, mal sans doute, puisque
ctait sans outils, mais du moins rapidement, les murailles croules de cette vieille forteresse
romaine. Presque sans communications, les misres et les souffrances les plus graves sy multiplient; elles trouvent le corps indigne peu prs indiffrent les supporter, ou extrmement
ingnieux y remdier et les vaincre. Quand il reoit lordre de se retirer sur Djimillah, il enveloppe de sa protection imperturbable, sous des attaques continuelles, pendant une marche de
dix-sept heures pour faire huit lieues, limmense et pnible retraite des tribus lamentables dont
il avait jusque-l garanti la sret, et qui vont, emmenant leurs troupeaux, leurs tentes, je ne
dis pas et leurs biens, mais au contraire toute la douloureuse escorte et tout le pnible fardeau
de leurs misres, se rfugier encore, dans le voisinage de leur protecteur, sur une terre moins
expose.

[ ]
49 Sriziat_1886_39: Restauration de Tbessa, Tbessa fut une des premires cits dont
Solomon releva les murailles; ce fut vers 534. A cette poque, une immense quantit de matriaux, dbris de la premire enceinte et dautres monuments dtruits, gisaient autour de la
ville. On les utilisa tels quils taient et, ce quil semble, en grande hte, car le ciment na t
employ nulle part, et en certains points les pierres paraissent avoir t simplement empiles.
On y rencontre des dbris de toute sorte, pierres sculptes, inscriptions, fragments de corniches
et jusqu des colonnes entires, engages transversalement dans la masse quelles dpassent de
prs dun mtre. On peut encore en voir plusieurs lEst de la tour de lhorloge.
[ ]
50 Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_135 Tunisia: For a full hour we journeyed over a vast plain,
literally strewn with stones, the remains of former habitations, but where at present there are
neither houses nor tents, nor any attempt at cultivation. At mid-day we reached the abandoned
French camp on the Oued Gilma, and lunched in one of the few huts yet standing. As wood is so
scarce in these parts the buildings were being gutted, and the materials, such as roofs, windows,
doors, &c., were being transported to the new establishment at Hadjeb-el-Aioun. The distance
from Hadjeb-el-Aioun to Oued Gilma is computed at 21 kilometres.
[ ]
51 Rousset_1900_II_132 November 1835 at Guelma: Elle (the avant-garde) y installa son
bivouac, en arrire dun ravin escarp, prs des ruines de lancienne Calama. Au moyen dune
coupure on rduisit de moiti limmense espace embrass par lenceinte qui existait encore,
flanque de tours carres, mais ouverte et l par des brches quune vgtation vigoureuse
avait envahies: lintrieur, parmi les broussailles et les hautes herbes, gisaient des pierres de
taille, quelques-unes couvertes dinscriptions, des tronons de colonnes, des chapiteaux, dbris
et tmoins de cette grandeur romaine dont le marchal Clauzel aimait tant invoquer le glorieux souvenir.
[ ]
52 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_105106 Guelma from 1836: On sait que cette position fut occupe par les Franais en 1836, au retour de la premire expdition de Constantine, pour affaiblir
dans lesprit des indignes les effets de linsuccs de nos armes. / Il ny existait cette poque
quun amas de ruines, restes de lancienne Calama, mentionne plusieurs fois par lhistorien
Orose et par saint Augustin, et clbre dailleurs dans les fastes de lglise, pour avoir t le sige
piscopal de lvque Possidius, biographe de lillustre colier de Madaure. Nos troupes y trouvrent de somptueux vestiges de lantique cit, et surtout un prodigieux amas de sculptures et
dinscriptions, dont plusieurs portaient le nom de lancienne ville. Au milieu du chaos de pierres
de taille, de fragments de colonnes, entasss ple-mle sur le sol, slevait un reste de citadelle,
postrieure la destruction de la ville romaine, ouvrage grossier de cette poque o Justinien,
redevenu matre de lAfrique, la couvrit de petites forteresses appeles burgos, construites la
hte des dbris de la premire occupation romaine. / Cest dans les ruines de cette seconde
Calama, btie sur la ncropole de la premire, parmi dinnombrables fragments. de tombeaux,
que la garnison franaise installa, en 1836, ses premires tentes. Le rempart, sur tout son pourtour, offrait de nombreuses, de profondes dgradations. Sur certains points il nen restait que les
fondations; ailleurs il conservait encore six mtres de hauteur; au dedans et au dehors un amas
de pierres colossales encombrait le pied de la muraille. videmment la main brutale de lhomme
et laction lente du temps avaient contribu cette oeuvre de dvastation, mais en mme temps
de larges et profondes dchirures dans la masse des maonneries ne pouvaient tre attribues
quau choc puissant des tremblements de terre.
[ ]
53 Poujoulat_1847_I_299 Guelma: Au mois de novembre 1835, dans cette premire expdition de Constantine qui ne devait aboutir qu dinutiles exploits et des malheurs, notre
appendix
corps darme, sous le commandement du marchal Clausel, parti le 13 de Bne, arrivait le 15
Ghelma. Lenceinte dune citadelle romaine se transformait en un poste militaire pour la garde
de deux cents hommes que le trajet depuis Bne avait extnus. Un camp franais stablissait
ainsi sur les ruines dune des plus importantes villes de lancienne Numidie.
[ ]
54 Poujoulat_1847_II_211 Guelma: Il existe Ghelma des ruines de constructions romaines
Lenceinte de lancienne citadelle tait assez bien conserve pour quon peut y tablir, contre les
Arabes, un poste militaire. Le marchal Clausel y laissa, sous une garde suffisante, environ deux
cents hommes que les premiers jours de march avaient dj fatigus, et qui nauraient pas pu
suivre jusqu Constantine. On y tablit un camp que les garnisons franaises nont plus quitt.
[ ]
55 Dieuzaide_1883_II_131132 Expedition de Constantine, at Guelma: Le gnral de Rigny,
qui commandait cette brigade, se fortifia dans une enceinte de ruines romaines, dbris informes
dune antique cit.
[ ]
56 Genie 8.1, Guelma, Carton 1, 18371847, Reconnaissances du Camp de Guelma, 1 March
1837.
[ ]
57 Watbled_1870_269270 Marchal de Camp de Rigny, arriving at Guelma: Javais lordre
de me tenir sur la dfensive. Aussitt mon arrive Guelma, le 10 novembre, jai pris position
sur un plateau, non loin des ruines de lancienne ville romaine. Cette position protge par un
ravin trs-escarp sur tout son front, appuye vers la droile par lancien fort de Guelma, mettait
lavantgarde labri de toutes les tentatives de lennemi, en quelque nombre quil put se prsenter. Je chargeai M. le capitaine du Gnie Redoutey de tirer le meilleur parti possible de lenceinte
ruine du fort au moyen dune coupure, en se bornant la dfense de la partie la plus leve de
cette ancienne fortification.
[ ]
58 Piesse_1862_470 Guelma: Guelma, telle que les Franais la trouvrent la fin de 1836,
tait btie avec les matriaux provenant de lancienne Calama nomme pour la premire fois
par saint Augustin; mais lemplacement quelle occupe ntait pas celui sur lequel fut jadis
construite la vritable cit romaine. Celle-ci tait devenue la proie soit des Maures rvolts, soit
des Vandales; probablement elle avait eu beaucoup souffrir tant dans ses monuments et ses
remparts que dans la personne de ses habitants. Ceux-ci, profitant dun moment de rpit, se
construisirent une forteresse imposante ct de lancienne Calama, dont ils employrent une
partie des matriaux. Mais, en 1836, le rempart de la seconde Calama tait renvers sur tout son
pourtour dune manire irrgulire, et si la main des hommes avait contribu cette destruction, un examen approfondi de la situation de certaines fractions restes encore debout, prouvait dune manire incontestable quun ou plusieurs tremblements de terre avaient t la cause
principale de la chute de cette citadelle.
[ ]
59 SHD H226 Mmoires divers 18358, Colonel Duvivier, Rapport sur letablissement
actuel de Guelma 1838, 36 (unnumbered) pages. He has plans to repair the camp suprieur,
not with the (67) pierres de taille normes lying all around, mais avec des petits pour aller
plus vite. 4: He observes a Christian inscription, and indications that a second town, smaller than the first, was built on the site. If so, then why/how did this fall down? Earthquake,
he thinks, 56: dans plusieurs endroits en fouillant jusquau fond des fondations, nous avons
trouv celles si dranges et dvies. Quelques angles levs, de tours qui montent encore
comme des aiguilles, prsentent des pierres tout isoles qui ont tourne les unes sur les autres,
en laissant les joints verticaux jour, comme seraient quelques dominos, placs de champ les
uns sur les autres par des enfans.

[ ]
60 LAvenir de Guelma 11 November 1926. Clauzel on the first expedition to Constantine, at
Guelma: Aussitt il en confia le commandemant au colonel Duvivier qui tait lhomme le plus
capable de mener bonne fin cette entreprise hrisse de mille difficults. / Duvivier sut les
vaincre toutes, par son nergie, son-habilet et les moyens quil employa envers toutes les tribus
de son territoire, et lgard de toutes les personnes avec lesquelles il fut en rapport, et cela pendant toute la dure de son administration. / Son premier soin ft de pourvoir le nouveau poste
des constructions les plus urgentes; il avait sous la main de nombreux et considrables dbris
de lancienne opulence de Calama; sarcophages, fts de colonnes, chapiteaux, pierres de taille
lui fournirent des matriaux de choix; la main duvre militaire et indigne lui fut peu coteuse,
et bientt on vit slever des fontaines, de spacieuses casernes, un hpital qui existent encore
aujourdhui. Des plantations contriburent aussi embellir la cit renaissante et en firent un
nid de verdure qui tempra la chaleur estivale. / La cration du jardin public et de la ppinire
datent de cette poque. / Les migrants qui avaient suivi la garnison pour lapprovisionner ou
se crer une modeste position obtinrent du Colonel le terrain el les matriaux ncessaires la
construction de quelques maisons.
[ ]
61 SHD H226 Mmoires divers 18358, Colonel Duvivier, Rapport sur letablissement
actuel de Guelma 1838, 36 (unnumbered) pages. On the walls, 5: Dimmenses thermes trs
anciens, formant un vaste btiment dont il nexiste maintenant que quelques murailles, taient
enclaves dans le primtre des remparts, et comme une vaste tour ou petite citadelle faisaient
partie de ceux-ci. He wants a camp in the thermae, and magasins poudre etc in the towers
of the enceinte. No problem with finding some building materials, 13: Une immense amas de
pierres de fortes dimensions toutes tailles, ne demandant plus qu tre mises en place; elles
reprsenteraient une valeur de plusieurs millions dans un pays routes et voitures. 67: He
also has plans to repair the camp superieur, but not with the pierres de taille enormes lying all
around, mais avec des petits pour aller plus vite.
[ ]
62 Vigneral_1867_78 Guelma: les ruines, aujourdhui compltement dvastes (sauf le
thtre)...Notre ville franaise de Guelma a t btie en dvastant les ruines; il nest plus question de lenceinte byzantine, et seul le btiment des thermes, protg par sa masse, est rest
debout...Jemprunterai quelques observations au gnral Duvivier. Suivant lui, Guelma eut
deux poques dexistence et demplacement bien distinctes; son premier emplacement fut sur
une extrmit de mamelon bordant le ruisseau dAn-Srounn (lisez Skhoun), et faisant escarpement au-dessus de sa rive droite... A la suite de guerres sans doute, une seconde ville moins
peuple fut construite des dbris de la premire, de matriaux dans le plus grand dsordre, et
en partie sur sa ncropole. Lancien btiment des thermes, utile par ses fortes dimensions, fut
partie intgrante du nouveau rempart (une fouille profonde, en mettant nu une couche de
chaux blanche analogue celle des bassins dHammam-Meskoutin, a fix lopinion sur la nature
de cette vaste construction). Dans lintrieur de la seconde ville, il ny avait pas trace de maisons.
Peut-tre, ajoute le gnral Duvivier, fut-ce avant les Romains une ville numide. Son emplacement est si beau et si stratgique, que le bon sens des populations les y aura tablies de bonne
heure.
[ ]
63 Watbled_1870_277278 note on Guelma: A cette poque, les ruines navaient pas encore
t remues et mises contributions pour lever des constructions nouvelles. Le sol tait sem
de fts de colonnes, de chapiteaux en marbre. On retrouvait toutes les dispositions principales
dun immense thtre, construit en amphithtre sur la dclivit de la colline baigne par la
Seybouse. Il y avait encore une grande enceinte en pierres flanques de 13 tours carres. A langle
appendix
N. E. de cette espce de forteresse, slevait un grand btiment en ruines quon suppose tre
une glise. Aprs le thtre, lglise et lenceinte, ldifice le plus remarquable tait une fort jolie
fontaine qui se trouvait auprs du ravin de Guelma. Ce monument qui devait avoir 4 bassins
pour recevoir leau, prsentait sa base la forme (coupe horizontale) dun x minuscule. Parmi
les matriaux se trouvaient quelques chapiteaux dordre corinthien.
[ ]
64 Gsell_1901_II-348349 Byzantine fortress-building: Cette oeuvre immense fut accomplie en quelques annes par les soins de Solomon, lieutenant de Justinien. Les successeurs de
ce prince neurent qu la complter sur quelques points et rparer les dgts causs par les
guerres. Aprs la conqute musulmane, la plupart des forteresses leves sous Justinien restrent
debout pendant longtemps, malgr les nombreux siges quelles eurent soutenir. Dans lest de
lAlgrie, presque toutes les villes importantes entre le VIIe et le XIe sicle durent la scurit relative dont elles jouirent leurs remparts byzantins. De nos jours encore, Mila sabrite derrire
une enceinte btie par les Grecs; les citadelles franaises de Guelma et de Stif sont danciennes
citadelles byzantines, remanies par nos ingnieurs militaires; pour protger Tbessa, on sest
content de restaurer les murs de Solomon.
[ ]
65 Frisch_1899_181: En effet, ce qui caractrise la colonisation romaine, cest le soin avec
lequel les centres militaires ou les villages de colons taient relis. La voie romaine, avec sa large
assise dempierrement et de dallage, avait toujours t considre comme un puissant moyen de
domination. Les traces ou, plutt, les jalons que lon retrouve partout en Algrie et en Tunisie,
dans les stationes, les mantiones, vritables biscuitsvilles, garnisons, gtes dtapes ou postes,
prouvent que les chausses romaines, les viae calcatae, rpondaient toujours soit un plan
densemble stratgique, soit une exploitation rationnelle de toute une rgion.
[ ]
66 Waille_1884_458: A 2 kil. de Tessemsil, je traverse les ruines dAn Khebbaba. Parmi les
pierres formant lenclos dun caf arabe, japerois ple-mle des morceaux de pilier, des chapiteaux fleurs grossirement bauches. Sur le sol, deux colonnes renfles au milieu et lgrement canneles en spirale. Au pied du mamelon, une source domine par des roches naturelles,
auxquelles les Romains, par une disposition peu prs uniforme, ajoutaient quelques travaux
de dfense. Sur la colline voisine, une enceinte elliptique forme par un double rang de pierres
non tailles. Comme An-Teukria, les deux civilisations sont juxtaposes, non confondues: les
Romains sinstallaient dans ces kraal, dans ces ruines mgalithiques, et avaient peu faire pour
sy fortifier.
[ ]
67 Charmasson_1925_444: Lorsque lon considre les innombrables btiments militaires,
enceintes et ouvrages fortifis rpartis sur un territoire dont la superficie reprsente plusieurs
fois celle de la France, on simagine difficilement que ce fut l loeuvre de quarante ans peine
de travail. Pour bien sentir la grandeur de cette tche, do les constructions civiles sont exclues,
il faudrait calculer, chose fort possible mais longue, les millions de mtres cubes de terre remue
et les centaines de milliers de mtres cubes de maonnerie leve par le gnie militaire pendant
cette priode.
[ ]
68 Bory_de_Saint-Vincent_1838_10: Larchitecture et la sculpture sont loin doffrir en
Afrique lintrt quelles prsenteront toujours en Grce, ou dans cette Italie, qui fut durant tant
de sicles la mtropole de notre Mauritanie: peu de temples, point de palais ne sy levaient; le
luxe des constructions tait rserv pour la capitale du monde ou pour ses provinces, tellement
soumises, que les habitans y taient devenus des Romains. En Afrique, les vagabonds du dsert
rendaient toujours prcaire le sort des colons contraints de sy garder; ctaient des forteresses
quon y levait. Larchitecture militaire, en gnral dpourvue de ces ornemens quimprime pour

lavenir le ciseau sur la pierre, est donc la seule dont on peut esprer de retrouver quelques vestiges. Messieurs les officiers dtat-major, dans leurs reconnaissances armes, suffiraient pour les
faire connatre; on pourrait cependant attacher la Commission un adjoint dsign par lAcadmie des Beaux-Arts, pour soccuper des ruines spcialement sous le rapport des formes et de
la nature de leur construction.
[ ]
69 Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876B_25 In Algeria 18401848, Cola: dehors; on reliait les
autres par des murs et des fosss. Le capitaine du gnie Boquet, qui dirigeait ce travail avec
infiniment dintelligence et dactivit, faisait, en outre, construire, en avant de lenceinte, deux
tours en maonnerie. Mes canonniers aidaient lexploitation dune carrire dans le ravin des
Beni-Moussa.
[ ]
70 Ancien_payeur_1833_3738: On trouve, selon M. Rimberg et des voyageurs du pays, de
frquentes ruines de stations militaires antiques sur la voie de Stora Constantine. Suivant litinraire dAntonin et les cartes de Danville, il aurait exist moiti route des positions fortifies
assez importantes dont il reste encore des vestiges considrables. Nous ne pouvons pas avoir
de meilleurs guides que les Romains, disons-le encore, pour faire la conqute de ces contres
barbares; suivons donc en tous points leurs traces, et imitons leur prudence. Ne conviendrait-il
pas dabord de diviser les quinze seize lieues de trajet entre Stora, o lon dbarquera, et
Constantine, o lon prendra une position dfinitive, en trois stations principales dans lesquelles
on laisserait des forces imposantes? Ne serait-il pas ncessaire aussi de remplir les intervalles
de ces trois stations par une ligne de soixante blockaus, loigns seulement les uns des autres
de cinq cents toises, de manire ce que les feux puissent se rencontrer et mme se croiser, sil
est possible.
[ ]
71 Jomard_1865_165166 on Carbuccia: Les recherches de M. Carbuccia et de ses collaborateurs ont procur la connaissance de plus de quarante villes ou positions romaines, de castra,
de castella, ou postes fortifis. Un grand nombre de ces points taient ignors; ils font retrouver
aujourdhui tous les lieux des itinraires, soit par les distances marques sur les bornes milliaires,
concordant avec le plan du terrain, soit par le nom romain conserv dans le nom actuel. Lon
a retrouv jusqu quatre-vingts bornes milliaires; la plupart portant le chiffre de la distance
Thveste et Carthage, dcouverte des plus inattendues et des plus heureuses quon ait faites
depuis quon soccupe de gographie compare, et sans exemple dans toute ltendue de lempire
romain.
[ ]
72 Decker_1844_I_118241 dealing with forts, and including a long description of Algiers and
its defences, including (182205) outlying forts. 21218 for Abd-el-Kaders towns, and 21836 for
assessment of the road setup, pointing out (225) that many outposts are not road-connected.
[ ]
73 Gsell_1901_I_152: Il suffira de mentionner en note les temples qui ont t dtruits depuis
loccupation franaise, ou qui noffrent que des vestiges trop peu importants pour pouvoir
tre tudis avec fruit. Then lists temples at Announa, Cherchel (2), Constantine, Lambaesa,
Mdaourouch, Philippeville, Port Gueydon, Setif, Sour Djouab, Tebessa, and Zana.
[ ]
74 Plion_1838_86 Considrations politiques et militaires sur lAlgrie, on establishing army
encampments: Si lon veut en faire autant au vieil Arzew, pour le 3e bataillon de Zouaves, on
aura l aussi une belle et bonne colonie. Le vieil Arzew, o les jardins existent encore, est tout
couvert de figuiers de Barbarie; il ny aurait qu relever les murailles pour lesquelles il y a sur
place dix fois plus de matriaux quil nen faudrait. Ce village, entour de bonnes terres, serait
deux lieues dune saline considrable et du meilleur port de la Rgence; il runirait toutes les
conditions requises pour un bon tablissement, lexception de leau qui est un peu saumtre,
quoique pourtant potable; il aurait de limportance comme march.
appendix
[ ]
75 Bernelle_1892_497: Le territoire compris entre Guelma (Calama), lOued-Zenati, AnBeida (Vatari?) et Sedrata est un de ceux o lon rencontre le plus grand nombre de vestiges
de la domination romaine. / On y voit, en effet, les ruines de huit centres de population, dun
grand nombre de hameaux, dexploitations rurales et de postes fortifis. / Sillonn par un certain
nombre de voies romaines dont les traces sont encore visibles en maints endroits, compos
dexcellentes terres de culture, ce territoire a d contenir une population agricole considrable.
[ ]
76 Robert_1899_232: Les ruines romaines sont trs nombreuses dans la commune mixte de
Sedrata. On y rencontre les vestiges trs importants des trois grandes villes Madaura, Tipasa de
lEst, Thubursicum Numidarum et les traces de gros bourgs, surtout dans les douars Khamissa,
Mdaourouche, Ragouba (Oulad-Sb), sections dans lesquelles sont situes les ruines des villes
prcites. / En outre de ces vestiges, on trouve partout, dans tous les douars, sur les hauteurs
comme dans les valles, une masse de pierres tailles, de dbris de toute sorte mergeant du sol
et attestant combien tait dveloppe la colonisation romaine. / En voyant les traces considrables laisses par nos devanciers dans la rgion de Sedrata, on est frapp du peu de densit de
notre occupation actuelle, de la mdiocrit des travaux effectus par nos colons; la comparaison
simpose et, malgr soi, on est amen constater la grande supriorit numrique que devait
avoir la population romaine sur le chiffre des habitants europens actuels.
[ ]
77 Marchand_1895_213 around Ammi-Moussa: A partir dArdjet el Messala, il y a deux kilomtres sans vestiges de ruines, puis des postes se prsentent sur la droite du chemin qui conduit
aux riches forts des tribus des Oulad Defelten, des Mathmata et des Bni Tighsen. Tous ces
postes gardent les ravins ci-aprs dont les eaux sont tributaires de lArdjem, savoir and then
lists 10 posts within three kilometres.
[ ]
78 Lacave-Laplagne, Notes sur quelques ruines romaines releves dans la CommuneMixte dAmmi-Moussa, in Socit de Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XXXI
1911, 2156. See 22, 31: Les constructions qui devaient couvrir le pays au moment de loccupation romaine, se composaient de deux catgories bien distinctes: les premires solidement
construites en pierres de taille de trs grandes dimensions, dont nous voyons encore dans la
rgion les vestiges, dont quelques-uns surtout sont rellement grandioses, tels le mausole de
Ksar el Ghaba, un autre mausole dans la plaine de lOued Lardjem, le chteau de Kaoua et le
ksar Djerane; ctaient des burga, des castella et des monuments funraires. En dehors de ces
dernires constructions, on rencontre un nombre considrable de ruines de petits postes galement tablis en pierres de taille, dont la prsence sur des points stratgiques trs judicieusement
choisis tmoigne de linscurit du pays cette poque. Les personnes qui nont pas la bonne
fortune de pouvoir venir visiter cette rgion se rendront facilement compte en consultant lAtlas
archologique, dans ses feuilles concernant Ammi-Moussa, du rseau solide de surveillance et
de dfense que les Romains y avaient tabli...in the East Group of ruins: Les Romains avaient
donc une occupation forte de six groupes comprenant trente ruines dans la valle de lArdjem. /
Cette occupation et celle de la valle du Sensig donnent pour tout le groupe est un total de
soixante-cinq ruines, dont cinq de quelque importance militaire.
[ ]
79 Fraud_1870_7: A larrive de nos troupes Gigelli, le 13 mai 1839, il ne restait de la fortification de lancienne ville du moyen ge quune tour carre, la muraille gnoise qui fermait
ltranglement de la presqule et deux retours de chaque ct, dune trentaine de mires environ.
Ces murs taient en fort mauvais tal et prsentaient dnormes brches. De lenceinte romaine,
il nexistait que les fondations ou quelques masses informes que la mer navait pu atteindre et
ronger. Gigelli ntait plus quune ville turque, cest--dire une ruine.

[ ]
80 Fraud_1870_244 Gigelli, in 1839, on the arrival of the French, Pour protger la ville des
deux cts de la mer, on commena la construction de murs et de parapets, auxquels les premires assises danciennes constructions romaines servirent de fondations. On fit alors rentrer
dans lintrieur de la ville les troupes de la garnison, campes jusque-l.
[ ]
81 Charmasson_1925_445 the building of Fort-National: Nous trouvons, dit le gnral de
Chabaud-Latour dans une lettre quil adresse au ministre, tout autour de la position, des carrires immenses de chaux excellente, de pierre btir; sur place mme, des terres arnaces
et graveleuses qui donnent, avec la chaux, des mortiers excellents. La nature rocheuse du sol,
mauvaise pour y puiser les matriaux dune enceinte en terre, nous donne de faciles et excellentes fondations. Trente fours chaux, tous feu, se chargent ou se creusent; la barre mine,
la poudre nous donnent plus de 500 m3 de moellons par jour, que transportent pied duvre
les Kabyles mmes que nous venons de vaincre et qui cherchent rcuprer, en aidant nos
travaux, lamende de guerre quils ont d consentir payer; un grand nombre de maons militaires et civils (nous sommes en 1857), dont le nombre sera port 500, font sortir de terre nos
murailles; ils feront jusqu 500 m3 de maonnerie par jour et cette maonnerie ne nous cotera-pas mme le prix auquel nous la payons Alger.
[ ]
82 Rousset_1889_II_368 Randon in 1857, at Souk-el-Arba: Randon avait crit au ministre de
la guerre: Pendant les quelques jours qui viennent de scouler, le terrain sur lequel doit tre
leve une forteresse, assez vaste pour recevoir quatre bataillons avec accessoires, a t tudi,
le trac de lenceinte dtermin, lemplacement des divers services reconnu. Des carrires de
pierre btir et de pierre chaux ont t recherches et ouvertes; les fours sont en voie dexcution; en un mot, tout le matriel ncessaire est prpar. Deux jours aprs, les travaux de dblai
commencrent; le 14 juin, au sommet du plateau de Souk-el-Arba, fut bnite et solennellement
pose la premire pierre du grand poste fortifi qui allait recevoir le nom de Fort-Napolon et
qui sappelle aujourdhui Fort-National; puis, sous la direction du gnral de Chabaud-Latour,
lenceinte bastionne, les btiments de toute sorte, casernes, ateliers, magasins, sortirent de terre
et slevrent rapidement devant les yeux stupfaits des Kabyles. Il ny avait plus douter; ctait
une prise de possession dfinitive, un tablissement demeure.
[ ]
83 Waille_1884_457: Un maon illettr, le pre Bonheur, employ autrefois la construction
de la ferme dAn-Teukria, et que jinterrogeais, ma rpondu dun air de satisfaction: Ah, monsieur, que jen ai cass de ces pierres o il y avait de lcriture!...Pour les mdailles ramasses
par lui, il ma dit les avoir remises au gnral Margueritte, alors commandant suprieur Tniet.
[ ]
84 Crawford_1863_243: The site on which Fort Napoleon stands was not in the occupation
of the French until the end of May 1857, when the tribes of the Beni Raten, who live amongst
these heights, were finally conquered after a long and fierce resistance. To maintain the supremacy which had been so arduously gained, Fort Napoleon was built with a marvellous rapidity.
In five months after the first stone was laid, the small citadel town, with its imposing array of
numerous military buildings enclosed by walls, pierced by two handsome marble gateways, was
completed as it now stands.
[ ]
85 Carton_1891_207 around Souk-el-Arba: Jai cherch, dans ce travail, noter tous les vestiges de loccupation romaine que lon rencontre dans un rayon de 15 20 kilomtres aux environs de Souk-el-Arha, pensant quil ne serait peut-tre pas sans intrt de faire lnumration des
constructions, mme les plus modestes, qui ont t leves dans un des points les plus fertiles
de lAfrique romaine. / De plus, bien des ruines, mme dune certaine importance, sont en voie
de destruction rapide, cause des progrs de la colonisation. Il est probable que dans un avenir
appendix
peu loign, la plupart dentre elles auront compltement disparu de la surface, et le simple
monticule, qui indique aujourdhui leur emplacement, ne tardera pas tre dispers par le soc
de la charrue.
[ ]
86 Ancien_payeur_1833_34: En marchant droit au centre de la rgence, il y aurait une
chance pour parvenir dompter et gagner les populations. On pourrait esprer quelles nous
prteraient leurs bras, soit pour la culture du territoire, soit pour sa dfense contre les attaques
des Kabyles. Tandis quen restant sur le littoral, on ne fait aucun progrs: au contraire, les Arabes
qui ont journellement des relations avec nous, voyant que nous nosons pas sortir de nos fortifications, croient que nous finirons, comme les Espagnols, par abandonner le pays. Ds-lors,
aucune influence nest possible.
[ ]
87 SHD GR 1M1316 1415 Lieutenant Malroy, Mmoire dune reconnaissance de positions
dfensives sur la Macta, 2 November 1839, 9 pages & envoi. Before arriving at Mactar, on the road
from Arzeu to Mostaganem, sur une hauteur droite de la route, se trouvent les ruines du vieil
Arzour [LArsenaria des Romains] que lon doit occuper, puisquelles forment position sur la
ligne de retraite que la Division avait suivre en cas dechec, pour se retirer sur Arzour ou sur
Oran. 3: Ces ruines prsentent un mur denceinte en pierres sches ayant un peu plus que
travaux dappui [then describes its topography]...Des pierres de taille de grande dimension,
des fragmens de fortes colonnes, une suite de votes le long de lescarpement, quelques restes
encore debout et plusieurs inscriptions, ne laissent aucune doute sur lexistence de grandes et
belles constructions dont chaque jour les derniers vestiges disparaissent sous de nombreux
et vivans figuiers de barbarie qui ont pris racine sur le dbris et qui obstruent presquentirement les anciennes rues...La position de lenceinte qui est louest tait habite il y a quelques
annes par des gens du Maroc qui taient venus stablir sur lemplacement de la ville dtruite et
qui en cultivaient les alentours and this is where we should have our post, where there is the
maison du Caide une construction carre mieux conserve que les autres...On soccupa
de deblayer les communications ncssaires la dfense, de rtablir les parties de lenceinte qui
lexigeraient et de former un rduit de la maison du Caid.
[ ]
88 Carton_1894_14 Tunisia: Nous passons par le camp de Souk el Djema,o je serre en passant la main mes amis du 4e chasseurs dtachs dans ce poste isol, couvert de neige durant
4 mois, et nous arrivons bientt chez mon ami le capitaine Bordier, contrleur civil de Mactar.
/ Il habite dans un bordj tout rcemment construit au milieu des ruines dune ville romaine o
lon peut encore admirer de beaux monuments, dont je vous montrerai quelques photographies.
[ ]
89 Monchicourt_1913_462463 the High Tell in Tunisia: Quant aux centres administratifs,
il nen existait pour ainsi dire pas en dehors des zmalas, sauf le Kef et Maghraoua, rsidence du
cad des Ouled-Ayar. Aprs notre entre en Tunisie, le Kef en 1884, Tboursouk en 1895, Thala en
1897 devinrent chefs-lieux de Contrle civil et Mactar fut spcialement cr clans cette intention
en 1887 par le capitaine Bordier, nomm Contrleur civil. Il ny avait l ce moment que les vestiges magnifiques de lantique Colonia Ella Aurelia Mactari, qui provoqurent probablement et
en tout cas facilitrent la naissance du village actuel. / Arriv l en mars 1887 avec ses secrtaires
franais et indigne, Bordier logea sous la tente avec tout son monde. Son khodja, originaire
de Tunis, ne put rsister cette installation de bdouins et partit avant juillet. Le no-Contrleur civil troqua ensuite sa demeure de toile contre quelques pices insres dans les restes de
thermes autrefois transforms en forteresse par les byzantins. Lunique bureau, servant.aussi
de justice de paix depuis dcembre 1887, tait tabli sous larc de triomphe de Trajan encombr
de terre jusqu mi-hauteur et quon avait clos au moyen de planches. Un caveau des Thermes

faisait office de prison. Tout autour, les spahis du Contrle vivaient avec leurs familles sous des
bit chaar. Un march est institu ds le 20 septembre 1887. Deux chambres sont amnages dans
le cirque romain pour les ouvriers chargs de construire le bordj du Contrle civil, dont une moiti est acheve en janvier 1889. La mme anne, sous les votes demi conserves dun difice
destination indtermine, sabrite le garde forestier. En avril, les Thermes accueillent lcole et
une station de monte quon dclassera ultrieurement. / En 1892, Mactar reoit un conducteur
des Ponts et Chausses pour lequel lancienne porte de Mactari dite Bab-el-An, consolide, est
une espce de hangar, puis successivement le village saugmente dune poste-cole et dun entrept des Monopoles.../ Pourtant, le cad des Ouled-Ayar ne sy fixe quen 1899 et le cadhi en 1900,
ce dernier utilisant son tour les Thermes romains.
[ ]
90 Toulotte_1894_128129 Mactar: Les restes de lantique colonie stendent sur un plateau
tourn vers lest, adoss au Kalat es Souk, entre deux ruisseaux qui ne tarissent pas, loued Miran
au sud et loued Saboun au nord. On y remarque plusieurs monuments considrables: un arc de
triomphe orn sur ses deux faces de quatre colonnes corinthiennes; un grand difice qui ressemble des thermes; un second arc de triomphe plus grand que le premier; un amphithtre;
un grand aqueduc; le forum; des temples et de beaux mausoles. Mais ce qui nous intresse
davantage, ce sont les restes dune basilique dans laquelle plusieurs vques de Mactaris ont
reu la spulture. Cette basilique est situe prs de la source; ses fondations et ses colonnes sont
encore visibles; le dallage tait form de pierres couvertes dpitaphes, parmi lesquelles ont t
retrouves celles de deux vques que nous nommerons tout lheure.
[ ]
91 Caraman_1843_51: 1836, on the first expedition to Constantine: Nous tions guids
depuis Guelma par les dbris des corps de garde dont les Romains avaient jalonn la route de
Bne Constantine. Ces constructions attestaient galement la prudence et la puissance de ce
peuple conqurant. Elles sont renverses jusquau niveau du sol; mais les fondations subsistent,
et leur caractre ainsi que la nature des matriaux employs demeurent des preuves de limportance quils attachaient, comme moyen dassurer la soumission de ces provinces.
[ ]
92 Souvenirs dAfrique, 18541855; par le Dr X, Lille 1856, 164: Des pierres tumulaires, de nombreuses inscriptions latines, des as romains, des mdailles, des lampes funraires, trouvs dans
des fouilles, ne laissent aucun doute sur leur origine. Un savant antiquaire, M. Macarty, croit y
reconnatre les traces de lancienne Syr, ville dorigine Phnicienne, peut-tre Mde, mais certainement occupe plus tard par les Romains. Ceux-ci en avaient fait comme nous un poste
avanc de leurs colonies dAfrique. Il tait sans doute leur tape entre la mer et les mines de GarRouban, o la trace de leur exploitation conserve le caractre de grandeur de ces illustres devanciers. / Le gnie militaire se guide souvent sur ces indications des Romains pour ltablissement
de nos propres postes. / Cette redoute est une des plus belles de lAlgrie: les fortifications, bien
tablies, lpreuve de lartillerie, mettent en garde contre les ventualits qui nous viendraient
de nos voisins belliqueux. Lorsque le pont est lev et que les sentinelles veillent, larme marocaine se heurterait en vain contre les murailles.
[ ]
93 Trumelet_1887B_154 Boufarik: La route dAlger Bou-Farik tait hrisse de redoutes
et de blockhaus qui la dfendaient. Louad Tlata, quon passait sur un pont de chevalets, tait
couvert par un de ces ouvrages que gardaient un sergent et quelques hommes. La redoute du
Pont-de-Chevalets tait arme de deux pices de canon; mais il nentrait pas dartilleurs dans la
composition du poste.
[ ]
94 Dino_1847_3 on colonisation: Place dans des conditions convenables, la colonisation
modifie compltement laspect des villes, qui, dans ltat actuel, ne sont gure que des entre-
appendix
pts fortifis; larme elle-mme change de rle: dagressive elle devient protectrice; au lieu
dabsorber la fortune publique, elle en favorise laccroissement. Notre civilisation, malgr ses
vices, puisant sa source dans une morale bien autrement pure que le mahomtisme, a une force
dattraction et dexpansion irrsistible. La simplicit des moeurs agricoles, notre supriorit, par
rapport aux Arabes, dans les procds de culture, exerceront une influence salutaire et puissante
sur lesprit des anciens habitants, auxquels nos baonnettes ont seules appris jusqu prsent que
nous tions dignes de les gouverner. Insensiblement, le bienfait dune protection assure, dune
justice gale, la disparition des habitudes de brigandages et de spoliation, porteront les tribus
nous imiter, se modeler sur nos usages et rechercher une fusion quelles nont, jusqu ce jour,
envisage quavec horreur.
[ ]
95 Lamping_1855_19: The soil is wonderfully productive owing to the numerous springs
which rise in the mountains and water the ground throughout the year. Traces are still found
both of the Roman and the Moorish method of irrigation. The bold arches of the Romans have
long since fallen to decay, while the modest and simple earthen pipes of the Moors, which creep
below the surface of the earth, still convey a fresh and plentiful supply of water. These few square
miles on the Sahel form nearly the whole of the boasted French colony in Africa; cafes and canteens are their only possessions beyond the fortified camps and the range of the block-houses,
even near the largest towns, such as Medeah, Milianah, Mascara, &c., and these are only supported by the military, and may therefore be said to draw their resources from France. / During
the first years of the French occupation a considerable tract of the plains of Metidja came under
cultivation. But the bad policy and worse system of defence of the French soon ruined the
colonists. One morning, in the year 1839, Abd-el-Kader and his hordes poured down from the
lesser Atlas range and destroyed everything with fire and sword. Those who escaped death were
dragged into captivity. Since then the colonists have lost all confidence in the Government, and
it will be very long before they recover it. / Agriculture requires perfect security of property and.
above all, personal security. Setting aside the precarious condition of the colonists, the French
are thoroughly bad settlers, and only know/ how to set up cafes. The few good agriculturists to
be found here are either Germans or Spaniards.
[ ]
96 Bolle_1839_113: je ne saurais trop le rpter, en fait de colons, je nai vu en Afrique que
des cabaretiers.
[ ]
97 Desmichels_1835_27 Oran: Jarrtai sans perdre de temps les travaux de fortifications que
M. le commandant du gnie devait faire excuter au port, et on commena par installer un blockaus, que javais fait transporter par le stationnaire, sur les ruines dun ancien temple romain que
lon dcouvre au fond de la baie.
[ ]
98 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875 Etat estimatif des dpenses faire aux
fortifications de la place de Tbessa, projets pour 18723, page 1, shows estimated cost for couper de vieilles pierres 15 days worth of work projected. Also listed are Disposer des tais
pour soutenir la maonnerie lors de la dmolition 15 days of 2nd class masons, 15 days of
native workmen. 2: for a tower, and its topping, Parement nu de pierres de ruines, ainsi que
pour surfaces planes.
[ ]
99 Fraud_1874_446: En 1851, le ministre de la guerre avait dj successivement autoris
loccupation de Tebessa par un dtachement de tirailleurs indignes et la cration dune khiela
[group] dune soixantaine de cavaliers. On envoya ensuite un dtachement de sapeurs du gnie,
douvriers militaires et civils qui travaillrent sans interruption construire une kasba dans lenceinte byzantine, nettoyer et prparer le terrain sur lequel devaient slever les casernes.

[
100]Canal, J., Marnia (Lalla-Maghrnia), in Revue de lAfrique franaise et des antiquits
africaines V 1887, 211227. See 211: Ds le 13 janvier 1836, date de lentre Tlemcen de la premire expdition franaise, les ruines dun ancien poste romain avaient t signales sur les
confins de la frontire marocaine, ct du marabout vnr de Lalla-Maghrnia. / Ce point
loign de notre base doprations ne put tre explor que plus tard. / En fvrier 1842, aprs
la violation du trait de la Tafna par lmir Abd-el-Kader, la ville de Tlemcen fut de nouveau
emporte dassaut et roccupe par les troupes franaises qui firent des reconnaissances dans
tous les environs. / Le gnral Bedeau, commandant la place et la colonne doccupation, aprs
avoir soumis toutes les tribus de la rgion ouest jusqu la frontire du Maroc, eut lhonneur
dimposer la domination franaise aux autorits marocaines dans la personne du cad dOudjda,
ville limitrophe de nos tablissements. / En novembre 1843, accompagn du commandant de
Martimprey, chef dtat-major de la division, il visita les ruines romaines de Lalla-Maghrnia.
Le choix de cet emplacement fut ds lors arrt pour ltablissement dun poste militaire et la
construction dune redoute avec camp retranch.../ Le poste romain sur lemplacement duquel
on tablit celui de Lalla-Maghrnia tait un camp retranch de 400 mtres d long sur 257 mtres
de ct. Il tait entoure dun foss profond, flanque de tours carres, et lon y entrait par quatre
portes...Pendant la priode de la domination arabe, le camp romain tait devenu le lieu dun
important march de nomades.
[ ]
101 Fouquier_1846_144145 after visiting Lambessa: Les Arabes sont peu destructeurs; ces
grosses pierres entasses les unes sur tes autres les touchent peu. En 15 ans, nous avons plus
remu de dbris romains quils ne lont fait en dix sicles. Nous trouvons plus commode de
prendre des pierres toutes tailles pour btir nos casernes et nos hpitaux; nous dtruisons
ainsi beaucoup, cest vrai, mais aussi nous redifions.
[
102]Blanc_1885_66 during the march on Tlemcan (1847): En ces temps-l, nous navions ni
tentes-abris, ni couvertures; tout notre outillage de bivouac consistait en un grand sac de toile,
dans lequel nous nous fourrions pendant la nuit, et qui, dans le jour, servait aux distributions.
Les compagnies couchaient au pied de leurs faisceaux, alignes comme pour la manoeuvre,
notre havre-sac nous servant doreiller. Seuls, les officiers avaient une couverture porte par le
mulet ou lne de la division, car il ny avait quune bte de somme par deux compagnies, et les
officiers, comme les sous-officiers, rpartis entre les escouades, navaient pas dautre nourriture
que celle de leurs soldats.
[
103]Wagner_1841_I_49 Algiers: Der schnste Bau, welchen die franzsische Regierung
unternommen, war die Wiederherstellung einer grossen Moschee in der Marinestrasse, zu
welcher der Herzog von Nemours 1836 den Grundstein gelegt hat. Alle Sulen und marmornen
Zierrathen, die von dem Abbruche anderer Moscheen brig blieben, wurden an diesen Bau verschwendet, der eine lange Facade weisser Marmorsulen zeigt. Das Innere dieser Moschee ist
nicht grossartig.
[
104]Anon_1863_42 Algiers: La Grande Mosque, djama kebir, rue de la Marine, est la plus
ancienne dAlger et date du milieu du Xe sicle. Elle couvre une superficie de 1,600 mtres carrs, et fait face au N. la rue de la Marine, au S. la mer, lE. la rue du Sina. La galerie de
14 arcades sarrazines, de 3 mtres douverture chacune, qui courant de lE. lO., longe au S.
la rue de la Marine, figure les portes de la grande mosque. Elle a t construite depuis notre
occupation, par les condamns militaires, avec de magnifiques colonnes en marbre blanc provenant dune mosque qui occupait une partie du primtre de la place du Gouvernement. Une
appendix
fontaine forme de deux belles vasques en marbre a t leve au milieu de la galerie sous un
portique galement remarquable. Enfin, on a remis au jour linscription romaine place la
base du minaret et provenant des ruines dIcosium dont les matriaux ont souvent servi pour la
construction dAlger.
[
105]Poujoulat_1847_I_36 Algiers: Ce qui ma le plus frapp comme construction, la Kasbah,
cest une mosque que jai trouve remplie de lits de soldats et de tout lattirail des quipages
militaires. Larchitecture de cette mosque est charmante; les arceaux sont soutenus par des
colonnes torses en marbre blanc dun beau travail.
[
106]Rogers_1865_62 Algiers: The Place du Gouvernement, which is raised upon the magazines of naval stores, occupies the former site of two streets, El-Kissaria and El-Sebbarhin, and
the Mosque of El Saida, opposite the Djenina, said to be a model of beauty. Both streets and
mosque, have long since disappeared. The Djenina, which was another of those comprehensive
palaces, has been more recently swept away. It was from thence that Ali-Ben-Ahmed transported
himself, and his treasures, by night to the Casbah, in 1817, for the greater security of his person. It
was used by the French as a military encampment up to 1845, and its destruction is considered a
great blow by all who regret the demolition of historic monuments in Algiers.
[
107]Berteuil_1856_I_219: Lors de notre conqute Alger, il nexistait quune petite place avec
une fontaine dans le bas de la ville, dune trs-petite dimension; nous avons senti la ncessit
de lagrandir considrablement, afin davoir un lieu de runion pour nos troupes: cet effet,
nous avons t forcs de dmolir une grande quantit de maisons, et une belle mosque qui
tait soutenue par de jolies colonnes en marbre blanc (voir le second volume de cet ouvrage).
Cest aujourdhui la place du Gouvernement qui a la vue sur la mer: elle est trs-vaste et fort
belle depuis que les constructions, qui taient dj commences, se sont trouves entirement
acheves; cest sur cette place que se tient journellement le march aliment par les Europens
et les indignes.
[
108]Berteuil_1856_I_222 Algiers, mosques: lune delles a t dmolie parce quelle se trouvait sur lemplacement o lautorit franaise a fait la grande place publique dont jai dj parl;
deux seules sont encore fort belles: celle au coin de la place du Gouvernement et lentre de la
rue de la Marine, qui est trs-vaste et que la mer baigne, et celle qui aujourdhui nous sert dglise
et qui a t consacre au culte catholique: cest un monument dune grande beaut lintrieur.
En gnral ces difices sont construits dans le got des glises chrtiennes: une grande nef au
milieu, avec deux collatrales, lune droite, lautre gauche. / La mosque convertie en glise
catholique, dune construction moderne, quoique conservant le style mauresque, est fort belle;
les dmes, qui remplacent les votes longues de nos glises, sont soutenus par des colonnes en
marbre blanc. / La coupe en marbre, supporte par un ft aussi en marbre dune fontaine qui sy
trouvait, comme dans la plupart des mosques, a t convertie en fonts baptismaux. Autour de
cette coupe, sur laquelle on fait maintenant des chrtiens, on voit sculpt le signe du mahomtisme; ainsi, pour le service de notre religion, le matre-autel tant tabli une extrmit de la
mosque, la croix est prcisment en face du croissant.
[
109]Fabiani, Horace. Souvenirs dAlgrie et dOrient, Paris 1878, 12 destruction at Algiers: Cet
autre que je rencontre est un vrai croyant. Il appartient une race pure, et, dans ses veines, coule
un sang qui na pas subi loppression. Assis sur des dcombres, prs de lemplacement de lancienne mosque Kcbaoua, que nous avons dtruite pour difier sa place ce que lon appelle la
cathdrale dAlger; destruction et substitution matrielles qui ntaient nullement ncessaires;

(car la dmolition a-t-elle remplac en solidit et en grandeur ce que lart italien avait orn avec
des colonnes romaines dune majest imposante?) ce croyant trahit par son attitude et dans sa
tte le maximum des tristesses qui peuvent assaillir la pense.
[ ]
110 Vigneral_1867_56 Ruines...subdivision de Bne, Henchir-Zaaroura: restes dun fort carre de 10 mtres de ct...Ces ruines portent aussi le nom dHenchir-Djebbana cause dun
cimetire arabe qui sy trouve. En nombre dendroits les ruines romaines sont ainsi utilises
par les indignes: ils sy procurent sans travail les pierres de toute sorte quils ont lhabitude de
mettre debout autour des terrassements de leurs tombes.
[ ]
111 Pellissier_1836_II_7 Algiers: Les travaux de la route du fort de lEmpereur, et ceux dune
esplanade construite en dehors de la porte Bab-El-Oued, amenrent la destruction de deux
cimetires musulmans. Il tait impossible de les pargner, et lon ne devait pas, par respect pour
les morts, gner la libre circulation des vivants; mais on aurait d agir avec moins de brutalit
quon ne le fit, et ne pas donner le scandale dun peuple civilis violant la religion des tombeaux.
Il fallait procder avec ordre et dcence, et transporter les ossements dans un lieu convenable.
Au lieu de cela, ces tristes dbris furent disperss au hasard, et lon vit des hommes grossiers
jouer ignoblement avec des ttes humaines. Dans les travaux de dblai, lorsque la ligne trace
impassiblement par lingnieur partageait une tombe, la pioche coupait en deux et la tombe et
le squelette; la partie qui tombait allait servir de remblai quelque autre point de la route, et
celle qui restait demeurait expose tous les regards sur le revers des chemins. Ces spulcres
bants taient comme autant de bouches accusatrices do les plaintes des morts semblaient
sortir pour venir se joindre celles des vivants, dont nous dmolissions en mme temps les
demeures, ce qui a fait dire Hamdan, avec autant dloquence que dnergie, que les Franais
nont laiss aux Algriens, ni un lieu pour vivre, ni un lieu pour mourir.
[ ]
112 Diehl_1892_105: Nul pays, mieux que lAlgrie, noffrait, au moment de la conqute,
des ruines romaines plus nombreuses, plus parfaitement conserves. Dans les rgions les
plus dsertes du sud, se rencontraient chaque pas des villes mortes, abandonnes, mais non
dtruites, demeures telles que les avait laisses, il y a douze sicles, la catastrophe qui mit fin
la domination byzantine, avec leurs hautes murailles presque intactes, leurs rues et leurs places
nettement dessines, avec la masse imposante de leurs temples, de leurs thtres, de leurs arcs
de triomphe. LArabe, qui ne btit gure, navait trouv nul profit dmolir ces difices, et ddaigneusement il avait epargn ces cadavres de cits. Parmi ces monuments du pass, chaque pas,
des centaines dinscriptions apparaissaient; chaque jour, lheureux hasard des fouilles rendait
la lumire des oeuvrcs dart, des statues de dieux ou dempreurs, de curieuses mosaques
histories, reproduisant, peut-tre daprs des tableaux clbres, les sujets les plus connus de
la mythologie classique, ou rvlant sous un jour inattendu et piquant tout un ct de la vie
familire antique.
[ ]
113 Frisch_1899_191: Un grand nombre de centres importants ont t entours dune
muraille continue englobant la fois la population indigne et la population europenne. On
a commis l une grande faute, car le dveloppement de lenceinte est en disproportion avec les
dfenseurs ventuels, garnison, sil y en a, et habitants; il faut alors avoir recours, comme auxiliaires de la dfense, aux indignes, sur lesquels on ne peut pas toujours compter. / Les ouvrages
que nous prconisons devraient tre extrieurs aux centres de colonisation et servir uniquement recueillir et couvrir, sur une position facile dfendre, la population urbaine europenne. Ce sont les castella de la priode byzantine, citadelles protgeant les localits ouvertes
et leurs habitants et dont les tmoins les mieux conservs se peuvent voir Haidra et Timgad.
appendix
[ ]
114 Hurabielle_1899_154 around Biskra: Le bourg de Tolga, qui est la capitale de cet archipel
doasis (40 kil. de Biskra) a une population de 1700 habitants, dont quelques Franais. / Il est
construit au sein dune fort de palmiers aux stipes enguirlands de vignes, o roucoulent des
milliers de tourterelles. Tolga possde une quinzaine de mosques dont la principale, en pierre,
a probablement t construite avec des ruines romaines quon y trouve en grande quantit. Elle
possde un chteau romain, dont les indignes ont remplac la vote par une couche de terre.
Le camp et les six tours quon y montre encore prouvent que Rome y avait fond une colonie
importante.
[ ]
115 Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876_153 Biskra: Jy fus guid par le sous-officier Mnes, qui commandait Biskara un dtachementde ma batterie jy trouvai un air de richesse, des habitudes de
politesse bienveillante, auxquels les indignes du nord ne mavaient pas habitu. Les murs, les
chemins taient bien entretenus. Les maisons taient, comme celles dEl-Kantaraet dEl-Outaa,
en torchis et palmier quelquefois des pierres romaines, portant encore une inscription votive ou
funraire, en soutiennent lencoignure. Quelques constructions plus grandes et mieux tablies
servent de mosques ou dcoles.
[ ]
116 Hurabielle_1899_103 around Biskra: Ksar Oumache: De-ci de-l on peut remarquer des
frontons de porte, des seuils, des pierres, des ruines de toute sorte, traces videntes de la civilisation romaine, que lon rencontre dailleurs dans tous les grands centres du Sud-Algrien.
[ ]
117 Hurabielle_1899_127 around Biska: La mosque de Liana est ddie au vnrable Bou
Seb Hadj, ancien plerin de La Mecque; ce monument trs modeste ressemble ceux que nous
avons dj dcrits: les murs sont en pis; les colonnes, en bois de palmier brut, sont couronnes
de chapiteaux corinthiens et doriques provenant de ruines romaines; la tour de la mosque est
plus basse et plus trapue que celles des autres oasis.
[ ]
118 Delamare_1850_5 Constantine-Batna route: Cette plaine fertile, bieu cultive, est marcageuse dans cette saison. En passant prs dun tablissement romain, nous remarqumes une
enceinte rectangulaire (20 mtres sur 25) remblaye jusquaux linteaux des portes, qui se voient
au ras du sol. Divers fragments sont employs comme pierres de taille dans cette construction,
entre autres un cippe que nous ne pmes dgager; en passant la main dans le joint de son assise,
on sentait le creux des lettres de linscription. Comme lordinaire, une source arrose ces ruines;
parmi les pierres renverses dans leau, nous en remarqumes deux: lune taille en forme
dautel, lautre couverte dornements byzantins.
[ ]
119 Nodier_1844_191 in the Valley of the Oued-Bousselah: Cette rivire est le Budettus, qui
donnait autrefois son nom lancienne station romaine appele caput Budelli. Les ruines de
cette importante position se trouvent, en effet, la tte de la valle. La colonne se prolonge
paralllement la voie romaine, donc elle retrouve presque partout les traces; elle slve ainsi
sans trop de difficults jusquau col de Djimilah. Les Romains avaient fait de grands travaux
dans cette partie de la montagne; les ruines de nombreux postes indiquent quils prouvaient le
besoin de stablir fortement pour rsister aux populations belliqueuses qui habitent les montagnes voisines.
[
120]Cagnat_1888_31: Tunisia, Henchir Sidi-Amara. La grande ruine quon appelle Henchir
Khima, Henchir Sidi-Amara ou Foum el-Afrit se compose de deux parties distinctes. Lune, nomme particulirement Kasr-Khima, ne contient gure quun mausole presque intact dont linscription est connue depuis longtemps et dont la reprsentation a t donne par M. Poinssot;
lautre, qui couvre un assez vaste espace de terrain au pied de la montagne, autour de la koubba
de Sidi-Amara, renferme les restes de plusieurs grands difices de diffrentes poques. Cest

dabord un arc de triomphe ou plutt une porte monumentale tout fait semblable celle de
Sbitla. M. Poinssot et M. de Belenet y ont vu tort les restes dun temple. Il nexiste plus que
les pieds-droits de cette porte. Des niches qui taient mnages droite et gauche, lune est
maintenant jour et ressemble une fentre. Derrire, stendait une grande place entoure de
portiques que soutenaient des colonnes. Six de ces colonnes sont encore debout droite de la
place; mais elles sont absolument enfouies au milieu dun chaos de pierres de taille. Leur diamtre, en haut, est de 0m.52. Cette place tait sans doute le forum de la ville. A gauche de la place
tait un grand difice dont il ne subsiste quune immense arcade, large de douze pas; des restes
dornementation se remarquent sur les pieds-droits de larcade. Ldifice auquel elle appartenait
a t transform, lpoque byzantine, en une forteresse solidement construite.
[ ]
121 Gurin_1862_I_85 on the way from Tunis to Sousse: A lendroit culminant du plateau
dHerglah slevait, il y a quelques annes encore, un ancien et assez vaste difice, dorigine
byzantine probablement, et appel par les habitants du nom gnral de Kasr (le chteau). Les
murs en sont maintenant aux trois quarts renverss. Construits en blocage, ils taient revtus
extrieurement dun appareil de gros blocs, qui ont t enlevs pour servir btir le pont dont je
parlerai bientt. / Du reste, sauf quelques pierres sculptes et cinq ou six tronons de colonnes,
il ne subsiste plus rien dintressant du bourg antique auquel Herglab a succd.
[
122]Gurin_1862_I_236237: A midi quinze minutes, les dbris dun henchir me sont
dsignes sous le nom de Kasr-et-Guitla. Ce kasr mesurait quinze pas sur chaque face. Il tait bti
sur un monticule avec dnormes blocs superposs les uns au-dessus des autres sans ciment;
lassise infrieure est seule debout. / A une heure, nous apercevons a notre gauche, sur une hauteur, dautres ruines, appeles Henchir-Guermad. Cest une enceinte longue de douze pas et large
de six. Comme les prcdentes, elle a t construite avec des pierres de taille dun trs-grand
appareil et jointes sans ciment. En cet endroit, un long mur ou peut-tre une simple chausse
romaine traversait la plaine dans toute sa largeur, dune chaine de montagnes lautre. On en
suit encore la trace lespace de plusieurs kilomtres. / A une heure quinze minutes, nous parvenons Kasr-Benia. Plus important que les henchirs dont je viens de parler, celui-ci forme une
enceinte de soixante-trois pas de long sur quarante-sept de large. Les assises infrieures sont en
bossage; les autres consistent en magnifiques pierres de taille compltement aplanies. Quatre
portes, une chaque face, donnaient entre dans ce chteau; elles taient dfendues, ainsi que
les angles, par une petite tour carre. Intrieurement, on observe plusieurs compartiments btis
eux-mmes avec de beaux blocs appareills ensemble sans aucun ciment. Plusieurs de ces blocs
sont orns de sculptures; sur lun, entre autres, sont figurs deux palmiers slevant droite
et gauche dune couronne. / Un peu au del de Kasr-Benia est une colline que couronnent
les ruines dune enceinte fortifie, denviron trente-cinq pas de circonfrence et construite de
mme avec des pierres colossales; cet henchir porte le nom de Bagueu. / Ces diffrents postes
militaires, chelonns de distance en distance et se prtant un mutuel appui, servaient maintenir dans la sujection les tribus nomades qui parcouraient ces plaines.
[
123]Gurin_1862_I_161162 El-Mesallah, near Sfax, of c.3km circumference: A neuf heures,
un henchir beaucoup plus important rclame de ma part un examen moins rapide. / Japerois
dabord les restes dun amphithtre. Il est aujourdhui presque entirement dmoli; la forme
nanmoins en est encore trs-reconnaissable. Larne, qui est maintenant cultive, avait 50 pas
de long sur 32 de large. Des espces de contre-forts appuyaient la muraille denceinte, qui mesurait environ 320 pas de circonfrence. / Cet amphithtre avoisine une ncropole dont les tombeaux ont t presque tous fouills, et les pierres spulcrales enleves. / A quelque distance de
l, un difice ruin mest dsigne sous le nom de Kasr-el-Felous (le chteau de la monnaie). Les
appendix
Arabes lont appel ainsi parce quon y a trouv quelques pices dargent, et parce quils simaginent que ce btiment renfermait jadis le trsor de cette cit dtruite.
[
124]Gurin_1862_II_88, 93 Zanfour: Vers six heures trente minutes, nous arrivons aux ruines
de Zanfour. / La ville ancienne a laquelle elles appartiennent est depuis longtemps dtruite
et inhabite. Cest lantique Assuras, comme le prouve une inscription dont je parlerai tout
lheure. / Elle tait environne dun mur denceinte dont on peut encore suivre les traces sur
plusieurs points; elle tait en outre, de trois cotes, entoure et dfendue par un ravin trs-profond, aux berges abruptes et presque verticales, dans le lit duquel coule une rivire qui ne tarit
jamais: cest loued Zanfour. Deux ponts avaient t jets sur ce ravin; il en reste encore quelques
dbris. Luu avait t construit en belles pierres de taille, lautre en petits moellons mls de
briques. The monuments he then describes include a theatre, a temple cella, two mausolea, and
three triumphal gates, all described, and measured, but not illustrated! The Zanfour enceintes:
6. Une enceinte rectangulaire longue de cinquante-cinq pas et large de cinquante. Construite
avec des blocs trs puissants, dont quelques-uns paraissent avoir appartenu des monuments
plus anciens, elle date probablement de lpoque byzantine; les assises infrieures sont seules
en place actuellement. / 7. Une seconde enceinte rectangulaire, longue de vingt-sept pas et large
de vingt-deux. Elle a t btie galement avec des blocs de grandes dimensions, dont quelquesuns sont danciennes pierres tumulaires revtues dpitaphes tellement effaces et mutiles,
quil ma t impossible de les dchiffrer. did he lose interest in these enceintes when he found
the inscriptions damaged?
[
125]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_163164 Henchir-Zanfour: Patient and systematic exploration of the site would probably bring to light many objects of historical value. No time, however,
should be lost, for at the moment of our visit some Arabs with asses, and provided with hatchets
and shovels, were actively filling their panniers with broken stones. They even offered to break
off any piece of carving or other ornamental work we might covet, and to transport it at our
pleasure. It appeared that these stones were being removed to an adjacent plain for constructing
a French military post.
[
126]Tissot_1888_570571 Exploration scientifique de la Tunisie, Zanfour/Assuras: Aucun
centre arabe ne sest form sur remplacement de la ville antique, dont lenceinte et les principaux difices sont encore reconnaissables. Le plus considrable de ces monuments est larc de
triomphe de Caracalla et de Julia Domna, qui slve au nord-est. Sa longueur est de 11 mtres;
louverture de larcade est de 5m 60, et sa hauteur sous clef de vote de 7 mtres. Une partie de
lentablement et lattique qui le couronnait ont t dtruits depuis lpoque o Temple a visit
Zanfour: il ne reste aujourdhui que quelques fragments de la frise sur laquelle ce voyageur avait
lu linscriplionque nous avons reproduite. Les autres blocs sont entasss ple-mle au pied du
monument. / Deux autres portes monumentales donnaient accs dans la ville, lune au nord,
lautre louest-sud-ouest. Lordonnance architectonique et les dimensions de ces deux arcs sont
peu prs celles de la porte de lest. / Assuras offre encore les vestiges dun thtre, dun temple,
de deux grands difices et de deux mausoles. Le thtre tait situ dans la partie orientale de
la ville: le mur de la scne ne mesure pas moins de 260 pieds. La faade du temple nexiste plus.
Les laces latrales, encore debout, sont ornes de quatre pilastres corinthiens et dune frise lgamment sculpte, forme, comme celle du temple de Thveste, de guirlandes rattachant des
bucranes et des mascarons.
[
127]Shaw_1757_118 Haidra: For we have here the walls of several houses, the pavement of
a whole street intire, with a variety likewise of altars and Mausolea. A great number of the latter
are very well preserved; some of which lie open to the air, and are built in a round hexagonal

or octogonal figure, supported by four, six, or eight columns: whilst others are square, compact,
and covered buildings, with niches in one or other of the faades, or else with wide open places,
like so many balconies upon their tops. But the inscriptions, which belonged as well to these
as to a number of other antiquities, are either defaced by time or the malice of the Arabs.
Upon a triumphal arch, more remarkable for its largeness than beauty, we have the following
inscription.
[
128]Davis_1862_147148 Haidra: Within the citadel are the ruins of several other buildings,
one of which has the appearance of a small temple, and it stands nearly in the centre. Attached
to the western wall stood another sacred edifice which I am inclined to believe was a Christian
chapel. It faces the east, and its ruins show that it was richly decorated. Here are shafts of green
and yellow marble, and very graceful Corinthian capitals. Within this citadel are likewise traces
of Arab hovels, which were erected by those who fled to this part from the French conquerors of
Algeria. During the occupation of this stronghold by the fugitive Moslems, they seemed to have
exercised their skill in treasure-seeking, but with what success I am, of course, unable to say. In
different parts I found traces of their labours, and in one place particularly the poor fellows have
dug to a considerable depth.
[
129]Saladin_1887_180 Haidra: De tous cts, dans les ruines dHadra et surtout au nordouest, au nord et lest de la citadelle, on rencontre des dbris de sculpture, chapiteaux,
fragments de bas-reliefs, etc. Aussi nhsitons-nous pas ranger ces ruines parmi celles dont
lexploration mthodique fournira le plus de documents larchologie figure, et nous attirerons dautant plus spcialement lattention sur Hadra que, par sa position frontire et sa douane,
elle est amene tre frquente plus que les villes de lintrieur, que les Arabes y construisent
dj quelques maisons, et que bien des monuments intressants ont disparu et disparatront
encore; des fragments de sculpture ou dinscriptions, que leurs dimensions ne permettent pas
demployer facilement, sont briss, dautres rduits en chaux, des pans de mur dmolis pour en
dbiter les pierres, des colonnes arraches aux difices quelles dcorent pour tre employes
dans quelque btisse barbare. Bref, si lon veut tirer quelque profit de ltude des ruines dHadra
(tude possible encore aujourdhui et qui ne le sera peut-tre plus dans quelques annes), il est
absolument ncessaire quon se hte dadopter des mesures prservatrices pour y empcher la
destruction des antiquits. A Hadra, comme Sbetla, nous avons remarqu des monceaux de
fragments antiques frachement briss et disposs en tas comme pour servir des constructions
nouvelles.
[
130]Gurin_1862_II_351352 Es-Souar, after noticing a piscine and several monuments,
including a fine mausoleum: En somme, cet henchir, qui doit son nom dEs-Souar [les remparts] non une enceinte fortifie embrassant tout son primtre, mais a quelques grands pans
de murs encore debout, restes de divers difices publics, porte dans ses ruines la marque de
deux poques, lpoque romaine et lpoque byzantine. La ville dont il nest plus que lombre,
ville dont lhistoire et mme le nom sont demeures jusqu prsent ensevelis dans loubli, parait
avoir t dtruite et abandonne dater de linvasion arabe; car aucune ruine de cette dernire
poque ne se mle celles qui parsment lemplacement quelle occupait.
[ ]
131 Renou, milien Jean (18151902). Description gographique de lempire de Maroc, suivie
dItinraires et renseignements sur le pays de Sous et autres parties mridionales du Maroc, Paris
1846. With a list (449458) of cartes, plans et vues dating back to the 16th century. See 100101:
An-el-Esnm, la source des idoles, ou, sous la forme plurielle, Aoun-el-Esnm, sappelle
appendix
encore, par abrviation, Snam. Suivant une remarque de M. Carette, ce nom, qui se trouve
plusieurs fois en Algrie, se confond souvent avec Snb, qui signifie des pierres de taille, parce
que les dbris de statues quil dsigne sont toujours accompagnes de pierres de taille romaines.
Tels sont les noms de Snb ou Orlansville, et Moulasnb, entre Constantine et Biskra (Ommel-Asnb, la mre des pierres de taille). 283: Le nom El-Hadjar les pierres, rappellerait alors
les pierres de taille romaines dont elle est entoure.
[
132]Bernet_1912_137138 south section of Ghadames: Des pans de murailles slvent l, isols comme des tours moiti dtruites. Limagination fertile orientale en a fait des idoles. Ces
fragments dantiques monuments, qui ont une origine douteuse, sont bien poss l comme pour
servir ladoration dun peuple. Les colonnes reprsentent peut-tre les restes dune ancienne
forteresse berbre qui devait protger, de ses formidables remparts, loasis construite ses pieds.
On voit mme en plusieurs endroits des fondations importantes ressemblant celles des forteresses du Djebel Nefousa. Mais il ny a rien de romain dans ces constructions, et personne ne
peut affirmer que lon soit ici en prsence danciens monuments funraires des rois.
[
133]Daumas_and_Fabar_1847_1011 de la grande Kabylie: Plusieurs villes romaines ont
exist sur les ctes de la grande Kabylie: Baga, Choba, Salv, Rusucurrum. / Tour tour, on les a
places toutes Bougie, que les Europens connaissent depuis longtemps; mais enfin, lopinion
du docteur Shaw, confirme depuis par la dcouverte dune inscription romaine, fixe dcidment Bougie la colonie militaire Salv. Aujourdhui encore, des ruines de maisons, et surtout
un vieux mur denceinte, dont le dveloppement total nexcde pas 2,500 mtres, constatent
en ce point lexistence dune cit antique, mais assez peu considrable. / Lintrieur du pays
renferme galement quelques ruines de lre romaine ou chrtienne. / A cinq lieues de Bougie,
ct des Beni-Bou-Messaoud, on voit debout six colonnes trs-hautes, en pierres de taille. Elles
portaient des inscriptions devenues illisibles. Tout autour; gisent des dcombres qui attestent
de grandes constructions. / Dun autre ct, six lieues environ de Bougie, existe une ville souterraine qui renferme plus de deux cents maisons en briques, bien conserves, avec des rues votes et des murs trs-pais. On y descend par un escalier dune douzaine de marches. Daprs le
dire des Kabyles, cette cit tnbreuse, quils nomment Bordj Nara, le fort des Chrtiens, aurait,
t btie par les Romains de la dcadence. Le chef de toutes ces contres y demeurait, disent-ils,
avec ses gardes.
[
134]Derrien_1895_282: Ruines du Ksar Ouzrara, 1,000 mtres environ au sud de Kebhaba;
grosses pierres et traces de murs. / Le cad des Oulad Defelten ma racont sur ce Ksar la lgende
suivante: / A Ouzrara, vivait un roumi qui, las de son clibat, demanda la main dune belle et
jeune chrtienne, la fille du chef du Ksar de Tirazza. Celui-ci y consentit, mais la condition
expresse que le mariage naurait lieu que lorsque le postulant se serait fait construire un Ksar
Ouzrara, ce qui fut fait.
[
135]Gsell_1903_137 Algeria under Christianity: Les campagnes taient encore assez peuples
et souvent cultives avec soin. Cependant les paysans navaient pas vu leur condition sociale
samliorer. A lexception des forteresses, vraiment imposantes, les ruines de lpoque byzantine
qui subsistent en Numidie tmoignent dune vritable misre. Les seuls difices publics sont des
glises, faites avec des matriaux disparates, dcores sans luxe et sans got. Les inscriptions
deviennent trs rares: un mrne silence semble peser sur le pays. Les impts, fort lourds, sont
encore rendus plus odieux par les exactions de ceux qui les recueillent; les gens de guerre, auxquels on nglige souvent de payer leur solde, essaient de se ddommager sur la population, se

montrent indisciplins et se battent sans ardeur. Les fonctionnaires obissent peu lempreur,
leurs attributions respectives sont mal fixes, leur autorit est presque annule par le clerg.
[
136]Merlin_1903_3 Dougga: Les Byzantins, au moment o ils ont construit leur forteresse
autour du Capitole, ont bris une partie de ce pavage auprs de leur muraille et dmoli le mur
qui la soutenait louest pour creuser un foss devant leur rempart. La preuve, cest que les terres
que nous avons enleves entre le rduit byzantin et la mosaque avaient t rapportes postrieurement pour combler ce trou. On a rencontr dans les dblais de nombreux restes antiques:
des morceaux de placage en marbre vert, une monnaie, une base de colonne, et une tte de
femme, en marbre blanc.
[
137]Cagnat_1891_210: Tandis que la plupart des villes dAfrique ont t pilles mthodiquement par les troupes de Justinien, qui les transformaient en forteresses, puis par les Arabes, qui
y levrent bien souvent des maisons aux dpens de ltablissement antique, Timgad est tombe
en un jour; le quartier mridional de la ville a seul fourni des pierres aux Byzantins, pour la
construction de la citadelle, qui a t tablie 5oo mtres des ruines; le reste sest recouvert peu
peu de terre. Il suffit denlever cette terre pour retrouver aujourdhui la cit antique dans ltat
mme o les Maures labandonnrent aprs lavoir pille lapproche des troupes de Solomon,
cest--dire dans le premier tiers du vie sicle. Et comme, par une heureuse fortune, elle avait
t relativement peu remanie aux poques antrieures, les restes quon exhume sont en ralit
dune date beaucoup plus ancienne.
[
138]Gsell_1922_97 Thagura: Thagura, aujourdhui Taoura, prs du village franais de
Gambetta...Les inscriptions latines ont t dcouvertes et l dans les ruines, quelques-unes
dans les murailles de la forteresse, un assez grand nombre dans les murs et au pied dun difice
de basse poque, en pierres de taille, qui slevait lest de la ville et qui tait probablement une
glise (Gsell, Mon. antiq., II, p. 264); il y avait ct un cimetire chrtien (dans un terrain appartenant actuellement au colon Mja). Beaucoup de ces inscriptions ont disparu; dautres ont t
runies dans le bordj dAn Guettar, qui domine le village de Gambetta. Ibid. 181 Madauros: Une
forteresse byzantine, qui a laiss de belles ruines, fut construite vers 535, par ordre de Solomon.
Elle recouvrit une partie du forum et engloba le thtre. / Mdaourouch a dj donn 800 inscriptions, trouves, pour la plupart: 1, dans les murs de la forteresse; 2, sur lemplacement du forum
( lintrieur et en dehors de la forteresse); 3, dans deux tablissements de bains et aux abords;
4, dans une glise chrtienne; 5, au-dessus des spultures qui entouraient la ville...Comme
dordinaire en Algrie, les premires copies dinscriptions ont t faites par des officiers.
[
139]Morell_1854_458: After issuing from the ravine, you perceive the whole extent of the
ruins of Announah. The chief of these consists in a kind of triumphal arch and a number of
arcades, whose arch springs directly from the soil, and which appear to be coarse and rude
attempt at reconstruction by the hands of barbarians, who have mixed up all styles and materials in a lamentable disorder.: There are, moreover, at Announah, the ruins of a church, which is
a still more curious example of this spirit of confusion, being built of blocks of stone and marble
of all sizes, while shafts, and capitals of columns, and fragments of sculpture, are fitted into the
wall This specimen of Byzantine architecture speaks volumes on the disastrous effects of the
Vandal invasion, which must have destroyed not only monuments, but the very appreciation
of art.
[
140]Moll_1861_208209 writing of Tebessa: Lorsquon examine avec attention le rseau des
forteresses byzantines tablies de tous cts, on sapperoit que le choix des positions a eu lieu
appendix
en gnral avec beaucoup de soin et quun coup-doeil remarquable a prsid lensemble de
cette opration, dont le but vident tait de dominer le pays avec le moins de troupes possible. Si
en outre on se rend compte des efforts quil a fallu faire, des difficults quil a fallu vaincre, pour
construire en un temps si court des tablissements si considrables et si multiplis, appuy sur
une arme trs-faible, dans un pays incompltement soumis et grand comme la France, on est
oblig de reconnatre, non seulement que Solomon tait un stratgiste habile, mais encore que
les ingnieurs et lieutenants chargs de le seconder avaient une vigueur dexcution incontestable et une connaissance approfondie de lart de la guerre.
[ ]
141 Moll_18601861_206207 calculates the building work for the Byzantine fortress at
Tebessa, and concludes 207208 that On voit donc que la rdificatiou de Thveste a ncessit
pendant deux ans lemploi journalier de 800 850 travailleurs. / Quand on songe que des travaux
semblables sexcutaient dans le mme temps sur un grand nombre de points (il entoura chaque
ville de murailles, dit Procope, en parlant de Solomon), il est imposssible dadmettre quils aient
t luvre de larme dont la force slevait tout au plus 12 ou 15,000 hommes. Il est plus naturel
de supposer que ces constructions furent leves par des corves que fournissaient les habitants
du pays et par des esclaves maures faits prisonniers dans la guerre qui venait davoir lieu. Quant
aux ouvriers dart, un grand nombre dentreux devait venir soit de lItalie, soit de la Sicile et des
autres les de la mer Tyrrhnienne, attirs en Afrique par lappt de salaires avantageux. Le rle
de larme byzantine se rduisit dabord parcourir le pays pour achever de le soumettre et
ensuite occuper des positions stratgiques, choisis de manire pouvoir se concentrer rapidement pour accourir au secours des points menacs, dans le cas dune insurrection des Maures.
[
142]Saladin_1893_11 Lamta: Le village de Lamta peu considrable, est bti en grande partie
de matriaux antiques retaills quelquefois; la kasbah est une ancienne forteresse byzantine
remanie par les Arabes au commencement de la conqute et maintenant en ruines. Le village
est construit sans grande recherche, quoique les grands magasins pour les olives et les moulins
huile soient vots; ces votes arabes procdent par filiation directe de la vote en berceau
romaine; on y voit donc des votes en berceau simple, des votes darte, des votes en arc de
clotre. / Les colonnes de granit gris et rose et les fragments de porphyre vert el rouge ne sont
pas rares Lamta; une colonne de granit sert de linteau une porte de la kasbah. / Autrefois,
dans beaucoup de moulins huile de la cte, on utilisait les fragments de ces colonnes pour
en faire des rouleaux destins craser les olives. Actuellement les indignes, ne sachant plus
travailler le granit, font venir ces rouleaux dAlexandrie dEgypte. / Lamta est entour de jardins
trs bien cultivs, au milieu desquels on rencontre des fragments nombreux de marbres de couleur, jaunes, gris, cipolins, verts, roses, violacs, blancs; des fragments de colonnes, de bases et
de chapiteaux sont employs pour faire les margelles des puits qui fournissent leau pour arroser
les jardins.
[
143]Gurin_1862_I_129130 Thapsus: La ville de Thapsus, si clbre par la grande victoire
que Csar remporta sous ses murs sur Scipion et le roi Juba, est aujourdhui compltement ruine. Le terrain quelle occupait a t livr la culture, en sorte que non-seulement les traces de
ses maisons ont disparu, mais que mme la plupart de ses monuments publics ont t comme
effacs du sol jusque dans leurs fondements. Chaque anne, en effet, les paysans arabes qui
exploitent lemplacement quelle comprenait dans son enceinte, dbarrassent les champs quils
cultivent des pierres dont ils sont jonchs et amoncellent celles-ci en tas, ou bien sen servent
pour dlimiter leurs proprits au moyen de petits murs de sparation grossirement construits

avec des matriaux de toutes sortes...Plus au sud sont les dbris dun amphithtre. Il a quatre
cent soixante pas de tour. Larne mesurait soixante-deux pas de long sur quarante-quatre de
large; elle est cultive; les gradins nexistent plus.
[
144]Lespinasse-Langeac_1893_178: Henchir-Bou-Doukhan (peut-tre Madarsuma). Vaste
henchir, dont plusieurs monticules assez levs sont couverts de dbris, parmi lesquels les
Arabes ont lev quelques tombeaux enduits de chaux. Puits. Vaste monument en pierres de
grand appareil tailles avec soin: cest un immense carr de plus de 35 mtres de ct, avec
quatre saillants de 7 mtres carrs. La construction en est trop rgulire, pour y voir, notre avis,
un fortin de lpoque byzantine. Sa situation exceptionnelle permet dy reconnatre un poste
militaire de premier ordre, destin commander le Bled-Hachenah tout entier et les dfils du
Begra au nord et du Mhri au sud.
[
145]Granger_1901_68, Byzantine fortress: Les murs du chteau et des tours contiennent des
dbris antiques en trs grand nombre: colonnes, stylobates, chapiteaux, corniches, restes de
sarcophages et des inscriptions plus ou moins compltes. 73 Tobna (Thubunae): Le chteau de
Thubunae ne fut pas dtruit par eux [the Moslems], ni par les berbres rvolts (du moins ses
murailles et ses tours), sa masse en imposa mme aux arabes hilaliens, mais lintrieur fut remani par les fils de lIslam qui y btirent une mosque dans sa partie est, la partie ouest servait de
palais au gouverneur plac l par le khalife de Kairouan.
[
146]Poinssot_1885_21 An Tounga: Ses ruines, encore imposantes, entourent lAn Tounga;
on y voit les restes dune vaste citadelle flanque de tours et construite lpoque byzantine, les
vestiges de plusieurs temples, deux arcs de triomphe dont lun a conserv son arcade, les vestiges
dune basilique, dun thtre, de divers autres difices et de lenceinte qui entourait la ville. On
peut encore reconnatre lemplacement des portes.
[
147]Carcopino, Jrme, Une mission archologique An-Tounga (Tunisie), in Mlanges
darchologie et dhistoire 27 1907, 2364. See 2426 in the Byzantine fortress: Le travail fut particulirement pnible: outre le chaos des pierres quil fallait enlever, on se heurtait tout instant
des cactus que les propritaires arabes refusaient de laisser abattre...Ce mur, qui ma para de
construction arabe, se rapproche beaucoup des murs de gourbis. Aussi bien cette impression estelle daccord avec le rcit de lArcos qui, lors de sa visite aux ruines dAn-Tounga, au XVIIe sicle,
nota que le village arabe tait bti lintrieur de la forteresse...des pierres tombales enleves
sans doute la ncropole situe dans la mme direction et peu prs la mme distance:
pierres tombales et ddicaces proviennent donc trs probablement de remplois postrieurs
la construction de la citadelle, dont les matriaux ont t pris aux monuments les plus voisins:
temples, forum, lavacrum. La dcouverte, trois mtres de profondeur, de tessons arabes plus ou
moins grossirement maills entrana ma dcision: les rsultats taient trop minces pour des
difficults trop grandes so gives up digging within the fortress.
[
148]Kennedy_1846_183184 Thignica/An Tounga: The principal remains are those of a
large square castle, with flanking towers, built, evidently, subsequently to the destruction of the
city, fragments of columns, cornices, stones with inscriptions, &c., being included in the materials of its massy walls. To the eastward, higher up the slope, is a small arch and, above it, the ruins
of what must have been a splendid temple. A considerable part of it is still standing, but the portico with its columns, sculptured frieze, and dedicatory inscription, of which only a few words
are legible, lie scattered around. A single fragment of one of the columns measured twenty-five
feet in length, and three feet three inches in diameter. / From the rising ground to the south-east,
appendix
where probably stood the citadel, a fine view is obtained, and on descending the hill we saw the
ruins of a theatre, and of another large edifice, of which portions of many columns, to the height
of three and four feet, are still standing. Sandstone was the chief material used in the construction of Thignica, and there would seem to have been a great scarcity of marble, for in our two
hours walk we saw only one small piece, whilst at Carthage, Thapsus, Thysdrus, &c., the ground
is strewed with innumerable fragments.
[
149]Gurin_1862_II_155156 Ain Tounga, as well as the enceinte: Un temple. Situ dans la
partie haute de la ville, ce monument tait orient vers le sud-ouest. La cella est encore en partie
debout; elle mesure intrieurement onze mtres de long sur huit mtres soixante centimtres
de large. Les blocs qui ont servi la construire sont appareills avec beaucoup de soin. Le portique est renvers; les colonnes qui le soutenaient taient dun seul ft et couronnes par des
chapiteaux corinthiens; elles gisent terre au milieu dun amas de blocs confusment entasss.
Ces blocs sont tellement normes, que, priv des moyens ncessaires pour les soulever, jai du
renoncer lespoir de dcouvrir linscription qui couvrait la frise du portique. also notices a
second temple, and a triumphal arch, this latter assez bien conserv.
[
150]Barbier_1855_178 Tebessa: Tebessa est une cit de construction romaine; elle est peuttre la trace la mieux conserve, la plus vivante du passage du grand peuple. Les murailles, en
pierres tailles, ont de 5 10 mtres de hauteur sur 2 de largeur, et sont dfendues par 14 tours.
Toutes les maisons sont construites avec des pierres romaines, la plupart sont mme assises sur
le premier lit. On y voit une porte romaine remarquable, un temple semblable la maison carre
de Nmes, et de nombreuses et vastes ruines tant intrieures quextrieures. Tout Tebessa rappelle les souvenirs de lantiquit: la population de la ville semble la postrit bien conserve de
lancienne population primitive, et la monnaie romaine avait encore cours lorsque les Franais
loccuprent en 1842.
[ ]
151 RA 1860 issue 21, 232, Chronique from Sousse: M. A. Espina, vice-consul de France
Soussa, en Tunisie, nous a adress plusieurs communications do nous extrayons les passages
suivants: / Si vous me demandez o jai pris les mdailles de ma collection, je vous rpondrai
que cest en les retirant de la circulation o elles avaient la valeur dune kharrouba (seizime de
la piastre tunisienne ou rial), laquelle vaut quatre centimes de notre monnaie. Cest ainsi que se
font dordinaire les collections numismatiqnes dans cette rgence. / Quant aux mdailles dor et
dargent, elles arrivent le plus souvent par les Arabes ou par des juifs qui reviennent de troquer
lintrieur des produits indignes contre des marchandises de fabrique europenne. / Il fut un
temps o les moindres paiements en monnaie de cuivre du pays pouvaient fournir au numismate collecteur sur 25 piastres tunisiennes de menue monnaie, par exemple, constituant ce
que lon appelait alors kouffa flous, cest--dire une couffe de kharroubes, aspres et bourbes,
une vingtaine et quelquefois plus de pices antiques. De nos jours, et aprs le remaniement
opr par les deux beys prcdents de tout le systme montaire actuellement en vigueur, et par
suite aussi dordres mans de hauts et puissants amateurs de Tunis et adresss divers agents
de la cte, pour sy procurer bon prix toutes les mdailles en circulation; de nos jours, dis-je,
cest par exception quon en trouve encore dans les villes. / Jai cd en 1853 mes meilleures
byzantines M. Duchalais, du cabinet imprial des mdailles, sur lassurance que me donna
alors ce numismate distingu que quelques-unes dentre elles, frappes Carthage, enrichiraient peut-tre notre collection nationale dun type indit. (Lettre du 13 juin 1859, reste gare
pendant plusieurs mois.)

[
152]Cagnat_et_al_1890_223 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity. Arab cemeteries: On ne devra pas non plus ngliger de visiter les cimetires arabes, aussi
bien dans les villes que dans les campagnes. Dans les grandes villes on y verra des tombes
arabesques souvent riches et lgantes, avec des inscriptions en arabe, parfois en coufique; dans
les petites villes, dans les villages ou aux environs, on peut y rencontrer des fragments antiques
utiliss comme pierres funraires; parmi les monnaies que la pit des fidles dpose sur la
spulture des marabouts, il nest pas rare quil y ait des monnaies romaines, en bronze, naturellement, ou des lampes ou de petits vases trouvs dans quelque ncropole paenne du voisinage. La
recherche des antiquits dans de pareils endroits devra tre faite avec la plus grande discrtion,
les indignes ayant pour leurs morts, et surtout pour les personnages religieux, un culte profond;
on sexposerait de graves dboires, surtout dans les tribus un peu ombrageuses, si lon ne tenait
pas compte de ces recommandations.
[
153]Hron_de_Villefosse_1875_446 Ksar-Baga (Bagaa), with a Byzantine enceinte, but uninhabited: M. le capitaine Payen crivait, en 1860, quil avait remarqu en cet endroit les restes dune
grande basilique dont les colonnes taient encore debout, mais enterres jusquaux deux tiers
de leur hauteur. Jai revu ces colonnes; elles sont de la belle poque romaine, mais nont jamais
d appartenir une basilique. Grce la bienveillance du gnral de Lacroix, javais emmen
de Khenchela trente soldats, laide desquels ces colonnes ont t promptement dchausses;
elles taient disposes, dune faon fort irrgulire, dans un btiment dont les murs sont, au
contraire, rgulirement tablis. On peut sen convaincre en examinant le point marqu H sur
le plan de M. de Laurire, o la position des colonnes est indique et o sont marques galement les deux tranches que nous avons fait pratiquer. Cette construction est relativement trsrcente; ctait certainement une mosque leve avec des matriaux de toutes les poques.
[
154]Masqueray_1878_455 writing on Khenchela and Besseriani, after describing the remains
of a Roman military funerary monument: On a dtruit beaucoup de monuments semblables
pendant la restauration byzantine, et on ne cesse pas de les dtruire aujourdhui. Ainsi, ces
pierres que jai lues au mois davril 1877, taient brises au mois daot par le cad qui dsirait
agrandir son bordj. Ses ouvriers europens avaient fouill brutalement la petite glise dont je
viens de parler, pour se procurer de 1a pierre, quand il leur tait facile de sadresser ailleurs. Ils
ont rduit en moellons tous les souvenirs de loccupation romaine de Vazana. Je lai constat de
mes yeux en retournant Zoui.
[
155]Gauckler_1896B_67 Tunisia: Puis vient la conqute arabe, le dpeuplement du pays,
labandon, et loeuvre de destruction commence par les hommes est poursuivie dune faon
lente et sre par la nature hostile. Son action malfaisante ne rencontre plus dobstacles. Ce
pays dAfrique, o la vie nest quune lutte perptuelle contre les lments, obit dsormais
un peuple qui subit la destine au lieu de se lasservir. Les Arabes nont presque rien dtruit en
Tunisie, mais ils nont rien entretenu; ils ont laiss faire le temps. Peu peu les derniers travaux
damnagement qui assuraient la mise en valeur du sol ont cess de fonctionner. Dlivre de
ses entraves, leau a recommenc ses rosions nfastes, auxquelles rien nchappe. Que lon y
joigne laction destructive de la chaleur et de la gele, des vents, des tremblements de terre,
et lon comprendra comment la Tunisie est devenue le pays des ruines. Le protectorat romain
lavait faite riche et prospre; sa chute lavait ruine. Le protectorat franais saura lui rendre son
antique splendeur.
[
156]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_82 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: An el-Ksar; on
y a copi une borne qui portait le chiffre de milles XVII. Il y avait l, au-dessus de la ferme, sur
appendix
le flanc occidental du Djebel Tfouda, un fort byzantin mesurant 18 mtres de ct...Plusieurs
inscriptions funraires ont t copies en ce lieu. Tout a t dtruit depuis trente ans. On ne
rencontre quun caisson devant la ferme.
[
157]Jacquot_1907_153 writing of Roman roads around Stif: Toute la rgion sud, et surtout sud-est, du Djebel-Youssef est seme de ruines romaines, dont plusieurs sont assurment
celles de vritables villes, entre autres Perdices. Il y avait l une vie intensive que les conditions
actuelles ne permettent pas dexpliquer! Malheureusement, nous avons pu le constater lors dun
transport effectu en 1896, ces intressants tmoins dune re dtonnante civilisation ont t
dtruits par le vandalisme moderne, suscit par un vil mercantilisme et encourag par lindiffrence, combien coupable! de ladministration civile. Au lieu de protger ces ruines et dattirer le
touriste pour les visiter on a prfr enlever ou briser les pierres, dtruire les inscriptions et les
sculptures, rendre le pays tout entier sa sauvagerie primitive.
[
158]SHD 1M1321 Mission de Tunisie, 1879. Derrien, Capitain dtat Major, Itinraire de
Medzez-el-Bab Bordj-Sidi-Youssef. Hongnia: Civitas Chidiblensis, village sur la rive droite de
la Medjerdah, bti avec les ruines dun tablissement romain. Un grand minaret et 3 Koubbas
louest est une tour isole, ou minaret, dont la base est btie de matriaux antiques. 9596 for
description of Le Kef.
[
159]Bequet_1848_182 following Bugeaud, 1841: arrt on colonies agricoles: Dans les crations de centres de population, qui eurent lieu en vertu de cet arrt, et dont nous allons dresser
le tableau, on a, jusqu ce jour, observ fidlement ces sages prescriptions, qui sont devenues
dans la pratique, le rglement de la colonisation en Algrie. Les villages sont dordinaire composs de cinquante soixante familles, sauf quelques-uns que lon considre comme des chefs-lieux
futurs de cantons: ainsi, Douera, Dellys, Guelma, El-Arouch, Arzew, etc. Les travaux denceinte se
composent dun foss avec parapets, flanqu par deux ou trois tourelles, selon la disposition du
terrain: les centres principaux ont une enceinte en maonnerie. Les eaux et fontaines, ainsi que
les chemins et voies de communication, et les nivellements de terrains sont considrs comme
entrant ncessairement dans la formation primitive des villages: les dpenses auxquelles ces
diffrents travaux doivent donner lieu, sont portes dans le devis gnral.
[
160]Fraud_1875_371 on Philippeville: Le village de Robertville, constitu par ordonnance
royale du 16 novembre 1847, tait tabli 24 kilomtres au sud de Philippeville, dans la valle de Merdj Chiech ( 7 kilomtres. dEl-Arrouch). Les premiers colons taient dj arrivs, au
nombre de 400 environ, dans les derniers jours de 1848. Ils taient clibataires, pour la plupart,
et compltement trangers aux travaux agricoles. Ils furent installs sous la tente, et plus tard,
dans des baraques en planches, construites aux frais de ltat. Le primtre de colonisation de
Robertville, dune superficie de 2,500 hectares, tait prlev sur la tribu des Taabna. Il fallut,
avant de livrer cette fconde valle la population europenne faire couler les eaux qui formaient, dans le Merdj-Chieh et lOued Amar, des mares stagnantes, insalubres. De plus, comme
Robertville stablissait en plein territoire de tribus constamment agites et rcalcitrantes, on
jugea prudent dentourer ce village dune enceinte crnele.
[ ]
161 Barbier_1855_141 Fouka, 49km from Algiers: Cest Fouka que lon a trouv les restes les
plus remarquables de loccupation romaine: grands tombeaux en pierres, lacrymatoires, vases,
mdailles en quantit, amphores, statues, inscriptions, etc.; le tout enfoui aux alentours dun
bois doliviers qui ombrage une abondante fontaine, dont la restauration a amen la dcouverte
de travaux assez importants et remontant une poque trs recule. On est autoris supposer
que Fouka est construit sur les ruines de lantique cit de Casae Calventi (les huttes du Chauve). /

Le village de Fouka, cr par arrt du 28 avril 1842, a t construit par le gnie militaire pour
recevoir une population de soldats librs du service, dont quelques-uns staient maris avec
des filles de Toulon et de Marseille, dotes par ces villes. / A Fouka comme Beni-Mered, lexprience fut peu favorable ce systme de colonisation militaire. A lexception dune quinzaine,
tous les soldats-colons ont dsert leurs colonies pour aller chercher fortune ailleurs. Une dcision du mois de novembre 1843 runit ce village ladministration civile, et depuis cette poque,
il sest peupl dhabitants civils.
[
162]Gomot_1844_178 Fouka, north of Colah: Sa position est dlicieuse; il possde un bosquet et une jolie fontaine. Ce village vient dtre remis la direction de lintrieur, et compris
parmi les tablissements agricoles civils. Les habitants sortaient tous de larme; ils ont t
maris aux frais du gouvernement et par la ville de Toulon qui les ont dots. On trouve Fouka
des ruines romaines trs-nombreuses, et surtout solides. Le gouvernement a lintention dtablir
un port vers la plage pour servir limportation et lexportation des objets ncessaires au pays,
et pour transporter les rcoltes Alger. / La population de Fouka est de 184 habitants.
[
163]Anon_1863_78 Algiers environs: Fouka, Au N., et 4 kil. de Kola, sur un chemin qui
conduit de Blida la mer, a t cr par arrt du 25avril 1832; il est bien expos dans une situation charmante, aux alentours dun bocage doliviers qui ombrage une abondante fontaine. Des
fouilles commences en 1839 sur les indications de M. Berbrugger ont amen la dcouverte de
restes remarquables de loccupation romaine: grands tombeaux en pierres, lacrymatoires, vases,
mdailles. On suppose que cest lancien centre de population que litinraire dAntonin dsigne
sous le nom de Casae Calventi.
[
164]Barbier_1855_119 23km SW of Algiers: La Consulaire est une belle ferme habite par 5
familles, et btie sur les fondations dune ancienne maison romaine affecte, aux temps antiques,
lexploitation agricole de ces contres. Sur une tour adosse aux constructions on a sculpt les
armoiries du marchal Bugeaud, entoures dinstruments aratoires. Il y a la Consulaire une
dlicieuse fontaine et-de beaux groupes darbres.
[
165]Fillias_1860_293 1841 under Bugeaud: La colonisation militaire directe ayant t abandonne, le gouverneur eut recours la colonisation civile; mais il voulut y appliquer le travail
des troupes. Le soldat fut donc employ dfricher des terres, creuser les fosss denceinte
des villages, et construire des maisons qui taient ensuite concdes des familles civiles.
Chaque colon pouvait ainsi recevoir un ou deux hectares dfrichs par les soldats.
[
166]Cat_1882_141 the Settara Plateau: Les trois colons qui se sont mis vaillamment dfricher ce sol plein darbustes, ont rencontr presque toujours sous la charrue et la pioche, des
dbris de lpoque romaine, avec les belles pierres de taille ils ont bti leurs maisons, ils les ont
couvertes avec de grandes tuiles rebords, ils ont fait leurs cltures avec des blocs de maonnerie et de bton. Partout on trouve des pices de toutes formes et de toute grandeurs, des
alignements et des enceintes de maisons dans la plaine aussi des tombeaux, on creuss dans le
roc, dans le genre de ceux quon appelle tombeaux phniciens, ou en forme dauges, mais aucun
cippe, aucune inscription sur une grande pierre qui avait appartenu une tombe, il ma semble
voir ces lettres CAES, mais elles taient presque entirement effaces et, pour le reste, on nen
apercevait plus quune vague trace. Deux monuments sont encore un peu reconnaissables, lun
la forme du terrain, lautre ses parties bien conserves. Le premier tait une sorte de forteresse
occupant presque toute la surface du Settara: il avait une enceinte en gros blocs rectangulaires,
aujourdhui renverse, mais encore visible. La face du Nord est assez nette, mais celle de lOuest
ne se compose gure que de ruines confuses. Ctait l une fort bonne position militaire pour
protger le port et pour surveiller les tribus des hauteurs.
appendix
[
167]Reisser_1898_221222 in Mauretania, Tigava Municipium: Mme Moisson, autrefois institutrice Wattignies, y a vu une mosaque rosace, qui doit tre actuellement recouverte de
terre et de fumier. / Ces uvres-dart, elles seules, ne dmontrent-elles pas quil ny avait pas
l que de simples casernes? Le croquis nous communiqu par Mme Moisson, qui tait sur les
lieux avant que les actes les plus grossiers de vandalisme ne fussent commis, vient encore renforcer notre hypothse. Derrire lcole et un peu en retrait, ajoute-t-elle, jai relev les restes
dune grande enceinte portes orientes...Les colons ont pris, depuis, les pierres de taille de
ces 4 entres pour leurs constructions.
[
168]Reboud_18831884_13 in the Maouna: En quittant Hammam-Berda, on ne tarde pas
dcouvrir les cimes des arbres qui ombragent An-Guelaat-bou-Seba. Ce village est en grande
partie compos de familles allemandes et nous a paru des plus prospres. La vigne et les arbres
fruitiers y russissent; le vin quon y rcolte est de bonne qualit. / On voyait jadis, Guelaatbou-Seba, des ruines romaines assez tendues. / Berbrugger, le seul archologue qui les cite, les
visita en 1836. Il nous signale des dbris de remparts, des angles de murailles en briques, des
enceintes de maisons dont la maonnerie a disparu. / La construction de lenceinte nouvelle, du
village, de lglise et du presbytre a fait disparatre en trs grande partie les restes de la station
romaine.
[
169]Tissot, Charles Joseph, Itinraire de Tanger Rbat extrait du Bulletin de la Socit de
Gographie Sept 1876, 15 Ad Mercuri: le thtre quavait signal Davidson et que M. Drummond
Hay, consul gnral dAngleterre Tanger, a encore vu en 1842, nexiste plus aujourdhui...Chaque
anne, du reste, voit diminuer le nombre des dbris antiques qui couvraient nagure encore le
plateau de Dchar Djedid: les indignes brisent les blocs qui gnent les travaux de labourage
et jai pu constater, dune de mes visites lautre, avec quell rapidit saccomplit cette oeuvre
de destruction. Tissot_1888_508: Les ruines dOum-el-Asnam ont disparu depuis lpoque o
M. Delamare les a visites et dcrites. M. Cherbouneau, qui assistait en 1861 la dmolition du
fortin byzantin, y a dcouvert une inscription qui donne peut-tre, la deuxime ligne, le nom
de la station antique. perhaps Tadutti. Tissot_1888_249: A quatre milles au del dEl-Hamira, la
route romaine se rapproche des montagnes de la rive gauche de la Medjerda, pour viter les basfonds qui avoisinent le fleuve et forment, dans la saison des pluies, dinextricables fondrires.
A la hauteur de Medjez-el-Bab, elle tourne louest et atteint, dix milles de Clucar, comme
lindique la Table de Peutinger, la station dElephantaria, dont les ruines assez considrables,
mais fort effaces, stendent autour de la Koubba de Sidi-Djedidi. Le seul monument que jeusse
remarqu Elephantaria, lorsque je lavais visite en 1876, tait une vaste et belle piscine ciel
ouvert, construite en pierres de grandes dimensions. Cette ruine a disparu, comme la plupart
des matriaux qui couvraient lemplacement de la bourgade antique.
[
170]Vigneral_1867_60 Ruines...subdivision de Bne, Bou-Derbala: Sur lemplacement de ce
fort a t construite, de pierres et de colonnes romaines, une mosque aujourdhui abandonne,
mais encore debout en partie.
[ ]
171 Desvaux_1909_142 Msilah in 1843, i.e. Gnral de Division de Cavalerie: les maisons
sont aussi en pis, quelques pierres romaines apportes de Bichilga, forment lencadrement des
portes. Ruines considrables lEst. Dans la Djema el Kabir dont le minaret, vritable pigeonnier, se soutient par enchantement, jai vu des colonnes et des chapiteaux romains. Dans la
ville et hors de lenceinte, on compte 14 mosques ou marabouts. Ibid., 129 Oued Djenan:
Au moment de rejoindre la route de Sour-Ghzlan dix heures vingt, vue de la tour appele
Gassaria Oulad Sellama, une lieue sur notre gauche. Il est dcid que nous tournerons autour
de cette ruine sans jamais pouvoir lapprocher en ce moment mme, je ne sais pas encore son

nom et, cependant, jaurais bien voulu vrifier si la voie romaine passait par ce point, car entre
Sour-Ghzlan et loued Djenan je nen ai trouve aucuns vestiges; avec la lunette, jai distingu
que les deux assises infrieures taient de construction romaine.
[
172]Gurin_1862_I_153 Inchilla: A neuf heures trente minutes, nous faisons halte Inchilla.
Cest un endroit actuellement inhabit. Il y a peu dannes encore, un petit village existait autour
de la koubba de Sidi-Maklouf et de celles de deux autres santons musulmans. Aujourdhui ce
hameau est dtruit et abandonn. Dans cette mme localit florissait jadis une ville romaine
dune certaine importance, qui, si lon en juge par les constructions ruines parses sur le sol,
subsistait encore lpoque byzantine et survcut mme quelque temps la conqute arabe.
En effet, une faible distance du marabout de Sidi-Maklouf slve sur un monticule une vieille
mosque musulmane. Aujourdhui ouverte tous les vents et commenant tomber en ruines,
elle est flanque extrieurement de demi-tours rondes dont la partie infrieure senfonce en
talus dans le sol. Intrieurement, elle forme une grande salle carre soutenue par seize colonnes
sur quatre ranges. Ces colonnes sont dun seul ft et de marbre blanc; les chapiteaux qui les
surmontent sont lgamment sculpts. Orns de feuilles dacanthe, de ttes de blier et de divers
oiseaux, ils sont eux-mmes couronns par un abaque. Quatre autres colonnes, galement de
marbre blanc, dcorent le mihrab, cest--dire lespce dabside qui indique aux musulmans
la direction de la Mecque, la ville sainte, par excellence, de lislamisme et vers laquelle, pour
cette raison, ils doivent toujours se tourner en priant. / Cette mosque tait autrefois entoure
dun mur dont on ne distingue plus maintenant que les fondements; elle a trs-vraisemblablement succd sur la mme place une glise chrtienne; dans tous les cas, elle a hrit de ses
colonnes, qui paraissent byzantines et qui ont pu tre transportes dun difice voisin.
[
173]SHD GR1M1322 22 Tunisia. March 1886: Cadat de Sfax, Villages de El Heiba, Mellourche
et Hazzez, 1618 near Sidi Maklouf, a building that seems at first sight a mosque, but that the
locals believe is a church, primitivement soutenue par plusieurs colonnes du ct de la faade
Nord Est. And then in the interior, 16 columns, four by four, but trois seulement gisent encore
brises sur les ruines; les autres ont t transportes a la Zaouia de Sidi Maklouf, o neuf dentre
elles soutiennent le plafond de la mosque; dautres supportent la petite galerie prcdant la
salle o repose le saint dans sa chsse. Then describes the capitals as best he can, but they are
covered with a thick coat of plaster. But presumably Byzantine: sculpts avec art et lgance, qui
reprsentaient, outre des feuilles dacanthe, des ttes doiseaux et danimaux [but two] paraissent
cependant tre des ttes de bliers. And all around the monument first described des dbris de
colonnes de marbre blanc, des pierres tailles avec soin, quelques blocs informes de marbre
dont lun aurait bien pu appartenir une statue plus wells.19 road from Sfax to Mahdiya est
trs bonne sur tout son parcours et est practicable aux trois armes, as is the Chemin de Hazzez.
[
174]Toulotte_1894_175: Sbiba, le nom actuel, rpond lancien Sufibus et le nom de la plaine
voisine, Bahiret Siftan, rappelle lantique ethnique. Les ruines de Sufes, dont le pourtour peut
tre valu quatre milles, couvrent un plateau ondul que baigne loued Sbiba. Les restes les
plus remarquables sont ceux de deux basiliques, dont la principale, orne de trente-six colonnes
encore debout et disposes sur six rangs, avait t transforme en mosque.
[
175]Saladin_1887_101 Gafsa: Les antiquits de Gafsa consistent surtout en fragments pigraphiques. Le sol de la ville, exhauss par le mode de construction arabe, a recouvert toutes
les traces des difices romains. Les colonnes qui les ornaient ont t enleves et employes,
notamment dans la construction de la grande mosque, qui en contient prs de 130; quelques
chapiteaux et fragments dentablement sont incrusts dans les murs de la Kasbah. Les piscines
appendix
des thermes, sources chaudes qui alimentent la ville, sont entoures de murs antiques ou plutt
construits en matriaux antiques. Aprs la destruction de la ville et le bouleversement de ses
difices, on a d reconstruire la hte les murs des deux piscines au moyen de matriaux pris
un peu au hasard. On a bti des salles dans la partie la plus haute, et ces salles servent de bains
aux habitants de Gafsa; nous nen donnons pas le plan, car il na absolument rien dintressant;
on a surlev des murs antiques circonscrivant un assez grand espace dans lequel on a runi les
eaux des sources, mais il faudrait faire des fouilles autour de ces deux piscines pour connatre
le plan de ldifice auquel appartient une partie de leurs murs. En face de la Kasbah, dans une
rue qui passe ct dune mosque, on voit une arcade romaine dune assez bonne poque.
Elle appartient probablement au portique extrieur dun thtre ou dun amphithtre. and
cites El Bekri, who disait dj quelle est btie en totalit sur des portiques de marbre dont on a
bouch les arcades avec de fortes cloisons construites en moellons.
[
176]Teissier_1865B_108 Mda: of its three minaretted mosques, one is still a mosque, the
second a church, et la troisime a t transforme en glise, son minaret sert de poste dobservation pour surveiller la valle.
[
177]RA 1858, issue 13, Berbrugger, Itinraires archologiques en Tunisie, IIe et dernire
partie, 922. 16: Cest dans les palmiers de Koriz que se trouvent les restes trs peu considrables de lancienne Tiges (selon Ptolme), lOppidum Tigense de Pline. Le nom actuel Takious,
que les Arabes prononcent Taguous, est presque identique lancienne dsignation. / Lendroit
o sont ces ruines sappelle aujourdhui Guebba. On y voit une base de minaret en pierres de
grand appareil et qui parat tre antique. Au-dessus de ces premires assises, sont des couches
de briques poses plat dans un mortier trs-dur. / Autour du minaret, qui tait sans doute originairement un lieu dobservation, on trouve des restes de murailles en grandes pierres tailles,
dans lune desquelles est une niche que les habitants ont baptise du nom de Hanout Hassan el
Hadjem, boutique du barbier-chirurgien Hassan, dnomination assez frquemment applique
par les Tunisiens certaines constructions romaines.
[
178]Gurin_1862_I_260261 Tozeur: Cinq ou six mosques et plusieurs zaouas sont bties
moiti en pierres et moiti en briques. Je remarque dans les soubassements et les assises infrieures de quelques-unes dentre elles de gros blocs enlevs a des difices antiques, ainsi que
des tronons de colonnes, des fragments dentablements, des parties de chapiteaux et mme
des dbris de sculptures encastrs ple-mle au milieu de matriaux plus modernes...je vais
examiner avec M. Duveyrier les ruines de la ville antique, il laquelle a succd la moderne
Tozer. Les dbris de cette cit ont en grande partie disparu pour tre employs comme matriaux de construction dans les divers villages dont lensemble constitue le chef-lieu actuel du
Djerid. Nanmoins on trouve encore dans un endroit appel Belidet-el-Adher les vestiges dun
grand difice orn jadis de plusieurs ranges de colonnes dont quelques fts briss gisent sur
le sol. Ctait probablement, dans le principe, un temple qui aura t transforme plus tard en
basilique chrtienne et ensuite en mosque musulmane. Au milieu de la vaste plate-forme dont
ce monument occupait une partie slve une semah ou tour carre btie en briques, dont la
base est construite eu belles pierres de taille; elle devait servir de minaret la mosque et prcdemment, sans doute, de clocher lglise chrtienne; car par les assises infrieures au moins,
cette tour parait antrieure a linvasion arabe. /
[
179]Saladin_1886_102: Entre Groumbelia et Hammamet droite de la route, au milieu de
champs de figuiers de Barbarie, ruine dune exploitation agricole de lpoque romaine. Citerne
enduite de pouzzolane faite avec des dbris de briques gchs avec de la chaux. A lpoque

musulmane, on a lev dans ces ruines et laide des dbris quon y a trouvs une mosque
dont le minaret octogonal, construit en briques avec des chanes en pierres de taille aux angles,
repose sur le soubassement dun mausole antique.
[
180]Haedo_1612_fol 41v: of the mosque minarets of Algiers, the most important two are muy
grandes, muy altas, y muy antiguas, y que parecan ser de tiempo de Romanos, por el talle que
tienen, y architectura dellas.
[ ]
181 Gurin_1862_II_268: A six heures trente minutes du matin, nous nous dirigeons au sudouest vers Belad-Djededa, village aux trois quarts renverse et entirement dsert, bien que de
fondation assez rcente, comme son nom lindique. / A sept heures quinze minutes, nous parvenons un fourr pais de cactus mls dautres arbustes pineux qui environne les ruines
dune grande mosque. Celle-ci slevait sur un monticule. Son minaret est encore debout, ainsi
quune partie de ses murs denceinte: Les colonnes qui soutenaient les votes ont t enleves,
et celles-ci se sont croules sur le sol, quelles couvrent de leurs dbris. / A ct de cette mosque et sur la plate-forme qui la prcde, gisent quelques tronons de colonnes ayant appartenu
probablement ce monument, mais dorigine antique, ainsi que la plupart des matriaux qui
ont servi le construire. Les assises infrieures de la tour du minaret, par exemple, consistent
toutes en beaux blocs rectangulaires. / Une macera ou pressoir huile avoisine la mosque. Jy
copie sur un long bloc qui sert de linteau la porte dentre le fragment suivant.
[
182]Gurin_1862_II_267: A six heures, nous arrivons Belad-Belli, o nous passons la nuit.
Ce village est loign dun kilomtre au nord de la route qui conduit a Tunis. Il a succd
un bourg antique, comme le prouvent les nombreux blocs rectangulaires que lon y remarque;
toutes les maisons sont bties avec danciens matriaux, et la mosque renferme, dit-on, une
dizaine de colonnes provenant soit dun temple paen, soit dune glise chrtienne.
[
183]Jacquot_1907_160161writing of Roman roads around Stif: A Guidjel, en revanche, il
dut y avoir un centre dune certaine importance, bien que nous ny ayons pas vu les grandes
ruines romaines si largement indiques sur la carte. La mosque trs pittoresque renferme
onze colonnes ou tronons de colonnes diverses en calcaire gris (dont neuf lintrieur). / Un
beau puits en maonnerie avec montants en pierres de taille, et malheureusement combl par
les indignes, a encore cinq ou six mtres de fonds...Devant la ferme Touya, inscription de
0m84 sur 0m51 (Rnier, Corpus). Nous avons vu, en outre, onze chapiteaux ou socles de basse
poque, en calcaire gris, dont quelques-uns paraissent seulement bauchs, cinq auges (dont
trois dans la mosque), deux pierres canneles (porte de la mosque), seuil de porte...Il y a lieu
de rappeler que Guidjel a t un centre de propagande religieuse lpoque de la conqute arabe
et que les musulmans y construisirent une djemaa dun certain style, mais leurs descendants
lont laisser se dgrader au point quil ne subsiste plus que des morceaux des belles sculptures
dont les murs taient couverts.
[
184]Gurin_1862_II_7375 Henchir Lorbs: La ville ancienne dont cet henchir rappelle le
nom un peu altr (Lares, lablatif Laribus, do Lorbs), tait environne dune enceinte fortifie, que flanquaient de distance en distance des tours carres demi engages dans la muraille.
Celle-ci est encore en partie debout, et du moins il en subsiste de trs-beaux pans construits
avec de magnifiques pierres de taille appartenant soit des difices, soit une enceinte antrieure...Quant la ville proprement dite; elle a t compltement renverse, lexception dun
vaste difice dont on reconnat la forme et ltendue. Cet difice semble avoir t une basilique
chrtienne, transforme plus tard en mosque. Il tait orn intrieurement de colonnes de granit dun grain trs-fin. Plusieurs dentre elles tant moiti ensevelies sous des monceaux de
dcombres, je les ai fait dgager. Ce sont danciennes bornes milliaires. Lune est entire; elle
appendix
mesure un mtre quatre-vingt-cinq centimtres de hauteur sur un mtre soixante-quatorze centimtres de circonfrence...Trois autres colonnes milliaires se trouvent au mme endroit; elles
sont plus ou moins mutiles.
[
185]Lux_1882_178 Zaghouan: Un ancien temple romain a t converti par les habitants
en mosque. Deux larges perrons surmonts dun bel arceau conduisent dans lintrieur du
sanctuaire; au bas du temple, un vaste bassin reoit les eaux qui coulent de la montagne.
Malheureusement un grand nombre de pierres ont t arraches ces ruines ainsi quon peut
sen rendre compte par les nombreuses inscriptions latines quon retrouve sur les faades des
maisons.
[
186]Fraud_1860_191: Ngaous possde deux mosques. La premire, celle de Sidi Bel Kacem
ben Djennan, situe peu prs au centre de la bourgade, est construite en matriaux antiques,
pierres et colonnes. Deux coupoles, blanchies la chaux, la surmontent; le reste de la toture est
en terrasse. Sa hauteur, du sol au sommet de la coupole la plus leve, nexcde pas 7 mtres. / La
seconde est celle de Sidi Kassem, beaucoup plus connue sous le nom de Djama Seba er-Regoud
(mosque des sept dormants). Elle est situe lextrmit Nord de la ville; galement construite
en pierres romaines, elle est recouverte en tuiles. Dans lintrieur, sont trois ranges de colonnes
de cinq colonnes chaque.
[
187]Shaw_1757_55 Tattubt, 8 leagues SSW of Constantine: This has been formerly a considerable city, but, at present, it is almost entirely covered with earth and rubbish. Hassan, the Bey
of this province, dug up lately out of these ruins, several beautiful Granate pillars, of twelve foot
long; which may justly be reputed the most graceful ornaments of the new mosque that he has
lately erected at Constantina.
[
188]Cherbonneau, Auguste, Inscriptions arabes de la province de Constantine, in
Annuaire de la Socit archologique de la province de Constantine, 18571858, 70139. See 113
114 Mosque of Sidi-el-Kettani, beautified by Salah-bey [d.17531754]: le morceau capital, celui
auquel les touristes accordent plus particulirement leur attention, cest la chaire tablie droite
de la niche. On ne sait eu effet ce quon y doit admirer le plus, ou de lart ou de la matire. Presque
toutes les varits de marbre y sont runies...Cest de Livourne quont t apportes grands
frais ces faences, ces lustres, ces marbres que nous admirons, et les ouvriers de Constantine,
si lon en excepte les menuisiers, nont coopr la rdification du temple hanfite que dans
la mesure de leurs moyens, cest--dire comme manuvres. Il en fut de mme pour toutes les
uvres darchitecture qui ont signal ce long rgne.
[
189]RA 1863/05, issue 39, 222 relaying Grard Rohlfs, Voyage au Maroc, 205226 on Mequinez:
Dans une cour du palais, jai trouv galement un grand nombre de ces colonnes par terre, avec
ou sans chapiteaux. Les Maures disent que le sultan Mouley Ismal les a fait venir dEspagne
pour orner son palais; mon opinion est quelles sont les restes dun ancien temple romain, qui a
pu exister l o est maintenant Mquinez.
[
190]Gurin_1861_4 Kairouan, the town walls: Comme les pierres manquent dans la vaste
plaine de Karouan et quil faut les aller chercher fort loin, cette enceinte est aux trois quarts
construite en briques. Il en est de mme de la plupart des maisons de la ville. Quatre portes
principales donnent entre dans la place.
[ ]
191 Peyssonnel_1838_I_114 travelled 172425, Kairouan: Elle est entoure de murailles de peu
de dfense avec un chteau trs mal fortifi; il ny parat rien dantique et il ny a aucun monument remarquable.
[
192]Cagnat_1884_37: On sait que Kairouan nest pas construit sur lemplacement dune
ville antique; nanmoins il y existe des fragments dinscriptions latines, encastrs dans les

murailles ou utilises dans la construction des murs des difices. Do viennent ces monuments
pigraphiques? On pense gnralement quils ont t apports de Vicus Augusti (actuellement
Haouch-Sabra), ruine situe non loin de l et dont les pierres auraient servi btir les maisons
de la ville. Mais rien nest prouv ce sujet.
[
193]Monlezun_1889_61: Kairouan: Au sud, le plateau est bord par un ravin, une vritable
barranca que lenceinte cessait de suivre distance, ds quelle perdait ses formes abruptes en
sapprochant de loued Melah. Dans tout le primtre compris par cette enceinte en dehors
des murs actuels, les reiib (dmolisseurs de ruines) font depuis des annes des rcoltes abondantes de matriaux quils revendent pour les constructions nouvelles. Ces matriaux consistent
presque exclusivement en briques de mme forme, mais mieux cuites que celles quon fait
aujourdhui sur place; mais on y trouve aussi des pierres de taille, dordinaire des dimensions
des encadrements de portes romains, des meules; je nai pas connaissance quon en ait tir des
sculptures ou dinscriptions. Il y a encore dans ce primtre de nombreux puits de petit diamtre, ce qui rend si dangereux de courir les massifs de cactus quon abat pour exploiter les
ruines comme de vraies carrires. / Avant quon exploitt ces ruines, ces particularits taient
trs connues des indignes qui avaient donn le nom de matmora (les silos) au terrain compris
entre la grande mosque et le rempart actuel, o sont avec des puits, des excavations la plupart maonnes en briques, saccordant trs bien avec la prsence ou le voisinage dhabitations
autres que celles actuellement existantes, car on est l au point le plus sec du terrain quelques
kilomtres la ronde.
[
194]Berbrugger_1858_195196 Sabra: Le 27 octobre 1850, jallai visiter les ruines de Sabra. Je
sortis de Krouan par Bab el Djelladin; et, en 23 minutes de marche, au pas ordinaire du cheval,
jtais arriv sur le terrain. Mon guide me conduisit tout dabord devant les fameuses colonnes
sanglantes, Arsat ed-Dem, et me raconta que ces deux fts, aujourdhui couchs par terre,
taient jadis au nombre de trois. / On na jamais pu atteindre leur base, me dit-il, quoiquon
et fouill profondment; quand on voulut les scier, du sang coula, et les ouvriers, saisis deffroi,
abandonnrent lopration quil fut impossible de leur faire reprendre. / Le fait est que ce sont
deux monolithes dun granit rougetre, ml de blanc, de violet, de lilas, avec quelques points
noirs. On comprend, ds lors, ce qutait ce prtendu sang qui en a coul, au dire des indignes.
Ceux-ci donnent cette espce de granit le nom de Hadjera sidna Sliman, pierre de notre seigneur Salomon. Les deux fts dont il sagit sont longs de 3m. 55c. et ont un diamtre de 1m. 5c. /
Ces colonnes sont peu prs tout ce qui subsiste dune ville antique qui a d tre considrable,
en juger par ltendue du terrain boulevers pour la recherche des pierres, lesquelles ont servi
btir Krouan et les magnifiques rsidences que des souverains indignes ont eues dans les
environs. / Le nom de Sabra que portent ces ruines stend un vaste terrain qui touche presque,
par un ct, aux remparts del ville moderne. / Lemplacement de la cit antique est parsem
de fragments de marbre de toute nature, depuis lhumble cipolin jusqu la magnifique brche
africaine. Les tranches ouvertes pour lextraction des matriaux dessinent des quadrilatres,
des hmicycles, des ellipses; de sorte que limagination a le champ libre et peut y voir la trace
de prtoires, de thtres et dhippodromes. / Si tous les chapiteaux, toutes les colonnes que lon
trouve Krouan, commencer par celles des portes mme de la ville, proviennent de Sabra,
cette ville devait avoir une assez grande importance; mais il est probable quon en a tir dailleurs, les ruines romaines tant trs-nombreuses lOuest et lEst de cette partie de la Tunisie.
[
195]Berbrugger, A., Itinraires archologiques en Tunisie, 2, de Tunis Nefta, in RA II 1857,
195214. See 196 for Sabra, after noticing the bloody columns: Ces colonnes sont peu prs tout
appendix
ce qui subsiste dune ville antique qui a d tre considrable, en juger par ltendue du terrain
boulevers pour la recherche des pierres, lesquelles ont servi btir Krouan et les magnifiques
rsidences que des souverains indignes ont eues dans les environs. / Le nom de Sabra que
portent ces ruines stend un vaste terrain qui touche presque, par un ct, aux remparts de la
ville moderne. / Lemplacement de la cit antique est parsem de fragments de marbre de toute
nature, depuis lhumble cipolin jusqu la magnifique brche africaine. Les tranches ouvertes
pour lextraction des matriaux dessinent des quadrilatres, des hmicycles, des ellipses; de
sorte que limagination a le champ libre et peut y voir la trace de prtoires, de thtres et dhippodromes. / Si tous les chapiteaux, toutes les colonnes que lon trouve Krouan, commencer
par celles des portes mme de la ville, proviennent de Sabra, cette ville devait avoir une assez
grande importance; mais it est probable quon en a tir dailleurs, les ruines romaines tant
trs-nombreuses lOuest et lEst de cette partie de la Tunisie.
[
196]Gurin_1862_II_335 Sabra: Avant de quitter Kairouan, jallai visiter les ruines de Sabra,
situes vingt-cinq minutes au sud de la ville. Sabra, en effet, passe, dans la tradition, pour
avoir fourni la plupart des matriaux avec lesquels Okbah aurait bti la capitale quil fondait. Les
vestiges de cette ancienne cit sont aujourdhui presque effacs du sol. Seulement on remarque
de tous cts, dans un espace assez tendu, un grand nombre dexcavations pratiques dans le
but dextraire des fondations des edifices renverss des pierres toutes tailles, qui ont t depuis
transportes Kairouan. Le khalife qui maccompagnait dans cette excursion maffirmait que
presque toutes les colonnes qui ornent lintrieur de la grande mosque dOkbah provenaient
des ruines de Sabra. Deux seuls tronons de colonnes y gisent encore. encore. On les dsigne
sous le nom dArsat-ed-Dem (les colonnes du sang ou les colonnes sanglantes). Ce sont deux
fts monolithes, longs dun peu plus de trois mtres et ayant un diamtre de prs dun mtre.
On voit quon a essay de les scier et quon a ensuite renonce cette opration. Comme ils sont
dun granit rougetre ml de diverses autres nuances, telles que violet, lilas, rose et noir, une
tradition rpandue parmi les indignes veut que du sang ait coul sous la scie des ouvriers au
moment o ils sefforaient de les couper par moiti, afin de pouvoir les transporter ensuite
plus facilement, et qu cette vue ils se soient arrtes pouvants. and the drops of bood were
pointed out to him!
[
197]RA 1874 issue 106 Devoulx, Alphonse, Voyage lamphithtre romain dEl-Djem en
Tunisie (janvier 1830), 241261. 249250 Mahdiya: Les Espagnols ont occup cette ville pendant plus dun an. Obligs ensuite de lvacuer, ils en firent sauter les murailles; une seule porte
a rsist, et atteste, ainsi que les ruines qui ont survcu, les beauts et la force des ouvrages qui
embellissaient cette ville, qui est absolument entoure de dbris colossaux. Il rest dans la partie
de lOuest un pan de muraille dune hauteur et de dimensions prodigieuses; toutes les autres/
parties de ces raines ne sont plus quun amas confus des travaux des Carthaginois, des Romains,
des chevaliers de Malte et des Espagnols. Il parat que ces deux dernires nations, lorsquelles
semparrent de la Media, trouvant encore subsistants les ouvrages des Romains, les adaptrent
aux moyens de guerre dont on usait alors, car du ct de la mer et ailleurs, on voit dans les
anciens murs des embrasures de canon qui ne peuvent tre attribues qu elles.
[
198]Saladin_1887_21 Mahdiya: La ville est entoure dune enceinte antique remanie au
moyen ge par les Arabes et les Espagnols. Elle repose en partie sur des arasements pratiqus
dans la roche tendre qui forme le sol. On y remarque de nombreuses traces dencastrement de
pilotis verticaux ayant servi maintenir un coffrage en bois lors de la construction des substructions en blocage. A dautres endroits, surtout vers lextrmit de la presqule, des tranches

creuses dans le roc ont reu la base des fortifications. Au port antique creus dans le roc, on
sest servi, pour consolider les murs qui forment lentre de la passe, de colonnes antiques poses
horizontalement et formant deux ou trois lits. Ces colonnes sont en marbre...Dans la mosque
principale de Mehdia, des colonnes antiques en pierre dure et en marbre, en granit et en porphyre, autant que lon peut en juger par les parties o le badigeon arabe a disparu, supportent
des chapiteaux romains et byzantins en marbre blanc.
[
199]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_44 Mahdia: La mosque, compose de sept nefs, si belle, si
bien btie, est loin de mriter aujourdhui des pithtes aussi flatteuses; cest, comme la grande
mosque de Kairouan, une suite de porticiues vots dont les colonnes sont en partie antiques.
La plupart de ces colonnes ont t prises droite et gauche, surmontes de chapiteaux trop
petits ou trop grands pour elles, et enduites de chaux, sous laquelle disparaissent les dtails
dornementation. Dautres, en marbre blanc, sont modernes et proviennent vraisemblablement dItalie. / Ce quil y a de plus remarquable Mahdia, cest incontestablement limmense
muraille qui entoure la ville; elle est, comme nous lavons dit plus haut, dun trs bel appareil.
Malheureusement elle est aujourdhui dtruite sur plusieurs points.
[
200]Poulle_1861_206 Bechilga/Zabi: En 1008, le fondateur de lempire hammadite de Bougie
rasa Msila, dont il transporta les habitants La Cala. Une nouvelle population en releva les
murs, qui furent abattus pour la deuxime fois, soixante ans plus tard par les Zenata. La ville fut
reconstruite, mais elle fut saccage et ses murailles renverses, vers 1330, par le sultan hafside
Abou Yahya Abou Bekr, qui venait de purger la valle de lOued Sahel des Abd el-Ouadites, qui
la ranonnaient depuis plusieurs annes. Les maisons sortirent encore une fois de leurs ruines,
mais lenceinte ne fut plus releve. On sait, du reste, que toutes les constructions de Msila sont en
briques de torchis sches au soleil. / Ce que je viens de rappeler de lhistoire de Msila suffit pour
expliquer comment y sont arrivs ls nombreuses pierres de taille et les fts de colonnes que
lon y trouve. Les Arabes et les Berbers des sicles passs avaient un certain amour des grandes
choses que nont plus ceux de notre poque, et, sans doute aussi, taient-ils plus ingnieux pour
mouvoir les blocs quils ont tirs de Zabi. Dans une localit o les pierres sont rares, les Arabes
du Xeme sicle ne pouvaient pas excuter ces travaux imposants dont nous admirons encore
les ruines Tlemcen et Bougie; mais du moins ils utilisrent les matriaux qui taient leur
porte. Ceux qui vinrent aprs eux suivirent leur exemple; ils employrent les matriaux quils
trouvrent sur place et finirent mme par puiser les ruines de Bechilga.
[
201]Daumas_and_Fabar_1847_1112 de la grande Kabylie: A Tiguelat, entre les Ayt-Tanzalet
et les Fenayas, les traces dune ville subsistent. Les remparts ont trois quatre mtres dlvation. On y voit encore debout une statue, que les Kabyles appellent Sour-el-Djouahla. / Chez les
Senadjas, dans un village appell Tissa, il existe, parmi des ruines importantes, une fontaine trsbien conserve; et une autre pareillement chez les Beni-Bou-Bekheur, Akontas, village bti au
milieu dune ancienne enceinte qui, sur certains points, tait double. / Chez les Beni-Oudjal,
An-Fouka, on trouve les restes dune ville surmonte de trois forts. Elle renferme encore une
fontaine qui donne beaucoup deau. On lappelle El-Kueseur-El-Djouahla.../ En somme, ces
vestiges de loccupation romaine semblent moins rpandus en Kabylie que dans aucune autre
portion du littoral; on ny reconnat point dailleurs lassiette, ltendue, la magnificence monumentale qui caractrisent de puissantes cits. Nest-il pas permis den conclure que la conqute
de ce pays fut toujours une oeuvre incomplte, mme lpoque des conqurants du monde?
[
202]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_44 Gafsa: Dans les murailles de plusieurs maisons de la ville
et de la citadelle on trouve un grand nombre de dbris antiques briss et employs ple-mle
appendix
comme matriaux de construction; ces fragments de divers marbres, ces entablements brises
ces colonnes, maintenant tronons informes ces autels dmolis, devaient faire lornement de
la ville avant que la barbarie net rduit ltat de simples moellons leurs richesses architecturales. / Les inscriptions quon dcouvre c et l sont ou entirement effaces ou tellement
endommages quelles sont devenues tout fait illisibles.
[
203]Gurin_1862_I_274 Gafsa: La kasbah forme un grand carre irrgulier, flanqu de tours.
Les hautes murailles qui lenferment sont revtues extrieurement de grosses pierres de taille
provenant danciennes constructions; on y observe a et l des fragments dentablement, plusieurs chapiteaux lgamment sculpts, quelques beaux morceaux de corniche, le tout encastr avec plus ou moins de saillie dans lpaisseur de la btisse, comme des espces de trophes
darchitecture enlevs des monuments dtruits. On y remarque aussi en divers endroits des
lambeaux disperss dinscriptions latines. Je donne ici ceux qui, ntant pas placs a une trop
grande hauteur, taient accessibles ma vue, ou que la couche de chaux qui les recouvre presque
tous ne rendait pas compltement illisibles.
[
204]Tissot_1888_665666 Gafsa: Kafsa occupe lemplacement mme de la cit antique. Les
traces de lenceinte romaine sont encore reconnaissables sur quelques points, notamment du
ct de louest, prs de la grande mosque dont le mur extrieur repose sur de larges assises
antiques portant des signes dappareillage. On remarque dans la muraille de la kasba un bloc, de
la mme dimension et marqu dun signe semblable, qui provient videmment de cette partie
de lenceinte. Les remparts taient encore intacts au XIe sicle. La muraille de Kafsa semble
avoir t faite dhier, dit El-Bekri, en rapportant la tradition daprs laquelle on la considrait comme luvre de Chentin, page de Nimroud. Elle ne fut dtruite que dans les guerres du
moyen ge. Un passage de Lon lAfricain semble indiquer que Kafsa conservait encore au XVIe
sicle une partie de son pavage antique, form de larges dalles noires semblables celles des
rues de Florence et de Naples. Il ne reste aucun vestige apparent des portiques de marbre dont
parle El-Bekri, mais il est fort possible que des dbris de ces constructions aient t utiliss dans
lintrieur des habitations particulires. La kasba, moderne, du reste, est btie tout entire avec
des matriaux antiques: le rez-de-chausse de chaque maison est construit en saxum quadratum plus ou moins mlang de moellons, de briques crues et de troncs de palmiers. / Les seuls
monuments antiques qui subsistent encore sont un arc de triomphe, de petites dimensions, et
les grandes piscines qui portent le nom de Termil.
[
205]Anon_1892_124 Gafsa: La casbah est assez vaste, mais elle tombe en ruines; elle est
construite en partie avec des matriaux provenant des ruines romaines; les tours rondes et carres qui font partie de lenceinte ont des crevasses normes, et cependant les braves artilleurs
tunisiens ne craignent pas de tirer le canon sur ces monuments branlants. Et quels canons! il y
en a o lon peut fourrer le poing dans la lumire et qui datent de Charles-Quint. Mais lartilleur
musulman sait que les tours ne scrouleront et que les canons ne crveront que quand Allah
laura dcid.
[
206]Gurin_1862_II_53 Le Kef: Je consacre ces trois jours parcourir avec soin toutes les
rues du Kef. Cette ville doit le nom quelle porte maintenant (El-Kef, le rocher) la montagne
rocheuse sur le penchant de laquelle elle est btie. Le mur denceinte qui lenvironne est flanqu
de plusieurs bastions. La kasbah, quavoisine un fort plus petit, est vaste et construite presque
tout entire avec de gros blocs antiques, provenant probablement de lenceinte primitive. Elle
slve au point culminant de la ville; mais, comme lont fort bien observ MM. Pellissier et
Berbrugger elle est domine elle-mme par une esplanade, dont elle nest spare que par une

tranche peu profonde pratique dans le roc, et do il serait facile de la battre en brche, ce qui
entrainerait la prise immdiate de la place. Celle-ci, qui est regarde par les Tunisiens comme
la plus forte de la Rgence et comme la clef du pays vers louest, ne pourrait en ralit arrter
quune arme dArabes, et pour la mettre labri des puissants moyens dattaque que les troupes
europennes possdent actuellement, il faudrait la munir de fortifications beaucoup plus redoutables que celles dont elle se glorifie, et surtout retrancher soigneusement lesplanade dont jai
parl.
[
207]Ideville_II_1882_318 1841: le gnral Bugeaud quittait Mascara pour se diriger vers Sada.
Abdel-Kader avait construit cette petite forteresse sur les ruines dune ville romaine: elle tait
forme dune enceinte garnie de tours, et adosse des rochers escarps.
[
208]Scott_1842_2425 Taasa: About four P.M. we reached the town, which in ancient
times, when in possession of the Romans, must have been a place of considerable importance.
At the foot of the hill still exists the outer line of fortifications, consisting of a wall about three
feet thick and ten feet high, with square towers placed at about eighty yards from each other.
The wall in many places is still entire, but the towers are mostly in a dilapidated state. About half
way up the hill are a wall and towers similar to the first, but in a much more ruinous condition.
The town is surrounded by a third wall. On the north side are visible the ruins of what must have
been the ancient capitol, or citadel. As the town, however, was since that period, and continued
in possession of the Christians many years, to them were owing, I should imagine, the destruction of this fort, the site of which, being immediately outside the present walls of the town, was
used as a burying-ground for those of this persuasion. I endeavoured, one day, to see if I could
find an inscription on any of the stones, which might give me an insight in to the time this town
fell into the hands of its present masters, but without success. The principal Mosque was evidently in former times a place of Christian worship; the tower and the belfry exist: the latter is
now used as the minaret.
[
209]Anon_Blackwoods_1841_189: There are no soldiers endowed with greater personal
courage than those who fight in Abd-el-Kaders ranks, regular or irregular; they are deficient
in discipline, but the cavalry, by their very irregularity and wildness, are admirably suited to
the Emirs peculiar system of warfare; and the grand result of the contest is, that after several
years perpetual hostilities, the Emir, who has never brought more than 10,000 men into the field
at one and the same time, and who probably cannot muster more than twice that number of
fighting men, has not only kept in constant employment French forces of from 40,000 to 60,000
men, harassing them night and day, forcing them to remain within their walls, or never to stir
out except in columns of from 2,000 to 5,000 men, but has at last so excited the country against
them, that they possess nothing whatever, in the provinces of Algiers and Oran, but the ground
on which they stand.
[
210]De_Montagnac_1885_172 1841, writing (in 1837) from Oran about Sada, Abd-el-Kaders
enceinte: A un des angles de cette enceinte, tait une habitation dun got exquis, dans le style
arabe, dcore de moulures en pltre parfaitement dessines, de bas-reliefs en marbre trs-bien
sculpts, de jolies galeries soutenues par plusieurs rangs de colonnes; portes et fentres ogives,
dalles en marbre blanc, etc., etc.; une vritable bonbonnire. Ctait l que lmir venait se reposer des fatigues de la guerre, et jouir dun repos qui lui permettait de caresser mollement toutes
ses grandes ides davenir. / Tout a t la proie des flammes que lui-mme avait allumes avant
notre arrive. Lenceinte, dont le mur tait dun mtre quatre-vingts dpaisseur, a t sape
force de ptards qui ont trouv une rsistance que nos constructions les plus solides noffriraient
appendix
peut-tre pas. Toujours des destructions! Triste pense, lorsque lon songe avec quel peu de
ressources cet homme minemment remarquable avait form de pareils tablissements!
[ ]
211 Feuillide_1856_166: La race kabyle est autrement vaillante et rsolue que la race arabe.
Les gorges et les cimes du Djurjura sont des retranchements autrement redoutables que des
haies de cactus et des bois doliviers dans la plaine: chaque sentier, chaque gorge, chaque cime
est un combat et un sige pour les soldats de la France comme en Circassie pour les soldats du
czar. Aprs les avoir conquis, il faudra les garder, moins de leur appliquer la paix de Tacite: Ubi
solitudinem faciunt.
[
212]Lamoricire_1847_86: les Romains avaient pour chaque localit des moyens daction
puiss dans leur constante sollicitude pour le bien-tre matriel des populations; ils possdaient un haut degr lart daugmenter par lindustrie agricole, les richesses du sol conquis par
les armes; ces travaux dart, simples et grandioses, qui assurent de bonnes conditions dexistence
aux cits et la prosprit des campagnes, acqueducs, rservoirs, barrages, canaux dirrigation, lui
taient familiers, et dans les provinces dAfrique surtout, la science des constructions devint souvent leur auxiliaire. Les avantages et les inconvniens que prsente ce pays leur furent dabord
dvoils. En prsence dune terre arrose par des cours deau faibles en t, torrentueux en hiver,
o leau des pluies est inconnue pendant la plus grande partie de lanne, ils comprirent que sa
fertilit ne les dispensait pas dessayer par leurs travaux de corriger la nature. Par leurs soins,
les villes se couvrirent de citernes et daquducs, les campagnes, de chausses et de canaux.
Les dbris antiques de toutes sortes que lon trouve chaque pas, font prsumer que lindustrie
particulire rivalisait avec ldilit des villes et la puissance publique elle-mme; car, le systme
de colonisation adopt par eux fut celui de la grande culture.
[
213]Reibel, Gaston, La Rgence de Tunis vue par un touriste franais, Blois n.d. but after 1937,
34 rainfall in Tunisia in antiquity: La rponse est inscrite dans les ruines elles-mmes. Le principe romain consistait stocker leau. Or on na pas besoin de recourir des travaux comme
ceux dont les vestiges subsistent dans un pays pluviomtrie normale. Donc les romains, se
sont trouvs, quand ils ont occup le pays, devant les mmes difficults que nous depuis 1881. /
Au surplus les travaux de M. Ginestous, lancien et minent directeur du service mtorologique
de Tunis, ont tabli premptoirement que les chutes de pluies sont suffisantes en Tunisie pour
subvenir tous les besoins. Le tout est de les recueillir, de les conserver et de les transporter. Cest
rsoudre ce problme que les romains semployrent, et ils y russirent. Toutain_1896_5675
Lalimentation en eau des cits, for a summary of Roman survival.
[
214]Fouquier_1846_140 going Constantine to Biskra: Chemin faisant, nous avons rencontr
ci et l les dbris dune ancienne voie romaine, et les restes de petits tablissements romains,
des postes militaires, sans doute. Les ruines qui jonchent le sol Ain-Mlila sont plus importantes, par leur tendue, que celles que nous avions rencontres jusqualors, mais elles noffrent
gure plus dintrt, car il nest rest debout aucun monument. Toute cette province est pleine de
semblables dbris; il nest pas une seule source prs de laquelle on ne trouve des pierres
romaines, quelquefois, mais rarement, des tronons, des bases ou des chapiteaux de colonnes
en marbre blanc, des pierres charges dinscriptions, et des fragments dautels orns de sculptures. Dans toutes les oasis du dsert o lon a pntr, on a retrouv des traces dtablissements
romains, et la limite de leur ancienne puissance nous est encore inconnue.
[
215]Grard, Jules (18171864), LAfrique du Nord: description, histoire, arme, populations,
administration et colonisation, chasses, le Maroc..., Paris 1860, 11: Il doit ncessairement rsulter
de cet tat physique du pays, aussi bien que de sa temprature particulire, que des nappes

deau souterraines existent dans les plaines; et en effet, au milieu des rgions en apparence les
plus sches et les plus striles, on est tout tonn de rencontrer souvent des ruines romaines
considrables; et comme pour justifier ces tablissements dans un milieu aujourdhui dsert,
inculte et dun aspect dsol, le peuple-roi a creus une multitude de puits qui montrent leau
abondante et quelques mtres de profondeur seulement. Il nest pas rare de trouver parmi ces
ruines un figuier qui est demeur pour reprsenter de pre en fils ceux de sa famille apports
et plants l par les Romains. Cest sans doute aprs avoir fait de semblables observations que
le gnral Desvaux, dsireux de rendre un grand service au pays qui lui tait confi, a ordonn
et fait excuter sous ses yeux des soudages artsiens non-seulement dans les vastes plaines qui
bordent le Grand-Atlas, mais jusque dans le Sahara. Partout, ou presque partout, leau a jailli la
surface du soi en quantit assez considrable pour servir lirrigation des terres et la cration
de nouvelles oasis.
[
216]Saladin_1892_443 Teboursouk: Une si longue existence a du laisser de nombreux monuments; jusquici les monuments pigraphiques ont seuls montr par leur nombre limportance
de la ville antique. Une porte monumentale qui a t mure dans l enceinte byzantine et la
citadelle forme par cette enceinte sont, avec les bassins et le rservoir de la fontaine antique
qui sert encore actuellement, les seuls monuments architecturaux de la ville antique reconnaissables aujourdhui. La citadelle byzantine occupe la partie nord-est de la ville actuelle.
[
217]Piquet_1914_412 Tunisia: Il na pas t construit de barrages-rservoirs, auxquels dailleurs on a renonc dans lAfrique du Nord; mais il na pas t fait non plus de barrages de drivation. Il sest constitu seulement, depuis quelques annes, des syndicats dirrigation qui sont
encore bien peu nombreux; on nen compte pas plus de treize. / Pourtant on retrouve des traces
de luvre gigantesque accomplie par les Romains dans cet ordre dides. Il arrive mme que,
lorsquon veut amnager une source dans la campagne, on retrouve en la curant les restes dun
puits et des galeries de drainage en excellent tat, quil ny a qu utiliser nouveau.
[
218]Carton_1894_31 cisterns: En outre, ces gigantesques travaux ont encore un intrt plus
pratique. Je nen veux pour preuve que les citernes de Carthage, que nous avons rpares, et qui
servent de nouveau, et celles du Kef, que lon a remis en tat avec 48,000 francs, alors que de lavis
des entrepreneurs leur construction et cot un demi million.
[
219]Gaffarel_1883_468: Aux abords du Sahara, dans la province de Constantine, des villes
romaines slevaient jadis, Lambessa, par exemple, dans les ruines de laquelle on a trouv des
meules olives; or il na plus aujourdhui dans ces parages ni oliviers ni arbres quelconques. Au
sud des provinces dAlger et dOran, la tradition rapporte quil existait autrefois une suite non
interrompue de forts: cest de nos jours une vaste plaine dnude. Le plus grand cours deau de
lAlgrie, le Chliff, traverse des rgions dune extrme fertilit, et il rendrait dinapprciables services, si, au lieu dtre sec la plus grande partie de lanne, il avait un dbit rgulier assur par le
boisement de ses sources, mais la rgion des plateaux a galement perdu sa verdoyante parure.
Cest assurment cette disparition des forts qul faut attribuer la plupart des difficults deau
ou de climat, que nous avons rencontres en Afrique. Nous avons donc recueilli en trs mauvais
tat cette part de la succession turque, mais nous nen serions responsables que si nous laissions
empirer une situation dj mauvaise.
[
220]Toussaint_1904_127128: Dans les brigades du Sud tunisien, lattention des officiers
topographes sest spcialement porte sur les travaux hydrauliques antiques dont llude, en ces
rgions si pauvres en eaux courantes et en sources, prsente un intrt tout particulier au point
de vue du dveloppement de la colonisation; presque partout, dans ces contres aujourdhui
appendix
peine habites et presque compltement striles, on retrouve des vestiges de bourgs, de villages, de fermes antiques dont le rapprochement indique la densit de la population ainsi que
la continuit relalive des cultures. et il est bien certain que cest uniquement leurs travaux
hydrauliques, barrages, canaux dirrigation, rservoirs, citernes, que les Romains avaient du un
tel dveloppement de leur occupation.
[
221]Fallot_1887_211: Partout, en Algrie, cette question est capitale; mais nulle part elle nacquiert le degr durgence quelle possde dans les Aurs. Ailleurs, il sagit seulement de faire
progresser lagriculture et la colonisation; ici, cest certaines poques une question de vie ou
de mort pour la population. Pendant les annes de scheresse, les tribus mridionales sont exposes mourir littralement de soif. La France a limprieux devoir de chercher les moyens les
plus propres remdier cette pnible situation. Ces moyens existent et la science hydraulique
saura les indiquer. Il ny aurait, du reste, qu restaurer les merveilleux travaux de canalisation
construits il y a plusieurs sicles par les Romains, pour rendre aux Aurs une partie de leur
ancienne fertilit. On retrouve encore certains endroits les ruines de ces antiques monuments
dune civilisation disparue. Les indignes les utilisent parfois et ils leur doivent labondance de
leurs rcoltes et lexistence de plusieurs villages. Il serait bon de faire tudier par des hommes
spciaux ltat actuel de ce qui reste du systme dirrigations construit par les Romains dans les
Aurs et la possibilit de le relever de ses ruines et de lutiliser aujourdhui.
[
222]Faucon_1893_II_221222 Tunisia: Soit cause de la ngligence, soit cause de lincapacit au point de vue technique des Outils des fontaines, lemploi de ces ressources ne donna pas
les rsultats quavaient espr les pieux donateurs, et, en 1883, lalimentation hydraulique des
villes tait gravement compromise les citernes particulires, dont un grand nombre de maisons
taient pourvues, empchrent seules, dans bien des cas, la population de souffrir de la soif. /
Aussitt cre, la Direction gnrale des Travaux Publics se proccupa donc immdiatement
des moyens de porter remde cet tat de choses. Suivant les traces que la civilisation romaine
a laisses un peu partout en Tunisie, Oudna, au Cap Blanc, Nebeul, Bulla-Regia, Mateur,
Sousse, Cherichera, etc. utilisant dans certains cas, comme au Kef, les fontaines romaines
elles-mmes, elle a entrepris dimportants travaux dadduction deau, dont lachvement aura
une heureuse influence sur la sant publique. / Dj Porto-Farina a vu ramener dans son ancien
rservoir les eaux captes sous un rgne prcdent, par lancien gnral Salah Chiboub. Bj,
par le captage et la canalisation sur 3,500 mtres des sources dnommes An-Fabouar, Bassin
de Neptune et An-Ceballa, dispose de 200 litres par jour et par habitant. Bizerte reoit les eaux
dAn-Nadour par une conduite en fonte de 5 kilomtres. Leau arrive galement Tabarka,
Teboursouk, el-Alia, Djemmal, auKef, Ghardimaou, Mateur, Maktar, Nebeul o les ruines
de la conduite romaine ont t partiellement utilises. A Kairouan, le grand bassin des Aglabites,
vaste rservoir circulaire ciel ouvert de 128 mtres de diamtre, a t restaur, et la conduite de
Cherichera lalimente. / Sousse et Sfax, les deux villes les plus importantes aprs Tunis, sont les
moins favorises par le rgime des eaux. / La premire na dautre approvisionnement que celui
de citernes et les puits deau douce du quartier de la Quarantaine, auxquels vient sajouter le
faible dbit dune ancienne conduite romaine, dont les eaux sont impropres la consommation.
[
223]Toussaint_1906_223224 re. Brigades Topographiques: Dans les rgions du Sud tunisien,
lattention des topographes sest spcialement porte sur les travaux hydrauliques antiques dont
ltude, en ces contres si pauvres en eaux courantes et en sources, prsente un si grand intert.
non seulement au point de vue du dveloppement de la colonisation europenne, mais encore
au point de vue de la fixation et du groupement des indignes, de lamlioration de leur vie

matrielle et du dveloppement de leurs cultures. La remise en tat de quelques-uns des travaux
hydrauliques signals (puits, citernes et barrages) suffirait pour rendre ce pays, aujourdhui
peine habit et presque compltement strile, une partie de la prosprit quil a connue autrefois et dont tmoignent les nombreuses ruines que lon y rencontre, mme dans les points les
plus dserts et les plus reculs.
[
224]Lasnavres_1865_116 on the difficulties of colony-founding: Voyons, la France se proposerait de jeter 100 millions en six ans sur le territoire de lAlgrie que nous aurions le grand tort
de considrer comme une nouvelle France ni prsente, ni future; et si nous dbutions par une
bonne ide, il vous semblerait que nous finirions par une ide qui sloignerait de la premire.
Ainsi, le total partiel applicable la cration et lamlioration des routes est vraiment acceptable en ce sens que celles-ci faciliteraient la marche de nos troupes et celle de nos convois.
Passons sous silence les productions du sol et mettons un terme nos illusions. Un pays musulman qui est et qui sera toujours ltat de rvolte contre nous, ne nous fournira jamais dautres
revenus que des soulvements, et partant la dsolation. Le pass est l comme garant de lavenir.
Mais pour ce qui concerne les ports, les barrages, les canaux, les desschements des marais,
les puits artsiens, le numraire qui arrive au chiffre de 50 millions est ou trop petit ou trop
grand: trop petit, parce quil noffre que limage dun grain de sable pour lachvement doprations incommensurables, attendu que le royaume dAlger nest quun vaste domaine gographique o les fivres intermittentes commandent en souveraines; ou trop grand, parce quil ne
servirait qu faire la fortune davides entrepreneurs et des ouvriers kabiles, car vous nen aurez
pas dautres, en compagnie de quelques contre-matres maltais qui, bien souvent, sont aussi
voleurs que les Bdouins; et ce que je dis des marais, je lappliquerai aux barrages, aux canaux,
ainsi quaux puits artsiens.
[
225]De_Montagnac_1885_427 from Djemmaa-Ghazaouet in 1844: Notre tablissement en
planches slve avec assez dactivit; on aperoit dj quil y a l-dessous des humains intelligents qui font uvre de leurs dix doigts. Nos jardins stendent, on voit les lgumes sortir de
terre; dans un mois jaurai de quoi faire une distribution toute la garnison. Ce pays est un de
ceux dAfrique qui offrent le plus de ressources, sous le rapport de la fertilit du sol. Il y a de quoi
faire des choses charmantes. Malheureusement, ces beaux jardins, ces riches ombrages, deviendront un jour la proie de nos Vandales, de nos pouvantables spculateurs dAfrique; et tout cela
tombera sous la cupidit de ces horribles vampires qui ne laissent que des cadavres et des ruines
partout o ils passent. / Et ces malheureuses populations, aujourdhui si vivaces, si belles, que
deviendront-elles? Elles iront toutes mourir de misre sur le bord dune fontaine tarie; celles
qui chapperont au dsastre viendront stioler sous les miasmes de notre civilisation infecte, et
steindre bientt. Tel est pourtant le sort rserv tous ces tres que les vnements ont placs
sous notre domination. L o nous passons, tout tombe.
[
226]Lamoricire_1847_58 colonisation problems: Telle est la situation: il tait important de
la constater surtout au point de vue des dsintressemens donner aux lmens de la population indigne, lorsquon devra les dplacer. Ces dplacemens ne dateront pas certainement du
mme jour, il est de notre intrt de les rendre successifs au fur et mesure des besoins: agir
autrement, serait rendre complet cet tat dabandon du sol dj si avanc et dont nous venons
de constater les funestes effets. Toutefois, tandis que ce mouvement dvacuation graduelle
soprera, la Colonie aura dj marqu ses progrs dinvasion; les travaux que ltat entreprendra pour faciliter le dveloppement de celle-ci, les routes, la multiplication des puits, lamnagement des fontaines, les travaux dirrigation, les desschemens, etc., auront renouvelle la face du
pays et donn distance une augmentation de valeur la terre.
appendix
[
227]Le Mis de Massol, M., Souvenirs de la Province dOran. Itinraire de Sidi-Bel-Abbs
Oran, in Revue de lOrient, de lAlgrie et des Colonies. Bulletin et Actes de la Socit Orientale de
France [NB title varies] 15 1854, 288291: Sidi-Brahim renferme un atelier de transports politiques employs aux travaux de la route...La grande question est de donner toutes ces eaux
un cours normal et de rendre la surface du sol tout ce qui se perd sans profit dans les profondeurs de la terre. / Ce sera luvre du temps et de la colonisation europenne. Il ne faut point
compter sur le travaille la population indigne. Les maisons et villages arabes qui sur beaucoup
de points ont t construits par les soins des bureaux arabes, nauront pas de dure; car lArabe
de la plaine nentretient rien, il laisse scrouler ses murs et ses portes, et semble se plaire au
milieu des ruines. Il nen est pas de mme du Kabyle, qui depuis des sicles habite le village et
est fix au sol. Le cavalier de la plaine ne connat que sa tente, sa femme et son cheval; lune est
son esclave, tandis quil est lesclave de lautre.
[
228]Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1887_30_December: Les Richesses Algriennes. A six kilomtres de Khenchela, existe une petite rivire connue sous le nom de Fontaine-Chaude et
tout--fait digne dadmiration. / On supposait que les habitants de lantique Mascula devaient
avoir tabli des bains dans le voisinage et les Khenchelois navaient rien tant coeur que de voir
mettre dcouvert les travaux jadis excuts par leurs devanciers les Romains. / Grce lintelligence et au zle de lexcellent conducteur des Ponts et Chausses, M. Masseport, gnreusement
appuy par la Commission municipale, on sest mis loeuvre. / Lessai a russi au-del de toute
esprance. Qui let cru? A droite de la rivire se trouve un vaste bassin deau bouillante et sulfureuse, et quatre mtres de profondeur environ, on a dcouvert un canal de cent mtres de
long. / Mais voici le comble: un gourbi est l, debout, il gne, on le dmolit, on fouille, on creuse
et la profondeur de six mtres, que trouve-t-on? Je vous le donne en cent. Un...moulin vieux
de seize sicles, dont les meules servent actuellement de tables aux ouvriers. Les murs intacts,
les chambres, les corridors, les escaliers bien conservs. / On poursuit activement les fouilles. /
Les ouvriers travaillent avec courage et surtout avec lespoir de dcouvrir le fameux trsor qui,
daprs la lgende, y aurait t cach au fond dune cave par Scipion (le second Africain). / Dj
beaucoup de voyageurs et de touristes ont visit ces magnifiques monuments ternels tmoins
de la prosprit de notre rgion sous loccupation romaine. / Tous les jours, les habitants de
Khenchela contemplent avec une lgitime satisfaction le va et vient des voitures qui, malgr les
ingalits du terrain, font le voyage de la Fontaine-Chaude. / Bientt, nous lesprons, on y fera
une belle route carrossable et alors, non-seulement de lAlgrie et de la Tunisie, mais de la France
et de tous les coins du monde, nous verrons accourir Khenchela des foules de visiteurs de tout
rang et de toute qualit.
[
229]Masqueray_1878_447 writing on Khenchela and Besseriani: On a trouv rcemment
Khenchela, en curant la piscine romaine, seul monument qui nous reste de lancienne Mascula,
un conduit qui lalimentait. Ce conduit, solidement bti, el dans lequel un homme peut passer,
senfonce au coeur mme du Chabor, dernier peron de lAouras, et va capter son origine la
source qui alimente encore aujourdhui toute la ville; il date probablement de la fondation de
Mascula. On lavait rpar avec soin plus tard, car une des pierres qui en recouvraient lorifice
porte une inscription militaire datant du rgne de Trajan.
[
230]Lespinasse-Langeac_1893_176177 south-east of Sbeitla: Henchir-Hamna. A3
kilomtres lest [of Bir-El-Hafei]. Beau puits construit avec des dbris romains, tels que
pilastres et colonnes en pierre rostre. Trois beaux sarcophages en pierre servent dabreuvoir:
ces sarcophages, probablement dpoque chrtienne, ont la forme dauges rectangulaires vides intrieurement et arrondies aux extrmits. Tout auprs, vaste monument en blocage, avec

ossature en belles pierres tailles avec soin. Les murs ont encore prs de 3 mtres de hauteur; le
ct est, celui de la faade, est seul dtruit. Ce devait tre une glise.
[
231]Bosredon_1878_1415 Tebessa environs: Bir-El-Ater. Bir-El-Ater est un ancien puits
romain bien conserv, parement en grosses pierres de taille, creus cylindriquement sur up
diamtre de six mtres. Fortement envas aujourdhui, il mesure encore mtres de profondeur.
Leau, dexcellente qualit, monte 3 mtres de lorifice; pendant lt, le niveau baisse sensiblement, mais le dbit est toujours abondant...On ne trouve pas de ruines autour du puits, adoss
un rocher dans un bas-fond; mais lentre et la sortie du col, surtout du ct sud, on rencontre de nombreux vestiges de constructions romaines. / Ce puits a conserv jusqu nos jours
son pithte latine de Ater, que lui a valu laspect noirtre et calcin de la montagne, au pied de
laquelle il est creus. Cette appellation correspond celle dEl-Asoud, donne frquemment
dans le Sud par les Arabes des rochers et des montagnes qui prsentent la vue une teinte
noire.
[
232]Wagner_1841_I_335336 survival of Roman names: So nennen die Araber Calama
Ghelma Arsenaria Arseu Milevum Milah Sitifis Setifi. Nur jene Stdte, die gar keine
Spur von Alterthmern mehr zeigen, haben ihre alten Namen nicht auf die heutigen Bewohner
vererbt. El-Dschesair (Algier Icosium); Anaba (Bona-Hippo), Warran (Oran), Maskara sind rein
arabische Namen.
[
233]M. Piobert has sent in a copy of his mmoire on Les roues hydrauliques axe vertical,
donne quelques dtails sur une espce de roues de ce genre, qui est frquemment employe en
Afrique, notamment dans les environs de Constantine, prs des grandes chutes du Rummel, in
Compte Rendu des Sances de lAcadmie des Sciences JanuaryJune 1840, 78.
[
234]Masqueray_1878_448 writing on Khenchela and Besseriani: Le nombre considrable de
puits anciens auprs desquels slvent de petites ruines, est encore une preuve qui sajoute
toutes ces indications pour nous convaincre de la raret relative des eaux ds lantiquit. On
ne peut-quen admirer davantage le gnie Colonisateur du peuple qui sut tirer si grand parti
de notre Algrie. Les Romains ont os croire la dure indfinie de leur empire sur cette terre
dfaillante. Ls Arabes eux-mmes sen tonnent et nous disent, en nous montrant leurs maisons
de pierres dont les pans sont toujours debout: Vos anctres croyaient donc ne pas mourir?
Souvenirs dAfrique, 18541855; par le Dr X, Lille 1856, 48: Un Arabe, sapprochant dun colon qui
construisait une maison, lui dit: Quelles annes comptes-tu vivre pour te btir une demeure
plus solide que toi? Tu es fou de prvoir au del de la mort.
[
235]Payen_1864_67 writing of the Hodna, Province de Constantine: L commence un territoire de plus de 2,500 hectares auquel les Ouled-Sidi-Brahim ont essay, il y a cinq ou six ans,
de rendre le seul lment de fertilit de la contre; mais aprs dix-huit mois defforts inous
et dignes dun meilleur succs, la premire crue a prouv que leurs moyens sont insuffisants,
ou mieux que largile, mme soutenue par des racines, ne peut rsister laction dune masse
considrable deau courante. / Lancien barrage est encore en bon tat de conservation, sur une
longueur de cinquante mtres, qui pourront tre utiliss un jour en rtablissant la brisure large
de dix mtres, brche sous laquelle le lit du torrent offre un fond de poudingue; seulement, il
y aura lieu dviter la faute commise par les premiers constructeurs, qui nont pas remarqu ou
nont pas tenu compte que les poudingues taient forms par lames peu adhrentes entre elles
et nont pas creus de fondations pour consolider leur travail.
[
236]Peyssonnel_1838_I_131 travelled 172425, Dougga: On voit encore les restes des aqueducs qui conduisaient leau dans la ville. Quelques Bdouins habitent encore dans ces masures
appendix
et se servent dune petite source deau qui se trouve au bas de la ville. A quelque distance sont
dautres masures sur lesquelles on lit...
[
237]Peyssonnel_1838_I_99100 travelled 172425, the River Bagrada: Nous la passmes un
quart de lieue de Tuburbo qui conserve encore son ancien nom. Je ne sais si cest le Tuburbo
majus ou le minus; mais il y avait un colyse trs beau qui a t dtruit par Mahamet-Bey, il
y a une vingtaine dannes, pour construire un pont. Il disait quil voulait dtourner la rivire
et la conduire Tunis; mais son vritable dessein tait tout autre. Il a jet les fondemens dun
pont qui est presque achev. Ce pont a environ quatre cents pieds de long sur quatre-vingt-dix
de large et vingt-deux arcades de douze pieds chacune. La chausse du milieu a trente pieds de
large et chaque trottoir autant. Il avait pratiqu une cluse ou prise deau que les fondemens du
pont formaient, de sorte que les eaux arrivant ce pont ont une chute considrable, tombent
sous les premiers parapets, font tourner un rang de vingt-deux meules de moulins, puis se reposant sous la chausse, retombent de nouveau et font tourner un second rang encore de vingtdeux meules. Ainsi, lorsque la rivire aurait pu fournir assez deau, il y aurait eu quarante-quatre
meules tournantes, ce qui aurait donn ce bey un revenu trs considrable. Il na que quatre
de ces moulins dachevs et mme la rivire, dans cette saison, ne peut fournir de leau que pour
deux moulins.
[
238]Shaw_1757_94 near Tebourba: In the adjacent valley, where the Mejerdab conveys its
stream, the same curious and generous prince [Mahamet Bey] erected, out of the ruins of a
neighbouring amphitheatre, a large massy bridge or damm, with proper sluices and flood-gates,
to raise the river to a convenient height, for watering and refreshing these plantations. But this,
which was too laudable an invention to subsist long in Barbary, is now intirely broken down and
destroyed.
[
239]RA 1878 issue 108 Fraud, L. Charles, Notes sur Tbessa, 430473. 439: Des flancs de
la montagne de Bou Rouman qui domine Tebessa, schappe une eau vive el abondante que les
Romains distribuaient dans leur ville au moyen dun aqueduc de 900 mtres de dveloppement.
Cet aqueduc qui existe encore aujourdhui, franchit un ravin dune quinzaine de mtres de profondeur. / Sur quelques points, les Arabes lont rpar comme ils ont pu le faire, mais cest encore
le canal romain qui amne aujourdhui aux habitants de Tebessa leau qui leur est ncessaire
pour eux et pour leurs jardins.
[
240]Rouire_1893_334 on road systems in the Gulf of Hammamet, here in the Hergla Plain:
Tout le littoral de la Tunisie centrale se trouva isol pendant de longs mois. Le pays avait alors
sa tte un homme intelligent et nergique, dont les Europens de la cte ne rappellent encore le
souvenir quavec des loges, le gnral Si-Reschid, gouverneur du Sahel. De sa propre initiative
il rsolut den finir une fois pour toutes avec une situation qui se renouvelant dune manire
priodique tait la ruine du pays. Malgr les difficults, il dcida la construction dune chausse
travers lOued Halk-el-Mengel. / Louvrage qui fut alors excut est, je crois, le plus important
de cette catgorie qui ait t entrepris par les Arabes dans la Rgence. Il na pas moins dun
kilomtre de long. Lensemble de la construction est une haute et longue chausse dos dne
et a par consquent une double inclinaison...Le pav est form de gros blocs assez irrguliers
et bord des deux: cts par un mur bas et plein formant parapet. Il est support par un grand
nombre darches (jen ai compt 21 pour ma part) dautant plus leves et ouvertures dautant
plus larges quelles se rapprochent des extrmits vers le centre. Les arches les plus centrales
peuvent avoir dans les 6 mtres douverture et sont renforces de solides contre-forts. Le pont
est construit en blocages et en gros blocs. Ces matriaux ont t malheureusement emprunts,

du moins en trs grande partie, des ruines romaines et notamment au Kasr dHergla, vaste
difice dorigine byzantine construit en blocages et revtu extrieurement dun appareil de gros
blocs. Un pont romain, situ en aval dans le voisinage, a t mis galement contribution. Il en
a d tre dailleurs ainsi des ruines de Zembra, situes proximit. Commenc en 1857, louvrage
tait termin dix-huit mois aprs seulement. Il fut excut par les troupes places sous le commandement de Si-Reschid.
[
241]Fraud_1869_23 on the tribes in the Province of Constantine. One tribe, many with similar description: Les Oulad Mahboub, originaires des Beni Oudjana de lAurs, se subdivisent en
Oulad Ahmed, Oulad Ali, Oulad bou Tiour et Douafria. Ils stendent du Djebel bou Ras, chanon
secondaire du Guerioun, lest de la tribu, jusqu la limite dAin Beda au sud. Leur territoire est
trs vaste; cest la fraction la plus importante de la tribu, il y a, chez eux, de nombreuses ruines
romaines, prs desquelles sont gnralement des puits ou des fontaines.
[
242]Gurin_1862_II_54 Le Kef: Parmi les ruines antiques qui ont attir mon attention, je
signalerai en particulier: 1 Les vestiges dun ancien sanctuaire consacr jadis a Hercule, ainsi
que cela rsulte dune inscription trouve sur place par Peyssonnel, et qui depuis a disparu;
2 Ceux dune basilique chrtienne actuellement en grande partie dmolie; 3 Les restes dun
palais; 4 Une fontaine monumentale qui fournit encore aux habitants une eau trs-abondante,
laquelle arrive au moyen dun grand canal souterrain; 5 Une seconde fontaine, aujourdhui
bouche; qui coulait, comme la prcdente, dune profonde caverne. a et la, en outre, dans des
constructions modernes, on remarque de belles pierres antiques, des tronons de colonnes, des
chapiteaux mutils, des fragments dentablements, des cippes tumulaires engags confusment
au milieu de matriaux plus ordinaires. / En dehors de la ville, lextrmit suprieure du plateau rocheux que jai signale comme dominant la citadelle elle-mme, est une ruine dsigne
parmi les indignes sous le nom de Kasr-er-Roula (le chteau de la Goule, de la magicienne).
Cest, ainsi que M. Berbrugger la fort bien reconnu, ancienne basilique chrtienne.
[
243]Tissot_1888_379 Le Kef: La ville proprement dite est extrmement riche en dbris
romains, malheureusement engags pour la plupart dans le chaos des constructions arabes. La
fontaine principale, appele An el-Kef, est orne dune arcade monumentale en plein cintre.
Le volume de ses eaux est considrable: cest moins une source quune rivire sortant dune
caverne laquelle les indignes attribuent une tendue de plus de 6 milles. Les votes et les
parois de ce souterrain sont maonnes jusqu une certaine distance. Un peu plus haut se
trouve une autre fontaine antique, lAn el-Hadjima, aujourdhui mure, au-dessous de laquelle
slve un immense difice, probablement un monastre chrtien, bti en pierres de grand appareil et perc de nombreuses ouvertures cintres. Une croix grecque et les emblmes de la Passion
sont sculpts au-dessus dune des portes.
[
244]Carton_1888_439 Roman hydraulics: LArabe insouciant sait bien creuser profondment
et au pril de sa vie pour trouver leau jaillissante; plus forte raison des peuples plus polics et
dune activit plus grande ont-ils pu connatre la faon de faire un puits artsien.
[
245]Foucher_1858_3334: Une des mesures les plus heureuses a t le forage des puits artsiens, qui est apparu lArabe comme un trsor inapprciable arrach aux entrailles de la terre
par le gnie bienfaisant de son vainqueur.
[
246]Payen_1864_3 ancient hydraulics, writing of the Hodna, Province de Constantine: Les
anciens puits du mode artsien, visits et reconnus par lauteur de celle notice, sont les sources
jaillissantes dsignes par les indignes sous les noms: dAn-Qob-ben-Mennam, louest du
Fened, mamelon rocheux qui fait cap sur le lac; une autre source lest de ce cap; An-el-Bey
appendix
et An-el-Hadjar au sud-est du lac; deux autres dont, An-Qob, situs gauche et droite de
Mokta-Djedien; An-Nakhar, An-Kebba et An-Taboucha au nord du lac. Ces puits artsiens
sont chelonns des distances presque gales, sur le parcours dun chemin de ceinture qui
faisait le tour du lac sans jamais sen loigner de plus de 5 6 kilomtres. Les indignes assurent
quau sud-ouest du lac il existe des fontaines du mme genre, entre autres An-el-Amia. Si ces
donnes sont vridiques, le bassin artsien exploit par les anciens habitants du Hodna devait
avoir environ 20,000 hectares de superficie.
[
247]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_45 Mahdia: A lentre, du ct de loccident, se voit une
grande tour, solidement tablie: elle dfendait laccs de Mahdia de ce ct. Plus haut, un cimetire arabe stend sur une petite colline o se trouvent de fort belles citernes de construction
romaine; elles servent encore alimenter une partie de la ville.
[
248]Fillias_1860_183: Les eaux pluviales que lon recueille dans les citernes sont dun usage
fort gnral dans ce pays. Les Romains nous ont laiss de magnifiques vestiges de ces constructions quelquefois gantes et que leur prvoyance consacrait lutilit publique. Dans plusieurs
villes arabes, chaque habitation est pourvue dune citerne; et Dapper rapporte quil en tait de
mme pour Alger avant lanne 1611, poque laquelle un des Maures chasss dEspagne trouva
moyen dy faire deux aqueducs qui donnaient de leau plus de cent fontaines.
[
249]Tinthoin_1954_232: Le barrage de la Mina infrieure. / Ds 1844, le Gnie rpare lancien
barrage en maonnerie et son rservoir, construits par les Romains, relevs par les Berbres et
les Turcs, trois kilomtres en amont du futur Relizane. On remet en tat les canaux dirrigation,
on en tablit de nouveaux, rive gauche, sur 12 km. et on construit des vannes. / En 1850, le Gnie
organise lirrigation, excute des rfections urgentes au barrage turc de la Mina pour remdier
aux affouillements. Aussitt, les Sahari irriguent leurs terres et obtiennent des rcoltes exceptionnelles sur les deux rives de la Mina mais, en 1858, lors de la cration du centre de Relizane,
les eaux du barrage sont rserves pour les besoins des colons. On rtablit galement le barrage
de lHillil, 3 km. 500 en amont de ce futur village, grce larme aide douvriers civils. / En
1857, le Gnie rglemente provisoirement lusage des eaux entre les riverains; les canaux existants distribuent leau dans presque tous les lots de petite culture et dans un grand nombre de
fermes isoles. Lanne suivante, les canaux sont obstrus de vase, mais ladministration militaire manque dargent pour les curer.
[
250]Gsell_1902_49 region of Philippeville: Nous devons la vrit de dire que tous les
matriaux du barrage tabli en bas du rservoir de Mechtila ont t utiliss par le service de
la construction du chemin de fer et par celui des ponts et chausses pour la route nationale. /
Au dbut de loccupation, et, plus tard, en construisant la ferme Fouatte, on a retrouv des
emplacements de vannes de distribution et quelques parties de canaux encore bien conserves.
Les travaux faits la terre depuis cette poque lont nivele au point de ne plus rien laisser des
anciens travaux hydrauliques. / En contre-bas des fermes Dcugis, Hraud, de Marqu, le chemin de fer, la route et la colonisation nont rien laiss non plus de tout ce que nous avons pu voir
en 1857 ou 1858.
[
251]Tissot_1881_99 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone: La ville
arabe de Tbourba noccupe que la partie de lenceinte de Thuburbo Minus qui comprenait la colline et la dachra de Ghars Allah. Fonde la fin du XVe sicle par les Maures chasss dEspagne,
elle est construite tout entire avec les dbris de la station romaine. Les seuls vestiges antiques
reconnaissables sont ceux dun amphithtre dont les assises ont t enleves dans les dernires
annes du XVIIe sicle pour servir la construction du barrage de la Medjerda El-Batan.

[
252]Tissot_1888_248 Exploration scientifique de la Tunisie: La ville arabe de Tbourba
noccupe que la partie de lenceinte de Thuburbo minus qui comprenait la colline et la dachera
de Ghars Allab. Fonde la fin du XVe sicle par une colonie de Maures chasss de lEspagne,
elle est construite tout entire avec les matriaux de la ville romaine. Lamphithtre subsistait
encore vers la fin du XVIIe sicle. Les assises furent enleves cette poque pour servir la
construction du barrage de la Medjerda El-Batan; son emplacement nest plus reconnaissable
qu la vaste excavation en forme dellipse de la cavea et aux substructions en blocage qui portaient les gradins. / La voie romaine reparat peu de distance au del de Tbourba. Lagger dall
est parfaitement reconnaissable sur une tendue de prs de 24 kilomtres.
[
253]Hilton-Simpson_1921_43: The system of irrigation in use at Beni Ferah is that which
obtains all over the Aurs, and, as its study brought to our notice a very quaint method of measuring time, we may examine it in some detail. At a point situated some distance above the
gardens the river is tapped by means of a barrage, often consisting merely of a line of boulders
so placed as to deflect a certain amount of the stream into a narrow canal, known in Algeria
as a seggia, by means of which it is conducted through, or rather beside and slightly above,
the land to be cultivated, each garden possessing its own branch channel from the main seggia by means of which it can be flooded in its turn. This simple system of canals must be of
great antiquity, indeed at El Kantara and in certain parts of the Aurs seggias cut in the solid
rock dating from the time of the Roman occupation of Algeria are in constant use to-day, while
disused channels at an altitude far higher than any now employed show that in ancient times
the country enjoyed a greater rainfall and, in consequence, more abundant streams, so that a
considerably larger area in its valleys was kept under cultivation than is possible now.
[
254]Carteron_1866_272 Lambessa: Au loin, en dehors, est encore debout une porte de la
ville o passait la voie de Marcouna: elle se compose de trois arches ceintres, en forme darc
de triomphe, spares entre elles par des colonnes toscanes, avec une frise en partie dtruite. Il
y a encore une autre porte pareille et moins grande, des caves votes o sont des quantits de
sarcophages dont on a transport quelques-uns Lambesse pour faire des auges de fontaines;
puis un reste de fort, lemplacement du cirque dont les belles marches ont t prises pour les
constructions du Pnitencier, quelques pans de murs du temple dEsculape avec des fragments
de mosaque.
[
255]Peyssonnel_1838_I_221 travelled 172425, the Arabs: Ils sont extrmement paresseux et
ne travaillent que dans deux saisons de lanne: aux temps des semences et des moissons. Le
reste de lanne ils ne font absolument rien. Ils nont aucun soin des arbres fruitiers ni des herbes
potagres; ils ne sment que du bl, de lorge, quelques fves, des pois chiches et du mas; ils
font mme peu de cas de ces lgumes. Leurs enfans sont occups la garde des bestiaux, et leurs
femmes ont soin de faire du bois, de traire les vaches, de moudre le bl avec des moulins bras,
et daller le soir cher de leau pour les hommes et les bestiaux.
[
256]Lamoricire_1847_57 Colonisation project: after totting up the hectares that could be
colonised on Arab land: En examinant le territoire de chaque tribu, on a pu apprcier le degr
dabandon dans lequel il se trouve; les voies de communications principales ne sont que des
sentiers troits, rsultant seulement du parcours, souvent obstrus de broussailles ou intercepts par des ravines. Les sources accessibles aux bestiaux sont des bourbiers. Leau des puits
est corrompue par tout ce que lincurie des Arabes y laisse tomber et sjourner. Autour de la
plupart de ces puits, des trous en terre servent dauge pour abreuver les troupeaux. Ces trous
finissent par former des mares infectes, dont les infiltrations dlayent la terre ou la maonnerie
appendix
de la paroi intrieure du puits, jusqu ce quun boulement sen suive. Ces accideus dailleurs
ne dterminent pas le douar ou la tribu entreprendre quelques rparations; elle ira plutt
3 lieues plus loin chercher leau qui lui est ncessaire...Si lon jette les yeux sur les cultures,
on voit combien la terre offre de facilits au travail de lhomme et combien celui-ci, trop clair
sem sur sa surface, la nglige. Disposant de grands espaces, il choisit les plus favorables et se
retire avec insouciance devant linvasion des bois sur le sol destin la charrue; chaque jour les
friches augmentent. Cependant le nombre de troupeaux de la tribu ne permet pas que la terre
devienne une fort; les incendies en font justice, et la vaine pture achve de rduire ltat de
broussailles toute la vgtation.
[
257]Payen_1864_3: Quant aux puits ordinaires, il sen trouve de construits, et l, dans
tout le Hodna, toujours prs des ruines romaines; la plupart sont combls par les alluvious de la
plaine et on ne les remarque qu lorifice encore bant et souvent orn dune margelle en pierre
de taille gnralement use par la corde qui a servi puiser leau. Telle est lincurie et la paresse
de larabe, qui prfre se plaindre continuellement de manquer de leau ncessaire ses besoins,
envoyer sa femme la chercher de grandes distances, plutt que doprer, sur le lieu mme de
son campement habituel, le simple curage dun puits tout maonn, prs duquel il est chaque
jour en contemplation et qui, depuis des sicles, lui offre dtancher sa soif.
[
258]Carton_1891_223 around Souk-el-Arba: En t, la source ne fournit pas deau, et il
semble tonnant quau lieu daboutir des bassins, le ruisseau nait pas t, durant la saison
chaude, conduit des citernes. On peut en conclure que peut-tre il ne tarissait pas autrefois;
et des indignes trs gs mont racont, sans que je les ai interrogs ce sujet, que, suivant la
tradition, leau y jaillissait jadis en t comme en hiver. / A 200 mtres au sud-ouest, puits romain
dtruit, et ct puits arabe, servant lirrigation dun beau jardin, auges brises, tronon dune
conduite en calcaire.
[
259]Carette_1848_285 writing on Kabylia: Le territoire des Beni-Khelli est mamelonn,
mais non montagneux. On trouve dans leur pays une fontaine avec des ruines lentour, appele
Tala-Hchem (la fontaine de Hichem) parce quelle est voisine dun village qui porte lui-mme
ce nom. Il existe une autre fontaine, de construction antique, prs du village de Bou-lala; elle
porte le nom de Anser-Mahfoud.
[
260]Juge_dAlger_1859_234 At Thala-Tassarthe: Le vieux Hamiche nous conduit une fontaine hors du village, pour nous dbarbouiller. / Cette fontaine est en maonnerie. La faade
ressemble celle dun petit monument grec ou plutt romain; elle est perce de deux petites
arcades, au fond desquelles sont des bassins en pierre de taille recevant leau; on y monte par
trois ou quatre marches.
[
261]Guyon_1864_16 Aquae Persianae / Hammam-Lif: A travers les constructions musulmanes qui slvent dans le pourtour des deux sources, apparaissent et l ds restes de
constructions de lpoque romaine. Nous ne reviendrons pas sur ce que nous avons dj dit
ce sujet, loccasion de la source suprieure, mais nous avons besoin dajouter que cest non
loin de cette source, dans des fouilles pratiques en 1854, pour la fondation de ltablissement
de Sidi Mohamed-ben-Ayed, qua t dcouvert le monument qui fixe, dune manire si prcise,
Hammam-Lif, les eaux persinnes dautrefois. Ce monument consiste en une grande dalle, en
beau marbre blanc, qui servait sans doute darchitrave la porte de ltablissement romain, et
portant linscription suivante...
[
262]Priv, Capitaine, Notes archologiques sur lAarad, le Madjourah et le Cherb, in
Bulletin Archologique 1895, 78132. Quite a connoisseur of wells (he notices several, Roman and

Arab, in his account). 112: LHenchir-Mekkides couvre de ses ruines le sommet dun petit mamelon situ sur la rive gauche de lOued-Mekkides et 200 mtres environ du puits du mme nom;
ce puits, maonn par les soins des beys de Tunis, a prs de 50 mtres de profondeur; leau en
est dailleurs fort mauvaise. 116117: A Madjen-Sinaoui, des ruines jonchent le sol et, au milieu
delles, on voit les restants de quelques rservoirs dmolis. Tout auprs se trouve le beau puits
arabe de Bir-el-Bey, maonn et rpar par les ordres des beys de Tunis. 117118: Au milieu de
lHenchir-Souenia, et sur la rive droite, se trouvent les puits que les Arabes appellent Bir-Souenia.
Lun, de construction arabe, est sec; lautre, dorigine romaine, a une forme quadrangulaire de
4 mtres de cot; sa profondeur est de 4m. 50 environ et il est construit avec de belles pierres de
taille. Leau en est fort bonne. 121: Biar-Mohammed. Les puits de Mohammed sont maonns,
mais cest probablement louvrage des Arabes, qui se sont servis pour cela des pierres antiques
que lon rencontre tout lentour, demicaches sous le sable. 121: Henchir-bou-Ramlihe.
LHenchir-bou-Ramlihe est situ sur les dernires pentes mridionales du Djebel-Gousatt, o
il couvre de ses dbris plus de 6oo mtres de terrain. On y rencontre de nombreuses pierres de
taille, des dbris de poteries, mais sans dtail saillant. / Auprs de cette ruine se trouve le puits
maonn arabe, de BouRamlihe de 40 mtres de profondeur: il se trouvait sec mon passage
(dcembre 1883). 126 Ksar-el-Ahmeur, an Arab well: Jai trouv, le 6 dcembre 1883, sur la paroi
extrieure de la margelle du puits actuel de Bir-el-Ahmeur, 50 mtres au sud du Ksar, une pierre
de taille portant linscription suivante...
[
263]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_66, Une excursion Djebel-Sgao, in the Valley of the OuedSmendou: Sur la lisire des jardins, du ct suprieur, une fontaine abondante dbite leau
ncessaire aux irrigations. Un aqueduc, dont on voit de distance en distance des tronons parfaitement conservs, conduisait autrefois les eaux vers un point sur lequel nous avons remarqu des substructions considrables. Les jardins sont du reste encombrs de chapiteaux, de
fragments, de colonnes et de belles pierres aux riches moulures; il y avait videmment l une
luxueuse villa. / Parmi les gourbis de la mechta, on voit une maison romaine que les habitants
ont approprie leur usage en y ajoutant une couverture.
[
264]Berger_1892_2 reviewing Conseils aux archologues et aux voyageurs. Instructions adresses par le Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques aux correspondants du ministre de linstruction publique, Paris, Leroux, 1890: Lorsquon parcourt ces contres aujourdhui dsertes, on
est surpris de la quantit deau que les Romains y avaient amene. Partout o il y a une ruine,
on trouve des thermes, avec tous les raffinements de la civilisation la plus avance: tepidarium,
frigidarium, piscines paves en mosaques du dessin le plus fin, o les scnes de la vie prive
se mlent des sujets mythologiques. Leau, en effet, est un des grands leviers de la civilisation. Partout o la civilisation sen va, leau disparat. Lislamisme a fait le vide dans les pays
que ses armes ont soumis: leau sen retire, les terres y tarissent. Les Romains, au contraire,
avaient employ tout lart de leurs ingnieurs amener leau des montagnes de la Numidie et
construire ces grands travaux hydrauliques, ces rservoirs, ces aqueducs interminables qui
servent encore aujourdhui . alimenter Tunis. / Les routes ont t leur autre grand moyen de
colonisation. Nul peuple ne les a plus dveloppes. LAlgrie et la Tunisie sont sillonnes de voies
romaines qui subsistent encore au bout de deux mille ans et qui savanaient jusquaux portes
du dsert. Cest quils avaient compris que, pour se rendre matres dun pays, il faut loccuper
effectivement, et que le moyen le plus efficace pour cela est dy multiplier les voies de communication. Les choses nont pas chang, et lexemple des Romains est l pour nous prouver que notre
appendix
domination stendra jusque-l o iront nos chemins de fer. / Ce nest donc pas une vanit que de
relever des bornes milliaires et dy dchiffrer le nom dune lgion romaine, car cest rechercher la
trace des travaux accomplis par les Romains en Afrique, et il faut reconnatre que, sur bien des
points, ils taient plus avancs que nous. Nous sommes leurs hritiers et nous avons continuer
leur oeuvre pour tendre notre domination.
[
265]Perier_1847_164165: Cest ainsi que Rome, prouve dabord par un grand nombre
dpidmies, a fond des monuments dhygine, que la barbarie a bien pu dgrader pendant de
longs sicles, mais que le temps laisse debout. Les Romains navaient pas seulement creus des
cloaques dune magnificence et dune grandeur colossales, qui permettaient de considrer leur
ville comme suspendue et souterrainement navigable, subterquae navigata, suivant lexpression
de Pline; ils avaient lev des aqueducs gigantesques, parfois longs de quarante-trois, de quarante-six et de soixante et un mille pas, soit en conduits au-dessous ou au-dessus du sol, soit
en arcades, et qui furent appels lune des merveilles de Rome et de lunivers. Voil par quels
travaux les Romains achetaient le bienfait dune eau salutaire; et non-seulement Rome, mais
dans notre Algrie, et partout o la conqute avait port leurs armes. Loin de marcher sur ces
traces, il faut lavouer, nous nimitons pas mme assez les indignes, qui prenaient tant de soins
pour se procurer de bonne eau potable, notamment dans les villes, et pour assurer en tout temps
cette consommation. Aussi, nous reste-t-il beaucoup faire sur ce point important.
[
266]Vesian_1850_36: Les Romains, nos devanciers en Afrique et nos matres en colonisation,
savaient autrement que nous exploiter ce beau pays; ils navaient pas laiss un cours deau sans
barrage, une plaine sans un systme dirrigation. Un fragment de pierre, trouv sur les bords du
Sig, prouve, par les mots quil porte, le prix quils attachaient lirrigation: Au gnie du fleuve,
divinit tutlaire de la colonie.
[
267]Buret_1842_207208: A Blidah, les dsordres et les tristes ncessits dune occupation
purement militaire, ont en quelques annes dtruit le systme dirrigation tabli par les Maures;
les canaux ont t bientt obstrus, les rigoles coupes, les bassins dmolis, et les jardins dorangers, privs de leau nourrissante, taient menacs de prir, lpoque o je les visitai. Eh bien!
si le gouvernement navait pas pris sur lui de rtablir le systme dirrigation, sil avait attendu que
des colons isols, arrivant les uns aprs les autres, rparassent les dsastres de la guerre, il aurait
attendu en vain, et la magnifique vgtation de Blidah aurait pri; et cependant il ny avait rien
crer ici, mais seulement imiter et refaire.
[
268]Rey_1900_60: prcisment, dans cette rgion du Sahel Tunisien, ce ne sont pas les
agglomrations urbaines qui comptent, mais bien les exploitations rurales dont on retrouve
des traces innombrables perdues dans la brousse ou dans les vergers doliviers, fermes, moulins
huile et bl, tablissements agricoles, ayant chacun sa citerne, son puits avec des canalisations en terre, en pierres sches et mme en maonnerie, de faon pouvoir amener leau
dans toutes les parties du domaine. Non seulement les villes, mais toutes les campagnes taient
habites. On ne peut pas parcourir un kilomtre dans la campagne sans rencontrer une ruine
romaine, et aujourdhui, dans cette immense rgion quasi dserte, on ne compte que trois villages!...Actuellement El-Djem avec ses puits et ses citernes a peine leau potable ncessaire
ses 2000 habitants. Tous les travaux, uvre des Romains, pour ladduction, la centralisation,
la conservation et la rpartition de leau sont abandonns et ruins; les canaux sont rompus,
et, dans aucune autre rgion de la Tunisie, on ne peut mieux faire la comparaison entre lintelligence pratique et les mthodes savantes des Romains en matire dhydraulique et lincurie de

leurs successeurs. Un seul moyen resterait pour remdier cet tat de choses, ce serait de creuser El-Djem ou dans son territoire, en vue demmagasiner leau pluviale, un ou deux bassins
semblables aux bassins des Aglabites Kairouan.
[
269]Juge_dAlger_1859_260: Quelle est lorigine des Kabyles? Cest un problme qui, je crois,
na pas encore t rsolu. Sans me perdre dans la nuit des temps, je crois peu prs certain quils
ont eu des rapports intimes avec les Romains. La construction de leurs fontaines, les formes et
les peintures de leurs poteries dnotent un certain got, une certaine perfection dans les arts, de
la part de leurs anctres, et rappellent les antiquits romaines: je dis de la part de leurs anctres,
parce que tout, depuis linvasion des Arabes est rest forcment stationnaire. Les Arabes, dabord,
ne savent rien faire de ces choses, et nont pu consquemment rien leur apprendre.
[
270]Fagnan_1924_134 Mrida, by Mahalli (Ibn Zenbel, 10thC): Merida est une ville importante qui fut difie par les Amalcites. Cest l que se trouvent les pilastres (ardjlt, siphons),
colonnes de marbre trs solidement installes, remarquablement travailles et parfaitement
quilibres; distantes de vingt coudes les unes des autres, elles sont relies leur sommet
par dautres colonnes poses horizontalement et formant comme une conduite. Ces siphons
stendent sur une longueur de terre de huit parasanges et leau scoule de l au lieu dit
El-Ferondja, emplacement dont la construction est remarquable et au milieu duquel il y a des
arcades circulaires qui se rejoignent par des colonnes de la mme manire quil a t dit. / La
partie suprieure de ces arcades est creuse en tuyaux par o leau se dverse dans un bassin
de marbre blanc dune circonfrence de quatre-vingts coudes, o leau tombe de cette hauteur considrable. Par-dessus ces arcades il y avait des chambres et des cabinets o les rois des
Khazars et des Yonan (Grecs) se rendaient en parties de plaisir.
[
271]Marmol_1667_II_440441 Constantine: Plus loin du cost de lOrient, il y a vne fontaine
deau froide prs de laquelle est vn ancien bastiment de marbre, avec de grans piliers &c de
grandes pierres o sont taillez plusieurs visages dhommes, de femmes & denfans, & le peuple
dit que cestoit vn Collge, dont les maistres & les coliers ont est transformez en pierres pour
leurs vices. On voit plusieurs autres antiquitez dans la contre qui font voir que cestoit une
colonie des Romains.
[
272]Mac-Carthy_1857_364: A Hadjar Roum, lIsseur est la source unique o les Arabes pour
leurs cultures, la vaste prairie du gouvernement pour ses fourrages, puisent leau de leurs irrigations. A lpoque o jy tais, il y avait de temps autre des contestations entre les indignes
et les concessionnaires de la prairie. Je fus un jour appel comme arbitre dans lune des ces
discussions. / Aprs quelques explications, je fis remarquer aux Arabes que nous tions fort loin
de prendre toute leau de la rivire et quils navaient qu construire un autre barrage pour en
dtourner la quantit ncessaire leurs besoins. On me rpliqua quil fallait pour cela des instruments, des ouvriers exercs, que sais-je. Ceci, leur rpliquai-je, est une dfaite. Qui a donc
construit le barrage den haut si ce nest vous? / Le chef dun douar voisin qui tait prs de moi
mappuyant un doigt sur le bras me rpondit: O toi, qui la clef des coffres o les Romains
ont dpos leurs tefkeras (leurs crits) ne sais-tu pas que ce sont eux qui ont lev ce sed, cette
digue. / Cest ainsi que chez les Arabes la vrit arrive, surtout quand on ne la cherche pas. /
On pense bien que dans cette occasion o javais obtenu si facilement un renseignement que je
demandais en vain depuis longtemps, je ne cherchai pas plus dissuader mes interlocuteurs au
sujet de leurs ides sur les crits romains que sur lor et largent des coffres de pierre de taille. /
Ceci et t du reste fort inutile, je lavais dj tent plusieurs fois sans obtenir dautre tmoignage de conviction quun sourire trs-significatif ou un mouvement de tte qui ne ltait gure
moins.
appendix
[
273]Boissire_1878_10: Une aventure analogue arriva au savant M. Berbrugger dans un de
ses nombreux voyages en Algrie. Il manifestait le dsir de visiter des ruines voisines, et les indignes len dtournaient avec une curieuse insistance. Ce ne sont pas des ruines romaines, lui
disaient les gens de la tribu; ce sont des ruines arabes. Il me semblait, racontait Berbrugger,
tre en prsence de dbiteurs de mauvaise foi niant leur dette et refusant de laisser voir les titres
qui pouvaient la constater.
[
274]Carette_1848_162163 writing on Kabylia: Le pays des Beni-Ouarguennoun est montueux; il occupe la partie occidentale de la chane du Tamgout et les contre-forts septentrionaux
de cette montagne jusqu la mer. / On trouve dans leur pays plusieurs vestiges de constructions
anciennes. Voici celles de ces ruines dont on nous a signal lexistence, avec les noms sous lesquels les indignes les dsignent. / 1. BordjMessoaia. Situ au-dessus du village de Cherfa. Ces
ruines consistent dans un grand nombre de pierres de taille parses. Les Kabiles croient fermement que ces pierres sont autant de coffres remplis dargent; mais le moyen douvrir ces coffres
est un secret que les chrtiens seuls possdent. / 2. Aagoum-ou-Roumi (la tour du chrtien).
Ruines dun difice, situes prs de Cherfa, au-dessous du marabout de Sidi-Mansour. Etc.
[
275]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_306 travelling 1879, Henchir-Mest/Musti: Les Arabes du
douar voisin, si peu hospitaliers, viennent le lendemain matin nous voir travailler et senqurir
un peu aussi, avec la vaine curiosit qui leur est habituelle, du but de notre voyage. Les pierres
dont nous copions les inscriptions et que tant dautres ont dj regardes avant nous ne nous
indiquent-elles pas des trsors enfouis par les Romains dautrefois (Roman mta bekri, comme
ils disent); ne sont-ce pas les trsors de la Cahenna, ou ceux des gnies qui ont scell leurs
cachettes par des malfices ou des sortilges dont nous avons le secret?
[
276]Stutfield_1886_147: round a shoulder of the mountains the town of Moulai Idrees, or
Saraoun, romantically situated in a gorge densely wooded with olives, and surrounded by rugged limestone cliffs. To the left were the ruins of which we were in search, and a ride of threequarters of an hour took us to a small stream, fringed with oleanders, which issued from the
gorge. The hillside here was strewn with hewn blocks of stone and bits of Roman sculpture,
showing the extent of the building in former times. There is now little left standing, and owing
to the frequent depredations of the natives, who remove the material for their own uses, it is
probable that in a few years nothing but a few stones will remain to mark this interesting historical site. / The ruins have been described more than once, and their identity with Volubilis,
a Roman colony of Mauritania Tingitana, or Western Barbary, has been placed beyond dispute.
There only remains standing the ruins of two separate buildings, though the sites and traces of
other houses can be seen round about. The Moors themselves can give no intelligible account
of the ruins, which, in common with various other buildings, are called by the natives Pharaohs
castle. If you ask who Pharaoh was, they will probably say he was a Christian, and therefore, of
course, an accomplished architect.
[
277]Fort, le Lieutenant, Note sur les vestiges archologiques dAn-Balloul, in Socit de
Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XXVII 1907, 237241. See 240 on this site with
its scatter of good and poor blocks. Les indignes racontent la lgende suivante: Il y avait
au temps des Gants, prs de loued, qui se nomme aujourdhui lOued Balloul, l o sont les
ruines, un march trs important sur lequel les gens venaient de fort loin avec leurs troupeaux.
Le paiement des animaux vendus ne se faisait pas avec des douros, car largent ntait pas connu,
mais avec des coquillages apports par les caravanes; ces coquilles avaient plus ou moins de
valeur. / Un grand chef rgnait dans la contre, qui percevait un droit sur toutes les sources de
lAoun-el-Beranis. / Alors, longtemps aprs, vinrent les Roumis, lesquels construisirent une ville

sur lemplacement du march. Ils stablirent l, parce quils avaient leau et la fort proximit. /
Ces Roumis furent un jour attaqus par les Arabes qui conquraient le monde, et Dieu, aprs
une grande bataille, donna la victoire aux Croyants; ceux-ci sinstallrent dans la ville. Quelques
Roumis furent, sur leur demande, autoriss conserver la jouissance de leurs biens, rester dans
leurs maisons: bientt ils se marirent avec les filles des vainqueurs, ils vcurent en bonne intelligence avec leurs ennemis qui, dans la suite, devinrent leurs amis. Fort comments: Dminents
archologues ont rattach le pass de ces ruines celui de loccupation romaine en Maurtanie
Csarienne.
[
278]Leclerc_1881_30: Leau ordinaire ne manque pas non plus dans les environs de Tanger,
mais elle fait absolument dfaut dans lenceinte de la ville. Abraham ma expliqu quautrefois la
localit tait abondamment pourvue deau; mais quand les Portugais en firent la conqute, les
Arabes qui loccupaient alors dtruisirent tous les aqueducs qui avaient t construits pendant
loccupation romaine. Ces aqueducs nont jamais t rtablis depuis, et aujourdhui encore leau
est transporte dos dhomme Tanger, dans des outres en peau de chvre.
[
279]Fraud_1877_131132: La tradition locale attribue aux princes Hammadites la construction des aqueducs et de tous les travaux hydrauliques destins approvisionner deau la ville de
Bougie. / Il est probable, en effet, que ces princes, intelligents et clairs, aient utilis les travaux
excuts jadis par leurs devanciers, quils aient mme rpar les dgts causs par le temps ou
par la main des hommes; mais un examen attentif da mode de construction dmontrerait dj
que la tradition est errone. Une dernire preuve concluante rsout, du reste, la question, cest
la dcouverte, Lambse, dune remarquable inscription dont le facsimil a t publi dans le
Recueil archologique de Constantine lanne 1868. / Il ressort, en effet, de ce document pigraphique si heureusement transmis la postrit, que lachvement de laqueduc de Saldae
(Bougie) avait ncessit la prsence dun vtran de la 3 lgion Auguste, le nomm Nonius
Datus, rsidant Lambse who had to sort out errors made in the digging and inclination of
the aqueduct.
[
280]Enqute_agricole_1870_346: Le territoire civil de Bougie, constitu le 17 septembre 1851,
a besoin dtre agrandi et pourrait ltre sans inconvnient; car les Kabyles du voisinage, gnralement propritaires, sont aptes tre soumis aux lois municipales. Ils ne sont pas fanatiques
et acceptent notre civilisation. Ils envoient mme du dehors leurs enfants lcole primaire
franaise de la ville. On pourrait dailleurs, en les incorporant au territoire civil, leur laisser leur
organisation de djemma ou fonder des communes mixtes. / Le dposant slve ensuite contre
les difficults de toute nature faites la ville par lautorit militaire. Les terrains occups par les
diverses administrations comprennent les quatre siximes de la superficie totale de la ville. Le
gnie lui impose des obligations onreuses pour ltablissement dune distribution deau, qui
serait trs-facilite cependant par lexistence de dix-neuf citernes romaines, qui nont besoin que
de lgres rparations, et dont lune contient 4,000 mtres cubes deau. Enfin il a t impossible
jusquici dorganiser les cimetires dune manire permanente.
[
281]Goetschy_1894_586 north-east of Gafsa: Cette rgion, qui stend sur une longueur de
quatre-vingts kilomtres, tait littralement couverte de conduites deau romaines, dont on suit
encore parfaitement les traces sur le sol, et de grandes citernes votes ou de rservoirs ciel
ouvert, aujourdhui en ruines, mais dont beaucoup seraient facilement restaurs. Je me hte
dajouter, pour rpondre de suite lobjection que lon ne manquera pas de faire que le rgime
des eaux a vari et que ces restaurations nauraient aucune utilit aujourdhui, je me hte dajou-
appendix
ter, dis-je, que tous ces rservoirs ou citernes se remplissent encore actuellement aprs chaque
pluie et que leur mauvais tat seul permet leau recueillie de disparatre rapidement. Le rgime
des eaux a peu ou pas vari; les traditions locales en font foi.
[
282]Renault, Jules, Note sur les citernes de Dar-Saniat, Carthage, in BACTHS 1911, 311
317. See 311: Il existe au bord de la mer, prs de la Briqueterie de Sidi-bou-Sad, au bas du chemin
dnomm Trik-Dar-Saniat, des drains antiques retrouvs et restaurs par le gnral Bacouch
lors de la construction de son palais sur le rivage du golfe de Tunis. Ces drains alimentent ledit
palais en eau potable.
[
283]Marmol_1667_II_532 Kairouan: Il y a vne montagne quatre lieues de la place; qui
estoit fort habite du tems des Romains, & lon y voit encore en divers endroits des ruines de
superbes bastimens, maintenant ce sont des forests de carrobiers, des fontaines partout, au lieu
que dans la place que nous dcrivons, on ny rencontre ni source, ni puits, ni rivire; mais seulement de grandes cisternes, o lon recueille leau de la pluye.
[
284]Gurin_1862_II_331 Kairouan: Karouan na aucune fontaine dans son enceinte. Chaque
mosque, chaque tablissement public ou priv, chaque maison a sa citerne. Comme en 1860
il na presque pas plu dans cette partie de la Tunisie, la plupart de ces citernes taient sec
lpoque de mon voyage, et celles qui ntaient point encore vides renfermaient une eau vaseuse
dun got dtestable. / Pour obvier cette pnurie deau dans les annes de scheresse, de
grands rservoirs, appels par les Arabes feskias, ou, suivant une prononciation plus usite en
Tunisie, fesguias, avaient t jadis creuss et construits prs de la ville; jen ai remarqu quatre
principaux.
[
285]Esprandieu_1883_3032: Prs de la Kalaa-s-Senam et sur le territoire des OuledbouGbanem, on rencontre sur la rive gauche dun petit ruisseau descendant de la Kalaa: un mausole que les Arabes connaissent sous le nom dHenchir Fortunat.../ Sur la table mme de
la Kalaa-s-Senam existe un village arabe construit avec les ruines dun poste romain que lon
devait y rencontrer autrefois. / En parcourant ce village ruin lui-mme et ne renfermant que
quelques misrables habitants, jai dcouvert les deux inscriptions tumulaires ci-aprs dont les
caractres sont effacs en partie...Les habitants de la Kalaa puisent leau qui leur est ncessaire
dans de grandes citernes qui sont creuses dans le roc et paraissent tre loeuvre des Romains.
[
286]Granger_1901_77 Tobna: Abou Obed El Bekri, gographe du Xe sicle, parle de Tobna,
cette poque, comme dune ville importante, poste militaire surveillant le Hodna et le Bellezma,
entoure dune muraille en briques (superpose aux anciens remparts byzantins) ayant des
faubourgs populeux, entours de jardins bien arross, au moyen de leau de la rivire voisine,
recueillie dans un vaste rservoir. / Elle possdait aussi un chteau, lintrieur duque se voyait
un immense rservoir qui recevait les eaux de la rivire de Tobna. Daprs Ibn-Hamal, autre
auteur arabe du Xe sicle, Tobna avait continu prosprer. On lit quautour de Tobna il existait
de vastes cultures de coton, des jardins plants de palmiers et autres arbres fruitiers. On trouve
encore plus au nord, Lalia, au pied du djebel Djezzar un jardin plant de palmiers.
[
287]Carton_1888_464 hydraulics at Kasbah-Oum-Mezessar: Il est tonnant que les Arabes
qui, forcs de se procurer de leau pour arroser leurs jardins, ont creus dans le pays de nombreux puits do ils lvent, grce un pnible travail, le liquide destin lirrigation, naient
pas utilis cette source; le fait pourtant pourrait peut-tre sexpliquer par sa situation sur la
voie quont suivie de tous temps et les jurandes invasions et les pillards venus du sud, ou par
la forte proportion de sels de magnsie quelle contient, bien que dautres puits utilisent pour

la culture, Zarzis entre autres, une eau aussi saumtre. Pckler-Muskau_1839_II_107 cisterns
at Utica housed Bedouin cattle in the winter. Ibid., 2934 cisterns at Uthina also occupied by
bedouin cattle, who may boast of possessing here the most eminent stables in the world.
[
288]Bisson_1881_58 Tunis: En quittant la station de Saint-Louis, on peut visiter dabord les
citernes de Malka; il nen reste plus que des ruines o les Arabes abritent leurs troupeaux. Ces
citernes comptaient vingt-quatre rservoirs ayant au moins 150 mtres de large sur une longueur
de 225 mtres; elles taient alimentes deau par le gigantesque aqueduc construit sous le rgne
dAdrien.
[
289]Berbrugger_1857_17 Oudna: Fesgu-es-Srra; autre construction antique, est situ ct
des grandes citernes appeles Beiache. Des Arabes y ont fait lection de domicile et en rendent
ltude fort pnible en t, par la grande quantit dinsectes parasites qui vivent avec eux et par
eux. Cette Fesguia est aussi une ancienne citerne. / Les autres monuments hydrauliques dont on
on voit les restes Oudna sont: 1 Un aqueduc qui devait amener des eaux du Djebel Bsas; 2
Un large puits antique en pierres de grand appareil, situ auprs des citernes et o les Arabes du
lieu sapprovisionnent deau. Un peu lEst de cet endroit, est une source appele Ain-Roumi, ou
fontaine du chrtien, dernier souvenir de lantique population qui vcut en ces lieux.
[
290]Derrien_1895_287 la campagne godsique de 1883, in the Bassin de lOued Riou:
Lgende sur le Bordj Konsou. A Konsou, vivait un Roumi de ce nom, que lon surnommait dans
le pays lhomme aux longs bras et le buveur de sources. Ses bras taient si longs que de Konsou
il pouvait prendre ce quon lui offrait des collines voisines, mme de celles au-del de lOued
Tiguiguest. Il avait deux femmes, lune Konsou, lautre Kala [1500m to the E]. Lorsquil tait
en tourne, vers lOued Riou, ou ailleurs, il tendait les bras et donnait chacune delles un
morceau des galettes quil recueillait. / Sa soif tait inextinguible; en hiver, il buvait longs traits
dans lOued Tiguiguest et dans lOued Temda; dans les temps de scheresse, il buvait aux sources
et en schait une par jour, au grand dsespoir des habitants du pays. / Or, il advint un jour quil
tomba sur une source abondante; il but, et quoique rassasi, continua boire; leau coulait toujours; bless dans sa vanit, il sobstina boire, tellement, quil en mourut. / Ce mme Konsou
avait essay de se faire des chaussures de pierre; les indignes montrent encore les empreintes
de ses pieds sur un gros rocher, appel guegueb (sandale; que lon voit prs de la cascade de
lOued Tiguiguest, en aval du Kef Kenncha.
[
291]Mac_Carthy_1851_211 Bordj-Roumi: Les Arabes, incertains sur lorigine de cette construction et lattribuant tantt aux Romains, tantt aux Espagnols, la nomment Bordj-Roumi et BordjAnnaerani, le fort des Romains ou le fort des Chrtiens, mais elle est bien videmment due aux
premiers...Aujourdhui le puits est rempli de dcombres, mais il serait facile de les en retirer, et
il deviendrait ainsi une ressource prcieuse pour le territoire environnant qui est entirement
priv deau et aussi loign de la Sikkak que de lHannaah.
[
292]Masqueray_1878_461 writing on Khenchela and Besseriani, in the Mehmel: Les indignes racontent quune reine possdait autrefois une partie du Mehmel, justement celle qui
regarde la plaine de Gurt. Elle promit sa fille lhomme qui alimenterait deau son chteau
dAn-Roumi et sa ville dEnchir-Merloum. Deux magiciens se prsentrent. Le premier fit jaillir des sources; le second construisit un canal souterrain qui, recueillant toutes les eaux de la
montagne, desservit le domaine de la reine en entier. Elle donna sa fille lauteur du canal. Cette
lgende est le dernier souvenir des travaux excuts par les Romains dans la plaine de Gurt. Ils
devaient tre plus considrables encore que ceux de la plaine de Bagha, car leau y est beaucoup
plus rare.
appendix
[
293]Gurin_1862_I_262 Tozeur, after describing what was originally the platform of a
temple: Prs de l est un puits antique, bti en pierres de taille et trs-profond. / En descendant de cette plate-forme dans les magnifiques jardins qui lavoisinent, on remarque presque
chaque pas de beaux blocs antiques, et notamment le long de loued qui arrose et fertilise loasis.
Cet oued, connu sous le nom dOued-Berkouk (la rivire aux prunes), se subdivise, partir dun
barrage antique, construit avec des blocs dun grand appareil, en trois branches principales, qui
elles-mmes se ramifient en une multitude de petits canaux. Ces branches et plusieurs de ces
canaux taient jadis bords de belles pierres de taille; on les traverse sur de petits ponts, les uns
modernes, les autres antiques.
[
294]Tissot_1888_685 Tozer is partly antique: Deux de ces quartiers, Belidet el-Hader et echCheurfa, paraissent occuper lemplacement de la ville romaine: cest Belidet el-Hader que se
trouvent les seuls monuments antiques quait conservs Tzer: le barrage de lOued Berbouk,
le Ouadi el-Djemal dEl-Bekri, construit en blocs de grand appareil; un beau puits carr et les
ruines dune basilique orne jadis de plusieurs ranges de colonnes, dont quelques fts gisent
encore sur le sol. La base dun minaret voisin est galement de construction romaine. La plupart
des maisons de Tzer offrent dans leurs assises infrieures et surtout leurs angles des fragments
de mme origine: pierres de taille, fts de colonnes, dbris de frises et dentablements, chapiteaux, etc. Presque tous les canaux dirrigation de loasis sont bords de blocs antiques.
[
295]Duveyrier_1881_6869: Quand on songe que les parties nord et nord ouest de la Tunisie,
dont nous venons de tracer une esquisse, sont situes, au point de vue du relief, de la nature du
sol et de la distribution de la chaleur et des pluies, dans des conditions exactement semblables
celles qui favorisent les contres les plus privilgies de lAlgrie, il y a lieu dtre surpris en
voyant le degr infrieur de civilisation, sinon la barbarie qui est le lot de ses habitants actuels.
En temps ordinaire, jusque dans la partie infrieure du bassin de la Medjerda, il faut tre arm
jusquaux dents pour aller dune ville lautre et, partout, on trouve des ptres faisant brouter
leurs moutons lherbe qui pousse sur les ruines des villages, des fermes, des villas des anciens
colons romains. LArabe navait pas mme crer, difier; il lui suffisait dentretenir loeuvre
de ces matres quil avait vaincus, continuer densemencer les champs de ceux quil possdait. Cette tache a t au-dessus de lui, mais uniquement, croyons-nous, parce que jamais il na
pu prendre en Tunisie, sous un gouvernement fort, intelligent et juste, le dveloppement que
dautres musulmans ralisrent, en Espagne, sur une terre europenne. Proccups et affaiblis
au moyen ge par de mesquines rivalits politiques et des luttes dynastiques non sans analogie
avec celles qui agitaient la mme poque lEurope fodale, les Tunisiens ne les virent cesser
que le jour o le Turc vint leur imposer un joug crasant.
[
296]Hugonnet_1860_131: En 1836, au camp de la Tafna, nos troupes, bloques et puises
par des luttes continuelles contre des adversaires infatigables, furent rduites manger les chevaux tus dans les combats. Dans les ruines de Djimila, lanne suivante, 600 hommes, sous la
conduite du commandant Chadeysson, repoussent vigoureusement les attaques trs-vives des
Kabyles environnants, et cependant ils endurent pendant six jours le manque complet deau.
Mda, Miliana, virent, diverses reprises, nos soldats souffrir cruellement du retard des ravitaillements; Miliana surtout a t le thtre de faits quon ne saurait oublier.
[
297]SHD cf. the Tunisian reconnaissances in MR1321B, MR1322 & MR1323.
[
298]Faucon_1893_II_221222 lack of water supply in Tunisia: Aussitt cre, la Direction
gnrale des Travaux Publics se proccupa donc immdiatement des moyens de porter remde
cet tat de choses. Suivant les traces que la civilisation romaine a laisses un peu partout en

Tunisie, Oudna, au Cap Blanc, Nebeul, Bulla-Regia, Mateur, Sousse, Cherichera, etc.
utilisant dans certains cas, comme au Kef, les fontaines romaines elles-mmes, elle a entrepris
dimportants travaux dadduction deau, dont lachvement aura une heureuse influence sur la
sant publique. / Dj Porto-Farina a vu ramener dans son ancien rservoir les eaux captes sous
un rgne prcdent, par lancien gnral Salah Chiboub. Bj, par le captage et la canalisation
sur 3,500 mtres des sources dnommes An-Fabouar, Bassin de Neptune et An-Ceballa, dispose de 200 litres par jour et par habitant. Bizerte reoit les eaux dAn-Nadour par une conduite
en fonte de 5 kilomtres. Leau arrive galement Tabarka, Teboursouk, el-Alia, Djemmal, au
Kef, Ghardimaou, Mateur, Maktar, Nebeul o les ruines de la conduite romaine ont t
partiellement utilises. A Kairouan, le grand bassin des Aglabites, vaste rservoir circulaire ciel
ouvert de 128 mtres de diamtre, a t restaur, et la conduite de Cherichera lalimente.
[
299]SHD MR 2H43, Journaux des Marches et Oprations (JMO) des Grandes Units (1881
1883) Tunisia. 48e Regiment dInfanterie Ier Battaillon, 10.
[
300]SHD MR1322 Tunisie: Service des Renseignements mai 1885mai 1886.
[
301]SHD MR1322 28 May 1880, Caidat de Mornak, 72.
[
302]SHD MR1323 Caidat de la Marsa, 26 November 1886, p. 4951, for notes on Carthage,
especially on its cisterns.
[
303]Castellane_1896_III_408 1847: Je fus frapp de labondance des sources; les ruines de
thermes romains qui y existent furent pour moi une preuve que depuis des sicles on avait
reconnu lexcellence de ces eaux. Partout o les Romains passaient, les lieux o ils plaaient
des villes, des camps, des tablissements, taient bien choisis. En Afrique, nous avons pu nous
en convaincre. Je vis ds lors toute lutilit quon pouvait tirer pour larme de ces eaux. Je mappliquai sans relche faire partager mon opinion au gouvernement du Roi, et cest l mon seul
mrite.
[
304]Du_Cheyron_1873_910 Bordj-Bou-Arreridj (Constantine) during the 1871 insurrection:
Cependant la ville a cet inconvnient grave de navoir pas de puits: leau ncessaire ses habitants y est amene par une conduite de quinze cents mtres, qui vient de la fontaine romaine.
This follows the Route de la Fontaine Romaine and, apart from the French encampment or
bordj, barricades were erected. The fountain was a focus of fighting for obvious reasons.
[
305]Brunhes_1902_177 on irrigation in Iberia and North Africa: Si la loi de 1851 a modifi le
rgime des eaux en Algrie, ce nest pas en effet quon ait eu une conception trs profonde du
rle de leau; mais lautorit militaire a pourtant senti et compris que leau tait tout: elle tenait
se rserver la libre disposition de cette richesse, tantt en faveur des colons, tantt en faveur
des indignes, toujours comme moyen de domination et de gouvernement.
[
306]Piquet_1914_276: En Algrie, o la rpartition des eaux est trs ingale, et o les rivires
ont une allure torrentielle, lhydraulique agricole doit tenir, semble-t-il, une place considrable.
Les Romains, les indignes eux-mmes, les Turcs, en dernier lieu, lavaient compris, et lon utilise aujourdhui encore la plupart des anciens grands travaux; mais la France est loin davoir
donn cette partie de luvre de colonisation limportance quelle mritait. / Quelques grands
travaux ont t excuts, assez tard, mais presque toujours linitiative prive est reste livre
elle-mme. On na pas du tout consacr lhydraulique des sommes comparables celles que
lon consacrait la colonisation proprement dite.
[
307]Cosson_1856_40: la colonisation trouvera de prcieuses donnes dans ltude srieux
dont les ruines romaines qui couvrent la province de Constantine sont lobjet depuis quelques
annes. Non seulement larchologie viendra nous apprendre quels taient les lieux choisis par
appendix
les Romains pour leur cits les plus importantes, et nous guider ainsi pour letablissement de
nouveaux centre de population; mais elle nous fera encore mieux connatre les moyens si perfectionns dirrigation quils mettaient en pratique; et il serait souvent facile, comme Lambse,
de rtablir les aqueducs romains avec une dpense bien faible, si lon tient compte de la grandue
des rsultats. Ladministration, du reste a dj si bien compris limportance de ces faits, que
partout les points occups par les Romains ont t choisis de prfrence pour la fondation de
nos tablissements.
[
308]Annales_Colonisation_1853_IV_8893: Eaux thermales et minrales de lAlgrie,
signed Documents du Ministre de la Guerre, and with plenty of emphasis on the Roman
origins of such setups, and their ruins.
[
309]Fernel_1830_277 campaign of 1830, Bne: La plaine qui stend autour de Bne est borne louest par des hauteurs au pied desquelles jaillit une source abondante; les eaux de cette
source alimentaient autrefois plusieurs fontaines dont on aperoit encore les vestiges au milieu
de la ville. Le temps a dtruit laquduc qui les recevait, et des citernes servent aujourdhui
abreuver les habitans.
[
310]Caraman_1843_33 1836 at Bne: Quelques instants dun temps moins dfavorable nous
permirent daller, travers linondation, visiter les ruines de lancienne Hippone (5 novembre). Il
en reste bien peu de chose de son antique splendeur: quelques citernes dont les arabes se sont
empars pour y tablir leur domicile avec les animaux qui composent leur principal avoir, et des
masses de briques que lon dit avoir appartenu cette glise des premiers chrtiens auxquels
Saint Augustin faisait entendre sa voix puissante, sont les seuls vestiges que les cours des sicles
et les dvastations successives ont laiss subsister.
[ ]
311 SHD MR1314 item 33 Colonel Prtot Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Rgence
dAlger, considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure
du pays at Tipasa, 36: Il y a de leau, et probablement aussi des fontaines et des Aqueducs quon
retrouverait sous les dblais, et que lon pouvait restaurer. Il y en a pourtant o les Romains ont
habit...Il est galement vraisemblable que lon decouvriroit sous les dcombres de Teffessad
les autres restes dantiquits.
[
312]Ratheau_1879_253 Tipasa: Des dbris de toutes sortes, colonnes, temples, cirque,
thtre, grandes habitations, se rencontrent chaque pas. Les uns restent en place, et ce serait
encore leur meilleure position, si lon tait sr quils y fussent respects; ce sont habituellement
ceux qui sont le mieux conservs, qui prsentent encore un certain ensemble. Parmi eux je vous
citerai comme type dlgance une fontaine dont on a retrouv et rassembl presque tous les
morceaux, et qui est un vritable chef duvre de got nos architectes pourraient sen inspirer dans leurs fontaines publiques. Jai remarqu aussi un lourd massif de maonnerie, dont il
ma t impossible de dterminer lusage, malgr son importance vidente, puis des dbris de
thermes, peu de distance de la fontaine qui en dpendait peut-tre. Les restes pars ont t
recueillis et classs avec got dans un jardin particulier ouvert au public; ce sont des tombes
sculptes, des fragments de colonnes, des statues, des moulins bras en pierre, des vases de
toutes les formes et grandeurs, etc. Il me faudrait un volume pour tout vous raconter. Noublions
pas de belles citernes situes non loin de la mer et destines probablement fournir de leau aux
navires ancrs dans le port.
[
313]Suchet_1840_133: Pendant mes diverses stations Djidjelli, jai explor un peu les environs de cette ville. On trouve chaque pas des ruines romaines, des restes de murs et quelques
tronons de colonnes. La porte de la ville, au midi, est assez belle; elle est, de style arabe,

construite sur un ancien dbris de temple paen ou chrtien; prs de l, et tout au bord de la
mer, est une fontaine antique trs-abondante; tout auprs on voit une fort belle mosaque trs
bien conserve. Jai vu encore dans un champ voisin, que les militaires ont converti en jolis petits
jardins, dautres mosaques assez belles dont jai dtach, avec beaucoup de peine, quelques
petits fragments que je conserve comme souvenir.
[
314]Annales_Colonisation_1855_VIII_191 Assainissement de Djidjelli: les travaux de desschement ont fait dcouvrir une ancienne fontaine romaine dont on sest servi pour augmenter
considrablement la quantit deau dont la ville tait dj dote that is, the spring/fountain
had simply kept running without maintenance, leading to the creation of a marsh.
[
315]Malte-Brun_1858_2021 Philippeville: Sur le plateau occup aujourdhui par lhpital
militaire, et sur les talus qui en descendent, on trouve des citernes et des fondations de maisons
qui attestent quun des quartiers de la ville stendait jusque-l. Sur la plage et au fond de la
valle, les longues arcades qui ont longtemps servi de mur de quai la moderne Philippeville,
la fontaine monumentale dcouverte en 1850, les citernes du magasin militaire des vivres, celles
qui servent de soubassement au thtre moderne, attestent que les difices les plus importants
de lancienne Russicada taient en cet endroit. M. le capitaine du gnie de Marcilly pense que
cette partie de la ville tait ceinte de murailles et flanque de tours.
[
316]Fraud_1875_463 Philippeville: En 1845, on dcouvrit lexistence dune citerne romaine
situe sur le point le plus lev de la nouvelle ville. Elle fut dblaye et restaure par le service
du gnie; elle contenait un approvisionnement de 8,000 mtres cubes, aliments par les eaux et
les sources du ravin des Beni-Melek, situ 4 kilomtres. / Le dbit tait de 20 litres par seconde,
pendant la saison dhiver; mais, en t, le volume tait rduit...La ville ne pouvait donc compter
que sur son approvisionnement de 8,000 mtres cubes pour faire face aux besoins dune population de plus de 10,000 mes, pendant six ou huit mois de lanne, cest--dire moins de 4 litres par
habitant et par jour. Une nouvelle citerne antique tait encore dcouverte et amnage; mais
cette lgre augmentation ne rpondait pas encore aux besoins du prsent et encore moins
ceux de lavenir, surtout dans la prvision de la construction du port devant Philippeville.
[
317]Gaffarel_1883_670: de Philippeville. Bien que la plupart des matriaux du vieil emporium
aient t employs ldification de la ville nouvelle, Rusicada na pas disparu tout entire. Dans
lancien thtre romain on a install un curieux muse archologique qui renferme des statues,
un cadran en marbre blanc, et de nombreuses inscriptions. On peut encore visiter les grandes
citernes restaures du fort dOrlans, les colonnes et frises de la place Corneille, les longues
arcades qui ont longtemps servi de quais, et de fort belles mosaques. Malgr ces dbris dune
splendeur passe, Philippeville est avant tout une ville moderne.
[
318]Lestiboudois_1853_187188: au Vieil-Arzeu on a retrouv et restaur les rigoles qui amenaient les eaux dans les rservoirs romains. Si lon voulait citer tous les travaux de ce genre,
il faudrait mentionner presque tous les villages: la longueur des aqueducs construits dans les
trois provinces est de 117,324m. On calcule quils peuvent dbiter journellement 21,600,000 litres
deau; ils ont cot, avec les rservoirs, les gouts, etc., une somme de 4,104,500 fr. Les rservoirs
sont indispensables dans un pays o la pluie manque pendant la moiti de lanne; mais nous
navons presque rien fait en ce genre; nous sommes rests admirateurs inactifs des Romains ou
des Maures: on a retrouv et restaur les rservoirs ou citernes du Vieil-Arzeu, de Tlemcen, de
Stora, de Philippeville, de Constantine qui donnent une si haute ide de la puissance des anciens
possesseurs de lAfrique.
[
319]Tissot_1881_19 Chemtou: Laqueduc a t restaur lpoque chrtienne, ainsi que le
prouvent ces deux pitaphes encastres dans le pied-droit dune des arcades.
appendix
[
320]Bertrand_1905_177178 Cherchel: Dautres epaves gisent 1entour. Mais on a rassembl les plus belles pour en revtir les parois dune fontaine monumentale qui seleve au centre
de lEsplanade. Lide serait ingnieuse, si larchitecture banale de loeuvre moderne ne jurait
trangement avec le caractre grandiose de ces dbris. Ce sont dabord quatre figures colossales...Tout ces fragments antiques proviennent sans doute dun temple qui slevait lextrmit de lEsplanade, probablement sur lemplacement de 1eglise actuelle. Ctait peut-etre
ce grand temple tout bati de marbre et dalbatre que le voyageur Marmol put voir encore
debout, au XVIe sicle, et qui sapercevait de la haute mer.
[
321]Tchihatchef_1880_386387 Guelma: Guelma ne conserve que peu de traces de
lantique cit. Les seuls restes du pass se rduisent ceux des thermes et duu amphithtre
ou cirque...Except les thermes et lamphithtre; il est juste de mentionner encore les dbris
emprunts lantique Kalama rangs tout autour de la belle place borde de caroubiers, deucalyptus et de genvriers, et au milieu de laquelle jaillit une lgante fontaine. / Parmi le grand
nombre de fragments de pierres tumulaires et de statues, de tronons de colonnes, de basreliefs, etc., il en est qui mriteraient une tude approfondie des archologues; les inscriptions
sont dune admirable fracheur et quelques-unes en langue Grecque et peut-tre phnicienne.
[
322]SHD H230 bis, Algrie: Mmoires divers 184459: Notice sur le manque deau
Philippeville et Stora et sur les travaux excuter pour y remdier 1843, 3 pages. 2: A Stora,
il suffit de rparer galement les citernes construites par les Romains just as, at Philippeville,
where we need le rtablissement des vastes citernes romaines qui se trouvent au dessous du
fort royal. These hold more than 10,000 cubic metres of water.
[
323]Vitry_1900_116117: Les aqueducs romains de Carthage, abandonns depuis treize sicles
avaient t restaurs sur un parcours de 100 kilomtres environ, en 1861, par lingnieur franais
Colin...Depuis longtemps, le Gouvernement franais envoyait des ingnieurs au Bey. Leur mission, daprs les rsultats obtenus, parait avoir t limite par de longues siestes...Avant nous,
en utilisant les ressources provenant des biens habous, le Gouvernement beylical navait entrepris que les travaux quil considrait comme oeuvre de pit: ponts, puits, citernes, remparts,
gouts, mosques. Tels les moines du moyen-ge, constructeurs de nos admirables cathdrales.
/ Depuis 1882, il existe une Direction gnrale des Travaux Publics, dont les services sont placs
sous les ordres dun Directeur gnral.
[
324]Fisquet, H., Histoire de lAlgrie depuis les temps anciens jusqu nos jours, Paris 1842,
1516: Le nord de lAfrique, incessamment parcouru par des tribus nomades, noffrant aucun
centre dintrts politiques et commerciaux, cultiv sur un petit nombre de points souvent trs
loigns les uns des autres, refuse toute ressource une arme dinvasion. Ici une arme ne peut
vivre que de ce quelle apporte avec elle; souvent le soldat ne trouve pas mme de bois pour faire
cuire sa maigre pitance. On nest presque jamais matre de sa route, car il faut gagner chaque
jour un bivouac o il y ait de leau, un camp o lon espre pouvoir faire manger les chevaux. /
Ajoutez cela la rigueur dun climat qui interdit les oprations nos troupes pendant plus dune
moiti de lanne, songez la difficult des transports dans un pays rudement accident, peine
connu, sans routes praticables aux voitures, sans chemins, et vous aurez une ide des principales
difficults de la guerre dAfrique, des fatigues et des privations quelle impose notre arme.
[
325]Ancien_officier_1841_17: Toute colonne marchant lennemi est par le fait, en Afrique,
une escorte de convoi. Parce que vous navez de vivres que ceux que vous portez, dhpitaux que
ceux que vous tranez; vos arsenaux et vos troupeaux vous suivent. Il faut donc choisir sa route,
en ouvrir souvent une; votre marche et votre campement sont connus de lennemi. Il faut coucher sur un cours deau. Votre colonne est lEurope, la patrie ambulante; si vous vous en cartez

vous avez l tte coupe. Votre camp dhier, votre conqute dhier deviennent aussi trangers
aujourdhui, vous, que Tombouctou.
[
326]Desvaux_1909_655 27 May, 1841 i.e. Gnral de Division de Cavalerie: A trois heures
et demie, tablissement du bivouac sur le lieu nomm Aoun-el-Arba (ou les quatre fontaines,
ou les fontaines du mercredi), belle position militaire qui commande la vaste plaine aux alentours...Ici, comme dans la plupart des lieux que jai visits en Afrique, il faut admirer le coup
dil et la sagacit des Romains dans le choix de leurs positions; ils se sont tablis toujours prs
des fontaines et avec la condition nomade de ce peuple qui a d tre ainsi de tout temps, ctait
un moyen parfait de domination.
[
327]Carron_1859_98100 unnamed Roman town near Stif: Aprs avoir savour longtemps
les dlices du galop, plaisir qui me cota bien cher, comme je le dirai bientt, nous nous trouvmes en face dune cit romaine en ruines. Avant de la visiter, nous nous garmes dessein
dans la plaine qui se trouve au dessous, et ayant dcouvert une belle fontaine, qui sans nul doute
abreuvait autrefois les habitants de cette ville, nous descendmes de cheval et nousnous dsaltrmes avec dlices en buvant longs traits cette eau frache et limpide; puis remontant nous
allmes visiter les ruines. Presquen y entrant nous trouvmes le quart dun pain franais ctait
pour nous un mystre, car nous tions encore une grande distance de Stif et il ny avait pas
l ame qui vive.
[
328]Bonnafont_1883_42: A six heures, nous arrivions Sidi-Mohammed, bien fatigus et littralement couverts de poussire; une installation tout fait inattendue nous y tait rserve. /
Nous pmes nous abriter sous des ruines romaines, proximit desquelles nous dcouvrmes
une fontaine coulant abondamment, et que nous nous empressmes de mettre contribution.
[
329]Robert_1896_293Auzia / Sour El Ghozlane: Une promenade lest dAuzia nous permit de reconnatre les vestiges des ruines situes dans les fermes Grossa, Bou-Djemaa, Hoerth,
Cazanave, Levasseur, Berthet, Fournier, Vidal, Dubouch, Dargent, Mohammed ben Sadane,
Debive, Bordier, Gardel. / Dans cette dernire, le propritaire, en procdant des fouilles en
vue de trouver de leau, dcouvrit une belle fontaine romaine quil neut qu curer et rparer; la
source quil mit au jour donne une eau excellente et en grande quantit. / Au sud dAuzia, nous
relevmes des vestiges de ruines dans les proprits Sartorio, Raffi, Olivier, Elgard, Taha ben bou
Trik, Assa ben Slimane, Charroy, Habbas, Fraisse et enfin sur le sommet du Djebel-Dira, 1,810
mtres daltitude, les dbris dune construction quadrangulaire. On y voit encore des pierres de
grand appareil, des fragments de corniches et des traces de murs.
[
330]Tunis-journal_1889_13_June, Jolie Proprit de 350 hectares, dont 100 en terres vigne,
coteaux sableux, et le reste en montagnes couvertes de tuyas. Maison dhabitation arabe avec
cour ferme pour le btail. La maison possde quatre grandes chambres. Deux puits, dont un
romain, avec eau abondante, situ sur la hauteur et permettant dirriguer une grande partie des
terres. Position exceptionnelle 32 kilomtres de Tunis, route europenne de Tunis Krombalia.
Un embranchement en construction passe sur les limites de la proprit. Prix: 25,000fr.
[
331]Castellane_1853_II_132 a fte near the new village of Sig: The occasion, indeed, called
for a fte, for under the skilful direction of the engineer, Captain Chapelain, the old Turkish lock
had been removed. Nothing could be grander than the masonry of this work. It was more than a
hundred feet broad, built of great stone blocks, nearly all taken from Roman ruins, which covered the ground for a circumference of about four thousand meters. The water, running between
two rocks, and stopped by this obstacle, overflowed now both its banks into two canals, spreading fertility and abundance over all the adjacent fields.
appendix
[
332]Morell_1854_173 village of Sig: This part of the plain was healthy, the land proverbially
fertile, the cannon resounded through the valley, the Arab horsemen were galloping full-tilt
along the channels made for irrigation, discharging their muskets to salute the arrival of water
in the plain. In fact, it was a great day; for, under the skilful direction of the captain of engineers,
M. Chapelain, the old Turkish dam had just been restored. Nothing could be more beautiful
than this piece of masonry, 100 feet wide, raised with large blocks of stone, almost all taken from
Roman remains, which covered the ground within a radius of 4000 metres (13,120 feet).
[
333]Enqute_agricole_1870_222: Souk-el-Mitou est dpourvu de routes, ou du moins elles
sont dans un tat dplorable; les irrigations font dfaut, et cependant leau est presque la
surface du sol, et seize fontaines romaines qui existaient ont t abandonnes. / Les dposants
demandent quun syndicat pour les irrigations soit cr et encourag; M. Cloitre a fait loffre
davancer aux colons pauvres les fonds qui leur manquaient pour commencer les travaux dirrigation, mais loffre na pas t accepte.
[
334]Baudicour_1856_525 writing on colonisation: Aussi, quand il sest agi de jeter les premiers jalons de la colonisation, on a vu nos officiers de larme dAfrique faire quelquefois des
merveilles avec bien peu de ressources et des lments bien imparfaits. / Pour commencer, il a
fallu relever toutes les ruines que les guerres avaient accumules. / Les officiers du gnie se sont
faits architectes, agents voyers, conducteurs des ponts et chausses. Ils ont ouvert les premires
carrires, construit des fours chaux, des pltrires, des briqueteries; cest eux que lon doit
la premire exploitation des belles forts de lAlgrie. Ils ont trac des chemins au milieu des
vieux cdres, dans les retraites inaccessibles qui navaient encore servi de refuge quaux lions et
aux panthres. Ces beaux arbres ont t dbits sur place, et sont venus soutenir les toitures de
nos nouveaux difices. Bientt toutes les anciennes fontaines ont t rpares sur les dbris des
aqueducs romains; de nouveaux conduits sont venus chercher des sources perdues; les rservoirs et les grandes citernes, oublis depuis des sicles sous des dcombres, ont t ouverts et
restaurs; des canaux dirrigation et de desschement ont t creuss.
[
335]Fillias_18611862_9091: O la France sarrte, elle laisse trace de son passage; or, elle a
radicalement transform lAlgrie, Les villes du littoral et de lintrieur sont relies entre elles par
des routes carrossables ou par des chemins vicinaux, et les voyageurs trouvent sur leur parcours,
dfaut dhtels, de vastes caravansrails parfaitement entretenus. Grce lactive surveillance
des bureaux arabes, on peut aller partout, en toute scurit, sans escorte et sans armes; et, pour
se rendre Laghouat, cest--dire au Dsert, on prend les Messageries! / Pour accomplir cette
rvolution, trente ans ont suffi; mais rendons Csar ce qui appartient Csar, et rptons avec
le colonel Ribourt: Lhonneur de larme dAfrique et de ses chefs est peut-tre moins dans les
succs de la guerre que dans les labeurs de la paix. Depuis les lgions romaines qui maniaient
la pioche aussi bien que lpe, nulle arme au monde na accompli autant de travaux, ni tant
fait pour livrer un grand pays la culture et la civilisation. Il faut quon sache que lorsque
nos soldats ne se battaient point, ils travaillaient, et que chaque anne, durant sept mois, cinquante ou soixante mille hommes taient chelonns au travers de la contre, pour ouvrir des
routes, desscher les marais, combler les fondrires, abaisser les montagnes, faire des ponts, des
barrages, btir dans les tribus des maisons de commandement, sur les chemins des caravansrails, et crer dans le dsert des oasis nouvelles. / Oui, presque tout ce qui a t fait en Algrie
pendant les trente premires annes de loccupation, routes, chemins, ponts, aqueducs et barrages, puits et fontaines, a t construit par larme, et ce sera sa gloire ternelle! / Cependant il
reste encore beaucoup faire: dautres routes devront tre perces, qui abrgeront les distances;

des ponts solides remplaceront les passerelles leves la hte; les eaux seront amnages, et
des travaux habilement conduits assainiront les plaines. A cette tche qui lui incombe, lAdministration civile, aide par le service des Ponts-et-Chausses, ne saurait faillir.
[
336]Poinssot_1885_98 An Hedja (Agbia): Les ruines dAgbia couvrent un mamelon entour
par deux ravins et dominant la voie romaine. Le seul difice qui y soit rest debout est une citadelle byzantine de forme rectangulaire ayant soixante mtres de long sur cinquante de large. /
Elle a t transforme en caravansrail, et parmi les chambres qui sont adosses lintrieur de
ses remparts, il en est plusieurs qui sont votes et de construction ancienne. La tour N.-O. parat
tre le reste dun difice plus ancien. Au dessous, une source abondante sort dun canal antique,
et son nom Ain Hedja sert dsigner les ruines de cette ville.
[
337]Pontier_1850_54 Orlansville: Le capitaine du gnie Vasseur tait parvenu dcouvrir
quelques traces daqueduc quon supposait avoir servi conduire les eaux de lOued-Alllah. Son
successeur, M. Lepret-Yillois, capitaine et chef du gnie, a dcouvert toute la ligne de laqueduc
et, en en suivant les traces, il est parvenu douer cette ville dune grande quantit deau potable.
Avant ltablissement des fontaines, on ne pouvait se procurer de leau qu grands frais.
[
338]Pontier_1850_2425 Orlansville: Daprs linspection des ruines qui existaient encore
notre arrive, il parat certain que la vieille cit stendait depuis lembouchure du Tygraout et
quelle se dirigeait vers lest jusquau lieu o se tient le march arabe du dimanche (souk el had).
Hors de lenceinte de la ville actuelle, et dans les environs de ce lieu, il existait plusieurs tombeaux souterrains, vots et construits en bonne maonnerie. Tous avaient t fouills. A droite
et gauche de la route de Milianah, en se rapprochant du Chlif, il existait des dbris considrables danciennes constructions, et on voit encore sur les bords du fleuve danciennes murailles
qui annoncent que la ville romaine stendait dans cette direction. / Le Gnie militaire, par les
ordres du commandant suprieur, employait pendant lhiver plusieurs centaines dArabes faire
des fouilles et dblayer le terrain sur lequel devaient tre places les nouvelles constructions.
[
339]Moll_1860_75 Tebessa, An-el-Bled (2000 litres/minute): Les Franais ont rehauss
laqueduc, ils ont restaur la chambre deau et le conduit quon a prolong jusque dans lintrieur
de la ville, o il fournit maintenant leau ncessaire la consommation journalire. Des prises
deau sont dailleurs mnages de distance en distance, pour larrosage des jardins.
[
340]Sriziat_1886_50 Tebessa: Des travaux importants ont t excuts par le Gnie pour la
dfense et rembellissement de la ville. Aprs la construction des btiments militaires, laqueduc
dAn-el-Bled fut rpar; le bassin entour darbres, qui orne la principale place, fut construit.
Le grand square qui borde le march, charmante promenade pleine dombre et de fracheur, fut
plant en 1872, par le commandant Egrot. Leau dAn-Chella fut amene pour arroser les nouvelles plantations, le petit square de la tour de lHorloge et le jardin du commandant suprieur.
Enfin, en 1885, un chteau-deau a t construit lextrmit du grand square, et sa situation
permettra damener leau toute hauteur dans chaque maison de Tbessa.
[
341]Pchot_1914_I_216: Nous ajouterons que les Franais nont eu qu rparer la chambre
deau et laqueduc, construits antrieurement par les Romains, pour assurer la distribution, dans
la ville actuelle de Tbessa, des 20,000 litres deau que dbite, par minute, la source dAn-El-Bled,
situe 800 m. de lenceinte actuelle.
[
342]Gunin_1908_187 around Tebessa, Henchir-El-Aussas. Ruine assez tendue (800 mtres
de ct environ) dune petite cit agricole. Nombreuses usines huile. / Ce point tait, du temps
des Romains comme aujourdhui, dpourvu deau. Les anciens salimentaient au moyen de nom-
appendix
breuses citernes dont les vestiges existent encore et qui pourraient tre rtablies pour le grand
bien des indignes.
[
343]Gsell_1902_1: Une enqute sur les installations hydrauliques des Romains en Tunisie
fut ouverte en 1896 par ordre de M. Millet, rsident gnral; elle a t poursuivie activement
depuis cette poque. Les rsultats en sont consigns dans une publication faite sous la direction de M. Gauckler et dont six fascicules ont paru...De son ct, M. le Gouverneur gnral
de lAlgrie avait adress, le 23 janvier 1896, linstruction suivante aux maires des communes
de plein exercice, aux administrateurs des communes mixtes, aux officiers chargs de ladministration des communes indignes: / Instruction pour la recherche des travaux hydrauliques
anciens en Algrie. / Le but de lenqute est de relever les ouvrages qui ont servi lamnagement des eaux courantes, et particulirement de leau agricole. Ceux qui se rapportent leau
dalimentation, spcialement les citernes, sont galement intressants, mais forment une catgorie part, surtout lorsquil sagit de rservoirs domestiques, tablis sous, dans, ou contre les
maisons, et nayant pu servir aux usages culturaux. Voici quels sont, en gnral, les monuments
de la premire espce, et quels sont les renseignements quil importerait davoir leur sujet etc
etc....Il nest gnralement pas suffisant de signaler un ouvrage hydraulique; il faut le dcrire
ou le figurer. Et mme, il importe de tcher dindiquer sa destination et son fonctionnement,
ce que lobservation du terrain rend souvent assez peu difficile. On peut, par exemple, marquer
quelle rgion, quelle tendue de terrain il commandait pour la dfense, lirrigation ou le drainage, do il prenait les eaux, o il les envoyait, sil avait pour objet de les faire changer de bassin,
ou simplement den rgler le cours, etc. / Il nest pas moins intressant de relever les vestiges de
lentretien, de la reconstruction, des modifications des ouvrages anciens lpoque musulmane,
et les ouvrages nouveaux crs en certains lieux depuis la chute de lEmpire romain.
[
344]Gsell_1902_130131 detail from Reconnaissance des rives de lOued Djedi entre Lioua et
lestuaire. Rapport de M. le lieutenant Dinaux: Nous nous bornerons, dans ce paragraphe, numrer les diverses ruines releves, en donnant sur elles les indications sommaires pouvant servir
de base des recherches futures; notre principal objectif est en effet ltude des travaux hydrauliques. / 1 Dans le village de Lioua, les fondations de plusieurs maisons arabes sont constitues
par des blocs de pierre quarris dont les dimensions moyennes sont de 0 m. 80 sur 0 m. 40; ces
blocs sont soit simplement juxtaposs, soit relis par du mortier dune solidit et dune duret
extraordinaires. / Dans lcole actuelle existe un puits romain parfaitement conserv, dun diamtre denviron 0 m. 80, dune profondeur de 4 mtres, et de construction fort soigne; comme
labreuvoir qui lui est contigu, il est fait en blocs de calcaire quarris. / 2 Dans le village de Ben
Thious existent de nombreuses assises de maisons, de construction semblable celles de Lioua,
et ne dpassant pas 1 m. 50 au-dessus du sol. / Une particularit digne de remarque indique avec
certitude la destruction de ce village et sa reconstruction une poque que lon ne peut malheureusement prciser: une maison comporte, au milieu des pierres de dimensions trs diffrentes qui forment sa base, des tronons de colonnes, des chapiteaux, des inscriptions effaces,
le tout assembl dune faon solide. / En outre, la mosque comprend dans sa cour intrieure
huit colonnes dune hauteur moyenne de 2 mtres, formes de deux ou trois tronons chacune,
et termines par des chapiteaux de types diffrents: la plupart se rapprochent de lordre toscan;
un seul peut tre attribu lordre ionique.
[
345]Gsell_1902_2728: Barrage de loued Boukhalli. Le village de Carnot a t bti sur des
ruines romaines trs tendues. Les constructions taient chelonnes sur les bords dun ravin

que les indignes dsignent sous le nom de Boukhalli-mort. Ce ravin parat avoir t autrefois
le lit de la rivire qui coule aujourdhui ct et qui porte le nom de Boukhalli. / A 2 kilomtres
au nord du village, sur le bord du chemin de grande communication n 4 (de Toued Damous
Tniet el-Had), on remarque, dans le lit de loued Boukhalli, quelques restes dun barrage
que nous croyons remonter lpoque de loccupation romaine. La maonnerie a t faite la
chaux grasse; les pierres employes sont de grosseur moyenne. / Le barrage semble avoir eu la
direction du sud-est au nord-ouest. Il devait tre assez important. Il est impossible den valuer
la hauteur, mais la base, dans le lit de la rivire, lpaisseur est de plus de 4 mtres. / Le canal
qui conduisait les eaux au village romain situ lemplacement de Carnot devait tre tabli sur
la rive droite de la rivire. Il est ais de comprendre quil ne pouvait en tre autrement, car, sur la
rive gauche, la montagne empchait linstallation dun aqueduc. / Les eaux ont d servir lirrigation de plusieurs centaines dhectares, car, partant du barrage situ lentre des montagnes,
elles sillonnaient la plaine sur un parcours de 10 kilomtres environ. / Depuis la cration de
Carnot, plusieurs ouvrages importants ont t faits ou sont en cours dexcution aux environs de
lendroit o lon aperoit les ruines du barrage romain. / Suivant lexemple des anciens, lAdministration a fait construire 30 mtres environ en aval de ces ruines un barrage-dversoir destin
lirrigation des terrains des colons. Malheureusement, la rivire ne coule pas ou presque point,
et cette oeuvre, qui aurait d tre la prosprit et la fortune de Carnot, ne sert rien. / Lanne
dernire, sur la demande du Conseil municipal, et sur le vu du rapport favorable des ingnieurs
des ponts et chausses, lAdministration suprieure a accord la commune de Carnot une subvention pour recherches et travaux deau. Ces travaux, mis en adjudication en juin dernier, sexcutent en amont du barrage romain et promettent de donner des rsultats satisfaisants.
[
346]Rousset_1882_120: La plaine dEl Outaya a port autrefois 100 ou 200 fermes romaines.
Les ruines qui parsment le sol attestent le fait. La fertilit de ce sol sablonneux mais gras est
prodigieuse; les eaux qui viennent du nord et du sud y crent une petite mer intrieure, le Silga,
au sud-ouest dEl Outaya, qui produit des pturages extrmement abondants et o les nomades
jettent leurs bestiaux par milliers. Un peu de travail transformerait en champs plantureux, en
cultures de palmiers, de vignes, de crales, de coton, de tabacs, ces plaines brles o lon ne
rencontre aujourdhui que le guettaf et le chiah, les chardons du dsert. M. Dufourg le premier
a montr ce que leau pouvait faire; il a enfoui toute sa vie de labeurs en cet essai et il mriterait
dtre vigoureusement aid. Si lEtat offrait seulement des garanties dintrts, ou si la loi permettait la vente aux Europens des terres laisses incultes par lindigne, les barrages sortiraient du
sol par enchantement, et avec eux la prosprit du pays et des colons.
[
347]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_9293: Que lAlgrie proclame le principe de lautonomie
absolue, o trouvera-t-elle des troupes pour protger son territoire? Et dans le cas, mme
o conservant ses attaches politiques la mre-patrie, elle en recevrait larme destine la
dfendre, o se procurera-t-elle des subsides pour ses routes, ses barrages, ses reboisements, ses
chemins de fer? les chemins de fer surtout, et lon ne saurait se faire une ide de la passion avec
laquelle ces questions brlantes sont souleves en ce moment.
[
348]Vars_18951896_294 writing of Constantine: On a dit souvent, avec beaucoup de sens,
que larchologie dans ce pays est une intelligente contribution loeuvre si patriotique de la
colonisation. Pourquoi celle-ci ne profiterait-elle pas ici de lexemple donn par lantiquit et ne
rtablirait-elle pas ce barrage que les Romains avaient cru devoir y construire? Le travail serait
peu coteux, puisquon pourrait utiliser les importantes et solides constructions qui affleurent
appendix
encore le sol. On pourrait y asseoir une muraille de deux mtres au plus dlvation et y driver,
comme jadis, la rivire en une perptuelle nappe deau dont toute la contre bnficierait largement pour ses irrigations.
[
349]Natte_1854_28 proposing to built a farm-village at Tipasa: water supply along the OuedNador: En remontant son cours lespace de six kilomtres, on trouve le barrage, que les romains
avaient construit, pour en dtourner les eaux et les amener Tipasa. Nous en avons suivi le
canal, dans toute sa longueur. Malgr les annes, qui ont pass sur sa destruction, il est ais
den reconnatre le trac, soit au creusement demi combl de sa cuvette, soit aux arbres qui le
bordent. Les grandes pierres, composant la digue du barrage, faute dentretien, ont t entranes par le courant, lors des grandes crues du Nador; mais cause de leur dimension, elles ont
roul peu de distance; on pourrait, peu de frais, reconstruire cette cluse.
[
350]Gsell_1902_31: Notice de M. Coste, Sous-Directeur du Domaine dAmourah. Le village
dAmourah (Dollfusville), situ sur le territoire de la commune mixte du Djendel (arrondissement de Miliana), fut cr eu 1880 par la Compagnie algrienne, sur lemplacement dune ville
antique, Sufasar, dont les ruines furent utilises pour les constructions, sauf toutefois les pierres
portant des inscriptions, sculptures ou moulures. / Dans lintrieur des murs de la ville, se trouvait englobe la source dAn Amourah. / Les eaux dune autre source appele An Tolba taient
amenes Sufasar par une conduite dont on trouva les dbris pars sur le sol ou recouverts
par les boulements...[for the An Amourah Spring] Quand on eut fait les fouilles et enlev
les pierres prcites, on se trouva en prsence dun barrage en maonnerie dune trentaine de
mtres de longueur. Ce mur tait fait de petits matriaux, lis par du mortier. Il fallut peu de
chose pour remettre ce barrage en tat, la partie suprieure seule tant dgrade.
[
351]Gurin_1862_II_292293 Zaghouan: En parcourant attentivement chaque rue, jobserve
a et l dans des constructions plus ou moins rcentes, soit de beaux blocs rectangulaires, soit
mme des tronons de colonnes ayant appartenu a des difices antiques. / Dans la cour dune
maison, appele Dar-et-Agha, et o il mest permis de pntrer, je lis sur un long bloc gisant
terre...Dans une autre maison, o le khalife moffre lhospitalit, je trouve une inscription beaucoup plus importante; elle est grave sur un autel votif encastr dans lun des murs de refend
de l cuisine.
[
352]Desfontaines_1838_II_96 travelled 17836, Zaghouan: En parcourant la ville de Zawan,
jai observ beaucoup de vieux murs fleur de terre, plusieurs colonnes que les Maures. ont
employes lornement de leurs mosques et de leurs maisons. Le seul monument ancien digne
dattention est une des portes de la ville; encore est-elle en partie tombe en ruines. Sur une
pierre du milieu du cintre, on voit une tte de blier sur laquelle est pose une couronne et dans
la couronne on lit AUXILIO.
[
353]Graham_1902_117 the waterworks at Zaghouan: Here commenced the conduits which
served to irrigate the adjacent land and to supply the great aqueduct This ruined structure, originally designed with much care, has beauty of its own apart from its charming position, and, like
many other monumental remains in North Africa, is a pleasant memorial of a great people long
since passed away. The columns are overthrown, the niches are empty, and the carved capitals
have been removed. They may be found, as usual in this country, in some neighbouring mosque,
misapplied, wedged up to support a flimsy Arab roof and coated with inevitable whitewash.
Modern Tunis, it may be observed, is still supplied with water from the same source, but through
a more prosaic channel than the stately duct which once led to Roman Carthage.

[
354]Graham_1902_115 the aqueduct at Carthage, originally some 54 miles in length: In
some parts the Arabs, with their usual destructiveness, have removed more than half the stones
forming the bases of these gigantic piers without affecting the superstructure, and in others
whole piers have fallen or been thrown down, leaving the duct poised in mid-air without apparent support.
[
355]Gurin_1862_II_287 Zaghouan aqueduct: Une partie du canal de laqueduc que ses
ouvriers rparent parait avoir dj subi des rparations une poque postrieure aux Romains;
car ce canal, qui sur ce point est presque fleur de terre, au lieu dtre, comme partout ailleurs,
recouvert par un toit vote, lest seulement par des dalles en pierre ou mme quelquefois en
marbre, juxtaposes assez grossirement les unes ct des autres, pour la plupart aussi trs-mutiles, qui proviennent de monuments plus anciens. Un grand nombre de ces dalles ayant t
rcemment retires et places sur les berges du canal quil sagit dabord de dblayer, puis de
restaurer, je maperois que plusieurs dentre elles sont revtues de fragments dinscriptions.
[
356]Cherbonneau_18541855_122123 on Carthage: El-Abdery [writing in the early 14th
century], au contraire, consacre ces restes mmorables un chapitre dobservations qui na
point encore t traduit, et dont la substance vient ajouter une grande valeur mon assertion.
Sappuyant dailleurs sur les renseignements fournis par son devancier El-Bekri [c.10141094],
il fait la peinture suivante de laqueduc et des carrires de la vieille capitale de lIfrikia: Leau
vient des hauteurs situes au midi et narrive Tunis quaprs avoir travers, dans un parcours de
deux journes de marche et peut-tre plus, des valles profondes et des montagnes escarpes.
Pour obtenir un niveau parfait, il a fallu percer des collines et des rochers, il a fallu jeter sur
les bas-fonds des ponts plusieurs tages et construits en pierres de grand appareil. Laqueduc
passe derrire les remparts, puis, prenant la direction de loccident, vient aboutir Carthadjna:
ce qui fait encore une distance de douze milles arabes. Carthadjna a t, dit-on, une des villes
les plus belles et les plus merveilleuses de la terre; elle tait dcore de monuments magnifiques,
comme lattestent les restes de laqueduc. Ses carrires sont renommes; de tout temps, on en
a tir du marbre pour toutes les cits de lIfrikia (Afrique septentrionale), sans jamais les puiser. Aujourdhui, Carthadjna est compltement ruine: il ny demeure pas une seule me. Les
Tunisiens sy rendent souvent par curiosit et par dvotion. Entre les deux villes, les arcades sont
hors de service. Cet aqueduc, que la solidit et llgance de son architecture mettent au-dessus
de toute description, est gnralement dsign par le nom ehanaya. La chronique rapporte
quil cota aux Roum (Romains) quatre cents ans de travaux et defforts. Mais cela me parat une
exagration. Abou-Obeid-el-Bekri est plus digne de foi, quand il affirme quil na pas fallu plus de
quarante ans pour achever la maonnerie et niveler parfaitement la conduite deau, parce quon
connat au prs tout le gnie des Romains, et les ressources dont ils pouvaient disposer. Un des
mirs de Tunis, le frre du prince rgnant, stant vu dans la ncessit de faire rparer quelques
arches de laqueduc, aux abords de la ville, pour ramener les eaux dont le cours stait trouv
interrompu sous le rgne de son prdcesseur, spuisa durant plusieurs annes en efforts inous,
sans atteindre la perfection de luvre ancienne. Tout ce quil put faire avec ses faibles moyens,
fut dexcuter quelques raccords dans la maonnerie.
[
357]El-Kairouani_1845_398399 first published 1681, Mohammed-Pacha at Tunis: Je vais
maintenant rappeler en peu de mots les constructions dutilit publique quon lui doit. Il fit
solidement rdifier le minaret de la grande mosque, et fit tablir au sommet une gurite o les
mouaddenin taient labri des rigueurs de lhiver et des chaleurs de lt; il y fit placer, sur une
appendix
plaque de marbre, une inscription en vers du chrif Es-Souci, inscription qui porte son nom et
la date de la construction. Il fit rparer en bonne maonnerie un ancien aqueduc qui amenait de
trs-loin, de Kessa, de leau Tunis, et affecta des ouakf son entretien. On travailla pendant un
an cette construction, qui cota des sommes normes. De nos jours, une partie de cet aqueduc
a t dtriore dans les guerres intestines dont notre pays a t le thtre.
[
358]El-Kairouani_1845_32 first published 1681, the aqueduct to Zaghouan: Les historiens
disent que cet aqueduc avait soixante milles, en droite ligne, et trois cents, en tenant compte
des sinuosits. On mit trois cent quatre ans le faire; ce qui ne surprendra pas si lon considre
limportance de cette construction et la longvit des hommes de cette poque. Ceux qui voient
les restes de cet aqueduc peuvent en juger.
[
359]Davis_1862_10: We pressed forward, and for some time kept near the lofty arches of
the majestic aqueduct which conveyed the water from Jugaar to Carthage. Numerous bands of
French workmen were busily engaged, in different parts, in restoring this stupendous hydraulic
monument of Carthage; but their attention was chiefly confined to those portions which perforate the hills. The arches which span the plains are not to be used, but in their stead iron pipes
are substituted, and these are of so frail a nature that, according to the information I possess, the
contractor himself only warrants them for three years. And yet the poor and miserable Arabs are
to pay for this preposterous enterprise no less a sum than 7,000,000 of francs!
[
360]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_29 Tunis: As each Bey, on accession to power, has been
accustomed to discard the palace occupied by his predecessor, and to build a new one for
himself, the royal residences around Tunis are numerous enough. The materials, however, of
which they are built are so indifferent, and their construction is so faulty, that, without constant
repairs, they would of themselves soon fall to decay. Not only are the deserted palaces uncared
for, but their materials and fittings are carried off in order to erect new edifices, frequently worse
designed and worse built than those sacrificed. In this way has the public money, sorely needed
for roads, bridges, and other works of utility, been diverted and squandered.
[
361]Gurin_1862_II_192 A sept heures trente-cinq minutes, nous atteignons le superbe tronon daquduc connu sous le nom daqueduc de la Manouba, parce quil traverse la plaine ainsi
appele. Ce tronon, qui ait partie du grand aqueduc de Carthage, court du nord au sud entre
deux montagnes. Il se compose dune suite trs-tendue de gigantesques arcades, dont les piedsdroits ont t presque tous dpouilles des belles pierres de taille qui les revtaient jadis; les unes
sont encore debout, les autres; au contraire, sont renverses. Depuis une trentaine dnncs
principalement, on en dtruit pice pice un assez grand nombre pour en transporter ailleurs les dbris destines a servir de matriaux de construction.
[
362]Gurin_1862_II_295296 Zaghouan: Aprs avoir promen longtemps mes pas, mes
regards et mon admiration au milieu de la charmante valle o spanouit la riche vgtation de
ces jardins, jarrive aux ruines du temple antique qui slevait au-dessus de la source par laquelle
tait jadis aliment laqueduc de Carthage; elle se perd actuellement en grande partie; mais
bientt elle coulera de nouveau dans le canal rpar, et ses eaux limpides, unies fraternellement,
comme par le pass, celles de la source du Djougar, procureront Tunis et la Goulette lun
des plus prcieux bienfaits que ces villes puissent dsirer. / Les dbris pittoresques du temple
que je viens de mentionner sont connus actuellement dans le pays sous le nom dHenchir-Anel-Kasbah (ruines de la source de la forteresse), les indignes stant imagin que cet difice est
un ancien chteau fort. Il est situ a deux kilomtres et demi au sudouest de la ville.

[
363]Gurin_1862_I_32 Tunis, presumably just the European quarter: Pour obvier, dun ct,
aux miasmes impurs qui sexhalent de ces kandaks, et, de lautre, cette pnurie deau qui est
si pnible et si prjudiciable lpoque des grandes chaleurs, deux travaux importants ont
t conus et sexcutent en ce moment sous la direction claire dingnieurs franais et sous
lactive impulsion que leur donne le patronage de M. le consul gnral de France. Ces gouts
ciel ouvert vont, comme je lai dit, disparatre prochainement; prochainement aussi, le fameux
aqueduc de Carthage, rtabli, amnera Tunis une eau intarissable et limpide qui circulera par
mille canaux travers la ville, coulera flots de plusieurs fontaines, lavera les rues et rpandra
partout, par sa prsence, la joie et la salubrit. also writes of plans for paving some streets, and
lighting them.
[
364]Bisson_1881_54 Tunis: La ville est pourvue deau par lantique aqueduc du Zaghouan,
restaur sous la direction de M. Caillat, ingnieur du bey. Pour mener ce travail bonne fin, il a
fallu rparer les anciens aqueducs et remplacer les arcades qui traversaient les valles par des
siphons en tuyaux de tle bitume. Un de ces siphons contourne la Sebkhahr-Sedjoumi et fait
monter leau dans le rservoir principal qui se trouve prs de la Casbah. Nous devons noter aussi
laqueduc construit ou plutt rpar par les Espagnols: il amne aux deux forts de lOuest et la
Casbah leau dune source nomme An-Mtouia. situe au N.-O. du Bardo dans le djebel-Ahmar.
En outre on recueille dans les citernes leau provenant des pluies.
[
365]Rey_1900_23 Zaghouan: Dtruit pendant la domination arabe, le canal-aqueduc de
Zaghouan a t restaur de 1859 1801 sous ladministration beylicale, et les travaux nont pas
cot moins de treize millions.
[
366]Thierry-Mieg_1861_6263 Tunis projects: Il parat, du reste, que le bey a de grands projets, et que lon va entreprendre des travaux considrables pour rendre la vie cette cit qui
pourrait avoir devant elle un si bel avenir. Jai parl dj du boulevard leuropenne qui devra
joindre la ville au lac, et remplacer la route nue et sans ombre que nous avions suivie en arrivant
de la douane. On doit en mme temps rparer et remettre neuf deux grands aqueducs, dont
lun, qui a plusieurs lieues de longueur, est attribu aux Romains et amenait leau Carthage.
Le consul de France, M. Roche, pousse activement toutes ces amliorations, plus que le bey
lui-mme; il a dj fait venir des ingnieurs franais pour tudier les travaux faire, et les entreprendre prochainement. Plusieurs de mes compagnons de voyage font mme partie de cette
expdition pacifique, M. B. entre autres, et le directeur en chef de lentreprise, qui est parent du
consul.
[
367]Thierry-Mieg_1861_77 at Tunis: De nouveaux convives nous attendaient table:
ctaient quelques jeunes ingnieurs franais dj installs depuis quelques jours dans la campagne pour commencer les prliminaires des travaux de laqueduc, avec de nombreux ouvriers
arabes que leur fournit le gouvernement du bey. Chacun se mit alors raconter ses aventures.
Il parat que les environs de Tunis sont trs-inhospitaliers, moins cependant quautrefois. Il y a
quelques annes, un chrtien ne pouvait saventurer dans la campagne ou les villages voisins
quau risque de sa vie. Ces jeunes gens nous disent que la nuit prcdente, au milieu de leur
campement, au milieu des Arabes qui travaillent avec eux, au milieu des soldats du bey qui
les protgent, un de leurs ouvriers indignes a t assassin. Par contre, ils nous parlent avec
enthousiasme des ruines romaines qui les entourent de toutes parts.
[
368]Hebenstreit_1830_71 Voyage Alger, Tunis et Tripoli, travelling 17323, at Tunis: Le lendemain, nous demandmes au bey la permission daller visiter quelques antiquits; mais il nous
la refusa, sous prtexte quil ne voulait pas nous laisser courir des dangers; ajoutant que ce serait
appendix
une honte pour lui sil nous arrivait quelque chose de fcheux. Cependant il nous permit de voir
la ville de Bagia, dont les murs et les fondemens des maisons sont de construction romaine.
Nous fmes entours dune foule innombrable de peuple qui regardait de trs mauvais oeil notre
innocente occupation de transcrire quelques inscriptions.
[
369]Guyon_1864_3: Les eaux thermales, comme on sait, sont dsignes par les Arabes sous
le nom gnrique de Hammam, qui veut dire bain; ils y joignent celui de la localit o elles se
trouvent, de sorte que, non seulement en Tunisie, mais encore dans tout le nord de lAfrique,
le voyageur trouvera des eaux thermales dans toutes les localits dont le nom est joint, comme
adjectif, celui de Hammam, et il pourra en mme temps, laide de quelques recherches, leur
restituer les noms ou dnominations quelles portaient autrefois, sous la domination romaine.
[
370]Pulszky_1854_88 on the way to Constantine, at Hammam-Berda: The name of the
camp has been derived from the hot springs in the neighbourhood, for the Arabs call all the
thermal springs Hammam (baths), and add the name of the next tribe to designate the locality.
[
371]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894_587 Ruines romaines au nord des Monts de Batna, in the
dpartement de Constantine: Bir el Henchir est une vaste ruine, avec de nombreux pressoirs.
Plusieurs sentiers arabes aboutissent un grand puits romain, encore trs frquent; des cuves
de pierre rectangulaires, disposes tout autour, servaient faire boire les btes. Prs du puits on
avait construit un fort lpoque byzantine.
[
372]Granger_1901_68_84 Tobna: Lintrieur du chteau contenait de vastes citernes au
dire des historiens arabes. Il est impossible de les rechercher aujourdhui, la partie centrale de
sa plateforme tant occupe par un cimetire arabe qui se peuple tous les jours de nouvelles
tombes...De cette poque, ou du XIIIe sicle, date nen pas douter, un hammam que nous
avons dblay prs du rempart est de la ville. La date que nous lui assignons est dtermine
dans notre esprit par sa construction qui est trs rudimentaire et sans cachet particulier: elle
est certainement un des produits de dcadence de lart berbre de ces temps; la rusticit des
pltres sculpts ornant lintrieur dune des salle vient lappui de notre thse. / Ce hammam
est situ 2 mtres du rempart est de la ville, et 100 mtres environ de langle quil forme avec le
rempart nord, nous lavons dblay pendant le mois doctobre 1900 et il est construit partie avec
des matriaux de lpoque romaine.
[
373]Guyon_1864_66 writing on thermal springs in Tunisia: Shaw, parlant des inscriptions
dEl-Hamma, fait remarquer que les inscriptions qui existaient du temps de Lon et de Dapper
avaient disparu de son temps. Quant aux, autres restes de lancienne cit, ils sont encore assez
nombreux de nos jours. Et, en effet, Pellissier signale Hamma, prs des sources thermales,
des restes de constructions romaines considrables. On voit Hamma, dit ce voyageur, p.
300, des dbris de constructions romaines considrables, et prcisment ct des sources
deau chaude. Un autre voyageur, M. le consul Tissot, signale dans les mmes lieux, o il est
pass peu aprs Pellissier, de nombreux vestiges dantiquits, entre autres de vastes piscines
construites en marbre.
[
374]Gurin_1862_I_235: A une heure, nous arrivons El-Hamma. Cette oasis est forme
de plusieurs villages, qui sont El-Kasr, le plus important de tous; Dabdaha, o nous demandons lhospitalit au scheik; Soumbat, Zaouet-el-Madjeba et Bou-Atouche. Des plantations de
palmiers arroses par des eaux courantes environnent ces villages. Ces eaux proviennent de
quatre sources chaudes, dont trois se trouvent Dabdaba et la quatrime entre Dabdaba et
El-Kasr. Elles taient jadis renfermes dans des bassins construits en fort belles pierres de taille
et qui existent encore, du moins en partie, car beaucoup de blocs ont t dplacs ou enlevs.

A chacun de ces bassins est adjoint un petit tablissement de bains de construction moderne,
mais divis intrieurement en plusieurs compartiments qui sont antiques. La temprature de
ces sources varie la plus chaude a quarante-cinq degrs centigrades, celle qui lest le moins en
a trente-quatre. / Entre Dabdaba et Et-Kasr stendait autrefois une ville qui portait le nom
dAquae Tacapitanae, parce quelle dpendait de Tacape, dont elle tait spare par un intervalle
de XVIII milles romains. Il en est question dans lItinraire dAntonin. Elle est compltement
dtruite actuellement, et ses dbris ont servi btir les villages modernes qui lui ont succd.
[
375]Blanchet_1899_145146 From Gabs to Tebessa by the Nefzaoua, springs at El-Hamma:
LAn el Bordj est revtu de tout un ensemble de constructions romaines et arabes, parmi lesquelles il est assez difficile de dmler le plan primitif de ldifice...LAn Cheriya ne prsente
pas les mmes caractres que lAn el Bordj. Cest un grand bassin de forme irrgulire, sans doute
demi-criculaire ou carr lors de sa construction, mais rpar la mode arabe on certain nombre
de fois. Leau y arrive par un conduit souterrain, et en sort par deux canaux dont jen ai pu constater le dbit, car ils taient sec le 29 juillet. / Sur les bords du bassin slve une construction
dlabre, dont les pierres branlantes causeront un jour ou lautre quelque accident. Ce sont les
restes dun second tablissement thermal...et le plan sen saisit nettement. Il se compose de
trois couloirs sur lesquels ouvrent des niches, des cabines dont leau baigne la partie infrieure.
Chaque baigneur plongeait ainsi dans leau toujours renouvele du bassin, tout en restant labri
des indiscrets. / Il suffirait de trs peu de travail pour assurer en place les pierres de taille qui
menacent mine. Je crois dailleurs savoir que M. le contrleur civil de Gabs compte donner
des ordres ce sujet...Je me suis tendu un peu longuement sur les installations thermales
dEl Hamma: ce nest pas que larchologue puisse sy intresser trs vivement. Mais je crois
quil serait facile, tant donn le dbit des sources et leur clbrit dans le monde indigne, de
remettre en tat les anciennes constructions, de crer un centre dattraction et de vie sdentaire
au milieu de la tribu remuante des Bni Zid: cest encore faire uvre scientifique que dlever
logiquement ldifice franais sur les substructions romaines.
[
376]Donau_1908_53: Aucune fouille na t excute El Hamma, de sorte quon ne peut
rien ajouter aux descriptions donnes par Tissot et par les explorateurs qui ont visit les villages
indignes construits avec les dbris des monuments romains. / Les pierres de taille sont particulirement nombreuses dans les ruines du Bordj tunisien, abandonn depuis loccupation
franaise; il serait intressant de le dblayer, car il recouvre vraisemblablement une partie des
Thermes romains dont une autre, restaure, sert actuellement encore de Hammam trs frquent par les indignes qui viennent, souvent de trs loin, y calmer leurs douleurs rhumatismales et syphilitiques. Cette vogue des bains dEl Hamma na pas cess depuis lpoque romaine,
et les anciens Thermes ont du tre plusieurs fois restaurs.
[
377]Wagner_1841_I_292: Hammam-Berda ist unter allen franzsischen Lagern der Provinz
Cnstantine der wohnlichste Aufenthalt, seiner Stille, seiner schnen Gegend und des Bades
wegen. Ein Lieblingszeitvertreib der Officiere ist, sich tglich im rmischen Bassin ein paar
Stunden in die wohlthtig laue Fluth zu strecken.
[
378]Devoisins_1840_4849 at a Roman site: Le 28 septembre, lintendant militaire et les officiers de sant en chef bivouaqurent Hamman-Berda, en mme temps que le dernier grand
convoi de ladministration et de lartillerie. Hamman-Berda est situ deux lieues de poste de
Guelma, sur la route de Bone ce camp retranch. On a construit dans ce terrain un petit fort
pentagone en pierres sches, avec deux tours carres places aux saillants ouest et est, pour en
flanquer les faces. Ce fortin peut tre dfendu par une compagnie dinfanterie: ct de ces
appendix
petits rduits en terre et en mauvaise maonnerie, que les Franais lvent sur les points de
lAfrique quils parcourent, le voyageur remarque les ruines formidables des postes fortifis des
Romains, dont les dbris monstres tonnent son imagination. Le vandalisme de tous les sicles
barbares a pass sur les gigantesques monuments du plus grand des peuples, et ni lui, ni lintemprie des saisons, nont pu effacer les travaux de cette nation de gants. Sil nous tait donn de
revoir ces contres au bout dun sicle dabsence et dabandon par la France, nous ne savons o
nous pourrions rencontrer vestige de notre sjour sur cette terre antique.
[
379]Pulszky_1854_88B on the way to Constantine: At Hammam-Berda we found many
ruins, which clearly prove that the Romans had used these springs extensively for medical purposes. A massive reservoir is still in good preservation. The hot spring rushes in a horizontal
direction from the cliff through an artificial mouth: and it would seem that the water was first
carried thither by the Romans. The reservoir which receives the spring is of oval form, twentytwo feet long, and ten wide; hence the water used to rush to a larger basin on a lower level: but
this is now destroyed, and is covered with weed and bushes...A few sepulchral inscriptions
were found at this place, which the Romans called Aquae Tibilitanae. / The camp of HammamBerda was the most comfortable of all the camps of the province of Constantine, from its quiet,
its fine scenery, and its baths, which the French officers used every day.
[
380]Quesnoy_1888_166 in 1841: Le 9 [january], le corps expditionnaire reprit la route de
Blidah en parcourant le massif montagneux entre le Chliff et la Mitidja. Nous y retrouvmes
les ruines dun poste romain important, Aquae callidae (eaux chaudes), o nous avons fait une
magnifique station thermale sous le nom dHamman-Rira.
[
381]Bertherand_1878_4 on hot springs: Dans un travail publi en 1860, dans la Gazette des
Eaux, je constatais lexistence de 90 sources thermominrales dans nos trois provinces. Je dresse
aujourdhui la carte de toutes ces richesses; un simple coup dil permettra donc dapprcier
lemplacement, la nature, la distance des centres de colonisation, dun bien plus grand nombre
de ces sources, puisque de nouveaux renseignements les lvent au chiffre denviron 140. On
se rendra ainsi facilement compte, soit des villages placer prs des plus importantes, soit des
chemins de communication tablir pour les relier aux centres dj existants. And he reckons
some sites could make money by selling bottled mineral water.
[
382]Bertherand_1878_13 on hot springs: Hammam Beurda (cest--dire le bain du bt)
(Analyse): lancienne Villa Seruliana, et daprs Dureau de la Malle, Hammam el Merda,
cest--dire bain des Merds, nom de la tribu berbre qui peuplait jadis cette localit. A 7 kil.
N. de Guelma, prs dHliopolis, Ruines de bassins romains, Sources nombreuses rcoltes
dans un vaste bassin: eaux assez abondantes pour faire tourner des moulins et irriguer de vastes
proprits. Saline carbonate calcique: 29 degrs. Enployes dans les affections de la peau.
[
383]Teissier_1865_36: Dans la province de Constantine: les sources de HammamMeskoutin, 40 kilomtres de Guelma (70 et 94 degrs), sulfureuses, alcalines, acidules, sales
et arsenites, trs-efficaces dans les cas de douleurs articulaires; les eaux de Sidi-Mimoum,
(prs de Constantine. rive gauche du Rummel (26 degrs), ancien bain romain trs-frquent
par les indignes et par les Europens.
[
384]Marty_and_Rouyer_18901891_239240 of a small monument on a hill, at HammamMeskoutine: Enfin, en arrivant un monticule couronn par un bouquet doliviers qui frappe
les regards, on voit les restes dun difice qui dut tre important. Ce point, dsign par les arabes,
qui y ont tabli un marabout, sous le nom de Henchir-An-er-Rmel, fut jadis entirement couvert
de constructions. Le sommet, surface plane, tait entour par une enceinte de murs de pierres

de grand appareil. / Au Sud-Est, son lvation est peu considrable. Un trs grand nombre de
pierres tailles, plus ou moins volumineuses, ont gliss sur les cts Sud et Ouest, o lon voit
encore debout des pans de murs soigns et solides. / Les dispositions intrieures du monument
ont disparu sous les dcombres des gourbis que les indignes avaient construits sur le plateau en
utilisant les pierres romaines. Aussi, nous navons pas essay den relever le plan. / Du ct NordEst et dans les jardins arabes, une construction vote, presque entirement comble, prsente
une ouverture de deux trois mtres; sa profondeur nous a paru tre de quatre cinq mtres.
En passant en revue les pierres utilises par les arabes pour sparer les carrs de jardins, presque
en face de louverture, nous avons remarqu une croix grecque grave en creux sur la face suprieure dune pierre. / Les byzantins ont donc utilis ce point, qui est en relation optique avec
la Pierre-Btie (Hadjar-Benia), le Dar-Othman, le Guelaat-Serdouk et les ouvrages de dfense
de Meskoutine mme. Le btiment de Henchir-An-er-Rmel nous a sembl avoir servi cette
double destination de protger le vaste bassin o prend son origine lOued Ched-Akra et les
habitants des environs qui pouvaient y trouver un refuge. Il faisait partie du systme de dfense
gnrale de Meskoutine, constitu par la srie de points fortifis ayant les uns avec les autres des
communications optiques faciles.
[
385]Carette_1838_14, Hippone: Cest lheure du plerinage; quittez Annaba et acheminez-vous vers les lieux o fut Hippone. Pendant la moiti du chemin environ, vous suivez encore
la voie romaine; droite et gauche) vous remarquez des restes de ponceaux jets au milieu
de ces marais que vous traversez; ce sont les irrcusables tmoins des travaux dassainissement
excuts par les anciens matres du pays. Vers le milieu de cette plaine, la hauteur du point o
la chausse disparat, se prsentent droite quelques pans de murs, sur lesquels on voit encore
figure en larges briques limage de la croix. Cest la chapelle que saint Augustin avait ouverte la
pit des marins. Prs delle sont les marabous de Sidy-Aly el Hattab et de Sidi-Jaballa, levs de
ses ruines. La pit musulmane est paresseuse; quand elle honore ses derviches, cest toujours
aux dpens de lantiquit.
[
386]Marcotte_de_Quivires_1855_97 Le Duc dAumale eut la bont de nous dire quil allait
envoyer des ordres dans toutes les tribus que nous devions traverser, et il nous engagea vivement nous arrter Mjez-el-Hammar, pour aller voit les bains chauds dHammam-Mescoutin,
anciens bains romains quil il avait fait restauer et o il compte tablir des bains militaires pour
nos blesss.
[
387]Carron_1859_129130: Nous reprmes donc la route de Philippeville, laissant Guelma,
lancienne Calamus, o saint Augustin a passe une partie de sa jeunesse et o se trouvent les
fameuses sources deaux chaudes, appells par les arabes amman-mescoutin, les bains maudits.
Je lai dautant plus regrett que loccasion ne sest plus prsente de visiter cette province et que
jai quitta lAfrique sans voir Guelma. / Une entreprise gigantesque, encourage par le prince
Napolon et approuve par lEmpereur va transformer les ruines romaines en un tablissement
Thermal, qui rivalisera avec les plus beaux dEurope, et les surpassera cause de la douceur du
climat qui permettra de les frquenter en plein hiver, dans la saison o ceux du continent sont
ferms.
[
388]Duval_1859_264 Hammam-Meskoutin, 10km E of Guelma: fond en 1845...pour les
militaires, aux frais et sous la direction du gouvernement...Chaux sur place, en abondance et
de qualit suprieure; bancs calcaires pour pierres btir; ruines romaines qui fourniraient une
grande quantit de pierres tailles; plantations faciles; greffe et culture doliviers, dont le pays est
appendix
couvert; exploitation des eaux thermales pour les bains civils; chutes deau pour la cration de
moulins farine et de moulins huile; accessoirement incubation artificielle comme ChaudesAigu]es, commerce dincrustations calcaires comme Clermont, Saint-Nectaire et Carlsbad;
dbouchs faciles de tous les produit par les routes de Constantine, Bne et Philippeville; le
beau idal de la colonisation semble ralis par le site de Hammam-Meskoutin. Ladministration
y projette la cration dun village.
[
389]Marty_and_Rouyer_18901891_207 Hammam-Meskoutine: Le travail de M. le docteur
Grellois, publi en 1852, Metz, chez S. Lamort, ne saurait tre oubli dans ce mmoire, mais
il dcrit un tat dj profondment modifi. / La civilisation, reprsente par trois de ses lments, les constructions nouvelles, les dfrichements, le chemin de fer, se montra toujours singulirement ennemi du pass. / Aussi, Meskoutine de 1889 mrite dtre pass en revue. Cest ce
que nous ferons, en indiquant la fois les omissions de notre devancier et les parties disparues
depuis son sjour.
[
390]Bernelle_1892_507: Hammam-Meskhoutin (Aquae Thibilitanae). A 18 kilomtres de
Guelma, sur la voie ferre de Bne au Khoubs, se trouvent les magnifiques sources thermales
dHammam-Meskhoutin (les bains des damns), les Aquae Thibilitanae. / Les nombreuses
ruines parses autour des sources, parmi lesquelles on rencontre encore des restes de murailles,
des blocs de pierres de taille, des dbris de colonnes, de chapiteaux, de portiques, de mosaques,
de vastes piscines, dont quelques-unes sont encore utilises, attestent que les Romains y avaient
cr une station balnaire dune certaine importance et quils attribuaient ces eaux thermales
une influence des plus salutaires.
[
391]Marty_and_Rouyer_18901891_214 Hammam-Meskoutine: Lintrieur du bassin ainsi
circonscrit prsente encore de nombreux orifices, points de sortie des eaux termales dont
quelques-uns ont fonctionn jusquau moment o la tranche ouverte pour le chemin de fer a
livr de nouveaux dbouchs aux eaux, qui scoulent maintenant sur la voie un niveau beaucoup plus bas.
[
392]Schulten_19001901_458 writing on Roman Africa: Les monuments. La conservation
des monuments, source la plus importante pour la connaissance de la civilisation romaine, la
science la doit en bonne partie aux Arabes, pour la simple raison quils ont peu bti: dans les
villes arabes, la moisson est sensiblement plus faible que dans le pays plat. La colonisation franaise semble avoir tout autant dtruit, dans son activit pour btir, que les Arabes pendant leur
domination de onze sicles. La pire ennemie des monuments anciens, cest la civilisation, car
devant le nouveau le vieux doit se retirer. La plupart des antiquits dnotent, par suite, les pays
qui ont t trs peu touchs par la civilisation moderne, tels que les pays arabes et turcs. Ce qui
se passe dans lAfrique du Nord pour les monuments romains a lieu galement en Asie Mineure
pour les monuments grecs. Du reste, on ne doit point se faire lillusion que dans ces pays il suffise de dblayer les monuments anciens pour les contempler dans leur tat primitif. De grands
monuments, rellement bien conservs, sont mme rares dans le nord de lAfrique, mais cependant beaucoup plus nombreux quailleurs: plus un difice slve au-dessus du sol, plus il est
expos la destruction.
[
393]Palat_1885_150 1km outside Sousse: Sur lemplacement mme du camp occup autrefois par les chasseurs dAfrique et les hussards, tait situe la ncropole antique. Nos soldats, en
creusant le sol sous leurs tentes, ont fait souvent de curieuses dcouvertes: ils ont retir de l un
grand nombre de lampes de terre et des jarres fond hmisphrique perc de trous, pleines de
cendres et dossements.

[
394]Decker_1844_II_126138 for sickness and hospitalization in the army 139145 for the
enormous hospitals they had to build. For example, Sept-Dec 1837 saw 708 soldiers die of cholera.
[
395]Charmasson_1925_439 on the work of the Gnie militaire: Toutes les rgions de lAlgrie
en portent la marque: routes stratgiques et commerciales, desschements, irrigations, reboisements, caravansrails, bordjs, hpitaux, glises, mosques, coles, htels pour commandants
de cercle, casernes pour la gendarmerie et les douanes, enceintes et ouvrages fortifis, etc., sont
loeuvre des officiers du gnie. Certaines villes, comme Fort-National, Tlemcen, Milina, Aumale,
Orlansville, etc., ont pu se dvelopper jusquici lintrieur de leur enceinte, telle que lavaient
conue ces officiers.
[
396]Delvoux_1870_235 Old Algiers: En pntrant dans le quartier dartillerie que nous avons
tabli lextrmit occidentale de la Casba, on trouve, droite, une mosque assez grande, mais
trs simple, trs nue et recouverte en terrasse, qui parit ancienne et qui tait videmment loratoire bti pour lusage des Janissaires chargs de la garde de cette forteresse avant quelle fut
devenue la demeure plus sre que somptueuse du chef de la Rgence. / En face de soi, lorsquon
gravit les quelques marches qui donnent accs dans cette caserne dartilleurs, on a une grande
et jolie mosque, recouverte dun dme et orne lintrieur de jolies colonnes engages, en
marbre, hautes et un peu grosses, dont les proportions et la disposition produisent un effet original. Des lits de soldat, rangs en lignes symtriques, encombrent cette lgante nef, digne dun
meilleur sort.
[
397]Picard 1994, 123123 quoting Charon to Bugeaud in 1844: Les habitations mauresques
modifies et appropries nos habitudes sont les seules admissibles dans ce pays. Le climat et le
risque de tremblement de terre doit nous entraner tudier de prs les constructions tablies
par les arabes. Sans nous proccuper ici des moeurs et des croyances religieuses qui ont eu une
si grande influence pour dterminer la forme et la disposition des difices des indignes, nous
reconnatrons seulement lexistence de ce fait, et nous en conclurons que les nouveaux habitants de lAgrie, ntant plus dirigs par ces mmes influences pourront modifier cette forme
et cette disposition, sans scarter toutefois des obligations imposes par la nature du sol et les
exigences du climat.
[
398]Nodier_1844_130131 Philippeville: Dans la journe, le prince visite de nouveau les
hpitaux et tout rtablissement militaire. Il obtient du marechat, 1 lvacuation sur Alger du
tiers des malades, qui vont tre emmens par tous les btiments du commerce, que la vapeur
remorquera; 2 lenvoi durgence, par des btiments vapeur, de mdicaments, de baignoires,
et de mdecius accompagnes dun intendant charg dinspecter extraordinairement le service;
3 le changement de logis dune foule demploys trop proccupes de leurs aises, qui ont pris les
belles habitations pour eux et ont laiss les mauvaises aux malades; lannulation des marchs
sur le vin et sur le bois, qui sont en gnral monstrueusement abusifs; 5 la diminution de postes
inutiles et la construction de baraques pour ceux qui restent; 6 la diminution des corves, qui
paraissent avoir produit le plus grand nombre des maladies; enfin 7 S. A. R. pour encourager
les colons qui ont montr de lactivit et de lintelligence, leur fait concder dfinitivement le
terrain sur lequel ils ont bti et qui ntait que prt.
[
399]Nodier_1844_158160 at Constantine: Les hpitaux sont malheureusement dans un tat
dplorable: une partie des btiments qui leur sont affects tombent en ruines; et la concentration des troupes ayant fait vacuer sur Constantine les malades des troupes campes, qui,
dans cette anne dsastreuse, sont prs de quatre fois aussi nombreux que dans les annes prcdentes, les hommes, trop presss et presque entasss partout, manquent dair. / Cependant
appendix
la mortalit est heureusement trs faible...Le prince, vivement mu de ltat des choses, fait
transporter dans le vaste palais que nous occupons un grand nombre de malades, et donne des
ordres exprs pour le prompt assainissement des hpitaux. Il pose la premire pierre de ceux qui
doivent tre tablis la Casbah, sur lemplacement du grand temple romain, dont les colonnes
de soixante et douxe pieds cle haut sont encore parses sur le sol. / Ce monument, qui dominait
une crte de rochers de plus de cinq cents pieds dlvation, devait produire, au point de vue de
la campagne, leffet le plus imposant.
[
400]Bequet_1848_352 Cherchel: Les ponts-et-chausses y construisent en ce moment un
port ou plutt un bassin, creus dans lemplacement dun port romain; on y construit galement
un phare; ces deux travaux seront dune importance et dune utilit vritables pour la navigation
si difficile sur ces ctes sans abri. Le gnie militaire a bti une caserne dinfanterie, un hpital
militaire, et enfin tout ce qui est ncessaire pour une garnison de 2,000 hommes. 85 kilomtres
(par mer) 0. dAlger. 100 kilomtres N. de Miliana. Population: 1,969 habitants.
[
401]Ansted_1854_200201 Cherchel: Within the town there is not much to be seen of its
ancient grandeur beyond innumerable columns and fragments of columns of granite, porphyry,
and extremely hard brecciated marble, literally strewed about in every direction, and employed
for the most ignoble purposes. I counted no less than fifty of these columns of very large size,
many of them nearly perfect, lying in the open space between the gate at the eastern end of the
town and the houses. There is hardly a street or a lane in which fragments are not to be seen,
either used as posts, lying on the ground unused by the sides of the houses, serving as low fences
or walls to the gardens, employed as rollers for the road, or heaped up with other fragments of
stone too cumbersome to be moved. Nearly a hundred columns of considerable beauty, and of
the hardest porphyry, are built into a mosque now used as a hospital, and the smaller ones more
easily removed serve every purpose that their form will admit. It is difficult to conceive whence
have been derived so large a number of objects, not easily prepared at any time, and certainly
only used in costly buildings, whether public or private. Their precise object it is equally difficult
to guess at. Columns were also cut up for use in oil mills: see Kennedy_1846_73: The rollers
employed in crushing the olives are generally supplied by the nearest ruins, and columns of the
rarest and most precious marbles are cut up into lengths for this purpose.
[
402]Boissier_1899_3132 Cherchel: The old wall is almost everywhere visible; it leaves
the shore, rises straight to the highest part, now and then crowning its loftiest crags, and then
descends again toward the sea. The vast space that it encloses must have been filled with monuments of every description, as the plough is constantly bringing to light fragments of them; but
everything is in ruins. Of the theatre nothing is shown but a great hole in a field; a depression
in the ground represents the circus; some fallen blocks of mortar indicate the site of the amphitheatre. Almost everywhere the stone has disappeared. However, some broken bits that chance
has preserved, show us what must have been the splendour of the ancient capital of Mauretania.
On the principal square of Shershell, planted with vigorous carob-trees, stands a column, surrounded by fragments that are wonderfully rich in capitals and friezes. Here and there enormous
blocks of marble serve as benches to the few pedestrians of the country who come to breathe
the sea air. A beautiful mosque, now turned into a hospital, is supported by a forest of antique
columns of green granite, which give a very good idea of the monuments from which they have
been taken.
[
403]Herbert_1881_168 Cherchel: La grande mosque a t convertie en un hpital militaire,
dont la vote est soutenue par des arcades en fer cheval, reposant sur quatre vingts pilastres

de fort beau granit vert, qui ont videmment appartenu la colonnade dun temple paen.
Quelques colonnes surmontes de beaux chapiteaux sont encore debout parmi les dcombres
de lantique palais. Mais ce sont les vastes rservoirs qui excitent ladmiration par leur tat merveilleux de conservation (ce caractre de dure nappartient qu larchitecture romaine): ainsi,
aujourdhui ils fournissent de leau la ville comme ils le faisaient il y a dix-huit sicles.
[
404]Robert_1891_69 Cherchel: Une partie des murailles de lancienne ville, qui sappelait
alors Csare ou Julia-Caesarae, existent encore, ainsi que les restes dun cirque, dun forum,
du palais des proconsuls, dun temple de Neptune, de bains consacrs Diane et dune belle
mosque trois nefs supportes par cent colonnes de granit, dont les chapiteaux sont admirablement sculpts.
[
405]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_139 Cherchel: En 1861, en creusant un got dans la cour
de la mosque (aujourdhui lhpital militaire), on dcouvrit 3 ou 4 mtres de profondeur une
grande quantit de colonnes, de chapiteaux, de corniches en marbre blanc. Il nest pas possible
daffirmer quen cet endroit slevait un temple; dans tous les cas, comme cet emplacement est
plus lev que les parties avoisinantes de la ville, ces dbris ont videmment appartenu un
temple, un forum, ou tout autre grand monument public.
[
406]Barbier_1855_XXVIII: Des populations nouvelles suivaient pas pas dans lintrieur
nos colonnes victorieuses et stablissaient partout o la prsence de nos soldats leur assurait
quelque scurit. Autour des villes et dans les campagnes, des milliers de colons luttaient contre
les rudes labeurs de la culture et des intempries du climat; beaucoup, hlas! en ouvrant leurs
premiers sillons creusaient leur tombe, et chaque tombe en se refermant lguait la colonie de
pauvres orphelins. Il ny avait encore point dhpital, point de maison de refuge, point dglise,
point de prtre; tout tait donc crer, fonder. Tout entiers la conqute, les hommes de
guerre comme les hommes dadministration ne songeaient pas soulager toutes ces infortunes.
[
407]Qutin_1847_7273: Colonie militaire de Beni-Mered, La colonie militaire de BeniMered a t fonde en 1842. M. le marchal Bugeaud lui donna alors pour habitants des soldats
ayant au moins quatre annes de service complter avant lexpiration de leur cong. Leffectif
actuel est de soixante-quatre hommes, dont douze maris depuis un an. Le directeur de cet tablissement est un officier dinfanterie, M. Montigny, homme de mrite dont les services spciaux
nous paraissent mriter des encouragements. / Bien que cette colonie soit situe dans une des
parties basses de la plaine, et que le nom de la localit constate sa rputation dinsalubrit chez
les Arabes, il ny a eu, cette anne, que dix-sept hommes malades, et tous lont t par suite dun
sjour prolong dans la plaine, une lieue de ltablissement, pour la rcolte des foins; ce qui
dtermina chez eux des accs de fivre intermittente, dont le sulfate de quinine et un sjour
de courte dure lhpital eurent promptement raison. / Pas un seul homme nest mort depuis
la formation de la colonie, cest--dire depuis deux ans; do lon peut presque conclure quun
travail assidu, une conduite rgulire et discipline, une nourriture saine comme est celle du
soldat, permettent aux hommes dous dun bon moral daffronter impunment les miasmes les
plus dltres de lAlgrie. Ce rsultat venge un peu la Mitidja des plaintes exagres diriges
contre elle par des hommes qui sy livrent tous les excs, et qui, pour sexcuser, accusent le
climat et le pays.
[
408]Derrien_1895_284 la campagne godsique de 1883, in the Bassin de lOued Riou: Ruines
Romaines de Ouekki, sur un plateau verdoyant au nord du Djebel Lalla-Kheira. Elles prsentent
un grand champ de pierres que les Arabes ont utilises pour en faire des maisons. Prs dune
appendix
belle source jaillissant de rochers se trouve un ancien bassin dont la face de devant est un monolithe de 5m00 de longueur, avec bord suprieur ondul. / M. de la Blanchre, en signalant ces
ruines, dit, que daprs la tradition, Ouekki reprsenterait les restes dun hpital romain.
[
409]Mauroy_1852_350: Travaux militaires et camps. La dfense du territoire est le premier
besoin de la colonisation. Fortifications, murs denceinte, batteries, arsenaux, casernes, tout tait
crer ou reconstruire. Les points de dfense du littoral, surtout Alger et Mers-el-Kebir,
ont t pourvus de fortifications. L o les ressources budgtaires nont pas permis des travaux
permanents, on a tir parti danciens ouvrages turcs, ou bien des batteries et des murs denceinte
provisoire ont mis labri de toute agression.
[
410]Revue Africaine 6, August 1837, 14 Minister of War in the Chamber, 24 February 1837, for
cost estimates: Artillerie, Armement des places et constructions de magasins: 5,300,000; Gnie.
Constructions de casernes, hpitaux, magasins, fortifications permanentes: 6,100,000; Routes
3,300,000; Desschements 2,500,000; Prolongation du mle dAlger: 9,000,000; Lazaret Alger:
600,000 for a total of 26,800,000 and Dans les valuations ci-dessus, on na pas compris les
travaux du port de Mers-el-Kbir, dont les tudes ne sont pas assez avances, ni la route indique
seulement de Constantine vers le golfe de Stora.
[ ]
411 Bard_1854_37 written without apparent irony: Tous les difices btis par le gnie militaire (hospices, prisons, caravansrails, silos, ponts, casernes, blockhaus, et autres ouvrages de
dfense et de stratgie), portent lempreinte de la solidit romaine, et resteront comme des
modles de construction.
[
412]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_78: Situation en 1830, public works in Algeria: Qutaient devenues les villes dautrefois? Tout avait t renvers; les matriaux antiques disperses avaient servi
ldification des groupes de masures infectes dans lesquelles vivait la partie de la population
qui nhabitait pas sous la tente, ou dans des gourbis en broussailles. Aucun des grands ouvrages
romains navait t restaur, et aux difices de luxe de la civilisation disparue avaient succd
des mosques boiteuses, construites le plus souvent avec des dbris disparates. Exceptons pourtant de cette rgle, malheureusement fort gnrale, quelques palais de chefs et quelques difices
religieux o lon retrouve les traces de lart arabe de la meilleure poque, notamment Alger,
Constantine et Tlemcen. / Le sol lui-mme semblait avoir perdu ses qualits sculaires. Vou
au repos par la paresse des habitants, il tait couvert de broussailles ou de jachres, qui ntaient
pas de nature rappeler son ancienne fcondit si vante. En outre, des marais taient ns de
toutes parts dans les plaines, et rpandaient au loin la fivre paludenne, devant laquelle les
populations reculaient sans cesse, en abandonnant chaque anne un lambeau nouveau de leurs
terres les plus fertiles.
[
413]Poujoulat_1847_I_362 Guelma: Ghelma (Calama des Romains) est une ville toute franaise, car avant 1836, poque laquelle nous vnmes nous y tablir, des ruines seules indiquaient
lemplacement de lancienne cit. Telle quelle est aujourdhui, Ghelma forme deux parties distinctes, le camp et la ville, si toutefois on peut donner ce nom un commencement de ville. /
Le camp est jusqu prsent la partie la plus vaste. Il renferme trois belles casernes, pouvant
loger chacune trois cents hommes, deux pour linfanterie, une pour la cavalerie, un hpital pour
120 malades, remarquable par sa bonne disposition, une manutention, des magasins, etc. De
nouvelles constructions sont en projet, entre autres un htel pour le commandant suprieur,
un pavillon pour les officiers et des dpendances ncessaires lhpital. Une muraille, restaure
avec les ruines de lenceinte romaine, construite neuf en certaines parties, entoure le camp.

Une belle porte cintre, de construction rcente, fait communiquer le camp avec la ville. / La
ville future compte aujourdhui trente maisons environ, remarquables la plupart par une certaine lgance. Chaque jour voit sen lever de nouvelles, et tout fait esprer qu la fin de 1845
leur nombre ne sera pas moindre de cinquante, surtout si le gouvernement ralise son projet dy
envoyer cent familles.
[
414]Waille_1905_72 Cherchel, theatre: Les gradins en pierre de taille, disposs sur la pente
de la colline, o les spectateurs se tenaient assis face au nord, cest--dire face la mer, et qui
figurent encore dans les planches de Ravoisi (album archologique sans texte 1841), arrachs
lors de l construction des casernes, furent utiliss comme matriaux. Puis lhmicycle luimme, quune courbe de terrain dessinait, devint carrire de tuf. Aussi, peu dhabitants saventils aujourdhui pourquoi la rue qui mne ce trou bant sappelle rue du Thtre.../ Sppuyant
sur ces actes de vandalisme et ces tmoignages et les rsumant, M. Gsell, dans son ouvrage
densemble sur les Monuments historiques de lAlgrie, qui donne avec exactitude ltat actuel
de nos connaissances cet gard, a pu crire (tome 1, p. 199): A Cherchel, le thtre a compltement disparu.
[
415]SHD GR 1M1316 13, Mmoire descriptif et militaire sur Oran et ses environs, November
1839, by de Granout, 52 pages. 1314: Le Colise...dont une partie a t dtruite, et lautre badigeonne et racommod par nos soldats pour en faire une caserne, est occupe aujourdhui par
quelques compagnies dinfanterie...Cest dans cette caserne du Colise que se trouvent deux
cours entours de galries supportes par des colonnes de marbre blanc dun beau travail; ce
cour tait autrefois pav avec des dalles de marbre, mais les vandales modernes tant passs par
l, et ils ny ont laiss que ce quils nont pas pu enlever. Of the Chateau Neuf, 19: Toutes ces
constructions du chteau neuf sont faites de pices et de morceaux, sans art, sans got, et sans
regularit presumably a rebuild from Roman blocks.
[
416]Esprandieu_1889_141 amphitheatre at Le Kef: Les fouilles qui en ont amen la dcouverte ont t excutes sur lordre de M. le gnral dAubigny, auquel on devait dj la cration
de la Socit archologique du Kef. La forme du monument tait elliptique; son grand axe mesurait environ 100m., son petit axe 80 m. Les constructions prsentaient une profondeur de 30 m.
environ, de sorte que lellipse intrieure de lamphithtre devait avoir comme axes 70 m. et 50
m. On a retrouv les restes de quelques gradins, mais ltat de conservation gnral tait des
plus mauvais. Trs vraisemblablement il nexistait que les fondations de lamphithtre et ces
fondations viennent mme de disparatre en partie. Les gros blocs de pierre qui les formaient
ont servi construire des casernes.
[
417]Piesse_1862_131 Mda: Il est toujours certain que Meda a t btie sur lemplacement
dun tablissement romain, et aux dpens des matriaux de cet tablissement. Cest un fait
dont il est facile de se convaincre, en examinant les maisons. La partie infrieure de laqueduc
offre aussi des traces de travail antique; et, en le rparant depuis la conqute, on a trouve des
mdailles romaines dans les assises infrieures. Mais ce qui est incontestablement antique, cest
le rempart, langle N. 0. de la ville. De ce ct, les fouilles ncessites pour la construction de
lhpital ont fait dcouvrir des substructions romaines.
[
418]Bequet_1848_419420 Philippeville: Ce qui manque encore Philippeville, ce sont les
difices ddilit publique. Quelques-uns sont dj en construction, comme lglise, la douane;
dautres sont projets, tels que la prison, le tribunal, lcole, etc.; enfin, le service des ponts-etchausses a commenc des travaux importants, qui ont pour objet damener, dans les anciennes
citernes que lon a retrouves, les eaux du Beni-Melek: cest l encore un travail de lancien muni-
appendix
cipe romain, et que nous reprenons en sous-uvre, aprs quatorze sicles dintervalle. / Les
btiments militaires existant dj Philippeville, sont: un htel construit par le gnie et habit
par lautorit militaire suprieure; un hpital militaire pour huit ou neuf cents malades, et des
casernes pour une garnison de 4,000 hommes de toutes armes.
[
419]Bliard_1854_5 Philippeville: Philippeville, avec ses rues proprement alignes et
ses maisons neuves, est la ville franaise dormant auprs des ruines romaines de lancienne
Rusicada...Sur le versant oriental du Djebel-Bou-Joula, on retrouve lancien cirque bti par les
Romains. A son sommet on voit les magnifiques citernes romaines restaures par les Franais.
En sortant par la porte de Constantine, du ct de la plaine, on remarque encore, au pied du
Djebel-Skikda, la vaste enceinte elliptique qui formait les arnes, dont le gnie militaire a
achev en 1844 (rapprochement trange!) la destruction commence par les Vandales en 428.
La caserne de cavalerie quon aperoit la porte de Constantine, est btie en totalit avec les
pierres de taille des arnes romaines.
[
420]Carron_1859_103: A mesure que nous avancions dans Stif, le marteau du tailleur de
pierres venait de toutes parts frapper nos oreilles. Nous ne pouvions quavec peine marcher
travers les blocs normes dont tait sem le vaste emplacement o slve lhpital. Stif avec
ce bruit et tous ces difices qui sortaient de terre ou du milieu des ruines me rappela Carthage
naissante et les vers du pote: / Miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam: / Miratur portas,
strepitumqne et strata viarum. Etc Aeneid 4.424ff.
[
421]Fraud_18711872_9 Stif: En 1842, le 61e de ligne, qui avait pass deux hivers sous la
tente, terminait une premire caserne, dont un tiers avait t affect au service de lhpital et les
deux autres livrs aux troupes. Le gnie militaire stait fait dans le rduit quelques baraques qui
lui servaient dateliers, de logement et de bureaux. Une tour du rduit tait convertie en magasin poudre; une manutention et quelques locaux mis la disposition de ladministration; un
moulin, construit sur lOued-bou-Selkun, dbitait des farines au-del de ce qui tait ncessaire
la garnison. and further barracks built in same year, plus hospital, abbatoir, stables, etc.
[
422]Richardot_1905_3637 Sousse: Elle est dailleurs insignifiante et ce nest pas par ses
monuments que Sousse peut retenir le touriste. / Il faut cependant faire exception pour la Kasba,
citadelle transforme en caserne. Sa porte, dont larc qui dpasse sarrondit sous les faences et
les peintures, est un lgant vestige de lart arabe. / Cest le seul, mais les tirailleurs ont runi
dans leur salle dhonneur un vritable muse romain; quelques mosaques, surtout une panthre bondissante, ne seraient pas dplaces dans celui du Bardo. Cest tout ce qui reste de la
capitale de la Byzacne, et cest bien peu.
[
423]Rousset_1900_II_312 under Vale: A Djmila, dont la petite garnison avait t lgrement inquite les deux nuits prcdentes, le gnral crut devoir laisser, titre doccupation
provisoire, le 3e bataillon dAfrique. A peine eut-il repris le chemin de Constantine que Djmila
devint aussitt le rendez-vous de toute la Kabylie. / Ctait un poste absolument ouvert; bien
la hte, le commandant Chadeysson se retrancha derrire un parapet de pierres empruntes
aux ruines; dans ce misrable rduit, domin de toutes parts, il se dfendit pendant cinq jours et
quatre nuits contre des milliers de Kabyles, avec six cent soixante-dix hommes, pourvus chacun
dune quarantaine de cartouches; mais ce ntait pas le Kabyle qui tait le grand ennemi, ctait
la soif.
[
424]Nodier_1844_202203 Djemila: Les deux temples sont remarquables dexcution le plus
petit est celui que le temps a respect davantage. M. le marchal gouverneur a prescrit de ce dernier temple, dont une des faces seulement est renverse; ses pierres couvrent le sol; elles sont

mme tombes depuis peu dannes, car la tradition des Arabes conserve encore le souvenir du
monument dans son entier. Il ny a donc que des pierres a replacer les unes sur les autres, et dans
la position quelles occupaient, pour rendre lAfrique un monument du meilleur style. / Le bel
arc de triomphe est presque entirement debout; quelques-unes des pierres de la plus haute
assise, tombes parses ses pieds, sont dans un tat parfait de conservation.
[
425]Perret_1902_205 the Duc dOrlans at Djemila, 1839: En passant Djemilah, le prince
visita les magnifiques ruines romaines au milieu desquelles tait campe la division Galbois.
Larc de triomphe, encore debout aujourdhui, excita surtout son admiration. On sait que le duc
dOrlans avait un got exquis, une vive passion pour les arts; il dsira faire transporter cet arc
de triomphe en France. Par son ordre, toutes les pierres en furent numrotes, afin que le monument pt tre lev sur une des places publiques de Paris. Comme il aimait passionnment
larme qui avait contribu sa gloire et qui lavait en adoration, cette inscription: Larme
dAfrique la France, devait tre grave sur larc de triomphe.
[
426]Orlans_1892_347348 Expdition des Portes de Fer SeptNov 1839: Jai visit aussi longuement ltablissement de Djemila et les magnifiques ruines de la ville romaine de Cuiculum.
Notre tablissement est honteux et affligeant, et la comparaison des constructions romaines est
l pour faire encore ressortir la dplorable situation de nos soldats. Il ny a ni casernes ni hpital.
Des hommes entasss sous des tentes malsaines, trop froides et trop chaudes, excutant dans
les chaleurs les plus fortes, comme pendant les pluies, dimmenses travaux de terrassement, ont
t dcims par la maladie. Les deux bataillons du 23e et du 17e lger qui forment la garnison de
Djemila sont rduits, de cinq cents hommes chacun, quatre-vingts en tat de faire le service, et,
sur mille, cinquante peine ont t exempts des fivres pernicieuses qui ont cot la vie trois
officiers et quatre-vingts soldats. Bien entendu que je fais vacuer ds demain sur Constantine
les hommes que je laisse dans ce dplorable tablissement, o tout est crer et o rien ne se
fait, non pas faule dargent mais faute de bras. Il y a en ce moment Djemila cent vingt malades
entasss sous des tentes, sans matelas, avec un seul sous-aide pour tout personnel de sant et
cinq bidons pour tout ustensile.
[
427]Thoumas_1887_II_304: La dfense du camp de Djemilah par le 3e bataillon dinfanterie
lgre dAfrique, sous les ordres du commandant Chadeyssone, est reste comme un exemple
la fois des dangers auxquels les troupes taient exposesdans les campsde lAlgrie et de
lhrosme avec lequel ces troupes se dfendaient. La garnison du camp de Djemilah comprenait
600 hommes; elle fut attaque au mois de dcembre 1838 par plusieurs milliers dArabes et de
Kabyles qui lenveloprent de toutes parts; le terrain du camp tait domin par les alentours et
protg par une simple palissade; les Arabes avaient dtourn lunique source qui alimentait le
camp, en sorte que leau manquait. Heureusement, des Arabes rests fidles allrent Stif prvenir le colonel dArbouville qui, arrivant en toute hte avec le 26e de ligne, dgagea et emmena
avec lui le bataillon dinfanterie lgre dAfrique.
[
428]Diehl_1892_107: En 1840, le thtre de Cherchell tait presque intact: aujourdhui, les
gradins ont t arrachs, les pierres enleves et un trou bant, informe, exploit en carrire de
tuf, rappelle seul ldifice disparu; en 1873, dans la mme ville, lamphithetre conservait sept
ranges de gradins et des traces fort apparentes de son antique enceinte; dix ans plus tard, il
tait au pillage. Et il en allait ainsi peu prs par toute lAlgrie. Pour construire la route de
Constantine Batna, les entrepreneurs trouvaient commode demployer des pierres antiques,
dont plus de trois cents portaient des inscriptions; Aumale, Stif, Bougie, Guelma, SidiYoussef, partout, des monuments signals et connus, des textes pigraphiques de haut intrt,
appendix
taient, au bout de quelques mois, perdus sans retour, employes comme moellons dans des
constructions dutilit publique ou prive. Sagissait-il dtablir un camp, de btir une caserne,
dempierrer une route, de jeter un pont, ou de bien moins encore, dune maison reparer, dune
grange branlante soutenir, sans hsiter, par conomie de temps et dargent, on cherchait dans
la mine la plus proche les matriaux ncessaires, et, loin dintervenir pour arrter ces dmolitions dplorables, ladministration elle-mme sen faisait complice. Dans les cahiers des charges
proposs aux entrepreneurs, elle prvoyait, autorisait et encourageait les travaux excuts en
matriaux antiques, et, il y a quelques annes peine, dans les cartons dun grand service public
Alger, on trouvait la liste mthodique et fort longue des monuments romains propres tre
exploits comme carrire!
[
429]Blakesley_1859_79 Algiers: The beautifully-traced road by which the traveller descends from the Fort of the Emperor to the Fauxbourg Bab-Azoun (the southern extremity of
Algiers), was constructed by the army under the Duke de Rovigo (General Savary) during his
short administration of the province in 1832. In its formation, as well as in that of the esplanade
outside the Bab-el-Oued, it was necessary to destroy a Moorish cemetery; and this proceeding,
which under any circumstances would have shocked Mahometan feelings, was conducted with
such disregard of all decency, that even the French civilians were scandalized. No provision was
made for the re-interment of the partially decomposed remains; and when the engineers line
passed, as was often the case, through the middle of a grave, one half of the skeleton was left
exposed to view in the bank, while the other part was carted away with the earth that had to be
removed, to form an embankment a little further off.
[
430]Carron_1859_91: near Constantine: Nous continuons notre course travers ce beau
pays. Nous avions sous les yeux tantt de belles prairies naturelles, tantt des champs cultivs par une tribu arabe et o le chaume tait encore sur pied. Parfois nous rencontrions des
tronons de voie romaine; tout coup ils nous chappaient et puis reparaissaient encore. Le
chardon stendait de tous cts sous nos pas et accusait par sa force la richesse du sol. Alors
revenaient nos regrets et nous disions: pourquoi la France na-t-elle pas un village sur chaque
station romaine et une belle route pour les relier ensemble? Dans la province dAlger et dOran
les routes sont difficiles et dispendieuses; mais ici elles sont toutes faites; elles ne coteraient
rien, tant le pays est uni. Dans les autres provinces, surtout dans celle dOran, les Arabes aiment
guerroyer; ici ils sont pacifiques et doux comme des agneaux.
[
431]Ideville_II_1882_571 Biography of Bugeaud, speech in the Chamber in 1845: Larme ne
joue pas seulement en Afrique un rle, celui de la domination et de la protection des intrts
europens. Elle enjoue plusieurs. Le plus important, aprs celui de la guerre, ce sont les grands
travaux quelle excute. Lorsque nos soldats rentrent dune campagne trs fatigante, on ne leur
donne que trois jours de repos pour rparer leurs effets en dbris; et immdiatement aprs, on
les mne sur les ateliers. L, ils font une route, un difice, ils construisent un pont. Ils travaillent
toujours, quand ils ne combattent pas.
[
432]SHD GR1H910 Stif-Djemila. Chef du Gnie, Mmoire militaire sur la place de Stif, May
1878, 2: On a commis une grande erreur en cessant dutiliser les bras vigoureux de larme, et
un grand retard dans le dveloppement de la colonie en confiant les travaux dont it sagit au
service civil, vu que les moyens daction sont en gnral trs-restreints, et que les dpenses pour
le personnel ne laissent pas que de faire de fortes brches dans les crdits allous, et partout peu
de travaux excuts.

[
433]Cagnat_et_al_1890_89 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity:
Ce sont, naturellement, les Romains qui ont laiss les souvenirs les plus nombreux sur la terre
africaine; ils ont couvert le pays de leurs monuments, de leurs statues, de leurs inscriptions,
de leurs monnaies, de leur poterie, de toutes les manifestations de leur puissance ou de leur
instinct pratique. On ne peut pas faire la moindre course dans la campagne sans rencontrer
quelque difice en ruine ou quelque inscription; les villes arabes et mme europennes sont
faites entirement avec les dbris des constructions romaines, et sans elles les entrepreneurs de
routes modernes seraient souvent bien embarrasss.
[
434]Vars_1896_58 Russicada, Temple of Euscalapius and Hygaea: Comme la statue dHygie
slevait presque toujours dans les temples de son pre Esculape, nous sommes fond croire
quil y avait, sur ce point, un temple du dieu gurisseur, dont les substructions, avant dtre tudies et signales, auront disparu dans le grand difice des docks bti lors des premires annes
de loccupation, au moment o le vandalisme des Services publics sest donn si libre carrire.
[
435]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_313 road-building near Bordj-el-Messaoudi: Il pourra sembler extraordinaire quau milieu dun semblable fourr se trouvent des ruines romaines. Il en
existe pourtant. En cherchant des pierres pour la nouvelle route, on fut amen fouiller un petit
monticule surmont dun olivier, do mergeaient quelques blocs taills de la main de lhomme.
On trouva ainsi, non seulement une chambre ou plutt une srie de chambres avec mosaques
et enduits muraux, mais aussi deux grandes statues de marbre blanc, une dhomme, une de
femme, dun travail soign et dune conservation relativement bonne. Seule la tte de lhomme
a disparu, soit quelle ait t enleve, soit enfuie que la fouille nait pas t pousse assez loin et
quelle soit encore en terre. Il y avait l sans doute une villa de plaisance situe sur le bord de
la grande route, o quelque bourgeois enrichi dune cit voisine venait jouir du calme et de la
fracheur.
[
436]Saladin_1886_3 Hergla: Sur le bord de la mer, au nord de la ville, on remarque un puits
antique section carre et revtement fait en gros matriaux (on sen sert encore actuellement), des citernes et des souterrains ayant servi de magasins et formant ltage infrieur de
maisons; le sol au dessus de ces constructions votes est couvert de dbris de mosaques de
pavage, dont quelques fragments sont encore en place. La route qui conduit Hergla coupe une
de ces mosaques, dont on nous dcouvre un morceau.
[
437]Cagnat_1909_222 Lambessa: Au moment o lon se dcidait enfin poursuivre des
recherches mthodiques dans le grand camp, des travaux excuts pour lempierrement de la
route de Lambse Batna faisaient retrouver par les chercheurs de pierres de nouveaux morceaux du grand discours dHadrien, dcouvert autrefois dans le camp dit des auxiliaires, dont
les traces semblaient effaces.
[
438]Berger_and_Cagnat_1889_207208: Au printemps de lanne 1888, lentrepreneur
charg dexcuter la partie de la route du Kef Tunis voisine de An-Tounga, dterra, pendant le
cours de ses travaux, sur la gauche de la route et un kilomtre environ des ruines de Thignica,
vers Teboursouk, une pierre portant une ddicace Saturne et des reprsentations figures.
Son attention ayant t veille par cette rencontre, il chercha aux environs et ne tarda pas
en dblayer plusieurs autres; il prvint M. de La Blanchre, qui comprit de suite lintrt de
cette dcouverte, et fit procder une fouille tendue. On ne sarrta que lorsquon et mis au
jour tous les documents rassembls sur ce point, cest--dire 426 stles entires ou fragmentes.
Le crdit dont le service des Antiquits et des Arts disposait pour des fouilles, cette anne-l,
appendix
y passa presque tout entier. Ces stles taient places debout, lextrmit infrieure enfonce
dans le sol, lune ct de lautre et assez serres. On na retrouv aux environs aucune trace de
construction, sauf peut-tre celles dun mur qui formait lenclos; ces ex-voto taient donc disposs dans une sorte denceinte sacre, ciel ouvert, soit isole dans la campagne, soit formant
lannexe dun temple qui reste dcouvrir.
[
439]Audollent_1890_498: Depuis que les grands travaux de voirie sont termins lintrieur
de Constantine, les dcouvertes pigraphiques deviennent rares.
[
440]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_5656 Tunisia, near Kasr-el-Menara: From the numerous
Roman remains in the vicinity of this monument, it would appear that the whole district was
once thickly populated. Here we observed several bushes covered with shreds of rag, which we
had not before noticed in Tunisia, although the custom is common in Algeria. At a quarter-past
8 oclock we crossed the Oued-el-Kenatir, over a modern bridge of two arches, by the side of
which are the ruins of one of Roman construction of twelve arches, showing how much more
important the river must have been formerly, and how entirely the face of the country has
changed since the time of the Roman occupation. Indeed, not only here, but along the whole
coast of Tunisia, alterations of surface during many centuries, changes in the shore-line and
the formation of marshlands, owing to long neglect of the courses of rivers and of mountain
streams, have altered the aspect of the country, and rendered the identification of ancient towns
a matter of considerable difficulty.
[
441]Pulszky_1854_8990: Half an hours ride from Hammam-Berda, carried us to the large
valley of the Seybuss, an extensive country of remarkable fertility, which must have been densely peopled in ancient times. The whole valley is covered with ruins of Roman towns, forts,
and isolated buildings. The Seybuss is here very shallow, the bed of the river being filled with
stones, whilst the banks are low; they are well wooded with wild cypresses and tamarisks. The
centre of the valley is occupied by the camp of Ghelma, on the slope of the mountain range of
Mauna. It is built out of the ruins of ancient Calama, which cover an extent of three miles in circumference. This large Roman city was destroyed by an earthquake. The French camp is of solid
structure, the building materials being at hand. It was founded during the disastrous retreat of
Marshal Clauzel, first as a kind of hospital, and as a safe retreat for all the invalids and stragglers, who, overcome by fatigue, were unable to follow the army; they found here an asylum and
resting-place. It is the same spot, where, nearly two thousand years back, the legions of Aulus
Postumius Albinus were cut to pieces by Jugurtha. Marshal Clauzel left Colonel Duvivier with
one battalion among the ruins, and this talented energetic officer willingly undertook the task,
to erect here in the wilderness a place of arms, impregnable to Arabs, with a handful of soldiers,
weakened and dispirited by sickness and reverses, without resources, without tents for shelter
against the rain, or any sufficient supply of food. An elongated quadrangular wall was still standing amidst the ruins, evidently heaped up from the scattered remains of the destroyed city, by
some new invader, the Numidian or the Arab, as a means of defence. Colonel Duvivier quartered
his troops inside this wall; he had it repaired and raised to double the height; and constructed
rough barracks from the ruins.
[
442]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_37: Il nexiste plus aujourdhui quun seul pont sur la
Seybouse, et un autre sur l Boudjemah, petite rivire qui se jette dans la mer, Bne, prs d
lembouchure de la Sybouse. Ce sera nos ingnieurs gographes reconnatre ls dbris ds
anciens ponts romains, et nos ingnieurs civils dcider si ces communications peuvent, ou
doivent tre rtablies sur les mmes points.

[
443]Graham_1902_109 the arcaded aqueduct Zaghouan-Carthage: The most gigantic portion of the aqueduct was that across the Oued Melian, mentioned by El-Bekri. It was in fair preservation some sixty years ago, but, a new bridge over the river being necessary in consequence
of increasing traffic between Tunis and Zaghouan, the piers and superstructure were wantonly
overthrown to provide materials for its foundation. The bridge might have been constructed a
few hundred yards higher up, and this noble monument left intact. It need scarcely be stated
that the modern bridge exhibits the usual combination of iron and stone, and has nothing in
extenuation to recommend it.
[
444]Gurin_1862_II_279: nous parvenons loued Melian et au petit camp qui a t tabli
sur ses bords. Ce camp renferme plusieurs centaines douvriers franais, italiens, maltais et
arabes, qui travaillent, sous la direction de M. Caillat, la destruction du pont antique dont on
admirait nagure en cet endroit les restes gigantesques, et que doit remplacer un autre pont,
simple et lgant, mais beauconp moins monumental que celui auquel il est appel succder...Ceux qui ont pu contempler les ruines imposantes de ce pont, dont ltage suprieur
se reliait de la manire la plus grandiose aux autres arcades qui slvent tant au del quen
de de loued, ont tous admir leffet surprenant quelles produisaient, et il est a regretter que
lingnieur en chef, M. Colin, ait t oblig de les dtruire, afin de pouvoir asseoir sur les bases
inbranlables des piles les nouvelles arches quelles doivent porter. Peut-etre aurait-on du, par
respect pour lantiquit et pour des ruines si colossales qui attestaient toute la grandeur du
peuple roi, pargner les restes du pont antique, et construire le pont moderne quelque distance de ce dernier; mais on voulait, pour diminuer la dpense, profiter des bases et de toute la
partie infrieure des piles du premier pont, et se servir en outre des excellents matriaux quon
avait sous la main.
[
445]Gurin_1862_II_372: LHenchir-el-Kasbuh renfermait, il y a quelques aunees peine,
un plus grand nombre dinscriptions mais quand on a construit sur loued Melian le pont dont
jai parl, on a employ pour le btir les plus beaux blocs qui couvraient lemplacement de cet
henchir, et, au dire du propritaire du fondouk, plusieurs de ces blocs taient revtus dinscriptions. Ainsi jai cherch partout inutilement celle qui avait rvl M. Tissot le nom primitif de
cette cit.
[
446]Mercier_1886_456: La ncropole du Kef des Beni-Fredj a t dcouverte au moment de
la construction du pont et du puits de lOued Semsen, par M. Jayer, entrepreneur, qui tirait ses
matriaux de la ruine romaine, situe au pied du kef. Elle a t depuis bien souvent explore,
mais elle renferme encore de nombreuses richesses pigraphiques. Les frontons de stle qui font
saillie hors du sol sont nombreux, mais leur volume est gnralement tel quil faudrait un outillage spcial pour les extraire. Dans lexploration des murs de jardins et en dterrant quelques
blocs de dimensions moindres, M. Toussaint a mis jour six textes qui ne sont pas indits. / Les
indignes lui ont signal plusieurs pierres inscriptions au sommet des rochers du kef, mais le
temps lui a manqu pour en faire lascension et sassurer quelles existent rellement.
[
447]Tissot_1881_9596 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone: Au
del du dfil de Mtarif, la valle de la Medjerda slargit un peu, en mme temps que sabaissent
les hauteurs de la rive droite. La voie romaine continue longer la rive gauche du fleuve jusqu
la hauteur de son confluent avec lOued Zerga, quelle franchissait prcisment au point o la
voie ferre le traverse aujourdhui. Cette identit des deux tracs a t fatale au pont romain
de lOued Zerga, que javais vu debout et parfaitement conserv il y a vingt-six ans; dmoli par
nos ingnieurs, ces matriaux ont t employs la construction dun nouveau pont auquel
appendix
je souhaite la mme dure. / A quinze cents mtres en amont du pont de la ligne ferre, on
remarque, sur la rive gauche de lOued Zerga, une certaine quantit de matriaux antiques enlevs aux ruines du voisinage et qui devaient servir la construction dun autre pont commenc il
y a une dizaine dannes par ladministration tunisienne, et qui na jamais t achev; jai trouv
parmi ces dbris linscription suivante, dont on na pu me faire connatre la provenance exacte.
[
448]Tissot_1888_251 Exploration scientifique de la Tunisie: Le dfil de Sidi-bou-Kahila
dbouche dans la valle de lOued Badja un peu en amont du confluent de ce cours deau avec
la Medjerda. La voie romaine franchit lOued Badja sur un pont monumental admirablement
conserv. Ses trois arches en plein cintre, spares des piliers et des cules par un bandeau,
supportent encore le tablier primitif, revtu de ses grandes dalles en losange et muni de deux
trottoirs, sur lesquels on remarque les trous destins recevoir les garde-corps. Construit en
pierres de grand appareil, ldifice parat dater des premiers temps de lempire, mais il a d subir
quelques remaniements une poque postrieure: cest ce que me fait supposer, du moins, linscription suivante, engage dans le bandeau du plein cintre de larche orientale. viz. inscription
of Tiberius, author suggesting this in re-use.
[
449]Tissot_1881_6364 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone: Le
confluent de lOued-Kessab et de la Medjerda est domin par un plateau triangulaire dont les
pentes, trs escarpes du ct de louest, sadoucissent au sud et lest. La voie romaine longe
la base de cette plate-forme que couvrent les ruines dune petite ville antique. Un faubourg
assez considrable stageait en outre sur les pentes orientales et stendait jusquau fleuve. Cet
ensemble de ruines porte le nom dHenchir Sidi Ali Djebin, emprunt la Koubba arabe qui
slve la pointe sud-ouest du plateau, et reprsente certainement la station de Novis Aquilianis
de lItinraire dAntonin et de la Table de Peutinger. Le calcul des distances et le trac de la voie
romaine tablissent solidement cette synonymie. / Les ruines de Novis Aquilianis ont presque
compltement disparu; comme celles de lArmascla, elles ont servi de carrires et fourni la plupart des matriaux employs dans les travaux considrables de maonnerie et de remblai que
ncessite le passage de lOued-Kessab. Cinq ou six fts de colonne et quelques pierres oublies
sont tout ce qui reste aujourdhui de la station romaine.
[
450]Lunel_1869_1314 on la question algrienne, second period: En 1848, les esprits agits se reportent avec ardeur sur lAlgrie: chacun sen occupe, et comme les migrants se prsentent en grand nombre, le gouvernement sempresse dfavoriser cette heureuse disposition du
moment: il concde des terres, il fait mme btir ses frais des maisons et tracer des chemins.
Malheureusement, ces maisons mal construites sont inhabitables; quant aux routes, elles
nexistent quen projet dans les cartons des officiers du gnie, dont le personnel se renouvelle
chaque anne; des comits militaires, et non des agriculteurs, ont dsign lemplacement des
villages, qui, au lieu davantages agricoles, nen possdent que de stratgiques; et ces terres qui
devaient faire vivre les colons et leurs familles, ces terres qui devaient les indemniser de leur exil
et des sacrifices quoccasionne toujours un dplacement, mme subventionn, ces terres choisies toujours pour les commodits dun poste militaire, et jamais au point de vue agricole, dis-je,
sont gnralement malsaines et distribues avec la plus excessive parcimonie; enfin, ce sol si
riche quil suffit, a-t-on dit, de le gratter pour lui faire rendre une riche moisson, est dfricher
compltement et ne produira que dans trois ou quatre ans peut-tre, si les pluies hivernales ne
sont pas abondantes.
[
451]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_7778, Une excursion Djebel-Sgao: La ferme de M. Perriguet,
colon intelligent et laborieux, est btie sur la rive gauche de lOued-Begrat, 30 mtres environ

au-dessus du lit de la rivire quelle domine dans tout son cours infrieur. Elle slve sur lemplacement de la Hechta des Ouled-Delim tablie au milieu dun amoncellement assez considrable
de pierres de dimensions diverses dont une partie est entre dans les murs de la ferme et lautre a
servi ferrer la route de Mila; sur les pentes du coteau, on en voit encore qui dlimitent ltendue
des premires constructions. / Pendant lanne 1879, M. Perriguet, voulant agrandir son curie
et niveler sa cour, a dterr une quantit notable de gros blocs au milieu desquels se trouvaient
les bornes qui nous occupent, des fragments de colonnes, de moulins et de pierres tumulaires.
A lexception des deux grandes bornes en calcaire gristre, tous ces blocs nous semblent forms
de calcaire ou de grs blanchtre. / Il y avait donc autrefois, sur le plateau ds Ouled-Delim,
aujourdhui proprit de M. Perriguet, un tablissement agricole assez tendu.
[
452]Audollent_1890_497: An Tebinet. On appelle ainsi une ferme de M. Schwartz, de Stif,
situe trois kilomtres de cette ville, sur la route de Constantine. Le propritaire a dcor son
jardin dune certaine quantit de fragments antiques, tirs de son exploitation agricole de Mons.
En fait dinscriptions, nous navons vu quune stle double compartiment.
[
453]Thierry-Mieg_1861_149150 Constantine: Les Arabes, avec leurs gots insouciants et
nomades, eussent t trop paresseux pour les dmolir et pendant que les officiers du gnie franais font dexcellents cylindres planer les routes avec les tronons de colonnes en marbre des
difices romains, les Arabes paissent leurs troupeaux lombre des ruines sans songer y chercher des matriaux btir, pas plus qu les restaurer.
[
454]Kennedy_1846_120121 El Djem: As usual, the remains of Thysdrus lie buried in the
soil; a few partial excavations have been made by the Arabs, in search of columns, which, when
found, are sawn into proper lengths for the use of oil mills; owing to this many curious objects
of antiquity have been discovered, coins, bronzes, engraved stones, &c., and from the numerous
tombs in the vicinity pottery, glass, and a few ornaments are easily obtained. In the course of the
afternoon we opened two tombs, excavated in the rock, and covered with large slabs, imbedded
in mortar as hard as the stone itself; they contained nothing but coarsely constructed earthen
jars; in another, which we ordered to be opened next morning, a lamp, a small glass bottle, and
the remains of a bronze finger ring were found. We purchased a considerable quantity of ancient
pottery, amongst which were four vessels of fine red clay, grotesquely formed in the shape of
birds and quadrupeds.
[
455]Temple_1835_I_154 Thysdrus/El Djem: This town, the foundations of whose walls
can distinctly be traced, was built round the spot now occupied by the marabet of Sidi Ahmed
Bejenani, near which are the substructions of a very fine temple, and in different directions are
seen the trifling remains of other edifices. Numerous columns of cipollino, granite, white and
Numidian marble, and brescia corallata, are often discovered by the Arabs, who, cutting them
into three or four blocks, send them for the purpose of being converted into mill-stones to different parts of the country...Small fragments of porphyry, giallo antico, serpentino, &c. are found
plentifully scattered on the surface of the ground.
[
456]Devoulx_1874_251252 El Djem, visiting in 1830: Dans la partie de lOuest, il y a une
partie de ldifice entirement dtruite; on y: a fait une ouverture ou, pour mieux dire, une coupure de 60 pieds environ de large. On dit que cest un bey de Tunis qui la fit abattre par le canon
pour empcher les Arabes bdouins, qui ne voulaient pas payer le tribut, de se rfugier dans
lamphithtre, o ils staient retirs et dfendus plusieurs fois. Brandin_1846_4546 El Djem:
dont seize sicles nont encore pu oprer la destruction, resta debout que ce superbe monument,
appendix
bien que les barbares qui habitent ces lieux y secondent puissamment la main du temps...Sous
le rgne de Mohamed Bey, il y a cent cinquante ans, on commena mutiler lamphithtre
dEl-Djem, qui par sa solidit avait rsist aux outrages du temps. A cette poque, les Arabes
du Nalali, crass par les exactions, se rvoltrent contre le bey, et vinrent se retrancher dans le
vieil difice romain, et en dmolirent ltage suprieur, dont ils lanaient les pierres sur les assaillants. Aprs la victoire, le bey fit couper quatre arcades de cet difice, depuis la partie suprieure
jusqu sa base.
[
457]Fergusson_1872_395: It would be difficult to find a more curious illustration of the
fable of Eyes and no Eyes than in the history of the discovery of dolmens in northern Africa.
Though hundreds of travellers had passed through the country since the time of Bruce and
Shaw, and though the French had possessed Algiers since 1830, an author writing on the subject
ten years ago would have been fully justified in making the assertion that there were no dolmens
there. Yet now we know that they exist literally in thousands. Perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that ten thousand are known, and their existence recorded...It was not really
till 1863, when the late Henry Christy visited Algeria, that anything really became known. At
Constantine he formed the acquaintance of a M. Fraud, interpreter to the army ol Algeria, who
took him to a place called Bou Moursug, about twenty-five miles south of Constantine, where,
during a short stay of three days, they saw and noted down upwards of one thousand dolmens.
[
458]Mac_Carthy_1851_208, Fort of HAdjar-Ouaghef les pierres debout: On compte
encore aujourdhui sur le site que nous explorons plus de 300 pierres tailles, les unes renverses, les autres perpendiculairement assises sur leur base. Ce sont ces dernires qui sont les plus
nombreuses et qui ont valu ce lieu le nom quil porte. Quelques-unes ont tout prs dun mtre
de hauteur, beaucoup cinquante centimtres, un assez grand nombre de vingt-cinq trente
[
459]Fergusson_1872_396397: In so far as we at present know, the principal dolmen region
is situated along and on either side of a line drawn from Bona on the coast to Batna, sixty miles
south of Constantine. But around Setif, and in localities nearly due south from Boujie, they are
said to be in enormous numbers. The Commandant Payen reports the number of menhirs there
as not less than ten thousand, averaging from 4 to 5 feet in height. One colossal monolith he
describes as 26 feet in diameter at its base and 52 feet high. This, however, is surpassed by a
dolmen situated near Tiaret, described by the Commandant Bernard. According to his account
the cap-stone is 65 feet long by 26 feet broad, and y feet 6 inches thick; and this enormous mass
is placed on other rocks which rise between 30 and 40 feet above the surface. If this is true, it is
the most enormous dolmen known, and it is strange that it should have escaped observation so
long. Even the most apathetic traveller might have been astonished at such a wonder. Whether
less gigantic specimens of the class exist in that neighbourhood, we are not told, but they do in
detached patches everywhere eastward throughout the province.
[
460]Reboud, le docteur V., Excursion dans le bassin de lOued-Guebli, in RNMSADC XXII
1882, 163190. See 171: Sur notre chemin, nous dcouvrons, au milieu dun bosquet daubpines et
de ronces, un dolmen demi renvers. A larrive de M. Tournier, il existait de nombreux monuments mgalithiques sur les bords du torrent et sur les coteaux voisins. Le sol tait couvert des
dbris de ces antiques spultures, qui rendaient les labours difficiles. M. Tournier les a utiliss en
les faisant entrer dans les fondations de sa cave.
[
461]Mercier_1888_102: Tout le massif montagneux situ entre Souk-Arrhas et lOued-Zenati
est particulirement sillonn de voies anciennes, et lon y retrouve de nombreuses traces laisses

par les populations numides. Dolmens, dessins rudimentaires sur roches abruptes, divisions de
terres de culture y abondent et lon remarque, dans le voisinage des principaux tablissements
romains, dantiques monuments, qui attestent que les conqurants se sont substitus ou juxtaposs des centres de population autochtone importants. NB plenty of mentions of megalithic monuments in other sections of his reports.
[
462]Revue du Cercle Militaire 19, 1889, 11712: M. le lieutenant-colonelMercier.forme
aujourdhui une importante contribution lhistoire archologique de lAlgrie. / Le Bulletin
du Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques (section archologique) rserve aux envois
du colonel Mercier une large place dans ses volumes annuels. En parcourant ces rapports trs
substantiels et accompagns de cartes explicatives, on se rend rapidement compte de lintrt
offert par cet ensemble dtudes qui embrasse lAlgrie tout entire. Ce programme est donc
immense ; niais peu peu, chaque anne, on en ralise quelque partie. / Lattention du colonel
Mercier sest porte surtoutsur les voies et positions stratgiques occupes en Afrique par les
Romains, et son travail formera un relev complet des ouvrages dfensifs quils y ont levs un
peupartout. Nous ne pensons pas quil puisse lui en chapper un seul de quelque importance:
il ne marche, en effet, quavec litinraire dAntonin et la table de Peutinger, dont il vrifie pas
pas toutes les indications. Souvent ces deux textes ne concordent pas lun avec lautre; souvent mme, tous les deux sont contraires la ralit des faits, mais le colonel tudie, compare,
rectifie sil y a lieu, et ce nest pas l, on le conoit,la partie la moins attachante de son oeuvre.
Nous nentreprendrons pas de le suivre dans toutes ses investigations, dnumrer chacune des
voies quil a reconnues et dtermines, de dcrire aprs lui les groupes de ruines rencontres sur
sa route, car, si nous faisions ainsi, notre article deviendrait facilement un volume. and then
provides details.
[
463]Bourjade_1891_56 Aumale: Nous navons pu recueillir aucun renseignement sur les
temps antrieurs loccupation romaine: toutefois les peuplades qui occupaient le pays ont
laiss des traces de leur existence: ces traces nous paraissent; tre les nombreux amas de pierres
frustes, mais videmment amonceles par la main des hommes, qui se rencontrent trs frquemment sur le sommet des collines, aux cols, sur les contreforts sparant deux cours deau/
sur les berges leves dun bas fond, etc. Ces amas, quil ne faut pas confondre avec les Redjem
des Arabes, paraissent tre des tombeaux prhistoriques. On remarque en effet, le plus souvent
au centre de ces monuments, des pierres de grandes dimensions; places verticalement et dessinant un tombeau rectangulaire. / Les indignes ne savent rien au sujet de ces monuments quils
dsignent uniformment sous le nom de Hadjar-el-Kedim (vieilles pierres). / Or, il est probable
que si ces monuments avaient t levs par leurs anctres arabes, la tradition ne sen serait pas
compltement perdue. / Le nombre de ces tombeaux est trs considrable et on les rencontre
plutt dans le Sud que dans le Tell. Ils dominent notamment les berges de lOued-el-Ham et le
sommet de toutes les minences qui commandent la plaine.
[
464]Wilkin_1900_1214 megalithic remains at Snam and road-builders: We were in Algeria
to study Berbers and not Arabs, so we hastened to inquire about the megalithic remains with
which this part of the country is said to abound. Mine host had also heard tell of them. He summoned an Arab muleteer who knew them well, and to his guidance we committed ourselves.
However, after a morning with this worthy we found that he had no archaeological instincts, no
sense of direction which would steer him and us to the place of big stones, and no knowledge
of French; so we returned to MSila, leaving him to pursue his way with our luggage to Baniou,
which seemed, on the map, to lie at the far side of the ferry over the lake. / Fortune now threw in
appendix
our way a certain Signor Bellini, an Italian whose business it was to find stone for the road which
will soon be completed to Bou Saada. He knew of the megalithic remains...For the accommodation of the Italian workmen employed on the road there was a canteen by an artesian well. All
the rough work of navvies is done in Algeria by Italians, wherever, that is to say, the work needs
something more than muscle.
[
465]Wilkin_1900_1517 Snam: We arrived at the summit of a solitary hill and found Snam
spread out before us. We had hoped at most for a cromlech or two, a few standing stones;
but here were stone circles upon circles, scores and hundreds of them, and, to complete our
satisfaction, a rude stone hut with stabling and a thorn zariba around it.../ Snam the name
signifies an idol or a collection of big stones is a low hill commanding all the northern and
eastern shore of the Hodna. It contains but one type of pre-historic monument, and that is a
type unknown elsewhere. In a few years there will be no more Snam, for the makers of roads and
bridges and houses will continue to draw upon it for their stone. The hill is the only outcrop of
rock for many miles, and however much we may regret the destruction of a unique monument,
we can hardly blame men like Bellini for their share in it. The circles consisted of slabs of stone
some nearly three feet high and six or eight inches thick with an indefinite collection of blocks
in the middle. In the south-east of each circle was a recess lined with flat slabs and originally
completed, Bellini said, with a covering stone like a dolmen. The whole structure measured
from twenty to thirty feet in diameter, the largest (and most ruinous) crowning the highest part
of the hill...The soldiers of a surveying party had utilised the stone to make a tower by way
of landmark, and now the Arabs in Bellinis employ were loading fragments on to the backs of
camels and making havoc as only Arabs know how to make it. We were occupied for several
hours in taking measurements and photographs on one of the coldest mornings I have ever
experienced. Our fingers were almost too numb to write, yet Bellini, seeing us interested, stood
by answering all questions to the best of his ability, and evidently sorry that his pocket and his
inclination pulled different ways, he promised to preserve from further interference some of the
finest jambs, and with that we had to be satisfied. The hilltop was littered with chips of worked
flint black with age and exposure and of these we took away a good basketful. One or two
of the circles had been opened, but Bellini regretted that they had found nothing. Probably a
systematic investigation would reveal, if not skeletons, at least flint implements and fragments
of pottery. NB no photos of this site in his book.
[
466]Robert_1891_40 Guyotville: Parmi les endroits visiter, on peut signaler: les ruines
romaines de Ras-Knater 1 kilomtre vers louest; la grotte prhistorique du Grand-Rocher, 1
kilomtre S.0.; et les nombreux dolmens qui existent encore prs du Ravin des Beni-Messous,
environ 1 kilomtre plus loin et dans la mme direction que le Grand-Rocher.
[
467]Pallary_1894_78.
[
468]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_155 Tipaza: on rencontre une ancienne basilique de style
byzantin, dont labside est reste debout, puis, revenant vers la mer, on dcouvre des thermes,
des tuves, des bassins, des columbaria, un port bien abrit, un amphithtre, un temple, des
fontaines publiques, des mosaques mergeant du sol, ou se poursuivant sous des monceaux
de moellons et de briques; puis des murailles inclines, des votes renverses, tout dune pice,
tant le ciment en tait solide, des crevasses bantes, indiquant remplacement des citernes, enfin
un aqueduc profilant jusqu Marengo les dbris de ses assises. / Tout est saccag, boulevers de
fond en comble, comme si de nombreux tremblements de terre avaient agit convulsivement le
sol de la vieille cit des rois de Mauritanie; nanmoins, la ville est si vaste quelle est loin davoir

t compltement explore; il nen est pas de mme des monuments isols, car, en Afrique, il ny
a pas un difice romain de quelque importance, qui nait t fouill jusque dans ses fondements:
cest le cas du Tombeau de la Chrtienne; on y cherchait le trsor. En France aussi, nos vieux dolmens passaient pour renfermer des trsors, mais ils taient respects ainsi que leurs lgendes, et
ils seraient probablement encore intacts, sans le zle de certains savants de lcole moderne, iconoclastes de profession, qui brisent, non pour clairer la science, mais pour enrichir leur propre
collection de quelques dbris de poterie ou de silex dont nos muses regorgent aujourdhui.
[
469]Cagnat_et_al_1890_219: Punic necropoleis a clear invitation to plunder, but neatly:
On devra porter son attention sur les ncropoles puniques. Si on a la bonne fortune den rencontrer une, il ne faudra pas hsiter y tenter des fouilles mthodiques. Pour cela, non seulement on
aura soin de relever, le mtre la main, les dimensions et la disposition des tombes, qui peuvent
le plus souvent elles seules en dterminer la date, mais il faut aussi dresser le plan de lintrieur
du tombeau. On indiquera sil y existait des squelettes et dans quelles conditions; sil renferme
des vases contenant des ossements calcins, il faudra ne pas en parpiller le contenu, jusqu
ce quon ait pu dterminer si ces ossements appartiennent un corps ou plusieurs, si ce sont
des ossements dhomme, de femme ou denfant. On devra aussi noter la place quoccupent les
divers vases, en ayant soin de ne pas confondre ceux qui proviennent de tombes diffrentes. Il
faut par dessus tout viter la dispersion des objets trouvs ensemble, car cest la runion seule
des documents qui peut donner des lumires sur les civilisations perdues. On doit, en un mot,
trater les antiquits, non comme des curiosits, mais comme des documents et comme des
matriaux de la science.
APPENDIX
[ ]
1 Bolle_1839_4546 Kasbah at Algiers: Cest maintenant une immense caserne occupe par
deux rgiments...le vandalisme du soldat franais qui dtruit tout ce qui lui tombe sous la
main...[and as for the vinous courtyard of the palace] Eh bien tout est dtruit, et les soldats ont
fait bouillir la marmite avec les tronons de ces vignes sculaires.
[ ]
2 LIllustration_1_4_mars_1843: Au moyen de correspondances, et, quand il le faudra, de
voyages, nous les soutiendrons par les vues des villes, des marches dannes, des Hottes, des
batailles. Qui nprouvera une joie plus vive en voyant les faits darmes de nos frres dAlgrie
retracs daprs nature, au milieu de ces sauvages montagnes, devant ces hordes barbares, au
pied de ces ruines romaines, quen les lisant simplement dans les bulletins?
[ ]
3 LIllustration_1_4_mars_1843: Ce que veut ardemment le public aujourdhui, ce quil
demande avant tout le reste, cest dtre mis aussi clairement que possible au courant de ce qui se
passe. Les journaux sont-ils en tat de satisfaire ce dsir avec les rcits courts et incomplets auxquels ils sont naturellement obligs de sen tenir? Cest ce qui ne parat pas. Ils ne parviennent le
plus souvent faire entendre les choses que vaguement, tandis quil faudrait si bien les entendre
que chacun simagint les avoir vues. Ny a-t-il donc aucun moyen dont la presse puisse senrichir, pour mieux atteindre son but sur ce point? Oui, il y en a un; cest un moyen ancien, longtemps nglig, mais hroque, et cest de ce moyen que nous prtendons nous servir: lecteur,
vous venez de nommer la gravure sur bois.
[ ]
4 Blakesley_1859_21: the universal ruin of the Moorish population, which followed the
French conquest, has to a great extent obliterated the traces of the former magnificence. The
country villas were at first wantonly destroyed by the conquerors, and the town houses subsequently stripped by their owners of everything valuable which could be carried away. In
some instances the beautiful courts with their marble columns are occupied by the stores of
an European shopkeeper; in others the tenant has cut oblong holes in the outer walls and put
sashes into them, and scarcely in any has there been attention paid to keeping up the ornamental repairs.
[ ]
5 Pallary_1894_3.
[ ]
6 Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_310311 Les habitudes et les usages de la vie nomade ont fait des
Arabes un peuple rude et farouche. La grossiret des murs est devenue pour eux une seconde
nature, un tat dans lequel ils se complaisent, parce quil leur assure la libert et lindpendance.
Une telle disposition soppose au progrs de la civilisation. Se transporter de lieu en lieu, parcourir les dserts, voil, depuis les temps les plus reculs, leur principale occupation. Autant la vie
sdentaire est favorable au progrs de la civilisation, autant la vie nomade lui est contraire. Si les
Arabes ont besoin de pierres pour servir dappuis leurs marmites, ils dgradent les btiments
afin de se les procurer; sil leur faut du bois pour en faire des piquets ou des soutiens de tente,
ils dtruisent les toits des maisons pour en avoir. Par la nature mme de leur vie, ils sont hostiles
tout ce qui est difice; or, construire des difices, cest faire le premier pas dans la civilisation.
[ ]
7 Morell_1854_66 On the arrival of the French at Algiers, this port, which had originally
been constructed by the labour of 30,000 Christian slaves, under the direction of the celebrated
Barbarossa, was in danger of destruction in spite of the immense works, the only occupation
of thousands of captives. The foundations were undermined and contained numerous cavities,
while the upper parts were decaying and full of fissures; in short, it would soon have become so
ruinous that a violent sea, so frequent and terrible in these offings, would easily have completed
its demolition. / The French, however, soon turned their attention to the port, and threw in
by the jetty enormous blocks of granite and marble. The experience of a few years, observes
FULL ENDNOTE TEXTS CHAPTER 3

Mr. Blofeld, has proved the efficacy of this plan; but they had still to adopt means to save the
mole, which, built upon moving sand, isolated and projecting, and upon which the waves broke
with violence, was partly washed away, and required new foundations. The French therefore
formed a pile of blocks of marble all round the mole; this pile, however, sank below the water
the following winter, but its overthrow consolidated a base upon which it became more easy to
establish other works.
[ ]
8 Piesse_1862_82 Rusgunia: Pline nous fait savoir que Rusgunia tait une colonie dAuguste, quil place immdiatement lE. dIcosium (Alger). Une stle phnicienne recueillie dans
les ruines semblerait donner une origine encore plus ancienne cette colonie maritime, qui
fut, dit-on, clbre, mais il ny reste aucune trace de port. Il ne faudrait pas, du reste, juger de
limportance de Rusgunia par ce quon en voit aujourdhui. Ds le commencement du XVIe s.,
Lon lAfricain constate que les pierres romaines de Matifou avaient t employes relever
presque toutes les murailles dAlger, et depuis cette poque les Turcs y ont t chercher des
matriaux tout prpars pour les constructions publiques.
[ ]
9 Haedo_1612_fol 4rff for fortifications of Algiers, its towers and ditch, as well as the castles
outside the walls. fol1r: relates Leo Africanus assertion that Algiers was an African foundation.
fol3v: Leo writes of Cabo de Metafuz que de Argel para Levante esta distante doze millas, dize
qen equel cabo o punta de tierra vuo una ciudad principal edificada de los Romanos, y que
siendo destruyda de los Godos, de sus piedras fueron reedificados los muros casi todos de Argel;
porque segun esto devian de estar por tierra; y la ciudad assolada, aun que tampoco declara
Leon, quando y como fue desta manera destruyda y de nuevo otra vez reedificada. Pero como
quier que fuesse esto, se ha de tener por muy cierto, que aunque entonces, y por aquellas dos
vezes fuesse esta ciudad tan mal tratada de aquellas dos tan barbaricas naciones, no por esso
dexo de ser siempre habitada, y frequentada de gente. Y quando otro argumento y razon no
vuiera para esto, bien lo muestran las antiguas mezquitas, las torres tan viejas que se conservaron, y otros edificios publicos que oy dia en esta ciudad permanecen, todos del modo y architectura antigua que se halla edn otras partes y ciudades antiguas de aquellos tiempos passados.
[ ]
10 Arvieux_1735_V_219: Walls of Algiers: Ses murailles suivent la disposition de la colline:
elles sont simples, & sans autres dfenses que quelques tours qui les flanquent despaces en
espaces. Elles sont pourtant assez paisses, bties de pierres de taille & surmontes de crneaux.
Celles du ct du Port paraissent les plus anciennes; mais elles sont moins fortes, & tombent en
ruine en bien des endroits.
[ ]
11 Paradis, Venture de (17391799), Alger au XVIIIe sicle, Fagnan, E., ed., Algiers 1898, 2: Rien
nannonce quAlger soit une ville ancienne. Elle a t probablement btie par les Maures, depuis
quune grande ville qui existait sur le cap Matifou aura t dtruite dans quelque rvolution;
on y trouve des ruines trs tendues, et les pierres des grands difices quil y avait ont servi aux
Algriens faire une partie de leurs fortifications. Cette ville de Matifou pourrait bien tre celle
qui Juba II, pre de Ptolme, donna le nom de Julia Caesarea en reconnaissance des bienfaits
quil avait reus de Csar Auguste. Je laisse aux savants le soin de vrifier mes conjectures.
[ ]
12 Panati_1818_113 Algiers: A deep ditch surrounds the city walls, the lower parts of which
are in many places composed of marble.
[ ]
13 Brard_1867_106 Algiers and environs: A un quart dheure de marche, vers le S.,
stendent, sur un emplacement oblong de prs dune lieue, que la cte escarpe limite au
N.-E. les ruines de Rusgunium, ville romaine, ont les dbris ont servi la construction de la
plupart des vieux difices dAlger. On voit encore des votes, restes danciens bains, des tronons
de colonnes, des mosaques, de profonds fosss, des traces de fondations, dont les pierres ont t
APPENDIX
arraches. Non loin est une carrire dont les produits ont du tre employs lembellissement
de cette antique cit.
[ ]
14 Morgan_1728_II_462 when Don Carlos took Algiers Under the Ruins of the two Towers
which guarded the Port, were found very large Marble Pillars, set close together, upon which
those Towers had rested, and were there fixed to hinder the Sea, in Process of Time, from wasting the Foundation: And the Floors under them were all paved with fine great Marble Stones.
[ ]
15 RA 1857 issue 4, in the Chronique, 305 Algiers: En creusant les fondations que M. Sarlande
et C lvent sur lemplacement du vieux palais dit Jnina, on a trouv une amorce de voie
romaine construite en grandes et paisses dalles dun marbre tout--fait semblable celui quon
rencontre au Bouzara. / Beaucoup de pierres tailles, dbris de constructions romaines, ont t
observes jusquici dans les dmolitions de la Jnina, mais rien de remarquable na encore t
trouv. Esprons que ces travaux qui se continuent amneront quelque dcouverte intressante
pour larchologie.
[ ]
16 Revue Africaine 1837, 73 in October issue, Charles de Lapisse: Pourquoi le monde est-il si
petit? Pourquoi de ncessit faut-il toujours btir sur des ruines? o fut une ville, nous en levons une autre, le prsent fait oublier le pass. Ce serait, il me semble, une belle ide du crateur
de former un cabinet dantiques, o chaque sicle conserverait son aspect physique et moral.
Archologues, vous entassez grands frais des dbris de poteries et de bronze; que diriez-vous
de la collection des mondes?
[ ]
17 Delvoux_1870_155 Old Algiers: Cest ici le lieu de faire remarquer que les colonnes et
autres pices darchitecture en marbre, employes par les algriens dans la construction des
difices publics, fontaines, maisons particulires, etc., leur taient envoyes, toutes faonnes,
dItalie. Les indignes, navaient que le mrite de la mise en oeuvre de ces beaux matriaux, que
leur ignorance en matire artistique ne leur aurait pas permis de crer. La mme remarque est
applicable aux carreaux vernis, de diverses couleurs, qui ornent les constructions indignes.
[ ]
18 Arvieux_1735_V_222223 Algiers: On compte environ cent vingt-cinq Fontaines dans la
Ville. Cest un Aqueduc trs ancien qui leur fournit de leau qui vient de deux lieues de la Ville.
Leau est trs bonne & trs ncessaire dans un Pays aussi chaud que celui-l.
[ ]
19 Paradis, Venture de (17391799), Alger au XVIIIe sicle, Fagnan, E., ed., Algiers 1898, 121:
Les grands officiers qui sont mari ne vont passer la nuit chez leurs femmes que le vendredi et
le mardi. La maison des femmes annonce de la magnificence. La paix de lEspagne, qui a t
achete par des sommes si considrable, a introduit le luxe Alger, les grands ont fait faire de
magnifiques jardins et de superbes maisons pour leurs harems. Ces jardins et ces maisons sont
couverts de marbre quon fait venir de Gnes et de Livourne. Les murs en sont tapisss, ainsi que
le plancher, avec des carreaux de belle faence maille et peinte de diverses couleurs; on tire
ces carreaux de Tunis et dEspagne.
[ ]
20 Berteuil_1856_I_222 Algiers: Le palais que lon nomme en langue franque Casa del Bey, et
en traduction espagnole Maison du Roi, et qui sappelle maintenant le palais du Gouvernement,
au centre de la ville, peu de distance de la place de ce nom, et que le dernier dey nhabitait pas,
est un btiment vaste et dune architecture assez lgante. On entre dans ce palais de plain-pied
et par une grande porte; il y a deux cours spacieuses, le long desquelles rgnent des pristyles,
prsentant de toutes parts aux yeux les marbres de Gnes, imports grands frais dans les lieux
o les Romains allaient chercher le marbre.
[ ]
21 Vicomte_1843_70 Algiers: La maison qui sert de palais au gouverneur appartenait
un ancien Dey; lEtat ne sen est pas empar officiellement et il paie encore la trs modique
somme de six mille francs par an un maure, qui ny rentrera jamais. Un rang de colonnes torses

monolythes et en marbre blanc, dont les chapiteaux sont dors, entourent la cour intrieure
dans chacun des deux tages; les escaliers sont aussi en marbre de la mme couleur depuis le
haut jusquen bas, tout le carrelage est de la mme matire et les portes sont encadres dans le
marbre cisel grossirement; la faade qui donne sur la place du Gouvernement a t refaite
neuf, dans le genre mauresque et gothique, des colonnes et des marbres dcorent toutes les
croises en ogives quon a perces; il a t construit une superbe galerie dans lintrieur, elle est
destine aux ftes et aux bals.
[ ]
22 Tchihatchef_1880_8485 Algiers, palace of the Governor-General: La vue est magnifique,
tant sur le vaste jardin qui entoure le palais, que sur la mer et la ville dAlger. Au nombre des
points do lon jouit le mieux de ces coups dil enchanteurs, figure le charmant petit kiosque
situ dans le jardin et orn dune douzaine de colonnes en marbre blanc dordre mauresque; ces
colonnes ont t envoyes en cadeau par le roi de Sardaigne au dernier bey, qui les avait places
dans la Kasba, do les Franais les transportrent ici, de mme quun beau vase en marbre,
galement prsent du roi de Sardaigne, qui, comme tant dautres souverains, croyaient de leur
intrt doffrir ce chef des pirates des dons volontaires, afin de se mnager ses faveurs et de
garantir leurs sujets de sa rapacit et de ses brigandages.
[ ]
23 Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_21 Algiers: we found ourselves, after we had passed the gate,
in the broadest street in the town; the houses right and left were half in ruins, the French having
thrown them down to increase the width of the street.
[ ]
24 Blanqui_1840_5 Algiers: A mesure quon pntre dans les rues, la surprise redouble en les
voyant bordes de maisons neuves, bties leuropenne et garnies de magasins lgants. On se
croirait dans une ville de Provence ou dItalie, si des bandes de Ngres, de Biskeris et dArabes,
trs-occups dailleurs au transport des marchandises, ne conservaient au pays quelque chose
de sa physionomie primitive qui saltre chaque jour davantage. Dj prs du tiers de la ville
dAlger a subi cette mtamorphose qui stend aux quartiers suprieurs et qui repousse impitoyablement toute la population musulmane, rebelle nos usages et antipathique nos moeurs.
[ ]
25 Vicomte_1843_59 Algiers, Casbah: Jai visit la galerie o fut donn ce coup dventail
si fatal sa puissance. La Casbah, maintenant fort dgrade, sert de caserne; la plupart des
colonnes en marbre qui la dcoraient ont t brises ou enleves, de manire quelle na plus rien
qui puisse attirer les regards des curieux.
[ ]
26 Lombay_1893_30 Algiers, Arab quarters: Dans les grandes artres, les Arabes quon rencontre sont le plus souvent des hommes du peuple ou des campagnards venus en ville au march, tandis que, si lon slve vers le haut de la colline, on retrouve une ville orientale ayant
conserv toute son originalit. Ces anciens quartiers, dun pass sculaire, sont videmment
destins disparatre mesure quAlger sare et sembellit dans le got europen.
[ ]
27 Baraudon_1893_4: Nous avons dtruit les trois quarts de lancien Alger pour difier la
place une ville moderne assez incommode et toute en longueur, resserre quelle est entre la mer
et les pentes de la colline: une faade imposante sans profondeur.
[ ]
28 RA 1858, issue 13, 68 Chronique, Algiers, in the rue Bab-el-Oued, discovery of the Roman
road: Ce nest pas seulement larchologie qui profite de cette curieuse dcouverte; le propritaire y gagne pour 2,000 fr. environ de trs belles pierres de taille.
[ ]
29 Ville dAlger, Conseil municipal, Drasement partiel des fortifications Voies et moyens
dexcution Emprunt de 17 millions 500,000 francs. Rapport de la commission. Dcembre 1891,
Algiers 1891. Not a word about possible antiquities in the walls; concerned with money to be
recouped from selling off the recovered land.
APPENDIX
[ ]
30 La Dpche Tunisienne 24 May 1897: Henriot cartoon of two men, one with a bust: O
emportez-vous ce torse de statue antique? Chez-moi, mon gnral. bien sr quon va nous forcer
rendre la Thessalie, je ne voudrais pas mtre battu pour rien.
[ ]
31 Quatrebarbes_1831_64 the sack of Algiers in 1830: Le quartier-gnral, ltat-major et lintendance furent installs dans la Cassaubah. Lintrieur de ce palais navait de remarquable que le
srail. Dans de longues galeries soutenues par des colonnes de marbre et dcores darabesques,
talent abandonns et confondus sans ordre des tapis, des toiles de soie, des robes riches de
broderies, des voiles de gaze, quelques bijoux de peu de valeur, et des contres de bois de rose
artistement travaills et remplis de parfums. Ces objets navaient plus de matre: le lieu o ils
taient trouvs en faisait le seul prix. Des officiers tout grade crurent pouvoir, sans manquer
lhonneur, rapporter leurs familles, leurs soeurs, leurs femmes un souvenir dAlger. Dautres
plus svres restrent les mains vides et blmrent ouvertement la conduite de leurs camarades.
[ ]
32 Revue Africaine 6, August 1837, 125126 Chronique: M. Bresson, intendant civil de nos
possessions en Afrique, a eu lheureuse pense de faire tourner au profit de la science lexpdition de Constantine: il avait charg M. Berbrugger, conservateur de la bibliothque et du muse
dAlger, de recueillir dans la ville dAhmed tous les manuscrits quil pourrait y trouver. Grce an
zle du jeune savant, il a obtenu un heureux succs: un millier douvrages ont t rassembls,
et vont, runis ceux que M. Berbrugger avait dj rapports de Mascara, de Tlemcen et de
Medeah, offrir de prcieux documens ceux qui soccupent de lhistoire et de la littrature de
ce curieux pays. / Lhonorable M. Bresson avait en outre charg M. Berbrugger de recueillir des
observations archologiques sur la province de Constantine, sur lantique Cirta, et lavait engag
sadjoindre dans larme des personnes capables de faire des observations sur lhistoire naturelle du pays, de manire pouvoir runir des renseignemens aussi utiles que complets. Cest
pour atteindre ce but que le glorieux Danrmont avait intim Bne une commission scientifique qui se composait de MM. Mangay, capitaine du gnie, pour larchologie, Berbrugger,
manuscrits arabes, archologie, sir Granville Temple, Falbe, consul danois, archologie, astronomie, Wagner, histoire naturelle, Laporte, analyse deaux thermales, etc. / Les notes recueillies
par toutes ces personnes claires vont tre mises en ordre, et bientt un travail intressant et
positif remplacera les faits inexacts et errons qui ont t publis sur ce pays. Esprons que la
commission dont la mission est accomplie sera remplace par une commission permanente
dont les travaux puissent stendre tous les points accessibles de la rgence.
[ ]
33 Wagner_1841_II_162 Taking of Algiers: Bis zum 23. Juli blieb die Armee ruhig in den
Umgebungen der Stadt Algier gelagert. In jene Zeit fiel der Anfang der Zerstrung der prchtigen Grten und Landhuser der Umgebung. Niemand wusste damals, ob man Algier behalten
wrde; niemand kmmerte sich um dessen Zukunft. Daher sahen die Officiere auch gleichgltig zu, wie die schnsten Palmen und Orangenbume unter der Axt der Soldaten zusammenbrachen und zum Bivouacfeuer verbraucht wurden. In die schnen Landhuser, deren Bewohner
sich geflchtet hatten, brachen Rotten von Soldaten ein und verwsteten und zertrmmerten
sogar die Wnde, in der Hoffnung, vergrabene Schtze zu entdecken. Die Spuren dieses vandalischen Wthens sind noch heute sichtbar, namentlich auf dem Budscharea und im Quartier von
Mustapha Pascha, wo man inmitten der blhendsten Gegend auf solche frische Ruinen stsst.
[ ]
34 Pulszky_1854_4344 around Algiers: The European population of the Fhas, are
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Germans. Many officers and officials, immediately after the conquest, bought the finest gardens for a mere trifle in the communities of Mustapha and of
Bujarea. The Turks were banished, the Moors began to emigrate, and both classes sold their

property, parting with the most magnificent villas and farms at any price. Some of these splendid residences have often changed proprietors, each of them selling it at a premium to some
new-comer, as there were always speculators enough, who, in the belief that the epoch of a
great European immigration had arrived, disproportionally enhanced the prices of the farms
in the vicinity of Algiers. Other jobbers behaved like Vandals; they half-destroyed the houses,
sold the wood, iron, glazed tiles, and marble columns piecemeal, and offered the ruins to other
European colonists. But these poor fellows, unable to afford the high prices, went rather farther
to the uncultivated parts of the Fhas, and there built each his hut. Many handsome country seats
on Bujarea and Mustapha have remained until now empty and ruined, and many a beautiful
orchard is become a wilderness covered with thorny shrubs; and yet the speculating proprietors
do not abate their pretensions, always expecting a time of great colonization, and of enormous
rise in the value of real property. They do not perceive that they themselves are the greatest
hindrance of colonization. The majority of the immigrants are poor, or even paupers, whilst
rich people do not risk their money in the culture of a soil which is already at a high price. This
nuisance has only lately (1847) been abated by a land-tax, which is levied even from uncultivated
property, and the proprietors are at last forced, either to sell out or to till their grounds. Some
of the officers and officials have their gardens cultivated by Kabyles or European day-labourers,
and the generals and colonels find here a healthy occupation for their soldiers.
[ ]
35 Bouyac_1891_55 Recounting Spanish expedition to Bne, letter from Don Alvar to Charles
V, 13 Sept 1535: Pendant les douze ou treize jours que sont rests Bne les soldats dbarqus
avec le marquis de Mondjar, ils ont si bien employ leur temps quils ont enlev tout ce quil
y avait dans les maisons jusquaux marbres des murs et aux moulins, petits et grands, dont, on
fait usage dans ce pays. Ceux de ces objets quil ntait pas possible dembarquer, on les brisait
pour en avoir les ferrements. Quant aux coffres et aux bahuts que les Maures avaient laisss chez
eux, il faudra, sils y reviennent, quils en apportent dautres. Bien peu de maisons ont encore
des portes et des fentres; tout a t dtruit. Les soldats ont perc en beaucoup dendroits la
muraille du ct de la mer, comme si les portes de la ville ntaient pas assez grandes, et par l ils
ont fait passer du bl, de lorge et des fves. Les rues en sont pleines. Ils craignent sans doute de
navoir pas le temps de tout embarquer.
[ ]
36 Wagner_1841_I_95: Whrend der Belagerung von Constantine sah ich franzsische
Soldaten Grber ffnen, um an die Stelle der Leichen sich in ein trocknes Nachtquartier zu
betten; es war dies bei dem Unwetter und den Leiden der Armee zu entschuldigen. Vor Algier
aber whlten die Soldaten die Gebeine auf, um vergrabnem Geld nachzuspren, und die franzsischen Generale scheinen sich nicht sehr ernstlich bekmmert zu haben, diese Profanation zu
hindern.
[ ]
37 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1840_2: En ralit, tous les dsastres, toutes les pertes ont t pour
nous: nos tablissemens agricoles sont dtruits; et, malgr la prsence aux environs dAlger de
prs de 30,000 hommes, des partis de 7 800 Arabes viennent dans le Sahel massacrer les ntres
par centaines, et arrter main arme la correspondance entre Alger et Douera. Notre arme
est dans ltat le plus misrable; plus de 15,000 hommes ont disparu de ses rangs depuis trois
ou quatre mois, et sont destins prir avant peu, dans les hpitaux dAlger, de Mahon et de
France, parce quil est un degr de fatigue et de misre auquel lhomme succombe sans espoir
de se relever.
[ ]
38 St_Marie_1846_212 Bne: France is far from having derived every possible advantage
from this position; and, if she be not prudent, she will have to retire from this part of the coast,
APPENDIX
leaving behind only the bones of her sons: for the traces of her passage will not endure longer
than those of the Arab Douars on the soil where they plant their tents. The Romans and the
ancient Arabs knew how to vivify this fertile land. The French have destroyed, but they have
created nothing for the future.
[ ]
39 Veuillot_1847_8 Algiers: Aucune terre ntait cultive nulle part, moins quon naccorde
le nom de terre cultive quelques jardinets situs sous le fusil des remparts, o lon rcoltait un
peu de lgumes et de salades qui se vendaient prix dor. La viande, les fruits, le pain, le fourrage,
tous les objets de consommation venaient par la mer. Nous ne nous levions gure de table que
le gouverneur gnral net calcul avec amertume la somme que le repas que nous venions de
faire avait cote la France, sans compter le sang. Lorsquon lui parlait alors de la colonisation
et des colons dAlger, son bon sens ny pouvait tenir; il se rpandait en railleries poignantes
contre ce mensonge criant, npargnant personne et sinquitant peu de savoir qui lcoutait.
Jen gmissais comme dune faute politique, car ces discours taient interprts et comments
au dtriment de son patriotisme; mais jhonorais davantage sa probit, sa franchise et son cur,
et jadmirais ce patriotisme que lon mconnaissait tant.
[ ]
40 Fortin dIvry_1845_119 Fermes militaires: Peu peu on cultive quelques jardins pour les
lgumes indispensables, bientt chaque colon a le sien sil a quelques ressources, chaque corps
militaire stablit sur un plus grand espace, et parfois btit et cultive une belle ferme. / On est
tout tonn de trouver aux environs de Constantine des plantations, des cultures plus soignes,
quelques soldats laboureurs, et on apprend avec joie que la ferme appartient tel ou tel corps
dinfanterie, de cavalerie, du gnie ou du train.
[ ]
41 Urtis, M.-L.-Bonav., Opinion mise par M. Urtis,...devant la Commission de colonisation
de lAlgrie, la sance du 12 mars 1842, 33, 36: Puisque le voisinage, si heureux sous ce rapport, de
la France et dAlgrie permet, faisons donc que des intrts purement franais soient sans cesse
engags, lis la colonie; que, lexemple des Romains, les propritaires de France aient aussi
leurs villa en Algrie, et que leur influence se montre et se maintienne dans la campagne, pour
y retremper incessamment et y entretenir lesprit franais...Laccroissement de la population
amnera la diminution progressive de larme. Premier profit. Urtis was a landowner in Algiers.
[ ]
42 Pulszky_1854_4344 around Algiers: The European population of the Fhas, are
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Germans. Many officers and officials, immediately after the conquest, bought the finest gardens for a mere trifle in the communities of Mustapha and of
Bujarea. The Turks were banished, the Moors began to emigrate, and both classes sold their
property, parting with the most magnificent villas and farms at any price. Some of these splendid residences have often changed proprietors, each of them selling it at a premium to some
new-comer, as there were always speculators enough, who, in the belief that the epoch of a
great European immigration had arrived, disproportionally enhanced the prices of the farms
in the vicinity of Algiers. Other jobbers behaved like Vandals; they half-destroyed the houses,
sold the wood, iron, glazed tiles, and marble columns piecemeal, and offered the ruins to other
European colonists. But these poor fellows, unable to afford the high prices, went rather farther
to the uncultivated parts of the Fhas, and there built each his hut. Many handsome country seats
on Bujarea and Mustapha have remained until now empty and ruined, and many a beautiful
orchard is become a wilderness covered with thorny shrubs; and yet the speculating proprietors
do not abate their pretensions, always expecting a time of great colonization, and of enormous
rise in the value of real property. They do not perceive that they themselves are the greatest
hindrance of colonization.

[ ]
43 Wagner_1841_I_135136 Fhos, outside Algiers: Die europische Bevlkerung des Fhos
besteht aus Franzosen, Spaniern und Deutschen. Die Franzosen haben ihre Grundstcke
hauptschlich in den Gemeinden Mustapha und Budscharea, welche der Stadt zunchst liegen.
Viele hohe Militairs und Beamte haben gleich in dem ersten Jahre der Eroberung die schnsten
Grten um Spottpreise gekauft. Die herrlichsten Landhuser, an Grsse und Schnheit Palsten
gleich, wurden von den ausgetriebenen Trken und Mauren dem ersten Speculanten zugeschlagen. Mancher jener Unglcklichen hat nie einen Liard fr sein verkauftes Besitzthum bekommen, welches dem heutigen Eigenthmer vielleicht tausend Franken Renten trgt. Einige dieser
prchtigen Landgter sind durch ein Dutzend Hnde gegangen, ein Besitzer verkaufte es wieder
einem andern, immer um einen hohem Preis, und stets fanden sich neue Kaufliebhaber, die, in
der Meinung, endlich sey der Zeitpunkt einer Einwanderung aus Europa in Masse ganz nahe, die
Preise der nchstgelegeneu Grundstcke auf eine bertriebene Hhe steigerten. Andere ergaben sich dem Vandalismus aus Speculation, Hessen alles Holz, Eisenwerk, Porzellan und die
Marmorsulen von dem Gebude ausbrechen, verkauften es im Einzelnen und boten dann die
halbzertrmmerten Huser den europischen Colonisten zum Kauf an.
[ ]
44 Campbell_1845_94 villas around Algiers: It seems like a retribution of Providence
that these beautiful villas, thus wrenched from their owners, have yielded but little profit to
the wrenchers. They are principally occupied by the military, and the French soldiers, wherever
they have taken up their habitation, have made the houses uninhabitable to all future tenants,
by cutting up the wood-work in order to make their fires. Followed by an appendix on the
Military Occupation of Algiers, 322: One half of the French army was quartered in the gardens
or country-houses of the inhabitants of the town. To recall in this place the fact, that the owners
of those habitations have ever received any indemnity, that they were not allowed to enjoy
their own property, that the doors were destroyed and used as firewood, that the iron bars
were torn off and sold, that searches were made under the floors in the hope of finding imaginary treasures, all this is no more than the truth!! In short, the gardens and habitations were so
completely devastated as to have been rendered useless. What I relate is neither overcharged nor
exaggerated; none but an eye-witness of this general ransacking could form an adequate idea of
it. / This is one of the chief causes which led the owners to abandon their property on the conditions tendered to them, and almost to give it away. Let any one now boast of possessing property
at Algiers! Thus it was that national property was acquired in France during the revolution!
[ ]
45 Pellissier_1836_I_8889 Algiers: Par suite de ce mouvement [viz. abandonment of SidiFeruch], toute larme se trouva runie autour dAlger. La coupable ngligence des chefs de corps
laissa dvaster les belles et fraches maisons de campagne qui entourent cette ville. Au lieu demployer des moyens rguliers pour, avoir du bois, on coupait les haies et les arbres fruitiers, on
brlait les portes, les fentres, e tmme les poutres des maisons: le soldat dtruisait aussipour le
plaisir de dtruire. Les marbres, les bassins, les ornements de sculpture, tout tait bris, sans but
et sans profit pour qui que ce ft. Les aquducs ayant t rompus en plusieurs endroits, presque
toutes les fontaines tarirent, et larme fut sur le point de manquer deau.
[ ]
46 Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_149 villas outside Algiers, one called la maison riche, and sublet
to French officers: the devastation committed in four years scarcely imaginable. The marble
fountains, the staircases inlaid with porcelain, were everywhere damaged, and so covered with
dirt, that one feared to approach them. The orange-trees that grew up in the extensive courts
paved with porcelain were mostly dead for want of care.
APPENDIX
[ ]
47 Trumelet_1887_I_7 trees at Blida: Quelques-uns nont plus que la peau et les os, et ne
paraissent se soutenir que par un prodige dquilibre; ils portent, pour la plupart, les nodosits,
les gibbosits, les verrues, ces difformits de toutes les vieillesses, et les traces ineffaables de
la guerre: les uns montrent orgueilleusement leurs membres amputs, les autres leurs troncs
trous par les balles, dchiquets par la hache de nos soldats, ou brls pour les besoins du
bivouac. Barbares que nous sommes! incendier, dtruire en moins dune heure des arbres qui
ont mis des sicles pour pousser! Lantiquit paenne, qui apprciait la valeur de lombre et de
la verdure, avait plac les arbres sous la protection de la religion, en tablissant, comme article
de foi, que la destine des Hamadryades dpendait de certains de ces arbres avec lesquels elles
naissaient et mourraient, que ces nymphes des bois avaient de la reconnaissance pour ceux qui
les garantissaient de la mort, et quau contraire, ceux qui la leur donnaient en coupant, malgr
leurs prires, les arbres quelles habitaient recevaient srement la peine de leur crime.
[ ]
48 La nouvelle Gloire franaise, rcits des combats et hauts faits militaires de larme dAfrique,
depuis la prise dAlger jusqu la dfense de Mazagran, contenant un prcis historique et chronologique complet de lAlgrie, Paris 1840, 123 cutting down orchards: plantations: Cette fatale habitude de sacrifier au besoin du moment et de gaspiller partout les ressources du lendemain nous
a t bien funeste depuis notre sjour en Afrique, et je nai jamais connu cette imprvoyance de
nos chefs qui nous permettaient de couper les orangers, les figuiers, les oliviers, les grenadiers
pour nous faire du feu. Ces abus, auxquels on aurait pu remdier ds le principe, et qui taient
dailleurs souvent inutiles, ont plus anim les Maures et les Arabes contre nous que tous les
autres genres dhostilit. Eux, si amoureux de leurs jardins et de leurs ombrages, sous un climat
o tout abri contre les ardeurs du soleil est un bienfait, nous accusaient de leur apporter le
dsert; et en effet, o les Franais ont sjourn quelque temps, il semble que le feu ait pass.
[ ]
49 Berteuil_1856_II_160 clearances in Algiers, place du Gouvernement: Malgr cette dcision, depuis longtemps les travaux de cette place taient frapps de suspension, quand le duc de
Rovigo, ayant reu du ministre de la guerre, en janvier 1832, une lettre prescrivant itrativement
lexcution du trac du gnie, arrta que les travaux de la place du Gouvernement seraient incessamment repris et continus suivant les alignements dj excuts sur le terrain, de concert
entre larchitecte de la ville et les officiers du gnie. Les premiers travaux quexcuta le gnie
civil furent ceux de dmolition, et notamment le dblayement des difices dj partiellement
dmolis, et dont les dcombres obstruaient la circulation. / Il fut enjoint aux autorits civiles et
militaires de veiller la conservation des marbres et colonnes provenant de la mosque dmolie,
et qui furent dposs dans les magasins du gnie. / Le gnie eut un moment la pense de faire
dmolir les deux autres grandes mosques, comme pouvant, en cas de sdition, servir de refuge
aux assigs et intercepter la dfense; mais heureusement cette pense ne reut pas dexcution.
On rflchit que ces mosques, sous le feu des batteries du port et des vaisseaux mouills dans
la rade, situes en outre dans le voisinage des grandes casernes, pourraient tre immdiatement
occupes par les troupes dans un cas de rvolte.
[ ]
50 Picard 1994, 125 citing SHD Gnie, art. 8, sect. 1, Alger, carton 3, 1836: Cela demanderait
la ruine de plusieurs centaines de propritaires, le ravage de rues dj en construction, enfin
cela reprsente des sommes normes pour les expropriations, alors que des propritaires nont
pas encore reu leurs indemnits pour le premier largissement. Des maures sont rduits la
mendicit. Il est inutile de refaire des voies perpendiculaires la rue Bab Azoun, cest vouloir
perptuer les ruines, les dmolitions et la misre dans une ville que nous avons dj mutile.

La chose utile faire est de percer une rue pour monter du bas de la ville la casbah, afin de
redonner vie au 3/4 de la ville haute qui na pas de commerce.
[ ]
51 Pellissier_1836_I_336337 Algiers: Le grand dsir que nous avons eu de faire dAlger une
ville europenne, nous a port largir et redresser les principales rues, trs souvent outre
mesure, ce qui a ncessit de nombreuses dmolitions. Ladministration, qui avait mis de ct
toutes ses formalits pour dtruire, se les est rappeles lorsquil sest agi des reconstructions, et a
oppos les lenteurs de ses dcisions lactivit des particuliers qui tendait remplacer, par des
btiments leuropenne, les difices mauresques que dtruisait le marteau administratif; il en
est rsult que pendant quatre ans on a dtruit sans reconstruire. Mais enfin, depuis un an, une
partie des obstacles ont t levs, et un Alger nouveau commence sortir des ruines de lancien.
Il est seulement regretter que lon abandonne totalement larchitecture arabe qui est si gracieuse et si bien approprie au climat, et quil serait si facile, par quelques lgres modifications,
de plier nos habitudes.
[ ]
52 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1840_45: On forme tous ces projets, Messieurs, lorsque nos hpitaux en Afrique, sauf celui de Bne, ne sont que des baraques vermoulues, ouvertes tous
les vents. Le fameux hpital dAlger, si vant, nest habitable que pour quelques officiers; les
soldats malades sont encore dans les baraques faites sous M. le duc de Rovigo. Le sol, cest la
terre humide; les murailles sont des planches pourries, refuge de toute espce de vermine; les
fentres sont des chssis sur lesquels sont tendues, en guise de vitres, de mauvaises toiles de
treillis. / Partout les chefs de larme sont magnifiquement logs, tandis que les troupes sont
sans abris et que les officiers subalternes sont dans des cloaques, o vous ddaigneriez de loger
vos valets.
[ ]
53 Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_144 Algiers; Near it [the Jewish cemetery] are the extensive
gardens of the Dey, surrounded and intersected by walls, and adorned with marble kiosks. They
are now, however, converted into an hospital, with a kitchen-garden; and the buildings are dirty
and dilapidated.
[ ]
54 Pckler-Muskau_1839_I_2829 Algiers Unfortunately, the Cassuba or, as it is commonly called, the Cassba has been wantonly destroyed, the arcades walled up, the gardens
broken, while itself now serves as a barrack for thirteen hundred men, officers included. An idea
may be formed from this both of its imposing size, and of the state of neglect and uncleanliness
into which it has been suffered to fall. All the kiosks, once richly gilt the grand gallery of mirrors, the fine marble pavements, have disappeared...In the Cassuba there is also a handsome
mosque, with most magnificent marble columns, but in a similar state of dilapidation.
[ ]
55 Revue Africaine 6, August 1837, De Lapisse, Ch., Varits: Alger, 7388. 73: Pourquoi le
monde est-il si petit? Pourquoi de ncessit faut-il toujours btir sur des ruines? o fut une ville,
nous en levons une autre, le prsent fait oublier le pass. Ce serait, il me semble, une belle ide
du crateur de former un cabinet dantiques, o chaque sicle conserverait son aspect physique
et moral. Archologues, vous entassez grands frais des dbris de poteries et de bronze; que
diriez-vous de la collection des mondes.
[ ]
56 Bonnafont_1883_8283 the Kasbah at Algiers: Tout cela a t bien dgrad depuis loccupation. La Kasbah, convertie en caserne, donne aussitt une ide de ce quelle tait et de ce
quelle est devenue: je lai visite en dtail dans mon dernier voyage en Algrie, en 1881, et jai
t bien du, en voyant les dgradations qui sy sont accomplies. La mosque surtout, tait
bien coquette autrefois, avec sa cour pave de marbre blanc et noir, ses admirables colonnettes,
APPENDIX
torses et gemmelles en marbre, et sa galerie artistement dcoupe, qui formaient un ensemble
ravissant. Elle est convertie maintenant en chambre dartilleurs. Les murs y sont griffonns au
charbon et, ce qui est plus grave, quelques colonnettes prsentent de nombreuses raillures.
[ ]
57 Rogers_1865_3637 Algiers: It must ever be a source of regret that when the French
found themselves installed in the Casbah an event which occurred within one calendar month
from the date of their landing at Sidi Ferruch so little discipline or supervision was exercised,
that, under the very eyes of the officer in command, the public archives were utterly destroyed;
the common soldiers actually lighting their pipes with documents invaluable to the historian
which were found in the State-Paper Office. Poor General Bourmont was so overwhelmed with
grief at the loss of his son, that he left everything to the unintelligent mercies of his subordinates.
Unfortunately their organs of destructiveness were allowed free scope; the country between
Sidi Ferruch and Algiers was laid waste trees were cut down, gardens destroyed, aqueducts
irreparably damaged, and in every respect the conduct of the army was as though they had only
come to invade, to pillage, and to retire.
[ ]
58 Pellissier_1836_I_198 Algiers: On tablit aussi 6 moulins vent en dehors de la porte
Bab-Eloued. Les machines avaient t confectionnes en France, sous la direction dofficiers
du gnie; mais les tours furent construites par entreprise, sous celle de la municipalit, qui en
fit ensuite la remise au domaine militaire. Ces moulins placs dans un lieu o les vents sont
variables et neutraliss par le reflux de lair, qui tourbillonne dans une vaste gorge du Bouzaria,
ne fonctionnant presque jamais, leur construction donna lieu au premier exemple de cette violation des tombeaux dont on sest fait un jeu depuis. Malgr la vive et juste indignation quelle
faisait natre chez les Musulmans, les tours furent leves sur les limites dun cimetire, et lentrepreneur, M. Zedda, trouva fort commode dy employer les pierres spulcrales quil avait sous
la main. Cette mthode conomique de se procurer des matriaux, augmenta en effet les bnfices; mais on assure que, pour se faire pardonner la profanation dont il stait rendu coupable,
il fut oblig de les partager avec le chef de la municipalit.
[ ]
59 Morell_1854_81 Algiers: The Fort of Twenty-four Hours was built in the oldest part
of the vast Mussulman cemetery stretching from Bab-azoun to Bab-el-ouad, along and outside the walls. A new zone of tombs began beyond this circle, forming that of the Christians;
then beyond that, and in the direction of the ravines of the Boujareah, lay that of the Jews. The
tombs of several of the deys, such as those of Mustapha, Moussa, etc were situated in that part
of the Mussulman cemetery lying between the Fort Neuf and that of Twenty-four Hours. They
were shaped like marabouts, of a square form, with a cupola at top; but were destroyed by the
French in 1830. The ground of these cemeteries has been greatly encroached upon by French settlers; and it is anticipated that all traces of them will gradually disappear as the European town
stretches out on the road to Pointe Fescade, beyond the old Bab-el-Ouad gate.
[ ]
60 Fortin dIvry_1845_116: Les travaux de construction dans les villes ont, au contraire de la
culture, march avec une activit incroyable; partout on btit, et cependant le prix du loyer na
cess de crotre, ce qui est facile expliquer. A Alger et faubourgs, par exemple, la population
saccrot, chaque anne, en ce moment, de 10,000 mes environ: la quantit de constructions ne
rpondant pas ce chiffre, il y a disette de logements, les prix slvent, et les constructeurs sont
srs de trouver 15 20 pour 100 de revenu de leurs maisons neuves. / Il en rsulte quils mettent
un prix exorbitant aux terrains propres btir, dautant que ces terrains ne se trouvent que dans
les parties accessibles du rivage, et notamment au faubourg de Babazoun et Mustapha, ct

du dveloppement futur et infaillible dAlger, puisque cest la seule issue plane conduisant dans
lintrieur. La spculation a encore enchri sur des prix dj levs, de telle sorte quAlger rivalise
maintenant en spculations avec les villes les plus populeuses de la vieille Europe. Les transactions sy font presque toutes en rentes, ce qui permet de se passer de capitaux, et facilite singulirement les affaires.
[ ]
61 Tocqueville_1865_441 in his Report to the Chamber of Deputies on credits requested for
Algeria, 24 May 1847: On a galement remarqu que partout o les transactions immobilires
entre le propritaire barbare et lEuropen civilis pouvaient se faire sans contrle, les terres
passaient rapidement et vils prix des mains de lun dans celles de lautre, et que la populalion
indigne cessait davoir ses racines dans le sol. Si nous ne voulons pas quun pareil effet se produise, il faut que nulle part les transactions de cette espce ne soient entirement libres.
[ ]
62 Thireau 1912, 1314: La Valle-des-Jardins...de magnifiques villas...taient rserves
aux richards de la ville qui en faisaient leur rsidence dt...Depuis que la main doeuvre franaise a pass par l...on a dmoli les villas et abattu les arbres...nos troupes sinstallrent sur
ce plateau qui fut vite transform en un vaste camp retranch o nos hommes durent rester
longtemps faute de casernes pour les recevoir, et ce fut linstallation du camp qui ncessita la
destruction de tout ce qui existait sur son emplacement.
[ ]
63 Gavault_1894_66 Algiers: Un autre motif a pu faire passer inaperue: des dcouvertes
dantiquits Alger. Cest que, depuis quelques annes, les travaux pouvant donner lieu des
trouvailles de ce genre ont cess dtre surveills par ces chercheurs dvous, ces savants locaux
zls et curieux, tels que les Berbrugger et les Devoulx. / Il est remarquer que depuis la mort de
ce dernier, aucune communication relative des objets antiques trouvs Alger, nest parvenue
la Socit historique.
[ ]
64 Carton_1905_54 Sousse: Les ruines y ont t, comme dans toute la rgion, activement
dtruites par les chercheurs de pierres. Quelques frustes que soient ces vestiges, quelques sommaires quaient t des investigations, auxquelles un changement de garnison [he is an army
doctor] ma trop tt enlev, jai prouv de suite eu les parcourant limpression de me trouver
en prsence des restes dune vritable ville. Jai dailleurs fait partager de suite ce sentiment aux
membres de la Socit Archologique de Sousse lorsquils sont venus, sous ma conduite, visiter
ces ruines pour la premire fois.
[ ]
65 Pellissier_1836_I_292293: A Mascara, o les Turcs furent ou chasss ou gorgs, plusieurs difices furent dtruits, entre autres le palais des anciens Beys, qui tait fort beau. Depuis
ladministration dAbdel-Kader, qui y rgne en ce moment, cette ville commence rparer
ses pertes; mais Tremecen, o les Turcs et les Kourouglis occupent encore le Mchouar, la
guerre continue et a fait fuir beaucoup dhabitants. Arzew, dont les habitants staient dclars
pour nous, et que nous abandonnmes la fureur de nos ennemis communs, a t entirement dtruite; Mostagenem, que le Kaid Ibrahim et ses Turcs, occuprent long-temps en notre
nom, vit ses beaux faubourgs sacrifis aux besoins de la dfense; les nombreuses maisons de
campagne qui couvraient le pays a plus de 2 lieues la ronde furent aussi presque entirement
dmolies.
[ ]
66 Pulszky_1854_90 (Wagner joint author some of his 1841 volume incorporated) Guelma:
many speculators, French and Maltese, settled here, and constructed coffee-houses, shops, and
taverns. Broken columns and pillars of porphyry supported smoky public-houses, enframed by
temple-ruins. There we saw the sign-board of the wine- shop Ici on donne boire et man-
APPENDIX
ger, close to a mutilated Latin inscription, fitted into the wall, which was the sepulchral record
of a Roman proconsul. Such a desecration of the relics of the great conquerors, is revolting in a
nation which talks so much about civilization and respect for science. But we find in the French
people, and especially in the French armies and its camp-followers, a wanton destructiveness,
which can hardly be controlled by the orders of enlightened generals, or by the endeavours of
educated officers. In Algiers, fine orange-trees were felled for fire-wood in 1830. In Tlemsan, the
beams of elegant Moorish houses were cut out for similar purposes, and this proceeding subsequently led to the ruin of entire streets. The gardens of the Dey, the palace of Abd-el-Kader
in Mascara, and the Moorish villas on Mount Bujarea, were recklessly sacked. So too the ruins
of Calama, which had been respected by Arab indolence, were wantonly destroyed by French
soldiers and settlers. Columns were thrown down, because they stood in the way of a winecellar, and funeral inscriptions were broken to pave a tavern. Pages of history which told us what
Calama had been, and who had ruled and lived here, the eloquent monuments of a great past,
were reduced by a few strokes of the hammer, into dumb stones. It was not fanaticism, like that
of the early Arabs, which prompted the French to such Vandalism; it was the most petty and
miserable love of lucre, the old monuments being more handy for building material than the
stones.
[ ]
67 SHD 1M1314 Capitaine du Gnie Gaubert, Notice sur Miliana, 1841, 13 Nous terminerons en faisant observer quil ny a aux environs de Miliana que des arbres fruitiers et quil est
craindre quaprs deux ans doccupation, surtout doccupation restreinte, il ne reste plus aucun
ressource en bois de construction et mme de chauffage.
[ ]
68 Saint-Arnaud_1858_5 Miliana, December 1844, to his brother: Il y a peine un mois que
je suis ici et jai fait labourer et semer dorge par mon rgiment seul cinquante hectares de terre.
Mille bras travaillent faire une route. Elle ne sera pas acheve dans un an, et dj jai dans ma
tte le projet de deux routes nouvelles et ltablissement de trois villages. Lavenir de ce pays est
immense, mais lor quil engloutira est incalculable. Nous vivons sur une ville romaine, et nos
tuniques mesquines flottent au mme vent qui agitait ces amples tuniques et ces toges romaines
si nobles. Je fais niveler ma grande rue, et en fouillant la terre nous avons trouv des pierres
superbes, des colonnes en marbre, des tombeaux bien conservs, et leurs ossements complets,
et lurne classique pleine de petite monnaie de cuivre, as ou deniers. La ville ancienne dort
sous nos pieds. Pour faire des fouilles srieuses,.il faudrait du temps et de largent; mais nous
nen avons que pour les travaux de premire et urgente ncessit. Avant dexhumer les morts
et les ruines, il faut abriter et conserver les vivants. Il y a une mosaque admirable qui servait
denseigne au tombeau de saint Reparatus. Je veux faire bttir lglise chrtienne au-dessus. Une
vote bien faite la conservera visible dans toute sa beaut, et le temple de Dieu slvera l o il
tait il y a quatorze sicles. Saint-Arnaud_1858_14 Orlansville February 1845, to his brother: Je
continue faire collection de souvenirs antiques. Jai une romaine...romaine en cuivre, entire
et bien conserve, de petits vases, etc., etc., tout cela trouv dans une ppinire que je fais faire
et qui sera fort belle.
[ ]
69 SHD GR1M881 October 1833, Capitaine dtat Major Touffait, adc du Marchal Clauzel,
Relation de lexpdition de Bougie. 9, describes the beautiful gardens at Bougie, where every
house had one, with fruit trees and flowers: Il est regretter que la plupart aient t ravags,
et que de beaux arbres qui offraient un ombrage si prcieux dans ces climats brulans aient t
coups, abattus, tour tour sacrifis la colre des vaincus et limprevoyance des vainqueurs.

[ ]
70 Vitry_1900_40: Avant loccupation romaine ce pays tait inconnu et il tait dsert. Les
Romains en ont fait une admirable colonie. Aprs des sicles dabandon et de pillage nous avons
occup la Tunisie et nous y recommenons loeuvre des Romains. Les Arabes en dtruisant les
cultures fruitires au xie sicle avaient ruin le pays. En replantant les 1,300,000 hectares propres
ces cultures nous lui rendons la vie. Dimmenses terrains abandonns au pturage valent 10
francs lhectare; plants en oliviers ils valent 800 francs. Cest en mettant en valeur les territoires
limits par une ligne trace de Kairouan la frontire algrien ne au nord, par la mer lest et les
chotts au sud que le gouvernement du Protectorat achvera son oeuvre de rparation.
[ ]
71 Guillaumet_1891_269 Algiers, perhaps 1860s, but undated: La cit nouvelle gagne chaque
jour du terrain. Il nest presque point dendroit o le vandalisme mercantile nait pos sa griffe.
On dmolit sans relche Les pristyles mauresques, les portiques de marbre sculpt, pour loger
des marchandises ou faire place des ateliers. Sur les tablis, sur les enclumes qui ont viol la
paix des silencieuses retraites, fonctionnent les engins, retentissent les marteaux, de nos industries. De tous cts souvrent des choppes sentant lalcool et le vin dEspagne, o sattablent des
vagabonds dbraills, des hommes du port chmant le travail, paves de toutes races, jouant
leurs salaires sur des cartes grasses et chantant tue-tte pour senivrer.
[ ]
72 Ancien_payeur_1833_2930: Comment avec tant dlmens de force et de puissance,
comment avec tant de supriorit dans notre organisation militaire, ne pouvons-nous vaincre
les Kabyles et les Bdouins de la rgence dAlger? On serait port penser que nos entreprises
manquent de plans, de direction, densemble et de persvrance. / Jamais les Romains, si une
circonstance semblable celle o nous nous sommes trouvs les et obligs de semparer dune
ville situe sur les bords de la mer, comme lest Alger, jamais ils ny auraient laiss inactive une
garnison de quinze vingt mille hommes: ils auraient perc droit au centre des populations,
et nauraient pas voulu commencer cultiver avant davoir soumis le pays. Jamais ils ne se
seraient empresss denvoyer prendre possession de Bne et dOran; cest par ces extrmits
quils auraient termin leur Conqute; cest mme ainsi quils ont agi: ce nest quaprs avoir
t tranquilles possesseurs de la Numidie, quils ont successivement fond des villes le long du
littoral de la Mditerrane jusquaux colonnes dHercule. / Cest donc lexemple des Romains
que nous devons suivre: cest sur Constantine quil faut marcher. Cette ville, autrefois si forte,
est aujourdhui sans dfense, et ds que nous nous prsenterions devant ses portes, elles nous
seraient immdiatement ouvertes; cest un fait incontestable.
[ ]
73 Boucher_1886_12: A part quelques monuments ayant conserv le caractre arabe, le
palais du gnral, la cathdrale (une ancienne mosque), Constantine ne diffre gure de toute
autre ville franaise que par la Casbah, le quartier indigne. Il a une originalit propre appele
disparatre le jour o lhygine et la salubrit publiques auront substitu des rues spacieuses
et ares aux petits rduits dans lesquels est agglomre une population loge encore par corporations de mtiers.
[ ]
74 Marmol_1667_II_440 Constantine: On voit de belles antiquitez hors de la ville, & des
ruines de grans bastimens avec vn arc triomphal demi-lieu, semblable ceux qui sont
Rome prs du Capitole. Le peuple ignorant dit, que cest le reste dvn palais o habitoient les
dmons du tems des Gentils, & quils en ont est chassez par les Mahomtans, lorsquils prirent
Constantine; mais on voit manifestement que cest le monument dvn triomphe des Romains.
[ ]
75 Caraman_1843_30 1836 little known about Constantine: nous nentendions aucune parole
consolante; on avait aucune nouvelle de Constantine, et cette ville que nous prtendions aller
occuper ne nous tait connue que par des rcits vagues et souvent contradictoires de quelques
APPENDIX
voyageurs arabes. Sa position relle, ses forces, sa population, ses moyens de rsistance, jusqu
la distance qui nous en sparait; tout tait environn dune incertitude dsesprante: tantt on
nous la disait dfendue par une arme dcide sensevelir sous ses ruines, tantt on la reprsentait comme abandonne une population nattendant, pour se soumettre, que lapparition
du soldat franais.
[ ]
76 Devoisins_1840_7879 attacking Constantine at the Bab-el-Djdid, or New Gate: Le
mur se composait dun revtement en grosses pierres tailles et dun massif en mortier et en
dcombres, enfin, dun mur romain, que nos boulets eurent peine entamer. Cette brche tait
donc escarpe, et, pour entrer en ville, il fallait passer sous un arceau de maison ayant moins de
7 8 pieds de large, et parmi les ruines causes par nos projectiles.
[ ]
77 Poulle_1869_674675 in Constantine: La large troue pratique dans les quartiers arabes
pour le percement de la rue Impriale a fait ressortir ce fait, que la ville romaine occupait surtout
la partie nord du rocher sur lequel est assis Constantine. Autour de la place de Nemours, principale entre de la ville, les monuments taient nombreux et importants, et les fouilles faites pour
les fondations de lhtel dOrient et de la maison quune socit dIsralites lve sur lilol compris entre la place, la rue Garaman, la rue Cahoreau et la rue Impriale, ont mis dcouvert bon
nombre dinscriptions intressantes. Elles deviennent plus rares mesure que lon descend vers
le ravin, et lon nen a point trouv entre la maison Hamouda et la porte del-Kantara. / En avant
de la maison Hamouda et sous la rue Impriale, existait un immense tablissement, des thermes
probablement, o lon a pu voir les arceaux encore entiers; leur sommet est aujourdhui enterr
de deux ou trois mtres; le sol, que lon na pas mis nu, devait donc tre une profondeur de
huit neuf mtres au-dessous du niveau actuel de la rue. On a exhum de cet endroit une belle
statue en marbre, bien conserve, dont la Socit archologique publiera la photographie dans
son prochain volume; je mabstiens, en consquence, dessayer de la dcrire. / Jignore ce que
sont devenues deux inscriptions qui auraient t trouves au mme endroit, et dont je nai pas
eu de copies.
[ ]
78 Devoisins_1840_89 inside Constantine: On y trouve aussi quelques ruines romaines,
mais trop peu extrieurement pour que larchologue ne soit oblig de les bien chercher: des
vestiges de vieux btiments, dont on ne peut assigner lpoque ou lemploi, restent encore sur
pied: du reste, les constructions en pierres de taille sont assez communes dans ce pays, et cette
circonstance nest pas la seule qui vienne embarrasser lantiquaire dans lamas confus de maisons qui forme cette cit populeuse.
[ ]
79 Desfontaines_1838_II_215 travelled 17836, Constantine: Les rues sont troites, mais les
maisons sont assez bien bties, et toutes couvertes en tuiles. Les rues sont paves pour la plupart. Les principales maisons sont construites avec les ruines de lancienne ville. On observe
des pierres trs bien tailles, un grand nombre de colonnes calcaires, quelques-unes de marbre.
[ ]
80 Cherbonneau_1857_3738 Constantine, Djama el-Kbir: Le minaret, espce de tour carre ayant douze pieds de diamtre et btie presque entirement en pierres de premire grosseur,
que lon sest content de superposer, est la seule partie d ldifice qui accuse un peu de rgularit, quoiquen examinant de prs les matriaux, on distingue et l des cippes, des fragments
de corniches, de moulures et dinscriptions. La galerie jour qui la couronne comme un diadme, a t restaure tout rcemment par ladministration des btiments civils.
[ ]
81 Cherbonneau_1854_123 Djama El-Kbir: En visitant ce vaste difice, qui trace une pninsule au milieu dune cohue de maisons, la plupart en pis, jai reconnu que le sanctuaire avait
du tre construit par les Berbres sur les ruines dun temple paen, cette poque mmorable

de lhistoire dAfrique o le peuple aborigne, se dbarrassant de la domination arabe, reprit
possession de son patrimoine. Ce qui fortifie ma conviction et repousse lide dun fait accidentel, cest que la toiture est soutenue par quarante colonnes, dont quelques unes occupent leur
position primitive, notamment celles que lon voit droite et gauche du choeur mihrab. Je
pourrais invoquer lappui de ce que jai dit, la rencontre en cet endroit de deux monuments
pigraphiques, dont lnonc fait mme croire lexistence dun panthon.
[ ]
82 Cherbonneau_1854_121: Revenons aux antiquits. Avant que lon et entrepris le percement de la rue Cahoreau, chacun se demandait quelle avait pu tre lutilit de ces arcades, dont
quatre forment le Ttrapyle, quel tablissement public elles correspondaient, enfin quelle
poque il convient de les rapporter. Le problme serait probablement rest plus longtemps sans
solution, si la dmolition dune masure mauresque navait tout--coup exhum un temple grec,
qui tourne son frontispice vers les deux principales arcades, et rvl lexistence dun large parvis
do les fidles assistaient aux sacrifices et aux crmonies religieuses. De nouvelles dcouvertes
ne tardrent pas suivre la premire: une mosaque comparable celle qua releve le commandant Delamarre sur la rive gauche du Roumel et dont il a dot le Muse du Louvre, fut rendue la
lumire pendant la construction des magasins de M. Carrus; tout prs de l, on dterra une frise
lgante, deux lions en pierre de grandeur naturelle, une inscription latine du plus haut intrt,
la tte crnele de Cirta et un mascaron sculpt avec une vigueur de ciseau peu ordinaire, dans
lequel je crois reconnatre la face de Jupiter. Une partie de ces objets prcieux est venue enrichir
la collection dantiquits, que M. lingnieur en chef des Ponts et Chausses a range dans un
parterre fleuri, en contre-bas de la place du Caravansrail.
[ ]
83 Piesse_1862_384 Constantine, the triumphal arch, called Kasr-el-Ghoula, le chateau
de la fe malfaisante: Salah bey fit dmolir ce portique, inutile ses yeux, dont les meilleures
pierres furent employes par lingnieur Mahonnais charg de la reconstruction du pont reliant
Mansoura avec la pointe est de Constantine. Soixante ans plus tard, le reste des matriaux fut
employ par le gnie militaire aux deux fontaines qui avoisinent la ville.
[ ]
84 Piesse_1862_377 Constantine, one of the El Kantara bridges, citing Berbrugger: Vers
lanne 1793, ce pont avait t reconstruit par Salah-bey, sous la direction de don Bartolomeo,
architecte de Mahon. Ce travail devait tre effectu avec des pierres apportes des Balares;
mais il narriva quun seul chargement Stora, parce que le bey trouva que les matriaux lui
revenaient ainsi beaucoup trop cher, et se dcida en extraire sur place auprs dune ancienne
fortification de campagne connue sous le nom de batterie tunisienne.
[ ]
85 St_Marie_1846_240 Constantine: Most of the houses are built of raw bricks; but for
the houses of the richer inhabitants baked bricks are employed, combined with stones gathered
from the Roman ruins. The palace of the late Bey Ahmed is remarkable for the fine columns of
marble which adorn its front.
[ ]
86 Baraudon_1893_129 Hadj-Ahmed, last bey of Constantine: A peu prs indpendant
dans sa province, il rsolut, quelque temps avant notre entre Alger, de se construire un palais
gigantesque. Comme il lui fallait de lespace, il tailla en pleine ville: quarante maisons furent
ainsi envahies et rases, et, sur cet emplacement grand de six hectares, commena slever une
construction disparate, sans grand got ni grand style, mais qui est le spcimen le plus complet et le plus riche que nous ayons en Algrie de larchitecture civile arabe. Les marbres, les
colonnes, les carreaux de couleur furent achets en Italie par le Gnois Schiaffino. La Kabylie et
lAurs fournirent le bois des charpentes. Tous ces matriaux arrivaient dos de mulet, travers
un pays accident, au prix defforts et de dpenses inous. Quand ils manquaient par hasard, on
prenait, sans payer, chez lhabitant ce dont on avait besoin. Les ouvriers taient des Kabyles que
APPENDIX
lon payait peu ou des esclaves chrtiens que lon ne payait pas. Malgr toutes ces exactions, la
dpense fut extrme, puisque les comptes de la trsorerie du bey parlent dun million et demi de
piastres, soit sept huit millions de francs.
[ ]
87 Rgis_1880_130 the palace at Constantine, and the last bey: Il rva quelque chose de
plus magnifique, et ne se bornant pas prendre chez ses sujets tout ce qui lui semblait sa
convenance pour orner son palais, il eut lide singulire de faire venir dItalie plus de mille
colonnes de beau marbre blanc vein de rose, aux chapiteaux finement sculpts. Il ny avait
alors ni chemin de fer, ni mme de vritable route reliant Constantine la mer. Limagination a
peine se figurer ce nombre norme de colonnes apportes pniblement sur ce rocher escarp,
dos de mulets. Larrive Constantine tait alors une ascension fort pnible. Le pont arabe,
construit sur les assises de lancien pont romain, traversait le ravin un peu au-dessus du torrent,
et il fallait, pour le passer, descendre assez bas pour remonter ensuite de lautre ct une pente
des plus raides.
[ ]
88 Fraud_1867_15 on the Palace at Constantine: Ce fut un pillage, une mutilation organise
sur une vaste chelle, qui causa la ruine de plusieurs belles maisons de la ville; de celles, entre
autres, des familles Salah-Bey, Koutchouk-Ali, Oulad-Hassen et autres. El-Hadj-el-Djabri, chef
des maons, fut cras la Kasbah par une galerie qui scroula sur lui, au moment o il en dtachait maladroitement les colonnes servant de support. La maison de campagne de Salah-Bey,
situe sur les bords du Roumel, au-del du pont dAumale, plus maltraite quaucune autre, fut
galement dpouille de la plupart des marbres, des briques mailles et des objets de luxe qui
faisaient son ornement. De ces provenances multiples, provient le disparate que lon remarque
dans les ornements du palais.
[ ]
89 Barbier_1855_182 Djemila: On prtend quil y a peu dannes encore, ce monument,
dont lorigine remont au commencement du troisime sicle; tait presque complet. Cest
Ahmed, le dernier bey de la province, celui que la France a dpossd en 1837, qui a envoy
Djmilah, pendant quil faisait btir son palais Constantine, des ouvriers pour dmolir cet arc
de triomphe quil croyait de marbre, et en prendre les matriaux pour ses propres constructions.
Ce ne fut quaprs la chute de la portion de lattique qui se trouve au-dessus des pieds-droits
que les ouvriers arabes reconnurent que le monument tait de pierre, et la dmolition fut alors
abandonne.
[ ]
90 Fraud_1867_14 on the Palace at Constantine: Schiaffino expdia une seconde fois des
marbres, des faences vernies, des carreaux de vitre et des couleurs achetes Livourne et
Tunis; mais, on ne tarda pas sapercevoir que, malgr ces envois successifs, les matriaux dont
on disposait seraient insuffisants, car on navait pas calcul lavance le dveloppement dfinitif qui serait donn ces constructions. / Pour sen procurer de nouveaux, le bey employa un
moyen expditif et surtout conomique. Quel besoin avait-il donc de les faire venir de si loin
et si grands frais? Ne savait-iia on disl pas quil tait le matre absolu du pays, et quil pouvait
disposer, non seulement des biens, mais de la vie mme de ses sujets? Ses satellites, hommes
gnralement peu scrupuleux, se chargrent de le lui rappeler. Tout ce que les principales habitations de Constantine possdaient de remarquable, comme marbres, colonnes, faences, portes
et fentres, fut extorqu ds lors pour la dcoration du palais; on fit du neuf avec du vieux et on
lui donna ainsi, sans bourse dlier, avec beaucoup de profusion unie quelque peu de confusion,
un luxe surpassant tout ce quon avait vu jusqualors: jamais non plus on navait vu dexemple
dun pareil despotisme.
[ ]
91 Mercier_1903_380381 El-Hadj-Ahmed, the Bey, builds his palace at Constantine: Aprs
avoir dblay le terrain et, sans doute, trac le plan, il fallut trouver des matriaux convenables.

A cet effet, El-Hadj-Ahmed appela, de Bne, un certain Schiaffino, qui faisait, dans cette ville,
le commerce des grains, et le chargea daller en Italie, lui acheter des colonnes, plaques de
marbre, carreaux de faence et autres fournitures. Bientt, ces matriaux arrivrent Bne et
furent transports, non sans peine, au moyen de corves indignes, Constantine. La tradition
rapporte que les colonnes, emballes dans des caisses, furent attaches deux grandes perches
dont les extrmits taient fixes, en avant et en arrire, sur le bt des mulets. On se rend compte
des difficults et des pertes causes par de telles corves, pour les malheureux sur lesquels elles
tombaient...Il confisquait en mme temps, une partie des proprits laisses par Salah-Bey,
sans tenir compte des hobous sous lesquels celui-ci avait eu le soin de les placer; en mme
temps, il dpouillait la belle maison de Salah-Bey, prs de Sidi-El-Kettani, dune partie de ses
colonnes de marbre et de ses carreaux de faence; celle de Sidi-Mhammed-El-Rorab fut absolument saccage. Il manquait, en effet, de matriaux pour son palais et sen procurait gratuitement
chez ses administrs. Malheur quiconque possdait de beaux marbres, des colonnes et des
faences rares et refusait de sen dbarrasser de bonne grce au profit du bey!
[ ]
92 Bapst_1909_I_305 1837 Canrobert, and the battle for Constantine: On avait dcouvert
dans les ruines romaines une grande dalle de marbre blanc; les soldats la dposrent sur le
tombeau, et lun deux y grava ces mots: Au colonel Combes, le 47e rgiment dinfanterie de
ligne.
[ ]
93 Carteron_1866_257258 Constantine: Lon ma parl de lancien palais de Salah Bey comme
dune des curiosits de la ville, et je vais le visiter. Salah tait un illustre bey de Constantine qui
fut vaincu et supplant avant loccupation franaise. Il tait trs-riche, trs-puissant, et il stait
fait construire plusieurs habitations luxueuses, dont celle que nous allons visiter ntait pas la
plus remarquable. Il possdait encore dans la campagne aux environs de Constantine, un palais
peut-tre le plus beau de tous ceux des princes africains. Toutes les pices et le harem taient
en marbres rares de diffrentes couleurs, et mille colonnes, torses, lisses, canneles ou feuilletes, entouraient ou supportaient sur des chapitaux dors la vaste et gracieuse construction
moresque; enfin la richesse des sculptures et des ornements luttait avec le luxe de la nature, qui
en augmentait encore le charme par un site merveilleux et de magnifiques ombrages dorangers.
De plus, des sources thermales dversaient leur eau dans dimmenses bains, o les femmes du
harem sbattaient, leur choix, dans une onde chaude, tide ou refroidie. / Malheureusement,
il ne reste plus aujourdhui que des ruines, avec les magnifiques orangers et les thermes, o leau
narrive plus et dont les dalles de marbre sont foules et salies par les troupeaux quon y parque.
Le comptiteur de Salah Bey a dtruit cette luxueuse thbade, et il a fait transporter la plupart
des sculptures et des colonnes Constantine pour y faire construire son palais qui, aujourdhui,
est habit par le gnral franais commandant la province.
[ ]
94 RA 1868 issue 68, 121133 Province de Constantine: les anciens tablissements religieux
musulmans de Constantine, addressing the President, Berbrugger, 121122: Le percement de
nos grandes rues tend faire disparatre de jour en jour le cachet original et peu prs unique
dans son genre de lancienne cit arabe. Bon nombre de mosques et doratoires musulmans
ont disparu depuis plusieurs annes devant les ncessits dextension du quartier europen qui
occupe le gradin le plus lev du rocher sur lequel la ville est assise. La partie basse, cest--dire,
le quartier arabe, est la veille de changer daspectson tour par louverture del ru Impriale
qui reliera la porte Valle au nouveau pont dEl-Kantara...Donc, comme vous le dites trs-bien,
il faudrait se hter dtudier les monuments religieux qui se prtent tant soit peu la description,
avant que la pioche les abatte.
APPENDIX
[ ]
95 Fraud_1867_1920 on the Palace at Constantine: Les arcades sont gnralement ogivales et portent sur des colonnes monolithes en marbre blanc, de grandeurs ingales et dune
grande varit de formes. Les unes sont sveltes et lgantes, les autres trapues et massives; on
en observe de carres, de rondes, de torses et doctogones; leur diamtre varie de 15 25 centimtres, et leur hauteur a rarement plus de 2 m. 50. Ces colonnes, rparties un peu partout,
sont au nombre de 266. / Les chapiteaux prsentent un amalgame des styles les plus disparates et les plus incohrents. Quelques-uns, feuillages et grappes de fruits entre les tailloirs,
rappellent, par leur galbe, le chapiteau corinthien. Dautres appartiennent lordre Toscan ou
Grco-byzantin. Beaucoup sont mdiocrement sculpts ou peine bauchs; on a mme utilis
de simples cnes tronqus, seulement dgrossis, et nayant quun croissant en saillie pour tout
ornement.
[ ]
96 Ibn_Khaldun_II_1865_276277 Comment les villes tombent en ruine. Les villes qui
viennent dtre fondes ne renferment quune faible population; les matriaux de construction,
tels que pierres et chaux, ne sy trouvent quen petite quantit, et il en est de mme pour les
carreaux de terre cuite, les plaques de marbre, les mosaques, les cailles et les coquillages dont
on se sert pour orner les murs des difices. / Dans la premire poque, les btiments sont dune
construction grossire, telle quon doit attendre dun peuple nomade, et les matriaux dont ils se
composent sont de mauvaise qualit. Quand la ville devient prospre et populeuse, la quantit
de matriaux btir augmente par suite des grands travaux auxquels on se livre, et du parfait
dveloppement dun grand nombre darts; (dveloppement) dont nous avons dj indiqu les
causes. Quand la prosprit de la ville commence dcliner et sa population diminuer, un
grand ralentissement se manifeste dans lexercice des arts; lhabitude de construire avec lgance et solidit se perd, ainsi que lusage dorner les murs des difices. Les travaux diminuent en
mme temps que la population; les pierres, les marbres et les autres matriaux de construction
narrivent plus la ville quen petite quantit, et au bout de quelque temps ils manquent tout
fait. / Alors, quand on veut btir une maison ou autre difice, on prend les matriaux dans les
constructions dj existantes, les enlevant dun btiment pour en former un autre. (Cela est
facile) parce que la plupart des maisons et des palais ne sont plus habits et restent vides, et que
la population de la ville est bien infrieure ce quelle tait dabord. On continue transporter
ainsi ces matriaux de palais en palais, de maison en maison, jusqu ce quils commencent
manquer. / Alors on reprend lusage de construire la manire bdouine; on emploie des
briques cuites au soleil au lieu de pierres, et lon abandonne tout fait fusage de fornementation.
Les difices redeviennent comme ceux des villages et des hameaux, et montrent partout les
marques de la civilisation grossire qui est propre aux nomades. La dcadence continue jusqu
ce quelle arrive son dernier terme, qui est la ruine complte, si toutefois Dieu a rserv ce sort
la ville.
[ ]
97 Bugeaud_1922_211212, Letter October 1839 to Pierre Genty de Bussy, Intendant militaire, on the 1838 expedition to link Algiers and Constantine: Le marchal Vale avait choisi
lpoque de dcembre dernier (toutes les grandes ides germent la fois dans cette tte!) pour
faire entre Alger et Constantine lexpdition militaire destine les mettre un jour en rapport,
etc. / Assurment je ne nie pas que le marchal, sil na pas toutes les grandes ides la fois,
ne soit trs capable davoir de grandes ides; mais je soutiens, et je me charge de prouver que
jamais ide ne fut plus fausse et que lopportunit de lexcution ne pouvait tre plus mal choisie. Lpoque de dcembre pour une expdition de cette importance, de cette longueur, de cette

difficult! Mais cest presque de la dmence. Quoi! sexposer tant de dangers, sans ncessit,
sans urgence, pour un but illusoire! On ne tente de pareilles choses que quand on y est forc par
les circonstances.
[ ]
98 SHD GR 1M882 Charles Louis Warnet, Lieut. Dtat Major, Mmoire sur la province de
Constantine en 1852, with some details of the antiquities of town and region.
[ ]
99 SHD Gnie, 1H58: Correspondance, 1838, Dispatch to Minister of War 8 Oct 1838 from
Marshal Vale, at Constantine, 5.
[
100]Blakesley_1859_276277 storming of Constantine: The space through which the
French advance upon the walls took place was occupied until 1836 by a fauxbourg, constructed
mainly of old Roman materials. [ noted: It must have been built within the previous century, for
Shaw describes the site thus: The neck of land is about the breadth of half a furlong, being
entirely covered with a series of broken walls, cisterns, and other ruins, which are continued
quite down to the river. 126.] It was, from military considerations, destroyed in that year by
Hadji-Ahmed, the Bey of Constantine, after the unsuccessful expedition of the French, as the
circumstances of the first siege showed conclusively that the only vulnerable part of the city was
this point. When I entered, the sun was just dipping, and several Arabs were performing their
devotions among broken capitals of columns and other debris, which lay about on the edges of
this neck of land. It was a strange spectacle of the vicissitudes of fortune, but only the first of
many such that this interesting city presented. In the siege and since the occupation no less than
4,000 houses have been destroyed by the conquerors, and an arsenal constructed, with barracks
for 10,000 men, in the Kazbah. In making excavations for this purpose, the ancient cisterns were
discovered, which had probably remained concealed ever since the Arab invasion. They are built
partly of tufo and partly of blue limestone, both of which exist near at hand, and they required
no repair before being made available. So extensive are they, that it has been found necessary
only to use half of them, and the remainder are employed as storehouses. But recently another
discovery has been made of vast magazines in which corn was formerly laid up, spacious enough
to contain a years consumption for the whole population. These were being cleaned out at the
time of my visit, and I did not see them.
[ ]
101 Charvriat_1889_208209: Constantine a perdu une grande partie de son cachet, depuis
la construction des affreuses casernes qui la dominent, et le percement de plusieurs rues leuropenne bordes de maisons cinq tages. La Kasba dAlger, ce bijou de lAfrique franaise,
aura bientt, grce de prtendues amliorations, compltement disparu. Quant aux antiquits
romaines, le gnie militaire en a dtruit un nombre incroyable. Ainsi, par exemple, au.dire de
Lon Renier, des blocs portant plus de trois cents inscriptions ont t briss et employs comme
moellons clans la construction de lhpital dOrlansville. (Willmanns, Incriptiones Africae latinae, 1881, p. 829.)
[
102]SHD Gnie, 1H58, Place de Constantine, Vaillant, Directeur des Fortifications, Note
explicative du projet dorganisation de la Casbah, 1 October 1838. 2: Given with a keyed plan of
houses to be demolished au moyen de dgager le plus tt possible le mur de la casbah des maisons B. 3: Le Chef du Gnie soccupera dtablir une circulation non interrompue tout le long de
ce mur denceinte (i.e. not the Kasbah wall). Key E: minaret dmolir.
[
103]Wagner_1841_I_346347 Constantine: Das Wohnhaus des furchtbaren Ben-Aissa, der als
Hakhem von Constantine die Vertheidigung fhrte und Achmets Stellvertreter war, so oft dieser
seine Hauptstadt verliess, ist eben so auffallend bescheiden, als der Beypalast auffallend bunt
und prchtig. Man gewahrte fast keinen Marmor im Hause, selbst die Sulen waren nur von
zusammengemauerten Bausteinen aufgefhrt, whrend in Algier jedes irgend reiche Privathaus
APPENDIX
Marmorcolonnaden und Fayenzawnde hat. Auch in Constantine fanden wir deren mehrere
und es scheint von Seiten des Hakhem wohl nur schlaue Politik gewesen zu seyn, sich mit der
wirklichen Macht zu begngen und heimlich viel Geld aufzuhufen, dagegen allen ussern
Prunk zu vermeiden, um seinem tyrannischen Gebieter keinen Grund zur Eifersucht zu geben.
Ben-Aissas Haus barg viele vermauerte Schtze und wurde deshalb durch das Geniecorps fast
gnzlich demolirt. Man fand etwa 150,000 Budschus an baarem Geld.
[
104]SHD Gnie 1H805: Constantine: Plan and elevation of the fortifications of Constantine,
1838, with the breach in the wall made by the French.
[
105]SHD Gnie, 1H58: Correspondance, 1838, cf. Valles report to the Minister: Rapport sur
les Travaux excuts au Fort de France et dpendances, 26 Oct 1838.
[
106]SHD Gnie, 1H58: Correspondance, 1838: Vale to the Minister, 23 October 1838.
[
107]SHD Gnie, 1H833: Place de Philippeville: Correspondance for 1864.
[
108]SHD Gnie 1H805: Constantine: 1 oct 1838, Note explicative du projet dorganisation de la
casbah, by Vaillant, Directeur des Fortifications.
[
109]SHD Ibid., 20 Feb 1853, Mmoire sur la place de Constantine by L. Baron, Colonel du
Gnie. pp.5ff for a Historique de la Place; 7 for the Kasbah.
[ ]
110 Vars_1895_30 Constantine, Capitol: Ainsi cinq ou six temples, dont une basilique chrtienne, avec portiques et pristyles, un nymphaeum, dix-huit statues, tels sont les monuments
dont lpigraphie et les fouilles rvlent la prsence simultane ou successive sur ce magnifique
plateau qui domine le vaste pays dont le panorama se droule au nord de la cit. Mais il est probable que ces monuments taient encore en plus grand nombre, car il faut admettre que bien
des restes ont jamais disparu.
[ ]
111 SHD Gnie 1H805: Constantine: Apostilles for 1840 Projets, 4.
[ ]
112 Malte-Brun_1858_15 Constantine: Les dbris des temples et des principaux monuments
romains servirent lever les dinces et les mosques des musulmans. Les restes de Dr-el-Bey,
lancien palais des gouverneurs, sont leur tour peine reconnaissables aujourdhui; la citadelle
romaine, agrandie et bouleverse de fond en comble, devint la Kasba. Le capitole a t transform en caserne, et lincurie des Turcs vint ajouter encore aux ruines que le temps et la guerre
avaient amonceles.
[ ]
113 Peyssonnel_1838_I_307 travelled 172425, Constantine, interior of the fortress: La maison o logent les soldats tait le temple ou lglise, ce que lon connat par la structure des
murailles, celle de la porte et celle mme du grand autel. On y voit quantit de pierres crites,
mais toutes bouleverses, de manire quon ne peut rien comprendre. A ct, il reste quatre pidestaux qui devaient soutenir des colonnes dune hauteur trs considrable, car les pidestaux
et les chapitaux dordre ionique quon trouve encore ont six pieds de diamtre, mais on ne voit
point les colonnes qui devaient tre trs leves proportion du diamtre des pidestaux et des
chapitaux.
[ ]
114 Carron_1859_84 Constantine: Nous vmes, sur la place o slve aujourdhui lhpital,
des tronons de colonne qui avaient appartenu lancienne glise btie par Constantin. Sur cette
mme place nos ouvriers coupaient en quatre pour les mettre en oeuvre les pierres romaines qui
provenaient de cette mme glise ou dautres difices. Ctait le seul moyen de sen servir.
[ ]
115 Suchet_1840_29930: Je voudrais vous dire encore quon est sur le point de dtruire
entirement lantique chapelle que le grand Constantin a fait btir Constantine. Je viens
dcrire Monseigneur pour quil fasse tous ses efforts auprs de qui de droit, pour la conservation du sanctuaire au moins de cette prcieuse chapelle. Voici quelle occasion on veut la
dtruire: le gnie construit en ce moment un superbe hpital militaire la Casbah, et, dans le

plan quil en a dress, cette antique glise se trouve renferme dans la vaste cour de cet hpital.
On aurait bien pu, dans ce plan, lutiliser en la destinant au service du culte catholique, pour
le besoin des pauvres malades...Mais non, elle offre une petite irrgularit dans le plan gnral, quon pourrait cependant trs-facilement modifier. Et cause de cette petite irrgularit, il
faut renverser, dtruire ce prcieux monument de la foi des anciens habitants de Constantine.
Il me semble quil nest pas possible que des chrtiens, des Franais, dtruisent le seul monument en ce genre qui existe au milieu de ces pays infidles...Cest le seul reste de notre bel et
antique hritage dans ces pays. Il sera l; ces pierres parleront bien loquemment aux yeux de
ces peuples infidles.
[ ]
116 Excursions_1838_72: Les anciens difices de Constantine ont souffert de rudes dvastations. La majeure partie de ceux qui ont t mentionns par Shaw nexistent plus aujourdhui.
Les belles portes de marbre rouge et larc appel Qasr-el-Ghoulah furent dmolis, il y a une
vingtaine dannes, pour servir dautres btisses, et les derniers dbris ont t employs dans
lintervalle des deux expditions de Constantine la rparation et lextension des fortifications.
[ ]
117 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_112 Constantine: La Kasba actuelle, dcore jadis du nom de
Capitole, devait tre le quartier le plus monumental de lancienne Cirta; cest l que slevaient
les temples consacrs aux divinits protectrices de la ville. Il y a quelques annes les soubassements existaient encore; mais les matriaux en ont t depuis lors employs dans la construction dune caserne et dun hpital. / Parmi les ruines nombreuses ensevelies sous le sol de la
Kasba, les seules que les ingnieurs franais aient conserves pont les citernes, si justement
clbres, dont les puissantes murailles portent aujourdhui un difice considrable. Elles se composaient dau moins trente-trois bassins en bton, dont vingt deux sont parfaitement conservs.
Dautres restes de maonnerie doivent, en juger par les alignements des murs et la qualit des
matriaux, avoir fait partie de ce rservoir colossal. Sil en tait ainsi, les citernes romaines de
Constantine auraient couvert jadis un hectare de terrain.
[ ]
118 Orlans_1892_315 Expdition des Portes de Fer Sept-Nov 1839: Bien que je sois davis
de travailler aux fortifications de Constantine et que jai t assez heureux pour faire adopter
mes ides, non seulement par le marchal, mais mme par le colonel du gnie, contrairement
son inspecteur gnral, je pousse cependant avant tout la construction des hpitaux et des
casernes. Le gnie a un plan satisfaisant pour les tablir la casba et, pour mettre la chose
en train, jen pose la premire pierre sur lemplacement de ce grand temple romain, dont les
colonnes de soixante-douze pieds de haut, encore parses sur le sol, devaient faire un effet si
grandiose vues de la campagne, sur lextrmit dune falaise de neuf cents pieds.
[ ]
119 Bonnafont_1883_349 Constantine: Lors de mon rcent voyage en Algrie en 1881, avec
Mme Bonnafont, ma premire visite Constantine fut pour revoir la fameuse Roche perce et
la montrer ma compagne comme une des principales curiosits de la ville. Mais le quartier
o elle tait ayant t transform, jappris quelle avait disparu pour faire place lhpital militaire, aux casernes et larsenal. Rien aujourdhui nindique mme o elle tait; il me semble
cependant que cette roche curieuse qui est cite dans lhistoire du pays comme ayant servi aux
excutions criminelles et qui a jou un si grand rle dans le drame mouvant que je viens de
relater, aurait d tre conserve sur place avec une inscription ou, sil et t possible dtache,
transporte au muse dantiquits de la ville.
[
120]Robert_1891_139 Constantine: La kasbah, qui date de la fondation de la ville et dans
laquelle rfugiaient toujours les habitants aux poques dinvestissement, a t considrablement amliore depuis loccupation franaise. Elle renferme aujourdhui trois casernes pour
APPENDIX
linfanterie, le gnie et lartillerie, un hpital, une manutention et un arsenal. Les citernes
immenses, creuses cet endroit par les Romains, ont t rpares aussi et servent actuellement
de rservoir et de chteau deau.
[ ]
121 Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_218 from the Journal of the Lieutenant-gnral, le
baron de Fleury: Une route praticable lartillerie fut excute de Bne Mjez-Ammar, puis
jusquau col du Raz-el-Akba, sur un terrain presque partout difficile et fortement accident...A
Ghelma, on releva les murailles de lancienne ville romaine, et on sy mit labri de toute espce
dattaque de la part des Arabes. Un hpital, une manutention, des magasins et quelques casernes
y furent levs en maonnerie. Les ruines fournirent pour ces constructions des matriaux peu
altrs dans leur forme, et prts tre remis en uvre. On dcouvrit des carrires de chaux et de
pltre dans le voisinage de la ville. Un ancien puits fut dblay et donna de leau potable. Enfin,
on dtourna le courant dune source abondante situe un quart de lieu, et on lamena dans
lintrieur de lenceinte.
[
122]Tissot_1888_394395: Constantine noccupe que le promontoire rocheux que nous
avons dcrit. La ville antique, beaucoup plus considrable, enfermait le Koudiat-Ati dans son
enceinte et stendait en outre dans les bas-fonds de la rive gauche de lOued Remel. Peut-tre
est-ce sur ce dernier point quil faut chercher lemplacement du faubourg considrable dont
parle saint Optat et qui portait le nom de Mugae. / Constantine possdait encore, au XIIIe sicle
de notre re, de nombreux vestiges de lpoque romaine. Edrisi parle de son thtre, quil compare celui de Taormina. El-Abderi constate quelle renfermait de beaux restes de lantiquit et
des difices dune structure prodigieuse, la plupart en pierres de taille. Loccupation franaise
a fait disparatre la plupart de ces dbris.
[
123]Fortin_dIvry_1845_155 Writing in 1845, Constantine: Les ruines romaines y abondent,
mais parses a et l, sauf aux murailles de la ville; ce sont ailleurs des citernes immenses; il y
en a trente-quatre la Cassauba de 17 mtres de longueur sur 4 de largeur chacune, et la faon en
est si bonne quon construit en ce moment au-dessus une caserne de quatre tages comme sur
le roc. Ce sont danciennes colonnes tantt employes de champ surlever les murs denceinte
de la Cassauba, tantt soutenir les noirs arceaux des rues de la ville; cest un magnifique pont
romain jet sur le ravin et de 300 pieds de hauteur environ, en outre des ruines de trois autres
ponts plus petits que jai reconnues.
[
124]Cherbonneau_1854_128 Constantine: Je connais des Arabes qui prtendent que
Constantine tout entire est btie sur des arceaux artistement maonns, depuis la Kasba
jusqu la porte Vale. Quelques-uns mme racontent quils ont pntr dans une de ces galeries
souterraines, qui prend naissance sous le terre-plein de la citadelle, et quaprs avoir suivi des
couloirs troits, tantt dans une direction, tantt dans une autre, ils sont arrivs au-dessous de
lentre en question, par une poterne appele Bab-el-bled la porte de la ville.
[
125]Playfair_1890_190191 Constantine, the Roman bridge over the Rummel: it was thoroughly restored by Don Bartolommeo, an architect of Menorca, in 1793, during the reign of Salah
Bey, with materials chiefly obtained from the destruction of other Roman edifices. It stood as he
left it till 7 a.m. on 18th March 1857, when the pier of the upper stage nearest to the town suddenly gave way, with the two arches resting upon it. It was found impossible to restore it; the
bridge was in consequence battered down with heavy artillery on the 30th of the same month.
The substantial modern iron structure was built in 1863; the aqueduct beneath it in 1857.
[
126]Poulle_1869_672673 in Constantine: on sait, en effet, que Salah Bey autorisa la dmolition du Ksar-el-Ghoula, et quil en abandonna les matriaux Don Bartolomeo, architecte de

Mahon, charg, en 1792, de la reconstruction du pont dit el-Kantara, et que le service du gnie
a employ aux fontaines du quartier les pierres qui restaient sur lemplacement de cet antique
monument. Les dblais que lon excute au moment o jcris ces lignes montrent que le sol
sest exhauss considrablement, et les normes blocs taills quon en retire prouvent que les
fouilles antrieures nont pas t tendues, et que bien des matriaux importants restent encore
ensevelis sous la terre.
[
127]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_207 par un officier de larme dAfrique:
Constantine: Si lon veut sortir des pauvrets sous lesquelles on est affaiss, pour slever dun
seul regard jusqu la reprsentation dun grand ordre de choses, on peut encore aller se poser en
face dun des restes de lantiquit romaine. A lintersection de deux rues, du sein des constructions arabes, slancent trois grands arcs romains, formant les trois cts contigus dun vaste
carr. Non loin de l, un autre cintre, de mme dimension, parat avoir appartenu au mme
monument. Les premiers, parfaitement simples, ne sont orns que de la beaut de leurs proportions et de la magnificence de leurs matriaux; le dernier se distingue par une archivolte et
par quelques moulures. Par la puissance de leur structure, la hardiesse de leur jet, et la majest
calme avec laquelle ils abritent, sous leurs grandes ombres, les masures modernes, ils rappellent
des chnes tendant leurs forts branchages sur des groupes de buissons.
[
128]Wagner_1841_I_348 Constantine: Sie hatte, wie fast alle rmischen Triumphpforten,
drei Bgen, deren mittlerer der hchste gewesen. Welcher Ordnung ihre Sulen angehrten, war
nicht mehr zu erforschen, da diese bereits allzusehr verstmmelt waren. Noch in zwei andern
Nebengassen entdeckten wir einzelne Bgen von weissem Marmor. Sie waren aber so in die
Huser hineingebaut, dass sich von ihnen gar nichts Bestimmtes angeben lsst.
[
129]Poulle_1869_671 in Constantine: Il et t intressant, au point de vue de lpigraphie et
de larchologie, de suivre dun oeil attentif les grands travaux de dmolition et de reconstruction
ncessits par louverture de la rue Impriale travers le quartier arabe de Constantine, depuis
la place de Nemours jusqu la porte del-Kantara, et les dblais effectus par la compagnie du
chemin defer pour ltablissement de ses gares. On aurait pu savoir peut-tre ce quil y a de vrai
ou de probable dans cette croyance, que les monceaux de ruines que lon voit aujourdhui encore
presque en lair, un peu au-del de la gare des voyageurs, sont les restes dun hippodrome; peuttre aussi, aprs avoir suivi tous les coups de pioche qui ont attaqu les lianes du Mansourah ne
trouvant passa curiosit satisfaite, et la solution de la question restant suspendue au bout dune
foule de conjectures, se retirerait-on avec le regret que la compagnie ne pousse pas plus loin ses
dblais, de manire montrer quoi se lient les blocs de maonnerie quelle a mis nu.
[
130]Suchet_1840_2627 Constantine: Nous sommes ici tout fait au centre de la Numidie,
dont Cyrta (Constantine) tait la capitale; elle est remplie de ruines romaines trs-bien conserves; nous avons dcouvert dernirement celles dun magnifique temple chrtien, dtruit
par les Vandales. Les bases des colonnes ont vingt pieds de circonfrence, et ce temple avait
cinquante-deux colonnes. Il tait bti dans la partie la plus leve de la ville. Suchet_1840_79
Constantine: Ce dsordre dans la nature du sol semble avoir pass dans la construction de la
ville: chaque pas ce ne sont que des ruines superposes, sans ordre...Celles qui touchent
le sol et qui slvent en beaucoup dendroits la hauteur dun mtre, sont videmment les
ruines de lancienne ville romaine, et paraissent indestructibles. Sur celles-l, on voit des blocs
de pierres normes dplacs; des fts de colonnes, des pans de chapiteaux renverss, des frises,
des pierres tumulaires, des frontons, etc., jets ple-mle et comme la hte, en forme de murs.
[ ]
131 Crawford_1863_316317: But except for its glorious site, which has known no change,
the magnificence of imperial Constantine has utterly vanished. The temples, arches, and col-
APPENDIX
umns that once fitly crowned those frowning heights, have disappeared, leaving nothing but
ruinous fragments as mementoes of ancient splendour. Half French, half Arab in architecture,
the modern city presents the usual incongruous aspect of an Algerian town. Here, tall French
houses rise in formal lines; there, low red-tile-roofed native dwellings overarch dark winding
alleys. Here, European shops courting the bright light of day; there, Arab stalls half buried in
obscurity. Such is modern Constantine; the mongrel creation of a civilised and half-civilised
race.
[
132]Cherbonneau_1854_128: Enfin, pour que la description archologique dune ville qui
a jou un si grand rle dans lhistoire, fut complte, il faudrait fouiller dans ses entrailles et
interroger, la pioche la main, la couche de dcombres quont entasss les ges: car cette cit,
o les convulsions de la nature avaient prsag les rvolutions successives de la socit, cache
ses premires ruines sous des dvastations plus modernes. Il y a une Constantine visible et une
Constantine inconnue. Celle que les yeux aperoivent, je lai dtermine dans la mesure de mes
tudes. Quant celle qui dort sous le sol, quelquefois mme dix mtres plus bas que la rue o
vous marchez, celle-l reste dcouvrir. Et lorsquon laura exhume, il faudra encore la reconstruire par la science ou la refaire par limagination.
[
133]Rouquette_1905_5253 on Thagaste (birthplace of S. Augustine): on the Mamelon de la
Kouba de Sidi-Messaoud, il sera des plus intressant de faire des recherches archologiques en
cet endroit, quand la municipalit prendra la dcision douvrir ou plutt de continuer jusqu
son point terminus, la rue figurant sur le plan de 1881 sous le nom de rue du Bordj; cette rue, en
effet, dune largeur de 10 mtres taillera en plein mamelon et fera mettre jour sans aucun doute
quelque document intressant pour lhistoire de Thagaste. Au moment o a t construit lHtel
de Ville (1887), au pied du versant sud-ouest du mme mamelon, les ouvriers ont mis jour,
5 mtres de profondeur, au-dessous du niveau actuel de la rue de Tunis, une superbe mosaque
reprsentant un paysage marin avec des Naades et des Dauphins...Malheureusement,
cette superbe trouvaille ne fut point respecte et resta enfouie dans les fondations de lHtel
de Ville.
[
134]Cherbonneau_1857_40 Constantine: Cest probablement du Capitale quil est question
dans ce passage de Shaw, o il est dit: Sur les bords du prcipice, du ct du nord, sont les
restes dun grand et magnifique btiment, o la garnison turque loge prsentement (1732). On y
voit encore quatre bases, chacune de 7 pieds de diamtre, avec leurs pidestaux qui paraissent
avoir appartenu un portique. Ntant venu Constantine quaprs la construction de lhpital
militaire et des deux casernes assises sur les citernes, jai perdu lavantage dexaminer moi-mme
ces restes de lantiquit; cest pourquoi jvite den parler dune manire affirmative.
[
135]Ratheau_1879_180181 Constantine: javais aperu le long de la route, prs de la porte
de la Brche, un jardin public contenant des antiquits en assez grand nombre cest le muse
de la ville et la critique peut trouver sy exercer. Dabord il est fcheux de laisser en plein air
ces monuments dont quelques-uns sont fort intressants et dlicats de sculpture; puis lordre
manque dans leur arrangement, et beaucoup dentre eux sont placs sens dessus dessous; je citerai particulirement les chapitaux de colonne vous me voyez dici enrageant de cette dplorable
erreur, quil serait si facile de rparer. On trouve partout des restes nombreux dantiquit; jen ai
vu moi-mme de trs-beaux dans des dmolitions, et il est fcheux que tout cela se perde ou se
dgrade. Parmi les restes de construction romaine les plus complets, on compte les citernes de
lantique citadelle, qui sont en parfait tat, et servent la citadelle actuelle pour le mme usage
elles font partie de limmense btiment des subsistances militaires.

[
136]Baraudon_1893_123124 Constantine: casernes occupant lemplacement de lancienne
Kasbah. Des constructions antrieures, il ne reste rien que dimmenses citernes quavaient
creuses les Romains et qualimentaient des sources traversant le Rummel par un siphon. Les
Vandales le couprent au moment de leurs attaques; car cette ville, dvore dune soif inextinguible, devait se rendre ou mourir ds quon la privait deau. Aprs eux, les habitants se
contentrent de faire des barrages dans le torrent o ils puisaient avec des outres: du temps dAhmed-Bey, cinq cents porteurs approvisionnaient ainsi Coustantine chaque matin. Aujourdhui,
les citernes servent de chteau deau pour la distribution de nouvelles sources que le gnie militaire a captes.
[
137]Bequet_1848_416 Constantine: Le gnie militaire a entrepris et a presque achev un travail aussi curieux quimportant; cest laqueduc destin amener la ville les eaux des fontaines
de Sidi-Mabrouk et de lOued-el-Bagrati, au moyen dun syphon grand dveloppement qui
vient aboutir aux citernes romaines de la Casbah, au point le plus lev de la ville. Il a cot
plus de 600,000 fr., et fournit dj une quantit deau considrable, que de nouvelles sources
vont encore augmenter. Louverture des robinets du syphon a t pour Constantine un jour de
fte vritable, surtout pour les indignes, qui ne pouvaient comprendre lutilit de travaux si
difficiles, si opinitrement poursuivis, et ne souponnaient pas la possibilit dun pareil rsultat.
[
138]Carron_1859_84 Constantine: Nous vimes, sur la place o slve aujourdhui lhpital des tronons de colonne qui avaient appartenu lancienne glise btie par Constantin.
Sur cette mme place nos ouvriers coupaient en quatre pour les mettre en oeuvre les pierres
romaines qui provenaient de cette mme glise ou dautres difices. Ctait le seul moyen de
sen servir. Nous admirmes les citernes dont lintgrit tait parfaite, mais le gnie franais tait
venu se mler au gnie romain. Nos architectes avaient jet une vote entre celle des citernes
et le sol, et dun tage en avaient fait deux ensuite par-dessus; ils avaient construit de vastes
magasins ou des logements militaires. Ainsi ldifice, romain par la base, ml au milieu, tait
uniquement franais par le haut.
[
139]Thierry-Mieg_1861_146147 Constantine: M. Cherbonneau mit la plus grande obligeance
me faire voir les curiosits romaines de Constantine. On a cr il y a peu dannes en plein air,
prs de la Kasbah, un muse antique. Cest une cour oblongue dans laquelle on a install ciel
ouvert un certain nombre de bas-reliefs et dinscriptions, des dbris de statues, etc. Un peu plus
bas, on vient de remettre jour des citernes romaines encore fort bien conserves, et qui vont
tre restaures pour servir de nouveau. Dans lintrieur de la ville jai vu plusieurs btiments
de construction romaine, au moins dans lorigine. Cependant je ny ai rien trouv de saillant
au point de vue de lart, ni mme de larchitecture, rien de grandiose comme les antiquits de
Nmes, dOrange, dArles ou de Rome; rien mme qui ft comparer aux beaux restes daqueduc
dont quelques arches sont encore debout plusieurs kilomtres hors de ville, plus loin que le
plateau appel Coudiat-Aty.
[
140]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_190191 Constantine: Une longue rue droite traverse ces
quartiers si pittoresques et va rejoindre la partie europenne. Pour tracer cette voie soi-disant
hyginique, une dilit anime dun zle insens na pas hsit dtruire le type le plus prcieux qui fut en Afrique dune vieille cit berbre, mutilant ces curieuses maisons leves sur
les assises, romaines, et faites de pis et de briques durcies au soleil; les gracieuses arcatures de
pierre; les fentres moucharabieh, charmant souvenir de lOrient; les portes finement ciseles,
surmontes de la main protectrice; les anciennes murailles sarrazines, ainsi que des difices
remontant aux priodes vandale et romaine; enfin saccageant ce qui avait rsist depuisdes
APPENDIX
sicles aux attaques du temps et des Barbares. /.../ Aujourdhui de trs rudits archologues
ont fait de Constantine un remarquable centre intellectuel; ils nous ont prouv par leurs savants
mmoires tout lintrt quils portent cette belle province de lEst, si riche en souvenirs du
pass; aussi, nous faisons appel toute leur sollicitude pour la conservation de la vieille cit;
nous sommes convaincus quils sauront employer leur haute influence la prserver de nouvelles et inutiles mutilations.
[ ]
141 Vars_1895_15 Constantine: Il serait assez malais aujourdhui dessayer de se faire une
ide de laspect gnral et de la topographie des divers quartiers de la grande cit romaine. Une
grande faute a t commise ds le dbut de notre occupation: celle de navoir pas dress le
plan des ruines qui taient encore debout et des substructions que le hasard des fouilles de nos
constructions a fait dcouvrir dans la suite. Nous aurions aujourdhui un trac qui nous permettrait dimaginer laspect de la vieille capitale. Cette restauration ne serait pourtant pas, notre
sens, absolument impossible. Un architecte qui aurait la patience de dpouiller les vingt-huit
volumes de notre collection et ceux de plusieurs autres publications spciales, pour y tudier
toutes les descriptions de fouilles dont il y est fait mention et les noter sur un plan, nous restituerait peut-tre la topographie de la vieille cit, malgr bien des lacunes invitables, car la plupart
des fouilles nont t ni dcrites, ni mentionnes. Cest une oeuvre bien mritoire qui devrait
tenter la sagacit dun de nos dessinateurs.
[
142]Vars_1895_2021 Constantine: Il ne nous est rest aucune description des monuments
dcouverts au cours des fouilles ncessites par la construction de notre grand quartier militaire.
Seul, larchitecte Ravoisi, qui prit une si grande part lexploration scientifique de lAlgrie, pendant les annes 1840, 1841 et 1842, nous en a laiss de belles planches avec ctes soigneusement
tablies. Nous lui emprunterons ses notes pour les monuments qui nous occupent, ainsi que
pour les vestiges disparus des autres parties de la ville. Voici ce quil nous rapporte de ce quil a
observ dans lancienne casbah: / Deux temples paens placs paralllement entre eux, une
glise chrtienne des premiers temps, construite sur le soubassement de lun de ces temples, de
vastes citernes et des murs denceinte, sont les seules ruines que nous ayons retrouves encore
en place sur le plateau choisi par les Romains pour fonder leur Capitole. / De nombreux et riches
dbris de frises et de chapiteaux, des autels votifs, de la sculpture et un grand nombre dinscriptions ont t, en outre, dcouverts sur ce mme emplacement; ce qui doit faire supposer que,
indpendamment des temples indiqus, dautres difices sy trouvaient galement.
[
143]Vars_1895_V Constantine: Cirta, la grande Mtropole des IIII Colonies, tait, pour ainsi
dire, inconnue. Si on avait quelques donnes sur son organisation, elles taient trs vagues
et tout fait superficielles En revanche, on nen avait presque aucune sur ses monuments. Le
secret, sur ce point, navait pas encore t dvoil. Cest quon navait pas puis la vritable
source: lpigraphie et les dcouvertes dues aux fouilles ncessites par la construction de nos
difices modernes. On sapercevra, en lisant la premire partie de ce volume, quil reste encore
beaucoup faire de ce ct. Nous ne possdons, en effet, quun nombre relativement restreint
dindications sur les monuments de Cirta. Cette pnurie tient plusieurs causes: les fouilles, en
effet, nont pas t, la plupart du temps, trs profondes. On sest content, le plus souvent, dtablir les fondations de nos demeures sur danciennes substructions que lon na pas dblayes. Il
et fallu pour cela creuser une profondeur moyenne de six mtres, distance qui spare le sol
actuel de Constantine de celui de lancienne Cirta. De le zle plus, malgr dploy depuis plus
de quarante ans par notre vaillante et prospre Socit archologique, il na pas toujours t
possible de surveiller ces fouilles que beaucoup dentrepreneurs se sont empresss de combler

sans permettre les constatations scientifiques auxquelles elles eussent certainement donn lieu.
Heureusement pour pour lantiquit, la plus grande partie de la surface de Constantine recouvre
encore les substructions inexplores de la ville romaine. Il faudra bien se dcider un jour porter
le pic des dmolisseurs dans les informes superstructures qui constituent la plus notable partie
de la ville, pour les remplacer par des difices plus confortables. Cest ainsi quen ce moment
mme, pour la construction dun Collge de jeunes filles, on va procder, sur un vaste emplacement o devait passer une des plus grandes artres de Cirta, dimportantes dmolitions sous
lequelles vont surgir probablement bien de donnes intressantes. La socit archologique de
Constantine a pris dsormais toutes ses mesures pour que rien ne lui chappe, dans lavenir,
des vestiges de lantiquit dont notre soussol est si riche. Elle est donc appele de nombreuses
dcouvertes qui ajouteront encore a sa vieille rputation de science et de travail.
[
144]Playfair_1890_189 outside Constantine: A splendid Triumphal Arch was still standing
here in 1724; it perhaps formed a part of the decorations of the Hippodrome, whose remains
were discovered and destroyed when the railway station was built. Shaw, who saw it in the year
above mentioned, says: Among the ruins to the S. W. of the bridge wc have the greatest part of
a triumphal arch called Cassir Goulah, or the Castle (as they interpret it) of the Giant, consisting
of three arches, the middlemost whereof, as usual, is the most spacious. All the moldings and
friezes are curiously embellished with the figures of flowers, battle-axes, and. other ornaments.
The Corinthian pilasters erected on each side of the grand arch are panelled like the gates of the
city, in a style and fashion peculiar to Cirta.
[
145]Playfair_1890_120 Philippeville: An amphitheatre in a very perfect state of preservation existed outside the present gate of Coustantine when the place was occupied, but its stones
were taken away for building purposes, and the railway destroyed the last vestige of it.
[
146]Vars_18951896_251 writing of Constantine: Les grands travaux communaux excuts
Constantine, au cours des annes 1895 et 1896, ont donn lieu dintressantes dcouvertes qui
ajoutent dimportantes notions nos connaissances topographiques et pigraphiques sur lancienne Cirta. Ibid., 253254: Il est bien regrettable pour la science que des ressources destines
subventionner les recherches archologiques ne soient pas mises, par le Gouvernement, la
disposition dhommes comptents, chaque fois que le sol dune vieille et illustre cit, comme la
ntre, est entam pour de nouvelles constructions. On devrait pouvoir, dans ces circonstances,
dblayer tout lemplacement quoccuperont les nouveaux difices, dresser le plan de toutes
les substructions qui y seraient dcouvertes et en faire la description. Au bout dune certaine
priode, on aurait la topographie aussi prcise que prcieuse de lantique cit. Malheureusement,
cette proccupation est le moindre souci des Pouvoirs publics.
[
147]Revue Tunisienne, Organe de lInstitut de Carthage III, Tunis 1896, 163 for details of the
Archaeological Section of the Congrs Franaise pour lAvancement des Sciences, scheduled for
Tunis 15 April 1896, with a list of Sujets dEtude dArchologie Africaine, including: Priode
vandale. 22. Caractres de loccupation vandale. Quelle a t la part des Vandales dans la destruction des monuments africains? Priode byzantine. 23. Le vandalisme des Byzantins. 24.
Les monastres et les basiliques byzantines. 25. La fortification byzantine...VI Priode arabe.
27. Les monuments darchitecture arabe de la Rgence ont-ils une relle originalit?...33.
Comment les ruines finissent. Part des hommes et du temps dans la destruction des monuments
antiques. but no hint of trying to study how many monuments were destroyed in later periods!
[
148]Gadrat_1910_108 at El-Djem: Au cours des travaux de dblaiement, les ouvriers furent
souvent arrts par des restes de construction qui, enfouies avant les travaux actuels, avaient
APPENDIX
d appartenir des habitations arabes. Le plan de ces murs, relev avec soin et reproduit dans
les planches justificatives, ne permet pas toutefois de se rendre compte de limportance de ces
constructions ni de leur distribution intrieure. Toutefois, une particularit est signaler: cest
labsence absolue de toute ouverture. Les habitations construites dans lintrieur de lamphithtre semblent navoir possd, ni portes ni fentres dans les murs verticaux: faut-il conclure
de cela que les habitants utilisaient cette poque les galeries souterraines dont les ouvertures
devaient dboucher en plein air ou avaient accol leurs constructions contre le podium de faon
utiliser les portes qui y sont mnages.
[
149]http://piedsnoirs-aujourdhui.com/medea.html.
[
150]Decker_1844_I_160161: Um die Befestigung von Medeah hat sich General Duvivier
grosse Verdienste erworben wobei freilich die halbe draufgegangen ist da viele Huser abgebrochen werden mussten um Baumaterial zu gewinnen. Alle diese weitluftigen fortifikatorischen Anlagen sind fast ausschliefslich 23 Linienregiment ausgefhrt worden obgleich
dasselbe durch durch Krankheiten und Entbehrungen aller Art mehr als dezimirt war Dem
Bastion neben dem Thor von Algier hat den Namen Charpenay gegeben Andenken.
[ ]
151 Fortin_dIvry_1845_149 Writing in 1845 of Mda: Il y a un magnifique aqueduc romain
qui mne encore les eaux la ville, et 800 Europens sy escriment relever les ruines de la ville,
tandis que la garnison y construit des murs, des casernes et des hpitaux. Mdah est encore
tout militaire, malgr la prsence de 800 civils.
[
152]Carron_1859_54 Mda: ne conservait rien ou presque rien de son origine romaine. La
ville arabe elle-mme avait t transforme en ville franaise. La pierre, la chaux, le sable, tout
est l sous la main pour btir. Aussi lhpital, la caserne, et beaucoup dlgantes maisons franaises staient leves sur divers points, comme par enchantement.
[
153]St_Marie_1846_105 Mda: we discerned the dark walls of the town of Medeah, and a
few white minarets raising their pointed summits. On the right, an immense aqueduct of Roman
construction, winding like a serpent on the plain, conveys to the town the water of the mountain
springs. The arches of this aqueduct are completely lined internally with creeping plants.
[
154]Lamping_1855_48 Mda: This city, one of the oldest in Africa, stands on a plateau,
which terminates on two sides in an abrupt precipice, and is therefore easily defended. The town
is surrounded by the most splendid fruit gardens; a Roman aqueduct still in good preservation,
conveys water to it from a neighbouring mountain, and proves the high antiquity of the town.
[
155]Morell_1854_119 Mda: Near Medeah stands a remarkable aqueduct, which has been
supposed to be of Roman construction: but the minarets of the mosques are built in the same
way, i. e. in stone and bricks of a peculiar composition; and the aqueduct, though ancient, is
thought by some writers to be the work of the native Africans.
[
156]Rogers_1865_215 Mda: a fine old aqueduct, one of the many triumphant remains of
the ancient Romans, exemplifying their idea of benefiting their colonies. The structure consisted
of a massive wall, with a continuation of arched perforations, large enough for door-ways, in two
tiers, one above the other, and conveys water from springs in the neighbouring hills to the town.
The Sultan Youssef-ben-Tachefin repaired it in 1156. It still feeds all the fountains of the place, the
prettiest of which is a bronze one which we saw in the Place dArmes.
[
157]Desfontaines_1830_338 travelling 1783, Arzew: A une lieue au sud, sur un coteau trs
agrable qui domine la mer, on voit les ruines de lancienne ville. Elles sont presque toutes
dmolies; on ny voit que des pans de murailles, des monceaux de pierres dont un grand nombre
sont trs bien tailles, des chapiteaux de colonnes brises; il y a au milieu de ces ruines une

porte carre avec deux petites de chaque ct. Jy ai copi deux inscriptions graves en lettres
grandes et trs bien formes.
[
158]St_Marie_1846_187 Arzeu: Numerous heaps of ruins, comprising vestiges of temples,
mosaics, aqueducts, &c., extending along the shore, indicate that it must, anciently, have been
the site of a great city; and that the port of Arzeu, so advantageously situated, must have been a
place of vast importance...The Spaniards erected at Arzeu vast magazines for containing corn,
barley, and salt; and these buildings were sufficiently strong to resist the attacks of the Arabs.
They also constructed an extensive quay of freestone, close to which vessels might approach to
take in their cargoes. But after the abandonment of the province by the Spaniards, it once more
fell into the possession of the Arabs; and the latter, with their habitual listlessness and indolence, have not only suffered all these structures to fall to decay, but have also lost the port. At the
end of the quay there is an ancient Roman road, which extends as far as Mascara.
[
159]Desmichels_1835_24 Arzew: le port, et que de vastes magasins, btis prs dun ancien
quai romain, servaient nagure au monopole des grains qui y tait exerc par le bey dOran. /
La ville, situe deux lieues du port, tait peuple de Kabales, originaires de la province de
Riffa (empire de Maroc), qui avaient construit des habitations dans les ruines dune ancienne
cit romaine, dont limportance est atteste par les vestiges dun grand nombre de monuments
quon y dcouvre le long de la mer; je pense que cest l le vritable emplacement de lancienne
Arsenaria.
[
160]St_Marie_1846_188 Arzeu: In the town of Arzeu, nothing is more common than to see
the most miserable Arab huts adorned, externally, with fragments of ancient columns of different orders. On the outside of the town are the remains of a circus, and at the mouth of the Macta,
there is a temple, in tolerably good preservation, which appears to have been dedicated to the
worship of Neptune.
[ ]
161 Pallary 1894, 5.
[
162]Baude_1841_II-146 10 leagues ENE of Oran, Arzeu: Les ruines romaines dont il est couvert attestent la possibilit dy former de grands tablissements. Si lon voulait fonder dans la
province dOran quelque colonie militaire, comme en propose le gnral Bugeaud, la place en
serait marque par le choix des Romains, sur le golfe dArzeu, et lon naurait, pour y btir une
ville, qu relever les dbris de leurs demeures.
[
163]Berbrugger_1863_228, on mosaics at Vieil-Arzeu: Le but est, dabord, de conserver ces
mosaques efficacement et avec conomie, puis de les rendre aussi accessibles que possible aux
tudes des savants, des artistes ou mme la curiosit des simples visiteurs. / Voyons quel est
celui des moyens praticables qui atteint le mieux ce double objet. / Dabord, on peut les conserver sur place ou les transporter ailleurs. / Dans la premire hypothse, il faut lever au-dessus
une coteuse construction, surmonte dun toit, et y attacher un vritable gardien. Car, on a
vu, par la rapide destruction des mosaques de la maison romaine dcouverte en 1848, et par
dautres exemples analogues, ce que ces sortes de monuments deviennent quand on les laisse
exposs laction des mtores et sans une surveillance continuelle exerce sur place. Dailleurs,
dans une situation excentrique comme celle o se trouvent nos mosaques, le nombre des visiteurs serait ncessairement fort restreint. Les savants et, les artistes, cest--dire ceux qui dsireraient le plus les voir, et dont la visite serait le plus fructueuse, ne sont pas gnralement en
tat dfaire de grandes dpenses. Laisser ces mosaques o elles sont aujourdhui, cest donc
simposer de fortes dpenses pour aboutir, en dfinitive, je le rpte, les tenir hors de la porte
de ceux qui ont, prcisment, le plus dintrt les visiter, et qui peuvent le faire avec le plus de
APPENDIX
fruit pour la science et lart en gnral. concludes they should go to Algiers, because Oran does
not have a suitable museum.
[
164]Piesse_1862_301 Arzeu, quoting Colonel de Montfort: Les ruines de Botioua [viz. Old
Arzeu] sont occupes par une fraction du Hamian, demi-nomades qui habitent une grande partie de lanne sous des maisons grossires, formes avec les dbris des anciennes constructions
elles-mmes, dont les terrassements, les votes, les citernes sont utiliss ple-mle avec dinextricables buissons de broussailles et de figuiers de Barbarie. / Dans ces cases, dont la construction remonte une poque recule, entrent des matriaux de toute espce, corniches, fts de
colonnes et pierres sculptes ou couvertes dinscriptions; mais les Arabes, jaloux de leur intrieur et redoutant pour leur tranquillit domestique les visites intresses des curieux ou des
archologues, peut-tre aussi par un sentiment de haine invtre contre le Roumi et les monuments qui se rattachent sa domination, ont eux-mmes mutil, martel et rendu mconnaissables les fragments qui pouvaient offrir quelque intrt, et ils cachent avec soin les dbris qui
peuvent rester leur connaissance, parce quils craignent encore de livrer au Roumi des trsors
imaginaires.
[
165]SHD GR 1M1316 15 Melchior Tiran, Notice sur Oran pendant loccupation espagnole,
15091708 & 17321793 12 January 1847 but nothing on any antiquities.
[
166]SHD GR 1M1316 25 February, 1833, Catereau, G., Capitaine au Corps Royal dtat Major,
Mmoire sur la province dOran. 18: list of ruins. SHD GR 1M1316 5 September 1835, Catereau, G.,
Capitaine au Corps Royal dtat Major, Voyage dans la province dOran. 101ff for demolitions and
new building at Oran under the Turks. 116117 under Matriaux doesnt mention Roman ruins,
so presumably they had all gone. 174ff for description of Tlemcen. 213214 for a list of Roman
towns in the region.
[
167]SHD GR 1M1316 1011 10 October 1837, Question militaire: Lon suppose le fort de Mersel-Kebir attaqu; quel chemin devrait suivre une colonne de 3 Batailles sortie dOran pour couper la retraite aux assigeants? Joindre une leve vue au mmoire raisonn. In this particular
case, the answer includes a column of sketches vues en profile des dfiles et autres objets
remarquables such as a view of the Porte de Mers-el-Kebir at Oran.
[
168]Desmichels_1835_36 Le 25, nous fmes contraints de mouiller dans la rade dArzew.
Voulant utiliser ce contretemps [i.e. they couldnt beach at Mostagenem], je me fis mettre terre
pour aller visiter les travaux qui avaient t excuts depuis notre dpart. Je fus trs-satisfait de
trouver la redoute qui entoure le blockaus trs-avance; le foss et le dblai dnormes maonneries romaines taient presque entirement termins; les logements et les magasins, ainsi que
tous les autres travaux, taient pousss avec la plus grande activit.
[
169]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_12 Oran: Le gnral Grez, commandant militaire de la province dOran, est un homme fort aimable; il maccueille chaleureusement et me fait, avec beaucoup de bienveillance, les honneurs de son palais, ancienne rsidence du bey; cest bien la plus
pure expression du style mauresque civil, associ au gnie stratgique espagnol. Au dedans, les
riches salles, soutenues par des colonnes torses de marbre blanc, sont claires par des fentres
inscrites dans de charmantes ogives; les murailles, ornes de dessins cisels avec un art infini,
communiquent par de larges portiques des jardins suspendus, remplis des fleurs les plus rares;
au dehors, de hautes courtines crneles, des fosss avec glacis embrasures, prsentent un
ensemble de dfenses redoutables, battant la mer ainsi que les divers quartiers de la ville.
[
170]Bernard_1901_265: Oran est une ville trange et daspect singulier. Les Espagnols, qui
lont si longtemps occupe, avaient la maladie de la pierre: ils ont entass les forts les uns sur

les autres, dans Oran, autour dOran, au-dessus dOran; la teinte fauve de ces forts se confond
avec celle des rochers pels qui les supportent et donne au paysage sa note dominante. / Les
habitants dOran ont pour le pass de leur ville une pit touchante, quon ne voit gure ailleurs en Algrie. Pendant quAlger, aprs avoir dtruit la ville indigne, senlaidit tous les jours
et forme le monstrueux projet de dtruire la jolie mosque de la Pcherie, les Oranais, moins
riches en souvenirs et en monuments, sen montrent plus soigneux. Cest ainsi que les amis du
Vieil Oran ont fait restaurer, dans la rue Philippe, lancienne demeure dHassan, marchand
de tabac indigne, devenu bey dOran, en 1812. Et ce souci archologique pourrait bien se trouver en mme temps une heureuse spculation financire; car que viendront voir les touristes
dans les villes algriennes lorsquon leur aura enlev tout ce qui en fait lintrt? Si les Oranais
craient quelques squares de plus, sils mettaient par exemple quelque verdure sur lemplacement rserv la future cathdrale, ils se distingueraient dune manire trs heureuse de leurs
voisins de lEst et ajouteraient beaucoup au charme de leur ville.
[ ]
171 SHD GR1M881 8 Chef de Bataillon Juchault de la Moricire, Relation de lexpdition de
Bougie, Septembre, Octobre et Novembre 1833, for a plan of Bougie and its surrounding forts,
including a Poste des Ruines.
[
172]Leo_Africanus_1896_700 MS completed 1526, Bougie: This auncient citie of Bugia built
(as some thinke) by the Romans, vpon the side of an high mountaine, neere vnto the Mediterran
sea, is enuironed with walles of great height, and most stately in regard of their antiquitie. The
part thereof now peopled containeth aboue eight thousand families: but if it were all replenished with buildings, it were capeable of more then fower and twentie thousand housholds, for it
is of a great length. The houses, temples, and colleges of this citie are most sumptuously built.
[
173]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_24: Bougie occupe lemplacement de la colonie romaine de
Saldae. On y a retrouv des soubassements de murs en pierres de taille, quelques tronons de
colonnes et plusieurs inscriptions latines dont une porte lancien nom de la colonie. / Mais la
vritable grandeur de Bougie date de la priode sarrazine. Vers le milieu du onzime sicle elle
contenait plus de vingt mille maisons, ce qui suppose une population dau moins cent mille
habitants. Au commencement du seizime siecle elle ne comptait plus que huit mille feux, et
par consquent quarante mille habitants.
[
174]Fraud_1877_157158 at Bougie, Sultan El-Mansour, son of En-Nacer: Le prince fil
construire le Chteau Amimoun, le palais de lEtoile, et acheva celui de la Perle commenc
par son pre. En excutant ces diffrents travaux, les ouvriers trouvrent, dans les ruines dune
ancienne glise chrtienne, deux colonnes monolithes dune pierre extrmement rare, et on
assure qu cette nouvelle, le Pape offrit de les acheter pour une somme considrable; mais
El-Mansour refusa de les cder, prfrant les employer lornementation du palais de la Perle.
Tous ceux qui ont vu ces deux colonnes affirment nen connatre de pareilles nulle part dans
lunivers. / La grande mosque royale, situe ct du palais de la Perle, tait un monument des
plus remarquables. Son minaret avait soixante coudes de haut, sur vingt coudes de large la
base. On y entrait par une grande porte quencadraient des plaques de marbre, revtues dinscriptions artistement sculptes. Le vaisseau de la mosque, soutenu par trente-deux colonnes de
marbre, avait 220 coudes de long sur 150 de large. Sa faade tait orne de dix-sept portiques;
une immense coupole la surmontait. Lintrieur tait tout pav de marbre. Autour des murs
latraux, couverts de faences mailles, couraient deux cordons sur lesquels taient gravs des
versets du Koran.
APPENDIX
[
175]Fraud_1877_9697 at Bougie, Sidi Touatis remonstrations to Sultan En-Nacer on his
pride at the magnificence of the city he had built: Le saint marabout fit alors appel lintervention divine, afin de convaincre son matre par une preuve surnaturelle de ce quil prdisait.
Agissant sous linspiration cleste et dou dune illumination soudaine, il te son burnous, le
dploie devant le sultan, lui cachant ainsi la vue de Bougie. A travers ce rideau improvis et
devenu transparent, En-Nacer aperut une ville; mais ce ntait plus la sienne; partout le sol
tait jonch de ruines; les mosques, les palais et les resplendissants difices avaient disparu;
en un mot, ajoute le lgendaire, il vit Bougie des temps modernes ruine et presque inhabite.
La prophtie du marabout sest vrifie. Peut-tre, dira-t-on, a-t-elle t imagine aprs coup
par quelque taleb malicieux; mais o sont, en effet, ces palais couverts de marbre et dmail,
dus la magnificence des princes hammadites? Que sont devenues ces nombreuses mosques
aux minarets lancs, du haut desquels le moudden, appelant les fidles la prire, lanait aux
quatre vents le nom dAllah et du Prophte? Tout a disparu. On cherche en vain leurs vestiges au
milieu dun sol accident, couvert de dbris quenvahissent les ronces.
[
176]Fraud_1877_246 at Bougie: Les Espagnols avaient dj charg, sur une trentaine de
leurs vaisseaux, tout ce quils avaient pris Bougie, soit dans les palais du sultan, soit dans les
mosques de la ville. Ils abattirent le minaret du chteau de la Perle et ruinrent le chteau de
ltoile. Tous les objets de prix que renfermaient ces deux difices, tels que colonnes, marbres,
faences et boiseries sculptes, furent embarques pour tre transportes en Espagne. Mais, ds
leur sortie du port de Bougie, une affreuse tempte assaillit les vaisseaux, et la plupart dentre
eux furent engloutis dans la mer.
[
177]Anon_1785_133134: Etre sorti dAlger nous marchmes pendant quelque temps par
des montagnes & des plaines qui paroissoient assez fertiles, nous arrivmes bientt Bugie ou
Bougie, cette Ville est ancienne & btie par les Romains, il sy trouve de belles mosques & une
citadelle entoure de murailles couvertes dinscriptions trs-curieuses, les maisons ny sont que
dun tage.
[
178]Arvieux_1735_V_239 Bougie: Il y a une grosse source deau, qui tait porte dans la Ville
par des aqueducs qui font prsent ruins; mais quon pourrait rtablir en peu de temps, &
presque sans frais aussi bien que les murailles, & en faire une trs bonne Place. Les pierres sont
sur les lieux, la chaux & le sable y sont aussi.
[
179]Tchihatchef_1880_239 Bougie, Fort Abd-el-Kader: A lentre du fort, on voit des fts de
colonnes romaines en granit servant de support la porte; de mme plusieurs larges pierres
quarries, videmment empruntes des constructions romaines, se trouvent et l emptes
dans les murs de ldifice, et jen ai observ qui offrent des traces, la vrit, indchiffrables
dinscriptions romaines. Le fort Abd-el-Kader na plus aucune valeur militaire, ce nest quun
ornement trs pittoresque de la ville. Non loin du fort, mais plus prs de la mer, se prsentent les
votes assez bien conserves dune ancienne porte sarrazine; elle tait destine fermer la ville
du ct de la mer, le long de laquelle on voit partout les dbris dun ancien mur qui longeait le
versant septentrional du Gouraa.
[
180]SHD MR1319 3 Chef dEscadron Lapne, Tableau historique, militaire, commerciale et
politique de Bougie, 27 pages, undated. 34: Description of Roman and mediaeval monuments
and walls. 5: Depuis autres dmolitions pour avoir des matriaux; en un mot, la precedente
Bougie Kabaile presque disparue sous des ruines. This done partly by the French, vastes
dmolitions au premier temps de loccupation pour pratiquer des rues, des rampes, des pas-

sages. Nouvelles destructions en 1835 pour la construction de lenceinte reduite. 78 for description of this smaller wall. 112 of this report constitute a succinct but detailed building history
of 19th century Bougie.
[ ]
181 SHD MR881 item 1 Notice historique sur Bougie, par le Chef dEscadron, prsident de la
section dhistoire et de gographie anciennes et darchologie. March 1836. 7: after noting the
ruins of the Roman walls, of c.2500 metres in circuit, Dautres constructions mmes considrables quelques unes debout, le plus souvent en ruines, se prsentent aussi chaque pas such as
des colonnes de granit quelques unes fort belles gisant sur le sol, ou transportes ailleurs par les
arabes et figuerant sans doute dans des constructions plus modernes...des traces remarquables
de vastes citernes et daqueducs...dautres colonnes en tronons seulement ainsi que des
chapiteaux, souvent exhums plusieurs pieds de profondeur . 8: une disposition de terrain qui
indique un ancien cirque...plusieurs tombeaux...les murs dun temple Romain dont les fondements reposent sur les constructions plus anciennes. Author draws (very well) some stones
with inscriptions, 4 in all, 2 funerary, one altar, one civil.
[
182]SHD GR 1H 48 Gnie, Place de Bougie, 17 May 1837: Notes sur Bougie remises M. le
Gouverneur Gnral des Possessions franaises dans le Nord de lAfrique par le Chef de Gnie
Boutault, 2: After citing and translating an inscription, Un grand nombre dinscriptions semblables, des colonnes de granit, de vastes citernes, des aqueducs que lon suit la faveur de nos
avant-postes, pendant trois quarts de lieue, et que les indignes assurent se prolonger quatre fois
autant, et tre ports, dans certains points, par des ponts trois tages. Ibid., 3: Si, comme les
Romains, nous voulons tre matres de tous le pays, nous en approprier les ressources en y porter
les arts et la civilisation, Bougie doit tre, comme autrefois, une grande cit...De nombreux
restes de constructions attestent, quautrefois cette plaine etait parseme de maisons rurales; et
que par consquent, elle navait pas, comme prsent, le triste consquence de causer des maladies dangereuses et quelquefois mortelles. 14f for French constructions, including blockhouses,
usually in pierres sches, presumably built from the ruins.
[
183]SHD 1H48 Bougie. Notes sur Bougie remises M. le Gouverneur Gnral des Possessions
franaises dans le Nord de lAfrique par le Chef de Gnie Boutault, 17 March 1837, 18, occupying
only the kasbah: Pour la [this suggestion] favoriser, et enfin pour avoir un rduit dans le cas o
les dbris de la grande muraille viendraient tre force, on traa, en mai 1835, un tranchement qui, partant de la Casbah, couronnant lancienne muraille au dessus du camp infrieur. 24,
summarising: La grande muraille, presquentirement dtruite depuis le camp retranch suprieure, et faiblement protg par la Maison crnele suprieure, le Blockhaus des Ruines, etc
etc...which would require a garrison of 1,500 men.
[
184]SHD Gnie Art 8.1 Bougie carton 1: 18331840, Apostilles du Chef de Gnie sur les articles
douvrages a faire en 1834 pour rtablir lancienne muraille de la Ville, Kasbah upwards. It
had been built up by soldats non maons en pierres sches and hence hopeless. He wants a
rebuild, profiter des fondations de lancienne, the wall to be 8m by 1m thick. Further arguments
in favour of re-establishing the whole of the old enceinte are in the Apostilles du Directeur,
Projets generaux pour 1834, 14.
[
185]Masselot_1865_187 Bougie: Lenceinte romaine, les vestiges de laqueduc de Toudja, les
dbris des immenses et beaux bassins dtruits par la mine pour la construction des fortifications; enfin, ses mille citernes tmoignent du passage de Rome. / Les gigantesques murailles
qui escaladent la montagne du Gouraya et celles en bordures de la mer o se trouve la porte
Sarrazine, montrent la fire cit musulmane baignant ses pieds dans les flots.
APPENDIX
[
186]Fraud_1860_188 writes to Berbrugger: Je suis en course depuis le 31 du mois dernier,
accompagnant le Gnral commandant, dans sa tourne dinspection. Nous avons parcouru une
partie des subdivisions de Stif, de Bne et de Batna, et nous venons enfin darriver Biskara,
do jai lhonneur de vous adresser les quelques notes qui vont suivre.
[
187]Fraud_1877_130131 Saldae/Bougie: Lenceinte de la Saldae carthaginoise ou romaine
tait encore reconnaissable il y a quelques annes...Dans lintrieur de la ville, on voit encore
les vestiges de constructions considrables, tels que temples et cirques; des colonnes de granit,
des chapiteaux, des pierres votives et de vastes citernes qui taient alimentes par les eaux de
la source de Toudja, 21 kilomtres de Bougie. La conduite deau suivait dune manire presque
constante le trac de la route actuelle, dite des crtes. Au col que les indignes nomment
El-Hanaat, les arceaux, on voit les restes dune range darcades sur lesquelles passait laqueduc
romain pour franchir le col; 18 pilastres carrs, en pierres de grand appareil, dont les plus levs
nont pas moins de 15 mtres de hauteur, sont encore debout.
[
188]Ansted_1854_200 Cherchel: The present town occupies but a small part of the space
enclosed even by its modern walls, but the enceinte of the Roman city is still traceable far
beyond the present enclosure.
[
189]SHD MR1317 Bartel, H., Lieutenant, July 1847, Etudes sur lhistoire de la ville de Bougie,
with drawings of funerary altars and other inscriptions, including some from the Spanish period.
[
190]SHD MR1317 Anon, undated, Notes sur la ville de Bougie, 3: Un grand nombre dinscriptions, des colonnes de granit, parmi lesquelles on remarque un monolithe de 4m75 de long,
parfaitement conserv, de vastes citernes, un aqueduc que nos limites ne nous permettent de
suivre que pendant un court espace, mais que les Indignes assurent se prolonger plusieurs
lieues, et tre port dans certains points par des ponts et 3 tages dauges; les ruines dun vaste
temple que lon a dcouvertes en travaillant la place Foucka (aujourdhui place Louis Philippe),
une enceinte fort leve et solidement construite. 1011: Depuis ltablissement des Franais
Bougie, cette ville a, ainsi que nous lavons dj indiqu, perdu de son tendue, et un nombre
considrable de ses maisons, presque toutes les plus belles ou les mieux situes, ont t dmolies soit par lordre du gnie militaire, afin dclairer les maisons de la place, soit par suite de la
rduction de lenceinte, soit enfin par suite de ce penchant la destruction que lon rencontre
chez presque tous nos soldats, mais dun autre ct, des travaux immenses ont t excuts par
nous sur ce point.
[ ]
191 SHD 1317 8387 Ch. Martin, Histoire de la subdivision de Stif et des cercles de Bougie
et Djidjelly 1852, 78 pages. A useful historical summary from Punic times onwards to the French
Occupation.
[
192]St_Marie_1846_200 Bougie: About two thousand men now occupy a barracked camp
on a point suited for the defence of the place, but where water is wanting. The stream whence
the town was formerly supplied is lost among the ruins which choke up the ravines through
which it used to flow. But the French might easily recover it if they would undertake the task
with the zeal and intelligence of the Romans or the ancient Arabs.
[
193]Lieussou_1850_66: La ville de Bougie, place vers le fond de la baie du mme nom,
cheval sur lanse Abdel-Kader, occupe lemplacement de lancienne Saldae. Lhistoire et les vestiges du port romain attestent son antique importance, les dbris de la ville arabe, qui couvrent
un espace immense et remontent vers le Gouraya jusqu une grande hauteur, prouvent une
importance rcente plus grande encore.

[
194]Rozet_and_Carette 1850_102 ports in Algeria: A Cherchel les Romains ont puis dans
la cration dun port artificiel les ressources de leur architecture hydraulique; Alger les Turcs
ont jet dans une entreprise semblable trois cents annes defforts et des milliers desclaves chrtiens; Bougie les Berbres, pendant les six sicles de leur domination, ont profit des dispositions naturelles de leur rade sans chercher les amliorer. / Aujourdhui que voyons-nous? Le
port des Csars, devenu crique de cabotage; le port des Pachas, hritage onreux, dont leurs
successeurs nont pas calcul les charges; le port des mirs berbres demeure, dans 1tat de
nature, le meilleur des trois.
[
195]Mac_Carthy_1858_429 Bougie: La ville moderne occupe peu prs le terrain quembrassait lenceinte romaine, quelle est encore, du reste, loin de remplir. Un systme complet dallignement et de nivellement en a rendu le parcours commode; des communications larges et
faciles conduisent aux principaux points de dfense, la kasba, le fort Mousa, le fort de Sidi Abd
el kader, et une route aise monte par des pentes multiplies au fort du Gouraa, clef imprenable
de cette position quil domine et matrise.
[
196]Hron_de_Villefosse_1875_409 inscriptions at Bougie: Jeus le regret dapprendre quune
autre inscription dcouverte ct de celle-ci avait disparu depuis quelques jours, et que lide
de la copier ntait venue personne. M. le colonel Brunon, a qui javais demand de faire transporter dans les bureaux du gnie celle qui existait encore, ma dit, Constantine, que lofficier
charg de ce soin navait pu en retrouver la trace Bougie. Je me flicite de lavoir copie; mais,
si sa perte est relle, elle nen est pas moins regrettable, et prouve une fois de plus combien
sont inutiles les dcrets et les ordonnances du gouvernement gnral au sujet des antiquits
dcouvertes en Algrie. Tant que les coupables ne seront pas svrement poursuivis, ils continueront leur uvre de destruction; les faits dplorables que jai constats plus tard, notamment
Lambse, sont cependant connus des municipalits qui ne font rien pour les empcher.
[
197]SHD GR 1H 48 Gnie, Place de Bougie, Letter Bougie 24 May 1837, to the General from the
Commandant Suprieur: En fouillant plusieurs parties de la Ville [de Bougie], pour decouvrir
des ruines romaines, on a trouv de trs belles pierres, et des colonnes, qui laisses sans dstination, diminuent tous les jours, parce que, malgr les ordres donns, chacun en fait enlever pour
des rparations de proprits particulires. Je viens den fair rassembler une partie sur la Place
Royale, que je viens driger...Je voudrais consacrer ces pierres et cette colonne, lembellissement de la Place, o la projet est aussi de faire venir les eaux. Le monument se composerait de
la colonne circulaire et dune belle dimension, de son pidestal, quadrilataire de quatre m. des
cts, et parfaite dune grande cuvette circulaire, pour recevoir leau. Tout cela sera un travail peu
dispendieux, puisque nous avons tous les matriaux, les ouvriers dart, et les corves ncssaires.
[
198]Blanchet_1908_4 the Kalaa: Great Mosque, courtyard: au nord des colonnes plantes
mme le sol, sans interposition de bases; au sud, vers le sanctuaire, des colonnes doubles sur un
socle de maonnerie. Ces colonnes, seules dpouilles, semble-t-il, du bourg romain de Hodna,
sont en marbre rose, la toiture quelles supportaient tait couverte de tuiles mailles en vert.
[
199]Blanchet_1908_3: La Kalaa prsente donc un trs grand intrt pour nous, et cet intrt
serait bien plus grand encore si, aprs que El Mansour leut abandonne, elle navait t dpouille par ses successeurs El Asiz et Yahia des objets de valeur, marbres, chapiteaux, colonnes, etc.,
qui sy trouvaient encore. Cependant les dmolisseurs nont pas tout emport, cela leur tait
impossible; et ces ruines, abandonne depuis si longtemps, et dont les dbris nont pas servi
rebtir une cit nouvelle, doivent contenir encore, sinon des monuments complets, du moins
des fragments fort intressants.
APPENDIX
[
200]Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1897_11_June: Curieuse Dcouverte: M. Blanchet, ancien
lve de lEcole Normale, vient de faire, dans la province de Constantine, une dcouverte des
plus intressantes. Avec le concours de la Socit archologique de Constantine, il est parvenu
ramener au jour la ville musulmane qui fut, au onzime sicle, la capitale de lAfrique du Nord:
la Kalaa des Beni-Hammad. / Cette ville, qui compta plus de 80.000 habitants, est aujourdhui
couverte de moissons; il faut pour latteindre, chevaucher sept heures dans la montagne.
De nombreux archologues avaient pass quelques kilomtres sans en souponner lexistence.
M. Blanchet, mieux avis ou plus heureux, a eu la bonne fortune d retrouver cette ville, o lon a
dj exhum une mosque de 65 mtres sur 55, couverte dmaux verts et soutenue de colonnes
de marbre rose; un palais, une fontaine publique, un chteau firement camp au sommet dun
rocher et flanqu de tours dont la moins ruine mesure plus de 14 mtres de hauteur. / Ces
dcouvertes sont dautant plus intressantes quil nexiste en Algrie aucune ruine musulmane
datant de cette poque. / Les monuments de Tlemcen ont t btis au douzime sicle; ceux de
Kalaa datent de 1007; cest donc tout un chapitre nouveau de lhistoire de lart qui nous est rvl
par les dcouvertes de M. Blanchet.
[
201]Robert_1903B_225 La Kalaa et Tihamamine,: Palais du Gouverment: Des pierres de
grand appareil, huit colonnes de trente-trois centimtres de diamtre et de deux mtres environ de longueur, jonchent le sol et attestent de limportance du monument. Voici, du reste, les
dimensions du palais: la faade avait cinquante-deux mtres de long et, au centre, une entre
large de deux mtres cinquante centimtres; droite et gauche de cette porte existent dix
baies (cinq de chaque ct), ayant un mtre soixante de large. Nous pensons que ces baies
devaient constituer les ouvertures des arcades du monument.
[
202]Fagnan_1900_101 the Kalaa: Du nombre tait celui dit Dar el-Bahr, au centre duquel
tait un vaste bassin o avaient lieu des joutes nautiques et o la quantit considrable de
liquide ncessaire tait amene de fort loin. Ce palais, qui dominait un cours deau important,
tait orn de marbre et garni de colonnes, de manire prsenter un ensemble au-dessus de
toute description. Il renfermait encore dans son enceinte dautres palais et constructions remarquables. Dans la ville il y a aussi de curieux restes de monuments anciens.
[
203]Robert_1903B_231232 La Kalaa: Lintrieur de la ville est couvert de traces de murs,
damas considrables de pierres lailles ou brutes, de tuiles, briques, carreaux, dbris de poterie. /
Cette grande quantit de matriaux dans cette immense enceinte dnote bien que la nouvelle
capitale des Sanhadja tait une ville des plus importantes et des plus prospres: ctait une
ville riche, populeuse, remplie de beaux difices et dhabitations de toute espce. / La grandeur
de la Kala fut exalte par de nombreux auteurs arabes et limagination des indignes actuels les
fait renchrir naturellement sur les diverses descriptions de la ville berbre. Un certain nombre
de lgendes leur a t transmis par la tradition, et ces lgendes sont fort souvent amplifies par
les conteurs modernes. Nous en avons recueilli une qui nous parat mriter dtre publie: Une
femme de la Kaia des Beni-Hammad avait un fils, ouvrier tailleur de pierres qui, vu ses aptitudes spciales, avait t charg par le sultan de cette ville daller choisir et de rapporter la Kala
les pierres tailles des ruines de la ville romaine de Lemellef (prs de Crez-Madid). Constatant
que les expditions de ces matriaux ne seffectuaient pas assez rapidement, le sultan adjoignit
au tailleur de pierres une quantit considrable de travailleurs qui, lun cot de lautre, formaient une longue chane de Dr-Chih prs des ruines de Lemellef (Crez) la Kala. Cette
chane, longue de plus de trente-cinq kilomtres, tait si bien organise, les travailleurs taient
si nombreux, quun pain chaud envoy par la mre du tailleur de pierres, de la Kala Dr-Chih,

tait parvenu destination sans tre refroidit / En dehors des exagrations des indignes, il est
juste de reconnatre quune localit ayant un mur denceinte de cinq mille deux cent cinquante
mtres, une superficie de cent quarante hectares, trois ponts, trois portes et des monuments tels
que la Tour, le Palais du gouvernement, le palais du Fanal, etc., tait une ville dune importance
remarquable.
[
204]Good page at http://www.piedsnoirs-aujourdhui.com/guelma.html: Le 8 Novembre
1836, larme franaise, forte de 10 000 hommes, quittait Bne, se dirigeant sur Constantine/ La
colonne en marche force arriva le 10 novembre dans le Ghelma des arabes, qui ntait quun
amas de ruines et de dcombres antiques sur lesquels de tristes et rares gourbis se dissminaient a et la entours de leurs ordinaires immondices Ces ruines antiques, taient les restes de
loccupation romaine, les tmoins indniables dune poque de splendeurs et de richesses que
vivaient, il y a dix huit sicles, les habitants de Guelma, autrefois Calama; Quand loccupation de
Guelma fut dcide de prfrence a celle de Medjez-Amar, on leva dabord des btiments permanents. Le gnral Duvivier fut croyons nous le premier commandant suprieur de Guelma.
Cest lui qui fit ouvrir le chemin Duvivier qui gravissait les collines au sud pour ouvrir la route
la plus courte sur Medjez Amar alors prfr a Guelma. En 1843 seulement on commenait
soccuper de lenceinte du rduit de Guelma, alors appel camps. En 1844, on dressait le plan
relatif aux travaux de dfense de Guelma, et aux alignements de la ville. En 1844 et 1845 le gnie
construisait le pont sur la Seybouse et le trace actuel de la route de Bne, (qui nest autre que la
voie romaine). Le 20 Janvier 1845 par arrt du ministre de la guerre, cration annexe au camp,
dun centre europen de 250 familles, avec un terrain de 1 000 a 1 500 hectares. Contre les fortifications du quartier militaire on a rassembl en un muse en plein vent la plupart des dbris
de loccupation romaine qui ont eu la bonne fortune dchapper au vandalisme des successeurs
des matres du monde.
[
205]Correch_1837_117: Il reste Guelma de nombreuses ruines de constructions romaines ,
et notamment lenceinte de lancienne citadelle est assez bien conserve pour permettre dy tablir en toute sret, contre les Arabes, un poste militaire. Je profitai de cette facilit pour y laisser,
sous une garde convenable, environ 200 hommes que la route que nous avions parcourue avait
dj fatigus, et qui nauraient pu suivre jusqu Constantine. Ibid. 102: les lignes qui suivent,
et qui ont pour auteurs des officiers du gnie et de lartillerie qui ont fait partie de lexpdition,
quel degr, destime et quelle haute considration larme i.e. author calls them documents
authentiques, but doesnt name their authors.
[
206]Orlans_1870_204 Duc dOrlans in Africa 18359, Guelma: stait plusieurs fois rebtie
avec des ruines antrieures; mais elle avait pri sans retour sous le fer des musulmans, et elle
ne prsentait plus aux Franais quun chaos de dbris romains, renferms dans les restes encore
bien marqus dune enceinte flanque de tours, et construite avec dnormes pierres de taille
superposes sans mortier.
[
207]Correch_1837_104 Guelma: La Seybouse, grossie par les pluies, ne permettait pas aux
hommes de la traverser; le bivouac fut tabli de ce ct-ci, sur la rive gauche. Aussitt notre parc
ferm, le colonel Tournemine nous emmena avec lui pour visiter les ruines. Nous traversmes
la Seybouse avec nos chevaux qui avaient de leau jusquau ventre, et nous fmes en un quart
dheure au milieu des ruines dune ville romaine immense; toutes les pierres sont l, il ny aurait
qu les runir; un cirque dune tendue considrable subsiste encore en grande partie; dbris
de colonnes, inscriptions de toute espce: il y avait l de la pture pour les archologues et les
dessinateurs. Again, cited by the author from an unnamed officer.
APPENDIX
[
208]SHD Gnie, 1H400: Affaires generales, expeditions et reconnaissances. Lettre M. le
Commandant Maumet sur la 1re Expdition de Constantine, 1 December 1836.
[
209]Decker_1844_I_180181 Guelma: Verfolgung Mitten in den Ruinen von Calama stand
eine verworrene alte Ringmauer in Form eines lnglichen Vierecks die erst lange nach der
Katastrophe durch die zusammengetragen worden war Hier placirte Duvivier sein schwaches
Bataillon um wenigstens vorlufigen Schutz zu haben Er liefs die Mauer um Doppelte erhhen
bis sie sturmfrei war. Dies gab die fr die brigen Arbeiten ab welche mit bewundernswrdiger
Thtigkeit vorschritten so dafs Guelma in kurzer in einen haltbaren Posten verwandelt ward.
Das umherliegende rmische Steingerlle kam dabei gut zu Statten. Die Soldaten schleppten
die Ueberreste der schnsten Granitsulen und Tempelpfeiler von Porphyr mit echt soldatesker
Schadenfreude die in der Zerstrung einen Genuss findet zusammen. Auch Spekulanten griffen
fleissig zu und bald entstanden neben dem eigentlichen Lager Kramlden Kaffeehuser und
andere ntzliche Erholungsanstalten wobei Franzosen und Maltheser sich in Gewandtheit und
Industrie berboten. Die Lebensmittel fr die Truppen kamen von Bona und die Verpflegung
gewann durch regelmssig abgesendete Konvoiseine geordnete Form.
[
210]Wagner_1841_I_294_295: Ghelma ist fast in der Mitte des grossen Thaies, auf dem
Abhnge des ersten Hhenaufwurfs der Gebirgskette Mauna gelegen. Es stehen dort die Ruinen
der alten Calama, sehr imposante Reste, die eine Strecke Landes von einer Dreiviertelmeile im
Umkreise bedecken. Einer Sage zufolge, die durch mehrere Umstnde bestrkt wird, ist diese
Rrnerstadt durch ein Erbbeben zerstrt worden. In der Mitte des Trmmerchaos steht das
franzsische Lager, das viel fester als alle brigen gebaut ist, da es an Material dort nicht gebricht.
Es wurde whrend des unheilvollen Rckzuges der franzsischen Armee von Constantine
unter Clauzel besetzt und war gleich anfangs ein Lazareth der Kranken, wie der todtmden
Nachzgler. Die Trmmer eines geschlagenen Heeres hatten ein Asyl von den Trmmern der
alten Numidierstadt verlangt. An der gleichen Stelle sah Aulus Posthumius vor Jahrtausenden
seine Legionen unter Jugurthas Streichen verbluten...Inmitten der Ruinen stand eine aus den
Steinen der alten Gebude mehr aufgehufte als aufgebaute, lnglichviereckige Ringmauer,
welche offenbar lange nach der Zerstrung der Stadt von irgend einem neuen Eroberer, den
Vandalen oder Sarazenen, als eine Verschanz ung errichtet worden. Obrist Duvivier quartirte
sich mit seinen Truppen innerhalb dieser Mauer ein, besserte diese aus und erhhte sie um
das Doppelte, so dass sie ohne Kanonen oder Sturmleitern nicht zu erklimmen war. Man fhrte seinen ausgehungerten Truppen bald Lebensmittel aus Bona zu und nach einigen Wochen
wurden regelmssige Verbindungen errichtet und alle vierzehn Tage ging ein Convoi ab, die
Garnison mit dem Notwendigsten zu versehen.
[ ]
211 Morell_1854_455 Guelma: We shall now proceed to notice the most remarkable ruins
of Kalama. The large fortified enclosure is undoubtedly the largest and the best-preserved ruin,
and we shall attend to it first. / A glance shows the date of its erection. The walls are composed of
heterogeneous materials, presenting a confused heap of marble and stone, votive and tumular
ornaments, often upside down, fragments of bas-reliefs, statues, and even domestic utensils.
Such walls can only have been raised in times of confusion and barbarism. The foundation is no
doubt more ancient, but nothing above ground can date higher than Belisarius; for the Vandal
Genseric, before the arrival of the lieutenant of Justinian, had dismantled all the African cities,
save Carthage, the chief seat of his empire.
[
212]SHD Gnie, 1H400: Affaires gnrales, expditions et reconnaissances, note on the
Expdition de Constantine to the Minister of War, January 1837.

[
213]SHD Gnie 8.1, Guelma, Carton 1, 183747: Capitaine Niel, Reconnaissances du Camp
de Guelma, prefers Drean to Guelma, because Il eut donc bien mieux valu stablir sur la route
mme que daller chercher au loin des ruines qui dailleurs sont difficiles dfendre cause de
limmense carrire qui est auprs et des tas de pierres derrire lesquels on peut sembusquer
demi porte de fusil. From another account by Niel in the same carton, we learn that the
ground at Guelma was covered to a depth of some 1m50 by des dbris de colonnes en marbre
rouge, des chapiteaux et dnormes pierres de taille qui appartenaient sans doute des monuments publics. His account includes sketches of Roman inscriptions, a close-up sketch of the
walls at the corner towers, a plan of the area, and a view of the late antique enceinte which
shows it substantially intact. All these sketches and plans, and the subsequent plans contained
in the proposals for amending the fortifications put forward in successive years by the Engineers,
are of great historical interest, since much of what they represent has subsequently been obliterated by the French occupation.
[
214]SHD Gnie 8.1 Constantine carton 1 183640. Duvivier reporting on travel to Constantine,
Sur les moyens demployer pour maintenir la communication avec Constantine 26 March 1838,
12: he flagged at Announa on trouve des pierres de taille en quantit considrable, une source
excellente est ct. On pouvait donc y crer facilement un bon poste militaire...Relever le fort
romain situ 3700 mtres de Guelma, lorganiser pour recevoir une garnison de 40 hommes,
avec une piece de canon affut marin sur sa plate forme.
[
215]Bapst_1909_I_283 Canrobert at Guelma in 1837: nous campmes Guelma, o tait un
camp command par le colonel Duvivier. Tout autour se trouvaient des ruines superbes, entre
autres celles dun thtre romain presque intact. / Duvivier tait un officier de mrite sil en fut.
Autant il tait brave et actif la guerre, autant il sadonnait avec got la science...Durant
son sjour lcole du gnie de Metz, aprs sa sortie de lcole polytechnique, il passait ses
nuits travailler, et, dans la suite, il publia plusieurs traits dpigraphie romaine...Il simposait
autant par son caractre asctique que par lnergie qui se refltait dans toute sa personne, et
il frappait beaucoup limagination des soldats et surtout celle des jeunes officiers. Il fut un des
premiers de larme franaise parler couramment larabe. Mais il tait quelque peu braque et
trop convaincu de sa supriorit. Il tait sans cesse habill larabe. Il avait trouv le moyen,
durant son commandement Guelma, de faire des fouilles et de dcouvrir des inscriptions trs
intressantes.
[
216]Pulszky_1854_8990 Guelma: The French camp is of solid structure, the building
materials being at hand....Marshal Clauzel left Colonel Duvivier with one battalion among the
ruins, and this talented energetic officer willingly undertook the task, to erect here in the wilderness a place of arms, impregnable to Arabs, with a handful of soldiers, weakened and dispirited
by sickness and reverses, without resources, without tents for shelter against the rain, or any
sufficient supply of food. An elongated quadrangular wall was still standing amidst the ruins,
evidently heaped up from the scattered remains of the destroyed city, by some new invader, the
Numidian or the Arab, as a means of defence. Colonel Duvivier quartered his troops inside this
wall; he had it repaired and raised to double the height; and constructed rough barracks from
the ruins.
[
217]Suchet_1840_225 Guelma; elle est entoure de murs flanqus de treize tours carres:
ces murs, depuis peu prs la moiti de leur hauteur, qui est de dix douze mtres, ont t videmment reconstruits par les Romains, lorsquils se rendirent de nouveau matres de lAfrique,
sous le commandement de Blisaire. Cette mme enceinte est toujours la ville militaire; larme
APPENDIX
franaise loccupe, et y fait btir, avec les dbris de cette citadelle romaine, un hpital militaire
et des casernes...Singulire vicissitude des choses humaines!
[
218]Watbled_1870_467468: On se rappelle quau retour de la premire expdition de
Constantine, le marchal Clauzel avait dcid loccupation permanente de Guelma. Cette mission, confie au brave Duvivier, tait pleine de difficults; car la force de ce poste, tabli parmi
les ruines, ne pouvait tre un obstacle srieux aux incursions dAhmed-Bey du ct de Bne, qu
la condition de maintenir notre influence sur les tribus voisines jusqu Ras-el-Akba. Lnergie,
le courage et lexprience militaire du colonel Duvivier furent la hauteur de cette mission. Il
avait relev ls murailles de lancienne ville romaine et sy tait mis labri d toute attaqu de
la part ds Arabes. Un hpital, une manutention, des magasins et quelques casernes avaient t
leves en maonnerie. Les ruines fournirent pour ces constructions des matriaux peu altrs
dans leur forme et prts tre remis en oeuvre. On dcouvrit des carrires de chaux et de pltre
dans le voisinage de la ville. Un ancien puits fut dblay et donna de leau potable. Enfin, on avait
dtourn le courant dune source abondante, sise un quart de lieue, et on lavait amen dans
lintrieur de lenceinte.
[
219]Devoisins_1840_118119: on entre Guelma, en passant dabord devant lamphithtre,
puis en suivant des sentiers bords de pierres tailles formant encore le pourtour des habitations auxquelles elles appartenaient. / Une fois entr Guelma, lexception dun norme morceau de construction que lon suppose avoir t un temple, et qui conserve quantits darceaux
et de votes suspendues dans lair, toutes les pierres qui assurment remplissaient le terrain
du dsordre de leurs boulements, ont t depuis longtemps employes former les murailles
denceintes qui existaient notre arrive. Cest autour de ces murs, que nous exhaussmes avec
de semblables matriaux, quil faut dcouvrir toutes les inscriptions que contiennent les dbris
de cette ville, tous ses souvenirs crits.
[
220]Pulszky_1854_9091 (Wagner joint author some of his 1841 volume incorporated)
Guelma in 1841: I often met with soldiers occupied in breaking inscriptions, or hammering
away bas-reliefs, in order to fit the stone easier into a well, and it was in vain to repeat our complaints to Colonel Duvivier, when we partook of his coffee in the barracks. He complained of the
destructiveness of his soldiers, who did not comply with his orders; but he declared that there
was no remedy. He said, an old stone does not require so much time for fitting, as a new one
to be brought from the quarry; and whoever is acquainted with the endless toils of the African
soldier, will, after all, find it natural, if he has no antiquarian scruples against saving labour to
deter him from destroying ancient inscriptions. Duviviers remarks were quite natural, and he
had probably the same feelings as his soldiers. It was no enthusiasm for a new French-African
empire, but ambition which prompted him to exert his energies to the utmost, and this ambition
was not that of extending civilization into the countries of Barbary, but the desire of becoming
general, with the marshals baton in prospect. When he founded the camp of Ghelma, he did
not care for the interest of antiquarians or of scientific societies; but his sole aim was to raise
without delay a place of arms which might keep Ahmet Bey in check. Provided that the soldiers
raised the necessary fortifications and barracks in the shortest time, they might have destroyed
all the seven wonders of antiquity. / But we must confess that this camp was most picturesque.
The houses, hospitals, stables, shops, and inns, built of the most different stones, of polished porphyry, marble, basalt, and fragments of temple-columns, interspersed with antique Roman and
modern French inscriptions, had something uncommon, surrounded as they were by ancient
ruins and African vegetation.

[
221]Bequet_1848_431432 Guelma: En 1836, le marchal Clausel, ramenant larme expditionnaire de Constantine, lui fit prendre un chemin diffrent de celui quelle avait suivi; ce qui
la conduisit Guelma. La multiplicit et la grandeur des ruines qui jonchaient le sol attirrent
son attention sur cette position; il en reconnut de suite limportance, et avec cet instinct suprieur dont il tait dou, mme au milieu des embarras dune retraite, il prescrivit loccupation
dfinitive et immdiate. / Depuis ce temps Guelma est devenu le chef-lieu dune subdivision, et
un centre de population, qui ne peut que sagrandir; des travaux considrables ont t excuts
ou sont continus par les soins du gnie militaire; les colons ont lev des constructions dj
importantes; malheureusement la route qui doit relier Bne Guelma, et qui est indispensable
la prosprit de cette localit, est peine trace. Population, 959 individus.
[
222]Morell_1854_239240 Guelma: The amount of the civil population of Guelma in
December 1849 was 1399 souls. / It contains one street of considerable length; the houses built
chiefly of massive Roman remains turned up on the spot, and therefore not quite so likely to be
tumbled down by the first slight earthquake or violent rains, as most of the pasteboard settlements of the colonists. Building was actively going on there (1847), notwithstanding the financial crisis of the colony, money fetching 20 and even 30 per cent at Guelma in 1846. The original
plan drawn for this French post is based on a population of 7000 souls. In 1842 there were 92
inhabitants; in 1843, 108; and at the end of 1844, 317.
[
223]Hebenstreit_1830_59 travelling 1732, near Guelma: A quelques lieues de cet endroit
[Tifferech], il y avait des antiquits assez curieuses que nous rsolmes de visiter. Nous y allmes
par une route bien pave qui est celle de Tunis Constantine, sans doute cest un ouvrage
des anciens temps; car depuis que les barbares ont chass les anciens habitans du pays, ils ne
soccupent nullement de lentretien des chemins. Nous fumes saisis dune admiration difficile
dcrire, en apercevant les tristes dbris dune trs grande ville ancienne; nous vmes de superbes
portiques bien aligns, des colonnes de marbre, des palais et des murs encore debout. Ils taient
en grosses pierres de taille, et navaient pu tre dtruits ni par les guerres multiplies, ni par le
temps. Nous lmes aussi un grand nombre dinscriptions tumulaires qui noffraient rien de particulier mais on les reconnaissait aisment pour romaines la belle forme des caractres. Ce qui
attira surtout notre attention fut un amphithtre assez long qui pouvait avoir cent cinquante
pas de diamtre, et dont toutes les parties faisaient connatre quil avait servi aux spectacles des
Romains. On reconnaissait les endroits o lon renfermait les animaux qui taient destins aux
combats, et les siges disposs en demi-cercle. Il y avait encore dix rangs intacts. Je cherchai vainement une inscription qui put me donner quelque renseignement sur cette ville. Les Maures
appellent ce lieu Hamessa; il est une journe et demie de Tunis.
[
224]Wagner_1841_I_299300 Guelma: War die Errichtung des heutigen Lagers ein beklagenswerter Fall fr den Alterthmler und seine Wissenschaft, so fand hingegen der Maler einigen Ersatz. Es ist wahr, viele gebrochene Colonnaden, die jetzt in die Mauern eingefgt sind,
standen im October 1836 noch aufrecht, manche ziemlich gut erhaltene Gebude sind seitdem
zum Gerippe geworden. Dagegen erstanden inmitten dieses gewaltigen antiken Trmmerchaos
die wunderlichsten Neubauten, deren beiderseitige Vermischung einen wohl einzigen Coutrast
zeigt. Ich habe die Grsse des lnglichviereckigen Lagers nicht gemessen, glaube aber, dass solches ber eine Viertelstunde im Umfang hat. Es gleicht eigentlich mehr einem Dorf oder gar afrikanischen Stdtchen, denn die neuen steinernen Krmerbuden, Kaffeehuser u. s. w., an welche
die Magazine, Krankensle, Stlle des Militairetablissements sich anreihen, sind in regelmssiger Linie gebaut und bilden frmliche Strassen. Alle diese Huser sind aus den verschieden-
APPENDIX
sten, zuweilen prachtvollsten Steinarten, wie aus geschliffenem Granit, Marmor, Basalt oder
aus Fragmenten von Tempelsulen, aus viereckigen Platten des Amphitheaters, des Circus u. s.
w. zusammengeflickt. Darunter sind lateinische und franzsische Inschriften eingestreut. Und
whrend der emsige Archolog vor Eifer schwitzend einen Zusammenhang der verwitterten
Buchstaben herauszubringen sucht, und oft am Gelingen verzweifelnd sich verdriesslfth wegwendet, strahlen ihm gleich darneben funkelneue goldene Buchstaben ins Auge, verknden,
dass in diesem Kaffeehaus Limonade gaxeuse und Billard a son service seyen. Bis zum Billard
hatte es das alte Ghelma nach neun Monaten schon in der modernen Civilisation gebracht.
[
225]Wagner_1841_I_295296 At Guelma: Bald siedelten sich Speculanten, Franzosen und
Malteser zu Ghelma an, bauten innerhalb des Lagers Kaffeehuser, Cantinen, Kramermagazine,
alles wieder auf Kosten der ehrwrdigen Ruinen. Trmmer von Granitsulen, porphyrne
Tempelpfeiler wurden zur Kellerwand oder zum Pflaster einer rucherigen Kneipe. Vor dem
Eingange dieser Cabarets prangte ein Schild: Ici on donne boire et manger, und dicht daneben oft sagte eine dreiviertel verstmmelte lateinische Inschrift unter den Wandsteinen, dass
das Grabmonument irgend eines edlen Rmers, eines Proconsuls, eines Legionenfhrers der
Marketenderdevise nchster Nachbar geworden war. Eine solche Entweihung der Reliquien
jener dassischen Welteroberer, welche der Araber, wenn nicht aus Achtung, doch aus Faulheit
lange geschont hat, befremdet und entrstet von einem Volk, das so viel Civilisation im Munde
fhrt, und erinnert an den Vandalenschimpf, den ihnen der deutsche Dichter zugeschleudert.
Es liegt in dem franzsischen Volk, aber unendlich mehr noch in der franzsischen Armee und
dem ganzen Tross, der ihr anhngt, ein unleugbarer Zerstrungsgeist, der stocktaub sich zeigte
gegen alle strenge Befehle erleuchteter Generale, gegen alles Mahnen und Bemhen gebildeter Subalternofficiere, welche diesem Geist nie Einhalt zu thun vermochten. So wie bei Algier
viele schne Orangenbume in der ersten Zeit der Occupation umgehauen wurden, um als
Brennmaterial zu dienen, so wie nach der Einnahme von Tlemsan zu demselben Zweck die
Balken von den Husern ausgerissen wurden, was spter den Einsturz ganzer Strassen verursachte, so wie man im Deygarten, im Palast Abd-el-Kaders zu Maskara, in den maurischen
Landhusern bei Mustapha-Pascha zerstrend hauste, so noch viel gewissenlos-vandalischer
ging man mit Calamas Resten um, so noch viel verderblicher war dort das Hausen indolenter
Soldaten und bauschtiger Marketender.
[
226]Ballu_1911_95 Guelma: M. Joly, ayant obtenu de lautorit militaire lautorisation de
fouiller le sol de la cour de la caserne, a dcouvert une longue bande en mosaque de marbre
dessins gomtriques, avec inscriptions dans le dallage; lextrmit de la bande, le pavage,
faisant retour, reprsente des ornements en feuillages, des rinceaux et un joli chrisme entour
dune couronne: entre les lettres symboliques on voit des Heurs se dtachant sur fond blanc.
[
227]Poujoulat_1847_I_306 Guelma: Nous avons cit plus haut lamphithtre de Calame
comme le point do lil dcouvre les plus charmantes perspectives. Cet amphithtre, rest
victorieux du temps et des rvolutions, mais qui a souffert des premiers besoins de notre tablissement Ghelma, me rappelle un ct curieux des murs des vieux chrtiens de lAfrique.
[
228]Gastineau_1865_89: Avant dentrer Guelma, je visitai un cirque romain [he means
the amphitheatre] ses portes, le plus entier que jaie vue en Algrie. Presque toutes les assises
sont intactes, ainsi que ses gradins, les tribunes rserves du proconsul et les deux fosses dans
lesquelles les belluaires renfermaient les lions, les panthres, qui luttaient avec les gladiateurs.
Le thtre est entier; il ne manque ces magnifiques vestiges que le spectacle et les spectateurs. / Les ruines romaines abondent Guelma, elles sont si communes que, mprisant lanti-

quit comme de vrais Yankees, le gnie et les habitants les ont utilises pour lever maisons et
btiments de ltat. Je me suis souvent distrait, dans la cour ou dans la chambre de la maison
o jtais log, dchiffrer des inscriptions latines presque effaces sur les murs, mmentos en
pierre, propres nous rappeler le nant de la vie, et remplaant avantageusement les longs sermons sur la vanit des choses humaines.
[
229]Blakesley_1859_351: The town of Guelma is entirely modern. When the French arrived
there in 1836, nothing whatever existed but some of the ruins of the ancient Calama; and
these were made use of for the purpose of constructing a fortified position, to serve as a military hospital and a depot of stores for the operations against Constantine. Of course whatever
building materials came to hand were seized without scruple, and no doubt the old Roman
remains suffered much. There is still however to be seen what appears to have been an edifice
containing public baths, and the walls of a theatre, besides several traces of ancient substructions in different parts of the town, and what looks like the foundation of the cella of a temple.
The theatre is the most interesting relic, as exemplifying the tact of the ancients in the selection
of a site.
[
230]Une excursion scientifique dans la province de Constantine en 1880. Relation par MM.
Doumet-Adanson et Lon Gautier. No publication details on Gallica copy. 8789 Guelma: Une
promenade de nuit jusqu la gare nous permet dexaminer sur la place principale, la lueur du
gaz (car Guelma est clair au gaz!), des pierres de moulins romains, montes sur des pidestaux, ce qui ne laisse pas que dintriguer beaucoup...Nous rentrons dans lenceinte fortifie de
la ville, qui, comme beaucoup de celles construites depuis loccupation, est entoure de murs
avec des meurtrires, de faon pouvoir sy enfermer et sy dfendre en cas dattaque. Une mosque qui na rien de bien remarquable soffre nos regards; lun de nous en fait un croquis rapide.
[
231]Bonnafont_1883_202 in Algeria 18301842: une heure nous entrmes dans les murs de
Guelma. Je dis nous entrmes, car la vieille enceinte est encore bien conserve; on ne peut pntrer dans lintrieur que par les anciennes portes et quelques brches que le temps y a produites.
[
232]LAvenir de Guelma 31 December 1896. Nous attirons lattention de ladministration
comptente sur ltat dplorable dans lequel se trouvent les ruines du Cirque Romain, souvenir
antique que voudraient bien possder nombre de villes, qui apporteraient sa conservation
un soin jaloux. Pourquoi donc ne pas entourer ces ruines dune barrire afin dempcher leur
disparition bref dlai. En effet, nous avons pu constater avec peine ces jours derniers quon
avait dj enlev des pierres de taille et fait des brches dans les murs qui restent. Que cet acte
de vandalisme ne se renouvelle donc plus, ce serait un crime que de laisser dtruire ces vieux
restes romains.
[
233]Bernard_1901_275: Tlemcen, capitale du Maghreb central, fut glorieuse sous les
Almoravides, les Almohades et surtout sous les Beni-Zeiyan, aux XIIIeXIVe sicles. Cest la seule
ville de lAlgrie qui ait de vrais monuments arabes dun rel intrt architectural, car Alger,
mme avant quelle et t dtruite par le vandalisme de ses habitants, tait une ville turque.
Seuls les monuments de Tlemcen sont parfois comparables aux beaux difices de lEspagne et
du Caire. Mais ce sont surtout les souvenirs historiques qui sy rattachent et leur situation pittoresque qui en font le prix aux yeux du visiteur.
[
234]SHD GR1M881 7 Commandant Marey, Aperu de lhistoire de la Rgence dAlger, depuis
la Conqute jusquen 1834, 9 April 1834. 32 Tlemcen: une enceinte carre, de hauts murs en partie ruins...beaucoup de fontaines de bonne eau sont dans la ville et les environs. 48 rsum,
after dealing with Arzew and Mostaganem: les chefs des Arabes malgr le nombre immense de
APPENDIX
leurs combattans ne peuvent semparer daucune place et par suite tablir leur autorit. Marey
makes a Plan approximatif de Tlemsen daprs les renseignements des Arabes, and the only
building shown in the Mchouar is a Maison de marbre with a fountain in the middle and this
is not the Beys palace.
[
235]La_Tafna_1887_13_April, La ville de Tlemcen, elle seule, renferme plus de richesses
archologiques que toutes les autres villes de lAlgrie runies. Nous sommes fiers de constater
ce fait qui ne pourra manquer, une fois la ligne ferre acheve, dattirer dans notre belle rgion
une foule de visiteurs trangers.
[
236]Pimodan_1903_97: Lors de notre venue Tlemcen, lancienne enceinte royale nentourait plus quun amas de btiments disparates, dont le gnie militaire rsolut la destruction.
Plusieurs belles mosaques et dautres vestiges dun moindre intrt, dcouverts parmi les
dcombres, ont t conservs et remis au service des Monuments Historiques.
[
237]Lombay_1893_303 Tlemcen, Mansourah: Dans la campagne de Tlemcen les ruines
abondent. Presque toutes sont des restes danciennes murailles en pierres de taille qui servaient
denceinte la ville au moyen-ge. Elles sont formes dnormes blocs cubiques superposs et
portent bien le cachet de cette poque barbare o la force seule tait tenue en honneur.
[
238]Revue Africaine III 1861, 148 Tlemcen: M. Ch. Brosselard, membre correspondant, fait
connatre la Socit que de nouvelles fouilles ont t pratiques rcemment, sous sa direction,
dans lenceinte de la Grande-Mosque en ruines dEl-Mansoura. Ces fouilles circonscrites sur
une superficie denviron cent mtres, dans une partie du monument qui avait t jusquici moins
explore que les autres, et pousses un mtre et demi de profondeur pour atteindre le niveau
de lancien sol, ont amen la dcouverte: 1 de cinq grandes colonnes de marbre translucide, en
tat de parfaite conservation, dont chacune mesure 2 m. 05 de longueur, avec une circonfrence
de 1 m. 41; 2 de divers fragments de marbre sculpts, provenant de chapiteaux briss; de pltres
mouls en arabesques dun gracieux dessin; de faences vernisses et de morceaux de marbre de
petit appareil ayant servi la construction; 3 enfin dun chapiteau entier, du plus beau translucide et dune ornementation magistrale, qui mesure au tailloir 0 m. 60 de ct.
[
239]Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1886_22-Jan: On crit de Lamoricire lEcho dOran: Dans
le courant de lt dernier, on avait mis nu, sur les confins de ma proprit, quelques grandes
pierres couvertes dinscriptions latines. Jtais all les visiter lors de leur dcouverte, mais les
inscriptions taient difficiles lire; je navais pu les tudier quun moment, sans parvenir les
reproduire. Mais, tout rcemment, jai pu en adresser copie M. Demaeght, directeur du Muse
dOran. Le brave commandant est accouru sur le champ. L, il a constat que mes cinq pierres
sont cinq bornes militaires places prs lune de lautre, deux milles romains dAltava...soit
recouvertes de mortier, sont parses sur le sol sur une tendue de plusieurs centaines dhectares. /
Jai recueilli la surface du sol beaucoup de dbris de poterie, sans grand intrt, sils ne prouvaient que de nombreuses habitations ont t difies par l. / Mais des fouilles donneraient
des rsultats plus complets. / Depuis que le commandant Demaeght est venu, jai fait chaque
moment quelque constatation nouvelle, car avant de savoir que l stait trouve une grande
ville, je ne donnais pas grande attention aux ruines qui se rencontrent chaque pas, dans le
voisinage. Je les prenais pour des ruines arabes, et je navais prt ces restes vnrables quune
attention fort distraite. / Mais aujourdhui que le doute nest plus permis, que mes bornes se
trouvent bien la distance exacte dAltava que leurs inscriptions indiquent, mes observations
antrieures prennent de lintrt. / Je connaissais antrieurement des cimetires qui stendent
sur plus de trois kilomtres et o des centaines de mille cadavres ont d tre inhums. / Ne

souponnant pas le voisinage de la ville, javais pens que le pays, qui est sous la protection de
plusieurs marabouts clbres de la famille de Sidi Miliani qui sont enterrs l, tait une sorte de
Campo Santo o lon faisait apporter ses restes de fort loin. Mais cette srie de champs de repos
est tout simplement la ncropole dAltava, qui avait peut-tre plus dhabitants quaucune de nos
villes algriennes nen a aujourdhui.
[
240]Monuments_Historiques_1856_480: Au IXe sicle, Kala [Tlemcen] avait perdu de son
importance: ce ntait pas encore cette ville opulente aux sept enceintes, aux trente mosques,
quun roi de Maroc assigea si long-temps, quil fit construire quelque distance un camp fortifi comme une ville. Ctait une petite ville berbre, nomme Agadyr; et on retrouve dans la
mosque de ce nom, situe 700 ou 800m lest de la ville, des pierres tumulaires qui ont servi
sa construction, concurremment avec dnormes assises de grs rouge parfaitement analogue
au grs vosgien. Lemploi de ces matriaux a contribu la remarquable conservation de ce
monument. and lists the stones.
[
241]Pimodan_1902_99 Tlemcen: sous la domination ottomane, les restes croulants du palais
et ses jardins morcels devinrent comme jai dj eu loccasion de le dire un quartier fort
habit par les fonctionnaires turcs et les Coulouglis. Lors de notre venue Tlemcen, lancienne
enceinte royale nentourait plus quun amas de btiments disparates, dont le gnie militaire rsolut la destruction. Quelques belles mosaques et dautres vestiges dun moindre intrt, dcouverts parmi les dcombres, ont t conservs et remis au service des Monuments Historiques.
[
242]Lombay_1893_261262 Tlemcen: Moins bien partage que Jrusalem, Tlemcen a vu
disparatre ses murailles; il nen existe plus que des ruines; mais ses vergers lui sont rests. /
Lenceinte de murs en pierres de taille, neuve et dun joli effet qui lentoure, date du second
empire; cest la nouvelle parure dont la France a orn les restes de lancienne capitale du
royaume zeyanite.
[
243]Bargs_1859_167168 Tlemcen, the Agadir Gate: Pour en donner une ide au lecteur, je
transcrirai ici la description lgante qui en a t faite par M. Azma de Montgravier dans son
Excursion archologique: Cette porte, dit-il, faisait partie de lenceinte gnrale de Tlemcen,
sous les rois arabes. Elle est, ainsi que tout le reste des remparts, construite en pis, mais revtue
de briques en dedans et au dehors; elle affecte la forme gracieuse de logive renfle vers le milieu,
rentrante sa partie infrieure. Son soubassement colossal, en saillie sur le reste de la fortification, est form de matriaux romains jets ple-mle, avec un abandon fort piquant pour
lartiste, mais dsesprant pour lantiquaire, qui reconnaissant la forme dun cippe funraire ou
dun autel votif, ne peut sempcher de maudire larchitecte sarrazin, dont la fantaisie a souvent
plac les inscriptions de manire forcer larchologue intrpide adopter la position la plus
gnante pour les dchiffrer.
[
244]Monuments_Historiques_1856_477489 M. de Tugny, Capitaine au 54e rgiment dinfanterie de ligne, Antiquits romaines de la subdivision de Tlemcen (Algrie).
[
245]Pellissier_1839_III_52: Tlmecen, ancienne capitale dun royaume puissant, a conserv
de nombreux vestiges de sa splendeur passe. Slevant majestueusement au milieu de ses beaux
jardins, de ses imposantes forts doliviers, elle nous prsentait, sur des bases romaines, les dbris
de ces gracieuses constructions sarrazines, qui tombent, mais ne vieillissent pas. Semblable au
peuple ingnieux qui la rendit longtemps florissante, elle pouvait se rveiller dun long sommeil;
mais notre contact, qui devrait partout porter la vie, a t pour elle le plus funeste des flaux.
[
246]Canal_1891_281283 Tlemcen, the reworked triumphal arch: Parmi les monuments levs sur lemplacement de lancienne Pomaria, par les dynasties Maures et Berbres du Maghreb
APPENDIX
central, avec les dbris des anciens difices romains, il convient de citer: la porte de Bab-elAhkbet, et le minaret dAgadir. / La porte Bah-el-Ahkbet, ou de la monte, subsistait encore en
1842, lors de loccupation dfinitive de Tlemcen par les troupes franaises. / Plusieurs archologues, pigraphistes ou simples touristes, se souviennent encore de lavoir admire debout. /
Mais hlas, il faut bien le dire, la ngligence o lindiffrence de lautorit militaire pour laquelle
ce monument ntait que secondaire, la laiss tomber en ruines. / Aujourdhui on contemple
encore, avec tristesse, gisant sur le sol, ces normes pierres de taille, ces monolithes de blocs de
maonnerie, ces fragments dogive de lart le plus pur, qui avaient fait lornement de cette porte
et qui encombrent le passage lextrmit du chemin dAgadir, dbouchant dans la plaine entre
le minaret et le marabout de Sidi Daoudi...Son soubassement colossal, en saillie sur le reste de
la fortification, est forme de matriaux romains jets ple-mle, avec un abandon fort piquant
pour lartiste, mais dsesprant pour lantiquaire qui, reconnaissant la forme dun cippe funraire, ou dun autel votif, ne peut sempcher de maudire larchitecte Sarrazin, dont la fantaisie a
souvent plac les inscriptions de manire forcer larchologue intrpide adopter la position
la plus gnante pour la dchiffrer.
[
247]Canal_1891_323 Tlemcen: Aujourdhui, sur toute cette ligne de circonvallation ayant
servi de ceinture lantique Pomaria, lorsquun pan de muraille ou une vieille tour en pis se
dmolit, quand on pratique des fouilles pour ldification des charmantes villas qui mergent
des frais ombrages du bois de Boulogne, on dcouvre le plus souvent de grosses pierres de taille
artistement quarries, qui jalonnaient le castellum et la cit romaine.
[
248]Pimodan_1903_6364 Tlemcen: Aujourdhui, Tlemcen, avec ses belles alles, sa place
Cavaignac et sa place des Victoires do la vue franchissant les toitures dcouvre un immense
horizon, ses arbres merveilleux dune hauteur norme et dune splendide venue, ses minarets
que les cigognes pensives couronnent chaque anne de leurs nids sarmenteux, son Mechouar
bord de hautes murailles bizarrement traces; Tlemcen, dis-je, pourrait enclore dans ses
modernes remparts de pierre grise, une charmante ville europenne et la plus sduisante, la plus
curieuse, la plus vocatrice cit arabe de lAlgrie. Mais il aurait fallu, tout en rparant lancienne
capitale des Beni-Zeiyan, la sparer nettement de la moderne sous-prfecture franaise, laisser
la premire son tranget, sa couleur, son charme, faire la seconde pimpante, ombrage, arrose, coquette et fleurie. Au lieu de cela, les nouveaux arrivants frayrent des rues, ouvrirent un
boulevard, btirent des maisons dans la vieille ville. En voulant moderniser Tlemcen, il lui enlevrent sa posie. A notre voisinage, ses curieux haillons prirent laspect de loques vulgaires; sa
patine ne sembla plus tre que de la crasse. / Beaucoup de rues nouvelles, empruntant danciens
tracs, sont tortueuses; le boulevard ne mne rien; les maisons modernes, petites, resserres,
sans jardins, presque sans cours, paraissent laides et communes; souvent mme, leurs faades
neuves sont de simples placages recouvrant de vieilles masures. Chaque coup de pioche donn
dans le sous-sol de lantique cit, tout sillonn dgouts en ruines devenus des puisards, fait fuir
dans latmosphre des puanteurs nouvelles. Lordure arabe envahit tout, stale partout, dbordante, contagieuse, irrductible, inluctable. Il semble que llment indigne regagne peu peu
le terrain dabord perdu. De mme que le mendiant se venge de la richesse du passant avare et
superbe en lui lanant une vermine, les Arabes se vengent de notre pouvoir, en nous polluant
de leur salet.
[
249]Canal_1891_321 Tlemcen, the enceinte: Mais combien dautres pierres de taille, portant
dintressantes inscriptions, nont-elles pas t enfouies dans les fondations de cet difice ou
dans la formidable paisseur de ses murailles. / Il ny a pas que les Arabes, du reste, qui aient

pris tche de dtruire ce qui restait de souvenirs de loccupation romaine, les Vandales sont
de toute nationalit et les Turcs ne se sont pas fait faute de dvaster, eux aussi, ces antiques et
vnrables ruines. / Puis, aprs loccupation de Tlemcen par les Franais, que de propritaires
na-t-on pas vus prendre ces ruines en coupe rgle, extraire, transporter et vendre des quantits
considrables de pierres de taille romaines, portant ou non des inscriptions, aux constructeurs
de btiments et difices publics ou privs? / Heureusement tout nest pas dtruit et il nous reste
encore assez de traces du pass pour reconstituer, aussi exactement que possible, lancienne
enceinte de Pomaria.
[
250]Grande Encyclopdie: DUTHOIT (Edmond-Clment-Marie), architecte et archologue
franais, n Amiens en 1837, mort Amiens en 1889. Elve de Viollet-le-Duc, attach longtemps la commission des monuments historiques et charg de missions successives en Asie
Mineure et en Afrique, M. Duthoit collabora au remarquable ouvrage du marquis de Vog sur
lArchitecture civile et religieuse en Syrie et tudia les fouilles faites vers 1860 a Assos (Mysie),
ainsi que celles qui se poursuivent depuis 1854 Lambse et Timgad (Algrie); il exposa
aussi... de nombreux Salons annuels des dessins des difices suivants: lglise et le couvent
de Samt-Simeon le Stylite Kalaat-Semn (Svrie), le chteau de Roquetail-lades (xive sicle), le
Mihrab de la grande mosque de Tlemcen, des fragments darchitecture musulmane, etc. On
doit M. Duthoit dimportants travaux de restauration dglises et de chteaux du moyen ge et
del Renaissance, la construction des glises de Beyrouth (Syrie) et de Notre-Dame de Brbires
(Somme), etc.
[
251]Duthoit, E., Rapport sur une mission scientifique en Algrie, in AMSL series 3, I, Paris
1873, 305326. See 322 Mosque at Mansourah: Les murs extrieurs de cette mosque sont seuls
debout. On en retrouve encore compltement le plan, grce aux fouilles faites par le service des
btiments civils. Cet difice tait assurment le plus vaste, le mieux ordonn, le plus riche des
contres qui forment aujourdhui lAlgrie franaise. Les mosques de Tlemcen et des environs
se sont toutes enrichies de ses dpouilles. Jai dit plus haut que la cour intrieure de la Djama-elKebir de Tlemcen tait pave avec des onyx travaills apports de Mansourah. La grande vasque
en porphyre vert qui sert de fonts baptismaux dans lglise Saint-Michel a la mme origine. Le
muse de la ville a recueilli des chapiteaux dun trs-beau travail et des fts de colonnes. Les
magasins des btiments civils en possdent aussi, mais beaucoup de ces marbres prcieux ont
t dbits et vendus au commerce, je nose dire par qui. Le minaret construit en pierres de
grand appareil est le plus lev, le plus richement dcor, le mieux conserv de tous les monuments analogues dAfrique ou dEspagne. La faade postrieure et quelques parties des faces
latrales se sont malheureusement croules, menaant dentraner la ruine totale de cette
magnifique tour.
[
252]Blakesley_1859_188 Tlemcen: The exigencies of warfare during the period of which
a sketch has been given, naturally produced the destruction of the greater part of the town
of Tlemcen. The buildings in the immediate neighbourhood of the Mechouar were of course
levelled to destroy all cover for an enemy. Two or three mosques still remain standing, but
with these exceptions the whole of the upper level has been rebuilt by the French. The place
is valuable as an important military position, and the Mechouar is of course made use of as a
barrack and arsenal. There is also a military hospital within the enceinte.
[
253]Pimodan_1902_63 Tlemcen: Beaucoup de rues nouvelles, empruntant danciens traces,
sont tortueuses; le boulevard ne mne rien; les maisons modernes, petites, resserres, sans
APPENDIX
jardins, presque sans cours, paraissent laides et communes; souvent mme, leurs faades neuves
sont de simples placages recouvrant de vieilles masures. Chaque coup de pioche donne dans le
sous-sol de lantique cit, tout sillonn dgouts en ruines devenus des puisards, fait fuir dans
latmosphre des puanteurs nouvelles. Lordure arabe envahit tout, stale partout, dbordante,
contagieuse, irrductible, ineluctable. II semble que llment indigne regagne peu peu le
terrain dabord perdu. De mme que le mendiant se venge de la richesse du passant avare et
superbe en lui lancant une vermine, les Arabes se vengent de notre pouvoir, en nous polluant
de leur salet.
[
254]Playfair_1890_258 Tlemcen: The destruction of the Mechouar, or citadel, has been
most complete. Built in 1145 as the residence of the governor, it became the palace of the Abdel-Ouadites. The Arab writers often make mention of its splendour and of the brilliancy of the
court held there; but the Turks and time, and the Gnie militaire, have spared nothing except
the minaret of the mosque and the outer walls.
[
255]Bargs_1859_180 Tlemcen, the Agadyr Quarter: Sous la domination turque qui succda
celle des Beni-Zyan, la plupart des habitants se retirrent dans le royaume de Fez et dans
le Maroc, et Agadyr dsol se vit transform en une triste solitude; les matriaux des anciens
btiments servirent la construction des nouvelles habitations; les Juifs enlevrent les grandes
pierres tailles qui avaient appartenu aux monuments romains, et les transportrent dans leur
cimetire pour en couvrir leurs tombeaux; lexception des murs de la grande mosque et du
minaret de cette mosque, lon peut dire quil ny resta plus pierre sur pierre. Cette dsolation
dure encore; seulement les remparts, qui sont rests debout, avec leurs crneaux et leurs vieilles
tours, semblent attendre de nouveaux habitants, une nouvelle population chrtienne avec ses
temples et ses pontifes.
[
256]Leclercq_1881_173 Tlemcen: Je visitai le mme jour les ruines dune autre ancienne
cit qui avait nom Agadir, et qui slevait elle-mme sur les ruines dune ville romaine appele
Pomaria, sans doute cause des arbres fruitiers qui abondent dans ce pays. Le beau minaret
dAgadir, qui slve majestueux et solitaire au milieu dune oasis, repose jusqu six mtres de
hauteur sur des pierres de lantique Pomaria, et comme quelques-unes de ces pierres portent des
inscriptions romaines, les archologues y ont pu lire de prcieux renseignements historiques.
[
257]Canal_1891_306: Azma de Mongravier dans son excursion archologique raconte sa
visite dAgadir: Les vestiges dAgadir que jai sous les yeux (vers 1850) proviennent de monuments romains que linvasion arabe trouva debout, la fin du septime sicle. Les antiquaires
peuvent y enrichir leur collection dinscriptions presque toutes indites, car on en retrouve tous
les jours de nouvelles et la mine en parait inpuisable. / Les turcs en faisaient commerce; ils
les revendaient aux juifs qui, les trouvant toutes prpares pour servir de pierres spulcrales les
rendaient leur destination premire et en ornaient leurs tombeaux.
[
258]Bargs_1859_166167 Mosque of Agadir: Les vestiges dAgadyr que jai sous les yeux,
dit M. Azma de Montgravier en parlant des restes de cette mosque, proviennent peut-tre dun
monument rdifi, car rien nest plus facile que de les mettre en oeuvre: ce sont des pierres
tumulaires et des matriaux enlevs aux monuments romains que linvasion arabe trouva
dbout la fin du septime sicle. Les antiquaires peuvent y enrichir leurs collections dinscriptions presque toutes indites; car on en retrouve tous les jours de nouvelles, et la mine en
parat inpuisable. Les Turcs en faisaient commerce; ils les vendaient aux juifs, qui, les trouvant
toutes prpares pour servir de pierres spulcrales, les rendaient leur destination primitive et

en ornaient leurs tombeaux. / Malgr le vif dsir que jprouvais de continuer mes explorations
dans cet endroit si fcond en objets dantiquits; malgr les richesses que me promettait cette
mine jusque l peu exploite, dun ct limpatience des turcos, qui ne comprenant rien lintrt de mes recherches, me pressaient de porter ailleurs mes pas, de lautre, le peu de temps qui
me restait pour visiter les autres curiosits de ce quartier, me dterminrent me sparer de ces
ruines, mais non sans bien me promettre dy revenir un autre jour.
[
259]Canal_1891_294 Tlemcen: Les ruines de Pomaria ou dAgadir, sont inpuisables en matriaux et en inscriptions pigraphiques; dans tous les coins du bois de Boulogne [near the Oran
road] on trouve des pierres tombales qui sont employes souvent par des mains inconscientes
la construction des bassins dirrigation ou des maisons de campagne.
[
260]Canal_1891_297298: Dans le bois de Boulogne, aux abords de la route dOran, quinze
cents mtres de Tlemcen, dans une proprit appartenant au commandant Graulle, linscription
suivante a t trouve formant le seuil dune ancienne maison turque...Cette dernire inscription a t dcouverte en janvier 1888, sept ou huit cent mtres au nord de la prcdente, dans
la cour dun vieux bordj turc, ou peut-tre berbre, aujourdhui abandonn et dsign par les
arabes sous le nom de bordj-el-Kbir.../ Parmi les inscriptions anciennes conserves Tlemcen
par des mains bienveillantes, nous citerons encore cette dernire, en forme de caisson, scelle
contre un mur de lalle principale dans la villa de M. et Mme Gurin au bois de Boulogne, proprit qui a du faire partie autrefois des dpendances dAgadir.
[
261]RA II 1857, 62 Berbrugger, A., on inscriptions at Tlemcen: Je nai retrouv aucune des
pierres tumulaires romaines que javais exhumes en janvier et fvrier 1836 du cimetire isralite
de Tlemcen et dont jai publi des copies dans le Moniteur algrien, n des 27 mai, 8 et 15 juillet de
la mme anne. / Ces pierres ont t employes, ce quon massure ici, dans des constructions
publiques. Je le regrette dautant plus qu cette poque je dbutais dans la carrire difficile de
lpigraphie et que je ne puis, par consquent, garantir lexactitude de mes transcriptions.
[
262]Canal_1891_284286: minaret of Agadir: Il porte, encastres dans les paisses parois de
sa base, les pierres votives et tumulaires dont les inscriptions latines ont t releves en 1845, par
labb Bargs et publies depuis, dans plusieurs recueils pigraphiques...Larchitecte musulman qui a difi le minaret dAgadir a fait preuve de peu de got et dintelligence en plaant
plusieurs de ces inscriptions en sens inverse, ce qui rend leur lecture trs difficile.
[
263]Canal_1891_283284: Le minaret dAgadir subsiste encore tout entier. Il a t class,
rcemment, parmi les monuments historiques, ce qui le prservera de la ruine. Il y a quelques
annes, M. Duthoit, architecte rgional, attach la conservation des monuments historiques
a fait dgager les abords de ce minaret des dcombres qui lobstruaient. La tour carre dont la
hauteur est du trente mtres, repose sur une base leve denviron six mtres au-dessus du sol.
Cette base est entirement construite avec dimmenses pierres de taille, rgulirement quarries
et en partie couvertes dinscriptions latines. / Ce sont, consquemment, des matriaux ayant
appartenu aux difices publics de lancienne ville romaine de Pomaria...Ce minaret a presque
entirement perdu ses revtements de mosaques et carreaux de faence maille, ainsi que la
plupart des colonnettes en marbre onyx qui dcoraient les panneaux de chaque face, mais il est
encore un des mieux conservs de Tlemcen.
[
264]Bernard_1901_276: Tlemcen: Au point de vue pittoresque, Mansoura, avec son minaret
et son enceinte vide o poussent le bl et les oliviers, est, au coucher du soleil, un des plus beaux
cadavres de ville qui se puissent voir. Encore faudrait-il viter que des restaurations maladroites
viennent rompre le charme, car il semble que nous ne connaissions, pour les monuments,
APPENDIX
dautre alternative que la destruction ou la reconstruction. Et quelle reconstruction! On a fait au
minaret de Mansoura des pans coups en ciment dun effet dplorable. Surtout, on a entour la
jolie mosque dAbou-el-Hassen, dite de la Mdersa, dun muret dune grille qui sont ceux dun
chenil ou dune porcherie, et qui constituent une abominable faute de got.
[
265]Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1863_4_April: La mosque et le minaret de Mansourah sont
situe sur un petit mamelon du ct de louest. La mosque, rectangle de 100 mtres sur 60,
orient du nord-est, au sud-ouest, ne prsente plus aujourdhui que son mur en pis qui tait
perc de treize portes. Les fouilles faites lintrieur ont amen la dcouverte de ces magnifiques
colonnes en marbre translucide dont les muses dAlger, de Tlemcen et lexposition permanente
des produits algriens ~a Paris possdent quelques-unes.
[
266]SHD Gnie: 1H756: Tlemcen 1 June 1847, Projet dtablissement militaire et agricole sur
la basse Tafna.
[
267]Fraud_1875_5657 on Philippeville in 1838: Cette partie du grandiose programme que
le marchal [Vale] stait trac son avnement au gouvernement de lAlgrie, une bien belle
occasion se prsentait den faire lapplication. Il comprit que, relever Russicada, ctait compltement refaire loeuvre romaine, non en imitateur servile et passionn, mais avec le gnie des
choses utiles; que, placer sur ces ruines une ville franaise, ctait couvrir dune tte de pont la
grande route stratgique de la province, mais encore commencer la grande voie commerciale
entre les peuples pasteurs de la fconde Numidie et les manufactures de la Mtropole et ouvrir
les greniers de Rome un autre grand peuple qui, lui aussi, attend trop souvent les flottes du
Midi, la scurit contre linsuffisance de ses rcoltes.
[
268]Fenech_1852_13: A voir les dbris exhums, on peut supposer que Russicade tait tout
entire construite de colonnes de marbre et de granit. Ce ntait pas sans tonnement, en effet,
quon y rencontrait chaque pas des socles ou des chapiteaux, des statues dun beau travail.
[
269]Dieuzaide_1883_II_363364 Russicada, under Marshal Vale: Ce mamelon tait, dans
lantiquit, le point central de dfense de cette position. On le trouva revtu, sur presque tout son
contour, dnormes pierres de grs, dranges par le temps, mais il offrait, mme dans cet tat,
des ressources prcieuses pour la dfense. Les pierres furent releves et servirent la construction du fort de France.
[
270]SHD Gnie, Article 8 Section 1 Algrie, Mmoires gnraux, 1843, carton 5: Colonel
Vaillant, Rapport sur ltablissement de lArme dAfrique prs de Stora, 10 Oct 1838, 3.
[
271]SHD MR1314 item 33: Colonel Prtot, Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Rgence
dAlger, considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure
du pays, 7 January 1834, 63ff.
[
272]SHD MR1317 30 January 1839, Rasires, Capitaine ltat Major, Notice descriptive sur
Philippeville et Stora au commencement de loccupation franaise. 3: magazins et citernes de
Stora. 47 for description of Stora and its port. 9: en travaillant au dblayement et au nivellement des terres du Fort de France, nous avons dterr des colonnes de 3 4 metres de longueur.
34 nous avons trouv aussi, dans lemplacement qui avoisine le Drapeau, quantit de pierres
tumulaires portant toutes des inscriptions Romaines fort lisibles; plusieurs taient en marbre
dune seule pice, taills sur les quatre faces. 1516 theatre. 1617 amphitheatre but doesnt/
cant assess preservation, e.g. amphitheatre choked with brambles. 30 Progrs de la nouvelle
ville: une centaine de baraques en bois et plusieurs en maonnerie.
[
273]Rozet_and_Carette 1850_35 Russicada: Lhistoire ne nous a pas fait connatre limportance de la colonie de Rusiccada, mais les dbris accumuls sur le sol ont permis de lapprcier;

on y a trouv un thtre bti sur le penchant de la colline de louest, et du ct oppos un amphithtre destin peut-tre aux reprsentations navales appeles par les anciens naumachies.
Enfin des citernes monumentales existaient dans la rgion leve du mamelon de louest. et
l surgissaient des cintres de votes, des restes de temples, et enfin des constructions de formes
bizarres, dont la destination primitive na pu encore tre assigne avec certitude./ Tous ces vestiges, qui tmoignent de limportance de lancienne Rusiccada, de la solidit et de la grandeur
de ses monuments, se voyaient la surface du sol au moment o les Franais prirent possession
de la plage et de la valle de Skikda. Mais quand la pioche eut commenc remuer la terre pour
y asseoir les fondations de la nouvelle ville, elle mit au jour des inscriptions, des statues, des
colonnes, des sculptures, et surtout un norme amas de pierres de taille, hritage de gnrations
depuis longtemps teintes qui a dj fourni les matriaux dune cit neuve, et qui est loin encore
dtre puis.
[
274]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIII 1840, 240244: Extrait dune letter de M. Carette, membre de
la Commission scientifique de lAlgrie, arriv Philippeville le 8 mars 1840, 241242: Ne croyez
pas que ce soit une ville arabe debaptise. Avant notre occupation, il ny avait rien, absolument
rien que des monceaux de pierres de taille que lon trouve encore a 5 et 6 mtres de profondeur...La maison que jhabite nest construite qu moiti; jentends les maons et les charpentiers qui sempressent dachever le second corps de logis. Au milieu du fort de France slve
une colonne de granit provenant sans doute dun ancien temple. Cest elle qui porte le drapeau
tricolore. Carette got shot, but not seriously, and recovered.
[
275]Fenech_1852_2829 Roman baths: le sol tait partout couvert de colonnes de marbre.
Dnormes chapiteaux de plus dun mtre gisaient auprs de futs de plus dun mtre de diamtre
hence for columns of 10 metres.
[
276]Fenech_1867_34 Philippeville, 1841. A cette poque, la ville actuelle venait de stablir,
depuis deux ans peine, au sein mme des tribus kabyles. Les tentes du corps expditionnaire
du marchal Vale staient leves comme par enchantement sur les ruines de Russicada, et le
retentissement de la chute de Constantine avait frapp les Arabes dune telle stupfaction, que,
bien loin de courir aux armes, ils avaient dabord laiss vendre pour cinquante francs lemplacement sur lequel ne tarda pas bourdonner notre ville franaise. Mais bientt leur fanatisme,
disons mieux, leur esprit de rapine stait rveill, et notre enceinte bauche ne nous prservait
pas des incursions dadroits maraudeurs. La nuit, notre sommeil tait troubl par les cris: Au
meurtre! et les coups de fusil de nos factionnaires ne russissaient gure loigner les voleurs et
les assassins. Cest dans ces circonstances que jtais arriv Philippeville.
[
277]Mmorial_Gographique_1930_Plates 2021 for urbanisation of Philippeville 1838 and
1929.
[
278]JDPL 29 October 1838. Fort-de-France: Le fort qui domine la position louest est
presque termin; il a reu le nom de Fort-Royal. On a rtabli le parapet des Romains et plac
un blockaus sur le point le plus lev.../ En mme temps on a dblay lancien chemin de
ronde construit par les Romains, et qui runit le Fort-Royal un mamelon situ sur la mer; sur
ce mamelon slvera un ouvrage qui portera le nom de Fort-dOrlans. Les travaux dans cette
partie marchent rapidement: les pierres romaines sont sur place; il ny a qu les relever.
[
279]JDPL 25 July 1840. Une lettre crite de Constantine par M. Carrette fils, membre de la
commission scientifique de lAlgrie, a excit un intrt marqu en donnant sur la nouvelle fondation franaise de Philippeville sur Stora et sur Russicada, les dtails les plus propres encourager la colonisation, dtails parfaitement daccord avec ceux que nous avions dj publis sur le
APPENDIX
mme sujet. La confiance des indignes dans ladministration de la France est prouve par llvation extraordinaire remarque dans le prix auquel sont adjuges les terres de lancien beylick
mises en vente. Ce prix est vingt fois plus lev que sous le dernier bey. Lon voyage avec scurit
dans cette province o tout dnote un progrs propre convertir les plus grands adversaires de
la colonisation.
[
280]Lestre_de_Rey_1904 for plan of the settlement, with theatre and cisterns, plus the grid of
the French town. 20: Philippeville, de construction rcente, ne possde gure, en fait de monuments, que des vestiges de loccupation romaine but nothing on what was knocked down to
build the French town.
[
281]Vars_1896_914 for Stora and its water systems.
[
282]Nodier_1844_129 Stora: Les murailles de plusieurs maisons de campagne sont debout,
ainsi quune partie des quais de Stora et de Rusicada, qui devait tre une ville considrable.
Ses arnes subsistent encore; des citernes et des magasins immenses sont en tat de service;
on traverse les ravins sur des ponts antiques, et partout on heurte du pied des fts de colonnes
et des pierres tumulaires charges dinscriptions. Bertrand_1903_105 Philippeville: La conduite
romaine du Beni-Mlek, qui amenait leau, pure, aux grandes citernes alimentant la ville, avait
une longueur de 3.580 mtres. Elle tait si parfaitement visible en 1847 et 1848 que ladministration des Ponts et Chausses pouvait, en 1848, mettre en adjudication la restauration de la citerne
de la prise deau et la rparation du barrage.
[
283]Carteron_1866_2627: Je vous dirais, en route, que ce Philippeville si franais, est une
ancienne ville romaine, appele jadis Rosicala nom que portait la plus belle femme dalors
lorsque les Romains sy tablirent. Quand les Franais sen emparrent il ny avait que quelques
mchantes maisons arabes, construites avec les anciennes ruines, et qui depuis ont toutes t
dtruites et rebties. Dans le moment on sy casa, on y fit quelques travaux urgents de dfense,
puis on les augmenta, on rpara, on construisit, le noyau slargit et on leva l par hasard ou
par la force des choses une vritable ville.
[
284]Nodier_1844_121122 Philippeville: Le premier soin du prince est daller visiter les hpitaux, dont le dplorable aspect devait lui causer une profonde affliction. Il reste heureusemennt
aux princes, et cest une des plus douces attributions de la grandeur, le pouvoir de rparer,
jusqu un certain point, les maux encore rparables. Le mal dont nous parlons ntait pas sans
remde, et on nen conservera bientt dautre souvenir que celui que la constance hroque avec
laquelle il a t support. / Le 6e rgiment a t atteint presque entirement par la maladie, mais
le ciel a permis que la mortalit ne fut pas grande. Linsalubrit de cette anne, les grands travaux
et les immenses constructions que les troupes ont termin, en trop peu de temps peut-tre, ont
contribue augmenter le nombre des malades dans une proportion aussi extraordinaire.
[
285]Wagner_1841_I_231232 Stora: Als General Negrier im April 1838 mit seiner mobilen
Colonne von Constantine aus zum erstenmal eine Recognoscirung nach Stora unternahm,
waren die franzsischen Militairs, von den vagen und verworrenen Antworten der Eiugebornen
getuscht, im Augenblicke des Abmarsches noch im Wahne, Stora msse eine Stadt seyn.
In solchen Fllen spielte bei den Franzosen, namentlich bei jenen, die einige Begeisterung
fhlen fr den Plan der Grndung eines Neu-Frankreichs in dieser weiland so berhmten
Rmercolonie, die Phantasie stets ihre Streiche mit und so kam es, dass, als von dem Zuge
nach Stora die Rede war, einer den andern ber die Grsse und Wichtigkeit der neuen Stadt
exaltirte. Sehr unangenehm wurden diese Militairs enttuscht, als sie nach einem dreissigstndigen Marsch durch eine beraus herrliche Gegend, dem Lande der Kabylen, am Gestade ange-

kommen keine Stadt, nicht einmal ein Dorf, sondern nur wenige Strohhtten ohne Bewohner
neben schnen rmischen Cisternen und Tempelruinen erblickten. Stora war die Russicada der
Alten, deren Plinius, Antoninus und Pomponius Mela erwhnen. Die Cisternen waren von den
Kabylen in Silos verwandelt worden, in denen sie ihr Getreide aufbewahrten. Die franzsischen
Truppen nahmen erst im Jahre 1838 von Stora definitiven Besitz und bedienten sich jener soliden Cisternenreste gleichfalls als Magazine, ja in der ersten Zeit als eines Hauptquartiers fr ihre
Stabsofficiere, denn es war in der Umgegend nirgends besseres Obdach zu finden.
[
286]Pulszky_1854_7273 Stora: they arrived at the beach without finding any city or
even village, but only a few deserted straw huts, leaning on Roman cisterns or temple ruins.
The Kabyles kept their corn in the cisterns, and the French imitated them, and converted the
solid Roman buildings into storehouses. Several blockhouses, forts, and barracks, were erected
here, and at last the plan of Marshal Vale, to found a new French city, was approved of by
the Government. It was laid out at some distance from the ancient ruins, and got the name of
Philippeville...An old Roman high-road was repaired, and the connexion with Constantine was
secured by means of several intermediate camps.
[
287]Vars_1896_46 Russicada and Stora: Nous ignorons quand la ville disparut ou, plutt,
cessa dtre romaine, car les magnifiques restes qui subsistaient encore en 1838, environ quatorze sicles aprs, prouvent surabondamment quelle ne fut pas dtruite de fond en comble.
[
288]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_37 Stora: On y a trouv, comme Philippeville, des restes
imposants de constructions romaines, de vastes magasins vots et de magnifiques citernes,
dont le gnie militaire a tir parti, en les rtablissant avec autant de soin que dintelligence dans
ltat o elles se trouvaient il y a deux mille ans. Aujourdhui la citerne monumentale de Stora
est la fois un difice dune utilit prsente incontestable et un modle curieux de restauration
archologique.
[
289]Vars_1896_6768 Russicada: La rue des Colons, qui se trouve devant nous, nous conduit
bientt celle dOrlans que nous remontons dans la direction Sud-Ouest, jusqu la rue
Malakoff. Suivons cette dernire qui dbouche dans celle du Ravin, par laquelle nous arrivons
en vue du Fort dOrlans. L, et en contrebas du fort, nous nous trouvons sur lemplacement des
citernes qui recevaient, sur ce point, toutes les eaux de la colline du Bni-Mlek. Ces citernes
sont encore en plein fonctionnement et fournissent leau la ville moderne, au moyen dune
canalisation nouvelle, la conduite romaine qui aboutissait aux anciennes citernes, dont on a
fait, depuis, les Magasins de lIntendance, ayant t abandonne cause de cette destination.
[
290]Delamare_1858_1718.
[
291]Blanqui_1840_8788 Philippeville: Quel peuple que ces Romains. et quelle diffrence
entre leurs innombrables citernes et notre puits imperceptible! Mais malheureusement la soif
nest pas moindre aujourdhui, sous ce mme ciel de feu contre lequel ils avaient pris de si prudentes prcautions. Vous le dirai-je aussi, messieurs, rien ne ressemble moins aux ruines de la
vieille ville, et son magnifique thtre en pierres de taille, que nos maisons de bois dpourvues
dcoulement pour les eaux mnagres, et construites sans la moindre intelligence des besoins
du climat. La mort a cruellement moissonn, cette anne, dans ces demeures si misrablement
tablies, o jai pass huit terribles jours, les plus pnibles de ma vie. Non, ce nest pas ainsi
quagissaient les Romains; partout on les reconnat leurs oeuvres, encore presque intactes
aprs dix-huit cents ans: et nous, qui nous reconnatrait aux ntres?
[
292]Poujoulat_1847_I_237238 Russicada: Il y avait des sicles que ce pays demeurait ferm
tout autre peuple quaux Kabyles quand le gnral Ngrier atteignit les ruines de Rusicada sans
APPENDIX
aucun combat srieux: la plus courte voie entre Constantine et la mer tait ainsi retrouve. Au
mois doctobre (1838) quatre mille hommes sous la direction du marchal Vale, stablissaient
au milieu des ruines de Rusicada, btissaient des murs avec des dbris qui dataient de deux mille
ans et fortifiaient la place qui se nomma Philippeville. Les Kabyles contemplaient de loin, en
frmissant, cette fondation franaise.
[
293]Fraud_1875_59 Philippeville in 1838: Trois mille hommes taient occups aux travaux
de fortifications et dtablissement. Larme est vraiment la main-duvre par excellence. Chez
elle, lunit, laction, la cohsion de la discipline, le nombre, le haut sentiment du devoir, la runion dune foule de spcialits diverses, toujours prsentes lheure de leur emploi, composant
une force merveilleuse pour une excution prompte. En dix-huit jours le camp se trouva couvert
de blockaus, citadelles de terre et de chne, et lon commena un baraquement rgulier, abri
ncessaire lapproche de lhiver.
[
294]Robert_1891_162 Philippeville, 1838: un convoi de mulets arabes, escort par des milices
turques notre service, ayant t, dans un troit dfil, attaqu avec quelque avantage, les indignes, encourags par ce factice succs, dirigrent, la nuit suivante, une nouvelle attaque contre
le camp dEl-Arrouch, quils savaient ntre plus gard, depuis le dpart de larme pour Stora,
que par des Turcs. Ceux-ci opposrent une si nergique rsistance, que les assaillants, ayant
prouv des pertes considrables, firent connatre au commandant du camp leur intention de
rester dsormais tranquilles. Larme travailla sans relche fortifier la position quelle venait
doccuper. Le sol, jonch de ruines romaines, lui fournit les premiers matriaux, et des pierres
tailles depuis vingt sicles revtirent des murailles toutes neuves, La ville reut le nom de
Philippeville.
[
295]Suchet_1840_12: Philippeville nest quun amas de cabanes en bois, construites par
larme franaise qui a l un camp considrable, et par les colons qui sont peine cinq cents,
tous marchands de comestibles ou de vin. A Philippeville on croit tre dans une ville romaine
qui vient dtre dtruite par quelque tremblement de terre. Vous savez que cest lancienne
Rusicada des Romains. Cette ville a d tre considrable, en juger par les ruines immenses
qui couvrent le sol. Ce sont des pans de muraille, des votes, des fts de colonnes renverses,
de belles citernes trs-bien conserves, des aqueducs, un cirque presque entier, des arnes, etc.
La situation de cette ville est charmante: je ne doute pas quelle ne devienne par la suite la plus
belle ville Franco-Africaine de toute la rgence dAlger.
[
296]Anon_Blackwoods_1841_186: M. Blanqui [Report on Algeria, read to the Academy of
Moral and Political Sciences, by M. Blanqui, sen. Paris, 1839: Blanqui, Jrme-Adolphe, economist] states, that the system of petty dealing and underhand nefarious practices carried on in
Algiers itself, is beyond all belief; he stigmatizes it as an immense wine-shop. In 1833, the consumption of French wine in Algiers was, he informs us, valued at 1,200,000 francs; in 1836, at
3,000,000 francs; in 1837, at nearly 4,000,000 francs; in 1838, at 5,320,000 francs; and for 1839,
was estimated at more than 6,500,000 francs. The population of Algiers, Blanqui adds, has
only doubled since 1833, but the consumption of wine has been quintupled! The conduct of
the French settlers and the other inhabitants in the social relations of the sexes, appears to have
been profligate in the extreme, the polygamous arrangements of the Oriental Harem being universally adopted, while the mysterious secrecy of that system degenerated into a system of open
and unlimited concubinage.
[
297]Malte-Brun_1858_2122 Philippeville: La ville romaine avait disparu depuis plusieurs
sicles, et une petite tribu arabe, les Beni-Melek, avaient tabli leurs gourbis sur ses ruines,

lorsque le 7 octobre 1838, aprs la prise de Constantine, le marchal Vale, voulant assurer entre
cette ville et la mer une communication plus courte que celle qui existait par Bne (83 kilomtres au lieu de 156), fit reconatre par les gnraux Ngrier et Galbois lancienne voie romaine
de Cirta Russicade, acheta aux Beni-Melek lemplacement de cette dernire ville et jeta les
fondements dune cit, qui allait prendre le nom du souverain qui rgnait alors en France. / Dixhuit jours suffirent pour lever le mur denceinte de la nouvelle ville, trois mille hommes y furent
employs. rig dabord en chef-lieu de cercle, puis en commissariat civil, Philippeville comptait
dj en 1840 prs de 4,000 habitants; en 1843 on y instituait un tribunal de premire instance;
enfin, en 1848, elle tait rige en sous-prtecture, et aujourdhui elle compte prs de 10,000 habitants; sous le rapport militaire elle dpend de la subdivision de Constantine.
[
298]Barbier_1855_193 Philippeville: Les anciens historiens nous apprennent que Russicada
tait le port naturel de Constantine; Lon lAfricain dit mme que de son temps (15121514)
on suivait encore une voie romaine en pierres noires qui reliait ces deux villes. En 1838, la ville
romaine nexistait plus, mais il en restait encore quelques vestiges, et le marchal Valle dcida
que sur ces ruines slverait la ville nouvelle.
[
299]Vars_1896_125126 Russicada and Stora, Amphitheatre: On va voir, par la description
que nous allons faire de cette grandiose construction, laide des dessins, coupes et plans de
Ravoisi, les seules traces qui en subsistent maintenant, combien est repoussant cet acte dinutile barbarie. / Inutile surtout, et cest ce qui provoque le plus lindignation. Ces superbes vestiges
ntaient-ils pas, en effet, bien loigns de lenceinte de la nouvelle ville, et pouvaient-ils mettre
obstacle son dveloppement? Quelle ncessit alors de les anantir, tandis que, partout ailleurs, on et respect pieusement, en vnrables reliques quelles taient, et sauv mme des
ravages du temps qui les avait peine entames, pendant quinze sicles dabandon, les vieilles
et majestueuses assises! / On se retranchera, sans doute, derrire lobligation stricte de mettre
promptement labri dun coup de main, par une muraille denceinte leve la hte, la ville qui
sortait de terre. Devant un pareil devoir, comment hsiter semparer de la carrire de blocs,
tout prts pour la pose, quoffraient les vieilles arnes? / Mais, hlas! cette excuse nest pas
mme prsentable. A qui fera-t-on croire, en effet, que lemploi de ces matriaux, arrachs, dailleurs, au prix de mille efforts, ait pu avancer de quelques jours, pour les trois mille hommes qui
furent chargs de cette oeuvre, lachvement dune muraille prsentant plus de 3 kilomtres de
dveloppement sur 6 mtres, environ, de hauteur? Quaux exigences dinnombrables matriaux
dont la mise en oeuvre fut ncessite par cette gigantesque construction, on ajoute celles, non
moins grandes, de ltablissement des forts et redoutes dont cette muraille est bastionne, et
quon nous dise dans quelles proportions les pierres du vnrable amphithtre ont pu contribuer ldification de ce grand ouvrage de dfense!
[
300]Tissot_1888_104 Russicada: Ltendue et la magnificence des ruines de Rusicada attestaient encore, en 1838, le rle quelle devait occuper dans la confdration des villes cirtsiennes.
Rusicade tait le port de Cirta et, lpoque du partage des pouvoirs entre le proconsul dAfrique
et le lgat imprial de Numidie, elle fut place sous la juridiction de ce dernier, pour faciliter ses
rapports directs avec Rome. / A lexception du thtre, tous les monuments de la ville antique
ont disparu: les matriaux ont t employs la construction de Philippeville et de son enceinte.
[
301]Vars_1896_6263 Russicada and Stora, Grand difice louest: Avant de nous lever,
dans la direction du Sud, vers les quartiers btis sur les pentes de cette colline, suivons lOuestSud-Ouest les redans de la muraille construite par le Gnie autour de la ville moderne. Avant
darriver au grand angle dont les cts sont dirigs, lun de lEst lOuest, et lautre du Nord
APPENDIX
au Sud-Ouest, nous nous trouverons sur lemplacement dun monument dont on a exhum de
belles colonnes de marbre dposes au Muse, mais dont aucun journal de fouilles ne nous a
fait connatre ni les dispositions, ni la destination probable. Cest l un exemple de lincurie et
du ddain pour lantiquit dont, malgr les instructions prcises du marchal Vale, sest rendu
coupable le Gnie, dans les premiers temps de la conqute. Nous aurons, plus tard, lui reprocher dautres mfaits bien plus regrettables encore. Les murs romains, trouvs sur ce point, et les
belles colonnes de marbre qui les prcdaient indiquaient la prsence dun grand difice public
dont on aurait d, au moins, tudier les dispositions, avant de les recouvrir jamais sous les
assises de la muraille denceinte, ou de faire servir cette construction leurs lgants matriaux.
[
302]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_18 Russicada: Tous ces vestiges, qui tmoignent de limportance de lancienne Rusiccada, de la solidit et de la grandeur de ses monuments, se voyaient
la surface du sol au moment o les Franais prirent possession de la plage et de la valle de
Skikda. Mais quand la pioche eut commenc remuer la terre pour y asseoir les fondations de
la nouvelle ville, elle mit au jour des inscriptions, des statues, des colonnes, des sculptures, et
surtout un norme amas de pierres de taille, hritage de gnrations depuis longtemps teintes
qui a dj fourni les matriaux dune cit neuve, et qui est loin encore dtre puis.
[
303]Fenech_1867_5 Philipppeville: Quoi quil en fut des frquentes alertes qui troublaient
nos nuits, jtais, le matin, debout le premier, et je suivais avec intrt nos travailleurs civils et
militaires, qui rendaient la lumire les dbris des difices romains. Quelquefois le pic ou la
pioche tremblait dans la main, le sol rendait un son creux; on sempressait: ctait le linceul de
marbre dun dile ou dun centurion, grandia ossa...
[
304]Poujoulat_1847_II_312313 Russicada/Philippeville: Les ruines des citernes de Rusicada
existent encore; mais jusqu ces derniers temps, on ignorait compltement comment elles
taient alimentes. Les uns imaginaient quelles taient remplies par des sources aujourdhui
perdues, les autres par des eaux pluviales. Cette dernire hypothse est la plus voisine de la
vrit; mais comme la contenance de ces citernes dpasse pour chacune plusieurs mille mtres
cubes, on concevait difficilement des pluies assez abondantes et assez prolonges pour y fournir. / Il vient dtre reconnu que les grandes citernes de Philippeville sont toutes alimentes par
un mme systme qui les fait dpendre les unes des autres. Celles qui sont situes mi-cte,
non loin de la place Royale, et celles qui se trouvent dans un grand soubassement dun ancien
difice, reoivent lune aprs lautre leur volume deau particulier. Les plus belles et les mieux
conserves se trouvent sur la montagne; leur ensemble se compose de cinq grandes salles ciel
ouvert, communiquant entre elles par des arcades. On a fait de grands travaux pour reconnatre
la source que lon croyait seulement dtourne; mais le service des ponts et chausses sest
convaincu que ces citernes ntaient alimentes que par un barrage, situ dans une des valles
suprieures, qui porte le nom de Bou-Melek.
[
305]Morell_1854_200 Philippeville: It appears that the Roman cisterns have been restored,
consisting of eight great basins, which had to be emptied. The walls, which were in a dilapidated
state, have been renewed.
[
306]SHD Gnie Art 8 Sect 1 Philippeville, Carton 1, 183940, 2 mmoires by Brincard, dated
1839.
[
307]Bertrand_1903_108 Philippeville: Conseil municipal, sance du 10 aot 1859. Le Maire
soumet au Conseil un projet dress par lIngnieur des Ponts et Chausses pour lappropriation des citernes romaines sous le thtre; au moyen de cette appropriation on pourrait utiliser
une grande quantit deau qui se perd toutes les annes dans le ravin, faute de rcipient pour

la recueillir. Le Maire ajoute que depuis que ce projet lui a t prsent, dautres citernes plus
vastes ont t dcouvertes sur la montagne proximit de celles qui servent actuellement de
rservoir et il demande sil ne conviendrait pas de commencer les travaux dappropriation de
ces dernires avant de commencer ceux du thtre. Le Conseil, aprs examen du projet prsent
par lIngnieur, considrant quen effet les citernes rcemment dcouvertes sur la montagne ont
lavantage sur celles du thtre dtre plus grandes et de pouvoir desservir toute la ville, tandis
que les autres ne peuvent distribuer leau que dans le quartier le plus bas de la marine et quil
convient, par consquent, de donner la priorit celles de la montagne, dcide dajourner les
travaux dappropriation des citernes places sous le thtre.
[
308]SHD Gnie Art 8 Sect 1 Philippeville, Carton 1, 183940, 2 Mmoires by Brincard, dated
1839.
[
309]SHD H230 bis, Mmoires divers 184459: Notice sur le manque deau Philippeville et
Stora et sur les travaux xecuter pour y rmdier, 1843, 2.
[
310]SHD H227 Mmoires divers: 1839, Reconnaissances faites dans la province de Constantine
en 1837, 1838 & 1839, 1839, 69 pages; see 49, 53.
[ ]
311 SHD Gnie, Article 8 Section 1 Algrie, Mmoires gnraux, 1843, carton 5: Le
Commandant Niel, Reconnaissance sur Stora, 13 April 1838, 34.
[
312]Le_Mis_de_Massol_1860_178: Nous avons pu considrer le joli petit port de Stora et
Philippeville, lantique Russicada dtruite au quatrime sicle. On y voit encore de fort beaux
vestiges dun vaste cirque, les loges de lamphithtre sont bien conserves, et un grand nombre
de statues en marbre plus ou moins mutiles rappellent lpoque de la grandeur romaine.
[
313]Vars_1896_1 the amphitheatre at Russicada: Quand les troupes du gnral Ngrier,
parties de Constantine quelles avaient enleve, lanne prcdente, dans un assaut hroque,
sapprochrent, pour la premire fois, du rivage de lancien golfe de Numidie, elles se trouvrent
tout coup, le 10 Avril 1838, en prsence dun amphithtre romain assis au bas dune montagne
couverte de myrtes et doliviers. il tait dune telle conservation quon aurait pu croire, dit un
auteur presque contemporain, que, la veille encore, les spectateurs avaient pris place sur les
gradins peine noircis de la rouille des sicles. / A environ cinq cents mtres de l, vers le NordOuest, sur deux collines et dans le ravin quelles formaient entre elles, surgissaient les ruines
de la vieille cit dont la population sentassait, les jours de fte, sur les gradins du vaste difice.
[
314]Gsell_1901_I_201 Amphitheatres: Celui de Philippeville, qui se trouvait lextrmit
sudest de Rusicade, tait encore en bon tat lors de la conqute franaise. En 1845, le gnie militaire le dmolit jusquaux fondations.
[
315]Delamare_1858_25: nous avons utiliss les restes des ponts qui avaient servi aux
Romains pour franchir ces petites rivires, en les faisant entrer dans la construction de nos ponceaux modernes...Une suite non interrompue de villas ruines bordait le chemin...Plusieurs
salles renfermaient les restes de grossires mosaques.
[
316]Bliard_1854_13: Stora sert aujourdhui de port et de rade Philippeville, dont elle nest
loigne que dune lieue et demie. On traverse pour y arriver quatre ponts placs sur les cours
deau qui descendent de la montagne et vont se jeter la mer. Les fondations de ces ponts sont
de construction romaine. Au-dessus et au-dessous de la route le versant de la montagne est couvert de ruines romaines qui disparaissent bientt, comme si elles avaient honte de leur grandeur
dchue.
[
317]Delamare_1858__3444 for description of une de ces grandes villas dont les historiens
romains nous ont laiss de si surprenantes descriptions set above a ravine, on the left of the
APPENDIX
road, between it and the sea: cf. his plan of Stora, with the villa and its impressive waterworks,
plus views on a separate plate.
[
318]2630 for the Roman villa between Stora and Russicada. 30: Bien que nous ne puissions
dcrire que cette seule villa sur la belle route de Stora Rusicade, il est certain quelle ntait pas
unique. De nombreux restes taient encore dissmins et l, il y a une trentaine dannes, sur
les coteaux qui bordent la mer. Le commandant de la Mare en a pris mme quelques croquis,
mais le pic des dmolisseurs a depuis longtemps dsagrg leurs assises, sans que personne ait
song les tudier et les dcrire.
[
319]SHD MR H227, 3536 for Colonel Niels Reconnaissance, his notes on Stora [he ended up
a Marchal]: Lorsque larme franaise a pris possession de la rade de Stora en octobre 1838, la
disposition des lieux nous a forc de suivre la trace des Romains, et Philippeville a t tablie sur
les ruines de Russicada; les hauteurs qui dominent la ville et la rade ont t occup par des forts
et on a rtablie lancienne voie qui conduisait au mouillage de Stora. Il ne reste de lancienne
ville romaine que beaucoup de ruines et des belles citernes qui, protges par la terre qui les
enveloppe ou les recouvre, se conservent partout bien plus long temps que les constructions
leves au dessus du sol.
[
320]SHD MR H227, 5556, Colonel Niels Reconnaissance, writing of a camp between
Constantine and Philippeville, on the right bank of the Oued Semendore, at 30km from
Constantine, the author notes: les Romains avaiant tabli un poste un peu au-dessus du camp
actuel; une caserne retranche sur le mme emplaement et avec les pierres de lancien poste
romain suffirait pour garder cette position so the French are building with spolia, just like
the Byzantines before them.
[
321]Leo_Africanus_1896_704 MS completed 1526, Sucaicada viz Russicada, Philippeville:
From the said hauen to Constantina the high way is paued with certaine black stones, such as
are to be scene in some places of Italie, being there called Le strade Komane, which is a manifest
argument, that Sucaicada was built by the Romans.
[
322]Bliard_1854_56 Philippeville: A Philippeville, on dcouvre trs-souvent de prcieux
restes de lart romain. Un de mes amis ma racont quen 1844, se trouvant dans une rue, il vit des
ouvriers paveurs retirer, quelques dcimtres de la terre, deux statues de grande dimension
assez bien conserves. Ces statues sont aujourdhui au muse dAlger. Mais les dbris de lart et
de la splendeur de lancienne Rusicada ne reoivent pas tous les mmes honneurs. Jai vu dans
la cour dune maison de Philippeville un trs-beau fragment de colonne de marbre servir dauge
des chevaux.
[
323]Fraud_1875_462 Philippeville: Depuis trente-cinq ans que notre drapeau a t arbor
par le marchal Vale sur les ruines de Rusicada: une ville franaise, reprsentant une valeur
de constructions de toutes sortes de prs de trente millions, a remplaces pauvres gourbis qui
reposaient sur les dbris de la cit romaine. Le fond de ce ravin dbouchant la mer, jadis rempli de broussailles impntrables, est devenu une longue et large rue borde de belles maisons
arcades sous lesquelles le promeneur trouve un abri contre le soleil ou la pluie. Cest la rue
Nationale.
[
324]Mac_Carthy_1858_434435 Philippeville becomes seat of a commissaire civil in 1841:
Cest donc une cration toute franaise, qui a le caractre de toutes les villes que nous avons leves en Algrie, des rues droites bien perces, assez bien bties et parmi lesquelles se distingue
la grande rue, borde darcades qui la traverse de part en part, de la mer la porte principale.
On y remarque lglise, les casernes, lhpital, la sous-prfecture, les vieilles citernes romaines

compltement restaures, quelques dbris antiques, la ppinire et la nouvelle place darmes.
Elle a un petit thtre, un collge, des coles communales, et trois usines vapeur.
[
325]Gsell_1901_I_108 Russicada: La proximit des carrires de marbre du Filfila avait permis aux habitants de Rusicade un luxe de construction qui ne se retrouvait pas dans des cits
romaines plus importantes. De tous ces monuments, on na gure respect que le thtre; encore
a-t-il servi de carrire pendant plusieurs annes.
[
326]Vars_1896_63 Russicada, Grand difice louest: Les murs romains, trouvs sur ce point,
et les belles colonnes de marbre qui les prcdaient indiquaient la prsence dun grand difice public dont on aurait d, au moins, tudier les dispositions, avant de les recouvrir jamais
sous les assises de la muraille denceinte, ou de faire servir cette construction leurs lgants
matriaux.
[
327]Vars_1896_116117 Russicada and Stora, monuments on the right bank: Il est probable
que lors de la construction de lhpital militaire, dans la deuxime anne de la prise de possession de lancien territoire de Rusicade, on dcouvrit, sur ce point, de nombreuses substructions,
mais tout a t dtruit par le Gnie, aucune tude pralable.
[
328]Dondin-Payre_1994_1718: Si les habitants de Philippeville tiennent avoir une muse,
quils le forment eux-mmes, quau lieu de les briser, comme il arrive frquemment, quils
apportent dans un local ce destine les objets antiques quils trouveront; quils se mettent en
mesure de dblayer le thatre, les citernes, quils arrtent la destruction du cirque devenue une
carrire de pierres toutes tailles. Mais personne ne contestera au gouvernement qui fait tant
de dpenses pour ce pays le droit de pouvoir, de son ct, runir les fragments antiques trouvs
dans les fouilles faites avec son argent because, indeed, much of the digging is done by soldiers,
for which the Government paid. The author reproduces (19) a receipt signed by Delamare for
work at Djemila in 1843.
[
329]Fenech_1867_155: Il y avait, il y a vingt-sept ans, dans un ravin au sortir de Philippeville,
les ruines imposantes dun cirque romain. Les gradins, les vomitoires, taient encore parfaitement visibles, et leurs profondes assises avaient t peine branles par les sicles.
[
330]Fraud_1875_83 on Philippeville, the circus when the French arrived: Les arcades des
vomitoires taient encore debout, les gradins encore en place; mais dans le centre, nourrie par
le sable long temps engraiss de sang, slevait une fort doliviers, dormes, de myrthes et de
lauriers roses, tandis que partout sur les troncs et sur les marbres, le lierre toujours vert tendait ses lianes. Ces arbres sont tombs sous la hache et le monument a t, pierre pierre,
enlev pour lrection de la ville moderne. Rien nen reste plus que lnorme massif qui servait
de base.
[
331]Carron_1859_64 Philippeville: Les citernes dont je viens de parler sont un magnifique
monument quon pourrait aujourdhui mettre profit, comme au temps du peuple-roi. Il est
dans un tat parfait de conservation et il ny aurait qu rtablir le conduit qui des citernes amenait leau dans la ville. Jai parcouru le thtre romain quon venait de dcouvrir et dont on suivait aisment la configuration; jy ai vu des statues quon avait tires des ruines et qui semblaient
tre tombes la veille du ciseau de lartiste.
[
332]Fraud_1875_8485 on Philippeville: Les ruines des bains de Rusicada taient au centre
de la ville romaine, sur la gauche de la rue Nationale actuelle; ce sont maintenant les caves ou
magasins de ladministration militaire. Ce qui en reste tmoigne de leur magnificence. L le sol
tait partout couvert de colonnes de marbre. Dnormes chapiteaux gisaient auprs de fts de
plus dun mtre de diamtre. Les magasins de rserve taient sous la place de la Marine. Les
APPENDIX
restes des difices publics ou privs de lancienne Rusicada: cirque, thtre, thermes, magasins,
fontaines, statues et mosaques, monuments qui rendent lisibles sur le sol quelques lignes de
son histoire ignore, nous donnent une image confuse de sa splendeur passe.
[
333]Andry_1868_136 Philippeville: La ville ancienne dut tenir un rang distingu dans la province, en juger par les dbris quelle nous a lgus. Ce sont, lintrieur, un muse install dans
un thtre romain, monument trs-curieux lui-mme: des statues, des bustes, des fragments
darchitecture, des inscriptions, des mdailles et des poteries. Ce sont, au dehors, des tombeaux,
des colonnes, des chapiteaux normes qui appartenaient videmment un difice grandiose,
des mosaques dont lune dcorait probablement la salle de bain dune villa, et surtout des
citernes que lon rencontre chaque pas.
[
334]Fraud_1875_8283 on Philippeville: A voir les dbris exhums, on peut supposer que
Rusicada tait toute entire construite de colonnes de marbre et de granit. Ce ntait pas sans
tonnement, en effet, quon y rencontrait chaque pas des socles ou des chapiteaux, des statues
dun beau travail, mais sur lesquels semblait stre acharne la main de la destruction. Plus tard,
lorsquon a retrouv, dans les masses granitiques du cap de Fer, des carrires conservant encore
des traces dexploitation, on sest expliqu la beaut des matriaux, mais on nen admire pas
moins le peuple qui donnait toutes ses villes le cachet de son gnie et de sa grandeur.
[
335]Roget_1860_3 Usefully gives some find-spots, such as #36, Fragment dune face de statuette recueilli en 1857 sur la route de Stora...Un casseur de pierres avait accompli loeuvre
de destruction, pour lempierrement de la route; #61 Formation calcaire ayant la forme dune
chaussure humaine. Trouve Philippeville, en 1858, dans une pierre de taille en grs, provenant dune construction romaine, laquelle sest dlite alors quun tailleur de pierres la recoupait
pour un nouvel usage.
[
336]Vars_1896_193 Russicada and Stora, columns in the museum: Ces colonnes, ellesmmes, ont laiss dimportantes traces. Mais le Muse les conserve en beaucoup moins grand
nombre que leurs chapiteaux. Ce nest pas l, comme on pourrait le croire, un simple effet du
hasard, mais une preuve du peu de zle quont mis jadis les constructeurs signaler la dcouverte des dbris antiques sur leurs chantiers, et surtout respecter ces vestiges. Les colonnes,
en effet, leur offraient des matriaux bien plus utiles et plus faciles adapter leurs maonneries que les chapiteaux aux surfaces ingales. Aussi en ont-ils livr beaucoup moins aux divers
conservateurs du Muse.
[
337]Claparde_1896_89 Roman theatre at Philippeville: on a install dans lhmicycle un
muse archologique en plein air, o lon a runi les antiquits romaines provenant des ruines
de Rusicade que la construction de Philippeville a fait mettre au jour. On y voit des dbris
darchitecture, des inscriptions votives et funraires, des colonnes de diffrents ordres et
quelques statues, entre autres celle de lempereur Hadrien, qui achvent de se dtriorer sous
laction des intempries auxquelles une administration imprvoyante les a exposes.
[
338]Bertrand_1903_190 contents of the museum at Philippeville: 61 colonnes, 52 bases, 106
chapiteaux, 9 statues, 6 bustes, 8 statuettes, 1 cadran solaire, 10 bornes et colonnes milliaires;
presque tous ces vestiges sont en marbre du Filfla. En outre: 15 sarcophages, dont plusieurs
sont remarquables, 1 dolium dune capacit de 1.000 litres, 1 beau mdaillon en mosaque reprsentant Bacchus; des ttes, des torses, des fragments de statues, des moulins, des margelles de
puits, etc., plus un grand nombre de poteries, de lampes, dobjets en verre, en os, en bronze et en
plomb et 174 inscriptions.

[
339]Vars_1896_205 Russicada and Stora: Par cet aperu rapide et succinct, on peut se faire
aisment une ide de limportance et de la richesse des souvenirs de lantiquit que reclait ce
point du littoral algrien, et que notre occupation a exhums. Mais combien manquent lappel
dans ce Muse pourtant si riche! Avec quelle ardeur de Vandales les a-t-on soustraits la science
du pass, soit pour les dbiter en matriaux de construction, dans le vain espoir dconomiser la
main doeuvre, soit pour en faire trafic. Combien eussent-ils mieux travaill dans lintrt de leur
ville et, par suite, dans le leur propre, tous ceux qui ont dtruit ou fait disparatre les vestiges de
lantiquit, sils staient efforcs de les livrer aux zls conservateurs qui se succdent, depuis
de longues annes, au Muse! Ils eussent aisment constitu, en raison de labondance des vestiges quils ont rencontrs, un vritable centre dattraction et dtude, non seulement pour les
archologues de profession, mais encore pour une innombrable quantit de gens du monde qui,
sans tre vritablement entendus sur lantiquit, sintressent pourtant tout ce qui la rappelle.
Les savants et les amateurs se fussent donn rendez-vous Philippeville, ce qui et imprim un
vritable essor aux affaires et incontestablement accru la prosprit gnrale.
[
340]Bertrand_1903_526 excavations in the Lesueur property near Philippeville: Les sarcophages, en marbre, dont nous avons retrouv de nombreux fragments dans le mausole et surtout aux alentours, ont t briss et disperss en un si grand nombre de morceaux (nous en
avons dterr prs de ldicule vot, 90 mtres environ du monument), quil est certain que
ce nest pas la chute des murs et de la vote, mais bien la volont des hommes quil faut attribuer leur destruction. Certains fragments cependant sont encore assez gros pour former le tiers
ou le quart dun mme tombeau. Ce nest pas non plus pour violer ces tombes, dans lespoir dy
trouver des objets prcieux, quon les a dtruits et jets au vent un infinit de petits dbris, mais
certainement dans lintention de sen dbarrasser et de les faire disparatre. Dans quel dessein?
Il est impossible de sen rendre compte exactement.
[
341]Bertrand_1903_524 excavations in the Lesueur property near Philippeville: Afin de ne
pas laisser un seul instant sans surveillance lquipe douvriers kabyles, fort intelligents et actifs
dailleurs, que M. Lesueur avait mis notre disposition, nous nous sommes assur le concours
dun de nos concitoyens, un artiste peintre aussi dvou larchologie quhabile dans son art,
M. Louis Haas-Sidi.
[
342]Bertrand_1903_536537 excavations in the Lesueur property near Philippeville: ayant
lintention bien arrte de veiller la conservation des monuments romains de sa villa, M.
Lesueur a fait entourer dun solide grillage lensemble des ruines du mausole, de la ncropole,
de ldicule vot et de la salle de bains, ruines dont la disposition au moment des dcouvertes
a t soigneusement conserve. / Une telle preuve dintrt donne la science archologique
est assez rare pour tre propose en exemple tous ceux qui trouvent quil est utile de fournir de
nouveaux documents lhistoire de lAfrique du Nord.
[
343]Nodier_1844_218 Stif: Loccupation de cette importante position, rsolue depuis
longtemps, parat devoir devenir dfinitive: M. le marchal ordonne au commandant du gnie
de presser ltude du terrain et de commencer immdiatement les travaux. / Pendant les journes suivantes, douze cents travailleurs dinfanterie sont mis la disposition de M. le colonel
Bellonnet, commandant le gnie de larme.
[
344]Shaw_1738_107 Stif: the Arabs have been so very severe to it, that there is scarce one
Fragment left us of either Wall, Pillar, or Cistern of the Romans: the few remaining Structures,
being obviously the Work of the later Inhabitants. The Fountains in the Middle of the City are
equally delightful and convenient; and without Doubt, gave formerly occasion to several ingenious and useful Contrivances in the Distribution of the Water.
APPENDIX
[
345]Carron_1859_99100 unnamed town near Stif: Notre tonnement cessa quand on nous
dit Stif que ces ruines, o nous avions admir de magnifiques pierres et des blocs normes
taills par les Romains, taient comme une carrire do lon tirait une partie des matriaux
ncessaires pour les grands difices alors en construction dans cette dernire ville. Nous nous
assmes sur ces ruines, comme autrefois Marius sur celles de Carthage, mais moins plaindre
que lui. Nous fmes en attendant la caravane de graves rflexions: les Romains, disions-nous,
ont tendu jusquici leur empire, ils y ont possd une riche province. Ces ruines qui gisent l
en sont une preuve frappante. Les Franais qui leur ont succd refairont-ils ce quy avaient fait
les vainqueurs du monde? Ils ont pour y russir des moyens qui manquaient aux Romains: avec
la vapeur ils sillonnent en se jouant la Mditerranne que les premiers mettaient longtemps
traverser et o sengloutissaient si souvent leurs vaisseaux. Ils avaient cr sur ces plateaux des
routes dont nous avons tant de fois dans ce voyage retrouv et admir les restes. Les Franais
peuvent facilement, quand ils le voudront, les couvrir de rails et de wagons. La culture des
Romains tait peu avance.
[
346]SHD, Papiers Pelet, carton 1319, Section VI is a Mmoire signed Boiven and dated 30
January 1832, on military/topographical dispositions in Algeria. Of Stif, he notes that the ruins
have about a league of circumference, and Il y reste encore une btisse carre trs solide dont
les turcs se servaient comme de magasin, ce qui pourrait tre utile comme forteresse ou logement pour 800 hommes. Je dois remarquer que de Mejanah Stiff et de Stiff Constantine,
toutes les 3 ou 4 lieues, il y a des restes dantiquits romaines prs desquelles sont gnralement
de grandes fontaines ou des ruisseaux.
[
347]Bonnafont_1883_364, in Algeria 18301842, of Stif: nous fmes tous dans ladmiration,
en prsence des ruines si bien conserves de cette ancienne cit romaine...Les deux jours passs ce bivouac furent employs visiter les ruines si intressantes de lancienne Sitifis, dont les
murs denceinte parfaitement conservs, semblaient tre dune date rcente.
[
348]Rozet_and_Carette 1850_116117 Stif: Cest en 1838 que les Franais prirent possession
des ruines de Stif, appels par les indignes eux-mmes, qui leur avaient rvl limportance
de cette position. Ils y trouvrent les restes de deux enceintes fortifies, dges diffrents, de
grandeur ingale. / La premire, leve, suivant toute apparence, dans les beaux jours de la colonie romaine, embrassait un espace denviron 1000 mtres de longueur sur 900 de largeur. La
seconde, contemporaine de lempire grec, se rduisait un rectangle long de 450 mtres, large
de 300. Dans langle occidental de cette enceinte slevait encore, presque intacte, lancienne
acropole, carr long de 150 mtres sur 120. / Les murs de cette seconde enceinte nont pas moins
de trois mtres dpaisseur. Parmi les pierres employes dans la construction, plusieurs portent
des inscriptions et des moulures; ce qui prouve quelles proviennent dautres monuments sur
lesquels une premire destruction avait pass. / Il ne restait au moment de lentre des Franais
Stif que le soubassement de la premire enceinte, envahi sur plusieurs points par la terre et
les dcombres, des restes beaucoup mieux conservs de la seconde, et un immense amas de
pierres da taille jetes ple-mle sur les cent hectares de terrain quoccupait la colonie romaine.
Un tremble colossal couvrait de son ombre la porte de lancienne citadelle et la source limpide
qui baigne le pied de ses murs. Il abritait des myriades doiseaux rfugis sous son large feuillage; ctaient l les seuls htes de cette antique cit, au moment o les Franais vinrent la doter
dune vie nouvelle. Il existe dans les ruines de Stif un grand nombre dinscriptions latines. Lune
delles ma paru intressante, parce quelle semble annoncer lexistence dune colonie juive Stif
antrieurement la dispersion du peuple dIsral. Je lai trouve sur une pierre renverse au pied
de la seconde enceinte, parmi dautres dbris pars et informes; en voici la traduction littrale:

Avilia Ester (aster) Judea. M. Avilius Janarius, pre de la synagogue, sa fille chrie./ La population
actuelle de Stif se compose de 606 Europens, dont 440 Franais, et de 413 indignes, dont 307
musulmans, 8 ngres et 98 Isralites, sans compter la population indigne flottante, qui est de
93 personnes.
[
349]Poinssot_1885_22 Teboursouk: Les Arabes lont entirement entoure dun mur denceinte qui, du ct du sud-est, emprunte une partie des fortifications antiques...A lintrieur,
cest un ddale inextricable de ruelles tortueuses et troites bordes de maisons basses bties
avec les dbris de la ville romaine, couronnes de terrasses et blanchies la chaux. Les coupoles
et les minarets de plusieurs belles mosques dominent cet ensemble do Ion voit encore merger dnormes pans de murs englobs dans les constructions. Ce sont les restes de lancienne
forteresse btie la fin du sixime sicle par le prfet Thomas. Ces remparts slvent sept ou
huit mtres de hauteur; du ct du sud-est, ils forment encore langle de lenceinte de la ville. L
ils sont rests presque intacts, ils ont conserv entire une porte dcore de motifs darchitecture, ainsi que la courtine dont elle est flanque et dans lintrieur de laquelle existent plusieurs
pices votes, occupes par un moulin huile.
[
350]Chabassire_1866_113 Gomtre du Service Topographique, Teboursouk/Thubursicum:
Il y a, sous les vestiges apparents, les preuves incontestables de cinq ou six rdifications successives; chaque coup de pioche donn sous les dbris fait apparatre une nouvelle disposilion du
sol et des matriaux qui le recouvrent. Cest dabord le genre grossier des constructions arabes
modernes, puis celui un peu plus rgulier des Maures, dans lequel on commence retrouver un
dallage informe fait indiffremment avec des dbris de mosaques, du grs ou du marbre; plus
loin, ce sont des sculptures grco-byzantines, puis le bouleversement des Vandales; et sous ce
chaos de dallage, de briquetage, de cailloutis et de dmolitions, on met la main sur des marbres
rares et sur des fragments d la belle- poque romaine.
[
351]Fraud_18711872_7 Stif: La colonne de Constantine, retenue Mila pendant quatre
jours par les pluies, arriva enfin le 15 dcembre [1838] Setif, la Sitifis colonia des Romains.
La splendeur passe de celle capitale mauritanienne se rvlait par des ruines considrables,
au milieu desquelles tait encore debout une citadelle rectangulaire flanque de dix tours, et
dont les matriaux, runis sans ordre, rappelaient une autre poque de lhistoire de la restauration byzantine. A langle nord-ouest, slevait un btiment soutenu par des colonnes retires
des ruines, qui avait servi la rception et lemmagasinage des grains de limpt achour du
temps des Turcs, et dont la toiture et les charpentes avaient t enleves par les Arabes dans les
dernires annes danarchie du rgne dAhmed bey.
[
352]Fraud_18711872_8: Une colonne revint Setif en 1839 et y fit un sjour de six
semaines; elle laissa, en se retirant, cinq compagnies dinfanterie qui sinstallrent dans la citadelle, sappuyant sur les postes intermdiaires de Djemila, Mahalla et Mila, qui reliaient Setif
Constantine. / Dans les premiers mois de 1840, lancien magasin turc de lachour avait t recouvert et converti en magasin des subsistances au rez-de-chausse, et en hpital au premier tage.
Les brches de la citadelle avaient t releves la hte, et seulement de manire la mettre
labri dun coup de main.
[
353]Journal des Dbats Politiques et Littraires 13 November 1839, Report from Vale to the
Minister of War, 4 November 1839: Stif est, vous le savez, Monsieur le ministre, le point la stratgique [sic] du plateau qui stend entre les monts Aurs et la premire chane de lAtlas; toutes
les routes qui conduisent au Biban passent sous le canon de ce fort; les communications qui
APPENDIX
conduisent de Constantine Bougie, & Zamorah, & la partie du dsert qui se prolonge derrire
les montagnes dOunuougah, viennent aboutir aux ruines de lancienne Sitifis Colonia. Cette
position est videmment la base temporaire doprations de larme qui doit manoevrer dans
le sud de la province. Avant de mloigner, je fis rparer le fort romain qui existe encore; je lui
donnai le nom de Fort-dOrlans, et je prescrivis de prparer des projets de constructions pour
former autour un vaste et important tablissement.
[
354]SHD MR1314 Tacot, Notice sur la subdivision de Stif, 20 August 1848: on peut se faire
une ide de son importance par les ruines que nous dcouvrons tous les jours et au milieu desquelles existait encore il y a quelques annes, une citadelle rectangulaire flanque de dix grosses
tours. On voit encore les dbris dune enceinte Grco-romaine, trs bien construite, qui a pu tre
restaure et faire partie de lenceinte actuelle.
[
355]SHD MR H229, General Charon, Mmoire militaire sur lAlgrie, 1848, 336. Baudicour_
1853_47 Stif: Les vestiges que nos troupes ont retrouvs plus de onze sicles aprs sa destruction par les Arabes, tmoignent de la solidit que les Romains avaient su donner leurs tablissements. Le circuit des murailles tait denviron 4 kilomtres; elles taient protges par
dix-sept tours. Les murs de la citadelle, denviron 3 mtres dpaisseur, taient galement flanqus de tours.
[
356]Barbier_1855_180 Stif: Larme franaise, en y entrant le 29 septembre 1839, lors de
la fameuse expdition des Bibans, ny trouva que les ruines de lancienne citadelle romaine.
Nanmoins, en raison de son importance militaire, son occupation fut dcide, et au milieu
de ces ruines, on construisit le fort dOrlans, autour duquel vinrent se grouper les maisons qui
constituent aujourdhui la ville nouvelle.
[
357]Anon_1845_9596: Lexpdition de Bibans sapprte-t-elle, toute la portion disponible
du corps, jusqu ses fivreux et convalescents, se reporte en tte davant-garde Stif, pour y
recevoir les tmoignages de satisfaction de M. le Gouverneur gnral, pour y tre honor des
regards et des bonts du prince royal, le duc dOrlans. / Ce que jai rencontr de plus remarquable en Afrique, disait S. A. R. ce sujet, cest de trouver sur des ruines romaines un drapeau
franais dfendu par des Turcs.
[
358]SHD MR 1317 61 Tacot, Notice sur la subdivision de Stif 20 August 1848. On the
ancient Sitifis Cononia, on peut se faire une ide de son importance par les ruines que nous
dcouvrons tous les jours et au milieu desquelles existait encore il y a quelques annes, une citadelle rectangulaire flanque de dix grosses tours. On voit encore les dbris dune enceinte Grcoromaine, trs bien construite, qui a pu tre restaure et faire partie de lenceinte actuelle.
French occupation began here in 1839, he says.
[
359]Nodier_1844_221 the Roman enceinte at Stif: Cette premire enceinte est aujourdhui
rase au niveau du sol; ses matriaux ont du servir la construction de lenceinte du Bas-Empire,
dont une partie subsiste encore.
[
360]Zouave_1860_79: The undulating plateau, which extends between Setif and this plain,
has a striking resemblance to that of La Beauce; whilst the Roman ruins, scattered over its surface, prove the former opulence of this ancient province, which was then deservedly styled the
granary of Rome. The site of Setif is literally heaped with ruins; and the walls of the old citadel,
hastily constructed out of dbris of every sort, still attest the desperate resistance made by the
Lieutenant of Belisarius, at the moment whea the old, tottering Roman world was everywhere
beginning to give way under the efforts of the Barbarians.

[
361]Carron_1859_113: Avant de quitter Stif, nous visitmes en dtail le mur denceinte qui
remonte lpoque de la restauration greco-romaine et quon appelle le mur de Blisaire. Il est
construit depuis le bas jusquau haut en pierres de taille, trs grandes et parfaitement ajustes.
Les Franais lont continu pour clorre Stif; mais le mur que nous avons ajout nest, devant ce
majestueux rempart, quun mur de jardin.
[
362]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903, Plan densemble des environs de Stif, 31 July
1844.
[
363]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903: Mmoire sur les Projets pour 1844, 1 May
1844, Apostilles du Chef de Gnie. In 1841, 110,000 francs were spent on the fortifications at Stif,
and 1,020,000 francs on military buildings. 1844: lots of references to work needed to Organiser
lenceinte romaine de la tour abc la tour xyz.
[
364]SHD GR1H910 Gnie, Direction de Constantine. 1844 Mmoire sur la Place de Stif,
5: Outre ces ruines romaines (the enceintes) on a trouv quelques dbris de monuments
arabes...Malheureusement les ruines que des sicles ont entasses les unes sur les autres ne
sont mises jour que par les fouilles ncssites par les constructions nouvelles. Compare another memo of the same year, 1844 Mmoire militaire sur Stif, 25: Outre de bonnes carrires
places aux portes de la ville, on a dans son enceinte mme, une immense quantit de pierres
de taille romaines qui coup sr ne seront pas puises avant la fin des constructions militaires
de Stif. Les dbris de ces pierres servent pour faire de la chaux, la carrire do les romains les
tiraient nest qu quelques kilomtres de Stif.
[
365]Nodier_1844_216217 Stif: Les troupes reoivent lordre de faire des vivres pour une
semaine. Ltablissement de Stif demandait dailleurs des travaux considrables. Le bataillon
turc qui y tient garnison depuis quelques jours occupe lenceinte la plus moderne de la colonie
romaine tabtie aprs la grande invasion des Vandales. Cet ouvrage, auquel on a donne le nom
de fort dOrlans, avait encore deux faces en tat de dfense, mais que des amoncellements de
terre et de pierres rendaient faciles escalader sur plusieurs points. Lenceinte romaine paraissait dailleurs trop tendue pour tre dtendue par un corps peu nombreux. M. le marchal prescrit eu consquence dtablir dans lintrieur une coupure qui en rduit le dveloppement
des proportions convenables. / Des ordres sont donnes en mme temps pour rparer et couvrir
le plus tt possible les btiments construits par les Turcs dans lintrieur du fort; des mesures
sont galement prises pour rtablir les votes des tours antiques, destines servir de magasins
dapprovisionnement.
[
366]Nodier_1844_224 Stif: La citadette peut contenir mille hommes; une garnison de cette
force fournirait par jour cinq cents travailleurs, qui, en les supposant munis de tous les instruments et agrs ncessaires, mettraient lenceinte en tat de dfense en quinze ou vingt jours;
un seul bataillon pourrait ensuite perfectionner loeuvre et terminer eu deux ou trois mois les
travaux.
[
367]Fraud_18711872_10 Stif in 1842ff: Cependant larme navait pu suffire lrection de
tant dtablissements importants; il lui avait fallu le concours douvriers civils, que le prix lev
de la main-duvre avait attirs et qui formaient dj, la fin de 1843, avec les commerants, une
population de deux cents mes, non compris soixante-six indignes.
[
368]Nodier_1844_223224 Stif, citadel: La citadelle de Stif, laquelle, comme nous lavons
dit, on donn le nom de fort dOrlans, prsente une enceinte rectangulaire, flanquee par dix
tours. Ses murs, qui ont prs de neuf pieds dpaisseur, sont construits en belle pierre de taille,
qui, ainsi quon la fait observer pour la seconde enceinte, avaient servi prcdemment dautres
APPENDIX
constructions, ce quindiquent suffisamment les moulures et les inscriptions tumulaires quon
remarque sur plusieurs dentrelles. La hauteurs de lenceinte tait de plus de trente pieds, mais
en plusieurs endroits la partie suprieure du mur sest croule, et, au monument de larrive
de la colonne expditonnaire sur ce point, dnormes pierres de taille, recouvertes de terre ou
dcombres, donnaient en plusieurs endroits un accs facile dans la citadelle. Pour la rendre
propre la dfense, M. le marchal fait dblayer le pied de lescarpe de toutes les pierres qui
lencombraient, et prescrit de relever le mur, avec ces matriaux, jusqu seize pieds de hauteur. /
La partie la mieux conserve des btiments est la face nord-ouest; on conserve cette partie de
lenceinte toute son lvation en la rgularisant. / Les tours, qui sont en assez bon tat, pourront,
avec peu de travail, tre converties en magasins, et les belles fontaines qui sortent presque du
pied de lenceinte donneront constamment une eau abondante.
[
369]Desvaux_1909_227 eventually a cavalry general, at Stif in 1843: Il mest arriv aujourdhui
une de ces mystifications qui devrait dgoter jamais un antiquaire dune foi moins robuste
que la mienne. Cette inscription de Sour Ghozlan que Lacg et moi avions copie avec tant de
peines et de scrupules, sur laquelle nous btissions lespoir dune renomme quelconque par la
sensation que son apparition devait produire dans le mme savant, cette inscription qui dj
avait servi de texte habituel nos causeries, dont nous avions si souvent dnombr les richesses
historiques, eh bien en ouvrant de Shaw je lai trouve tout au long et beaucoup plus commplte
que la ntre, puisquelle avait t copie plus dun sicle avant et qualors la pierre tait moins
mutile. Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas!
[
370]Nodier_1844_222 Stif: Les matriaux employs pour la construction des murs de Stif
sont dun beau choix, mais ils rsistent peu aux influences atmosphriques; presque toutes les
inscriptions ont disparu.
[
371]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903.
[
372]SHD Gnie Art 8.1 Stif Carton 2 18457, Etat estimatif pour 1845, 1: quotes for maonnerie en pierres romaines prises sur la place et remplissage, under the heading Bardage des Pierres
Romaines bardage meaning carting or barrowing. 20 for the Batiment for foodstuffs, which
must have been built into a Roman structure, hence items for the rejointement des maonneries
Romaines. Same carton, Etat estimatif des dpenses faire aux fortifications de Stif 1847, 9:
Maonnerie en pierres romaines prises sur place et mortier ordinaire, noted for une partie de
lenceinte. But theyre also getting a lot of pierre de taille cut at the adjacent quarry.
[
373]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903, Captain Antonin, Mmoire militaire sur la
Place de Stif, .5.
[
374]SHD GR1H910 Gnie, Direction de Constantine. 1855 for Stif: Estimate of costs for
demolishing part of the Roman walls and using the materials elsewhere.
[
375]SHD MR1317 item 69, Tacot, Notice sur la subdivision de Stif, 20 August 1848.
[
376]SHD GR1H910 Gnie, Direction de Constantine. dossier contains a multi-page chart of
building work 184155, divided into enceinte btiments militaires travaux civils et de colonisation, which has notes on what happened to parts of the earlier enceintes. 1878 Mmoire
militaire sur la place de Stif with the same type of columned chart showing types of building
work. But under building materials there is no longer any reference to the reuse of Roman materials so presumably all consumed by now.
[
377]SHD Gnie, 1H415: Btiments militaires; cf. also the Travail relatif aux moyens demmagasinement crer dans les diverses places de la Division dAlger, undated.

[
378]Clamageran_1874_187188 Stif: Stif, lancienne Sitifis des Romains, est une petite ville
qui ne manque pas dlgance. Elle renferme 4074 habitants et avec sa banlieue 4867, dont environ 2000 Franais et 400 ou 500 trangers. Trs-prospre au moyen ge, elle a dclin sous le
gouvernement des Turcs. Nous lavons releve de ses ruines pour en faire un centre militaire
dabord, puis un centre civil et commercial. Elle est munie dune enceinte fortifie qui a t fort
utile contre linsurrection des tribus voisines en 1871. On y trouve une jolie mosque et une intressante collection dantiques expose en plein air.
[
379]Fraud_18711872_1617: La cration dun centre de population civile Stif date du 11
fvrier 1847...Stif est enfin le sige dun tribumal de premire instance depuis 1860. / Par dcret
du 26 avril 1853, une concession de vingt mille hectares de terres a t accorde une compagnie genvoise en vue de hter la colonisation europenne autour de Stif. Cette compagnie a
cr plusieurs villages, entre autres ceux dAn-Arnat, dEl Ouricia, de Bouhra, de Mahouan, de
Messaoud, dEl-Harmeiia et quelques fermes importantes. and at the time of writing, 46,000
hectares covered around Stif, with yet more villages.
[
380]Carteron_1866_407408 Stif: Enfin, nous arrivons trois heures Stif. On aperoit de
loin les casernes sur une lgre hauteur, puis le mur denceinte, et lon entre par une porte fortifie. Stif, qui renferme quatre cinq mille habitants europens, a laspect de toutes les petites
villes de France. Il est trs-proprement sain; les deux principales rues qui le traversent en entier,
sont celles de Constantine et de Sillgue, et la premire est plante de mriers qui font un assez
joli boulevard. Il y a ici, comme toujours, le quartier militaire part et clos de murs; mais,
lexception dun minaret ct du lavoir public et du Bureau arabe, rien nest remarquable pour
le voyageur, pas mme le jardin plant darbres au sortir de la ville. Les nombreuses pierres et
sculptures romaines qui le dcorent sont renverses et enfouies terre comme de vraies ruines,
et quelques fts, orns de chapiteaux qui ne sont pas les leurs, entourent, lextrmit dune
alle, une colonne supportant le buste du duc dOrlans.
[
381]Audollent_1890B_40: colonnes, chapitaux, moulins, amphores, inscriptions plus a
mosaic, described 4041.
[
382]Ratheau_1879_191192 Stif: La ville, quoiquelle soit dorigine fort ancienne, est nouvellement construite on sen aperoit la rgularit de ses rues larges et plantes. Une muraille
crnele rectangulaire, avec des tours carres leves de distance en distance, la protge contre
des insurrections possibles; en outre une citadelle ou bordj renfermant tous les tablissements
militaires est situe sur le ct qui est le plus lev. Une grande partie de ses murailles est de
construction romaine. En dbarquant de la diligence je trouvai le capitaine du gnie qui mattendait, et aprs la tasse de caf de rigueur, nous commenmes la visite de la ville, qui ne fut pas
bien longue. Le march extrieur attira davantage mon attention; mais elle ft excite surtout
par lancienne enceinte du bordj, autrefois Castellum romain. Elle est parfaitement conserve
avec ses tours carres places de distance en distance, bonne porte du trait; je navais encore
rien vu daussi complet en ce genre: les couronnements seuls manquent; les votes des tours
subsistent et elles recouvrent dexcellents silos o ladministration militaire conserve ses grains.
Quels soins ne fallait-il pas que les Romains apportassent dans leurs constructions pour leur
assurer une aussi longue dure!
[
383]Annales_Colonisation_1852_II_102. Ibid., 273 for the new settlement of Mondovi, near
to Bne, where a nudge was as good as a wink: Mondovi est bti sur lemplacement danciens tablissements romains dont les ruines encore subsistantes attestent limportance et
ltendue.
APPENDIX
384]Annales_Colonisation_1854_V_183187.
385]Annales_Colonisation_1856_IX_252257, Blaser, Chrtien, Relation dun voyage Stif:
see 255.
[
386]Paulard, S., Les Richesses de la Tunisie; ce que les Franais peuvent faire dans la rgence
de Tunis, Paris 1893, 60: LEnfida. Ce domaine, situ moiti chemin de Tunis Sousse, est le
plus tendu de la rgence. Sa superficie est de 120,000 hectares en terres cultivables, prairies et
forts. / Dix-sept villes avaient t construites par les Romains sur le territoire actuel de lEnfida.
Les ruines, dont quelques-unes grandioses qui en subsistent, tmoignent du degr de civilisation
et de la richesse de leurs anciens habitants./ La population de ces cits romaines tait de plus
de 150,000 habitants. / LEnfida est la proprit de la Socit agricole et immobilire franco-africaine; et ladministration de cet immense domaine est confie M. Mangiavacchi, directeur
gnral, en rsidence Enfidaville.
[
387]Belenet_1887_201, 213 around Enfida and the Oued Marouf Valley: Du haut de la montagne on distinguait les ruines de Houmt-el-Abouab (mre des portes), dont les trois arcs de
triomphe, les temples et les autres difices brillaient au soleil. Puis, dans le lointain, quatre
ou cinq autres ruines que la distance ne me permit pas de visiter. / Houmt-el-Abouab est bti
entre le confluent de deux rivires. Parmi les nombreux monuments que lon peut reconnatre,
les principaux sont: deux arcs de triomphe entiers, un troisime moins bien conserv, deux
temples, dont lun a encore dix colonnes, un thtre, un amphithtre, un pont, des tablissements de bains, un mausole, et, sur lemplacement dun grand temple, un chteau byzantin...De Mansourah, nous traversmes la valle de lOued Mahrouf pour regagner Kairouan,
nous dirigeant vers le Djebel Ousselet et le Djebel Chirichira. Nous avons rencontr plus de
douze mamelons couverts de ruines: sur lun deux se trouvait un mausole entier adjacent un
btiment absolument intact et contenant des chambres votes; sur un autre, les chambi-es de
nombreuses maisons taient encore parfaitement conserves. Dans ces ruines, dont la place est
difficile dterminer, du moins de manire les distinguer les unes des autres, jai recueilli de
nombreuses inscriptions toutes funraires.
[
388]Carron_1859_103 Stif: Mais je reviens notre entre. A mesure que nous avancions
dans Stif, le marteau du tailleur de pierres venait de toutes parts frapper nos oreilles. Nous ne
pouvions quavec peine marcher travers les blocs normes dont tait sem le vaste emplacement o slve lhpital. Stif avec ce bruit et tous ces difices qui sortaient de terre ou du milieu
des ruines me rappela Carthage naissante.
[
389]Crawford_1863_283: But although Setif affords a rich field for antiquarian research,
it wears on the surface a completely modern aspect. Such ruins, or ruinous relics, as are now
in existence hide themselves from observation, except outside the town, in the Promenade
dOrleans, where the statue of the late Duke presides over a goodly array of broken columns,
fragments of friezes, mutilated statues, and busts that made me sensibly feel that a nose is decidedly a highly ornamental appendage to the human face. Straight, wide streets; fresh, well-built
houses; and spacious squares, ornamented with trees, form the characteristic features of modern Setif.
[
390]Carteron_1866_407408 Stif: Stif, qui renferme quatre cinq mille habitants europens, a laspect de toutes les petites villes de France. Il est trs-proprement sain; les deux principales rues qui le traversent en entier, sont celles de Constantine et de Sillgue, et la premire
est plante de mriers qui font un assez joli boulevard. Il y a ici, comme toujours, le quartier militaire part et clos de murs: mais, lexception dun minaret ct du lavoir public et du Bureau
[
[

arabe, rien nest remarquable pour le voyageur, pas mme le jardin plant darbres au sortir de la
ville. Les nombreuses pierres et sculptures romaines qui le dcorent sont renverses et enfouies
terre comme de vraies ruines, et quelques fts, orns de chapiteaux qui ne sont pas les leurs,
entourent, lextrmit dune alle, une colonne supportant le buste du duc dOrlans, avec cette
inscription: Plantation cre par le 19 lger sous le commandement du gnral Sillgue 1842.
[
391]Ratheau_1879_192 Stif: De nombreux vestiges de constructions romaines se retrouvent
dans les environs de Stif, et on les a runis dans une jolie promenade bien ombrage, plante
lextrieur de la ville prs de la porte conduisant Aumale, vers Alger. Je fais le mme reproche
aux autorits municipales de Stif qu celles de Constantine; ces dbris curieux mriteraient
plus de soin de leur part, et pourraient tre disposs avec beaucoup plus dordre. Il en est un,
le plus curieux peut-tre, qui est rest entre les mains du service du gnie, cest une fort belle
mosaque qui est dans le salon du logement du chef de cet arme. Elle reprsente une figure
de femme qui na pas moins de deux mtres de diamtre; lovale de la figure est trop aplati, il
semble que lauteur ait pris pour modle le type de certaines femmes du pays; un encadrement
bien dessin entoure cette tte dont je nai pu trouver le sujet; rien na pu me lindiquer. Il est
fcheux que cette mosaque si prcieuse ait prouv quelques dformations dans son plan: elle
est du reste trs-bien conserve.
[
392]Gsell_1893_80 ruins SE of Stif: Sauf Diana, ville bien connue des archologues, les
ruines que jai visites ne prsentent quun intrt mdiocre. Lamasba a probablement servi de
carrire aux Byzantins; la ville antique qui slevait Ngaous est aujourdhui ensevelie sous la
ville arabe; Zarai on ne voit plus que des constructions dun basse poque. Toutes ces ruines
ont le mme aspect: dinnombrables files de pierres de taille dresses, ne slevant gure du reste
au-dessus du sol; entre ces pierres, il y avait autrefois des murs en moellons qui se sont crouls.
Presque partout des dbris de pressoirs: pierres de taille prsentant une ou deux encoches en
forme de queue daroude et prcdes daires o sont creuses des rigoles pour lcoulement
du liquide; en avant de ces aires on voit quelquefois encore les bassins en pierre dans lesquels
il coulait. On trouve souvent aussi des rouleaux cylindriques en pierre, longs en moyenne de
0m80, dun diamtre moyen de 0m40, percs de mortaises carres leurs deux extrmits.
Les cuves rectangulaires, de petites dimensions (en moyenne 1 mtre de long, 0m60 de large,
0m75 de haut), sont frquentes: elles prsentent parfois des ornements inciss ou lger relief.
Quelques portes massives en pierre.
[
393]SHD MR 1317 12 Etudes sur la subdivision de Stif by Ferry de Fontnouvelle, 1850, 35
pages. 2: suggests the use of water springs, trouves dans les conduits romains.
[
394]Ballu_1909_7980: Un fort important chteau deau romain a t dcouvert en 1908
Stif, sur la place Barral. Il se compose de portiques arcades surmontes dun attique plein et
donnant accs des bassins disposs, comme les portiques, sur les trois cts dune cour ouverte
dalle...Lensemble de ce chteau deau est dun effet bien intressant. Il sera le plus bel ornement de la ville lorsquil sera restaur et que les escaliers seront amnags pour quon y accde
de la place. Il sera surtout de la plus grande utilit pour lalimentation des habitants de Stif.
Cest donc l une dcouverte de premier ordre.
[
395]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903: Apostille du Chef de Gnie, Fortifications,
projets pour 1853: Couronnement et fermeture de la porte Napolon.
[
396]SHD Gnie, 1H910: Place de Stif, 18391903, Apostilles du Directeur, 1855/6 projects, 7.
[
397]Marmol_1667_II_441 Mila: Cest vne ancienne ville quatre lieus de Constantine, elle
est environne de hautes murailles lantique.
APPENDIX
[
398]Orlans_1870_397 Duc dOrlans in Africa 18359, Milah: Cette dernire ville, si toutefois on peut donner ce nom un cloaque entour dune muraille romaine, devint la base des
oprations futures. Ce nest pas une position militaire, mais cest un lieu o il y a des arbres, de
leau, des btiments en pierre et des habitants, toutes choses que larme tait dispense par l
de chercher et de crer.
[
399]SHD Gnie, 1H58, 13 October 1838, Viel, Chef de Bataillon, Commandant le Gnie,
Occupation de Milah: the usual demolition of houses, and attempts to make use of Roman
walls, 2: presque tout est crer pour ltablissement de la garnison, mais on prouvera ici moins
de difficults quailleurs, parcequon trouve sur place la chaux, le pltre, et une briquetterie. 4:
Ds que le Chef du Gnie recevra lordre dentrer en ville, il fera abattre les arbres des jardins
pour quon puisse y placer la troupe sous la tente, et ces arbres formeront des abattis sur les
lignes qui doivent tre plus tard fermes par des murs. 5 but road problems: La Colonne a suivi
en venant Milah la route la plus courte; il serait extrmement difficile de la rendre carrossable.
Quoiquon ait trouv beaucoup de ruines de postes romains on na jamais reconnu les traces de
lancienne voie. On va soccuper de chercher pour la route faire un trace prfrable celui que
donne le chemin des Arabes.
[
400]SHD Carton H227 Niel, at Milah, Reconnaissances faites dans le Province de Constantine
en 1837, 1838 et 1839, he writes 27 of une piscine romaine assez bien conserve, qui sappuie sur
lenceinte. Elle est dfendue par une enceinte romaine, ou du moins construite avec les pierres
de lancienne cit romaine, qui tait beaucoup plus tendue, si lon en juge par les ruines parses
quon trouve en dehors des remparts actuels.
[
401]Orlans_1892_329330 Expdition des Portes de Fer SeptNov 1839: Enfin, la ville de
Mila apparat tout coup au fond dun joli vallon. De loin cest charmant: un joli minaret au
milieu dune belle verdure; mais il en est comme des btons flottants: de prs ce nest rien.
Derrire une enceinte romaine assez bien conserve, on entre dans le bourg infect et dgotant
o trois mille misrables vivent rongs de vermine. Quoique le jardinage leur fasse gagner assez
dargent, ils sont si sales quon les sent en plein air plus de quinze pas et que, lorsque la population sest porte ma rencontre, avec un empressement fort louable du reste, je me suis cru sous
le vent de Pantin. Comment en serait-il autrement? les rues ne sont que des rivires dordures,
les maisons sont remplies dun pied de fumier et sans fentres. Lhpital militaire se ressent de
ce fcheux voisinage.
[
402]Mercier_1885_566 the work of the Brigades Topographiques: La ville la plus intressante au point de vue des ruines est Mila; lancienne ville est aujourdhui enfouie sous la ville
arabe et dans les beaux jardins qui lenvironnent. M. Lon Renier a relev la majeure partie des
inscriptions dcouvertes lors de son voyage. Depuis cette poque la cration dun village franais
au nord-ouest de la ville arabe a permis de mettre jour une partie de lancienne ncropole et
des pierres sculptures ou inscriptions grossires.
[
403]Rgis_1880_98 Mila: Le seul monument du temps des Romains rest intact est une jolie
fontaine devant laquelle nous nous sommes arrts assez longtemps, charms par son aspect.
Elle est place dans une petite cour dalle et ciel ouvert, creuse neuf pieds environ plus bas
que le sol de la rue. On y descend par une pente rapide. Une grande pierre couverte dinscriptions latines est applique contre la paroi du mur qui forme un des cts de cette cour. Sous
linscription, un large goulot donne passage une eau si limpide, quelle nest visible aux yeux
que par le reflet brillant qui la fait ressembler du diamant liquide.

[
404]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_37 excursions around Milah and Constantine, Milah: Aprs
avoir long dans tout son dveloppement lenceinte byzantine qui forme un pentagone irrgulier, avec rentrants et saillants, nous pntrons dans la ville. On ny voit aucun monument encore
en place, mais on rencontre de tout ct des entablements, des chapiteaux, des colonnes, etc.,
etc., encastrs dans les murs ou soutenant des galeries intrieures. On peut cependant trouver
quelque intrt visiter la Kasbah, son ancienne mosque orne de colonnes, son minaret de
style mauresque tombant en ruine, la grande fontaine cite par Bekri et Jean Lon. Deux monuments dorigine romaine, une arche de pont et la fontaine des Bouchers, sont situs hors de la
ville. / Nous cherchons ensuite les inscriptions publies soit dans le Recueil de M. L. Renier, soit
dans les Annuaires de la Socit; beaucoup dentre elles ont disparu; nous ne pouvons retrouver
que les suivantes [10 in all].
[
405]Goyt, A., Inscriptions releves dans la rgion comprise entre Constantine, Stif et
Philippeville, in RNMSADC XXII 1882, 129161. See 139 Mila: En creusant le sol de son jardin,
un habitant de Mila a dcouvert, dans une surface de quelques mtres carrs seulement, toute
une collection de pierres votives, portant limage et les attributs de Tanit et gnralement une
inscription latine ou punique.
[
406]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_39 excursions around Milah and Constantine, Milah: Le jardin
qui entoure en partie lHtel de lAdministrateur est devenu le muse archologique. Il renferme
dj plus de 100 monuments libyques ou romains, recueillis avec un soin religieux dans le territoire de la commune mixte.
[
407]EB11_6_83 Cherchel: The ruins suffered greatly from vandalism during the early period
of French rule, many portable objects being removed to museums in Paris or Algiers, and most of
the monuments destroyed for the sake of their stone. Thus the dressed stones of the ancient theatre served to build barracks; the material of the hippodrome went to build the church; while
the portico of the hippodrome, supported by granite and marble columns, and approached by a
fine flight of steps, was destroyed by Cardinal Lavigerie in a search for the tomb of St Marciana.
The fort built by Arouj Barbarossa, elder brother of Khair-ed-Din, was completely destroyed
by the French. There are many fragments of a white marble temple. The ancient cisterns still
supply the town with water.
[
408]Beauc_1997_77 at Cherchel: La faute en est ladministration militaire qui rgit le pays.
A lpoque de la prise de Cherchell, tous ces dbris que vous voyez taient beaucoup plus complets quils ne le sont lheure quil est, principalement dans lintrieur de la ville, o, suivant
les besoins journaliers de loccupation, le gnie militaire est venu avec sa pioche, sa trouelle et
son cordeau, et a fouill partout sans prcaution, sans religion, comme un homme qui ne voit
dans une pierre, ft-elle admirablement sculpte, quun moellon bon tailler. The Arabs did
not respect the monuments, but did leave them alone, whereas nous autres Franais civiliss
nous y avons mis le marteau et la pioche, et l o le marteau et la pioche taient impuissants,
nous avons fait jouer la mine, comme si, honteux de notre infriorit, jaloux et humilis devant
la majest des restes gigantesques des ouvrages romains, notre conscience ne ft tranquille et
notre repos assur quaprs avoir tout bris, tout dtruit.
[
409]RA 1870 issue 80, 130144, De Verneuil, B., and Bugnot, J., Esquisses historiques sur
la Mauritanie Csarienne et Iol-Caesarea (Cherchel): la ville romaine; 156165: Occupation
franaise Cherchel.
[
410]Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_360: after citing the mosques at Cordoba and Damascus,
Mentionnons encore laqueduc de Carthage, dont les arcades portent un conduit par lequel passait leau. Indiquons aussi les anciens monuments de Cherchel, en Mauritanie, et les pyramides
APPENDIX
dEgypte, sans parler dautres constructions qui se voient encore debout. Ces difices montrent
que les dynasties ne se ressemblent pas, les unes tant fortes et les autres faibles. Pour construire
ces temples et ces monuments, les anciens employaient les secours de la mcanique et une foule
douvriers. On doit bien se garder dadopter lopinion du vulgaire, qui prtend que les hommes
de ce temps-l avaient des corps et des membres beaucoup plus grands que les ntres. Entre la
taille des anciens et celle des modernes il y a bien moins de diffrence quentre les monuments
laisss par les premiers et les difices construits par les peuples de notre poque.
[ ]
411 SHD MR1314 33, Colonel Prtot Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Regnce
dAlger, considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure du pays 7 January 1834 (for the whole: sections individually dated). 167 pages. To the
east of the town of Cherchel 14: Marmol qui visita ces lieux vers le milieu du 16e siecle, y voit
les ruines dun trs beau temple de hautes colonnes de marbres, deux grandes statues de 15
nymphes dont une avait autour de la tte un bandeau marqu de diverses lettres initiales, plusieurs autres statues avec des inscriptions latines et beaucoup dautres restes dantiquits. Les
Maures en decouvraient journellement en creusant dans leurs hritages, et il ny avait pas long
temps quon avait trouv de cette manire une belle colonne de marbre blanc orne dune multitude de monstres (probablement de Faunes et de Satyres) et soutenue par deux lions de la taille
dun taureau. La magnificence de ces ruines et de celles que lon voit encore dans les environs
attestent que les Romains avaient fait de Julia Caesarea le principal siege de leur puissance dans
cette contre. 15: un grand et sumptueux aqueduc dont on retrouve encore des restes entre
les collines du Sud Est. Il existait encore en 1732 and reservoirs and cisterns are still visible at
Julia Caesarea. 16: On est frapp de la facilit avec laquelle les Romains parcouraient ce pays
o nous semblans craindre aujourdhui de mettre le pied et cependant, lexception de ltat des
chemins, rien presque rien ny est chang i.e. natives are still an unorganised rabble without
real generals, forts or artillery.
[
412]SHD MR1315 84 Oprations militaires en Algrie pendant lanne 1840 (Inspection
Gnrale, 1852), by Capitaine du Trochet. 8: Cherchel was defended by three bataillons of
French against the Arabs for four days. Did they use the Roman enceinte? They certainly had a
blockhouse.
[
413]SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Cherchel, Carton 1, 18404. Plan de la ville de Cherchel,
1841: Fort Royal is in the centre, on the sea, and irregular in shape. Plan also shows the remains
of a theatre, with rows of seats. Projet denceinte pour la ville (de Cherchel) dated 1841, which
makes it clear that the planned town encompasses the Roman site on the headland. Pen and
wash drawing of plan and elevations of the Fort Royal, 5 Nov 1841, showing it in bad shape. Seems
made out of large Roman blocks, has vaulted areas, and one column is shown in a section supporting a vault, presumably Roman, later reworked. Pen and wash drawing dated 26 Dec 1840,
projet de restauration du Fort Royal, gives no hint of a Roman city all around.
[
414]Beauc_1997_6163, 7680 for description of the town and its museum in 1848.
[
415]Renou_1848_216: Cherchel est trs pauvre en pierre chaux; on y employait, en 1842 un
calcaire sableux qui donnait une chaux fort maigre. Cest dans la pente du Chenoux et au bord
mme de la mer, quon aurait le plus davantages venir prendre de la pierre chaux pour cette
ville; la distance est denviron 20 kilomtres jusquau Ras-el-Ammouch, o le cap parat form
de calcaires compactes.
[
416]SHD MR1314 33, Colonel Prtot Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Regnce
dAlger, considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure du pays 7 January 1834 (for the whole: sections individually dated). 167 pages. 17: the

Roman port of Cherchel is silted up (ensabl): Il ne serait peut-etre pas impossible de le
dblayer. Ce serait assurer un grand [blank here] notre commerce et notre Marine. 17: A fort
overlooked the port, still standing in 1665, but perhaps in a bad state because it couldnt prevent
the Duc de Beaufort from destroying an Algerian squadron. 18: suggests Cherchel can be occupied, fortified and defended does he mean using the Roman walls? 19: of the area of Cherchel
La contre adjacente est couverte de ruines, so another argument in favour of occupying
Cherchel is that enfin on y trouverait de prcieux restes dantiquits. 16: the modern town
of Cherchel was built by Moors chased out of Spain in the last years of the 15th century. 14: the
walls of Cherchel i.e. of the Roman city still stand in parts on the seaward side, to some
3540 feet in height: Ils sont en trs bonne maonnerie, et ont plus une lieu de tour. Gates
apparently still intact.
[
417]SHD MR1314 5859, 1841 account of Cherchel, notes (5) the foundations bas fonds of
a road dirige sur un lot 350 mtres de terre: en bas fonds paraissait les restes dune chausse destine couvrir le port lEst. La plus grande partie nest qu deux pieds de leau avec des
passes troites ayant de 3 a 7 pieds de profondeur.
[
418]Barbier_1855_151: Le port de Cherchell, anciennement spacieux et commode, a t boulevers par un tremblement de terre, et lorsque le temps est beau, on aperoit encore au fond de
la mer les vestiges des anciens quais et des dbris de constructions romaines.
[
419]Bequet_1848_146: A Cherchel, on creuse sur lemplacement dun ancien port romain,
un port de commerce, petit, mais qui sera sr et fort commode pour le cabotage de la cte et le
ravitaillement de Miliana et du haut Chelif.
[
420]Ideville_II_1882_482483 Biography of Bugeaud: Neuf bataillons ont t chelonns
sur la route de Milianah Cherchell. Cette dernire ville ne peut que gagner beaucoup par
louverture de cette importante communication et le rtablissement de lancien port
romain...On dblaie le vieux port romain qui abritera facilement 40 ou 50 btiments de moyen
tonnage.
[
421]Lieussou_1850_3233 Cherchel: Le port artificiel que les Romains avaient cr
Cherchel a t dtruit par la mer et par des tremblements de terre; mais de nombreux vestiges
de maonnerie en accusent parfaitement toutes les dispositions. Cet tablissement comprenait
un avantport de 6 hectares de superficie, dun accs facile, mais mdiocrement ferm la grosse
mer; et un arrire-bassin ou darse prsentant une superficie de 8,000 mtres et une profondeur
moyenne de 2 mtres. / Le projet dtablissement maritime prsent en 1843 par la commission
nautique, et modifi en 1845 daprs les propositions de M. lingnieur Giret, est indiqu sur le
plan. Il a pour but la restauration du port romain, avec cette seule variante, que ltendue de
larrire-bassin est porte 2 hectares et sa profondeur moyenne 3m20.
[
422]Rozet_and_Carette 1850_8384 Cherchel: Il y a deux mille ans le pourtour de larrire-port tait bord de quais et de magasins supports sur des colonnes dont les bases se
retrouvent encore. / Ladministration franaise se contenta de restaurer ltablissement romain;
elle commena par faire dblayer larrire-port. Cette opration amena une dcouverte intressante. On trouva enfouis dans la vase des blocs de maonnerie, des fts de colonnes et une partie
des matriaux qui garnissaient les quais de lancienne ville. On retira enfin de dessous ces dbris
un bateau romain, remarquable en ce que toute la membrure tait cheville en bois, sans quil
y entrt un seul clou. Comment expliquer la prsence des colonnes et des blocs de maonnerie
dans la vase du port autrement que par une violente secousse de tremblement de terre? Des
APPENDIX
ingnieurs ont mme remarqu certains indices qui sembleraient annoncer un dplacement du
niveau de la mer ou au moins un drangement dans lassiette des terres du rivage. Cet effet se
serait produit la suite de la catastrophe qui a boulevers Cherchel et prcipit dans la mer une
partie de ses monuments. / Les fouilles excutes sur lemplacement de lancienne ville depuis
ltablissement des Franais y ont fait dcouvrir de magnifiques colonnes de granit, dignes des
grandes capitales, des statues et des dbris de sculpture, que les ingnieurs militaires ont conservs et fait runir avec un soin intelligent. En dehors de lenceinte actuelle on a retrouv les restes
dun amphithtre dans lequel ladministration militaire parque ses troupeaux.
[
423]Marcotte_de_Quivires_1855_24B Cherchel: Le port a t encombr par les ruines dun
temple immense qui couronnait un promontoire, lentre de la ville. II nen reste plusque
quelques vestiges, qui suffisent cependant pour donner une ide de ces grandioses constructions. Quelques mosaques sont encore assez bien conserves, et je pense que le commandant
suprieur les fera recueillir comme les autres chantillons que jai pu admirer chez lui.
[
424]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_135 Cherchel: En 1847, en draguant le port, on rencontra les
carcasses de deux galres romaines dfendues par le sable et conservant leur forme antique.
Quelles que furent les prcautions que lon apporta leur enlvement, les bois tombrent eu
dcomposition mesure quon les retira. On ne put conserver que des masses de fonte, servant
sans doute de lest.
[
425]Gaffarel_1883_501: Cherchell tait jadis fort important. La tradition rapporte quil fut
dtruit par un tremblement de terre. Un arrire-port tait bord de vastes quais et de magasins
supports par des colonnes, dont on retrouve enore les pidestaux. Quand on le dblaya en 1843,
on dcouvrit enfoui sous la vase un bateau romain dont toute la membrure tait chevill en bois.
Le port actuel peut recevoir une quarantaine de navires de 100 150 tonneaux.
[
426]SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1, Cherchel Carton 2, 18461857 Plan: Etat des lieux des
terrains compris entra la ville et le port, 1852 smack in the middle of the promontory, five large
lime kilns, with ruins of ancient baths nearby.
[
427]SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1, Cherchel Carton 2, 18461857 in Projets pour 185051:
where the Roman baths were has been projected for military magazines and part of the hospital.
[
428]SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1, Cherchel Carton 2, 18461857 Mmoire sur les projets
pour 18545, 16: Les citernes de construction romaine et dune capacit de 1,000,000 litres sont
parfaitement conserves but need recovering with hydraulic cement to prevent seepages, qui
ont vid ces citernes lpoque des grandes scheresses o elles seraient si utiles la garnison.
Ce travail est de premire urgence.
[
429]Buret_1842_227: Cherchell est encore un des endroits privilgis de lAfrique, cause de
la salubrit qui y rgne, de la fertilit et de la beaut de la plaine peu tendue qui descend doucement de la crte des montagnes jusqu la mer, et aussi cause de la facilit de la dfense; mais,
avant dy placer une population nombreuse, il faudrait rtablir les aqueducs laide desquels les
Romains et les Maures arrosaient la plaine et approvisionnaient la ville.
[
430]Lestiboudois_1853_93 near Cherchel: Partis aprs midi, nous suivons le bord de la
mer, surmontons quelques collines peu leves, traversons quelques ravins sur lesquels ont t
construits des ponts, ct desquels passe la route dont les redressements ne sont pas termins,
et nous descendons dans une fort riante et frache valle, celle de lOued-Hachim, dans laquelle,
de loin en loin, sont encore des sries darcades entires qui ont support laqueduc romain qui
passait au-dessus des valles o stablissait sur le flanc des montagnes pour conduire leau

Cherchell. Ces constructions ont t faites si solidement que souvent les arcades sont soutenues
par des piles qui ont perdu toutes les pierres qui en formaient le revtement, et nont conserv
que leur noyau de bton.
[
431]Marcotte_de_Quivires_1855_24 Cherchel: Lancienne ville de Julia Caesarea devait tre
considrable, en juger par le pourtour des murailles en ruines, par les colonnes normes en
marbre qui jonchent les rues et la campagne, par le Cirque, qui sert aujourdhui de parc aux
boeufs, et les dbris des temples, dont on a fait des mosques, etc. De tout cela, il ne reste plus
que des fragments pars a et l, des tronons et de grosses pierres dont le gnie sempare pour
ses constructions, constructions qui, soit dit en passant, paraissent un peu aventures, puisque
la nouvelle caserne a trois tages, et que la ville a t dtruite, il y a peu dannes, par un des
tremblements de terre trs-frquents dans ces contres. Mais lavenir est ce dont on sembarrasse le moins ici, et, pourvu quon pare aux ncessits du moment, on croit avoir tout fait.
[
432]SHD MR882 item 2, Succession de Colonjou, Algrie: une promenade militaire dans le
tell, en 1857, 9.
[
433]Ballu_1916_168 Cherchel: Lemplacement de la ville actuelle est peine le sixime de
celui de la cit ancienne, et ne contient que deux grands restes visibles des difices qui faisaient
sa gloire: ce sont les thermes de lOuest, si bien fouills jadis par Waille, et le thtre plac dans
le quartier sud-est du primtre actuel.
[
434]Mac_Carthy_1858_338 Cherchel: Le sol de Cherchel est jonch de dbris de son ancienne
splendeur. On y remarque surtout les restes du palais des rois, ceux du cirque, de lhippodrome,
des thermes, du thtre, dun temple de Neptune, des tombes, et quelque distance de ses murs,
les ruines dun grand aqueduc. / En dehors de ces vestiges du pass, il ny a de remarquable
Cherchel que lhpital, la caserne, lglise, le caravansrail, situ prs des koubbas des Gobrini,
marabouts clbres du pays, et une mosque orne de nombreuses colonnes de granit enleves
la terre qui les cachait depuis des sicles.
[
435]SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Cherchel Carton 3 18581875, Plan densemble de la ville
de Cherchel, 28 Sept 1860, shows ruins of the Roman circus (i.e. amphitheatre). No wonder
they wanted to tear down Roman walls, given not only their enceinte, but also the ring of 10 forts
they built outside it! Note than 7 of these are on the line of the Roman enceinte, here marked in
yellow, which follows a line of cliffs around the Cherchel hill.
[
436]Crawford_1863_194195: The mongrel French and Arab town of Cherchel is too insignificant to need description. A palm tree, opposite the hotel, presented its only striking feature,
and with its desert associations, it looked quite a startling anomaly at the foot of a low range of
heights of an emerald verdure. In the vicinity of the town I saw a few settlers houses, but the
distant hills were indebted for their brilliant hue to the corn-fields and fruit trees of tribes of
Kabyles.
[
437]Flaux_1865_282 Cherchel: Six de ces portes existent encore en bon ou en mauvais tat;
mais enfin elles existent. Trois colonnes de marbre dune grande puret de style et quelques
marches descalier sont les derniers vestiges dun temple Esculape dont on a pu retracer lenceinte. Ce quil y a de plus triste, cest que ce monument a t dtruit depuis notre occupation.
Les colons franais ont arrach de ce lien sacr les pierres qui ont servi construire leurs maisons. De pareils actes de vandalisme se commettent encore tous les jours. La personne qui me
guidait travers les ruines de Lambessa voulait me faire prendre une inscription de porte grave
sur une pierre servant jadis de chapiteau et jonchant aujourdhui le sol. Vains efforts! Pendant
APPENDIX
la nuit, la pierre avait t brise avec un marteau de fer et une partie des fragments avait t
emporte.
[
438]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_140 Cherchel baths: Le plus considrable de ces tablissements, dsign improprement sous le nom de Palais de Juba, tait situ la partie Ouest de la
ville, entre le port actuel et la porte de Tns. De nos jours, des dbris normes jonchent encore
le sol. En 1842, lors du dblaiement dune partie de ces ruines, et de la construction de la manutention militaire, on mit jour les restes dun superbe portique en marbre, auquel conduisaient
plusieurs degrs. Des colonnes en diorite vert, surmontes de chapiteaux en marbre blanc,
furent extraites des dcombres, ainsi que cinq statues dhommes o de femmes, malheureusement mutiles.
[
439]Marmier_1847_145 Cherchel: Un tremblement de terre la renversa presque en entier.
Aujourdhui on ne reconnat son antique grandeur qu ses ruines. Des chapiteaux cisels ont
t employs dans la construction de plusieurs maisons. De superbes colonnes en marbre apparaissent et l, les unes couches encore sur le sol, dautres replaces sur leur pidestal et servant dornement quelque nouvel difice. Nous sommes entrs dans une mosque o lon a
rassembl divers objets, lments dun muse qui peut devenir un jour trs-important. Il y a l
des bas-reliefs prcieux, des statues mutiles, mais dont les ravages du temps ou la main des
hommes nont pu effacer la grce exquise. En continuant des fouilles qui, jusqu prsent, nont
t faites que trs-incompltement, en les dirigeant, on peut arriver dcouvrir sur cette terre,
enrichie par les Romains, dautres uvres plus belles encore.
[
440]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_139 Cherchel temples: Les premires ruines furent dcouvertes dans le centre mme de la ville actuelle, en creusant des fondations. Les travaux rencontrrent dnormes colonnes de marbre blanc, des corniches sculptes etc., enfonces
3 mtres au moins de profondeur. Ces magnifiques dbris, par une inconcevable incurie, ont t
recouverts de terre, sans aucun souci de conservation ni de recherches ultrieures. Aujourdhui,
le pignon dune vulgaire maison moderne slve sur un sol qui recle sans doute de prcieux
spcimens de larchitecture romaine. / Durant lautomne de 1858, dans un terrain domanial prs
la porte dAlger, des terrassiers qui dfonaient le sol pour en extraire des pierres, dcouvrirent
des colonnes, des socles, des cariatides en marbre gris et en marbre blanc, du travail le plus
parfait. Sur lun de ces dbris, presque tous intacts, se lit une inscription votive Orbiana, troisime femme dAlexandre-Svre, qui porte croire que ce temple tait ddi la mmoire des
Empereurs. Ces restes magnifiques ont t transports sur la grande place, lOuest de la porte
dAlger. Il y a peu dannes, ils taient en cet endroit, abandonns aux intempries des saisons et
aux dgradations de toute nature. Ils y sont peut-tre encore.
[
441]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_163 Cherchel: Ds le dbut de loccupation, la suite des
premiers travaux entrepris, des premires fouilles opres, une pense toute naturelle avait
conduit lautorit sauver de la destruction et de loubli les restes magnifiques de la cit mauritanienne et romaine. / A quelquendroit quon ait fouill le sol de Cherchel ou des environs, on
a ramen des dbris de Iol-Caesarea; mais ces objets runis sans ordre, dpourvus dun gardien
spcial, dun abri convenable, demeurrent, bien des annes, exposs aux intempries des saisons comme aux injures du vandalisme. Depuis 1856 seulement, le local a t rpar, un conservateur a t nomm et la petite ville offre aux mimismatistes et aux antiquaires une collection
riche et judicieusement dispose. Il est regrettable seulement, quune partie des mdailles ou
des statues les plus curieuses aient t transportes Alger.

[
442]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_141 Cherchel, near the same baths: En effet, des fouilles excutes en 1858, un peu vers le Sud, dans la direction de la manutention, ont fait dcouvrir une
deuxime piscine revtue en marbre gris dont le sol et les votes dcors de mosaques attestaient dune grande magnificence. / Plusieurs statues, peu prs intactes, bien que renverses de
leurs socles, furent extraites: Une Vnus, un Neptune, des hermaphrodites, un faune, des ttes
et des bustes; qui ornent aujourdhui le muse dAlger. / Par malheur, la plupart de ces fouilles
furent faites sans intellgence ni discernement. Les revtements de la piscine, un grand nombre
de dbris et de matriaux furent vendus des maons sans aucun souci de lart ni des souvenirs
historiques.
[
443]Guigniaut_1859_1718: Il serait dune grande importance pour la connaissance de
lantiquit et de lhistoire de lart de faire pratiquer de nouvelles fouilles Cherchell, car on sait
que Juba II tait passionn pour les lettres et pour lart grec; il a donc d remplir sa capitale de
copies commandes des artistes grco-romains. Il parait bien dmontr, en effet, que lon
trouverait Julia Caesarea, non seulement des copies doeuvres connues, mais de statues dont
les originaux ont t perdus et dont lexistence nous serait ainsi rvle. Avec cinquante soldats et quelques milliers de francs le gouvernement franais se ferait Cherchell un magnifique
muse. M. de lHtellerie dirigerait aisment des fouilles quil a si bien prpares: les thermes de
louest sont dserts et au bord dune falaise do les terres enleves seraient prcipites; le sol est
facile attaquer de toutes parts. La dpense serait presque nulle galement vers la port dAlger
o lemplacement de lancien palais de Jubaest un terrain vague appartenant au domaine. Il suffit de remuer la terre deux mtres et demi de profondeur, pour arriver au dallage antique, aux
colonnes et entablements de marbre, ainsi quaux statues. LInstitut nobtiendrait-il pas un aussi
lger sacrifice dun prince qui est membre de lAcadmie des beaux-arts?
[
444]Quesnoy_1888_348 Tunisia: Autrefois, cette partie de lempire romain (ancienne province romaine) qui comprend la Tunisie tait dune remarquable fcondit, surtout dans les
plaines arroses; linsouciance des populations musulmanes a laiss disparatre les travaux
utiles des Romains; la plupart, comme les aqueducs, pourront tre rpars; un mode de culture
plus profitable pourra tre substitu celui en usage chez les Arabes et il nest pas douteux que
nous ne constations bientt les avantages de notre occupation tunisienne, qui est le complment indispensable de notre colonie africaine.
[
445]Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876_42: A Cherchell mme subsiste une enceinte, et, au-dessus de
la ville, une norme redoute en maonnerie du temps des Romains. Dans lintrieur, nous remarqumes une mosque soutenue par une multitude de colonnes diverses de forme et romaines
pour la plupart.
[
446]Hron_de_Villefosse_1875_391392 Cherchel: Quand on arrive dans cette ville, en
venant dAlger, on est frapp de la quantit de dbris antiques, chapiteaux, fragments dinscriptions, de statues ou de bas-reliefs que lon rencontre chaque pas. Dimmenses colonnes en
brche dAfrique servent de bancs aux promeneurs le long de la route; les bestiaux viennent
sabreuver dans des sarcophages antiques, et au coin de toutes les rues les bornes sont faites
avec les fragments de piliers qui supportaient jadis les architraves des temples. En parvenant sur
la place publique devant les ruines du fort Mauresque, on aperoit des tambours de colonnes
canneles et des restes de chapiteaux corinthiens qui donnent une haute ide du monument
auquel ils ont d appartenir. On se croirait au Forum. Il y a sur cette place une grande vasque
qui mrite aussi dtre remarque. Le fort a d tre construit entirement avec des matriaux
APPENDIX
romains; on y retrouve des fragments de poterie, de claveaux darcade, de bas-reliefs, dentablements; un gigantesque morceau de ces ruines sest dtach et est tomb mi-cte de la falaise
o le retiennent des lianes et des figuiers sauvages; la mer au-dessous est jonche de dbris et, si
on avait le moyen dy entreprendre des dragages, on y ferait assurment des dcouvertes importantes au point de vue de lart ou de la science. Sur lun de ces dbris jai distingu les lettres
T H. / Au milieu de cette abondance de fragments on est frapp de ne pas trouver de restes
plus imposants de larchitecture antique; mais cette absence sexplique facilement en songeant toutes les descentes dont la cte dAfrique a t le thtre. La position exceptionnelle
de Cherchell devait en faire le point de mire des peuples qui ont tour tour t les matres de la
Mditerrane et je nai pas besoin de rappeler tout ce quune guerre, suivie dinvasion, entrane
de ruines et de dvastations dans un pays.
[
447]Hron_de_Villefosse_1875_393 Cherchel: En sortant par la porte de Tens et en se dirigeant vers le port on arrive dans le quartier o ont t trouvs les restes les plus importants de la
vieille Caesarea; on pourrait presque y relever encore les plans de quelques maisons romaines.
Le monument le mieux conserv dans ces parages est une sorte de piscine rectangulaire, enduite
entirement de ciment, et dans laquelle on descend par des escaliers placs aux quatre angles.
[
448]Gaskell_1875_149150 Cherchel: Here are now strewed vestiges of the once splendid
capital of Mauritania. Amongst the ruins may be seen what is left of a fine arena, elliptic in
form, and nearly as large as the Coliseum in Rome. The oval is unbroken, many of the steps are
still there, and a few of them are perfect up several gradations. In this circus men were torn in
pieces by wild beasts, Christians were burnt alive, and it was the scene of other cruelties which
disgraced a great but, in some respects, a semi-barbarous age. We see the wreck of an open-air
theatre, and extensive baths. A temple dedicated to Neptune stands near the sea, and not far
from it are the broken fragments of another, besides several monuments now fallen into decay. /
The site on which the ancient city stood is now either waste or cultivated land; here and there is
a peasants house built with the stones and pillars of temples, which have been used to construct
farmhouses and Arab huts. To what vile uses have they come! Mutilated monuments, bearing
half-effaced inscriptions, fluted columns of beautiful marble, are scattered about in every direction; whilst on digging; almost anywhere, mosaics, statues, and coins are found at the depth of
a few feet, for the classic ground has been only partially explored; enough has however been
found to form a collection of works of art in Cherchell, and a more valuable one in the museum
at Algiers, besides which many fine specimens have been sent to the Louvre at Paris. Some columns are so large that it was not possible to remove them to a distance, and they now lie in the
public walks, serving for seats. Like all such relics, they are looked at by the people of Cherchell
with the indifference of habit and ignorance. / The port of Julia Caesarea, which was of considerable size, has been destroyed by an earthquake. Buildings, overturned and thrown into the sea
may, in calm weather, still be distinguished in the water.
[
449]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_138 Cherchel theatre: Lors de loccupation de la ville par
les Franais, en 1840, il tait en parfait tat de conservation; la scne seule tait dtruite. Tout
autour rgnait un portique support par de hautes colonnes de granit ou de marbre blanc, et
auquel on arrivait par des gradins.
[
450]Beauc_1997_79: Le gnie a encore pass par l, et cest pour btir une caserne incommode que ladministration militaire, malgr les nombreuses rclamations qui lui furent addresses de toutes part prit sur elle de dmolir un monument trs-bien conserv, qui navait peut-tre

pas son semblable en Afrique. / Les vrais amis de lart ne sauraient trop slever contre les actes
dun pareil vandalisme, car on ne comprend pas comment, runis en commission, les hauts
officiers, chefs de service, dans une arme spciale comme le gnie militaire, corps qui devait...
protger les prcieux spcimens dun art quil professe en quelque sort...aient os, comme les
derniers des ignorants, sabattre sans crainte et sans vergogne sur les squelettes romains encore
debout malgr leur grand ge.
[
451]Verneuil_and_Bugnot_1870_137 Cherchel, amphitheatre: Le contour du cirque est
demeur intact. Dans la partie Est, on retrouve encore cinq six tages de gradins, forms
dnormes pierres de taille relies par ce ciment indestructible dont les Romains avaient le
secret. Aujourdhui, laloes, lacanthe et le figuier tapissent de leurs rameaux ces gradins et la
partie extrieure; larne a t transforme en un champ de culture dont le sol est, en moyenne,
2 mtres au dessus du sol ancien.
[
452]Bertrand_1905_188 Cherchel, amphitheatre: Et pourtant, il y a une cinquantaine
dannes, ctait la ruine la mieux conserve de Cherchell. Malheureusement on 1a traite avec le
mme vandalisme que tant dautres ruines de lAlgerie romaine! On sen est servi comme dune
carrire et on y a tellement puis pour les btisses de la nouvelle ville quil nen reste presque
plus rien: peine quelques gradins demi recouverts par les cactus et les aloes! Larne, qui
mesurait cent vingt mtres de long et quarante de large, a disparu sous une plantation de mas.
[
453]Waille_1905_7172 Cherchel, theatre: Des fouilles viennent dtre pratiques au-dessous
de la caserne des tirailleurs, dans la zone de terrain correspondant lemplacement de la scne
antique. Cette zone, que lEtat a oubli de se rserver, appartient aujourdhui cinq propritaires, sans compter la commune qui en possde une importante parcelle. / Deux dentre eux,
MM. Sadoun et Ehrard, ont bti leurs maisonnettes exactement poses sur le milieu mme de la
scne, qui tait lendroit le plus orn. Deux autres, MM. Lajouze et Quartero nous ayant gracieusement accord toutes facilits pour explorer leur lot, ces recherches nont pas t sans profit
pour le muse local. Elles lont enrichi dacquisitions nouvelles.
[
454]Ballu_1905_76 Cherchel, theatre: Des fts de colonnes lisses et cannels, en marbre
rose, en brche dAfrique, en marbre vert piqu de rouge ont t exhums, ainsi que de beaux
chapiteanx dordre composite, des bucranes, un chapiteau appliqu avec un thyrse comme
motif central, un couronnement de colonnette en forme de corbeille entouree de feuilles
dacanthe avec dessus en feuilles de chne avec glands, des fragments dinscriptions monumentales, dornements de toutes sortes et de marbres les plus varis, etc., indiquant nen pas douter
que la dcoration de la scne du thtre de lancienne Caesarea tait dune grande richesse.
[
455]Waille_1905_75 Cherchel, theatre: Deux colonnes, en brche dAfrique, ont t trouves
scies, ou demi scies, longitudalement. La poudre de grs, ncessaire pour lopration, tait
encore auprs. Ceux qui ont voulu, aprs lincendie et une basse poque, les dbiter en plaques
ornementales, ont t drangs dans leur travail, qui est inachev.
[
456]Ballu_1912_468 Cherchel: Les murs du thtre de Caesarea, fort bien construits, ont t
malheureusement pills plusieurs poques, et mme encore il y a peu dannes. Dans une
btisse indigne qui a t rase, on a trouv des fragments pris sur place, moulures, placages de
marbre, etc. On a dcouvert, au cours de la dmolition, une main en marbre blanc de grande
dimension; elle appartenait une statue drape dont on a recueilli quelques dbris.
[
457]Ayer_1911_8586 fountain at Cherchel from spolia: They alighted near the Esplanade,
the public square overlooking the sea, with some fine old lime-trees around it, and broken col-
APPENDIX
umns and architectural bits, here and there. In the centre is a curious fountain, with the two
basins resting in a capital of a column, and three fine colossal heads, of two goddesses and one
god, at the base, and which must have adorned some temple or palace. Our couple crossed and
entered the small building opposite the square, going at once into the court. Here is a collection
of headless, armless, and more or less mutilated statues, some of beauty and fine work; there
are columns, some of the breccia of Mount Chenoua, some of black diorite, beautiful, ornate
capitals; bases, fragments of rich cornices and amphorae leaning against the walls. In one room
which they entered, off the court, were some admirable bronzes, much corroded, signed with
the artists name, and the vessels in which they had been found. A placard stated that they had
been taken out of the sea.
[
458]Dor_1895_26: Parmi les antiquits les plus remarquables renfermes encore dans le
muse de Cherchel, nous devons citer quatre ttes colossales dun beau style grec (haut. 0m90).
Ces ttes viennent dtre affectes lornementation de la fontaine monumentale leve sur la
place publiquo de Cherchel.
[
459]Waille_1886_121122 Cherchel: Aprs avoir ouvert une tranche, que jai eu le tort de
ne pas faire plus profonde, parce que je croyais alors au renseignement des gens du pays maffirmant que le sol romain tait un mtre, et navoir rencontr que des fragments de colonnes,
jai attaqu avec plus de bonheur, et en poussant cette fois jusqu huit mtres de profondeur,
lemplacement que les Arabes dsignent sous le nom de Haouch Sultan (Palais du Sultan). / Ce
sont des terrains vagues, recouverts dherbe et parsems de roc, situs prs de la Manutention,
entre la porte de Tns et le port, et do mergent quelques pans de murailles, vestiges dune
construction grandiose. Lappellation traditionnelle que cet endroit a garde, la vue superbe
quon a de cette minence sur la mer et les montagnes, les objets dart quon y a dj dcouverts,
quand la Manutention fut btie (notamment la Vnus, morceau grec, ornement du Muse
dAlger), autorisaient sans doute Beul, et aprs lui M. de La Blanchre, dans sa thse latine,
conjecturer que l pourrait bien avoir t le palais du roi Juba. / Une lgende arabe concerne
cet amas de dcombres. Je lai recueillie. Voici le passage extrait dun de ces feuillets manuscrits
quemportent presque toujours avec eux les ouvriers marocains, et qui leur fournissent sur les
localits o ils travaillent quelques renseignements semi-gographiques, semi-merveilleux. Jen
dois la traduction lobligeance de mon collgue M. Fagnan, professeur darabe. Il est en arabe
incorrect. / Sache quen arrivant dans la ville appele Cherchel, tu y trouveras un lieu nomm
Koudyat es-Soltan (colline du Sultan) qui est en ruine et remonte au temps des Romains. En y
creusant, on trouve dabord un mur de ciment et de briques, ensuite une pierre rouge, et enfin
au dessous de celle-ci, trois vases pleins de pices de monnaie romaine. En creusant encore, on
trouve un grand mur de marbre blanc.
[
460]Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1887_27_May: Antiquits. Les nouvelles fouilles opres
dernirement Cherchell, ont permis de dcouvrir des statues admirablement conserves,
telles quun Hercule, une Vnus et un Jupiter. / Ces statues, de dimensions colossales, ont t
transportes au Muse de la ville. / En ce moment, des pnitenciers sont occups dblayer un
trs-beau palais situs au bord de la mer. / On a dj mis nu une vaste pice dont le sol est une
immense mosaque dun travail riche et fini. / On ne saurait trop louer ces recherches qui permettent de reconstituer, dune faon plus complte, lpoque de la conqute romaine en Afrique.
[
461]Waille_1902_6: Cherchel, qui occupe une partie de lemplacement de Caesarea, capitale
de la Mauritanie, prsente cette particularit, cest que les plus lgants morceaux de sculpture

jusqu prsent exhums en Algrie ont t trouvs l, sur ce coin privilgi de la cte, qui fut
jadis illumin dun rayon du soleil hellnique, comme autrefois Cyrne ou Pergame...Cest
des artistes grecs que Juba II et Ptolme eurent recours pour orner leur capitale. A mesure que
le Muse de Cherchel est mieux connu, on saperoit que les plus glorieuses coles de la sculpture grecque y sont reprsentes.
[
462]Graham_1902_31 Julia Caesarea: The outlines of the amphitheatre, choked with some
twelve feet of earth, may still be traced in the middle of a ploughed field. Nearly all the steps
have disappeared, and the blocks of stone and marble with which the edifice was constructed
have been regarded as a quarry for many centuries past. The great cisterns, storing more than
four million gallons, are still used as reservoirs, and in connection with the same system of supply as the ancient city. The principal thermae, the facade of which was more than 300 feet long,
are scarcely traceable in outline, though the huge masses of solid walls still standing give a fair
idea of the magnificence of the edifice. There were at one time two other palatial baths, the
remains of one of them being still visible by the seashore. The hippodrome, which some seventy
years ago was in fair preservation, with its portico and columns of marble and granite, is now a
mere undulation of its surface. The blocks of stone have been removed, and the debris accumulated during this long interval has almost obliterated the outline. There is little doubt that Julia
Cssarea remains to be unearthed. Whenever excavations have been made, architectural fragments have been brought to light: columns of black diorite, shafts of white marble, busts and
broken statuary, many of them replicas of Greek statuary ordered by Juba for the embellishment
of his city. Some of them are still stored in the little museum at Cherchel, sufficiently attesting
the splendour of Jubas capital and his appreciation of the work of Greek artists.
[
463]RA 1872 issue 96, Chronique, 478479: Un de nos correspondants, M. Guin, interprte
militaire, nous adresse de Cherchel les communications suivantes: / 10 janvier 1873. / Ls
fouilles qui se font sur la proprit de M. Belle, viceconsul dEspagne, proprit sise peu de
distance de la porte dAlger, ont mis jour des tronons de colonnes, des fragments de sculpture,
des dbris de dallage en marbre et de gros cubes de pierre, qui attestent que cet endroit tait, du
temps des Romains, occup par un difice lgant et important tout la fois...En continuant
les fouilles dans la proprit Belle, on a trouv un marbre sculpt, dune hauteur totale de 0m41,
dont on na point encore dtermin lusage, bien quil porte une inscription. Ce marbre prsente
sa base un pan coup, surmont dun quart de rond, et enfin une espce de console o figure la
moiti dun videment dans le milieu. On remarque aussi quune espce daxe do partent, des
rayons, devait sceller cette pierre celle qui contenait lautre moiti de lvidement et qui devait
ainsi complter la sculpture.
[
464]Waille_1886_124 Cherchel: finds a statue of Bacchus and a female torso: Jai dpos ces
statues au muse de Cherchel. / Un colon en ayant trouv deux autres dans une proprit o
existent des vestiges de bains romains, jai ngoci leur acquisition pour empcher quelles ne
soient vendues des trangers et ne sen aillent en Angleterre ou en Sude, comme cela, je crois,
sest dj produit. Le dtenteur de ces statues, M. Nicolas, a bien voulu me les cder des conditions gnreuses, et jen ai fait hommage au Muse dAlger.
[
465]Audollent_1890_407 Cherchel: Depuis que les fouilles des thermes ont pris fin, M.
le capitaine Clout a occup les dtenus militaires sur dautres points de la ville, notamment
sur lesplanade devant la mairie. Cest l quil a retrouv la grande inscription de L. Licinius
Hirocls, gouverneur de Maurtanie, et plusieurs fragments que nous avons copis et que nous
allons transcrire.
APPENDIX
[
466]Waille_1902_40 Cherchel: Elle [the campaign of digs] a donn des rsultats, surtout
grce au bienveillant concours que jai rencontr auprs de lautorit militaire qui a libralement
mis ma disposition une partie de loutillage (prt par le service du gnie) et une partie de la
main-doeuvre (dtenus du pnitencier de Douera sous la direction de MM. Allard et Oudin,
sergents), ainsi quauprs de lAdministration des domaines et de la Municipalit.
[
467]Berbrugger_1845_2123 Turkish Algiers: ces grands monuments publics qui ont absorb
les matriaux dicosium et dautres cits romaines des environs. 2430 for remains of Icosium
seen when Turkish and Azrab structures were demolished; offers several examples of material seen while foundations for new houses were dug, on rue de la Marine, rue jacob, place de
Chartres, and rue des Consuls.
[
468]Carteron_1866_229230 Announa: Je fais le tour du plateau, dont le bord escarp
devait rendre la ville dnouna trs-forte; et je suis toujours prcd par le vieux Turc qui mexplique tout sa manire, avec son gai et nergique entrain. Il frappe de son bton chaque pierre
curieuse, en mdisant: Tiens la ruine, regarde la ruine, partout la ruine! Il me montre un bassin de pierre, frachement cass, o se dversaient les eaux amenes de la fontaine du bordj dans
les citernes, et il dit: Tiens la ruine, casse...lArabe cochon! Puis, continuant de marcher
grands pas, il memmne lemplacement du cimetire o le sol est jonch de pierres plates,
arrondies dans le dessus et divises par un cordon sculpt en deux parties gales. Elles sont couvertes dinscriptions latines qui commencent toutes par ces trois lettres: D. M. S. que, je crois lon
doit expliquer ainsi: Deis Manibus sanctis, cest--dire: mis sous la protection des Dieux Mnes
Sacrs. Puis suivent les noms, les qualits, lge et lpoque de la mort du dfunt.
APPENDIX
[ ]
1 Thierry-Mieg_1861_150 Constantine, the Arabs and ancient monuments: Ils les
contemplent philosophiquement et scrient dans leur sentencieux fatalisme Dieu est le plus
grand, Allah akbar, ctait crit. On conoit ds lors quon puisse trouver l des villes entires,
telles que Lambessa ou Tebessa, mieux conserves quen Europe, parce quelles nont subi que les
ravages du temps. Il ne faudrait pourtant pas se faire illusion ce sont bien des ruines, et quoique
dores par le soleil dAfrique, elles ne peuvent plus servir qu attirer des archologues ou des
touristes.
[ ]
2 SHD 1K214/131: Appendice au Cours dHistoire Militaire de lAlgrie. 6: Leons. Document
marked Ecole Impriale Spciale Militaire 18556, 445.
[ ]
3 Toutain_1896_7681 for Tunisia: Les travaux publics proprement dits; ibid. 82107 Les
difices publics, les maisons particulires, les ncropoles.
[ ]
4 Toutain_1896_133143 for Tunisia: Le rseau routier.
[ ]
5 Fisquet, H., Histoire de lAlgrie depuis les temps anciens jusqu nos jours, Paris 1842, 20:
en ce pays, vainement lcrivain recherche des yeux un monument quelconque model sur le
grandiose des constructions de la vieille Rome; ses yeux ne rencontrent rien, rien que le dsert
dans sa nudit, le dsert sans bornes et sans fin. Seulement, et pour avertir le voyageur du peu
de dure de tout ce que les hommes croient fonder pour lternit, des matriaux arrachs des
ruines romaines, arabes et chrtiennes apparaissent disperss et l sur cette terre o lon sent
que Mahomet et son fanatisme ont pass.
[ ]
6 Pallary 1894, 4, citing Emile Masqueray from Bull. Corr. Afric. 1882 fasc I for May 1884.
[ ]
7 Nodier_1844_199 Djemila, an unexplored Herculaneum: qui peut offrir une mine inpuisable de dcouvertes la science et aux arts. Nous parcourons sur ces ruines un espace immmense, couvert de fts de colonnes en pierre ou en granit dEurope, de chapiteaux, de sculptures
et de mosaques. Le prince choisit trois de ces chapiteaux, qui lui seront envoys Paris. Les
inscriptions sont nombreuses, et plusieurs paraissent offrir un curieux intrt historique.
[ ]
8 Audollent_1890B_5.
[ ]
9 Fraud_1869_40 on the tribes in the Province of Constantine: On rencontre, aux Zemoul,
quelques ruines prses de peu dimportance; cependant, sur la rive gauche de loued Kercha,
entre le Guerioun et le djebel el-Hanout, on voit les vestiges dune grande ville romaine que les
indignes nomment Tatouht; cest de ces ruines que furent extraites et apportes Constantine
les colonnes employes soutenir le vaisseau de la mosque de Souq-el-Rzel, transforme par
nous en glise catholique. / Sur le territoire des Zemoul, au pied du Guerioun, se trouve une
source dun dbit considrable, nomme An-Fesgua, dont les eaux sont destines approvisionner prochainement la ville de Constantine. Les nombreux vestiges antiques que lon aperoit autour de cette source, dmontrent que dj, lpoque romaine, elle avait t amnage
avec soin. Ahmed Bey el-Colli, en 1756, utilisa les ruines des anciens tablissements romains en
crant, sur ce point, quelques vastes gourbis pour abriter ses chevaux. Son successeur, Salah
Bey, donna une plus grande impulsion ces premiers travaux, en y faisant construire de vastes
curies en maonnerie.
[ ]
10 Vigneral_1867_72 Ruines...subdivision de Bne, Mechta-el-Arfaoui: position agricole...Grand nombre de blocs encore debout; dautres ont servi construire des gourbis arabes.
[ ]
11 Donau_1920_4546 around Gigthis: En se dirigeant vers Henchir-Roumia, que domine un
autre signal de la Marine, on suit un long alignement de pierres paraissant reprsenter une large
avenue conduisant un important village antique, entirement abandonn. On y remarque peu
FULL ENDNOTE TEXTS chapter 4

de pierres de taille, mais les restes de nombreuses et assez vastes constructions, une plage et
des puits deau douce...A un kilomtre au Sud-Ouest [of Henchir-Roumia], une ferme dont la
plupart des pierres de taille et quelques colonnes ont t enleves pour la construction rcente
dun puits et de maisonnettes arabes, puis, dans la mme direction Sud-Ouest, un mausole,
Henchir-Tsouirt, dont la partie intrieure subsiste sur 1m. 60 de hauteur. Entre ses murs trs
pais, en blocage, une chambre vide. Rien ne justifie plus son nom arabe de Tsouirt qui signifie
dessins, sculptures. Mais ce tombeau se trouve au voisinage probable de la route qui allait de
Templum Veneris Fulgurita en contournant forcment les sehkhas du sud de Gourine.
[ ]
12 Cibot, Achille, Souvenirs du Sahara. Excursion dans les monts Aurs (cercle de Biskra).
Texte et dessins de M. Achille Cibot, Algiers 1870, 11: Bientt aprs Roufi, les rocs gigantesques
disparaissent pour faire place des montagnes qui permettent au lit de loued Abiod de slargir. Alors apparaissent, sur les deux rives, placs sur des mamelons dnuds, plusieurs petits et
misrables villages des Ouled Abed, btis sur les ruines dune grande ville romaine, en juger par
les normes blocs de pierre formant, encore debout, les assises de monuments nombreux, et,
aussi, par les tronons de colonnes rondes dun grand diamtre. Au milieu de ces ruines, o lon
ne trouve aucune inscription, les indignes cultivent un peu de millet et dorge. Ainsi l o les
Romains avaient sans doute dimmenses cultures autour de leur grande ville, leurs descendants
nont plus, pour vivre, quun peu dorge, de millet et de fruits.
[ ]
13 Winckler_1888_67: Au nord seulement, on rencontre les plateaux des hautes montagnes
de Dr-el-Kasba, dont les flancs sont escarps sur le versant mridional; sur ces flancs sont btis
les villages des Balta, au milieu des ruines dune ville romaine, et entours de jardins plants
darbres fruitiers. Ces jardins sont arross par plusieurs sources donnant une eau excellente et
trs abondante.
[ ]
14 Gurin_1862_II_248 Nabel-Kedim ou Nabel lAncienne: Les ruines de la cite antique ont
prsqu entirement disparu, ou du moins les meilleurs matriaux des constructions carthaginoises et romaines ont t transports lendroit o sest leve la cite musulmane. Cest ainsi
que la trace des ses difices sest de plus en plus efface; puis, lenceinte quelle occupait t
livre la charrue, et, la place de ses maisons demolies et de ses monuments arrachs jusque
dans leurs fondements, croissent de magnifiques vergers ou stendent de beaux champs de
bl, de mas et de millet. Seulement dinnombrables dbris de poterie concasse jonchent partout le sol. Son port est combl; et les quais qui le bordaient sont ensevelis sous des dunes de
sable. / En explorant nanmoins avec soin le terrain quelle couvrait, jai recueilli les inscriptions
suivantes...
[ ]
15 Gurin_1862_I_252253: Quoi quil en soit, les ruines de Takianous ou Taguious sont
parses au milieu de beaux jardins plants de superbes palmiers quentremtent des oliviers,
des figuiers, des amandiers et des grenadiers. Je remarque dabord, le long dun oued, de nombreuses pierres antiques de grande dimension. Cet oued est divis en plusieurs bras, jadis bords, comme le canal principal, de blocs bien quarris qui ont t en partie enlevs. Plusieurs
petits ponts, jets dune rive lautre, ont t construits avec de belles dalles encore en place. Ce
qui ensuite frappe le plus mon attention, ce sont deux magifiques pans de mur, dont le premier
est long de cinquante pas, et le second de trente-cinq. Ils sont construits lun et lautre avec des
blocs trs-puissants et appartiennent trs-probablement lancienne enceinte de la ville. Lun
de ces pans de mur mest dsign sous le nom de Dar-Bent-es-Soultan (la maison de la fille du
sultan). Lpaisseur en est de deux mtres, et la hauteur des assises encore debout ne dpasse pas
un mtre quatre-vingt-dix centimtres. / Au dela, je distingue la direction de plusieurs rues. Les
APPENDIX
plantations de palmiers nont pas fait disparaitre compltement les vestiges dun certain nombre
de maisons; les unes taient construites en bettes pierres de taille, les autres avec des matriaux
plus petits et mls de briques. Ces ruines sont domines par celles dune tour carre dont la
base seule subsiste encore. Les assises infrieures consistent en de superbes blocs rectangulaires
au-dessus desquels sont des couches dnormes briques poses plat dans un ciment dune
extrme duret. Les Arabes appellent ce reste de tour Semah, cest--dire le clocher, le minaret. /
Le scheik mapprend quen dehors des jardins, du ct de la sebkha, les sables ont envahi de
gigantesques pans de mur identiques ceux que je venais de voir, et quen pratiquant des fouilles
tant soit peu profondes au milieu des plantations de palmiers, on dcouvrait frquemment des
dbris de constructions antiques.
[ ]
16 RA I 1856, 339 in the Chronique: Quand nous nous sparmes du Cad, un nouveau compagnon de voyage sadjoignit notre caravane; ctait El Hadj Miliani, chef dun canton du territoire des Braz, sur lequel se trouvaient des ruines considrables, celles dOued Taria que le Chelif
spare dautres ruines moins tendues quon appelle Tmoulga du nom de la montagne qui les
domine. / Nous trouvmes chez El Hadj Miliani un bordj bti leuropenne qui lui servait dhabitation, et plusieurs maisons de construction analogue. Cest aussi M. Carr de Miliana qui les
a difies, en mettant contribution les nombreux matriaux antiques qui jonchent le sol sur
un espace trs-tendu. Dans les fouilles quil a d excuter pour procder la recherche des
matriaux, il a dcouvert une porte arcade en pierres de taille qui donne entre dans une vaste
pice souterraine aujourdhui remplie de terre et de dcombres, mais dont on peut conjecturer
ltendue par le plan que tracent au-dessus les lignes de substruction.
[ ]
17 Rogers_1865_232233 Miliana: There seems no reason to question the statement that
the Millianah of the present day, stands on the site of the Malliana of the Romans, The large
quantity of Roman remains which have been found, or dug up, attest the presence of their former masters. A large Roman monument in the centre of the town, has been removed to make
room for the new streets constructed by the French; but in the surrounding walls, and in many
private houses, bas-relievos are still to be seen. Fragments of statues, flutes, and capitals of columns, which once supported the koubba of a Marabout, medals and sepulchral remains, some
of which now ornament the mosques, and are used as basins for purposes of ablution, all prove
its Roman origin, and attest its former prosperity.
[ ]
18 SHD 1M1314 Capitaine du Gnie Gaubert, Notice sur Miliana, 1841, 12: on funerary stelai:
toutes les sculptures sont saites sans art. Cependant parmi ces restes se trouvent un pied de
statue de femme qui ne laisse rien dsirer, et deux magnifiques chapiteaux. Ablution basins
outside the mosques: nous pensons que ce sont danciens tombeaux romains.
[ ]
19 Peyssonnel_1838_I_129 travelled 172425, Dougga the mausoleum with the LatinPhoenician inscription: Lon trouve encore l un mausole dans le got de ceux de Marazana et
de Toelsen. Celui-ci est encore plus grand. Il y ayait en dedans quatre chambres destines des
morts; il tait surmont de statues, et lappartement suprieur ntait point ouvert. On y trouve
une inscription en caractres hbraques que je ne pus dchiffrer. Il reste encore les dbris de
plusieurs palais et de plusieurs temples qui annoncent avoir t superbes. Voici les pitaphes
que nous y trouvmes...
[ ]
20 Kennedy_1846_187, 188 Dougga: Behind the house of the Sheick, who uses it as a cattle fold, are the ruins of a magnificent temple. The portico still stands entire, supported by six
noble monolithic columns of the Corinthian order, and of admirable proportions and workmanship...ruins of many large edifices; an amphitheatre, the arena choked with a dense growth of

the prickly pear; a gymnasium, overgrown with a tangled thicket of briars, thorns, and creepers; a triumphal arch; many cisterns, and sepulchral monuments, with an infinite variety of
the remains of private habitations. Lower down the hill, below the site of the town, are several
mausoleums; one of these which had remained nearly perfect until within a few years, has lately
been destroyed, in order that a Punic inscription, and the sculptures which adorned it, might be
carried to Europe. Among the stones heaped around its base are two alto-relievos, of indifferent
execution, representing a warrior in a chariot, driving four horses abreast.
[ ]
21 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_295 travelling 1879, house at Dougga: Cette maison de Salahben-Lecheb est construite sur lemplacement dun difice romain dont la porte subsiste encore
avec une partie de la faade orne de pilastres. Le pav de la cour, qui est antique, porte des
rainures peu profondes, indiquant une distribution singulire.
[ ]
22 Merlin_1903_92 Dougga, an inscription fragment: Dans la cour intrieure dune maison immdiatement contigu a louest au Dar-el-Acheb. Linscription est encastre la partie
infrieure du mur du gourbi. Un de ces petits fours dont les Arabes se servent pour cuire leurs
galettes avait t install contre elle et la chaleur la considrablement abme. Elle est clate
de toutes parts, brise en de trs nombreux morceaux et les caractres, au dbut des quatre dernires lignes gauche, ont compltement disparu, sauf quelques lettres.
[ ]
23 Carton_1898B_235: Le sol antique, qui est encore celui de la maison indigne, tait
revtu de fort belles dalles la surface desquelles on remarque des rainures, disposes de faon
circonscrire quatre rectangles situs vers ses coins.
[ ]
24 Saladin_1892_448: Un village arabe sest tabli sur remplacement de Dougga, ou plutt
lantique Thugga aprs la conqute arabe est devenue un simple village.
[ ]
25 Richardot_1905_142 Dougga: Au milieu des masures du village arabe on trouve demi
enfouis les nombreux degrs des escaliers qui prcdaient le temple. / Ces masures sont ellesmmes tires des monuments antiques, les murs de la plupart au lieu dtre en briques crues ou
en torchis, sont en pierres, et dans un grand nombre on dcouvre des fragments de colonnes, des
dbris de chapiteaux et mme des lambeaux dinscriptions.
[ ]
26 Merlin_1903_13 Dougga, private houses: Ces habitations prsentent toujours les mmes
caractres. Les pices qui les composaient, paves le plus souvent de mosaques dessins gomtriques ou de dallages soigns, richement ornes de plaques de marbre, de stuc peint, de
statues, stageaient les unes au-dessus des autres suivant la pente de la colline. Il ne reste de leur
dcoration que fort peu de chose: les pavements ont disparu, les revtements des parois ont t
arrachs et casss, les statues brises; des murs postrieurs sont venus couper et dfigurer les
salles. Ces mutilations et ces remaniements, dus aux Byzantins, continus par les Arabes, sont
surtout visibles louest des citernes, o ils nont presque plus rien laiss subsister des constructions romaines.
[ ]
27 Merlin_1903_22 Dougga, East of the Capitol: Dautre part, il tait vraisemblable que certains monuments, dont on avait rencontr des fragments de frises architraves dans la terre ou
dont on voyait les restes encastrs dans le mur byzantin, donnaient sur le Forum. Et comme les
Byzantins nont pas t piller le Thtre, le Temple de Caelestis ni mme le Dar-el-Acheb pour
leur fortification, mais ont emprunt les normes blocs de pierre dont ils se sont servis des
constructions rapproches, la prsence de ces entablements dans les dblais ou dans le mur
byzantin semblait indiquer quau voisinage il y avait tout un ensemble ddifices considrables
qui sans doute entouraient le Forum. Enfin, en jetant les yeux sur le plan de Dougga avec les
APPENDIX
courbes de niveau, qui vient dtre dress par les brigades topographiques de Tunisie, il semblait
plus naturel que le Forum ft situ dans la rgion relativement plate de la ville entre le Capitole
et le Thtre plutt que sur la partie fortement incline de la colline, au sud du Temple.
[ ]
28 Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_171 Dougga: A more lovely spot than Dougga, even in its
present condition and when seen at a distance, it is not easy to picture. The temple forms the
main feature of a cluster of buildings which spring, as if by magic, out of a luxuriant olive-grove.
But distance lends enchantment to the view; the enchantment is dispelled as soon as the
first Arab habitation is reached, and modern Dougga in its degradation and dirt stands before
one. We had become accustomed to the squalor and neglect of Arab towns, but the aspect of
Dougga fairly startled us. Mud, over a foot deep in many places, rendered the narrow streets and
lanes almost impassable even at this dry season, and heaps of dung and refuse, festering under
the hot sun and emitting loathsome stenches, encumbered every corner. The temple, so beautiful at a distance, is befouled by ordure, and rude stone walls of miserable dwellings are clustered
round its noble remains.
[ ]
29 Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_160 Dougga: La salet, le dsordre, lpouvantable aspect
de Dougga actuel est le plus frappant contraste imaginable avec toutes les splendeurs encore
remarquables de lancienne ville romaine. Je nai jamais rien vu de pareil cette salet, mme
Tboursouk, Cest le comble de lincurie et de la malpropret arabe. Les amas de fumier, datant
de plusieurs sicles peut-tre, se remarquent partout; les maisons sont des tanires plutt que
des logis; on ne peut avoir lide dune pareille horreur quaprs lavoir bien vue. On peut juger
de linstallation des btes, par le triste tat de celle des hommes. Cependant, nous continuons
notre promenade travers les belles ruines qui nous consolent du reste.
[ ]
30 Sance de la Commission de lAfrique du Nord, 16 novembre 1920, in BACTHS 1920, CCX:
Nous avons reu aussi de M.L. Poinssot, inspecteur des Antiquits de la Tunisie, des renseignements sur les fouilles de Dougga en 1920: La dernire campagne de fouilles de Dougga,
encourage comme les prcdentes par les subsides du Ministre de lInstruction publique et
du Gouvernement tunisien, a dur du 1er mars au 20 juin 1920. Les salaires ayant doubl, le prix
des transports tripl, celui du matriel quintupl, on na pu dgager quune surface bien moindre
que celle qui tait mise au jour dans les annes davant-guerre.
[ ]
31 Ballu_1915_100: Malgr la guerre qui a mis aux prises lEurope presque entire, et la mobilisation qui a enlev une grande partie de notre personnel ouvrier, nous avions suffisamment
avanc nos travaux pendant la premire moiti de lanne pour obtenir quelques rsultats intressants. Dans le second semestre, ces travaux ont t forcment ralentis en maints endroits, ou
mme entirement suspendus.
[ ]
32 Merlin_1902_375 Dougga: Les fouilles de lanne 1901 nous ont montr que, sous une
couche de dblais...la ville antique subsistait tout entire avec ses maisons, ses conduites deau,
ses rues et ses places.
[ ]
33 Merlin_1903_23 Dougga, work around the Capitol: Le travail, qui ncessitera pour
tre men bonne fin beaucoup de temps, a t commenc lautomne 1902 ( 16 octobre
18 novembre) immdiatement lest du Capitole; les maisons arabes accoles au mur byzantin
et au Temple ont t achetes grce aux subsides du Gouvernement beylical et, avec le concours
de M. Bruel, architecte diplm du Gouvernement, charg de mission Dougga, jai pu faire
dmolir la majeure partie des gourbis expropris et enlever sur une surface assez tendue les
4m. 50 de terre qui les sparaient en moyenne du niveau romain.

[ ]
34 Carton_1905B_62: Le Dar-el-Acheb me servit longtemps dhabitation. Jy ai pass les
moments les plus mouvants et les plus paisibles en mme temps des longues campagnes de
fouilles que jai diriges Dougga. Il meut t bien facile, quelques jours avant mon dpart, de
dmolir les murs arabes adosss la faade ou btis sur elle. Je ne lai pas fait par ce que je pensais que mes successeurs, auxquels on avait dcid de confier dsormais les fouilles, pourraient
y habiter, et aussi parce que la pntration dans ldifice tait ainsi moins facile.
[ ]
35 Merlin_1903_3839 Dougga, houses to the west of SE triumphal arch: La plupart des
pices que lon a dblayes jusquici se rattachent aux bains de la maison: piscines avec conduites
deau et de chaleur, chambres de service, etc. Ces salles taient originairement presque toutes
paves de mosaques, mais, sauf une, celles-ci ont t enleves, sans doute intentionnellement,
une poque quon ne peut prciser. Les seuils de porte seuls ont t respects et le dallage a
t partout coup au droit des murs. Cette disparition est dautant plus regrettable que la seule
mosaque qui ait t conserve est de tout premier ordre; certainement les autres devaient
offrir, elles aussi, des scnes trs intressantes. Faut-il accuser de cette dprdation le consul
anglais Thomas Read, qui, vers le milieu du xixe sicle, fit bouler la moiti du grand mausole
de Dougga pour enrichir sa collection particulire de la clbre inscription libyco-punique qui
lornait. Nous ne saurions le raffirmer. Toujours est-il quil serait vivement souhaiter.
[ ]
36 Leclercq_1881_229 Lambessa: Nous arrivons vers onze heures Lambse: la fracheur
du matin a succd subitement une temprature qui met la cervelle en bulition; cest par cette
chaleur denfer que nous explorons les ruines romaines. Les invitables thermes se prsentent
dabord: bien quil ne reste plus de ldifice que les fondations, on en reconnat parfaitement la
disposition, quon retrouve aujourdhui encore dans les bains maures. Nous y avons ramass de
beaux chantillons de mosaques et des restes de poteries.
[ ]
37 Saladin_1886_2324 Beni-Hassen: On y voit dans le village des fragments de chapiteaux
doriques en pierre grossire, des fragments de colondes en marbre pars dans les diffrentes
rues. Dans un marabout, un pilastre en colonnes antiques, un chapiteau composite dont la
sculpture nest qupannele, un autre byzantin trs bris. / Dans le haut du village stendent
des champs doliviers et des jardins. On nous montre un emplacement o des fouilles ont mis
au jour des spultures romaines. Auprs, un difice de lpoque chrtienne dont le plan nest pas
reconnaissable, avec une mosaque dtruite malheureusement en grande partie. On y distingue
encore des rinceaux de couleur, au milieu desquels se jouent des oiseaux. Cette mosaque, qui
contient dans sa partie suprieure une inscription dans un cartouche, porte, un peu plus bas,
les noms des quatre fleuves qui arrosaient le Paradis terrestre...Plus loin, a droite, dautres fragments de mosaque de couleur reprsentent des cercles qui sentrelacent. Ltat de dgradation
de cette grande mosaique va en saggravant chaque jour, et il est bien probable que ce monument intressant smiettera peu peu chaque visite quon y fera; rien que laction de balayer
la terre qui la recouvre en dtachera chaque fois quelques cubes. Si lon ne peut pas faire les
frais de lenlvement de cette partie de mosaque, dans quelques annes elle aura compltement disparu. Ce nest pas ici seulement que nous aurons dplorer la destruction en Tunisie
de monuments antiques.
[ ]
38 Cagnat_et_al_1890_222 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity.
Si le hasard fait rencontrer une mosaque, on en prendra le dessin, ou, si la chose est possible,
une photographie; puis on aura soin de la recouvrir de trois ou quatre centimtres de terre;
si lon na pas cette prcaution, on peut tre assur que la mosaque sera dgrade trs rapide-
APPENDIX
ment; les hommes, les animaux et la pluie se chargeront de sa destruction. Tous ceux qui se sont
occups des antiquits africaines savent combien de mosaques ont dj disparu, par le seul fait
quelles ont t exposes lair.
[ ]
39 Temple_1835_I_139 Mahdia: On the south side of the point we perceive the darsena
or inner harbour, forming a large oblong square, which is at present quite dry. At the entrance,
and constituting part of the construction, are several marble columns, brought perhaps from
the ruins of Thapsus; and in several places on the edge of the sea are found many granite balls,
eighteen inches in diameter, some of the missiles employed by Dorgooth against the Spaniards.
[ ]
40 Filippi_1926_578 travelling 1829, Mahdiya: Jai vu dans cette ville beaucoup de restes
dantiquits, des chapiteaux, des entablemens et des morceaux entiers de murailles appartenantes un Temple ainsi quaux fortifications mais je nai pu y voir la moindre inscription.
Le port dont on voit le bassin a demi combl avait lentre du ct de Sud, elle tait troite et
ne pouvait servir quaux Galres, maintenant les vaisseaux qui y vont prendre des cargaisons
se tiennent dans une espce de rade que le prolongement de la langue de terre sur laquelle est
btie la ville forme du ct du Sud.
[ ]
41 Gurin_1862_I_143 Mahdia: Jai peu de chose dire de lintrieur de la ville. Les palais et
les belles mosques quelle possdait autrefois nexistent plus ou tombent en ruines. La mosque
principale actuelle renferme dlgantes colonnes; elle parait remplacer une mosque beaucoup plus ancienne, dont on distingue encore quelques pans de murs qui rappellent, par la rgularit et les dimensions des pierres dont ils sont revtus, les remparts que jai dcrits. Les autres
mosques sont plus petites et moins dignes dintrt.
[ ]
42 Saladin_1893_21 Mahdia: Au port antique creus dans le roc, ou sest servi, pour consolider les murs qui forment lentre de la passe, de colonnes antiques poses horizontalement
et formant deux ou trois lits. Ces colonnes sonten marbre.../ Dans la mosque principale de
Mehdia, des colonnes antiques en pierre dure et en marbre, en granit et en porphyre, autant
que lon peut en juger par les parties o le badigeon arabe a disparu, supportent des chapiteaux
romains et byzantins en marbre blanc.
[ ]
43 Fraud_1876B_497498 Mahdiya: Mehedia, o nous nous sommes arrts ensuite, est
moins importante et moins jolie que les deux villes prcdentes. On y voit cependant des ruines
considrables, vestiges de son ancienne splendeur, du temps des Carthaginois, des Romains
et mme encore au moyen-ge. A lextrmit de la Pointe [of the peninsula], nous avons vu le
port antique, avec ses quais, o se trouvait un chantier de construction pour des barques qui ne
devaient pas dpasser nos petites tartanes comme dimensions. Il y a l de nombreuses colonnes
de marbre renverses et brises, ou bien encore enfouies dans les dcombres. Vous savez quau
XVIe sicle, Charles-Quint fit. occuper Mehedia et y construisit le fort qui protge encore ce
centre maritime. Mais quand les Espagnols, tournant leurs yeux vers lAmrique, abandonnrent
leurs possessions dAfrique, ils minrent et firent sauter toutes les dfenses quils avaient leves
grands frais. De sorte quaujourdhui, lancien port et les murs denceinte ne prsentent plus
que laspect de dcombres projets et l par suite dune grosse explosion. Voyez les dtails de
ces vnements dans Mrmol, o je me rappelle les avoir lus.
[ ]
44 Lorin_1896_570 Mahdiya: Mehdia est une ville en pleine croissance; elle exploite des
carrires de pierre, elle est le port dune zone maritime trs poissonneuse et fabrique dj des
conserves; dans ses environs, les terres sont excellentes pour lolivier, pour les fves, pour les
crales, orge, bl, dont les pis montent au del de 1 m. 20, et rendent 16 pour 1. La ville na pas la

prtention de solliciter du gouvernement de grands travaux, comme Tunis, Sousse ou Sfax; plus
modeste, elle demande quelques dragages pour avoir un port creus trois mtres, un aqueduc
qui dispense les habitants de boire leau de puits, souille au voisinage des usines dhuile; plus
tard elle espre quun tronon de chemin de fer vers El Djem et le pays des Souassi lui assurera
le dbouch de cette fertile rgion.
[ ]
45 SHD 1M1321 1 June 1883, R. Juff, Chef de Bataillon, Commandant Suprieur, Rapport
sur le territoire de Mahdia, 628 for Mehdia et les ruines de la presqule. 7278 for cemeteries,
including important Moslem tombstones. 15 of a section of the peninsula, and a cemetery: A
linspection des ruines, il est facile de se convaincre que toute la force et lactivit de Medhia
se trouvaient autrefois concentres sur cette partie aujourdhui dserte qui comprend le Vieux
Port et deux autres petites baies. 1218 etc for three-storey cisterns at Sidi Djaber and elsewhere,
which he sketches, and which still contain some water. 26 for the Great Mosque, the interior
with une varit bizarre de colonnes provenant des ruines antiques et dont chacune est surmonte dun chapiteau diffrent. Les sculptures sont gnralement dtriores mais le style en
est suffisamment reconnaissable. Deux seulement sont dans un tat de bonne conservation. 28ff
for Military appreciation and security easy given the peninsula.
[ ]
46 Peyssonnel_1838_I_119 travelled 172425, Sbeitla/Suffetula. Cette ville tait btie sur le
penchant dune montagne assez haute; elle na pas t entirement dmolie comme les autres,
mais elle est toute ruine. Nous y vmes quantit de dbris de vieux btimens, temples et glises;
les restes dun ancien chteau ruin posent avantageusement au haut de la ville. On y voit plusieurs pierres avec des pitaphes; jen citerai seulement quelques-unes, attendu que je crois inutile de les donner toutes.
[ ]
47 Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_141 Sbeitla: Indeed, its very remoteness has been the best
protector of its monuments, for there is little doubt that if any settled population had existed
within a radius of twenty miles, and any means of transport over a country now difficult of access
at most seasons, the few buildings still remaining would long since have been overthrown. It is
worthy of note that some twenty years ago the late Sidi-Mustafa-ben-Azooz, of Nefta (an oasis
south of Sbeitla), selected this spot as a site for a town, and actually commenced building operations here, using the materials of the ancient city. Fortune did not favour his enterprise; work
soon ceased, and the place was once more abandoned. Had the scheme succeeded, scarcely a
monument would now be standing to mark the site of old Sufetula.
[ ]
48 Cambon_1885_130131 Plus louest, une centaine de kilomtres de la ville sainte, dans
la rgion montagneuse, est Sbeitla, le Suffetula des Romains; les Arabes, qui ne pouvaient tirer
parti dune carrire de pierres aussi mal place, lont laiss debout presque en entier, et les rares
voyageurs qui lont visit disent des merveilles de ce Pompi africain.
[ ]
49 Filippi_1926_413414 travelling 1829: Sufetula, actuellement appelle Spitla, tait une
ville considrable en juger par le tour des murailles quon y remarque en bien dendroits on y
voit un assez bel arc de triomphe dordre Corinthien une petite distance de la porte de la ville
du ct de lEst. Cet arc consiste en une arche et une petite chaque ct je nai pu dchiffrer
dans sa ddicace que le mot CONSTANTIO. Il y a de larc la ville un petit chemin pav en pierres
noires bord dune petite muraille quelques pas de la fin de ce pav on rencontre un superbe
portique galement dordre Corinthien qui aboutit une grande cour o il devait exister une
colonnade magnifique qui conduisait du portique trois Temples contigus, dont les toits, les
portiques et les faades se trouvent tous crouls, il ne reste que quelques portions de murs
avec leurs frontons et les entablemens assez bien conservs vis vis le portique on trouve dans
APPENDIX
chaque temple une grande niche dans le fond et jai remarqu dans celui du ct droit quil
existe derrire la niche un petit escalier et un espace drob quil serait trs possible que ce
fut le lieu des mistres et lendroit do partaient les oracles des divinits payennes. Il y a peu
dannes quun Ministre du Bey fit enlever de ce temple ses plus belles colonnes en granite pour
les transporter Tunis et en faire lornement et le soutient dune Mosque quil y fit btir pour
recevoir sa dpouille, et ainsi Sufetula comme en bien dautres endroits la main de lArabe a
devanc beaucoup laction du tems pour effacer les difices qui nous sont tmoins irrvocables
de la grandeur Romaine.
[ ]
50 Tissot_1888_613614 Sbeitla/Sufetula: Sbetla nen offre quun aspect plus saisissant lorsquon a travers cette solitude. Situe au centre dune plaine immense, la ville antique couvre
une plate-forme semi-circulaire baigne par lOued Sbetla et dcoupe, sur un horizon bleutre,
les grandes lignes accidentes de ses ruines. Aucun centre arabe ne sest lev sur lemplacement
de la cit romaine: on la retrouve telle que la laisse, il y a douze sicles, la catastrophe qui mit
fin la domination byzantine. Les rues, les places sont encore tellement distinctes que rien ne
serait plus facile que den lever un plan exact et complet; la plupart des monuments sont encore
debout; quant aux habitations prives, si elles ont disparu, affaisses sur elles-mmes, elles sont
nettement indiques par les monceaux de dcombres quencadrent les pierres de taille formant
les linteaux des portes et les angles de chaque maison. / Une grande et large rue traversait la
ville du nord au sud et tait coupe angle droit par trois rues parallles. La rue principale
commenait au nord, par un arc de triomphe, dont il ne reste plus que la base des pieds-droits:
elle finissait au sud entre deux difices carrs, galement ruins. Une chausse pave de larges
dalles coupe angle obtus laxe de la grande rue et conduit de ces deux difices, dans la direction
du sud-ouest, une autre porte monumentale encore debout. and long description follows.
[ ]
51 Lespinasse-Langeac_1893_174 Henchir-Souk. A 14 kilomtres au sud-est [of Sbeitla].
tablissement agricole avec moulin et pressoirs. Les meules broyer, en forme de rouleaux en
pierre dure veine de rouge, gisent sur le sol. Tout ct, un bassin circulaire en pierre de mme
nature est intact: cest le plateau du moulin, appel mortarium, et qui porte au centre une sorte
de colonne courte et paisse [miliarium] qui recevait le pivot autour duquel tournait le cylindre
destin craser lolive. Plus loin, cest un autre plateau qui porte les rigoles pour lcoulement de
lhuile. Les procds antiques de fabrication nont pas chang: ce sont les mmes, peu de chose
prs, que ceux dont se servent aujourdhui les Arabes. / Parmi les nombreux vestiges rpandus
sur la surface du sol, une douzaine de tombes en blocage. Dans un coin, vaste construction rectangulaire de plus de 20 mtres de ct. Plus loin, autre construction circulaire.
[ ]
52 Lespinasse-Langeac_1893_176 south-east of Sbeitla: Ksar-Hahmoun. A 6 kilomtres
environ au sud-est [of Bir-El-Hafei]. Mausole de 4 mtres carrs deux tages, en blocage,
avec toit double pente incline comme El-Hafei. La faade sud est compltement croule
ou ventre; les autres faces sont intactes. Aux angles, des statues dhommes, encastres dans la
maonnerie, en forme de cariatides, soutiennent la corniche du toit. Sur chacune des faces, et
ltage suprieur, ainsi que sur le fatage nord, deux femmes debout. Ces statues semblent faites
en ciment ou en une sorte de stuc; on dirait quelles ont t plaques sur place. Elles ont bien
rsist aux injures du temps et des sicles.
[ ]
53 Gauckler_1897_385386: Environs de Sbetla. M. Dubiez, gomtre du Service des
domaines, charg dtablir le plan grande chelle de 95,000 hectares de terres acquis par ltat
autour de Sbetla. a relev avec le plus grand soin toutes les ruines existant la surface du sol
dans cette rgion. Dans les 50,000 hectares qui environnent les ruines, au nord, louest et au sud

il a relev les traces de soixante-dix ruines, pouvant se classer ainsi: 3 villes, 15 centres importants, 46 bourgades. 6 huileries. Le principal intrt de ses observations, qui ne doivent dailleurs
tre prises ici qu titre dindications, est de dmontrer lextension et la prosprit de la culture
de lolivier, dans toute la rgion de Sbetla, lpoque chrtienne. M. Dubiez a relev les traces de
plus dun millier de pressoirs.
[ ]
54 Winkler_1893_14 near Feriana: Avant darriver au Khanguet Goubeul, nous trouvons un
temple en ruine, autour duquel gisent de nombreuses colonnes brises; non loin de l, nous
apercevons aussi des mausoles et des tumuli presque entirement dtruits. Aprs avoir franchi
la partie septentrionale du djebel Goubeul, nous dcouvrons un grand nombre de vestiges de
fermes ou dhabitations. Autour de ces anciens hameaux existent des pressoirs et des oliviers
sauvages. Enfin au Koudiat oum-Ali, nous trouvons les ruines dune ville assez considrable
(Alonianum?). Deux bornes milliaires gisent non loin de l. Quelques fouilles dans ce henchir
suffiraient certainement pour y dcouvrir des monuments pigraphiques.
[ ]
55 Winckler_1893_13: Le henchir Krerbouk nous prsente 16 grands pressoirs bien aligns;
de ces ruines, la voie romaine semble stre dirige vers lest et parait avoir pass par le henchir appel Labir. Nous prenons cette direction pour visiter des ruines prsentant encore une
tour carre: nous ignorons le nom de ce henchir. Nous passons ensuite plusieurs autres petites
ruines insignifiantes avant darriver Thelepte, o nous remarquons les thermes qui, quoique
construits en petits matriaux rougetres, sont encore assez bien conservs.
[ ]
56 Monchicourt_1913_314: Sidi Abdelmelek avait surgi, au dbut du XIXe sicle au sein de
la tribu maraboutique des Ouled-Sidi-Hamada et il stait fix brve distance, au contre de
Siliana, o le Bey lui avait concd environ 300 hectares, la plupart irrigables. Son fils Ahmed
qui lui succda songea, vers 1865, sinstaller Sbetla sur les conseils de son beau-pre, Mostefa
ben Azzouz. Une grande maison fut commence avec des matriaux antiques non loin du
pont-aqueduc romain, mais la tentative avorta cause des troubles de la priode 18641868.
[ ]
57 Gurin_1862_I_267: Avant de quitter cette oasis pour retourner Tozer, je vais, a six
heures du matin, visiter les ruines ou plutt lemplacement de lancienne ville laquelle a succd la moderne Nefta [oasis south of Sbeitla]. Cette antique cit tait situe sur les bords de
la sebkha. Elle est aujourdhui entirement ensevelie sous des monticules de sable, espces de
dunes dont ltendue semble indiquer celle quelle avait elle-mme. Aprs avoir travers vers lest
de fertiles jardins, puis des plantations plus maigres et plus rares de dattiers moiti submergs
dans le sable, on parvient une solitude triste et dsole, dpourvue de toute vgtation. L
slve la kouhba dun santon appel Sidi-Hassan-Aad et qui a donn son nom lemplacement
primitif de la ville. A en croire lArabe que javais pris pour guide dans cette excursion, ce serait
ce santon qui, il y a trois cent cinquante ans environ, aurait engag les habitants de loasis
transporter leurs pnates sur les collines quoccupent les villages actuels, et ce serait depuis cette
poque seulement que la ville ancienne aurait t compltement abandonne et aurait peu
peu disparu, par suite de lenvahissement continu des sables.
[ ]
58 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_127 Sbeitla: Notre premier soin est de chercher nous assurer
un gte plus vaste et plus commode que notre petite tente. Deux constructions faites par les
Arabes, au milieu mme des ruines, pouvaient nous abriter. La premire, leve autrefois par
un marabout, Sidi-Ibrahim, ct des restes dun temple antique, nous servit pendant quelques
jours; puis nous nous installmes dfinitivement dans la seconde, plus grande et mieux dispose pour notre usage. Cette dernire a t construite par Sidi-Mustapha-ben-Azouz, originaire
de Nefta, oasis au sud de Kafsa. Ce riche Arabe, sduit par la position de Sbeitla auprs dune
APPENDIX
rivire, avait eu, il y a une vingtaine dannes, lide fort juste elle sera un jour reprise et mise
excution par des colons de fonder une petite ville sur les ruines de lancienne. Les gens quil
envoya afin de commencer les constructions soccuprent dabord runir des matriaux pour
btir des maisons et brisrent plaisir soffites, corniches, chapiteaux et frises, dont ils voulaient
faire des moellons ou de la chaux. Par-ci par-l on rencontre encore Sbeitla de ces dbris disposs en tas rguliers et prts tre utiliss.
[ ]
59 Cagnat_1888_67: Sbeitla. Je nai pas rpter ici ce que nous avons dj dit de Sbeitla,
M. Saladin et moi. Depuis notre passage, M. le lieutenant Boy a fait dans les murs de lamphithtre, qui avait t rebti une trs basse poque, des fouilles heureuses, et a mis au jour un
certain nombre de bases: elles avaient t employes dans la construction du mur et taient
absolument noyes dans du mortier. Il est vident que, en continuant dmolir ldifice, on
trouverait de nouvelles inscriptions, car le forum semble avoir t exploit comme carrire pour
la rparation de ce monument; mais cest l une extrmit laquelle on ne pourrait se rsoudre
sans hsitation.
[ ]
60 Saladin_1887_68 Sbeitla (where they had only 9 men to help): Il est donc vraisemblable
que des fouilles Sbetla, conduites avec mthode et avec des ressources suffisantes, permettront de trouver, conservs intacts, des plans de maisons et ddifices; les directions des rues
sont absolument visibles encore, et, si nous navions t forc par le peu de temps dont nous
disposions, de nous attacher aux temples, aux arcs triomphaux, au thtre, nous aurions pu prsenter un trac complet des rues de Sbetla. Il faudrait, pour y faire des fouilles, disposer de trois
ou quatre mois et de cent cinquante deux cents travailleurs au moins. Avec ces ressources, les
outils ncessaires, des crics pour enlever les gros matriaux, des brouettes pour transporter les
terres, on pourrait dblayer une partie de ces ruines et obtenir des rsultats intressants.
[ ]
61 Rouard de Card, E., Traits de la France avec les pays de lAfrique du Nord, Paris 1906, 240
241: in a treaty with Tripoli of 1720 re. Leptis Magna, Le premier trait concdait la France
un droit particulier daprs larticle 3, il tait permis au Franais, envoys par 1Empereur, de
tirer de la ville de Lbida toutes les colonnes de marbre quils pourraient trouver dans ledit
lieu. cf. 253254 for similar clause in a treaty of 1692. 241 note 4d as follows: Quelques-unes
de ces colonnes furent apportes Paris sous Louis XIV: elles servirent orner le baldaquin
du matre-autel de lglise Saint-Germain-des-Prs, construit en 1704 et ensuite compltement
dtruit. (Guilhermy, Itinraire archologique de Paris (1855).
[ ]
62 Omont_1902_309310: Si lEgypte avait t un champ fertile pour les recherches archologiques, il en devait tre bientt de mme de la rgence de Tripoli de Barbarie, lancienne
Cyrnaque. Lintendant de Vauvr crivait de Toulon au ministre, le 3 janvier 1681: Sur ladvis
que jeu, il y a 5 ou 6 jours, que la barque de patron Louis Maunier, de Cassis, qui avoit charg
les statues de marbre Tripoly pour les porter Ligourne, avoit chou Napoule, proche de
Cannes, jenvoyay ordre au sr Charonnier de sy transporter, qui ma fait savoir quil y avoit
trouv ladite barque, ayant quatre pieds deau dedans, et les trois grandes statues, une petite
teste et quelques morceaux de la draperie desdites statues, qui avoient est donnes rompues
audit patron, et une caisse de lires, que ledit patron croit estre vnitiens, mais qui se trouveront
en meschant estt, parce quils estoient dans leau. Ledit sr Charonnier mescrit quil avoit veu
les testes de deux de ces statues, qui luy ont paru fort antiques, ayans quelques traits effacs,
mais qui ne laissent pas destre belles et trs curieuses. La plus grande pse trente quintaux et les
deux autres vingt-cinq quintaux chacune, au rapport du patron, qui dit quelles ont est achetes
Tripoly cent escus par un juif et un marchand de Marseille, nomm Compion, qui doit estre

prsentement Ligourne; quil y avoit la vrit plusieurs autres statues et inscriptions dans le
navire du capitaine Bon que les Tripolins navoient pas vendues et quil a veu employer dans les
bastimens de maonnerie qui se faisoient pour lors Tripoly. Jescris au sr Charonnier de les faire
mettre terre et me les envoyer par la premire occasion. He then writes again, 24 January:
Les statues de marbre que le sr Charonnier a fait repescher sont arrives; elles sont dalbastre,
fort antiques et fort grandes, et assez bien conserves; les sculpteurs y trouvent quelque chose
de beau. A lesgard des livres, comme ils sont vnitiens de nouvelle impression, le sr Charonnier
ne les a pas envoys.
[ ]
63 Cagnat_1901_6768 relaying a 1694 account of Leptis Magna, the port: aux deux costez de lentre, il y a encore des degrez qui vont jusques la Mer. On voit aussi encore l des
restes de Colonnes rompues. Des deux costez du circuit du Port, on trouve despace en espace
des degrez faits, mais non pas si beaux que ceux des terrasses des Tuilleries, et tout autour des
Amares de pierres qui servaient autrefois aux Vaissaux. Vis--vis lentre du Port, le circuit se
rduit en quarr, et, aprs une platte forme, on y monte encore vingt-cinq degrez fort larges,
derriere lesquels il y a cinq votes et des debris de Marbre et de Colonnes.Apparamment, il y
avoit l quelque magnifique loge o les Bastiments alloient rendre raison de leurs voyages...Il
y a dans cette muraille des pierres avec des inscriptions romaines, mises sens dessus dessous, et
sans suite, qui marquent que des Barbares les ont voulu renouveller. Le plus large de la Ville en
terre nest pas de plus dune lieu; la muraille se peut suivre presquepartout. Une des portes de
la Ville qui estoit de douze arcades, et dont on en voit encore trois sur pied, ressemble un Arc
de triomphe, et les autres demy. On a tir de cette porte plusieurs Colonnes de marbre, et trois
entre autres qui sont encore la Marive (sic) et quon na pu embarquer cause de leur grosseur et longueur, estant de vingt-cinq pans de tour sur quarante de long. Cette Porte rpondoit
au Palais, ou au Temple, ou peut estre tous deux ensemble; quoy quil en soit, il est impossible de vous dcrire la magnificence des restes de ce lieu. / On ny connoist aucune rgularit.
Cest une trs vaste tendu, pleine de Batisses de grosses Pierres, espce de Marbre, sans chaux
ny ciment, mais qui estoient lies avec du fer, et en dedans toutes couvertes dun Marbre vert
dont on trouve quantit de morceaux de lpaisseur dun doigt, qui la pluspart ont est portez
Constantinople. On a tir de cet endroit, tant pour Constantinople autrefois que pour nous
present, plus de sept ou huit cens Colonnes et il y en a encore plus de trois cents. Je nen ai veu
que dix de trs entires. Cet endroit estoit sans doute le plus superbe de la Ville.
[ ]
64 Omont_1902_10451046 Consul Claude Lemaire on the coast of Tripoli, Leptis: Libeda
est lancienne Leptis, sittue sur le bord de la mer, 30 lieux lest de Tripoly, sur une espesse
danphitatre; la mer lavoit les murailles de ville pendant une grande lieux. Autan que jan puis
juger, elle pouvoit avoir 3 lieux de tour; cestoit la plus belle et la plus superbe ville de lAffrique
et la plus riche de lAffrique en marbre. Jay tir dun seul tample plus de 200 collonnes ou morceaux, de 18 pieds de long, et de 21 poulces de diamettre. Il y en a une trentne la porte de la
Confrance Paris; elles sonts toutes vertes et blanches ondes et de marbre greq; les autres
sont sur le port Toulon. On ne voit dans les superbes ruinnes, que marbres de plusieurs qualits, quantits de colonnes rompues, une quantit prodigieuse de pieds desteaux, de base de chapiteaux de marbre blanc de tous les ordres; le tample avoit 900 pieds de long sur 400 de large. Il y
avoit 6 portes; il y en a encore deux en estat et une partie de muraille, bastie san chos, ni siman,
dune espesse de jaspe. Il y avoit, autan que je lay peu remarquer, 200 collonnes dans ce tample,
dune mesme qualitt de marbre, les collonnes suportoints des arcades de marbre blanc, qui
APPENDIX
fesoints deux galleries, sur lesquelles on marchoit couvert, le milieux nestoit pouin couvert;
on y voit au bout une grande muraille de mesme jaspe, quy est fort lev, o il y a trois niches,
o estoint aparammant les idolles. Javois coppis quelques inscriptions latinnes dun trs beaux
caractre, que jay perdu; il y a encore beaucoup de murailles de la ville en estt du cost de la
mer; il y avoit une ligne dinscription lattinne dun trs beaux caractre au dessous du cordon,
dont les lettres onts deux pieds de long et quy reignoit tout du long des murailles de la faade de
la mer, mais comme les murailles sonts muttiles en plusieurs endroits, je ne pus rien assambler
de cette inscription. Au sorty du tample il y avoit une grande alle de collonne de marbre, de la
mesme grandeur et calit que celles du tample, toutes les colonnes renverses et rompues en
plusieurs morceaux, comme si elles avoints est bouleverses par un tramblemant de terre, ce
que jay remarqu en plusieurs autres endroits. Le port, fait de main dhomme, estoit fort grand;
on voyt du cost de louest plus de 400 pas durans les paremants du port de la mesme pierre des
murailles du tample, avec des pellis escaliers de mesme, o les bateaux abordoints pour se desbarqer; il est tout remply de sable et de terre, en sorte que peine y peut il entrer une chaloupe.
[ ]
65 Tumiati_1905_51 in Tripolitania, Tripoli: Gli ufficiali turchi hanno costruito unelegante
palazzina in stile moresco, con un giardino che prospetta il mare, adornato da quattro statue
romane decapitate, che si ergono sul cielo barbarico nelle loro classiche forme. Nel buio, infatti,
vidi scintillare di lanterne il chiosco, occupato dalla fanfara. The author does not give any date
for such decoration.
[ ]
66 Omont_1902_1046 Consul Claude Lemaire on the coast of Tripoli, Leptis, from the port:
Il y avoit 200 toises un tample, un enphitatre, dont il reste encore plus de la moiti en estt,
mais celuy de Nisme en Languedoc est plus grand et plus beaux. A environ cent toises du port,
du cost de leste, il y a un cirque, o on fait la course des cheveaux, qui est presque tout en estt;
il contien un bon car de lieux en osval; il y a une ale au milieux, o il passoit de leau et o il y
a des pettites collonnes et des statues drappes en consuls romains, qui sonts toutes muttiles;
on les eslevoit apparammant en lhonneur de ceux qui ramportoints le prix. Ce sirque est orne
descaliers tout lantour par amphitatre, o les peuples estoints assis. A 50 toises du tample,
prs dune des portes de la ville, il y avoit un char de triomphe, suport par 6 ou 8 collonnes
de 27 pieds de long et de 42 pouces de diamettre, dune seule piesse, de la mesme qualitt de
marbre que celuy du tample, elles en portoint par arcade 8 autres de 18 pieds, celles de 18 en
portoint 8 de 12. Ce grand et admirable diffice est presque tout ranvers. Je trouv dans ces
ruinnes, ensevely dans le sable, 3 collonnes de 21 pied de long, toutes entires et sur leurs pieds
desteaux. La plus grande partie des ruinnes de la ville sonts encevelie dans la terre et la plus part
des colonnes, que jay tires du tample, estoint sur leurs pieds desteaux, ensevelis dans le sable
jusques lastragalle; jay travaill prs de 5 mois pour faire dessabler ces trois grosses colonnes,
o je trouv les desbris des autres aux environs; je les fis conduire la marinne sur le petit port,
que javois fait pour embarquer les autres; je ne les peu ambarquer faute de chalan asss fort
pour les porters bord de la flutte du Roy. Je trouv plus de trante statues, toutes muttiles et
or destat de pouvoir embarquer, nayant ny testes, ny bras; ce sonts les plus belles ruinnes et les
plus entires de toute lAffrique.
[ ]
67 Caylus_III_1759_215216 Leptis: La grande Leptis toit une des villes de la Tripolitaine,
quoi que ce soit mal--propos, quon la confondue avec Tripoli mme: on en trouve de grands
vestiges dans le lieu, qui, sous le nom de Lebeda, conserve des traces de celui de Leptis. Sa situation est au levant deTripoli, en tirant vers la grande Syrte, & peu loin dun petit fleuve, connu

chez les Anciens, depuis Hrodote, sous le nom de Cinyps. / Selon le rapport des Voyageurs, on
voit encore Lebeda y les ruines dune grande ville; elles sont en partie couvertes par la mer,
qui a gagn sur cette cte, & suivant le rcit dun ancien Consul de Tripoli, on y dcouvre des
colonnes renverses y & des souterreins couverts de sable, o lon pourroit trouver beaucoup de
monumens antiques, si lon avoit les moyens & la libert dy fouiller. Ce mme Consul prtend
aussi, quune rivire arrosoit autrefois cette ville, mais quelle est entirement dessche, & quon
ne voit plus que le lit quelle occupoit. Labord par la mer est difficile cause des cueils, & des
bas-fonds dont cette cte a t remplie de tout tems; aussi elle toit autrefois appelle Syrtica.
[ ]
68 Caylus_III_1759_216 antiquities, including a fragment of porphyry, retrieved from Leptis:
les riches monumens quon en a retirs & qui furent envoys M. le Chancelier de Pontchartrain,
dans le tems quil avoit le dpartement de la marine. Jai dj parl du got de ce grand Ministre,
& de ses connoissances dans lAntiquit. Les soins quil sest donns, & les recherches quil a fait
faire Leptis, suffiroient pour le prouver. Ibid., 217: la belle Statue de marbre blanc, qui reprsente une Vestale, place aujourdhui dans la galerie de Versailles, & dont le Chancelier fut assez
heureux pour pouvoir faire prsent Louis XIV.
[ ]
69 Blaquire_1813_19 Leptis, description communicated to him by a friend: The extensive
ruins of Leptis Magna are situated close to the sea, which appear to have made some encroachments on a part of them; those which I saw, extend about three miles in length southward, and
nearly two in breadth. The bed of a river runs from the mountains directly through the ruins,
which consist of gateways, walls, an immense number of pillars, some of which are of the finest
granite, broken statues, and marbles with inscriptions, in Greek, Latin, and Punic characters;
together with the remains of an aqueduct. There are also a great many sculptured friezes, which
appear to have belonged to some temples; the remains of several Roman baths are visible near
the city; and I observed, about a mile from the ruins, an oblong terrace of fine Roman pavement,
of considerable extent; several ruins about this place evidently denoted that it must have been
the site of a theatre. There are the remains of a large edifice close to the sea, which appears to
have been a species of fortification.
[ ]
70 El-Abbassi_1816_II_171: Lontano venti leghe da Tripoli vedonsi le ruine dell antica Leptis,
e Lebda; e mi fa detto rimanervi tuttavia molte colonne, capitelli, ed altri interessanti rottami.
Il sig. Deleporte cancelliere del consolato generale di Francia che visit tali ruine ha copiato le
iscrizioni. / A maggiori distanze entro terra vedonsi pure le grandiose ruine daltre citt antiche,
con catacombe, statue, ed avanzi di edificj dogni specie. but doesnt name them, and presumably he didnt visit them.
[ ]
71 Conder_1830_6263 Leptis: Captain Smyth first visited Leptis in May 1816; at which
period the ruins had a very interesting appearance. His object was, to examine into the practicability of embarking the numerous columns lying on its sands, which the Bashaw of Tripoli
had offered to his Britannic Majesty. When he returned, in January 1817, with a vessel adapted
for their reception, he was surprised to find, that many of the most valuable columns which
had been standing in the preceding May, had either been removed or broken and mutilated.
Upon inquiry, he learned that the report of his intention to carry them off, had spread an alarm
among the Arabs, who had long been accustomed to use these ruins as a quarry which supplied
them with mill-stones; and they had, in the interval, been busily employed in breaking up the
columns to secure a permanent supply. Captain Smyth, however, commenced the work of excavation near the centre of the ancient city; when he had soon the mortification of perceiving,
that other barbarians had preceded the Arabs in the work of destruction, instigated either by
APPENDIX
iconoclastic zeal or by vindictive feeling. From whatever cause it had proceeded, the destruction appeared to have been complete. Most of the statues were found either broken to pieces
or chipped into shapeless masses. The arabesque ornaments had been defaced, the acanthus
-leaves and volutes knocked off the fallen capitals, and even part of the pavements torn up, the
massy shafts of the columns alone remaining entire.
[ ]
72 Monchicourt_1913_246 nostrums against pests: Les principaux reptiles sont le gros
lzard vert (brioul), le gecko, le scinque, le camlon (bouia), le scorpion jaune ou noir (agreb),
des serpents (hanech) et la vipre cornes (lfa). Le venin du scorpion semble moins fort ici
que dans la Steppe. Dailleurs, la rgion possde une panace trs en honneur. Les matriaux des
ruines de Dougga auraient la vertu dloigner les scorpions. Aussi en expdiait-on jadis des fragments jusque dans le Djrid. Les crtes saillantes des colonnes canneles jouissaient cet gard
dune rputation bien tablie qui a malheureusement entran la mutilation des plus beaux fts.
Aujourdhui encore, on nhsite pas transporter cet effet de la pierre de Dougga grande
distance.
[ ]
73 Conder_1830_64 Captain Smyth at Leptis, 1816 & 1817: In the course of the excavation,
he had an opportunity of observing, that the period of the principal grandeur of the city must
have been posterior to the Augustan age, and when taste was on the decline. Several of the
mutilated colossal statues are in the very worst style of the Lower Empire. There are also, continues Captain Smyth, many evidences of the city having been occupied after its first and violent destruction, several of the walls and towers being built of various architectural fragments,
confusedly heaped together. Although there are several exceedingly fine brick edifices, most of
the walls, arcades, and public buildings are composed of massy blocks of free-stone and conglomerate, in layers, without cement, or at most with very little. The temples were constructed
in a style of the utmost grandeur, adorned with immense columns of the most valuable granites
and marbles, the shafts of which consisted of a single piece.
[ ]
74 Conder_1830_65 Beechey commenting on Smyth at Leptis: No works of art were recovered, and Captain Smyth was obliged to content himself with carrying off some architectural
fragments and thirty-seven shafts, now in the court of the British Museum. Three fine Cipolline
columns of great magnitude and extreme beauty, it was found impracticable to bring off. A few
of the fine granite pillars were taken away, a century ago, to ornament a palace of Louis XIV.
[ ]
75 Tumiati_1905_222 Leptis: Restavano in cima alle sabbie, che il mare aveva accumulate
per lungo ordine di secoli, stipiti colossali in cui le pietre erano rimaste immobili luna sullaltra,
senza aiuto di cemento, come la mano dei costruttori le aveva disposte. Il vento passava come
un respiro di fanciullo negli archi di un anfiteatro, nella nave di una basilica...Tre colonne di
marmo azzurro, che nessuna mano duomo aveva potuto sollevare, giacevano sulla spiaggia,
accanto luna allaltra, come il tridente del Dio marino.... Altre, smosse, resistevano diritte
ancora....ed altre, di pietre sovrapposte, nutrivano lo slancio iniziale, senzombra di sforzo.
Sommerse nella sabbia, le porte conservavano un ghigno di superbia....e un architrave emergeva, come il sopracciglio di un gigante seppellito. Nomi romani, pietre dedicatorie, costellavano
lelemento bianco e mobile che ricopriva ci che fu un giorno Leptis; la riva era una valanga
di pietre di edifici abbattuti, che serbavano ancora la quadratura antica, rese nere dalla bava
marina.
[ ]
76 Bisson_1881_16: La cit de Leptis Magna, fonde par les Phniciens de Sidon, occupait
autrefois le premier rang aprs Carthage et Utique: elle fut le lieu de naissance de lempereur
Septime Svre. Sur lemplacement de la ville mme et dans ses environs, on recueille des

monnaies antiques de toutes les poques, en or, en argent et en cuivre, ainsi que des fragments
de statues et de colonnes. On y remarque les ruines dun amphithtre et dun aqueduc. A Leptis
Magna, le champ dexploration est tellement vaste et riche que le gouvernement anglais a transmis, il y a quelques annes, son consul gnral, lordre dy excuter des fouilles. Ces recherches
ont t fcondes au point que lon a d envoyer dAngleterre une frgate pour transporter
Londres, o elles font aujourdhui lornement dun muse, le grand nombre de richesses antiques
que lon y trouva. Notre consul gnral Tripoli, M. Fraud, dont la passion pour larchologie est
bien connue, est vraiment dsespr de ne pouvoir suivre lexemple de lAngleterre et contribuer
ainsi enrichir les muses franais dobjets nouveaux.
[ ]
77 Fagnan_1900_1819 Tunis: La plupart des portes des maisons sont encadres de marbre
blanc: deux montants sont dresss sur lesquels repose un troisime qui forme le linteau. Un
proverbe courant dIfrikiyya est ainsi conu: A Tunis les maisons ont des portes de marbre et
un intrieur de suie.
[ ]
78 Fagnan_1924_393 In a MS on the Saadian Dynasty of Morocco, the battle (in the 1570s,
apparently) between the two brothers, Kings of Tunis and Ifrikiya: le sultan Hamida battu
senfuit Sousse, o il sembarqua pour aller demander au roi chrtien de Sicile une arme et une
flotte pour reprendre Tunis. Il les obtint des conditions auxquelles il souscrivit, et repartit ainsi
avec une flotte qui arriva la Goulette; puis les troupes dbarques savancrent avec le sultan
pour combattre les musulmans. La rencontre, qui eut lieu prs dune porte de Tunis, ne fut pas
longue, et ceux-ci furent mis en droute. Les vainqueurs pntrrent dans la ville, sy livrant au
pillage et au massacre et emmenant, entre autres captifs, cinq cents jeunes filles; ils les transportrent en Sicile avec dautre butin, par exemple le marbre et les colonnes quils enlevrent aux
mosques; ils semparrent aussi des approvisionnements (quils trouvrent).
[ ]
79 Temple_1835_I_172 Tunis: the Jamaa El-Zaheb-Taba, in the suburbs of Bab es-Soueekah, founded by the famous Zaheb-el-Taba Yusuf, who brought columns and marbles at an enormous expense from Sbeitlah, Kazereen, and other ruins of ancient towns, to decorate its interior,
after having sent them to Italy to be polished.
[ ]
80 Tchihatchef_1880_485 Tunis: Les mosques sont trs nombreuses et plusieurs aspect
assez imposant, mais comme rentre en est interdite aux chrtiens, et que pour les visiter il faut
une autorisation spciale, qui, au reste, nest pas difficile obtenir, je nai pas voulu me soumettre
aux dlais causs par ces formalits, parce que je prfrais profiter du peu de temps qui tait
ma disposition, en faveur de courses dans les environs de Tunis. Dailleurs, aprs les mosques
de Constantinople, du Caire, de Damas, etc., je ne devais gure mattendre trouver ici rien de
plus remarquable dans ce genre, bien que jaie regrett de navoir pu observer les nombreux
dbris des ruines de Carthage, qui, ce quon ma assur, figurent dans plusieurs mosques sous
forme de colonnes, corniches, sculptures, pierres tumulaires, etc.; cest surtout la grande et belle
mosque dite aux oliviers (Djamaai-ez-Zaitouna) qui parait tre richement pourvue de ces prcieuses reliques dantiquit.
[ ]
81 Kennedy_1846_155 Bardo: Having expressed a wish to see the interior of the Kasbah,
the Manuba palace, and the Bardo, orders were given that the two former should be opened for
our inspection, and a strikingly handsome young officer, the Beys favourite aid-de-camp, was
sent to conduct us over the latter; the state saloon, in which we had been received at our first
interview, is fitted up with great splendour; the furniture and mirrors are of Parisian manufacture, and the walls encrusted with slabs of the rarest marbles, from the ruins of Carthage and
Utica.
APPENDIX
[ ]
82 Gurin_1862_II_214: A quatre heures de laprs-midi, nous quittons Hammam-Korbes,
et longeant, dans la direction du sud, par un sentier troit et difficile, mais beaucoup moins
pnible toutefois que le prcdent, les pentes abruptes du Djebel-Korbs, nous atteignons six
heures du soir le marabout Sidi-Aly-Reiss, petite coupole qui slve solitaire sur une colline au
pied mridional de la montagne. A lentour de ce sanctuaire, on remarque quelques tombes
musulmanes et plusieurs dbris antiques. De l jusqu la mer, lespace de plus dun mille de longueur, gisent les ruines dune ancienne ville entirement dtruite et abandonne; elle est counue parmi les indignes sous la dnomination de Merassa (le petit port). Les vestiges de cette
petite cit maritime disparaissent tous les jours de plus en plus, les blocs les plus considrables
qui y jonchent le sol tant incessamment transportes par mer la Goulette, et de l Tunis.
Lemplacement quelle occupait est aujourdhui tout parsem de fosses qui ont t pratiques
dans le but dextraire des maisons et des difices renverss jusquaux pierres des assises infrieures et des fondations. Remains included a nearly-gone aqueduct, a citadel with its pierres de
taille taken, and an amphitheatre compltement dmoli.
[ ]
83 El-Kairouani_1845_29 first published 1681, Voici un fait qui prouve lantiquit de
Carthage: Abd-er-Rahmn-ben-Zad, tant encore dans sa jeunesse, se promenait un jour avec
son oncle sur les ruines de Carthage, dont il admirait la grandeur, lorsquils dcouvrirent un tombeau portant cette inscription en langue hamirih [a dialect]: Je suis Abd-Allah-ben-Ouassi,
envoy de lenvoy de Dieu, Slah. Voil ce que des gens dignes de foi assurent avoir entendu
dire Abd-er-Rahmn.
[ ]
84 Cherbonneau_18541855_119120 Arab authors on Carthage: Quel ne dut pas tre ltonnement des Arabes, lorsque lardeur du proslytisme les jeta tout--coup hors de leur pninsule,
qui demeurait depuis des sicles comme spare du reste de lunivers? De quel il virent-ils les
merveilles des civilisations teintes? Comment sexpliqurent-ils le problme de lantiquit?
Il serait intressant de rechercher leurs impressions dans les auteurs que nous avons entre les
mains, et dexaminer sils taient enfin parvenus, laide de lrudition, comprendre la constitution sociale des Grecs, des Romains et des Phniciens. Jai compuls les livres des voyageurs,
des gographes et des historiens, dans lespoir dclairer un peu la question. Quelques-uns, anims par le sentiment du beau, nous ont laiss des descriptions dtailles des difices antiques.
Dautres, entrans par la curiosit dans le champ des investigations, mais privs du flambeau
de la critique, ont essay de rattacher des vnements les objets dart quils contemplaient. Ils
ont vu leurs efforts sgarer dans le mirage sducteur de la lgende. Cest que les Arabes ont un
penchant naturel observer la ralit en visionnaires.
[ ]
85 Noah_1819_264: Captain John E. Humbert, is a brother-in-law to Mr. Nyssen, is an
engineer in the service of the Bey, and is generally employed at the Goletta, at which place, he
has a house assigned him. Mr Humbert has resided near twenty years on the ruins of Carthage;
his situation and public duties, give him advantages, which no other person can ever hope to
possess, for the natural jealousy of the people would prevent a stranger from taking plans of
the city and neighbourhood, which his public situation, makes a duty incumbent upon him.
Since his residence in Tunis, he has devoted his attention to the antiquities of the kingdom, and
from habit and study, he has become an excellent antiquarian; he possesses a fine collection
of gold, silver, and bronze coins, which cabinet he values at 20,000 dollars; he has taken copies
of all the inscriptions found in the interior, he has a good taste for painting, and has made drawings of statues, sepulchral lamps, caps, pediments, &c. and designs writing a history of that
country; which from his talents and experience, will no doubt be interesting. He is a sociable

and pleasant companion, a little parsimonious, and fond of presents. In addition to the consular
families, there are several respectable merchants, which together, constitute an agreeable society, and when properly cultivated, can be made useful and pleasant to a stranger.
[ ]
86 Fagnan_1900_21 the chateau of La Malga at Carthage: Dans cette ville se trouve le
lieu de divertissement dnomm Thiatir (Thtre) par les habitants: il se compose de votes
cintres reposant sur des colonnes de marbre et sur lesquelles reposent quatre autres sries de
votes semblables; elles entourent ldifice proprement dit, qui est des plus surprenants dans
sa forme circulaire. Il y a de nombreuses portes sur chacune desquelles sont des images danimaux de toutes sortes; les parois laissent galement voir des images dartisans pratiquant tous
les mtiers et ayant leurs outils dans les mains. Ce seul difice renferme tant de marbre que tous
les habitants de lIfrikiyya se runiraient en vain pour arriver le transporter.
[ ]
87 Fagnan_1900_22 Carthage, near the amphitheatre, the Deux Soeurs: Depuis fort longtemps on a commenc et lon continue encore tirer du marbre, raison de la beaut, de ces
deux palais. Leau y est amene dune source situe dans la direction du nord, mais dont on
ignore lemplacement exact. Le long de ce (cours deau) taient installs des roues godet et des
canaux de drivation pour arroser les jardins.
[ ]
88 Desfontaines_1830_193 travelling 1783, Carthage: Je nai retrouv, ni dans la ville ni dans
les environs, aucun reste de monument antique qui indique mme la place quelle occupait
autrefois; mais on observe dans les murailles de la plupart des maisons un grand nombre de
pierres de taille de diffrentes formes et de diverses grandeurs, dont on reconnat facilement
lanciennet. Elles nont pas t travailles par les Maures, peuple sans got, sans industrie, et
dont les dsirs ne stendent gure au-del des besoins de premire ncessit.
[ ]
89 Crapelet _1876_10 Goletta: Il lago in cui si entra alluscire della Goletta ha diciotto chilometri circa di circonferenza. In arabo lo si chiama: piccolo mare El Bahyrah. Infatti un
bacino dacqua di mare. Mi spiace dover dire che, da una lunga sequela di secoli, questo il
serbatoio di tutte le immondizie di Tunisi, che vi si sono insensibilmente accumulate a tal punto
che in molti siti il lago non ha pi nemmeno settanta metri di profondit. Alcuni ingegneri
francesi proposero ai bey, non gi di nettare il lago, impresa impossibile, ma almeno di scavare
ed allargare nel mezzo il canale che le barche percorrono stentatamente. I bey finora rifiutarono: essi non sono ricchi.
[ ]
90 Rambaud_1888_95 Tunis etc: Dinnombrables colonnes et statues ont t retires, pendant tout le moyen ge, de ces villes ruines; une partie de la cathdrale de Pise fut construite,
au douzime sicle, avec des colonnes provenant de Carthage. Si quelque gnie vengeur de
la vieille cit retirait tout coup des murs et des maisons de Tunis ce quils contiennent de
colonnes romaines, la ville entire scroulerait.
[ ]
91 Pellissier_1853_236: Il parait quaprs la prise de la Goulette par Charles-Quint, Andr
Doria, son amiral, tira de Carthage et fit transporter Gnes de grandes quantits de marbre, et
lon assure que de nos jours encore il en fut extrait pour la construction du palais de Constantine.
[ ]
92 Flaux_1865_273 Carthage: Les pierres de la vieille ville servirent btir la nouvelle. Mais
cette abondante carrire ne devait pas tre aussitt puise. Sidi-Bou-Sad, la Goulette, enfin
toutes les villes et tous les villages des environs furent construits avec des matriaux tirs de ces
fcondes ruines. Bien plus, les souverains de Tunis en firent trafic. Les Italiens et les Espagnols,
pendant tout le moyen ge, y ont achet la plus grande partie des marbres dont ils ornaient leurs
palais. Ltranger admire encore dans le Canale Grande Venise et au palais Doria Gnes des
colonnes et des frises qui avaient fait autrefois ladmiration de leurs anctres en Afrique. Les
APPENDIX
Pisans se vantent davoir pris Carthage tout le marbre employ la construction de leur magnifique cathdrale. Les Maures de Sville et de Cordoue en ont aussi extrait les prcieux matriaux
qui ont servi lever leurs mosques si clbres au moyen ge. Il nest pas jusqu Louis XIV qui
nen ait fait charger un btiment. Pour quel usage? On lignore, probablement pour Versailles.
[ ]
93 Fagnan_1924_9: Ibn Sayd Gharnati, d. 673 or 683 AH [1274 or 1284]: A douze farsakh
[c.10km] de Tunis se trouve Carthage, capitale de lIfrikiya avant lIslam. La construction en est
ancienne et remonte, dit-on, Adrich, prince roumi dIfrikiya; il sy trouvait des idoles de marbre
reprsentant toutes les espces danimaux, des hommes, etc. Elle est aujourdhui dserte et il
ny reste plus que des ruines en petite quantit; elle fut dtruite du temps dAbd el-Melik ben
Merwn, et lon en transporta les produits du pillage Damas. Les musulmans de Sicile avaient
dirig des attaques contre cette ville. On dit aussi quelle avait t fonde par les Adiles sur qui
Dieu fit passer un vent destructeur, puis quelle resta en ruines pendant mille ans jusqu sa redification par Loud fils de Nimrod le maudit.
[ ]
94 Carton_1906B_389392 writing on Carthage: for overview of the demolitions since 11th
century, El Bekri, Edrisi, then Genoese, Pisans, Spanish. Ibid., 400 writing on Carthage: for chapter and verse on the depradations of Sir Thomas Reade, Davis, and the French
[ ]
95 Ibn_Khaldun_II_1865_247: after recounting the attempts of Al-Rashid to demolish
Ctesiphon, and El-Mamoun the pyramids, Une chose de mme genre se voit aussi relativement
aux votes de la Malga, Carthage. Lorsque les habitants de Tunis ont besoin de bonnes pierres
pour leurs constructions, les ouvriers, trouvant celles dont ces votes sont formes prfrables
toutes autres, emploient beaucoup de jours dmolir une partie de ce monument; mais peine,
aprs avoir su sang et eau, en font-ils tomber un petit fragment; et cependant on rassemble
beaucoup de monde pour ce travail, comme je lai vu plus dune fois dans ma jeunesse. i.e. the
vaults covering the ancient cisterns at Carthage.
[ ]
96 Hebenstreit_1830_8485 Voyage Alger, Tunis et Tripoli, travelling 17323, Carthage:
Les citernes qui existent encore peuvent donner une ide de larchitecture des Carthaginois.
Elles consistent en seize caveaux souterrains, qui contiennent leau que leur apporte laqueduc,
et communiquent entre eux par plusieurs conduits. Il y a un endroit dans ces souterrains, ou
lon entend un cho vraiment surprenant: un coup de fusil y fit autant de fracas quun coup
de tonnerre. Presque tout le canton voisin est creus au dessous du sol. Le temps a respect les
votes et les magasins souterrains: ils sont construits si solidement quils ont rsiste toutes les
subversions auxquelles le pays a t en proie. Les Maures ont mis cette circonstance profit, et
habitent sous terre la manire des rats. Les environs sont comme parsems de petits cailloux
de diffrentes couleurs, qui jadis faisaient partie du pav en mosaque des appartemens. On
trouve quelquefois de jolis vases de porphyre, qui ont sans doute servi leur dcoration, et des
mdailles. Parmi les colonnes brises ou mutiles, nous en vmes une en porphyre, couche
par terre, prs du canal de la Goulette: elle fixa notre attention par la dlicatesse du travail et
la bizarrerie de ses couleurs. Le rivage est couvert de pierres, et il nest pas ais de distinguer en
quel endroit le port se trouvait.
[ ]
97 Baraudon_1893_276 Carthage: Seules, les citernes sont bien conserves. On ne peut
gure imaginer une destruction plus complte. Les Vandales, les Arabes, et, aprs eux, tous ceux
qui, pour difier des villes nouvelles, sont venus fouiller dans ces dcombres, doivent tre satisfaits de leur uvre. Involontairement, je songe la prophtie de Daniel sur Jrusalem: Et l
ceux qui lhabitaient seront disperss, et de la cit par il Dieu maudite il ne restera pas pierre
sur pierre.

[ ]
98 Poir_1892_122 Carthage: Une autre ruine, mieux conserve, donnait, il y a peu
dannes, par ses prodigieuses dimensions, lide de ce quavait t la Carthage romaine:
ctaient les citernes publiques, situes entre Byrsa et Sidi-bou-Sad. Elles viennent dtre si parfaitement remises en tat, pour alimenter deau la Goulette, quon ne sait plus si lon est devant
un monument antique ou une construction moderne difie, depuis le protectorat, par un ingnieur franais.
[ ]
99 Vicomte Begouen, La Condamine, Tunis Le Bardo Carthage, in Revue Tunisienne
V 1898, 7194. From a MS of his Journal de mon Voyage au Levant (21 mai6 octobre 1731), only
parts of which (Algiers & Tripoli) had already been published in the Univers Pittoresque VII, Paris
1830. Soldier, chemist and traveller. 8889: Je mtais cart de mes guides et javais gagn par
un sentier escarp le haut de la montagne, do je considrais avec attention la vaste tendue de
lancienne Carthage et le peu de vestiges qui subsistaient de son ancienne splendeur. Cisterns
at Carthage: On juge que ctaient des citernes destines rassembler et conserver les eaux de
pluie qui tombaient sur la montagne, pour fournir la ville deau en temps de scheresse, car il
ne se trouve pas de fontaine dans le voisinage, et leau que font les btiments est tire de puits
dans la campagne, que les habitants dune grande ville auraient eu bientt puiss. Plusieurs de
ces citernes se sont combles, ou lont t de main dhomme; dautres paraissent encore pleines
deau jusqu une assez grande profondeur, autant que lon peut en juger en y jetant une pierre.
Sond avec un plomb au retour de Constantinople: hauteur du fond de la citerne au-dessus de
la vote trente-six pieds, savoir: hauteur de leau sept pieds, du niveau de leau au rez-de-chausse quinze, du rez-de-chausse la vote quatorze; jai tois une de celles qui sont combles,
et comme elles paraissent toutes gales, par celle-l on peut juger des autres: elle avait quinze
toises de long en dedans et trois toises de large; il ne reste que douze treize pieds entre le terrain qui sy est form et la vote. Il faut observer qu une plus grande profondeur la longueur et
la largeur auraient t quelques pieds de plus. Les murailles qui sparent une citerne de lautre
ont cinq pieds dpaisseur, et pouvaient en avoir au moins six au rez-de-chausse.
[
100]El-Kairouani_1845_52 first published 1681: Carthage tait une superbe ville dont les flots
de la mer baignaient les remparts. Le plus beau monument quelle renfermait tait le Dr-elMelab (le thtre) [and called theatre in the text]; il slevait par tages et chaque tage tait
soutenu par des colonnes. On voyait sculpts sur les murs toutes sortes danimaux, ainsi que les
diverses professions; on y voyait aussi les vents personnifis, tels que le Seba et le Debour: le
premier avait une figure riante, et le second une figure svre. Cette ville contenait une si grande
quantit de marbre que, quand mme toutes les populations de lAfrique se seraient runies
pour lenlever, elles nauraient pu en venir bout. Aujourdhui il nen reste pas mme de vestige.
[ ]
101 Peyssonnel_1838_I_21 travelled 172425, Charles fortress at La Goulette: Les Turcs ont
conserv un seul bastion de cette citadelle, duquel ils ont form un fort qui a douze pices de
canon montes. On voit la porte de ce fort les armes de Charles-Quint qui sont graves sur le
marbre. Cette pice de marbre forme la premire marche de lentre du chteau; on y distingue
encore le cordon, le lion de Lon, les tours de Castille et quelques lambeaux des armes dAragon.
[
102]Tchihatchef_1880_537538: Quoi quil en puisse tre, lemplacement de Carthage a d
avoir t marqu au seizime sicle par bien des difices encore, car les chroniqueurs nous
apprennent que lorsque, en 1535, Charles-Quint se fut empar de la Goulette, lamiral Doria fit
charger des btiments entiers de monuments les plus prcieux et les envoya en Italie, tandis que
bien dautres monuments furent employs la construction des fortifications entreprises par
APPENDIX
lordre de lempereur. Ce fut pour satisfaire de pareils travaux que Marmol, qui accompagnait
ce souverain, vit disparatre pice par pice de superbes difices en marbre. Les Gnois ne cessaient dembarquer tout ce quils pouvaient enlever, et les Pisans prtendent que leur cathdrale
a t construite avec des marbres de Carthage. / Telles sont les causes qui ont rduit les restes
de Carthage aux traces peine perceptibles aujourdhui, et il est craindre quaprs avoir subi
laction dagents destructeurs plus formidables et plus persvrants que tous ceux qui ont jamais
affect une ville quelconque de lantiquit, le sol carthaginois, sur lequel la maldiction du ciel
semble planer, ne puisse plus fournir de dcouvertes importantes de nouvelles fouilles et de
nouvelles tudes.
[
103]Reinach_and_Babelon_1887_9 difficulties getting permission to dig, but they did find
some places to dig: La plus grande difficult que nous ayons rencontre, et qui nous a obligs
accrotre dans des proportions trs onreuses le chiffre de nos ouvriers, a t lenlvement des
terres; 8 mtres de profondeur, une pellete de terre doit passer par les mains de cinq ouvriers
avant dtre extraite de la tranche. Le jour o les fouilles de Carthage seraient reprises sur un
plan plus vaste, il faudrait installer, comme on la fait Olympie et ailleurs, un systme de vagonnets sur rails qui iraient dverser dans le lac de Tunis ou dans la mer les terres sous lesquelles est
ensevelie la Carthage punique. Laccumulation des terres de dblais sur les bords des tranches
nous a malheureusement empchs de pratiquer ces tranches cruciales qui sont un mode dexploration trs recommandable et relativement peu dispendieux.
[
104]Thierry-Mieg_1861_89 Carthage: Il nous restait voir les ruines de Carthage. Dj nous
avions long plusieurs reprises les restes de son aqueduc. Au bout dun quart dheure nous
arrivions sur lemplacement de cette ville mmorable, le coeur plein des souvenirs que rappelle
un nom autrefois si puissant et si respect. Une grande plaine couverte de pierres tailles et de
ruines, battue dun ct par les flots de la mer, termine de lautre par quelques collines peu
leves, sillonne en tous sens par les troupeaux de lArabe ignorant et grossier, qui erre avec
indiffrence au milieu de ces dbris augustes, voil tout ce qui reste de la reine des mers, de la
rivale de Rome, de cette ville qui rvait des destines si brillantes, qui avait des sujets desprance
si lgitimes, si conformes aux succs de son pass. Un tour de roue, et la fortune changea. Bientt
la place de cette vie si anime si pleine dune sve vigoureuse, il ny eut plus quun cadavre.
[
105]Falbe_1833_3 on Carthage: Ces considrations me firent rflchir aux moyens de lever
un plan exact du territoire de Carthage et de ses ruines, sans veiller les soupons dun gouvernement inquiet et jaloux; car cet veil et t un obstacle invincible lexcution de mon projet.
Les travaux antrieurs du comte Camille Borgia et du major hollandais Humbert taient et sont
encore inconnus: lpoque o les recherches du comte Borgia verront le jour est incertaine; et il
est douteux que le major Humbert ait pu faire le relev du terrain selon les principes du dessin
topographique. Jai d moi-mme renoncer toute action qui aurait attir les regards: ainsi le
rseau des triangles fut mesur avec un sextant de trois pouces de rayon; il me fallut choisir des
lieux dserts pour stations principales; les difices publics et les maisons les plus remarquables
qui mauraient le mieux servi me furent interdits, parce que je ne pouvais y pntrer sans danger,
ou que jy aurais t rencontr par des curieux fanatiques. Les maisons de campagne de mes
collgues (except celle du consul britannique) mont t trs-utiles. Ce travail ne pouvait tre
un secret pour ces messieurs, et leur discrte amiti a aussi sa part dans le succs de mes travaux.
[
106]Falbe_1833_Avertissement on Carthage: Jaurais dsir offrir au public plus de dtails
sur les ruines de Carthage; mais il aurait fallu faire des fouilles, et trop dobstacles sy sont

constamment opposs. Jai attendu longtemps en vain des renseignements que javais demands
La Haye, par lintermdiaire de la lgation danoise: labsence de toute rponse ma forc, par
des motifs de dlicatesse, de supprimer le plan des ruines dUtique et leur description.
[
107]Tchihatchef_1880_538: Au reste, en archologie comme dans les sciences physiques, on
nose plus renoncer un espoir, quelle quen soit la nature; car si les nouvelles applications de
llectricit ont surpris le monde, M. Schlieman a caus presque autant dtonnement, en faisant
sortir des entrailles de la terre des villes superposes les unes aux autres, et en recueillant des
trsors dans lenceinte de monuments que, depuis des sicles, on avait considrs comme autant
daccumulation de striles et muettes pierres cyclopennes. Aprs de telles surprises, on na
peut-tre pas le droit de dsesprer de lavenir des ruines de Carthage, et les voyageurs auraient
tort dimiter cet gard lexemple dun illustre crivain qui, se trouvant Tunis, avait cru pouvoir
se dispenser de les visiter, de mme qutant au Caire il stait content de charger un ami du
soin dinscrire son nom sur les pyramides.
[
108]Poir_1892_121122: Carthage a fourni aux dprdations exerces de tous cts par
El-Hadj-Ahmed, le dernier bey de Constantine, pour lrection de son palais, vers 1830; et cest
avec des pierres provenues des dernires fouilles qua t pave, en 1884, la route de la Marsa
la Goulette.
[
109]Marcotte_de_Quivires_1855_293 cothon at Carthage: La mer stend vos pieds, et
lon distingue encore facilement le contour du vieux port Cothon, dans lequel sont enfouis des
dbris nombreux de colonnes de marbre de toutes couleurs, que la limpidit de leau permet
dapercevoir son aise.
[ ]
110 Laronde_1988_345346 the port also revealed some material presumably dragged there
for export: La prsence dun trs grand nombre de fts de colonnes en calcaire local, celle de
linteaux et de montants de portes dcors dune mouluration simple ne peuvent gure sexpliquer par lapport de matriel charri depuis la ville lors des inondations du wadi. Ces lments
font plutt infrer lexistence dune construction sur le mle, comme sur les mles Nord et Est. /
Ce matriel apparat mlang un matriel plus disparate mais de qualit suprieure: fts de
colonne de granit gris, de marbre, chapiteaux de marbre blanc de type pergamnien et en
particulier un grand bloc de marbre blanc mesurant 2,20 x 2,20 x 0,45 m et dcor dun rang
doves et de dards. Les chapiteaux sont du type de ceux du corridor lest de la basilique svrienne, et la frise doves et de dards se retrouve dans la dcoration du podium du temple du
forum svrien. Il ne fait donc pas de doute que nous ayons affaire ici du matriel erratique,
quil faudra soigneusement distinguer du matriel en place.
[ ]
111 La Dpche Tunisienne 29 Aug 1896: Pour peu mme que la France et tard quelque
temps prendre en main le protectorat de la Rgence, cen tait fait des dbris qui survivent
encore. Sur la carte de ces rgions o Carthage, Rome et Byzance ont successivement accumul
les oeuvres de leur gnie, larchologue et pu tracer dune main dcourage le vers fameux de
Virgile: Etiam periere ruinae! Les ruines elles-mmes auraient disparu! / Le bey Saddok, en
effet, avait accord son ministre Khereddine le monopole de lexploitation de ces ruines, et le
ministre, collectionnant au petit bonheur, ne faisait gure dacquisition que pour les disperser
bientt en les donnant, ou plutt en les vendant. / Encore ce monopole, tout regrettable quil ft,
tait moins dsastreux peut-tre pour les richesses archologiques de la Tunisie que labandon
dans lequel elles taient restes jusque-l. / Les exploitait qui voulait. Chercheurs de trsors et
chercheurs de pierres, amateurs dantiquits et entrepreneurs vulgaires y puisaient au gr de leurs
APPENDIX
caprices sans quune mesure administrative quelconque mit un obstacle leur vandalisme. /
On jetait bas un monument que les sicles avaient respect pour emporter linscription qui le
dcorait; on brisait un chef-doeuvre de la statuaire, dcouvert par hasard, pour en voler au
moins la tte et la vendre quelque muse. / Ne parlons que pour mmoire des colonnes ravies
et des chapiteaux exports. / Ds que le drapeau franais flotta pacifique et civilisateur sur la
Rgence, les hommes qui furent appels la tte des diffrentes administrations du Protectorat
prirent coeur de mettre un terme cette barbarie et de sauver les vestiges encore existants de
lantiquit. / Le cardinal Lavigerie, dans une lettre retentissante adresse au secrtaire perptuel
de lAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, dmontra la ncessit dune mission archologique permanente Carthage, et, joignant lexemple au prcepte, fonda ce muse de Carthage, si
prospre, sous la direction du R.P. Delattre. / De son ct, M. Cambon, nomm Rsident Gnral
de la Rpublique Franaise, faisait signer S.A. le Bey, le 15 dcembre 1884, un premier dcret
plaant les objets dart et dantiquit, les ruines des constructions antiques, les inscriptions
historiques sculptes, graves ou crites, sur nimporte quelle matire, sous la surveillance du
Gouvernement, prenant diverses mesures de conservation, et crant un muse.
[ ]
112 Reinach_and_Babelon_1887_67: De retour Tunis dans les derniers jours du mois de
fvrier 1884, nous ne tardmes pas reconnatre quaucune fouille, aucun sondage ne pouvait
tre tent Carthage sans le consentement pralable des propritaires et des locataires des
terrains; de plus, que ce consentement tait gnralement subordonn au payement dindemnits normes, sans aucun rapport avec les dommages que nos recherches pouvaient causer
aux rcoltes. Nous pensmes obtenir lexpropriation de certains terrains pour cause dutilit
publique; il nous fut rpondu que la lgislation tunisienne nadmettait pas volontiers lexpropriation, et quen tous les cas une opration de ce genre devait entraner trois ou quatre mois de
dlais, cause des formalits innombrables quelle comporte. Ainsi nous tions contraints de
renoncer ds labord ces sondages multiples, entrepris sur plusieurs points la fois, qui constituaient, dans la pense de M. Tissot, un des principaux objets de notre mission. and goes on to
explain that the Archbishop had bought some stretches of land, but that others were owned by
mosques and by private Arabs.
[ ]
113 Saladin_1893_1314 Tunisia, Bir el-Daklani, near Lamta: Le sol antique se trouve en plusieurs endroits 45 ou 5o centimtres de profondeur; cest gnralement un sol en mosaque
noire et blanche, dautres fois en mosaque de couleur. Sur le bord de la mer, la profondeur
fouiller est moindre qu mi-cte; nanmoins nos fouilles au cimetire chrtien ne nous ont fait
rencontrer le sol antique qu 1m,20 peu prs. Les Arabes, qui bouleversent le sol en fouillant
pour trouver de la pierre toute dbite quils emploient pour leurs maisons, ont souvent ventr
les citernes, viol les tombes, et cest parmi des fragments tirs de ces fouilles au lieu dit Dar
el-Kad que M. Irrisson a remarqu les fragments de mosaques tombales qui lui ont indiqu
lemplacement du cimetire chrtien. Les ncropoles ont fourni aux Arabes une grande partie
des matriaux de leurs maisons; cela se comprend quand on connat le mode de construction de
ces spultures. Le propritaire du champ que nous avons fouill ne stait laiss dcider nous
en donner la permission quaprs avoir reu lassurance quil pourrait garder pour lui les pierres
brutes qui seraient retires des fouilles. Aussi les carrires qui sont au nord de Lamta et qui donneraient de si beaux matriaux sont-elles actuellement absolument abandonnes.
[ ]
114 Monuments_Historiques_1842_196 near Metz: Une autre dcouverte a depuis peu rvl
combien la construction de ce monument tait grandiose; un entrepreneur, en cherchant des

pierres pour ltablissement dun chemin, a dcouvert des restes de piles qui font connatre que
la valle du Sablon, sur une longueur dau moins 5 kil., tait occupe par une ligne de piles se
dirigeant jusquaux portes de Metz. Elles taient bties comme tout le monument en petit appareil rgulier. Jai fait tous mes efforts pour mopposer la destruction de ces restes intressants.
Ibid., 1847, 478: M. Commarmond prie la Socit de sintresser la conservation des mosaques
de Vienne que menace le projet dun chemin de fer. M. de Gaumont rpond que la Socit sempressera de formuler un vote dans ce but.
[ ]
115 Monuments_Historiques_1842_164: une lettre de M. de Gourgues qui prie la Socit
dmettre le vu que tous les maires reoivent des instructions pour empcher, dans la limite de
leurs pouvoirs, la destruction et la mutilation des monuments remarquables qui sont des proprits prives. La Socit accueille la proposition de M. de Gourgues et dcide quelle sadressera au Ministre pour que de semblables instructions soient adresses tous les maires de
France.
[ ]
116 Excursions_1838_XVXVI Carthage: Par un acte notari, en date du 21 aot 1837, une
Socit sest forme Paris dans le but de faire excuter des fouilles sur le sol de Carthage et
autres villes anciennes dans les rgences barbaresques, et den importer, en France, tous les
objets dart et de sciences que ces fouilles pourront faire dcouvrir. / Les souscripteurs sunissent
et sassocient uniquement pour parvenir au but quon vient dexprimer; mais non pour former
une socit de commerce, ni se soumettre aucune solidarit...A chaque envoi dobjets, et tous
les trois mois, en cas de non rsultat des fouilles, il y aura runion gnrale de toutes les parties
co-intresses...Sil y a un envoi dobjets, les caisses devront tre ouvertes et inventories par le
comit qui dcidera sil y a lieu ou non den proposer le partage.
[ ]
117 Excursions_1838_XIIIXIV Carthage: Nous rservons pour notre prochain cahier le
tableau dtaill des fouilles et de leurs produits. Nous en avons dit assez pour montrer combien
la russite de notre entreprise peut offrir dintrt ltude de la philologie, des beaux-arts, de
larchologie et de lhistoire. Nous ferons tous nos efforts pour mener bout cette uvre difficile
o nous a pousss lamour dsintress de lart et de la science; mais nous sollicitons les encouragemens et le concours de tous ceux qui se complaisent dans ltude du pass. / Les fouilles
entreprises depuis dix ans dans le sol presque puis de lItalie, Volterra, Cr, Canino,
Ruvo, dans lEtrurie et le royaume de Naples, produisent tous les jours de nouvelles richesses et
rcompensent amplement la hardiesse et la patience de leurs explorateurs. Que ne doit-on pas
attendre dun sol vierge encore, qui recle depuis des sicles, douze ou quinze pieds de profondeur, les dbris inexplors de deux grandes et magnifiques cits. Dailleurs nous nen sommes
plus faire valoir de vagues esprances; les faits parlent, les rsultats sont constans, bientt
nous pourrons les exposer tous les yeux.
[ ]
118 Carton_1906B_392: En 1837, un groupe de personnes occupant Paris de hautes situations fonda une Socit pour les fouilles de Carthage. La naissance en fut aussi bruyante
que la dure phmre. Les dlgus de cette Socit, Falbe et Temple, vinrent Carthage et
firent une campagne de fouilles. Malheureusement, comme cela sest produit trop souvent en
Tunisie au dtriment de la science, les rsultats de ces travaux nont jamais t publis. / Mais en
revanche, cest ces explorateurs quappartient le triste privilge davoir t les premiers savants
qui aient mis sac la grande ruine. On enlve trente et une caisses de mosaques, de peintures
et de vases antiques, et, pour comble de malheur, ces actes de vandalisme archologique sont
demeurs inutiles: on ne sait ce que sont devenus ces objets!
APPENDIX
[ ]
119 Pckler-Muskau_1839_II_227228 at Carthage: We afterwards made a tour through the
ruins. When near the castle Burdsch Dchedid, we met with several negroes and Moors, who
had been for some months engaged in excavations for the Governor of Goletta. A short time
ago, after digging twelve or fourteen feet deep, they had come to the smooth stone flooring of a
building, of which two gigantic columns were already cleared. Already in this small space the
broken fragments of eight costly marble pillars, besides tomb-stones and other antiquities, had
been found. Two of these pillars, and the tomb-stones, had been taken away in the first week by
an English ship; for the people here set so little value on these things, that whoever is there at
the moment may take, if he is only able to carry it away, whatever he likes for the merest trifle. /
This time, however, the superintendent seemed very indignant that he had received for all these
fine things no more than six bottles of English beer.
[
120]Pckler-Muskau_1839_II_236237 Carthage: At the house of the English consul we saw
the greatest number of objects of interest; he has made excellent use of the neighbourhood of
Carthage, and the talent of a Maltese artist, for the execution of a number of beautiful works in
the costly antique marbles that are found here in great plenty. Tables, vases, jewel-cases, paperweights, chess-boards, &c. were arranged in the most tasteful manner in his residence. The finest specimen of the kind, a large table with the English arms and other analogous decorations,
which was greatly admired by all connoisseurs, and had taken several years to perfect, I unfortunately did not see; it had been sent the week before to the King of England: another table also,
with a noblemans shield admirably executed, was designed for the Marquis of Westminster;
the memory of Carthage, without considering materials and workmanship, renders this a very
valuable present.
[ ]
121 Flaux_1865_278 Carthage: M. Davis tait un chercheur dobjets dart. M. Beul sest
plac un point de vue plus lev. Ddaignant les marbres et les mosaques dorigine romaine
qui devaient, coup sr, tre infrieurs aux magnifiques spcimens que les terres de Grce et
dItalie ont conservs dans leurs flancs et nous ont dj rendus, il na cherch que les vestiges de
la Carthage punique.
[
122]Davis_1862_5 at Carthage: But the one who was sincerely glad to see me back was my
famous foreman, Ali Kareema. Knowing what would give me real pleasure, he took me to one
of my own excavations, which, after my departure, he continued to explore. / What have you
found here? I asked him, after examining the locality. / Nothing, master, he replied, but stones
which I sell for building purposes. Hundreds of Hajaara have been at work among the ruins since
your departure, and not one has found the least object worth notice. Nothing was found here
before you came, and nothing has been found since you left. You have unlocked these mysterious
mounds, taken out of them what was valuable, and by your magic touch closed them again, to
be re-opened at your option. Ba-ba-ba! great, indeed, is the knowledge you possess of the wonderful book which indicates the precise spots where the remains of the works of the ancients
are to be found.
[
123]Flaux_1865_277278 Davis at Carthage: M. Davis travaillait avec les fonds du gouvernement anglais. Bien quil se ft empress denvoyer le rsultat de ses recherches au Muse
britannique, les directeurs de cet tablissement fameux dans le monde entier ont trouv que
les dcouvertes faites ne rpondaient pas, tant au point de vue de lart que de la science, aux
dpenses quelles entranaient. Les fonds ont t supprims, et M. Davis, retourn en Europe,
prpare, dit-on, Pise des travaux historiques sur la rgence de Tunis au temps de la piraterie.

[
124]Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_56 his task: La principale se rapporte la Mission qui
ma t confie, le 16 Dcembre 1890, par le Ministre de lInstruction publique et par la Socit
dAnthropologie pour aller tudier Tunis et Carthage les anciennes spultures puniques,
romaines, juives, et les spultures chrtiennes des premiers temps de notre re.
[
125]Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_130 Carthage: Le dsordre, le bouleversement des anciens
Thermes a son explication. Pendant dassez longs sicles, les Arabes ont tout dtruit; sans cesse,
ils ont fouill le sol dassez grandes profondeurs pour y chercher des matriaux de construction
faciles. Ils ont ainsi min la base des difices qui se sont crouls sous laction de leau, des vents
joignant leur action la perte de leurs assises. Ces ravages continus et pour ainsi dire souterrains
des Arabes, rendent aujourdhui particulirement difficiles et coteuses les recherches de ceux
qui veulent fouiller leur tour dans un but scientifique.
[
126]Chabassire_1866_122 Gomtre du Service Topographique, Teboursouk?Thubursicum:
Il est regrettable que, malgr ma bonne volont, je naie pu descendre jusquau sol de la grande
occupation, sans exposer la vie de mes travailleurs et la mienne, ce qui fait que presque toutes
ces fouilles ont t abandonnes sans avoir t vues fond.
[
127]Sevestre_1874_701702 Carthage: La colline est de forme trononique, et couronne
par un large plateau sur lequel, ce que lon prsume, tait plant la tente sous quelle mourut
Louis IX. Le roi Louis-Philippe obtint en 1830 la concession dun terrain en cet endroit, et y fit
btir une chapelle commmorative. Cette chapelle, de style gothique, est fort lgante, quoique
trs-simple. A lintrieur se trouve une belle statue du pieux roi, due au ciseau dEtex.../
Le monument a t construit avec des pierres extraites des ruines environnantes; il slve sur
lemplacement de lancienne Byrsa ou citadelle de Carthage, et lendroit mme o se trouvait
le temple dEsculape, dont les cryptes ont t mises rcemment dcouvert par les fouilles de
M. Beul, membre de lInstitut.
[
128]Lavigerie_1881_49 on Carthage: Les fouilles ont t commences, il y a deux mois. Nous
y avons employ les ressources qui provenaient de la cession, faite la Bibliothque Nationale,
des cent treize inscriptions du cimetire des Esclaves. Ces ressources, la vrit, ne peuvent suffire pour achever un tel travail; mais quoiquincompltes, les fouilles ont pleinement confirm
nos prvisions. / Dans un espace qui mesure environ un hectare, les ouvriers ont trouv plus de
six cents fragments dpitaphes chrtiennes. Et ce qui est absolument dcisif, cest que, parmi
ces inscriptions, il ne sest pas trouv un seul fragment qui se rapportt au paganisme.
[
129]Lavigerie_1881_5556 on Carthage, for the prospectus for an excavating Society: Si lon
formait, en Europe, une socit pour excuter des fouilles dans lenceinte du temple dAstart,
qui a deux mille toises de tour et dans laquelle taient renferms des temples de toutes les autres
divinits protectrices de Carthage, il est certain que la spculation serait fort avantageuse, et
que ce sol, tant vierge et nayant jamais t remu, fournirait un grand nombre dobjets dart
romains et et mme puniques. Ces derniers, fort rares dans les collections, auraient une valeur
commerciale trs-grande, qui rcompenserait avantageusement les avances faites pour ces
fouilles. On retirerait la fois un profit considrable de ces travaux et beaucoup de matriaux
utiles. / Les fouilles entreprises depuis dix ans Volterra, Cr, Canino, a Ruvo, dans lEtrurie
et le royaume de Naples, ont donn des rsultats immenses, et amplement rcompense la hardiesse et la patience de leurs explorateurs.
[
130]Lavigerie_1881_56 Carthage, Prospectus, continuation: Cest donc lexploitation dune
mine trs-riche et dont nous connaissons avec certitude le gisement que nous proposons, avec
une pleine confiance, a nos souscripteurs. Des vases, des bijoux, des mdailles en or et en argent,
APPENDIX
des bas-reliefs en marbre, des statues en porphyre, en albtre, en marbre ou en airain, des pierres
graves, des objets dart de tout genre, grecs ou puniques, doivent se trouver en abondance,
mesure quon remuera la terre pour arriver au sol primitif, recouvert par dix ou douze pieds
de dbris, Les fouilles seront conduites par un architecte habile, habitu a diriger ces sortes
dexplorations. / Le consentement du bey de Tunis est assur pour lexcution des fouilles et pour
lexportation des objets quelles auront produits.
[ ]
131 Carton_1906_37 writing on Larchologie en Tunisie: Carthage, dont le grand nom
devrait faire respecter les moindres dbris, est toujours comme aux temps de lislamisme
une vaste carrire o lon vient prendre de la pierre btir, et une ville sac, aux monuments
de laquelle on enlve mosaques et bijoux pour enrichir les muses. / Les grands souvenirs
qui sattachent la fameuse capitale de lAfrique ancienne exigeraient une nergique mesure
dexception. Laugmentation rapide de la valeur des terrains demande, pendant que la chose est
encore possible, que lon mette hors de latteinte des spculateurs, dfaut de la ville entire,
un de ses quartiers, que lon dblayerait ensuite loisir. / Et ce nest pas un vain sentimentalisme archologique qui inspire ce projet, cest lintrt matriel du pays. Seul il permettra une
exploitation lucrative de nos antiquits. Jose prononcer ces mots, car je ne vois pas quil soit
ncessaire, pour faire de la science,de la rendre aussi coteuse que possible, ni de ddaigner
les moyens capables de lui rendre lopinion publique favorable. Les touristes ordinaires, ceux
qui nont ni limagination ni lrudition suffisantes pour smouvoir au seul souvenir des luttes
grandioses soutenues par Carthage et ce sont les plus nombreux de ceux qui nous rendent
visite prouvent une relle dsillusion en voyant, au lieu dun immense entassement ddifices
grandioses, un marais boueux et des champs parsems de murs sans caractre. Ils se croient
victimes de quelque tapageuse rclame et pensent souvent quil doit en tre de mme de tout
le pays. Ils brlent souvent El-Djem, toujours Dougga, et se htent de prendre le train qui les
conduira en Algrie, Timgad.
[
132]Carton_1906B_403 writing on Carthage: Lallotissement fait depuis quelques mois seulement des terrains situs au bord de la mer, entre le palais du bey et le dar Ben Zarouk, a, parait-il,
dj provoqu une cinquantaine dachats. Cest--dire quautant de villas y seront construites
dici peu avec les pierres quon a retires de ce point o sleva le hieron de Celestis. Enfin, linstallation dun tramway lectrique va ncessiter un terrassement haut de plusieurs mtres qui
coupera, dit-on, les ruines dans toute leur longueur en cachant la vue du rivage ceux qui seront
en arrire du talus. On voit que le site de Carthage sera modifi compltement avant peu et
quavec ce changement il perdra la majeure partie de son charme et de sa grandeur. / Des rues
troites et rectilignes, des villas modernes, construites dans un got dont la sret est loin dtre
absolue, des cafs-concerts vont remplacer des ruines que toute lEurope venait voir. En vrit,
les Tunisois ne laissent pas, comme on la dit, teindre leur volcan: ils lteignent de leurs propres
mains!
[
133]Carton_1906B_392 writing on Carthage: Au XIXe sicle commence lexploration dite
scientifique de ces ruines. Mais cest cette poque que fut inaugure, au nom de la science,
une destruction dont nous recueillons les fruits amers, tandis que, dans ces dernires annes,
est venue sajouter cette action une recrudescence dans lactivit des chercheurs de pierres!
[
134]Carton_1908B_182: Il nest pas besoin davoir longtemps frquent les ruines de Carthage
pour se rendre compte des raisons qui poussent ceux qui ny ont rien fait dire quil ny a plus
rien. Tous ceux qui ont visit, depuis un an, linfortune ruine, savent que lon y a dtruit dans
ce laps de temps tout un quartier, dans lequel les murs avaient encore deux ou trois mtres

de hauteur. Jai montr les ouvriers travaillant cette destruction des membres de lInstitut,
des reprsentants du Ministre des Beaux-Arts, et je sais, Tunis, plus de vingt personnes de
bonne foi qui sont prtes attester avoir vu ce spectacle. / Sil ny a plus rien Carthage, do
proviennent donc ces richesses dont on annonce chaque jour la dcouverte? et ces difices
dont non seulement on donne la description, mais dont on a publi le plan, nont-ils donc exist
que dans limagination des auteurs? Sil ny a plus rien Carthage, que lon commence donc par
y cesser les recherches et par ne plus en enlever ce quon y trouve, car il est certain que si lon
continue proclamer quil ny a plus rien tout en y enlevant les mosaques, les colonnes trs
nombreuses les statues quon y dcouvre chaque jour, et en laissant dtruire le reste par les
entrepreneurs, il finira par ne plus rien y rester, et que ceux qui prchent labstention auront
enfin raison!
[
135]Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_131 Carthage: A quelques pas, nous joignons le mur de
lancienne enceinte punique. Cette enceinte commence sur un rocher qui descend jusqu la
mer, et remonte trs visible en suivant la pente assez raide du sol vers les plateaux suprieurs.
Elle est paisse et large, accuse surtout par son relief, recouverte quelle est de terre, dherbes et
de vgtations diverses, encore trs apparente il y a une soixantaine dannes. Mais ce moment
le Bey ayant fait btir son palais de la Marsa, il y eut pendant une longue suite de temps 40 ou 50
chariots occups chaque jour, suivant le vieil usage, ruiner les murs pour lever les constructions du Bey.
[
136]Carton_1906_3738 writing on Larchologie en Tunisie: Tous ceux qui connaissent
Carthage savent quil serait facile dy faire quelque chose de charmant. Entre la basilique de
Damous-Karita, le thtre et les thermes dAntonin stagent, sur les flancs de la colline, des
monuments encore grandioses, malgr leur tat de dlabrement, de riches palais o lon a trouv
de ravissantes mosaques. Certes, tout cela est assez dtrior, mais le peu de rparations quon
y a fait pendant quelque temps a suffi pour montrer aux Tunisois le parti quun archologue
quelque peu artiste pourrait en tirer. En dehors de cette surface, quil faudrait acqurir de suite,
dautres monuments devraient aussi tre mis labri de la destruction: hippodrome, ports,
citernes de La Malga, quon pourrait encadrer plus tard dans de jolis squares, etc. / Quon ne
se borne pas, en dfinitive, rserver ce quun directeur des Antiquits pourra dblayer dans
la dure de ses fonctions, mais que lon se mnage, pendant quil en est temps encore, un vaste
champ dexploration quon mettra, sil le faut, plus dun sicle raliser.
[
137]Boissier_1899_53 Carthage: Usually the Arabs do not destroy the towns which they
have captured; they are content to let them die by degrees, and of this slow destruction there
always remains something. Here, in the words of the poet, the very ruins have perished. They
tell us, in explanation of this devastation, that the inhabitants of that country and of the neighbouring countries early acquired the habit of using the deserted city as a quarry. It is true that at
Tunis one finds at every step, embedded in the Moorish houses, fragments of marble or columns,
which can come only from here. Even to-day the depredation continues, and every time that
chance brings to light an antique stone, it is immediately carried away by those who are erecting
some building in the vicinity.
[
138]Carton_1906B_402 writing on Carthage. The Arabs given a bad example by the
Europeans: Le R.P. Delattre parle, en 1892, des centaines de trous quil a vu creuser par des
Arabes pour extraire de la pierre. Qui, parmi nous, ne pourrait en dire autant, pour peu quil ait
frquent les malheureuses ruines ou mme que, des hauteurs du monument o nous sommes
runis, il ne jette un regard sur les champs voisins de la mer, desquels des centaines de mtres
APPENDIX
cubes retirs rcemment du sol, sont disposs en tas qui attendent les maons? / Il semble que
notre arrive ait pouss les Arabes complter leur uvre de destruction: jusquici ils avaient
creus peu de profondeur. Je les ai vus cette fois arracher jusqu six mtres sous la surface
dnormes pierres de taille appartenant un difice dau moins quarante pas de longueur. Cette
constatation montre quen certains points, situs sur les dclivits, les murs dblays auraient
eu jusqu trois ou quatre mtres de hauteur. Le pis est quavec un tel procd, non seulement
les Arabes ne fouillent pas lintrieur des murs quils ont dtruits et quon ne peut voir ce que
contient ldifice, mais quil est impossible de suivre ceux-ci et den lever le plan. En outre, le plus
souvent, afin de ne pas attirer lattention du Service des Antiquits sur le point o ils fouillent,
ils ne sortent les pierres tailles ou sculptes quaprs les avoir rendues mconnaissables en les
mutilant. Tous les efforts faits par le Service des Antiquits pour entraver cette manire de faire
ont t inutiles. / Les indignes nont-ils pas dailleurs notre exemple pour excuse? Larchitecte
qui a bti la chapelle de Saint-Louis sur le temple dEsculape na pas explor le sol au-dessous de
lui. / Sur la colline situe entre Byrsa et lOdon, slevait un monument considrable. Ctait, a
crit Falbe, le plus important de ceux de Carthage, avec les thermes dAntonin. Le R.P. Delattre
y a trouv un hypocauste montrant quil sagit de bains. Ce monument a compltement disparu.
On la ras pour btir un difice moderne sur son emplacement. / Le grand monument, encore
vierge de fouilles mthodiques, quest lhippodrome, a t coup en trois par le chemin de fer et
par la route de La Goulette La Marsa.
[
139]Hrisson_1881_275279 for chronology of explorations at Utica.
[
140]Marmol_1667_II_445 Utica: il y a un port desert, quon nomme ordinairement Port
Farine, o lon voit dvn cost les ruines dvne ancienne ville.
[ ]
141 Simond_1887_50: De Mateur, on se rend aux ruines dUtique, qui sont une demi-journe de marche lest. Cette partie de la rgion est presque entirement inculte. Sur un parcours
de plusieurs lieues, on ne trouve ni arbres, ni maisons et rien que des ruines romaines. On voit
encore des piliers et des arches du grand aqueduc qui rivalisait avec celui de Carthage. Les ruines
se trouvent dans une immense plaine borne par le djebel Kechbata et traverse par la Medjerda,
qui se jette, peu de distance de l, dans le Porto-Farina. Cette valle tait jadis couverte par la
mer qui arrivait jusquaux montagnes et faisait dUtique un port maritime, o venaient mouiller
les galres et les vaisseaux trois rangs de rames. La ville avait de superbes palais de marbre,
et sur la montagne se dressaient le grand amphithtre, les temples, les thtres, les fontaines,
les statues. Aujourdhui, la ville a disparu et lArabe, qui lappelle Bou-Shater, ne connat plus
mme le nom dUtique, Il ne reste dailleurs de toute cette splendeur passe que les rservoirs de
laqueduc, compltement remplis de terre. Les indignes ont emport lancienne Utique pierre
pierre, pour btir les maisons de la Tunis moderne.
[
142]Noah_1819_324325: Utica: It is contrary to the religious customs of Mussulmen to dig
for the purpose of discovering any antiques, or, as they term them, any coins or images belonging to the Christians. The first minister was building a splendid Mosque at Tunis, and had given
orders to dig among the ruins of Carthage and Utica for columns of marble, many of which, and
of various colours, were found, and were newly polished for the Mosque. While the Moors were
digging in Utica, and close to the pile of ruins which we concluded had been the senate house,
they discovered several marble statues, which they brought to the Minister of Marine, at the fortress of the Goletta, who permitted me to view them. They were all imperfect, but had been rendered more so by the barbarous custom of the Moors, who mutilate every statue they discover,
by striking off the nose or limbs. I examined these statues with great attention [he describes

them]...Several columns of jasper and porphyry had been found on the spot, and sent over
to Italy by the Sapatapa, to be polished for his Mosque. From the circumstance of Utica being
within the limits assigned to the Minister of Marine, and under his control as Kya of the Goletta,
which post is purchased, all valuable discoveries become his property. I made great interest with
him to obtain these statues, and offered him a large sum, with a view of bringing them home, but
the cunning Turk would not part with them on such terms; give me, said he, a small stone weighing about fifty carats, and you may take them. I soon discovered that his expectations exceeded
my means, and they remain at this day at the Goletta, objects of real curiosity.
[
143]Blaquire_1813_189190 at Utica: But the most important discovery made in this country, was, a few years ago, amongst the ruins of Utica, where some labourers, in digging up a quantity of stones for completing the works of the Goletta [i.e. a basin for warships and commercial
vessels], found a number of beautiful statues, some mutilated, and others in the highest state
of preservation; of the latter I observed a remarkably fine colossal whole length of Tiberius,
another of Augustus not quite so well preserved, and the bodies of four female figures, two of
which are exquisite specimens of Grecian sculpture. The Tiberius is a highly interesting statue,
both on account of its preservation and fine style of execution. These reliques, strange as it may
appear, have been in possession of the minister of the marine, Mohammed Coggia, for nearly
three years, without any effort being made to rescue them from such a place, until very lately,
when Mr. Fagan, our consul general at Palermo, and a steady friend of the arts, has attempted
to purchase them. Should another proposition of that gentleman be acceded to, antiquarians
will, at some future period, be gratified with many of the hidden treasures of Africa. This relates
to the permission to excavate, which the Bey will grant, if the request is made by his Majestys
government; and such an object is certainly not unworthy their attention: indeed many people,
well acquainted with this country, have often told me, that if due encouragement, was given to
the. researches for antiquities in Africa, a collection equal to any in Europe might soon be accumulated, and the prejudice of the Moors, of whatever description, be then almost vanquished
by a seasonable bribe.
[
144]Desfontaines_1838_II_90 travelled 17836: Cest dans les contres environ six lieues au
nord de Carthage y queon retrouve encore les ruines dUtique; mais lexception de laquduc,
des citernes et de quelques murs, elles sont toutes ensevelies sous le sable.
[
145]Daux_1876_183 at Utica in 1865: Nellisola stessa, presso a noi [presumably his campsite],
sorge un grandioso edifizio, circondato di belle colonne di porfido rosso egiziano; ci vien detto
che il senato. / A dritta e a manca stanno altri monumenti riccamente decorati di statue e di
marmi sculti: sono ginnasii, terme, degli edifizi che ci invitano a metterci al riparo dal caldo
divenuto soffocante.
[
146]Hrisson_1881_77 Utica: A lpoque o M. Daux campa Utique (1865), on voyait encore
autour de ce thtre des tronons de colonnes de porphyre rouge antique dEgypte, provenant
du proscnium et de la scne. Aujourdhui il nen reste plus dautres vestiges quun haut tumulus
en fer cheval. Ce devait tre un difice superbe: il avait 95 mtres de diamtre du nord au sud
devant lorchestre.
[
147]Gurin_1862_II_8 Utica: En redescendant de lancienne acropole de cette ville, on traverse une plaine, aujourdhui cultive, qui jadis tait couverte dhabitations; puis lon arrive a
une petite colline qui affecte une forme demi-circutaire et a laquelle avaient t adosses les
constructions dun thtre. / Ailleurs, un grand difice dmoli est encore dsigne par les Arabes
sons le nom de Seraat-es-Soultan (le palais du sultan). Etait-ce un fort? Etait-ce un palais?
APPENDIX
Je lignore. / Prs de cet difice gisent les dbris dun temple transform; sans doute en basilique
a lpoque chrtienne. Le sol a t fouille plusieurs reprises en cet endroit; il est encore jonch
dun certain nombre de tronons mutils de colonnes de granit.
[
148]Hrisson_1881_6364 Utica: Carthage et Utique furent saccages et dtruites de fond
en comble les hordes par de Hassan-ben-Noumn. Naturellement, elles sacharnrent aprs les
glises chrtiennes qui avaient remplac les temples paens. Les palais furent dvasts, tout ce
qui ne put pas tre emport fut dtruit, et de tant de splendeurs il ne resta quun monceau
de cendres. / Depuis cette poque, laspect dUtique nest plus quun lamentable spectacle; les
ronces ont envahi ces monceaux de dbris informes que le temps a achev de niveler, et les rests
debout. Le reste, depuis douze sicles, sert de carrire lArabe ignorant qui fait de la chaux avec
des chapiteaux et des fts de marbre prcieux pour badigeonner sa hutte de pis ou construire
un vulgaire marabout, de sorte quon se demande comment il peut rester encore quelque chose
de cette ville qui est une des plus anciennes stations de lhumanit. / Heureusement nous assistons la revanche trop tardive de la civilisation sur la barbarie, et de nouveaux envahisseurs
viennent rendre la vie ces belles contres que lIslamisme a transformes, partout o il sest
tabli, en funbres ncropoles.
[
149]Hrisson_1881_8789 Utica: On ne peut remuer le sol de lle dUtique sans dcouvrir de
belles maisons romaines ornes de marbres, de mosaques et de colonnes, et de nombreuses statues brises. Nous en avons retir une charmante statuette de Bacchus portant de la main droite
une grappe et maintenant de la gauche sur son paule une sorte damphore deux anses. / A cot
de cette habitation nous avons dblay un difice somptueusement dcor, dans lequel se trouvait une statue colossale, ainsi que le prouve le pied que nous avons rapport...Les mosaques
sont excessivement communes sur toute la surface de la ville dUtique et il est impossible de
remuer la terre sans en rencontrer des vestiges, des profondeurs variables, mais ne dpassant
pas 1m50. Nous en avons rapport de trs curieuses videmment dues dhabiles artistes grecs.
[
150]Carton_1908C_3435, 38 Utica: En revenant vers la Goulette, le 4 Tirailleurs a camp
Utique o, avec la plus grande obligeance, M. de Chabannes a bien voulu mindiquer les dernires dcouvertes qui ont t faites dans son domaine...Il est fort heureux pour les ruines
dUtique quelles soient entre les mains dun propritaire qui comprend le rle lev que les
circonstances lui permettent et lui font un devoir de jouer ici, et les services quil peut rendre
la science. Le Muse dUtique sera certainement un des plus intressants de lAfrique du Nord,
si on continue y recueillir avec le mme soin tout ce quon trouvera dans les ruines. Sil mtait
seulement permis dexprimer un voeu, je souhaiterais quon prt les mesures ncessaires pour
conserver et protger sur place les restes de villas et dautres constructions ornes de mosaques
quon dcouvrira et surtout quon ft un catalogue o seraient consigns et dessins, ou photographis, tous les objets du Muse dUtique.
[ ]
151 Gauckler_1907_399: Sidi-Abdallah (lac de Bizerte). Larsenal maritime de Sidi-Abdallah
est construit sur lemplacement quoccupait autrefois un groupe de masures arabes, niches
dans les ruines de monuments romains qui devaient avoir en quelque importance. Jai vu moimme cet endroit, il y a peu dannes encore, en 1896, une grande porte cintre en grand appareil qui se dressait presque intacte jusqu 3 mtres de hauteur au-dessus du sol moderne, au
milieu dautres constructions en blocage. Le tout a disparu aujourdhui.
[
152]Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_231: Lhistoire des spultures puniques est encore claire par les dcouvertes faites Sousse, rgence de Tunis, il y a quelques annes (mai 1884).
Lorsquaprs loccupation franaise en Tunisie on leva des constructions militaires sur le

plateau suprieur de Sousse on rencontra, en faisant les fouilles, une vritable ncropole punique
des plus intressantes. MM. les officiers qui prirent le plus de part cette dcouverte sont MM.
les gnraux Bertrand et Riu, le colonel Vincent, le commandant Dechizelle aujourdhui lieutenant-colonel du 27 chasseurs alpins, le Dr Collignon, chirurgien-major de lhpital de Sousse.
[
153]Oulebsir_1994_7374: Les missions entreprises par les architectes au XIXe sicles en
Algrie ne sont pas des voyages dagrments, la recherche dimpressions nouvelles ou dexotisme. Certes, le premier contact avec les monuments de lAlgrie autorise certaines ractions
romantiques et invite limagination; nanmoins, inscrites lintrieur dun cadre organis,
celles-ci font place ltude et lanalyse. Obissant des programmes soigneusement labors, les missions dAmable Ravoisi et dEdmond Duthoit ont eu un double impact: dabord la
constitution dun savoir sur les monuments de lAlgrie selon une grille de lecture qui rpondait
aux objectifs fixs par les militaires mais aussi aux proccupations des architectes, ensuite les
transferts et les interactions que ce patrimoine architectural a permis sur les deux rives de la
Mditerrane. Interactions qui seront sans aucun doute lorigine de la formulation dun nouveau style architectural.
[
154]Oulebsir_1994_6465: Les planches de la publication de Ravoisi reprsentent en
majorit les monuments remarquables de larchitecture antique de lAlgrie: temples, arcs de
triomphe, portes, thtres, amphithtres, thermes, cirques, hippodromes, ponts, aqueducs.
Chaque ville ou site visit est prsent selon une vue densemble signalant les ruines et lments
du paysage, puis selon des vues partielles des difices les plus caractristiques, en donnant
gnralement une restitution et une restauration et ce, par le dessin: procd qui devient le
garant dune bonne conservation. En fait, la reprsentation graphique ou la restauration au trait
des parties dtruites dun difice, a constitu en Algrie un procd frquemment utilis chez
les architectes envoys en mission. Contraint de suivre les colonnes de larme et spectateur
impuissant du vandalisme perptr par les soldats, A. Ravoisi a dessin en priorit les difices
susceptibles dtre dtruits ou transforms: rcupration des matriaux des difices romains
pour la construction des btiments publics, transformation et reconversion des habitations et
palais mauresques pour dautres fonctions.
[
155]Gsell_1895_39 at Satifis: La construction du village franais a naturellement fait disparatre presque toutes les ruines. Le seul difice dont il reste des vestiges intressants est la basilique chrtienne, qui a t fouille par les soins de M. le lieutenant Vincent...La terre et les
dbris amasss dans lintrieur de ldifice ont t rejets par les fouilleurs en avant de lentre,
si bien que je ne saurais dire sil y avait l un atrium, ou tout au moins un portique, dispos le
long de la faade. so not a competent dig, since the diggers covered useful evidence with the
soil they extracted.
[
156]Dondin-Payre 1996, 156: Les soldats de la Lgion trangre nont jamais rclam de solde
rgulire pour ces fouilles, auxquelles ils se sont cependant appliqus de tout coeur, voyant combien tait grand lintrt que jattachais leurs dcouvertes, et convaincus par moi que par ce
nouveau genre de services, ils taient utiles encore la France quils aiment comme ses propres
enfants. Ces braves soldats ont toujours t les mmes, pendant les six mois de notre travail
que nont pas interrompu, dans les premiers mois, les pluies et la neige, et dans les derniers,
la chaleur et le vent violent du sud. La reconnaissance du monde savant leur est acquise, jose
lesprer du moins.
[
157]Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_339: On sera moins surpris que ce grand travail ait t
accompli en moins de deux annes et demie seulement, et que le colonel Carbuccia ait rencon-
APPENDIX
tr dans sa troupe autant dactivit et de bonne volont pour les recherches darchologie et de
gographie ancienne, quand on saura quil se trouvait dans sa lgion plus dun homme instruit
et mme lettr, entre autres un ancien lve de notre cole polytechnique.
[
158]RA 1859 issue 15, 225, Chronique, lieutenant Guiter digging at Oppidum Novum
(Duperr): Grce aux moyens mis ma disposition par M. le gnral Liebert et au concours de
quelques personnes bienveillantes, jai pu entamer, avec quinze zouaves, la fouille dont, voici le
dtail. Jai ouvert mi-cte du mamelon oriental une, tranche dirige de lEst lOuest, large de
4 mtres et profonde de 6 mtres. Nos travaux, commencs le 25 novembre 7 heures du matin,
ont t pousss avec beaucoup de vigueur: 10 heures, les quinze zouaves guids par le sergent
Fruharff avaient dblay plus de 20 mtres cubes de terre et mis dcouvert un monument
funraire en granit dont je vous envoie le dessin par plan, coupe et lvation.
[
159]Jomard_1865_161 on Carbuccia: Monsieur le ministre de la guerre soumet lexamen de lAcadmie un travail archologique du colonel Carbuccia, du 2e rgiment de la lgion
trangre, commandant suprieur de la subdivision de Batna; ensuite, il exprime le dsir que
lAcadmie lui fasse connatre la part quont prise au travail dont il sagit les militaires placs sous
les ordres de cet officier suprieur.
[
160]RA Table Gnrale 18561881, Algiers 1885, VVI: Ds les annes de la conqute de lAlgrie, quelques groupes dhommes instruits, dsireux dtudier le pass du pays quils habitaient,
fondrent diverses Socits littraires, scientifiques ou historiques. Les premires tentatives
eurent peu de succs, et il ne pouvait gure en tre autrement. Linstabilit du personnel de la
colonie, lextrme mobilit laquelle chacun dut sastreindre pour faire face aux ncessits de
la lutte et de lorganisation, enfin les pertes cruelles occasionnes par les combats et les maladies, tels furent les lments de la ruine des nouvelles associations. Il ny avait pas compter
sur la population migrante, qui ne se composait, cette poque, que de gens absolument
illettrs; aujourdhui encore, trop peu dAlgriens sintressent lhistoire de leur pays dlection; quelques heureux exemples donnent cependant esprer, qu mesure que les fortunes
se constitueront et que les familles stabliront demeure sur le sol Africain, il surviendra un
veil de cet esprit de recherches locales, qui a pris dans presque toute la France un si heureux
essor. Mais, jusquici, les membres de lArme et les fonctionnaires de ltat ont, presque seuls,
apport le tribut de leurs labeurs loeuvre commune. Il suffira de jeter un coup doeil sur la
Table de la Revue pour apprcier les services qui ont t rendus par cette lite de travailleurs. /
La Socit Algrienne fut fonde le 7 avril 1856, par les soins de M. Berbrugger, sous les auspices
de M. le Marchal Randon, gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie, qui appuya de toute son autorit
une cration dont il comprenait limportance. A partir ds premiers jours de son existence, elle
commena la publication de ses travaux, qui ne fat jamais interrompue; la collection se compose aujourdhui de vingt-huit volumes in-8; la Table que nous publions est celle des vingt-cinq
premiers volumes.
[ ]
161 Mendel_1918_9 General Sarrail in Thessaloniki: Avant mme de quitter la France, en
septembre 1915, il stait proccup de grouper autour de lui quelques archologues. Aussi, ds le
mois de dcembre, quand quel ques propositions ce sujet lui furent soumises par le lieu tenant
Charles Bayet qui, engag volontaire en 1914 comme il lavait t en 1870, venait, aprs un sjour
dun an sur le front de Lorraine, dtre affect son tat-major, le gnral les accueillit avec un
intrt dj averti et une sympathie toute prte agir. Il ordonna aussitt la cration dun Service
archologique de lArme, et en confia la direction au lieutenant Bayet quun retour inattendu
de la guerre ramenait ainsi sur le terrain mme de ses premires tudes, dans cette Macdoine.

16: Saint-Dmtrius a malheureusement t dtruit par lincendie avant que le Service archologique en ait pu commencer ltude.
[
162]Homolle_1919_125: M. Homolle dpose sur le bureau de lAcadmie le rapport adress au
Secrtaire perptuel par le sergent Rey, archiviste palographe, charg de la direction du service
archologique de larme de Macdoine, qui une subvention de 2.000 francs avait t alloue
par la Commission Piot.
[
163]Gladiateur_1881_357358 at El-Kantara: Nous avons dbarqu avec des hommes munis
de pioches, de pics et de pelles; anims par lesprance de la dcouverte, ils ont fouill le sol en
diverses places. Ils dcouvrirent en beaucoup dendroits des aqueducs souterrains et de nombreuses citernes dissmines sur une surface fort tendue. / Prs de la mer, jai dcouvert entirement hors de terre, mais brises en morceaux denviron deux mtres de longueur, six belles
colonnes de marbre rose vein de blanc. Elles taient dposes en cercle; mais toutes les parties
sculptes, telles que les socles et les chapiteaux, avaient disparu. / Le pilote me dit cet gard
que, quinze ans auparavant, un navire vapeur, dont la nationalit est reste inconnue, avait
explor ces ruines et enlev les principaux vestiges artistiques. / De belles colonnes dun marbre
vert formaient un second cercle autour de celles dont je viens de parler. Elles mont paru plus
grosses que les premires, mais le cercle quelles forment est moins marqu. Jai rencontr un
beau morceau de frise en mme marbre que ces colonnes: il appartient lordre corinthien. Les
faibles moyens dont nous disposions nous ont empchs de porter bord ce fragment de sculpture, pesant 3 ou 4 tonneaux, qui faisait sans doute partie de la frise qui couronnait lenceinte
forme par les colonnes en marbre vert.
[
164]Gladiateur_1881_358 at El-Kantara: Un peu plus loin jai vu deux statues en granit rose.
Lune, dcapite, avait les bras coups jusquau coude, une des jambes casse et lautre mutile.
Cette statue devait faire partie dun bas-relief. Elle portait une tunique courte, serre la ceinture, et uu manteau jet sur les paules tait retenu sur le devant par une agrafe; le bras droit
devait revenir sur la poitrine et le gauche pendait naturellement; son poids devait dpasser 2
tonneaux. / Lautre statue isole tait entirement mutile; elle tait aussi en marbre rose. Nous
avons trouv un morceau de bras en marbre blanc qui nous a dnot une statue plus grande
que la grandeur naturelle. / Loin du temple, dans le nord, jai vu dpaisses murailles renverses
qui, par leur paisseur, ressemblent aux fortifications des villes romaines. Dans tout lespace
compris entre le temple et les vestiges de fortifications, nous avons rencontr pars des pans
de murs recouverts dune mosaque grossire, consistant en de petits cailloux roses noys dans
du ciment. / Enfin, en retournant vers nos embarcations, jai vu des vestiges danciens travaux
au bord de leau. Ce sont peut-tre les quais ou les remparts de la ville. / Nous navions pas les
moyens ncessaires pour arriver un rsultat srieux. Les fouilles qui ont t faites antrieurement paraissent avoir t peu compltes. On a peu creus; je serais mme port croire que
ces fouilles ont t superficielles. Ma conviction est que, bien munis de pics, pioches, etc., avec
un nombre dhommes suffisant, ce que je nai pu avoir, vu la distance deTabella El-Kantara, on
pourrait arracher la terre quelques-uns de ces vestiges de lart romain.
[
165]Postel_1885_54 Djerba: Au sud de lle, El-Kantara (lancienne Meninx), on rencontre
un champ de ruines, long de 3 kilomtres, o MM. Salomon Reinach et Babelon ont pu recueillir,
au commencement de 1884, et photographier une quinzaine de statues en marbre de couleur et
de grandeur naturelle, datant probablement du IIIe sicle. Ces ruines sont peuttre, de toute la
Tunisie, celles o lon trouve le plus de marbres de prix. Quelques fts de colonnes, en antique
rouge et vert, ont prs dun mtre de diamtre sur cinq ou six mtres de longueur.
APPENDIX
[
166]Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_1169: Fouilles dEl-Kantara: Cest le commandant du
Gladiateur qui a, croyons-nous, porte le premier la pioche sur le territoire dEl-Kantara. Il fit sur
ses dcouvertes un rapport qui, adress primitivement au contreamiral commandant la division du Levant, fut plus tard publi dans les archives des missions. Ces premires recherches
permirent de reconnatre des aqueducs souterrains et des citernes. Puis les ruines dun temple
apparurent, des colonnes de marbre rose vein de blanc, dautres de marbre vert; deux statues en granit rose...Dans ce sol si riche en vestiges anciens le gnral Jamais fit pratiquer des
fouilles, par huit soldats que dirigeait un officier. Un premier sondage mit au jour six statues
malheureusement trs mutiles...Ailleurs, M. le lieutenant Benoit, commandant la section
dartillerie, et M. le baron Hussenet, mdecin aide-major, trouvaient, en creusant dans lintrieur
du camp, les fondations dune maison, une nouvelle mosaque trs intressante.
[
167]Tissot_1884_197198 Djerba: Les ruines dHenchir el-Kantara couvrent un espace dont
le pourtour peut tre valu cinq kilomtres. Les fondations du mur denceinte existent encore
en partie, ainsi que celles de la citadelle. On reconnat, en outre, au milieu des dcombres qui
forment sur plusieurs points de vritables collines de ruines solidifies pour nous servir de
lexpression de Barth, les vestiges dun certain nombre de grands difices. Tous les dbris qui
jonchent le sol, chapiteaux, fragments de colonnes; de frises, dentablements, de statues, appartiennent la meilleure poque de lart romain, de mme que toutes les constructions, par la
dimension des matriaux et le soin apport leur appareillage, semblent remonter une date
fort ancienne. Laspect gnral de ces ruines; en un mot, confirme lhypothse qui voit dans ces
vestiges ceux de la capitale primitive de lle.
[
168]Duvaux, Capitaine adjutant-major du 2e Tirailleurs, La mentalit indigne en
Algrie, in Socit de Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XXIII, 1903, Oran 1903,
169240. See 169, 171: LArabe du Tell a cess dtre guerrier permanent, il voyage ne au lieu de
chevaucher, il gagne sa vie au moyen doccupations tranquilles. Lhostilit arme a cess dtre
organise contre nous, grce la prsence en Algrie des forces militaires imposantes qui y sont
entretenues et aux voies de communications qui, dj multiplies, permettraient de concentrer
rapidement au point voulu les troupes ncessaires contre un foyer insurrectionnel. Pouvonsnous en conclure que la conqute est maintenant assure? Evidemment oui, mais une condition formelle, cest quaucune complication extrieure ne vienne distraire les troupes du 19me
Corps dArme de leur mission. Les vnements de 1871, ceux que lon a senti possibles un
instant aprs lincident de Fashoda, sont pour nous un avertissement srieux. LArabe algrien
est individuellement soumis, mais sil trouve, en bande, une occasion favorable et trs srieuse,
il en profitera pour tenter de rendre lIslam le sol que nous lui avons pris...Heureusement,
les grandes familles indignes se jalousant plus ou moins et cela les empchera encore pendant
quelque temps de cder au dsir de sunir contre nous.
[
169]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_3738: Ceux de nos officiers pour qui ltude des antiquits a
quelques attraits, sentiront combien il sera avantageux de lever des plans aussi dtaills que possible des ruines des cits romaines, de recueillir leur nom moderne en arabe ou en berbre, de
dessiner tout ce qui reste des anciens monumens, arcs-de-triomphe, portes, temples, thtres,
difices publics antrieurs linvasion arabe, de dcrire leur mode de btisse, sils sont construits
avec ou sans ciment, en pierres grandes ou petites, carres, rectangulaires ou en losange, en
marbre, en briques, en pis ou en carreaux. / Lexploration des anciennes voies romaines est
le plus sr moyen de retrouver les positions indiques dans les itinraires, et que nous ne
connaissons pas encore toutes beaucoup prs. Il faudrait dcrire avec soin ces voies militaires

anciennes partout o lon en remarquera des traces, suivre ces routes avec dtail, dire o elles
existent bien conserves, et o elles nexistent plus, indiquer leur mode de construction, les lieux
o elles passent et les ponts conserves ou en ruines qui servaient jadis entretenir les communications. La connaissance des distances est lune des bases les plus essentielles et les plus sres
dune bonne gographie compare. Je recommande donc MM. les officiers dtat-major et du
gnie, la reconnaissance exacte des bornes milliaires antiques, du nombre de ces bornes existant
sur une mme route, de leurs rapports de position et de distance, et surtout des noms de lieux et
des chiffres qui sy trouveraient inscrits.
[
170]Orlans_1892_343 Expdition des Portes de Fer SeptNov 1839, after the Sidi-Assa Pass:
Le pays est trs peupl; on voit partout des douars, mais les indignes, except Djemila, se
tiennent assis ou accroupis sur des rochers, et nous regardent passer en chantant sans venir
au-devant de nous. Nous suivons presque partout la voie romaine trace militairement en dominant les crtes; tous les postes sont parfaitement marqus, leur enceinte existe encore et pas
une pierre ne manque. La domination romaine est morte ici, mais son squelette est entier et,
en ltudiant, on voit ce que fut pendant sa vie ce colosse que rien na pu faire oublier depuis le
temps o il a disparu du monde et que nous tentons vainement de parodier ici. Et cependant
ltude de leur systme doccupation nous serait bien utile; car ce nest quen marchant sur leurs
traces que nous tirerons parti de lAlgrie et surtout de la province de Constantine.
[ ]
171 SHD 1315 items 1113, Lieutenant Montaudon, Mmoire sur lAlgrie, 1844, 30.
[
172]Exposition_Coloniale_1906_7: Les voies de communication dans le Nord de lAfrique
formaient, sous la domination romaine, un vaste rseau dont le dveloppement tait denviron
7,900 kilomtres. Une grande voie, parallle au littoral, reliait Carthage Tanger. Dans lintrieur
des terres, diverses routes, se dveloppant de lEst lOuest et aboutissant la voie ctire par
des voies transversales, reliaient entre elles les villes romaines et les rattachaient aux postes militaires. / La table de Peutinger reproduit le trac de ces routes dont le temps na pas encore effac
entirement les traces et dont les solides dallages se retrouvent sur bon nombre de points. / Ces
voies multiples furent pour les Romains un prcieux auxiliaire en temps de guerre et contriburent donner, en temps de paix, un merveilleux essor aux travaux de lagriculture dont les
produits taient facilement dirigs vers le littoral, do on les expdiait en Italie. / Quand les
Franais occuprent lAlgrie, en 1830, on ny connaissait plus que des sentiers trs troits pour
les cavaliers, les pitons et les btes de somme, mais qui suffisaient alors aux besoins des Arabes.
A quelques rares exceptions prs, les cours deau taient traverss gu.
[
173]Demonts_1921_204, relaying Baudens account of the 1831 corps expditionnaire. On
the 25 June 1831: larme qui stait runie dans la plaine de Mustapha-pacha, situe une demilieue Est dAlger, se mit en marche pour aller bivouaquer deux lieues au del, sur la lisire de
la plaine de la Mtidjah. Le chemin qui y conduit a t, dit-on, trac par les Romains et fait communiquer Alger avec lintrieur de lAfrique. A mesure quon sloigne de Mustapha-pacha, cette
route, en partie creuse dans le roc, devient plus difficile; elle est dgrade par le dplacement
des pavs et prsente des montes et des descentes continuelles dont lart ne pourrait parvenir adoucir la pente quen tournant les mamelons et en pratiquant ainsi un nouveau chemin,
comme on la dj fait sur quelques points des environs dAlger.
[
174]Sriziat_1886_31: Ces voies romaines ntaient pas toujours directes; elles servaient
souvent relier entre eux, pour de longs circuits, des postes plus ou moins loigns. Ainsi une
troisime route allait encore Lambesse par le Sud en passant par Besseriani (Ad Majores),
APPENDIX
El-Outaa, El-Kantara et la plaine du Ksour. Enfin, une dernire route, toute dexploitation, allait
de la ville aux carrires de Refana; les Arabes appellent Trik-el-Caretta (le chemin des voitures)
parce quon y voit encore les ornires creuses par les lourds chariots qui servaient au transport
des marbres. but did the Arabs know about such marble-carting trucks?
[
175]Boutin_1830_179: the locals use beasts of burden, not roads, and Il nexiste plus que
quelques vestiges des anciennes chausses romaines.
[
176]Morell_1854_460: There are the remains of several Roman posts on the route, and one
in particular with numerous Roman coffins; and you can trace the vestiges of a Roman road, in
some places in a perfect state, between Constantina and Betna.
[
177]Salama_1951_105: Optimism about simply following the itineraries did not always work.
Author cites several instances where blind French reliance on the ancient roads got them into
trouble. Suggests, 1056 that this was often because of more difficult circumstances with (now
no longer pacified) natives. The Pax Romana had made things much easier! 1319 for discovery
and restitution of the Roman road network.
[
178]Salama_1951_104105: French army arrived tout pnetr desprit romain...en matire
de routes notamment, les seules traditions dont un conqurant europen pouvait se prvaloir
taient des traditions latines. Dans un pays sans communications organises, o loeuvre de voirie devait accompagner pas pas la marche des annes, lArchologie et les crivains de lAntiquit devaient tre pour les stratges les premiers tmoins consulter hence the appearance
of the Antonine Itinerary and the Tabula Peutingeriana in tat Major documents (cf. his note
285). With the Constantine expedition, on avait voulu rester fidle aux enseignements romains
en empruntant, sans y russir toujours, les itinraires de lAntiquit. Ce ft mme un vnement
mmorable lorsque le premier vhicule franais, la caliche du marechal Vale, roula sur lantique
chausse romaine au col des Oliviers entre Constantine et Stora. On sen glorifia Paris.
[
179]Caraman_1843_5960, at Constantine in November 1836: Ds le soir, nous tions en position devant Constantine que nous menacions de deux cts; mais sans vivres, sans munitions,
tous nos quipages stant trouvs arrts par les obstacles quopposaient des chemins dfoncs
et des torrents grossis quil fallait passer gu, ce qui taint devenu momentanment impraticables.../ Notre dernire journe de marche avait t extrmement pnible. Les dmonstrations des arabes, quelque peu dangereuses quelles fussent, ne nous en forcrent pas moins
resserrer nos colonnes par prudence: les chemins en devenaient de plus en plus mauvais; on
doubla nos attelages puiss pour faire avancer notre artillerie et lambulance qui narrivrent
quavec grand peine sur le plateau de Mansourah, enfin on dtruisit toutes les voitures que lon
se voyait oblig dabandonner; mais tant de prcautions et de sacrifices taient encore insuffisants pour rallier les traneurs imprudents ou trop affaiblis: plusieurs dentre eux tombrent au
pouvoir des arabes, et nous ne tardmes pas apprendre avec un profond sentiment de tristesse
que dj un certain nombre de ttes avaient t portes au camp dAchmet, comme de sanglants
trophes de leurs prtendus succs.
[
180]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_219, 2 october, from the Journal of Lieutenantgnral, le baron de Fleury: La route exige des travaux de rparation aux passages des ravins. On
adoucit des rampes, on consolide des gus par dpaisses couches de pierres et de gros gravier. A
une lieue et demie de Sidi-Tamtam, on est arrt deux heures pour travailler rendre praticable
lartillerie une pente raide et difficile. On campa devant le marabout de Sidi-Tamtam. Distance
parcourue, 14,000 mtres.

[ ]
181 St_Marie_1846_117 near Mda: At the distance of about two leagues from the town,
on a plateau called Aouarah, we saw the ruins of a Roman citadel. The eye readily traces a large
square space, at one angle of which some huge blocks of stone showed the remains of the perimeter of a round tower. Two Roman roads, paved with large flag stones, led from this point; but
their tracts were soon lost beneath thickly overspreading brambles.
[
182]Trumelet_1887_II_110111 Blida: On remarque encore sur les berges basses de la rive
gauche de la Chiffa, particulirement aux abords de Sidi-El-Madani, des constructions effondres, des pans de murs qui, de la route, semblent les restes dune ville de Lilliputiens, et que
quelques voyageurs ont pris tout simplement pour des ruines romaines: ce sont les dbris des
camps o stablirent, en 1842 et plus tard, les troupes employes aux travaux de la route de Blida
Mda.
[
183]Castellane1896_III_152 1838 near Constantine: A sept heures du matin, nous nous
sommes remis en route. A onze heures et demie, nous tions un monument lev par un gnral romain, dont il reste deux arceaux et une masse de pierre. Les Romains choisissaient bien
leurs points de dfense; les restes des fortifications de ce peuple le prouvent. Nous ferons bien
doccuper les mmes.
[
184]Pernot_1894_261272 for transport difficulties.
[
185]Bapst_1909_I_287 1837 Canrobert, on road-making on the approach to Constantine after
Medjez-Amar: Le terrain tait montueux et ravin; bientt la grosse artillerie rencontra de tels
obstacles quelle eut grandpeine avancer. Nous aidions sa marche en poussant aux roues. Il
y avait quelquefois des ravines o il fallait pratiquer des rampes; lune delles, plus profonde,
avec des berges pic, arrta net le convoi des lourdes pices de sige. Ctait lendroit appel
Monte de la Dixime en souvenir de la dixime lgion romaine qui avait longtemps camp
en ce lieu. On ne savait comment on allait faire. Le colonel Combes arrive au galop; il fait former
les faisceaux deux bataillons, puis sautant bas de son cheval: Faites tous comme moi!
scrie-t-il. / Et prenant dans le pan de sa capote tout ce quil pouvait y faire tenir de pierres, il
vient vider sa charge dans le ravin en face de la premire voiture: les soldats limitent lenvi et
excutent plusieurs reprises cette petite manuvre. En peu de temps, la ravine, profonde de
plusieurs mtres, est comble sur une largeur suffisante: un passage surgit, et, solidifi par le
gnie, il permet de reprendre la marche en avant.
[
186]Gouvernement_Gnral_1906_7 Roman roads and later: Ces voies multiples furent pour
les Romains un prcieux auxiliaire en temps de guerre et contriburent donner, en temps de
paix, un merveilleux essor aux travaux de lagriculture dont les produits taient facilement dirigs vers le littoral, do on les expdiait en Italie. / Quand les Franais occuprent lAlgrie, en
1830, on ny connaissait plus que des sentiers trs troits pour les cavaliers, les pitons et les btes
de somme, mais qui suffisaient alors aux besoins des Arabes. A quelques rares exceptions prs,
les cours deau taient traverss gu.
[
187]Barbaud_1887_I_88: Algeria had 10 routes nationales covering 2,428km. 90: Rien ne saurait donner une plus juste ide des routes de la Tunisie avant loccupation franaise que ltat des
chemins de notre ancienne Gaule au moment de linvasion romaine. For Boulanger, commanding the occupying division, son premier soin a t de restaurer les anciennes voies.
[
188]Gaffarel_1883_503: Ctait pour les exigences militaires plus encore que pour les ncessits commerciales que les Romains sillonnaient lEmpire de ces voies grandioses, qui leur
permettaient une rapide concentration de troupes et la rpression presque immdiate des
APPENDIX
insurrections. Or, en 1830, lors du dbarquement des Franais, non seulement il ny avait pas
de port en tat dabriter les vaisseaux, mais encore aucune route praticable aux voitures. On ne
pouvait en effet qualifier de routes des sentiers poudreux courant au hasard, dun fleuve lautre,
ou sur le flanc des collines, sans ponts, sans garde-fous, sans indications, sans entretien. Mme
aux abords des villes, mme aux environs immdiats de la capitale, on ne trouvait que de vagues
pistes, peine suffisantes pour les btes de somme des indignes, et impraticables la suite des
pluies. Tout tait crer. Ce sera le mrite de la France de stre mise luvre presque ds le
premier jour et davoir poursuivi sans interruption ce travail gigantesque.
[
189]Mercier_1885_554 Province of Constantine: Quant aux campagnes, elles taient peu
prs dsertes: on ne reconstruisit rien nulle part. Les voies romaines sillonnant le pays dans tous
les sens furent abandonnes, et le temps faisant son uvre, ne nous en a laiss que quelques
traces. Il est nanmoins possible de les reconstituer, au moins en partie; en effet, en parcourant
attentivement le pays, on retrouve de distance en distance, principalement l o le sol prsentait
un obstacle, des dblais et des remblais faits par les hommes. Si on relie les points sur lesquels
ces travaux ont t excuts jadis, la ligne qui les joint est jalonne de ruines et quelquefois de
bornes milliaires. On y retrouve le souvent un sentier arabe dont le trac doit scarter bien peu
de celui de lancienne voie.
[
190]Tissot_1888_444 Exploration scientifique de la Tunisie: Presquau sortir de Goubellat la
voie romaine change de direction: elle quitte le versant du Djebel Morra pour senfoncer dans le
massif mme de la montagne. Les pentes quelle gravit par trois lacets sont couvertes de hautes
et paisses broussailles. La route antique seule a t respecte par cette vgtation luxuriante:
cest peine si quelques bruyres ont pris racine dans les interstices des pierres de lagger. Rien
na chang dans cette solitude depuis douze sicles: la voie romaine est telle que lont parcourue les derniers courriers des gouverneurs byzantins de Carthage et les premiers claireurs de
linvasion arabe.
[ ]
191 F, Voyage de S.M. Napolon III en Algrie, contenant lhistoire du sjour de S.M. dans
les trois provinces...avec des notices gographiques, Algiers 1865, 328329: Elle sest rendue
Lambse, o Elle a examin avec beaucoup dintrt les ruines du pretorium et les fragments
de sculpture et darchitecture qui sy trouvent runis. Elle a admir un dbris de statue quElle a
jug digne du Louvre. / LEmpereur a ensuite parcouru pied une partie de lespace immense o
se trouvent dissmins les nombreux vestiges qui attestent le sjour des Romains. Il a reconnu
lenceinte de lancien camp romain de la 3e lgion et donn des indications pour les fouilles
excuter ultrieurement. Il a recommand de rechercher particulirement les traces et de reconnatre les directions des anciennes voies romaines. Sa Majest a daign accorder de nouvelles
grces aux dtenus de la maison centrale de Lambse.
[
192]La_Tafna_1887_19_April, Terrible accident. M. Camille Sabatier, ancien dput dOran
si cruellement prouv par la mort toute rcente dune fille quil adorait, vient dtre la victime
dun terrible accident. / M. Sabatier est dune myopie excessive quittait la villa du Gouverneur,
sise El-Biar, pour se rendre chez lui au quartier du Telemly. Il sengagea par erreur dans un chemin romain qui mne danciens fours chaux et alla tomber dans un de ces trous profonds de
huit mtres. / Dans sa chute, M. Sabatier sest cass les deux jambes et ait la tte et sur diverses
parties du corps de fortes contusions.
[
193]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_67, Situation en 1830, public works in Algeria: Les Turcs taient
toujours ls matres en Algrie quand nous y arrivmes en 1830. On devine, ds lors, en quel tat

nous avons trouv toutes choses. Les voies romaines avaient compltement disparu sur le littoral
et dans lintrieur. Des sentiers frays par les pitons, les cavaliers et les btes de somme, suffisaient aux indignes, qui navaient aucune ide des moyens de transport perfectionns en usage
chez les peuples civiliss. Il existait des ponts, en bien petit nombre: les uns, de construction
antique, avaient dur comme par miracle; les autres, btis plus rcemment, taient, sil faut en
croire les traditions locales, loeuvre de quelque rengat ou de quelque esclave chrtien du Dey.
Les uns et les autres taient si dissmins et si rares quon navait pas mme eu besoin daffecter
chacun deux une dsignation spciale; on les appelait tous dun nom unique: El-Kantara, le
Pont. / Des ports anciens, il ne restait que dimperceptibles vestiges.
[
194]Rozet_and_Carette 1850_153 roads in Algeria: Ainsi, avant 1838 peu dindignes avaient
occasion de se rendre de Constantine Philippeville; mais depuis ltablissement des Franais
sur cette partie de la cte une circulation incessante a runi ces deux points, et le chemin de
Philippeville Constantine sest trouv rig en route royale. Les Franais avaient besoin dune
communication carrossable: ils ont suivi le trac romain, dont on retrouve dimposants vestiges
chaque pas. Quant aux muletiers et aux chameliers indignes, fidles leurs habitudes dindpendance, tantt ils creusent leur sillon traditionnel sur les bas-cts de la route; tantt ils sen
cartent, soit pour se rapprocher dune source, soit pour suivre un raccourci; quelquefois mme
leurs sentiers serpentent ct de la route sans quon puisse se rendre compte du motif qui la
leur a fait abandonner. Ainsi il peut arriver au voyageur de trouver la voie franaise cheminant
gravement entre les blocs bouleverss de la voie romaine et les sinuosits capricieuses de la voie
arabe.
[
195]Carrette_1844_117118: Les voies de communication, dans lAfrique septentrionale, ne
ressemblent en rien celles dont la nature et la civilisation ont dot lEurope. Les plus grandes
rivires y sont peine navigables quelques lieues de leur embouchure. La chausse, le canal, et,
bien plus forte raison, le chemin de fer, sont des instruments dassociation entirement inconnus, comme les vhicules dont ils supposent lemploi. Les routes arabes sont, en gnral, de
simples sentiers, tracs sur le gazon par le pied nu de lhomme, et le sabot du cheval ou du mulet.
Ces sentiers sont tellement troits, que deux personnes ne peuvent y marcher de front. Il en
rsulte que lorsque des voyageurs ou des caravanes se rencontrent, lune prend droite, lautre
gauche: cela dtermine deux sentiers. Plus les routes sont parcourues, plus ces rencontres sont
frquentes, plus aussi le nombre des sentiers augmente; et lon en compte quelquefois jusqu
dix, qui tantt se croisent, et tantt suivent des directions parallles.
[
196]Tissot_1888_452 Exploration scientifique de la Tunisie: Dsignes sous le nom dHenchir Dermouliya, les ruines de Coreva couvrent une plate-forme domine louest par le Djebel
Nottah, et prsentant au sud et lest des pentes assez escarpes qui sadoucissent vers le nord.
La partie la plus leve du plateau plonge pic, du ct du sud-est, dans le lit de la Siliana, qui
en ronge les berges, et porte les vestiges dune citadelle construite en pierres de grand appareil.
Un peu plus au sud on aperoit, couches dans la rivire, dnormes masses de blocage appartenant au pont sur lequel passait la route de Coreva Thuburbo Majus. Il devait exister un autre
pont lest, dans laxe de la voie de Carthage Thveste: lboulement des berges la fait disparatre. / Aucun centre arabe ne sest jamais lev sur lemplacement de Coreva. Les ruines de la
cit antique, comme celles de Thignica, ont servi de carrires lors de la fondation de la petite
ville andalouse de Testour, et Henchir Dermouliya noffre plus aujourdhui quun vaste amas de
dcombres dont le primtre gale peu prs celui des ruines de Vallis.
APPENDIX
[
197]Hurabielle_1899_104 Ksar Oumache: Au sud de loasis on rencontre loued Djeddi o
lon peut retrouver les ruines dun pont romain. Les Arabes ne se sont pas donn la peine de restaurer ses arches et ses piliers; ils prfrent traverser la rivire gu en relevant leur gandoura,
gravement assis sur leur bourricot ou leur mulet tique.
[
198]Pananti_1818_110 Algeria: Travelling in the interior is attended with many difficulties,
owing to there being no bridges; and as to roads, they would clash with the policy of the government, by facilitating the progress of an enemy, and opening a trading intercourse between the
people; which, strange paradox! it is the interest of the Dey to suppress.
[
199]Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876_77 toward the taking of Mda: Le lendemain, on commena
descendre vers le bois des Oliviers, tantt cheminant sur la vieille route turque ou romaine
pave mme dans quelques endroits; tantt sarrtant pour laisser aux travailleurs aux ordres
des colonels de Bellonet et Charron le temps de pratiquer un passage pour lartillerie de campagne, qnon jugeait ncessaire damener Mda. Le travail le plus considrable eut lieu partir
dun rocher tout color par le minerai de cuivre, pour le passage dun ravin profond, que lon
contourna par sa source au moyen de corps darbres soutenant un chemin en corniche, roide, et
noffrant de passage qu une voiture.
[
200]Winckler_1894_370371: On sait quil y avait des htelleries que ladministration impriale faisait construire sur les routes militaires en mme temps que des postes fortifis destins
protger les communications; les voies stratgiques en Afrique taient en outre pourvues de
citernes, de puits dont on retrouve les vestiges de distance en distance sur les grandes lignes. /
Effectivement, entre Tabarca et Bizerte, nous avons remarqu plusieurs de ces vestiges en parcourant un chemin arabe, toujours suivi par les indignes qui frquentent les marchs de la
rgion. / Ce chemin ne peut tre que lancienne route romaine dont nous allons indiquer succinctement le trac. i.e. the old road simply degraded into a track, and continued in use.
[
201]Boutin_1830_213 Algeria: Les Maures nont point ouvert de route dans lintrieur du
pays: on ny trouve que des sentiers si multiplis, et qui se coupent de tant de manires, quil faut
avoir une grande connaissance des localits pour ne pas sgarer chaque pas. Il nexiste plus que
quelques vestiges des anciennes chausses romaines. / Les chemins sont, en gnral, mauvais,
surtout dans la saison des pluies. Il est vrai de dire que les habitans, allant toujours cheval ou
mulet, et toutes les marchandises se transportant dos de btes de somme, ils ne sentent pas le
prix des routes larges et bien ferres.
[
202]Delamare_1850B_4 on the Constantine-Batna route: Nous marchmes ensuite dans une
plaine bien cultive; nous commencions apercevoir le flanc du Nifensser, montagne dont on
ne voit que lextrme sommet des hauteurs qui avoisinent Constantine; la voie romaine est en
assez bon tat, malgr lusage o sont les Arabes darracher les grosses pierres qui la bordent,
pour les placer sur les tombes afin dempcher les chacals de dvorer les cadavres.
[
203]Carton, Docteur, La campagne dHadrumte. Etude de topographie antique et suburbaine, in BSA_Sousse_I_1901_176203. See 180: Et ils lont fait avec dautant plus dardeur quen
dehors de la pierre de mdiocre qualit quon trouve sur place les Romains avaient apport de
loin, pour les employer dans leurs constructions, dexcellents matriaux quon retrouve maintenant dans les seuils et les montants des portes de maisons. [but they ran out, so then began
to attack the ancient roads] Si bien quen plusieurs endroits jtais guid trs surement, pour
retrouver la direction de la grande voie de Carthage, par une tranche longitudinale dextraction
place dans le prolongement de la bordure.

[
204]Watbled_1870_274275 14 November 1836, near to the Seybouse: Un peu avant, darriver
au bivouac, on avait dj observ les ruines de fortins carrs en pierres tailles qui reliaient
entre eux les camps retranchs des romains et suivi une route romaine bien reconnaissable aux
petites bornes rgulirement tailles galement espaces qui en bordent encore les deux cts.
[
205]BSA_Sousse_IV_1907_29 on the trajectory of the Roman road Hadrumetum/Suffetula:
Celle-ci, vrai dire, est assez vague aux abords immdiats de Sousse, ce qui sexplique assez
facilement si lon songe que le terrain dans celle rgion est constitu par des olivettes dont le
sol a t maintes et maintes fois retourn par la pioche ou la charrue arabes ou par le pic des
chercheurs de pierres qui ont enlev peu peu toutes celles qui servaient de limite la voie dont
nous nous occupons.
[
206]Mercier_1888_102 work of Brigades Topographiques: Les sentiers arabes modernes qui,
du coeur de la Numidie, se rendent en ligne droite Carthage, Gafsa, Cherchel ou Tlemcen,
ne sont autres que les anciennes routes numides ou libyques. Bien des civilisations, bien des
races se sont succd depuis leur tablissement, et elles restent encore, pour les ingnieurs, les
lignes daxe dont ils ne scartent que rarement, et, pour les indignes, les vritables artres de
communication grande distance, dans les parties o la dpopulation na pas permis la broussaille de les envahir compltement.
[
207]Mercier_1885_331332 the work of the Brigades Topographiques: Il est facile de reconnatre toutefois, en parcourant le pays, que les Romains staient tablis sur les terrains les plus
riches et, encore aujourdhui, les mieux pourvus deaux potables; ces tablissements taient
incontestablement relis entre eux et avec les grandes voies militaires et commerciales, il nest
pas moins certain que linvasion du milieu du Ve sicle ruina de fond en comble les villes, les
postes militaires et les tablissements agricoles, et que, lorsqu la suite de linvasion les Vandales
se partagrent les terres, ils vinrent stablir, sans rien rdifier, l o les terres dj amnages se
prtaient le plus facilement la culture, empruntant les voies de communication du pays, sans
les entretenir et sans en crer de nouvelles; que les Maures (Gtules), qui dtruisirent les restes
des Vandales, et, aprs les Maures, les Arabes agirent de mme, stablissant sur les meilleures
terres et se servant des voies de cornmunication existantes, voies fort bien traces, qui ntaient
autres que les anciennes voies romaines, devenues aujourdhui de simples sentiers arabes. /
Lobservateur qui suit ces sentiers y remarque chaque pas, principalement dans la montagne,
des remblais et des dblais, videmment excuts de main dhomme et quil est impossible dattribuer aux Arabes, dont loutillage primitif ne se prte pas ce genre de travaux. Si lon ajoute
cette premire remarque que ces sentiers sont bords de distance en distance par des ruines
de fermes, de postes militaires ou de villes, et que, dans ces derniers temps, des fouilles ont mis
jour sur leur trac des bornes milliaires jalonnant autrefois les voies romaines, le doute nest
plus permis cet gard.
[
208]Demaeght_1888_154 in Maurtanie Csarienne: Il est remarquer que toutes ces ruines
sont encore aujourdhui relies entre elles par des chemins, qui ne sont autres, selon nous, que
les voies romaines devenues de simples sentiers arabes. Ce qui semble corroborer notre opinion,
cest que ces sentiers prsentent souvent des dblais et des remblais anciens qui ne peuvent tre
attribus aux Arabes, tant donns loutillage primitif dont ils disposent et leur indiffrence bien
connue pour ce genre de travaux.
[
209]Gaillard_1839_3 need local troops to keep communities safe: Cette ncessit devient
bien plus grande encore si, comme il parait indispensable de le faire, nous nous tablissons dans
la plaine de la Mtidja, en occupant Blida, Colah, et en levant lest de la plaine un ou deux
APPENDIX
camps retranchs pour prolger les colons. / La configuration du pays nous dmontre encore
que loccupation de ces points ne suffirait pas pour protger compltement les travaux dans la
plaine. En effet, cette plaine, qui a environ 100 lieues carres, et qui stend comme une longue
valle de louest lest, sur une longueur denviron 20 lieues, est borne lest, au sud et louest
par un rameau de lAtlas habit par 51 tribus, dont la plus loigne est 36 heures de la Mtidja,
et dont le plus grand nombre nen est qu 12 ou 15 heures; la population de ces tribus peut slever 75000 mes. Peut-on croire quelles nous laisseront la libre possession de cette plaine, et
quelles nous verront faire tranquillement les immenses travaux de desschement que son insalubrit ncessite? Peut-on croire encore que les Arabes ne profiteront pas des nombreux sentiers, praticables pour eux seuls, qui dbouchent dans la plaine, pour venir, sinon attaquer nos
camps, au moins, inquiter nos communications, surprendre nos hommes isols, nos convois
mmes, et cela laide dun terrain marcageux, couvert en partie de bouquets darbres assez
touffus dont ils connaissent bien la valeur offensive ou dfensive?
[
210]SHD MR882 item 2 Lieutenant Grangez, Mmoire historique et militaire sur la ville de
Blida, June 1848, 30 pages. cf. p. 23 for the work required around Blida.
[ ]
211 SHD Papiers Pelet, supplement, Algrie 18321850, carton 1319.
[
212]SHD H227 Mmoires divers: 1839: Reconnaissances faites dans la province de Constantine
en 1837, 1838 & 1839, 1839, 69 pages. cf p. 49, 53.
[
213]SHD Gnie, 1H58: Correspondance, 1838: Rapport sur les Travaux excuts au Fort de
France et dpendances, p. 78.
[
214]SHD Gnie 8.1 Constantine carton 1: 183640, Colonel Duvivier, Reconnaissance faite du
6 au 12 avril 1838 entre Constantine et Stora, 5: traces of the roman road very easy to follow; the
piers for bridges are still in place, and could be used; 7 gives details of the roman road construction: currently they cannot use it for carriages because of the displacement of the stones, but
la voie romaine peut sans de grands travaux tre rtablie et devenir carrossable de Constantine
jusqua Stora...and plenty of wood and water along the way.
[
215]Blakesley_1859_372 the harbour of Bne: The roads [i.e. entrances to the harbour] of
Bona are very unsafe, far more so than those of Stora. The wrecks of two vessels on the bar were
a melancholy proof before my eyes of this fact. Yet at the present time whatever is embarked
has to be conveyed in quite small boats to ships in the roads. At Bona itself, there is no space
for wharves. Possibly extensive quays might be constructed by the help of piles on the low plain
between the rivers. But the expense would be frightful. An artificial channel would have to be
made, and kept open: and this would involve engineering operations on a great scale. And in
the meantime, the French go on blasting rocks and constructing batteries to defend the town
against some imaginary enemy, although the whole trade of the place is not equal to that of the
poorest fishing-town on the south coast of England.
[
216]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_8ff for Marche progressive des Travaux Publics de 1830 1877.
1023 for Travaux Maritimes; 2331 for Routes et Ponts; 3237 for Chemins de Fer; 3743 for
Desschements et Irrigations.
[
217]Carbuccia_1853_113: Dabord ladministration est seule juge de ses besoins; elle seule
peut savoir si, avec leffectif des animaux entretenus au budget, son service nexigera pas des
rquisitions nouvelles en 1845. / Jusqu prsent, elle a t oblige davoir recours ces derniers
moyens, surtout pour ravitailler des places qui ne sont pas encore desservies par des routes carrossables; quel que soit le zle apport par le corps du train des quipages dans ses pnibles
fonctions, il na pu suffire tout, et le double de leffectif en hommes et en btes nen viendrait

pas bout, tellement notre systme doccupation, dj si tendu, prend constamment, et mme
malgr nous, une plus grande extension.
[
218]Carbuccia_1853_1213 advantages vis--vis mules: Loin du littoral de la Mditerrane,
on prfre le dromadaire au mulet, pour les motifs suivants: 1 Il y existe mille fois plus de dromadaires que de mulets; 2 le mulet ne saurait se passer dorge; 3si le mulet porte trois sacs,
le dromadaire en porte quatre; 4 le mulet doit boire tous les jours, et le dromadaire tous les
sept au plus; 5 le mulet chaque jour perd de sa force, tandis que le dromadaire, grce la
diminution de sa bosse, voyage longtemps avec la mme force et la mme vigueur; 6 le mulet
a besoin de se reposer chaque soir, et le dromadaire, moins sensible la fatigue, peut continuer
sa route pendant plusieurs jours sans presque sarrter; 7 le mulet, pendant les fortes chaleurs
et les grandes pluies, a besoin dune curie; le dromadaire est toujours mieux en rase campagne
quentre des murs; lodeur de la chaux lui est particulirement funeste; 8 le mulet a besoin
dtre pans et trill; le seul soin quon prend du dromadaire, cest de le frotter avec un morceau
de bois lorsquil est couvert de poussire ou de boue; 9 le dromadaire peut tre disciplin plus
facilement que le cheval et le mulet; 10 le dromadaire est mont, conduit et gard plus facilement que le cheval ou le mulet quon laisserait en tat de libert comme lui; lorsquil est entrav
aux deux genoux de devant, il ne peut se sauver, ce qui arrive souvent au cheval et au mulet; 11
le dromadaire se blesse plus difficilement sur le dos que le cheval et le mulet, mais, la vrit,
il se gurit moins vite queux; 12 le dromadaire ne rue presque jamais: ses ruades, du reste, ne
peuvent faire de mal; il ne mord que pendant le rut: on ne peut en dire autant du mulet; 13
le dromadaire est moins sujet la maladie que le cheval et le mulet;. il nest point expos la
morve, qui dcime tous les ans ces derniers animaux; 14 le mulet transport en Algrie ne dure
que quatre ans, et le dromadaire dure vingt ans au moins; 15 le mulet cote au bout dun an 753
francs, et le dromadaire ne cote que 90 fr.; 16 le mulet cote chaque jour davantage cause de
la nourriture; le dromadaire ne cote rien de plus que le prix dachat.
[
219]Fraud_18711872_12 Stif/Bougie: En 1849, le gnral de Barral, puis le colonel de
Lourmel, avaient inaugur les premiers chantiers de travailleurs sur la voie stratgique projete
entre Bougie et Stif, passant par An-Roua, le Dr-el-Arhaa et les Barhacha. En 1852, une colonne,
sous les ordres du gnral Maissial, largissait et amliorait cette mme route...Lanne suivante, les travaux taient continus avec ardeur, et quelques caravansrails construits de distance en distance, pour servir de gites dtapes aux voyageurs. On vit cette poque, pour la
premire fois, quelques voitures de roulage et des caravanes de chameaux faire par cette voie
nouvelle le trajet de Setif Bougie.
[
220]Pernot_1894_284288 for the camel/dromedary arguments.
[
221]Voinot_1910_58: Les troupes doccupation du Sun-Oranais et des oasis comprennent de
lartillerie...le remplacement du mulet par le chameau pour le transport de lartillerie ne parat
pas impossible.
[
222]Rey, A., Souvenirs dun voyage au Maroc, Paris 1844, 74: Un jour, Mouli-Isimal [d.1727],
trouvant trop long lintervalle du dsert qui spare Ksar-el-Kebr de Mekns, ordonna quune
grande ville slevt gale distance de lune et de lautre. Pour donner une prompte satisfaction
au dsir du sultan, des milliers douvriers furent mis en rquisition, et dimmenses caravanes
furent employes au transport des pierres de la montagne. Les fosss taient creuss et les fondemens slevaient rapidement, quand Mouli-Isimal mourut tout--coup. Aussitt que la nouvelle de sa mort arriva au chantier, il fut dsert de tous les ouvriers. Les caravanes jetrent les
APPENDIX
pierres au milieu de la route en se dispersrent; et depuis deux sicles, ces grands blocs pars
dans la campagne nont excit les regrets, ni mme la curiosit de personne.
[
223]Gurin_1862_II_76 Henchir Lorbs: Prs de l [i.e. the church/mosque] slve une
tour carre dont la partie infrieure semble byzantine et la partie suprieure, beaucoup plus
malconstruite et avec des matriaux plus petits, appartient a une poque plus rcente. Sur
un bloc encastr a la base de la tour, on lit le fragment que voici...Plusieurs fts de superbes
colonnes en marbre blanc vein de rouge gisent par terre au pied de cet ancien minaret;
quelques-uns de ces fts ont t scies, il y a une quinzaine dannes, afin dtre transports plus
facilement ailleurs mais il parait quon a renonc ensuite a ce projet.
[
224]Mauroy, P., Du commerce des peuples de lAfrique septentrionale dans lantiquit, le moyen
ge et les temps modernes, compar au commerce des Arabes de nos jours: ouvrage faisant suite
la Question dAlger en 1844, Paris 1845/6, 168: La poudre fusil se fait en grande quantit
dans le sahara algrien. Les nombreuses ruines romaines fournissent le salptre; le bois de laurier-rose donne le charbon; le soufre vient de lEurope.
[
225]Arnaud, interprte de larme, Exploration du Djebel Bou Kahil (suite), in RA VII 1863,
4266. See 515: Nous ne nous aventurions sur ce mamelon quavec la plus grande prudence, car
une infinit de trous larges el profonds minaient sourdement les fondations de chaque maison.
Les habitants de Mead el de Demmed, grands fabricants de poudre, il y a quelques annes
seulement, force de creuser tous les jours pour chercher du salptre (do Ksar el-Baroud),
avaient fini par faire de ces dcombres un vritable prcipice. Les fondements des murs mis
jour laide de ces souterrains sont pais, rgulirement btis et leurs pierres solidement lies
par le mortier sont restes inbranlables jusqu ce jour. De nombreux dbris de briques, de
tuiles, de vases en argile rouge, jonchent le terrain: les inscriptions y taient trs nombreuses,
mais les pierres qui les portaient taient tellement cailleuses que dans les bouleversements
qua d sans doute prouver le Ksar, elles se sont brises dans leur chute, ou se sont dtaches
par clats, ainsi que lattestent divers chantillons de lettres pars sur le sol. Lune des pierres
que nous destinions au muse dAlger se trouvant tre trop volumineuse pour tre transporte
Djelfa par les chameaux, un seul coup de pioche heureusement appliqu sur lun des angles la
partagea en deux dalles rgulires. Il reste encore deux normes pierres carres dont lune orne
dun chapiteau et dun soubassement devait appartenir un grand monument; elles portent
chacune une inscription, mais si fruste, si use, que les lettres ne peuvent prendre lestampage
et rsistent la lecture dune personne non habitue ce genre de travail.
[
226]Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876_170: A 3 kilomtres sud-ouest de Lioua, et gauche de la
route directe qui mne Doucen, jallai visiter avec un des guides deux ateliers de salptre. Ils
ont boulevers de vastes ruines romaines, et contrairement lhabitude du pays, la ville ou le
bourg antique nest pas rest l comme il tait tomb. Les ruines romaines quon rencontre si
frquemment dans ces contres se ressemblent toutes les votes et les planchers ont disparu
la poussire apporte par les vents a rempli les intervalles des murailles. Mais on peut suivre la
trace des murs et reconnatre le plan des rues et des maisons. Dans les oasis, il nen est plus tout
fait ainsi, et souvent on peut lire quelque inscription latine ou paenne sur les jambages dune
porte de mosque. L o nous tions alors, Kebabia, aux bords de lOued-Doucen, lindustrie
a cherch sous les pierres romaines la terre que leur contact avait enrichie. Ibid., 180: Les seuls
habitants permanents de Doucen sont aujourdhui les fabricants de salptre. Ils y trouvent une
terre excellente laquelle des ractions naturelles rendent rapidement le salptre enlev par

les lavages. Ils nous accompagnaient sur la colline et se jetrent avidement sur la terre mise
dcouver par une pierre romaine que nous fimes retourner.
[
227]Saladin_1887_138 Tunisia, Haouch Khima: Contrairement Hadra, Sbetla et Kasrne,
cette petite ville na pas t pille, puisquelle est loin de la route frquente. Les Arabes ny ont
lev aucune construction, ils ny ont donc pas pris de la pierre ou des colonnes, elle est reste
dans ltat o linvasion la laisse, et si les murs des maisons se sont effondrs, les directions
en sont encore parfaitement visibles. Elle est peu importante, il est vrai; mais les recherches
y seraient intressantes, si lon en juge par les quelques fragments qui mergent du sol. Le sol
antique doit tre une trs faible profondeur; un grand nombre de morceaux de moulures et de
chapiteaux se voient de tous cts surtout autour du kasr et dans le kasr lui-mme.
[
228]Saladin_1887_26 near El Djem: les immenses blocs de marbre que lon a mis au jour
lendroit nomm Gasr-el-Rey, la statue questre dont il ne reste que le cheval, tout indique quil
y a eu El-Djem un centre trs important lpoque romaine, centre important et riche, car les
fragments de marbre, surtout le cipolin, indiquent des dpenses de transport et de travail trs
considrables. Le style du chapiteau corinthien que nous avons mentionn plus haut rappelle
absolument lpoque des Antonins. Il est supposer que ldifice auquel il devait appartenir na
pas t termin; car, au Gasr-el-Rey, il y a encore dnormes blocs de marbre peine dgrossis
et qui indiquent lexistence dun chantier dont les travaux ont t brusquement interrompus.
[
229]Winckler_1892_157158 Voies de Simithu (Chemtou) Thabraca [Tabarca]. Enfin, une
autre voie allait de Simithu Thabraca. Elle se bifurquait avec celle de Bulla Thabraca, un peu
au sud de loued Rezala. Cette voie, qui servait transporter les marbres de Simithu Rome.
Footnoted with: Des colonnes de marbres, brises sans doute pendant le transport, existent
encore tout le long de cette route.
[
230]Faucon_1893_II_125126 Chemtou: des blocs non utiliss portant encore la date
laquelle ils ont t dtachs de la carrire et un numro dextraction; dailleurs, dans ces carrires, les vestiges de lbauche romaine se voient chaque pas. On peut sy rendre compte
encore de la faon dont lexploitation tait conduite. / Une socit belge a voulu reprendre cette
exploitation, il ya quelques annes. Elle a occup une centaine douvriers, soixante aux carrires
et quarante dans deux ateliers de marbrerie. Lun de ces ateliers tait install pour le travail
la main, lautre comprenait quatre armures pouvant porter 400 lames, trois dbiteuses lames,
une dbiteuse fil hlicodal, une moulureuse, deux tours, deux polissoirs, un lapidaire; tout
cet outillage tait m par une machine vapeur de la force de 60 chevaux. / Des cits ouvrires
pouvant loger plus de 150 ouvriers, une pharmacie et lorganisation dun service mdical, assuraient le bien-tre dune population qui a souvent atteint 200 personnes, y compris les femmes
et les enfants. / Malheureusement Schemtou est situ quatre kilomtres de la station de loued
Mliz, consquemment 180 kilomtres du port dembarquement; il en rsultait des frais de
transport qui ne permettaient pas de lutter avec les marbres italiens~ dautant moins que les
procds dextraction taient assez primitifs. / Linauguration des travaux eut lieu le 7 juin 1888
et la suspension, car il est question dune reprise, en 1890. Dans tout le Sud le Snonien fournit souvent des marbres. / Les gisements les plus rapprochs de la cte sont celui de CouditHameimat, prs Gabs, et celui du djebel Dissa, dont les calcaires marbrodes sont aujourdhui
utiliss et pourraient fournir des matriaux dornement.
[
231]Bliard_1854_21: Ce fait bien tabli des immenses gisements de marbres rivaux de
Carrare dans le Djebel-Fel-Fela, il nous reste parler des moyens de transport et dembarquement. On va voir quici encore une exploitation de ces marbres prsenterait un avantage des plus
APPENDIX
considrables sur lexploitation de Carrare, dont la carrire la plus rapproche de la mer en est
encore loigne de prs de vingt kilomtres, tandis que lon trouve sept kilomtres seulement
du massif dexploitation des carrires de Fel-Fela lembouchure de lOued-Rhiran la mer. Or,
il y a l un bon fond et lon pourrait y faire, moyennant quelques travaux dart dj tudis, un
port dembarquement pour les blocs. and 2224 for an overview of the economics of Carrara.
[
232]Beul_1875_80 at Cyrene: Les objets recueillis par le capitaine Smith et le commandant Porcher avaient t transports dans le vaste tombeau creus dans le roc quils staient
choisi pour demeure. Le nombre commenait tre assez considrable, et le seul chemin par
o lon pt les transporter sans rencontrer des ravins et des accidents de terrain difficiles surmonter, tait lancienne route dApollonia (aujourdhui Mursa Sousah). Un rapport fut envoy
lord Russell qui ne rpondit point; mais deux mois aprs le navire de guerre, lAssurance,
tait mouill Marsa Sousah, et le conseil dadministration du muse britannique allouait une
somme de cent livres sterling pour les frais dembarquement. Cest avec cette simplicit, ces
garanties et cette promptitude dexcution que les dcouvertes sont tentes par les particuliers
et leurs produits transports comme une richesse nationale en Angleterre.
[
233]Teissier_1865_44 quoting colonel Ribourt: Depuis les lgions romaines qui maniaient la
pioche aussi bien que lpe, nulle arme au monde na accompli autant de travaux, ni tant fait
pour livrer un grand pays la culture et la civilisation. Il faut quon sache que lorsque nos
soldats ne se battaient point, ils travaillaient; et que chaque anne, durant sept mois, cinquante
ou soixante mille hommes taient chelonns au travers de la contre pour ouvrir des routes,
desscher les marais, combler les fondrires, abaisser les montagnes, faire des ponts, des barrages, btir dans les tribus des maisons de commandement, sur les chemins des caravansrails,
et crer, dans le dsert, des oasis nouvelles.
[
234]Monuments_Historiques_1841_70: Lactivit que lon met dans la Moselle crer de
nouveaux chemins ou rparer ceux qui existent pouvait donner lieu de craindre que lon nemployt des pierres de chausses romaines pour ces sortes de travaux: nous avons pri M. le prfet
de prvenir des destructions de ce genre.
[
235]MR1314 item 16, 7 August 1843, 121 pages, written at Sousse.
[
236]Revue Africaine 6, August 1837, 9 Minister of War in the Chamber, 24 February 1837:
DOran une voie magnifique aboutit, le long des rochers du rivage, Mers-el-Kbir, vritable port
de cette ville qui na quune rade foraine. Il reste mettre Oran en communication avec Arzew. /
Une autre route non moins importante est celle qui a t ouverte par larme, entre Bne et
Constantine; ces deux villes ne peuvent rester sans communications constamment praticables:
pour qu une si grande distance du point qui a t jusquici la base de nos oprations militaires,
la force se fasse sentir, il faut quon craigne toujours de la voir se montrer.
[
237]Rozet_and_Carette_1850_17: Les Franais ne peuvent point aller dAlger Oran par
terre, et la communication entre les garnisons de ces deux villes se fait par la mer.
[
238]Du_Barail_1897_I_175: 1842: Les oprations, poursuivies avec tant dnergie depuis
larrive en Algrie du nouveau gouverneur gnral [Bugeaud], donnaient maintenant tous leurs
fruits. Les tribus se soumettaient les unes aprs les autres, et le redoutable Abd-el-Kader gardait une inaction au moins apparente, se contentant dtendre sur tout le pays le filet mailles
serres des confrries religieuses, dont le gnral de Neveu, longtemps charg de ladministration des affaires algriennes, a si bien dcrit le rle insurrectionnel, dans le livre qui porte leur
nom: Les Khouans. Les occupations fcondes de la paix avaient succd aux rudes travaux de
la guerre, et partout on commenait, linstar des Romains, ouvrir de bonnes routes donnant

un accs facile dans lintrieur du pays. Le gnie militaire venait den livrer une qui est encore
aujourdhui une des curiosits de lAlgrie: cest celle qui relie Blidah Mdah, par les gorges
troites et profondes de la Chiffa. Elle descend rapidement le long du flanc des rochers jusquau
lit du ruisseau, dont elle suit alternativement les deux bords, en le franchissant laide de ponts
nombreux. Il a fallu beaucoup de temps et beaucoup de peines avant quon ft dfinitivement
matre de ce ruisseau, mince filet deau en t, torrent imptueux en hiver, qui dtruisit plus
dune fois les travaux dart. Ctait un progrs trs considrable que davoir, en dehors de la route
militaire stratgique passant toujours par le col de Mouzaa, ouvert entre Mdah et Blidah un
passage qui mettait ces deux villes quelques heures lune de lautre. Tout lhonneur de ce tour
de force revenait au commandant Bouteilhoux, chef du service du gnie Blidah, qui avait fait
le trac et dirig les travaux de la route.
[
239]MR881: Journal des Expditions dans la Province dOran depuis lexpdition de
Mascara...183518361837.
[
240]Thoumas_1887_149: Toutes les guerres dAlgrie, de 1830 & 1857, furent faites avec des
batteries dobusiers de 12 tantt atteles, tantt portes. La question de savoir sil tait prfrable datteler les pices ou de les porter dos de mulet, a donn lieu bien des discussions.
videmment, le mode prfrer dpendait de la nature du pays: gnralement, dans la province dAlger, on prfrait marcher avec les pices atteles, dans la province de Constantine,
au contraire, on employait le transport dos. Ce dernier mode exigeait, chez les canonniers,
une grande habitude du transport, et certaines batteries possdaient cette habitude dune faon
remarquable.
[
241]Mercier_1886_457: La ncropole du Ghabet-el-Mekouss occupe ltroite bande de terrain comprise entre lOued-Rada et lOued-Mekouss, ruisseaux qui se jettent dans lOued-Kebir,
vers le point o ce dernier cours deau, au dbouch du Kranguet-el-Keroueha, fait son grand
coude vers louest. Elle a t dcouverte en 1853 lors de lexcution des travaux du chemin muletier de Bne Bou-Hadjar, par MM. Dumont, officier au 16e de ligne, et Baxu, officier de spahis
de la Smala, qui trouvrent quelques inscriptions dans la partie de la ncropole traverse par le
chemin.
[
242]Revue Africaine 1837, 89, November (?) issue, the Minister in the Chamber: Quand
la France a pris possession de lancienne rgence, les voies romaines si nombreuses, dont la
contre tait autrefois sillonne, avaient peu prs disparu. Les indignes, ne connaissant
dautres moyens de transport que les btes de somme, pratiquaient dtroits sentiers, o notre
matriel de guerre na jamais pu passer quaprs des travaux pnibles, excuts par nos soldats.
Les routes ne sont pas seulement un moyeu de communication: elles assurent la soumission
des populations; elles ouvrent le pays la civilisation qui le pntre plus lentement, mais plus
srement que les armes. / Avec les faibles prlvemens quil a t possible doprer sur les fonds
des services civils, ladministration algrienne a fait les plus grands efforts pour prparer les
communications dAlger avec lintrieur, dans les diverses directions indiques par les besoins
de ltablissement et de la dfense. Ainsi ont t ouvertes et ferres, sur une petite partie de leur
parcours, les routes dAlger Blidah et Colah, aux limites du territoire rserv vers lOued-elKaddara et les montagnes de Beni-Moussa; mais la tche tait trop au-dessus des ressources
disponibles.
[
243]Gouvernement_Gnral_1906_8 Modern roads: Les grands travaux excuter devaient
laisser aussi une impression profonde et utile dans lesprit des populations indignes, en leur
APPENDIX
prouvant la ferme volont dasseoir notre domination dune manire durable. Les voies de communication taient enfin un des moyens les plus assurs et les plus puissants pour dominer,
civiliser et coloniser le pays.
[
244]Pernot_1894_282: un rseau de voies de communication allait enlacer la partie la plus
belliqueuse et la plus turbulante de tout lAlgrie.
[
245]Schefer_1916_21 writing on Vale, Bugeaud et Soult: Pour la poursuivre avec mthode,
le marchal Vale, gouverneur gnral, labora un plan dont lexcution schelonnerait sur plusieurs annes. La premire campagne dblaierait la rgion dAlger et ferait occuper Mdah et
Milianah; par la suite, les communications entre la Mitidja et la valle du Chlif une fois tablies, les forces arabes seraient refoules vers louest, et, leurs points dappui successivement
dtruits, elles finiraient par tre ananties. Soult, alors Prsident du Conseil, approuva, en fvrier
1840, en mme temps quil htait lenvoi de renforts. Laccord tait ainsi complet entre le ministre et le gouverneur.
[
246]Fernel_1830_58 campaign of 1830: Le capitaine Lelivre eut ordre de mettre en batterie
ses obusiers. Les troupes du gnie abattirent dans un clin dil les haies qui nous entouraient, et
ouvrirent des rampes et des communications en avant et sur les flancs du terrain o se joignent
le chemin que nous avions suivi, et celui par o les deuxime et troisime brigades de la premire division dbouchaient la droite de la brigade dArcine. Cest en excutant ces travaux que
nous dcouvrmes le pav dun ancien chemin. Ctait celui que Boutin appelle Chemin romain,
et qui conduit directement au fort de lEmpereur. La brigade dArcine prit alors position droite
de ce chemin, en avant de la maison carre qui servit dhpital durant le sige.
[
247]Fernel_1830_64 campaign of 1830, a road author has already mentioned [58: celui que
Boutin appelle Chemin romain, et qui conduit directement au fort de lEmpereur]: La batterie
de montagne reut par consquent ordre de marcher avec la brigade Damremont, et la batterie
de campagne, ainsi que les autres voitures de lartillerie et du gnie de suivre, sous lescorte dun
bataillon du 49e, le Chemin des Romains. Il fut recommand au capitaine Lami de prendre
gauche, aussitt que le terrain le permettrait, pour rejoindre la brigade dArcine, et, dans le cas
o il nexisterait aucun dbouch de ce cot, de ne pas aller trop loin.
[
248]Qutin_1847_226 around Algiers, from the Chteau de lEmpereur: Des dernires
sources au marabout de Sidi-el-Ferruch, cette dernire route prend une direction O.-N.-O., et
traverse pendant 8 kil. un pays strile, sablonneux et couvert de broussailles. Dans toute sa longueur, ce chemin est praticable lartillerie et toute espce de voitures. Cest lancienne voie
romaine, que larme a rpare et rdifie sur un nouveau plan. does he mean the whole road
is only c.16Km?
[
249]Fernel_1830_237 campaign of 1830: La voie romaine sur laquelle on cheminait, est,
jusqu deux lieues et demie dAlger, ombrage par des arbres de diffrentes espces, et par des
haies dune grande lvation. Deux cafs que lon rencontre, le premier une lieue et demie de
la ville, lautre une distance presque double, offrent aux voyageurs dagrables stations; lair
y est rafrachi par des fontaines abondantes. Les voitures passrent dabord sans beaucoup de
difficults.
[
250]Bonnafont_1883_59 at Algiers: Il fallait conduire, huit heures du soir, six pices de quarante-huit, six de vingt-quatre, six mortiers et autant dobusiers la tranche. De crainte que le
bruit des roues, sur lancienne voie romaine, ne ft entendu de lennemi, on joncha les chemins
pierreux dune couche paisse de branchages de lentisque.

[
251]SHD MR H227, 49 Colonel Niels Reconnaissance, 1838, for the road from Constantine to
Stora 49: dja du temps des Romains, une belle voie tait ouverte dans cette direction, et elle
avait t construite avec tant de soin que partout on en suit les traces et que sur plusieurs points
elle est si bien conserve quon a peine croire quelle ait quinze siecles dexistence. On another
stretch at the Oued Baba, 53: il est hors de doute que sur plusieurs points de cette traverse on
aperoit la trace des travaux quavaient t excuts des Romains pour lamliorer the suggested reason being the coming of prosperity to Russicada, and the need to transport wheat
hence they tidied up the line of the road, which was called in inscriptions la nouvelle voie.
[
252]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_2324: La route de Stora Constantine suit lancienne voie
romaine. Il existe, dit Lon lAfricain, entre Sucacada (Rusicada des anciens) et Constantine,
une route pave en pierres noires telle quon en voit quelques-unes en Italie et quon appelle
voies romaines. Cette route est encore assez bien conserve, et M. le gnral Boyer la regarde
comme trs praticable, mme pour lartillerie. Daprs un rapport de cet officier gnral qui a
bien voulu me communiquer ce document indit, 18 heures suffiraient une troupe dinfanterie
pour se rendre de Stora Constantine par cette ancienne route. Des renseignemens pris sur les
lieux par M. le capitaine Brard, ont port la distance 16 heures pour un bon marcheur.
[
253]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_34 Anon: Une ancienne voie romaine, en pierres
noires, va de Constantine Stora. Cette route, assez bien conserve, est praticable mme pour
lartillerie. La distance de Constantine la mer nest que de seize lieues.
[
254]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1848_VIII: Selon nous, la question ne trouve pas sa solution dans
les crits des conomistes; car il est dmontr que les travaux excuts par larme sont beaucoup plus coteux que sils ltaient par des travailleurs civils, et que la discipline, sans laquelle
il ny a pas darme possible, recevrait de rudes atteintes du rle subalterne de surveillants des
travaux, rserv aux officiers qui nen seront point les ingnieurs. En un mot, les soldats seront
de mdiocres travailleurs, et les travailleurs enrgiments feront coup sr de mauvais soldats. /
Ainsi le mot darme industrielle qui commence prendre place dans le langage moderne, est
tout simplement un non-sens, ainsi que la victorieusement dmontr, dans un remarquable
crit, M. le lieutenant gnral Oudinot.
[
255]SHD GR 1M882 June 1848, Le Lieutenant dtat Major, attach au 1er Spahis, Grangez,
Mmoire historique et militaire sur la ville de Blidah et de ses environs. 45 a lot of work to be
done to deal with the winter rains on the roads, 5: Des travaux gigantesques ont t faits, en trs
peu de temps, mais il reste encore beaucoup faire.
[
256]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_244 travelling 1879, near Feriana: Nous voici dans une valle
assez troite appele El-Meridj. Au bord de la route, que des ouvriers sont occups empierrer sous la surveillance du gnie, une borne milliaire a t replace sur sa base antique; nous
sommes, l encore, sur lancienne route qui menait de Chemtou la mer; mais comment franchissait-elle la fort que nous venons de traverser?
[
257]Diehl_1892_106 remains of Roman monuments: toute nation, semble-t-il, se ft fait
honneur de recueillir cet hritage, dy chercher, suivant le mot de M. Boissier, des titres de
proprit pour sa conqute; et lorsque, par surcrot, le peuple conqurant tait, comme nous
sommes, profondment pntr des traditions romaines, il semblait quil ne dt avoir que
respect pour les tmoins de cette grande oeuvre de civilisation quil venait continuer et finir.
Non seulement nous navons rien fait de tout cela; pendant longtemps nous avons fait tout le
contraire. Pendant prs de cinquante ans nous avons livr tous les hasards, abandonn toutes
APPENDIX
les ngligences les monuments algriens; pendant cinquante ans nous avons laiss libre cours au
vandalisme; et grce cette coupable incurie, tous, maons, entrepreneurs, colons, ingnieurs
des ponts et chausses, officiers du gnie, et jusqu aux administrateurs eux-mmes, ont rivalis
de zle destructeur. Il faut lire les revues africaines, qui depuis tant dannes signalent, avec
autant dinutilit que de persistance, cet tat de choses dplorable, pour se rendre compte de
lincroyable insouciance avec laquelle on dtruit les antiquits, de lindiffrence plus incroyable
encore avec laquelle on les laisse dtruire.
[
258]Vigneral_1867_6 Ruines...subdivision de Bne, Mjez-Amar: M. Fournel rappelle que ce
poste a servi de carrire au gnie pour le pont de la Seybouse.
[
259]Gsell_1901_II_7 Loasis dEl Kantara (entre Batna et Biskra) a pris son nom (3) dun pont
romain, qui sest conserv peu prs intact jusqu nos jours, mais que le gnie militaire a restaur dune manire maladroite en 1862: un certain nombre de pierres ont t remplaces par
des blocs neufs; on a racl soigneusement les autres et refait tous les joints, si bien que le monument a perdu son aspect antique.
[
260]SHD Genie Article 15 Section 1, 25, Campagnes, Algrie 18141848, Dossier of Rapports
sur lExpdition de Mascara, 1835, with a list of equipment, for the force which left Oran on 27
Nov 1835. NB this included quipment de pont as well as une forge de campagne. They
use the bridge: Colonel Lemerciers Rapport sur les operations du service de Gnie pendant
lExpedition de Mascara, 27 Nov 1835, 4: the sappers put up a bridge overnight, and dismantled
it in half an hour.
[
261]Army_Officer_1847_28: Si javais t gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie, toutes les fois que
jaurais cru devoir occuper un point du territoire, jaurais, ds le premier jour de loccupation,
signifi aux troupes composant la garnison de ce nouveau poste quelles ne devaient pas sattendre tre releves dans six mois, dans un an, mais seulement aprs avoir termin les travaux
dont je leur confiais lexcution: caserne, hpital, manutention, etc. Cependant, comme tous les
soldats ne sont pas maons, tailleurs de pierres, menuisiers, charpentiers ou forgerons, jaurais
fait tudier le pays tout aussitt, jaurais choisi mon terrain, et jaurais dit aux laboureurs et aux
jardiniers: Voici de bonnes terres, voici des boeufs, des charrues, des outils et des semences;
dfrichez, labourez, ensemencez et rcoltez.
[
262]Carrette_1844_120: Il y a quelques annes, peu dindignes avaient occasion de se rendre
de Constantine Ras-Skikda. Skikda ntait alors quun douar kabile, install parmi les ruines
de lancienne Russicada. Mais depuis que les huttes berbres ont fait place des difices franais, et que lensemble de ces difices, baptis du nom de Philippeville, est devenu lentrept de
Constantine, une circulation incessante a runi ces deux points, et le chemin de Philippeville
Constantine sest lev au rang de route royale. Les Franais avaient besoin, pour leurs
transports, dune communication carrossable: ils ont suivi le trac romain, dont on retrouve
dimposants vestiges chaque pas; ils lont suivi, mais cte cte, pour spargner la peine de
dblayer les pierres qui lencombrent. Quant aux muletiers et aux chameliers indignes, fidles
leurs habitudes dindpendance, tantt ils creusent leur sillon traditionnel sur les bas-cts
de la route, tantt ils sen cartent, soit pour se rapprocher dune source, soit pour suivre un
raccourci; quelquefois mme leurs sentiers serpentent ct de la route, sans quon puisse se
rendre compte du motif qui la leur a fait abandonner. Ainsi, il peut arriver au voyageur de trouver la voie franaise cheminant gravement entre les blocs bouleverss de la voie romaine et les
sinuosits capricieuses de la voie arabe.

[
263]Fortin_dIvry_1845B_109: Laccs lintrieur est encore difficile, sauf par quelques
routes bien perces et passablement entretenues. Le gnie militaire a fait preuve de talent et de
zle, mais toutes les difficults ne peuvent pas tre vaincues en quelques annes. On ne trouve
gnralement que des tronons de route et des tracs encore imparfaits avec les passages difficiles aplanis, et quelques ponts pour les torrents ou les rivires. Les voitures de transport circulent, mais en gnral difficilement, de la cte aux points principaux doccupation, tels que de
Bne Guelma et Hammam-Mescoutin, de Philippeville Constantine, et mme incessamment Batna; dAlger Medeah, de Tennez Orlansville, dOran Mostaganem, Mascara, et
jusqu Tlemcen. / Quelques routes de la province dAlger prsentent seules un aspect europen
sur une certaine tendue. Dimmenses travaux y sont en excution, surtout au passage de la
Chiffa de Blidah Medeah. Les Romains avaient tourn la difficult de lAtlas en faisant escalader leur voie les contours du col de Mouzaia le gnie la aborde de front en coupant les roches
escarpes de la Chiffa. Il a fallu suspendre les pionniers de longues cordes, pour tracer la route
et faire jouer la mine sur des lieues entires de longueur et Medeah quon natteignait que par
un passage dune journe de pnibles fatigues, sera quelques heures de Blidah. Cest un vrai
monument de civilisation et le plus grand travail dAfrique, avec celui du port dAlger.
[
264]Quesnoy_1888_191192 1842: Aprs les fatigues des expditions, venaient celles du travail des routes: larme ne restait pas un moment inactive, et quand on parle des immenses
travaux auxquels les Romains se sont livrs sur la terre dAfrique, on peut mettre en parallle
ceux auxquels se sont livrs nos soldats. Toutes les routes ont t ouvertes par eux; ils avaient
peine dpos le fusil aprs leurs rudes campagnes, quils entreprenaient, dans le ravin de la
Chiffa, la route qui relie Blidah Mdah, route si pittoresque quon la visite aujourdhui comme
une curiosit du pays.
[
265]Qutin_1847_7778: Les Maures navaient point ouvert de routes dans lintrieur du
pays; le voyageur ny trouvait que des sentiers si multiplis, quil fallait avoir une grande connaissance des localits pour ne pas sgarer chaque pas quon faisait; il ne reste presque aucune
trace des anciennes voies romaines. / Mais, depuis loccupation franaise, des nouvelles routes
ont t perces, les anciennes ont t agrandies et rpares, et partout o il y a garnison le voyageur est certain de trouver de bonnes routes presque toutes carrossables, sur lesquelles slvent
des auberges, et mme dans certains endroits des cafs...Les anciennes voies romaines ont,
dans plusieurs localits, servi de base au trac de ces utiles constructions.
[
266]Malte-Brun_1858_6 road from Philippeville to Constantine: une belle route, aussi sure
et aussi frquente que nos grandes routes impriales. Cette route a remplac lancienne voie
romaine qui reliait Russicade (Philippeville) Cirta (Constantine), et bien tt elle sera abandonne elle-mme pour le chemin de fer, qui mettra Constantine deux heures, peine, de
la mer. Les distances seront ainsi encore rapproches les moyens de communication, rendus
moins pnibles, profiteront la colonisation; lindustrie et le commerce y trouveront de nouvelles facilits dexpansion, et de ce jour datera pour la province de Constantine une re nouvelle
de prosprit.
[
267]Frisch_1899_182183 on the defence of Algeria: Dans les plaines, et surtout dans le Sud,
une autre mesure simpose: lamnagement de points deau. Combien de nos routes et de nos
pistes principales sont dpourvues deau sur des parcours de 30 40 kilomtres! Les Romains
recueillaient avec un soin jaloux les eaux de pluie et jalonnaient leurs routes dtapes de citernes
et de rservoirs, non pas tant pour faciliter lexistence des populations que pour permettre
APPENDIX
leurs troupes de se porter partout, en toute saison. Les progrs de la science et de la mcanique
nous permettent de faire mieux que les Romains et moins de frais: des puits fors, chelonns
des distances convenables le long des itinraires stratgiques, assureraient en tout temps leau
ncessaire aux colonnes.
[
268]Carton_1889_13: Roman roads connected fertile areas, and on sera appel un jour
reprendre ces itinraires; et les entrepreneurs trouveront en beaucoup dendroits un empierrement rsistant. Bien plus, cet empierrement naura souvent qu tre rpar; en tous case, il
formera, sur place, un gisement de cailloux qui vitera un tranport coteux de matriaux.
[
269]Lacretelle_1865_19 in the province of Oran: En effet, les voies romaines traversaient
lAlgrie dans deux sens diffrents. Les unes remontaient perpendiculairement de la mer
jusquaux confins du dsert en suivant les valles et le lit des fleuves, pour relier directement
les villes de lintrieur aux villes de la cte; les secondes se composaient de trois autres voies
qui traversaient tout lintrieur du pays, distance lune de lautre, dans une direction parallle
au littoral. / De celles-ci, la premire longeait les ctes; la seconde partant de Rachgoun passait
An-Temouchen, Arbal, le Sig et Relizane, et laiss des vestiges sur ces points comme dans
quelques endroits moins connus. La troisime parcourait les rgions suprieures du Tell, o elle
se subdivisait en occupant les principales ttes des eaux. / On en retrouve des traces la hauteur
de Lalla Maghnia, Tlemcen, Hadjar-Roum, Bel-Abbs, Mascara, puis sur un autre embranchement passant Ali-ben-Youb, Tnira, Sada et Tiaret, o existent des ruines des tablissements
du Peuple-Roi dont le rgne est attest jusquaux limites du Sahara. / Or, aucune de nos routes
ne va droit la mer en suivant les valles des fleuves; et cest peine si nous avons bauch le
trac de quelques kilomtres de routes transversales qui relieront un jour, sil plat Dieu, nos
villes de lintrieur.
[
270]Duvernois, Clment, Les chemins de fer algriens, in Revue de lOrient NS 7 1856,
337358. See 337: LAlgrie na pas de voies de communication. / Prive par la nature de ces
cours deau navigables qui abondent en Europe et dans le Nouveau-Monde, elle na reu des
hommes, que des routes trs-imparfaites. Ce pays grand comme les trois quarts de la France,
na pas cent kilomtres de routes praticables en toute saison. Le transport qui, en France, sur les
voies empierres, se paie 20 c. par tonne et par kilomtre, se paie en Algrie 50 c, pour une mme
distance et un poids gal. / Cest cette chert du transport quil faut attribuer linsuccs des
exploitations des mines dans la colonie, cest cette chert du transport que bientt il faudrait
attribuer la diminution de lexportation, la diminution de la production. Then gives details of
practicability viability, indeed.
[
271]Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_121122 roads: Le gouvernement militaire dAlger annonce
que depuis 1842, 400 lieues de routes carossables ont t acheves par larme; nous ne croyons
pas ce prodige, et il nous serait facile, par un simple calcul, de prouver quon na eu ni le temps,
ni les moyens de les construire; il ne sagit au reste que de sentendre sur ce quon appelle route.
Par route, nous entendons des routes la Rovigo, en tout semblables celles de France, et praticables en toute saison. M. de Beaumont, qui vient rcemment de parcourir la province dAlger,
pourrait nous dire ce que sont ces routes, si dj le Moniteur algrien ne nous avait fait connatre
qu lentre de la mauvaise saison, il tait interdit aux voitures civiles de dpasser Blida. / Il
nous serait aussi facile de prouver que la communication de Cherchell Milianah est peine
bauche, que sauf quelques fragments de routes faites antrieurement ladministration de M.
le marchal Bugeaud, tout ce quon dcore aujourdhui de ce nom nest que le sol dbarrass de

broussailles, blocs de pierre et autres obstacles. / Cest pourquoi nous demandons que 40 mille
hommes de larme soient pourvus des instruments ncessaires au travail de routes vritables et
srieusement affects ce prliminaire oblig de toute colonisation. Nous indiquerons plus loin
les routes quil est indispensable de commencer et de parachever.
[
272]Mauroy_1852_30: Il y a quatre ans, on ne connaissait pas de route; ctaient de rudes
sentiers frquents par lArabe seul, de mauvais chemins, peine pratiquables pour des mulets.
Aujourdhui vous trouverez plus de trois cents lieues de routes excutes par nos soldats.
[
273]Duvernois_1858_187188: Nous savons bien que les rapports officiels constatent lexistence dun rseau complet de voies empierres, mais nous nengageons pas nos lecteurs voyager sur ces routes pendant lhiver; ils pourraient apprendre leurs dpens connatre ce quon
appelle route en Algrie...Un pays nest vraiment pacifi que le jour o on peut le parcourir en
tous sens dans toutes les saisons.
[
274]Phillips_1909_79 the hinterland of Algiers: And after the fighting has come the
settlement. Territory as it is subdued is first administered by military rule, and when finally
pacified is taken over by the civil government. Thus for a while each extension of territory is
governed and administered by the army which first reconnoitred and afterwards conquered it.
Roads, bridges, irrigation works, the building of barrages, and the sinking of wells are among the
active labours of the French army.
[
275]Faucon_1893_II_139140: Aussi, en 1830, navons-nous point trouv une seule route
dans lintrieur de lAlgrie. Cest larme franaise, ce sont nos soldats qui, de mme que les
Romains, dans le double intrt de la domination et de la colonisation du pays, ont construit les
belles voies de communication qui rayonnent autour dAlger, sur les coteaux du Sahel et dans
la plaine de la Mitidja. Et de mme encore ce sont nos officiers du gnie, ce sont nos soldats qui
ont trac et tabli les premires routes en Tunisie. Mohammed es-Saddok en avait bien quatre
grandes routes son actif, autour de sa capitale; mais peine acheves, ltat des finances nen
ayant point permis lentretien, elles staient vite transformes en fondrires, et si bien que les
lgers vhicules du pays, les arabas, feraient passer en plein champ. En fin de compte, en 1883,
au moment de la cration du service des Travaux publics, il nexistait en Tunisie dautre route
empierre que celle de Tunis au Bardo, dune longueur de 4 kilomtres. Aujourdhui, tout un
rseau de voies de communication inocule la vie dans le pays; plus de 900 kilomtres construits
ou amliors sont livrs la circulation.
[
276]Duveyrier_1881_28: Malgr les lourdes charges qui ont pes depuis longtemps sur les
Tunisiens, ltat na su ni favoriser le dveloppement du pays par des travaux utiles, ni mme
quilibrer les recettes dont les produits se sont engouffrs dans des dpenses futiles et folles,
presque uniquement destines satisfaire lamour du luxe, lorgueil et lambition dun nombre
trs restreint dindividus. Larme elle-mme tait nglige, et lon appelait grandes routes des
sentiers courant par monts et par vaux et forant de traverser les rivires gu; ces sentiers ne
sont indiqus que par les traces laisses par les voyageurs suivant, depuis des sicles, une mme
direction. Les Arabes, et aprs eux les Turcs, nauraient eu pourtant qu rparer et entretenir le magnifique rseau des voies romaines existant au moment o ils firent la conqute de la
Tunisie!
[
277]Lux_1882_111: La plupart des routes tunisiennes qui, je crois, nont pas vu un cantonnier depuis la conqute romaine, sont remplies dornires, hrisses de broussailles, traverses
par des prcipices ou encombres par des boulements. Rien de tout cela narrte lardeur de
APPENDIX
lquipage et de son conducteur. Inutile de chercher lui faire ralentir sa course; si vous vous
plaignez il est sourd, si vous linterpellez il est muet; dailleurs il nentend pas un mot de franais
et ne comprend pas ce que vous exigez de lui. Il faut vous rsigner tre secou, cahot, ballott
comme un dez dans un cornet.
[
278]Maupassant_1997_1945: La belle route, la principale artre de la Tunisie, nest plus
quune ornire affreuse. Partout leau des pluies la troue, mine, dvore...On a dtruit le
vieux chemin qui tait bon...On recommence chaque pluie les travaux.
[
279]Army_Officer_1847_26 Un aperu comparatif bien simple suffira pour montrer combien
on peut trouver de ressources de toute espce dans lemploi de larme aux travaux de colonisation. M. le marchal Bugeaud espre faire difier par larme 1,000 maisons en 6 mois; car sans
doute les femmes et les parents des colons militaires ne seront pas caserns, et toutes les maisons devront tre prtes les recevoir lexpiration des six mois de cong qui seront accords
aux colons soldats. mon avis la chose est trs possible, et je crois quon peut, sans inconvnient,
distraire, pour cet objet, le quart de larme de ses occupations militaires, soit 25,000 hommes.
En 250 journes de travail dans une anne, ces 25,000 hommes remueraient la masse norme de
40 millions de mtres cubes de dblais, et cela pour la somme de 2,000,000 de francs; tandis que
le mme travail excut par des ouvriers civils ne coterait pas moins de 8 9 millions de francs.
[
280]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_32 Rapport de M. le lieutenant-gnral comte Vale
M. le ministre de la guerre: A quatre heures du soir les batteries de Mansourah taient compltement termines. Des ordres furent donns pour les armer pendant la nuit. Le gnie avait rendu
praticable le chemin qui conduisait du parc de Sidi-Mabrouck la batterie du roi, et les pices
destines armer les batteries dOrlans et celle de mortiers devaient arriver par le plateau de
Mansourah. /...Aucun accident neut lieu pour la batterie dOrlans et pour celle de mortiers;
mais les deux pices de 16 et la pice de 24 qui devaient armer la batterie du roi furent verses et
ne purent arriver: la pluie avait enlev une partie du terrain de remblai de la route prpare par
le gnie, et elle tait devenue impraticable. Au jour, limpossibilit douvrir le feu fut reconnue.
[
281]Chanony_1853_58 at Miliana: Partons pour Mdiah. Cest impossible, me dit-on. Les
terres sont dtrempes par les dernires pluies: ni hommes ni chevaux ne peuvent y passer!
H bien, faiseurs de grandes routes que lon ne peut faire, que direz-vous de votre systme?
Comment, entre deux villes si importantes, si peu loignes lune de lautre, si peu loignes
dAlger, un jour de pluie suffit pour intercepter toute communication, mme des cavaliers,
mme des pitons. Et vous btissez des villages dans de tels lieux et vous y appelez des colons.
Si vous voulez quils viennent, faites donc des chemins par o ils puissent arriver; si vous voulez
quils restent, faites des chemins par o le commerce puisse leur tendre la main, par o surtout
des secours puissent venir tout instant leur dire, Nul ne peut vous chasser dici, ou vous enterrer sous les ruines de vos habitations.
[
282]Thouvenin_1900_334.
[
283]Watbled_1870_277: En passant auprs de Hammam-el-Berda larme expditionnaire
marcha pendant quelques instants sur une voie romaine. Ctait celle qui vient As Koure et que
nous avions laisse jusquici sur la gauche. Elle tait fort dgrade en cet endroit, mais un peu
en de, elle prsentait des parties dune conservation parfaite. Sauf dans les localits habites
jadis et o la route antique est alors pave de grandes dalles disposes en losanges, cette voie
est un vritable macadamis compos de petits cailloux noys dans une sorte de bton auquel
le temps a donn la solidit du granit. Un parapet en pierres de tailles dune grande dimension

longe l chausse droite et gauche. Nos routes modernes dAfrique dont nous sommes si
fiers paraissent bien peu de chose ct de ces constructions gigantesques. Quelques annes
dabandon suffiraient pour effacer jusqu la trace de nos travaux modernes, tandis que les voies
romaines subsistent encore aprs tant de sicles, et malgr toutes les causes de destruction qui
semblent conspirer les faire disparatre.
[
284]SHD MR H227, 60, Colonel Niels Reconnaissance. As for the road from Constantine to
Milah: les ruines que lon rencontre chaque pas donnent lieu de penser que le trac adopt
suit lancienne voie romaine qui a t entirement dtruite par laction des eaux pluviales.
[
285]Zouave_1860_71 in 1852: During the winter, some companies detached from Oran
were employed in repairing the roads through the province.
[
286]Zouave_1860_105106: On the 19th [June 1852], striking off in a northeasterly direction, instead of pushing farther to the south, as it had been latterly doing, the column got into
the country of the Beni-Afer, after crossing some very high and difficult mountains. It encamped
upon the Pedj-el-Arba, the highest point of the pass, through which was to pass the projected
carriage road between Djijelli and Milah. The next, ten mortal days, the troops were kept at work
upon this road, and finished as much as 14 kilometers of it.
[
287]Rousset_1889_II_367 Randon in 1857: De Tizi-Ouzou Souk-el-Arba, sur toute la ligne
des bivouacs, des bataillons de travailleurs ouvrirent et achevrent en dix-huit jours, du 3 au 21
juin, une route de vingt-huit kilomtres de dveloppement et de six mtres de large. Le 22, un
convoi dartillerie, de fourgons du gnie et du train, couverts de drapeaux et de feuillage, inaugura la nouvelle route en la parcourant dans toute sa longueur.
[
288]SHD 1M1321 Mission de Tunisie, 1881: Lieut-Col. Perrier, Reconnaissance circulaire entre
Tunis, Bir-Loubeit, Hammamet, Hebeul et Tunis en voiture 3 journes. 5: Near Bon Kornen,
carrire de pierre trs importante, exploite jadis par les Romains et encore aujourdhui pour les
travaux dart du chemin de fer. Frequent references to superbes jardins, or jardins luxuriants et
trs tendues.
[
289]Domet-Adanson (botanist), Rapport sur une mission scientifique en Tunisie, in
AMSL srie 3.4, Paris 1877, 347382. See 349 in 1874: Le 10 mars, six heures du matin, tout tant
prt, nous partions de lhtel de la lgation de France pour Sfax, o, daprs les calculs, nous
devions tre rendus cinq jours aprs. Notre expdition se composait de deux voitures atteles
de sept chevaux, lune pour moi et mes deux compagnons, lautre portant les bagages et mon
interprte. Une escorte de cinq spahis du Bey, commands par un chaouch (capitaine), rpondant de nos ttes sur la sienne, nous accompagnait, munie des ambras (ordonnances) du Bey qui
devaient nous assurer lhospitalit dans toutes les villes ou villages que nous traverserions. / Bien
que le temps se ft remis au beau depuis plusieurs jours, nous ne tardmes pas reconnatre
que rien navait t exagr dans le tableau que lon mavait fait des chemins. A tout instant, nos
voitures entrant dans la boue jusquaux essieux, nous tions forcs de couper travers champs
ou de mettre pied terre pour viter les passages trop dangereux. Enfin, quelques kilomtres
au del de la station thermale de Hammam el-Lif, ma voiture de bagages versa dans un ruisseau,
une des roues se brisa et, cdant la ntre aux bagages, nous fmes obligs de gagner pdestrement le village de Krumbalia, o une station de deux jours fut ncessaire pour donner le temps
de faire venir de Tunis une roue de rechange.
[
290]Grad_1883_18 Reichstag Deputy: Bien des fois, pendant mes prgrinations, il mest
arriv de voir inviter les voyageurs descendre de la diligence afin daider pousser aux roues
APPENDIX
sur les chemins dont lempierrement laisse encore beaucoup dsirer. En hiver aussi, quand les
torrents grossis subitement par des pluies excessives vous barrent le passage, il vous arrive dtre
arrt la nuit en rase campagne et dattendre plusieurs jours que lcoulement de leau vous laisse
continuer le voyage.
[
291]Winckler_1888_87: Chez les Kroumirs proprement dits, il nexiste quune seule route
carrossable; cest la route de Souk-el-Arba La Calle par An-Draham. Cette route, construite
par le gnie militaire, est en assez bon tat dentretien; elle est empierre sur toute son tendue...Le chemin de Tabarca Babouche par le Djebel-Dahraoui (26 kilomtres); ce chemin
nest pas partout carrossable, il est mal entretenu et certains travaux dart commencs par le
gnie militaire ne seront sans doute termins que par ladministration des ponts et chausses.
[
292]Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_90 near Hammamet: La route, une route franaise, qui tait
reste bonne jusquici, sest affaisse en effondrements nombreux, sous linfluence probable de
pluies persistantes venant aggraver linconvnient dune circulation peut-tre trop htive. Les
ponts-et-chausses y font des rparations importantes. Le gros rouleau sy promne avec persvrance. Il nous faut abandonner la route proprement dite, pour prendre la piste des Arabes,
o notre voiture circule plus lentement, malgr ses quatre chevaux devenus ncessaires. M.
Lallemand me fait remarquer peu de distance les restes dun municipe romain dtruit, les
dbris dune ville maure autrefois puissante, mise nant par une grande peste. Plus loin sur la
gauche, au bord de la mer, la ville de Hammamet, ville de 3,500 habitants, remarquable par de
superbes jardins.
[
293]Jacquot_1907_64 writing of Roman roads around Stif: Chemin du Gnie dAn-Mous
Mons. Nous avons dj pris cette route jusqu An-Regada; nous allons maintenant la suivre
jusquau bout. / Disons tout de suite quelle est carrossable sur tout son parcours, mais seulement
pour des voitures lgres ou pour des fourgons trs solides. Cest, croyons-nous, celle que suivit le
duc dOrlans en 1839, lors de son expdition des Portes-de-Fer. Ce fut, dans tous les cas, une des
principales voies de loccupation romaine, car elle est jalonne de bornes milliaires, et comme
telle elle mrite toute lattention.
[
294]Cagnat_1884_139: Tabarca. Jai eu lhonneur, dans mon dernier rapport, de parler longuement Votre Excellence des rares monuments qui se voyaient encore Tabarca. Cette anne,
il a t fait des fouilles sur bien des points de la ville antique pour rtablissement dun village
europen au pied du Bordj Djedid, sur le rivage de la mer; parmi les ruines qui y ont t mises
au jour et les pierres qui ont t sorties de terre pour tre employes dans les constructions nouvelles, on ne peut signaler aucune dcouverte vraiment intressante.
[
295]Frisch_1899_182: Compare la ntre, loeuvre des Romains ne provoque-t-elle pas
des comparaisons dsobligeantes pour nous? Nous navons mme pas encore ouvert, comme
il convient, le pays nos colonnes et notre artillerie, et la plupart des routes de lintrieur,
construites avant tout dans le but dtablir de faciles communications entre les places et les
points stratgiques, sont toujours dans un tat fort imparfait.
[
296]Lorin_1896_538: De Teboursouk, nous devons nous diriger au nord, regagner le chemin
de fer Bja-gare, et, de la valle de la Medjerda, pousser deux pointes parallles, les uns vers
Bja, les autres en Khroumirie. Le caf htivement pris au camp, comme la veille, nous montons
dans nos landaus. Vers midi, nous dit-on, nous serons au chemin de fer, aprs avoir franchi le
gu de la Medjerda; il nest encore que six heures, aucun buffet nest marqu sur la route; un de
nos compagnons, homme prudent, sempare dun poulet froid quil glisse dans la capote de sa

voiture; quelques-uns raillent tant de prvoyance; mais, ma foi, la route est longue, les pistes
encore mal assches, si nous nous embourbions en plein bled! Dieu merci, pareil accident nest
pas arriv. La premire descente a simplement prouv lune de nos voitures, quune maison
arabe bien place a seule retenue sur la dclivit dun prcipice.
[
297]Sevestre_1874_710: Les environs de Sfax sont fertiles et bien cultivs. La ville est entoure
dimmenses et magnifiques plantations doliviers; on en voit rarement daussi soignes, mme
en Provence. Elles sont parsemes de maisons de campagne et de jardins o les gens aiss et les
ngociants vont passer la saison des chaleurs. / Les routes sont trs-larges, mais mal entretenues.
Ce ne sont pas, proprement parler, des routes, mais plutt de larges bandes de terrain bordes
de fosss, sur lesquelles senchevtre un vritable rseau de sentiers tracs par les chameaux et
les mulets; il ny passe jamais ou presque jamais de voitures, tous les transports se faisant dos
de mulet, de chameau ou dne.
[
298]Duvernois_1858_310311: Si lon navait dot de chemins de fer que les pays dj exploits, lAmrique nen aurait gure et lAlgrie nen devrait pas avoir. Par consquent, en Algrie
comme en Amrique, il faudra que la cration des voies ferres prcde la constitution de la
production, car la constitution de la production ne saurait avoir lieu dans un pays o la circulation est impossible. / Mais ces voies ferres, uvre dutilit publique, en Algrie comme partout
et. plus que partout, qui les construira? Sera-ce ltat? Sera-ce lindustrie? / Il semble dabord
que ce doive tre ltat. Ayant sa disposition une arme considrable et inoccupe, il parat
tre en mesure de faire les choses plus conomiquement que lindustrie. Dun autre ct, les
chemins de fer devant tre construits en vue de lavenir, il parat que ltat doit courir les chances
diverses que prsente leur construction. answers NO: have industry build them, guaranteed
against losses!
[
299]Andry_1868_V: Jai parcouru [surely an exaggeration] deux fois lAlgrie: la premire
fois, en 1844, cheval et pied; la seconde fois, en 1865, en diligences et en chemin de fer.
[
300]Journal Gnral de lAlgrie 21 January 1892. Daccord avec la socit des voyages conomiques, la Compagnie P.-L.-M. mettra en marche le 2 fvrier prochain, au dpart de Paris, une
grande excursion sur lAlgrie et la Tunisie. Litinraire comprend Marseille, Alger (excursions
Sidi-Ferruch et la Trappe de Staouli), Blidah, les gorges de la Chiffa, Bougie, les gorges de
Qhabet et Akhra, Stif, Constantine, Al-Kantara, Biskra (excursion loasis de Sidi-Obka), Batna,
excursion aux ruines romaines, de Timgad et de Lambessa), Hammam, Mescoutine, Bne, Tunis
(excursion au Bardo, Carthage, la Marsa), la Goulette, Marseille. Retour Paris le 3 mars 1892.
[
301]Le Petit Kabyle 9 May 1897: Le charmant village de Tigzirt sera, cette anne, en mesure
de recevoir les trangers attirs par une magnifique plage et les beauts des sites environnants
ainsi que par les ruines romaines et carthaginoises, uniques par leur tendue et leur richesse
dans le dpartement.
[
302]Playfair_1890_251 Tiaret: Nothing is more surprising when passing through the rich
valley traversed by the railway than to note the utter disproportion between the extent of cultivable land and the present number of inhabitants it supports. Owing to the lazy and unthrifty
habits of the Arab, who will always plough round a thistle rather than root it up, it takes a greater
extent of land to maintain him in misery than it would do to make an European family rich and
prosperous. So far there is little appearance of any European colonisation in the country, but
the powerful humanising agency of the railway will no doubt effect a transformation before
many years have elapsed. The ruins of the past prove what this may become in the future;
the Commune Mixte of Tiaret alone contains nearly one hundred places corresponding to
APPENDIX
Roman cities and villages sufficiently important to leave their vestiges apparent at the present
day.
[
303]Chabaud-Latour_1855_1114 suggests need for a vaste rseau of railways in Algeria (not
doubled up with roads), and reckons the cost for 1,500km of line to be 300m.
[
304]Duvernois, Clment, Les chemins de fer algriens, in Revue de lOrient NS 7 1856,
337358. See 341: Un pays qui, sur une tendue. de 25 millions dhectares cultivables ou applicables llve du btail, na que deux millions dhectares cultivs; un pays o la moyenne de
la population nest que de quatorze habitants par kilomtre carr, un tel pays na pas encore
organis, sa production et son commerce. L, le chemin de fer na plus pour but de satisfaire des
intrts, mais de les crer; ce nest plus un moyen de transport pour les denres produites, cest
un instrument de colonisation et de peuplement. Les Amricains ont compris cette vrit, et ils
en ont fait leur profit. Les rsultats quils ont obtenus, disent assez quels rsultats on obtiendra
en Algrie, par lapplication du mme systme.
[
305]Madinier_1856_42 writing on agriculture, commerce and industry: Les voies de fer
restent donc comme prsentant le plus davantages pour la viabilit algrienne. Nous naurons
pas besoin de nous tendre longuement pour prouver leur importance; il nous suffira de dire
quaux Etats-Unis, en Australie, aux Indes anglaises, au Canada, partout o ils se sont rpandus
et o ils se propagent, les chemins de fer sont considrs comme un des agents les plus rapides
de la colonisation.
[
306]Lanessan_1887_199 Tunisia: Je mempresse de dire que les reprsentants de lautorit
franaise ont compris, comme les colons et la population indigne, la ncessit dune prompte
excution de voies ferres destines relier les principaux centres de population de l Rgence
en traversant les valles et les plaines les plus riches, celles qui sont occupes et cultives par
les colons franais. Il a t fortement question dun projet de chemin de fer qui, partant dun
point de la ligne de Tunis Ghardimaou, par exemple, de Djedeida, relierait Tunis Bizerte, en
passant par Mateur.
[
307]Picardet_1888_501 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan: Le
ravitaillement des troupes concentres devant Kairouan tait assur par des convois de chameaux et darabas. Lachvement du chemin de fer fut retard parce que le matriel de la voie,
expdi de France par les paquebots, narriva pas Sousse en temps utile. Cette installation
improvise avait dailleurs un dfaut capital, celui de limpossibilit de la traction par machine.
[
308]Neveu-Derotrie_1878_44 public works in Algeria, summary: Quarante-trois phares allums de Rashgoun La Calle; Un rseau de 7,267 kilomtres de routes et chemins de grande
communication livrs la circulation; Des chemins de fer exploits ou en cours dexcution sur
un dveloppement de 1,334 kilomtres; Plus de cinq millions et demi de dpenses consacres
lassainissement des parties marcageuses du territoire; Les arrosages pratiqus dj, ou en voie
dorganisation, sur une superficie de plus de 50,000 hectares.
[
309]Grad_1883_13 Reichstag Deputy: Si lAlgrie avait des chemins de fer pntrant du littoral lintrieur du Sahara, jusquaux confins les plus reculs des possessions franaises, les
soulvements des indignes seraient moins frquents et ne pourraient prendre une extension
inquitante pour la colonisation. Ctaient les exigences militaires, plus que les exigences du
commerce, qui faisaient construire aux Romains, sur toute ltendue de leur vaste empire, ces
voies grandioses dont nous admirons encore les vestiges. En labsence de bonnes routes, les
concentrations de troupes tranent en longueur, la rpression des mouvements insurrectionnels
dvient bien difficile, surtout contre des populations nomades.

[
310]Madinier_1856_41 writing on agriculture, commerce and industry: Que les produits
soient abondants, bon march, si les communications ne se font pas facilement, la richesse
se change bientt en pnurie. LAlgrie, sous ce rapport, est bien mal dote: ltat des routes en
cours dentretien est excellent; mais leur dveloppement ntant pas considrable, et la complte excution de leur rseau ne pouvant avoir lieu que dans un long espace de temps, il sensuit
quil faut ncessairement demander dautres voies la facilit des communications prochaines. /
Les voies de fer et de navigation se prsentent naturellement. Pour celles-ci, il ny faut pas
songer, lAlgrie ne possdant pas un seul cours deau navigable pendant plus de quinze lieues
au-del de son embouchure. Cest la consquence immdiate du dboisement gnral du territoire africain. Nous touchons l une question palpitante, car elle sadresse aujourdhui bien
des contres europennes, et la France en particulier.
[ ]
311 Carton_1894_4 Tunisia, the Medjerdah Plain, where the railways comes before the
French village: Quoiquil en soit, la fertilit de cette immense surface couverte dalluvions fait
que, de tout temps, il y a eu dans cette plaine des marchs considrables. Souk el Arba (qui
signifie le march du mercredi) tait, lors de notre arrive, le plus important dentre eux. Cest
pourquoi on dcida dlever un camp en ce point, o plusieurs milliers dArabes se runissent
chaque semaine. / Quand nos troupes y arrivrent, il ny avait l que la gare, toujours vide de
voyageurs, et lon ne voyait, lentour, aucune habitation. On construisit dabord les baraques du
camp, on y planta des eucalyptus.
[
312]Frisch_1899_9091 on the defence of Algeria, railways: Pour permettre nos troupes et
nos fortins de dominer rellement la rgion saharienne, il importe que la question des chemins
de fer de pntration soit rgle au plus tt et dune manire pratique. Le programme le plus
urgent comprend: lachvement du chemin de fer dAn-Sefra Djenian-bou-Rezg; la construction, la largeur dun mtre dix, de la ligne de Bou-Ktoub Gryville; le prolongement jusqu
Laghouat de la ligne de Blida Berrouaghia; enfin et surtout, la construction, trop longtemps
ajourne, de la ligne de Biskra Ouargla, qui, dans les conditions les moins onreuses, placera le
point terminus de nos voies ferres algriennes plus de 700 kilomtres de la mer. Voil pour
le ravitaillement et la dfense, depuis Biskra jusqu Ouargla, un outil suprieur aux files interminables de chameaux, si lentes faire mouvoir, et plus conomique. Ne pourrait-on pas, linstar
des Russes en Asie, employer cette fconde opration ces compagnies du rgiment de chemins
de fer qui, dans le polygone de Versailles, passent leur temps poser, dposer et reposer les
mmes bouts de vieux rails, et ne serait-il pas logique de mettre leur disposition, pour les travaux de gros oeuvre, les disciplinaires et les condamns des travaux publics?
[
313]Gaudin_1887_10 in the Sud Oranais: Au reste, sauf lalfa pacifique, tout dans les uvres
de lhomme mesure que lon avance vers le Sud, rappelle la guerre. Toutes les stations sont fortifies et pourvues dun mur denceinte, de manire fournir au besoin un srieux appui en cas
dinsurrection. Les crneaux et barbacanes, les rservoirs blinds, les lourdes portes en chne,
donnent ces petits difices un caractre pittoresque et guerrier.
[
314]Bernard_1887_304 in the Sud-Oranais: Ailleurs passent, comme balancs par le roulis, de
prodigieux ballots de verdure qui ont quatre pattes. Ce sont dautres chameaux qui disparaissent
sous leur charge et qui portent de lalfa la gare de Tin-Brahim ou celle dHassi-el-Madani. /
Ces gares elles-mmes sont des enceintes farouches, de petits forts crnels, dont les fentres
troites sont des meurtrires, dont les portes sont en fer, et devant lesquelles le train sarrte tout
simplement un instant, comme en pleine voie. Pas un arbre, pas un jardin autour de ces btisses,
lalfa commence au pied de leurs murs blancs comme la mer au pied dun quai, et, partant de l,
APPENDIX
stend uniforme jusqu lhorizon flamboyant. / Une seule de ces gares a cot plus de travail
que la route entire. Il a t trs-simple, en effet, de faire ici une voie ferre. Des traverses sur le
sol plat, des rails sur les traverses, et cest aussi vite tabli quun chemin de fer de comdie sur la
piste de lHippodrome. Cela ne servira pas beaucoup, il est vrai, le jour o nous serons encore en
guerre avec les Arabes. Une traverse dplace bout de bras, un rail bouscul dun coup de pied,
et la voie sera coupe. / Quelquefois, dans le voisinage de la gare, slve, hauteur dhomme,
une redoute de pierres et de terre, avec des murs demi dtruits, des crneaux brchs et de
grossiers bastions. Ce sont des blockhaus qui ont servi lpoque de Bou-Amema et que des
spahis gardent encore, comme sils devaient tre utiles au moment o lon y pensera le moins.
[
315]G_1904_428429. Useful for his comparative accounts of other railway work in Africa
by this date.
[
316]SHD 1M1321 Mission de Tunisie, 11 April 1881, Lieut-Col. Perrier, De Soukahras Tunis. 2:
Reconnaissance en Chemin de Fer entre Ghrardimaou et Tunis. 2: ruins of Chemtou visible from
the train. Carrire de pierres de taille trs importante exploite par des franais.
[
317]Domergue_1893_152 on the ruins of Seriana: Jai lu quelque part que nos colons
conservent pieusement les restes de lantiquit et les sauvent de la destruction. Cela est gnralement vrai lorsque le colon nest pas entrepreneur de routes ou de constructions, ainsi que nous
lavons fait entrevoir, ces derniers industriels ne sont que trop insensibles au spectacle des ruines
et on ne les trouve jamais accessibles de tels sentiments; il y a donc de dplorables exceptions.
[
318]Annales_Colonisation_1854_VI_99101 Contract of July 1854, includes La remise grauite
de tous les terrains ncessaires lassiette de la voie et des docks ainsi que des tablissements
y amener; La cession gratuite des bois sur pied, dans les forts dominiales; La concession, titre
de droit dinventeur, de tous les gisements minralogiques...que les travaux de terrassements
du chemin feraient dcouvrir. And see 97126, 193232 for Delavigne, Paul, et al., Cemin de fer de
lAlgrie, which enlarges on all the above points in the propsed contract.
[
319]Carton, Louis Note sur une tombe romaine honor par les modernes africains, in
BSA Sousse VII 1909, Sousse 1910, 8997. See 8990: Ce monument, mme vu de loin je lavais
reconnu en chemin de fer depuis longtemps avant de le voir de prs, a un caractre franchement romain. Dans le tombeau de Sidi Balbouzi, le tombeau primitif est assez transform
pour que les indignes, peu observateurs en ce qui ne touche pas aux besoins matriels de leur
existence, ne laient pas reconnu. Mais ce qui est remarquable, cest que chaque anne, quand
ils blanchissent la petite Koubba de Sidi Balbouzi, ils enduisent aussi religieusement de chaux
le caisson romain, dont la forme nest pas modifie. / Jai interrog les Arabes du pays au sujet
de ce tombeau. Ils mont dit.quils ne savaient pas sil.y avait quelquun denterr l ou non; que,
quoique leur famille soit de temps immmorial dans le pays, ils ne connaissaient aucun descendant de Sidi Balbouzi, quils ne savaient mme pas par quoi ce santon stait distingu, mais seulement quil tait doug ce quils ont traduit par morte cet endroit en labourant et quil y
avait t enterr. Les Arabes ont d perdre ensuite le souvenir exact de remplacement o tait
le corps. Lun deux ayant badigeonn de chaux la Koubba et son support aura, par inadvertance
ou pour embellir le cadre, blanchi galement lautre tombe et ou aura continu depuis. Lerreur
est dautant plus possible que, comme on sait, les musulmans modernes construisent encore des
monuments funraires en forme de caissons demi-cylindriques, tout fait semblables ceux
que lon difiait, il y a quelques milliers dannes en Orient.
[
320]Bourquelot_1881_294295 at Lambessa: Jai occasion en passant, de constater une fois
de plus la monomanie destructive et rapace des touristes, surtout quand ils sont anglais, qui,

sous prtexte de remporter un souvenir palpable de leur excursion, laissent des traces de leurs
dprdations dans tous les endroits clbres o ils passent. / Leur vandalisme ne connat point
de bornes; nai-je pas lu dernirement dans les journaux que leur rage iconoclaste sattaque
mme aux pyramides dEgypte? Aprs cela il faut tirer lchelle. / Ici, on a pratiqu ce genre de
razzia dans deffroyables proportions. Combien de poteries, de mosaques, de sculptures, ont
ainsi disparu par suite du dfaut de surveillance qui favorise les dmolisseurs! / Heureusement,
une partie des objets les plus intressants et les plus curieux ont t soigneusement recueillis et
dposs dans nos collections publiques en France et en Algrie. / Je foule sous mes pieds quantit de Pierres charges dinscriptions plus ou moins frustes, dont je renonce entreprendre le
dchiffrement; elles ont sans doute t abandonnes par le savant pigraphiste Lon Renier, qui
sest content de relever les plus importantes. Plus de 1,500 inscriptions ont t ainsi publies
par ses soins.
[
321]Rambaud_1888_134: Tout le long du chemin de fer qui relie Tunis nos lignes algriennes, on trouve une srie de villes ou gros villages ayant de 2000 4000 habitants, renfermant presque tous de vastes ruines romaines et construits en partie de leurs dcombres. La plus
importante de ces villes est Bja (4,000 habitants), dans la valle de la Medjerdah, au centre dun
district riche en crales, qui sera bientt trs riche en vignes.
[
322]RA 1870 issue 81, Chronique, 301: M. Carrey, ingnieur attach aux chemins de fer algriens, a transmis la Socit historique, par lettre du 22 fvrier dernier, des renseignements
trs-intressants sur les ruines dOppidum Novum. La ligne du chemin de fer traverse la ncropole du Castrum. Les tombes sont de trois sortes. Clearly, the line went straight through the
cemetery.
[
323]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_8485 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Ksar Kalaba
ou Guesseria...Ctait jadis une ruine importante. Delamare y a signal un grand nombre de
petites constructions carres dans lesquelles il a cru voir des tombeaux et qui paraissent avoir
t simplement des maisons, un bas-relief tumulaire fruste reprsentant deux bustes, des sarcophages en forme dauges...Presque toutes les pierres de Ksar Kalaba ont t prises pour la route
de Batna-Constantine et pour le chemin de fer. Nous y avons cependant trouv deux bornes
milliaires.
[
324]Diehl_1892_121: Lorganisation du service des antiquits en Tunisie et en Algrie. Faute
desprit de suite et surtout desprit de subordination, faute dune organisation archologique
rgulire, dune serieuse et mthodique centralisation, la dispersion des matriaux relatifs a
lAfrique romaine prenait en quelques annes dinquitantes proportions et rendait chaque jour
plus difficile le travail densemble qui doit rsumer et coordonner les dcouvertes particulires.
[
325]Carton_1908B_180181 destruction in Tunisia: Il en est malheureusement de mme en
Tunisie, et il serait trop long dnumrer ici tous les exemples de destruction dont je dresse la
douloureuse liste. Je nen citerai quun. / On a trouv, il y a quelques annes, lhenchir Tembra
(lantique Thabbora), un certain nombre dinscriptions assez intressantes. Ayant voulu les
revoir, je nai pu en retrouver une seule. Cette ruine se trouve proximit de la ligne du Kef, et les
entrepreneurs nont pas manqu de lexploiter comme carrire. / On juge, par ce seul fait, de la
rapidit avec laquelle doivent tre dtruits les vestiges antiques dans un pays o les voies ferres
prennent un si grand dveloppement et o, il faut le dire, le Service des Antiquits est peu prs
absolument dpourvu de tout moyen de surveillance et de rpression. / On sait bien, pourtant,
que ce Service na jamais empch lutilisation de vestiges sans intrt. Sil pouvait obtenir, au
moins, que les inscriptions soient places, sans tre mutiles et le texte au dehors, dans les murs
APPENDIX
des ponceaux et des gares! Mais on peut tre certain que quand les entrepreneurs emploient
une pierre portant des sculptures ou des caractres, ils la tournent vers lintrieur, sils ne la
mutilent pas, pour cacher leur larcin.
[
326]Mercier_1888_102103 work of the brigades topographiques: Sur la voie reliant Thagaste
au Vicus-Juliani, prs de la station de Laverdure, on remarque un norme dolmen, au milieu
dun massif de broussailles et les dbris de plusieurs autres, dont les pierres ont t brises
lors de ltablissement du chemin de fer; plus loin deux groupes de dolmens se dressent au
milieu des ruines romaines de lHenchir-el-Hamimine. Lun de ces dolmens est encastr dans la
construction dune tour; enfin un trs beau dolmen se voit sur le plateau qui fait face au village
dAn-Tahamimine.
[
327]Mercier_1888_102 work of Brigades Topographiques: Sur la voie reliant Thagaste au
Vicus-Juliani, prs de la station de Laverdure, on remarque un norme dolmen, au milieu dun
massif de broussailles et les dbris de plusieurs autres, dont les pierres ont t brises lors de
ltablissement du chemin de fer.
[
328]Tissot_1881_31 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone: A peu de
distance en amont de sa jonction avec lOued Ghagha, la Medjerda reoit un des principaux
tributaires de sa rive droite, lOued Meliz. Quelques ruines fort effaces attestent lexistence dun
petit centre antique au confluent de ce dernier cours deau et du fleuve, et les fouilles quon a
pratiques sur ce point pour obtenir les matriaux ncessaires la ligne ferre ont mis au jour
lpitaphe suivante...
[
329]Demaeght_1888_183 near to Mostaganem: A cette distance exacte de Relizane, on ne
trouve, dans la direction de Tigava Municipium, aucun vestige romain, mais, 43 kilomtres de
cette ville, le chemin de fer P.-L.-M. coupe, la station de lOued Riou (Inkermann), des ruines
romaines qui occupent plus de 10 hectares et paraissent tre celles dune place forte surveillant
le dfil de lOued Riou, au point o il dbouche dans la plaine. Depuis loccupation romaine, le
niveau du sol cet endroit a hauss de prs de 2 mtres, par lapport successif des alluvions. Cest
en creusant les fondations des maisons et difices dInkermann que des substructions romaines
ont t mises au jour. M. Peyrat, dans les fouilles faites prs de la gare de lOued Riou, a trouv
une foule dobjets antiques, entre autres une statue sans tte, une grande quantit de monnaies,
des vases en terre, des lampes, des urnes; sur un autre emplacement situ au Nord de la gare,
on a dcouvert les restes dun petit monument avec fausses colonnes et chapiteaux; et, sur plusieurs points, des auges spulcrales.
[
330]Pellet_1916_286 Mina: M. Martin [chef de district] a fait transporter la gare une
colonne complte de 5 mtres de hauteur, dont le ft mesure en moyenne 0m50 de diamtre, un
moulin grains, des pierres crites, enjolives de dessins, une fontaine prsentant deux serpents
et une tte de ruminant prs de lorifice de sortie de leau. Il a lintention de disposer tous ces
objets dans un jardin quil se propose de crer prs de la maison quil habite dans la gare. Il en
prendra soin. Cest tout ce que nous pouvons lui demander pour le moment.
[
331]Bulletin Archologique du Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1905, CL:
M. Gauckler envoie un inventaire dress par M. Gouvet, ingnieur du chemin de fer de Gafsa,
relatif une importante collection dantiquits diverses, que celui-ci a recueillies au cours des
travaux de construction de la voie ferre et quil vient de donner au Muse de Sousse.
[
332]Picardet_1888_598 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan:
Entre lOued Laya et Sidi-el-Hani on put tudier le terrain sur plusieurs kilomtres de largeur.
On reconnut que le col dEl-Onk, sur la route de MSaken Kairouan, tait un point de passage

oblig; partir du col, on dcouvrit les traces dune ancienne voie romaine sur laquelle on tablit la voie ferre.
[
333]Tissot_1881_9394 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone,
El-Mtarif: Lingnieur en chef de la ligne ferre, M. Dubos, croit avoir retrouv quelques vestiges dun pont qui rattachait le bourg la voie romaine. / Le second groupe de ruines couvre
le plateau dAn Kahloulia et domine le col par lequel passait la route antique. L se trouvait
sans doute la mutatio, la station proprement dite, et le castrum qui protgeait le dfil. Les
fouilles excutes par les entrepreneurs de la ligne ferre ont fait dcouvrir sous un monticule
de dcombres, les restes de murailles construites en pierres de grand appareil, des voussoirs
bossages fortement accuss, qui ont d appartenir une porte monumentale, un chapiteau
dordre composite, et un autre chapiteau servant de cadran solaire. Le plateau, tout entier, du
reste, tait couvert de dbris.
[
334]Gsell_1893_263 SE of Stif: Il existe un grand nombre de ruines romaines dans la plaine
des Righas, entre le Djebel-bou-Thaleb au sud, le Djebel-Skrin et le Djebel-Youssef lest, le
Djebel-Sellama, le Djebel-Kendour et le Djebel-Sdim louest, et la ligne de lOued-Bou-Seilam,
suivie actuellement par le chemin de fer, au nord. Le mauvais temps ma empch de les visiter
toutes: du reste la plupart des pierres de ces ruines ont t dplaces ou dtruites pour tre
employes dans des maisons modernes ou sur des routes.
[
335]Tissot_1881_1: La ligne ferre qui reliera bientt Tunis au rseau algrien suit, dans la
plus grande partie de son trac, la valle de la Medjerda, le Bagrada punique. Les nombreux
travaux dart que ncessit sa construction ont dj fait disparatre ou menacent dune destruction prochaine les derniers vestiges des cits antiques qui schelonnaient sur les deux rives du
fleuve. Jai tenu visiter ces ruines avant quelles neussent pri. Les notes qui suivent rsument
une exploration qui, bien que trop rapide mon gr, ma cependant permis de fixer un certain
nombre de positions inconnues jusqualors et de conserver le souvenir de quelques monuments
dont toute trace matrielle sera bientt efface.
[
336]Tissot_1881_87 Le Bassin du Bagrada et la voie romaine de Carthage Hippone: A cinq
cents mtres environ au sud-ouest du pont de lOued Badja, sur une plate-forme qui domine la
rive gauche de la Medjerda, on remarque les vestiges dun grand poste romain. Les indignes
donnent ces ruines le nom de Henchir Smala. Exploites comme carrires, elles ont fourni la
plus grande partie des matriaux employs la construction du tunnel de Sidi Salah ben Cherif
et des deux ponts qui la voisinent. Les fouilles qui ont fait disparatre jusquaux fondations des
remparts ont fait dcouvrir, par une heureuse compensation, linscription suivante, ensevelie
sous un monceau de dcombres prs de lentre principale du castrum.
[
337]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_188 Bulla Regia: A triumphal arch and other monumental
remains, which existed here a few years back, have been wantonly destroyed, and the materials
used in the construction of the Tunisian railway, which crosses the plain some four kilometres
distant.
[
338]Tissot_1881_38 Bulla Regia: A cent cinquante pas environ au nord-est de la premire
des deux forteresses que nous avons dcrites, sur un tertre form en grande partie de dbris
amoncels, slvent les ruines dune haute et massive construction. Deux arcs de 1 2 mtres de
hauteur, relis par de puissantes murailles perces elles-mmes de grandes ouvertures cintres,
circonscrivent une enceinte dpendant dun vaste difice. Larc du sud-est, le mieux conserv,
repose sur deux pieds-droits massifs et prsente les arrachements de deux arcades latrales qui
devaient retomber sur deux autres pieds-droits dont il ne reste que des vestiges, et former ainsi
APPENDIX
une sorte de ttrastyle. cette salle centrale se rattachait, du ct du sud-est, une enceinte semblable celle qui existe du ct du nord-ouest. Celle-ci est encore prcde elle-mme, dans
ltat actuel, des dbris dune troisime enceinte qui devait avoir un pendant sur la face oppose. Ldifice entier se composait donc de cinq grandes salles. Il tait entour, en outre, dun
pribole vot dont il ne reste que quelques dbris. Lintrieur de ces ruines est combl par les
matriaux des votes croules et rempli par un fourr inextricable de ronces et dpines. La
tradition locale y voit un Hammam, cest--dire des thermes, et il est trs probable que telle tait
effectivement la destination de ce monument, dont lensemble rappelle les thermes de Simittu.
Une source deau chaude sulfureuse jaillissait dun monticule quelques pas de ces ruines,
lpoque o je visitai pour la premire fois Hammam Darradji. Elle tait tarie lors de ma seconde
excursion.
[
339]Carton_1891_207B Un exemple frappant de la rapidit avec laquelle seffectue la destruction des ruines nous est fourni par Bulla Regia. Quand Tissot la visita, la plupart des difices
taient assez bien conservs. Il a pu faire le plan de la massive forteresse en blocage, qui nest
plus reprsente que par quelques blocs informes au milieu desquels a t install un four
chaux. On a enlev aux thermes les pierres de taille qui revtaient les angles; et la haute baie,
qui slve encore 15 mtres au-dessus de lancien sol, menace de seffondrer brve chance;
on a arrach aux fortifications leur revlement en grand appareil, lamphittre et au thtre
leurs gradins. Enfin, larc de triomphe qui existait presque en entier lors de la seconde mission
de M. Cagnat, en 1882, et quil a reproduit dans le Tour du Monde, a compltement disparu;
malgr mes recherches, il ma t impossible den retrouver lemplacement exact. Actuellement,
les difices tant crouls, ou peu prs, on cultive entre leurs murs, et tous les ans, une partie
de ceux-ci est dtruite.
[
340]Graham_1902_7172: at Bulla Regia: The Byzantines in their turn contributed largely
to the destruction of Roman edifices here as elsewhere, and, as usual, paid no respect to monumental buildings, whether Roman or Numidian, but used them as a kind of quarry for the
erection of fortresses and walls of defence. In the centre of the city are the remains of a large
Nymphaeum, semicircular in plan, a favourite form with the Romans. From the appearance of
the fragments this was a work of great beauty, and was ornamented with colonnades, like other
well-known examples in Italy and elsewhere. It is lamentable to add that an inexcusable concession of the stones in this district, for the purposes of the Tunisian railway completed some
fifteen years ago, was followed by a destruction of numerous monuments, as well as of a number
of inscribed stones which might have thrown some light on the early history of this royal city.
[
341]Poir_1892_138139: Il fallait conserver la Tunisie les curiosits quelle renferme, et qui
menaaient de sparpiller dans toutes les directions, ou mme dtre ananties. Des entrepreneurs subalternes avaient dj trait les ruines romaines comme des carrires de pierres abandonnes leur discrtion. Ils navaient pas hsit dtruire le bel arc de triomphe de Bulla Regia,
dans la valle de la Medjerdah, afin davoir des matriaux pour les ponts du chemin de fer; ils
avaient abattu une partie de limposant aqueduc qui menait les eaux du Zaghouan Carthage,
pour construire lencaissement dune nouvelle route, et fait passer la voie ferre travers une
autre partie du mme aqueduc. Combien dautres fragments prcieux nont pas d succomber
aussi, comme jadis en Algrie, lindiffrence aveugle du gnie militaire!
[
342]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_38 Tunis to Zaghouan: The waters flow to Carthage,
says El-Bekri, on ranges of arches, placed one above the other, reaching even to the clouds.
The statement seems exaggerated when speaking of that portion of the aqueduct we are now

following, which does not exceed seventy feet in height; but a little further on, where it crossed
the Oued Melian, the ancient Catada, there was a series of magnificent piers and arches, rising
more than 120 feet above the river. These were standing a few years ago in all their grandeur, useless, it is true, for the purpose of carrying water, but a fitting monument of a great people and a
dignified memorial of a beneficent work. As an apology for its wanton destruction by a French
engineer attached to the Government of the Bey, we are told that a new bridge was required at
this spot, that the ancient work obstructed the flow of the river, and its materials were of use for
the purposes of reconstruction. Not only here, but in the Medjerda valley also, which is traversed
by the Tunisian railway, there is the same thoughtlessness and disregard for this ancient monument. In the latter case a long line of piers and arches has been broken near the centre to allow
the passage of the line of rails. A slight deviation in both cases would have prevented these acts
of Vandalism.
[
343]Carton_1908B_180: A dfaut de grande dcouverte ou de lapparition dun ouvrage
capital, je signalerai la recrudescence qui se produit un peu partout, dans lAfrique du Nord,
dans la destruction des ruines. / En Algrie, la dvastation se perptre en bien des points; pour
en donner une ide, je signalerai seulement ici celles qui ont t indiques dans le Recueil de
Constantine. / M. Vel constate que, dans la commune mixte dAn-Mlila, il faut, pour visiter des
ruines, scarter des villages, routes et chemins de fer crs depuis loccupation franaise, car
toutes les ruines situes dans un rayon de trois kilomtres de ces constructions ont t dvastes
par les entrepreneurs. / Le mme auteur, croyant trouver Sedjar une statue et des ruines qui
lui ont t signales, ny rencontra mme plus de pierres romaines, celles-ci ayant t employes
construire des maisons et une conduite deau. Le fort byzantin a t dmoli il y a deux ans;
ses matriaux ont servi btir un rservoir destin larrosage dune prairie.
[
344]Tissot_1888_260 near Bulla Regia: Les premiers dbris qui frappent le regard, lorsquon
arrive Hammam-Darradji par ce dernier ct, sont ceux dune puissante forteresse qui couronne de ses masses croules la pointe sud-ouest du plateau de Bulla Regia. Lenceinte de cette
citadelle formait un paralllogramme allong du nord-ouest au sud-est, de 90 mtres de longueur environ sur 70 de largeur. Ce sont prcisment les dimensions de la forteresse dUtique,
et les murailles des deux difices ont la mme paisseur, 2m80. Quatre tours hexagonales en
dfendaient les angles. Parfaitement reconnaissable en 1853, lors de mon premier passage
Hammam-Darradji, ce monument nexiste plus aujourdhui: vendu par un cheikh indigne aux
entrepreneurs de la ligne ferre, il a t dmoli pierre pierre. Il ne restait plus, au mois de
juin 1879, quune assise de langle dune des tours et un pan de la courtine sud-est. / Au centre
du paralllogramme slevait un grand difice, bti sur de puissantes votes et formant rduit.
Compltement ruin aujourdhui, il noffre plus quun monceau de masses normes de blocages, couches les unes sur les autres dans le mme sens, et formant avec la verticale un angle
dinclinaison de 20 degrs. Plusieurs de ces masses mesurent de 7 8 mtres de hauteur. Il est
vident quune secousse de tremblement de terre, agissant de louest lest, a arrach de sa base
la construction tout entire et la renverse dun seul coup.
[
345]Picardet_1888_561 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan: Une
reconnaissance pousse jusqu lOued Bagla, pour sassurer si le chemin suivi parles convois
(route de MSaken) est prfrable au chemin qui prolonge la voie romaine, rapporte comme renseignements que le premier chemin est accident et difficile amnager pour recevoir la voie
ferre, que le second prsente des pentes moins fortes et un fond plus solide.
APPENDIX
[
346]Picardet_1888_505 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan:
A partir de ce col jusqu Sidi-el-Hani, le trac suit une voie romaine encore empierre sur la
majeure partie de son tendue, il laisse droite le chemin de Msaken Kairouan, suivi ordinairement en t par les convois. Cette voie romaine a permis de traverser dans de bonnes conditions la valle qui suit le col et darriver Sidi-el-Hani sur un chemin solide. Ibid., 510: on one
section On a empierr la piste des chevaux dans les parties marcageuses proximit des ruines
romaines, seuls endroits o lon trouve des pierres. Ibid., 578: Au col, on fait le relevage de 400
m de voie; on tablit celle-ci sur un remblai de 0m,30 0m,40 de hauteur; on empierre la piste
au moyen de pierres empruntes la voie romaine. On fait le curage des fosss des tranches et
on adoucit, les talus.
[
347]Picardet_1888_533 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan: A
la sortie du col, on dcouvre les traces dune chausse romaine dont la direction gnrale passe
louest et prs du camp de Sidi-el-Hani: le point deau entre Sousse et Kairouan. Aprs avoir
reconnu que les enrochements de cette chausse existent dans la traverse de la cuvette qui
suit le col et quils constituent avec un amnagement facile, un fond solide pour ltablissement
de la voie et de la piste, on abandonne lide du trac par la droite de la route de Msaken et on
suit la chausse jusqu Sidi-el-Hani. A partir de l, les traces de lenrochement disparaissent, on
ne trouve plus quun chemin qui traverse les ruines dune ancienne cit romaine et qui parat
tre le prolongement de la chausse.
[
348]Picardet_1888_534 Construction du chemin de fer decauville de Sousse Kairouan: on
one section Lamnagement de la plate-forme sur la chausse romaine consiste enlever les
pierres les plus saillantes et jeter un peu de terre sur les autres pour donner une meilleure
assiette et plus dlasticit la voie.
[
349]Cagnat_1884_39: Henchir Sidi-el-Hani. La koubba consacre au marabout de ce nom
est construite sur lemplacement dune petite ville romaine; les fouilles qua ncessites, cette
anne, ltablissement dun camp franais sur ce point ont amen la dcouverte de grosses
colonnes, dont une de marbre; mais on na trouv aucun texte pigraphique qui permt de
connatre le nom de ltablissement antique situ en cet endroit. Cependant on peut affirmer
que ctait un bourg dune certaine importance: on voit encore les traces dun thtre, construit
en petit appareil, dont lhmicycle est parfaitement dessin, et les restes dun cimetire assez
tendu.
[
350]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_81 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Le Tournant. Il y
avait l une petite ruine que le chemin de fer, la route et quelques constructions ont fait disparatre, comme celle dAn-el-Ksar.
[
351]Vars_18951896_301 writing of Constantine: Nous ne terminerons pas la publication
de ces derniers textes sans protester avec nergie contre le vandalisme odieux avec lequel, au
mpris de la loi de 1887, les entrepreneurs de la route qui traverse le village de Sigus ont dtruit,
sous loeil bienveillant des Ponts et Chausses et des autres Services de ltat, les belles ruines qui
subsistaient encore, il y a quelques annes, sur le territoire de la petite ville antique. Il nen reste
plus rien aujourdhui, au grand dommage de la science.
[
352]Fabre, Abb, Chronique archologique, in Socit de Gographie et dArchologie de
la Province dOran XXV 1905, 248258. See 255: A Sigus, commune mixte dAin Mlila, on avait
exhum, jusquen 1897, 188 inscriptions. De ce nombre, on ne retrouve plus que 8 pierres. Les
autres ont t dtruites. Le bulletin de la Socit archologique de Constantine slve, avec

juste raison, contre ces actes de vandalisme. Ces pierres, en effet, sont devenues de vulgaires
moellons. M. Robert a pu grouper sur la place de Sigus 26 autres pierres dcouvertes Sigus
mme ou dans les environs.
[
353]Guilbert_1839_9091: Le gnie militaire, de 1833 1835, a pratiqu des desschemens
dans les environs de la Maison carre et de la Ferme modle, qui ont assaini ou rendu la charrue dexcellentes terres prsentant une superficie de plus dune demi-lieue. Des efforts du mme
genre ont t dirigs ou doivent se porter prochainement sur des tnemens lest de Bouffarick
et dans les campagnes de Bougie et de Bne. / L ne se sont pas arrts les utiles et hardis travaux du gnie, qui a t si admirablement second par lardeur et le zle de nos soldats. Depuis
plusieurs annes, il travaille relier fortement les villes, les camps fortifis et les tablissemens
de lintrieur avec la capitale, par un systme complet de voies de communications. Dj, en
suivant le parcours ou les embranchemens des lignes nombreuses quil a ouvertes ou empierres, on peut communiquer avec Bir-Radem, Douira, Bouffarick, Blidah, Colah, Mers-el-Kbir,
Mostaganem, Arzew, Oran, etc.
[
354]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_60 Rapport du Gnral Fleury M. le gnral en chef:
Ds le mois de janvier, il fut ordonn aux officiers du gnie dexcuter une route carrossable de
Bne la Seybouse, hauteur de Ghelma, et mme au del en crant quelques points de sret,
destins recevoir des magasins, donner des lieux de station aux troupes, former la ligne
doprations, en rapprochant de Constantine le point de dpart de larme expditionnaire.
[
355]Esquisse sur lAlgrie, par le Vte de T. C., ancien officier suprieur de hussards, Marseille
1843, 78: Honneur MM. les employs des ponts et chausses! honneur au gnie et larme qui
ont surmont tant dobstacles! ils ont su crer spontanment des routes militaires qui rivalisent
celles de nos pays civiliss de lEurope, si elles ne les surpassent mme.
[
356]Fortin dIvry_1845_113: Au milieu de ces ressources qua-t-on fait? La grande affaire a
t, jusqu ces dernires annes, la conqute et loccupation militaire. La conqute du littoral est ancienne, son occupation vient dtre complte par ltablissement de Ghazouat aux
confins du Maroc. Il ne reste plus qu rayonner autour de Bougie, de Gigelli et de Collo, qui
est soumis, mais non occup. La ligne dtablissements du centre comprend Tlemcen, Mascara,
Orlansville, Miliana, Medeah et Constantine; et enfin la ligne des postes militaires avancs est
Sebdou, Daya, Sada, Tiaret, Bogar, Batna, et Biskara. Chacun de ces tablissements est comme
une ville militaire o il a fallu tout apporter, tout crer; il a fallu dtourner les eaux, ouvrir les
carrires, tracer des routes, ou au moins aplanir les grands obstacles, souvent apporter les bois
de la cte, btir et fortifier tous ces postes dont quelques-uns, comme Batna, sont importants,
puisquun rgiment entier y tient garnison.
[
357]Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_4 Anon: Les routes sont en gnral dgrades, difficiles, dans toute lAlgrie. Pourrait-il en tre autrement aprs sept ou huit sicles de la domination la plus barbare? La grande voie romaine qui suivait la cte depuis Carthage jusqu Hippone,
et del jusquaux confins de lempire de Maroc, ne sera peut-tre jamais rtablie. Ce quil faut,
cest une communication par terre avec Bne, et nous la trouvons dans la route qua suivie notre
arme. De Bne Guelma, un poste intermdiaire suffirait; de Guelma jusqu Constantine,
il nest quun passage dangereux, Ras-el-Akba, que les Arabes ont surnomm le Coupe-Gorge.
Quelques travaux excuts par les troupes auront bientt rendu ce passage praticable.
[
358]Jacquot_1907_35 writing of Roman roads around Stif: Nous commencerons notre
tude par la route nationale de Stif Constantine afin quon puisse nous suivre plus facilement. / Nous pensons, pour le dire tout de suite, que les chemins du Gnie doivent tre le plus
APPENDIX
souvent les anciennes voies romaines. En effet, quand nos troupes ont commenc parcourir
le pays, elles ont d songer emprunter aux indignes les chemins en usage; or, les Turcs aussi
bien que les Arabes taient trop paresseux et trop maladroits pour avoir cr autre chose que
des sentiers: ils avaient trouv, en simplantant dans le pays, les voies quy avaient autrefois
construites les Romains et dont la plupart subsistaient encore, bien dtriores il est vrai, car les
Vandales, durant leur occupation, navaient eu cure de les entretenir et avaient d se contenter
de les maintenir peu prs praticables. Cela est si vrai que la plus grande partie des bornes
retrouves jalonnent les chemins du Gnie ou les routes turques qui, dailleurs, se confondent
presque toujours.
[
359]RA I 1856, 315 in the Chronique, Azimacia (El Hamma): Dans les premiers jours du mois
de dcembre 1856, M. Cartier, conducteur des Ponts-et-Chausses, faisait construire sur le bord
de la route, non loin du douzime kilomtre, une maison destine servir de logement aux
cantonniers. Lemplacement marqu tait porte dun groupe de ruines dans lequel ou ne pouvait viter de prendre des matriaux. En choisissant les pierres les moins mutiles, on dterra
un petit bloc de calcaire jurassique, de forme rectangulaire, et portant une inscription latine
parfaitement conserve.
[
360]Poulle_18901891_370371 writing of Inscriptions diverses de la Numidie et de la
Mauretanie Stifienne, Kherbet-Oum_El_Ahdam: Les ouvriers qui, dans le courant du mois de
juin 1889, travaillaient lextraction de matriaux pour la construction de la route qui devait
relier la gare de Tixter lemplacement de Ras-el-Oued, sur lequel lAdministration avait le projet
de fonder un village, rencontrrent, une faible profondeur, une pierre portant une inscription.
M. Sjourn, surveillant du service des Ponts et Chausses, leur recommanda de la prserver
de toute dtrioration. En mme temps, il se mit en mesure den faire un dessin et de copier
linscription.
[
361]Audollent_1890_442: Cest pendant la construction de la route qui doit joindre la gare
de Tixter le futur village de Ras el Oued, que fut dcouverte cette inscription. L, comme en bien
dautres endroits, les ruines romaines avaient paru lentrepreneur une carrire dexploitation
facile. Tandis quils dterraient quelques pierres de grand appareil mergeant la surface du sol,
ses ouvriers rencontrrent une petite profondeur (environ 0m,50) le texte qui nous occupe. Le
surveillant des Ponts et Chausses, M. Sjourn, dont nous nous plaisons reconnatre le zle
intelligent, sempressa de faire respecter ce monument. Il et en outre la bonne pense de le
dessiner et den transcrire lcriture.
[
362]Cantagrel_1847_22. Argues that with 550,000 men in the army, they should be doing the
public works, not the incompetent, slow and behind-the-times P-et-C: sans trop nuire la considration des entrepreneurs des ponts-et-chausses, il est permis daffirmer que, si le peuple-roi
avait confi ds traitants ces grands difices qui font ladmiration des constructeurs modernes,
nos archologues nauraient sextasier aujourdhui, ni sr la solidit des monuments romains,
ni sur la duret du ciment qui porte leur nom.
[
363]Rousset_1882_4647: A mesure que les territoires passaient de ladministration militaire ladministration civile, le gnie militaire faisait remise au service des ponts et chausses
des voies de communication dj traces. Les ponts et chausss se trouvaient donc chargs de
continuer luvre militaire, et larme dut se dsintresser de ces travaux. Ce fut peut-tre une
faute et un malheur pour la colonie. Quelle que ft en effet la gnrosit financire de la France
lendroit de lAlgrie, les ponts et chausses neurent pas consacrer aux routes des sommes proportionnes aux normes travaux quil fallait entreprendre partout la fois. La main-duvre,

mme indigne, revenait un prix lev. Il fallut aller lentement et laisser pendant bien des
annes les intrts agricoles en souffrance. Labsence des routes, le haut prix des transports dos
de mulets avilissaient en tel ou tel canton une production qui faisait grand dfaut sur les marchs voisins. Ainsi, de 1850 1870, lorge valut de 6 9 francs le quintal sur les marchs dAumale,
tandis quelle tait demande et enleve aux prix de 18 20 francs sur les marchs de la Mitidja,
distants de 30 lieues peine. / La main-duvre militaire aurait pu tre employe beaucoup plus
longtemps et pourrait tre employe encore en beaucoup dendroits. Peut-tre, la rduction du
temps de service militaire impose-t-elle la ncessit de distraire le moins possible le soldat de
son instruction; peut-tre, le travail pnible des routes a-t-il plus dune fois altr la sant des
troupes.
[
364]Walmsley_1858_124125 Kabylia: In the tour of inspection of which I have already
spoken, I chanced to find myself at a spot which seemed to me most interesting for antiquarian
researches. The village where we halted was called Zephoun, and in its neighbourhood existed
numerous traces of an ancient Roman town of considerable dimensions. There were the wellpreserved remains of walls of great thickness and extent rising here and there, while crumbling
remains of aqueducts reared their weather-stained masses. No one had ever searched these old
ruins, nor had I time to do so. One spot, however, above the rest attracted my attention, and that
was what appeared to me to be an old Roman burial-ground. An officer, who formed one of our
party, procured me two or three Arabs, and I proceeded to open one of the old tombs, or rather
tumuli. My men worked, as Arabs will work, slowly and lazily; and it was the affair of a whole
day, before I could assure myself that I was correct in my ideas respecting the nature of the place.
Some crumbling remains of bones rewarded the search; but in the centre of the burial-ground
a mound larger than the rest, and near which I had already found the remains of an old Roman
inscription, broken and defaced, had attracted my attention. This I took for the tomb of some
important person, and with great difficulty prevailed on Colonel Rondire to delay yet another
twenty-four hours at Zephoun, so as to give me time to examine the place. Dawn found me at
the spot, but minus my workmen. I had been foolish enough to pay them for their previous days
labour; and as the sum I had given them was sufficient for their wants for some time to come,
they saw no reason why they should do anything more. Then describes his finds, confessing
some of my readers who may be better versed in the secrets of antiquity than I am myself.
appendix
1 Waltzing_1892_124125: Depuis loccupation franaise, le Nord de lAfrique a produit plus
de monuments pigraphiques que le reste de limmense territoire autrefois soumis aux Romains.
Les Franais commencrent lexploration scientifique ds les premires annes de la conqute,
et il faut leur rendre cette justice quils lont faite avec un grand zle: officiers, particuliers et
savants envoys en mission nont cess depuis cinquante ans et ne cessent encore, de recueillir
en Algrie et en Tunisie une quantit norme dinscriptions. De Caussade, Delamare, Creuly,
L. Renier, Ch. Tissot, Cherbonneau, Berbrugger, Gurin, Hron de Villefosse, Masqueray, R. Cagnat,
Salomon Reinach, le P. Delattre, R. de la Blanchre et beaucoup dautres ont copi sur place
une foule de textes, et ils les ont publis soit dans des ouvrages spciaux, soit dans des revues
ou collections officielles. Pendant que les investigations, toujours heureuses, continuaient, il
fallait runir la moisson parpille pour la rendre accessible aux travailleurs, surtout que les
mesures prises pour la conservation des marbres taient insuffisantes. Mommsen, nous lavons
vu, eut dabord lheureuse ide de sassocier un Franais, L. Renier, qui avait publi le plus
dinscriptions algriennes et connaissait le mieux lpigraphie africaine. La guerre de 1870 amena
malheureusement une rupture.
[ ]
2 Ibn_Khaldun_I_1863_310311 Les habitudes et les usages de la vie nomade ont fait des
Arabes un peuple rude et farouche. La grossiret des murs est devenue pour eux une seconde
nature, un tat dans lequel ils se complaisent, parce quil leur assure la libert et lindpendance.
Une telle disposition soppose au progrs de la civilisation. Se transporter de lieu en lieu, parcourir les dserts, voil, depuis les temps les plus reculs, leur principale occupation. Autant la vie
sdentaire est favorable au progrs de la civilisation, autant la vie nomade lui est contraire. Si les
Arabes ont besoin de pierres pour servir dappuis leurs marmites, ils dgradent les btiments
afin de se les procurer; sil leur faut du bois pour en faire des piquets ou des soutiens de tente,
ils dtruisent les toits des maisons pour en avoir. Par la nature mme de leur vie, ils sont hostiles
tout ce qui est difice; or, construire des difices, cest faire le premier pas dans la civilisation.
Tels sont les Arabes nomades en gnral; ajoutons que, par leur disposition naturelle, ils sont
toujours prts enlever de force le bien dautrui, chercher les richesses, les armes la main
et piller sans mesure et sans retenue. Toutes les fois quils jettent leurs regards sur un beau
troupeau, sur un objet dameublement, sur un ustensile quelconque, ils lenlvent de force.
Si, par la conqute dune province ou par la fondation dune dynastie, ils se sont mis en tat
dassouvir leur rapacit, ils mprisent tous les rglements qui servent protger les proprits
et les richesses des habitants. Sous leur domination, la ruine envahit tout. Ils imposent aux gens
de mtier et aux artisans des corves pour lesquelles ils ne jugent pas convenable doffrir une
rtribution. Or lexercice des arts et des mtiers est la vritable source de richesses, ainsi que
nous le dmontrerons plus tard. Si les professions manuelles rencontrent des entraves et cessent
dtre profitables, on perd lespoir du gain et lon renonce au travail; lordre tabli se drange et
la civilisation recule. Ajoutons que les Arabes ngligent tous les soins du gouvernement; ils ne
cherchent pas empcher les crimes; ils ne veillent pas la sret publique; leur unique souci
cest de tirer de leurs sujets de largent, soit par la violence, soit par des avanies. Pourvu quils
parviennent ce but, nul autre souci ne les occupe.
[ ]
3 Bertrand_1903_60 Philippeville, at a Conseil municipal in 1860: M. le Vicomte de Gants,
sous-prfet, prononce un discours, dont nous extrayons les passages suivants: / Un Conseil
municipal est la premire et la dernire expression de la civilisation moderne; il est le premier
et, par suite, le plus solide degr de cette centralisation si forte, si homogne et si intelligente en
[ ]

mme temps, qui compose cet tre collectif si grand, si puissant, si glorieux et si harmonieux
quil est immortel et que les peuples appellent la France. Cette France, nous la continuons ici,
Messieurs; son pe, que tant de vaillantes mains ont porte sur cette terre redoute, a fait place
pour nous des villes nouvelles, des municipes nouveaux. / Quand nos infatigables soldats
trouvaient dans ces contres conquises quelques unes de ces ruines qui attestent les grandeurs
du pass, ils sy arrtaient avec un mystrieux intrt, comme sils devaient rencontrer des souvenirs de famille, et leurs gnraux disaient: Nous revendiquons la succession des lgions des
Csars. Partout o se posera le pied de la France, les cits romaines renatront.
[ ]
4 Duval_1859_278 Sidi-Okba, with the tomb of the conqueror: Les honneurs fidlement
rendus la mmoire de Sidi-Okba aprs douze sicles, par la reconnaissance des Arabes, sont
un reproche pour la France, qui na consacre par aucun monument durable le souvenir de la
conqute de 1830 plus glorieuse pour la civilisation que celle de 645 pour lislamisme. Le mme
regret de tout tmoignage commemoratif des grandes actions de la guerre, des utiles crations
de la paix, afflige le patriotisme du voyageur franais en Algrie. Un pays dont chaque horizon
raconte une gloire nationale ne compte peut-tre pas six monuments funraires et douze inscriptions! Les Romains en ont laiss des milliers!
[ ]
5 RA 1861 issue 25, 76 Chronique, Bougie (Salde). On a pu lire, dans notre dernier numro
(pages 434, etc.), un article sur une inscription pleine dintrt rcemment dcouverte Bougie
et reproduite daprs deux estampages communiqus la Socit historique algrienne par
M. Latour, notre collgue et par un correspondant anonyme. Cette page historique si curieuse
est aujourdhui dtruite, ou peu prs: nous apprenons quon en a employ les morceaux (elle
tait brise en deux parties) dans le trottoir de la place de lglise. Nous nous associons pleinement aux rflexions que cet acte de vandalisme a suggres lAkhbar, dans un de ses derniers
numros. Il est bien temps que des mesures efficaces soient prises pour assurer le transport au
muse le plus voisin du lieu de dcouverte quand il ny en a pas dans la localit des objets
antiques que les fouilles mettent chaque jour en lumire. Dj, bien des documents prcieux
ont pri par les mmes causes qui viennent de faire disparatre la ddicace dAurelius Litua,
Bougie. Il faut, dans lintrt de la science et pour lhonneur de la colonie, que ces actes de
sauvage dvastation aient enfin un terme.
[ ]
6 Table gnrale des AMSL, series 3, XV, Paris 1890.
[ ]
7 Renier_1852_318, 322: Des fouilles considrables, entreprises pour la construction dun
thtre, sur lemplacement du forum de lantique Rusicade, venaient de mettre au jour les substructions dune magnifique basilique. Outre un nombre assez considrable de dbris darchitecture dune grande richesse, on y avait dcouvert linscription suivante...Je rsolus daller
attendre son retour [general MacMahon] Lambse, o jesprais que les travaux du pnitencier auraient fait faire quelques dcouvertes nouvelles depuis ma mission de 1850 et 1851...plusieurs fouilles que nous avions commences, M. Delamare et moi, au printemps de 1851, avaient
t continues, avec beaucoup de zle et dintelligence, par un certain nombre de transports
de juin, sous la direction de M. Toussaint, capitaine du gnie, charg de la construction du pnitencier, et elles avaient produit dimportantes dcouvertes. i.e. it is the work on the prison that
controls everything, not archaeology.
[ ]
8 Waltzing_1892_6777 for a biography and assessment of his scholarship.
[ ]
9 Wallon_1890_516, obituary for Lon Renier: De retour Lambse, il put, grce une
prolongation de quatre mois, y reprendre ses travaux et visiter dautres ruines de la Numidie.
Son dernier rapport est dat de Paris, 17 septembre 1851: il y avait prs dun an quil en tait parti
appendix
pour lAfrique. Il rapportait seize cents inscriptions trouves par lui, trois cents communiques
par, nos officiers, et douze cents dont il devait le fac-simil au commandant Delamare. Cest
donc, disait-il, un total de plus de trois mille inscriptions, dont deux mille sept cents au moins
sont indites, que je suis aujourdhui en mesure de faire connatre au public. Mais pouvait-il se
mettre publier, quand il laissait tant de choses encore derrire lui? A peine de retour, il sollicita
une nouvelle mission, et elle lui fut donne par deux arrts des 27 janvier et 23 juin 1852.
[ ]
10 JDPL 27 December 1836 Aperu sur la topographie de Constantine et de ses environs, by
Dureau de la Malle: Dans le sicle o nous sommes, il faut que la science marche toujours la
suite de la guerre: ces ruines de Suthut, o lon a trouv, dit-on, beaucoup dinscriptions latines
et dautres en caractres inconnus, renferment probablement sur leurs murs des documens
qui manquent lhistoire soit des Romains, soit des Numides car ces caractres tranges sont
certainement des inscriptions phniciennes ou numidiques, que quelques savans de France et
dAllemagne peuvent maintenant lire et expliquer. Nos officiers des armes savantes ne ngligeront point, sans doute, de rapporter ces dpouilles instructives des temps passs.
[ ]
11 Marmol_1667_II_325 De Ned Roma: Cest vne ancienne ville, bastie par les Romains dans
vne grande plaine deux lieues & demie du mont Atlas, & quatre de la mer...Les murs sont
encore debout, & sont bastis de gros moillons liez avec de la chaux, la faon des Romains. Les
maisons ont t ruines dans les guerres que les Rois de Trmcen ont eues avec ceux de Tunis
& de Fez. Et celles qui y sont maintenant sont faites la faon du pays. On voit encore hors des
murailles des restes de vastes difices des Romains, o il y a de grandes tables, & des colonnes
dalbastre avec des tombes de pierre, sur lesquelles sont graves des inscriptions Latines.
[ ]
12 Marmol_1667_II_ 393 Sargel: Lorsque nous fusmes en cette ville, nous y vismes de grans
piliers dalbtre & des statues de pierre avec des inscriptions Latines & plusieurs autres antiquitez, & les Maures disoient quils les trouvoient en creusant dans leurs hritages, & quil ny a pas
longtems quon avoit trouv de la sorte vn grand pilier dalbtre tout environn de monstres, &
soutenu par deux lions aussi grans que des taureaux. Nous y vismes aussi deux grandes statues
de nymphes qui estoient dalbtre, & paroissoient estre des Idoles des Gentils, lvne avoit autour
de la teste ces lettres...
[ ]
13 Marmol_1667_II_442 Tebessa: ferme de hauts murs qui sont faits de grandes pierres
semblables celles du Colise de Rome, ce qui fait voir que cest vne grande Colonie des
Romains...il y a dans Tbessa deux belles grandes sources deau vive, de belles antiquitez &
des statues de marbre avec des inscriptions Latines, comme celles que lon voit Rome & en
plusieurs lieux de lEurope.
[ ]
14 Renier_1859_207 on Reniers advice: Ces instructions font connatre les localits sur lesquelles les investigations doivent porter de prfrence, la direction leur imprimer, la mthode
suivre pour le relvement des inscriptions, et les mesures prendre pour la conservation locale
des antiquits. 209215 for a list of ancient localities by province. 216 but searching for inscriptions entails excavation: Cinq ou six travailleurs, pouvus de pinces ou de leviers en fer, de pelles
et de pioches, formeraient un personnel suffisant pour chaque exploration.
[ ]
15 Montaudon_1898_39, 42 in 1842: Le 20 juin, nous passons prs des ruines dAmora,
ancienne cit romaine dont lenceinte a prs de deux mille quatre cents mtres de dveloppement; bivouac Tadjend, ancien fort romain . . . Les 29 et 30 juin, nous parcourons les
immenses plaines des Ouled-Aiad. Ces tribus craignent pour leur moisson et leurs troupeaux.
Aussi elles ne nous font aucune rsistance et viennent se soumettre; enfin, aprs des marches

longues et fatigantes, nous allons bivouaquer An-Tekria, o se trouvent les ruines dun important poste romain.
[ ]
16 Saint-Arnaud_1858_271 to his brother, May 1850, from the bivouac at Raz-Gueber: Me
voil en pleins Nemenchas, frre; parcourant un pays o les ruines obstruent nos pas. Des
temples chrtiens avec ces inscriptions curieuses Fide in Deo et ambula. Si Deus pro nobis, quis
adversus nos? Tout cela est devant mon bivouac. Jai fait faire quelques fouilles, on trouv de
petites mdailles sans valeur. Hier, nous avons reconnu les ruines dune grande ville. Jy ai envoy
trois compagnies pour fouiller, rien ne dit encore le nom de tous ces lieux divers. Mes levriers ont
chass un livre, et lont pris sur les marches dun temple. Il nen tait pas plus dur.../ Depuis
quelques jours, nous sommes rtis le matin et gels le soir; cette vie est dure.
[ ]
17 Le Charivari November 1842, 1230: La Commission scientifique de lAlgrie a adress
son rapport au marchal Soult. Voil un rapport scientifique qui peut se flatter dtre tomb
en bonnes mains! / Le pauvre marchal aura compris fort peu de chose aux dcouvertes des
antiquaires. Il a dclar de bonne foi quil nentendait pas les inscriptions romaines, parce quil
ne savait pas litalien.
[ ]
18 Journal des Dbats Politiques et Littraires 13 November 1839, Letter to the editor: Dans
ces contres nouvelles, un champ vaste est ouvert aux savants: le gologue peut maintenant
complter lhistotre naturelle de lAfrique; lartiste et larchologue, en parcourant ces villes, en
dessinant ces monumens romains encore debout, en dchiffrant les inscriptions votives dont
ils sont couverts, pourront puiser ces sources certaines de belles inspirations, et planter de
nouveaux jalons pour diriger lhistorien.
[ ]
19 Morgan_1728_I_212213: Algiers has now fewer Monuments of Antiquity, to boast of,
than any ancient Place I ever came near, and (formidable and redoubted as it renders itself to
many of the Coasts and most Traders of Europe) measures barely one League about, if Caeseria
stood on any other Ground than where Algiers now is. How can we account for what an Author
of such undoubted Credit as Strabo so plainly advances, when he positively says, that King
Juba II, son of Juba I, and Father of Ptolemy. He re-edified the ancient City Jol, and named it
Casaria, which City had just before it a small Island? Not to inlarge, or dwell upon what might
be produced from other Writers of Repute, I shall, implicitly, acquiesce to this single Authority,
and take no farther Notice of other concurring Circumstances, which might serve to corroborate
it; only observing, that Algiers has, in Front of it, just such an Island, whereas neither Tegedemt,
nor any other Place on the Coast, intimated by Geographers to have been Jol (or, as some have
it, Julia) Caesaria, can produce the least Appearance of any such Rock, or Island. / And, yet it is
wonderful, that not one Inscription, one Statue, or even a Fragment of any Triumphal Arch, or
any thing like it, that I could ever see or hear of, by digging Foundations, Cellars, Cisterns, Wells,
etc., is to be met with, in the whole Neighbourhood.
[ ]
20 Anon_1863_46 Algiers: Dans une savante notice dans laquelle il a dtermin dune
manire irrfragable la position dIcosium, la ville laquelle a succd plus tard, lEl-Djezar
des Arabes, notre Alger actuel, M. Berbrugger mentionne une importante inscription romaine
dcouverte par lui dans la boutique dun cloutier dAlger, sur une norme pierre cubique enleve
lune de ces constructions mauresques en ruine que lon rencontre frquemment dans le haut
de la ville. Le prcieux bloc tant sorti de la boutique du cloutier auquel il servait denclume,
pour tre employ comme pierre de construction, le passant peut lire aujourdhui cette curieuse
inscription dans le quartier bas dAlger, sur un pilier dangle, au coin des rues Bab-Azounet du
Caftan.
appendix
21]LIndpendant de Mostaganem_7_Aug_1892 reprinted from Le National: Des officiers
du 4e tirailleurs viennent de dcouvrir Sousse deux peintures murales. Lune reprsente un
cabaretier son comptoir versant boire un client; sur la table est un grand tonneau; derrire,
une crdence avec les verres. Lautre est une scne de cueillette dolives . . . Les rudits nous
diront bientt la valeur de ces peintures...Nos officiers du 4e tirailleurs nen sont pas leur coup
dessai. Ils fouillent en tous sens le vieux municipe dHadrumte qui prcda la moderne Sousse.
Ce passetemps na rien de vulgaire: cest un sport intellectuel qui remplace avantageusement
besigue, mme chinois. Les inscriptions recueillies vont enrichir la volumineuse publication que
les savants appellent: le Corpus. Pour se guider en leur recherches, nos officiers ont eux-mmes,
au Cercle militaire, un petit Corpus africain. Si lhomme loreille casse dEdmond About se
rveillait au cercle de Sousse, il ne crierait pas: Garon, lAnnuaire! [i.e. the Army List] mais
bien: Garon, le Corpus!
[ ]
22 Sance de la Commission de lAfrique du Nord, 16 novembre 1920, in BACTHS 1920,
CCVIICCVIII: M. le colonel Noiret annonce que des brigades topographiques sont sur le point
de repartir pour la Tunisie, lAlgrie et le Maroc, et quelles ont reu des instructions pour dresser
la carte archologique des rgions o elles opreront, aussi bien que pour communiquer au
Ministre leurs trouvailles. Il est convenu quen ce qui concerne la Tunisie, on demandera
M. Merlin de donner des instructions aux officiers qui doivent explorer cette anne le pays situ
au sud du Kef, et que M. Gsell voudra bien leur faire parvenir des renseignements sur la manire
de prendre des estampages. M. le Prsident remercie M. le colonel Noiret des assurances quil
veut bien donner la Commission.
[ ]
23 Rozet_1833_I_IX captain on the General Staff: Jai eu lhonneur de faire partie de larme
dAfrique, comme ingnieur gographe attach ltat-major gnral d cette vaillante arme,
en outre lavantage de rester pendant seize mois dans la contre et de me trouver presque
toutes les expditions qui ont eu lieu dans lintrieur des terres. Habitu observer la nature,
jai mis tous mes instans profit: je ne voyageais jamais sans un calepin et une critoire dans
la basque de mon habit, et toutes les fois que je pouvais marrter pendant une demi-heure,
jcrivais tout ce que javais vu depuis la dernire station. De cette manire, jai recueilli un grand
nombre de notes trs exactes.
[ ]
24 SHD Gnie Article 15 Section 1, 25, Campagnes, Algrie 18141848, General de Bellormet,
Compte sommaire des oprations faites pendant lexpdition de Miliana 3 july 1840. 9: Miliana
a, sans aucune doute, t occup par les Romains. Jy ai copi une inscription fort intacte, beaucoup de pans de murailles ont antrieurement fait partie dautres difices et jai trouv un beau
chapiteau corinthien en marbre blanc de grande dimension que je nai pas eu le temps de faire
dterrer mais que jai racommand au chef du gnie. 10: details of 2 Roman forts near Miliana,
the second one o jai retrouv des pierres de taille.
[ ]
25 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_123 Miliana: La domination romaine a laiss Miliana des
traces non quivoques de son passage; un reste de voie romaine existe encore aux environs de
la ville; le temps a mme conserv la faade dun difice qui date de cette poque. Beaucoup
de blocs de marbre dont plusieurs portent des bas-reliefs et des inscriptions gisent pars dans
lintrieur de lenceinte. Lun de ces basreliefs reprsente un homme cheval, tenant une pe
dans une main et un rameau dans lautre. / Au commencement de 1847 la population indigne de
Miliana se composait de 1,247 habitants, et la population europenne de 1,210, dont 793 Franais.
[ ]
26 Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_2829: Aprs avoir pass le col de la Mouarah, notre arme a
camp Guelma, sur la rive gauche de la Seybouse. Il reste Guelma, dit le rapport du marchal
[

Clausel, de nombreuses ruines de construction romaines; et notamment lenceinte de lancienne
citadelle est assez bien conserve pour a permettre dy tablir en toute sret, contre les Arabes,
un poste militaire. Arrivs Guelma, nous trouvons, dit lofficier dartillerie que jai dj cit,
les ruines dune ville romaine immense. Toutes les pierres sont l; il ny aurait qu les runir.
Un cirque dune tendue considrable subsiste encore en grande partie; dbris de colonnes,
inscriptions de toute espce; il y avait l de la pture pour les archologues et les dessinateurs.
[ ]
27 Caraman_1843_4445 Guelma, 1836 on the first expedition to Constantine: Nous
arrivmes, aprs une marche assez fatigante devant Guelma, dont la Seybouse nous sparait.
Ce point avait t occup et fortifi davance, et notre camp fut tabli peu de distance de
nombreux dbris de cette ville romaine. Quelques uns dentre nous, et jtais du nombre,
tentrent avec peine, et non sans danger, de traverser sans pont ni bateau la rivire gonfle par
lorage de la nuit, pour aller visiter les restes curieux dune grandeur vanouie. Ce ne fut pas sans
une sorte dmotion que je vis, au milieu du dsert, et au milieu de lAtlas, en prsence de ces
tmoins importants dune poque o la fortune des armes avait soumis la puissance romaine
tant de nations indpendantes. Je me disais que nous venions notre tour envahir ces rgions
lointaines, et leur imposer le joug du vainqueur; qu notre tour nous devenions matres de
la destine de ces peuples; que nous voyions de mme des regards consterns demander la
rsignation le seul adoucissement possible au plus grand des malheurs; que dans la suite des
temps, dautres pourraient venir aussi tudier les vestiges de notre passage, et quelques pierres
mutiles seraient peut-tre, seules en porter tmoignage.
[ ]
28 Caraman_1843_45 Guelma, 1836, on the first expedition to Constantine: Nos recherches
nous firent reconnatre de nombreuses inscriptions voisines sans grand intrt, des dbris de
colonnes, des fragments de spultures, le trac complet dun thtre, des bains, un cirque taill
dans le roc, enfin, une vaste tendue de terrain couvert dune quantit immense de plus belles
pierres, retraant les vicissitudes du sort dont nous allions perptuer la tradition par notre
conqute. / Ces restes de constructions romaines ont dj subi plusieurs transformations:
convertis par les Sarrasins, et suivant les principes de lart de la guerre au 12e et 13e sicles,
en enceintes et en tours, formant comme des citadelles opposes aux incursions des arabes,
nous les vmes employs par le gnie franais lever de nouveaux remparts. Je passai toute la
journe parcourir ces ruines avec deux officiers qui partageaient mon ardeur fouiller ce vaste
cimetire de la domination romaine dans ces contres.
[ ]
29 Revue Africaine I 1856, 6: Vers la fin de 1839, une commission scientifique fut cre pour
explorer lAlgrie divers points de vue. Par malheur, elle commena de fonctionner lpoque
o la reprise des hostilits avec Abd-el-Kader ne lui laissait gure dautre champ dinvestigation
que quelques parties du littoral; et elle vit clore sa priode active alors que les succs du marchal Bugeaud, rouvraient le pays tous:les genres de recherches. Malgr ces dfavorables circonstances, elle a produit destimables travaux et a surtout donn ici une impulsion scientifique
qui sest continue aprs son dpart.
[ ]
30 Orlans_1892_281282 Expdition des Portes de Fer SeptNov 1839: La route, jusqu Stora,
suit lancienne voie romaine, et tout le pays ressemble un second Herculanum. Les murailles
de plusieurs maisons de campagne sont encore debout, ainsi quune partie des quais de Stora
et de Rusicade, qui devait tre une trs grande ville. Les arnes se voient encore fort bien; les
citernes et les magasins immenses sont encore en tat de servir; les ponts aussi, et partout on
marche sur des fts de colonne, des pierres tumulaires avec inscriptions, etc. La commission
scientifique aura de la besogne ici. Mais le gnie sempare de tout ce qui est joli et sen fait une
appendix
espce de petit palais. Plusieurs maisons sont entirement construites en pierres tumulaires
romaines, et vont devenir des boutiques. NB Orlans comments also appear in the edited version of his diary, Charles Nodiers Journal de lexpdition des Portes de Fer.
[ ]
31 Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_105 par un tmoin oculaire: A un quart de lieue
lest de notre bivouac, on vit une masse considrable de ruines, connues dans le pays sous le nom
dAnouna. Nous prmes copie dune trentaine dinscriptions latines; mais aucune ne nous rvla
le nom de cette ville numidienne. On trouve lentre de ces ruines lunique inscription que
Shaw nous fait connatre, ainsi que le btiment avec la croix de pierre et lancre dont il parle. Les
inscriptions que nous copimes se trouvent toutes sur des pierres tumulaires; malheurement
les plus importantes sont tronques. Aucun des anciens gographes ne fait mention dune ville
dont la situation puisse indiquer que cest Anouna. On doit en tre dautant plus tonn quon
y aperoit trs-distinctement les traces dune grande route romaine dans la direction de Cirta
(Constantine), et quon doit prsumer quil existait une communication trs-frquente entre
cette ville et Calama (Ghelma). Mais les Romains fondaient des villes et mme des empires sans
en avertir le monde par crit. On dcouvre les traces de la prsence de ces conqurants classiques
dans les gouffres les plus inabordables.de lAtlas, au midi de Boudschia, o habite le peuple le
plus sauvage et le plus rude de la terre; on trouve, dis-je, des ruines de villes considrables l o
probablement ne posera jamais un pied franais.
[ ]
32 Bapst_1909_I_284 in 1837 Canrobert at Medjez-Amar: vaste camp construit sur une pente
et o devait se runir larme expditionnaire, environ onze ou douze mille hommes, avec tout
le matriel de sige. / Durant cette marche, nous avions t surpris de la quantit de ruines
romaines espaces sur notre chemin. Entre autres, nous visitmes une halte des bains aux
piscines de marbre admirablement conserves; tout ct tait une source bouillonnante deau
chaude qui alimentait les larges bassins de marbre blanc. Tout autour un magnifique berceau
de verdure faisait de cet endroit un lieu de repos dlicieux. Un rgiment en passant, ma-t-on dit
depuis, avait coup tous ces arbrisseaux pour entretenir les feux de bivouac.
[ ]
33 Expdition_de_Constantine_1838_130 par un tmoin oculaire: Les Arabes disent
quil y a encore beaucoup de ruines romaines entre Constantine et la petite ville de Mila. Aussi
beaucoup de pierres, mures dans les maisons de Constantine, portent des traces incontestables
dorigine romaine. Nous vmes sur quelques unes de ces pierres des inscriptions que nous
copimes avec soin.
[ ]
34 Blaquire_1813_144 Constantine: and when inside the town, are every where struck with
the remains of its former splendor; granite pillars, broken friezes, pedestals, and innumerable
Greek, Latin, and Punic inscriptions, are frequently met with. The well known jealousy of the
Moors has prevented excavations from being made near this place; but a proper application
would soon remove the difficulties that have hitherto operated against that.
[ ]
35 Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_263 Constantine: Je viens dapprendre quAchmet, en faisant des dmolitions pour fortifier la porte du Pont (Bab-el-Cantara), a retrouv un monument
romain, avec des colonnes entires couches sur le sol, et mme des statues et des inscriptions
latines.
[ ]
36 Malte-Brun_1858_1415: Les dbris de la Constantine romaine servirent alors difier
les mosques musulmanes, les nouvelles fortifications et la Kasba, qui a t remplace par
dimmenses casernes dune architecture trop rgulire. Il faut, pour bien comprendre ce que
fut cette ville intressante, parcourir le muse que la Socit archologique a consacr ses
antiquits, et qui est install en partie dans la salle du Conseil municipal, en partie dans le

jardin de la place du Caravansra, il faut lire dans ses annuaires et ses mmoires les nombreuses
inscriptions qui ont t sauves de loubli par les soins et la patiente rudition de MM. Creully,
Cherbonneau, Foy, Rnier, etc. Il faut enfin suivre sur les lieux mmes les moindres fouilles que
les embellissements de la ville ncessitent journellement et qui ne sont jamais infructueuses au
point de vue archologique et pigraphique.
[ ]
37 Thierry-Mieg_1861_147 Constantine: Aux abords mme de ce plateau, on a dcouvert, en
btissant quelques maisons europennes, des tombeaux en grand nombre, et on y a trouv des
inscriptions fort intressantes. Il parat que ce lieu servait de cimetire lpoque romaine. Au
moment o nous arrivions, un brave cultivateur, qui creusait un champ de ce ct, nous montra avec le plus grand empressement une pierre tumulaire quil venait de dterrer; elle contenait une inscription berbre en caractres puniques. Dans une hutte quil possdait quelques
pas de l, il avait runi un grand nombre de pierres portant toutes des lgendes latines, puis
des lampes funraires, et tous les objets quon trouve habituellement dans les tombeaux de
cette poque.
[ ]
38 SHD MR1317 3738, Lieutenant L.H. Bartel, Etudes sur lhistoire de la ville de Bougie
July 1847, 58 pages. 810 for transcriptions of Roman inscriptions, very well done. Author reckons
that at least one occupies its original place; others were to be found en avant de lArsnal.
17: drawing of Porte Arabe du Moyen Age Bougie arcaded. 16: description of Bougie in the
Middle Ages: en avant de Moussa, lancien chteau Romain avec trois tours, rajeun et dcor
la manire des Arabes. On distinguait sur le sol des mosaques, et sur les murs des inscriptions,
des emblmes, des figures en relief sur pltre et sur bois dposs avec tant dart quils surpassaient de beaucoup le prix et la valeur de la forteresse elle-mme. 17: a Saracen enceinte built
on top of a Roman one ne prsente gure sur son immense tendue de plus de 5,000 mtres,
que ruines amonceles. 25: draws 4 Spanish inscriptions. 56 for overview of the diffrents
ouvrages dfensifs existent en 47.
[ ]
39 Rozet_and_Carette_1850_54 Guelma/Calama: Les pierres de taille accumules sur lemplacement de la ville romaine fournirent des matriaux tout prpars aux constructions franaises, qui slevrent rapidement, au milieu des misres dune premire installation, sur un sol
nu et par un hiver rigoureux. Quelques ingnieurs apportrent dans lemploi de ces dbris historiques un respect et une sollicitude qui meritent toute la reconnaissance du monde savant. Cest
ainsi quun officier dartillerie, charg de la construction dune caserne qui devait donner ses
troupes leur premier abri, fit rechercher avec soin les pierres portant inscription et disposer les
faces crites dans le parement extrieur du mur, de manire en assurer la conservation et en
mme temps en faciliter ltude. De cette faon il fit dune simple caserne un beau et curieux
muse. / Aujourdhui un assez grand nombre ddifices europens se sont levs Guelma, et
sans ter ces magnifiques dbris leur aspect pittoresque, leur ont ajout, par la vie nouvelle qui
les anime, le charme du contraste.
[ ]
40 Perret_1902_238: Les membres archologues de la commission scientifique, aussi
mystifis que leur collgue naturaliste, neurent pas le droit de rire des rats trompe de la
Mauritanie csarenne. Ils venaient en effet de plir plusieurs jours sur une grosse pierre que leur
avaient apporte les zphyrs, et couverte dune longue inscription commenant ainsi: Z. LVD.
FEC. OCT. D. S. POL. / Cette pierre avait t roule dans la terre afin de lui donner une apparence
dantiquit; les angles en avaient t casss et on avait us quelques lettres de linscription quun
zphyr bachelier traduisait ainsi: Le zphyr Louis a fait huit jours de salle de police.
appendix
41]Moll_18601861_195196 on Tebessa & Procopius: La plupart de ces citadelles dont parle
sans les nommer notre chroniqueur, existent encore plus ou moins bien conserves. Ce sont,
outre Thveste, les forts byzantins de Lambse, Thamugas, Ksar Baghae, Krenchela, Cherryia, et
tous les nombreux postes chelonns entre Thveste et Lambse sur les deux versants de lAurs. /
Sans nous permettre dautre commentaire, nous terminerons ce que nous avons dire sur cette
Inscription par lobservation suivante: / Lexpression Thveste civitas fundamentis aedificata
est indique que cette ville tait compltement en ruines larrive des armes byzantines, et
par suite le titre de second fondateur de Thveste que nous avons donn Solomon, appartient
de droit ce gnral. Des considrations dalignements suffiraient dailleurs pour prouver cette
destruction antrieure. / En effet, lenceinte, dont linscription cite rappelle la construction,
coupe transversalement en plusieurs endroits des corps entiers danciens btiments, des pts
de maisons. Elle passe entre autres tout prs de la face nord du portique qui environne le temple
et sa direction est presque parallle cette face. Si ce portique avait t debout, lingnieur
byzantin laurait, sans aucun doute, utilis pour son enceinte au lieu de se placer moins dun
mtre en avant; une lgre modification du trac actuel aurait suffi pour obtenir ce rsultat. / Il
faut conclure de l que non seulement le portique tait renvers, mais encore lamas de pierres
assez considrable, pour quau lieu de les dblayer, il y ait eu avantage creuser de nouvelles
fondations.
[ ]
42 Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_339 work of Carbuccia, Rapport sur les travaux archologiques du colonel Carbuccia, to the AIBL, in Revue de lOrient de lAlgrie et des Colonies
IX Paris 1851, 338343: Si lon trouvait une inscription, elle tait immdiatement copie par le
dessinateur le plus exerc du dtachement: une statue, un morceau darchitecture taient-ils
enfouis, linstant des mains robustes et prudentes pratiquaient une fouille: le monument
tait mis au jour, dessin ou emport, et sa position tait fixe sur la reconnaissance du terrain.
Chaque soldat, transform pour ainsi dire en antiquaire improvis, docile la direction qui lui
tait imprime, excutait avec empressement, mme avec joie, les ordres du commandant. Ce
nest pas tout: sur les pas des premiers, de nouveaux explorateurs vrifiaient les mesures, les
directions, les distances, et dautres contrlaient les copies des inscriptions; plusieurs taient
occups valuer les hauteurs relatives des lieux, et on prenait note de manire estimer le
relief du terrain, peu prs de dix mtres. Enfin, plusieurs plans topographiques taient levs
la planchette; on a mme, sur quelques points, effectu des oprations trigonomtriques. /
Cest ainsi quon est parvenu rassembler tous les lments dune grande carte, lchelle du
100,000e, qui a plus de 2 mtres sur 1m 50, y marquer des courbes approximatives exprimant
la forme du terrain dans ce pays montueux et trs-accident, plusieurs gisements minraux, les
altitudes des lieux, les cours deau dans un grand dtail, enfin la ligne de partage continue qui
spare les courants versant dans la Mditerrane, de ceux qui scoulent vers le Sahara; lon y
a marqu les nombreuses bornes milliaires qui ont t dcouvertes, la plupart encore en place,
enfin toutes les ruines romaines, soit celles qui taient apparentes, soit celles qui ont t exhumes laide de fouilles. Noublions pas dajouter que le colonel Carbuccia a recueilli et fait crire
soigneusement, en arabe, de la main des indignes, tous les noms de lieux des ruines, au nombre
denviron 300.
[ ]
43 Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_342343: Nous passons la seconde partie de la lettre de M.
le ministre de la guerre. Il dsire savoir quelles sont les personnes qui ont concouru au travail
du colonel Carbuccia. Avant de dsigner ceux qui mritent dtre nots plus particulirement,
[

nous devons rappeler ici ce que nous a rpt plusieurs fois, avec une loyaut, une modestie qui
lhonorent, M. le colonel Carbuccia: Son travail, dit-il, est luvre du 2e rgiment tout entier,
et cest ce corps quen revient le mrite. Sans le concours que lui ont apport ses nombreux
auxiliaires, jamais il naurait pu achever des travaux aussi varis, aussi considrables: le simple
soldat, ajoute-t-il, a coopr comme les officiers au rsultat commun. En arrivant au bivouac,
souvent aprs des marches forces, il prenait gament la pioche et consacrait aux fouilles le
temps du repos. Oblig de dsigner les principaux de ses collaborateurs, le colonel Carbuccia
indique les noms suivants: / Aprs les deux officiers suprieurs, MM. de Caprez, lieutenant-colonel du 2e rgiment de la lgion trangre, et Boudrille, chef de bataillon, il cite: 1. M. Collineau,
capitaine adjudant-major, celui qui a dcouvert la porte du mausole de Madrazen, dit tombeau
du Syphax, et qui, parvenu au bas dun escalier intrieur, a couru les plus grands dangers; 2. Le
lieutenant Rousseau, qui a dessin la carte et qui a pris la plus grande part la dcouverte des
voies romaines; 3. Le sergent-major Tuilliez, qui a recueilli le plus grand nombre dinscriptions;
4. Le sous-officier Steffen, qui vient dtre nomm sous-lieutenant; 5. Le sergent Trompetter;
6. Et le caporal Greffe.
[ ]
44 Jomard_1865_164 on Carbuccia: On sera moins surpris que ce grand travail ait t
accompli en moins de deux annes et demie seulement, et que le colonel Carbuccia ait rencontr
dans sa troupe autant dactivit et de bonne volont pour des recherches darchologie et de
gographie ancienne, quand on saura quil se trouvait dans sa lgion plus dun homme instruit et
mme lettr, entre autres un ancien lve de notre Ecole polytechnique. / Il a su mettre profit le
zle et linstruction de ses compagnons darmes, et, en flattant leur amour-propre, en leur faisant
comprendre quel honneur rejaillirait sur la lgion trangre, il a obtenu deux un dvouement et
un concours infatigables; bel exemple donn toutes les troupes qui stationnent en Algrie! En
montrant les inscriptions laisses par les soldats de la tertia legio Augusta, le colonel Carbuccia
excitait le zle des siens, et leur inspirait le dsir de laisser leur tour, lexemple des Romains,
le souvenir du sjour et des travaux du 2e rgiment de la lgion trangre.
[ ]
45 Saint-Martin_1863_99 within a triumphant list of the benefits France has brought
to Algeria, On a dj fouill le sol sur une foule de points pour exhumer les restes enfouis de
la domination romaine, et on a retrouv ainsi un nombre infini de monuments, de dbris et
dinscriptions qui ont t dcrits dans de beaux ouvrages archologiques ou consigns dans un
prcieux recueil dpigraphie romaine. Plus dune fois, on a vu des compagnies de nos braves soldats, dposant le fusil pour manier la pioche, travailler avec lardeur de vritables archologues,
sous la direction dun officier instruit, dblayer quelque vieux monument. Larme a gard le
souvenir du capitaine Carbuccia, qui lAcadmie des Inscriptions a d plus dune communication importante. Ltude physique, ltude gographique, ont march de front avec les investigations des archologues. Le pays a t lev pied pied par nos officiers et nos ingnieurs, mesure
que nos armes nous ouvraient laccs de nouveaux cantons; de belles et excellentes cartes ont
t ainsi dresses, et lon peut dire aujourdhui que le territoire algrien; nous est aussi connu
que nos propres dpartements.
[ ]
46 RA 1857 issue 8, 110, Berbrugger: Dans la lettre o M. Hervin expose les dtails quon vient
de lire sur la Rorfa des Oulad Selama, il rapporte un fait tranger cette localit mais qui ne
mrite pas moins dtre reproduit. / Il rappelle dabord quun ancien chef du gnie avait dispos
les inscriptions recueillies Aumale sinon dans des conditions favorables leur conservation
(elles taient en plein air), au moins de manire en permettre ltude. Aprs son dpart, on a
eu besoin de construire des hangars sur lemplacement o elles se trouvaient; et elles ont t
appendix
dplaces, bouleverses, puis entasses confusment les unes sur les autres, non sans leur faire
subir de regrettables dtriorations. / Comme il tait impossible dtudier ces documents pigraphiques dans cet tat, M. Hervin a entrepris de les remettre en ordre et il tait en bonne voie dy
russir, lorsquun changement de garnison la loign dAumale. Esprons que son compagnon
dtudes et de recherches, M. Charoy, aura termin sou oeuvre.
[ ]
47 RA 1857 issue 4, in the Chronique, 307: AUZIA (Sour Rozlan ou Aumale). M. Hervin, sousofficier au 1er rgiment de tirailleurs indignes, en garnison Aumale, nous offre de relever les
nombreuses inscriptions runies devant la direction du gnie ou disperses dans la campagne. /
Nous remercions beaucoup ce correspondant et lengageons joindre des estampages chacune
de ses copies, afin quelles puissent tre utilement contrles.
[ ]
48 Berbrugger_1856_153154: Une commission archologique permanente, prise pour
chaque localit dans le personnel du Gnie, des Ponts-et-Chausses, des Btiments civils, etc.,
veillerait la rentre des objets de collection, leur arrangement et leur conservation. Il nest
pas un de nos nombreux correspondants qui nacceptt avec plaisir cette honorable mission. /
De la sorte, il ny aurait pas de personnel payer et les dpenses de matriel se borneraient l
construction de quelques hangars peu coteux pour mettre les objets de collection labri des
injures de lair, des frais de transport pour faire arriver ces objets du lieu de dcouverte au local
de conservation. Les moyens dont le service du Gnie dispose lui permettraient datteindre ce
double rsultat, sans quil ft ncessaire de grever le budget dune dpense de quelque importance. / Cette organisation provisoire, on le voit, assure la conservation des antiquits que lon
dcouvre, en opre la concentration immdiate, si commode pour les tudes, et nengage pas
lavenir. Quel que soit le systme que le Gouvernement adopte plus tard dans la question des
muses algriens, aucun des lments qui les composent naura t perdu, et il demeurera libre
de les centraliser, ou de les localiser, ou de combiner les deux modes, selon quil lui semblera
plus propos, dans lintrt des personnes qui cultivent la science historique et des localits qui
en fournissent les matriaux. / M. Berbrugger termine cet expos en proposant la Socit de
dcider, en principe, quelle sassociera toute dmarche qui aurait pour but de raliser lorganisation provisoire dont il vient dindiquer les bases, dcision qui donnerait ces dmarches la
valeur dune dtermination collective prise par un corps spcial. / La proposition mise aux voix
est unanimement adopte.
[ ]
49 Ballu_1919_54: Un dtachement de zouaves tant pass Masqueray lors de la prsence
Rapidum de M. Charrier, ce dernier en profita pour faire transporter sur la place de lcole
plusieurs fragments darchitecture et quelques inscriptions, dont la colonne milliaire dcouverte
en 1908.
[ ]
50 Wagner_1841_I_300301 Guelma: Inmitten dieser Soldatenstadt voll geschftiger
Rothhosen bewegten sich ausser den zechenden Kriegern, den musicirenden Arabern, den
wiehernden Rossen, eine Menge junger wilder Thiere: Hynen, Stachelschweine, Aasgeier mit
gestutzten Flgeln, welche von den Soldaten jung eingefangen und zum Zeitvertreib aufgezogen
wurden; denn die Jagd mit der Flinte in der Umgegend des Lagers hatte Duvivier streng verboten, um keinen falschen Allarm zu verursachen. Ueber dieser Baraken einzigem Schauspiele
schwebt auf den hchsten Ruinen die Tricolorfahne, hier einer launenhaften Fee hnlich, welche
mit der Numidierstadt eine so abenteuerliche Zaubermetamorphose vorgenommen hat. /
Von Calamas wichtigen und bedeutenden Ruinen existirt noch keine gedruckte Beschreibung.
Die Mitglieder unserer Commission verweilten dort zu kurze Zeit und hatten zu geringe Mittel.
Viele interessante Inschriften mgen unter den umherliegenden Ruinen noch verborgen seyn

und knnen nur durch ein Umwlzen der oft zehn Centner schweren Blcke zu Tage gefrdert
werden. Fr die Untersucher dieser Ruinen ist daher erste Bedingung einer grndlichen umfassenden Arbeit, dass man ihnen eine hinreichende Zahl krftiger Arbeiter an die Seite gebe,
mit deren Beistand sie unter dem Steinhaufen nach Herzenslust stbern knnten, ohne das
Geringste zu zerstren.
[ ]
51 Demonts_1921_236, relaying Baudens account of the 1831 corps expditionnaire. Houses
at Mdah: Les maisons, bties sur le patron de celles dAlger et de Blidah, reprsentent les cts
dun quadrilatre et nont quun seul tage. Elles se composent dune cour au rez-de-chausse,
pave en marbre chez les riches, et en dalles plus ou moins grossires chez ceux qui ne le sont
point. Sur chacune des quatre faces de cette cour, rgnent des colonnes en marbre ou en pierre
soutenant une galerie qui est au premier tage.
[ ]
52 Poinssot_1885_99 Sidi bou Attila: En quittant An Hedja, la route suit le flanc dun coteau
qui savance dans la valle. Au del, lentre de la plaine du Ghorib, slve la Koubba de Sidi
bou Attila, o plusieurs bornes milliaires sont employes en guise de colonnes, dautres gisent
brises sur le sol.
[ ]
53 Donau_1908_58 la voie romaine de Tacape Turris Tamalleni: Quant aux bornes
des groupes suivants: XXIX, XXX, XXXI et XXXII, elles nont pas laiss de trace dans la plaine,
car elles ont t employes dans les constructions indignes qui entourent le Marabout dit:
Sidi Ben Rhelouf (Mengallou de la carte au 200,000e). / Ce marabout occupe le sommet dun
monticule, dominant une source que les Romains navaient pas nglige. La route de Tamallen
touchait, au sud, le groupe de maisons qui avoisinait ce point deau, puis obliquait au sud-ouest
pour gagner loued Nakhla. Son XXXIme mille se trouvait, sur cette nouvelle direction, 500
mtres environ au sud-ouest du marabout. La Koubba leve sur la tombe du santon, le caravansrail destin aux plerins qui la visitent, et les amnagements successifs du bassin de la
source, ont absorb toutes les pierres des constructions antrieures, ainsi que les milliaires du
voisinage. Aussi, nest-ce que par hasard, au cours des recherches faites dans le sous-sol par les
Rhialifs (descendants de Ben Rhelouf), pour en tirer des moellons destins de nouvelles maisons, quon pourrait trouver quelques renseignements sur ce hameau romain inconnu.
[ ]
54 Cagnat_et_al_1890_222223 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of
antiquity. Antiquities in Arab houses: Il nest pas rare que les maisons arabes, les mosques, les
koubbas, les haoutas, soient faites de pierres empruntes des monuments antiques. Il faudra
donc, au lieu de ngliger ces constructions cause de leur date rcente et de leur dlabrement,
les examiner avec grand soin. / Les pierres antiques portant des sculptures ou des inscriptions
ont gnralement t employes, cause de leurs dimensions, dans les parties de la btisse qui
rclament de grosses pierres, cest--dire comme linteaux de porte, comme montants, comme
seuils. Les bornes milliaires ou les cippes funraires hexagonaux ont t souvent utiliss comme
colonnes dans ldifice; on grattera lgrement la chaux dont ils sont couverts, surtout dans
les koubbas, pour sassurer sils ne portent pas dinscriptions. Si lon peut, on pntrera dans les
cours des maisons; mme dans les villages, elles sont parfois dalles, et il arrive que ces dalles
sont des inscriptions ou des fragments ornements. Les puits sont aussi des endroits visiter
soigneusement; la margelle en est frquemment faite de pierres antiques et des sarcophages y
servent dauges pour abreuver les bestiaux ou les btes de somme. En un mot toute construction
arabe, mme et surtout peut-tre dans la campagne, devra attirer lattention du voyageur. On
pourra aussi y rencontrer des fragments intressants pour lart oriental: cest l quon trouvera,
par exemple, ces vieilles faences arabes, qui ne se font plus aujourdhui, et que lon a remplaces
appendix
par la faence italienne bon march, ou des plafonds en pltre ajours, qui sont une merveille
de grce et de finesse.
[ ]
55 Tissot_1888_351352 milestones: Quiconque a parcouru la Rgence de Tunis sait le rle
important que jouent les colonnes dans larchitecture locale: les plus grandes soutiennent les
arcades des mosques et des cours intrieures des maisons particulires; celles de moindres
dimensions, comme les bornes milliaires, ornent le pan coup pratiqu la partie infrieure des
angles de la plupart des constructions publiques ou prives. Aussi ne retrouve-t-on quun trs
petit nombre de milliaires en place sur les voies romaines de la province dAfrique. En revanche,
dans les centres habits par des populations sdentaires, on en retrouve beaucoup qui ont t
apports de points souvent assez loigns, et dont lorigine est atteste par la tradition. Leur
transport seffectue dailleurs sans difficult, de grandes distances, par un moyen des plus
simples: deux trous creuss dans laxe du ft, chaque extrmit, reoivent deux chevilles de
bois runies par une traverse, et la plus lourde colonne se transforme ainsi en un rouleau quune
ou deux paires de bufs tranent facilement.
[ ]
56 Berbrugger_1857_242: Les ruines antiques, situes porte des centres de populations
modernes, ont t et sont encore mises contribution pour les matriaux de construction. De
l, un dplacement de pierres, qui oblige larchologue se tenir en garde, quant la provenance
des documents pigraphiques quil rencontre dans les cits arabes ou franaises. Ainsi, il y a une
inscription de Rusgunia (Matifou), dans les magasins qui sont sous la Place du Gouvernement,
Alger; il y en a une de Tipasa (Tfassedt) sur le rempart du Fort-de-1Eau. Cependant, lorsque
la ville moderne est trs-petite et que la cit romaine dont elle occupe lemplacement tait
fort considrable, comme Cherchel, par exemple, compar Julia Caesarea, on peut tre
certain que les antiquits quon y observe appartiennent au lieu mme; car on a pu y prendre
des matriaux, mais on na eu aucun besoin den apporter dailleurs. / Quant aux ruines situes
dans la rgion de la tente et du gourbi, loin des villes actuelles, elles sont toujours aussi intactes
que les ravages du temps ont pu le permettre. On ny a rien pris, encore moins apport; on ny a
mme presque jamais rien drang. Quelques faibles fouilles pour la recherche des trsors, un
petit nombre de dgradations commises pour arracher le mtal qui scellait des pierres; cela se
bornent les actes de vandalisme quon peut reprocher aux Indignes.
[ ]
57 Peyssonnel_1838_I_3233 travelled 172425, Sousse: Au bas de la ville, on trouve deux
grands enclos de murailles, flanqus de demi-tours rondes, dont on a fait deux mosques. Ces
enclos paraissent avoir t autrefois des monastres, ce que lon connat par la structure des
portes et lair de ldifice. Il y avait un clocher chacun dont on a fait des minarets qui sont de
mme fabrique que les murailles. Jai appris quil y avait l-dedans des critures graves que les
Turcs nentendent pas; je crois fort que ce doit tre des critures latines. Jy aurais volontiers t
sil tait permis aux chrtiens dy entrer. On y garde mme, dit-on, des manuscrits latins.
[ ]
58 Peyssonnel_1838_I_102 travelled 172425, 7 leagues from Tunis: Tuburbo, petit village que
les Maures revenus dAndalousie ont rebti sur les ruines de lancienne ville; les maisons y sont
couvertes de briques rondes, comme en Provence, et bties la plupart dans le got europen. Les
habitans de ce village y parlent presque tous espagnol, langage quils ont conserv de pre en fils.
On nous conduisit dans une mosque o nous trouvmes sur un pidestal cette pitaphe. i.e.
only the Arabs want to keep Christians out of mosques?
[ ]
59 Pellissier_1853_36 Description de la Rgence de Tunis: Tehent est compos de cinquante
soixante chtives cabanes. Jarrivai la nuit avec une pluie battante, et souffrant dune violente
chute, mon cheval stant abattu dans les rochers. Jy reus la plus cordiale hospitalit. Les

habitants ne voulurent pas souffrir que je dressasse mes tentes, et, nayant rien de mieux moffrir, ils me logrent dans leur petite mosque. Je cite ce fait, qui peut paratre trange ceux qui
connaissent le fanatisme des musulmans et qui savent avec quelle rigueur ils interdisent lentre
de leurs temples aux infidles; mais il parait que dans ces montagnes il rgne une assez grande
indiffrence religieuse. On my a cit un cadi, lui docteur de la loi, qui nobserve aucune des prescriptions du culte, et qui nen est pas moins aim et considr.
[ ]
60 Gurin_1862_II_3940 Bja, Mosque of Sidna-Assa: Mon titre de chrtien minterdisait
absolument toute entre dans cette mosque; mais je me convainquis bientt que la tradition
singulire des habitants par rapport a ce monument renfermait quelque vrit, et que ctait
bien effectivement une ancienne basilique chrtienne, qui plus tard avait t remanie pour
devenir un sanctuaire musulman. Car, ayant remarqu sur lun des murs extrieurs de cette mosque une grande pierre revtue de caractres dont plusieurs peraient travers lpaisse couche
de chaux qui les recouvrait, jobtins des autorits de la ville la permission de la gratter. Le khalife
poussa mme lobligeance jusqu rester prs de moi pendant cette opration, afin de me protger dinsultes. Quand jeus, avec laide de Mataspina, achev de gratter cette pierre, jy distinguai
les lettres suivantes.../ Ce fragment pigraphique, bien que mutil et incomplet, est cependant
prcieux, car il nous apprend par qui et sous quel rgne cette basilique fut construite ou seulement rpare et embellie. / Sur un autre point des murs extrieurs de cette mme mosque, je
dcouvris un second bloc, revtu galement dune inscription que drobait en grande partie aux
regards la chaux dont on avait recouvert ce pidestal; cen tait un, en effet, encastr dans la
maonnerie. Aussitt que cette couche de chaux eut t enleve, je lus ce qui suit. no wonder
less attention gets paid to Muslim monuments than they deserve!
[ ]
61 Gurin_1861_45 Kairouan: Je nai pu, bien entendu, y pntrer les mosques, en Tunisie
et surtout Kairouan, tant tout fait inaccessibles aux chrtiens. Jai pu seulement faire le tour
extrieur du quadrilatre quelle forme et encore les scheiks et les chaouchs qui mescortaient
me pressaient-ils de hter le pas et de ne pas jeter un coup doeil trop attentif sur ce monument religieux, lun des plus vnrs de lislamisme, dans la crainte dveiller les murmures et de
mattirer les outrages des habitants. Un haut mur denceinte, perc de plusieurs portes, enferme
ce quadrilatre; quelques-unes de ces portes sont ornes de colonnes antiques dont les chapiteaux lgants ont perdu malheureusement en partie la grce de leur forme premire, cause
de lpaisse couche de chaux dont on les a recouverts. Rien ne domine lextrieur de cette
immense mosque quune grande tour carre, trs large sa base et couronne de trois tages
en retraite les uns sur les autres. Cette tour saperoit de trs loin et cest elle qui, la distance de
18 kilomtres environ, signale au voyageur lapproche de Karouan. Lintrieur de cet difice et
des diverses galeries quil comprend est, dit-on, peupl de magnifiques colonnes en marbre, en
granit et en porphyre, enleves des monuments antiques.
[ ]
62 Saladin_1887_4 Sousse: La ville doit contenir, en bien des points, des restes intressants;
mais la visite des mosques est fort difficile: les musulmans ne se prtent qu contre-cur aux
recherches quon veut y faire. Dans la kasbah, on remarque, diffrents endroits, des chapiteaux,
des colonnes ou des fragments antiques cachs sous une paisse couche de badigeon.
[ ]
63 Tissot_1888_667668 Gafsa: Un passage dEl-Bekri fait supposer que lenceinte de la
grande mosque contient galement une piscine antique, plus considrable encore que celles
dont nous venons de donner la description. Dans lenceinte de la mosque Djmi, dit le
gographe arabe, est une grande fontaine, dont le bassin, revtu en pierre et de construction
appendix
antique, a quarante brasses tant en longueur quen largeur. / Laccs des mosques tant rigoureusement interdit aux chrtiens, il ma t impossible de vrifier lassertion dEl-Bekri, mais les
habitants de Kafsa men ont affirm lexactitude.
[ ]
64 Simond_1887_5153 Kairouan: Elle possde de nombreuses mosques, dont la principale, Djama-el-Kbir, est la plus grandiose. Lentre de ces mosques tait autrefois interdite
aux chrtiens. De l lespce de sainte et mystrieuse aurole dont la foi musulmane entourait Kairouan. Lexpdition franaise de 1881 a ouvert toutes grandes les portes inviolables. Une
garnison franaise campe dans les murs de Kairouan et le gnral qui y reprsente la France
accorde aux voyageurs, sous sa protection, le privilge de voir leur aise ces monuments.
[ ]
65 Chevillet_1896_8487 leaves France in 1881; Kairouan: De tous cts, on trouve des
colonnes romaines en marbre ici, une colonne en marbre vert forme le coin dune rue l, plusieurs colonnes en beau marbre rose sont couches et forment le rebord dun trottoir. Il ny
a pas une curie qui ne renferme plusieurs colonnes romaines auxquelles sont attachs les
nes et les chevaux, et lon y trouve souvent des chapiteaux trs finement fouills, des feuilles
dacanthe trs dlicatement ciseles. Toutes les maisons, les choppes, les moulins renferment
quelques marbres les maisons riches possdent les plus beaux et les plus nombreux lextrieur,
ces demeures nont aucune apparence ce sont des murs grossiers de pltre percs de quelques
troites fentres ou de quelques moucharabis qui surplombent la rue mais ausssitt que vous
entrez, vous vous trouvez parmi des marbres de toutes couleurs...Les cours intrieures sont
en marbre et au milieu se creusent des citernes de marbre souvent ombrages par un figuier
lpais feuillage auprs duquel on se repose dans une dlicieuse fracheur. Les linteaux de
presque toutes les portes et les fentres sont en marbre.
[ ]
66 Duraffourg_1887_219 Bja: Depuis fort longtemps, je cherchais loccasion de visiter lintrieur de lancienne basilique chrtienne, transforme en mosque par les Arabes. La chose
tait fort difficile; ntant pas musulman, il mtait dfendu de pntrer dans la mosque. Au
dire de linterprte qui tait avec moi ce jour-l (et qui lui mme tait musulman) le Cadi ou le
Kalife seuls avaient qualit pour maccorder cette faveur; il fallait en passer par l, je ne voulais
pas madresser au Cadi une deuxime fois, puisquil mavait rpondu quil ne voulait pas me
laccorder, que ctait dfendu. Je fus oblig de madrescer au Kalife que je connaissais beaucoup,
et avec lequel jtais trs li, pour le prier de vouloir bien nous accompagner et me permettre de
visiter la grande mosque intrieurement et extrieurement. Je dois dire que jinsistai beaucoup
auprs du Kalife pour lobtenir, il me rpondait, diffrentes reprises, quil naccordait jamais
cette faveur aux (Roumis-Europens) franais; mais puisque tu es mon ami, je vais taccompagner. / Aprs les salamaleks dusage, jentrais dans la mosque; aprs avoir examin srieusement lintrieur, je lui demande de me montrer les inscriptions Romaines qui sy trouvaient,
il me rpondit quil serait fort difficile de les voir, quelles taient caches ou recouvertes de
chaux. Aprs avoir srieusement insist, il me conduisit lextrieur de la mosque et, muni
dune chelle et de plusieurs morceaux de fer destins faire disparatre la chaux qui recouvrait
la plupart des caractres qui se trouvaient gravs sur une pierre assez large, je pus lire dans deux
endroits diffrents les inscriptions suivantes...
[ ]
67 Duraffourg_1887_218 Bja: Lensemble de la ville, sauf quelques parties, date trs probablement dune poque antrieure linvasion Arabe. Sans tre antique, proprement parler,
elle est btie avec des anciens matriaux qui, sans aucun doute, proviennent dune cration
plus ancienne, et offre tous les caractres dune reconstruction bysantine accomplie la hte

avec des lments divers. On remarque sur plusieurs points une double enceinte, les matriaux
employs diffrent compltement, ce qui semblerait indiquer ou dmontrer que cette ville a t
construite sous divers rgimes et diffrentes poques.
[ ]
68 Leo_Africanus_1896_713 MS completed 1526, Bja: The ancient walles of this towne are
as yet standing, and it is a most defensible place, and well furnished with all kinde of necessaries.
[ ]
69 Shaw_1757_116 Kairouan: We have, at Kairwan, several fragments of ancient
architecture, and the great Mosque, which is accounted to be the most magnificent as well as
the most sacred in Barbary, is supported by an almost incredible number of granate pillars. The
inhabitants told me, (for a Christian is not permitted in Barbary to enter the Mosques of
the Mahometans) that there were no fewer than five hundred. Yet among the great variety of
columns, and other ancient materials that were employed in this large and beautiful structure,
I could not be informed of one single inscription. The inscriptions likewise, which I found in
other places, were either so much filled up with cement, or otherwise defaced, that the ancient
name was not to be found upon any of the surviving antiquities.
[ ]
70 Boddy_1885_6 Kairouan: Sir Grenville Temple, arriving in 1830 with a strong escort, and
carrying an order from the Bey of Tunis, was only allowed to pass hurriedly through the streets,
and warned not to look about him. The Marquess of Waterford ten years later tried to enter,
but was stoned and almost killed. The well-known Palestinian traveller, Dr. Tristram, after his
wanderings south of the Atlas in 1857, visited the land of Tunis; and it is greatly to be regretted
that an account of his explorations was not given to the world. Whilst journeying in the interior
of the country he circled round Kairwns white walls, but deemed it prudent not to enter
the city, though holding the necessary letter of commendation from the Bey. His travels were
extended to the far south of Tunisia, through districts never previously traversed by a European,
and in times when the Bedouins were far less amenable to authority than in the present day.
[ ]
71 Gurin_1862_II_336337 Sabra: Actuellement Sabra, rebtie par Ismal sur des ruines
antiques, na plus gard que son nom et ses souvenirs tous ses monuments ont t de nouveau
comme arraches du sol, et Kairouan sest enrichi encore une fois de ses dpouilles. / Cette dernire ville a-t-elle elle-mme succde une cit antique? Il est probable que non; car nous
savons par le passage que jai cit de lhistorien arabe Novari, qu lpoque o Okbah entreprit
den jeter les fondements il ne trouva dans lendroit quil avait choisi quun fourr impntrable,
refuge des animaux froces, et cet historien ne fait nullement mention de ruines comme existant au milieu de cette fort. Les blocs, les colonnes et les fragments antiques de toute nature
que lon rencontre presque chaque pas dans les constructions modernes de Kairouan proviennent donc dailleurs, soit de Sabra, soit dautres localits plus loignes. La seule inscription
latine que jaie aperue se rduit aux caractres suivants, graves sur un bloc mutit encastr dans
le mur extrieur dune maison...M. Pellissier avait copi deux autres fragments pigraphiques
plus importants, sur deux pierres de la grande mosque. Je ne les ai pas retrouvs; il est vrai
quil ma t impossible dtudier avec soin lextrieur de ce monument, et quon ma seulement
permis dy jeter de loin un coup doeil trs-rapide. M. Pellissier a pu, comme consul de France
et dans des circonstances plus favorables, se livrer un examen plus attentif de cette mosque
clbre, dont on voulait mme minterdire compltement lapproche.
[ ]
72 Saladin_1887_29: A Krouan, dans beaucoup de constructions arabes, on a employ des
fts de colonnes: 1. Pour amortir les angles des maisons; / 2 Pour former les seuils des maisons
ou des mosques; / 3. Pour soutenir des arcs dans les mosques; / 4. Pour former des grilles aux
dbouchs des gouts travers les murs de fortification ou lentre des eaux dans la grande
appendix
fesguia des Beni-Aglab, au nord de la ville. / On a employ des bases en marbre blanc quon a
perces pour en faire des margelles de puits (mosque du Barbier, grande mosque, citernes de
la ville et maisons particulires).
[ ]
73 Hase_1863_334 primarily concerned with epigraphy rather than architecture: Il y a
peu dannes que, sous un sol exhauss par des dcombres, M. Beul a retrouv les restes de
la Carthage punique, que M. Davis a explor cette terre de ruines o tous les ges se pressent
entasss; dautres voyageurs encore ont galement obtenu des rsultats prcieux. Mais leurs
recherches archologiques ne pouvaient tre aussi compltes que celles qui, depuis trente ans,
ont t entreprises en Algrie. A la vrit, les autorits musulmanes, devenues moins intolrantes
que jadis, et surtout plus avides, laissent aujourdhui paisiblement visiter ces silencieux dbris
quils regardent dun oeil indiffrent; mais la masse de la population se prte difficilement
lentre des chrtiens dans les maisons particulires et dans les monuments publics. Sur presque
tous les points du pays, mesure quon sloigne de la rsidence du bey, la facilit de lui dsobir
ou dluder ses ordres produit une sorte danarchie; et plus dune fois ds explorateurs isols ont
prouv tout ce quil y a de fatigant et de dangereux tre lobjet des soupons chimriques ou
de la curiosit inquite dun peuple ignorant et demi sauvage.
[ ]
74 Afrique_Explore_1883_17 for January 1883: Une uvre de mission a t commence
chez les Kabyles de lAlgrie, mahomtans moins fanatiques que les Arabes, sdentaires, industrieux et gnralement pacifiques. M. Mayor, aid dun missionnaire anglais, M. Pearse, a t
appel dans trois villages kabyles, o on lui a offert de prcher dans la mosque. / Le gnral de
division Thomassin doit visiter les ksours de lest de la province dOran, pour voir si les tribus
dportes et internes dans le Tell, pendant la dernire insurrection, ne pourraient point tre
replaces sur leurs anciens territoires, et sil ne serait pas possible de faire de nouveau alliance
avec les chefs du sud, qui occupent la ligne conduisant aux oasis du centre africain.
[ ]
75 Barbier_de_Meynard_1883_11 on a mission from the Ministre de lInstruction Publique
collecting Arabic inscriptions and MSS, under the general auspices of the Commission des tudes
du Nord de lAfrique: Mais, tout en rendant justice au zle courageux et aux efforts persvrants
que MM. Basset et Houdas ont dploys pendant leur courte exploration, la Commission na
pas oubli quil y a en Algrie quelque chose de plus intressant encore, et de plus urgent
rechercher que des inscriptions ou des manuscrits arabes: cest ltude de la langue berbre.
Barbier_de_Meynard_1883B_427, 431 Rapport sur des inscription arabes provenant de Mehdya,
rgence de Tunis, Comptes-rendus des sances de lAIBL, 27e anne, 1883.4, 427431. See 427,
431: Un officier suprieur, M. Juff, commandant de la ville de Mehdya, au sud de la Tunisie,
a fait parvenir dernirement lAcadmie des estampages dinscriptions latines et arabes
recueillies par ses soins dans cette localit...nous devons adresser tous nos remerciements M.
Juff, autant pour ses offres bienveillantes que pour le zle quil a dploy en faveur des tudes
archologiques, et il est juste de le fliciter de lexcellent exemple quil donne aux officiers de
larme doccupation, en leur prouvant quils peuvent devenir dutiles auxiliaires de nos travaux.
[ ]
76 Cagnat_et_al_1890_218 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity,
exploring ancient ruins: Lexploration superficielle de la ruine acheve, on devra en faire un
croquis provisoire qui permettra de sy diriger facilement ensuite et qui, si lon est oblig de se
mettre en route plus tt quon ne le pensait et sans avoir termin lexamen dtaill des monuments, sera un document prcieux pour ceux qui seront amens postrieurement sur le mme
point. / On ne devra pas oublier dexaminer les environs de la ville ancienne pour voir les routes
qui y amenaient; on reconnatra ces routes soit aux milliaires qui sy rencontrent, soit des

restes de chausse encore apparents, soit mme un lger soulvement du sol dune largeur
de 5 6 mtres dont la prolongation et la vgtation particulire indiquent nettement le trac
de la voie. On en reconnatra encore la direction, quand il reste dans la ruine des vestiges de
portes antiques, aux tombes qui taient leves droite et gauche de la route, aboutissant
ces portes; il nest pas rare, en effet, de retrouver de tels cimetires en place, avec les bases au
moins des mausoles de forme quadrangulaire qui sy levaient. Nous avons joint ce travail la
carte des voies dAfrique daprs la Table de Peutinger, ainsi que la partie de litinraire dAntonin
relative lAfrique; nous y avons ajout une carte moderne o les points principaux sont indiqus. / Si lon a quelque loisir pour tudier la ruine, sans avoir, nanmoins, le temps dy sjourner
plusieurs jours, on devra sappliquer relever avec soin les documents auxquels on sintressera
de prfrence, plutt que de noter tant bien que mal tout ce qui y existe encore: une note prise
la hte peut tre prcieuse si elle vient dun archologue trs expriment; mais dans la plupart
des cas, elle ne sert rien la science, sinon veiller des illusions.
[ ]
77 Gurin_1862_II_159 Testour, in the Great Mosque: jobserve trois anciens tombeaux creuss en forme dauges. Parmi les colonnes qui soutiennent la vote de ce vestibule, il en est une
qui a jadis servi de borne milliaire et qui est revtue dune inscription, aujourdhui trs-efface.
Je me hte den copier les parties dchiffrables, le chaouch du khalife mavertissant que ce lieu,
consacr aux ablutions des musulmans avant leur entre dans la mosque, est gnralement
interdit aux chrtiens.
[ ]
78 Cagnat_1886_131: La voie romaine de Carthage Theveste, qui passait par Haidra, a laiss
au nord-est de cette dernire ville des traces de son existence. Jai en effet rencontr, couch
gauche de la route actuelle, plusieurs milliaires [he transcribes four inscriptions] sur lun desquels on lit trs distinctement le nombre des miles, ce qui me permettra de restituer cette partie
capitale de linscription l o elle a disparu. They were next to une petite ruine sans importance
nomme henchir Hadj-Abid (134). Other milestones he goes on to list were in reuse in later constructions, so presumably these were as well, or intended to be so.
[ ]
79 Goyt, A., Inscriptions releves dans la rgion comprise entre Constantine, Stif et
Philippeville, in RNMSADC XXII 1882, 129161. See 157158 for the Smendou Valley: Les indignes riverains de LOued Kara-Ali nous ayant dclar que dautres pierres, dcouvertes dans
le mme point, avaient t charges sur des tombereaux et transportes Smendou, nous
voulmes, M. le docteur Rebond et moi, nous assurer de ce quil en tait. / Nous avons vu, en
effet, dans le jardin public de Smendou, un certain nombre de bornes ou fragments dont quatre
portent le chiffre XIIII, comme celle que nous venons de dcrire. Il faut croire que la distance
marque par ce chiffre tombait trs prs de lOued Kara-Ali, en un point que les crues atteignaient avec violence, et que la route tait frquemment emporte par les eaux du torrent.
[ ]
80 Gsell_and_Graillot_1893_481 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Il ne reste plus que
quelques traces dHenchir Sedra, qui semble avoir t un assez gros village. Au sud de la ruine, on
voit les vestiges dun grand rservoir. Il y avait autrefois cet endroit plusieurs bornes milliaires,
qua copies Payen: deux dentre elles taient ddies Constantin le Grand, une Licinius le
Pre; elles se terminaient par le chiffre XXII. Nous nen avons retrouv aucune.
[ ]
81 Toussaint_1908_400 Tunisia, near Gabs: Il ne reste rien de lantique Tacape, que lon
saccorde placer Sidi-boul-Baba; mais les matriaux provenant de ses monuments et de son
enceinte abondent dans les villages de Menzel, de Djara et mme dans les constructions rcentes
de la ville europenne. Quelques fragments de sculptures, des chapiteaux et des colonnes sont
conservs au Cercle militaire, au bordj de ladministrateur civil et dans quelques habitations
appendix
particulires. Il na pas t retrouv de traces des bornes milliaires dcouvertes autrefois
Henchir-Tebel, Ktena, Ras-el-Oued et transportes Gabs dans les premires annes de
loccupation franaise.
[ ]
82 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_175 the Roman road Tebessa-Carthage, which they are following Haidra-Le Kef: A droite et gauche de la route gisent des bornes milliaires gnralement
en morceaux. Il y en avait trois ou quatre au mme point indiquant la date o la voie romaine a
t faite et celles o elle a t rpare. / Elles ont la forme de grands cylindres, hauts de 3 mtres
environ; elles ntaient pas plantes en terre par la base, mais encastres dans des paralllpipdes de pierre fixs sur le sol. Tantt elles sont tombes terre ct de leur pidestal, tantt
elles lont entran dans leur chute, ce qui rend impossible de les mouvoir avec les outils que
nous avons notre disposition; il nous faut renoncer presque toujours en pareil cas dcouvrir
linscription qui y est trace.
[ ]
83 Fabvier_1847_4: Nous lavouons, au point de vue gnral, en ne considrant que le droit
commun, la rsistance des Arabes nous parat trs logique; cependant, il y a au fond de ce
dbat un intrt plus grand, celui de lhumanit, celui de la civilisation; reculer les bornes de la
Barbarie, mler un peuple encore ignorant une nation instruite et forte, apporter les lumires
de nos connaissances varies ces malheureux abrutis par dodieux prjugs; cest une noble
tche, cest le rle que doit jouer la France dans ce dbat, rle important, immense et fcond
dans ses rsultats, mais qui nen est pas moins injuste vis--vis de ces convertis par la force du
glaive, et qui par cela mme est plus difficile; car enfin, ces peuples, tout barbares et ignorants
quils sont, peuvent trs-bien tenir leur barbarie, leur ignorance, et ne pas comprendre la
ncessit de changer leurs coutumes, leurs croyances, leurs usages, contre nos moeurs, nos lois
et nos croyances. Si donc la France remplit ce but de la destine en modifiant compltement les
institutions de ce peuple, afin de le faire rentrer dans la marche intgrale de lhumanit, elle doit
imiter la providence dont elle accomplit la mission, porter le glaive dans une main et lolivier
dans lautre.
[ ]
84 Fenech_1852_89: Quand des lignes de travailleurs, soldats pacifiques arms de pelles,
se mirent dblayer les ruines, ils ne recontrrent pas dennemi qui protestt contre la reprise
de possession du domaine abandonn par nos devanciers. Dans la tradition du people vaincu,
les roumis ne sont-ils pas les lgitimes hritiers des Romains? . . . [the Arabs] semblrent
reconnatre en nous les neveux des ancient dominateurs.
[ ]
85 Brieux_1912_96 catches an Arab breaking up inscribed stones: Tu les recherch parce
que ce sont les grands pres de tes grands pres qui y ont crit des lettres qui sont les mmes que
les lettres de tes livres. Ce sont tes titres de proprit que tu cherches. Moi, je brise les pierres
pour que tu ne trouves pas ces titres l.
[ ]
86 Brieux_1912_95 on the Arabs: Ren, irrit parce quil ne se dcidait pas encore avouer
quil avait tort, rpta: Ils taient les possesseurs du sol: nous le leur avons vol. / Comment
en taient-ils possesseurs? Parce quils lavaient vol eux-mmes. En es-tu encore ignorer
que les Arabes ont t des conqurants et des conqurants barbares? La vrit, cest que cette
terre dAfrique du Nord a t prise sur les premiers occupants par nos anctres les Romains.
Les Romains lavaient pacifie, rendue fertile. Ils lavaient couverte de monuments comme
ceux dont tu as vu les ruines Timgad. Leurs travaux pour lirrigation des terres font encore
ladmiration de nos ingnieurs. Les hordes des Arabes envahisseurs sont venues. Ces barbares
ont tout dtruit, tout brl, tout tu, tout rendu la mort. Aux peuples pasteurs comme eux,
peu importent les villes et la civilisation: il ne leur faut que de grands espaces dserts quils

quitteront pour aller plus loin lorsque leurs troupeaux auront dvor les rares touffes dherbe
sauvages des terrains dvasts.
[ ]
87 Boissire_1878_910 on the Roman conquest and administration: frapps de la ressemblance de notre uvre civilisatrice avec luvre romaine, dont lhistoire leur parle vaguement,
dont surtout ils retrouvent chaque pas les traces, ces hommes qui nous appellent des roumis se
rsignent subir en nous les lgataires de Rome. / Lon Renier raconte ce sujet dans ses souvenirs dun voyage au pied de lAurs une trs-curieuse anecdote. Les monuments romains, dit-il,
surtout les inscriptions, sont aux yeux des indignes notre titre le plus lgitime la possession
de lAlgrie. Un jour il tait en train de copier quelque inscription latine: un cheik des environs,
en mme temps marabout, le regarda quelque temps faire, puis sapprochant de lui: Tu comprends donc cette criture? lui demanda-t-il. Oui, je la comprends, et je lcris: car cest la
mienne aussi. Regarde: ce sont nos lettres, cest notre langue. Cest vrai, rpondit-il gravement;
puis sadressant aux indignes qui laccompagnaient: Les roumis, leur dit-il, sont vraiment les
fils des Roumans, et lorsquils ont pris ce pays, ils nont fait que reprendre la bien de leurs pres.
[ ]
88 Spectateur_Militaire_1859_420: un ct glorieux de la mission accomplie par notre
anne dAfrique. Elle a compris que sa tche de conqurante, au milieu du xixe sicle, devait tre
avant tout civilisatrice, et elle a trouv dans son sein des officiers dlite pour tous les travaux,
toutes les tudes, toutes les fonctions. On sait, du reste, que larme contient des individualits
de tout genre: on y rencontre des savants, des rudits, des littrateurs, des artistes, des lgistes,
etc.; on est surtout heureux dy avoir sa disposition une foule de jeunes gens sortant des coles,
parmi lesquels quelques-uns ont conserv le got de ltude et du travail, et recherchent les
occasions de rendre des services, mme en dehors des occupations simplement militaires.
[ ]
89 Renier_1851C_61 proposal for an epigraphic mission: Lambaesus: Si tous ces monuments venaient a tre dtruits sans que lon eut pris seulement le soin de les copier ou de les
estamper, ce serait pour la science une perte immense, ce serait pour notre pays, et pour le
gouvernement qui, au milieu du XIXe sicle, aurait laiss commettre un tel acte de vandalisme,
une honte ineffaable. Nen doutez pas, Monsieur le Ministre, lEurope savante recueille avec
sollicitude lannonce de toutes les dcouvertes que font nos soldats sur la terre dAfrique; elle
en attend avec impatience la publication, et elle ne manquerait pas, si cette attente tait trompe, de nous adresser le reproche de nous tre, sans profit pour la science, substitus, dans ces
contres, des barbares qui, du moins, nen dtruisaient pas les monuments. / Il nen sera pas
ainsi, jen ai la ferme esprance; lhomme dEtat auquel est confie la noble mission de veiller
sur les intrts intellectuels du pays ne voudra pas lui laisser encourir un semblable reproche. II
ne sagit point ici de dcouvertes lointaines, pouvant tre faites par dautres aussi bien que par
nous, et dont la science profiterait galement, quelle que fut la nation qui les fit: il sagit de sauver dune destruction imminente de prcieux monuments dcouverts par nous sur un territoire
qui nous appartient, et que nous seuls pouvons, que nous seuls devons mettre a la disposition
de lEurope rudite.
[ ]
90 Wallon_1890_513514, obituary for Lon Renier, Lambessa: Le commandant Delamare
lavait dit pour la rgion de Lambse: Une anne entire ne suffirait pas une seule personne
pour copier toutes les inscriptions qui sy trouvent; et si on ne les voulait voir prir, il y avait
urgence: car la rvolution de 1848 avait transport en Afrique les insurgs de Juin, et Lambse
avait t choisi comme le lieu qui offrait le plus de matriaux pour la construction dun
pnitencier. Or ces pierres, pour ainsi dire toutes tailles et rendues sur place, ctaient les restes
appendix
du plus grand tablissement romain; des pierres pour la plupart couvertes dinscriptions qui en
gardaient lhistoire. Cest ce que Lon Renier reprsentait au Ministre dans la lettre [1 July 1850]
o il soffrait pour les aller recueillir...Un arrt rendu dix jours aprs (11 juillet) lui confra la
mission quil sollicitait dune manire si pressante.
[ ]
91 Schulten_19001901_457458 writing on Roman Africa: Richesse en inscriptions. Un
autre tmoignage statistique est le nombre dinscriptions trouves en Algrie et en Tunisie. Au
cours de lanne 1894, on en comptait dj plus de 20,000. Ce chiffre dpasse de beaucoup la
richesse pigraphique des autres provinces et nest surpass que par lItalie, car Rome seule a
fourni plus de 30,000 pierres. En Angleterre, on na trouv que 1,500 pierres, tmoignage nergique de la faible civilisation de cette province.
[ ]
92 Renier_1851B_474475: Summarises his work [with subtotals and grand total in bold]:
Inscriptions de Lambessa 1,230; de Verecunda 70; de Thamugas 64; de Diana 51; de Sigus 50; de
localits diverses 120; 1,585; A ce nombre je dois ajouter: 300 monuments recueillis par divers
officiers dans les localits que je nai pu visiter, et qui mont t communiqus par eux pendant
mon voyage: 300 1,885; 1,200 dont je dois la copie, ou plutt le facsimile, M. le commandant
Delamare, qui les avait recueillis, antrieurement notre voyage, dans les diverses parties de
nos possessions dAfrique, explores par lui comme membre de la Commission scientifique de
1Algrie 1,200; 3,085. Cest done un total de plus de trois mille inscriptions, dont deux mille sept
cents au moins sont indites, que je suis aujourdhui en mesure de faire connatre au public the
most important are from Lambessa.
[ ]
93 Tissot, Charles, Rapport sur la mission en Tunisie de M. Julien Poinssot, sance du 28
septembre 1883, in Comptes-rendus des sances de lAIBL27e anne 3, 1883, 329343. See 330:
Bien que M. Poinssot ait eu lutter contre des difficults de toute nature, et que linsuffisance des
ressources dont il disposait ne lui ait pas permis dexcuter mme des fouilles superficielles, les
rsultats de sa mission sont considrables et disent assez ceux quon peut attendre dune exploration poursuivie dans de meilleures con ditions. / M. Poinssot a recueilli prs de cinq cents
inscriptions indites. Nous ne pouvons songer mettre tous ces textes sous les yeux de lAcadmie, et nous nous bornerons reproduire et analyser ceux qui offrent un intrt exceptionnel.
[ ]
94 Gurin_1862_I_V: Charg par Son Excellence M. le ministre de linstruction publique et
par M. le duc de Luynes, qui, dans sa munificence habituelle, avait voulu faire lui-mme les
frais de la mission, de recueillir en Tunisie les inscriptions que jy pourrais trouver, jai explor,
pendant lanne 1860, sinon la totalit, du moins une grande partie de cette Rgence. Comme
rsultats de mou voyage, jai rapport 568 inscriptions ou fragments dinscriptions dont jai pris
la copie et en mme temps lestampage, quand cela ma t possible. Ces inscriptions se divisent
ainsi 536 latines, 28 puniques, 3 coufiques et 1 libyque ou berbre. Les unes sont indites, les
autres, au contraire, ont dj t publies. NB 536 Latin inscriptions is a relatively small crop for
eight months travels, given what other scholars found.
[ ]
95 Gurin_1862_I_VII of Tunisia: Cest assurment une moisson bien faible, en comparaison de celle que lon obtiendrait si lon pouvait tudier fond ce pays, comme, depuis un certain nombre dannes, on tudie lAlgrie. Javouerai mme que parmi ces inscriptions il en est
quelques-unes qui nont quune importance fort mdiocre; dautres sont tellement tronques et
mutiles quil est difficile den tirer parti; mais dautres aussi clairent dune nouvelle lumire
lhistoire et la gographie des antiques provinces de la Numidie, de la Zeugitane et de la Byzacne
plusieurs, par exemple, mont rvl le nom et lemplacement danciennes villes, presque toutes

trs-considrables, qui navaient point encore t retrouves, et dont je dcrirai en leur lieu
les ruines.
[ ]
96 Hase_1863_797 primarily concerned with epigraphy rather than architecture: Sappuyant
toujours sur le tmoignage des monuments pigraphiques, temprant la scheresse presque
invitable dune longue numration par quelques traits piquants, par lexpos des traditions
lgendaires, par des pisodes qui font connatre ltat actuel du pays et qui animent le rcit,
M. Gurin dcrit les dbris des villes antiques qui existaient jadis dans ces valles, aujourdhui
solitaires, et dont il a pu fixer la position. Mais les dtails sont ici trop multiplis pour que nous
puissions entreprendre de les parcourir ou mme de les indiquer.
[ ]
97 Renier_1851_221222 en mission dans la province de Constantine pour la recherche des
monuments pigraphiques: Le muse du Louvre, si riche en inscriptions grecques, ne contient
aucune inscription latine aussi importante que celle dont jai lhonneur de vous entretenir, et
je crois que ce serait une mesure bonne et utile que de ly faire transporter. Compose de plusieurs pierres, et pouvant tre dmonte sans inconvnient, elle serait dun transport facile. Ce
nest point un de ces monuments locaux qui perdent une partie de leur intrt, lorsquils ont
ete dplacs. Enfin, je dois ajouter que la mesure que je sollicite aurait pour effet de le sauver
dune destruction imminente. Transport depuis deux ans Batna, il se trouve aujourdhui au
milieu de la principal avenue de la ppinire de cette ville, et il y est expos aux intempries
dun climat rigoureux et destructeur, et aux outrages des passants, dont il porte dj des traces
nombreuses; sil devait rester l, dix ans ne seraient pas couls quil serait devenu compltement indchiffrable.
[ ]
98 Souli_185961: see I for only a few Algerian works, and those mostly portraits of
generals; paintings with descriptions, such as items 1803, 1821, 1831, 1964, 20172023, 20252028
(all Horace Vernet); A Salle du Crime, e.g. 1969 for Malakoff, 1958 for Balaklava, in which
Algerian troops took part.
[ ]
99 SHD MR1317 1920, Gnral de Ngrier, Quelques notes sur Tbessa 5 pages, undated;
1842? in pencil on page 1. An annexed undated note in a different hand says they should
be published mme lithographis au Dpt de la Guerre en nombre dexemplaires suffisant
pour pouvoir tre rpandues et insres avec les plans au Moniteur. This is indeed a first-rate
description of the site, with some measurements (e.g. wall heights, tower dimensions). 2 gives
inscriptions and a description of the triumphal arch; 3 notes some inscriptions. But the author
is unfortunately no expert (which he admits), for on 34 he notes at 1200 metres north of the
enceinte dimmenses ruines qui paraissent tre celles dun temple which he sketches; but
clearly, this is a fort and church with a trefoil baptistery. The church is big (18.9 x 60 metres
including apse). This is an interesting document, and it is a pity that he did not write at greater
length and with greater knowledge. NB he says on page 1 that it is an Arab town i.e. still
occupied.
[
100]SHD MR1317 contains transcript of Ngriers description of Tebessa which appeared in
Le Moniteur 29 june 1842 with transcribed inscriptions, signed by Ngrier himself, though he
mistakes the Christan basilica for un temple de justice. 3: he also reckons inside the town near
the El-Kedim Gate is a petit temple conserve tout entier dont la forme et les details darchitecture
rappellent la Maison Carre de Nimes monolithic columns in red marble. Height of temple
10m 59, flank 14m50 Arabs have turned it into a soap factory.
[ ]
101 Bernelle_1893_54 Vestiges antiques de la commune mixte de LOued-Cherf,: Le territoire compris entre Guelma, lOued-Zenati et An-Beda-Sedrata, dans lequel est comprise la
appendix
commune mixte de lOued-Cherf, est un de ceux o lon rencontre le plus grand nombre de vestiges de la domination romaine, tels que hameaux et exploitations rurales, dont quelques-uns
ne sont pas sans une certaine importance et sans offrir quelque intrt. / Il renferme galement
un grand nombre de monuments mgalithiques et des traces nombreuses de la population indigne dont on retrouve des inscriptions et des cimetires. / Sillonn par plusieurs voies romaines
dont les vestiges sont encore visibles en maints endroits, compos dexcellentes terres de culture
propres rlevage du btail et du cheval, ce territoire a d contenir une population agricole
considrable, dans une situation prospre.
[
102]Bernelle_1893_8283 Vestiges antiques de la commune mixte de LOued-Cherf,:
Henchir-Loula. Oum-Guerlgaech (Civitas Nattabatum). Sur la rive gauche de lOued-Cherf,
en face et entre le confluent de lOued-Ar et de lOued-Cheniour, existe un plateau termin
lOuest par une srie de collines et sur lequel sont rpandus des vestiges nombreux de loccupation romaine, sur une superficie dune quarantaine dhectares, o ils forment trois groupes
principaux de 5, 6 et 15 hectares. / Ces ruines sont, en gnral, absolument dvastes par suite de
la continuit des labours et de la construction sur leur superficie de cinq grands bordjs arabes et
du village franais dnomm Renier, en souvenir de larchologue distingu dont les travaux
furent si remarquables. / Elles ne renferment aucun monument debout.
[
103]Bernelle_1893_8485 Vestiges antiques de la commune mixte de LOued-Cherf,: in
the east part of the site of Henchir-Loula: Un grand nombre de pierres tailles y jonchent le
sol et marquent des enceintes. Un fortin, de construction byzantine sans doute, car des pierres
tumulaires ont t employes sa construction, slve sur la partie la plus leve. / A quelques
centaines de mtres, dans la direction Ouest, au pied des collines qui bordent la plaine, on
trouve, ras du sol, les vestiges dune grande construction, militaire sans doute. / La colline,
lOuest, Henchir-Loulou (Renier) renferme galement de nombreux vestiges de constructions
romaines, dont une surtout devait tre considrable, tant donn la quantit de pierres de taille
qui en a t extraite pour tre vendue par le colon concessionnaire du lot sur lequel se trouve
cette construction. / En construisant leurs maisons, en crant leurs jardins, les colons ont mis
dcouvert des citernes en ciment, de grands bassins en pierres de taille, des pierres inscriptions. Tous ces souvenirs du pass ont t malheureusement dtruits par une incroyable aberration et ont disparu sans profit pour lpigraphie et la gographie compare.
[
104]CIL VIII 285 Lambessa: Multo magis dolendum est, quod usque ad hunc diem mappae
illae, quas olim De la Mare confecit et de quibus iam anno 1851 rettulit L. Renierus arch. Des
miss. scient. 1851 p.481, editae non sunt: unde fit ut de positione totaque natura ruinarum
nonnullarum, quae postea penitus deletae sunt, ne hodie quidem edocti simus. Sunt autem
multa quae perierunt. Ut enim per totam Algeriam magistratus incolaeque, exceptis viris paucis,
quos suis locis commemoravi, monumentorum antiquorum curam omnem abiecerunt, quin
saepissime industria ea pessumdant, ita Lambaesi quoque dici vix potest, quantum damnum
viginti hisce vel triginta annis ruinae passae sint; et ne ea quidem extra periculum posita
sunt, quae olim vel parietibus aedificiorum carceris publici inmissa sont ut conservarentur, vel
collecta extant in praetorio; ut exempli causa a. 1870/71 milites e Francia meridionali huc missi,
qui Mauros rebellantes sub imperio tenerent, ludentes, nullo prohibente, plumbis missis statuas
titulosque illos corruperunt, fregerunt.
[
105]Bulletin_de_Correspondance_Africaine_1884_241: Vandalisme. Au moment de mettre
sous presse, nous apprenons que M. le lieutenant-colonel Playfair, consul gnral dAngleterre
Alger, revenu de Tunisie dans les derniers jours davril, a constat, en allant de Souk-Auras

Ghardimaou, la dmolition de larc de triomphe de Bulla Regia, prs duquel passe le nouveau
chemin de fer. Les entrepreneurs chargs de la construction de cette voie lont dtruit, dit-il,
bien quil ft dans un tat de conservation remarquable, et dune beaut qui elle seule et d le
prserver de la ruine. Dj Wilmans a crit un ouvrage, Die Lagerstaedte Afrikas, pour dnoncer
au monde le vandalisme dont les Franais font partout preuve en Algrie, et leffroyable destruction que tout le monde lenvi, gnie militaire, particuliers, entrepreneurs, agriculteurs, agents
des ponts-et-chausses, a fait pendant cinquante ans, et fait encore, des plus beaux monuments
de lantiquit. M. Schmidt, son continuateur, dans un rcent Rapport lAcadmie de Berlin, a
cit nombre de faits semblables, tels que la destruction du monument des Sittius prs de Collo.
Voil ce que les trangers voient chez nous. Il ne restait plus qu leur faire dire que notre occupation en Tunisie a pour premier effet de livrer ce pays de pareils ravages! Il faut vraiment, de
la patience pour continuer encore signaler ceux-ci; car ils se produisent partout, et personne
ne sen inquite. Ni larticle 2, peu pratique dailleurs, du Dcret sur les concessions en Algrie,
ni le rcent Arrt du Bey pour la conservation des monuments en Tunisie, ny portent remde;
toutes les dfenses que lon peut faire, ntant appuyes daucune surveillance et sanctionnes
par aucune peine, demeurent lettre morte, bien quil ny ait pas une fois sur cent que lexcuse
de la ncessit puisse tre srieusement invoque par les dvastateurs. En prsence des nations
savantes, si soigneuses de leur pass et qui nous devancent dans la science, sous les yeux de
lAllemagne, de lItalie, de lAngleterre, la France donne l un spectacle qui est vritablement
honteux.
[
106]Poulle_1884_209210 Lambessa: La conqute a ses exigences avec lesquelles il faut
compter, et les difficults que rencontre une domination qui se fonde excusent bien des actes
qui, en dautres cas, sembleraient excessifs. Nous nous levons moins contre ces premires
dmolitions, que rendait presque ncessaires lobligation dabriter nos soldats et de leur crer
des dfenses, que contre lexploitation mthodique et rgle des ruines antiques. Que penser, par
exemple, de la destruction toute rcente de ce Nymphaeum de Lambse, dont les matriaux ont
servi la construction dun difice communal? Nous nhsitons pas le dire, dans de pareils cas,
ladministration se fait complice des dmolisseurs. Au lieu de faire figurer dans ses bordereaux
de travaux des prix applicables aux ouvrages excuts en matriaux antiques, elle devrait insrer
dans ses cahiers des charges une clause interdisant formellement aux entrepreneurs lemploi
de ces matriaux. Obtiendra-t-on ce rsultat si dsirable? Nous lesprons, mais nous tenons de
bonne source quil ny a pas longtemps encore, dans les cartons dun grand service public Alger,
existait une liste des monuments romains propres tre exploits comme carrires.
[
107]Waltzing_1892_7475: Malheureusement la guerre de 1870 survint et mit aux prises les
deux grandes nations, rivales sur le terrain politique, comme sur celui de la science. Aprs le
dsastre, L. Renier chercha et parvint rompre le trait conclu avec lAcadmie prussienne, et le
9 janvier 1873 il reut avis quil tait dli de tout engagement. Il semble quune rupture complte
eut alors lieu entre les savants des deux pays. Mommsen, du reste, suscita personnellement des
haines violentes par le ton agressif de certains crits. La Socit des Antiquaires de France le
raya de la liste de ses membres correspondants, et dans la Prface du III e volume du Corpus
(dc. 1S72), il se vit oblig de taire les noms de ses collaborateurs franais: ex amicis hostes
facti sunt, ex hostibus inimici! Il a peur den nommer qui regrettent les services passs et il
ajoute quil ne sait jusqu quel point il doit tenir compte des aveugles colres dune nation peu
gnreuse. Jugement trop dur et injuste! Ces colres, si naturelles en ce moment, svanouirent
avec le temps, et en 1881 Mommsen est forc de reconnatre lobligeance avec laquelle les savants
appendix
franais lui ont fourni les renseignements demands pour les inscriptions africaines, et sont
mme alls au-devant de ses dsirs. On annonce aujourdhui que Ren Cagnat collabore avec
Johann Schmidt au supplment du VIII e volume. Puissent ces deux grandes nations ne rivaliser
dsormais que de science pour achever et tenir au courant cette uvre utile tous! / On ne peut
sempcher de dplorer la rsolution prise par L. Renier au lendemain dune guerre dont lissue
fit sans doute saigner tout cur franais, mais o la science navait rien voir. La France y perdit
lhonneur de publier elle-mme les inscriptions trouves sur son sol; le monde savant attend
encore le volume qui aurait pu paratre lun des premiers. Le 10 fvrier 1873, L. Renier avait, il est
vrai, annonc la Section darchologie de lAcadmie des inscriptions quil tait en mesure de
commencer limpression, mais il est mort le 11 juin 1885, sans avoir vu paratre les fruits de ses
longues veilles. Ce ne furent pas des lenteurs administratives qui larrtrent; ctait toujours la
dfiance de lui-mme, la svrit excessive pour ses propres uvres: Sil pcha, dit Renan, ce
fut pour avoir t trop difficile envers lui-mme. Il nignora quune seule rgle du grand art des
Corpus, cest quil ne faut pas y prtendre la perfection.
[
108]Diehl_1892_104 Le recueil des Inscriptions dAfrique, achev par les soins de Mommsen,
paraissait en 1881 dans le Corpus de Berlin. Du coup, tous les travaux antrieurs passaient, sinon
en oubli, du moins au second rang. Pendant quarante annes, par de fructueuses explorations,
par de laborieuses recherches, par des ouvrages remarquables, nous avions patiemment pos les
fondements de larcheologie africaine, et fait de cette tude une science toute franaise; et, aprs
tant defforts, nous avions, par notre negligence, par nos lenteurs, par labsence dune direction
gnrale et prcise, laiss lAllemagne la gloire dachever loeuvre et de fixer en un monument
dfinitif lpigraphie de llAfrique du Nord.
[
109]Renier_1851C_58 proposal for an epigraphic mission: En faisant la conquete de la
rgence dAlger, la France a contract envers les autres nations civilises, et aussi, on peut le dire,
envers la postrit, lobligation morale de mettre la disposition des savants tous les documents
qui peuvent jeter quelque jour sur lhistoire de cette contre. Le Gouvernement la bien compris;
et peine nos soldats avaient-ils mis le pied sur le sol de lAfrique, que, se conformant de glorieux prcdents, il confiait une commission scientifique le soin dexplorer les provinces que
leur valeur allait ajouter au territoire national.
[ ]
110 Vars_1896_127 Amphitheatre of Russicada, section entitled Vandalisme du Gnie
Militaire: Cette destruction est donc un acte de vritable dmence, car on chercherait en vain,
pour la justifier, une lueur de raison. Elle nous oblige courber la tte sous lavalanche des graves
accusations de vandalisme lances contre nous par les savants de lAllemagne et de lEurope
entire, et elle serait de nature porter atteinte lhonneur de notre pays, si la France navait,
dans bien dautres circonstances analogues, noblement fait son devoir. Mais ce qui frappe le
plus notre amour-propre national, cest quon ait employ cette oeuvre barbare nos soldats, les
fils des vainqueurs des Pyramides, de ceux qui protgrent les travaux de lillustre Commission
scientifique de lExpdition dgypte. Comment une aussi odieuse profanation a-t-elle pu
saccomplir sous le commandement du marchal de France qui se flattait de vouloir refaire
lAfrique romaine?
[ ]
111 Schulten_1904_36 writing on Roman Africa: La France; son rle; sa mission. La nation
franaise remplira-t-elle la tche civilisatrice dont elle parle avec raison: la tche de rendre
lAfrique du Nord sa splendeur dautrefois? / Cest ce que le temps enseignera. Mais il faut
rflchir que Rome a employ trois sicles et plus pour transformer des steppes en pays fertiles
et des nomades en laboureurs, sans avoir surmonter cet obstacle: lopposition hostile dune

croyance trangre. Les adorateurs de Baal et des dieux berbres ont fait leur paix avec les dieux
de Rome; mais les partisans du Prophte ne voient pas tant dans les Franais les envahisseurs
trangers que les infidles. Ce que les Romains ont ralis dans le nord de lAfrique ne peut, en
raison de cela, tre accompli dans toute ltendue. Mais une portion de sa tche civilisatrice, la
France peut la remplir, et dj elle la remplie en partie: lexploitation scientifique de lAfrique
romaine. Et lors mme que les succs de la colonisation devraient rester limits, le but scientifique doit tre atteint, et la France est assez ambitieuse pour embrasser la grandeur de ce but.
Lencouragement de larchologie appartient aux devoirs idaux des nations modernes, mme
dans les pays o lantiquit na gure un intrt pratique pour la renaissance de la nation, comme
en Italie et en Grce.
[ ]
112 Schulten_19001901_255256 writing on Roman Africa: Actualit politique des antiquits dans lAfrique du Nord. LAfrique romaine dont je veux parler est un de ces pays o la
recherche des antiquits a une importance actuelle. On peut distinguer une actualit politique
et une actualit historique. La France qui non point par droit dhritage, mais bien par dheureuses circonstances politiques, principalement grce la faiblesse des Arabes a occup les
provinces africaines des Romains, peut, pour lgitimer son occupation, mettre en avant quelle
a entrepris la mission de rendre ces pays leur ancienne splendeur. Ds quelle aura atteint ce
but, mme le lgitimiste le plus achain ne refusera pas loccupation franaise limmunit,
pourvu quon maintienne lopinion en vogue, quune annexion est justifie si le pays annex est
colonis et civilis.
[ ]
113 Vars_1896_124125 Russicada and Stora, in section entitled Vandalisme du Gnie
Militaire, on the amphitheatre: Cest des deux cts de ce cours deau que slevait lAmphithtre dont les troupes du gnral Ngrier admirrent la magnificence, le 10 Avril 1838, lorsquelles
camprent au milieu des ruines de Rusicade. / Mais le visiteur qui aura suivi ce long itinraire
prouvera ici une douloureuse dception. Au lieu des grands et vnrables restes qui provoqurent le saisissement de nos troupes, lorsquelles y plantrent, il y a moins de soixante ans, le
drapeau de la civilisation et de la science franaises, il ne verra plus surgir autour de lui que lenceinte naturelle des collines dont ils taient environns. Du monument lui-mme, pas la trace
la plus fugitive / Pour expliquer ce lamentable anantissement, il se dira, sans doute, que notre
arme a essuy l quelque grave revers qui la refoule un moment loin de ces ruines grandioses
si pleines de charme et dintrt scientifique. Il rvera de la barbarie de ces hordes indignes qui
se rurent ensuite sur ces beaux vestiges et leur infligrent linexorable destruction, pour avoir
rappel nos rgiments la vieille civilisation latine dont ils taient venu renouer la tradition. Il
pensera que ces ennemis de la domination franaise dans ce pays ont mis un vritable acharnement ne rien laisser debout, et disperser les pierres du superbe difice qui avait veill, dans
lme de nos soldats, les fiers souvenirs des anctres de leur race et allum en eux le dsir de
reprendre leur oeuvre dans ces contres. / Eh bien, et nous en sommes heureux, pour la gloire de
nos armes, il nen est pas ainsi. Nos vaillantes troupes restrent dfinitivement matresses du territoire occup. Sauf en quelques escarmouches, sans aucune importance, elles neurent mme
pas le disputer ses possesseurs indignes, qui ne demandrent que 150 francs pour nous
labandonner en toute proprit. / Mais, hlas! si notre gloire militaire na pas t atteinte, notre
honneur de peuple civilis a subi dans ce vallon un de ses plus graves checs. Cest nous-mmes
qui avons port des mains impies sur ces grands restes de lAntiquit. Cest le Gnie militaire qui
a prononc et mis excution lodieuse sentence de destruction.
appendix
114]Diehl 1892, 712, 1320. Quote from 13.
115]Poulle_18901891_389 Stif, visiting Ain-Kebira: Jeus le regret de constater la disparition
dun grand nombre dinscriptions, notamment de celles publies dans notre volume xxv, dont je
ne retrouvai que la dernire (p. 423, n 43). Cest un fragment qui avait t reproduit exactement.
Dautres, mises au jour depuis, avaient galement disparu, et si M. Reuss, ingnieur des Ponts et
Chausses Stif, net pas prescrit lagent local de son service de runir auprs de sa maison
toutes celles quil pourrait rencontrer, les pertes auraient t plus considrables encore.
[ ]
116 Audollent_1890B_76.
[ ]
117 Schmidt_1883_394 epigraphy: Charg par lAcadmie royale de continuer le huitime
volume du Recueil des inscriptions romaines, jai entrepris, avec lassentiment spcial de la
Commission pigraphique de lAcadmie, un voyage en Algrie et en Tunisie au commencement
du mois doctobre de la prcdente anne. Revenu depuis quelques semaines, jai lhonneur de
prsenter cette haute Compagnie le compte rendu que je lui dois de mon voyage et de ses
rsultats.
[ ]
118 Schmidt_1883_40 epigraphy: Si lon veut quil en soit autrement, il est ncessaire
dorganiser une conservation effective des antiquits. Je recommande, dans cet ordre dides,
une institution qui a dj fait ses preuves, les inspecteurs italiens des fouilles et antiquits,
Ispettori degli scavi ed antichit, qui exercent leur Surveillance chacun dans un district spcial,
et instruisent la Gouvernement des nouvelles dcouvertes et de tout ce qui intresse larchologie. Les personnes charges de la conservation devraient tre autorises et obliges dresser
procs-verbal dans tous les cas de destruction des monuments qui parviendraient leur
connaissance et poursuivre le chtiment des dlinquants. Dautre part, ou devrait prendre
la rsolution dexciter les particuliers par de petites rcompenses signaler deux-mmes et
communiquer les dcouvertes. Si je suis bien inform, on incline dj dans les cercles comptents vers des ides pareilles on presque semblables. Esprons que lexcution ne se fera pas
attendre. Il est encore plus important de commencer par assurer la conservation des monuments que de mettre jour le plus tt possible, cest--dire dexposer la destruction, ce qui reste
srement cach dans la terre.
[ ]
119 Waltzing_1892_125126: En 1871, lAcadmie de Berlin chargea de lAfrique proconsulaire
(Tunisie) Gustave Wilmanns, lun des lves les plus distingus de Th. Mommsen; en 1873, ce
dernier lui cda la Numidie et la Maurtanie (Algrie et Maroc), de sorte que Wilmanns assuma
la lourde tche de composer tout le VIIIe volume. N Jterbogk, dans le Brandebourg, en 1845,
il navait que 26 ans quand lAcadmie le choisit comme collaborateur. A Rome, il avait dj
aid Henzen recueillir les inscriptions du volume VI. Sa carrire fut courte, mais bien remplie
(4). De 1873 1876, il se rendit Paris, puis il parcourut la Tunisie, ainsi que lAlgrie, et son
travail avanait rapidement, quand la mort lemporta Bade en 1878, lge de 33 ans. Il avait
achev et imprim 408 pages, contenant 3,960 numros. Lillustre matre continua luvre de
son infortun disciple et, suivant la touchante inscription quon lit parfois sur les tombes leves
par des parents leurs enfants, il rendit son lve le devoir quil tait en droit dattendre de lui:
infelicis juvenis tristem hereditatem ego senex adii curavique ne cum ipso labores ejus prirent.
Avec laide de R. Schoene, et surtout du jeune H. Dessau, le disciple favori du dfunt, grce aussi
lobligeance de Charles Tissot, qui lui communiqua spontanment les inscriptions indites
recueillies en Tunisie, Th. Mommsen put faire paratre le volume VIII en 1881. Il acheva le
classement daprs les papiers de Wilmanns, ajouta lintroduction, les notices sur les provinces
[
[

et les villes, des remarques et des Tables. Tout ce que ce volume a de neuf et de bon est d
G. Wilmanns, dit-il avec une pieuse modestie, et le nom de lauteur vivra avec son ouvrage. Les
deux Tomes renferment 10988 inscriptions authentiques et 33 fausses.
[
120]Saladin_1887_225 in Tunisia, after a list of important monuments at places such as
Sbeitla, Haidra, El Djem, Kasserine and Medena: Jose attirer lattention de Votre Excellence sur
ces difices si intressants et malheureusement destins tre, dans les temps a venir, autant
menacs par la colonisation, quils le sont dans le temps prsent par la barbare incurie des
Arabes. / En demandant quon prenne leur gard toutes les mesures de prservation ncessaires, je crois remplir un devoir qui me semble impos par le souvenir dactes de vandalisme
que jai pu observer moi-mme pendant mon voyage. Je connais assez de faits de ce genre pour
craindre la destruction successive de tous ces beaux monuments, si je considre que les prcautions les plus lmentaires nont pas toujours t prises pour prserver de la destruction bien des
monuments aujourdhui entirement perdus. / II est dsirer que, sur ce point, on puisse donner une sanction pnale la loi dicte lan dernier, sur ce sujet, par le Gouvernement beylical.
Sans pnalits, sans surveillance, nous verrons continuer les destructions par les Arabes, pour
extraire des difices des moellons et de la chaux, et les destructions par les chercheurs dantiquits, qui, par leurs fouilles, dtruiront des monuments intressants ou les laisseront prir en les
laissant exposs aux atteintes de tous.
[ ]
121 Schmidt_1883_398399 epigraphy: Lintrt lev que les savants et les hommes instruits de tous les pays portent aux monuments pigraphiques de lantiquit me sera une raison
suffisante pour entretenir lAcadmie royale des remarques que jai faites sur ce sujet dans les
provinces africaines. / Il y a dans cette matire une diffrence fort nette entre les contres habites par les Europens et celles qui nont encore t queffleures par la culture europenne.
La Tunisie en entier a t jusqu prsent une de ces dernires, et sest trouve relativement
favorise en ce qui concerne la conservation des ruines antiques et des inscriptions quon y rencontre. On naurait prendre sur ce point que des arrts particuliers et positifs. Tout au plus
pourrait-on dj songer deux collections pigraphiques, lune dont jai dj parl, St-Louis,
lautre, au Kef. Cette dernire, cre tout rcemment par le Commandant franais, saccrotra,
nous lesprons, dune manire trs profitable. Comme les Arabes habitent pour la plupart sous
la tente, ou se contestent pour leurs constructions primitives des matriaux les plus proches
et les plus ddaigner, comme dautre part il navait pas t question jusquici, pour ainsi dire,
de construction de routes en Tunisie, les deux causes principales de la destruction des ruines
encore subsistantes, et de la disparition ou de lanantissement des pigraphes, ny taient pas
encore entres en jeu. Il nen sera plus de mme mesure que, par suite de lannexion franaise,
la colonisation europenne stendra avec ses grandes maisons de pierre, ses constructions de
chausses et de voies ferres. Combien de ruines romaines la ligne franco-tunisienne avec ses
ponts et ses gares a dj fait disparatre! Si lon ne prend temps des mesures nergiques, les
documents antiques de la Tunisie seront bientt aussi mal traits que ceux de lAlgrie. Laccueil
amical que jai reu partout est une des raisons pour lesquelles je ne veux pas tendre le voile
du silence sur les impressions que jai ressenties cette occasion; et certes, un avis nettement
exprim sur la manire dont les choses se passent ne peut tre quun service rendu tant la
science qu tous les amis de lantiquit en France et en Algrie. Depuis longtemps, hlas, ces
choses-l ne sont plus un secret. En France mme, des voix aussi autorises que celle de M.
Lon Renier se sont leves plusieurs fois pour fltrir le vandalisme, qui svit sans crainte en
Algrie contre les monuments antiques des hommes tels que M. Poulle et M. Papier, prsident
appendix
des Socits archologiques de Constantine et de Bne, connaissent ces dplorables pratiques
mieux que personne et en gmissant dautant plus quils se sont vainement mis en peine de les
abolir. Les maons et les entrepreneurs de chemins publics sont les ennemis jurs de lantiquit.
Il est vrai que le Gouverneur Gnral a prescrit aux Administrateurs dinterdire et dempcher
lexploitation des ruines antiques & titre de carrires mais ses ordres sont restes lettre morte.
Personne, connaissant les choses, ne contredira mon affirmation, savoir que sans cesse chaque
route ou chaque voie ferre construite en Algrie exige le sacrifice de nombreuses pierres inscrites que lon mure dans les ponts, que lon emploie dans les fondations ou mme que lon
rduit en petits morceaux. Un exemple entre mille Sigus, on ma montr, sur ma demande, et
qui reste des nombreuses et importantes inscriptions encore vues par Wilmans, sur la chausse
que lon a faite depuis son voyage, et moi-mme jai trouv quun pont de cette voie, louest
du village, a t construit entirement avec les pierres du Mausole des Sittii. En entre, chaque
fondation de colonie nouvelle, chaque construction de bordj (et je pense en ce moment celui
de Sidi Youssef) fait dordinaire un vide considrable dans la richesse archologique du pays.
On peut sen rendre compte en sinformant du sort des inscriptions prs des maons qui ont
t chargs de ces travaux. Jen ai cass moi-mme pas mal ma dit plus dun dentre eux avec
lexpression dune certaine satisfaction. Les fragments encastrs de ci et de l dans les maisons
prouvent la vrit de leurs assertions. Des ncessits particulires et le peu de culture des gens
pourraient servir dexcuse dans un village; mais que lon ne croie pas quil en soit autrement
dans les villes. Les collections dpigraphes qui sy trouvent, bien quon ait tant bti et dcouvert, ne se sont accrues de rien on presque de rien depuis le voyage de Wilmans. Je nexcepte
que le muse de Cherchell. Lintrt quon leur portait a disparu; le zle qui leur avait donn
naissance sest vanoui. La plupart ont mme subi des pertes plus ou moins considrables. Dans
le muse de Tbessa, jai constat labsence dun grand nombre des inscriptions collationnes
par Wilmans, un travail de maonnerie et la rparation de la grande enceinte doivent les avoir
dcimes. Le muse de Bne, que lAcadmie dHippne avait accru et install convenablement
grands frais, se trouve maintenant dans une re de dsordre et de dissolution complte. Ctait
pure navet de la part des journaux de Bne que se plaindre rcemment que ce quune collection savante forme par un de leurs compatriotes ait t enleve de leur ville et transporte en
Amrique. Daprs ce qui sest pass jusquici, envoyer une chose an Muse de Bne quivaut
la vouer la destruction. Le spectacle le plus affiigeaut nous est donn par Constantine, dont la
population, pour une bonne part aise et intelligente, permettrait cependant desprer mieux.
Sans doute, la collection des petites antiquailles a t prserve de tout dommage par les soins
de M. Prudhomme, son conservateur actuel, mais il manque certainement prs de la moiti des
inscriptions qui se trouvaient l prcdemment.
[
122]Mac-Carthy_1885B_214 Ils [everyone] dsireront, aussi vivement que nous le faisons,
quon ne voie pas se renouveler ces actes dplorables auxquels nous devons la perte des inscriptions de Miliana, de Mda, de Berouaguia, de Tlemsen, de Maghnia, dAn-Temouchent, dArzeu
et de tant dautres points. Il faudrait, par tous les moyens dont on pourra disposer, faire en sorte
que de tels faits ne se rptent plus, car ils compromettent, de la manire la plus grave, la base
mme des tudes historiques. Si les crivains anciens nous avaient laiss la topographie dtaille
des diverses rgions du monde antique, nous ninsisterions peut-tre pas autant sur un tel sujet.
Mais le nom des villes les plus considrables nest accompagn, dans leurs ouvrages, daucun
dtail, et des centres dune importance capitale, comme Lambse, comme Cirta (Constantine),
comme Csare (Cherchel) y sont peine lobjet dune simple mention. En fait de gographie et

de topographie, ici comme partout, dans les vastes limites de lempire romain, cest nous tout
faire, et voil ce qui donne tant de prix aux moindres dbris, quelques mtres de fondations, un
morceau dinscription, le reste dune statue mutile, la pice de monnaie la plus insignifiante.
[
123]Cagnat_1891_543: Voil moins de dix ans que le tome VIII du Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, relatif lAfrique, a t publi, et dj vient de paratre le 1er volume du Supplment,
qui ne contient pas moins de 6,690 numros nouveaux (nos 1088917084): sous quelques-uns
dentre eux se groupent des corrections relatives des inscriptions africaines publies dans le
tome VIII; le plus grand nombre de ces chiffres dsignent des inscriptions nouvelles, trouves
en ces dix dernires annes. Officiers de larme doccupation, savants indignes, pigraphistes
doutre-mer chargs de missions en Afrique, tous ont contribu, avec le mme zle et le mme
succs, recueillir ce gros trsor dinscriptions. Du jour o la France a possd quelque crdit en
Tunisie, elle a mis cette influence au service de larchologie: les archologues en ont largement
profit.
[
124]Blanchet_1899_113: Si le Service des antiquits chargeait tous les ans un inspecteur de
passer par El-Djem, et, comme je lai fait, dy ouvrir boutique pour le commerce des pierres
crites les indignes ne briseraient plus, pour en faire des pavs ou de la chaux les inscriptions quils dcouvrent tous les jours: ils les conserveraient pour la semaine du March aux
pierres; pour 10 ou 20 francs, dix ou vingt inscriptions seraient ajoutes au Corpus: regretterait-on cette dpense le jour o le hasard nous mettrait en prsence dun texte pigraphique
important? Ce ne sont pas l des ides vagues; trois indignes mont demand, le jour de mon
dpart, quand je reviendrais chez eux: Lan prochain! moi ou un de mes amis! Alors nous
allons surveiller les travaux quon fait dans les jardins; nous achterons tout ce quon trouvera,
et on te le portera lan prochain! / Quand les habitants dEl-Djem auront acquis de la sorte le
respect de lantique, il sera plus ais de relever les inscriptions sur place et de commencer une
tude mthodique de Thysdrus; je serais fort heureux si mon sjour parmi eux peut avoir contribu les engager en cette voie.
[
125]Berbrugger, A., comment in RA 1864/03, issue 44, 145: Victor Hugo a oubli dinscrire
parmi ses Misrables linfortun qui passe sa vie dchiffrer, reconstruire et expliquer des lambeaux dinscriptions antiques que les sicles et le vandalisme se sont accords tendre tour
tour sur leur double lit de Procuste. Et, cependant, quel labeur plus digne de compassion que
celui-l! Loin du monument original, quon ne verra jamais, peut-tre, il faut oprer sur des
copies dues, en gnral, des personnes fort zles pour larchologie, mais trangres, le plus
souvent, la science pigraphique, cette spcialit si ardue qui exige de nombreuses connaissances accessoires et surtout une perspicacit qui touche presque la divination. Aussi, pour un
Lon Renier et quelques autres qui semblent se jouer des difficults de ce genre dtudes, que
dobscurs travailleurs, parmi lesquels nous devons nous ranger, luttent contre elles avec plus
dardeur que de succs!
[
126]Berbrugger_1864B_229 of Shaw: Ce savant anglais va nous prouver, comme le savant
franais de tout--lheure, quen pigraphie les hommes les plus doctes peuvent commettre
beaucoup derreurs et des plus graves. Nous prendrons pour exemple la copie quon lui doit de la
fameuse inscription de Gargilius, jadis encastre dans les assises infrieures du mur mridional
de la Casba turque du Sour Rozlan des Arabes, qui fut lAuzia des Romains et qui est aujourdhui
lAumale des Franais. En regard de la transcription du Dr Shaw, nous en placerons une autre du
mme document, obtenue daprs un estampage fait par nous. La comparaison sera curieuse et
instructive.
appendix
127]Berbrugger_1864B_235: Car le commun des copistes ne doit pas se croire assur de pouvoir reproduire sans faute, de prime abord, linscription la plus simple, ft-ce le Ludovico Magno
de la porte Saint-Denis. / Mais surtout quon noublie jamais que, pour tre bon copiste, la
disposition essentielle est / LA DFIANCE ABSOLUE DE SOI-MME. To scare neophytes off, this
piece is entitled De lhallucination pigraphique.
[
128]Berbrugger_1864B_227: Un novice en pigraphie croit volontiers quavec de passables
tudes classiques et quelque teinture des abrviations et signes particuliers de lcriture lapidaire, on peut aborder sans crainte le dchiffrement des inscriptions antiques et mme tirer de
celles-ci des copies exemptes de lacunes et derreurs. Le tmraire! il ignore donc que les plus
habiles et les plus expriments nobtiennent pas toujours cet heureux rsultat. On en verra
bientt des preuves clatantes.
[
129]Saint-Martin_1875_486487 History of geography: Mais lre capitale de lpigraphie
algrienne date de 1850, poque o M. Lon Renier, aujourdhui membre de lAcadmie des
inscriptions, fut charg dune mission officielle pour la recherche des inscriptions romaines
en Algrie. Les dcouvertes de cet archologue minent dpassrent toutes les esprances; en
mme temps quune foule de monuments indits furent mis en lumire, les inscriptions antrieurement connues furent soigneusement revises. Telle fut labondance des matriaux ainsi
runis en quatre ou cinq annes, que M. Renier en a pu former un ample recueil, lun des plus
riches et des plus savamment ordonns qui existent pour aucune des contres de lantiquit
classique.
[
130]Saint-Martin_1875_486 History of geography: On savait depuis longtemps que les pays
du nord-ouest de lAfrique taient couverts dinscriptions romaines; mais sous la domination
turque lexploration en tait difficile. Cependant un savant voyageur anglais, le docteur Thomas
Shaw, parvint, il y a aujourdhui prs dun sicle et demi, recueillir une ample moisson dobservations sur les rgences dAlger et de Tunis; sa relation, encore utile tudier aujourdhui,
tait reste jusquen 1850 le plus abondant rpertoire consulter pour les antiquits, lhistoire
naturelle et la gographie des deux rgences. Les travaux et les tudes locales de nos ingnieurs
et de nos savants, sans rien diminuer du mrite de cette remarquable relation, ont pu seuls en
constater les invitables lacunes. Ds les premiers temps de la conqute, les recherches qui
devaient combler ces lacunes furent provoques par le gouvernement; ou plutt, pour carter
les fictions officielles et rester dans la vrit des faits, lattention du gouvernement, sollicite
par quelques membres influents de lAcadmie des inscriptions, se porta sur cet objet. Chaque
anne, depuis lors, les investigations sont devenues plus fructueuses. Les deux socits de
Constantine et dAlger y ont contribu pour leur part.
[ ]
131 Cagnat_et_al_1890_217218: Quand on arrivera dans une ruine (henchir), on devra, avant
de copier les inscriptions ou de relever les monuments qui y existent, la parcourir dabord en
tous sens pour se rendre compte de son tendue et de sa nature. On se fera accompagner, autant
que possible, dans cette visite par un indigne du village ou du douar voisin, ou par quelque berger, dont on gagnera aisment la confiance grce quelque menu prsent, par exemple loffre
dune cigarette. Celui-ci vous mettra au courant bien vite du nom de la localit, des recherches
et des fouilles qui y ont dj t faites, du plus ou moins grand nombre dinscriptions que lon
a chance dy rencontrer et de toutes les particularits qui pourront tre utiles connatre; les
indignes savent toujours ces choses, et lorsquils ne les disent pas, sils sont vraiment du pays,
cest quils ne le veulent pas.
[

132]Cagnat_1883_68: Pendant que jtais lhenchir Guergour et dans les environs, M. lagent
consulaire du Kef avait eu la bont denvoyer un Arabe dans une tribu voisine pour prendre les
estampages des inscriptions qui y existaient. Les indignes ayant dchir ses estampages, il nen
a rapport que quatre, dont voici le texte.
[
133]Pallary_1894_6.
[
134]Cagnat_et_al_1890_220 For inscriptions, make use of the locals: Si lon dsire tre mis
rapidement au courant des inscriptions qui existent dans une ruine, on naura, avons-nous dit,
qu sadresser aux indignes dsuvrs qui suivent toujours un explorateur, quitte leur promettre une modique rtribution (entre cinq et dix sous, suivant limportance des documents),
pour chaque texte indit quils vous montreront; on sera assur ainsi den dcouvrir un certain
nombre en peu de temps; on trouvera mme, ce procd, lavantage que les indignes dgageront davance et sans supplment dindemnit, les pierres couvertes de terre partiellement ou
en entier. Mais il faudra toujours les accompagner jusqu lendroit o se rencontre linscription
et ne pas admettre quils la dplacent et lapportent; les Arabes de la campagne sont gens aller
chercher au loin et dans dautres ruines des fragments quils connaissent pour gagner quelques
sous. On sexposerait donc attribuer de fausses provenances aux textes quon aurait relevs.
[
135]Rousset_1882_12: Un Arabe regardera des millions de fois le mme phnomne surgir
ses cts sans mme se douter quil puisse y avoir une explication chercher ou donner de ce
phnomne; aussi la prvision ou prvoyance est-elle son moindre dfaut. Cest un sens qui lui
manque. Il ne comprend mme pas nos questions. Que de fois navons-nous pas tous interrog,
par exemple, les populations arabes sur ce quelles pensaient, sur ce quelles se rappelaient de
lorigine et du but de tels ou tels monuments en ruine aujourdhui, de tels gigantesques travaux
de canalisation qui apportaient autrefois la fertilit, la vie dans le pays, qui, ruins actuellement,
lont vu devenir un dsert. LArabe rpond toujours le mme mot, je ne sais pas, mais le je ne
sais pas dune race qui ne comprend mme pas quil puisse y avoir l quelque chose chercher.
Inscriptions, ruines, temples encore debout, etc., nattirent pas plus son attention que le rocher
que la nature a fait sortir l ou l. Les choses sont, elles sont comme Dieu les a faites, et dans son
esprit il ne peut y avoir rien au del.
[
136]Lux_1882_3132 near Tunis, but site unidentified: Le peuple arabe semble avoir une
sainte horreur de la truelle. Quelques-uns habitent les anciennes ruines romaines qui abondent
dans le pays, mais jamais il ne leur vient lide den relever une seule pierre! / Il est triste de
penser que ce pays inculte et dsol fut autrefois un des plus beaux spcimens de la civilisation
carthaginoise et romaine. / Au sommet de cette montagne jai trouv les vestiges dune tour
antique o je me suis tabli pour rdiger ces quelques notes. Quelle patience et quelle hardiesse
il a fallu aux hommes de ce temps pour transporter quinze cents pieds de haut ces normes
blocs de pierre que nous hsiterions remuer aujourdhui avec nos puissantes machines!
[
137]Derrien_1895_285 la campagne godsique de 1883, in the Bassin de lOued Riou: Je
crois utile de citer ici les nombreuses ruines qui mont t indiques par le cad des Aouissat:
Kerba Bou Abria; Dayat Bouchenna; Dayat el Sedra; Dayat bel Kercha; Ben Addoud; Oulad Sidi
Mohammed; Tinmerer (prs de deux normes genvriers); Bessadia (grosses pierres); Si Bakhti
el Moutaffoun; Kef el Maarkba; Dayet es Safaa (ruines considrables); Ben Fenniche; Kheneq el
Youdi; Remad; Guenfound; Zerkana; An Zeflague; et enfin les Kherbet Oulad bou Zian, auprs
desquels jai camp.
[
138]Rouquette_1905_50 on Thagaste (birthplace of S. Augustine): un fils de lancien cad des
Hanencha, El Hassenaoui...Ce brave vieillard, dont on ne peut mettre en doute la vracit pour
[
appendix
une semblable question, nous a fait, daprs nos seules interrogations, et avec une mmoire et
une lucidit desprit tonnantes pour son ge, un expos des ruines romaines, qui existaient sur
lemplacement de la ville actuelle, au moment o il y campait avec son pre et sa tribu. / Ses
renseigements se sont trouvs en concordance absolue avec ceux que nous avons pu recueillir
par ailleurs, ainsi quavec les indications donnes par le gnral Randon et M. Berbrgger; aussi,
le noyau de la bourgade romaine nous semble-t-il, dsormais bien nettement dtermin.
[
139]Gauckler_1901_147 notes on Latin epigraphy: Le mausole circulaire de Ksar-Menara a
subi, lan dernier, quelques dommages, trs lgers dailleurs, causs par les ouvriers de M. Averso,
entrepreneur de travaux publics; jai fait arrter ceux-ci temps, au moment o ils se disposaient transformer en carrire de pierres cet important monument historique. Les travaux
commencs ont eu, du moins, un heureux rsultat, celui de faire dcouvrir une nouvelle pitaphe appartenant la mme srie que celles qui sont publies.
[
140]Gurin_1862_I_8283 on the way from Tunis to Sousse: Partis de Bir-el-Bouta sept
heures du matin, nous arrivons vers huit heures Kasr-el-Menara. / Kasr-el-Menara, ou le chteau du Phare, comme les Arabes dsignent ce monument, est un difice circulaire reposant
sur un soubassement carr. Son diamtre est denviron 14 mtres, et sa hauteur actuelle de 10.
Construit en blocage, il est revtu extrieurement de beaux blocs rectangulaires, dont une partie
a dj t enleve pour servir ailleurs dans des btisses modernes. La corniche qui le couronnait
nexiste plus; il en est de mme des petits autels qua vus Shaw, et dont chacun desquels portait le nom dun personnage diffrent. Comme le remarque, trs-judicieusement sir Grenville
Temple ce tombeau ressemble beaucoup celui de Caecilia Metella, prs de Rome, et celui de
la famille Plautia, prs de Tivoli.
[ ]
141 Cagnat_et_al_1890_22 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity.
For Roman inscriptions, try and note down beforehand what has already been recorded but,
if not: Mais il se peut que lon nait pas le loisir de faire ces recherches prparatoires; alors on
senquerra auprs des indignes des pierres avec inscriptions que contient la ruine et on leur
demandera si elles ont dj t souvent copies; sils ne peuvent ou ne veulent pas rpondre
avec prcision, on examinera si elles sont trs visibles; en ce cas il y a des chances pour quelles
soient dj connues. Lorsquelles sont enterres en partie, on regardera si la terre qui les recouvre
a dj t carte par suite dune fouille et ramene par les pluies ou le vent; quand elle semble
navoir pas encore t remue, cest que la pierre na jamais attir lattention des voyageurs et
quelle est indite. En tout cas, toutes les fois quil ne sagit pas dun texte funraire, on ne courra
jamais grand risque recopier un texte publi, surtout lestamper.
[
142]Cagnat_et_al_1890_220 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity. For inscriptions in Byzantine forts: On fera bien attention aux btisses soit byzantines
soit mme indignes qui subsistent encore dans la ruine; car elles ont t la plupart du temps
construites de pierres romaines et surtout de pierres inscriptions, plus soigneusement tailles que les autres. Les fortins byzantins qui existent dans presque toutes les ruines grandes ou
petites de lAlgrie et de la Tunisie sont de vritables nids inscriptions. Il sera bon de les examiner, pierre par pierre, si lon veut tre sr de faire une rcolte pigraphique abondante, et de ne
pas laisser chapper de fragments importants.
[
143]Audollent_1890_400: La prodigieuse richesse de lAlgrie en monuments romains est un
fait trop connu pour que nous en parlions; les rsultats de notre mission en seraient une preuve
nouvelle. Durant les premiers mois du voyage, avant de fouiller nous-mmes, nous avons rcolt
environ 150 textes. Mais la fureur de destruction qui possde certains habitants nest pas moins

grande. Nous ne voulons pas faire un rquisitoire, ni citer des noms propres; aussi tairons-nous
bien des faits regrettables dont nous avons t les tmoins. Au lieu de gmir sur le mal, mieux
vaut proposer un remde. Celui qui nous parat le plus urgent, cest la cration de petits muses
locaux dans les villes et partout o existe un centre romain considrable. Timgad, par exemple,
nest plus habit; nanmoins les statues et les inscriptions quon y a trouves doivent rester
Timgad. Nous nous expliquerons plus compltement sur ces muses au cours de ce travail, en
essayant dindiquer des solutions pratiques. Lorsquune intelligente initiative aura dj pris les
devants, et assur la conservation des monuments antiques, ce nous sera une joie de le publier.
[
144]Ratheau_1879_156 Oasis of Sidi Okba: Nous partmes ensuite pour visiter le village. Qui
a vu un village doasis en a vu dix; cest toujours le mme mode denceinte, les mmes rues
troites, tortueuses, avec des passages couverts, les mmes maisons terrasses, simple rezde-chausse, construites en pis et bton. Seulement je marrtai avec beaucoup dintrt
certaines parties de lenceinte qui offrent de nombreux restes de monuments romains, et des
fragments dinscription. Dans quelques-unes de ces pierres sont vides de vritables poignes
pour attacher les btes de somme. Ce travail de refouillement ne me parat ni arabe, ni turc; car
il exige un art vritable, et ces deux nations nont jamais t habiles tailler la pierre. Il faudrait
donc le faire remonter aux Romains eux-mmes, et je nen ai pas encore vu de pareil je le signalerai mes amis les archologues.
[
145]Gsell_1893_176: Henchir de la Mechta-Si-Salah. Ruine considrable sur les dernires
pentes des monts des Ouled-Sellem (n 68 sur la carte). Lendroit sappelle plutt Bir-Ounkel,
cause dun puits romain encore en usage. Nombreux pressoirs. glise dont le plan peut tre
encore reconnu: voir les figures 23 et 24 et lexplication de ces figures dans le texte, plus loin. Il
ne faudrait gure creuser plus de 0m,80 pour arriver au sol antique. Je nai trouv dans cette vaste
ruine que trois inscriptions, mal graves et sans intrt.
[
146]JDPL 5 August 1837, Alexandre Delaborde, in the report on the AIBL 4 August 1837,
commenting on a paper by Berbrugger: Il est permis de douter que la conqute de quelques
inscriptions romaines trouves sur le littoral de lAlgrie, offre au soldat franais lintrt puissant dont le savant rapporteur les dcore. Nous demandions lanne dernire, lAcadmie des
Inscriptions sil ne serait pas convenable que son rapport annuel embrasst avec une largeur
digne delle, les travaux actuels, les acquisitions et les tendances de la science.
[
147]Poinssot_1885_174: A 6 kilomtres environ de Thacia, Henchir Nadja, on voit les restes
dun centre de quelque importance. Ses ruines couvrent un espace de plusieurs hectares; on y voit
de nombreuses pierres de taille, les fondations ddifices assez considrables, (les nombreuses
citernes, des colonnes, des fragments darchitecture, mais tout est dtruit ou renvers. / Le seul
texte pigraphique que jaie relev cet endroit est linscription grave sur une borne milliaire
transporte au milieu des ruines.
[
148]Hinglais_1905_244 author comments on Jolys account of the digging of Announa:
On doit conclure de la lettre de notre confrre que les parties de murs qui subsistent reclent,
comme celles qui se sont croules, quantit dinscriptions quune complte dmolition pourrait seule mettre au jour. On verra sans doute quand les fouilles, plus avances, auront permis de
relever entirement le plan de la ville romaine, si lintrt de conserver des restants de btisses
byzantines, prime celui quoffrirait la dcouverte dinscriptions qui fourniraient peut-tre des
donnes lhistoire.
[
149]Gurin_1862_II_3536: Vingt minutes plus loin, dautres ruines beaucoup plus considrables me sont dsignes sous la dnomination dHenchir-Baha. / Je consacre trois heures
appendix
les examiner, sans dcouvrir nulle part le moindre fragment pigraphique qui puisse mclairer sur le nom antique de cette localit. Baha possde deux sources dont leau est excellente.
Celle-ci est recueillie dans des rservoirs forms avec de gros blocs appartenant des monuments anciens, et dont quelques-uns, lgamment sculptes, paraissent provenir dun temple. /
Une foule dautres dbris sont pars sur le plateau dune colline et en recouvrent les pentes. Dix
douze huttes habites par une cinquantaine dArabes remplacent maintenant les maisons et
les difices de cette petite ville qui est renverse de fond en comble. / A quelque distance de l,
dans les flancs dune chaine de monticules rocheux, stendent de belles carrires pratiques ciel
ouvert, et exploites probablement ds la plus haute antiquit.
[
150]RA I 1856, 5 In the Introduction [by Berbrugger] to this first issue of the journal: les
questions de conqute et de colonisation dominaient tout alors. Il fallait dabord tre matre du
terrain avant dy tenter des recherches scientifiques. Il fallait, avant tout, pourvoir au bien-tre
du soldat, ltablissement du colon. Les hommes dtude durent se rsigner suivre strictement les troits sentiers que nos vaillantes colonnes leur ouvraient a et l; il leur fallut donc se
borner glaner sur les traces de larme, lorsque souvent ils auraient pu recueillir dabondantes
moissons en scartant un peu de la ligne oblige des oprations militaires. Ce fut la priode de
la science militante, priode o plus dun hardi pionnier a conquis une rputation que lquit
publique mesure plus la difficult quil y avait alors dobtenir des rsultats quaux rsultats
eux-mmes du pays.
[ ]
151 RA 1873, Devoulx, Albert, Un muse mural Alger, 492493: Le 8 mars 1845, vers dix
heures du soir, une violente explosion mettait la population dAlger en moi: une poudrire
venait de sauter la Marine, en faisant de.nombreuses victimes et en dtruisant unepartie des
ouvrages qui avoisinaient le phare. Sur la faade dune poudrire construite quelque temps
aprs, dans une portion de la brche cre par ce sinistre dont les causes sont restes ignores, le
Gnie a encastr une certaine quantit dinscriptions arabes, turques, hbraques et espagnoles.
Les pices de ce muse en plein yvent proviennent, en gnral, des cimetires de Bab-el-Ouedy
et on aurait pu les utiliser plus convenablement quen les transportant d si loin en ce lieu solitaire o les piques des artilleurs en faction tiennent dislance respectueuse les pigraphistes
trop curieux. / La porte de la nouvelle poudrire est, garnie dun encadrement en marbre surmont dune double inscription turque, qui provient du fort appel Bordj Essardine (le fort des
sardines). A cinquante centimtres du sol, sont places vingt-quatre inscriptions, dont treize
gauche et onze droite de la porte. With the note: Pour relever ces inscriptions, jai d me
munir dune autorisation spciale, qui ma dailleurs t accorde avec une bonne grce et un
empressement pour lesquels jexprime ici toute ma reconnaissance.
[
152]Programme du Congrs des Socits Savantes en 1890, in Bulletin du Comit 1890,
LXVIIILXXII. See LXIX: Les savants qui, dans ces dernires annes, se sont livrs ltude des
antiquits du nord de lAfrique ont gnralement consacr la meilleure part de leurs efforts
lpigraphie. Le Comit pense que ltude des monuments darchitecture, dont les ruines se
dressent encore en si grand nombre en Algrie et en Tunisie, pourrait fournir des rsultats non
moins intressants. Il appelle notamment lattention des travailleurs sur les difices chrtiens
des premiers sicles, dont les restes ont pu tre signals jusquici par divers explorateurs, mais
qui nont point fait lobjet dune tude archologique dtaille.
[
153]Mac-Carthy_1885B_213 inscriptions and ruins: Elles ont dj rendu plus dun service
lhistoire, lconomie politique, la science gographique; elles nous ont rvl des faits que les
rcits antiques, parvenus jusqu nous, ne mentionnent pas; elles ont considrablement tendu

nos connaissances sur ladministration des provinces africaines de lempire romain, elles nous
ont permis de rectifier bien des orthographes vicieuses, bien des notions incertaines, bien des
synonymies fautives et sous tous ces rapports jaurais de nombreuses citations faire, si cela
ne mexposait pas sortir des limites que mimpose le titre de ce petit crit...Les ruines ellesmmes ont une importance non moins considrable. Dabord, cest de leurs entrailles que sont
sortis ces textes prcieux dont nous parlions linstant; puis, ce sont elles surtout qui nous renseignent, dune manire certaine, sur la valeur relative et relle des cits, des villes et de tous
les points o sinstallrent les diffrents peuples qui ont successivement occup le pays, sur la
nature de leur occupation, dans ses rapports avec les populations indignes, sur le dveloppement quy prirent les arts et lindustrie, sur les transformations successives dune civilisation
dont les formes ont vari et dont les physionomies caractristiques appartiennent aux plus
intimes manifestations de lhumanit.
[
154]Janon_1973_194B: Pour construire le pnitencier, comme les maisons du village, les
ruines romaines furent une carrire commode. Dresser la liste des monuments qui ont ainsi
disparu jamais serait vain on nen peut connatre quune partie, celle dont des tmoignages
anciens font tat. Ncropoles, amphithtre, constructions militaires, furent pills malgr
les protestations des savants. Nanmoins quand la recherche archologique se dveloppa en
Algrie, Lambse ne fut pas une des villes choisies pour installer un de ces grands chantiers
qui devaient mettre au jour les villes dor de lAfrique antique. Sans doute, la prsence de
la prison, dont les btiments rbarbatifs dominent la plaine nest-elle pas la moindre cause
de ce mpris. Un petit chantier fut pourtant maintenu sur le site, sous la direction du cur de
Lambse, labb Montagnon, qui fouilla le camp des auxiliaires des directeurs successifs de
la prison ou des directeurs des fouilles de Timgad qui, en raison de lloignement, laissaient la
surveillance des travaux un chef de chantier. Les fouilles navaient dailleurs quun but, demi
avou, de dterrer des inscriptions. La rcolte en tait toujours fructueuse, mais les monuments
o elles taient trouves restaient la plupart du temps indits.
[
155]Piesse_1862_422: A une extrmit de Lambaesis slve le tombeau de Q. Flavius
Maximus, un des prfets de cette 3e lgion: cest un monument carr termin en pyramide, haut
de 6 met. que firent construire, comme le dit linscription, les hritiers de Julius Secundus, centurion de la mme lgion, auquel Flavius Maximus avait, par testament, impos lobligation de
lui lever ce tombeau du prix de 12000 sesterces. Pour prserver ce monument dune destruction
imminente, le colonel Carbuccia en ordonna la dpose et la reconstruction pierre par pierre.
Il en manquait une que les Arabes avaient enleve dans leur recherche incessante des trsors:
sur celle qui la remplaa, le colonel fit graver une inscription la gloire du rgiment quil commandait. Les cendres du gnral romain furent pieusement replaces dans son tombeau, et la
garnison de Batna, convie cette conclamation dun nouveau genre, dfila devant le mausole
rtabli, en saluant le souvenir de la garnison romaine. On peut tre un brave officier, un savant
gnral, et navoir pas cette verve de posie.
[
156]Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_338339 work of Carbuccia: thtre des oprations de M.
Carbuccia, cest--dire la subdivision de Bathna. Peu aprs son arrive ce poste, en octobre
1848, il sest donn la mission dexplorer et de faire explorer en totalit ce vaste espace qui na
pas moins de 1,200 lieues carres, exploration qui dailleurs tait ncessaire sous le point de vue
militaire et stratgique. Il avait heureusement sous ses ordres de nombreux et dexcellents auxiliaires; les plus capables et les plus intelligents dentre eux, officiers, sous-officiers et soldats, ont
t chargs de faire partout des relvements exacts, de les rapporter mesure, de noter tous les
appendix
monuments, toutes les pierres sculptes et crites, toutes les bornes milliaires, tous les vestiges
laisss par la domination romaine (et ces vestiges, ces monuments, ces dbris sont pour ainsi
dire innombrables); on faisait ces travaux dans les instants de loisir ou pendant la marche des
colonnes. Chaque jour le chef de ces expditions voyait arriver des matriaux considrables;
il les coordonnait sans retard, et lon dressait ainsi, par parties, une grande carte, appuye sur
plusieurs points quavaient dtermins les ingnieurs du dpt de la guerre.
[
157]Berbrugger_1864C_194 around Lambessa: M. Carbuccia avait entendu dire par quelques
anciens soldats de la deuxime lgion trangre, dont il tait alors colonel, quen 1847 un bataillon du 2e de ligne, dtach dans la fertile plaine de Chemorra, pour la fenaison, avait dcouvert prs de l une belle mosaque. Cette plaine ou valle est arrose par lOued Chemorra, qui
descend du versant nord de lAurs sous les ruines de lancienne Tharnugas, Timgad, et va se
jeter dans la Sebkha appele Djendeli, 85 kilomtres environ au plein sud de Constantine. Au
commencement du mois de mars 1849, le colonel, voulant sassurer par lui-mme des ressources
en foin que cette plaine pourrait prsenter pour la prochaine saison, descendit le cours de la
rivire de Chemorra, dont il trouva les bords garnis de restes de postes romains, depuis Timgad
jusqu la Sebkh Djendeli. Arriv peu prs la hauteur du Medrassen (monument spulcral
des rois numides), le guide le fit arrter dans un lieu couvert dassez grandes ruines que les indignes appellent Kesseria. L, aprs des fouilles sommaires excutes par lescadron du troisime
chasseurs dAfrique qui laccompagnait, on dblaya une trs-belle mosaque fort bien conserve.
Ne pouvant sjourner longtemps en cet endroit, le colonel Carbuccia la fit recouvrir de 50 centimtres de terre, pour la prserver des dtriorations atmosphriques ou autres. / Au mois de juin
suivant, il y envoya le lieutenant Vienot, qui fit le dessin de cette mosaque et leva le plan de la
basilique o elle se trouvait. Basilique nest pas prcisment ici le mot propre, car ldifice avait
des transepts; cest--dire, la galerie cruciale qui correspond aux bras de la croix, dans la forme
symbolique de nos glises chrtiennes. Mais ce qui le distinguait de celles-ci, cest que la galerie
principale reprsentant le montant de la croix sarrtait la ligne postrieure des transepts, pour
sy terminer en une abside dont la partie hmicyclode ne faisait quune faible saillie extrieure
sur cette ligne.
[
158]Berbrugger_1864C_196: Un rapport, adress par le kad de lAurs, avait appris au colonel
Carbuccia que, quelques jours aprs sa visite aux ruines de Kesseria (mars 1849), des nomades
passant par l avaient dcouvert la mosaque et lavaient mutile coups de pierres. Cest de
l que datent les dtriorations indiques sur la transcription du lieutenant Vienot, qui ne la
dessina quen juin 1849. Elle tait donc complte lorsque la copie fut envoye lAkhbar, qui
la publia quelques jours aprs la dcouverte (22 mars 1849). Cette copie a, par consquent, t
faite dans les circonstances les plus favorables...Le gnral Carbuccia appliqua le principe de
la solidarit des tribus cet acte de vandalisme: celle des coupables ne les ayant pas livrs ou
fait connatre dans les huit jours, fut punie svrement. Il est triste dtre oblig davouer que les
dlits de ce genre sont beaucoup plus communs parmi nos europens civiliss que parmi les
indignes barbares!
[
159]RA 1857 issue 4, 242 in Berbruggers Gnralits Archologiques: Les ruines antiques,
situes porte des centres de populations modernes, ont t et sont encore mises
contribution pour les matriaux de construction. De l, un dplacement de pierres, qui oblige
larchologue se tenir en garde, quant la provenance des documents pigraphiques quil
rencontre dans les cits arabes ou franaises.../ Quant aux ruines situes dans la rgion de la
tente et du gourbi, loin des villes actuelles, elles sont toujours aussi intactes que les ravages du

temps ont pu le permettre. On ny a rien pris, encore moins apport; on ny a mme presque
jamais rien drang. Quelques faibles fouilles pour la recherche des trsors, un petit nombre de
dgradations commises pour arracher le mtal qui scellait des pierres; cela se bornent les actes
de vandalisme quon peut reprocher aux Indignes.
[
160]Gauckler_1896_298299 at Henchir-Fallous, inscription formant la pierre de foyer dun
gourbi lev par un ingnieur prospecteur de phosphates...Il est regrettable davoir constater
que la mutilation de cette memoria de martyrs, qui devait prsenter pour lhistoire du christianisme africain un intrt de premier ordre, nest pas due aux indignes de la rgion, mais un
Franais de passage, qui na mme pas pris la peine de copier linscription dont il a fait un si
triste usage. Les actes de vandalisme de ce genre deviennent malheureusement de plus en plus
frquents et les progrs de la colonisation rendent singulirement difficile la tche du Service
des antiquits.
[ ]
161 Desvaux_1909_602 6 May, 1841 Gnral de Division de Cavalerie: A une heure, arrive au
bivouac de Hammamet-Arko; nombreux restes romains, mais toutes mes recherches nont pu
my faire trouver une seule inscription, un seul renseignement.
[
162]Desvaux_1909_658 29 May 1841 Gnral de Division de Cavalerie: Halte une heure et
quart; en route deux heures et quart. La ruine de Chrugrag, tour forme de dbris romains
entasss sans ordre et dont une partie croule couvre le solde ses dbris; un figuier norme a
soulev ces blocs et sest dvelopp au milieu de tous ces obstacles; tout autour, de nombreux
restes o, pour la premire fois en Afrique, jai trouv, ainsi que dans les pierres de la tour, des
dessins dornement sculpts sur la pierre et de style byzantin, dune mauvaise poque, il est vrai;
colonnes, place dun difice encore assez rgulirement plac sur le sol; halte trois heures et
quart, conversation avec M. Cerfberr, lintendant.
[
163]Desvaux_1909_89 in 1843 Gnral de Division de Cavalerie: Dpart dix heures et
demie, arrive au camp [two or three leagues from Bordj Hamza ] onze heures et demie. Avec
Laeger et Laurent [latter Capt. Of indigenous cavalry], aux ruines qui ont servi de fort la garnison turque qui avait ici une nouba et peut-tre aussi Bordj Hamza dont nous ne devons tre
loigns que de deux ou trois lieues. Beaucoup de pierres inscrites encastres dans les murailles
de ce fort carr dont les subdivisions sont romaines et qui doit avoir t lev aprs lexpulsion
des Vandales. Ce carr peut avoir 100 mtres de ct et offre une tour chaque angle plusieurs
fois, il a t blanchi la chaux et la difficult denlever ces couches superposes, ainsi que lardeur du soleil, nous ont fait remettre trois heures et demie le soin de copier et de dessiner.
Rentr au bivouac, je my endors dun sommeil inusit pendant le jour. / A trois heures et demie,
avec Laeger, copie dune inscription ddicatoire laquelle je crois une importance vritable; il
en existe encore dautres, mais elles sont frustes et, dailleurs, jy reviendrai demain. Une inscription tumulaire offrait une singularit de caractres qui me la fait distinguer au milieu de tous ces
tombeaux que je voyais, je lai copie aussi.
[
164]Desvaux_1909_582 from the introduction to his Journal: Au mois de mai 1842, il fait partie de lexpdition de Tbessa, commande par le gnral de Ngrier. Cette colonne parcourt une
contre en partie inexplore, que Desvaux dcrit avec humour, en archologue et en voyageur
qui sait voir. La description quil fait de Tbessa, la nouvelle conqute, est particulirement intressante. / Le 3 juin, au cours de cette expdition. Desvaux fil preuve dintrpidit au combat de
lOued-Chabron o il fut bless et sabra cinq Arabes, ce qui lui valut une nouvelle citation. / Le 5
fvrier 1843, Desvaux quitta ses fonctions de capitaine instructeur et prit le commandement du
5e escadron de son rgiment. Dtach Stif, il profita de son sjour dans cette ville pour parcou-
appendix
rir cheval les rgions environnantes. Dans ses courses, il dcouvrit de nombreuses antiquits
et monnaies romaines; parmi ses papiers, nous avons trouv un registre entirement consacr
au relev des inscriptions dont il donne la traduction en pigraphiste consomm. Ces travaux
particuliers lui valurent dtre nomm membre correspondant de la Socit orientale de Paris.
[
165]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_6 excursions around Milah and Constantine: Notre passage
aux ruines des Beni-Zied najoute aucune inscription celles dj connues. Ce nest pas que les
pierres fissent dfaut, mais ltat du sol, les ronces et les hautes herbes rendaient toute recherche
impossible.
[
166]Ratheau_1879_185: Nous navions pas fini dailleurs nos explorations. Une voie romaine
dont les traces subsistent encore partait de Tiddi (nom romain de la cit que nous venions de
visiter), traversait le col, et se dirigeait au nord-est, vers Collo probablement. Or le long de cette
voie, un peu au del du col et sur le versant sud est une vritable ncropole o lon rencontre une
quantit norme de pierres tumulaires dont beaucoup portent des inscriptions intressantes. Il
y aurait une ample moisson pigraphique recueillir, mais nous navions pas le temps de lAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-LettrelAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettre.
[
167]Ratheau_1879_183 Tiddis, near Constantine: Il ny a plus de sentier; nous marchons dj
au milieu des ruines. Je distingue parfaitement les traces de trois enceintes successives, et aprs
avoir franchi lemplacement de la premire nous entrons dans la seconde par une tour carre
dans laquelle tait perce la porte, et jadmire les dispositions prises par le constructeur pour
forcer lassaillant longer la seconde enceinte, sous les coups du dfenseur, avant darriver la
porte place latralement dans la tour. Seulement les restes actuels de la construction ne sont
pas antiques. On y a bien employ les anciennes pierres; mais ce ne sont pas des Romains qui
les ont ainsi disposes au hasard, sans faire attention aux lits et aux joints, et sans mortier. On
reconnat bien vite la trace dune main barbare.
[
168]Gurin_1862_II_239 Oued-et-Oudin: A quelques centaines de pas au del de ce torrent,
slvent prs dun marabout, non loin de la mer, les ruines dun chteau fort appel Kasr-Lebna.
Il me parait dorigine byzantine. Dnormes pans de murs gisent renverses au milieu des broussailles; une tour seule est encore aux trois quarts debout. Je consacre une demi-heure lexamen
de cet henchir, sans y trouver aucune trace dinscription antique. i.e. henchirs only worthwhile
if theyve got inscriptions!
[
169]Gurin_1862_II_284 Oudena: Chose singulire, je nai pas dcouvert le moindre fragment
dinscription sur lemplacement de cette antique cit. Ctait nanmoins une ville considrable,
comme le prouvent les divers monuments dont jai signale les dbris. Dserte et abandonne
depuis longtemps, elle nest plus habite que par un grand nombre de chacals.
[
170]Gurin_1862_I_165166 antique site, possibly Rouga: A neuf heures trente minutes,
aprs avoir travers des plaines incultes o errent seulement quelques troupeaux, nous arrivons
la zaoua Sidi-Ahmed. Elle est environne de jardins quenferme une ceinture de cactus. / Prs
de l stendent sur un espace dont jvalue le pourtour 5 kilomtres, les ruines dune cit
antique. Les constructions les plus importantes et les mieux conserves sont les suivantes 1 Un
thtre. La forme en est encore trs-reconnaissable; elle est indique par dnormes pans de
murs; soit debout, soit renverss. Le mur du postscenium avait 55 pas de long. A ct du thtre,
on remarque une espce de forum, divise en cinq galeries, larges chacune de 10 pas et longues de
70. 2 Deux vastes citernes. Les Arabes leur donnent le nom gnral de feskia, qui se prononce
plus ordinairement en Tunisie fesguia. La plus grande est de forme elliptique et a 46 pas de
long. Elle renferme sept rservoirs communiquant ensemble au moyen darcades construites

avec dadmirables blocs parfaitement quarris et dun tuf assez tendre. Ces arcades sont surbaisses. De distance en distance, des soupiraux mnags dans lpaisseur des votes laissent
pntrer de ces rservoirs. Des conduits souterrains, en partie obstrus, tablissaient diffrentes
communications avec une seconde feskia de forme ronde et ayant peu prs 25 pas de diamtre.
Celle-ci est de mme partage en plusieurs galeries ou rservoirs que divisent des arcades en
plein-cintre, bties en belles pierres de taille. 3 Une grande porte triomphale. Jadis revtue
dun appareil de grands blocs rectangulaires, elle ne prsente plus que deux masses informes en
blocage. Linscription quelle devait porter a disparu avec les pierres de taille du revtement. /
Les dbris de plusieurs autres constructions considrables attirent encore mes regards; mais
ils sont tellement confus quon ne peut gure les dcrire. / Des fragments de colonnes, un beau
chapiteau corinthien en marbre, un pidestal gatement en marbre gisent sur lemplacement
dun difice presque compltement effac du sol. / A midi, jabandonne le terrain que parsment
ces ruines et une quantit innombrable de matriaux de toutes sortes, sans y avoir dcouvert la
moindre inscription.
[ ]
171 Gurin_1862_I_301 Henchir-el-Akhrount (Henchir des Frres), or Mdinet-el-Kedima (la
vieille ville) with ruins with a spread of 5km: Mes guides mavaient dabord affirm quil y avait
beaucoup de pierres revtues dinscriptions parmi les dbris de cette ville, et javais espr y faire
une ample moisson pigraphique; mais lorsque ensuite, aprs des recherches inutiles, je leur
demandai de me montrer ces prtendues inscriptions, Vous les avez vues, me rpondirent-ils,
et pour men convaincre, ils me ramenrent devant plusieurs chapiteaux gisants il terre, ainsi
que devant cinq ou six morceaux de corniche lgamment sculpts, dont les moulures leur
paraissaient tre autant de caractres ayant une signification particulire. Cette mprise, dans
laquelle jai vu en maintes circonstances beaucoup dArabes tomber, ne doit point tonner de
leur part, car lcriture coufique monumentale affecte quelquefois la forme de sculptures quun
Europen pourrait prendre, au premier abord, pour de simples moulures, et non pour des lettres
vritables. Il nest donc pas surprenant que, de leur ct, ils confondent avec des caractres dont
ils ignorent la forme et la valeur, des moulures entirement dpourvues de sens.
[
172]Renier_1852_336337 charg dune mission en Algrie pour y rechercher les monuments pigraphiques: Nous arrivmes de bonne heure An-Bda, o nous fmes sjour le 7.
Jen profitai pour aller visiter, six kilomtres au sud-est des tablissements franais, des ruines
connues sous le nom dOulmen. Ces ruines occupent un espace fort considrable et sont situes
dans une magnifique position. L videmment a exist une grande ville, peut-tre celle qui est
dsigne dans les itinraires et dans les notices de lglise dAfrique sous le nom de Macomades.
Jy ai vu beaucoup de colonnes, entires ou brises, des chapiteaux corinthiens, des fragments
de frise dune grande richesse, mais dune poque un peu basse; et, malgr dactivs recherches,
je nai pu y dcouvrir aucun monument pigraphique. / On y en avait trouv cependant; mais
ces ruines ont t largement exploites pour la construction des forts dAn-Bda, et les blocs
portant des inscriptions sont toujours les premiers que choisissent les maons et les tailleurs de
pierre.
[
173]Blanchet_1899_109 El Djem: La chasse aux inscriptions na pas t trs fructueuse: javais
cependant fait annoncer par le khalifa quun amateur achetait comptant les pierres crites;
javais pay trs cher les deux fragments informes quon mavait dabord soumis, trs timidement; la confiance tait ne et tous les jours on mapportait quelques pierres romaines; lintrt
en a t par malheur trs ingal: la plupart taient des corniches, dont les oves, les palmettes
et les rais de cur semblaient aux Arabes autant de lettres: stles, tablettes et frises forment
appendix
en effet dadmirables matriaux de construction, quon dbite aussitt dcouverts; mais que
faire de ces pierres au profil extravagant qui sont des chapiteaux, des bases ou des corniches?
Celles-l restent entires et dorment tranquilles dans les jardins. and these fragments, which
he reproduces, usually have only a few letters on them.
[
174]Tissot_1857_418: Le 8 avril dernier, la colonne expditionnaire du Djrid, que jaccompagnais, traversant la Meliana prs de la Koubba de Sidi bou Hamida et videmment dans le voisinage de la localit que je considrais, priori, comme lemplacement de Thuburbo, je profitai
dune halte pour parcourir les ruines dHenchir Kasbat, situes un mille de l, et 10 heures
au Sud-Sud-Ouest de Tunis. Mon attention tait dautant plus veille quun des officiers du Bey
du camp mavait dit y avoir remarqu autrefois une trs-longue inscription. Arriv lendroit
dsign, je la cherchai vainement: elle avait t brise depuis peu, et les fragments en avaient
t employs la construction du pont quon btit en ce moment sur la Meliana. Je maudissais
de tout mon coeur le vandalisme qui avait ananti ce monument, lorsque les ouvriers employs
recueillir les matriaux me montrrent une autre pierre crite quils venaient de dterrer et qui
allait suivre la premire. 421: Press par le temps, jeus le regret de ne pouvoir lever le plan exact
de ces ruines intressantes, mais je ne dsespre pas de combler un jour cette lacune.
[
175]Beul_1875_8586 Cyrene: Je ne puis mempcher, en signalant ces nouvelles richesses,
de renouveler lexpression dun regret, qui reviendradans plus dune occasion. Que les officiers
de marine, qui voulaient doter le muse britannique de monuments dignes dy tre transports,
se soient attachs uniquement la dcouverte de ces monuments, ctait leur droit. Quils naient
pas voulu dpenser une seule journe douvrier de plus, afin de rendre clair le plan dun difice
ou un dtail darchitecture, ctait encore une des conditions de leur programme. Mais il ne leur
en cotait rien pour dcrire au moins, et avec quelque soin, les monuments architectoniques
dont les traces leur apparaissaient sous le sol. Par exemple, ces neuf difices quils ont sonds
dans diffrents quartiers de la ville, pourquoi nen rien dire? Pourquoi ne pas mentionner leur
forme, leur appropriation, leur style? Il est impossible quils naient pas prsent, ces neuf difices, quelque renseignement curieux, quelque particularit, quelque problme. Certes, il faut
louer le patriotisme de ceux qui travaillent accrotre leur muse national; mais la science a
des droits qui ne sont pas moins srieux, qui priment tous les autres, et si lAngleterre se montre
reconnaissante envers ceux qui la servent avec un zle exclusif, lEurope savante peut tre plus
svre envers des hommes distingus qui ont eu parfois trop peu de souci de la science. Encore
une fois, nous nexigeons ni un sacrifice, ni un mnagement de plus ce que nous demandons,
cest de dcrire, cest de fournir larchologie des dtails qui ne cotent rien, quon observe
chemin faisant, que lon consigne dans quelques pages, et qui serviront soit aux rudits, dans
leur cabinet, soit aux futurs explorateurs.
[
176]Altekamp_2004_143: Deeply rooted historical reasons are responsible for the unsettled
relationship between the discipline of Classical archaeology and the qualification of field
archaeology. Classical archaeologys interest in material culture was largely confined to objects
produced to convey deliberate communications between contemporaries in antiquity or even to
establish a deliberate tradition. In this sense efforts concentrated on figurative and iconographic
representation, the testimonies of which could be collected and interpreted while ignoring
the body of information available from archaeological contexts. Obvious successes in analysing
morphologically and iconologically intricate artefacts led Classical archaeology to minimise
the potential for additional information to correct or corroborate existing reconstructions,
thus widely expand evidence and knowledge of antiquitys material culture. Disinterest in the

developing philosophy of stratigraphic excavation resulted in ignorance not only of its potentials
but also of its basic principles.
[
177]Altekamp_2004_147 today: The only official institution on a national level, the German
Archaeological Institute, is dominated by Classical archaeologists and controlled mainly by
academics from the same field. Within university faculties, Classical archaeology is more often
affiliated to art history or Classical philology and ancient history than to other archaeological
disciplines. This constellation does not press Classical archaeology to strengthen the exclusively
archaeological aspects of its work. Classical archaeology does not train field archaeologists of
its own, but, of course, it is conducting excavations. Actually, nobody will direct an excavation
without any experience, but some will do so without sufficient preparation and nearly all lacking the background of a reflected common standard.
[
178]Bouyac_1891_2122: Entre les deux mamelons dHippone, sur le bord de la route de
Guelma, se trouve une proprit appartenant M. Chevillot. Nous y avons vu, en 1887, deux
jolies mosaques dcouvertes par des ouvriers. Mais ce que nous avons constat de plus curieux,
cest la prsence, 80 ou 90 centimtres de profondeur, et sur la surface presquentire du jardin,
dun parquet fait de dalles de marbre rose dont nous avons gard un chantillon.
[
179]Gurin_1862_I_371 ruins of Sbiba: Au moment o jallais abandonner les ruines de cette
ville, un vieillard de la localit mapprend quil a vu, dans son enfance, une grande pierre revtue
dune longue inscription et qui depuis a t enfouie. / Le prenant aussitt pour guide, je me
dirige vers lendroit o il me conduit, et la nuit me surprend au milieu des fouilles que je fais
excuter sur ce point...Les indications du vieil Arabe sont parfaitement vraies, car, tant revenu
vers six heures du matin au point o javais commenc faire fouiller la veille, je dcouvre un
long bloc peu prs intact, sauf quelques brisures, et revtu sur lune de ses faces de linscription
latine que voici.
[
180]Gurin_1862_II_207: A dix heures, nous traversons le village de Bridja; il renferme des
dbris antiques. / A dix heures quarante-cinq minutes, nous entrons Douela, autre village situ
a trois kilomtres au nord de Bridja. Il est entour de jardins au milieu desquels jobserve partout
des traces de constructions antiques. Quant aux maisons du village, elles prsentent pour la
plupart dans leur btisse grossire un certain nombre dassez beaux matriaux qui datent galement de lantiquit. Le scheik, auquel je demande sil na point connaissance quon ait trouv
quelque inscription dans cette localit, mapprend quil y a peu dannes, en construisant sa
demeure, il a enfoui dans les fondations un bloc revtu danciens caractres en mme temps,
cdant mon dsir, il consent pratiquer une faible excavation pour me montrer cette pierre.
Celle-ci une fois mise a dcouvert moffre effectivement sur lune de ses faces en partie brise
les mots suivants.
[ ]
181 Conder_1830_99100 Beechey at Benghazi: If the fragments which are found should
prove too large for removal, which is generally the case, they are broken into smaller pieces,
without the least hesitation or concern, till they are reduced to a convenient size for loading, and
are afterwards broken again into still smaller pieces as occasion may require, on the place where
the house is built. Many valuable remains of antiquity must have disappeared in this way; but it
is probable, at the same time, that many still exist to reward the expense of excavation; and we
have little doubt, that statues and inscriptions, numerous fragments of architecture, and good
collections of coins and gems, might still be obtained within the distance of half a mile round
Bengazi. On the beach to the northward and to the north-eastward of the town, where a bank of
twenty and thirty feet (more or less) is formed of the rubbish of one of the ancient cities, coins
appendix
and gems are continually washed down in rainy weather; and the inhabitants of Bengazi repair
in crowds to the beach, after storms, and sift the earth which falls away from the cliff, disposing
of whatever they may find to the few Europeans of the place.
[
182]Omont_1902_310 Benghazi: un agent consulaire, Dusault, crivait, le 10 juin 1698,
Pontchartrain pour lui offrir une statue antique, la statue de Faustine, dite Crispine, aujourdhui
au Muse du Louvre: Ayant trouv en cette ville, peu de jours aprs mon arrive, une trs belle
statue, dont on avoit fait un prsent au consul dHollande, je crus quelle occuperoit mieux sa
place dans Pontchartrain que dans la maison de quelque bourguemaistre...Cette statue est
dalbtre, elle reprsente une jeune femme dans son naturel; elle est de six pieds de hauteur, trs
bien poste, proportionne et vestue dune draperie si dlie quon voit le jour au travers. Elle
est dans son entier et aussi parfaite quelle le fut le jour quelle sortit de la main de louvrier, et,
mes yeux, cest la plus belle chose qui soie jamais veu. On la trouve dans les fondemens dune
vieille maison de la ville de Bengasy, de ce roiaume, dans les confins de lEgypte. Peut estre en
pourra-t-on trouver dautres; jescris quon menvoie une caisse, o je puisse la mettre, et suivre
ensuite les ordres que vous me donners pour vous lenvoyer. Ibid., 311 getting the statue of
Faustina to Paris was tricky. Vauvr writes in 1695 re. the statue sent by Consul Dusault: Je feray
pour cela faire une caisse, o elle ne souffrira point au transport de Lion Rouanne, car pour le
reste de la route elle peut estre envoye par mer Arles, ensuite par le Rosne, la Loire et le canal
de Briare ou de Montargis.
[
183]RA I 1856, 7: Le marchal Bugeaud cdait de meilleures inspirations lorsque, le 25 mars
1844, il adressait aux diverses autorits une circulaire relative la conservation des monuments
historiques et des restes dantiquits; mais il rentrait dans la pense du duc de Dalmatie, quand,
le 26 aot d lanne suivante, il publiait une autre circulaire concernant les collections archologiques faire pour le muse algrien de Paris. / LAlgrie, devenue une terre franaise, ne devait
cependant pas tre ainsi dpouille de ses richesses archologiques, comme si elle tait encore
un pachalik de la Porte ottomane. Ny aurait-il pas, dailleurs, une vritable inconsquence
vouloir dun ct faire refleurir la civilisation en Afrique et de lautre priver ce pays de ses
principaux lments dtudes locales? / Vers la fin de 1847, il se forma Alger une socit des
sciences, lettres et arts. La tempte de fvrier, qui dispersa une grande partie de son personnel,
en amena fatalement la dissolution et ne lui laissa pas le temps dfaire autre chose que ses statuts. / Ce fut dans cette mme anne 1847 quon songea introduire dans les actes de concession
une clause destine sauvegarder le droit de ltat sur les antiquits et objets dart dcouverts
ou dcouvrir dans les fouilles prives.
[
184]Berbrugger_1856_152153 what to do with inscriptions? La question des muses locaux
est agite dans cette sance. / [the President] expose leur tat actuel. Il rsulte de ses explications quexcept Alger et Cherchel, il ny nulle part de muses proprement dits, car nulle
part il ny a un immeuble spcialement et exclusivement affect recevoir les antiquits locales,
ni aucune personne charge de veiller a leur conservation, ni un budget, si mince quil soit, pour
subvenir aux dpenss de transport, etc. / A Constantine, les inscriptions sont en plen air, sur
la place des Chameaux, sur les murs de la Casba, au Gnie militaire, Sidi Makhlouf, etc....
Quant aux endroits qui ne produisent pas assez de dcouvertes archologiques pour devenir un
centre secondaire de collection, ce quon y pourrait rencontrer serait adress au Muse central
dAlger ou au muse communal le plus voisin. / Lorganisation que lon propose ici est toute
provisoire et ne prjuge rien pour lavenir. Elle pourrait dailleurs se faire presque sans frais, ainsi
quon va le voir. / Il suffirait de charger spcialement le Gnie de recueillir et de conserver les

antiquits dans chaque endroit. Cest le service qui possde, en personnel et en matriel, les
plus puissants moyens daction pour atteindre le but quon se propose. Cest lui qui fait excuter
sur chaque point les premiers et les plus importants travaux et qui a, par consquent, les plus
frquentes occasions de faire des dcouvertes, il a une influence naturelle sur les entrepreneurs
quil emploie souvent et qui, aprs lui, sont le plus mme de faire des trouvailles archologiques intressantes.
[
185]Mac_Carthy_1885_6: Ce nest donc pas sans raisons, on le voit, que nous demandons
quon veuille bien prendre quelques mesures nergiques pour la conservation des derniers vestiges de lantiquit pars la surface de lAlgrie. Tous ceux qui auront t mme de voir les
belles ruines de Lambse, auxquelles lpigraphie doit plus de 1,500 textes diffrents, et celles
de Tamugadis, de Diana Veteranorum, de Djemla, dAnnouna, de Cherchel, les monuments de
Theveste (Tebessa), la riche collection dinscriptions forme par le service du Gnie, Aumale,
celles du muse du Louvre, Paris, et du muse dAlger, souhaiteront avec nous quune sollicitude claire tende une main protectrice sur ces restes si loquents dun autre ge.
[
186]Saladin_1893_207208: Muse du Kef. Ce muse, dont la fondation est le rsultat des
efforts de M. Roy, consul de France au Kef, et des officiers qui ont fait successivement partie de la
garnison de cette ville, a t form par les dons de ces messieurs et install Dar el-Bey dans un
escalier et deux salles du premier tage. Nous dsirons montrer par cet exemple de quelle utilit
pour la science serait le concours rgulirement organis des administrations militaire et civile,
puisque sans aucune aide, les recherches de M. Roy et des officiers de la garnison ont runi dj
tant de documents prcieux and then describes the contents.
[
187]Saladin_1887_27: Il y aura donc des fouilles intressantes faire El-Djem. Mais, comme
Lamta et Ras Dimas, on doit tre guid par lhistoire journalire des travaux faits dans les
jardins. Les officiers des troupes qui y sjournent sont souvent mme de donner de prcieux
renseignements sur ce sujet. Lorsque je donnerai le catalogue du muse du Kef, jinsisterai particulirement sur le profit que la science archologique peut retirer du concours de nos officiers.
[
188]Gurin_1862_II_120121 destruction of the bilingual inscription at Dougga: Les pentes
mridionales en sont plantes dun vieux bois doliviers, au milieu duquel on admir les dbris
de ce magnifique tombeau. Il tait aux trois quarts intact il y a dix-huit ans. Depuis cette poque,
il a t en partie dtruit par sir Thomas Reade, alors consul gnral dAngleterre Tunis; qui en
fit dmolir toute une faade par les habitants de cette localit. Son but tait denlever, afin de le
faire scier en une tablette plus transportable, un norme bloc engag dans la faade orientale du
mausole. Ce bloc, en effet, tait revtu de deux inscriptions, lune punique et lautre libyque. /
Pour le dtacher de la faade dans laquelle il tait encastr, il fallait retirer pralablement tous
les autres blocs qui taient superposs ce dernier; mais comme les Arabes que sir Thomas
Reade employa ce travail taient dpourvus des moyens et des instruments ncessaires pour
lexcuter mthodiquement et sans nuire lensemble du monument, ils prcipitrent du haut
en bas ces blocs suprieurs en les soulevant avec de forts leviers et les tirant ensuite avec des
cordes. Ces blocs en tombant du sommet de ldifice brisrent dans leur chute les angles des
assises infrieures, lbranlrent lui-mme en partiel et accumulrent lentour un monceau
de dbris gigantesques qui ne permettent plus maintenant de pntrer dans lintrieur des
chambres spulcrales den bas.
[
189]Hrisson_1881_127 Dougga: Son plus bel ornement tait, il y a quelques annes, un tombeau dcor dune pigraphe bilingue en caractres lybiens et phniciens. Malheureusement il
a t en partie dtruit par les ordres de M. Thomas Reade, consul dAngleterre Tunis, qui en
appendix
a fait dmolir toute la faade pour emporter lpigraphe Londres. Cest un acte de vandalisme
que lexemple de lord Elgin ne saurait excuser, et qui a encore t aggrav par la barbarie avec
laquelle cet ordre a t excut par des brutes arabes. Ils ont dmoli toute la faade orientale et
obstru les chambres spulcrales infrieures pour enrichir le musum dun mince sciage, lequel
aurait t parfaitement remplac par un moulage. On ne saurait trop signaler lindignation du
monde savant de pareils actes de botisme. Un certain palicare du nom dUlysse fit sauter le lion
de Chrone il y a une cinquantaine dannes, pour voir sil navait pas de trsors dans le ventre.
Mais au moins tait-il botien de naissance. / Le monument de Thugga est donc mutil jamais.
[
190]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_292 travelling 1879, Punic mausoleum at Dougga: Ce monument remarquable portait une inscription bilingue libyco-punique qui fut jadis enleve par sir
Thomas Read, consul dAngleterre a Tunis, et transporte au British Musum, o elle est actuellement; elle a t dune grande utilit pour dterminer plusieurs caractres de lalphabet libyque. /
Malheureusement les Arabes de Dougga que le consul anglais avait chargs dextraire la pierre
qui lintressait, taient si peu outills pour faire ce travail, quils trouvrent plus simple de dmolir la partie suprieure du mausole afin dagir tout leur aise. Cest ainsi que fut moiti dtruit
un difice qui tait parvenu presque intact jusqu une poque rapproche de nous, puisque
nous en avons conserv un dessin, d au crayon dun autre Anglais, Caterwood, qui ne remonte
qu 1832. Il avait encore cette poque son ordre du premier tage, sa corniche suprieure et les
amortissements diagonaux, situs au bas de la pyramide suprieure gradins qui le surmontait.
[ ]
191 Hrisson_1881_133 Dougga: Nous sommes arrivs ici avec lautorisation demporter le
bas-relief qui dcore le tympan du temple de Nessor, et certes, si nous lavions trouv terre,
nous ne nous en serions pas fait faute; mais, aprs avoir visit le mausole de Sathdin, lexemple
de M. Thomas Reade ne nous tente pas, et nous profitons de cette occasion pour maudire une
fois de plus les Vandales modernes, quelle que soit leur nationalit, qui dtruisent un monument
pour enrichir un muse.
[
192]Diehl_1892_110: Envoyer une chose au muse de Bne, crivait en 1883 un tmoin oculaire, quivaut la vouer la destruction; et dans un rapport officiel recent, adress en 1890
au Ministre de linstruction publique par le directeur du service des antiquits, on trouve cette
phrase, qui se passe de commentaires: La plupart des muses algriens viendraient saugmenter quon en serait embarrass. Il y en a o un homme prudent ne dposera pas un objet de
valeur, craignant quil ne sy trouve ni en lumire, ni peut-tre en sret.
[
193]Diehl_1892_109 dont trust museums: A Constantine, un muse dinscriptions latines
avait t cre linstigation de Lon Renier; un jour, un maire de la ville savisa que ctaient la
des pierres inutiles, qui pouvaient tre de dfaite avantageuse, et il en vendit la plus grande part
un entrepreneur comme matriaux de construction; elles ont servi a faire du macadam. Dans
la mme ville de Constantine, on avait dcouvert un document pigraphique fort important:
pour le mettre labri des dgradations coutumires, le prsident de la Socit archologique,
M. Poulle, le fit disposer avec soin dans la cour de la mairie. Il croyait lavoir ainsi preserv: il
tait loin de compte. Quelques mois plus tard, des rparations durent tre faites au btiment
municipal, et lon y mit les ouvriers. Peu de jours aprs, par une consquence naturelle,
linscription avait disparu. Sans avertir ni consulter personne, les maons lavaient juge de
bonne prise, et, tout aussitt, elle avait t mise en pices et employe la construction dun
mur. A Philippeville, autre aventure: un muse assez important avait t form par un amateur; les statues, les inscriptions avaient t, par ses soins, mthodiquement ranges dans lenceinte du thtre romain; les menus objets avaient t placs dans lune des salles de la mairie.

Le fondateur de la collection vint mourir: des lors, personne ne sen occupa plus. Les statues
tombrent le nez sur le sol, les inscriptions disparurent lentement sous la terre amoncele,
lintrieur du thtre se transforma en une sorte de jardin potager, o les poules, les lapins,
et parfois un mouton domestique venaient prendre librement leurs bats parmi les marbres.
Quant aux menus objets, ils furent jets ple-mle dans des corbeilles, et le gardien charg de
leur conservation offrait complaisamment aux visiteurs dhumeur gnreuse den emporter un
ou deux en manire de souvenir.
[
194]Diehl_1892_121122 Commission du Nord de lAfrique, founded in 1882, and the
Commission de Tunisie, founded in 1883: Mais ces commissions, malgr la competence et lactivit de leurs membres, taient trop lointaines pour agir toujours avec pleine efficacit, trop mal
armes surtout pour suffire toutes les ncessits de leur tche. Elles pouvaient bien recueillir
les informations et les documents, commenter les dcouvertes faites, donner dutiles conseils
aux explorateurs; mais pour protger les monuments dcouverts contre un vandalisme toujours
renaissant, pour mettre un terme ces dsastreuses pratiques qui dAlgrie passaient en Tunisie
et menaaient dj dune destruction misrable les mines demeures intactes durant tant de
sicles, pour rorganiser enfin ces muses labandon, il fallait autre chose: des lois svres
assurant la conservation des antiquits, une administration spciale organise dans le pays
mme et charge de faire appliquer ces mesures protectrices.
[
195]Cardaillac_1891_122: Sous la haute direction de M. de la Blanchre, nomm inspecteur
gnral des muses, bibliothques et archives du Nord de lAfrique, M. Paul Gauckler, agrg
dhistoire, vient dtre charg de sassurer de ltat des collections formes sur certains points de
la province dAlger, soumis cette inspection. / Le muse de Cherchell est actuellement lobjet
du classement et des tudes de M. Gauckler. / Ltat dabandon vraiment regrettable dans lequel
ce muse a t laiss depuis si longtemps va prendre fin, et nous esprons que dsormais, dans
ces provinces de lAlgrie, qui comptaient au nombre des plus clbres de lEmpire romain, les
vestiges du pass seront religieusement conservs.../ Il est du devoir de tout bon Algrien de
les seconder dans la tche entreprise, et pour cela il faut bien se pntrer de lintrt quont pour
tous la dcouverte et la conservation de ces monuments, inscriptions, peintures, mosaques,
sculptures, monnaies et poteries quon extrait de tant de ruines romaines, dont le sol algrien
est jonch.
[
196]Anonymous_Editor_1893_1920: Mesures prises et prendre pour la conservation des
monuments algriens et tunisiens. M. Ch. Robert rappelle que, dans la sance du 20 juin 1884, il a
provoqu un voeu de lAcadmie en faveur dune mesure lgislative assurant la conservation des
monuments anciens dans les possessions franaises rgulirement organises. Une loi, annonce
depuis longtemps, qui vient dtre vote par la Chambre des dputs assurera dsormais, en
Algrie et en Tunisie, la conservation des difices antiques et des mosques classs comme
monuments historiques. Cest un grand pas de fait, et lon doit seulement regretter que la loi
ne soit pas intervenue plus tt, car un monument qui figure sur la liste qui vient dtre publie,
larc de Bulla Regia, a dj disparu, comme la colonne de Feriana. Mais tout est encore faire
pour les inscriptions, qui forment la vritable richesse de ntre terre dAfrique et qui, mme les
plus modestes en apparence, sont dun intrt capital pour la science; cest par elles, en effet,
tant les auteurs anciens sont peu explicites, que nous pntrons dans lhistoire administrative et
militaire dune des plus importantes parties du monde romain et que les savants reconstituent
les routes anciennes, les limites des provinces et celles du territoire de chaque cit; cest par elles
encore que nous retrouvons des ethniques et des noms dhommes qui ont pour la linguistique
appendix
un intrt capital. Or les nombreuses inscriptions parses sur la terre dAfrique ne peuvent tre
classes comme monuments historiques, et peut-tre et-il fallu que la destruction de toute
pierre crite ft, en principe, punie par la loi, et que la constatation du dlit ft confie tous les
agents, quels quils fussent, de la force publique; la science y et beaucoup gagn, et la perte eut
t mince pour les colons et les entrepreneurs.
[
197]Schulten_19001901_257 note 1, writing on Roman Africa: Mme aujourdhui, les personnes charges de la conservation des monuments ne russissent point toujours protger les
antiquits contre la manie de destruction de beaucoup dentrepreneurs et mme de colons. (V.
Gauckler: Bull. Com. des Trav. hist., 1896, p. 299.) Par fortune, on narrive pas valuer tout ce
qui a t distrait auparavant, surtout pendant la guerre doccupation. On en conoit une ide en
lisant la prface de la description du muse dAlger (Muses et collections de lAlgrie et de la
Tunisie), et la philippique par laquelle Wilmans, dans la prface du VIIIe volume du Corpus, fait
la critique de ce qui se passait lgard des antiquits romaines au camp de Lambse en 1872.
[
198]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_42 excursions around Milah and Constantine, Sidi Merouan:
Nous pensions que les travaux de construction du village amneraient la dcouverte de quelques
inscriptions intressantes; mais nous avons t compltement du.
[
199]Mercier_1868_91 Aumale, of inscriptions: Cette pierre provient en effet de lancienne
Casba turque, mais navait pas t englobe dans ltablissement des soeurs. En effet, beaucoup
de matriaux de lancienne Casba avaient t employs pour ldification du btiment ayant
dabord servi de manutention, plus tard, de magasin militaire et mme dcurie. Cest ce btiment qui a t dmoli, et cest dans ces dmolitions que se trouvait linscription dont il sagit. /
Les autres inscriptions que vous signalez comme ayant t employes pour la construction de
la maison o est installe lcole des filles doivent sy trouver encore, car cette maison na pas
t dmolie.
[
200]Cagnat_et_al_1890_19 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity.
After the name of the locality has been determined, On devra ensuite senqurir du nom du possesseur du champ ou de la maison o se trouve le document, demander sil y a longtemps que
celui-ci est la mme place, et au cas o il y aurait t transport, depuis quand il y a t apport
et o il tait auparavant: bref, faire une enqute minutieuse sur linscription que le hasard vous a
fait rencontrer. Ces renseignements doivent tre recueillis, dailleurs, quel que soit le monument
antique que lon a relever.
[
201]Poulle_18901891_305306 writing of Inscriptions diverses de la Numidie et de la
Mauretanie Stifienne: Depuis la publication du dernier volume de la Socit, il ne nous est
parvenu ou nous navons recueilli quun petit nombre dinscriptions, et encore offrent-elles
gnralement un mdiocre intrt. Il faudra, dsormais, pour obtenir des dcouvertes, pratiquer
des fouilles ou saventurer dans des rgions inexplores, de jour en jour plus rares, ou visites
superficiellement. Mais les fouilles cotent trs cher et ne sont pas toujours productives, et,
dautre part, les membres de la Socit nont ni le temps, ni les moyens de se livrer de longues explorations. La cration des villages, la construction des routes font sortir du sol bien des
documents dont pourrait enrichir la science. Malheureusement, ils sont soustraits trop souvent lexamen des personnes qui en pourraient tirer profit, ou qui, du moins, pourraient les
divulguer.
[
202]Journal des Dbats Politiques et Littraires 3 December 1846: Cherchel, extract from
an account by Texier, the whole piece reviewing several centres and headed Conservation des
Monumens Historiques en Algrie: On y remarque plusieurs tombeaux avec des inscriptions,

un torse de Vnus en marbre, plusieurs statues et statuettes qui ne manquent pas de mrite.
Les fragmens darchitecture ne le cdent pas ceux de sculpture: plusieurs grands chapiteaux
corinthiens provenant dun temple, un chapiteau composite orn de dauphins et de palmettes
des corniches de marbre, ne seraient dplacs dans aucun muse. Les rues de la ville sont pleines
de colonnes de marbre quon pourrait fort bien employer. Le monument qui a principalement
fix mon attention est dpos dans la cour de lhtel des btimens civils et a t rcemment
dcouvert. Cest une statue barbare, dun mtre environ de hauteur; elle reprsente un dieu
imberbe, coiff du modius. Then quoting Texier directly: Les instructions du Ministre de la
guerre sopposent, en gnral, la destruction des monumens antiques. Mais, pour prescrire
des mesures prcises, il serait ncessaire, dit M. Texier, que ladministration ft informe des
dcouvertes faites par les fouilles et par les travaux des routes, et pt envoyer sur-le-champ
un dessinateur pour copier les monumens dcouverts, de manire pouvoir statuer sur leur
conservation. Les archives recevraient tous les documents recueillis, tant par les officiers du
gnie que par les agens des btimens civils et des ponts-et-chausses et chaque anne ces
documens seraient imprims la suite du tableau statistique. Alors si, par la force des choses, les
monumens se trouvaient dtruits, leur description serait au moins consigne dans un registre
officiel, et ainsi conserve pour la science.
[
203]Baudicour_1856_526 writing on colonisation: Les trsors de lart nont point t sacrifis aux besoins du moment. Si quelquefois les matriaux des ruines romaines ont t utiliss,
aucune inscription, aucun objet curieux na t perdu; des fouilles faites avec intelligence ont
mme souvent fait dcouvrir de belles mosaques par-dessous des dbris de colonnes, de chapiteaux, de bas-reliefs et de statues antiques. Des muses, tablis sur diffrents points, se sont
ouverts de prcieuses collections. Le bon got na pas toujours prsid toutes les uvres du
gnie militaire en Algrie; le choix des lieux ntait pas toujours heureux; les besoins auxquels
il sagissait de pourvoir taient imparfaitement satisfaits. Nanmoins, les travaux improviss ont
suffi aux premiers campements, et lindustrie prive a pu se dvelopper sur ces bauches. La
plupart des entrepreneurs se servent encore des carrires et des fours du Gnie, et ses constructions, pour ntre pas les plus commodes, nen sont pas moins souvent les plus solides dont nos
colons aient hrit.
[
204]Gavault_1894_65 Algiers: Les trouvailles dobjets antiques, si frquentes Alger pendant les premires annes de loccupation, sont devenues de nos jours de plus en plus rares. Cela
tient tout dabord ce que les dmolitions, les reconstructions et les percements de rues dans les
quartiers bas nont plus lieu qu de longs intervalles. Le quartier de la Prfecture, notamment, a
vu son travail de rfection enray par la faveur subite qui sest porte sur les terrains des parties
Sud. Or cest prcisment dans ces quartiers aujourdhui termins ou dlaisss par la spculation, quon peut esprer retrouver des vestiges antiques.
[
205]Poulle_18901891_307 writing of Inscriptions diverses de la Numidie et de la Mauretanie
Stifienne: La cration de muses locaux, cantonaux ou rgionaux, comme on voudra, permettrait certainement de conserver les objets quon aurait dposs ces muses; mais on ne peut
conserver que ce quon possde, et en prsence des faits journaliers, comment obtenir la possession, si la loi nen donne pas le moyen? / Ces observations ne sont pas le rsultat dune simple
boutade; les disparitions constates au cours de ce travail les justifieront. / A Constantine, plus
de dmolitions, plus de dblaiements, plus de dcouvertes; les environs immdiats de la ville
nous ont seuls fourni quelques textes.
appendix
206]Pallu_de_Lessart_1886_13 Lambiridi: Il serait dautant plus urgent de relever dans ces
ruines tout ce offre un intrt archologique, que de tous temps elles ont servi de carrires aux
habitants du pays. Lanne dernire, M. Poulle smut en apprenant quon y puisait pour les travaux excuter sur le chemin de fer; le zle que montra M. Gauthier, sous-prfet de Batna,
permit darrter la dvastation complte. Le danger va renatre, car on se propose de crer prochainement un centre colonial dans le voisinage.
[
207]De_la_Blanchre_1883_6 in Mauretania, re. Circular on the protection of antiquities:
Cet exemple nest pas isol. M. le sous-prfet dOrlansville prend des mesures analogues, et me
prie de dresser une instruction, qui puisse tre imprime et distribue, afin que tous sachent
ce que sont les restes antiques, comment on les connat, quelle est leur importance, ce quil
faut faire pour les conserver, pour relever les inscriptions, etc. etc. MM. les gnraux Louis, de
Tlemcen, et Gand, de Mascara, se sont mis ma disposition de la manire la plus obligeante, et
MM. les commandants suprieurs des cercles de Sada et de Tiaret ont spontanment promis
de continuer me faire savoir ce quon dcouvrirait en territoire de commandement. Jamais
jusquici pareil service navait t organis, et jose esprer que les rsultats en seront utiles pour
la science. Jai trouv la mme bonne volont chez les autorits secondaires, aussi bien militaires
que civiles, et chez tous les particuliers. Linformation archologique est donc tablie autant
quelle peut ltre dans toute cette partie de la province dOran et dans lOuest de la province
dAlger. Lappendice A de ce rapport en contient dj les premiers fruits.
[
208]Poulle_18861887_170 Sigus: Des fouilles faites par M. Craste, entrepreneur des travaux
du chemin de fer du Khroub An-Beda, ont mis dcouvert quelques nouvelles inscriptions
intressantes dans cette localit, qui nous en a dj fourni un si grand nombre.
[
209]Cagnat_1882_144 in Tunisia: Jai galement obtenu de M. Aubert, ingnieur en chef de
lexploitation du chemin de fer, dont lamabilit pour notre mission ne sest pas dmentie un
seul jour, la copie de toutes les inscriptions trouves le long de la ligne du chemin de fer depuis
le dbut des travaux, de celles, du moins, dont il a eu connaissance written when on his way
to Bulla Regia.
[
210]Cagnat_1888_1: Jai visit une partie de la rgion centrale et de la rgion septentrionale
de la Rgence, afin de contrler sur place les dcouvertes faites depuis lanne 1881, soit par les
explorateurs que lEtat y avait envoys, soit par les officiers du corps doccupation et des brigades topographiques. then goes on to deal with them henchir by henchir, as does Saladin. Is
much more concerned with inscriptions than with architecture, the former being essential for
his quest to identify sites (such as 16ff, An-Lemsa/Henchir Boudja, with its Byzantine fort). So
his energy for reconstructions goes into inscriptions!
[ ]
211 SHD 3M395, Dpt Gnral de la Guerre: Carte Gnrale de France, Rules for execution
by the Engineers, 1757.
[
212]SHD 3M277, Dpt Gnral de la Guerre: Comite du Salut Public, Section de la Guerre, 20
prairial, An 2. For usage of the Carte, cf, loc. Cit. a MS of 25 November 1793.
[
213]SHD MR1298, Captain de Laslases on Chauvigny, 267. Captain Blondat has several
pages on the antiquities in his Mmoire on Poitiers (Carte de France, 1841, carton MR1298,
pp. 1316, 2530). Captain Reverdets Mmoire Godsique Militaire (Carte de France, 1841, carton
MR1298, p.7), notes the high quality lithographic stone around Chatellerault, with qualities qui
sont propres aux nouvelles applications que lon fait de lart lithographique, et qui se prtent
facilement la gravure en relief au moyen des acides. although in this case not for art, but
[

rather for the growing practice of making multiple copies of documents, making lithography the
predecessor to the photocopier.
[
214]SHD MR1298/5259, Carte de France, Feuille de Poitiers, 1842 etc etc. Includes (as
1298/54) a Plan des Monuments Celtiques de Chateaularcher, dits le Champ de Thorus, Canton
de Virome, Departement de la Vienne including views of them, with three table dolmens
(large stone leaning at angle against another), with galeries, and a plan of a destroyed gallery.
Also includes plans of various important battlefields including Poitiers 732, at 1298/56. Indeed
this Carte (like them all?) includes a large section, Chapitre 5, dedicated to general History, then
Archaeology, then Military History (e.g. 26374 for Battle of Poitiers). The author of this account,
Le Commandant Saint-Hippolyte, describes (p. 206) how he had his officers each take account
of the celtic monuments in each section, and describe and mark them; but how the Champ de
Thaurus was so important that he drew it (see above) and described it himself, pp. 21840. He
also notes amphitheatres, walls, aqueducts and Roman roads. Nor is Saint-Hippolyte the only
officer to report on antiquities: 1298/4951, M. Fourcade, Feuille de Saumur, memoire sur les
environs des Trois Moutiers, Vienne, 1841, includes (at 1298/51) pencil drawings of the Dolmen
de Vaon, and a standing stone Polven (Caillou de Courcu).
[
215]SHD MR881.1, Toscan de Terrail, capitaine dtat major, Notes sur lAfrique, 111 pages,
March 1836.
[
216]Decker_1844_I_4752 for work of the French General Staff, and the maps they had.
[
217]Guerre_1882_49: On ne doit omettre aucune habitation ou construction quelconque.../ Les puits et les fontaines ayant une grande importance en Algrie, seront recherchs avec soin.../ On indiquera les vestiges de voies romaines, les ruines, les emplacements
de redoutes, camps ou retranchements construits et occups par larme franaise pendant la
priode de la conqute; 5760 (section written by Cagnat)on types of ruins to be encountered:
megalithic, Phoenician, Roman, Spanish and Arab; 58: La construction romaine se reconnat
la perfection des matriaux et leur assemblement. Mmorial_Gographique_1930_79ff for Les
grands travaux de triangulation 186473, helped by new instruments.
[
218]Gsell_and_Graillot_1893_462 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Au moment o
commenait notre voyage [1893], le service gographique de larme publiait une carte au deux
cent millime des environs de Batna; en gnral les ruines importantes sy trouvent indiques.
Certaines parties de la rgion explore par nous, louest et au nord de Khenchela, ny sont
pas comprises; mais M. Moliner-Violle, alors secrtaire de la sous-prfecture de Batna, mit avec
beaucoup dobligeance notre disposition une carte au cent millime de toute la rgion (du
bassin du Hodna au lac Tarf), quil a dresse lui-mme laide de documents officiels. Ce travail
indit nous a rendu de grands services, que nous ne pouvions demander la mdiocre carte au
quatre cent millime dresse autrefois par les soins de ltatmajor. Dans celle que nous donnons
ici et, qui a pour base la nouvelle carte au deux cent millime, nous nous sommes efforcs dindiquer aussi compltement que possible lemplacement des ruines antiques, en les distinguant par
des numros dordre qui correspondent notre texte et la liste ajoute en appendice.
[
219]Mmorial_Gographique_1930_34.
[
220]SHD MR1314: Algerie E. Pellissier, Mmoire sur la Gographie ancienne de lAlgrie,
7 August 1843, 121 pages, written at Sousse.
[
221]SHD 3M262: Dpot Gnral de la Guerre, Impression et Gravure, Comptabilit, 18e
sicle An XII-1814.
appendix
222]Mmorial_Gographique_1930_13 To being with, topographers worked without method,
necessarily so: il leur faut travailler au bivouac sous le feu de lennemi, accompagner la troupe
dans sa marche en avant, dresser des plans pour ainsi dire en pleine bataille and at Mda one
even earned the Lgion dHonneur, fighting on the same land he was measuring (18: aide-major
De La Roche). Ibid., 2730 Map-making on military expeditions 18357.
[
223]Mmorial_Gographique_1930_1 cites Bugeauds 24 Jan 1845 to the Assembly: Nous
avons march lpe dans une main, le mtre dans lautre.
[
224]Mmorial_Gographique_1930_1920 took July 1831 to April 1834 to make a Carte de
reconnaissance of the environs of Algiers.
[
225]Cagnat_1891_549: Les brigades topographiques dAlgrie et de Tunisie ont continu
cette anne recueillir des renseignements archologiques dans les rgions quelles ont visites.
M. le gnral Derrcagaix a bien voulu en faire profiter le Comit des travaux historiques. Les
observations de MM. les officiers sont accompagnes de cartes fort soignes et dun relev exact
de toutes les ruines grandes et petites quils ont rencontres.
[
226]SHD Gnie, 1H403, Reconnaissances, expeditions 1844 1847. Reconnaissance de lHabra,
11 April 1844. Puisquil est donne a la phase actuelle de notre domination africaine de provoquer
dengager toutes les grandes questions qui tiennent a lessor futur de ce pays, engageons encore
celle-ci qui prouvera que nous nous attachons au sol et que nous voulons fonder sa prosperite
sur des bases certaines et independantes de touts evenements exterieurs. Ici comme dans toutes
les localites ou les pensees et les projets utiles nous inspirent nous retrouvons lexemple des
dominations anterieures. La premiere dont les renseignements sont encore la ecrits sur le sol,
la plus grande, la plus instructive de toutes, la domination Romaine a laisse dans ces lieux des
traces incontestables de son passage dans la vallee de lOued-el-Hammam toute une ville est
la pour ainsi dire encore debout pour attester lantique prosperite du pays...He goes on to
discuss the cost of erecting a dam to re-fructify the country around (and such a dam was indeed
built). He has also found canals and dikes, which ne me laissent aucun doute sur lexecution
ancienne de cette disposition et sur la possibilite de son retablissement avec le moins de frais
possible puisque les massifs de culee et meme leurs parements exterieurs existent encore; quils
paraissent solides et que lon peut y appuyer en toute securite un canal porte sur arc en bois
et en fer. He concludes by noting that such work would help colonisation here, et nous nous
mettrons enfin sur la voie pratique rationelle et methodique qui eut assure aux Romains la
possession indefinie de cette terre dAfrique et la Barbarie. La rage de lextermination ne setaient
conjurees avec un ensemble tel que ceux qui se pretendent sages croient ne pouvoir expliquer
cette oeuvre immense de destruction quen en faisant honneur a lintervention de la providence
nous resserrons un a un les divers noeuds de ce reseau colonisateur dont la science politique de
Rome avait cru devoir enlacer sa conquete et fortifier sa domination.
[
227]SHD Gnie 8.1 Constantine, Carton 1, 18361840. Reconnaissance signed 30 March 1837.
[
228]SHD Gnie 8.1 Constantine, Carton 1, 18361840., Reconnaissance faite en avril 1839
entre Constantine et la position de Neds, projet de route entre Constantine et Bne par le camp
de LArrouch.
[
229]SHD H227 Colonel Niel, Reconnaissances faites dans le Province de Constantine en
1837, 1838 et 1839 Quotations from 2734.
[
230]Bull.Soc.Gog.Paris XIII 1840, 192, donation to the Society par le Directeur du Spectateur
Militaire: Carte des environs dAlger, dresse par M. le commandant Saint-Hypolite dapres
[

les travaux des officiers dtat-major, pour servir a lintelligence des oprations militaires dans
lAlgrie. 1 feuille grand colombier so a map of Algiers environs 10 years after the conquest!
This map advertised in e.g. La Presse 17 March 1841: Carte de lAlgrie, comprenant Oran, Bougie,
Constantine et ses environs, avec une notice sur la conqute de cette colonie, et la statistique
de sa superficie en hectares et en mtres carrs, sa population indigne et trangre, lindustrie
commerciale et agricole, ses ressources davenir, indication des races danimaux, des arbres et
des plantes qui y croissent naturellement. Cette carte est la seule qui rappelle les monumens et
les antiquits romaines quon rencontre en Algrie. Cette magnifique carte, format grand colombier, se vend 1 fr.50 c.- dix pour 12 fr. 50 c. Par la poste, 10 c. en sus par carte (crire franco). Cette
carte fait partie du grand atlas Dussillion des 86 dpartemens de la France, qui se vend 88 fr. avec
une carte de France. Rue Laffitte, 40, Paris.
[
231]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_198 maps: Le travail le plus important est de fixer astronomiquement tous les points de lintrieur o pntreront les troupes franaises. Ces positions
exactement dtrmines, sont la base de toute bonne gographie moderne, et une condition
indispensable pour lexcution de la gographie compare de la rgence dAlger. / Ceux de nos
officiers pour qui ltude des antiquits a quelques attraits, sentiront combien il sera avantageux
de lever des plans aussi dtaills que possible des ruines des cits romaines, de recueillir leur
nom moderne en arabe ou en berbre, de dessiner tout ce qui reste des anciens monumens, arcsde-triomphe, portes, temples, thtres, difices publics antrieurs linvasion arabe, de dcrire
leur mode de btisse, sils sont construits avec du sans ciment, en pierres grandes ou petites,
carres, rectangulaires ou en losange, en marbre, en briques, en pis ou en carreaux.
[
232]Carette_1844B_viii Nous ne mentionnons ni les historiens et les gographes de lantiquit, ni ces deux monuments prcieux connus lun sous le nom de Table de Peutinger, lautre
sous celui dItinraire dAntonin. Nous ne nous occupons que de la gographie moderne, et
seulement dans ses rapports avec la gographie actuelle.
[
233]Perrier_1883_12: Lide de faire une carte dAlgrie est contemporaine de la conqute
mme. A peine installs Alger, en 1830, les ingnieurs gographes du corps expditionnaire
mesurent, vers lembouchure de lHarrach, une base de 5,016 mtres qui sert de ct de dpart
la premire triangulation du territoire dAlger; en mme temps, ils dterminent la latitude, la
longitude et lazimut dune direction: dabord lobservatoire du bureau topographique de la rue
de la Fonderie, ensuite au phare mme. Les annes suivantes, attachs comme godsiens topographes aux colonnes expditionnaires, et renforcs par des officiers dtat-major, ils recoupent
tous les points remarquables de la plaine de la Mtidja, les crtes du Sahel, celles du petit Atlas,
et mme quelques points des territoires de Milianah et de Mdah, levant la boussole les
espaces parcourus et ceux quon occupait dune manire dfinitive, mesure que les colonnes
pntraient ou prenaient racine dans lintrieur des terres. La triangulation stendait ainsi de
proche en proche et, avec elle, les levs topographiques, toute la province dAlger.
[
234]Saint-Martin_1865_115: linsuffisance de la carte actuelle de lAlgrie que nous devons
au Dpt de la Guerre, pour les tudes de gographie compare. Cette insuffisance est reconnue
depuis longtemps. Construite peu prs uniquement sur des relevs et des reconnaissances
militaires, ncessairement incompltes et dune valeur ingale; appuye, pour lintrieur, sur un
trop petit nombre dobservations astronomiques; nayant dailleurs t accompagne daucun
mmoire, daucune analyse qui permette den apprcier la construction et de distinguer la valeur
relative de ses diverses parties; ayant en outre de nombreuses et vastes lacunes, dans les rgions
appendix
qui approchent des frontires de louest, de lest et du sud, cette carte provisoire ne donne quune
reprsentation absolument insuffisante de notre belle possession africaine. Ce grand desideratum de ladministration et de ltude va tre combl. Les officiers du gnie sont luvre; nous
aurons, dici quelques annes, une Algrie digne de figurer ct de notre Carte de ltatMajor. Cest une uvre dont on ne peut que hter de tous ses vux le prompt achvement.
[
235]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_4 excursions around Milah and Constantine: Cest M.H.
Fournel, ingnieur en chef des mines, que lon doit la premire mention des ruines des BeniZied, qui ne figurent point encore dans la carte du Dpt de la guerre de 1847.
[
236]Perrier_1883_2: A laide de cet ensemble de travaux accomplis dans des circonstances
difficiles, et qui ne pouvaient, par cela mme, remplir les conditions de haute prcision requises
dans des oprations rgulires, le dpt de la guerre a pu confectionner un certain nombre de
cartes qui ont t fort utiles aux officiers, aux voyageurs et aux ingnieurs et constituent encore
lheure actuelle les seuls documents originaux srieux que nous possdions sur la topographie du sol algrien. / Les cartes, toutefois, peine termines, taient reconnues insuffisantes.
Loccupation, en effet, tant dsormais dfinitive, la colonisation simplantait rapidement dans
le Tell et jusque dans la rgion des hauts plateaux; les travaux publics, routes, chemins de fer,
ports, barrages, etc., prenaient une extension considrable et il devenait urgent, pour satisfaire
aux lgitimes exigences des divers services, de construire une carte topographique grande
chelle de la colonie. / Cest en 1851 seulement que le dpt de la guerre put songer doter
lAlgrie dune carte semblable la carte de France, forme par des levs rguliers et assise sur
une triangulation de haute prcision. / Jai dj fait connatre lassociation lensemble des travaux godsiques du premier ordre excuts dans le Tell algrien: trois bases mesures: Blidah
(1854), Bne (1866), Oran (1867); une grande chane de cent triangles courant de louest lest
entre la Tunisie et le Maroc, dtermine de 1859 1868; des positions gographiques fondamentales dtermines directement: Alger (1874); Bne et Nemours en 1876; tous les lments
de la chane, longueurs des cts, altitudes des sommets, positions en longitude et latitude, calculs en partant dAlger et vrifis par des observations directes aux deux extrmits.
[
237]Saint-Martin_1875_484 History of geography: Le pays a t lev pied pied par nos officiers et nos ingnieurs, mesure que nos armes nous ouvraient laccs de nouveaux cantons;
de belles et excellentes cartes ont t ainsi dresses, et lon peut dire aujourdhui que le territoire algrien nous est aussi connu que nos propres dpartements dans la plus grande partie
de sa vaste tendue. On a pu suivre, anne par anne, le progrs de ces tudes multiples, dont
les rsultats ont t rgulirement dposs dans des ouvrages officiels. Cest ainsi que se sont
formes deux volumineuses collections, le Tableau de la situation des tablissements franais,
et lExploration scientifique de lAlgrie, sans parler des revues spciales, non plus que dune
multitude de recherches, de voyages, de dissertations et de morceaux particuliers.
[
238]Guerre_1882_5051 reconnaissances: Lofficier sera toujours accompagn, outre ses
porteurs, de guides du pays, qui lui indiquent les sentiers, les passages practicables, les sources,
lemplacement des objets remarquables, ainsi que tous les noms quil y a lieu de faire figurer sur
une carte eu queux seuls cionnaissent / Cette prescription est absolument rigoureuse.
[
239]Guerre_1882_5760 reconnaissances: for short descriptions of the various kinds of
ruins to be encountered megaliths, Phoenician, Roman, Spanish, Arab. Officers are urged not
to confuse Arab reuse with Byzantine forts which have similar reuse but there is no injunction
to record these! Important ruins should be drawn, and inscriptions noted.

240]Guerre_1882_49 in Reconnaissance dfinitive, mark wells and marabouts. On
indiquera les vestiges de voies romaines, les ruines, les emplacements de redoutes, camps ou
retranchements construits ou occups par larme franaise pendant la priode de la conqute.
[
241]Rapport sur les travaux archologiques du colonel Carbuccia, to the AIBL, in Revue
de lOrient de lAlgrie et des Colonies IX Paris 1851, 343 the signatories (including RaoulRochette, Dureau de la Malle, De Wailly, Walckenaer and Jomard) conclude: Ltendue du travail
archologique de M. le colonel Carbuccia et de ses collaborateurs, lintrt que prsente la carte
de la subdivision de Bathna, la dcouverte de beaux monuments, le soin apport lexcution
des dessins de latlas, enfin, le mrite du texte qui laccompagne, nous paraissent mriter quon
exprime le dsir de voir publier daussi importants rsultats. Cet ouvrage serait une excellente
suite celui de la commission scientifique dAlgrie; une telle publication ferait honneur larme dAfrique, et, de plus, elle exciterait lmulation dans les autres parties de lAlgrie, qui sont
toutes plus ou moins riches en antiquits romaines.
[
242]Blanc_1892_101103, in Algeria from 1835 until (at least) 1852, for the Zaatcha campaign,
Canrobert and Carbuccia.
[
243]Jomard_1865_162 on Carbuccia: Litinraire dAntonin fait connatre deux voies
romaines entre Lambse et Sitifis, une voie de Lambse Cirta et une voie du mme point
Thveste. Si lon se porte au sud, jusqu Fayd, lancienne Thabudis, lieu situ sur le mridien de
Cirta, le quadrilatre indiqu par ces quatre points correspondra au thtre des oprations de
M. Carbuccia, cest--dire la subdivision de Batna. Peu aprs son arrive ce poste, en octobre
1848, il sest donn la mission dexplorer et de faire explorer en totalit ce vaste espace, qui na
pas moins de 1,200 lieues carres, exploration qui dailleurs tait ncessaire sous le point de
vue militaire et stratgique. Il avait heureusement sous ses ordres de nombreux et dexcellents
auxiliaires; les plus capables et les plus intelligents dentre eux, officiers, sousofficiers et soldats,
ont t chargs de faire partout des relvements exacts, de les rapporter mesure, de noter
tous les monuments, toutes les pierres sculptes et crites, toutes les bornes milliaires, tous les
vestiges laisss par la domination romaine (et ces vestiges, ces monuments, ces dbris sont pour
ainsi dire innombrables; on faisait ces travaux dans les instants de loisir, ou pendant la marche
des colonnes. Chaque jour, le chef de ces expditions voyait arriver des matriaux considrables;
il les coordonnait sans retard, et lon dressait ainsi, par parties, une grande carte, appuye sur
plusieurs points quavaient dtermins les ingnieurs du dpt de la guerre.
[
244]Tissot_1888_VII: En 1857, au moment o M. Tissot allait sloigner pour vingt ans de
lAfrique, le Dpt de la guerre publia la carte de la Rgence de Tunis lchelle du 400,000,
daprs les relevs et les renseignements de Falbe, capitaine de vaisseau danois, et Pricot SainteMarie, chef descadron dtat-major franais. Cette publication est une date mmorable dans
lhistoire de la gographie compare de lAfrique du Nord. Bien que dresse par des militaires et
pour des militaires, la carte de 1857 ne devait pas moins servir aux archologues; elle leur fournissait pour la premire fois une image approximative de la Rgence et le point de dpart oblig
de toutes les tudes comparatives. Pendant vingt-cinq ans, on nen eut point dautre, ou lon neut
que des cartes drivant directement de celle-l. Assurment le progrs tait grand sur les cartes
de Shaw, de Lapie, de Temple, de Pellissier, mais que de lacunes encore, que domissions, de rptitions ou derreurs! Il navait pu tre question, pour MM. Falbe et Sainte-Marie, de lever mthodiquement le plan dun pays o les voyages taient si dangereux et si difficiles; ils durent se
borner parcourir un certain nombre de routes, recueillir les renseignements des indignes, et
leurs documents, transmis au Ministre de la guerre, y furent combins et coordonns le mieux
[
appendix
possible. Dans la gravure de la carte, on ne distingua pas toujours les indications topographiques
certaines de celles qui ntaient dues qu des informations ou des conjectures. Le vrai et le faux
y sont perptuellement juxtaposs. Le dessin de la cte lui-mme laisse beaucoup dsirer;
si lon pntre dans lintrieur, on trouve une orographie incohrente, une hydrographie dune
prcision trompeuse ou tout fait nulle.
[
245]Cagnat_1888_110: M. le capitaine Vincent dont jai rappel plus haut le travail sur Bja,
a galement examin avec grand soin, sous le rapport des antiquits romaines, les environs de
cette ville; il en a dress une carte archologique trs dtaille quil a bien voulu me remettre en
mautorisant la publier, et a rdig une notice sur les voies romaines et les ruines de la rgion,
que je ne saurais mieux faire que de reproduire. Jy ajouterai mes observations personnelles pour
celles de ces ruines que jai visites.
[
246]Tissot_1888_XII: En 1862 parut un excellent livre, le Voyage archologique dans la
Rgence de Tunis, excut et publi, sous les auspices et aux frais du duc de Luynes, par M.V.
Gurin. Lauteur a parcouru, montre et boussole en main, une trs grande partie de la Rgence;
il a dcrit minutieusement beaucoup de ruines, donn les indications les plus prcises sur les
routes modernes, les points deau, les distances entre les diverses tapes. Lors de loccupation
de la Tunisie par les troupes franaises, bien des colonnes se sont guides laide de ce voyage
archologique, l o la carte de 1857 les renseignait mal. On peut dire que M. Gurin ne se trompe
jamais lorsquil dcrit ce quil a vu: ses itinraires sont de vritables inventaires topographiques,
rdigs avec une parfaite clart.
[
247]Tissot_1888_XX: Au printemps de 1881, le trait du Bardo, en tablissant notre protectorat sur la Tunisie, ouvrit dfinitivement lAfrique aux libres investigations de la science. Ds le
mois de janvier de cette anne, M. Cagnt avait commenc son premier voyage, destin tre
suivi de quatre autres galement fconds en rsultats. Nos colonnes doccupation navaient pas
tard reconnatre linexactitude de la carte de 1857, et, tout en pacifiant le pays, elles travaillrent en lever le plan. On dressa dabord, pour ainsi dire au pas de course, des cartes provisoires; puis, sous la direction du colonel (aujourdhui gnral) Perrier, on commena le grand
travail de la carte au 200,000, qui devait relguer au rang des curiosits tous les documents gographiques antrieurs. Des centaines dexplorateurs taient luvre en mme temps, officiers
topographes, officiers archologues, missionnaires de lInstitut, et la moisson tait tellement
abondante quon ne savait quels magasins la confier.
[
248]Schulten_19001901_457 writing on Roman Africa: Un excellent secours pour lexamen
des anciens centres de colonisation dans ce pays est celui quoffrent les feuilles dessines une
grande chelle (1/50,000e) de la Carte archologique de la Tunisie, o toutes, mme les plus
petites constructions, se trouvent consignes. Les feuilles reproduisent une surface de 64 kilomtres carrs (64,000 hectares); on y relve jusqu trois cents ruines. Le nombre infini de ces
vestiges dtablissements antiques est le meilleur tmoignage que lon puisse concevoir de la
prosprit ancienne du pays.
[
249]Mercier_1885_329: Il serait prmatur, dans la situation actuelle des levs topographiques
en Algrie, dentreprendre un travail densemble, tant sur les monuments de lart indigne que sur
les ruines romaines qui mergent du sol sur presque toute ltendue du territore de la colonie. /
Lors de ltablissement des premires feuilles de la carte (18691870) et au moment de la reprise
des travaux (18791881), on nattachait aucune importance ces vestiges des temps anciens, et
les gisements de ruines nont pas t relevs; on manque, par suite, de donnes prcises sur les
environs immdiats dAlger, de Medeah, dOran et dePhilippeville. Les recherches, cet gard,

nont commenc quen 1881. Elles se continuent depuis, paralllement lexcution des travaux
topographiques. Elles furent, ds le dbut, des plus sommaires, car les officiers, presss par le
temps et manquant des connaissances spciales ncessaires, ngligeaient le plus souvent de
consijjner sur leurs levs les quelques pierres parses quils rencontraient sur le sol, et auxquelles
ils ne prtaient aucune attention.
[
250]Mercier_1885_329 the work of the Brigades Topographiques: Linstruction sur lexcution des travaux topographiques de 1882, qui consacra son cinquime chapitre la description
des caractres gnraux auxquels on peut reconnatre les diverses ruines, stimula leur mulation, et les rapports de fin de campagne renfermaient dj quelques donnes prcieuses. / En
18831884, de nouvelles instructions appelrent plus particulirement encore leur attention sur
les ruines, et une mthode destampage leur fut indique. / Les rapports joints aux travaux sont
plus complets et permettent desprer que les campagnes prochaines donneront de bons rsultats. / Les travaux de leve navancent dailleurs que progressivement, et ltude ci-jointe doit
naturellement se borner aux parties du territoire dj reconnues.
[
251]Schulten_19001901_259 Collaboration des officiers. Si, en son temps, loccupation
militaire a caus un grave prjudice aux monuments, de nos jours les officiers franais, principalement par les levs topographiques du pays et la recherche activement pousse des ruines
dans ce pays, sont devenus les collaborateurs indispensables de ceux qui recherchent les antiquits africaines. Le Gouvernement a fait composer pour les officiers une instruction relative
aux antiquits, et lInstruction rdige par la Commission dAfrique pour la recherche et la description des monuments antiques est tout spcialement destine aux militaires. / Cest tout cela
qui rend parfaitement justifi le sentiment de satisfaction et de fiert exprim par le rapport
ci-dessus mentionn, relatif aux travaux archologiques accomplis depuis 1881. Dj, en 1873,
Ernest Renan, sous une forme piquante, mettait lopinion que la France, parmi les devoirs que
lui imposait la colonisation de lAfrique du Nord, avait au moins fait lexploration scientifique
du pays, en dsignant les faibles succs de la colonisation comme la sombre folie de lactivit
archologique. Aujourdhui le jugement si dur de Renan touchant le succs de la colonisation
serait injuste, comme dautre part lloge des travaux archologiques serait sensiblement plus
justifi qualors; car au moment o Renan portait ce jugement, il avait t fait peu comparativement aux travaux fort remarquables qui ont t raliss depuis vingt ans.
[
252]Cagnat_1896_5734 on the Commission dAfrique: Je me reprocherais, en parlant de
cette Commission, de ne point citer parmi nos collaborateurs les plus assidus et les plus prcieux
MM. les officiers du Service gographique de larme. Chaque anne, vous le savez, le Ministre
de la guerre envoie un certain nombre de topographes pour relever plusieurs carrs de la carte
de Tunisie et de celle dAlgrie. Un travail de cette sorte ncessite lexamen dtaill du terrain
et met ses auteurs en prsence des moindres restes antiques comme des plus importants. Il
a paru quune entente entre la Commission dAfrique et le Service gographique de larme
serait fconde pour larchologie; elle sest tablie aisment, car on ne fait pas appel en vain
lesprit clair des gnraux qui dirigent ce service. Pour se conformer aux instructions
prcises de leur chef, les officiers de la mission topographique prennent la peine de noter,
chaque fois quils rencontrent une ruine, sa nature, son tendue, son contenu; souvent ils en
dressent le plan, y prennent des photographies ou des estampages. Le rsultat de ce travail
est communiqu la Commission dAfrique. Voil comment nous avons pu entreprendre la
grande carte archologique de la Tunisie dont vous avez dj vu plusieurs livraisons. II nest
pas un tablissement antique, mme insignifiant, qui ny reoive un numro spcial, que nous
appendix
reportons pour les dveloppements ncessaires sur une notice jointe chaque feuille de latlas;
je nai pas besoin dinsister longuement sur limportance de cette publication; je ne sache pas
quon en ait jamais entrepris de pareille pour une rgion aussi tendue. Les renseignements
venus des brigades topographiques nous permettront un jour dentreprendre le mme travail
pour lAlgrie; et cest peut-tre elles quil faudra encore avoir recours quand nous voudrons
tablir une carte dtaille de lemplacement de Carthage. but theyve been in Algeria for nearly
70 years.
[
253]Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_1171 Les Brigades Topographiques: Cest en 1881 que
les officiers chargs dexcuter en Algrie des levs topographiques sappliqurent signaler
les vestiges des temps anciens et les gisements de ruines quils rencontraient au cours de leurs
travaux. Au dbut, les renseignements fournis par eux furent des plus sommaires. Presss par le
temps, et manquant des connaissances spciales ncessaires, ils ngligeaient souvent des pierres
parses sur le sol qui ntaient autres que des dbris de monument, et auxquelles ils navaient
prt aucune attention. Mais linstruction de 1882 sur les travaux topographiques vint leur
aide en leur indiquant les caractres auxquels on peut reconnatre des ruines, et en 18831884,
une mthode destampage leur fut explique. / Les rsultats ne se firent pas attendre: ils furent
tels quon les avait esprs; les rapports devinrent plus nombreux et mieux faits, et loeuvre des
brigades topographiques, centralise et publie par M. le lieutenant-colonel Mercier, forme
aujourdhui une importante contribution lhistoire archologique de lAlgrie. / Le Bulletin
du Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques (section archologique) rserve aux envois
du colonel Mercier une large place dans ses volumes annuels. En parcourant ces rapports trs
substantiels et accompagns de cartes explicatives, on se rend rapidement compte de lintrt
offert par cet ensemble dtudes qui embrasse lAlgrie tout entire. Ce programme est donc
immense; mais peu peu, chaque anne, on en ralise quelque partie.
[
254]Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_11711172 Brigades Topographiques: Lattention du
colonel Mercier sest porte surtout sur les voies et positions stratgiques occupes en Afrique
par les Romains, et son travail formera un relev complet des ouvrages dfensifs quils y ont levs
un peupartout. Nous ne pensons pas quil puisse lui en chapper un seul de quelque importance:
il ne marche, en effet, quavec litinraire dAntonin et la table de Peutinger, dont il vrifie pas
pas toutes les indications. Souvent ces deux textes ne concordent pas lun avec lautre; souvent
mme, tous les deux sont contraires la ralit des faits, mais le colonel tudie, compare, rectifie
sil y a lieu, et ce nest pas l, on le conoit, la partie la moins attachante de son oeuvre. / Nous
nentreprendrons pas de le suivre dans toutes ses investigations, dnumrer chacune des voies
quil a reconnues et dtermines, de dcrire aprs lui les groupes de ruines rencontres sur sa
route, car, si nous faisions ainsi, notre article deviendrait facilement un volume.
[
255]Perrier_1883_5: Quand les levs sur le terrain sont termins, les officiers de chaque
brigade sont runis par leur chef sur un point central du terrain qui prsente les ressources
ncessaires au campement commode de toute la brigade, et lon procde, sous la direction et le
contrle du chef, la mise au net de la planimtrie, ltude et au trac dfinitif des courbes de
niveau, ainsi qu la rdaction dun mmoire statistique et descriptif. Ce mmoire contient des
renseignements aussi complets que possible sur laspect gnral du pays, son orographie, ses
richesses vgtales ou minralogiques, ses cultures; sur la description des ctes, le rgime des
eaux, la nature des voies de communication, le chiffre de la population, les races, les langues, les
religions, etc. / Un mmoire spcial est consacr la description, accompagne de croquis, des
ruines mgalithiques, phniciennes, romaines, espagnoles ou arabes quon a pu relever sur le

terrain. / Enfin, si un officier a dcouvert une inscription importante, il doit en faire lestampage
et le rapporter Paris.
[
256]Toussaint_1898_200 work of the 2e Brigade Topographique: Les ruines dagglomrations
considrables sont rares; cependant, au centre de chacune des grandes cuvettes qui existent
dans le massif montagneux constituant toute la rgion, on retrouve les restes parfois assez tendus de petites villes ou de bourgs dune certaine importance. Quant aux ruines de fermes, de
villas, de postes militaires, elles sont trs nombreuses, mme dans les parties les plus boises et
les plus difficiles de la rgion. Nous dcrirons successivement les gisements les plus intressants,
en insistant surtout sur ceux o il a t relev des inscriptions.
[
257]Cagnat_1893_203: La plus grande partie des inscriptions trouves appartient M.
le capitaine Toussaint; il nest que juste de le remercier chaleureusement de lappui quil a
prt en cette circonstance, aux recherches archologiques africaines. Les 103 premiers textes
pigraphiques ont t copis par lui ou par les officiers de sa brigade; je les mentionnerai dans
lordre o il les a communiqus. Les renseignements relatifs aux ruines que jinsrerai dans
cette note sont emprunts au long et prcieux rapport que M. Toussaint a remis M. le gnral
Derrcagaix, qui a bien voulu nous le transmettre. the piece lists 107 locations, largely named
Henchirs, and reproduces their inscriptions.
[
258]Mercier_1887_474475 work of the Brigades Topographiques, Province de Constantine:
Le village dIrzer-Amokrau vient dtre cr sur sa rive gauche et sur lemplacement dun
municipe romain. Les dbris de colonnes, de chapiteaux, les pierres tailles abondent, demiensevelies dans les sables du torrent. Beaucoup de matriaux ont dj servi aux constructions
du village.../ A 3 kilomtres au sud de la ville romaine, sur lautre rive de lOued Sahel et relie
aux ruines par un sentier qui traverse la rivire lun de ses gus les plus srs, on trouve une
ruine dont le nom peut avoir certaine valeur archologique. Elle est situe sur un peron qui
commande au nord le confluent de lOued Seddouk avec lOued Sahel. On y remarque des traces
de murs, des chapiteaux, des colonnes bien conserves, et les Kabyles assurent que des pierres
portant des caractres et des dessins ont t employes la construction dun azib voisin.
[
259]Mercier_1887_468 work of the brigades topographiques, Ouellaba: La ville romaine
tait situe sur le plateau qui stale au pied de la grande chane de rochers dos Senhadja et en
partie abrite par elle des vents douest et de nord-ouest. Il est remarquer que toutes les ruines
quon rencontre dans ces montagnes, sont disposes de mme, par rapport aux vents les plus
redoutables de ces rgions, contre les atteintes desquels les anciens paraissent avoir cherch
se garantir le plus possible. Sur lun dos points culminants du plateau, le gnie a construit, avec
des pierres provenant de lancienne ville, le bordj du cad Bou-Lars.
[
260]Toussaint_and_Guneau_1907_322 Besseriani. Il semble quAd Majores tait un bastion plac lun des saillants du quadrilatre form par les grandes voies stratgiques reliant
Lambse Tbessa. Cest ce qui explique limportance militaire de celle ville, qui nen avait gure
au point de vue de la colonisation. 326: La ville tait pourvue deau au moyen dune canalisation
qui y amenait les petites sources situes au Nord. On voyait encore, il y a quelques annes, des
restes de ces canaux qui ont t dtruits par les indignes pour crer des jardins auprs de ces
sources. On nen retrouve plus gure de traces aujourdhui. Je nai pas retrouv non plus le canal
signal par M. Masqueray, et quil compare la seguia de lOued-Djeddi.
[
261]Toussaint_1908_395 Henchir-es-Seder. Probablement lHenchir-Rouaga de Tissot
et Ragot. Ruine tendue, mais presque compltement ensable; nombreuses pierres tailles,
colonnes, chapiteaux. / Henchir-Rouga. Quelques pierres tailles parses. / Henchir-Khenifissa.
appendix
Nombreuses pierres tailles perches sur un tertre qui doit recouvrir une ruine assez importante. / Henchir-Guelian. Deux groupes distincts de ruines prsentant de nombreuses pierres
tailles et des dbris de constructions en blocage; colonne avec base cubique sans inscription
prsentant les caractres dune borne milliaire.
[
262]Toussaint_1908_404 map for Matmata. There are so many ancient sites that they get
noted in a kind of shorthand for their salient characteristic remains. Henchir-Gasseur-Zenss.
Oppidum. / Henchir-Greier. Village agricole; auprs, oppidum. Colonnes, chapiteaux, inscriptions. / Henchir-Tatoun et Henchir-ben-Hema. Ensemble de ruines dexploitations agricoles.
Pressoirs, auges. Mausoles. / Henchir-Gasseur-Koutine. Vaste agglomration urbaine; mur
denceinte, forum, thtre, mausole, conduites deau, citernes, puits.
[
263]Reboud_18831884_1415 in the Maouna, on the hill above the village of An-Guelaatbou-Seba: En explorant la partie suprieure, nous avons long des excavations do lon extrait
de la pierre btir. Le fond et les cts nont offert nos regards que des blocs antiques plus ou
moins entiers, portant quelques restes dinscriptions. Il est certain, pour nous, que ce ressaut du
sol est form danciennes dmolitions. Des fouilles intelligentes amneraient trs probablement
la dcouverte de bases ddifices publics et dinscriptions renfermant peut-tre le nom de la
localit...Le colonel Creuly sest occup, le premier, de leur pigraphie, sans doute lors de la
construction du village [of An-Guelaat-bou-Seba ] et de son enceinte, dirige par des sousofficiers du Gnie, qui lui signalrent des inscriptions et lui en firent parvenir des copies et des
estampages. Afin dassurer la conservation des monuments, il les fit transporter au muse de
Guelma, o nous avons pu les voir et les tudier. destruction and preservation at the same
time!
[
264]Mercier_1887_461462 work of the brigades topographiques, Vicus Juliani: Ds quon
a franchi le pont de la gare de Duvivier on aperoit droite et gauche de la roulf des vestiges
de constructions romaines, et de nombreux dbris de meules, pressoirs, mortiers et moulins
grains entasss dans des murs de clture. A quelques pas plus loin une maison moderne a
t construite sur les votes encore intactes dune maison antique. Cette maison renferme
une mosaque fort belle, tablie avec le plus grand soin. Sur les votes mme de ldifice,
larchitecte ancien avait dispos un lit de sable de rivire sur lequel sappuie un carrelage en
briques ordinaires. Au-dessus et uniformment rpartie, une couche de charbon pil supportant
un deuxime carrelage de briques grain plus fin. Cest sur ce second carrelage que repose la
couche de ciment dans laquelle la mosaque en marbre blanc et bleu a t enchsse. / M.
le capitaine Fouri, qui a relev le plan du Vicus, estime que cette ruine faisait partie dun
tablissement de bains. Entirement construit sur votes, ltablissement parat se composer
de trois corps de btiments dont deux subdiviss rgulirement en pices uniformes de 6 8
mtres carrs communiquant entre elles par des portes mnages sur lune des faces du carr.
Le btiment central tait reli aux deux autres par une canalisation recouverte de tuiles, suivant
la base des murs et encastre dans ceux-ci. Lorigine de la conduite est bien dans une bassine
maonne et cimente qui devait retenir les eaux chaudes, voisine dun four avec lequel elle
tait en communication.
[
265]Mercier_1885_566 the work of the Brigades Topographiques: Les environs du petit village de Sidi Khalifa sont couverts de trs grandes pierres travailles, de dbris de loccupation
romaine, de moulures et de poteries grossires. Les habitants prtendent que ces pierres ont t
retournes et que la partie cache prsente des inscriptions romaines ou libyques.

266]Mercier_1888_96 work of Brigades Topographiques: La ville de Malliana de litinraire
est Affreville. La grande voie romaine, en effet, franchissait le Gontas au col du Gontas et ne
passait pas Zuccabar. / Les Arabes ont trouv dans les traditions du pays le nom de Malliana,
sappliquant un centre agricole fort riche (Affreville), mais disparu, et ils ont donn ce nom au
poste militaire qui leur tait ncessaire pour commander la valle du Cheliff et aborder de plainpied les gorges des Riras et des Beni-Menasser, tribus kabyles trs turbulentes.
[
267]Cagnat_1891_549: Les brigades topographiques dAlgrie et de Tunisie ont continu
cette anne recueillir des renseignements archologiques dans les rgions quelles ont visites.
M. le gnral Derrcagaix a bien voulu en faire profiter le Comit des travaux historiques. Les
observations de MM. les officiers sont accompagnes de cartes fort soignes et dun relev exact
de toutes les ruines grandes et petites quils ont rencontres.
[
268]Hron_de_Villefosse_1905_188 address to the Congrs des Socits savantes at Algiers:
Le service gographique de larme a prt aussi aux recherches un concours empress. Si nous
connaissons exactement le trac des voies romaines du Sud, les ruines quelles traversent et
les moindres vestiges relevs dans les parages lointains o notre colonisation na pris quune
extension restreinte, nous le devons ces officiers laborieux qui travaillent avec patience
rectifier la carte de ltat-major. Comme leurs ans, comme leurs camarades des affaires
indignes ou des troupes actives, ils nous communiquent leurs dcouvertes, ils nous envoient
les rsultats de leurs observations. A maintes reprises, ils ont pu rsoudre sur place plus dun
problme difficile. Le gnral Berthault, qui reprsente ce grand service, sait que nous apprenons
chaque jour estimer davantage leurs travaux et nous louer de leur prcieuse collaboration.
Ds les premiers temps de la conqute, lpoque hroque de lexploration algrienne, notre
arme sest passionne pour larchologie, et cette noble passion ne sest jamais teinte.
[
269]Tissot_1885_257 reporting on archaeological missions in Africa: LAcadmie sait avec
quel zle les officiers de larme doccupation de la Tunisie ont collabor, depuis deux ans, lexploration archologique de ce pays. Nous sommes heureux de constater que ce zle ne sest pas
refroidi et que nos officiers ont fourni, cette anne encore, un large contingent de dcouvertes
lpigraphie africaine. Souvent, il est vrai, dans une matire si difficile, le travail et la bonne
volont ne suffisent pas; pour copier les textes et pour en faire de bons estampages, il faut une
certaine habilet professionnelle que lexprience seule peut donner la longue.
[
270]Bulletin_de_Correspondance_Africaine_1884_31 AIBL, Sance du 20 juin. M. Ch. Robert
signale les dvastations continuelles qui, en Algrie et en Tunisie, sattaquent aux monuments
que le respect des Arabes avait sauvs jusqu ce jour de la destruction. Il cite des faits regrettables qui se sont passs Lambse, Hammam, Feriana. Larc de Bulla Regia a disparu,
laqueduc qui conduisait les eaux de Zaghouan Carthage est attaqu par la mine. Un tel tat
de choses a le droit dmouvoir les archologues franais; les savants trangers eux-mmes
le signalent et sen plaignent. Nous nassisterons pas sans protester ces actes de vandalisme.
Pourquoi ne pas imiter lexemple du Danemark, de lItalie, de la Grce et dautres Etats, qui
protgent par des lois et des rglements les antiquits que porte leur sol? LAcadmie na-t-elle
pas le devoir dmettre, ladresse du gouvernement, un voeu dans ce sens? Une discussion
sengage, laquelle prennent part MM. Deloche, Maury, Jourdain, dHervey-Saint-Denis, et le
voeu suivant est mis: LAcadmie prie instamment le Ministre de linstruction publique et des
beaux-arts de provoquer les dispositions lgislatives ncessaires pour assurer, au moyen dune
sanction pnale, la conservation des monuments classs par une commission spciale, non seulement en France, mais dans toutes les possessions franaises rgulirement organises.
[
appendix
271]Schmidt, Manfred G., Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Berlin 2001, 11: Die
Internationalitt des Unternehmens fhrte aber gerade inter arma et post cladem zu schweren
Krisen: Hatte Mommsen schon zu Zeiten des Deutsch-Franzsischen Krieges die Entfremdung
zwischen befreundeten Kollegen unterschiedlicher Nation beklagt (ex amicis hostes facti sunt,
ex hostibus inimici CIL III praef. p. VIII) besonders gravierend war das Zerwrfnis zwischen
Lon Renier und der Berliner Akademie , so bemhte sich Hermann Dessau in den 20er Jahren,
die im Ersten Weltkrieg jh unterbrochenen Beziehungen zu franzsischen Kollegen wieder aufzunehmen zu Ren Cagnat, Stphane Gsell, Louis Poinssot und all den anderen, die am Corpus
der Afrikanischen Inschriften in irgendeiner Weise beteiligt waren. Die Publikation eines
Faszikels dieses Corpus-Bandes noch whrend des Krieges, die Dessau ohne die Mglichkeit,
sich mit den franzsischen Kollegen austauschen zu knnen, allein zu verantworten hatte (vgl.
sein Vorwort zu CIL VIII suppl. pars IV), fand spter die lebhafte Zustimmung Cagnats: Je ne
puis quapprouver votre initiative: vous avez trouvez une solution heureuse, conforme la fois aux
intrts de la science, la courtoisie et lquit. Brief an H. Dessau vom 27.1.1920 (Archiv der
BBAW, Akten der Preu. Akad. d. Wiss., CIL, Akz. IIVIII, 119 n. 79).
[
272]Gunin_1908_165 around Tebessa, reprints two inscriptions: Henchir-Kamellei. Ces
deux textes nous semblent appartenir des bornes-limites entre les territoires impriaux et
celui de la tribu des Musulmanes. But not the same as centuriation!
[
273]Poulle_1878_383384: Lors de la distribution des terres que Sittius fit ses partisans,
il se proccupa certainement fort peu de lobservation des lois de son pays; il navait pas sa
disposition des arpenteurs pour faire les lotissements et les dlimitations, et Rome ne lui envoya
pas incontinent des triumvirs colonae deducenae pour mettre ses soldats en possession de
leurs lots. Ces derniers sinstallrent leur gr sur le territoire qui leur fut assign et laissrent
au temps le soin de rgulariser leurs prises de possession et leurs occupations. / Le moment
devait venir, parce que les impts frapprent leurs lots comme ceux des autres colons, et que
leur rpartition tait faite daprs les matrices cadastrales, que les Romains tablissaient,
conservaient et tenaient au courant avec un soin soutenu. Lpoque laquelle eurent lieu les
oprations cadastrales ne nous a t rvle par aucun document; linscription copie par M.
Jules Chabassire nous montre, du moins, quelles taient acheves sous Hadrien; dautres nous
lavaient dj appris.
[
274]Wilkin_1900_126 Algeria: In the Abdi valley Roman ruins abound on all sides. Every
few miles the track passes through, or within sight of, huge stone blocks carefully squared
and levelled the remains probably of a late and brief military occupation. The villages are
numerous, though small; the country extensively cultivated and well watered. Curious little
pillars of stones, a foot or two high, are scattered through the fields for the purpose, we were
informed, of warning off trespassers and of marking boundaries. We were never quite happy
with regard to this explanation, the piles were so numerous and so widely distributed, still, as we
always got the same answer, we were forced to accept this interpretation of their significance.
[
275]Falbe_1833_55 on Carthage, centuriation: Les divisions qui se dveloppaient ainsi peu
peu sont coordonnes ces deux grandes lignes, et les carrs quelles forment prsentent une
dimension gale, sauf quelques lgres irrgularits provenant du fait des Maures, qui ny ont
point prt attention dans leurs tablissements modernes. / Cest alors que la lecture des Guerres
civiles dAppien, au sujet de la loi agraire et de son application aux pays conquis, veilla en moi
lide que ces divisions remontaient au temps de ltablissement de la colonie romaine sous
Jules Csar et sous Auguste. / En effet lhaeredia ou double jugera (arpent) tait un carr de deux
[

cent quarante pieds romains de ct; le centuria ou cent hoeredia avait donc deux mille quatre
cents pieds de ct, correspondant sept cent huit mtres. Quelle satisfaction ne dut pas suivre
la dcouverte que cette mesure de sept cent huit mtres applique sur le plan, partir de langle
oriental des grandes citernes, correspondait chacun des cinq carrs quon voit dans lintervalle.
[
276]Schulten_1902_140141 centuriation: Le premier qui reconnut la trace de la centuriation de Carthage est le mme auquel on doit le premier lev dune bonne carte topographique
des environs de Carthage, le capitaine de vaisseau et consul gnral de Danemark Tunis, C.-T.
Falbe. Le texte de 132 pages qui accompagne latlas in-folio de 6 planches dont la premire est
celle de Carthage (1/16000) ne contient pas seulement les premires observations sur Carthage,
fondes sur des recherches minutieuses et une excellente carte, mais aussi des notes archologiques sur le Sahel et ses deux centres, Sousse et El-Djem.../ Publi en 1833, cet excellent travail
posait les fondements de larchologie africaine au moment o lAfrique du Nord commenait
se rouvrir la civilisation. / La carte de Carthage, dresse au milieu dArabes fanatiques avec
les plus grandes difficults, est nanmoins dune exactitude parfaite. Can he be serious about
fanatical Arabs?
[
277]Schulten_1902_146 centuriation in Tunisia: after giving the widths of roads: On devrait
examiner sil y a encore sous la superficie moderne des restes de la voie romaine, ce qui permettrait de constater si la largeur de ces limites encore existants est en accord avec le systme trait
ci-dessus. La mme tche se prterait Carthage et peut-tre M. Gauckler, dont lintrt archologique embrasse tout ce qui existe des restes antiques en Tunisie, aurait-il la complaisance de
raliser ce vu, en ordonnant quelques sondages sur les chemins antiques qui parcourent la
plaine entre El-Ariana et Carthage et, une fois retrouve la voie antique, den faire relever exactement la largeur, de mme que celle des chemins de la centuriation dEl-Alia, dont le pav est
encore trs bien conserv.
[
278]Schulten_1902_163, 165 for centuriation at Sousse: Pour commencer par les restes les
mieux conservs, on observera, au Nord-Est de la Sebkha-Kelbia, un rseau de chemins qui ne
sont en correspondance quentre eux et se distinguent parfaitement des petits chemins irrguliers de provenance arabe dont le pays est sillonn. Les officiers qui ont dress la feuille Sidibou-Ali notent aux nos 222 240: Alignements constitus par des lits de pierres non tailles
juxtaposes la surface du sol et mesurant de 1 2 mtres de largeur...Le nombre des points
archologiques nots sur la feuille de Sidi-bou-Ali et spcialement dans la rgion divise en centuries et rectangles est un tmoignage frappant de la prosprit de la plaine situe entre les
sebkras de Kelbia et de Halk-el-Mennzel.
[
279]EB11 CADASTRE (a French word from the Late Lat. capitastrum, a register of the polltax), a register of the real property of a country, with details of the area, the owners and the value.
A cadastral survey is properly, therefore, one which gives such information as the Domesday
Book, but the term is sometimes used loosely of the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom
(1 = 2500), which is on sufficiently large a scale to give the area of every field or piece of ground.
[
280]Borne limite: RNMSADC 1882, 314: La borne indiquait donc la limite entre ces champs
et lager publicus Siguensium, inscrit sur la face principale; RNMSADC 1863, 203: Tebourba,
Borne limite; Bull Arch 1904, CXCI: Une borne de pierre qui servait fixer la limite de deux
proprits; Cagnat, Explorations en Tunisie, 1883, 54: Peut-tre tait-ce une borne destine
marquer la limite de deux proprits voisines; Gsells explication of Delamare, Expl. Scientifique,
1912, 92: Borne he illustrates, and CIL 8268, perhaps a(ger) public(us); Schulten, Larpentage
romain en Tunisie, in Bull. Archol. 1902, 129173. See 169, citing Falbe and Carthage: comme
appendix
en Lombardie, o la division des champs nest autre chose quune subdivision des carrs forms
par la centuriation romaine.
[
281]By Schulten (Larpentage romain en Tunisie, B.C.T.H. 1902, 129173), Toutain (Le
cadastre de lAfrique romaine. Etude sur plusieurs inscriptions recueillies par M. le capitaine
Donau dans la Tunisie mridionale, in M. Acad. Inscr.et B.-L. 12 1907, 341382) and Barthel
(Rmische Limitation in der Provinz Africa, in Bonner Jahrbcher 120 1911, 39126).
[
282]Sance de la Commission de lAfrique du Nord, 16 janvier 1906, in BACTHS 1906, in a
note from Dr. Carton on the colonia Thuburnica, CXCI, a necropolis: Je puis ajouter ce propos
que cette rgion a fourni dautres pitaphes du mme genre: Sidi-Acem notamment, prs de
Chemtou, on a trouv celles de deux vtrans de la 3e lgion Augusta. / Il est donc tabli que de
nombreux militaires ont colonis le pays et en particulier les environs de la colonia Thuburnica. /
Dautre part, jai t frapp depuis longtemps de la forme quy ont les champs situs dans la
plaine, au pied de la ville antique: ce sont de longs rectangles, dirigs du Nord au Sud, formant
deux ou trois alignement spars par des pistes, et dont le plus septentrional sappuie sur la voie
de Carthage Hippone. Enfin, dans chaque proprit ou plutt dans chaque groupe de champs,
proprit dune famille, on trouve les restes dune exploitation agricole. / Il sagit donc trs nettement, ici, danciens allotissements dont chacun eut autrefois sa ferme. Cest dans la petite
ncropole de celle-ci que jai trouv lpitaphe du vtran qui sy retira.
[
283]Gsell_1928_13 centuriation: Les documents qui attestent lexistence dun cadastre par
centuries dans les provinces africaines sont assez nombreux. Le plus ancien est une loi agraire
de, lanne 111 avant J.-C., que nous aurons citer frquemment dans cette tude de lAfrica
lpoque rpublicaine.
[
284]Gsell_1928_15 centuriation (preceded 1113 by a description of arpentage i.e. just how
the land was laid out): Des dcouvertes pigraphiques et ltude des excellentes cartes dresses
par le Service gographique de lArme ont fait connatre en Tunisie deux centuriations antiques,
qui avaient dlimit lune et lautre des centuries carres de 2400 pieds de ct, mais qui taient
orientes de manire diffrente. / Lune delles, uvre vraiment admirable, a t rvle par
des bornes dcouvertes en place dans le Sud tunisien, prs du chott el Fedjedje (1). Ces bornes
furent dresses sous le rgne de Tibre par des arpenteurs appartenant larme dAfrique.
Daprs les indications numrales quelles portent, on a pu reconstituer le systme auquel elles
appartenaient. Le decumanus maximus, orient du Nord-Ouest au Sud-Est, stendait dun point
du littoral situ entre Philippeville et Bne, jusqu un point de la petite Syrte voisin de Gabs;
le cardo maximus, qui le coupait angle droit dans la rgion de Thala, aboutissait, au Nord-Est,
dans le voisinage du Cap Bon. / Les bornes si heureusement retrouves peuvent fort bien dater
dune poque postrieure ltablissement de ce systme, qui a d tre dvelopp mesure que
loccupation militaire progressait vers le Sud. Footnoted as follows: C.I.L., VIII, 22786, al. Une
autre borne a t trouve plus au Nord-Ouest, dans le Bled Segui (ibid., no. m); une autre, plus
au Nord-Est, Graba, non loin du littoral (C.I.L., 22789).
[
285]Gsell_1928_1617 centuriation: Lautre systme de centuriation na t constat que
dans la vieille province. Il y a dj un sicle que Falbe en a reconnu des vestiges dans la pninsule
de Carthage: chemins et limites de proprits qui dessinaient encore les cts des centuries.
Depuis, on en a retrouv dautres traces lOuest, au Sud-Ouest et au Sud de Tunis; la base de
la pninsule du cap Bon et dans cette pninsule; dans lEnfida (au Nord-Ouest de Sousse); dans
des lieux plus rapprochs de lemplacement du foss royal, limite de lAfrica vetus. Les decumani,
disposs dans le sens de la longueur de la province, se dirigent du Nord-Nord-Ouest au

Sud-Sud-Est (formant avec ceux de la centuriation impriale un angle de 8 degrs); les cardines
sont, par consquent, orients de lOuest-Sud-Ouest lEst-Nord-Est. Comme on ne connat pas
encore de bornes, qui donneraient des indications numrales, on ne saurait dire o taient le
decumanus maximus et le cardo maximus.
[
286]Berbrugger_1858_200 footnote: Henchir, en Tunisie et dans notre province orientale,
semploie avec le double sens de Kherba, ruine, et de Haouche, ferme. Les Romains avaient si
bien choisi leurs lieux dtablissements que lon est toujours sr de rencontrer leurs traces quand
on fonde une exploitation agricole, etc., un bon endroit. De l, une association invitable entre
ces deux choses: ferme moderne et ruines antiques.
[
Stifienn, Saint-Arnaud: Station du chemin de fer de Constantine Stif, 31 kilomtres de cette
dernire ville, dans la plaine des Eulma. Le village na pas t construit sur une ruine romaine;
mais il y avait sur son territoire des tablissements isols, do les colons ont retir des chapiteaux, des fts de colonnes et dautres dbris antiques.
[
288]Gurin_1862_I_220221: A sept heures vingt-cinq minutes, nous atteignons les ruines
de Medinet-Zian. Ces ruines sont parses sur plusieurs collines peu leves, en partie couvertes de hautes herbes et de ronces, et en partie ensemences dorge et de bl. Ces collines
taient couronnes ddifices btis avec des pierres dun trs-puissant appareil, dune taille trsrgulire et bien agences entre elles. Lun de ces monticules, de forme elliptique, tait environn
dun mur denceinte dont les assises infrieures existent encore et accusent une construction
trs-soigne. Ctait peut-tre un fort, et la dsignation des Arabes, qui lappellent bordj, parait
fonde. Sur les autres monticules, des amas plus ou moins confus de magnifiques blocs, restes
de monuments dtruits, jonchent le sol. La trace et la forme de quelques-uns de ces monuments
sont encore jusqu un certain point reconaissables. Je signalerai particulirement les vestiges
dun temple ou dun palais qui a t boulevers de fond en comble, par suite des fouilles quon y
a pratiques. On remarque sur lemplacement quil occupait les dbris de plusieurs statues. Elles
sont en beau marbre hlanc et paraissent loeuvre dartistes assez habiles; malheureusement elles
sont trs-mutiles; il y en a mme que les Arabes ont mises en pices, simaginant quelles renfermaient intrieurement un trsor cach. / Au bas de ces collines, dans la plaine, la direction
de trois rues est indique par des lignes parallles de dcombres provenant des maisons qui les
bordaient.
[
289]Saumagne_1929_307308 centuriation near El Djem: Ces traces, remarquablement nettes
et continues, ont t rvles par la photographie arienne. Elles ne sauraient tre discernes
sur le terrain par un oeil que naurait point prvenu lexamen des clichs photographiques.
Elles avaient tout fait chapp lobservation, cependant sagace, des officiers des brigades
topographiques; et il est infiniment probable quelles nauraient jamais fix lattention, si une
circonstance professionnelle ne nous avait mis en mesure de les reconnatre, dans le moment
mme o une commune curiosit scientifique rendait notre collaboration particulirement
attentive tout ce qui, en Tunisie, relve de la limitation et de la centuriation romaines.
[
290]Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_198199: Lexploration des anciennes voies romaines est
le plus sr moyen de retrouver les positions indiques dans les itinraires, et que nous ne
connaissons pas encore toutes beaucoup prs. Il faudrait dcrire avec soin ces voies militaires
anciennes partout o lon en remarquera des traces, suivre ces routes avec dtail, dire o elles
existent bien conserves, et o elles nexistent plus, indiquer leur mode de construction, les
lieux o elles passent et les ponts conservs ou en ruines qui servaient jadis entretenir les
appendix
communications. La connaissance des distances est lune des bases les plus essentielles et les plus
sres dune bonne gographie compare. Je recommande donc MM. les officiers dtat-major
et du gnie, la reconnaissance exacte des bornes militaires antiques, du nombre de ces bornes
existant sur une mme route de leurs rapports de position et de distance, et surtout des noms
de lieux et des chiffres qui sy trouveraient inscrits. A mesure quun point aura t visit, il sera
indispensable den noter exactement la position par rapport aux autres lieux connus, de manire
crer petit petit une carte exacte des localits qui auront t explores.
[
291]Cagnat_1888_90: On the road from Le Kef to Bja, Tout le long de la voie antique des
bornes milliaires sont couches droite et gauche, leur place; dautres sont employes dans
les constructions ruines aujourdhui qui slevaient de chaque ct une certaine distance: ce
sont les plus nombreuses.
[
292]Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_340341: Les recherches de M. Carbuccia et de ses collaborateurs ont procur la connaissance de plus de quarante villes ou positions romaines, de castra
et de castella ou postes fortifis; un grand nombre de ces points taient ignors; ils font retrouver aujourdhui tous les lieux des itinraires, soit par les distances marques sur les bornes milliaires, concordant avec le plan du terrain, soit par le nom romain conserv dans le nom actuel.
Lon a trouv jusqu quatre-vingts bornes milliaires, la plupart portant le chiffre de la distance
Thveste et Carthage, dcouverte des plus inattendues et des plus heureuses quon ait faites
depuis quon soccupe de gographie compare, et sans exemple dans toute ltendue de lempire
romain.
[
293]Domergue_1893_144145 on the ruins of Seriana: Dans un pays o les roches de toute
nature sont si massives et si abondantes quil pourrait servir de carrire la plus vaste des entreprises, lentrepreneur brise impitoyablement tout ce qui reste de lantique ncropole romaine,
arrache de leurs lits souterrains les tombeaux des anciens pour les rduire en cailloux et sme
la dvastation sur les restes de cette vieille cit...Plus de trois cents pierres moules, la plupart
inscrites, ont dj t dtruites; on fait du cailloutis avec des statues et huit cents bornes qui
fixaient le travail de lotissement et dterminaient les lots des futurs colons sont aujourdhui
sur les chantiers de construction et vont passer sous le marteau. Cest la ruine et la dvastation.
appendix
1 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875. This contains plenty of wash drawings
of the site and of its Arch of Caracalla, and its walls. Castel_1842_I_84109 for the roads, and
the monuments along them. I Map of the ruins of Theveste: marks a large number of towers,
bridges, bassins, plus aqueduct. Only the Byzantine enceinte remains standing. Ibid. II_13 for
plan of town in heyday, with walls extending well to north of the basilica. II_21 for plan of the
basilica, and adjacent land marked as terrain non dblay. II_75101 for French occupation. II_77
for plan of Byzantine citadel, filled in as a completely Arab town, also including a temple and
two ruined monuments.
[ ]
2 Moll_18601861_210211 on the Basilica at Tebessa: Ce monument a t renvers de fond
en comble; seuls, les murs extrieurs slvent encore trois ou quatre mtres au-dessus du
terrain naturel. De la cour qui prcde la faade principale, on arrivait lglise par un perron de sept ou huit marches en pierres de taille. Le sol intrieur est recouvert dune couche de
dcombres de deux mtres de profondeur. Plusieurs tranches faites dans ces dcombres ont
donn lieu aux dcouvertes dont voici lnumration: ds colonnes corinthiennes en marbre
y ayant appartenu deux sries distinctes pour la grandeur et lornementation; des dbris de
pilastres galement en marbre, et identiques, pour le dessin, aux colonnes de lune et de lautre
srie; deux lignes parallles de pidestaux encore en place, quidistants entre eux; des voussoirs en pierres de taille provenant darceaux dun diamtre sensiblement gal lespacement
des mmes pidestaux; des traces nombreuses de charbon, des pierres de taille de toutes sortes
nayant aucun caractre particulier; enfin, au-dessous de ce qui prcde, sur toute la longueur et
la largeur de ldifice, une mosaque parfaitement conserve.
[ ]
3 Maitrot_1909_135 Tebessa: Lenceinte romaine nexistait plus, rase compltement par
les Vandales; les seules fortifications qui eussent pu arrter les Maures taient des blockhaus
isols, sems sans ordre dans les jardins et forms par des lots de maisons runies par leurs
murs prolongs, communiquant entre elles par des ouvertures cres pour la circonstance. /
Rien ne pouvait donc servir Solomon pour asseoir ses remparts. Il fallait construire rapidement
une enceinte capable de rsister une attaque et pouvant servir de point dappui une arme.
Le stratge tait donc contraint de la faire de dimensions assez restreintes. Cest la citadelle
actuelle mesurant 320 mtres du nord ouest au sud-est et 280 mtres du nord-est au sud-ouest. /
Lenceinte comprenait quatorze tours en saillant extrieur et trois portes principales.
[ ]
4 Graham_1902_46 Solomon at Tebessa: Having restored the Basilica, Solomon
surrounded it on three sides with shops or small dwellings, portions of which are still standing.
He then enclosed the entire ranges of buildings with a wall about 25 feet high, strengthened with
numerous towers. This wall of defence is irregularly built with blocks and slabs of stone in great
variety, and the presence of tombstones in the construction seems to indicate that the edifices
round the forum had been recklessly destroyed and the materials used for building purposes,
The object of Solomons fortification is not quite clear. He had already enclosed a large portion
of the city by a high wall with ramparts, and in the centre had constructed a citadel of great
strength. Most of these are still in existence. One may assume, therefore, that in time of siege
this fortified Basilica and its surrounding buildings would serve as an additional refuge for the
inhabitants of the adjacent settlements.
[ ]
5 Desvaux_1909_665666 Tebessa in June 1841: En effet, cette enceinte, entirement semblable celles de Guelma, de Stif, est compose de pierres normes places sans ordre, des
moulures, des chapiteaux, dbris des temples paens, a d tre leve aprs lexpulsion des
Vandales qui avaient dmantel toutes les places de guerre et, comme il fallait se hter, on se
[ ]

servit des matriaux sous la main, en rduisant toutefois ltendue et la surface de la nouvelle
ville quil et t trop difficile de dfendre sans cela.
[ ]
6 Moll_1861_204 the walls of Tebessa: Elle se compose dune enceinte rectangulaire de 320
mtres de longueur sur 280 mtres de largeur, flanque par quatorze tours carres et perce de
trois portes qui sont places sur les trois faces, sud, est et nord, et dsignes aujourdhui sous
les noms de Porte du Cirque, Porte Solomon et Porte Caracalla. Cette dernire est forme par
larceau nord de larc de triomphe qui lui-mme est devenu une des quatorze tours de flanquement. Il a suffi pour oprer cette transformation, de fermer les arceaux est et ouest du monument
par une maonnerie en pierres de taille. Les murs de lenceinte ont plus de deux mtres dpaisseur et dans le principe ils atteignaient une hauteur de neuf dix mtres. A sept ou huit mtres
environ au-dessus du sol, rgnait un chemin de ronde crnel qui faisait le tour de la place.
[ ]
7 Girol_1866_183184 Tebessa: Sil y eut vandalisme, cest Solomon lui-mme quil faut
lattribuer, puisquil transforma en bastion lun des plus beaux arcs de triomphe qui aient jamais
exist. Sans doute, il tait ncessaire de se mettre rapidement en tat de dfense; mais lorsquau
milieu dune ville qui avait renferm 40,000 habitants, il tablit une enceinte peine suffisante
pour contenir 200 familles, il tait facile de le faire sans absorber les monuments publics dans
lpaisseur des murs.
[ ]
8 Fraud_1874_439 Tebessa, the triumphal arch: La premire donne accs dans la ville
par lintervalle qui spare deux des tours du front est; lautre porte est ouverte dans larcde-triomphe qui date des beaux temps de la domination romaine, et dont plus tard on a fait une
des deux tours qui se trouvent sur le front nord de lenceinte. Le monument tait jadis empltr
dune grossire maonnerie qui en fermait les portiques, il a t dgag depuis par nos soins, et
aujourdhui il se prsente aux regards dans toute sa beaut. Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_3032
Tebessa, for description of the Arch of Caracalla.
[ ]
9 Moll_1860_74: Ici se termine ce que nous avions dire sur larc de triomphe de Thveste,
considr comme monument de la priode romaine proprement dite. Vers la fin du Ve sicle
(nous le prouverons dans la suite), la ville fut abandonne par ses habitants aprs avoir t saccage par les Maures et dtruite de fond en comble. Larc de triomphe a d subir le mme sort,
et sa dmolition partielle remonte sans doute cette poque. Plus tard, Solomon, en relevant
les murs de lantique cit, adopta pour le trac dun des cts de sa citadelle, le prolongement de
la faade Sud du monument; en fermant, dailleurs, par une maonnerie grossire, les arceaux
des faades Est et Ouest, ainsi que la partie suprieure de larceau Nord, il transforma de cette
manire en porte de ville et tour de flanquement, ce bel difice dont les restes devaient encore
tre magnifiques. Vandalisme byzantin (quon nous pardonne cette alliance de mots un peu barbare, cest le cas o jamais de lemployer) que lingnieur de Justinien aurait pu viter facilement,
par une modification de trac insignifiante. Peu lui importait de continuer une uvre de destruction dj commence avant lui: il tait peut-tre lui-mme Hun ou Goth, ou originaire de
ces nombreuses peuplades barbares qui composaient les armes byzantines.
[ ]
10 Moll_1860_55 Tebessa: Arch of Caracalla: Les matriaux qui ont servi sa construction
sont des pierres calcaires trs-blanches, dun grain serr, fin et assez tendre pour lexcution
des nombreuses sculptures dont il est orn. Nous navons pas encore trouv dans les environs de Thveste, les carrires do cette pierre a t tire. Le marbre ne figure pas dans cette
construction.
[ ]
11 Moll_1860_28: La ville moderne arabe occupe lemplacement mme dune citadelle
byzantine construite sur les ruines de la cit romaine, et ses remparts levs, en bon tat de
appendix
conservation, flanqus de tours, ont d, pendant des sicles, garantir ses habitants contre les
incursions nombreuses des tribus hostiles environnantes.
[ ]
12 RA 1878 issue 108 Fraud, L. Charles, Notes sur Tbessa, 430473. 436: Il y a des eaux
excellentes, des jardins dlicieux o abondent les noyers, et devant elle se dveloppe une plaine
immense arrose par de nombreuses sources dont les eaux scoulent dans lOued Chabrou
qui serpente au fond de la valle. La quantit de ruines et de postes qui sont parpills dans
les environs, tout atteste que les Romains avaient apprci la valeur de cette portion de leur
conqute, et que l o s trouve aujourdhui une population europenne et indigne de 2,000
mes, tout au plus, il y eut jadis de 30 40,000 habitants.
[ ]
13 RA 1878 issue 108 Fraud, L. Charles, Notes sur Tbessa, 430473. 438: La forteresse
byzantine de Theveste qui enceint la ville arabe, est encore debout et intacte, elle offre de curieux
sujets dtude; sa forme rectangulaire et ses quatre faces sont peu prs gales. Le dveloppement total de la muraille est de 1,070 mtres. Les murs sont btis en belles pierres de taille, ayant
de 0,40 cent, 0,50 cent, de hauteur. En saillie, sur le mur denceinte, sont construites quatorze
tours carres, dont quatre aux angles du rectangle, les dix autres tant espaces irrgulirement
sur le reste de la fortification, trois sur chacun des fronts ouest et sud de la place; deux seulement
sur les faces est et nord.
[ ]
14 Girol_1866_209210 Tebessa: Mais suivons les destines de la basilique dans sa ruine.
La domination arabe ne fut sans doute pas tablie brusquement; les Maures refouls dans le
sud, durent, longtemps encore, inquiter Tebessa et, pour nous servir de lexpression moderne,
razer les environs. Aussi lArabe vient-il planter sa tente ou construire son gourbi autour de la
ville et dans la basilique, dont les murs lui servent de remparts. Transforme en douar ou en
hameau, elle subit le sort de tous les vieux monuments; elle disparait sous un amas dimmondices, de dtritus de toutes sortes, dont nous voyons les couches successives de diverses nuances,
mlanges de cendres et de charbon. Des habitations dune certaine stabilit ont d tre leves...Les Arabes qui ont habit la basilique y ont laiss de nombreuses traces de leur passage,
qui viennent encore lappui de notre opinion. On a retrouv, enfouis dans les dcombres, des
os danimaux, des petites meules craser le grain, des fragments de poterie et dustensiles de
fer, des boucles doreilles en cuivre, un chapelet arabe, un cachet en cornaline, avec caractres
arabes, gravs en creux and later served as a cemetery.
[ ]
15 Moll_18581859_79 Tebessa: Les monuments romains proprement dits sont excuts
gnralement avec des pierres de taille de carrire; on doit donc rencontrer, dans un mme difice de cette poque, de longues sries de ces dernires tout--fait identiques sous le rapport de
la densit, de la duret, de la couleur. Les Byzantins, au contraire, se sont logs dans des mines;
ils ont employ les premiers matriaux venus qui leur sont tombs sous la main, et, disons-le,
sans montrer aucun scrupule dans le choix de ces matriaux. Chacune de leurs constructions
doit donc contenir des pierres runies ple-mle, de densits et de couleurs excessivement
variables. Cette considration dhomognit donne un moyen peu prs infaillible dans la plupart des cas, pour dterminer si un monument appartient la premire ou la deuxime occupation. Nous nous permettons de le signaler aux nombreux amateurs dantiquits que renferme
actuellement lAlgrie.
[ ]
16 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Extrait du Rapport densemble de M.
le Gnral dArtois sur linspection des trois directions du Gnie en Algrie, 1852, Tebessa; and
Installer une poste militaire Tbessa. Projet du Commandemant Suprieure de Gnie, 6 Dec
1852. This is confirmed by the Mmoire pour les projets de 18601, dated 31 March 1860, 16, where

it is pointed out that some of the 56 cubic-metre blocks recourant ces vides ne se soutiennent
que par un miracle dquilibre.
[ ]
17 Cagnat_1909B_134135 Tebessa: Cagnat_1909B_134135 Tebessa: De tous ces
tablissements byzantins, le plus important parce quil est le plus compltement conserv et
aussi parce quon peut le considrer comme un vritable modle de lart de lingnieur au VIe
sicle, est lenceinte de Tbessa. / La position de cette ville avait une importance stratgique
considrable; elle tait situe au centre mme de la ligne dfensive entre la mer et le Hodna.
Dans la plaine quelle dominait dbouchaient toutes les grandes routes du pays, celle qui venait
de Lambse, longeant les pentes septentrionales de lAurs, celles qui arrivaient du dsert ou
de la Tunisie centrale, celles aussi qui avaient comme point de dpart Carthage, capitale de
la province dAfrique, ou Constantine, chef-lieu de la Numidie...Tbessa fermait, de la sorte,
aux envahisseurs les passages du sud et couvrait ceux du nord; il tait naturel quil y et l un
poste militaire de premier ordre. Cest ce quavaient compris les gnraux dAuguste. Cest ce que
comprirent leur tour ceux de Justinien et plus que tout autre le trs glorieux et trs excellent
matre de la milice, Solomon, prfet de Lybie et patrice, dont le nom figure encore sur une
grande inscription encastre dans la muraille de la cit. Il releva donc les murs de la place et les
mit dans ltat o les Arabes les ont trouvs et qui a subsist jusqu nos jours.
[ ]
18 Bosredon_1878_3 Tebessa environs: Une voie ferre, trs-apparente son dbut et dont
le trac est indiqu dune faon certaine sur un parcours de 32 kilomtres, reliait Tbessa BirOum-Ali. Elle avait son point de dpart, ainsi que la route de Carthage, au Nord-Est de la ville.
Elle tournait brusquement lEst, puis insensiblement vers le Sud dans la direction du col de
Tenoucla. Sa chausse, lgrement convexe, avait une largeur de 3m50; elle tait recouverte dun
pavage form de moellons non quarris et de grosseurs ingales. En pntrant dans le col, elle
traversait le ravin sur un pont dune seule arche qui est encore debout.
[ ]
19 Gunin_1908_97 around Tebessa: Henchir-Ogla-Djedida. Grande ruine sur la rive droite
de lOued-Ghezenetta. Enceinte carre en pierres de taille. / Une basilique de 15 mtres de long
sur 13 mtres de largeur environ; claveaux, colonnes, grands corbeaux avec des sculptures,
rosaces, grappes de raisin, poissons. Table dautel de 0 m. 90 sur 0 m. 70. Cadre moulur, inachev. / A lest de la ruine, restes dun beau mausole prs duquel nous trouvons uns statue
en marbre blanc, sans tte ni bras, la partie infrieure brise. Ibid., 138: Henchir-El-Abiodh ou
Reguibet Gasss. Cette ruine denviron 300 mtres de ct est sans contredit lune des plus intressantes du cercle de Tbessa. Elle comprenait de nombreux monuments, en juger par les
restes de grandes inscriptions que lon y rencontre. Plusieurs basiliques ou chapelles. Cette ville
romaine a subi une destruction complte. Les matriaux des grands difices sont dissmins
loin de leurs emplacements primitifs et ont t remploys dans des glises, le fort byzantin et
dautres btiments. Ibid., 168: Henchir-Bou-Sad: Belle ruine de 800 mtres de cot. Trs intressante. Au centre, un fort byzantin carr, de 19 mtres de ct, dans lequel gisent de nombreuses
corniches, des arceaux, des pilastres...Une basilique de 15 mtres de long sur 13 de large, trois
nefs spares par des piliers carrs de 0 m. 40 de ct, ayant support des arceaux. La basilique
est dalle; la construction en tait soigne. Cet difice a t construit en partie avec les pierres
tombales provenant dun cimetire paen voisin. Ibid., 196: Henchir-Zora. Grande enceinte carre de 35 mtres de ct, trs bien btie (poque romaine). Nombreuses constructions lintrieur, pierres sculptes, guirlandes de vigne dun trs beau dessin et dexcution trs soigne.
Prs de ce castellum, une base dune colonne de 0m. 60 de diamtre, dernier vestige dun difice
appendix
considrable. Dans le groupe est, sur une minence, au bord du ravin, groupe de cinq mausoles
ruins. Lun deux est partiellement conserv et a encore 2m. 50 de hauteur; les pierres de taille
qui gisent au pied permettent de le reconstituer facilement. / Les uns taient surmonts des statues, un autre dun tronc de pyramide quadrangulaire dont chaque face reproduit en demi-relief
un personnage then lists tronons of male & female statues, plus bas-reliefs.
[ ]
20 SHD Gnie, 1H402, Reconnaissances et expditions, 1840 1843, Expdition de
Constantine Tbessa du 4 mai au 17 juin 1842.
[ ]
21 Maitrot_1909_71 Tebessa: Du reste, ce temple, outre quil a servi de lieu de campement
aux indignes, a eu des affectations extrmement varies avant de devenir un muse: glise sous
les Byzantins, on trouve des tombes chrtiennes derrire; elle fut, sous loccupation franaise,
fabrique de savon, bureau du Gnie, logement dofficier, tribunal musulman, cantine, cercle
militaire, prison et enfin glise catholique. Les transformations ncessites par cette dernire
affectation furent assez malheureuses; la toiture en terrasse devint une coupole trs orientale
et dassez mauvais got, la cella fut spare du pronaos par une faade dglise de petit village
dEurope; cet amalgame bizarre de style greco-romain, dorientalisme et de villageois eut d
faire bondir des gens aussi artistes et daussi bon got que le capitaine Moll. Toutefois, il faut
reconnatre que les moyens taient assez restreints cette poque, je parle de 1851, mais ce que
je ne comprends pas, cest que lon ait laiss persister cet tat de choses jusquen 1870.
[ ]
22 Gsell_1901_I_133134 the Maison-Carre-like temple at Tebessa: Aprs avoir t successivement, depuis la conqute franaise, une fabrique de savon, un bureau affect au service
du gnie, un prtoire pour le juge musulman, une cantine, un cercle militaire, une prison, une
glise, il est devenu le muse de Tbessa.
[ ]
23 Cagnat_1909B_136137 Tebessa: Lenceinte rectangulaire, quil fit difier, mesure 320
mtres de long sur 280 de large; elle est renforce par quatorze tours carres et perces de trois
portes places sur les trois faces septentrionale, orientale et mridionale. Lune delles tait
constitue par un splendide arc de triomphe quatre faces qui remonte au rgne de Septime
Svre et de Caracalla. / On laissa ouvert, en le rtrcissant, larceau du nord; mais on mura les
baies latrales, sud et ouest du monument, qui devint de la sorte une des tours de flanquement de
la place. / A un autre endroit, sur la face sud-ouest, on a utilis pareillement pour la construction
un ancien difice romain: le mur est assis sur des restes qui doivent appartenir la scne dun
thtre: sur ce point se voient des pilastres engags et surtout de gros tambours de colonne,
entasss la hte horizontalement. / Les deux autres portes furent ouvertes dans la nouvelle
muraille; encore lune delles ne constitue-t-elle quune poterne sans lvation. La muraille
qui entourait, ainsi la ville Byzantine mesure en movenne deux mtres dpesseur et atteignait
autrefois neuf ou dix mtres de hauteur . . . / Aujourdhui encore cette masse imposante de
murailles a gard toute sa majest; laspect en est solennel et grandiose. Quon juge du respect
quelle pouvait inspirer aux indignes du voisinage ou aux hordes nomades du dsert, habitues
seulement aux escarmouches de cavalerie ou aux surprises de villes ouvertes.
[ ]
24 Delair, P.E., Essai sur les fortifications anciennes, ou introduction lhistoire gnrale de
la fortification des anciens, Paris 1875, 12930, citing Moll, Mmoire historique et archologique
sur Tbessa, Societe Archologique de Constantine 1862, 77.
[ ]
25 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_10 Tebessa, the enceinte: en certains endroits les travaux faits
part nos officiers du gnie ont permis dutiliser ces tours pour la dfense de la place contre un
coup de main des Arabes.

26]SHD Tebessa, 30 may 1858, Projets, Aposilles du Commandant Suprieur.
27]Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_15 Tebessa: Prs de lamphithtre on remarque les restes
dun aqueduc byzantin restaur par les Franais et qui amne dans la ville les eaux dune source
appel Ain-el-Bled.
[ ]
28 SHD Gnie 1H878: Tebessa: Projets pour 18523, and Mmoire sur le projet dun
tablissement franais Tbessa: agrandissement en dehors de la ville actuelle.
[ ]
29 SHD Gnie 1H 403: Reconnaissances, Expditions, 18441847; op. cit., 1112.
[ ]
30 Desvaux_1909_660: 1 June 1841: Vingt-neuvime bivouac; sjour Tbessa. Eveill de
grand matin par le commandant Tremblay qui mannonce que le gnral permet de Neveu et
moi de visiter la ville notre gr: pour garder toujours des officiers au camp, il nest donn des
permissions que par moiti.
[ ]
31 Desvaux_1909_668 Tebessa in June 1841: Rentr en ville, quelques gamins arabes nous
font dcouvrir des inscriptions ou sculptures engages dans la muraille et cela pour quelques
sous! Dj hier, jai achet une bonne quantit de mdailles anciennes. Le phallus sculpt sur
pierre, la boutique du forgeron armurier avec le soufflet main; le fabricant de kabouss chez
lequel jachte une poudrire. Long dessin dun petit temple de mme forme que la clbre
Maison carre de Nmes; avec larc de triomple, cest le monument le plus remarquable de
Tbessa; moins pur que larc, ce monument est orn de sculptures, de guirlandes, de trophes,
damours dun bon dessin; il est devenu lignoble officine dun sale fabricant de savon noir, et
tout le portique, dont les colonnes et chapiteaux de marbre sont si lgants, a t bouch avec
du moellon, pour agrandir la boutique de lindustriel arabe.
[ ]
32 Desvaux_1909_664665 Tebessa in June 1841: Djeuner au camp, neuf heures; onze
heures, une dputation de Beccaria, petite ville dont nous voyons les arbres au pied de la montagne dont la crte forme la limite de la province de Constantine et de Tunis, vient prsenter au
gnral ses drapeaux et lui offrir deux gazelles mouchetes de blanc. Comme hier, cette crmonie a fait natre en moi mille penses, sur cette terre couverte de ruines colossales laisses par
le gnie et la force dun peuple sans gal, du peuple conqurant, cette religion de lIslam vient
reconnatre la domination de ces Roumi qui, pour eux, sont les descendants directs des fondateurs de la ville; cette religion chrtienne si belle, si charitable quand on ne la torture pas, vivra
ct du mahomtisme dans les lieux o elle florissait autrefois, le glorieux drapeau brillera
sur ces ruines, pour dire que, si quelque peuple peut marcher sur les traces des Romains, cest le
peuple franais!
[ ]
33 Desvaux_1909_667, Tebessa in June 1841: Trentime bivouac; sjour Tbessa. Arrive
devant la porte vieille avec le soleil qui doit nous aider lire la fameuse inscription de Solomon.
Nous voil quatre, avec tous les yeux et les lunettes possibles, qui dchiffrons, supposons, commentons, expliquons, draisonnons sur tel ou tel sens; enfin, aprs de longs efforts, nous nous
sommes arrts une rdaction qui, probablement, ne sera pas bonne, mais qui, certes, suffira
un de ces vrais savants de Paris lire couramment cette pierre qui nous donne tant de mal, mais
laquelle, par instinct, nous souponnons une importance relle.
[ ]
34 SHD, Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: For the state of the site before anything was done to it, see the very careful pen and wash drawing Plan de Tbessa lev le 1er et le
2 juin 1842, pendant que la colonne mobile du Lieut. Gen. Ngrier tait camp sous les murs
de la ville. This seems to give an accurate elevation of the walls and towers, showing that the
whole was generally in a remarkably good condition.
[
[
appendix
35]Moll_1861_219: En 1842, une colonne expditionnaire partie de Bne et commande par
le gnral Randon, arriva sous les murs de Tbessa; comme en 944, avec Abou-Yezid, la ville
capitula sans coup frir, et bientt lon vit le drapeau de la France flotter sur les antiques tours
de Solomon. Les habitants furent heureux de trouver aide et protection en change de leur soumission nos armes.
[ ]
36 Gsell_1922_287 Tebessa: Une forteresse, que les franais ont restaure, fut construite
Theveste sous Justinien...Les ddicaces graves sur larc de Caracalla sont restes en place. Dans
les murailles de la forteresse byzantine et surtout dans les dpendances de la grande basilique
chrtienne, on a retrouv bon nombre de pierres de remploi, portant des inscriptions latines.
De mme, dans les cltures des jardins qui stendent au nord et lest de Tbessa. Tout autour
de la ville antique, il y avait des spultures, qui ont fourni des pitaphes...Le gnral Ngrier,
tant venu, en 1842, recevoir la soumission de Tbessa, insra dans son rapport des copies de six
inscriptions latines.
[ ]
37 SHD H229, General Charon, Mmoire militaire sur lAlgrie, 1848, PP. 324, 3279.
[ ]
38 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Extrait du Rapport densemble de M.
le Gnral dArtois sur linspection des trois directions du Gnie en Algrie, 1852, Tebessa. Relays
the history of the site, and the building of the fort under Belisarius, and says il est indispensable de mettre en tat le rduit, en attendant quon puisse excuter lenceinte telle quelle est
projete and implies that the walls as they are can be used malgr son mauvais tat, peut tre
conserve longtemps avec quelque entretien, grce aux fortes dimensions des matriaux superposs les uns sur les autres, presque partout sans mortier. The project mentioned is in fact the
auxiliary fort which projects from the Byzantine walls shown in Installer une poste militaire
Tbessa. Projet du Commandement Suprieure de Gnie, 6 Dec 1852.
[ ]
39 Moll_1860_74 Tebessa, Arch of Caracalla: Larc de triomphe a du subir le mme sort, et
sa dmolition partielle remonte sans doute cette poque. Plus tard, Solomon, en relevant les
murs de lantique cit, adopta pour le trac dun des cts de sa citadelle, le prolongement de
la faade Sud du monument; en fermant, dailleurs, par une maonnerie grossire, les arceaux
des faades Est et Ouest, ainsi que la partie suprieure de larceau Nord, il transforma de cette
manire en porte de ville et tour de flanquement, ce bel difice dont les restes devaient encore
tre magnifiques. Vandalisme byzantin (quon nous pardonne celle alliance de mots un peu barbare, cest le cas o jamais de lemployer) que lingnieur de Justinien aurait pu viter facilement,
par une modification de trac insignifiante. Peu lui importait de continuer une uvre de destruction dj commence avant lui.
[ ]
40 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: pen and wash drawing, done by
Capitaine de Gnie Carrire, dated 19 december 1863, shows the arch clear in its own area, with
the ouvrage cornes around it. i.e. the arch is invisible from the outside, because of the new
fortifications.
[ ]
41 SHD Apostilles du Commandant Suprieur, Projets pour 18645, pp. 57: The Arch still
a problem, but since le dplacement de cette partie de lenceinte intressent particulirement
la conservation dun monument historique et de lespace rserv aux constructions civiles tant
trs reserr Tebessa, cest au service civile provoquer la modification ou le dplacement de la
partie 912 de lenceinte et en supporter les frais (underlined)! in which case bring this whole
section of wall forward by 30 metres.
[

42]Sriziat_1886_4849 Tebessa: as the French found the monument, when (after excursions
in 1842 and 1846) they definitively occupied the region in 1851: Larc de triomphe de Caracalla
avait alors une physionomie toute diffrente de celle que nous lui connaissons aujourdhui. Les
deux arcades latrales taient compltement mures avec des pierres de mme nature que le
reste des remparts et employes de mme, cest--dire ple-mle et sans ciment. Larcade du
fond, qui souvre vers le Nord, tait galement mure, mais on y avait mnag une petite porte qui
servait au passage des habitants. Sous le rgime turc, lintrieur du monument ainsi ferm servait de corps de garde; plus tard on y installa un caf maure quon y voyait encore il y a quelques
annes. Le temple de Minerve tait encore plus dfigur. Enterr jusquau haut de lescalier, il
tait entour et comme recouvert de masures arabes adosses aux parois ou construites entre les
colonnes du portique. A lintrieur, huit piliers de maonnerie grossire partageaient le temple
en trois nefs; ces piliers sappuyaient des sparations qui formaient autant de chambres, et
plusieurs familles indignes sy taient installes. / Enfin, une koubba ou dme, de leffet le plus
grotesque, surmontait le monument. Aprs avoir servi de bureau du Gnie, de logement dofficier, de cantine, de prison, cet antique difice servait la clbration du culte catholique quand
la coupole arabe scroula en 1873. Depuis ce temps le temple de Minerve est reste inoccup.
[ ]
43 Fagnan_1900_90: Tebessa: Un thtre (dr melab), dtruit en grande partie, est tout ce
quil y a de plus remarquable comme construction. Dans un temple que lon dirait bti dhier,
on ne peut distinguer les joints des pierres, et lon tenterait vainement dy faire pntrer une
aiguille. lintrieur, des votes en arceaux et reposant les unes sur les autres, des chambres
souterraines, de nombreuses coupoles sont dun aspect surprenant. Les traces de fume qui y
sont encore visibles font prtendre que ce temple servait lvocation des esprits. On y trouve
aussi des reprsentations danimaux de toutes sortes ainsi que dautres figures tranges reprsentant on ne sait quoi. Au milieu de la ville il y a un vaste temple bti sur dnormes colonnes
de marbre; sur les parois extrieures sont figurs de la manire la plus surprenante des animaux
de toute espce, et qui constituent, ce quon prtend, autant de talismans. On trouve encore
dautres talismans dans les ruines, o jai pntr et o jai reu dun habitant lune de ces figures
symboliques, consistant en deux lions de cuivre rouge adosss par la partie postrieure du corps
et sculpts de la plus merveilleuse faon.
[ ]
44 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_20 Tebessa, Temple of Minerva: Il est class, ce quil parat,
parmi les monuments historiques, mais la savante commission qui veille la conservation de
nos trsors archologiques na montr jusquici pour les difices africains quun amour purement
platonique. On les dtruit tous les jours sans quelle en paraisse trs mue: ils ont pourtant grand
besoin de son secours! Il serait fort souhaiter quune voix autorise plaidt chaleureusement
leur cause devant cette cour suprme. Pour conserver un grand nombre dentre eux il suffirait
dune si lgre dpense! Il faudrait surtout donner des instructions prcises aux chefs de bureaux
arabes et aux commandants de cercles, leur indiquer les mesures prendre afin de prvenir les
dgradations et les accidents. officers have hitherto acted well at Tebessa, Mais il peut en tre
autrement demain! Et il importe daviser sans retard.
[ ]
45 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_2023 Tebessa: for description of the vicissitudes and digging
out of the Temple of Minerva from the arrival of the French, when it was occupied by several
Arab families.
[ ]
46 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Etat sommaire for 1871, 2.
[ ]
47 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Etat sommaire for 1871, 2: A partir
de 1865 on sest content de mettre lenceinte byzantine labri de lescalade en y fermant de
[
appendix
nombreuses brches et en lui donnant partout une hauteur minimum de 6 mtres au dessus du
chemin de ronde extrieur.
[ ]
48 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: April 1872, for work on Towers 9 & 12,
which are Roman towers: the Commandant du Gnie wanted to lower them to courtine level,
because they were in any case overlooked; but ces tours, souvenirs de loccupation romaine,
sont jusqu un certain point de vritables monuments historiques, quil convient de ne pas
dnaturer plus quil nest absolument ncessaire. Included are pen and wash plans and elevations of both these towers, both of which have already been modified for canon enbrasures.
[ ]
49 Moll_1860_41 Tebessa: En gnral, le cirque de Thveste est dans un mauvais tat de
conservation. Laction sculaire des pluies et des vents la rempli, au tiers au moins de sa hauteur,
de terres et de dcombres. Beaucoup de pierres des gradins et du massif sur lesquels il repose,
ont servi la construction de la citadelle byzantine; dautres, en plus petite quantit, ont t
employes aux premires constructions franaises. Les gradins, qui ont survcu la destruction, sont en grande partie enfouis, et des travaux assez considrables seraient ncessaires pour
les dgager. Ceux qui sont visibles ont cependant t suffisants pour pouvoir en dterminer le
nombre approximativement et, par l, se figurer le relief du monument au-dessus du terrain
actuel.
[ ]
50 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_1415 Tebessa: Il faut aller voir prs de l les restes de lamphithtre romain. Ils sont situs environ cent vingt mtres au sud-est de lenceinte actuelle...On
serait vite dsenchant si on arrivait en cet endroit avec la pense de dessiner quelque pan de
mur ou de relever le plan du monument. Il ne reste gure que la place...Il est permis seulement
de supposer quil a t dtruit au moment de linvasion des Vandales, car les murailles byzantines
contiennent des gradins et des pierres qui ont d tre prises dans cet difice. Il est probable que
les Arabes en ont achev la destruction en construisant le village de la Zaoua [500m south of
the walled town].
[ ]
51 Moll_1860_75: La ville arabe moderne de Tbessa occupe lemplacement mme de la
partie de lantique Thveste, transforme en citadelle byzantine. Au moment de loccupation
franaise, les trois ctes Nord, Est et Sud taient entours de vastes jardins. Ceux du Nord et de
lEst existent encore et sont remarquables par leur tendue et leur beaut. Au Sud, o ils taient
de mdiocre importance, ou les a fait disparatre compltement; lannexe franaise et la place
du march les ont remplacs.
[ ]
52 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_10 Tebessa, gardens: vritable square dont les habitants
gotent peu les dlices. Plusiers chapiteaux antiques rangs en cercle autour du bassin et
dautres fragments darchitecture en font un muse en plein vent. Il sappuie sur la portion sud
de la muraille byzantine dans laquelle souvre une poterne donnant sur la campagne. Next to
the garden, military area with zouave on guard: Des dbris antiques dposs le long des murs
attestent la sollicitude des commandants pour les ruines que renferme la ville. including the
sarcophagus he illustrates.
[ ]
53 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_26 Tebessa: for the fifty-plus surviving Roman towers to the
north and east of the town, but Beaucoup ont dj t abattues; leur dbris sont employs la
clture des jardins ou la construction des maions europens de Tbessa.
[ ]
54 Fraud_1874_439: La population tbessienne comprend actuellement: 1 Celle de la ville
mme de Tebessa, laquelle habite lenceinte de la fortification byzantine difie, avons-nous dit,
sur les ruines et avec les matriaux de lancienne ville romaine de Theveste; 2 Celle du village
de la Zaoua qui sest lev 600 mtres au sud de la ville, et dont les habitants se composent

dabord des descendants du marabout Sidi Abd-er-Rahman, qui a fond cette Zaoua, ou au
moins lui a donn son nom, et ensuite des citadins, que ltablissement des Franais et les alignements des rues ont dpossds de tout ou partie de leurs maisons, et qui sont alls rejoindre
les prcdents.
[ ]
55 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875, for a Plan densemble de la Place: Etat
des Lieux, made by Capitaine du Gnie Hinstin dated 19th december 1863. This shows nothing
on the site except for the old fort, and annex (?), and the cirque romaine just down the hill.
[ ]
56 Moll_1860_28: Les environs de Tbessa sont littralement jonchs de ruines romaines
dont les unes datent de lpoque romaine proprement dite, les autres, en plus petite quantit,
de loccupation byzantine. La ville elle-mme renferme les restes de monuments magnifiques
qui font ladmiration des voyageurs et dont ltude est du plus haut intrt pour lofficier ou
lemploy appel par son service sjourner dans ses murs.
[ ]
57 Moll_18581859_8586 Tebessa: Nous navons pu nous empcher de jeter en passant ce
cri de douleur sur les effets pernicieux de cette religion de lIslam, si simple, si philosophique,
nous dirons presque si sublime, mais dont toutes les beauts se trouvent neutralises par ce
simple mot: fatalisme, qui arrte dans son essor toute ide damlioration et de progrs. /
Patience! laurore dune re nouvelle apparat lhorizon de ces contres, dshrites pendant
si longtemps. La prosprite et labondance y renatront; ce sera le travail lent, mais infaillible de
notre civilisation moderne. Telle est la mission glorieuse de la France. Quel honneur davoir t
un des pionniers obscurs de cette uvre de rgnration!
[ ]
58 Sriziat_1886_49 Tbessa actuel: Les monuments romains dominent comme des gants
les masures arabes qui forment la plus grande partie de la ville; le minaret de la mosque de Sidi
Said les dpasse encore.
[ ]
59 Maitrot_1909_56970 Tebessa, Capitol: Au moment de loccupation franaise, lintrieur
tait rempli de huttes arabes. Les murs de ces huttes avaient fait croire que lon tait en prsence
dun monument unique au monde, deux rangs de quatre pilastres carrs se continuant, sous
le pronaos, par des colonnes formant trois nefs, la cella tait ouverte et non spare du pronaos.
Cette erreur avait t commise la suite dune notice de M. Letronne sur Theveste (notice crite
la suite dune reconnaissance militaire faite trs rapidement): Cest un joli temple prostyle
analogue tant dautres, tels que la Maison Carre de Nmes, les temples dHercule Cora,
dAuguste Pola, dAntonin et Faustine Rome...il est de lespce dite prostyle pseudo priptre, except quau lieu de colonnes engages comme aux temples de la Sybille Tivoli, celui de
la Fortune Virile Rome et la Maison Carre de Nmes, ce sont des pilastres qui soutiennent
le mur extrieur de la cella comme au temple dHercule Cora et au temple dOstie.
[ ]
60 Maitrot_1909_7071 Tebessa, Capitol: Il faut dire, puisque jen suis sur ce sujet, que
ces huttes arabes encombraient compltement, non seulement le temple, mais ses abords et
ses dpendances; aussi ce nest que plus tard que lon dcouvrit le portique dentre dont il
reste debout, et bien conserve, une longueur de 8 10 mtres. Ce portique sert actuellement
dentre un marabout sis dans la rue Caracalla. / Dautres huttes avaient t construites autour
du temple sur le sol exhauss et avaient t couvertes en appentis par des perches fixes dans le
mur; on en voit encore les trous, en particulier, sur le ct droit, 4 mtres du sol actuel.
[ ]
61 EB11_26_487.
[ ]
62 Leo_Africanus_1896_710 MS completed 1526, Tebessa: compassed with an high wall
made of such stones as are to be scene vpon the Colosso at Rome: neither saw I, to my remembrance, any such wals in all Africa or Europe: and yet the houses and other buildings are verie
appendix
base. Through part of this citie runneth a great riuer: and in the market, and diuers other places
stand certaine marble pillers, hauing Epigrams and sentences with Latin letters engrauen vpon
them: there are also other square pillers of marble couered with roofs.
[ ]
63 Desvaux_1909_659 31 May 1841: A huit heures et demie, aprs le passage dun col garni
de pins, au bout dune immense plaine, vue de Tbessa! Je dis vue, bien que mon il, arm de
linstrument qui se porte en bandoulire, nait rien vu du tout, car la distance est grande; mais
enfin, tout le monde me disait que Tbessa tait l, au pied de cette montagne, comment vous
ne voyez pas! cest incroyable! a crve les yeux! Il a bien fallu y voir comme les autres et jai vu;
histoire de toute la vie, de tous les jours, de tous les instants.
[ ]
64 Le_Courrier_de_Tlemcen_1886_5_November: Tbessa. Dcouverte archologique.
Nous lisons dans le Tbessien: En faisant excuter les travaux de terrassement du nouveau
quartier de cavalerie, M. le commandant du gnie Allote de la Fuye a mis jour deux piscines
romaines parfaitement conserves. / Ces deux piscines auxquelles on accde par plusieurs escaliers en pierre de taille sont runies par une galerie dont le sol est recouvert de la plus belle et
de la plus riche mosaque qui puisse se voir dans lEurope entire. / Sil nest pas encore possible
de se rendre parfaitement compte des dtails de ce magnifique travail de Romain, mais dj on
peut juger de lharmonie de lensemble et de la grce de la composition.
[ ]
65 Maitrot_1909_56 Tebessa: Ce que les Arabes appellent Trick-el-Carreta est un chemin
trac dans le roc au col de Refana et sur lequel les chars romains ont laiss lempreinte de de
leurs roues...Ces empreintes se retrouvent par intermittence, sur 1,800 mtres de longueur.
Les chars qui ont laiss ces traces devaient tre pesamment chargs et venaient des carrires de
pierres ou de marbre, trs nombreuses dans ces parages, ou servaient lexploitation des forts.
[ ]
66 Barbier_1855_178179 Tebessa: Les travaux de construction de plusieurs tablissements
militaires ont attir dans cette localit une population civile, qui, une fois ces travaux termins, se tournera vers lagriculture. Cest ainsi que jusqu prsent se sont peupls de colons les
centres de population o des civils sont venus stablir la suite de larme, soit pour les travaux
de construction, soit pour dbiter des marchandises aux soldats. Une fois les troupes parties,
ouvriers et dbitants deviennent colons, et demandent la terre la continuation du bien-tre
que le sjour dune garnison navait pu leur procurer que provisoirement.
[ ]
67 P. E. Delair, Essai sur les fortifications anciennes, ou introduction lhistoire gnrale
de la fortification des anciens, Paris 1875, 12930 for the enceinte of Tebessa, rebuilt AD 539:
Toutes ces maonneries sont en pierres de taille poses par assises regles et tires des ruines
de lancienne ville. Celle des tours est dans un tat de conservation remarquable, et il est facile
de voir que lingnieur a mis beaucoup de soin leur construction (quoted from Moll, Mmoire
historique et archologique sur Tebssa Socit Archologique de Constantine 1862, 77).
[ ]
68 Moll_18601861_199 on Tebessas towers: Il en existe encore cinquante, mais dans le
principe elles taient en bien plus grand nombre; beaucoup dentre elles ont t abattues par
les indignes pour la clture de leurs jardins et journellement encore on en dmolit pour les
constructions europennes. / Quelques-unes ont t recouvertes de terrasses et servent de maisons dhabitation des familles arabes.
[ ]
69 Fraud_1874_436: La ville arabe de Tbessa, lancienne Thveste des Romains, se trouve
dans lun des sites les plus heureux que lon puisse rencontrer dans la province de Constantine.
Elle est btie au versant nord des montagnes du Bou Rouman, qui enceignent le bassin de lOued
Chabrou, affluent de droite de lOued Meskiana. Il y a des eaux excellentes, des jardins dlicieux o abondent les noyers, et devant elle se dveloppe une plaine immense arrose par de

nombreuses sources dont les eaux scoulent dans lOued Chabrou qui serpente au fond de la
valle. La quantit de ruines et de postes qui sont parpills dans les environs, tout atteste que
les Romains avaient apprci la valeur de cette portion de leur conqute, et que l o se trouve
aujourdhui une population europenne et indigne de 2,000 mes, tout au plus, il y eut jadis de
30 -40,000 habitants.
[ ]
70 Bosredon_1878_10 Tebessa environs: Bir-Oum-Ali. Les ruines dOum-Ali sont situes
au point de jonction des valles de Berzegan et de Garet en Nam, entre les dernires pentes des
montagnes de Bou-Kafer et de Safsaf. Elles occupent une position importante au point de vue
stratgique et paraissent tre les restes dun tablissement militaire. Nous y avons relev, sur
les dbris dlgants monuments, deux inscriptions qui tendraient prouver que la garde de ce
passage tait confie la premire cohorte Chalsidensis.
[ ]
71 Gunin_1908_94 around Tebessa: Bir-Oum-Ali. Ruine trs importante, qui malheureusement a t entirement dvaste par la construction du bordj, et celle des btiments de la
douane tunisienne. Cette ruine a t plusieurs fois visite, en particulier par M. Lac de Bosredon
et MM. Cagnat et Saladin.
[ ]
72 Sriziat_1886_3435: A 8 kilomtres au S.-0. de Tbessa, sur le chemin qui conduit la
clairire des Trois-Chnes les Arabes lappellent chemin dEl-Kontas se trouvent des ruines
autrefois considrables, dsignes improprement sous le nom de Tbessa-Khralia ou VieuxTbessa. Malheureusement au moment o lon construisit les fortifications de la ville moderne,
et o personne ne soccupait de la protection des ruines antiques, ce fut l et la basilique que
lon prit la plus grande partie des matriaux employs. Jajouterai que la destruction marche plus
rapidement encore, et que vingt ans doccupation franaise ont fait disparatre plus de ruines
que deux sicles sous les rgimes prcdents.
[ ]
73 Gunin_1908_109, 114116, 112, 126: Chria. Il existait, il y a une vingtaine dannes, une
ruine importante Chria; un fort byzantin y dressait encore ses murailles leves. Aujourdhui
il ne subsiste plus aucun vestige apparent de loccupation antique . . . Henchir-Metkids
(Tasbent): De nombreux fragments dinscriptions intressantes ont t publis dans la Revue
archologique de Constantine. Ces documents ont malheureusement disparu pour la plupart,
de mme que le fort byzantin qui slevait non loin du puits. On retrouve dans les murs du bordj
construit Tasbent en 1896, et dans le pavage dun puits des fragments dinscriptions sur des
moellons . . . Les ruines des environs de Tasbent, n-el-Ouksir, An-Kiah, Dehiret-Tasbent,
Souma-Tasbent, noffrent plus que des vestiges peu apparents: les pierres en ont t utilises par
les indignes la construction de leurs gourbis...Henchir-Sed. Une basilique de 20 mtres de
long sur 15 de large tait trs joliment orne de sculptures, qui ont t malheureusement brises
par un entrepreneur peu consciencieux...Les henchir Si-Athmane, el-Gorera, el-Bagdadi, ont
t compltement dvasts par la construction de gourbis indignes.
[ ]
74 Hron_de_Villefosse_1880_11 Tebessa: a second court to the south of the public gardens,
with the offices of the Gnie: cest l quil peut rver tout son aise, loin du bruit et du tumulte,
la dmolition des vieux remparts qui loffusquent. Dj une partie de cette oeuvre est accomplie.
Sous prtexte de consolider la muraille du ct nord, on la ddouble: aux premiers atteintes
de lhiver tout ce qui restait sest croul. Mais, soyons juste, si certains officiers du gnie ont
commis quelques actes de vandalisme dplorables, il ne faut pas oublier tout ce que larchologie
et lhistoire doivent de reconnaissance a dautres officiers de ce corps distingu, surtout en ce qui
concerne les monuments africains. Cest le savant et regrett gnral Creuly qui avait organis en
appendix
Algrie, pendant quil exerait les fonctions de chef de Gnie, tout un service de renseignements
prcieux sur les dcouvertes pigraphiques faites dans ltendue de son commandement, cest
lui qui a t le vritable fondateur de la Socit archologique de Constantine.
[ ]
75 CIL VIII 217 Tebessa: Nuper denique Thevesten venimus H. de Villefosse et postremus
mense Decembri anni 1875 ego. Quas tamen habebam spes oppidum intrans, eas magnam
partem in eo reliqui: tanto enim odio tantaque malevolentia qui eo tempore regioni Thevestinae
praefectus erat militaris, olim per sex menses captivus noster, me recepit ut nec hortos
oppidi nec viciniam ea qua volueram diligentia perscrutari potuerim; quin et ipsam veterum
inscriptionum collectionem, quae in castello in curte ante aedes fabrum posita est, vix evici ut
conferre possem: omnia omnino quae obtinui tandem minis extorsi nimirum homo ille non
minus ignavus erat quam malignus.
[ ]
76 Moll_1860_26 Tebessa: Notre but, en crivant ces quelques lignes, est dapporter une
pierre ldifice historique de notre Colonie africaine, la reconstruction duquel plusieurs
savants contemporains travaillent avec tant dart, de talent et de persvrance. Il nous semble,
en effet, du devoir de tout officier de larme dAfrique de contribuer, dans sa sphre, cette
uvre si minemment utile et intressante.
[ ]
77 Maitrot_1909_141142, Tebessa, Solomons enceinte: Le capitaine Moll a, pour lenceinte,
fait le devis des travaux: Dveloppement de lenceinte 1,190m00; Hauteur de lenceinte 9m50;
Dveloppement moyen dune tour...24m00; Hauteur moyenne dune tour 16m00; Nombre
de tours (la porte Solomon en comprend 2) 15m00; Epaisseur des murs 2m00; Profondeur
moyenne des fondations. lm50.
[ ]
78 SHD Gnie 8.1 Tebessa, For a description of the original state of the walls, cf. Mmoire
pour les projets de 18601, dated 31 March 1860, 16, where it is pointed out that some of the 56
cubic-metre blocks recourant ces vides ne se soutiennent que par un miracle dquilibre
and that the Byzantine walls were in fact in a much worse state than had been believed when
Tebessa was first occupied.
[ ]
79 SHD cf. Gnie 1H878: Tebessa: various.
[ ]
80 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Apostilles du Directeur 30 December
1863, 5.
[ ]
81 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Mmoire sur les projets pour 18645, 8.
[ ]
82 SHD Gnie Article 8 Section 1 Tebessa 18421875: Etat estimatif des dpenses faire aux
fortifications de la place de Tbessa, projets pour 18723, 2.
[ ]
83 SHD MR882 item 2: Lieutenant Warnet, Mmoire sur la subdivision de Bne en 1852,
357.s.
[ ]
84 SHD Gnie 1H878: Tebessa, Projets pour 1887, 12 avril 1887, Apostilles du Chef de Gnie.
appendix
1 Duval_1865_84 writing on the state of French possessions in Algeria: Telle est la puissance
naturelle de la disposition gographique des lieux, que les Franais, renouvelant en Afrique
lentreprise conqurante et colonisatrice du peuple-roi, ont d, dans le plus grand nombre de
cas, occuper les mmes campements que les Romains, habiter les mmes villes, rveiller des
souvenirs et rajeunir des noms oublis depuis quatorze sicles presque partout les monuments
encore debout de la conqute romaine ou des ruines accumules sur le sol, racontent la gloire
et lhabilet de nos immortels devanciers, et nous navons eu qu suivre leurs traces, que les
Berbres eux-mmes et les Arabes en maints endroits avaient adoptes pour leurs propres
tablissements. En vain quelques gnraux conseillrent dabandonner les anciennes villes et
den fonder de nouvelles mieux appropries aux besoins et aux srets de la civilisation moderne;
ces conseils ne purent triompher de la tradition, plus fidle interprte de la topographie. Une
ville est un effet de la nature autant que de la volont humaine.
[ ]
2 Frisch_1899_181 Les Romains nous ont cependant laiss des exemples quil suffirait de
suivre, footnoted with the following quote: La question dAfrique nest pas une question
dexpditions, cest une affaire dtablissements; cest, en un mot, une question de moellons.
Les Romains lavaient envisage ainsi, et leur domination est crite sur le sol, parsem de voies
romaines et de constructions de toute espce. Nous ne serons matres du pays quen suivant leurs
traces, cest--dire en commenant par nous tablir solidement l o nous sommes et en faisant
des routes pour communiquer avec nos tablissements de lintrieur et en les rendant ainsi
de vritables (et non point dillusoires) bases doprations pour la guerre lointaine, si elle est
ncessaire. (Campagnes dAfrique, chef de bataillon du gnie Bouteilloux, 21 novembre 1841).
[ ]
3 Thierry-Mieg_1861_150151: Quand on parcourt le nord de lAfrique, on est saisi
dadmiration pour la grandeur de vues et lactivit que les Romains y ont dployes. Pas une ville
moderne, pas un village, qui ne repose sur des fondations romaines, et tout ce quon voit ainsi
ne donne encore quune faible ide de la vaste intelligence qui avait prsid cette colonisation
arme. Les Franais, depuis leur arrive, nont pu choisir un seul emplacement favorable la
cration dune ville ou dun tablissement militaire, sans y trouver des vestiges de romaines.
Partout les Romains les ont devancs; et le fait est si bien reconnu aujourdhui, quon a pris
le sage parti, lorsquon veut fonder un centre de colonisation ou doccupation, de chercher les
traces des Romains, et de btir sur leurs ruines. On sen est toujours bien trouv. Abondance
deau, terrain fertile, situation avantageuse sous tous les rapports; ils avaient tout recherch et
apprci, tout mis profit; ils avaient, en un mot, tir la quintessence des ressources du pays. Ils
nous ont devancs jusque dans le Sahara, et au milieu du dsert aussi bien que dans les oasis, on
dcouvre des marques de leur sjour.
[ ]
4 De_la_Blanchre_1883_13 in Mauretania: Le nombre des emplacements correspondant
des villes, villages ou hameaux antiques, tant dans la commune mixte que dans le cercle de
Sada, reconnus par moi ou M. Graulle, slve 88 entre le Chott-Chergui et lOued-Traria. Les
trois quarts appartiennent an Tell, un quart environ aux Hauts-Plateaux. Mais il est sr que plusieurs ont chapp nos recherches, particulirement dans certains cantons. Mme dans la liste
que je donne plus loin, il y aurait des ddoublements faire: les noms de lieux, dans de pareilles
contres, sont extrmement comprhensifs, et jai d souvent dsigner par un seul nom deux ou
plusieurs tablissements voisins, parfois toute une contre habite. On sera loin du vrai encore
en portant le chiffre 100.
[ ]
5 Carteron_1866_228229 Announa: Une demi-heure aprs, nous arrivons dans une vaste
plaine, ou mieux sur un plateau, qui est spar et au bas de hautes montagnes pointues, ou pour
[ ]

mieux dire affectant toutes les formes anguleuses. Ce plateau est tout couvert de blocs de pierres
tailles ou sculptes de chapiteaux et de fts de colonnes, dont lensemble rappelle visiblement
remplacement dune ancienne cit romaine. De distance en distance il y a encore debout de
grandes ruines de temples dont les frises et les riches sculptures, tombes et moiti enfonces
dans le sol, font regretter la destruction. Mais ce qui reste de ces temples, min par le temps,
est branl et surplombe, les normes assises sont djointes, la clef des votes cde et dans
quelques annes tout sera renvers. Cependant les Arabes, qui emploient peu de pierres pour
leurs habitations, ont respect ou ddaign ces ruines; car tous les blocs sont enfouis et entasss
les uns sur les autres l o ils ont tomb. En certains endroits, lon reconnat mme la place des
rues et la fondation des btiments: aussi mon guide me montre-t-il lancienne mosque et la
casbah, cest--dire lglise et la forteresse. La premire est indique par un grand carr long,
entour de dbris de grosses colonnes toscanes; et la seconde prsente sur le point culminant et
escarp du plateau une paisse muraille, forme par dimmenses blocs de pierre, carrs et placs
double, qui ne portge plus aujourdhui que des chardons et des pines.
[ ]
6 Kennedy_1846_107108: A little more than an hours ride brought us to Inchla, the
ruins of a temple, or, more probably, of a Christian church, which at some period subsequent
to its foundation, had been converted into a fortress. The walls had been greatly increased in
thickness, and round towers added at each comer; the original square edifice serving merely as
a skeleton to the more modern building. The roof also had been replaced by three oblong vaults,
resting upon antique marble pillars, their capitals sculptured with fruit, flowers, and birds, and
having a rams head at each angle, the whole now very much defaced. Around are scattered the
insignificant remains of an ancient town, and numerous wells are sunk in the neighbourhood,
many of which are used for irrigation at the present day.
[ ]
7 RA 1860 issue 24, 426433, Dr. Leclerc, Campagne de Kabilie, en 1850. 427: Stif est
entoure dun mur denceinte carr. Les ruines romaines en occupent la partie nord-ouest. Toute
la portion septentrionale de lenceinte est envahie par des tablissements militaires: bel hpital,
attendant une aile nouvelle pour tre complet, casernes, belles et nombreuses curies, etc.
Sur les deux autres tiers de lenceinte, un niveau infrieur, slvent les constructions civiles,
coupes par des rues qui se croisent perpendiculairement.
[ ]
8 Lestiboudois_1853_238: Lorsquon a fond des villes sur les ruines des anciennes cits
romaines, on na pas toujours assez mdit sur les dispositions adoptes par ces sages conqurants. Ainsi Philippeville, les fondations des anciennes constructions attestent que les rues
latrales montaient obliquement sur les flancs du coteau. Celles de la ville moderne sont perpendiculaires. Elles perdent ainsi les deux avantages que staient mnags les Romains: elles
nont plus une pente adoucie, elles ne souvrent plus en ventail pour recevoir la brise de mer.
Quand on faisait cette observation au capitaine du gnie qui a dirig les travaux, il rpondait:
Les Romains avaient leur systme, nous le ntre, et le ntre est le bon. Tout le monde ne sera
pas de son avis. Lamour des lignes droites et des angles droits, avec le dfaut dtudes pratiques,
ont produit de bien mauvais rsultats dans les crations franaises!
[ ]
9 Pellissier_1836_I_130: nous avertissons le lecteur, ds prsent, que les dmolitions qui
ont fait dAlger un vaste amas de ruines, nont eu, trs souvent, dautre cause que les ides routinires de quelques ingnieurs systmatiques, qui ont mis cette malheureuse ville sur le lit de
Procuste, taillant et coupant sans tre arrts par aucune considration.
[ ]
10 Recueil_de_Notices_Constantine_VIII_1878_VII: Les maons et les entrepreneurs de travaux publics convertissent en moellons et en cailloutis tout ce que leur fournissent les ruines,
appendix
quils exploitent sans droits et sans discernement. Peu soucieux de lhistoire et des arts, ils sont
nos ennemis les plus dangereux. La Socit archologique ne peut que les dnoncer lautorit
suprieure, chane de protger la proprit et tout ce que la science peut revendiquer.
[ ]
11 La Dpche Tunisienne 23 Aug 1900: Malgr les protestations dont lintress la fait
suivre, notre intervention a, parat-il, t efficace, lorsque nous avons signal les actes de vandalisme commis par un entrepreneur de travaux Bir-Mcherga. Les dgts ont t arrts le jour
mme de la publication de la lettre que nous avons insre, et lentrepreneur aura rpondre du
dlit qui a t commis sous sa responsabilit. / Il y a une leon tirer de cet incident: cest que
la tche du Service des Antiquits dont le petit personnel ne peut assurer dune faon efficace la
surveillance des ruines si nombreuses de la Rgence, serait singulirement facilite si tous ceux
qui sintressent aux choses du pass consentaient se faire ses auxiliaires bnvoles et le
mettre immdiatement au courant de tous les dangers qui pourraient menacer les monuments
historiques. / Ajoutons cette considration dun ordre lev cette observation quil y va aussi
de lintrt matriel des rgions o se trouvent de belles ruines de les protger le plus possible.
Des efforts srieux sont poursuivis pour faire de la Tunisie un pays de tourisme. Lun de ses
principaux attraits rside dans ces vestiges du pass. Il importe de les lui conserver.
[ ]
12 Tunis-journal_1889_13_June, Proprit situe 11 kilomtres de Tunis, route de Zaghouan,
600 hectares formant un grand cirque; le bas des coteaux est en terres diverses, fort bonnes pour
les crales et la vigne; les hauteurs sont en broussailles. 3 puits, 250 pieds doliviers, trs belle
ferme arabe avec curies, remises, hangars. Nombreuses ruines romaines. Prix 75,000 fr.
[ ]
13 Annales_Colonisation_1854VI_88 Mobacher Travaux dutilit publique for 1853: Trentedeux voies de communication ont t ouvertes ou amliores but he doesnt say with what
materials.
[ ]
14 Tissot_1881_61: La Table de Peutinger compte 12 milles entre Ad Silma et lArmascla, 6
entre lArmascla et Novis Aquilianis. Cette double indication nous amne retrouver la station
de lArmascla Henchir el-Karia, ruines dun bourg antique qui slevait sur un tertre, peu de
distance de la rive gauche de lOued bou Heurtma, et prcisment 6 milles de lemplacement
certain de Novis Aquilianis. Nous sommes arriv trop tard pour explorer ces ruines. Depuis plusieurs mois elles taient exploites comme carrire par les entrepreneurs de la ligne ferre; au
moment o nous les avons visites, de larges tranches livraient aux manuvres les dernires
assises des anciennes fondations et dessinaient seules lemplacement des difices disparus.
[ ]
15 Mercier_1888_116 work of the brigades topographiques: Elle [the road] passait ensuite
prs dun groupe de ruines o lon retrouve une citerne romaine et un aqueduc, coupait
lemplacement actuel du village de lOued-Cham et descendait, aprs avoir laiss lest deux
grands groupes de ruines dexploitations agricoles, sur les ruines dun centre fort important situ
sur un petit plateau, au confluent du Chabet-Firne et de lOued-Rirane. On y remarque des
restes denceinte, des traces de monuments et des colonnades. Il sy trouvait encore nagure
un grand nombre dinscriptions, funraires pour la plupart; mais les entrepreneurs du chemin
vicinal de Souk-Arrhas Guelma ont exploit ces ruines comme carrires et ont dtruit la
majeure partie des inscriptions.
[ ]
16 Hannezo, Commandant G., Hergla, in BSA Sousse V 1907, 125132. See 131: Quant aux
monuments anciens, ils nexistent plus qu ltat de ruines ou vestiges; lon peut toutefois remarquer, au point culminant de la colline et au centre du village, les traces dun vaste difice qui a d
tre une forteresse byzantine; ce castrum, qui tait encore visible en 1856 et que les Arabes ont
appel El Kasr (le chteau), tait construit en blocage, les murs tant revtus extrieurement

dun appareil de gros blocs; dans lintrieur de ldifice, subsiste la forme dune abside de basilique chrtienne. La forteresse devait avoir une tour ronde chacun de ses angles; le tout est
maintenant dtruit, les pierres de grand appareil ayant t enleves pour servir la construction
du pont dHalk el Menzel.
[ ]
17 Gurin_1862_I_9192 El Djem: Cest vers 1695, daprs la tradition arabe, que lon commena dmolir la faade extrieure, jusque-l demeure peu prs intacte. Une bande considrable dArabes rvolts stant retranche, cette poque, dans ce monument, comme dans
un chteau inexpugnable, Mohammed-Bey, pour les y forcer, et en mme temps pour rendre
impossible lavenir la transformation de lamphithtre en forteresse, donna lordre dy pratiquer une large brche lextrmit occidentale du grand axe. Cette brche, qui navait dabord
que ltendue de trois arcades, a t ensuite trs-agrandie, et depuis quelques annes surtout,
les Arabes de la localit sacharnent avec une persvrance rellement dplorable poursuivre
loeuvre de destruction commence il y a cent soixante-sept ans. Ils extraient sans cesse de ce
monument, comme dune carrire inpuisable, de superbes matriaux de construction, soit
pour leur propre usage, soit pour tre vendus et transports ailleurs.
[ ]
18 Gadrat_1910_103 at El-Djem: Il fut convenu, aprs entente avec les services intresss,
que le cube de remblais ncessaire la station serait fourni par les dblais provenant des fouilles
faites dans lamphithtre et dans ses abords . . . Les travaux ne furent commencs que le 1e
Fvrier 1909; depuis ce moment ils se sont poursuivis sans interruption, mais avec beaucoup de
lenteur jusquau 5 Octobre, date laquelle le cube fourni par le dblaiement a t sensiblement
gal au chiffre fix lentrepreneur.
[ ]
19 Carton_1906_3839 writing on Larchologie en Tunisie: Un monument mrite dtre
plac, dans notre sollicitude, sur le mme rang que Carthage: cest lamphithtre dEl-Djem.
On la bien ferm jadis par une clture en fils de fer aussi drisoire quphmre. On y a mme
dtruit quelques boutiques qui y taient adosses. Je ne sais si cest un bien, car elles soutenaient un peu le monument. Il et fallu faire suivre cette destruction dautres travaux dont elle
ne devait tre que le prlude. Chaque anne voit quelque pan de mur du malheureux difice
scrouler. Il est rellement humiliant pour notre pays de laisser dans un tel tat dabandon et de
souillure, sur le plus grand chemin de la Tunisie, un des plus beaux monuments, rival du Colise,
que nous ait laiss lantiquit. Au lieu de dpenser comme on la fait 20,000 francs dgager des
ruines situes si loin que personne ne peut les visiter, et qui ne sont pas plus intressantes que
dautres, ne devrait-on pas penser au moins sauver la faade en rparant ce que tant de voyageurs, tant de touristes voient en passant, ou viennent voir?
[ ]
20 Saladin_1893_25 El Djem: Les Arabes y viennent prendre des matriaux pour leurs
constructions, car la pierre dont est bti lamphithtre est fort belle. Le ct de ldifice qui a
t ventr par ordre du bey, pour empcher les rvolts de sy rfugier, est ouvert par une brche
de plusieurs mtres, qui sagrandit tous les jours.
[ ]
21 Filippi_1926_574 travelling 1829, El Djem: Le Gemme est un chtif village de deux mille
habitans, bti quelques pas de lancienne Tisdrus dont on dcouvre encore le tour des murailles
et une infinit de ruines cependant si mal rduites quaucune nest dans le cas de retracer le
moindre monument, une petite distance de ces ruines du ct de S.-O. on trouve un superbe
amphitatre dun beau dessein et dune excution colossale.
[ ]
22 Marmier_1847_94 Tenez: Tenez, sur les ruines des anciennes constructions romaines,
parses et l, des groupes nombreux assistaient avec une respectueuse curiosit au dbarque-
appendix
ment des passagers de la frgate. Ctait un beau et pittoresque spectacle, un de ces spectacles
qui frappent les regards du peintre et veillent dans lesprit de lobservateur de graves rflexions.
Cette jeune cit construite sur les dbris des anciens temps, cette foule anime debout sur des
ruines, ctait une des vives images du pass et du prsent, dune poque anantie et dune re
nouvelle, pleine de force et davenir. Pontier_1850_5657 Tns: Tout prs des fours chaux
construits par le gnie, il a t aussi trouv un grand nombre de pierres tumulaires, toutes renverses et recouvertes de terre. Nest-ce pas un indice certain que ctait l qutait le champ de
repos? Au milieu de tous ces dbris, de cendres et dossemens, il a t trouv un grand nombre
de mdailles, quelques-unes phniciennes, mais le plus grand nombre appartenant lre
romaine. Mais, Tns, comme dans un grand nombre lieux occups par nos troupes, on na
pas pris, comme Orlansville, des mesures pour recueillir et conserver des richesses prcieuses
pour lhistoire dune contree si peu connue. Lgosme ou lintrt particulier lont emport sur
lintrt gnral: chacun a cru devoir sapproprier les objets les plus rares; statuettes en bronze,
cames, anneaux, bracelets, armes; mdailles, tout a disparu. On serait port croire que de
nouveaux Vandales avaient pass par la!
[ ]
23 SHD MR1315 3 Considerations militaires sur les nouveaux etablissements de la province
dAlger 1 February 1844. by M. de Lallemand, 10: Cest un fait digne de remarque, que nos tablissemens soient fonds prcisement aux mmes endroits o les Romains avaient jug convenable de fonder les leurs. Teniet-el Had tait un poste romain, de meme que Tiaret Orlansville
et Tns. Les inscriptions graves sur des pierres tumulaires trouves Tiaret, portaient des
dates de 400 450 de notre re.. 15: Orlansville...a t btie sur les ruines de lancien poste
romain...Les ruines occupent une tendue trs considrable. Il ne restait debout au dessus
du sol quune grande quantit de pierres de taille isoles et dresss verticalement, comme le
seraient les jambages des portes dun difice, si lon venait supprimer la maonnerie intermdiaire. Dans les fouilles qui ont t faites, on a dblay des pans de mur trs solides, de 5 ou 6
mtres de hauteur, qui avaient t compltement enfouis. Il est difficile, daprs la conformation
du terrain, de dire comment certains difices ont pu tre enfouis, tandis que dautres avaient
leur rez-de-chausse encore bien reconnaissable la surface du sol. Je suppose que la ville a t
dtruite et rebtie plusieur fois. On a reconnu des traces bien visibles dune grande incendie,
une amphore romaine contenait encore du bl carbonis and theyve found a few coins,
and a small mosaic. Given the date, can we assume the excavations were to obtain building
material for military purposes? Surely yes, because he writes (14) of the great works undertaken
at the town, and goes on immediately to write about the ruins, thereby surely linking the two in
usefulness.
[ ]
24 Mmorial_Gographique_1930_Plate 22 plan of Orlansville in 1843: laid out like a
Roman fort, and with a wall around and towers; marked as a projet.
[ ]
25 Ideville_II_1882_394 in 1842 Biography of Bugeaud: un point de la rive gauche marqu
par des ruines romaines. Quelques statues renverses et mutiles avaient fait donner ce lieu
par les Arabes le nom de El-Esnam (les Idoles). Le gnral en chef sarrta l, car il avait donn
rendez-vous en ce lieu au gnral Gentil, parti de Mostaganem.
[ ]
26 Du_Barail_1897_I_193194 Orlansville: Bugeaud tait tout son projet daller fonder,
sur les immenses ruines romaines dEl-Esnam, au bord du Chliff, un grand tablissement qui
devait sappeler Orlansville. Grosse entreprise qui demandait de grands travaux, dont il voulait
soccuper, toute affaire cessante.

27]Marmier_1847_138 Orlansville: Cette jeune cit est situe sur lemplacement occup
jadis par une colonie romaine. Les Romains, comme vous le savez, monsieur, choisissaient
merveille leur point de dfense. Partout o nous trouvons en Algrie quelques-uns de leurs vestiges, ces vestiges indiquent une parfaite connaissance des lieux et une profonde entente des
moyens stratgiques.
[ ]
28 Bapst_1909_I_410411 1843 Canrobert: Aprs de nombreuses razzias, des travaux de
construction de routes et de ponts primitifs dans le Dahra, nous nous dirigemes sur El-Esnam
(les statues), o se trouvait dj une forte colonne sous les ordres du gnral Bugeaud. Ctait en
avril 1843. / Le gouverneur gnral a dcid de crer une ville sur cet emplacement. Cette ide,
nouvelle en notre sicle, a dj germ dans la cervelle des gnraux romains, comme lattestent
les nombreuses ruines qui couvrent le pays. Cette garnison se trouvera sur la route bauche
entre Alger et Oran, gale distance de ces deux villes. Elle doit servir dtape, de ravitaillement
et de dpt. En outre, elle est destine devenir un centre do rayonneront des colonnes dont
le but sera de conqurir et de pacifier les massifs montagneux du Dahra, o rsistent encore
dans des retraites presque inaccessibles des populations aguerries et sauvages. Cette ville, enfin,
doit protger la fertile valle du Chlif contre les incursions dAbd-el-Kader, car celui-ci ne se
gne pas pour venir jusque sous nos yeux dtruire les moissons ou enlever les travailleurs qui
font la rcolte. / Orlansville tel est le nom de la cration du gnral Bugeaud doit avoir
une communication avec la mer; elle aura son port comme Mdah a Alger, comme Mascara
a Oran, et ce port sera le village de Tenez, dont la rade profonde se dcoupe dans une cte bien
abrite. Le gnral Bugeaud sy rend dOrlansville, et dj arrivent dAlger par mer des bateaux
qui amnent les premiers colons et divers matriaux.
[ ]
29 Esterhazy, Colonel Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand Walsin, Notice historique sur le maghzen
dOran, Oran 1849, 167: Aussi, au dbut de la belle et dcisive campagne de 1843, le gouverneur-gnral se hta de fonder, sur les ruines romaines dEl-Asnam, la ville aux statues, situe
peu prs au milieu de la longue ligne parallle la cte que le Chelif suit dans son cours, ltablissement dOrlansville, quil lia la mer, au port de Tens, pour servir de base aux oprations
qui allaient souvrir. Pendant ce temps, M. le gnral de La Moricire commenait, en relevant
aussi des ruines romaines, Tiaret, le rtablissement de cette ligne de postes de la frontire
du Tell, base dopration do Abd-el-Kader slanait contre nous, lorigine de la lutte. Ces
tablissements, la limite des terrains cultivables, ces haltes lentre du dsert, allaient nous
permettre soit de prendre lennemi revers, sil pntrait sur les derrires de nos colonnes, soit
de retrouver, sur ces points loigns, de nouvelles forces pour le poursuivre, sil senfonait profondment dans le sud.
[ ]
30 Montaudon_1898_71 in 1843: Le 1er mai, notre bataillon de zouaves quitte son camp; il est
sous les ordres du lieutenant-colonel de Chasseloup-Laubat, le colonel Cavaignac ayant t dsign pour aller prendre le commandement dOrlansville, camp destin devenir le centre dune
subdivision militaire et coloniale importante footnoted: Le camp fut tabli sur lemplacement
de lancienne colonie romaine connue sous le nom de Castellum Mauritancum.
[ ]
31 Bapst_1909_I_412413 1843 Canrobert: Orlansville ntait toujours quun dsert dans un
dsert plus grand. Il fallait y difier, ainsi qu Tenez, les casernes, les magasins, les hpitaux,
les bureaux. Lhiver fut employ la construction des btiments et au percement de la route
de communication avec la mer, et les chasseurs firent loffice de maons, de charpentiers et de
couvreurs. / Durant cet hiver, Cavaignac occupait comme logement une sorte de kiosque de
[
appendix
bois, dont les parois taient de papier goudronn. Il y avait trois petites pices, dont lune servait
de cabinet de travail et de salon. Deux escabeaux, trois siges faits par des sapeurs, une table,
tel en tait lameublement; au mur, pour tout ornement, un grand baromtre. Les chefs des
diffrentes armes et les officiers se runissaient l dans la journe. Le soir, Cavaignac y reoit
tous ses camarades; ce sont des runions intimes o rgnent la gaiet et la cordialit la plus
franche. On sassoit par terre, et chacun apporte son buffet.
[ ]
32 Ideville_II_1882_399 Biography of Bugeaud: Au camp dEl-Esnam rgnait une grande
abondance de toutes choses. / Les troupes ne restaient pas inactives; sur ces deux points on
travaillait aux fortifications, aux jardins, aux baraques, aux tablissements permanents de
larme. On faisait des fours chaux et pain; on creusait les puits; on transportait les bois; on
retaillait les dbris de vieilles ruines romaines en vue de constructions nouvelles; les vieilles
citernes taient dblayes pour faire des caves ou magasins. / Les jardins distribus tous les
corps taient mis en culture, et recevaient des semis de toute espce de lgumes. / Tout tait
organis pour imprimer une grande activit aux travaux dinstallation du camp permanent
dEl-Esnam, plac dans une situation des plus favorables. On avait trouv sur les lieux la pierre
propre la fabrication de la chaux, et lon soccupait de linstallation dune tuilerie. Le bois quon
avait porte devait suffire, au moins pendant cinq ans, toutes les consommations de larme.
[ ]
33 Reisser_1900_49 Orlansville: En arrivant dans ces parages o ils durent dcharger leurs
tentes, leurs munitions de guerre et de bouche au milieu de broussailles, de lentisques et de
jujubiers sauvages, nos soldats constatrent un amas de ruines qui stendait de lembouchure
du Thigaoudt la place du march arabe du dimanche (Souk-el-Hd), des pans de murs en
bon tat et de nombreux, dbris architecturaux. Ils y relevrent aussi un rservoir salimentant aux sources situes dans le lit du Thigaoudt, au moyen dune conduite ou canalisation en
maonnerie.
[ ]
34 Reisser_1900_48 Orlansville when the French columns arrived in 1843: On vit alors ce
que lon navait pas vu depuis les Romains, des maisons slever le long des rues nouvellement
traces, car les Arabes ne sy taient point installs.
[ ]
35 Barbier_1855_153: Orlansville est une ville toute franaise, construite sur lemplacement
dune cit romaine du nom de laquelle on nest pas encore certain, mais que les Arabes appellent
El-Esslam (la ville aux statues), cause du grand nombre de celles quon a sorties de ses ruines. /
Le gnie militaire a construit dans cette jeune cit des hpitaux, des casernes, des curies pour
la cavalerie, des magasins, et plusieurs autres tablissements qui sont entirement termins et
qui mritent lattention des voyageurs. / Les rues sont belles, spacieuses et bordes de jolies
maisons. Les fouilles ncessites par la construction de la ville ont amen plusieurs dcouvertes
prcieuses. Une ancienne glise chrtienne a mme t retrouve dans ses fondations et dans
ses mosaques.
[ ]
36 Gomot_1844_195: Orlansville, dont Tens est le port, et auquel elle est relie par une
route que larme a ouverte, ne sest pas dveloppe moins rapidement. Cest une vritable cration, car il nexistait sur ce point que des ruines romaines. La situation dOrlansville sur le Chlif
central est parfaitement heureuse. La population europenne slevait, la fin de 1843, au chiffre
de 500 individus, et tendait saccrotre chaque jour. Les tablissements militaires, casernes,
hpitaux, magasins, curies, sont presque entirement achevs.
[ ]
37 Martimprey_1886_153154 writing of the province of Oran, in 1842, under Bugeaud: Au
cours de son expdition du Chlif, au mois de mai prcdent, le gnral en chef avait projet

de fonder dans cette valle, au lieu dit El-Snam, marqu par des ruines romaines, un grand
tablissement militaire. / Sans cet tablissement, qui devait communiquer traver le Dahra
avec un point choisi sur le littoral, il tait impossible que notre domination prvalt dans un
espace aussi tendu que celui de Mostaganem Milianah. / Il rsolut donc de fonder une ville
El-Snam, sous le nom dOrlansville, et den crer une autre Tns, o existait dj un petit
centre arabe dorigine trs ancienne.
[ ]
38 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_85: Tns, le Tns franais, occupe lemplacement dune cit
romaine, appele Cartennae. Les ruines de cette ville taient presque compltement enfouies au
moment o les Franais sy sont tablis; mais les premires fouilles les ont exhumes. Les habitants ont ainsi trouv dans le sol mme, pour leurs constructions, des matriaux taills depuis
deux-mille ans.
[ ]
39 Cat_1882_137 Tns: Ce ntait point lespoir de dcouvrir des ruines nouvelles ou malconnues qui nous dirigeait vers Tns cette ville, depuis longtemps occupe par nos troupes, a
vu son sol remu en tous sens.
[ ]
40 Bourin_1887_321 Tns in 1843: Aprs des travaux prodigieux excuts par larme en
quelques jours, la route de Tns El-Esnam fut livre la circulation des voitures le 8 mai, et le
9, le premier convoi sengageait la suite du gouverneur gnral sur ce chemin cr en quelques
jours par lnergique industrie de nos troupiers et de leurs officiers. Le 16 mai, par dcision du
ministre de la guerre, le camp dEl-Esnam prenait le nom dOrlansville, et un groupe de 243
commerants et industriels sollicitaient du gouverneur des concessions pour stablir Tns,
o le gnral Bugeaud avait laiss une garnison suffisante et des ouvriers militaires chargs de
fonder le nouvel tablissement. Sous la surveillance de Cavaignac, de nombreux travailleurs
militaires taient employs sur les deux nouveaux centres de colonisation, o lon tablissait
des baraques, des puits, des ouvrages de fortification et des magasins permanents pour larme;
on construisait des fours pain et chaux, une tuilerie; on transportait des bois; on crait des
jardins; on fouillait les ruines romaines, dont on employait les matriaux, et on transformait les
vieilles citernes en caves, en magasins et en prisons.
[ ]
41 SHD 3640/1315 Tardet, 2nd Lieutenant, Mmoire descriptif et militaire sur la place
dOrlansville 1845. The Romans chose a good site here, 23: des ruines dont la seule inspection prouve limportance.. It was called by the Arabs Els-Esnan, 6: [les fantmes], sans doute
cause de formes fantastiques que leur presentaient les vastes et nombreuses pierres de taille
restes debout au milieu des ruines..
[ ]
42 Reisser_1900_50 Orlansville: Questionns par eux sur la dnomination des lieux, les
indignes leur rpondirent quils campaient dans la ville aux statues (Bled el Esnam) appellation tire sans doute de la ressemblance existant de loin entre les pierres de dimension respectable qui mergeaient du sol, et les statues grossires, marques du sceau de la dcadence, dont
leurs pres avaient vraisemblablement gard le souvenir.
[ ]
43 RA 1860 issue 21, 237238 Chronique: El-Esnam. M. le baron Aucapitaine nous crit de
Fort-Napolon: Jtais, depuis quelques jours dj, dans le douar de Si Taeb bel-Ad, aux OuldAmar, entre Aumale et le bordj Boura, lorsquun soir, la conversation vint tomber sur les ruines
des Djouhala, El-Esnam, petit monticule proche de nos tentes. Le lendemain, je mempressai
daller visiter ces vestiges. / Ils consistent en une centaine de pierres tailles, dont quelques-unes
sont de fort belles dalles, couvrant un espace denviron cinquante mtres carrs. Plusieurs blocs
portent encore des traces de mortaises; une douzaine sont encore debout, ranges en cercle
appendix
irrgulier et rappellent les cycles druidiques de la Bretagne armoricaine: de l, sans doute, le
nom didoles impos par les Arabes. Ce sont videmment des ruines romaines...Ces ruines
noccupent point une position militaire, puisque, places sur un monticule peu lev, elles sont
commandes de tous cts par des hauteurs. Ne doit-on pas y voir les traces dune rustique villa,
dont la fertilit des terrains environnants rend la prsence sur ce point assez naturelle.
[ ]
44 Peyssonnel_1838_I_49 travelled 172425, Lambessa: Entre deux villes ruines, dont une
est huit journes de Tunis et peu prs la mme distance de Tabisa, ville dans le royaume
dAlger, prs le dsert de Sahara, on trouve une ville entoure dun lac form par une rivire
assez considrable. Cette ville, dont on ignore le nom, possde beaucoup de statues et une foule
dautres choses merveilleuses. then reprints inscriptions from its towers, one of the Leg. III.
August.
[ ]
45 Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_49 Lambessa: Auprs dun ancien temple en ruines, qui offre
encore de beaux fragmens de colonnes, des chapiteaux et dautres dbris darchitecture, les
Arabes ont construit une espce de mosque dans laquelle une inscription latine, portant en
toutes lettres le mot LAMBASENTIVM, ne laisse plus aucun doute sur lancienne synonymie de
la ville actuelle. Deux autres inscriptions attestent le sjour sur les lieux de la Legio III Augusta.
[ ]
46 Fortin_dIvry_1845_153 Writing in 1845: Lambaesa occupe la naissance dune belle valle
latrale la gorge principale de Batna; les eaux y sont maintenant peu abondantes, mais des
aqueducs dans les valles voisines y en amenaient abondamment. Plusieurs monuments sont
bien conservs et dassez bon style, autant que leur poque et lloignement de Rome lont permis. Ces ruines sont presque vierges encore; on y trouve une quantit dinscriptions publiques
ou particulires; deux dentre elles ont t rapportes au camp, et sont lentre du petit jardin
du coloncl commandant. Ce quil y a de remarquable, cest que ce sont, lune la ddicace de
la fondation de Lambaesa par la cent onzime lgion, et lautre laccomplissement dun voeu
fait au gnie de Lambaesa par un officier de cette lgion. Quelles soient dun bon augure pour
notre tablissement Batna! Car on ne peut mieux commencer ici comme ailleurs, en fait de
conqute et de colonisation, qu lexemple et en suivant les traces des Romains.
[ ]
47 Rozet_and_Carette 1850_196: On peut valuer plusieurs milliers le nombre dtablissements romains de toute grandeur rpandus sur la surface de lAlgrie. Mais le dbris le plus
imposant de la grandeur et du faste antiques est assurment cette belle et fameuse ville de
Lamboesa, dont les ruines, connues aujourdhui sous le nom de Tezzout, furent visites pour la
premire fois en fvrier 1844, par quelques Franais, et particulirement par M. le commandant
de Lamare, mon collgue et ami.
[ ]
48 Fabre_de_Navacelle_1876_146: Nous passmes la journe du 26 parcourir, guids par
nos camarades de lartillerie et du gnie, les ruines de Lamboesis, lire les inscriptions, complter en pense les monuments mutils. Linsouciance arabe et le climat de lAlgrie ont prserv
ces souvenirs du pass comme aurait pu le faire la lave dHerculanum ou le cendre de Pompi.
[ ]
49 Delamare_1850B_62: Ici se termine le travail que nous avons fait, en 1844, Lambse,
pendant un court sjour sur les ruines de cette ville; ce travail sest accru et souvent modifi
par les communications quont bien voulu nous faire plusieura officiers qui, depuis, ont tudi ce pays. Nous citeront particulirement M. le capitaine Boissonnet, ancien chef du bureau
arabe de la province, et M. le docteur Leclerc, chirurgen aux zouaves. Nous sommes heureux
de pouvoir annoncer que notre Mmoire va se complter par des documents plus tendus, qui
comprendront le cercle entier de Batna. Ce nouveau travail a t excut, sous la direction de

M. le colonel Carbuccia, commandant cette subdivision, par les officiers du 2e rgiment de la
lgion trangre; esprons quune prompte publication de ces matriaux viendra jeter un nouveau jour sur lhistoire ancienne en gnral, et en particulier sur celle de lAlgrie.
[ ]
50 SHD MR1317 5960, Lieutenant Champion de Nansouty and Sub-Lieutenant Durun,
Memoire sur Batna et Lambessa, avec les recherches historiques, 13 August 1847, 33 pages and
plans & croquis. He suggests (3) that Bathna should be a point central of colonisation, better
than Lambessa for strategic reasons (2021). 23ff. for Appendices on Etudes Historiques
on Lambessa, drawn mostly from documents, but with a section (2831) on Lambessas
monuments, and then (3133) on Voies Romaines passant par Lambeze. The descriptions
of the monuments are good Maison Carre, Arens, Capitole, Aqueducs, Citernes, Temple
dEusculape (with an inscription), Arc de Triomphe.
[ ]
51 SHD MR1317 5960, Lieutenant Champion de Nansouty and Sub-Lieutenant Durun,
Memoire sur Batna et Lambessa, avec les recherches historiques, 13 August 1847, 31: Devant
de tmoins de long mmoire, nous exprimerions nos vifs regrets sur la ngligeance qui laisse
tomber les ruines et disperser ces restes dune poque qui nest plus. Nous avons vu parmi des
monceaux de matriaux des pierres admirablement tailles, couvertes de fines sculptures au
ciseau. Nous regrettons encore que des fouilles diriges par une main intelligente ne soient pas
venues nous aider dans cette tude. L, sans doute, enfoui dans les ruines, sont des souvenirs
dun pass qui pouvaient claircir le chaos historique ou il nous a fallu rechercher le pass de
Lambaesa. Quant au prsent de cette ville, cest le silence des tombeaux, silence rendu plus
solennel par la pense; quant a son avenir, nous avons essay de la tracer, et la destine, dirige
par celle de la France, lui promettit une nouvelle et durable splendeur and this site he wishes
(32) to be une ferme rgimentaire organise sur une vaste chelle. The map shows a sketch of
the triumphal arch at Lambessa, and surveys of Lambessa, and of Batna.
[ ]
52 Delamare_1850B_56 Lambessa camp and village separated by about 7km: La plaine,
entre le camp et la ville, est parseme de villas antiques, dtruites par le temps ou par la main des
hommes; elles sont englouties par les alluvions. Quelques pierres surnagent encore la surface
du sol; elles indiquent les positions de ces habitations, et font prsumer ce que des fouilles bien
diriges pourraient faire dcouvrir.
[ ]
53 Courrier de Setif 17 April 1881 Near Batna: Sa population est de 4.000 habitants. A une
dizaine de kilomtres, se trouvent les ruines clbres de Lambse. Cest tout prs de l quont
souffert pendant plusieurs annes quelques-unes des victimes du coup dEtat de dcembre, coupables davoir dfendu la Constitution rpublicaine contre une bande daventuriers sans scrupule, qui, aprs avoir opprim la France, devaient la conduire la catastrophe de Sedan.
[ ]
54 Tardieu_1890_15 Lambessa: De nos jours, on y voit des briques rebords, des dbris d
colonneset de mosaques, des pierres tailles un peu partout et, enfin, une maison centrale de
dtention, o Napolon III fit enfermer les hommes politiques, dont il se dbarrassa lors de son
coup dEtat (1852).
[ ]
55 Saint-Arnaud_1858_262263 Batna, to his brother, May 1850: jai passe une partie de la
journe dhier au milieu des ruines de Lambessa. Quel peuple, quelle ville, quelles ruines! Quatre
lieues de pierres normes, gigantesques; une via sacra de deux kilomtres, menant au temple
de la Victoire admirablement conserv; colonnes debout, mosaques, point de toitures ruines
parsemes de temples, de cirques, de bains, de monuments funbres et darcs de triomphe un
temple dEsculape, sur les marches duquel je suis rest absorb une heure...L, prs de cette
appendix
Lambessa, jadis si belle, si florissante et dont les ruines partent si haut, je vais crer, quoi? un
pnitencier pour renfermer les fous furieux que la France rejette de son sein. Jai recul de deux
kilomtres ltablissement projet, jai peur pour mes ruines. / On dit que celles de Tebessa sont
plus belles encore que sont-elles donc?
[ ]
56 Renier_1851C_58 proposal for an epigraphic mission to Lambessa: Depuis, nos troupes
ont parcouru cette province dans tous les sens; elles en ont achev la pacification, et maintenant
lexploration scientifique des nombreux monuments dont lexistence nous a t rvle par les
rapports des gnraux au Gouvernement, et par les communications de divers officiers aux journaux scientifiques, est non-seulement possible, mais meme facile. Parmi les localits signales,
je me contenterai de citer la plus importante de toutes: celle de Lambse.
[ ]
57 Annuaire de la Socit archologique de la province de Constantine, 1862, VII Lambaesus:
M. le Prfet du dpartement de Constantine a donc pens avec raison que le meilleur emploi
faire des fonds allous par le Conseil Gnral pour les recherches historiques, ctait de continuer les fouilles de la Lgion trangre et de puiser de nouveau dans ce trsor inpuisable de
documents relatifs lart militaire, au culte, lindustrie et aux murs des anciens matres de
la Numidie. Le voisinage de la prison arabe favorisait une entreprise de cette nature; avec des
centaines de dtenus on a la main-duvre bon march.
[ ]
58 Beury_1894_95: Lauteur de ce petit mmoire [an architect who was deported to
Lambaesus after the Coup dEtat] commence par un expos rapide de lhistoire des fouilles
entreprises dans les environs de Batna, quelque temps aprs la prise de cette ville. Il rend hommage au Colonel Carbuccia, commandant suprieur de la Subdivision, puis du Commandant
Foy et du Capitaine du Gnie Toussaint. Abandonnes, faute dargent, les fouilles ont t reprises
activement en 1852, grce quelques dports, parmi lesquels se trouvait lauteur. En sa qualit
darchitecte, il a t charg par les officiers cits plus haut de reproduire les inscriptions et les
mosaques dcouvertes sur le plateau de Lambse. Barbier_1855_202 Lambessa: Lambessa a t
retrouve par le commandant Delamarre, le colonel Carbuccia ayant sous ses ordres le 2e rgiment de la lgion trangre, en a explor les ruines, quil a dblayes. Les dports politiques ont
continu luvre des soldats, et aujourdhui lantique cit a t dgage de la plus grande partie
des dcombres sous lesquels elle tait ensevelie. La construction du pnitencier, commence
en 1851, en vertu de la loi du 24 juin 1850, doit tre maintenant acheve. Mais il faut esprer que
cette colonie ne conservera pas toujours la mme destination, et quelle deviendra un jour aussi
florissante quelle ltait sous la domination du peuple-roi.
[ ]
59 Raoul-Rochette_et_al_1851_341: A Lambses (ou Lambaesis), on a opr une grande
quantit de fouilles, travail de 14,000 journes, effectu gratuitement par les hommes de la lgion.
[ ]
60 Bourquelot_1881_293 Lambessa: Innombrables sont les vestiges, autels votifs, stles
funraires, colonnes, chapiteaux, etc., plus ou moins mutils qui gisent sur lemplacement
occup jadis par le quartier gnral de la 3e lgion romaine.
[ ]
61 Wallon_1890_538539, obituary for Lon Renier: Letter from Renier, Naples May 1860
to Mme. Hortense Cornu, a friend of the Emperor (to whom Cornu sent Reniers letters), on
legionary inscriptions: Cette collection existe en Algrie, dans la province de Cqnstantine,
Lambse, qui est, on peut le dire, pour les antiquits militaires des Romains, ce que Pompi
a t pour leurs antiquits prives. Jy ai recueilli 1,500 inscriptions, que jai publies dans le
recueil des Inscriptions romaines de lAlgrie. Lambse fut pendant prs de trois sicles le
quartier gnral dune arme romaine compose dune lgion et de plusieurs cohortes et ailes

de cavalerie. Le camp de la lgion tait encore presque intact en 1850; il a t en partie dtruit
pour la construction du pnitencier, et il nen reste plus gure aujourdhui que le praetorium. Jai
pu lever un plan de lenceinte: jaurai lhonneur de le soumettre lEmpereur mon retour en
France. Pour connatre les dtails intrieurs, il aurait fallu faire des fouilles, et je nen avais pas les
moyens. Heureusement, le pnitencier noccupe quune partie de ce camp: le reste peut encore
tre fouill, et je ne doute pas quon ny fasse dimportantes dcouvertes. / Le camp des cohortes
est deux kilomtres environ de celui de la lgion, on ny a pas touch. Il tait orn dune colonne
monumentale, aujourdhui renverse, sur le pidestal de laquelle tait grav un ordre du jour
de lempereur Hadrien; monument jusquici unique au monde, mais dont malheureusement
il ne reste aujourdhui que des fragments. Jai publi ces fragments dans mes Inscriptions de
lAlgrie. Quoique ma collection des monuments pigraphiques de Lambse soit, suivant
les plus savants pigraphistes, Borghesi, Mommsen et Henzen, la plus importante collection
dinscriptions militaires qui ait encore paru, elle est loin dtre complte. Je nai pu recueillir que
ceux de ces documents qui se trouvaient la surface du sol, et ce sont naturellement les plus
mutils. Des fouilles bien excutes en feraient certainement dcouvrira beaucoup dautres, qui
auraient lavantage dtre bien conservs, qui complteraient peut-tre les notions que nous
devons ceux qui sont dj connus. Je suis compltement aux ordres de lEmpereur: sil veut
faire excuter ces fouilles et men confier la direction, je serai prt partir pour lAfrique au mois
de septembre prochain, et cette nouvelle exploration aura des rsultats dautant plus importants
que je serai assur quils ne seront pas perdus pour la science. Vous savez quil nen tait pas malheureusement ainsi, lors de mes premiers voyages en Algrie.
[ ]
62 Janon_1973_194: En 1850 et 1851, furent dports Lmbese des rpublicains victimes
de la rpression de 1848. Parmi ces exils il sen trouva qui, rudits et curieux, furent les premiers fouilleurs de Lmbese. Leurs travaux, entrepris grce la bienveillance des officiers qui
les surveillaient et qui, comme le colonel Desvaux, ntaient pas dpourvus de culture, ont t
largement utiliss par Renier et Delamare. Cest un article de M.M. Emerit, que je dois de
connatre le nom dun de ces dports, Terson. Ce curieux personnage qui participa de prs
aux travaux archologiques des dports est lauteur de manuscrits partiellement conservs
la Bibliothque de lArsenal et la Bibliothque nationale. Ces textes du plus grand intrt
constituent en quelque sorte le journal de fouille des premiers archologues qui ont travaill
Lmbese. Leurs tmoignages se rvlent essentiels quand ils portent sur des monuments
qui ont aujourdhui peu prs disparu. Car la flambe dintrt que larrive des dports fit
natre pour les vestiges antiques ne tarda pas steindre. Leur installation Lmbese marqua
laccession de la ville au rle peu enviable de ville pnitentiaire.
[ ]
63 Thierry-Mieg_1861_196197 Lambaesus: Un peu plus loin, un dtachement de soldats
du gnie tait occup mettre au jour quelques tombeaux antiques o lon espre trouver
des objets dont la science pourra faire son profit. Les anciens enterraient leurs morts une
bien moins grande profondeur que nous, surtout dans ces pays mridionaux. / Les ruines de
Lambse couvrent plus dune lieue carre de terrain, et permettent de juger des bases vigoureuses sur lesquelles les Romains taient parvenus asseoir leur domination dans ces contres.
Et aujourdhui sur le vaste emplacement de cette ville, jadis puissante et prospre, on ne voit que
quelques champs de pommes de terre plants par les colons franais. Le reste sert de promenade
quelques misrables troupeaux de chvres et de moutons que des bergers arabes en haillons
font patre au milieu des ruines.
appendix
64]Zaccone_1865_2728 Lambessa: A cinquante mtres plus loin slve le Prtorium, vaste
btiment rectangulaire dune trentaine de mtres de longueur sur 15 mtres de largeur. Dans
lintrieur se trouvent des statues en quantit, les unes en marbre blanc, les autres en pierre,
ple-mle, debout, couches, toutes mutiles par les vandales de toutes les nations; enfin
des dbris de toute espce, bras, mains, jambes, pieds, ttes, colonnes, chapiteaux, corniches,
pierres tumulaires, etc., etc. Lexamen de ces restes prouve que la statuaire avait pntr dans
ces contres loignes et que la ville romaine de Lambessa dut tre trs-importante. On examine
aussi avec curiosit et un sentiment de tristesse danciennes portes encore debout, les arnes, les
ruines dun aqueduc, celles dun temple ddi Esculape, etc., etc.
[ ]
65 Cagnat_1909_252 Lambessa, footnote: Les pierres une fois dplaces, soit pour tre
dposes au Praetorium, qui servit de muse de bonne heure, soit pour tre encastres dans les
murs de la Maison centrale, soit mme pour tre transportes Batna, rien ntait plus facile que
de faire entre elles des confusions ou den oublier la provenance exacte.
[ ]
66 Poulle_1884_203 Lambessa: Lorsquon se rappelle de quelle manire ont t si souvent
jusquici menes les fouilles pratiques Lambse et ailleurs, o des amateurs, guids seulement
par lappt du bibelot, ont, pour trouver des objets de valeur douteuse, saccag des monuments
entiers, on dplore que leurs recherches qui, bien diriges, eussent pu fournir tant de prcieuses
indications, naient pas t conduites comme celles que nous signalons, ce qui ne les et pas
rendues moins fructueuses, bien au contraire, au point de vue des trouvailles faire.
[ ]
67 Barnond_1866_240 Lambessa, in charge of conservation: Sa Majest lEmpereur, dans
sa visite Lambse, au mois de juin 1865, aprs avoir tmoign sa satisfaction pour les dcouvertes dj faites, mexprimait le dsir de voir les explorations sattacher la recherche des voies
et de la configuration de la ville, surtout dans lenceinte de lancien camp. Le Prtorium, centre
du commandement, de ladministration et de la vie publique, ma paru devoir tre le point de
dpart des nouveaux travaux perhaps suggesting some parts already destroyed for the prison.
[ ]
68 Cagnat_1909_222 Lambessa: Quant la partie Sud-Ouest, il faut renoncer la dgager
jamais, car la Maison centrale la recouvre totalement; il est bien probable, dailleurs, que les
travaux excuts pour en tablir les fondations y ont tout boulevers.
[ ]
69 Poulle_1884_184 Lambessa: La Maison centrale de dtention, assise sur un des angles du
camp, et le jardin tabli en avant ont fait disparatre environ la moiti de ses retranchements. /
Les fouilles excutes sur ce point ont permis, sinon de retrouver, au moins de restituer le plan
complet de cette enceinte.
[ ]
70 Cagnat_1909_272 Lambessa: Il nest donc pas juste de dire que les casernes furent
alors compltement dlaisses et quon les remplaa par dautres constructions; tout au plus
pourrait-on supposer que ltendue en fut rduite. Malheureusement nous ne pourrons pas le
savoir pour Lambse; cest un secret qui se cache sous les constructions de la Maison centrale.
[ ]
71 Cagnat_1909_219 Lambessa: Ce camp est connu depuis longtemps et lon y a souvent
fait des fouilles. Les unes ont t dplorables: ce sont celles que les constructeurs de la Maison
centrale de dtention ont opres pour se procurer des pierres; si elles ont amen quelques
trouvailles pigraphiques, elles ont surtout boulevers les murs encore existants et fait
disparatre partout ce qui dpassait le sol, sur certains points jusquaux fondements.
[ ]
72 Blakesley_1859_310 Lambessa: Two strong springs, bursting from the flanks of the
hill, the Ain Boubennana on the south, and the Ain Drinn on the south-east, guarantee
an abundance of water at all seasons. The former of them supplies the Penitentiary, and the
[

engineer officer who was entrusted with the duty of making the requisite arrangements found
the old Roman conduit in good repair. Similar arrangements had once existed at Ain Drinn,
which is now employed to turn a mill; but it would seem that the original water-chamber
here had been destroyed by the Vandals, and repaired in a very inferior style by the Byzantine
emperors after their re-conquest of the country. The united supply from these two fountains has
been estimated as averaging 2,300 litres (or more than eighty cubic feet) of water per minute. It
was conveyed by means of pipes to every part both of the camp and of a town of considerable
size which existed in the immediate vicinity. Important remains of the latter are still above
ground.
[ ]
73 Renier_1852_322, charg dune mission en Algrie pour y rechercher les monuments
pigraphiques: Je rsolus daller attendre son retour [general MacMahon] Lambse, o
jesprais que les travaux du pnitencier auraient fait faire quelques dcouvertes nouvelles depuis
ma mission de 1850 et 1851...plusieurs fouilles que nous avions commences, M.Delamare et
moi, au printemps de 1851, avaient t continues, avec beaucoup de zle et dintelligence, par
un certain nombre de transports de juin, sous la direction de M. Toussaint, capitaine du gnie,
charg de la construction du pnitencier, et elles avaient produit dimportantes dcouvertes.
i.e. it is the work on the prison that controls everything, not archaeology.
[ ]
74 Renier_1852_326 charg dune mission en Algrie pour y rechercher les monuments pigraphiques: Outre les inscriptions que je viens de citer, jai pu, pendant mon sjour Lambse,
augmenter de prs de deux cents numros mon recueil des monuments pigraphiques du quartier gnral de la lgion IIIe Augusta.
[ ]
75 Hron_de_Villefosse_1875_414 Lambessa: Sans parler de Shaw, de Peyssonnel et dautres
voyageurs qui ont visit cette ville avant la conqute franaise, ds 1847, M. le commandant de
la Mare y excutait dimportantes recherches. En 1852, M. Lon Renier y relevait plus de huit
cents inscriptions, et, lanne suivante, il augmentait encore son recueil de deux cents textes.
Ces rsultats merveilleux devaient tre consigns quelques annes plus tard dans son grand
ouvrage sur les Inscriptions dAlgrie, o la ville de Lambse est reprsente par prs de quinze
cents inscriptions. / Depuis lapparition de cet ouvrage, les ruines de Lambse ont t lobjet de
nouveaux travaux quon doit particulirement M. Moll, officier suprieur du gnie. En 1865,
M. Barnond, directeur de la maison centrale, y excuta aussi des fouilles qui produisirent
dheureux rsultats. Mais le champ des explorations est si vaste quon y trouve toujours glaner.
and gives references for all the previous publications whose authors he lists above.
[ ]
76 Renier_1850_654655: M. le colonel Carbuccia voulant contribuer, autant que possible,
au succs de la mission que vous mavez confie, nous a envoy trois compagnies du 2e rgiment
de la lgion trangre, pour nous aider dans nos recherches, et faire les fouilles qui nous paratront ncessaires. Les travaux de la colonie pnitentiaire sont suspendus; grace la surveillance
svre exerce par le colonel Carbuccia, ils nont caus jusquici la destruction daucun monument rellement important. Par la force des choses, cependant, ils doivent tt ou tard en dnaturer un qui me parat tre dun intrt unique. Je veux parler du camp de la lgion III Auguste,
encore parfaitement reconnaissable aujourdhui, et dans lintrieur duquel les batiments de la
colonie doivent tre construits. Jai dit que ce monument me parat tre dun intrt unique, et,
en effet, Monsieur le Ministre, cest le seul camp lgionnaire, les seuls castra stativa qui existent
aujourdhui dans toute 1tendue du monde romain.
[ ]
77 Renier_1851C_59 proposal to the Minister for an epigraphic mission to Lambessa: Je nai
pas besoin de vous rappeler que le Gouvernement a choisi les mines de Lambse pour y etablir
appendix
les transports de juin, et donn des ordres pour que les travaux de leur tablissement fussent
commencs aussitt que la saison le permettrait. Vous le savez, une des raisons qui ont dict ce
choix, cest la prsence dans cette localit dune immense quantit de matriaux anciens tout
prpars pour des constructions nouvelles. Or ces matriaux, Monsieur le Ministre, ce sont eux
qui portent les inscriptions dont jai lhonneur de vous entretenir, et lune des premires consquences de lemploi que lon en va faire sera la destruction de ces inscriptions.
[ ]
78 Renier_1851_217 en mission dans la province de Constantine pour la recherche des
monuments pigraphiques: Dans mon rapport, date du 5 de ce mois, jai eu 1honneur de vous
signaler une collection de six bustes impriaux en marbre blanc, dcouverts dans les ruines de
Verecunda, et qui, mon avis, devraient tre transports Paris et dposs au muse du Louvre.
Permettez-moi dappeler aujourdhui votre attention sur un monument pigraphique peut-tre
plus important encore. Ce monument, dont le croquis ci-joint vous fera connatre les dimensions et la forme gnrale, est la tribune de la Schola des Optiones (lieutenants des centurions)
de la lgion III Augusta. Dcouvert en 1844 par M. le commandant Delamare, dans lintrieur
du camp de cette lgion, il se trouve aujourdhui Batna, o il a t transport par les ordres du
prdcesseur de M. le colonel Carbuccia, commandant suprieur de la subdivision.
[ ]
79 Renou_1848_214: En gnral la pierre chaux est extrmement abondante en Algrie.
La simple inspection de la carte gographique suffit dj pour indiquer o elle est abondante
et ou elle manque. Tout le terrain crtac est compos de marne et de calcaires compactes, et
ces derniers donnent de trs-bonne chaux; mais le grs qui le couronne, ainsi que le poudingue
tertiaire, ne contiennent jamais de couches calcaires.
[ ]
80 Renier_1851C_60 proposal to the Minister for an epigraphic mission to Lambessa: Sans
doute, il faut lesprer, les officiers chargs de diriger les travaux auront soin de faire mettre
part et conserver ceux de ces monuments qui leur paratront offrir quelque intrt; mais il nest
pas toujours facile aux personnes qui nont pas fait une tude approfondie de la science pigraphique, de dcider si une inscription est ou nest pas intressante. Footnoted: Je dis: Il faut
lesprer; mais je ne 1espre gure. Les pierres inscriptions sont gnralement des pierres
de choix, ce qui les fait rechercher comme pierres de taille par les maons et les ouvriers du
gnie; beaucoup de monuments du plus haut intrt ont t ainsi dtruits Constantine et
Philippeville. Dans les localits ou le calcaire est rare, on se sert, pour faire de la chaux, de tous les
fragments de marbre que lon rencontre; pendant longtemps, toutes les inscriptions dcouvertes
Stif ont servi cet usage; on y a employ Cherchel jusqu des statues. (Voyez la Notice sur
les antiquits de cette ville par M. de Blinire, dans la Revue archologique, I. V, p. 344 et suiv.).
[ ]
81 Carteron_1866_270 Lambessa: Les transports politiques taient au nombre de 459
en trois catgories, de 1848, de 1852 et les affilis aux socits secrtes. Ils avaient des hamacs,
taient mieux nourris et logeaient part dans les barraques de la cour. A la fin, on les laissait
sortir volont et sans danger, car les Arabes les ramenaient sils fuyaient. Lun deux qui, aprs
avoir reu de largent de sa famille, stait vad, fut ramen, attach sur un mulet aprs avoir t
pressur par les Arabes. / Le Pnitencier, compltement vide aujourdhui, est destin aux prisonniers arabes: mais, lorsque ces derniers se verront enferms, nourris et logs dans ces petites cellules enduites, peintes et cent fois plus propres que leurs gourbis ou leurs tentes, ils se trouveront
traits comme des Cads et prendront leur punition pour une rcompense. Quoiquil en soit, ces
btiments, qui ont t construits avec les beaux blocs de pierre des ruines romaines qui jonchent
partout le sol, ont t commencs en 1851 et finis en 1853. Et cest pour cela que Lambesse a un
aspect si misrable: car sa population est compose en grande partie par les ouvriers que ces

travaux avaient attirs, qui ont gagn alors de superbes journes, se sont construit eux-mmes,
pour sabriter, de petites maisons quils ne peuvent pas vendre et ne veulent pas abandonner,
bien quils naient plus grandchose gagner dans le pays.
[ ]
82 Renier_1859_217 innocent though the authors advice on gathering inscriptions, he
gilds the lily by footnoting: La petite ville de Verecunda, prs de Lambse, o lon ne devait pas
compter plus de 2000 habitants, possdait trois arcs de triomphe, et lon y a dcouvert, outre six
statues colossales dempereurs et dimpratrices, plus de soixante pidestaux avec inscription,
ayant d porter, sinon des statues, du moins des bustes en marbre ou en bronze.
[ ]
83 Bonaparte_2007_43 for Carbuccias dig at Lambessa, and his finds: Cest sur le dbris
de cette vieille rsidence des matres du monde que le gouvernement se propose de fonder la
colonie o doivent tre transports les malheureux combattants de juin 1848. Ni les matriaux,
pierres et bois, ni des eaux abondants, ni un sol fertile sous un climat sain, ne manqueront aux
nouveaux colons. Puissent ces avantages adoucir leur sort, et leur rendre moins cuisants les
regrets de lexil!
[ ]
84 Janon_1973_193: Alors que le muse de Lambse rassemble une extraordinaire collection de monuments pigraphiques essentiels notre connaissance de larme, de ladministration
provinciale et de lhistoire romaine, on peut stonner que la ville qui nous a fourni ces documents
soit si mal connue et que presque personne jusquici nait essay den tudier les limites, ni den
esquisser lhistoire. Les seules tentatives faites en ce sens ont utilis surtout les tmoignages des
inscriptions et nglig peu prs totalement les documents proprement archologiques. On
ne connat gure que les monuments les plus importants de Lmbese, et encore dune manire
trs imparfaite, travers des publications anciennes et sommaires. Plusieurs grands difices
sont encore indits. Pourtant, lampleur et la densit des ruines avaient, ds le XVIIIe sicle,
attir lattention des voyageurs europens qui eurent loccasion de visiter lAfrique du Nord.
[ ]
85 Bourquelot, ., En Algrie souvenirs dun Provinois, Paris 1881, 294295 after noticing the
penitentiary: Jai occasion en passant, de constater une fois de plus la monomanie destructive
et rapace des touristes, surtout quand ils sont anglais, qui, sous prtexte de remporter un
souvenir palpable de leur excursion, laissent des traces de leurs dprdations dans tous les
endroits clbres o ils passent. / Leur vandalisme ne connat point de bornes; nai-je pas
lu dernirement dans les journaux que leur rage iconoclaste sattaque mme aux pyramides
dEgypte? Aprs cela il faut tirer lchelle. / Ici, on a pratiqu ce genre de razzia dans deffroyables
proportions. Combien de poteries, de mosaques, de sculptures, ont ainsi disparu par suite du
dfaut de surveillance qui favorise les dmolisseurs!
[ ]
86 Tardieu_1890_18 Lambessa: Il existait, autour de Lambse, plusieurs ncropoles ou
cimetires. Le plus tendu occupait une surface denviron 15 hectares. Son emplacement est
encore littralement jonch de tombeaux. Dans le praetorium, on a runi des dbris de statues,
des inscriptions, et lon trouve une foule de cippes (tombeaux) dans une cour de la Maison
centrale; du reste, tout le village de Lambse en renferme un peu partout, de ci de l. Visitez le
fragment de la belle mosaque des quatre saisons, dans le jardin de la Maison centrale.
[ ]
87 Barnond_1866_243 Lambessa, in charge of conservation: Lexploration que nous avions
faire autour du Prtorium est loin dtre complte; des amas considrables de dcombres
indiquent encore des constructions dpendantes du monument; deux voies restent dcouvrir:
celle de lest, qui pntrait lintrieur de la ville, et celle du sud, qui traversait le camp dans
la plus grande longueur, pour aboutir la porte Dcumane, tombe aujourdhui dans les
appendix
constructions du pnitencier...La main-doeuvre ne me fera jamais dfaut; ce sera un moyen
doccuper, la porte de ltblissement, des condamns qui ne sauraient tre envoys au loin, et
ce travail pourra tre excut avec une dpense relativement trs-minime.
[ ]
88 Moll, A., Note sur des fouilles faites Lambse aux sources dAn Drinn et dAn
Boubennana, in Annuaire de la Socit archologique de la province de Constantine, 18571858,
157162 on the Byzantine crude reworking of a Roman water system, necessary because Moll
was in charge of refurbishing the cistern at An Boubennana (two km distant) and using it to
feed the prison. 161162: Nous sommes convaincus que, par des recherches faites avec soin et
compltes par analogie, on finirait par dcouvrir tout le rseau de conduits tablis pour la
distribution des eaux dans lancienne Lambse. Par suite, on aurait de nouvelles donnes sur
la grandeur, limportance et la population de cette cit si intressante dj sous tant de rapports. Malheureusement, une somme dargent trs-forte, des fouilles considrables et un talent
dobservation que nous sommes loin de possder, seraient de premire ncessit pour arriver
un rsultat satisfaisant.
[ ]
89 Fallot_1887_218219 Lambessa: Bientt se montre dans la plaine un vaste btiment
entour de hautes murailles; cest le pnitencier. Je mets pied terre devant la porte et me
fais annoncer au directeur, qui me reoit avec amabilit et se met immdiatement ma disposition pour me faire visiter les monuments romains. Il me promne dabord dans son jardin, que ses prdcesseurs et lui ont transform en un muse dantiques. Statues et fragments
de toutes sortes, recueillis dans cet inpuisable champ de dcouvertes qui sappelle le territoire de
Lambse, ont trouv sous les arbres du jardin du pnitencier un abri contre les mutilations de
passants ignorants et anims dun inexplicable besoin de destruction. Une longue inscription
contient toute lhistoire dun officier romain qui, charg de construire une route aux environs
de Djidjelli, fut enlev par des bandits et ne recouvra sa libert quaprs mille pripties et mille
dangers: un vritable roman daventures grav sur la pierre, qui sest pass dans les premiers
sicles de lre chrtienne. En sortant du pnitencier, nous croisons une troupe de condamns
qui rentrent en rangs dune corve, leurs outils sur lpaule, sous la conduite de plusieurs gardiens arms de fusils; ils saluent respectueusement leur directeur. Ce ne sont plus des criminels
politiques, coupables davoir dfendu les lois de leur pays contre la force triomphante, comme
ceux dont le sjour a rendu clbre parmi nos contemporains le nom de Lambse, jusqualors
inconnu du grand public.
[ ]
90 RA 1864 issue 45, Chronique, 188: On a dcouver rcemment dans les ruines de Lambse,
mine inpuisable dantiquits de tout genre, un caveau spulcral inviol, 200 mtres Est du
prtorium. Il sy trouvait deux sarcophages tailles avec soin, offrant chacun le nom de celui des
deux poux dont il avait reu la dpouille mortelle, et supports par deux ttes de lion sculptes.
Les couvercles taient intacts; les squelettes entiers gisaient empts dans une couche dargile
dune finesse extrme; du reste, ni vases ni mdailles. M. Barnond, directeur du pnitentier
de Lambse, qui lon doit les dtails quon vient de lire, a transmis, en mme temps, la copie
suivante de lpitaphe commune aux deux dfunts.
[ ]
91 Poulle_1884_179 Lambessa for tourists: Pour les promeneurs qui, lhiver, se rendent
Biskra et stationnent, en passant, dans la petite ville de Batna, une visit Lambse fait partie
intgrante du programme trac. Aprs avoir fait le tour du Praetorium, distraitement examin
les divers fragments quon y a runis, long les grands murs de la Maison centrale et jet un
coup doeil lentre du petit village europen, qui attend encore ses jours prospres, on revient

gnralement sur ses pas, avec un sentiment de vague ennui, et rapportant, en fait de souvenirs,
celui dune dception et dun drangement quon aurait pu sviter.
[ ]
92 Pchot_1914_I_237 Lambessa: Nous ne quitterons pas ces ruines si intressantes sans
dplorer, nouveau, le vandalisme des gens qui, sans se rendre compte de leur forfait, ont
dtruit une des richesses archologiques les plus remarquables et les plus compltes qui aient
jamais exist dans le monde entier, et nous prendrons la rsolution de pratiquer, nous mme, et
dinculquer aux autres, le respect et lamour de tout ce qui peut nous documenter sur lhistoire
de lantiquit, et en particulier, sur celle de notre pays.
[ ]
93 Claparde_1896_7172: Les matriaux de lantique Lambse ont servi construire la ville
actuelle de Batna, qui date de 1849, le village de Lambse situ ct et en partie sur lemplacement de la cit romaine, enfin le grand pnitencier, vaste difice o sont logs neuf cents
dtenus. On voit que les Vandales ont toujours des successeurs. Lambse, quon appelait alors
Lambessa, rappelle les plus mauvais souvenirs du coup dtat du Deux-Dcembre 1851. LouisNapolon y fit dporter un grand nombre de proscrits rpublicains. La Plupart nen sont pas
revenus.
[ ]
94 Parrs_1912_27 Aumale: Au Nord-Est de la ville et quinze cent mtres, aux environs du
chemin de lancien Pnitencier de Sidi-bel-Kacem, existent encore les ruines dun ancien therme;
un peu plus haut, sur la gauche, une mosaque; derrire la montagne, une importante construction dont il ne reste que les murs; plus bas et tout prs, la fontaine qui est dun grand dbit. /
Toutes ces ruines ont t fouilles, vandalises, sous les ordres de la direction du Pnitencier.
[ ]
95 Robert_1896_288289 Auzia / Sour El Ghozlane: Lemplacement de la ville romaine se
trouvait exactement sur celui de la ville actuelle dAumale.../ Lorsque nos troupes arrivrent
Auzia en 1846, de nombreux vestiges de la domination romaine furent trouvs dans lancienne
cit: des colonnes, des chapiteaux, un grand nombre dinscriptions tumulaires ou autres jonchaient le sol. Des dbris de murailles rvlaient encore lenceinte de la ville, et les quelques
vestiges qui en subsistent donneront une ide de limportance des murs denceinte. / Au fur et
mesure que la ville dAumale sdifia, on trouva dans les fouilles excutes pour les constructions
de nombreuses inscriptions. Actuellement la collection encore importante dinscriptions impriales ou funraires provenant des ruines dAuzia est installe sur lEsplanade dIsly et figure au
catalogue officiel des monuments antiques classs. Afin de nous rendre compte de la disparition
de nombreuses pierres romaines, nous nous sommes livrs au recensement de toutes les inscriptions publies par la Revue Africaine et nous en avons trouv cent soixante-trois. Aujourdhui il
ne reste plus sur lEsplanade dIsly que quatre-vingt-treize inscriptions! Soixante-dix pierres sur
lesquelles taient graves des inscriptions ont donc disparu. Toutes les inscriptions dAuzia ont
t publies, par la Revue Africaine ou le Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine.
[ ]
96 Flaux_1865_282283 Lambessa: Des restes daqueduc, de bains et de temples, compltent avec le Prtorium, ou plutt le temple de la Victoire, la srie des monuments de lantique
Lambaesis qui ont rsist aux outrages du temps. Ce temple, admirablement conserv est digne
de figurer parmi les plus beaux et les plus purs spcimens de larchitecture antique. Ctait un
lieu ouvert; lentre principale, qui regarde louest, se trouve une grande porte cintre comme
toujours et flanque de chaque ct dune porte moins importante. Ces portes sont spares
par des frises dautres portes suprieures qui servaient seulement complter lharmonie du
btiment. Le temple tait peu prs carr et perc douvertures de tous les cts; celles des deux
parois latrales sont dans de moindres proportions et moins ornes. Laspect du monument est
on ne peut plus heureux; il charme et impose tout la fois. Cest ce qui reste de plus complet
appendix
de la domination romaine dans ces rgions. Je ne parle pas des milliers de colonnes, de pierres
sculptes ou graves, de fragments de poteries qui jonchent le sol. Il est certain pour moi que,
en fouillant et en dblayant tous ces dbris, on pourrait, comme au pied du Vsuve, refaire une
ville romaine; jajoute mme que rien ne serait plus facile et moins coteux avec les forats que
lon a sous la main. Outre les richesses que lon aurait lespoir de trouver, on crerait un but aux
excursions des savants et des touristes. Il serait dsirer quun point de lAlgrie, si peu connue
et si digne de ltre, attirt lattention de lEurope; et, si le gouvernement avait quelques fonds
employer des fouilles, il serait certes plus utile au pays et mme la science de faire renatre
Lambessa sous les ruines qui la couvrent que de bouleverser Carthage des terrains qui sont,
depuis des sicles, lobjet des investigations du peuple le plus avide et le plus destructeur de
lunivers.
[ ]
97 Albertini, Eugne, LAlgrie antique, in Histoire 1931, 89109. excellent summary. 91:
few inscriptions from Africa known to Spon or Peiresc; better in 18thC. 9495 Renier 185558
published 4,400 inscriptions from A., with more than 1,200 from Lambessa. 106 depradations of
the French: Auzia went into Aumale, Mascula into Khenchela, and Russicada into Philippeville.
Greatest destruction at Lambessa, into the prison, for when Delamare visited in 1844 les ruines
taient dans un tat tel que des fouilles mthodiques auraient pu restituer intgralement le
camp de la lgion, et les principaux difices de la ville. 107: in spite of efforts to protect the
monuments, with laws of 1887 and 1913, des faits regrettables de mutilation et de destruction
continuent se produire.
[ ]
98 Diehl_1892_106: Les exemples abondent de cette ngligence navrante. Les ruines du
camp romain de Lambse taient, pour ainsi dire, intactes, lorsque, en 1844, nos soldats les
visitrent pour la premire fois des 1848, on choisissait cet emplaement pour y construire un
pnitencier, et la raison de cette prfrence tait prcisment le grand nombre des matriaux
antiques qui sy trouvaient tout prpars; et malgr les avertissements prophtiques que ds 1850
Lon Renier adressait au ministre de linstruction publique, malgr la honte ineffaable
ctaient ses expressions mmes, quil y avait laisser commettre un tel acte de vandalisme, les
monuments romains de Lambse ont t littralement saccags. Le plus ancien des deux camps
a disparu compltement; lenceinte de lautre est fort endommage, et le pnitencier avec son
vaste jardin en couvre dailleurs la meilleure part. Au dbut de loccupation franaise, lamphithetre conservait intacts ses portes, ses gradins, sur lesquels on voyait encore les divisions des
places et lindication des personnes auxquelles elles taient rserves; aujourdhui, toutes ces
pierres ont t employes en constructions. On a sci les marbres du temple dEsculape, on
a dmoli le Nympheum si curieux pour lever un btiment communal, on a martel et bris
les inscriptions: plus de la moiti des textes pigraphiques jadis recueillis par Leon Renier a
aujourdhui disparu.
[ ]
99 Poulle_1884_198 Lambessa, Temple of Aesculapius: Tout cela est maintenant bien
dvast et ras presque fleur du sol; la statue dEsculape et celle dHygie, sa compagne, ont t
transportes au Praetorium, et le reste des matriaux est all avec ceux des autres difices servir
lempierrement des chausses et au pavage des ruisseaux.
[
100]Poulle_1884_190 Lambessa: Ne quittons point lenceinte du camp sans admirer dans le
jardin de la Maison centrale ce qui reste de la belle mosaque des quatre saisons, qui, elle aussi, a
bien souffert des intempries, jusquau jour o un directeur du Pnitencier eut la prcaution de
la faire abriter par le baraquement qui la recouvre maintenant.

101]Poulle_1884_208 Lambessa: Dans les premiers temps de loccupation franaise, il ny a
pas encore quarante ans, lamphithtre de Lambse avait conserv ses portes et ses gradins portant encore graves les divisions des places et les indications des classes auxquelles ils taient
rservs; aujourdhui on en chercherait vainement le moindre fragment, et nous pourrions indiquer la construction de quel tablissement ces pierres ont t employes.
[
102]Poulle_1884_189 & footnote, Lambessa, on the baths: Depuis lpoque o ont paru ces
planches [by Delamare, 1850], ces thermes ont subi de graves dommages et ils sont loin dtre
maintenant aussi complets qu lpoque de leur dcouverte. Des mosaques de ses pavements,
il ne reste gure de traces, et chaque jour les chvres, les enfants et les curieux achvent den
dsagrger les derniers fragments (1). Footnote: Il est incontestablement trs intressant de faire
des fouilles, de retrouver et de remettre au jour des monuments ensevelis, mais il serait indispensable, une fois ces trouvailles faites, de veiller leur entretien et leur conservation. Il ne
faut pas se le dissimuler, tout btiment exhum et dblay est vou une disparition prochaine;
laction de lair et de la pluie qui dsagrgent les matriaux, la croissance de plantes dans les
murs, le parcours des troupeaux sont autant de causes de destruction, auxquelles ne rsistera
aucune ruine antique.
[
103]Leclerc_1881_229 Lambessa: Les invitables thermes se prsentent dabord: bien quil
ne reste plus de ldifice que les fondations, on en reconnat parfaitement la disposition, quon
retrouve aujourdhui encore dans les bains maures. Nous y avons ramass de beaux chantillons
de mosaques et des restes de poteries.
[
104]Leclercq_1881_230 Lambessa: De la principale porte du prtoire part une voie romaine
encore toute dalle, qui nous mne travers une plaine jonche de dbris. Le long de la voie sont
de nombreux monuments tumulaires qui portent des inscriptions encore lisibles. Nous passons
sous un des quarante arcs-de-triomphe quon pouvait voir au sicle dernier, et dont quatre seulement sont rests debout; nous visitons le temple dEsculape rig sous Marc-Aurle, le grenier
dabondance rcemment amen au jour par les fouilles de M. Barnion, le tombeau du gnral
romain Flavius Maximus reconstruit par le colonel Carbuccia, et le cirque dont il ne reste plus
que lemplacement.
[
105]Poulle_1884_206207 Lambessa: Cette description de la ville antique est-elle complte?
Non, certes, et tant sen faut; au milieu de si vastes ruines, bien des choses se drobent, mme
lobservateur le plus attentif, et il en est dautres quil faut renoncer claircir. Appel, il y a
quelques annes seulement, visiter Lambse et la rgion voisine, nous y sommes arriv une
poque o les travaux de colonisation avaient dj sensiblement altr sa physionomie. Les renseignements que nous avons pu recueillir sur son tat antrieur ont t extrmement vagues;
tout ce qui a t publi ce sujet se trouve dissmin dans des Revues et des Recueils, o la
recherche en est difficile; les rapports crits par M. Renier, au retour de sa mission, sont peu
connus; ils sont devenus introuvables, et nous navons pas eu la bonne fortune de pouvoir nous
les procurer. Nous le regrettons dautant plus, que nul ouvrage ne nous et mieux renseign que
ceux du savant archologue, que lon peut considrer comme linventeur de Lambse et mme
de lAfrique Romaine. Il est bon, croyons-nous, de rappeler ce souvenir et le nom de celui qui a
ouvert la voie aux tudes de ce genre et pos les rgles que suivent encore ses continuateurs.
[
106]Bourjade_1891_9 writing about Aumale: Chellata est sur le mridien de Sour-Djouab
(Rapidum): il existait certainement une route romaine qui reliait ces deux points; en effet, en
marchant vers le Nord, dans la direction de Sour-Djouab on trouve de nombreux vestiges dtablissements romains parmi lesquels on doit citer les ruines de lOued-el-Malha et de lOuedGueterana. Les pierres tailles y abondent.
[
appendix
107]Ballu_1919_5354 at Rapidum: Nous rappelons que tous les matriaux provenant du
Capitole ont t utiliss par les soldats de Maximien dans la construction du rempart intrieur
de Rapidum, et quil ne subsiste de ce monument que les bases antrieurement mises au jour,
ainsi que les colonnes parses trouves sur le Forum. Cest de l aussi que proviennent les statues et bases dcouvertes dans un angle du monument sis en contre-bas et remblay la mme
poque (297 300 de J.-C.).
[
108]Hebenstreit_1830_45 Voyage Alger, Tunis et Tripoli, travelling 17323, in the Canton
de Castola: Le 16, mai, nous examinmes les ruines sur lesquelles tait bti le chteau; elles
font voir quil a jadis exist ici une grande ville. Nous trouvmes beaucoup de tombeaux romains
avec des inscriptions latines que le temps avait presque entirement effaces ou qui taient
couvertes de terre. Une seule tait bien conserve et apprenait quun homme avec sa mre et son
fils avaient t runis dans le mme tombeau.Une autre inscription nous indiqua que cette ville
dtruite tait la Colonia Auziensis mentionne dans litinraire dAntonin.
[
109]Robert_1901_135: Lorsque les Franais stablirent Aumale, le 14 octobre 1846, il nexistait cette poque sur ce point aucune construction, mme provisoire, soit indigne, soit europenne; ils ny rencontrrent que les vestiges de la ville romaine dAuzia, sur un plateau lev.../
Ces vestiges consistaient en une enceinte ruine des cts est et nord, mais encore en partie
debout louest et au sud. A lintrieur de cette enceinte, des chapiteaux, colonnes, plinthes,
inscriptions, bases, jambages de portes, moulures, jonchaient le sol; on voyait aussi les restes de
lancien fort qui, sous la domination turque abritait un poste de soixante-neuf janissaires.
[ ]
110 Parrs_1912_33 Aumale: Les Turcs commirent autant de dprdations que les Vandales,
dmolissant les ruines Romaines, byzantines, etc., et sen servant pour leurs construction. Cest
ainsi quen 1840, il existait encore sur lemplacement actuel de lcole des garons, aujourdhui,
un petit fort, construit en partie de vestiges anciens provenant du fort Romain et dans lequel le
pacha entretenait une troupe qui exerait une salutaire influence pour la tranquillit du pays.
[ ]
111 Desvaux_1909_9: 2 October 1843 journal of the Gnral de Division de Cavalerie, sjour
Auzia/Sour-Ghozlan/Rozlan. Le matin, soins de lescadron. Journal. Les ruines fort tendues qui
composent le Sour-Ghzln (rempart des Gazelles) occupent le centre dun bassin trs fertile,
environn de toutes parts par de hautes montagnes boises, au-dessus desquelles se dresse le
Djurjura, au N.-E., et le Dira, au S.-O. Ces ruines qui se prolongent fort loin jusquau ruisseau,
offrent vers le Sud les traces de lancienne ville romaine, dont quelques parties de lenceinte forme de grosses pierres sans ciment sont encore debout; jy ai trouv plusieurs morceaux dune
frise avec des festons sculpts et, sur un des cts de la pierre, un poisson en relief et un trou
rond.
[ ]
112 Du_Barail_1897_I_260270: Quand javais quitt Mdah, jtais convaincu que la
province allait jouir dun calme parfait. Quand jy revins, une colonne commande par le gnral
Marey se disposait en partir, pour aller protger le territoire de Tittery contre les incursions
des Kabyles qui habitent les pentes mridionales du Djurdjura. Ces montagnards, fiers de leur
indpendance sculaire, des dfaites sans nombre quils avaient infliges aux armes turques,
retirs dans leur massif quils jugeaient inexpugnable, ntaient pas, comme les tribus nomades,
puiss par la guerre. En outre, comme nous avions abandonn tous les forts construits par
les Turcs pour les tenir en bride, ils pouvaient sagiter impunment, dans une troue immense,
entre Mdah et Stif, dgarnie de tout centre de rsistance et de protection. Ce ne fut que
lanne suivante, en effet, que pour garnir cette troue on jeta sur danciennes ruines romaines
les fondements de la ville dAumale, qui prit tout de suite une grande importance, au point de
vue militaire.
[

113]Piesse_1862_162163 Aumale, 111km SSE of Algiers: Cependant, en 1843, une expdition
militaire, commande par le gnrai Marey-Monge, alla dans le pays des Oulad-Dris explorer
les ruines dAuzia; cette ville avait subi la destruction la plus complte, toutes les habitations
taient rases, tous les matriaux disperss, toutes les tombes violes, tous les mausoles renverss; lenceinte seule, qui pourtant navait pas t pargne, encadrait encore peu prs cet
amas de dbris, slevant sur quelques points deux ou trois mtres de hauteur et traant des
lignes trs-irrgulires. Quant au bordj turc, pour la construction duquel on stait servi des plus
belles pierres, qui taient autant de monuments pigraphiques, ses murailles taient presque
dtruites. Cest en 1846 seulement que le gouvernement se dcida tablir sur les ruines dAuzia
et de Sour-Rozlan un poste militaire permanent, qui prit le nom dAumale.
[ ]
114 Bapst_1909_I_467 1848 Canrobert: Durant lautomne de 1848, Canrobert fut nomm
commandant suprieur de la subdivision dAumale. / Aumale tait une biscuit-ville cest-dire un de ces postes avancs ainsi dnomms parce quon les construisait avec des caisses
biscuit remplies de sable. / Si la ville dAumale tait nouvelle, son emplacement avait t
autrefois occup par une cit romaine florissante; on trouvait continuellement dans la ville et
dans les environs des inscriptions graves sur des pierres. Elles taient des plus recherches,
me disait le marchal, non par les pigraphistes il ny en avait pas Aumale mais par les
maons, auxquels elles servaient de pierres de taille. Une belle inscription tait encastre
ainsi dans un four chaux. Elle rappelait la dfaite du clbre guerrier africain Farnax, et elle
relatait sa capture et sa mort. Cette inscription est maintenant conserve au muse dAumale, et
M. Cagnat en parle dans son beau livre sur lArme romaine en Afrique.
[ ]
115 The Grande Encylopdie: BISCUITVILLE. Mot nouveau quia pris naissance dans nos
guerres dAfrique et se trouve employ couramment aujourdhui dans la technologie militaire. Il
sert dsigner une redoute que lon construit dans la contre o opre une colonne, pour abriter
les vivres de rserve de la troupe. Dans les campagnes dAlgrie, et surtout dans les oprations
rcentes en Tunisie, on sest beaucoup servi des biscuitvilles, afin dallger les colonnes de leurs
convois. On les tablit gnralement au centre du pays o doivent rayonner les dtachements de
troupes, afin que ceux-ci aient un minimum de chemin faire pour venir sy rapprovisionner.
On dit un biscuitville. Plusieurs de ces tablissements provisoires sont devenus des centres
dfinitifs dagglomration dune certaine importance.
[ ]
116 Montaudon_1898_145 in 1847: Vie des officiers Aumale. Certes, nous avions l une
belle mission remplir, un poste militaire important fonder; mais, en somme, ce fut pour les
officiers un sjour peu agrable et peu fructueux pour leur instruction militaire. Tous les jours,
nos soldats sont employs des travaux manuels: les uns vont dans les forts couper des arbres,
puis les quarrir, prparer des planches et des poutres; dautres chercher des pierres et les tailler,
faire des briques et des fours chaux: voil pour lextrieur. Dans lintrieur, il faut construire
les murs des btiments, poser les charpentes, couvrir les toits, remuer les terres, paver les rues,
prparer des routes. Tout cela dans lintrt de la chose publique et du pays.
[ ]
117 Parrs_1912_13 Aumale: Dans la banlieue et sur la superficie des deux communes, mixte
et de plein exercice, les ruines romaines sont galement nombrables et permettent de faire la
lumire sur ce que fut loccupation romaine dans la rgion dAuzia, qui tait en relations, dune
part avec Caesarea, de lautre avec Stifis.
[ ]
118 SHD 5051/1315 2nd Lieutenant, Richard, Mmoire et Rapport annex au plan du poste
dAumale et de ses environs, 1 December 1846.
[
appendix
119]RA 1867 issue 63, Chronique, Auzia, reported by Gustave Mercier, 247, writing of recent
discoveries: Les anciens habitants dAumale se rappellent qu lendroit o viennent dtre
faites ces dcouvertes, on avait rencontr, lors de loccupation du pays, des ruines provenant
videmment dun btiment assez vaste et dune construction assez lgante, entre autres, de
nombreux morceaux de colonnes dont quelques uns se trouvent encore devant les bureaux
du Gnie militaire. Cependant ces colonnes paraissent un peu grles pour avoir pu sadapter
aux fortes bases dterres ces jours derniers. / De tout cela on peut conclure qu lendroit
actuellement appel place de lglise, cest--dire, au centre mme de la ville moderne slevait
un monument assez considrable, peut-tre le plus considrable de lancienne cit, temple ou
demeure du principal personnage officiel.
[
120]Barbier_1855_166167 Aumale, 167km from Algiers: Aumale, chef-lieu de la 3e subdivision militaire de la province dAlger, est situ lentre de la Kabylie, sur lemplacement dune
ancienne cit romaine du nom dAuzia, dont la splendeur est atteste par de nombreux vestiges
et surtout par une superbe mosaque dcouverte il y a deux ans environ. Les Arabes stabliront
plus tard sur les ruines dAuzia, et donnrent cet emplacement le nom de Sour-Ghozlan...La
ville actuelle est toute franaise, il ne reste rien debout de la cit romaine et de loccupation
arabe. Les mines de la ville romaine ont fourni et fournissent encore de bons matriaux pour
les constructions modernes; le pays fournit en abondance de la pierre chaux, du pltre, etc.
[ ]
121 RA 1859 issue 20 Rapidum (Sour Djouab), Berbrugger, 94104. See 102: lenceinte en
pierres de taille de Rapidi est encore trs-visible. Le ct nord est le plus apparent; la face sud
offre un dveloppement de 244m et la face ouest est longue de 135m. Cest de ce ct quon
observe les tours; jen ai mesur une qui a 4m de face sur 1m 85 de saillie. La ligne de lenceinte
se brise pour se conformer aux sinuosits du terrain. / Le ct de lest est le mieux conserv.
Cependant les deux assises infrieures offrent seules des pierres de mme dimension et lies par
un ciment. Les autres semblent avoir t renverses puis replaces sur le trac primitif. Elles sont
tailles la rustique et on y voit les trous des crampons qui les reliaient. / La grande muraille,
galement en pierres de taille, o lon observe des tours carres, court de louest lest dans
lintrieur de lenceinte et appartient sans doute la citadelle. Cette muraille se rencontre
angle droit avec une autre. Lintrieur de cette partie militaire de Rapidi est sem de ces pierres
droites que les indignes appellent asnam ou asnab (idoles) et qui sont les restes de chanes
qui faisaient comme la charpente des difices et recevaient le blocage dans leurs intervalles. /
Cette citadelle parat avoir subi une reconstruction: l, se rencontrent les seuls membres
darchitecture que jaie observs dans ces ruines. Il y a, entre autres, des portions de bases et
dentablement qui ont d appartenir la porte demi-circulaire dont M. le docteur Maillefer a
parl propos de linscription n 23.
[
122]Mercier_1868_94 Aumale: M. Bordier, propritaire voisin, ma dit avoir dterr dans sa
cour plusieurs sarcophages monolithes. Cette partie de la ville aurait donc reu de nombreuses
spultures. Cependant, des sarcophages semblables se sont retrouvs sur presque tous les points
de lancienne Auzia et des environs.
[
123]Mercier_1868_92 Aumale: M. le Directeur du pnitencier indigne a fait dblayer par les
condamns les ruines dune construction antique dont quelques pierres mergeaient peu de
distance de lancien tlgraphe arien, 3 kilomtres environ dAumale. / On peut aujourdhui se
faire une ide complte du plan de lhabitation antique; des pierres de grand appareil se dressent
dans tous les murs et marquent les entres. Je tcherai de vous envoyer le dessin de ces ruines.
[

124]Parrs_1912_78 Aumale: Roman period: Jai pu relever des traces dans le talus des
fortifications et dans le jardin de M. Olivier; ce propritaire ma affirm avoir, en 1876, lors du
dblaiement de cette partie du jardin, trouv une grande quantit de pierres de taille qui ont t
enleves par des entrepreneurs.
[
125]Parrs_1912_24 Aumale: La ville est jalonne danciennes conduites deau, dgouts, de
caves de thermes, de dbris de toutes sortes que lon dcouvre en piochant. / Ne voulant pas
fatiguer le lecteur par une trop longue numration de ces trouvailles, ainsi que des inscriptions,
je me bornerai en citer quelques-unes. / En ville, dans les caves de la Maison Dreyfus, existe
une citerne maonne et enduite de cinq mtres de profondeur sur trois de large environ, en
parfait tat de conservation, ayant les formes dune immense dame-jeanne. / En 1881, pendant
la construction de limmeuble o est install la Commune Mixte, un puits dune quinzaine de
mtres de profondeur et dun diamtre de deux environ, a t dcouvert maonn et en parfait
tat dans un des bastions de lenceinte Romaine. En le dblayant, quelques poteries et monnaies
ont t dcouvertes, une source abondante lalimente actuellement.
[
126]RA 1867 issue 63, Chronique, 244, Auzia, reported by Gustave Mercier: On a dmoli
dernirement les vieux btiments levs les premiers Aumale et dans lesquels avaient t
construits les fours de lAdministration. Ces btiments avaient t faits en partie avec les dbris
de lancien forteresse compos lui-mme de matriaux romains. / Dans le mur mme a t
trouve linscription suivante; je ne suis pas certain quelle ait t dj publie.
[
127]Mercier_1868_9899 Aumale, Mosaic of Leda and the Swan, Mercier had written to the
rdaction [viz Berbrugger] on 27 december 1853: Le Gnie militaire, en recherchant danciens
matriaux, vient de dcouvrir 2 kilomtres dAumale, sur le plateau lev o se trouve la smala
des spahis, une mosaque dont je vous envoie le croquis. Elle est en bon tat de conservation,
car il ny manque que la partie de la rosace laisse en blanc dans le dessin et comme elle devait
tre semblable celle correspondante diagonalement, la restitution en est facile.../ En somm,
une lgre restauration conserverait un morceau de lart antique, digne de figurer ct des
plus remarquables quon ait encore dcouverts en Algrie. prsent, quel sera son sort? Tant
dinscriptions et de morceaux prcieux dantiquit sont journellement briss et rduits ltat
de moellons sous nos yeux, quil nous est bien permis de redouter le mme sort pour cette belle
mosaque. En attendant, elle reste expose aux injures de lair et des passants et subit chaque jour
quelque dgradation nouvelle. This mosaic was still there in 1855, the rdaction [Berbrugger]
comments: Nous aurions voulu oprer alors le transport Alger de ce remarquable produit de
lart des anciens mosastes. Des questions de budget y ont toujours mis obstacle, et la mosaque
de Jupiter et de Lda est, comme on la vu, fortement menace dune prompte destruction que
limpuissance financire ne nous permet pas dempcher, en ce qui nous concerne. Dailleurs,
aujourdhui, Aumale est rig en commune et ne laisserait probablement pas enlever une de ses
antiquits, quoiqu lexemple de beaucoup dautres communes, elle ne fasse pas tout ce quil
faudrait pour les conserver.
[
128]Parrs_1912_58 Aumale: lEsplanade dIsly, qui est divise en deux places. / Portant un
vif intrt larchologie, le Colonel Eix, alors quil commandait la Subdivision de 18851886,
recueillit et fit transporter par la main-doeuvre militaire sur un de ces deux emplacements, tous
les monuments anciens pars dans la Ville, et ceux en dpt aux bureaux du Gnie et dans les
environs. Ils y furent rangs, avec got, ce qui donne cette place ombrage laspect dune ncropole antique. / Aujourdhui, la ville a fait entrer une partie de ces monuments dans le pavillon
[
appendix
de langle du Cercle, dpendance cde la ville, pour la cration dun Muse. Il est regrettable
que linitiative de cette fondation nait pas t prise plus tt; car la plupart des documents ont
t abandonns ou dtruits pendant la construction de la ville.
[
129]Robert_1903C_49: Le village franais dAn-Bessem, prs duquel se trouvent les vestiges
de Castellum Ausiense, est vingt kilomtres au nord de la ville dAumale (Auzia), dans la commune mixte dAn-Bessem et cent cinq kilomtres sud dAlger. / Comme son nom lindique,
ce Castellum tait occup par une garnison venant dAuzia, il constituait avec cette dernire ville
et Rapidum un triangle rectangle de dfense ayant pour base, du ct sud, ces deux localits. /
Les ruines du fort hexagonal de Castellum Auzienze qui auront bientt compltement disparu,
se trouvent sur la proprit Zeller, au nord-ouest dAn-Bessem, deux kilomtres de ce centre.
[
130]Wallon_1890_536, obituary for Lon Renier: Les monuments de lAlgrie navaient pas
moins dintrt pour lui [than those of Paris], et, dans les derniers temps, il voyait avec chagrin
que les mesures mmes, prises pour les conserver, menaaient de hter leur ruine. La loi
rservant ltat les monuments ou les inscriptions dcouverts dans les concessions, les colons
dtruisaient les signes dantiquits quon y trouvait pour en faire des pierres brutes et les garder
comme simples matriaux. Cest la plainte que notre confrre portait devant nous dans la sance
du 96 mai 1882, propos des inscriptions dAumale, copies en 1881, et publies en 1882 par M.
Masqueray, qui navait pu les voir, car elles taient devenues pierres btir. Il ajoutait que la
plupart des inscriptions releves et publies par lui-mme nexistaient plus. Ltranger nous en
fait un reproche: II serait donc dsirable, ajoutait-il, que lon tablt en Algrie des muses
o les monuments, ds quils seraient dcouverts, pussent tre mis labri. / Cet avis na pas
t nglig, et on la appliqu, ds le premier jour, en Tunisie: nous en avons un magnifique
exemple, grce lactivit dun jeune et habile archologue, dans le Muse du Bardo.
[ ]
131 Saint-Grand_1892_470 Tipasa, funerary basilica: Il a t trouv beaucoup de cendres le
long du mur de louest, dans la partie comprise entre labside et langle sud-ouest; mais comme il
nen existait que dans cette partie et que, dailleurs, cette cendre tait mle de nombreux fragments de poteries de mnage, amphores, cruches, plats, il nest pas permis den conclure que la
basilique, comme tant dautres en Afrique, ait t dtruite par le feu. Cette constatation indique
seulement que ldifice a d servir dabri quelque famille indigne ou arabe, aprs avoir t
abandonn par les chrtiens.
[
132]Chanony_1853_45 Tipasa: Pelouses, champs, bosquets, rflexions et mulet, nous
amnent aux confins de Tipaza, en arabe, Tefessah. Quelques vestiges daqueducs; des restes
encor bien prononcs dformes ou villas; des dbris de tombeaux, tracent une longue avenue,
ancien faubourg, par o notre route des Puits se reliait la ville. Partout une culture active,
soigne, dispute le sol ces dbris. Lancienne enceinte jallonne par des restes de tours et de
portes, montre encore tout son dveloppement, quoique la houe et la charrue laient confondue
en grande partie avec le sol. Son diamtre moyen est de 1,000 1,200 mtres. Lintrieur, surtout
en se rapprochant de la mer, est tout dchiquet de bouts de murs, qui marquent des traces de
rues et des compartiments de maisons. Ces murs sont construits en bton, revtus extrieurement de petits mollons faces carres gales, selon lusage romain. Outre les jambages des
portes, on y voit de deux en deux mtres des montants ou pilastres de pierres de taille, qui y
sont encastrs pour solidit, rgularit ou ornement. Et ce nest pas une des choses les moins
curieuses. que de voir tous ces compartiments, quelque petits quils soient, transforms par les
Kabyles, en jardins trs-bien cultivs, plants de salades et lgumes, parmi lesquels domine la

fve de marais. Pas une parcelle de terrain nest perdue dans toute lenceinte et ses faubourgs. Le
bton des murailles aura facilit, favoris la culture, ses petites pierrailles se mlant au sol, et sa
chaux le stimulant, le fecondant.
[
133]Desprez_1875_50: On a eu la chance de trouver, aux portes mmes du village, trois ou
quatre cents mtres intacts du vieil aqueduc romain, ouvrage superbe, en tunnel, et dans lequel
un homme peut marcher debout. Des parois de cet aqueduc suintaient a et l quelques filets
deau limpide. On a runi ces filets au moyen dune rigole, on leur a fait un rservoir, et Tipasa
possde sa fontaine; mais si pauvre, si misrable, quon ne louvre, ai-je dit, quune heure par jour
en t. Elle suffit peine aux deux cents colons qui, sans compter deux cents indignes dissmins dans les environs, forment la population locale. Doublez le nombre et lon mourra de soif.
5152: Il faudrait dpenser de quatre-vingts cent mille francs pour rtablir en son entier le vieil
aqueduc et ressaisir leau du Nador. Le fera-t-on jamais? LEtat dit aux colons: Peuplez le pays et
nous verrons lui donner de leau. Donnez leau dabord, rpliquent ceux-ci; nous ne pouvons
peupler quaprs. Ce quon appelle, je crois, en rhtorique, un cercle vicieux.
[
134]SHD MR1314/33 Colonel Prtot Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Rgence
dAlger, considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure du pays 7 January 1834 (for the whole: sections individually dated). 167 pages. Section
dated 2 November 1833, 35: the ruins of Tipasa: On y retrouve entre autres choses des murs
et des arcades en trs belles briques carres dun pied de face et de deux trois pouces dpaisseur. So he suggests (35) Tipasa as an intermediary station Algiers-Cherchel: Les matriaux
provenant de lancienne ville suffiraient et au del, aux nouvelles constructions, le bois et le feu
excepts, quil faudrait se procurer.
[
135]Ratheau_1879_252 Tipasa: on arrive ainsi au village actuel de Tipaza, situ au milieu
des ruines de lancienne ville de ce nom. Je ne moccuperai point du premier: il est bien peu
de chose devant le grand spectacle de cette cit en ruines, qui commena par tre une simple
colonie militaire. Les restes de son mur denceinte subsistent encore et montrent quelle avait
en moyenne un kilomtre de largeur partir du rivage, et que sa longueur tait de environ deux
mille mtres. Ces murailles donnent la ville la forme gnrale dun rectangle allong; elles sont
en bonne maonnerie de 1m20 dpaisseur, avec des tours carres de distance en distance; on
ny voit pas trace de fosss, et en certains points mme, le sol extrieur est plus lev que le sol
intrieur. / Quelle puissance a renvers ces murs si solides? On lignore, car lhistoire parle peu
de Tipaza; mais le bouleversement a t bien complet.
[
136]Natte_1854_1819 Tipasa: Les remparts existent encore, part quelques brches de peu
dimportance. Il serait facile de les rparer, car les matriaux sont sur place; ils enclosent la ville
sur les trois faces, qui regardent la terre, et la dfendent contre les attaques des ennemis; la
face, qui est au nord, est labri dun coup de main, par les rcifs, qui bordent le rivage, sur une
partie, et par une falaise trs leve, taille pic, qui occupe lautre partie. / Cette ceinture de
fortifications romaines, rgne sur une longueur de plus de 2,000 mtres; elle est flanque, de
distance en distance, de quatorze tours qui dominent la campagne, et ont chacune une issue
pour les communications du dehors au dedans. On y remarque des constructions en ruines,
qui servaient de corps-de-garde, dautres plus grandes taient des casernes; il y a de grandes
citernes quon naurait qu dblayer des matriaux qui les encombrent, pour les rendre leur
usage. Lune delles offre, dans oeuvre, 15 mtres de long sur 10 de large et environ 6 mtres de
profondeur; les dcombres ont empch den reconnatre la profondeur totale. / Tous les difices
appendix
et les maisons avaient des citernes que lon retrouve encore, mais qui sont devenues des terriers,
o les lapins foisonnent.
[
137]Natte_1854_2223 Tipasa, ruins of a church: Cette glise est construite en grandes
pierres de taille, superposes sans ciment, dun mtre cinquante centimtres de longueur, sur
soixante-dix centimtres dpaisseur. Les principaux murs sont encore debout. La longueur
totale de lglise, dans oeuvre, est de 30 mtres 75 centimtres et sa largeur de 14 mtres 60 centimtres. La couverture sest affaisse et encombre le sol, ple-mle avec les colonnes, les autels;
lherbe crot dans les intervalles de ces monceaux de matriaux...conserv. / Cette basilique,
par sa position domine la cit et la mer. Elle recouvrait de ses bndictions tutlaires les habitants de la ville et de la campagne, voyait, ses pieds, ramper le quartier et les temples paens,
et sa croix, vritable monument de foi, qui a rsist la destruction des Vandales et des impies,
pourrait encore, comme dans le pass, servir de point de reconnaisance aux navigateurs et de
guide aux voyageurs gars, dans ces steppes difficiles et inhospitalires.
[
138]Natte_1854_3132 proposing to build a farm-village at Tipasa: Nous avions lieu dtre
surpris de voir un pays rempli davenir, o se retrouvent encore ds ruines importantes, dont la
richesse des matriaux rivalise avec llgance des sculptures, une localit heureuse, une rade et
un port rechercher, un pays runissant, en un mot, toutes les conditions exiges pour lassiette
dune ville; abandonne linsouciance de la fatalit et lignorance des peuplades indignes,
quand notre mre patrie pouvait y porter les germes fconds dune colonie agricole, fournir de
nouveaux alimens son commerce, multiplier ses dbouchs et ouvrir sa marine un port de
plus, pour la conservation de ses vaisseaux.
[
139]Natte_1854_24 Tipasa, near what he identifies as the baths: Au pied de ce mur sont
couchs une grande quantit de fts de colonnes et quelques chapitaux dordre composite:
sur la partie ouest de cette place, sont amoncels des pierres tailles, des colonnes, des chapitaux appartenant au mme ordre darchitecture. Cette place, par la richesse de sa dcoration,
et par sa proximit dune autre plus grande, dont elle parat tre le sanctuaire, est peut-tre le
Forum o les pres conscrits et les consuls venaient sentretenir des affaires de lEtat. Lamas
de dcombres que nous avons signal, serait alors la tribune aux harangues, ou le prtoire. / La
place publique, contigue au Forum, est garnie, sur ses quatre cts, de pierres colossales, qui ont
appartenu des palais ou des difices publics. / Prs dune des grandes sorties de la ville, le
cirque montre, enfouis sous les sables, ses gradins circulaires et ses lacunes pour les vomitoires;
ct, se voient: une grande citerne, puis un passage vot, servant introduire les btes froces
et les gladiateurs. Des loges pour les animaux sy trouvent adosses. / Non loin du cirque est
situ le thtre, reconnaissable sa forme, des matriaux et des fondations au niveau du sol, en
dsignent seuls lemplacement. / Au centre de la ville, sont des ruines, quon pourrait appeler
titannesques, cause de leurs dimensions colossales; ce sont deux pans de murs, dont nous
navons pu mesurer la hauteur, et qui nont pas moins de deux mtres dpaisseur.
[
140]http://www.piedsnoirs-aujourdhui.com/marengo.html for maps and ilustrations of the
settlement.
[ ]
141 Barbier_1855_154 Tipasa: Les Vandales ayant impos un vque arien lorthodoxe
Tipasa, un grand nombre dhabitants prfrrent migrer en Espagne plutt que daccepter le
gouvernement dun hrtique. Cette migration irrita si fort les Vandales, quils dtruisirent la
ville. Des sicles se sont couls depuis sans relever Tipasa. Sous la domination turque, on en
a extrait beaucoup de matriaux tout taills pour les constructions dAlger et de Blidah. Aprs

la conqute de 1830, des Maltais et des Gnois continurent cette industrie; mais, en 1846, ladministration sopposa formellement ces dvastations. Plus tard, cependant, ladministration
elle-mme tira des ruines de la ville romaine les matriaux ncessaires la construction du
village de Marengo.
[
142]Chabassire_1866_115 Gomtre du Service Topographique, Tipasa: Un grand nombre
de fermes et de maisons de plaisance se retrouvent parses sur une surface de plus de mille
hectares; des sculptures diverses, dune excution irrprochable, se voient chaque pas au
milieu des ruines. / Comme position militaire, lemplacement de la citadelle tait fort bien
choisi; elle ntait facilement accessible que dun seul ct (le sud); la partie nord slevait pour
ainsi dire en gradins, et tait de 45 50 mtres plus haute que le seuil de la porte. / De belles
forts, dont il ne nous reste malheureusement quun aperu, couvraient les montagnes qui
sparent Tipasa de Thubursicum.
[
143]Natte_1854_41 proposing to built a farm-village at Tipasa: Les premiers travaux porteront sur les objets, qui sy trouvent naturellement: lducation des bestiaux...la culture des
crales...lexploitation des forts, pour les bois de construction...le commerce des pierres et
matriaux, dont il faut dblayer le sol.
[
144]Desprez_1875_72 in 1843: Le premier vque dAlger, Mgr Dupuch, qui vint plusieurs fois
Tipasa, visitant les ruines avec la pit dun chrtien et lamour dun archologue, crut voir dans
ces arcades, prcisment places en regard dun petit cap nomm par les Kabyles Ras-el-Konica,
la pointe de lEglise, les vestiges dune basilique plus importante encore que celle de lest, et quil
qualifia mme de basilique majeure. Une belle mosaque, de longues ranges de chapiteaux, des
colonnes de marbre, disparues depuis, gisaient lentour. / En octobre 1843, il se donna la pieuse
satisfaction de clbrer la messe sur une de ces colonnes renverses.
[
145]Duval_1859_131 Tipasa: Une population quasi fixe de carriers, tailleurs de pierre, toucheurs de boeufs, terrassiers et manoeuvres exploitent la ville romaine elle-mme sans respect
pour les monuments les mieux conservs.
[
146]Brard_1867_138 Tipasa: Le village est assis dans les ruines mmes...Les Arabes nommrent Tfessadl (la Ruine), cette ville abandonne, dont les Turcs et les Franais tour--tour ont
achev la dsolation en dtruisant ce qui en restait, pour employer les matriaux leurs propres
constructions; on trouve encore de belles briques de 8 centimtres dpaisseur et de 30 centimtres carrs. Au milieu de ces dcombres sont les dbris dune basilique que lon dsigne sous
le nom dEglise de lEst. Cest un difice en pierres de taille, de 60 mtres de long sur 30 de large,
ayant la figure dun carr long. Les murs subsistent encore diverses hauteurs.
[
147]Desprez_1875_5455: Point nest besoin de guide ni de plan pour retrouver la vieille
enceinte. On en suit du regard, on en touche du pied, sans interruption, les vestiges. Ici le mur, l
les portes, les tours. Chaque tour notamment a form, en scroulant, des monceaux de pierres
btonnes qui, de loin, ressemblent des rochers, et dans lesquels on reconnat, en sapprochant,
des contreforts, des votes, des crneaux. Une touffe de lenstique, un massif de vieux oliviers
aux troncs noueux et tordus, presque toujours les empanache. Autant de gagn pour lartiste qui
trouve, chaque pas, des sujets ravissants. La profusion mme le gne, et voulant trop faire, il
fait mal. / Les collectionneurs dantiquits sapprovisionneront aisment et conomiquement
Tipasa. Je nose gure leur promettre des Jupiters et des Vnus, lespce en est devenue rare; mais
ils trouveront souhait et pourront emporter, je crois, sans que larchologie sen offense, autant
de vieilles briques quils voudront. Ces briques, dune belle terre cuite, et dune couleur agrable,
appendix
de deux pouces et demi dpaisseur et de prs dun pied en carr, ont excit jadis ladmiration du
docteur Schaw, qui les dclare peu communes en Barbarie, surtout dans les ouvrages romains.
[
148]Natte_1854_41, 43 Tipasa: Les premiers travaux porteront sur les objets, qui sy trouvent
naturellement: lducation des bestiaux, pour tirer parti des prairies naturelles, qui bordent la
rivire du Nadar; la culture des crales, qui russissent si bien dans ces contres, lexploitation des forts, pour les bois de construction; des bois taillis, pour le chauffage des fours et
pour les charbonnires; le commerce des pierres et matriaux, dont il faut dblayer le sol; la
chasse au gibier, pour en dbarrasser la localit et assurer les rcolles; la mise en oeuvre des
salines existantes, et la pche, lorsque les barques de la Compagnie ne seront pas employes
aux transports.
[
149]Chabassire_1866_110 Gomtre du Service Topographique: Letter of 11 Feb 1865 from
Gnral Prigot, commandat de la Province de Constantine, to the president of the Society, suggesting study and digging of Khemissa: Quoi quil en soit, dans le cas o la voie dont je viens de
parler paratrait devoir tre suivie, je serais dispos y consacrer les fonds de subvention dont je
dispose, et jai lieu desprer que M. le Prfet du dpartement seconderait galement nos efforts. /
Enfin, au moment o les travaux commenceront, je pourrai mettre la disposition du membre
dlgu de la Socit, le personnel et le matriel ncessaires leur prompte et conomique
excution.
[
150]Ballu_1905_77: Avant dentreprendre les fouilles de Khamissa lendroit dsign sous
le nom de platea vetus, cest--dire lancien forum, par opposition avec le forum novum
dcouvert il y a trois ans. M. Joly commena par faire pratiquer une route carrossable pour les
charrois depuis larc de triomphe dblay lan dernier jusquau vieux forum. / Il put suivre tout
dabord la voie triomphale romaine sur un parcours dune quinzaine de mtres, au bout desquels
il rencontra une voie transversale prs dune petite basilique chrtienne, des substructions dune
bonne construction, un gout se dirigeant vers lautre forum et un tombeau.
[ ]
151 Natte_1854_1819 proposing to build a farm-village at Tipasa: Les remparts existent
encore, part quelques brches de peu dimportance. Il serait facile de les rparer, car les matriaux sont sur place; ils enclosent la ville sur les trois faces, qui regardent la terre, et la dfendent
contre les attaques des ennemis; la face, qui est au nord, est labri dun coup de main, par
les rcifs, qui bordent le rivage, sur une partie, et par une falaise trs leve, taille pic, qui
occupe lautre partie. / Cette ceinture de fortifications romaines, rgne sur une longueur de plus
de 2,000 mtres; elle est flanque, de distance en distance, de quatorze tours qui dominent
la campagne, et ont chacune une issue pour les communications du dehors au dedans. On y
remarque des constructions en ruines, qui servaient de corps-de-garde, dautres plus grandes
taient des casernes; il y a de grandes citernes quon naurait qu dblayer des matriaux qui les
encombrent, pour les rendre leur usage. Lune delles offre, dans oeuvre, 15 mtres de long sur
10 de large et environ 6 mtres de profondeur; les dcombres ont empch den reconnatre la
profondeur totale. / Tous les difices et les maisons avaient des citernes que lon retrouve encore,
mais qui sont devenues des terriers, o les lapins foisonnent. then takes a descriptive tour
around other standing and part-standing structures.
[
152]Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_154 Tipasa: Plus loin, Tipaza, autre manire de nous faire
la fte. Le maire, M. Trmaux, nous offre une gracieuse hospitalit, sous forme dun djeuner
servi cette fois avec table et confort, au milieu dun ravissant parterre, o les massifs, chargs de
fleurs, sont dcors d pices antiques de la plus grande valeur: colonnes, chapiteaux, statues,

vases prcieux, parmi lesquels une jarre de terre cuite de prs de cinq mtres de tour; tombeaux
de marbre orns de hauts-reliefs finement cisels, et une foule dautres curiosits provenant des
fouilles de la ville teinte.
[
153]Bull_Archologique_1889_266: M. Trmaux, propritaire des ruines de Tipasa (de
Maurtanie), conserve avec un soin jaloux les antiquits trouves sur ce point et dans les
environs. Le parc qui entoure son habitation, Tipasa, renferme une vritable collection
pigraphique et monumentale que les touristes et les archologues ne doivent pas manquer de
visiter. Ils sont certains dy trouver bon accueil; lintelligent propritaire est heureux den faire
lui-mme les honneurs avec la plus parfaite bonne grce.
[
154]Saint-Grand_1892_467 Tipasa, funerary basilica: M. Trmaux, propritaire des terrains,
mautorisa entreprendre ce travail avec une gracieuset dont je suis heureux de lui tmoigner
ici ma reconnaissance.
[
155]Audollent_1890_415: A Tipasa mme, les dcouvertes se succdent de rares intervalles. M. Trmaux, riche colon qui appartient presque tout le territoire, ne peut sans cesse
entreprendre de nouvelles fouilles. Aux premiers temps de son tablissement, les travaux des
champs ont amen dheureuses trouvailles. Depuis quelques annes, il na gure fait creuser que
les thermes situs le long de la route, sans dcouvrir presque autre chose quune mosaque
dessins rguliers, mais aucune inscription. Cest dailleurs la caractristique de ces ruines quelles
ont trs peu fourni lpigraphie.
[
156]http://www.musee-tipasa.art.dz/ not working in April 2013.
[
157]Gsell_1893_42 on the Basilica of S. Salsa, at Tipasa: une base a t employe dans le mur
qui passe par-dessus les tombes 10 et 31. Deux colonnes prs de la petite porte du nord, au-dessus
dos tombes 2429. Quatre chapiteaux de la premire srie, au mme endroit, un autre encastr
dans le bas dune colonne prs de la tombe 11, un autre 7 mtres de lglise, au nord-est. Un des
chapiteaux de la seconde srie, dans le mur construit par-dessus les tombes 10 et 31; pour les
trois autres, voir le texte plus loin. il ny a pas tenir grand compte de ces indications, car la
plupart de ces bases, fts et chapiteaux, ont t dplacs: on comprend que les Arabes se soient
servis de ces matriaux facilement dplaables pour orner les gourbis quils se sont construits
lintrieur de lglise ou aux alentours.
[
158]Peyssonnel_1838_I_124 travelled 172425: Je fus insult dans cette ville de Sicca; on tira
des pierres aux fentres et la porte de la maison o jtais; il fallut lautorit des chefs pour faire
retirer cette populace qui devisait diffremment sur mon sujet. Les uns croyaient que je venais
chercher de lor, les autres pour pier et pour connatre ce pays, et les autres pour savoir par les
critures quand les chrtiens devaient venir le reprendre. Il ny a point dordures ni dinjures
quon ne me crit; par bonheur je ne les entendais pas et mon chagrin tait moindre; mais les
coups de pierre me faisaient beaucoup plus de peine que toutes les insultes en paroles.
[
159]Conder_1830_272 Le Kef, citing Shaw: In the late civil wars, the greater part of the
citadel was blown up, which has since been rebuilt with greater strength and beauty. In levelling
an adjacent mount, to find materials for this building, they discovered an entire statue of Venus,
which was no sooner found than it was broken to pieces by these iconoclastics. This statue
may not a little authorize the appellation of Veneria that was attributed to Sicca. There was an
equestrian statue dug up at the same time, dedicated to Marcus Antonius Rufus, which shared
the same fate.
[
160]Peyssonnel_1838_I_163 travelled 172425, from Le Kef: De l, faisant route au N. E. et suivant la valle de Sicca, nous vmes un nombre considrable de ruines de villes qui nont dautre
nom aujourdhui que celui de Hensir ou ruines de Sidy tel ou tel marabouts qui y ont t enterrs.
appendix
Aprs avoir fait six lieues nous arrivmes aux ruines de Musti, qui se trouve plus au nord de Sicca
quil nest marqu chez vous; nous y trouvmes un arc-de-triomphe avec des inscriptions qui
dnotent que ctait Musti. A trois lieues de l, vers le nord, nous fmes Dougga, o nous vmes
des portiques et des inscriptions.
[ ]
161 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_204 travelling 1879, Le Kef: La rcolte rserve aux archologues est abondante au Kef, car la cit est tout entire btie de pierres antiques; quelques-unes
des maisons mmes ne sont autre chose que des difices romains ou byzantins transforms.
[
162]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_192 Le Kef: To those who are interested in epitaphs or
inscriptions, whether relating to the Romans, or to the early Christians who formed an important
community here in the fourth or fifth centuries, El-Kef must be a treasure-house of instruction.
There is scarcely a house which does not possess one or more of these inscribed stones built into
the walls, and votive pedestals and tumulary pillars in stone or marble are more numerous here
than in any other town of the Regency. In the little burial-ground outside the walls, appropriated
to the Jews, the memorial stones consist mostly of Roman altar or votive pedestals laid flat
over the graves, coated thickly with whitewash, and the lettering, commencing with the pagan
D. M. S., not even erased.
[
163]Gurin_1862_II_56 Le Kef: La ncropole des juifs, que lon voit quelque distance de l,
le long du rempart, offre cela de curieux que la plupart des pierres spulcrales qui recouvrent les
morts ont t enleves danciens tombeaux; plusieurs dentre elles sont encore revtues dpitaphes latines mal dissimules sous une couche de chaux, de telle sorte quau premier abord on
se croirait en prsence dun cimetire antique o reposeraient les cendres des colons romains
appartenant la vieille cit de Sicca Veneria, tandis quon a devant soi un cimetire moderne
o les Isralites actuels du Kef vont ensevelir leurs morts. / Jy ai copi un certain nombre dpitaphes faites ainsi pour dautres dfunts que ceux qui dorment sous les dalles o elles ont t
graves. / La ville ancienne, dont celle du Kef occupe lemplacement, tait beaucoup plus grande
que celle-ci; car, en dehors de lenceinte moderne, jusque dans les jardins qui lavoisinent, le sol
est jonch de dbris divers.
[
164]Cagnat_1882_106107 Le Kef (where he found a lot of inscriptions in the Jewish
Cemetery): Bien que la ville du Kef ait t autrefois trs florissante et compte une haute antiquit, on ne rencontre que relativement peu de traces de documents anciens. Les deux causes
principales de ce fait sont, mon avis, les suivantes: en premier lieu, comme dans toutes les
villes de Tunisie construites en pierre, les habitants se sont servis des matriaux antiques pour
btir leurs maisons, mais ils ont eu soin de cacher les inscriptions, soit en tournant vers lintrieur du mur la face crite, soit en la recouvrant dune couche paisse de chaux; de sorte quil ne
sera possible de retrouver tous ces textes pigraphiques que le jour o la ville sera dmolie. De
plus, et par suite de lhistoire particulire du Kef, la plupart des maisons ont t abandonnes,
surtout depuis linsurrection de 1861, et elles disparaissent chaque jour de plus en plus sous le
fumier que les habitants y accumulent. Cest ainsi que se sont dj perdues quelques-unes des
inscriptions que M. Gurin avait releves il y a vingt ans.
[
165]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_209 travelling 1879, Le Kef: Aussi le cimetire juif est-il
presque entirement form dautels funraires ou de bases romaines qui portent encore linscription quon y avait trace jadis; les Isralites gravent ct une inscription hbraque et
recouvrent le tout dune paisse couche de chaux. Il suffit de la gratter lgrement pour retrouver lpitaphe romaine intacte.
[
166]Gurin_1862_I_322 Kasserine: Je retourne de bonne heure aux ruines de Kasrin, et
aprs avoir achev de copier le pome qui mavait, la veille, retenu si longtemps devant le mme

monument, je vais, avant de gravir le plateau o gisent les restes de la ville antique, examiner
dans la plaine les dbris dun autre mausole que japerois un kilomtre environ de distance.
Ce mausole, situ au del dun oued appel Oued-ed-Derb, tait bien conserv lpoque du
voyage de Shaw. Un sicle plus tard, sir Grenville Temple le vit encore debout. Aujourdhui, il
est en grande partie dtruit, sauf deux pans de murs qui ont t pargnes. De forme carre, il
avait deux mtres dix-sept centimtres sur chaque face et tait deux tages; douze pilastres
corinthiens en dcoraient les parois extrieures. Les blocs rectangulaires qui taient revtus des
deux longues inscriptions signales par ce dernier voyageur sont ou gisants terre, ou brises ou
emports. La premire de ces inscriptions contenait lnumration des services militaires de
Petronius Fortunatus, qui reposait dans ce mausole avec sa femme Claudia Marcia Capitolina
et son fils M. Petronius Fortunatus. La seconde tait un petit pome lgiaque en lhonneur de
ce mme personnage.
[
167]Carton_1894_2223 Kasserine: Nous fmes bien tonns de trouver encore ici un
Franais, install depuis peu Kasserine. Il vivait seul, lcart, dans un tombeau antique creus
dans le rocher. Son but tait dtudier les moyens de rparer un aqueduc romain, dy ramener les
eaux de la rivire, et de faire grce elles marcher un moulin. Vous voyez que, mme maintenant,
les travaux des Romains restent encore un bienfait pour le pays, puisquon peut les rutiliser.
[
168]Kennedy_1846_195196 Le Kef: In two instances we met with the Cross. In one of these
it was small, and placed within a circle on a square, being cut upon the keystone of an arch.
Behind this arch is a semicircular recess containing five niches, and having the appearance,
more especially as it is towards the east, of having been the spot where the altar of a Christian
church once stood; the other remains of the edifice, containing portions of a stone bearing
an inscription built into the wall, have been converted into a private house, through which we
had to pass to the inner court, where the arch above referred to stands. In the second instance
it is singular that the emblem should have escaped destruction placed as it is in a conspicuous
situation, for, on a large stone, probably the lintel of a door, and now inserted in a blocked up
archway in the open street, is sculptured, visible to every passer-by, a Greek cross, of considerable
size, enclosed by a circular moulding, with a rudely formed palm on the one side, and on the
other an olive branch. Around the spring rising within the city, are the remains of the building
that once stood over it, and in an adjoining street lay a stone sarcophagus, with the fragments
of another.
[
169]Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_208 travelling 1879, Le Kef: Une autre glise subsiste encore
dans la partie suprieure de la ville, hors des murs. On la nomme Kasr-el-Ghoul (Chteau-de-laGoule). Elle est btie sur le plan des basiliques ordinaires et termine par une abside demi-circulaire. Elle a t dblaye par les soins dun aumnier militaire qui avait lintention de la rendre
au culte aprs rparations; et en effet il y a trouv une petite crypte, dont il a fait une chapelle.
Cest l que les Juifs du Kef allaient, jusqu ces temps derniers, chercher les pierres dont ils
recouvraient leurs tombes, leur ncropole tant situe dans le voisinage du Kasr-el-Ghoul.
[
170]Denis_1893_145 at Le Kef, where the Great Mosque incorporates the basilica: Le monument a peu souffert; les Arabes ont construit un minaret audessus de la chambre qui est
gauche de labside, et ont perc une grande porte au milieu de celle-ci, le mur abc a t supprim
et remplac par quatre colonnes; toutes les fentres, sauf celles de la faade, ont t mures. /
En rsum, cet difice est remarquable comme construction et cest certainement un des plus
beaux et des mieux conservs de ceux du mme genre qui existent encore en Afrique, Je ne
appendix
crois pas me tromper en lattribuant aux dernires annes du Ve sicle ou aux premires annes
du VIe.
[ ]
171 Carton_1894_10 Le Kef: Le cholra, la famine lont rduite 3,000, et elle serait encore
bien moindre si larrive des Franais navait rendu quelque vie la ville agonisante. / A chaque
pas on y rencontre des maisons arabes demi croules, ruines plus dsoles que les vestiges
romains quelles recouvrent. / Quelques colons se sont installs au Kef. Durant le sjour que
jy fis lhpital militaire, jaimais aller masseoir chez deux modestes fonctionnaires qui
employaient leurs loisirs et crer une petite vigne dans un champ quils avaient achet de leurs
conomies. / Laspect du Kef est trs pittoresque, ses maisons blanches stagent sur une colline leve, couronne par les murs crnels dune vieille forteresse, la Kasbah. / On peut y voir
quelques difices antiques, une fontaine, jaillissant au centre de la ville, qui a t rpare et
amnage par nos troupes. Mais ce quil y a de plus intressant, ce sont des citernes romaines,
capables de contenir 5,000 m. c. deau, qui ont t remises neuf et constituent la cit de prcieux rservoirs.
[
172]Esprandieu_1889_138139 cisterns at Le Kef: Citernes romaines. Les citernes sont, il est
vrai, au nombre de onze, mais il ne reste plus que bien peu de chose de lune delles, celle qui se
trouvait la plus voisine du mur denceinte. La vote en est effondre et les matriaux disparus.
Toutes ces citernes communiquent entre elles par une brche pratique suivant une ligne de
rupture gnrale qui sest probablement produite la suite de quelque tremblement de terre
ou dun affaissement du sol. / Des fouilles que nous avons fait pratiquer au nord et quelques
mtres de la dernire citerne nous ont dmontr lexistence dun bassin couvert, de 4 mtres 50
cent, de long sur 3 mtres de large, dans lequel les eaux taient conduites par un canal qui venait
dboucher 1 mtre 50 cent, au-dessus du fond. Une deuxime ouverture pratique dans les
mmes conditions amenait leau aux citernes...Il est hors de doute quil ne faut voir l quun
rservoir o les eaux, avant de pntrer dans les citernes, venaient dposer les impurets quelles
pouvaient contenir. Ce rservoir pouvant tre facilement et frquemment nettoy, linconvnient de lagglomration des matires terreuses ou des corps trangers dans les citernes tait
sinon dtruit, du moins considrablement attnu.
[
173]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_191192 Le Kef: A monumental fountain erected by the
Romans at the end of this conduit is still in fair preservation, and men, women, and children,
camels and cattle, may be seen here at nearly all hours of the day, luxuriating in the beneficent
flow of cool water, while the waste from the troughs passes down the slope to irrigate and fertilise
the plains below. Thirteen great Roman cisterns, side by side, almost as perfect as on the day they
were built, were used as storehouses for water in case of drought, but they have long since been
disused. At the present day the French soldiers, occupying some hut-barracks outside the town,
use them for gymnastic purposes, and Salon de billard and Salle descrime, written on the wall
in rough pigments, seem to indicate the purposes to which they are or may be applied.
[
174]Mercier_1885_570 the work of the Brigades Topographiques, Le Kef: Ayant t charg,
au mois de septembre 1883, de dterminer dune faon approximative la direction que devaient
suivre les eaux avant de se dverser dans les citernes du Kef, les travaux que je fis entreprendre
cet effet me firent dcouvrir une particularit de construction que je crois devoir signaler. Javais
tout dabord constat que les eaux arrivaient dans la citerne la plus loigne de la ville par un
conduit venant dboucher la naissance de la vote. Je fis creuser le sol quelque distance, esprant ainsi mettre nu une partie de ce conduit, et je crus lavoir rencontr lorsque les ouvriers

vinrent mavertir que leurs coups de pioche portaient sur une solide maonnerie. / Jordonnais
de continuer les travaux avec prcaution; malheureusement, dans leur impatience dtre fixs
sur la nature de leur dcouverte, les ouvriers ne tinrent aucun compte de ma recommandation
et profitrent de mon absence pour dmolir et enlever une partie de la construction. Mis au courant du but de mes recherches, ils espraient ainsi pouvoir descendre dans le conduit et le suivre
sur une certaine tendue en enlevant les terres alluviales qui devaient trs vraisemblablement
lobstruer. Leur surprise fut grande lorsquils saperurent du dveloppement considrable que
prsentait la maonnerie. Je fis continuer les fouilles et lorsquelles furent termines jeus devant
moi un rservoir rectangulaire de mtres de long sur 3m,50 de large et 3 mtres de haut.
[
175]Lorin_1896_542 Le Kef: Depuis 1881, la ville a beaucoup grandi; les Franais ont bti un
contrle, une cole des militaires; la vieille enceinte crnele ne contient plus la cit ravive;
lindustrie indigne des burnous sest releve; la suite de nos soldats, des mercanti dAlgrie
se sont fixs au Kef, y apportant tous les commerces quappelle une garnison; mais il est plus
intressant de noter que des colons aussi sont venus, des paysans qui ont achet des lots de terre,
et russissent assez bien pour attirer des amis de France; dici dix ans, nous aurons auprs du
Kef un hameau de familles originaires de la Haute-Loire. Gardons-nous de prsenter la Tunisie
nos migrants comme un pays prodigieusemeut riche, o il suffit de gratter la terre pour faire
fortune; mais assurons-leur cette vrit, plus modeste et plus utile, quils peuvent ici devenir
propritaires plus facilement quen beaucoup de parties de la France, et quavec le mme travail
ils atteindront une aisance suprieure.
[
176]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_191 Le Kef: The fragmentary remains of a great temple
dedicated to Hercules are built into the walls of an European house, and portions of a basilica or
palace in the centre of the town, constructed with huge blocks of masonry, stand out majestically
amongst a mass of dbris, the vaulted apse of one of the chambers, now blackened by smoke,
forming the residence of an Arab.
[
177]Cagnat_1883_37 at Le Kef: Il ma t impossible de me procurer la copie ou lestampage
des inscriptions qui sont dans les mosques ou les zaouas, mais jai obtenu du gouvernement
tunisien la permission dentrer dans la casbah, et jy ai dcouvert quelques textes pigraphiques
and he notes several in houses and courtyards of the town, plus a large number in the Jewish
cemetery (nos 83112).
[
178]Cagnat_1884_58 at Le Kef: Dans la maison dite Dar ben-Achour, o ont dj t trouves
deux grandes inscriptions, on a dcouvert, quelques jours avant mon arrive, un texte pigraphique trs intressant dont il a t fait mention lAcadmie des inscriptions et belles-lettres;
malheureusement ltat de dgradation de la pierre ne permet pas den lire toutes les lignes
compltement; pour permettre ceux que ce monument intressera de dchiffrer les parties
qui mont chapp, jai lhonneur den joindre une photographie ce rapport. Cette photographie est dautant plus utile que le monument original nexiste plus aujourdhui: il a t employ
dans la construction dune maison peu de jours aprs mon dpart. Jen avais heureusement pris
un bon estampage qui ma aid lire certaines parties de linscription, moins nettement rendues
par la photographie.
[
179]Marmol_1667_II_529530 Urbs: Cest vne ancienne ville, bastie par les Romains, ce
que racontent ceux du pays. Elle est dans vne belle plaine, soixante lieues de Tunis, du cost
du Midi, en tirant vers la Numidie & la Libye. Les campagnes dalentour sont si fertiles en bled &
en pasturages, que la contre est tenue pour la meilleure de lAfrique, & fournit la ville de Tunis,
appendix
& vne partie de la Numidie. Quand les Gots entrrent dans le pays, ils assigrent cette place,
o sestoit retire la Noblesse Romaine, & layant prise de force, ils la sacagrent, de sorte quelle
demeura long-tems deserte, jusqu ce quelle se repeupla la faon dvn grand village, & lon y
voit encore aujourdhuy les ruines des anciens edifices, de grandes status de pierre, & des tables
dalbastre avec des inscriptions Latines, et des niches faites dans les murailles, qui estoient toutes
de grosse pierre de taille. Il y reste encore vn chasteau, o sont quelques canons de bronze.
[
180]Leo_Africanus_1896_712 MS completed 1526, Vrbs (which editor reckons a misprint for
El-Orbes, the ancient Lares/Laribus/Loribus): In this towne are to bee scene sundrie monuments of the Romans, as namely images of marble, and euerie where vpon the walles are sentences in Latin letters engrauen: the towne-walles are most artificially and sumptuously built.
This towne the Gothes. being assisted by the Moores, surprised, when as it contained the chiefe
treasure and wealth that the Romanes enioved in all Africa. Afterward it remained for certaine
yeeres desolate, being at length notwithstanding inhabited a new, yet so, that it deserueth rather
the name of a village then of a towne.
[ ]
181 Filippi_1926_390391 travelling 1829, Lorbeus: jarrivai aux ruines de Larus. Jy ai remarqu les restes dun temple magnifique contenant plus de 100 colonnes en marbre de diffrentes
espces, mais pas bien grosses dordre Corinthien. Sur lexamen de ces ruines, jai pu croire que
la vote de ce temple sest croule ainsi que les murailles latrales dont les ruines ont combl
les trois nefs quon peut remarquer par la disposition des colonnes dont la majeure partie sont
restes leur place droites et quatre cinq pieds hors les dbris dans le fond de ce temple il y
avait une niche telle que celle que jai remarqu Thugga. Mes recherches me procurrent beaucoup dinscriptions mais tellement effaces que je nai pu tracer que celles que voici (etc.)...On
voit aussi les restes dun chteau, ainsi que le tour des murailles de la ville, si javais eu le tems
ou les moyens jaurai fait faire des fouilles dans cet endroit car il me semble quelles nauraient
pu qutre heureuses.
[
182]Esprandieu_1883_39, 41 Lares/Lorbeus/Urbs: Lhenchir Lorbeuss, nom sous lequel les
Arabes connaissent aujourdhui lancien Oppidum Lars [a.k.a. Urbs], est situ prs dun oued,
mme nom, coulant au pied du Djebel-Smiden. / Les ruines sont 15 kil. environ du Kef. Elles
nont pas une tendue aussi considrable que celles de Zanfour ou de Mdena, mais elles sont
peut-tre plus intressantes, grce aux nombreuses constructions qui restent encore debout. /
Les cactus ont envahi compltement les ruines et forment des fourrs quil est bien difficile,
mais non impossible de traverser. / Jai parcouru en tous sens lhenchir Lorbeuss. Dans les cactus
lon ne remarque que peu ou point de ruines, mais lon rencontre de distance en distance des
ouvertures assez semblables comme aspect aux silos que creusent les Arabes pour placer leurs
rcoltes. Je me sois fait descendre laide de cordes dans plusieurs de ces ouvertures et chaque
fois je me suis trouv dans de grandes salles parfaitement conserves. Jai parcouru un assez
grand nombre de ces appartements souterrains, tous renferment des squelettes dhommes et
danimaux...Des ruines de Lars on ne remarque plus aujourdhui que quelques tours et un
vaste difice que M. Gurin croit avoir t une basilique chrtienne transforme plus tard en
mosque. / Le mur denceinte de la ville et les tours sont construits avec les matriaux les plus
disparates, lon y remarque des blocs prsentant des fragments dinscriptions, des pierres tumulaires, des corniches, des briques, etc. / Tout cela permet de supposer que les fortifications de
Lars ayant t dtruites une premire fois, ont t releves la hte en mettant en usage les
matriaux les plus divers.

183]Tissot_1888_189190 Les matriaux antiques employs dans la construction des
murailles de la kasba de Sfaks et de ses principales mosques, ainsi que les vestiges romains
quon rencontre le long du rivage, au nord de la ville, sur une tendue de plusieurs centaines de
mtres, sont tout ce qui reste de Taparura. Le bourg antique a disparu sous les constructions de
Sfaks.
[
184]Pellissier_1853_308 the Kerkenna Islands, facing Sfax, specifically Meninx: Cette dernire, qui donnait souvent son nom lle, tait fort importante; on en voit les ruines au sud-est
de lle. Il y a quelques annes que ces ruines ne prsentaient que des amas confus de dcombres;
mais le frre de ce Ben-Aad, que lon a vu deux fois Paris, les ayant fait fouiller dans le but
den tirer des matriaux pour la construction dune maison quil faisait btir dans lle, on mit
jour plusieurs parties dun vaste difice, soit temple, soit palais, o le marbre avait t employ
avec profusion. On ne voit que fts de colonnes, chapiteaux, frises richement ornes, plaques
de marbre pour revtement de murs, etc. Il y a, de plus, deux statues colossales de marbre
blanc que les Anglais, qui en ont obtenu la proprit, se disposaient faire enlever lorsque jai
visit Djerbah. Ces statues mont paru tre celle dun empereur et celle dune impratrice. Elles
sont sans tte, et la disposition du cou, qui prsente une cavit comme pour recevoir un pivot,
indique que la tte navait pas t excute dans le mme bloc que le corps. Jai remarqu la
mme chose la Diane de Zian.
[
185]Barrier_and_Benson_1908_2223 Thina/Thaenae, Thina/Thaenae: Il nen reste que
quelques rares pans de murs gnralement rass au niveau du sol. Pendant des sicles, comme
Carthage, les Arabes sont venus chercher l des matriaux de construction, et Sfax na probablement t difie quavec des pierres romaines. Dailleurs, presque chaque coin de rue, ou
peut remarquer des colonnes de marbre encastres dans la muraille pour la protger contre le
frlement des voitures, et il est probable que les colonnes des mosques ont jadis appartenu
des temps paens ou chrtiens . . . For the enceinte, of 3750m, and maximum diameter of
1400m: Cette enceinte subsisterait imposante encore, si on navait mis autant dacharnement
la dtruire, car les morceaux qui en restent sont encore dune solidit remarquable. Elle se
composait dune muraille de 2 mtres dpaisseur en blocage avec assises de briques de faible
paisseur et de 84 tours rondes, dun diamtre de 6 mtres, espaces denviron 45 mtres, soit
100 coudes romaines. Cet espacement donne une ide du peu de porte des armes de lpoque.
Presque toutes ces tours peuvent tre retrouves sur le terrain: elles sont indiques par un tas de
pierres trs visible et souvent, lorsque la tour ne sest pas croule sur elle-mme, on en aperoit
ia section droite parfaitement nette.
[
186]Gurin_1862_I_177 Henchir Thin: Ce sont celles de lantique ville de Thaena, Thaenae
ou Thenae, qui, dans ses dbris inhabits, a conserv presque suns altration sa dnomination
primitive. Au nord-ouest de lemplacement quelle occupait slve une colline toute couverte de
dcombres. L a d probablement exister jadis une forteresse qui la dfendait de ce ct. Je ny
ai trouv que des matriaux confus et de petites dimensions, les plus gros ayant t depuis longtemps transports Sfax. Nanmoins, jy ai remarque le tronon dune colonne de marbre. / Au
del stend une plaine parseme de dbris antiques. Comme ces dbris ne se suivent pas dune
manire continue, je suppose quils doivent appartenir un simple faubourg, peupl de maisons
de campagne plutt que couvert dhabitations non interrompues. / Plus au sud, on distingue
les traces dun mur trs-pais et trs-bien construit,.quon reconnait aussitt pour avoir t le
mur denceinte de la ville proprement dite. Quoiquil ait t ras compltement en beaucoup
[
appendix
dendroits, on peut le suivre, a quelques pans encore debout, pendant un espace assez considrable, et lenceinte quil dlimitait devait avoir plus de trois kilomtres de circonfrence. / Dans
lintrieur de cette enceinte on ne trouve plus aucun vestige de rues ni mme ddifices publics,
mais seulement des matriaux de toutes sortes, et principalement une quantit innombrable
de petits fragments de poterie qui jonchent le sol. Ces dbris de vases sont, en gnral, remarquables par le beau vernis qui les recouvre encore, ainsi que par leur lgret et par leur finesse.
Here he finds only two small fragments of inscriptions.
[
187]Fortier_and_Malabar_1910_94: Les ruines de la ville de Thina elle-mme se trouvent
enfouies sous une couche de terre variant de 4 6 mtres dpaisseur. Il est vident que la science
archologique gagnerait ce que toute cette terre ft enleve et que les ruines que nous savons
en partie rases fussent dcouvertes. Mais pour accomplir ce travail dune faon mthodique
dans lintrieur du mur denceinte, qui a 3,400 mtres de dveloppement, il faudrait beaucoup
de mains, dargent et de temps.
[
188]Marmol_1667_II_496 Sousse: Elle est ferme de bonnes murailles, & au plus haut de la
ville, o elle regarde la terre, il y a vn fort chasteau, avec vn foss & vne esplanade tout autour.
[
189]Leo_Africanus_1896_727 MS completed 1526, Sousse: When the Mahumetans first woon
that prouince, this towne was the seate of the vice-roy, whose palace is as yet remaining. A most
stately towne it is, enuironed with strong walles, and situate vpon a most beautifull plaine. It was
in times past well stored with inhabitants, and with faire buildings whereof some, together with
a goodly temple, are as yet extant.
[
190]Peyssonnel_1838_I_3132 travelled 172425, walls of Sousse: La btisse des murailles, de
mme que celle des difices de la ville, ne parat pas dune trs haute antiquit, mais seulement
du temps des premiers sicles de lEglise. Elles sont construites de bonnes pierres de taille, solidement bties et bien entretenues et rpares.
[ ]
191 Tissot_1888_152153 Sousse, where he believes the original defences are Phoenician:
Lacropole, en juger par les traces de gros murs qui existent encore fleur du sol, parat avoir
occup un espace de 100 mtres de largeur sur 200 de longueur. Les matriaux des remparts ont
d servir la construction de la Kasba actuelle, btie au XIe sicle de notre re. Comme dans la
Byrsa punique, le point culminant de la citadelle, dont laltitude est de plus de 30 mtres au-dessus du niveau de la mer, tait occup par un temple. Les quelques vestiges quon en a retrouvs sous les murs de la Kasba arabe accusent une origine phnicienne bien reconnaissable.
Ce sont dnormes pierres de taille, en calcaire gros grain, ayant appartenu une corniche
monumentale, des tambours de colonnes de 0m,75 de diamtre et des chapiteaux orns dun
simple boudin sous la plinthe, nappartenant aucun ordre connu...Une porte monumentale
souvrait dans la partie de lenceinte contigu la citadelle, du ct du nord-ouest. Il nen reste
que dnormes masses de blocage, dune duret exceptionnelle. On a trouv sous ces dbris, 4
mtres de profondeur, des balles de fronde en terre cuite, des fragments darmes et des poteries
dont les formes accusent une poque trs ancienne.
[
192]Gurin_1862_I_108 Sousse: A lpoque du mme gographe arabe El-Bekri, on admirait,
louest de Sousa, les ruines dun grand amphithtre. / Deux autres portes de la ville, dit-il, sont
du ct de loccident et regardent le Melb. Ce vaste difice, de construction antique, est pos
sur des votes trs-larges et trs-hautes, dont les cintres sont en pierre ponce, substance assez
lgre pour flotter sur leau et que lon tire du volcan de la Sicile. Autour du Melb se trouvent
un grand nombre de votes communiquant les unes avec les autres. / Ce monument, tel que

El-Bekri le dcrit ici, tait trs-certainement un amphithtre. Il nen reste plus aujourdhui le
moindre vestige. tait-il compris dans lenceinte de la ville antique? nous lignorons; toujours
est-il quil ne ltait pas dans lenceinte arabe due au prince aghlabite Ziadet-Allah.
[
193]Molins, Lieutenant, Notes sur les ruines de Knicia (environs de Sousse), in BACTHS
1894, 366368. See 366: Les ruines de Knicia stendent entre les deux villages de Fraiet et
de Ksiba sur la route de Sousse Menzel. Placs sur la rive gauche de lsOued-Amdoum, elles
couvrent un rectangle de 600 mtres de long sur 400 ou 500 mtres de large. Les monuments
ont presque tous disparu, il nen reste plus que quelques dbris dont nous donnons plus loin la
description sommaire. / Lemplacement en entier a t plant doliviers, et les pierres tailles qui
entouraient les monuments ou qui avaient servi les construire ont t toutes enleves par les
Arabes.
[
194]Saladin_1886_45 Sousse: Au moment o lon se dcidera pratiquer des travaux de
voirie Sousse, il sera intressant de suivre attentivement la marche des dblais dans les rues;
cest alors seulement quon pourra se faire une ide exacte de la topographie de la ville antique.
Il est supposer que les grandes artres de la ville nont pas chang depuis lpoque romaine;
les maisons actuelles ont t rebties sur les anciennes fondations. On retrouvera probablement
une voie qui traverse la ville du nord au sud paralllement la mer, en passant prs de la grande
mosque et de la porte actuelle. Cette voie serait le prolongement de la route qui suivait la cte.
Les ports antiques situs entre la porte de la Marine et la quarantaine sont maintenant ensabls
[
195]Desfontaines_1838_II_111 travelled 17836, Sousse: Lintrieur de la ville noffre rien de
curieux. Les bazars sont propres et bien vots; les mosques sont assez belles: on ma dit quon
avait apport dEkouda [footnote: Cowda or Koudiah] la plupart des pierres qui ont servi les
construire. Jai encore vu Suse plusieurs colonne que les Maures ont employes soutenir les
angles de leurs maisons et en dcorer la faade.
[
196]Graham_and_Ashbee_1887_62 Sousse: Here, as in Tunis and other towns of the
Regency, the angles of buildings are frequently formed with shafts from some Roman temple
or other monumental work. We know that the Romans had an architecture of their own, and
adopted a style by which their presence has been identified at some period or other in various
parts of the then known world. It is equally certain that the Arabs, who have possessed this
country for more than twelve centuries, have not only for a long period evinced little knowledge
of building construction, but have shown an utter disregard for beauty of form, and even for
fitness, in all their later edifices, whether public or private. Not unfrequently one meets with
Roman shafts reversed, the richly carved capital, whether of stone or marble, forming a base for
some other piece of purloined material, or for a superstructure of stone and earth, put together at
random, the ill-constructed mass being coated over with the never-failing whitewash. / There is
no single building in Soussa, public or private, of modern times, to arrest the travellers attention.
Even the Grand Mosque may be passed by without the stranger knowing that it is a mosque.
[
197]Pellissier_1853_258259 Sousse: A lexception de ce chteau [the ribat], on ne trouve
dans la ville mme de Soussa, en fait dantiquits, que quelques fragments de colonnes et le
sarcophage dont parle Peyssonnel, lequel est encore plac dans le lieu que ce voyageur indique,
cest--dire sous la vote dune des portes de la ville. A lextrieur de Soussa, le sol, jusqu une
assez grande distance des remparts, nest presque partout quun amas de dbris de marbre, de
granit et de poterie. Comme chaque pas on trouve des indices de mosaque, je fis excuter
quelques fouilles dans les endroits qui me semblaient promettre les rsultats les plus certains, et
je mis jour, en effet, plus de cent mtres carrs de mosaques, dont quelques-unes fort belles.
appendix
Jen fis enlever plusieurs fragments dont je fis paver un des appartements du consulat de France.
Une pice de milieu, reprsentant un intrieur dappartement, avec des personnages trs-bien
conservs, que je destinais M. le marchal Soult, qui mattachent des liens de reconnaissance
et de respect, fut malheureusement brise par les grossiers ouvriers que jtais oblig demployer,
faute dautres.
[
198]Fraud_1876B_497 Sousse: petite ville enceinte de murs o se fait un commerce assez
important. Dans la maison que vient de construire un ngociant juif, jai vu les dbris dun assez
beau bas-relief en marbre, reprsentant le triomphe dun conqurant quelconque ayant des
captifs de distinction enchans son char. Un autre fragment reprsente la croupe, aussi
en marbre, dun cheval presque de grandeur naturelle, ayant appartenu sans doute une statue questre. On trouve dans le sol, ma-t-on dit, beaucoup dinscriptions antiques, dont jai vu
des parcelles mutiles; mais tout cela est aussitt employ pour la construction de nouvelles
maisons.
[
199]Gurin_1862_I_115 Sousse: Dans un nouveau et plus minutieux examen des principales
rues de Sousa, je constate lexistence dun assez grand nombre de colonnes antiques, presque
toutes trs-mutiles, engages dans des constructions modernes. Plusieurs mosques, en effet,
de mme que beaucoup de maisons particulires, en sont ornes leurs angles, et ces nombreux dbris de colonnes de marbre, en tmoignant de la richesse et de la splendeur de la cit
ancienne, contribuent prouver, indpendamment de tout le reste, que celle-ci na pu tre
quHadrumetum, la capitale de la Byzacne.
[
200]Carton, Docteur, La campagne dHadrumte. Etude de topographie antique et suburbaine, in BSA_Sousse_I_1901_176203. See 177179: ce pays o les ruines sont si dvastes et qui
a t fouill par tant dofficiers [lists three classes of ruins: those with walls above the earth;
those where the walls have gone; and celles o toute construction a disparu et o il y a, la place
des murs, une tranche remplie de leurs dbris]...Il a fallu un travail rellement colossal pour
que les monuments innombrables qui couvraient le plateau aient t ainsi dtruits. Pendant
plus de dix sicles, les gnrations musulmanes qui ont habit Sousse et les quatre villages voisins ont exploit ces restes comme carrire.
[
201]BSA_Sousse_III_1905_16: M. le lieutenant de Kyndt fait une communication sur des
fouilles quil a excutes pendant son sjour Hadjeb-el-Aoun, en 1904, notamment sur le grand
nombre et la diversit des tombeaux dcouverts. / M. le lieutenant, de Kyndt donne une description trs dtaille sur une porte romaine quil a compltement dblaye el. dont la conservation
est parfaite. / Enfin, il prsente deux inscriptions trouves au cours de ces fouilles. Lune est
grave sur une plaque de marbre malheureusement brise.
[
202]SHD GR1M1322 Tunisia. October 1885, Ville de Sousse et ses environs. A historical sketch,
then on to orthographie et hydrographie du pays. SHD GR1M1322 Tunisia. Capitaine hors cadre,
Officier de Renseignement de la Division dOccupation Coutressel, Another mmoire, of which
perhaps the above forms part, same date: Ville de Sousse, gives a description of the Arab town.
[
203]Lorin_1896_574 Sousse: La ville arabe a dvor tous les restes extrieurs de lantiquit
punique et romaine; temples et maisons, moins dtre abrits dans la terre protectrice, taient
devenus, pour les conqurants, des carrires de pierre, vite puises; il faut donc fouiller pour
retrouver des vestiges intacts; les officiers de la garnison se sont, depuis plusieurs annes,
consacrs cette oeuvre, et la salle dhonneur du 4e tirailleurs est un muse vritable, dont
une belle mosaque occupe le centre, tandis que des poteries, des statuettes, retrouves dans
des tombeaux, sont mthodiquement ranges le long des murs; aujourdhui cette salle mme

est devenue trop petite, et, dcid par lheureux succs de fouilles rcentes, le directeur des
Antiquits de la Rgence vient dobtenir de la municipalit lamnagement dun nouveau muse
local.
[
204]Rey_1900_5354 Sousse: Une visite qui nous a t particulirement agrable est celle
que nous fmes la salle dhonneur du 4e tirailleurs, installe au premier tage de la Kasbah.
Cest un vritable muse archologique et non des moins intressants, car il est luvre des officiers et des soldats qui se sont succd dans la garnison de Sousse depuis loccupation franaise.
On retrouve, groups l dans des vitrines ou apposs contre les murs, des lampes, des collections
de monnaies, des anneaux, bagues, fibules trouves dans des fouilles excutes Lampta, par
des officiers du 4e tirailleurs, des fragments de mosaque provenant de villas romaines...En
prsence de cette exhumation de la vie antique, nous ne pouvons nous empcher de rendre un
hommage mrit aux efforts de ces soldats et officiers dont lesprit investigateur a si puissamment second luvre des archologues et des pigraphistes, et qui ont si largement contribu
tendre le champ des dcouvertes sur un sol quils ont le devoir de dfendre.
[
205]Palat_1885_151 Sousse: A lancien camp de lartillerie on a trouv un norme tronon de
colonne en marbre vert antique. Il existe aussi dans un champ voisin une chambre spulcrale,
malheureusement fort dgrade. On y accde par un escalier dune vingtaine de marches adoss
un rocher. Des dbris de vases funraires encastrs dans la maonnerie nous indiquent la destination primitive de cette chambre: ils ont t briss par les Arabes ignorants qui voulaient en
retirer des trsors, et qui ont presque partout fait disparatre le revtement de maonnerie pour
dcouvrir ce que les murs reclaient. De grandes niches taient pratiques galement au fond de
la salle, mais jignore quel usage elles pouvaient servir.
[
206]Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_11701171 Antiquits de Sousse: M. Palat, lieutenant
au 11e hussards, a lun des premiers publi, dans le bulletin du Comit des travaux historiques
et scientifiques, un aperu des vestiges pars un peu partout, notamment louest de la ville,
un kilomtre environ de Sousse. / Lemplacement du camp occup autrefois par les chasseurs
dAfrique et les hussards tant celui-l mme o stendait la ncropole, antique, lattention
du lieutenant Palat fut plus spcialement attire sur ce point. Il y fit pratiquer des fouilles. /
Entre autres choses, ses travailleurs mirent dcouvert une chambre spulcrale ayant environ
deux mtres dans toutes ses dimensions, et meuble: dune urne ossements, de deux assiettes
de terre rouge, dun piaf profond, dune fiole de terre, de deux gargoulettes, dune lampe et
dedivers menus objets. / Dans son mmoire, le lieutenant parle aussi dune mosaque trouve
500 mtres du camp de la cavalerie, sur lemplacement occup par les chasseurs pied, et
reprsentant des poissons chevauchs par des amours. / M. le gnral Bertrand prescrivit plus
tard des recherches au mme endroit. M. le lieutenant Daily les dirigea et fit ouvrir encore une
douzaine de spultures. Ces tombes sont toutes orientes au levant. Nous ne rpterons pas
ici leur description que nos lecteurs ont pu lire et retrouveront facilement dans la chronique
littraire, artistique et scientifique de la Revue.
[
207]Maupassant_1997_224 in 1888: The Hadrumetum necropolis at Sousse: Ces recherches
sont dues aux officiers, qui deviennent, en ce pays, des archologues acharns, et qui rendraient
cette science de trs grands services si ladministration des beaux-arts narrtait leur zle par
des mesures vexatoires.
[
208]Hannezo, Commandant, Notes historiques de Sousse, in BSA_Sousse_III_1905_153
167, 166 Sousse renferme encore quelques vestiges de constructions anciennes. Il a dj t fait
mention des citernes phniciennes en ruines; il y a lieu de citer encore en ville, en plus de la
appendix
Sofra et du Kaouat-el-Koubba, les nombreuses colonnes romaines en marbre et en pierre, avec
chapiteaux de tous ordres, qui abondeut soit dans lintrieur, soit lextrieur des maisons, dans
les rues, les tablissements publics, etc..../ Hors ville, au sud, le sol est jonch de ruines, dbris,
fragments de marbres, maonneries, colonnes, chapiteaux, citernes abattues, conduites deau
qui attestent limportance de ce quartier. / A louest, la ncropole phnicienne qui occupait
lemplacement actuel du camp militaire et la ncropole romaine qui stend au loin dans la fort
doliviers, ont fourni un grand nombre dobjets curieux.
[
209]BSA_Sousse_I_1903_19: M. le Lieutenant Grange offre la Socit un agrandissement de
la carte de Sousse et des environs publie dans lAtlas archologique. Toutes les ruines romaines
y ont t reportes. Grce ce prcieux instrument de travail, il sera possible aux Membres de la
Socit, chargs de complter celle carte, dy porter toutes les indications qui viendront, leur
connaissance. Toutes les personnes qui rencontreront des vestiges antiques, mme minimes
et de quelque nature quils soient, aux environs de Sousse, sont pries de les signaler M. le
Prsident.
[
210]BSA_Sousse_IV_1907_17: Le Sergent Moreau du 4e Tirailleurs, membre associ, donne
lecture de la note suivante, pendant que circulent les objets dont il donne la description: En
dehors de mon travail dans les Catacombes chrtiennes et en parcourant limmense ncropole
romaine du Camp Sabaltier et ses environs, il ma t permis de recueillir, tant sur lemplacement
danciennes fouilles que dans quelques recoins qui restent encore inexplors, quelques lampes
et surtout un certain nombre de dbris de statuettes qui mritent dtre signals.
[ ]
211 Trumet_de_Fontarce_1896_231 at Carthage and Sousse: Lhistoire des spultures
puniques est encore claire par les dcouvertes faites Sousse, rgence de Tunis, il y a quelques
annes (mai 1884). Lorsquaprs loccupation franaise en Tunisie on leva des constructions
militaires sur le plateau suprieur de Sousse on rencontra, en faisant les fouilles, une vritable ncropole punique des plus intressantes. MM. les officiers qui prirent le plus de part
cette dcouverte sont MM. les gnraux Bertrand et Riu, le colonel Vincent, le commandant
Dechizelle aujourdhui lieutenant-colonel du 27 chasseurs alpins, le Dr Collignon, chirurgienmajor de lhpital de Sousse.
[
212]Tissot_1888_157 Sousse: Un important faubourg stait fond, sous la domination
romaine, en dehors de lenceinte, du ct du sud. Sur une tendue de plus de mille mtres
partir de la citadelle, le sol est jonch de ruines et de dbris, de fragments de marbre, de frises,
de colonnes et de chapiteaux qui attestent limportance et la richesse de ce quartier. Cest de ce
ct que parat avoir t situe la ncropole chrtienne: cest l du moins quont t trouves la
plupart des spultures caractrises par des attributs chrtiens. La ncropole romaine stendait
louest de la ville.
[
213]Palat_1885_151 Sousse: Enfin, cest 500 mtres du camp de la cavalerie, sur lemplacement autrefois occup par les chasseurs pied, que des soldats ont trouv, au milieu de ruines
importantes, soubassement de quelque difice grandiose, une mosaque dun travail trs remarquable, reprsentant des poissons chevauchs par des amours. Cette mosaque a t transporte
Paris en 1884.
[
214]Cagnat_1886_9: Nous avons visit les mosques et les zaouias de Souse, et ny avons vu
aucun autre texte pigraphique indit.
[
215]De_la_Blanchre_1883_45 in Mauretania: Circular prompted by the authors discussions with him, from P. Renoux, the Sous-Prfet of Mascara (dated 18 June 1882) and addressed
MM. les Administrateurs, Maires, Adjoints, Ingnieur des ponts et chausses, Gomtre de

circonscription et Agent voyer darrondissement: Messieurs, Pendant le cours de la mission quil
vient daccomplir dans larrondissement, M. de la Blanchre, professeur lEcole suprieure des
lettres dAlger, a attir mon attention sur lutilit qui sattacherait, au point de vue historique,
la connaissance de toute dcouverte archologique. / Il nest malheureusement que trop vrai
quun grand nombre de ruines et de pierres recouvertes dinscriptions antiques, dont le classement serait prcieux pour la science, sont dtruites et disparaissent sans avoir t reconnues.
Jai pu vrifier par moi-mme que beaucoup dEuropens ne se faisaient aucun scrupule de
les employer leurs constructions, bien qu elles ne leur appartinssent pas. Il en est mme qui
vont les extraire au loin et les drober sur le terrain dautrui. / Or les ruines sont la proprit de
lEtat, et les personnes qui en disposent sans autorisation sexposent se voir poursuivre conformment la loi. Il est du devoir de lautorit de faire respecter les droits du Gouvernement,
et de conserver la science, qui elles appartiennent, les richesses archologiques et anthropologiques qui recouvrent notre contre. / Pour arriver ce rsultat, je dcide la cration la
sous-prfecture, sous ma direction immdiate, dun service spcial destin suppler en partie,
dans larrondissement, au manque absolu de tout service technique de ce genre en Algrie. /
Jai lhonneur de madresser dune faon spciale chacun de vous, Messieurs, pour maider
la ralisation de ce projet, qui intresse un haut degr la science en gnral, et en particulier
lEcole suprieure des lettres dAlger, reprsente par M. de la Bianchre, charg de recherches
dans la province dOran; la Socit danthropologie de Paris, reprsente Mascara par M. le
docteur Tommasini, membre correspondant, et la Socit de gographie dOran, qui a galement rclam notre concours par lintermdiaire de M. le commandant Demaeght, lun de ses
membres, archologue distingu. / Persuad que chacun de vous voudra sassocier cette uvre
modeste, mais utile, je vous rappellerai les prcdentes instructions de lautorit suprieure, et je
vous prierai de veiller, avec le concours des agents placs sous vos ordres, ce que les ruines de
toutes sortes, et surtout les monuments et les pierres pigraphiques, soient dsormais respects.
Les procs-verbaux dresss contre les dlinquants me seraient adresss, et transmis par moi
lautorit judiciaire. / Enfin, ds que vous auriez connaissance dune dcouverte archologique,
vous auriez lobligeance de men donner avis, et de joindre, si vous le pouviez, les renseignements
spciaux qui vous paratraient utiles soit pour la faire retrouver facilement, soit pour lapprcier.
Il en serait de mme de toute inscription, dont je ferais faire moi-mme lestampage si vous ne
pouviez me ladresser. / Tous les renseignements seraient aussitt transmis par mes soins aux
diverses socits intresses, spcialement lEcole suprieure des lettres. / Veuillez agrer, etc.
[
Stifienne, Numidie, Constantine: La loi pour la conservation des monuments historiques est
absolument insuffisante pour lAlgrie. Elle donne bien au service spcial le moyen de sopposer
toute entreprise sur un monument class, mais elle nempche pas le colon de dtruire une
inscription qui relate un fait historique, lentrepreneur de rduire en cailloutis des inscriptions
ou des bas-reliefs trouvs dans des ruines rencontres sur son chemin ou des distances plus
ou moins grandes; un spculateur de faire de la chaux avec une statue; celui-l de construire
une prison avec les gradins dun amphithtre. / En Algrie, la loi ne protge rien, car le danger
nest pas pour les gros monuments; les particuliers ne sattaquent pas eux pour en appliquer
les pierres de taille leurs constructions. Il en sera ainsi tant quelle ne portera pas avec elle une
sanction, quelle ndictera pas une peine pour tout acte de destruction dune inscription ou
dun objet dart. Et comme la surveillance doit sexercer sur un territoire trs tendu, le droit de
appendix
constater les contraventions ou les dlits devrait tre attribu tous les agents de ltat ou des
communes chargs, sur ce territoire, dun service dordre ou de police. La proposition en avait t
faite par divers membres de lInstitut: pourquoi fut-elle repousse par les Chambres?
[
217]Mac-Carthy_1885B_214215 the antiquities of Algeria: Quant aux mesures prendre
pour sauvegarder de si prcieux intrts, elles sont assez simples. On devra, en premier lieu,
ainsi que la fort bien dit M. Lon Renier dans ses Instructions pour la recherche des antiquits
en Algrie, runir, grouper en un mme endroit toutes les antiquits trouves sur le territoire de
chaque commune, en dresser le bilan et en faire une proprit communale la conservation et
au dveloppement de laquelle chacun serait intress. Puis, on pourrait en confier la surveillance
quelque personne instruite, de bonne volont qui, avec le concours moral du Ministre de
linstruction publique et lappui de ladministration locale, aurait assez dautorit pour agir
efficacement dans toutes les questions du genre de celles o elle serait oblige dintervenir.
[
218]Cagnat_et_al_1890_12, offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity. Avis aux lecteurs: Les prsentes instructions ne sadressent pas seulement aux membres
des Socits savantes dAlgrie ou aux archologues qui ont mission dexplorer lAfrique; bien
dautres personnes peuvent rendre service larchologie et nous avons la prtention de faire
appel tous. Etre du mtier nest pas toujours ncessaire. Il est possible chacun de se rendre
utile dans les limites de son savoir et de sa comptence spciale; il suffit de vouloir bien appliquer la recherche des antiquits les loisirs dont on dispose et de ne pas laisser chapper des
occasions qui se prsentent vous et qui, peut-tre, ne se reprsenteront plus pour personne. /
Lofficier qui traverse un pays, soit pour y faire de relevs topographiques, soit pour soccuper des
affaires indignes, le forestier en tourne, lingnieur des ponts ou des mines, lagent du service
des domaines, ladministrateur de communes mixtes et tant dautres quil serait trop long dnumrer ici, sont mis chaque jour, par lexercice mme de leur profession et par les dplacements
quelle exige, en prsence de monuments quil ne tient qu eux de signaler ou de reproduire;
il nest besoin que de bonne volont. On peut maintenant, grce tous les procds de reproduction connus, laide surtout de la photographie, sans prparation spciale, sans aucune instruction technique, et aussi presque sans frais, prendre une image absolument fidle de tous
les objets petits ou grands en face desquels le hasard vous conduit. / Nous souhaitons que ceux
qui habitent lAfrique franaise et qui laiment car on ne peut connatre ce pays sans laimer
tiennent honneur de rpondre notre appel. Si lon voulait bien communiquer au Ministre
de lInstruction publique les dcouvertes que lon fait et laider runir une collection complte
des monuments de larchitecture ou de la sculpture, des inscriptions, des monnaies de lAfrique
franaise, on rendrait aux travailleurs, lAfrique et la science un service signal. Tous les documents ainsi envoys seraient publis, sil y avait lieu, dans le Bulletin du Comit des Travaux historiques et dposs ensuite dans une bibliothque publique, avec les papiers africains de toute
sorte que Renier, le pre de larchologie africaine, a laisss aprs sa mort. Cette collection pourrait donner lieu plus tard une grande publication qui serait lhonneur de la science franaise et
delle seule. Mais, pour arriver ce but, il faut que chacun apporte sa pierre luvre commune.
[
219]Lacombe_1861_145 on photography: Embrassez-vous dici les avantages incalculables de
cette institution? Ce quun particulier, quelque opulent quil soit, ce quune socit industrielle,
quelques trsors quelle ait mis en commun, ne saurait jamais enfanter, le voyez-vous cr
par cette association multiple qui sappelle larme, qui tend la fois un nombre illimit de
bras sur les points du globe les plus divers, qui pntre partout, et pour laquelle les rois et les

peuples nont pas de mystres? Monuments anciens et nouveaux, uvres des sciences et de
lindustrie, types des races humaines, richesses de lart ou de la nature, qui pourra se soustraire
ses investigations?
[
220]Lacombe_1861_149 on photography: La ncessit dun bagage topographique rduit
de minimes proportions na pas chapp lauteur du projet. Il renferme tous les ustensiles
ncessaires dans un cube de 30 40 centimtres, dun poids assez lger pour tre port par un
homme, et au besoin entrer dans les deux cantines dun mulet; et comme en campagne les moyens
les plus simples sont les meilleurs, il les combine de manire permettre aux photographes de
faire eux-mmes leurs prparations avec des matires premires peu nombreuses...Le matriel
serait rparti en deux botes. La premire comprendrait lappareil et ses accessoires: la seconde,
les produits chimiques et les mmes ustensiles. Le tout nexcdant pas le prix de 400 francs.
[
221]Lacombe_1861_151 on photography: Ainsi, nous apercevons dans la photographie
une utile occupation pour les loisirs de nos jeunes officiers, et comme une continuation des
tudes de dessin, de physique; de chimie, de topographie, qui ont contribu dvelopper leur
intelligence et leur got pour ltude sur les bancs des collges et des coles. Certes, cest une
pense heureuse que celle qui tend satisfaire leurs besoins sans cesse renaissants dactivit, soit
dans le repos dune garnison, soit au milieu des camps, o le retour oblig des heures doisivet,
et la privation de distractions, labsence de la patrie, amnent lennui et la nostalgie.
[
222]Moulin, Ateliers Photographiques, 23, rue Richer, Paris, LAlgrie photographie, publication nationale sous les auspices de S. Exc. Le Ministre de la Guerre, et avec le concours de M.
le Marchal comte Randon, Gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie; des Commandants suprieurs et des
Bureaux arabes. Cette publication, destin populariser lAlgrie, a t accueilli avec faveur par
S. M. NAPOLON III, qui a bien voulu en accepte la ddicace; elle comprend les principales Villes,
Ruines romaines, sites pittoresques, Oasis et villages arabes les plus intressants des trois provinces,
Paris 1859 title page sic! A listing of the numerous photographs he has taken 27pp for Algeria
and Tunisia; 448 images in all, plus several panoramas.
[
223]Domet-Adanson (botanist), Rapport sur une mission scientifique en Tunisie, in
AMSL srie 3.4, Paris 1877, 347382. See 351: Une monographie dEl-Djem est encore faire, malgr les travaux de M. Gurin, mais je ne devais pas oublier que mon voyage avait un tout autre
but et que je devais arriver le plus tt possible Sfax, ma base doprations; ce ne fut toutefois
pas sans regrets que le dpart fut fix au lendemain matin. Cependant nous ne voulmes pas
quitter El-Djem sans avoir pris plusieurs vues photographiques de lamphithtre, qui pourront
au moins servir constater ltat actuel dun monument vou une destruction journalire des
plus dplorables.
[
224]Cagnat_et_al_1890_34 offering instructions for dealing with various kinds of antiquity.
Tourists can help as well: Il est aussi une classe de personnes laquelle nous adressons les instructions qui suivent; cest celle des voyageurs amateurs. On va beaucoup maintenant en Algrie
et en Tunisie; le voyage est facile et bon compte, le pays attirant; on sembarque donc, on se
promne de ville en ville et, pendant un mois, souvent plus, on est chaque jour en prsence de
documents intressants. Qui empche, en pareil cas, de soccuper un peu darchologie, non pas
rgulirement et comme un spcialiste, mais comme un homme du monde et en passant? Les
dessins, les estampages, les photographies prises, et les voyageurs ont souvent un appareil de
photographie, seront un souvenir de plus que lon rapportera de son voyage, celui-l utile la
science et au pays. Larchologie, au reste, se chargera de rcompenser de ses efforts celui qui
appendix
soccupera delle: ce nest pas un mdiocre plaisir de dcouvrir ces vieux cailloux que lon est
dabord port mpriser; car ces cailloux sont des fragments de civilisations disparues, et les
dcouvrir cest leur donner une nouvelle vie.
[
225]Bureau_1908_210211: Il faut que les fouilles accomplies par ces chercheurs de bonne
volont, par quelques officiers toujours en qute doccupations pouvant largir leur horizon
intellectuel, ne restent plus la merci dun manque dargent de la part des premiers ou de
changements incessants de garnison de la part des seconds. Tous nos officiers ne sont pas des
archologues et tous nont pas souci de faire parler un pass cependant si plein de faits pouvant
instruire et nous servir de leons pour le prsent. Cest donc la Direction des Antiquits
prendre en main officiellement les fouilles de Thyna, se servir de larme pour ces fouilles,
condition que M. le Gnral commandant la Division doccupation en Tunisie ne sy oppose
pas, et alors, en cas de refus del part de ce dernier ce que nous ne pouvons admettre comme
possible il faut alors que des quipes douvriers dirigs par des hommes comptents aillent se
fixer Thyna et l, la pioche et la pelle la main, avec prudence, avec mthode, cherchent faire
sortir de la poussire accumule par les sicles les ravissantes mosaques qui doivent encore y
tre caches et qui, exposes plus tard dans un palais ad hoc, feront accourir Sfax les savants
du monde entier qui, grce leur rudition, parviendront peut-tre reconstituer lhistoire de
Thyna.
[
226]LAvenir de Tbessa 17 January 1904. Hier, a peine quelques familles taient venues
planter dfinitivement leur tente et vivaient en parfaite harmonie; ctait un peu lge dor de
Tbessa. Pas de chemin de fer, la poste arrivait alors une ou deux fois par semaine; militaires et
civils ne formaient quune seule et mme famille. Il nen est plus de mme aujourdhui avec la
voie ferre, les voies de communication qui lu relient Bne et Constantine et lappas des mines,
noire cit demande, avec juste raison, une autre circonfrence, une plate forme plus vaste et
mieux arrondie. Cest entendu quon conserve tout ce qui porte un cachet romain, mais quon
dmolisse, sur le champ, cette enceinte byzantine qui ne mrite mme pas un souvenir et que le
bon cur Delapart traitait si spirituellement, denceinte spulcrale. Avec elle doivent svanouir
les servitudes militaires qui plus que nos remparts nous empchent de construire et de nous
tendre en dehors des portes. / Le gnie est partout et partout il oppose son veto. Il est intracitable, inaccessible tout espce de progrs, gare celui qui touche son domaine. Nous-avons
encore prsent la mmoire les tracasserie quont d supporter plusieurs de nos concitoyens
accuss par ce-dernier davoir empiet sur son domaine.
[
227]Bull. Municipal. Officiel de la Ville dAlger 20091897 Cette approbation [getting rid of
the servitudes], en ce qui concerne les terrains urbains et non affects de servitudes militaires,
est dautant plus urgente et indispensable, que la Ville se trouve la veille dutiliser son domaine
par des ventes et des constructions, et qu dfaut de plan de voirie approuv, elle ne pourrait
pas dlivrer rgulirement des alignements et nivellements non plus que des autorisations de
construire.
[
228]Bull. Municip. Officiel de la Ville dAlger 15051908: Nous devons nous attacher faire
disparatre les dernires servitudes militaires, utiliser pour la construction de maisons confortables, de cits ouvrires, de jardins et places publiques le vaste domaine domanial constitu par
le champ de manoeuvres et le parc fourrages.
[
229]Napoleon_III_1865_48 Towns: Le gnie militaire entoure la place de fortifications, en
ralit ou en projet; les abords les plus convenables au dveloppement de la ville sont frapps

de servitudes; les terrains qui, dans la suite, pourraient acqurir une grande valeur, sont affects des services publics tels que les arsenaux, les casernes, la gendarmerie, les manutentions,
les magasins de fourrages et de campement, les dpts de remonte, les logements pour les
tats-majors et les fonctionnaires civils et militaires, de sorte quil ne reste plus de place pour de
nouveaux habitants. / Je ne prtends pas dtruire ce qui a t construit, mais on doit, partout o
cela est possible, et sans nuire aux intrts rels de la dfense, restreindre les servitudes, livrer
la colonisation des terrains que lAdministration sest rservs.
[
230]LAvenir de Bougie 29 August 1883. Ziama [near Choba] ne peut rester plus longtemps
abandonn, l encore lEtat dtient des terres qui vendues seraient utilises par les acheteurs.
Sur les ruines de lancienne ville Romaine lon trouverait les matriaux ncessaires pour crer
sinon un port, tout au moins un hameau qui serait lembryon dune ville maritime plus tard.
[
231]LEcho de Bougie 7 November 1909. Depuis loccupation franaise jusquen 1876, la ville
de Bougie fut alimente par les sources du Fort Rouge, de Rouman et de Clauzel, situes dans
le flanc sud du Gouraya; mais ces sources, dun faible dbit, devinrent insuffisantes par suite
de laugmentation de population, et lon eut recours aux sources des Aiguades. A cet effet, M.
le Maire Pierron ce ntait pas un politicien avec sa fermet dancien commandant darmes,
fit construire, aprs avoir surmont dnormes difficults, la conduite deau des Aiguades
avec pompe lvatoire vapeur. / Il fit galement restaurer les anciennes citernes romaines,
au nombre de cinq, de faon toujours avoir, en cas de rupture des conduites, une rserve
deau suffisante pour lalimentation de la ville pendant la dure des rparations. / Ces citernes
contiennent ensemble 5 millions de litres environ, et la principale dentrelles a, elle seule, une
capacit de 4 mille mtres.
[
232]LEcho de Bougie 5 December 1907. Le bruit court en ville qutant donn ltat actuel
de la situation il se pourrait bien que noire garnison de Bougie fut galement envoye dans
lest. Elle serait alors remplace par dautres effectifs de Tirailleurs algriens trs probablement
puisque les besoins de latelier 4 et du pnitentier exigent toujours Bougie la prsence de ces
troupes. Attendons nous donc aux vnements et flicitons le gnie, de conserver, intactes
les dfenses de la ville et son mur denceinte dont lutilit apparat beaucoup mieux dans les
moments dinquitude.
[
233]Diehl_1892_122: A lAcadmie des Inscriptions, dans la sance du 20 juin 1881, Charles
Robert signalait la Compagnie cet esprit de destruction qui rgne sur notre terre dAfrique, et
contre lequel lopinion publique na pu ragir et, rappelant les mesures prises en dautres pays, il
demandait, au lieu dinstructions ministrielles inefficaces et de circulaires administratives striles, une loi svre, protgeant par de srieuses sanctions les ruines et les inscriptions antiques.
[
234]Diehl_1892_115 in Tunisia after 1881: Le capitaine Bordier, aujourdhui contrleur civil
Macteur, tudiait les nombreux monuments antiques qui couvrent cette portion de la Rgence;
le commandant Pdoya fouillait les ruines de lancienne Thelepte; le lieutenant Boy dressait
le plan des monuments antiques de Sbitla; le capitaine Vincent adressait lInstitut un intressant mmoire sur les antiquits de Bja; le docteur Vercoutre explorait la ncropole de Sfax;
le lieutenant Palat, qui, quelques annes plus tard, devait finir si tristement, assassin en plein
Sahara, dessinait dun crayon lgant et facile les dbris des difices romains; le lieutenant
Fonssagrives, le capitaine de Prudhomme, dautres encore, copiaient de nombreuses et importantes inscriptions; le lieutenant Esprandieu se rvelait tout la fois dessinateur habile et pigraphiste de talent. Dans les regions lointaines du Sud tunisien, la colonne du gnral Jamais
entreprenait des fouilles fructueuses Bou-Ghrara, lantique Gigthis, et dans lile de Djorba,
appendix
lancienne Meninx; Sousse, le corps dofficiers du 4e rgiment de tirailleurs, command par le
colonel Vincent, poursuivait avec un zle et un dvouement infatigable Texploralion des ruines
dHadrumte et faisait en quelque sorte sa province de ltude de la vieille cite romaine. Partout,
enfin durant ces dix annes, nos officiers rivalisaient de zle, de dvouement, de curiosit intelligente; et on ne saurait trop les en remercier au nom de la science franaise.
[
235]Cambon_1885_129130: La plaine que nous traversions, pour nous rendre de Sousse
Kairouan, qui stend du nord de la Rgence loasis de Gabs, dans lextrme Sud, sur une largeur de plus de 100 kilomtres de lest louest, est littralement jonche de ruines romaines;
des restes de villes, daqueducs, de citernes, de tombeaux se rencontrent chaque pas. Pays
de cocagne pour les archologues. Quelques officiers occupent leurs nombreux loisirs des
recherches patientes dans ces innombrables dbris; lun deux, M. le capitaine de Prudhomme,
nous avait montr, Sousse, des inscriptions, des mosaques superbes, des sculptures recueillies
ou simplement releves par lui sur tous les points de la contre.
[
236]Promulgated by the President of the Republic via Berthelot, ministre de lInstruction
publique et des beaux-arts: Loi pour la conservation des monuments et objets dart, in
Bulletin du Comit 1888, Paris 1888, 2731. See 30: Chapitre IV. Dispositions spciales lAlgrie et aux pays de protectorat. / Art. 16. La prsente loi est applicable lAlgrie. / Dans cette
partie de la France, la proprit des objets dart ou darchologie, difices, mosaques, bas-reliefs, statues, mdailles, vases, colonnes, inscriptions, qui pourraient exister sur et dans le sol
des immeubles appartenant ltat ou concds par lui des tablissements publics ou des
particuliers, sur et dans les terrains militaires, est rserve lEtat. / Art. 17. Les mmes mesures
seront tendues tous les pays placs sous le protectorat de la France et dans lesquels il nexiste
pas dj une lgislation spciale.
[
237]Tissot_1885_266 reporting on archaeological missions in Africa: Les ruines de Meninx
[island of Djerba] ont t explores de nouveau, au mois de fvrier de cette anne, par deux
missionnaires de lAcadmie; leurs rapports font mention de statues de marbre, trop lourdes
pour tre enleves, et de mosaques trs dtriores, portant la trace de dvastations rcentes.
LAcadmie est en droit de demander ce que sont devenues, entre autres, la tte de bronze signale par M. le lieutenant Gilbert et la mosaque reprsentant les quatre chevaux dont le rapport
nous a conserv linscription. Ces objets, qui auraient leur place marque dans une de nos collections nationales, ne sauraient rester entre les mains de ceux qui les ont dcouverts, puisque
les fouilles ont t faites par des militaires, cest--dire aux frais de lEtat. Il est non moins admissible que lon dtruise des pavs de mosaque afin de pouvoir dtacher et soustraire certaines
parties qui paraissent intressantes. Ce sont l de vritables actes de vandalisme, que nous mentionnons avec regret, avec lesprance quils ne se reproduiront plus.
[
238]Anonymous_Editor_1893_89: M. Ch. Robert signale ltat fcheux de divers monuments
antiques de lAlgrie: LAcadmie se souvient, dit-il, quelle a mis, le 20 juin 1884, sur ma
proposition, un voeu pour la conservation des monuments et des inscriptions dAfrique. Je lui
demande la permission de lui signaler un nouvel acte de vandalisme qui prouve combien il serait
ncessaire quune loi, approprie la situation de nos colonies, vnt enfin mettre un terme des
destructions que rien ne justifie, surtout lorsquil sagit de pierres inscriptions qui ne peuvent
fournir que des matriaux insignifiants. / M. Julien Poinssot, qui reprsente ici les Socits
archologiques dOran et de Constantine, minforme que les ruines de Seriana, 8 kilomtres
de cette dernire ville, viennent leur tour dtre mises en exploitation rgulire. Beaucoup
dinscriptions, dont plusieurs sont considres comme nayant pas encore t releves, ont

disparu, et le fortin byzantin a seul rsist par sa masse. Parmi les pierres dtruites, M. Poinssot
signale un texte publi par M. L. Renier (p. 212), relev de nouveau par Willmanns; et reproduit
dans le tome VIII du Corpus, sous le n 4376. Ce texte mentionnait la patrie dun vtran qui se
dit DOMO LAMIGO; il avait, par consquent, un intrt ethnique rel. / Quelques personnes
ont protest, mais il leur a t rpondu que les ruines de Seriana navaient pas dimportance. On
envisage trop souvent, en effet, les antiquits de notre terre dAfrique au point de vue exclusif
de lart; or, sil convient de ne conserver en France que des glises romanes ou gothiques dun
certain mrite architectural, il ne faut pas oublier quen Afrique la plus modeste inscription a
parfois un intrt capital au point de vue de lhistoire, de la gographie et de la connaissance
des races diverses qui vivaient dans cette partie du monde romain ou qui peuplaient la legio III
Augusta et ses cohortes auxiliaires.
[
239]Saladin_1893_225 after listing in his letter to the Minister (17) monuments in Tunisia
especially worth of preservation, he continues: Jose attirer lattention de Votre Excellence sur
ces difices si intressants et malheureusement destins tre, dans les temps venir, autant
menacs par la colonisation, quils le sont dans le temps prsent par la barbare incurie des
Arabes. / En demandant quon prenne leur gard toutes les mesures de prservation ncessaires, je crois remplir un devoir qui me semble impos par le souvenir dactes de vandalisme
que jai pu observer moi-mme pendant mon voyage. Je connais assez de faits de ce genre pour
craindre la destruction successive de tous ces beaux monuments, si je considre que les prcautions les plus lmentaires nont pas toujours t prises pour prserver de la destruction bien
des monuments aujourdhui entirement perdus. / Il est dsirer que, sur ce point, on puisse
donner une sanction pnale la loi dicte lan dernier, sur ce sujet, par le Gouvernement beylical. Sans pnalits, sans surveillance, nous verrons continuer les destructions par les Arabes,
pour extraire de ces difices des moellons et de la chaux, et les destructions par les chercheurs
dantiquits, qui, par leurs fouilles, dtruiront des monuments intressants ou les laisseront prir
en les laissant exposs aux atteintes de tous.
[
240]Viviani, Ren, etc., Loi sur les monuments historiques promulge le 31 dcembre
1913, in BACTHS 1914, XXXVIIXLVIII. Art. 25. Les diffrents services de lEtat, les dpartements,
les communes, les tablissements publics ou dutilit publique sont tenus dassurer la garde et la
conservation des objets mobiliers classs dont ils sont propritaires, affectataires ou dpositaires,
et de prendre cet effet les mesures ncessaires. / Les dpenses ncessites par ces mesures
sont, lexception des frais de construction ou de reconstruction des locaux, obligatoires pour
le dpartement ou la commune. Art. 28. Lorsque par suite de fouilles, de travaux ou dun fait
quelconque on a dcouvert des monuments, des ruines, des inscriptions ou des objets pouvant
intresser larchologie, lhistoire ou lart sur des terrains appartenant ltat, un dpartement,
une commune, un tablissement public ou dutilit publique, le maire de la commune doit
assurer la conservation provisoire des objets dcouverts et aviser immdiatement le prfet des
mesures prises. / Le prfet en rfre, dans le plus bref dlai, au Ministre des Beaux-Arts qui statue
sur les mesures dfinitives prendre.
appendix
1 Reclus_1886_604 Timgad, Lambessa etc.: LAfrique franaise est pleine de dbris du temps
des Csars, surtout des Antonins et de Septime-Svre. Sur un sol qui renverse les difices par ses
tremblements de terre, mais sous un ciel qui les pargne et qui les dore, au milieu dun peuple
qui ddaigne de btir, des villes clbres sont arrives jusqu notre sicle presque intactes, ou
du moins telles que les trouva le lendemain de leur destruction; mais depuis 1830 les colons,
ignorants, insouciants, brutaux, et dailleurs pauvres et presss de btir, leur ont fait plus de mal
que les Berbres et les Arabes en mille annes.
[ ]
2 Dailheu_1901_17: Nous arrivons donc tout naturellement lexamen dune trs grave question: celle de la naturalisation des indignes. M. Charles Benoist la regarde comme une utopie.
Vous ny mettez quune condition, dit-il, mais pour quils pussent laccepter, il faudrait quils
ne fussent plus les Arabes. Il faudrait que, de fait, ils fussent assimils et, vous le savez, cette
assimilation rapide, ce nest ni plus ni moins chimrique que la transmutation des mtaux. Et
la polygamie, et la succession musulmane, et le statut personnel? Vous voulez en faire des soldats? Deuxime utopie, qui, peut-tre, aurait son ct prilleux. Contentez-vous de ceux qui
senrlent aux tirailleurs et aux spahis. Noubliez pas que cest un peuple soumis dhier et fort
mal rsign. Vous vous flattez den faire des citoyens, des lecteurs? Il vous plairait de les doter
de la vie municipale, de la vie provinciale, de la vie nationale franaise. Cette fois cest de lutopie
double ou triple. Vous le voulez, vous, mais eux, ils ne le veulent pas.
[ ]
3 Du_Barail_1897_I_316: Sa colonie de Beni-Mred, o le colon tait soldat et o le village
tait caserne, lui semblait le dernier mot du systme. Au fond, il considrait lAlgrie comme
un champ de manuvres admirable pour former des soldats, comme une position stratgique
destine transformer, selon le vu de lEmpereur, la Mditerrane en un lac franais. Mais il
ne croyait pas la colonisation par llment civil, par linitiative prive. Il ne lencourageait pas.
Il avait, pour ainsi dire, peur davoir trop de colons, parce quil sentait quavec eux sintroduirait
fatalement le pouvoir civil, incompatible avec son humeur autoritaire.
[ ]
4 Chaudru_de_Raynal_1832_144145 a fan of military colonisation on the Roman model:
Cependant, aprs avoir pass, dans une sorte desclavage, les plus belles annes de leur vie, nos
soldats rentrent dans leurs foyers sans une obole dpargnes; heureux mme sils ny rapportent
pas, avec la misre, des infirmits, des vices et de la paresse! Il est tems de choisir un remde
ces maux. La colonie dAfrique a besoin de bras; pourquoi ne pas les chercher dans nos troupes?
Quelques essais conduiront bientt reconnatre que la sant de nos hommes se trouve mieux
des travaux nergiques du dehors, que de la vie close et oisive des casernes. Dans ce pays sillonn
de routes ouvertes parles Romains, les exemples ne nous manqueront pas. A notre tour, nous
laisserons aprs nous de longs souvenirs et de grands rsultats. Ils auront peu cot, car les
colons en paieront leur part, les terres conquises pourront rcompenser le travail, et, du moins,
de retour aux champs paternels, nos soldats trouveront, dans le peculium castrense que nous
aurons amass pour eux, le ddommagement de leur absence et de leurs labeurs.
[ ]
5 Nettement_1870_240 Bugeaud in the war against Abd el-Kader. He rassembla la garde
nationale, lors de son retour Alger, en fvrier 1846, et adressa aux colons un discours dans
lequel il leur disait: Nous avons beaucoup incendi, beaucoup dtruit. Peut-tre, on me traitera de barbare; mais je me place au-dessus des reproches de la presse, quand jai la conviction
que jai accompli une uvre utile mon pays. Puis il ajouta encore: Larme nest pas faite
pour protger les intrts des colons, mais pour marcher la conqute de lAlgrie et sillustrer
par des victoires.
[ ]

6 Piquet_1914_146 Bugeauds military colonies: Cest ainsi que furent organiss les villages
de Fouka, Beni-Mred et Maelma; mais il fallut bientt recourir llment civil et Bugeaud,
qui ne dmordait pas de son ide, finit par y installer des soldats non librs. Il cherchait dans
ce systme une force et, en 1843, lexpliquait dans un banquet. Larme ne peut tre rduite
sans quau pralable on ait cr une force attache au sol, qui puisse remplacer les troupes
permanentes quon supprimera. Cette force, mon avis, vous ne pouvez la trouver suffisante que
dans ltablissement de colonies militaires en avant de la colonisation civile. / Il ne se montrait
dailleurs pas hostile la colonisation prive, si ce nest aux grandes concessions qui taient
naturellement incompatibles avec son systme.
[ ]
7 Ideville_I_1881_183 undated opinion by Bugeaud: Que lon colonise Alger, disait-il une
autre fois, cest trs bien; mais il serait plus intressant encore de coloniser les grandes landes de
la Bretagne et de Bordeaux. Une partie de larme pourrait tre employe cela; des villages y
seraient btis, mis en forme de camps, mais sur un plan commode pour lexploitation agricole;
les troupes les occuperaient dans le double but de se former la guerre et de mettre en culture
les terrains environnants. Ce dernier rsultat obtenu de manire ce que les familles pussent
y vivre, ces villages et leurs dpendances seraient vendus et afferms; larme pourrait alors
produire une partie de ce quelle cote et contribuer puissamment la prosprit de la nation.
[ ]
8 Duval_1865_130 writing on the state of French possessions in Algeria: Les Europens
noccupent encore quun demi-million dhectares, cest--dire la superficie dun grand
dpartement de France, soit la 45e partie environ du territoire occup par les Arabes. Comme
lachat de terres en territoire arabe a t interdit aux Europens, pendant la priode presquentire
de la domination franaise, et quils ont d recevoir le sol des mains de ladministration, sous
forme de concession ou de vente, ces chiffres tablissent la part extrmement petite qui leur a
t faite; ils attestent aussi la modration extrme de la conqute vis vis des vaincus cest la
cause principale de la lenteur des progrs de la colonisation europenne que lon compare tort
avec la colonisation anglo-saxonne, qui ignore de tels scrupules envers les indignes.
[ ]
9 Cagnat_1886_6 visits the centre and south of Tunisia, less rich in Roman towns than
the north, but cette contre est pourtant couverte de ruines, principalement dans la portion
septentrionale et occidentale; mais les restes quon rencontre sont gnralement sans grande
importance. Il est vident que la colonisation de cette partie du pays a t presque exclusivement agricole; ce qui le prouve, cest quon trouve dune faon constante, dans chaque henchir,
quatre espces ddifices, construits pour lordinaire en blocage: / 1. La maison dhabitation et
la ferme, dont la grandeur varie suivant limportance de lexploitation; / 2. Des citernes circulaires ou rectangulaires de dimensions variables, dont quelques-unes sont trs grandes et tres
remarquables. Leau y tait amene des montagnes voisines par de petits aqueducs dont la trace
existe souvent encore; / 3. Un ou plusieurs pressoirs huile dont il ne reste plus gnralement
que les montants, encore en place; / 4. Un ou deux mausoles, parfois un plus grand nombre,
entour de tombes plus modestes: ils taient ensevelis le fermier, les membres de sa famille
et les ouvriers quil employait. / Ce sont les diffrentes constructions qui taient ncessaires
aux colons pour vivre, en suffisant leurs besoins joumaliers, et pour reposer honorablement
aprs leur mort. / On remarque aussi dordinaire dans ces sortes de ruines dautres difices dune
poque plus rcente: / a. Une glise, dont les restes ne sont gure reconnaissables, la plupart du
temps, qu un chrisme gisant a terre au milieu de quelques colonnes ou quelque sujet figur
de lpoque chrtienne. Rarement le plan de ldifice est encore visible; / b. Un fortin, construit
a la hte aux derniers temps de loccupation romaine, qui servait de refuge, en cas dalerte, aux
[ ]
appendix
colons du voisinage. II faut distinguer ces enceintes fortifies de forteresses plus importantes et
qui avaient une destination militaire; nous aurons loccasion de signaler des difices de cette
dernire espce.
[ ]
10 Lasnavres_1865_138139 on the difficulties of colony-founding: Dcidment, lord
Palmerston disait vrai en appelant la France la patrie des alins, et ce qui viendrait lappui du
jugement port par ce grand homme dEtat cest que parmi vous il en est qui prtendent quil
serait trs-facile de jeter ici 800,000 colons pour servir de contre-poids la population indigne.
Vous voulez donc remplacer nos troupeaux de buf, que vous nous avez dtruits par un troupeau de 800,000 moutons que nous gorgerions. Lorsque deux hommes senss, et cest pour cela
que vous mprisez leurs conseils, vous disaient, le gnral Duvivier par exemple, que les cimetires sont les seules colonies croissantes de lAlgrie, et que le marchal Bugeaud crivait son
Gouvernement: que tout homme envoy en Afrique tait un homme perdu!
[ ]
11 Ratheau_1879_209210 Village of Le Kseur: La journe du lendemain fut employe au
dehors, remonter la valle du Sahel jusqu vingt-six kilomtres environ de Bougie, un village
important que lon nomme le Kseur il est de rcente cration et parat avoir russi. La valle que
nous suivions est large, bien cultive et dun aspect trs-riche. Elle se rtrcit beaucoup en allant
au del du village, trois ou quatre kilomtres de distance; cest sur ce point que nous nous dirigions pour visiter les ruines dune ancienne ville romaine assez importante dont lemplacement
porte aujourdhui le nom de Thiglat ou Thilgat, et qui tait appele, parat-il, daprs une inscription retrouve depuis peu, Tubusuctus. Nous laissons donc notre voiture au village, lauberge
o nous devons djeuner, et nous partons pied. Cest encore jour de march; je commence
tre blas sur ce spectacle et je ne my arrte plus. La route est longue et le soleil brlant; mais
notre ardeur archologique nous emporte, et nous arrivons enfin danciens rservoirs assez
semblables ceux que jai vus Hippone, Philippeville, etc. Ils valent eux seuls la peine que
nous nous sommes donne pour venir jusque l, et cest bien heureux, car du fameux Tubusuctus
je naperois pas grand-chose: quelques dbris informes jonchent bien le sol aux environs, mais
la destruction a t bien complte, on peut dire la lettre que la charrue y a pass.
[ ]
12 Berbrugger_1856_156: Statistiques des ruines romaines en Algrie. Il est trs-important
surtout pour les tudes de gographie compare de connatre exactement les gisements de
ruines romaines ou autres, qui se rencontrent en si grand nombre sur le sol de lAlgrie. Nos
correspondants des provinces sont particulirement mme de faire ce travail; notre tche doit
se borner leur fournir quelques indications, cet gard. / Ils trouveront dans tous les registres
de statistique des bureaux arabes, une colonne consacre ce genre de renseignements. Cest
une base essentielle de recherches. Ils feront bien den prendre copie, afin de complter et de
rectifier, sil y a lieu. Les archives des tats majors des divisions et des subdivisions leur fourniront aussi des notes importantes dans les journaux de marche des colonnes expditionnaires.
Il est rare que ces documents ne renferment pas de prcieuses indications archologiques. /
Nous ayons dj notre disposition un travail de ce genre sur le cercle de Tns, par M. le lieutenant-colonel Lapasset; un sur le cercle de Miliana, par M. Julienne, interprte de larme; un sur
la subdivision de Mda, par M. Pharaon, interprte de larme; un sur la subdivision de Stif, par
M. Berbrugger; un sur la subdivision de Batna, par feu M. le gnral Carbuccia. / Nous les citons
ici pour ne pas exposer nos correspondants recommencer un travail dj fait. Nous ne doutons
pas dailleurs, quils ne trouvent chez MM. les Chefs dtat-major et ceux des bureaux arabes la
complaisance que nous avons prouve nous-mme quand nous avons eu besoin de consulter
cette partie de leurs archives. / Ces documents seront successivement publis par la Revue.

13]Lamoricire_1848_11 colonisation projects in the triangle Oran-Mostaganem-Mascara:
M. le capitaine dartillerie Azema de Montgravier, attach la sous-direction des affaires arabes,
officier vers dans les tudes archologiques, a recherch les vestiges des tablissements
romains dans la province, afin dtablir une comparaison instructive entre ce quils ont fait et
ce que nous faisons et voulons faire. / A ces deux officiers taient adjoints MM. Gelez, capitaine au 44e de ligne, officier studieux et intelligent, qui tait confi le soin de faire les relevs
topographiques reconnus utiles; Brahemscha, interprte principal, accompagn dindicateurs
arabes, vieux serviteurs des Turcs, bien instruits de toutes les questions de proprit. / MM. de
Martimprey, dIliers et Azema ont employ six semaines lexploration minutieuse du terrain. /
Les rsultats de cette triple enqute sont consigns: 1 Dans un mmoire de M. le lieutenantcolonel de Martimprey, accompagn dun plan indicatif de ltat actuel des lieux et des zones de
colonisation projetes. 2 Dans une srie de notices rdiges par M. le commandant dIliers, et
qui donnent la description de chacune des communes proposes. Une carte dite des communes
a t dessine pour servir lintelligence de ces notices. 3 Dans deux mmoires de M. Azema de
Montgravier sur lassiette de la domination romaine dans la province dOran et sur la politique
des Romains lgard des indignes, avec une carte rectifie des ruines romaines.
[ ]
14 Lamoricire_1847_26: M. le capitaine dartillerie Azema de Montgravier, attach la
sous-direction des affaires arabes, officier vers dans les tudes archologiques, a recherch les
vestiges des Romains dans la province, afin dtablir une comparaison instructive entre ce quils
ont fait et ce que nous faisons et voulons faire.
[ ]
15 Molnes_1885B_36 bureaux arabes: On choisit dans larme des officiers dvous,
capables, connaissant la langue, familiers avec les murs des Arabes, et on les tablit sur tous les
points du territoire militaire divis en cercles, avec une mission de guerre et de justice en mme
temps. Les rsultats que cette institution a obtenus ont dpass tout ce quon pouvait esprer. Le
respect et la confiance sont entrs facilement chez les Arabes par cette sorte de magistrature
cheval qui se transporte, franche, dcide et expditive, partout o un mfait a t commis. Ibid.,
39: Ce commandement indigne, si utile, si important, mais si dlicat manier, est surveill par
les officiers des bureaux arabes. Runis par une mme habitude du danger, par un mme got
pour le mouvement, par un mme entrain dans la guerre, nos officiers et les chefs arabes vivent
dans une union do sort .chaque jour un nouvel avantage pour lAlgrie. Si lon dtruisait les
bureaux arabes, on dtruirait du mme coup toute une organisation qui sans eux est immdiatement prive de vie.
[ ]
16 Foucher_1858_11: nous navons pu nous renfermer dans les villes du littoral, et, pour nous
assurer les moyens dy tre en sret, nous avons d nous rendre matres des territoires qui les
environnaient; puis, le systme de colonisation stablissant sur une plus vaste chelle, nous
avons t conduits occuper le pays tout entier, et si aujourdhui notre domination est accepte
partout, nous le devons en partie laction incessante des bureaux arabes, grandissant et stendant comme la conqute elle-mme. 13: Mais, indpendamment de cette organisation successive du bureau arabe dAlger, il fallut galement, ds les premiers mois qui suivirent la conqute,
lorsque larme rencontrait une hostilit acharne chaque pas quelle tentait en dehors de la
banlieue de la ville, rgulariser les efforts que lon faisait pour se procurer des renseignements
sur la topographie du territoire, sur la constitution sociale et politique des populations, et surtout pour surveiller les tribus arabes et nouer des relations avec elles; ce travail fut confi
quelques officiers dj familiariss la langue du pays, et qui staient en quelque sorte crs une
spcialit pour ces affaires toutes nouvelles. / Alors on ne pouvait videmment employer que
[
appendix
des militaires, car laction de la France tait toute guerrire, et ctait pour conqurir le terrain
pied pied que larme prodiguait son sang et bravait le soleil dAfrique. Voil ce quon oublie
encore aujourdhui.
[ ]
17 Molnes_1885B_3940 bureaux arabes: Lorganisation des bureaux arabes, que lAngleterre serait heureuse de pouvoir appliquera ses possessions indiennes, a t cre par les gnraux Lamoricire et Marey, elle a t perfectionne, sous le gouvernement du marchal Bugeaud,
par un des hommes que de longues tudes ont le plus profondment initis aux murs africaines, par le gnral Daumas. Sait-on ce que cote la France ce vaste rseau dagents militaires
qui parvient contenir en Afrique plusieurs millions dhabitants? 160 ou 180,000 francs, le quart
peine du budget que rclamerait ladministration civile rve par quelques esprits.
[ ]
18 Ribourt_1859_50 bureaux arabes: Eh bien, jy consens, brisez cette institution; mais, de
grce, dites-le-moi, tant que leur tche ne sera pas finie, lducation du peuple arabe, par quoi
remplacerez-vous ces gens de cur, dintelligence et de dvouement qui ont t les conqurants
du sud, et, aprs la guerre, les vrais pacificateurs du pays?
[ ]
19 Napoleon_III_1865_72: Lorganisation des bureaux arabes, qui a produit de si bons rsultats, doit, en grande partie, la rputation dont elle jouit la valeur et lintgrit des hommes
employs dans ce service. En Algrie, plus que partout ailleurs, on peut dire: Tant vaut lhomme,
tant vaut la chose. Si, dans nos socits niveles, la valeur individuelle sefface devant lemploi, il
nen est pas de mme dans la socit arabe, o lindividu a bien plus dautorit que la fonction.
L, pour longtemps encore, tel officier fera rgner la tranquillit dans un territoire o tout autre
dchanerait le dsordre et lanarchie.
[ ]
20 Foucher_1858_1516 for details of the 1844 Bureaux Arabes decree; 2324 for details of
division into military and civil in 1848.
[ ]
21 Foucher_1858_20 bureaux arabes: Ce furent encore les bureaux arabes qui devinrent les
intermdiaires et les agents du gouvernement pour la solution de ces grandes questions, mme
dans les territoires civils; car les rsultats obtenus par les bureaux arabes militaires, et le besoin
bien senti davoir des agents spciaux pour administrer les indignes sous la direction de lautorit suprieure, amenrent le gouvernement les introduire dans ladministration civile, alors
que la domination fut assez assise pour permettre de ranger sous ce gouvernement non-seulement les villes, mais aussi des portions considrables de territoire qui, chaque jour, stendent de
plus en plus avec la marche de la colonisation.
[ ]
22 Foucher_1858_11 the Arabs no longer rule the country: Notre conqute a mis fin
cet tat de choses; nous navons pu nous renfermer dans les villes du littoral, et, pour nous
assurer les moyens dy tre en sret, nous avons d nous rendre matres des territoires qui
les environnaient; puis, le systme de colonisation stablissant sur une plus vaste chelle,
nous avons t conduits occuper le pays tout entier, et si aujourdhui notre domination est
accepte partout, nous le devons en partie laction incessante des bureaux arabes, grandissant
et stendant comme la conqute elle-mme.
[ ]
23 Foucher_1858_78: Linstitution des bureaux arabes est, mes yeux et dans ma
conviction, trop utile au dveloppement de la conqute et de la colonisation, elle est un
intermdiaire trop ncessaire vis--vis des populations indignes pour quil soit permis de
lentendre ainsi condamner et presque fltrir sans chercher dgager la vrit et la prsenter
telle quelle doit apparatre aux yeux des hommes srieux.
[ ]
24 Wolf, M., gnral de division, Les Bureaux arabes devant le jury. Compte rendu in extenso
des dbats du procs intent par M. le gnral Wolf, agissant au nom des bureaux arabes, contre

lAkhbar, lAlgrie franaise, le Moniteur de lAlgrie et le Tell, Algiers 1871. An action brought by
Wolf against these four newspapers. Defendents accused him of swift promotion: he left S. Cyr
in 1844, is commandant by 1854 (average time for such advancement: 15 years); then lieut-col.
in 1859, having avoided war in Crimea and Italy. Offers a broad range of opinion on the utility
or diabolical influence of the BA, via plentiful quotations from newspapers and periodicals
accusations include self-enrichment, easy promotion, shirking the fighting, stealing. Jury: guilty.
[ ]
25 Leclercs_de_Pulligny_1884_253254: Au temps o les bureaux arabes fonctionnaient
avec vigueur, on avait sous la main des colonnes de chaoucks, et, si quelque fanatique tentait
un soulvement, si un europen tait lchement assassin, le crime tait immdiatement puni
sans bruit, sans ostentation; on prvenait au lieu de rprimer et chacun vivait insouciant sous
lgide de cette institution, dont je ne cherche cependant pas faire lapologie, car je sais quelle
a amen de nombreux abus. / Aprs quelques annes dune tranquillit factice, on a abandonn ce rgime. / Lre de la paix sincre, de la subjugation de llment indigne, en un mot
de la possession pacifique, avec suppression de larme, est-elle donc arrive? apparatra-t-elle
mme jamais? / Pour moi, jhsite le croire, car aucun peuple na su se maintenir ici sans
une force redoutable, dissmine sur tous les points du territoire et relie par dinnombrables
tours signaux, dont on retrouve encore les traces. / On envoyait de vieux rgiments composs dhommes aguerris, faits au climat, et non de jeunes recrues, soldats dont les plus gs
ne comptent pas quatre annes de service. Les Romains, qui sentendaient en colonisation et
navaient cependant pas lutter comme nous contre le fanatisme musulman, formaient des
villes entires de lgionnaires; ils distribuaient les terres annexes leurs vieilles troupes et en
faisaient ainsi des armes de colons, capables de prendre les armes la moindre alerte. Pourquoi
ne pas agir comme eux?
[ ]
26 Warnier_1863_24 Quand lintrt europen est sacrifi, ce qui arrive et doit arriver
souvent, lEuropen rcrimine, et de rcriminations en rcriminations, on en est arriv, de part
et dautre, la lutte ouverte. A lunanimit, les colons demandent la suppression ds bureaux
arabes; par rciprocit, les officiers des bureaux arabes, sinon en totalit, du moins en majorit,
demandent la suppression des Colons.
[ ]
27 Piesse_1862_CLXXI: Les bureaux arabes sont pour les populations indignes la garantie quil ne sera pas fait violence leurs habitudes et leur foi. Mais dfendant galement les
intrts des colons europens dans leurs rapports avec les Arabes, ils prviennent et rpriment
les vols, tablissent la scurit et permettent le dveloppement rgulier de la nouvelle socit
franaise au milieu de ces tribus si souvent rfractaires au frein de toute police administrative.
Pour lautorit politique, ils sont un instrument prcieux. Il faut cependant se hter dajouter que
la mission remplie par le service des affaires arabes est transitoire; car son rle principal consiste
amener les indignes, par des amliorations lentes et progressives, se ranger sous les mmes
errements administratifs que la population europenne. Si ce but peut tre atteint sans que les
musulmans croient leur religion menace, une conqute morale importante sera accomplie.
[ ]
28 Couty_1895_34: Opinion en faveur des Bureaux Arabes: Les brigandages dont lAlgrie
est, depuis de trop nombreuses annes le thtre, ramnent naturellement les esprits vers le
rgime des bureaux arabes. On compare les Officiers de ces bureaux aux Administrateurs des
communes mixtes; et le rsultat de la comparaison est loin dtre lavantage de ces derniers. /
Tout en rpudiant pour eux-mmes lautoritarisme militaire, les Franais Algriens ne peuvent
sempcher de reconnatre que les officiers des bureaux Arabes avaient, et ont toujours en territoire militaire, sur les indignes, une autorit srieuse; et que cette autorit les Administrateurs,
appendix
nont pas russi lacqurir. On est donc en droit de se demander si la substitution partielle
de lun lautre rgime na pas t une faute. / En pays conquis, la mission dadministrer les
indignes appartient tout dabord larme conqurante qui, seule, y reprsente la nation. Plus
tard, cette mission est dvolue llment civil, et cela de plus en plus, au fur et mesure de son
dveloppement dans le pays. / En principe donc, la substitution est dans lordre des choses. Si
nous eussions t en pays civilis, il eut fallu administrer au plutt au moyen de nos Magistrats
et Fonctionnaires; mais nous tions, et nous sommes toujours, en pays demi-barbare, parmi des
fanatiques gnralement voleurs et, trop souvent, assassins; cest une toute autre affaire.
[ ]
29 Duvernois_1858_106107: Tout sous -lieutenant de larme, sorti de lcole ou de la classe
des sous-officiers, est apte entrer dans les affaires arabes: il lui suffit den faire la demande. /
Aucun examen ne lui est impos, il nest interrog sur rien, il nest tenu de rien savoir: il est
officier, cela suffit. / Et cet homme, peine sorti des bancs de lcole, ce jeune homme plein
dinexprience, auquel on ne confierait pas le sort dune compagnie, on va lui remettre, sans
transition, sans prparation, le sort de plusieurs milliers dArabes, dhommes trangers pour lui,
dont il ignore la langue, dont il ignore les moeurs;dont il ignore tout, except le nom. / On
nous dira que ce sous-lieutenant naura pas un commandement, quil agira sous les ordres dun
chef. / Mais, avec des attributions aussi diverses que le sont celles dun Bureau Arabe, avec un
personnel aussi limit que le personnel dont il se compose, chaque homme qui en fait partie
sa mission, sa part trs-large de responsabilit. Souvent le capitaine sabsente, le lieutenant est
en tourne et le sous-lieutenant reste seul charg de tout le fardeau. / Nous demandons tous les
hommes de sens quels services on peut attendre dune Administration ainsi forme.
[ ]
30 Duvernois_1858_108: Le chef du Bureau Arabe est le plus expriment des membres
du Bureau. / Entr jeune dans les affaires, il a commis de nombreuses erreurs, mais, force
dexprimenter sur la nature vivante, il sest instruit, il sest clair. Pour peu quil soit
naturellement intelligent, il commence alors rendre des services. Vite, on le nomme chef de
bataillon, et il cde la place un nouvel colier. / On voit que, par le fait mme de sa constitution,
lAdministration des Bureaux Arabes est frappe dincapacit, dimpuissance. Il est bien
dmontr quelle est au-dessous de sa mission.
[ ]
31 Hugonnet_1858_3: doesnt say where he was stationed, except sur une des frontires de
notre Algrie, dans un cercle habit par des tribus montagnardes remuantes, et constamment en
lutte avec les populations du pays voisin.
[ ]
32 Hugonnet_1858_139140: Le moment ntait pas venu de soccuper activement de
lamlioration matrielle du pays, toutefois la fin de ma dernire anne de sjour sur ce point,
la paix, paraissant avoir des bases un peu plus solides que prcdemment, loccasion me sembla
propice de songer divers travaux. Cest alors aussi quon me parla pour la premire fois de
cotisations volontaires. Je me mis en mesure den obtenir, mais ayant pris la chose la lettre,
je me figurai quil fallait rellement dcider les tribus se cotiser, et fidle ma manire de
procder lorsque je voulais quil ft pris une rsolution par un des groupes de population,
je runis lassemble de la tribu par laquelle je voulais commencer, et jexpliquai ce dont il
sagissait. Je proposai pour premiers travaux, de faire construire deux fontaines avec abreuvoir
proximit dun emplacement o se tenait un grand march. A quelque distance on avait
amass antrieurement une quantit considrable de pierres, pouvant servir lrection dun
grand difice; la rivire, le bois taient proches, il y avait donc l tous les lments de la cration
dun commencement de ville; comme preuve lappui de plus, on trouvait dans les environs de
nombreuses ruines romaines.

33]Thoumas_1887_I_260261: Linstitution des bureaux arabes a soulev jadis de longues et
irritantes discussions: quelques aventuriers clatantes leur avaient attir la dfaveur publique et
pour bien des gens, bureau arabe tait devenu synonyme dexaction, de concussion, doppression
et mme de meurtre...Cest aux bureaux arabes, sans conteste, que nous devons en grande partie
la conqute dfinitive de lAlgrie. Ces officiers, dit un ancien et brave militaire, le capitaine
Blanc, ont t de merveilleux instruments de conqute et de pacification, nos initiateurs aux
lois et aux murs arabes, nos gographes et nos guides dans les expditions...Ils ont fait plus
et mieux encore: ils ont fait redouter nos armes aux lieux mmes o elles navaient pas paru et
fait aimer partout notre justice, notre dsintressement et notre loyaut.
[ ]
34 Mauroy_1852_3132: Le caractre arabe, si indomptable et si tenace, tend chaque jour
a se modifier. Il cde malgr lui linfluence de la civilisation europenne. Un officier suivi de
quelques soldats parcourt les tribus, entend leur plaintes, rgle leurs diffrends. Le nom chrtien nest plus maudit comme il ltait: on commence le craindre, nous dirions presque le
respecter.
[ ]
35 Annales_Colonisation_1856_X for analytical index of vols I-X, dedicated to entries for
villages, crops and other products. Characteristically, only two entries for ruins, two for mosques,
and none at all for antiquities, sculpture, mosaics or inscriptions. Indeed, thorughout all 14
volumes, apart from a few book reviews there is nothing on historical culture, and little on the
natives except as a source of cheap labour. Nearly all pages devoted to crops, products, building
and the progress of towns and villages, reports on itroduced animals, and how-to-do-it accounts
for sorghum, olives, wine etc.
[ ]
36 Desfontaines_1830_318 travelling 1783, the Mitidja: Sa longueur est denviron vingt lieues
et sa largeur de cinq six. Elle est arrose par un grand nombrede rivires et de ruisseaux, et
lon y rcolte chaque anne de riches moissons dorge, de mas et de froment; elle est borne au
sud dans toute son tendue par un chanon de lAtlas, et au nord par une suite de collines et de
jolis coteaux qui suivent le rivage de la mer, et sont couverts de lentisques, de cistes, de myrtes,
de jasmins et doliviers sauvages. Les habitans dAlger ont dans la Mitije un grand nombre de
maisons de campagne et de jardins plants dorangers et de grenadiers; ils les appellent des
maceries, et y vont passer lt avec leurs familles. Dans cette saison, lair de la Mitije est trs
insalubre cause des eaux croupissantes qui sy amassent pendant lhiver et qui y forment des
marcages. Lorsque les chaleurs ont fait vaporer les eaux, la fange et les plantes aquatiques
qui y pourrissent exhalent une odeur infecte et malsaine; aussi ceux qui habitent laMitije sont
exposs des fivres intermittentes trs difficiles gurir.Ces lieux sont remplie de gibier dhiver.
[ ]
37 Zouave_1860_73 the Mitidja: skilfully cultivated, is destined yet to become the great
kitchen garden of France, and to supply, by means of railroads, all the great towns of the mother
country with fruits and early vegetables, both during winter and spring.
[ ]
38 DHautpoul_1850_51: Les environs dAlger (la Mtidja) et ceux de Bone et de Philippeville
furent les premiers objets de la sollicitude administrative: 2,510 hectares de marais y ont t
assainis. / Il serait trop long de citer ici tous les autres marais qui, depuis lors, dans les provinces
dAlger, de Constantine surtout, ont t desschs, soit par le gnie militaire, soit par les ponts
et chausses...Somme totale, 7,580 hectares de marais ont t assainis et rendus la culture.
[ ]
39 Pellissier_1836_I_9293 Mitidja: On trouve, en parcourant la plaine, des traces irrcusables danciens travaux de desschement excuts, soit sous la domination romaine, soit une
poque plus rapproche, mais qui certainement tait celle dune sage administration aussi la tradition du pays conserve-t-elle les souvenirs dun temps heureux o la Mtidja tait riche et peu[
appendix
ple. Cette prosprit a disparu depuis longtemps sous ladministration imprvoyante des Turcs,
qui ont t pour cette belle partie de lAfrique, ce que furent les Chrtiens pour lAndalousie.
[ ]
40 Gomot_1844_142143 the Mitidja, quoting Clausolles LAlgrie Pittoresque: Les restes
dune ancienne prosprit se manifestent par fois; des traces de canaux dirrigation, des btiments dont les murs, encore debout, sont revtus intrieurement de peintures, de dorures, de
marbres, des ruines enfin dont les dbris portent encore lempreinte dune civilisation avance, attestent que cette contre a t lasile des arts et de lopulence. On sait, en effet, que ces
constructions, que ces travaux taient louvrage des Maures de Grenade et de Valence, qui sy
taient rfugis aprs leur expulsion dEspagne...La plupart des villages ne sont quune agglomration de misrables cabanes en torchis, parmi lesquelles se trouvent quelques maisons de
pierre. Il y a aussi de belles fermes, solidement construites par les Europens, dont les matriaux
ont t emprunts aux ruines parses sur le sol. Tout cela est entreml de tentes noires, servant
au campement des Arabes nomades et quils transportent dun lieu lautre avec leurs familles
et leurs troupeaux.
[ ]
41 Trumelet_1887B_241 Boufarik: Comme nous lavons dit plus haut, on sest occup,
pendant lanne 1841, de la construction de lobstacle continu de la Metidja: 84 blockhaus
destins la garde de cet obstacle, et ayant cot 174,000 francs, taient prts tre poss. /
On comptait toujours beaucoup sur cet obstacle; il devait, disait-on, donner une impulsion
nouvelle la prosprit de Bou-Farik, et faire jouir son territoire de la scurit qui lui manquait.
[ ]
42 Bolle_1839_7273 the Mitidja: Il est fort dangereux de parcourir la plaine sans tre protg par une escorte; et un homme seul, une lieue de la ville serait presque sr dtre assassin
aussi les franais qui vont en Algriene connaissent-ils gure que la capitale et les principaux
points de la rgence et part les militaires, jai trouv beaucoup de personnes Alger qui nont
jamais dpass lhpital du dey et le camp de Mustapha-Pacha. Ibid., 115: Trois jours aprs mon
refont dans: la capitale de la rgence, deux malheureux colons furent gorgs sur la route que je
venais de parcourir, une lieue dAlger et au milieu de trois camps franais.
[ ]
43 Roy_1880_349350: Cependant les premiers essais de colonisation, proprement parler,
ne remontent pas au del de 1841. On tait au milieu de la guerre, les hostilits stendaient
jusqu la banlieue dAlger. On songea faire de la colonisation o llment militaire prdominait. On pensait quil fallait lenfermer dans des fosss, dans des enceintes continues. On commena lobstacle, cet immense retranchement qui devait entourer la plus grande partie de la
Mtidja, et on cra les grands villages militaires de Fouka et de Mred, entours de murailles,
labri desquelles taient les maisons des colons, bties sur un plan uniforme par le gnie militaire. Elles devaient tre peuples par des soldats librs, organiss en compagnies, et commands militairement. Fouka seul fut peupl de cette manire; mais on ne tarda pas reconnatre
les difficults et les dpenses excessives propres un systme qui faisait de la colonisation avec
des clibataires sans ressources, quil fallait marier pour leur donner une famille, doter, loger,
nourrir et habiller, et qui travaillaient en commun. / Afin de peupler Mred, on employa des
soldats encore attachs au drapeau, rsolus se fixer en Algrie, et ayant des habitudes agricoles. Une compagnie ainsi recrute fut installe dans ce village, et une autre dans le camp de
Maelma. / On voulut ensuite faire de la colonisation civile.
[ ]
44 Rivoire_1840_6 the Mitidja: On a propos dentourer la plaine dune muraille, afin de protger la colonisation contre les entreprises hostiles et toujours imminentes des Arabes. Si nous
pouvions esprer dobtenir ce rsultat, je prfrerais un canal; on trouverait des facilits pour
ltablir, et il serait avantageux la dfense, la colonisation et lassainissement de la plaine.

Ibid., 9: En gnral, le systme de fortification provisionnelle adopt en Afrique, consiste tracer une enceinte plus ou moins vaste, suivant limportance de la position, avec un rduit pour 5
ou 400 hommes. Cette disposition serait efficace, si les rduits avaient beaucoup moins dtendue; mais on leur a donn celle que les camps seuls devraient prendre.
[ ]
45 Bequet_1848_263 Mitidja: Assainie, cultive, habite, comme elle peut ltre, la Mtidja
formerait certainement un des territoires les plus riches et les plus fertiles du monde. / La scurit de cette plaine, qui a t pendant si long-temps le thtre de tant de combats, est aujourdhui
assure louest et au sud, par loccupation permanente de Miliana et de Mdah; elle le sera
galement lest par la cration dun grand tablissement militaire et colonial, qui couvrira le
vaste espace rest libre entre Mdah, le nouveau poste dAumale et Dellys. La valle de lIsser
semble depuis long-temps marque pour devenir le sige de cet tablissement. Il est croire que
lon ne tardera pas mettre excution ce projet, qui saccorderait si bien avec notre systme
gnral doccupation.
[ ]
46 Le_Pays_de_Bourjolly_1849_1112 writing on agricultural colonies: La plaine de la Mitidja,
cette plaine si fertile, si couverte de magnifiques moissons au moment de la prise de possession
du pays, la porte dAlger et attenant au Sahel, est aujourdhui inculte aux trois quarts. Ntait-il
pas consquent et logique de loccuper, de la mettre en culture, dy tablir des colons avant de
les envoyer tous quarante lieues dAlger? Ctait sans doute lintention de lautorit militaire,
mais elle a t paralyse par les actes de concession de ces terres, et les propritaires nont pas
t expropris comme les Arabes, et pourtant, ils auraient pu, ils auraient mme d ltre: car
les lois et ordonnances dans le cahier des charges, pour les concessions faites, imposent au
Gouvernement lobligation du retrait des terres concdes, dans le dlai dun an, si ces terres
sont restes incultes. Cette mesure et t aussi juste que salutaire; mais on sest arrt devant
les questions de personnes, et au risque de blesser les Arabes, de compromettre la colonisation,
on a prfr accorder cet avantage aux concessionnaires, dattendre la plus-value de leurs terres
sans dpenses et sans travail.
[ ]
47 Anon_Blackwoods_1841_185: The Metidja has never been drained, and it is covered with
stagnant pools, marshes, and small sluggish streams, which, under the influence of an African
sun, produce a vegetation such as is found in an Indian jungle, with all the attendant scourges of
the most malignant fevers and pestilential diseases. It was into the Metidja, as M. Blanqui (Report
on Algeria, read to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, by M. Blanqui, sen. Paris, 1839:
Blanqui, Jrme-Adolphe, economist) informs us, that the French settlers threw themselves,
with the most thoughtless impatience, the moment they obtained leave from government, and
in that deadly region carried on an uncertain struggle with the climate and the inhabitants. The
few Arabs who were settled on it, never renounced their right of possession, but, on the contrary,
kept up a continual system of predatory warfare, in which they were almost always successful.
The French agriculturists were confined to the walls of their farms, and with difficulty collected
the produce of their land; troops could not be spared in sufficient numbers to protect them, nor
could the government risk the lives of their men in such an unhealthy service. The crops, too,
were badly chosen, cotton, pepper, and other tropical plants were tried, but failed; and with the
exception of the cattle, sheep, and game, which the swampy plain nourished in abundance, little
return had been obtained by the owners of property in the Metidja, when the Arabs came to put
an end to their possession, by burning and destroying every thing within their reach.
[ ]
48 Baude_1841_II_231232: Abdelcader na pas de meilleur auxiliaire que la colonisation
intempestive de la Mtidja: elle prive de mobilit les soldats qui lcraseraient; elle tablit en
appendix
sa faveur une diversion permanente, dautant mieux garantie que les organes de la publicit en
France sen sont constitus les gardiens; on leur envoie dAlger cent fois plus de cris et de larmes
pour un colon imprudent dcapit ou pour un troupeau de vaches enlev, que pour deux cents
soldats expirant de la fivre dans les ambulances et les hpitaux. / Il est temps de sortir dun systme si funeste et de rentrer dans le vrai. / La colonisation agricole nest utile que dans les limites
o elle est en sret; et dehors, elle nest quun embarras pour le gouvernement, et un danger
pour ceux qui sy livrent: ils jouent leur fortune et leur vie contre des chances trompeuses, et il
nest pas digne de la loyaut du gouvernement de les leurrer dune protection quon nest pas en
tat de leur garantir. Une ferme dtruite ou brle en empche dix de se fonder; il faut donc,
dans lintrt mme de la colonisation, cantonner la culture. Pour prparer la place au laboureur,
le soldat a besoin dune libert daction entire; il poursuit mal les Arabes, lorsquil entend derrire lui les cris de ceux qugorgent quelques coureurs. Chaque chose a son temps et son lieu, et
la colonisation nest en progrs que l o elle nest point expose reculer.
[ ]
49 St_Marie_1846_228229: Behold that large trench: it is the common grave for the
soldiers who have perished in the hospitals, from being confined in the pestilential quarters
of the Mitidja, supplied by the Model Farm, or some other farm, worked out by a company of
shareholders! Under the present defective system, agriculture can hold out but little interest to
the colonist. To the army, Africa is a vast field of battle. The soldier passes through it and returns
to France. For the speculator it is an open field for swindling. No person in the colony thinks
seriously of the real interests or future prospects of France.
[ ]
50 Du_Cheyron_1873_149 Bordj-Bou-Arreridj (Constantine) during the 1871 insurrection: Le
bivouac fut tabli prs de la fontaine romaine, avec dfense aux hommes dentrer dans les murs
de Bordj, o il ny avait que de mauvaises maladies gagner. On formait un cordon sanitaire
autour de nous. Il ne manquait en vrit plus que cela pour rendre notre blocus complet!
[ ]
51 Anon_1873_6364 Les Arabes et la colonisation: On a beaucoup attaqu le gouvernement
militaire de lAlgrie, mais sans faire la juste part des services que notre arme a rendus la colonie. On ne sest pas rendu compte des difficults dune situation qui lobligeait faire marcher de
front la soumission entire ainsi que ladministration rgulire des provinces mesure quelles
taient conquises. Il lui fallait gouverner et combattre. On a trop oubli lnergie, lactivit,
labngation de nos braves soldats et de leurs minents gnraux. Lpe dune main, la pioche
de lautre, ils ont prpar le vaste champ que nos colons devaient occuper plus tard. Grce
leur dvouement opinitre, ces territoires sont aujourdhui les plus salubres et les plus fertiles
de lAlgrie. Qui a travers la plaine de la Mitidja peu de temps aprs notre occupation; qui sest
gar alors dans des solitudes incultes, malsaines et marcageuses, frquentes seulement par
des malfaiteurs et des btes froces, celui-l peut apprcier les rsultats obtenus. Il admirera les
travaux dassainissement, les jetes, les ponts, les routes, les dfrichements dus au concours de
notre arme au profit des colons, dans cette magnifique plaine que lon peut comparer aux plus
belles cultures de la Beauce.
[ ]
52 Trumelet_1887B_150151 Boufarik in 1838: bien quils fussent en possession de leurs lots
urbains depuis longtemps dj, les colons concessionnaires de Bou-Farik ny avaient pourtant
pas encore commenc leurs constructions; ils taient rests, pour la plupart, dans leurs baraques
ou gourbis du Bazar, et les cases du vaste damier qui avait t donn pour assiette la ville
restaient vides de maisons. Le Commandant suprieur du Camp-dErlon crut devoir modifier
une situation qui menaait de sterniser: des ordres furent donns pour que chacun des colons
concessionnaires ft transporter sa baraque du Bazar sur le lot urbain qui lui avait t attribu,

et se mt ainsi en mesure de remplir les clauses conditionnelles de son acte de concession. Mais,
comme, en fait de matriaux de construction, les colons ne pouvaient rien trouver sur place,
quils taient obligs de tirer dAlger les bois, la chaux, etc., quil fallait aller chercher la pierre
au loin, et que cette besogne ntait pas sans danger, lordre du Commandant suprieur ne put
recevoir son excution que trs lentement. Cependant, quelques colons se mirent loeuvre; les
tablissements indispensables, les htels, les cabarets, les fours, slevrent assez rapidement:
lHtel de Paris, le Mont-Atlas furent les premires constructions de la ville future. De nouveaux
colons arrivaient dailleurs tous les jours; la population stable se faisait.
[ ]
53 Trumelet_1887B_8788 the origins of Boufarik, 1835, in the settlement called Bazar, right
next to the military camp: Mais, la suite et sous la protection de larme, trente-cinq petits
marchands, cantiniers ou ouvriers dart taient venus se grouper, proximit des troupes, sous
des gourbis faits de branchages, de roseaux et de paille de marais, habitations primitives dont la
runion, bien que nayant rien dextraordinairement oriental, prenait pourtant le nom pompeux
de Bazar...Dans limpossibilit de se faire construire des abris plus solides, la population du
Bazar dut se contenter de ses incommodes gourbis, demeures inhabitables aussi bien par les
pluies de lhiver que par les chaleurs de lt; il ne fallait pas songer se btir des maisons quand
les soldats eux-mmes ne pouvaient aller chercher des pierres dans louad Bou-Chemala, dix
minutes du Camp, sans tre attaqus par des Arabes embusqus dans les broussailles. Chaque
corve de pierres ou de gravier exigeait, en effet, une escorte pour la protger.
[ ]
54 Trumelet_1887B_174 near Boufarik: in 1839: Cest dans cette mme journe que le colon
Laurans et le sieur Hermann, ce dernier ex-sous-officier de la Lgion trangre, occups
charger des pierres dans louad Bou-Chemala, sont surpris, garrotts, et, malgr lescorte charge
de les protger, enlevs par un parti arabe assez nombreux qui les emmne au del de la Cheffa.
[ ]
55 Veuillot_1847_148149: Il faut donc nous tablir, et nous tablir tout dun coup, en force,
sur plusieurs points quon choisirait dabord parmi les plus cultivs. Le gouverneur, clair par
nos checs et par son bon sens, pense que la colonisation doit tre implante en quelque sorte
toute faite; quil faut donner aux colons non pas des promesses et la ressource de vendre du vin
aux soldats qui les protgent, mais de bonnes maisons, un village bti et fortifi, des champs
protgs contre les invasions de lennemi. Avec le temps ce noyau germera et pourra devenir
une ville. En attendant, il faut que le village puisse se dfendre au moins pendant quelques
jours. Cette cration plat tout le monde, tout le monde en attend dexcellents rsultats. En
effet, si au moyen de ces villages nous obtenions la paisible possession, la possession agricole de
la Mitidjah, des plaines de Bne, du plateau de Stif, des environs dOran; si nous avions l de
vritables tribus sdentaires et chrtiennes, vivant du sol, sy tablissant toujours, et pouvant,
pendant une guerre europenne, augmenter en Algrie la petite arme quelle y nourrirait; si
elles taient composes dhommes braves et valides, laborieux et moraux, capables de manier le
fusil comme la charrue, ayant dfendre des enfants, une patrie, une foi! alors nos principales
villes se garderaient peu prs par elles-mmes, et nous jouirions dj, sans trop de sacrifices,
des avantages quelles nous promettent sous le rapport maritime.
[ ]
56 Rousset_1882_85: LOued el Arab arrose encore le haut pays de lAurs par un de ses
affluents, lOued Mellagou. Celui-ci a, vers ses sources, les magnifiques plateaux des Bni
Oudjana, bien cultivs, o les ruines romaines abondent; on ne trouve sur ces plateaux si fertiles que villages antiques ensevelis sous les broussailles, autels, temples, inscriptions, conduites
deau tailles dans le roc des berges, etc. Ces ruines tmoignent de la haute prosprit du pays
appendix
dans lantiquit et il ny manque que le travailleur europen pour refaire en quelques annes
cette prosprit.
[ ]
57 Baudicour_1853_3435: Partout, dans le Tell, on trouve les traces de la domination
romaine, dtapes en tapes, auprs des sources et des rivires, on rencontre des ruines. Il arrive
quaprs avoir cherch longtemps lendroit dun centre de population, nos officiers du gnie
naboutissent qu rendre hommage aux premiers conqurants, et ne tracent lenceinte dun village franais que pour dterrer une ville romaine. Quelques-unes de ces ruines attestent des
cits importantes. On y retrouve les bains et les conduites deaux, le thtre avec des gradins en
demi-cercle, de grandes glises avec leur portique, leur nef, leur chur; on distingue souvent
aussi les mosaques qui pavaient le sanctuaire. Lme est mue en prsence de tant de grandeurs
enfouies, et lon regarde avec tonnement la tribu arabe qui depuis des sicles y fait paitre ses
troupeaux.
[ ]
58 Gsell_and_Graillot_1894_591592 Ruines romaines au nord des Monts de Batna, in the
Dpartement de Constantine: Mechira Plain: Cette plaine, au centre de laquelle sest tablie
depuis quelques annes la ferme importante de M. Augustin, tait seme de villages. A un kilom.
et demi au sud-sud-ouest de la ferme, un hameau possdait plusieurs pressoirs...A lendroit
mme o slve actuellement la ferme Augustin il y avait un assez gros village, avec des pressoirs, des puits et un fortin, aujourdhui dtruit...Voici quelques inscriptions insignifiantes que
nous avons copies dans la ferme Augustin ou dans le voisinage.
[ ]
59 Carton_1894_23 Tunisia: Le lendemain matin nous nous mettons en route pour Sidi Atch
travers des gorges sauvages. On ny aperoit que des hynes, des fauves qui ne craignent pas
derrer en plein jour dans cet affreux dsert, qui est bien leur domaine. Certes, on taxerait de
folie quiconque, de nos jours, formerait le projet dtablir une station agricole en ce point, et
cependant, les ruines dhabitations, les monuments ny sont pas rares, et leur prsence indique
quil a t habit. Il me souvient dune ferme antique situe au bord du chemin, et dans laquelle
slevaient encore, intacts, six pressoirs dont les montants, les rigoles, et jusquaux cuves abandonnes depuis 1200 ans taient encore en place. Ceci nous prouve que ces montagnes dnudes ont t couvertes doliviers.
[ ]
60 Piquet_1914_3: Au beau temps de lAfrique Romaine, on ny cultivait pas moins de
40 millions de pieds doliviers, et la splendeur des ruines qui couvrent le pays, Thinae,
Hadrumte, El Djem, suffisent prouver quelle en tait la richesse. Dans ces espaces que nous
avons trouvs dserts, dvasts par des sicles de guerres, nous avons replant dj prs de 18
millions de pieds doliviers.
[ ]
61 Andry_1868_111: Notons encore que ces villages, comme bien dautres que nous avons
vus ou que nous verrons, sont gnralement fonds sur danciens emplacements de colonies
romaines. Il semble que, sur presque tous les points de lAlgrie, la civilisation franaise ne fasse
que reprendre, aprs bien des sicles dintervalles, loeuvre de la civilisation romaine interrompue par la barbarie.
[ ]
62 Lamoricire_1848_145146 colonisation projects: Akbeil village, 69 families, 1,300 hectares: Les belles et abondantes sources dAkbeil, dont les eaux sont excellentes, descendent du
flanc N. de la montagne de Tafraou jusque dans la vaste et fertile plaine de Melata. Akbeil ne
se trouve ni dans lintrieur du triangle que nous avons appel le berceau de la colonisation, ni
sur une des routes principales de la province; ce nest point non plus une position stratgique
dont loccupation permanente puisse tre jamais ncessaire pour gouverner ou matriser les

indignes; mais cest une localit si heureusement place (des ruines romaines attestent que nos
devanciers sy taient tablis) pour des colonisateurs hardis et entreprenants, que dj plusieurs
riches capitalistes en ont demand la concession au Gouvernement. Par suite, nous avons cru
devoir en parler dans cette notice et comprendre Akbeil au nombre des points sur lesquels on
pouvait ds prsent tablir des agriculteurs chrtiens.
[ ]
63 Gsell_and_Graillot_1893_500502 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: La description
des ruines de Khenchela ne sera pas longue: la construction du village franais a presque tout
fait disparatre. A louest, un rservoir moderne a t construit sur lemplacement dune ancienne
piscine. Celle-ci recevait son eau du Chabor, hauteur qui domine Khenchela; ds lantiquit, elle
semble avoir t lobjet dune rparation, car on a employ dans le conduit une borne milliaire
du rgne de Trajan. Quelques fouilles pratiques rcemment prs du bassin nont donn que
des monnaies et des poteries...Au sud-ouest, dans la campagne, deux kilomtres environ du
bordj du commandant suprieur, il y avait jadis une ruine en belles pierres de taille. On a cru y
voir un petit temple; cest plus vraisemblablement un fortin de basse poque,dont les matriaux
avaient appartenu des difices plus anciens...Le bordj du commandant suprieur ne contient
que quelques inscriptions et tables doffrandes. La cour de la maison Parrasols est dcore,
dune manire trs pittoresque, dun grand nombre de dbris antiques. Outre les monuments
du culte de Saturne et les pilastres chrtiens cits plus haut, nous mentionnerons une triple
cuve orne de pampres, de rosaces inscrites dans des cercles, de chevrons, etc.; des meules; des
chapiteaux corinthiens, pour la plupart de mauvais travail. On trouve a et l dans le village des
chapiteaux, des bases antiques (quelques-unes socle lev, comme dans la plupart des glises
de cette rgion), des tables doffrandes. Un grand sarcophage, conserv lhotel Saint-Pierre.
[ ]
64 Saladin_1893_51 Oued Djilma: Camp franais situ sur un emplacement antique. Toute
la campagne est couverte de restes de constructions agricoles. Ruines de maisons, ruines de trs
longs murs de clture entourant probablement des jardins, nombreuses ruines de citernes et
rservoirs deau. Une fort doliviers devenus maintenant sauvages est un successivement, nous
citerons des fragments de meules broyer les olives.../ A Djilma, on a construit lentre du
bordj une sorte de fronton soutenu par trois colonnes, et on a employ des fragments de frises
(poque chrtienne) et des chapiteaux antiques pour la dcoration de cette construction. On a
mme remani certaines parties des chapiteaux. Jai dessin un chapiteau ionique quon a fix
sur un fragment de colonne antique, au-dessus dun escalier conduisant aux terrasses du bordj.
[ ]
65 Ideville_II_1882_251 Proclamation by Bugeaud on his arrival in 1841: Commenons la
colonisation par agglomrations dans des villages dfensifs, en mme temps commodes pour
lagriculture et assez militairement constitus et harmoniss entre eux pour donner le temps
une force centrale darriver leur secours, et je me dvoue cette uvre. / Formons de grandes
associations de colonisateurs; mon appui, mon zle de tous les instants, mes conseils dagronome, mes secours militaires ne vous manqueront pas. / Lagriculture et la colonisation sont tout
un. Il est utile et bon sans doute daugmenter la population des villes et dy crer des difices;
mais ce nest pas l coloniser. Il faut dabord assurer la subsistance du peuple nouveau et de
ses dfenseurs que la mer spare de la France; il faut donc demander la terre ce quelle peut
donner.
[ ]
66 Veuillot_1847_148149: Il faut donc nous tablir, et nous tablir tout dun coup, en force,
sur plusieurs points quon choisirait dabord parmi les plus cultivs. Le gouverneur, clair par
nos checs et par son bon sens, pense que la colonisation doit tre implante en quelque sorte
toute faite; quil faut donner aux colons non pas des promesses et la ressource de vendre du vin
appendix
aux soldats qui les protgent, mais de bonnes maisons, un village bti et fortifi, des champs
protgs contre les invasions de lennemi. Avec le temps ce noyau germera et pourra devenir
une ville. En attendant, il faut que le village puisse se dfendre au moins pendant quelques
jours. Cette cration plat tout le monde, tout le monde en attend dexcellents rsultats. En
effet, si au moyen de ces villages nous obtenions la paisible possession, la possession agricole de
la Mitidjah, des plaines de Bne, du plateau de Stif, des environs dOran; si nous avions l de
vritables tribus sdentaires et chrtiennes, vivant du sol, sy tablissant toujours, et pouvant,
pendant une guerre europenne, augmenter en Algrie la petite arme quelle y nourrirait; si
elles taient composes dhommes braves et valides, laborieux et moraux, capables de manier le
fusil comme la charrue, ayant dfendre des enfants, une patrie, une foi! alors nos principales
villes se garderaient peu prs par elles-mmes, et nous jouirions dj, sans trop de sacrifices,
des avantages quelles nous promettent sous le rapport maritime.
[ ]
67 Le_Pays_de_Bourjolly_1849_911 writing on agricultural colonies: Dabord, lemplacement des colonies agricoles fut pris loin des centres, loin de porte de la protection que lautorit militaire doit accorder aux colons, et par consquent mal dispos pour la dfense. / Cette
premire faute tait dautant plus imprudente, que la manire dont on sy tait pris pour avoir
ces emplacements avait excit chez les Arabes le mcontentement le plus vif. / / En effet, dans
beaucoup de 1ocalits, pour la cration des colonies agricoles, il a fallu disposer des terres
appartenant aux Arabes, les exproprier en les indemnisant ailleurs, la vrit; mais peine
taient-ils tablis dans ces nouveaux endroits quon les expropriait encore pour les refouler plus
loin...quon lui donne dautres terres sur dautres points. Car les nouvelles terres, fussent elles
suprieures, ne reprsentent pas pour lui celle o dort son pre, o ses enfants sont ns, o il a
vcu si longtemps, o sattachent tant de souvenirs. De l, la rvolte naturelle que linjustice fait
natre dans le coeur des hommes, la haine qui samasse, le dsir de vengeance qui se fait jour, et,
plus tard peut-tre, cette question gnrale de proprit renatra plus palpitante, et se traduira
par une insurrection.
[ ]
68 Nolte_1884_133134 writing on colonial wars: Et maintenant, nous voudrions indiquer les rsultats obtenus par les divers systmes de colonisation essays en Algrie depuis la
conqute. Cest une tude intressante, mais que le cadre de notre travail nous interdit. / Nous
nous contenterons donc de dire que la plupart de ces systmes ont chou. Les villages militaires, cration tente par les marchaux Vale et Bugeaud, les villages officiels levs conformment aux instructions du gouvernement central, nont point russi. Il en a t de mme
pour les grandes cultures essayes par des socits de capitalistes, ou par de riches particuliers.
Beaucoup ont abouti la ruine, et pour les quelques autres, elles ont t bien loin de donner
les bnfices quon en avait rvs. Toutefois, de ces entreprises, de chacune delles, il est rest
quelque chose: les villages se sont peupls, tendus et les cultures quon avait cherch introduire en Algrie ont t ressayes par de simples colons qui, oprant sur une petite chelle, en
ont tir des rsultats satisfaisants.
[ ]
69 Playfair_1890_271: Magenta, or El-Hacciba, a village created by Gnral Chanzy, but
which has never prospered. For a long time it was so unhealthy that the troops were not allowed
to pass the summer here, but were removed to the higher and healthier position of Daya, 16 kil.
S. E. It is now much more healthy, and as the surrounding lands are fairly good the railway may
bring it prosperity.
[ ]
70 Anon_1848_7: Les principales maladies qui affligent le colon, dans les premiers temps de
son sjour, sont: les fivres, la diarrhe, la dyssenterie et lophthalmie.

71 SHD MR1314 33, Colonel Prtot Notices sur divers points du littoral de la Regnce dAlger,
considrs dans leurs rapports avec la conqute, le commerce et la colonisation ultrieure du
pays 7 January 1834 (for the whole: sections individually dated). 55: Notice sur le Collo ou
Colo, dated 12 November 1834: Il est bti au pied dune Montagne sur les ruines dune ville plus
considrable que les Romains avaient entoure de murailles et dont lenceinte, anciennement
dtruite par les Goths, na jamais t releve; or 69/1317.
[ ]
72 Lamping_1855_74: At Coleah they have begun to form a colony of old worn out soldiers,
but I have great doubts of its success. These veterans, it is true, have the double advantage of being
tolerably well used to the climate and of knowing how to conduct themselves with prudence
and coolness when attacked by the enemy; on the other hand, an old soldier generally makes
a very bad peasant, and is ten times more patient of the dangers and hardships of war than of
daily work with spade and plough. He usually takes unto himself some profligate woman not at
all likely to attach him to his home, and then of course, neglects his farm, and soon dissipates the
small sum allowed him by the Government, and the end of it all is that he sells his oxen and his
plough, turns off his female companion and enlists for a few years more. And now the old fellow
who used to curse the service heartily, finds it quite a decent and comfortable way of life, and
it is amusing to hear with what indignation he speaks of the life of a colonist. / The only means
of establishing a permanent colony in Africa would be for the French Governnient to send over,
at some expense it is true, a number of real agricultural families from the north of France, or,
better still, from Germany. The southern Frenchmen are totally unfit for colonists. The only kind
of agriculture which they would be able to pursue with any profit is the cultivation of the grape,
and this is strictly prohibited, for fear of injuring the mother country. Hitherto the Government
never seems to have been really in earnest about the colonisation of Africa.
[ ]
73 SHD GR 1M1316 Reconnaissance militaire de Mostaganem Tiaret et considrations sur
la route tablir entre ces deux points, 1846, 17: La ville sagrandit tous les jours, les constructions
nouvelles slvent de tous les cts et remplacent les anciens maisons arabes. La population
indigne, en grande partie, abandonne la ville pour stablir Tigarit, dont les ruines aujourdhui
releves prsentent laspect dune cit nouvelle.
[ ]
74 Rousset_1882_3536: Les ncessits de cration de centres europens exigent que les
terres livrer aux colons soient groupes dans un cercle assez restreint, que lon ait autant que
possible le voisinage des rivires, que les positions choisies pour les emplacements des villages
soient facilement dfendables. Si nous voulons recevoir dutiles leons de nos devanciers, examinons les emplacements des villages romains; leurs ruines nous guideront et nous montreront
avec quelle profondeur de calcul la colonisation romaine avait enserr lAfrique.
[ ]
75 Robert_1903_61 commune mixte des Maadid: En voyant les ruines importantes et
nombreuses qui couvrent le douar Sidi-Embarek, on est frapp de la similitude qui existe au
point de vue de la colonisation entre lpoque actuelle et la romaine. On compte, en effet, cinq
importants villages installs prs des villes ou tablissements romains.
[ ]
76 Frisch_1899_181: En effet, ce qui caractrise la colonisation romaine, cest le soin avec
lequel les centres militaires ou les villages de colons taient relis. La voie romaine, avec sa large
assise dempierrement et de dallage, avait toujours t considre comme un puissant moyen de
domination. Les traces ou, plutt, les jalons que lon retrouve partout en Algrie et en Tunisie,
dans les stationes, les mantiones, vritables biscuitsvilles, garnisons, gtes dtapes ou postes,
prouvent que les chausses romaines, les viae calcatae, rpondaient toujours soit un plan
densemble stratgique, soit une exploitation rationnelle de toute une rgion.
[ ]
appendix
77]Montaudon_1898_24 in 1842: Nous quittons Alger le 24 mars; le 25, bivouac deux kilomtres de Blidah; de suite on soccupe des prparatifs dorganisation dune colonne lgre pour
aller combattre les tribus de la Mitidja et des environs de Cherchel, qui ne cessaient de faire des
incursions sur nos fermes, de tuer nos colons et de piller nos quelques allis indignes dvous
notre cause.
[ ]
78 Barbier_1855_184185 Le poste de Bordj-bou-Areridj a t fond dans un but politique et
militaire, pour dominer la plaine, garder le chemin de Stif Aumale, surveiller les tribus de la
Kabylie et de Hodna, et favoriser les importantes communications du Sahara algrien avec le Tell
du Nord. / Ce poste est bti sur lemplacement et avec les ruines dun tablissement romain. Le
commandant suprieur, M. le lieutenant-colonel dArgent, en a fait un dlicieux sjour. Par les
soins et sous la direction de cet officier, des plantations et des travaux trs-importants ont t
excuts, et comme complment indispensable, on y a fond un tablissement hippique o lon
voit dj de superbes talons qui, avec les belles juments de la Medjena, ne manqueront pas de
donner de beaux produits.
[ ]
79 Montaudon_1898_71 in 1843: Le 2 mai nous quittons Mdah, et le 4 nous arrivons
Boghar, par des pentes assez raides et des sentiers troits. Cette localit, o se trouvent dassez
importantes ruines romaines, doit nous servir de base dopration pour explorer le haut Chelif.
[ ]
80 Mercier_1880_9596: Mais, quel que soit le systme adopt, nous pensons que, pour une
colonisation qui stablit dans des rgions ordinaires du Tell, il faut, ds le dbut, de vastes terres,
avec la ferme au milieu de la proprit, dans un endroit dominant et bien expos, comme les
Romains savaient les choisir. Cette ferme doit former un quadrilatre entour de murs solides
pour que les indignes ne puissent, en une nuit, y pratiquer des trous, et levs, afin de dfier
lescalade. / L o tout est en scurit, les hommes peuvent se reposer tranquillement du travail
de la journe et les bestiaux ruminer leur aise dans la cour ou les hangars, labri des intempries et hors de latteinte des voleurs. Enfin, en cas dinsurrection, la ferme devient un petit fort
facilement dfendable. / Il est inutile de dire que, pour procder de la sorte, il faut des capitaux;
cest la condition sine qua non de la russite; or, largent ne manque pas en France.
[ ]
81 Baudicour_1856_162 writing on colonisation: Comme la classe des agriculteurs est en
dfinitive la plus nombreuse en France, il en rsulte que cest surtout au milieu delle que se
font les recrues de larme. Aussi nos soldats avaient-ils t dun grand secours pour les colonies
agricoles. Presque toutes les cultures et tous les dfrichements y avaient t faits galement par
eux. Depuis longtemps, un bon nombre avait t dtach dans les fermes et les villages pour
donner aux autres colons le secours dune main-duvre bon march. Beaucoup de militaires
nattendaient plus que leur libration pour se fixer en Algrie. Nayant point eu subir les mmes
privations que les pauvres colons, ils staient acclimats beaucoup plus facilement, et ils avaient
pu faire un excellent apprentissage dans toutes les cultures auxquelles ils avaient t appliqus.
[ ]
82 Rufer_1907_323 deals with les tablissements romains du Bas-Chlif, de la Mina, de
lOued-Hillil et de lOued-el-Abd at Mina: Le travail le plus intressant et le mieux conserv
des Romains est cette belle conduite deau qui amenait dans loppidum les eaux de lAn-Anseur.
Sa longueur dveloppe tait de plus de vingt kilomtres. Son trac peut encore tre suivi sur le
territoire de la commune mixte de Zemmora; sur quelques points, prs des sources de lOuedel-Anseur, ladmirable aqueduc est entirement conserv. / Nous trouvons sur son passage
quelques vestiges de fermes ou de petits postes militaires. Prs de la valle de lOued-el-Anseur,
un champ de ruines plus important marque lemplacement dun camp ou dun pagus. Un peu
en aval, prs des sources basses de lOued-el-Anseur, gauche du chemin vicinal de Zemmora
[

aux Hamadena, slevait une ferme fortifie, vritable rsidence seigneuriale, autour de laquelle
taient groupes de petites habitations douvriers agricoles. / La conduite deau tait donc garde sur tout son parcours. Nous navons pas trouv de traces de grands rservoirs maonns,
mais dans le voisinage des points habits et surtout dans la traverse du faubourg de Mina, on
voit encore, sur la conduite, une srie de petits puisards cylindriques. Tous ces ouvrages fonctionnaient encore la fin du Ve et au commencement du VIe sicle de notre re. Ainsi que nous
le verrons par la suite, la mme conduite deau alimentait, longtemps aprs la destruction de la
ville, une glise chrtienne de lpoque vandale. / La colonie romaine tait garde par quelques
forts dtachs.
[ ]
83 Marchand_1895_209210 exploration and dig from 1859, around Ammi-Moussa: Kaoua,
Zeboudj el Ksar (environ quinze kilomtres lest dAmmi-Moussa), vaste maison fortifie,
ayant la forme dune croix latine, et entoure dune enceinte circulaire de prs de trois cents
mtres de dveloppement. / Cette maison prsente quarante mtres sur chacune de ses faces, et
les murs rests debout ont encore sur quelques points sept mtres de hauteur. / Quatre postes,
dont un assez important, entourent ce chteau fortifi. Deux occupent les extrmits est et
ouest du mamelon sur lequel est Kaoua. / Deux autres sont dans la plaine: lun sur la route muletire dAmmi-Moussa Orlansville, lautre sur le chemin de la valle de lArdjem...Au-dessus
dAn Arfa, tout fait prs du sommet, sur le versant ouest, les Romains ont ouvert une carrire
de cent-vingt mtres de largeur et vingt de profondeur. Des pierres y taient dgrossies, et sur
plusieurs, on remarque, vers le prolongement des veines, des entailles de vingt centimtres de
longueur, faites au ciseau, afin de faire clater le pierres.
[ ]
84 Marchand_1895_215216 exploration and dig from 1859, around Ammi-Moussa: Mdinat
Achelaf, sur le versant sud de Sidi Marouf 2 kilomtres du prcdent (927m). / Achelaf est une
ruine immense, couvrant plusieurs kilomtres carrs dun nombre infini de pierres de taille de
toutes dimensions. / Cette ville est entoure de postes nombreux, dont quelques uns sont assez
importants. La ville militaire, au milieu de la face nord, garde la source trs abondante dAchelaf.
Cette ruine sera plus tard lobjet dun travail spcial.
[ ]
85 Lacave-Laplagne, Jean, Administrateur de la commune mixte dAmmi-Moussa, Notes
sur quelques ruines romaines releves dans la Commune-Mixte dAmmi-Moussa, in Socit de
Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XXXI 1911, 2156. See 38 Ammi-Moussa: Il ne
reste rien de la demeure fortifie signale par ce document. Les pierres en ont t probablement
utilises pour la construction de la redoute et dune maison, toute en pierres de taille, situe
sur le mme plateau que cet ouvrage militaire, louest du terrain de bivouac. Le seul vestige de
loccupation romaine est une mosaque actuellement place dans btiments de linfirmerie militaire.
[ ]
86 DHautpoul_1850_44: En effet, comment coloniser sans routes pour relier entre eux les
centres de population; sans desschements pour assainir les localits devenues insalubres par la
stagnation des eaux, et pour rendre la culture des terres perdues pour elle; sans ports destins
ouvrir dabord de larges voies au commerce extrieur, et procurer ensuite lcoulement des
produits de la culture et du commerce intrieur de la colonie; sans phares et fanaux pour guider
l navigation franaise et trangre sur 250 lieues de ctes; sans lignes tlgraphiques charges
de porter avec rapidit les ordres de paix ou de guerre; enfin, sans difices, siges de ladministration publique, autour desquels se groupent dabord les constructions particulires qui, de
lhumble condition de villages, doivent plus tard slever au rang de villes?
[ ]
87 Revue de lOrient de lAlgrie et des Colonies VII Paris 1858. Clment Duvernois writes,
337: LAlgrie na pas de voies de communication. / Prive par la nature de ces cours deau
appendix
navigables qui abondent en Europe et dans le Nouveau-Monde, elle na reu des hommes, que
des routes trs-imparfaites. Ce pays grand comme les trois quarts de la France, na pas cent kilomtres de routes praticables en toute saison. Le transport qui, en France, sur les voies empierres, se paie 20c par tonne et par kilomtre, se paie en Algrie 50c, pour une mme distance et
un poids gal.
[ ]
88 Desprez_1875_4950: Grce lactivit des colons (elle est, et non sans raison, proverbiale en Afrique), grce la libralit de la famille Demonchy qui mit gratuitement leur disposition logements, matriaux, outils, argent mme, le nouveau centre prit bientt tournure,
et le chiffre voulu de quarante feux fut mme un instant dpass. / Aprs de tels dbuts, on se
demande pourquoi Tipasa na pas russi, pourquoi le nombre des colons diminue, pourquoi la
plupart des maisons, au lieu de sagrandir, au lieu de sentourer de constructions nouvelles, sont
dsertes et sen vont, pierre pierre, rejoindre, sous les broussailles, les ruines de leurs anes. /
Suivant les clauses du trait pass avec le premier concessionnaire, lEtat devait fournir Tipasa
des routes, une cole, une glise et de leau. La route de Marengo sest fait attendre trente ans;
celle du littoral, la plus indispensable, nest encore que terrasse. Dcole, dglise, pas lombre.
Leau.../ Leau jadis abondait, affluait Tipasa. Un aqueduc, dont on suit encore, jusqu plus de
vingt kilomtres, la direction et les vestiges, y versait le Nador, un fleuve! Il y avait, en outre, plusieurs puits et de nombreuses citernes. Ibid., 84: On ne peut en effet appeler de ce nom le chemin terrass qui longe le littoral, reliant pour la forme, la grande voie dAlger, Tipasa, le Kouali,
la ferme Etourneau, Tagourait, Tefchoun et Bou-Ismal. A quoi bon dfricher, quand lhectare,
aprs vous avoir cot des cinq six cents francs, narrive, comme valeur, reprsenter que la
moiti, le tiers de cette somme ? A quoi bon cultiver quand, faute de dbouchs, les produits ne
rendent mme pas largent dpens en labours? Peuplez, dfrichez, dit ltat, et nous verrons
vous faire des routes. Faites les routes dabord, ripostent les colons, et nous viendrons en foule, et
nous dfricherons. Comme pour leau, le cercle vicieux.
[ ]
89 Demaeght_1888_165 in Maurtanie Csarienne, Crispae: Les ruines de ce burgum ne
prsentent plus quun haussement du terrain produit par lamoncellement des dcombres. Point
de matriaux antiques la surface du sol. Le vieux cheikh Ben-Nefla, chef du douar tabli sur ces
ruines, nous a appris que les pierres de taille dont tout le mamelon tait autrefois jonch avaient
t converties en moellons et employes dans les constructions du village de Bou-Tllis et des
fermes environnantes.
[ ]
90 Bliard_1854_6: En mme temps que de grands ports maritimes dfendent le littoral
contre les attaques du dehors, le sol intrieur, anciennement dlaiss sous la domination insouciante des Arabes et des Turcs, est aujourdhui protg par des travaux permanents qui dfient
jamais lagression des indignes. On comptait, en janvier 1852, cent trente-trois villes ou villages
qui sont autant de crations nouvelles ou dimportantes restaurations des cits musulmanes.
[ ]
91 Pellissier_1853_23 Description de la Rgence de Tunis: Tengar est un village compltement dpeupl, comme tant dautres. On y voit quelques dbris romains. Au del de ce point la
valle slargit considrablement sur la rive gauche, et forme une plaine ondule dassez bonnes
terres arables traverses par quelques torrents. On rencontre dans cette plaine, 8 kilomtres
de Tengar, le village abandonn dEl-Amira, o lon voit des dbris antiques et une tour arabe
construite avec des matriaux romains.
[ ]
92 Claretie_1893_263264 in Tunisia: The nymphaeum of Henchir-An-Kasba: Les murailles
se sont effondres; les statues de marbre blanc ont t pilles, emportes par les envahisseurs,
ou brises; les colonnes et les chapiteaux ont servi btir les douars des alentours qui ont, eux

aussi, disparu; les pierres, les inscriptions, les frises rompues, les chapiteaux mutils jonchent
le sol quils ont par endroits ventr dans leur lourde chute, pour sabmer au sein des rservoirs
souterrains.
[ ]
93 Anon_1848_14: Larchitecture ici est nulle, les constructions franaises ayant remplac
presque partout les dlicates maisons mauresques aux brillantes arabesques. Avec la prosprit
seule peut revenir le luxe, et de l lemploi intelligent des artistes. Mais nous sommes encore loin
de cette priode. Cest seulement lamnagement un peu grossier des fermes et de la construction des villages que les ouvriers seront dabord employs.
[ ]
94 Gaffarel_1883_675: La Calle, sur les bords de la Mditerrane est au contraire en dcadence. Il semble que le voisinage de la frontire lui ait enlev toute scurit: Souk-Harras au sud
de la Calle est galement une ville morte. Jadis elle sappelait Tagaste. Aussi bien toute la rgion
prsente laspect de la dsolation. Ce ne sont que ruines daqueducs, de citernes, de temples,
darcs de triomphe et de chemins quenvahissent les broussailles et les palmiers nains. Les animaux froces reprennent possession de la contre. Le fleuve qui la parcourt, la Medjerda, roule
pniblement ses eaux limoneuses dans une valle quil ensevelit peu peu sous une paisse
couche dalluvions. Des villes dautrefois il ne reste que le nom, et des dcombres. Tbessa, la
Theveste impriale, fait exception. Toutes les maisons y sont bties en pierres romaines: la monnaie romaine y avait encore cours en 1842, lors de larrive des Franais.
[ ]
95 Lorin_1896_540 Medjerda: La colonisation de cette plaine demandera donc des
prcautions particulires; les villes romaines, Chemtou, Bulla Regia, staient poses sur les
premires pentes des et pas seulement pour exploiter de plus prs des carrrires de marbre.Les
Arabes mmes navaient gure dans ces pays que des stations temporaires, dont les noms nous
ont t Souk-el-Arba, le march dit mercredi, Souk-el-Khmis, le march du jeudi; des villages
se sont forms autour de ces marchs; depuis loccupation franaise, quelques colons non des
moins hardis ni des moins heureux, y ont fond des fermes point dattache des routes de la
Khroumirie au nord et du Kef au sud, est maintenant un bourg assez considrable, et le sige
dun contrle civil; cest de l quen deux sries, heures dintervalle, notre caravane est partie
pour se concentrer au Kef.
[ ]
96 Annales de la Colonisation Algrienne, Bulletin Mensuel de la Colonisation franaise et
trangre I 1852, 178183: Changements dans les habitudes des Arabes with lists of building
work they have done, from houses to baths and mosques but nothing on the use of ruins. This
periodical takes no interest in the Roman past: see vol X for 1856, indexing IX, with nothing
antique under construction, and only a few passing mentions of the Romans. Two entries for
ruins.
[ ]
97 Anon_1852_164165: Il y a aujourdhui, dans la province dAlger, 1,030 habitations prives
construites notre instigation. Pendant la crise que la colonie a traverse depuis 1848, beaucoup
douvriers des villes du littoral ont trouv du travail dans les tribus et y ont reu un excellent
accueil.
[ ]
98 Castellane_1853_II_170171 General de Lamoricire: we arrived at the little plateau of
El-Bordj, where we were to receive the hospitality of Caddour-ben-Murphi. Grand halting tents,
made of white woollen cloth, were pitched before the gate of the inclosure, which gave to the
place the name of the fort (El-Bordj). A detachment of soldiers from the garrison of Mascara
were at the moment engaged in repairing its wall, and in building, at the expense of the Arabs,
stone houses for the Agha and his cavaliers. The General was highly pleased at these works,
appendix
which he justly regarded as very important, for the Arab will only be completely ours when he
abandons his tent and fixes his abode in an immoveable house. He encouraged the soldiers with
his praises, and they deserved them, for they were as ready in peace to give their sweat, as they
had been in war to shed their blood, for the aggrandisement of France.
[ ]
99 Rousset_1889_I_304305 1844: Le commandant de Martimprey avait t envoy davance
Bedeau par La Moricire, afin dtudier le terrain et dindiquer les emplacements les plus favorables pour les tablissements projets. Dans la plaine des Angad, lattention de cet excellent
officier dtat-major sarrta sur un mamelon couvert de dbris romains, tout ct du marabout de Lalla-Maghnia; puis il soccupa de reconnatre la direction de la route suivre entre
Tlemcen et Sebdou, dont le capitaine de Lourmel tait charg dorganiser les ruines. Dans ce
mme temps, La Moricire prparait linstallation du poste de Sada. Ainsi, tous les anciens tablissements fonds par Abd-el-Kader et dtruits par les Franais taient successivement relevs
par eux-mmes. Ctait sans doute pour son orgueil une satisfaction morale; mais il lui en fallait
une autre plus profitable et plus concrte. Ctait du Maroc quil en attendait la chance.
[
100]Donau_1908_54: Elle [la voie romaine de Tacape Turris Tamalleni] se dirigeait
ensuite vers un tablissement agricole comprenant quelques btiments, dont plusieurs de grand
appareil; leurs ruines ont form un tertre sur lequel un ancien Khalifa des Bni Zid, Mohamed
ben Cherfeddine, a construit, depuis loccupation franaise, une habitation difie uniquement
avec des blocs romains, et sous laquelle on voit une citerne romaine. Au cours des travaux de
construction, Mohamed ben Cherfeddine trouva de nombreuses monnaies et remarqua une
belle pierre portant une longue inscription; il la signala au Gnral de La Roque. Celui-ci, qui
tait alors Colonel Commandant la subdivision, la fit transporter Gabs.
[ ]
101 Duval, Jules, Tableaux de la situation des tablissements franais dans lAlgrie,
in Bulletin de la Socit de Gographie X 1865, 49170. Seee 84: Telle est la puissance naturelle
de la disposition gographique des lieux, que les Franais, renouvelant en Afrique lentreprise
conqurante et colonisatrice du peuple-roi, ont d, dans le plus grand nombre de cas, occuper les
mmes campements que les Romains, habiter les mmes villes, rveiller des souvenirs et rajeunir des noms oublis depuis quatorze sicles presque partout les monuments encore debout de
la conqute romaine ou des ruines accumules sur le sol, racontent la gloire et lhabilet de nos
immortels devanciers, et nous navons eu qu suivre leurs traces, que les Berbres eux-mmes
et les Arabes en maints endroits avaient adoptes pour leurs propres tablissements. En vain
quelques gnraux conseillrent dabandonner les anciennes villes et den fonder de nouvelles
mieux appropries aux besoins et aux srets de la civilisation moderne ces conseils ne purent
triompher de la tradition, plus fidle interprte de la topographie. Une ville est un effet de la
nature autant que de la volont humaine.
[
102]Esprandieu_1883_13 Henchir Hamman Zouakra, near Mactar in Tunisia: Prs du
Temple on remarque encore quelques vestiges danciennes habitations, et quelques colonnes
renverses. Lune dentrelles est dun trs beau style corinthien. / Les Arabes ont cherch utiliser les ruines de ces habitations, et quelques familles logent encore dans de grandes salles
souterraines. The site had a Byzantine citadel, mausolea, baths and a triumphal arch.
[
103]Carton_1888_440: A Mareth, lancienne Martac, en dehors des ruines leves au bord de
leau, on trouve les vestiges de plusieurs constructions lintrieur du village; les murs en ont
t utiliss par les Arabes pour ldification de leurs maisons. Il y a au cimetire, une collection
de chapiteaux de tous les ordres, quelques-uns dun beau travail et dune conservation parfaite;

employs par les musulmans la dcoration de leurs tombes, ils ont t ainsi sauvs de la destruction. et l se rencontrent aussi des rigoles creuses dans la pierre et que les habitants ont
adaptes leurs puits.
[
104]Peyssonnel_1838_I_100 travelled 172425, near the Beys Bagrada mills: A ct de ce
pont, trs beau et trs solidement fait, le bey avait lev une maison assez jolie: la porte est faite
de trois grandes pices de marbre blanc et au-dessus on lit grav en caractres romains, le mot
Valenti. Aux environs de ce bardou ou palais royal nous trouvmes une pice de marbre denviron douze pieds de long sur trois de large et autant dpaisseur. Cette pierre, charge dornemens
en bas-reliefs, faisait sans doute le dessus de la porte de lancien amphithtre.
[
105]Robert_1899_256: Madaurus est 35 kilomtres Est de Sedrala et 7 kilomtres de la
gare appele, bien tort, Mdaourouch et 21 kilomtres environ de Tipasa. / Lautorit, bien mal
inspire, ayant tolr la construction de deux grandes maisons par lex-cad des Mahatla et son
frre, adjoint indigne actuel du douar de Mdaourouch, il en est rsult un pillage quasi mthodique de ces belles ruines. / Actuellement, il ne reste plus que le Ksar byzantin qui a fait lobjet
des tudes de MM. Diehl, Gsell, Chabassire, Hron de Villefosse, Masqueray, Wilmans, Guimet. /
Au-dessus de lentre Est de ce fort, se voient encore les traces de la belle et clbre inscription
greco-romaine grave sur une pierre trs tendre. / Un assez grand nombre de pierres portant des
inscriptions romaines ont servi la construction du fort byzantin.
[
106]Toussaint_1908_402403 re. brigades topographiques: around Mareth: HenchirTouacha. Vaste exploitation agricole. Nombreux btiments, citernes, pressoirs, etc. / HenchirRechada. Vestiges dun gros village; au Sud, fortin entour de fosss. / Henchir-el-Kheroua.
Restes dune grande exploitation agricole, citernes, pressoirs; 2 kilomtres au Nord-Est, poste
militaire. / Henchir-Djemane. Petite agglomration au centre de laquelle se trouve un vaste
btiment, en pierres de grand appareil, entour de fosss. / Henchir-Sidi-Abd-er-Rahmane.
Petit centre agricole; citerne, pressoirs, puits antiques.../ Mareth. Nombreux dbris antiques
dans les maisons du village arabe et proximit. Probablement Martae? / Zarat. Nombreux
dbris antiques dans les maisons du village arabe et proximit. Source amnage; borne milliaire dans une maison. Parat devoir reprsenter Agma de la Table de Peutinger.
[
107]Gurin_1862_I_243244: Telmine est prcde dun grand tang qui ne tarit jamais.
Situe sur un plateau, elle est enferme dans une enceinte mure, construite en partie, mais
fort grossirement, avec des matriaux antiques. En parcourant lintrieur de cette petite ville, je
remarque dautres dbris de lpoque romaine encastres dans des btisses modernes. Le fils du
kaid me fait entrer lui-mme dans deux maisons, qui me sont ouvertes grce son entremise.
Dans lune, on me montre un pidestal plac sens dessus dessous, et servant de soutien la
vote dune petite chambre jy lis linscription suivante...Dans lautre maison, un second pidestal engage au milieu dun mur moffre les caractres que voici...
[
108]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_42 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: ed-Djemel. Dans
un certain nombre de gourbis arabes, pierres tailles qui proviennent peut-tre en partie d.
Ouled-Hassan. Bases de colonnes et de demi-colonnes (socle peu lev, moulures ordinaires).
Deux pierres servaient sans doute de linteau la porte dentre dun difice chrtien. Ibid., 40
Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Tagount ou Agouni, village. Quelques fts de colonnes et de
demi-colonnes, des bases socle lev du type ordinaire, des chapiteaux bandes superposes
jets dans des constructions arabes: il y avait probablement l une chapelle chrtienne. Fortin
trs ruin, qui semble dpoque byzantine.
appendix
109]Peyssonnel_1838_I_142143 travelled 172425: Bebo ou Basil-el-Bab est un village rebti
sur une ancienne ville situe prs de la rivire de Bagradas. On y voit encore une ancienne porte
faite en arc-de-triomphe o il reste deux figures mutiles dont une tient une tte la main,
lautre les a jointes ensemble, on y lit les inscriptions suivantes...Sous le pont quon a bti nouvellement on trouve une figure au-dessous de laquelle on lit...On nous assura quil y avait dans
les mosques et dans les maisons particulires dautres inscriptions que nous ne pmes voir.
[ ]
110 Gurin_1862_II_3335 Mater: Cette ville est situe sur une colline dont elle occupe tout
le plateau et une partie des pentes. Environne dun mur denceinte, elle est perce de trois
portes. Sa population est de deux mille huit cents musulmans, auxquels il faut joindre un certain nombre de familles juives et quelques Maltais. Mater a succd une ville antique dont
les matriaux ont servi sa construction. De tous cts, en effet, dans des btisses modernes
assez grossires, on remarque de belles pierres de taille, et mme et la quelques tronons
de colonnes mutils enlevs danciens difices...[he then copies two Christian inscriptions]
Interrog par les nombreux curieux qui sattachaient mes pas sur le sens des caractres que
je venais de copier, je me gardai bien de le leur indiquer, dans la crainte quils ne dtruisissent
aussitt ces deux prcieux souvenirs de la domination chrtienne dans leur pays . . . Au bas
de la ville de Mater, nous passons prs dun puits appel Bir-Boutaa, qui parait antique. / A
huit heures dix minutes, nous faisons halte une demiheure au Bordj-bou-Taleb. Cest une grande
construction carre, de fabrique musulmane, mais btie en partie avec danciens matriaux.
En pntrant dans lintrieur de cette enceinte, jy remarque galement un certain nombre de
beaux blocs antiques; ont-ils t trouvs sur place, ou, au contraire, proviennent-ils de la ville
de Mater, cest ce que jignore et sur quoi je consulte inutilement le scheik qui habite ce bordj.
[ ]
111 Rgis_1880_ 99100 Milah: Le cheik nous faisait passer de jardins en jardins, tous enclos
de murs en vieilles pierres, au milieu desquelles, de temps autre, on retrouvait de grands blocs
de granit rouge ramasss sans doute par les indignes dans quelque ruine romaine. Les murailles
et la grande porte de la ville sont aussi presque entirement construites avec ces larges pierres
qui rappellent le temps o tout tait grand et puissant.
[ ]
112 Fraud_1860_190: Grand halte 9 heures, la maison du kad Si Mokhtar, prs du
ruisseau qui descend de Ras el-Aoun. Dpart 11 heures. Quelques ruines parses sur notre
route. Nous bivouaquons trois heures du soir auprs du village de Ngaous ou Mgaous, comme
le nomment les indignes. / Ngaous, avec ses grands arbres et ses belles fontaines, serait une
ravissante bourgade, si les habitants avaient le soin de la dbarrasser des dcombres et des tas
dimmondices qui lobstruent sur tous les points. Quelques rigoles pour lcoulement des eaux
sont videmment, leurs yeux, des travaux de luxe, car jai remarqu que les rues taient souvent
interceptes par des cloaques infects, rendant la circulation assez difficile pour un Europen. La
maison du cad, la seule qui soit peu prs confortable, est solidement construite en maonnerie,
sur danciennes votes romaines, servant aujourdhui dcuries: elle est accompagne dun
superbe jardin, quarrose une rigole o leau coule en permanence.
[ ]
113 Kennedy_1846_6162 Hergla: We had time, before dark, to walk through the village,
a collection of miserable houses, clustered round a square tower of Saracenic or Moorish
construction, built on the site of the ancient Horrea Coelia, and formed of its ruins. Fragments
of pillars, carved mouldings, and the mutilated remains of two bas-reliefs in white marble, are
mingled with the squared stones, of Roman workmanship, that have been employed in building
the castle and the present village of Hergla. In the court-yard of our house was a cavern, which
[

they said extended to a considerable distance, in the direction of the tower; but as it was
inhabited, and full of women and children, we could not explore it. We had purchased two or
three trifling articles of ancient pottery, and some copper coins of no rarity, when, with a certian
degree of mystery, as though the contents were of value, a small packet of dirty rag, carefully tied
up, was offered for sale; on opening it there appeared, in place of a gold coin or an engraved gem,
nothing but a childs marble, striped with blue and yellow.
[ ]
114 Tissot_1888_145: Hergla est pittoresquement assise sur un promontoire qui domine au
loin la plage et forme une saillie assez prononce pour que la Table de Peutinger en ait fait la
pointe mridionale du golfe quelle dessine entre Clypea et Horrea. Le bourg arabe noccupe que
le point culminant de la colline; la ville antique tait beaucoup plus tendue, en juger par les
substructions quon retrouve chaque pas dans les vergers dHergla et par les vestiges de quais et
de magasins quon remarque sur le rivage, au point o la route commence gravir les pentes par
lesquelles le promontoire se rattache la cte. Le castrum dHorrea existait encore, au centre du
bourg arabe, lorsque jai visit cette localit en 1856. Les pierres de grand appareil qui formaient
le revtement de ses murailles ont t employes depuis la construction du pont de Halk-elMenzel sur la Djeriba, et il ne reste plus aujourdhui du Kasr dHergla que quelques massifs de
blocage. / Horrea, comme son nom lindique, tait un des grands entrepts de bl de la province
dAfrique.
[ ]
115 Blaquire_1813_189: The prejudices hitherto entertained by these people against the
discovery or preservation of antique gems and statues have subsided very much on the part
of government; indeed, the Bedouins having discovered that Europeans buy such things with
avidity, never lose any opportunity of conveying whatever they find, secretly to Tunis, for the
purpose of making a bargain with some of the consuls; in this way several very respectable
collections of medals, gems, bronzes, and marbles, have already been formed here, besides many
fine specimens sent to France, where things of that description are infinitely more appreciated
than in any other part of the world.
[ ]
116 Gurin_1862_II_183 A trois heures, nous atteignons Krich-el-Oued, bourg autrefois assez
considrable, et qui maintenant na quune trs-faible population; la moiti au moins des maisons quil contient sont dmolies. Les habitants attribuent cette dcadence, qui, loin de diminuer, augmente toujours, aux exactions qui les accablent. / Ce bourg est situe sur la rive droite
de la Medjerdah. Il succde a une petite ville antique dont les matriaux ont servi le btir
lui-mme. De tous cts, dans des constructions modernes, on distingue de beaux blocs enlevs
danciens difices; on remarque aussi et l en plusieurs endroits un certain nombre de tronons de colonnes, les uns en pierre, les autres en marbre blanc.
[ ]
117 Pellissier_1853_2324 Valley of the Medjerda: On rencontre dans cette plaine, 8
kilomtres de Tengar, le village abandonn dEl-Amira, o lon voit des dbris antiques et une
tour arabe construite avec des matriaux romains. On trouve aussi des vestiges dantiquits
Henchir-Smidia, quelque distance dEl-Amira. A 3 kilomtres de Smidia, sur la rive droite de la
Medjerda, on trouve le petit village de Krich-el-Oued, et 5 kilomtres plus haut le village plus
considrable de Medjez-el-Bab, qui peut compter une population de quinze cents mes. Cette
dernire localit a t une ville romaine dont on voit encore quelques restes, entre autres une
porte ou petit arc de triomphe do le village moderne a pris son nom, car Medjez-el-Bab signifie,
en arabe, le passage ou gu de la porte.
[ ]
118 Gurin_1862_II_172 Medjez-el-Bab: slve sur la rive droite de la Medjerdah. Fort mal
btie et renfermant un assez grand nombre de maisons moiti renverses, elle possde a
appendix
peine quinze seize cents habitants. Aucune muraille denceinte ne lenvironne. Elle a succde
a une ville antique dont les matriaux ont servi sa propre construction; il ne subsiste plus de
celle-ci quune dizaine de citernes, plusieurs pans de gros murs en pierres de taille le long de la
Medjerdah, les vestiges dun pont et une porte triomphale. / Le dveloppement de ce dernier
difice est de neuf mtres quatre-vingt-cinq centimtres; louverture de larcade est de quatre
mtres quatre-vingts centimtres, et la hauteur sous clef de vote, de six mtres. Construite dans
un style trs simple, cette porte nest orne ni de pilastres ni de colonnes; seulement, sur les
deux faces, on remarque a la clef de vote un buste en haut relief trs-mutil. Linscription qui
autrefois se lisait sur la frise, et qui existait encore lpoque o Peyssonnel et Shaw visitrent
cette localit, a aujourdhui disparu avec les blocs qui formaient lentablement. Elle contenait
une ddicace Gratien, Valentinien et Thodose.
[ ]
119 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_340341 travelling 1879: Le nom de Medjez-el-Bab (le gu de
la porte) lui vient dun ancien arc de triomphe qui slevait sur le bord de la rivire, en face des
ruines dun pont antique. Le pont est totalement croul depuis longtemps. Larc de triomphe,
au contraire, existait encore il y a une vingtaine dannes; MM. Pellissier et Gurin lont vu en
place, et les voyageurs du sicle dernier ont signal une inscription qui se lisait sur la frise;
aujourdhui inscription, arc, pilastres ont t dtruits; il ne reste plus sur lemplacement de ldifice antique que quelques grosses pierres parses; elles seront bientt utilises dans quelque
construction moderne, et personne ne pourra se douter quil y avait jadis cet endroit une porte
romaine; il nen restera comme souvenir que le nom du village moderne.
[
120]Postel_1885_69: Medjez-El-Bab, le Vicus Augusti des Romains, compte 1,800 habitants.
Ses maisons sont bties avec des pierres de taille pilles aux ruines sur lesquelles elle a surgi.
Cette bourgade, elle aussi, se fait remarquer par dassez beaux jardins.
[ ]
121 Cagnat_and_Saladin_1894_341 travelling 1879, Arab bridge at Medjez-el-Bab: Mais sil ny
a plus de pont romain, il existe, en revanche, un des plus beaux ponts arabes que nous ayons
vus en Tunisie; sa longueur est de deux cents pas; il compte huit arches et na rien redouter
des crues les plus violentes de la Medjerda. On a pris, pour le btir, toutes les pierres quon avait
sa disposition, mme des tombes enleves lancien cimetire. Sous lune des arches on voit
un personnage en pied revtu de la toge, et au-dessous est grave son pitaphe. Ailleurs cest
linscription qui figurait au-dessus de la porte des thermes de la ville antique. / Medjez-el-Bab
passe pour tre lancienne ville de Membressa, sous les murs de laquelle Blisaire dfit le rebelle
Stozas.
[
122]Saladin_1887_2 at Beled-Djededa, on a Roman farm: A lpoque musulmane, on a lev
dans ces ruines et laide des dbris quon y a trouvs une mosque dont le minaret octogonal,
construit en briques avec des chanes en pierres de taille aux angles, repose sur le soubassement
dun mausole antique.
[
123]Wilkin_1900_134: El Baali stands well towards the head of the Wed Abdi, among forests
of ilex, by the side of a little stream in which the willows were just assuming a first flush of spring
colouring. All around the soil was poor and rocky, the grass rank. The wealth of El Baali lies in
its herds of cattle and goats. Milk is of no account in the village, neither is honey, for the hives
are to be counted by the hundred. The houses, though of the usual Chawia type, are in some
cases extraordinarily well and neatly built, and a few have two storeys. The Roman ruins with
which the valley is littered supply good square stone, which the inhabitants of El Baali have
employed to the best advantage, and the well from which the people draw their water is by
tradition ascribed to Roman hands.

124]Poulle_1861_195 Bechilga/Zabi, of the inscription he will discuss: Au mois de novembre
1859, pendant un sjour de prs dun mois que je fis Msila, la curiosit me fit rechercher la
pierre devenue clbre; il tait bien naturel, en effet, que, me trouvant sur les lieux, je dsirasse
savoir ce que tout Parisien savait peut-tre, cette heure, grce au Recueil des Inscriptions de
lAlgrie, recueil tellement rare parmi nous, que lon pourrait croire quil ne nous intresse pas
du tout. / M. Barbet, gardien du caravansrail, me conduisit dans la maison du sieur Tourbi ben
Safar, homme riche et trs connu dans le pays, et dtenteur de lobjet que je dsirais voir. L, on
mintroduisit dans une pice au rez-de-chausse, servant de fehil, situe droite, en entrant et
lOuest de la cour. / La pierre est plante au milieu de cette pice, en face de la porte, et supporte
les traverses sur lesquelles appuie la toiture.
[
125]Lestiboudois_1853_75: Nous arrivons de bonne heure An Temouchent, colonie qui se
fonde, et o nous trouvons un gte passable. Une belle source, qui arrose des jardins fertiles, en
assure la prosprit; pourtant une partie du territoire disponible, celle qui est situe sur la cte,
est extrmement pierreuse. Sur cette cte sont les ruines dune cit romaine, des citernes restent
entires, et lopinion des officiers est quon russit toujours quand on sinstalle sur un emplacement choisi par le peuple roi.
[
126]Barbier_1855_253 An-Temouchent 70km SE of Oran: sur lemplacement dun ancien
camp. / Lheureuse situation de ce centre de population sur une route trs-frquente, lexcellente qualit du terrain, le voisinage dune fort susceptible dexploitation et les abondantes
ressources quoffre le sol en matriaux de construction, promettent aux habitants dAnTemouchent un brillant avenir.
[
127]Fey_1859_421 Timici Colonia / An-Temouchent: this was the site of a new village: Enfin,
le village sleva; les pierres de taille qui peraient le sol servirent tous les travaux militaires
ainsi quaux constructions particulires, mais le service du gnie se rserva rigoureusement tout
ce qui, provenant des fouilles, pouvait intresser lart; cest ainsi que lon put mettre de ct un
certain nombre dinscriptions lapidaires et quelques autres objets non moins prcieux pour la
science archologique. which he lists and describes.
[
128]Fey_1859_426427 Timici Colonia / An-Temouchent, materials for constructing the
new village: Les matriaux employs pour la construction de la ville sont la pierre de taille et
des moellons bruts. La pierre de taille fut gnralement choisie pour les fondations; on la plaait debout, cest--dire les plus grandes artes verticalement. Ces pierres sont du calcaire de
trois varits diffrentes. La premire, par ordre de duret, se rencontre dans les fondations et
llvation des difices, ainsi que pour la majeure partie des pierres tumulaires. La deuxime,
forme seulement de fragments de coquillages marins, nest employe que dans llvation. La
troisime est gros grain, trs-tendre et plus spcialement employe pour les sculptures et pour
larchitecture. On trouve, dans le cimetire du Nord, des tombeaux recouverts de dalles dun
calcaire blanc, presque friable. / La premire varit de pierre a pu tre prise sur les lieux, car
Timici, comme Temouchent, repose sur un banc de calcaire denviron quatre mtres dpaisseur. Les autres varits ne sy rencontrent pas, non plus quaux environs du village. Les deux
dernires paraissent sortir des carrires o lon a pris la pierre pour construire la fontaine
romaine dont on voit les ruines vis--vis dAn-Khial, gauche de la route, en allant Tlemcen. /
Beaucoup de pierres de taille ont t transportes de cet endroit pour la construction des maisons de Temouchent. Le moellon employ est sur les bords dun ravin qui roule en hiver une
norme quantit deau et qui prend le nom dOued Djelloul, des ruines considrables situes
sur un mamelon assez lev, droite de la voie romaine qui conduisait de Timici Colonia (?)
[
appendix
Rachgoun. / Vous allez bientt voir, monsieur, pourquoi je pose ce point dinterrogation qui est
un signe dubitatif. Le chef du bureau arabe et le capitaine Jacobber sy rendirent, accompagns
dhommes de corves munis dinstruments de fouille. Aprs quelques recherches faites trop la
hte pour quelles aient pu tre fructueuses, les explorateurs interrogrent les anciens du pays.
Les Arabes ne se souviennent pas que ces ruines aient jamais t visites par aucun Europen,
car elles sont caches dans des replis de terrain et par un rideau de mamelons qui les drobe aux
regards; cependant, une colonne franaise, sous les ordres de M. le gnral de Mac-Mahon, je
crois, y campa quelques heures, et, je le crois aussi, M. de La Moricire, lpoque dune rvolte
chez les Bni Snous ou chez les Snassen. Ces ruines sont bien plus considrables que celles de
Temouchent; lenceinte (cette fois il y a une enceinte) est trs visible, les maisons, intactes
pour la plupart, sont presque toutes en moellons, moins les seuils et les jambages.
[
129]Pallary 1894, 45.
[
130]Baudicour_1856_7475 writing on colonisation: Delmonte, from Carrara: Un jour
quil poursuivait ses investigations du ct de Tlemcen, on lui conseilla, au march dAn-Temouchent, de sadresser lagha du pays. Ce dernier ne put le renseigner dune manire positive;
mais il lengagea aller trouver un vieux Turc, meunier dun petit moulin sur lIsser. M. Delmonte
se rendit auprs du meunier indigne qui, moyennant une lgre rtribution, consentit quitter pour quelques instants son usine. Il remonta avec lui la montagne, et, au bout dune heure
de marche, il lavait amen un ravin hriss de gros blocs moiti dtachs. Ces masses, un
peu rougetres, mais noircies par le temps, slevaient au milieu de liguiers et de broussailles
de toute espce sortant des fentes comme pour les encadrer. Quel ne fut pas ltonnement de
M. Delmonte quand, escaladant le rocher, il rencontra, jonches sur le plateau suprieur,
de grandes colonnes et des chapiteaux presque achevs: tout lentour on voyait une quantit de
blocs dj taills donyx calcaire translucide, les uns entirement blancs, les autres traverss
de belles veines rouges et jaunes. Ctait de lalbtre antique dont les gisements ont t depuis
longtemps compltement perdus. Le seul albtre maintenant dans le commerce provient des
dpts stalactites; il ne se trouve que par fragments de mdiocres dimensions; on ne peut gure
lemployer que pour de petits objets de luxe, des vases, des pendules, et il a en outre linconvnient de jaunir, quand il nest pas plac sous des globes de verre. Lalbtre antique, au contraire,
ne saltre pas lair, et celui que venait de dcouvrir M. Delmonte se prsentait en outre sous des
blocs dune grande dimension. Il sempressa de parcourir le plateau et, fleur de terre, rencontra
partout de magnifiques couches. Les Arabes, possesseurs de cette prcieuse matire, taient loin
de se douter de sa valeur. Tout le gisement se trouvait cependant compris dans une proprit qui
portait le nom de Blad-Rekam (pays des marbres); elle tait situe prs dAn-Tekbalek et avait
une contenance de 100 hectares. Bouterfas, son propritaire, lavait vendue en 1847 moyennant
24 douros (130 fr.) Adda-Ben-Merzouk et Adda-Ouled-Hadj-Ascid, kalifa du kaid. Ces derniers,
en 1852, quand M. Delmonte leur en fit la proposition, ne firent pas difficult de lui abandonner
pour la moiti du prix toute la partie o se trouvaient les carrires, qui avaient une tendue de
41 hectares; ils se rservaient ainsi la portion la plus grande et la plus fertile. but 530532 for
Delmontes problems with his alabaster quarry at dAn-Tekbalek, where he was strong-armed
by local speculators.
[ ]
131 Gsell_1901_I_1314 dolmens: Parmi les cimetires indignes de lAlgrie, le plus connu,
cause de sa proximit dAlger, est celui du plateau de Banen ou des Beni Messous, situ entre
Guvotville et Chragas. / Vers 1860, il y avait encore cet endroit une centaine de dolmens. La
plupart ont t dtruits par les colons; il en reste vingt tout au plus.

132]Nelnetz_1865_82 from the bivouac of Mouladam, November 1864, under Colonel Seroka:
Le sjour de la colonne en ces lieux devant se prolonger pendant quelques jours encore, le colonel donna lordre de faire quelques fouilles. Il voulut bien men charger ainsi que M. le capitaine
du gnie Richard, qui, envoy en mission Mouladam, na pu nous prter longtemps son exprience spciale. M. le lieutenant Serpin, du 66e, voulut bien y consacrer aussi son activit. Si ces
fouilles auxquelles nous ne pmes consacrer quun temps extrmement limit nont pas produit
des rsultats dcisifs, elles eurent toujours un but srieux, celui de fixer notre incertitude et de
dmontrer que ces monticules ne sont autre chose que des tumuli.
[
133]BSA_Sousse_IV_1907_22: Enfin, M. Chevy attire lattention de ses confrres sur les dolmens de Menzel-Dar-Bel Ouar qui peu peu disparaissent sous le pic des chercheurs de pierres,
et pense quune fouille fructueuse pourrait tre faite dans les nombreuses excavations situes
aux environs de Menzel, le long de la voie ferre, ainsi que sur lemplacement de laqueduc.
[
134]Reboud_18861887_29 commune mixte de Safia: A lhorizon et sur notre gauche, les
toits rouges du village de Zarouria se dtachent du pied de la montagne, que longe la nouvelle
route de Souk-Ahras Mdaourouch. Cette route remplace la voie romaine, que lon a retrouve,
et vient passer dans le nouveau centre de lHenchir-Zarouria, dont il ne reste que lemplacement.
Les entrepreneurs et les colons en ont enlev jusqu la dernire pierre. / On ne trouve dans le
village actuel aucun objet dart digne dintrt. Deux fragments dpitaphes sont encastrs dans
un mur de la maison Dumas.
[
135]Flaux_1865_281282: Pour voir toute une carcasse de ville antique, envahie par des barbares, pille, brle, dtruite et puis abandonne, il faut aller Tbessa et surtout Lambessa.
La ville est l tout entire sous ses dcombres; on nest pas venu, comme Carthage, dpouiller
les morts. Lon peut avec les fondements encore debout des maisons dmolies retracer et suivre
une foule de rues. La grande voie qui traversait toute la ville, et venait aboutir au temple de la
Victoire, longue de plus de deux kilomtres, tait, de distance en distance, coupe par des portes
triomphales, leves sous le rgne et en lhonneur de Marc-Aurle. Six de ces portes existent
encore en bon ou en mauvais tat; mais enfin elles existent. Trois colonnes de marbre dune
grande puret de style et quelques marches descalier sont les derniers vestiges dun temple
Esculape dont on a pu retracer lenceinte. Ce quil y a de plus triste, cest que ce monument a t
dtruit depuis notre occupation. Les colons franais ont arrach de ce lieu sacr les pierres qui
ont servi construire leurs maisons. De pareils actes de vandalisme se commettent encore tous
les jours. La personne qui me guidait travers les ruines de Lambessa voulait me faire prendre
une inscription de porte grave sur une pierre servant jadis de chapiteau et jonchant aujourdhui
le sol. Vains efforts! Pendant la nuit, la pierre avait t brise avec un marteau de fer et une partie
des fragments avait t emporte.
[
136]Poulle_1884_193 Lambessa, amphitheatre: La destruction de cet amphithtre est un
fait rcent, et il existe dans la contre danciens colons qui nous ont assur lavoir connu avec
tous ses gradins et presque intact encore.
[
137]LIndpendant de Mostaganem_7_Aug_1892B, article reprinted from Le National: Un
entrepreneur de travaux publics de province dAlger, M. Trmaux, propritaire des ruines de
Tipasa, a tabli un muse priv, en plein air, dont il est le seul fonctionnaire...sans traitement.
Les colons algriens que les allemands ont compar aux Vandales, sont aujourdhui de
passionns conservateurs dantiquits. / On a propos de crer de petits muses locaux partout
o des dcouvertes importantes seront faites. Pourvu quils soient bien gards ce qui est
facile sans beaucoup de frais la mesure pourra tre heureuse. Il est juste que nos Africains
[
appendix
conservent les monuments et les oeuvres dart du pays o ils livrent, chaque jour, le bon combat
pour la civilisation. Nous ne devons pas les priver de ce luxe intelligent.
[
138]Gauckler_1907_386 Bordj-el-Ioudi, near H. Msadin, and un difice important: Les
murs, ayant servi de carrire pour la construction du bordj voisin, ont t dmolis de fond en
comble. II ne reste mme plus trace des fondations.
[
139]Annales_Colonisation_1853_IV_304.
[
140]Ideville_II_1882_486487 1844 Biography of Bugeaud: Le 7 mai, aprs avoir travers la
Mitidjah et les montagnes des Issers, le marchal arrivait Dellys, dont il prenait possession et
o il marquait les emplacements ncessaires un tablissement dfinitif. Lentreprise tait plus
aise qu Tens et Orlansville, car la ville mauresque de Dellys existait encore sur les ruines
dune ancienne colonie romaine.
[ ]
141 Vialar, A. de, Le Cap Djinet, in Africa: Bulletin de la Socit de Gographie dAlger I,
Algiers 1880, 2639. See 37 around Cape Djinet, Ancient Cissi: Nous savons quon projet de
crer un nouveau centre au cap Djinet. Nous appelons de tous nos voeux le moment o une si
excellente ide pourra recevoir une complte excution. Et, en effet, la ville romaine fournira
dexcellents matriaux pour la construction, tout en permettant aux archologues de rserver les
pierres qui pourraient offrir quelque intrt. Des fouilles permettront certainement de dcouvrir des mdailles, des, sculptures, des plans de temples et de villas...Vous nirez pas nous dire,
pour ruiner nos esprances, que la colonisation est impossible Cissi parce quon ny trouve pas
dau. Je vous rappellerai, en effet, quautrefois il y avait une grande ville romaine, et que leau
na pu disparatre. Alger, aussi, manque deau. On serait, sous ce rapport, Cissi dans des conditions; nous le croyons encore, bien meilleures qu Alger.
[
142]Piesse_1862_303: La Stidia ou plutt Ain-Sdidia, la source ferrugineuse; 440 hab.; cration du 4 dcembre 1846; annexion la commune de Rivoli, le 31 dcembre 1856. Les colons de
ce village, presque tous prussiens, ont commenc par dfricher pendant la nuit le bois quils
allaient vendre le lendemain Mostaganem pour acheter de quoi manger, ils sont aujourdhui
dans laisance.
[
143]Baudicour_1856_240 writing on colonisation: Le gouvernement franais a fait dnormes
sacrifices pour ltablissement des premiers colons europens; on leur a pendant quelque temps
fourni chacun pour 800 fr. de matriaux, des grains et du btail; on leur a chaque anne envoy
des troupes de soldats pour les aider dans leurs dfrichements; on continue mme le faire, et
lAdministration de la colonie alloue pour cela aux soldats un supplment de solde, depuis 230
fr. jusqu 500 fr. par hectare, selon les difficults du terrain.
[
144]Saint-Arnaud_1858_248 to his son, March 1850, from Constantine: Je suis rentr hier
dune tourne dans les centres agricoles de ma division. Jai vu bien de la misre, jai vu de
pauvres diables se dbattant contre la faim et la maladie. Bien peu russissent, cest cependant
un beau pays.
[
145]Urbain_1862_VVI writing on colons and natives: Personne ne rend justice avec plus
de chaleur que nous lintelligence, au dvouement et au courage des colons qui, sur lappel de
ladministration, dans les conditions les plus dfavorables, ont mis rsolument la main la charrue. Leur nombre est petit, les rsultats obtenus nont pas de signification gnrale; mais ils nen
ont pas moins risqu leurs ressources et expos leur vie, en croyant obir la voix de la France. /
Quant aux fonctionnaires civils, nous ne faisons aucune difficult davouer que, sils ne se sont
pas levs la hauteur des officiers administrant les indignes, la responsabilit en doit peser
sur les institutions plus que sur les personnes. Sur un thtre plus important, sous une direction

plus habile, avec une organisation mieux tudie, nul doute que ces fonctionnaires neussent
rendu des services galement signals.
[
146]Lunel_1869_14 on la question algrienne: Il nest pas jusque dans leurs esprances de
libert daction que les colons naient t dus, car dans cette terre conquise o tout est encore
chimre la seule chose qui ne leur a pas t promise, mais quon leur a prodigue, cest la prsence constante dun ennemi qui veille autour de la maison ou du champ, cest la discipline
militaire personnifie dans un capitaine de larme remplissant dans le village les fonctions de
maire et de magistrat et qui les colons ont rendre compte de leurs actes.
[
147]Carette_1838_13 in the town of Hippone: Tout sharmonise dans ce cloaque. Pntrez
cependant dans une de ces demeures, vous serez tonn de trouver ct de murs informes et
gauches, des colonnes, des chapiteaux de marbre, des dbris mal appareills de larchitecture
romaine soutenant logive sarrazine, des ornemens de luxe et de bon got prostitus aux haillons
dune bicoque.
[
148]Vigneral_1867_3, 5, 14, 22.
[
149]Vigneral_1868 passim.
[
150]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_78 excursions around Milah and Constantine: El-Malah. Le
village est prs dun kilomtre du col. Ses maisons sont parses le long du chemin; toutes
ont t bties avec des pierres de taille tires du sol. Les pentes situes en aval de la route en
renferment encore de grandes quantits. Pendant leur extraction, un propritaire a recueilli des
monnaies dune certaine valeur quil dit avoir cdes M. Prat, conseiller la Cour dAlger, dont
on connat la riche collection...Dans un mur extrieur de lauberge principale, on remarque un
grossier bas relief, au-dessus duquel on lit avec difficult...
[ ]
151 Reboud_18861887_4 commune mixte de Safia, Oued-Cham: Dans les fermes Degoul,
Favria, Gerbet, etc., bties sur des ruines dtablissements agricoles, on peut voir encore des
sarcophages, des citernes et des mosaques.
[
152]Rapport densemble sur les travaux de la commission de colonisation et dimmigration
de la province dAlger (Sign: L. Ville), Algiers 1871. Done partly as a business-like table, with
settlements, notes and costs. The mention of Roman remains can scarcely be less than a nod
and a wink a come-on tacitly assuring colonists that building materials were to hand. Item
15 Tipasa: Village agrandir. Cette ancienne ville maritime, qui a eu une grande importance
sous les Romains, doit tre peuple de manire redevenir au moins un chef-lieu de commune
rurale. Item 42 Amoura: Ville crer auprs du confluent de loued Habenne et du Chlif sur
la route carrossable de Mda Miliana. Ruines romaines considrables, sources nombreuses,
excellentes terres. Item 68 An Benian: Village crer auprs des ruines dun barrage romain;
excellente position un caravansrail sy trouve. Item 79 Amellaguen: Village construire prs
des ruines dun ancien village romain. Item 91 Sour-Djouab: Village construire auprs de ruines
romaines dans une position bien choisie.
[
153]Fraud_1860_189: A deux kilomtres environ au-del de Bir Hadada, existait un centre
agricole antique dune certaine importance, qui devait occuper une superficie de plus de 20
hectares, si on en juge par les vestiges, moiti enfouis, qui couvrent le sol. Ce point est indiqu
sur la carte de ltat-major de 1854, un peu au N.-O. du marabout dit Sidi el-Larit. / Jy ai remarqu
plusieurs meules de moulin farine ou huile, quelques colonnes et des chapiteaux en trs-bon
tat de conservation. / Un colon europen sest tabli au milieu de ces ruines. Prs de sa maison,
qui est cheval sur la route du Bou Taleb, devait exister la ncropole de la cit antique; l, sont
de nombreuses pierres tumulaires moiti enfouies. Ce mme colon, interrog par moi sur les
appendix
dcouvertes archologiques quil aurait pu faire, ma montr une grosse pierre carre (1 mtre de
long sur 80 centimtres de large) quil avait transporte prs de sa demeure, et sur laquelle jai
copi ce qui suit.
[
154]Audollent_1890_469 An Kebira: Un heureux hasard nous a permis de visiter An Kebira,
ou plutt Prigotville (tel est le nom officiel du nouveau village) en compagnie de M. Poulle.
Avec lui, nous avons dplor la ruine du monument, temple ou basilique, dont il donna jadis
la description; les colonnes, alors debout, gisent maintenant terre, labside nexiste plus, et
lintrieur de ldifice est devenu un rceptacle dimmondices. A peu de frais cependant on let
conserv et appropri des besoins nouveaux. / Une rue du nouveau village longe un second
monument que M. Poulle a signal. La faade mesure au moins quarante mtres de longueur.
Nous donnerons (N 48) une partie de linscription qui la dcorait. Il est impossible de rien
dire des dispositions intrieures, la terre recouvre encore tout le reste. Mais les dimensions de
la faade et de linscription laissent supposer quil sagit dun difice considrable. / Un troisime, qui ne ltait pas moins, a t coup par deux rues, et lon aperoit, engags dans les talus
qui les bordent, des pierres de grand appareil, des pans des murs, des restes de mosaques, des
conduites deau, un foyer. Ces derniers vestiges et un fragment dinscription trouv tout auprs
nous portent croire que ctaient l les thermes de Sataf.
[
155]Gsell_1895_43: Nous publierons ici un certain nombre dinscriptions de Satafis. On doit
leur conservation M. Rigal, conducteur des ponts et chausses, qui, avec un zle dautant plus
digne dloges quil a t tout spontan, a constitu Prigotville un muse local. Il y a runi plus
de cinquante inscriptions, quelques sculptures et dintressants fragments darchitecture. Tous
les monuments et inscriptions dont nous parlons ici se trouvent dans ce muse.
[
156]Reisser_1898_220 in Mauretania, Tigava Municipium: En effet, en face de lextrmit-est
des vestiges que nous venons de parcourir, et sur la rive gauche du Chliff, surgit un monticule
plateau assez large dont une partie constitue aujourdhui le village de Wattignies. Ce monticule, en terre dalluvion, comme celui de la ville romaine dailleurs, est absolument indpendant
du Djebel Temoulga. / Toutes les maisons actuelles sont construites avec des pierres quarries
prises sur place. / Les fosss qui indiquent lextraction de ces blocs, dune part, et dautre part
les affleurements de gros murs qui ceignent toute la colline, dnotent lancienne existence de
quelque chose qui fut plus quun fortin.
[
157]Loizillon_1901_119120 on the ruins of Bordj-Rdir: Il y a environ vingt ans, il existait
la place de ces gros cubes de maonnerie moderne, des ruines fort importantes dont lune
delles, en croire les indignes, se dressait plusieurs mtres de hauteur. Malheureusement les
colons et les entrepreneurs purent tt fait de disperser ces restes encore imposants de la civilisation romaine. Nombre de pierres inscrites ont t incorpores dans les habitations du village
ou servi encaillasser les voies de communication aboutissant Bordj-Rdir. Daucunes, mme,
font aujourdhui partie intgrante des tablissements publics et ont t places de faon si
maladroite que les caractres dont elles pouvaient tre revtues sont dsormais cachs aux
regards. / Toutefois, il est encore facile de constater que la maison forestire a t difie presque
exactement sur les fondations dun ancien tablissement romain, un castrum colossal qui dominait la valle stendant ses pieds. Cette sorte de redoute affectait la forme dun rectangle de
cent mtres de longueur sur soixante-quinze de largeur. Elle tait flanque de petits ouvrages
dont il ne reste plus actuellement que des vestiges. / Des fouilles pratiques par nos soins.../
Aux environs du bordj administratif il a t trouv galement des pierres de mme nature et
quelques belles dalles.

158]Barbier_1855_142: Une ordonnance royale du 7 janvier 1845 a cr, 1 kilomtre de
Fouka, un village maritime. Lexcution en fut livre, comme celle de Benian, un entrepreneur,
moyennant des indemnits pcuniaires et une concession de terrain. Ce village nexiste plus:
lentrepreneur, aprs avoir touch les indemnits pour les misrables cahutes dresses ses
pcheurs, en a vendu jusquaux derniers matriaux. Ce poste renatra peut-tre par les relations
avec la Mitidja et Blidah, quand la route, qui de celle ville doit aboutir la mer, sera entirement
termine.
[
159]Hinglais_1905_256 relays note from Vel, at An-el-Bordj: Presque toutes les inscriptions
releves Ticisi en 1857, 1878 et 1882 ont disparu. Jen ai vu seulement trois sur dix sept qui ont
t publies. Il est vrai que depuis peu de temps on a reconstruit, au moyen de pierres tires des
ruines, la fontaine dAn-el-Bordj, ainsi que plusieurs maisons. / LAdministration, avertie, a fait
dfense, depuis un an ou deux, aux entrepreneurs de la rgion dextraire de nouvelles pierres
des ruines.
[
160]Hinglais_1905_256 author comments on Vels account of An-el-Bordj: Bien des fois
dj notre Socit sest leve contre ces actes de vandalisme; bien des fois aussi lAdministration a renouvel sa dfense de semparer des pierres sculptes ou graves des ruines antiques;
aucun compte na jamais t tenu ni de cette dfense ni de nos protestations. / En labsence de
toute sanction, ne serait-il pas naf de notre part desprer voir cder lintrt des entrepreneurs
devant celui de la science?
[ ]
161 Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_19 excursions around Milah and Constantine: Bordj-Beda.
Le Cheik de cette localit sempresse de nous montrer les restes antiques qui ont chapp aux
fouilles de lentrepreneur du bordj. Ce sont: quelques pierres de grand appareil, une vote en
blocage couverte sa partie suprieure dun pav en opus reticulatum, et la moiti dun pressoir
huile, le seul que nous ayons rencontr dans cette partie de notre excursion.
[
162]Audollent_1890_108 An Beda: Pendant les travaux dtablissement de la voie ferre...on a rencontr, aupr de [An Beda], une grande ncropole.
[
163]Recueil_de_Notices_Constantine_VIII_1878_VI: Un sentiment de curiosit bien naturelle
leur [the colons] fait attacher du prix aux monuments quils exhument du sol; ils veulent savoir
quels taient ceux qui lavaient fouill et arros de leurs sueurs avant eux; quand et comment
ils ont disparu, et, jetant sur les espaces quils ont sous les yeux un regard anxieux, souvent ml
de regrets pour la maiison paternelle quils ont quitte, ils interrogent ces monuments du pass
pour leur demander sils trouveront ici les garanties de scurit et de salubrit ncessaires leurs
familles. / Cest pour rpondre leur curiosit, quelquefois inquite, que nous nous efforons
dajouter la suite des inscriptions une traduction et des explications, dont les savants nont que
faire, et quils jugeraient puriles sils ignoraient le but qui les justifie. Les nombreuses pitaphes
de centenaires, publies dans chacun de nos volumes, rassurent nos vaillants colons sur les
conditions de salubrit de leur nouvelle patrie. / Eux signalent leurs dcouvertes aux autorits
locales, et, si elles ne peuvent pas prendre place dans un muse voisin, qui nest pas encore cr,
ils les encastrent dans les murs de leurs maisons; ils les conservent.
[
164]SHD 1M1314 Capitaine du Gnie Gaubert, Notice sur Miliana, 1841, 11: Malgr les malheurs
de la premire occupation, on ne saurait prtendre que le climat de Miliana est insalubre car aux
mmes poques de lanne, la dernire garnison na perdu en 5 mois que 61 hommes y compris
les blesss et dont 26 avaient t vacus par les diverses colonnes. Thwe town held some 8,400
inhabitants in 1911, so the numbers in the 1840s must have been tiny. La Grande Encyclopdie
writes that La garnison de 1.200 hommes qui y fut laisse, sous le colonel dIllens, y fut bientt
[
appendix
bloque, et, quand on la releva, elle avait seulement 100 hommes pouvant tenir un fusil et 400
lhpital: le reste tait mort, surtout par leffet de la nostalgie.
[
165]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_18 excursions around Milah and Constantine: Lors de la cration de Sidi-Khelifa, on dterra bon nombre de pierres libyques, aujourdhui perdues. Il en existait galement sur une plate-forme dominant le village, o le service des Ponts et Chausses
a fait une plantation darbres. Elles partagent le sort des premires, cest--dire quelles sont
entres dans les murs des fondations. Depuis que lAdministrateur de la commune leur a fait
connatre limportance de ces vieux monuments, les colons sempressent de lui signaler leurs
trouvailles. Cest ainsi quon a pu sauver quelques pierres et les dposer au muse de Milah.
[
166]Robert_1903_6465 commune mixte des Maadid: Les ruines importantes de
Kherbet-et-Trab des Oulad-Agla, sont situes dans le douar Zeggueur une distance de 13 kilomtres de Bordj-bou-Arrridj. / Le village de Lecourbe a t install en 1880, entirement sur ces
ruines et la construction des btiments communaux, canivaux, plantations, rues et habitations
particulires des colons, a amen la dcouverte de trs nombreux vestiges, dont plusieurs malheureusement, ont disparu dans la maonnerie des maisons actuelles.
[
167]Robert_1903_76 commune mixte des Maadid: Noudir: Ruine situe dans le primtre du nouveau centre de Lavoisier, dans le douar Sidi-Embarek, 27 kilomtres de Bordjbou-Arrridj. / Dans toute la rgion de Lavoisier, Dra-ed-Dem, 200 mtres de lexploitation
importante de M. Corbie, dans la ferme de MM. Bernard et Perdigal, etc. se trouvent des ruines
attestant que la colonisation romaine tait trs dveloppe sur ce point. / Les travaux effectus
par les nouveaux colons amneront probablement la dcouverte dinscriptions et autres documents intressants.
[
168]Robert_1903_82 commune mixte des Maadid: Kherbet Abd-el Beg: Sur le point o se
trouve le centre actuel de Macdonald, 16 kilomtres de Stif et 50 kilomtres de Bordj-bouArrridj. Les matriaux de cette ruine ont t utiliss par les colons.
[
169]RA I 1856, 56 Inscriptions at Bou-Ismal: Le terrain o lon a recueilli cette inscription est
tout prs de celui du colon Simand o il existe une trentaine de tombes. En somme, cette petite
ncropole avait peu prs un hectare dtendue. / Il ny avait pas de squelette dans la tombe
laquelle appartient linscription. / Dautres pitaphes avaient t exhumes au mme endroit
et employes presquaussitt par les colons. Nous esprons que ces actes de vandalisme ne se
renouvelleront plus.
[
170]Duval_1859_196 An-Rouiba between Algiers and Dellys: De nombreuses ruines, que la
science reconnat pour celles de Rusgoniae, autour du cap Matifou, dont la colonisation franaise avait jusqualors respect les brousailles; les nouveaux colons trouveront, pour ainsi dire,
a pied doeuvre les matriaux ncessaires leurs habitations. Pour faire revivre la civilisation
dans ces parages, il suffira daider laction des colons par lentretien de la route dAlger Dellis.
[ ]
171 Bourlier, Ch., and Gavault, P., Tigzirt et Taksebt (Rusuccurru), in RA XXXV 1891,
512. Site is 26km east of Dellys. 56: Au milieu de cette renaissance du centre romain, il tait
craindre que les ruines eusseut subir de regrettables mutilations. Aussi M. le gouverneur
gnral, dsireux de concilier les intrts de la science historique avec ceux de la colonisation,
dcida-t-il de mettre la disposition de la commune mixte un crdit important, leffet de sauvegarder les restes existants, de les rassembler et den rechercher de nouveaux au moyen de
fouilles mthodiques. Chargs par lui de diriger les travaux et den consigner les rsultats, nous
nous rendmes plusieurs reprises Tigzirt et Taksebt; ce sont les rsultats de ces recherches
ritres que nous allons exposer ici.

172]Diehl_1892_112: LEurope savante, crivait Lon Renier ds 1850, recueille avec sollicitude lannonce de toutes les dcouvertes que font nos soldats sur la terre dAfrique: elle en attend
avec impatience la publication, et elle ne manquerait pas, si cette attente tait trompe, de nous
adresser le reproche de nous tre, sans profit pour la science, substitus dans ces contres
des barbares, qui, du moins, nen dtruisaient pas les monuments. Depuis lors ces paroles ont
t reprises et commentes, avec une singulire et lgitime svrit, par les savants allemands
chargs de la prparation du Corpus, On ne saurait, crit Wilmans, reprocher trop svrement
une nation aussi civilise que la France de tolrer un semblable tat de choses. Dans toute
lAlgerie, les ruines des anciennes villes disparaissent avec une rapidit surprenante, et on ne
fait presque rien pour protger mme les restes les plus importants de lantiquit. Dans
toute lAlgrie, dit encore Wilmans, les administrateurs et les colons, lexception de quelques
rares personnes, nont aucun souci des monuments, et bien souvent ils contribuent leur
ruine. Et il faut voir de quel ton, dans la prface du Corpus Mommsen, invoquant lunanime
tmoignage des savants algriens, nous fait, au nom des droits imprescriptibles de la science,
une dure et hautaine leon: La responsabilit de ces fautes, crit-il, pse moins sur ceux
qui les commettent que sur ceux qui, pouvant les empcher ou les punir, nen font rien.
Toutes les plaintes, tous les reproches, toutes les protestations demeuraient sans effet; et les
dfenseurs les plus zls des antiquits algriennes, fatigus de recommencer sans fin et sans
succs une lutte visiblement inutile, abandonnaient la partie, et se resignaient de guerre lasse au
vaudalisme des entrepreneurs publics, ces implacables destructeurs, comme le disait mlancoliquement M. Poulle en 1878, dont nous dsesprons davoir jamais raison.
[
173]Commission_de_lAfrique_du_Nord_1910_CCVIIICCIX: M. le Secrtaire met sous les
yeux des membres de la Commission un article de lAmerican Journal of Archaeology, 1912, p. 141,
qui, rsumant un rapport de M. Schulten paru dans lArchaeol. Anzeiger de 1911 (col. 242 279),
dplore la destruction des restes antiques par les Arabes ou les colons franais, sans que les
autorits y fassent obstacle. La Commission tient protester contre cette assertion, qui nest
point exacte. Luvre poursuivie par la science franaise en Afrique depuis trente ans, et spcialement par la Commission de lAfrique du Nord, les mesures de toute nature prises en Algrie et
en Tunisie pour sauver les ruines et pour dvelopper les muses, prouvent tous ceux qui sont
au courant de nos publications que les autorits, loin de se dsintresser des antiquits, ont fait
tout ce qui tait en leur pouvoir pour en assurer la conservation, et y ont russi autunt quil est
matriellement possible de le faire. The AJA reads, in its Archaeological News, 16 1912, 141:
A summary of recent archaeological work in Tunisia and Algeria, made by A. Schulten from
personal observation, unpublished notes, maps, and other printed sources, with full references,
appears in Arch. Anz 1911, cols 242279 (11 figs, 7 plans). Everywhere he has to deplore the
destruction of ancient remains by Arabs and French colonists, unchecked by the authorities.
[
174]Audollent_1890_468: Cest lors de la cration des nouveaux villages que les inscriptions
se dcouvrent en plus grand nombre. Nous lavons dj vu aux Ouled Aghi. An Kebira (Sataf),
trente kilomtres au nord de Stif, en est une preuve plus complte encore. Les Romains, colonisateurs prudents et aviss, choisissaient les situations les meilleures pour y tablir leurs centres
dhabitations. Une source frache et abondante, un terrain fertile, mais offrant aussi des facilits
pour la dfense en cas dattaque, voil ce quils cherchaient avant tout. Les besoins des colons
nont pas chang; aussi. ladministration tablit-elle souvent les villages modernes lendroit
mme o se trouvait la ville antique.
[
appendix
175]Bulletin de correspondance africaine IV 1885, 194, relaying account from Soc Archol de
Constantine XXIII 18831884: Actes de vandalisme: le Nymphaeum de Lambse t dtruit
rcemment et servi la construction dun difice communal; il existe, dans les cartons dun
grand service public Alger, une liste des monuments romains propres tre exploits comme
carrires; les colons et les entrepreneurs de Lambse arrachent des pierres dans les ruines au
pied mme ds approvisionnements tablis leur intention.
[
176]Diehl_1892_105: Pendant que nos savants travaillaient avec ardeur a ltude des antiquites africaines, la masse de la population algrienne n avait jamais eu pour ces dbris du pass
que ldiffrence la plus absolue; pendant que les Delamare, les Renier, les Villefosse mettaient
tous leurs efforts a retrouver et faire connatre les prcieux monuments de la domination
romaine en Afrique, les colons travaillaient sans relche les anantir; et le mme gouvernement qui encourageait les recherches archologiques et faisait les frais des publications savantes
sinquitait peu, par une singulire contradiction, darrter les dsastreuses pratiques dun vandalisme inoui. Cest l, dans loeuvre scientifique de la France en Algrie, le triste revers de la
mdaille; et sil est vrai de dire quen ces dernires annes des mesures protectrices sont venues
enfin mettre un terme cette incroyable ngligence, il nen faut pas moins reconnatre que pendant cinquante ans environ la domination franaise a t plus dsastreuse aux monuments algriens que de longs sicles de barbarie musulmane.
[
177]Domergue_1893_144145 on the ruins of Seriana: En ce qui concerne les restes de lantiquit et la ncropole de Seriana, lentreprise des travaux publics ne recule devant aucun moyen
pour se procurer au meilleur prix, sans travail pnible et sans frais dextraction, les matriaux
qui lui sont ncessaires pour les constructions, le pavage des rues et ltablissement des routes.
Dans un pays o les roches de toute nature sont si massives et si abondantes quil pourrait servir
de carrire la plus vaste des entreprises, lentrepreneur brise impitoyablement tout ce qui reste
de lantique ncropole romaine, arrache de leurs lits souterrains les tombeaux des anciens pour
les rduire en cailloux et sme la dvastation sur les restes de cette vieille cit, aussi grande,
si lon en juge par ltendue de ses vestiges, que Lambsis et Diana. Ses vhicules, fourgons et
tombereaux, parcourent en tout sens le territoire, et toute pierre qui nest pas enracine dans le
sol, quelle soit un objet dart, un docunuent dpigraphie ou une simple borne de lotissement,
est immdiatement enleve et transporte sur ses chantiers. Deux cents indignes et autant de
bourriquots font cette besogne. La corve dure depuis deux ans et se renouvelle tous les jours.
Plus de trois cents pierres moules, la plupart inscrites, ont dj t dtruites; on fait du cailloutis avec des statues et huit cents bornes qui fixaient le travail de lotissement et dterminaient les
lots des futurs colons sont aujourdhui sur les chantiers de construction et vont passer sous le
marteau. Cest la ruine et la dvastation. Jappelle lattention de lautorit suprieure sur les faits
que jai lhonneur de signaler. / Telle fut notre plainte. On nous rpondit que ces ruines romaines
noffraient aucun intrt archologique, et la destruction continua avec une ardeur sans gale:
ctait de la fureur et rien ne fut respect. Les travaux des Romains et ceux de ladministration
franaise continurent subir le mme sort. Telle tait la puissance de cette entreprise et laudace de ces entrepreneurs! Telle aussi, hlas! lindiffrence qui rgnait ailleurs.
[
178]Gsell_1894_17ff for the troubles, revolts and massacres following 1871, news of which
natives who had served in France brought back with them.
[
179]Robert_1885_23: M. Julien Poinssot, qui reprsente ici les Socits archologiques
dOran et de Constantine, minforme que les ruines de Seriana, 8 kilomtres de cette dernire
[

ville, viennent leur tour dtre mises en exploitation rgulire. Beaucoup dinscriptions, dont
plusieurs sont considres comme nayant pas encore t releves, ont disparu, et le fortin
byzantin a seul rsist par sa masse.../ Quelques personnes ont protest, mais il leur a t
rpondu que les ruines de Seriana navaient pas dimportance. On envisage trop souvent, en
effet, les antiquits de notre terre dAfrique au point de vue exclusif de lart; or, sil convient de
ne conserver en France que des glises romanes ou gothiques dun certain mrite architectural,
il ne faut pas oublier quen Afrique la plus modeste inscription a parfois un intrt capital au
point de vue de lhistoire, de la gographie et de la connaissance des races diverses qui vivaient
dans cette partie du monde romain.
[
180]Gsell_1894_23 Seriana/Pasteur: Les maisons, une quarantaine environ nont quun
rez-de-chausse; elles sont bties en pierres de taille ou en moellons emprunts aux ruines
de Lamiggiga, et, en plus dun endroit, on trouve employs dans les constructions des restes
de pierres crites brises coups de masse, ce qui fait saigner le coeur des archologues. Des
chapiteaux de colonnes, des socles, des fts, des pilastres forment des bancs pittoresques en
avant des portes; des ceps de vigne grimpent le long des murs, et les toits en tuiles rouges jettent
sur lensemble une note gaie.
[ ]
181 Domergue_1893_117 on the ruins of Seriana: En 1879, la rgion choisie pour fournir la
colonisation la dotation territoriale du village de Seriana offrait sur plus de deux cents hectares
dtendue limage dune ncropole antique, couverte de nombreux dbris.
[
182]Domergue_1893_114115 on the ruins of Seriana: Appel, il y a quelques jours, pour le
service public, dans la rgion de Batna, jai revu, deux fois, aprs une longue absence, le village
nouvellement cr de Seriana, son territoire et ses habitants. Jai dit ailleurs quel puissant intrt on y trouve dans ltude des restes de lantiquit dont le sol est couvert et celui non moins
grand qui sattache la recherche et la conservation de ces dbris. Ayant frquent ces lieux
pendant longtemps et ayant assist dans toutes ses phases la cration, puis linstallation de la
colonie nouvelle, charg de la division du sol sur tous les points dune vaste tendue, nous avons
signal lAdministration et quelques hommes instruits lexistence dune ncropole antique.
Nous avons dit et nous avons crit, en temps utile, quune exploitation aveugle et un vandalisme
stupide consommaient journellement sa ruine. Nous navons pas t entendu, tant il est vrai
que si les restes de lantiquit ont des amis fervents, ils trouvent aussi jusque parmi les hommes
clairs des ennemis redoutables ou des indiffrents; des rponses drisoires nous furent faites;
quelques-unes, semes desprit, versaient dans la plaisanterie. Les uns, fort tonns de nos
dmarches, niaient notre comptence; dautres, qui navaient jamais vu ces lieux, se prvalaient
de leur propre opinion. Il ny avait cependant pas l de quoi rire, et je puis dire aujourdhui la
Socit archologique de la province de Constantine, dont lhonorable prsident accueillit alors
et fit valoir nos plaintes: / Sed non erat his locus. / La ruine fut consomme sous nos yeux; je fus
le tmoin impuissant et attrist de cette dvastation; seuls, quelques colons, nouveaux venus,
se mirent depuis, sur nos conseils, respecter les vestiges quils foulaient aux pieds et leur assurrent quelquefois un abri. Je dirai cependant, dans la dernire partie de ce rapport, comment
luvre de destruction qui a marqu la fondation du village de Seriana persiste encore et na pas
cess de nos jours.
[
183]Domergue_1893_120 Seriana: lemplacement actuel du village de Seriana et ses environs
immdiates forms par le communal et les jardins donnaient la mme poque laspect dun
cimetire antique couvert de monuments funraires de forme varie. On voyait sur le sol, dcou-
appendix
verts et intacts un grand nombre de cercueils de pierre creuss dans le roc; dautres mergeaient
du sol ou se montraient en affleurement. Plusieurs tombeaux, de forme lgante, prsentaient
le type hexagonal, dont les panneaux orns de moulures taient couverts de textes ddicatoires;
dautres forms par le cippe funraire dress sur plinthe taient couronns de frontons sculpts
assis sur des corniches moules; on y vovait le cintre et le triangle marqus leffigie des mnes.
[
184]Domergue_1893_152B on the ruins of Seriana: Non loin du fort byzantin, la pioche vient
dattaquer un mamelon form par la vote dun caveau; ctait lasile funraire de quelques personnes qui dormaient en ce lieu de leur dernier sommeil. On y a trouv quatre cercueils de
pierre renfermant les restes des morts. Le rduit spulcral est de forme carre; ses parois sont
ornes de corniches moules qui supportent un plafond ciment; un tel lieu ne pouvait tre que
la demeure dernire dune famille patricienne; il nen reste plus que lemplacement. Le tout,
ventr par la pioche, nest aujourdhui quune ruine informe. Les tombeaux, enlevs, ne sont
plus que des auges destines servir aux usages domestiques des colons ou lalimentation des
animaux.
[
185]Domergue_1893_132133 on the ruins of Seriana: En creusant les fondations de leurs
maisons, nos colons sont tombs sur une merveille dont nous aurons peut-tre regretter la
perte irrparable. Un amas de briques intactes, noyes dans la cendre, a t rencontr; ces
objets, sortes de tablettes creuses, sont de forme lgante et dargile cuite au four. La superposition de deux briques laisse, par consquent, un espace vide qui protge intrieurement les
parois latrales du frottement et prserve de toute dtrioration lcriture ou les images quelles
renferment. / Les briques de Seriana sont couvertes, dans leurs cavits, dune criture trs fine,
faite au burin, avec le style des tablettes antiques. Aprs un examen attentif de lune delles, nous
avons reconnu que le texte crit nest pas latin, ce qui ne sapplique, probablement qu quelques
volumes de cette trange bibliothque. Un des meilleurs colons de Seriana, M. Calvire estime
que plusieurs fourgons auraient peine suffi pour la transporter; ces livres, retrouvs, ont t
dtruits ou utiliss comme moellons dans les nouvelles constructions. Le spcimen que ce colon
en a gard a t soumis notre examen et celui de M. le commandant Payen. / Il faut esprer que la bibliothque de Seriana nest pas encore puise et que ce qui reste de ses tablettes
antiques, si elles sont retrouves, nous sera prcieusement conserv.
[
186]Domergue_1893_119 on the ruins of Seriana: on voyait le fort byzantin, dernier reste de
la cit dtruite; tout autour, dans ses environs, gisaient sur le sol des inscriptions parses, des
dbris de sculpture, classiques et grandioses, des fragments de statues antiques sur une grande
tendue. Le sol tait couvert de terres cuites et dargiles moules du grain le plus fin et dun rouge
vif qui, sur certains points, donnait la terre elle-mme comme une teinte affaiblie et un ple
reflet de mme couleur.
[
187]Domergue_1893_145 on the ruins of Seriana: Quelque temps aprs, nous parvint Batna
une nouvelle qui nous remplit danxit. Le monument de Caius Antonius Fortunatus, enlev du
fort byzantin et tran par trois chevaux, allait subir la destine commune. Nous tions le jour
mme Seriana et aprs avoir constat que le monument jusqu ce jour inviol de Fortunatus
avait disparu, nous nous mmes inutilement sa recherche.
[
188]Domergue_1893_162 on the ruins of Seriana: La ruine du fort byzantin disparat tous les
jours; il nen reste plus gure aujourdhui que le rduit central et les soubassements. Cest elle
qui fournit, qui veut les prendre, les pierres de tout appareil dj faonnes pour la construction. Elle offre mme limage dun chantier ouvert au public, o les matriaux choisis prennent

souvent la forme dernire et o saccumulent leurs dbris. Cest l que nous avions laiss, il y a
trois ans, linscription de Caius Antonius Fortunatus, dont nous avons racont lenlvement, la
restitution, la chute malheureuse, lcrasement et labandon. Nous approchmes de ce lieu avec
le dsir bien naturel de revoir encore une fois ce monument qui, le premier parmi tant dautres,
avait autrefois veill notre curiosit et charm notre solitude, pieux hommage dun vieux soldat
la mmoire de sa famille et de sa postrit teintes. Le fort apparaissait peine, tant les dimensions en taient rduites; les trois quarts de sa masse, rase sol, nexistaient plus et nous nen
retrouvions pas laspect primitif.
[
189]Toussaint_and_Guneau_1907_334 dans le dessein de trouver quelques monnaies, les
indignes aient t encourags bouleverser les ruines et particulirement les spultures de la
faon la plus barbare. / Je ne parle pas de la destruction des portes dAd Majores par des ouvriers
franais, pour construire au cimetire de Ngrine un monument qui aurait pu tre lev sans
avoir recours un pareil acte de vandalisme.
[
190]Peyssonnel_1838_I_179180 travelled 172425: Dans un verger doliviers, prs de Soliman,
quon appelle Sagurona, il y a les ruines dun vieux difice; et aux fondemens des murailles est
un ancien spulcre quon a dcouvert depuis peu, dans lide dy dterrer quelques trsors. Il est
revtu de pierres de diverses couleurs si petites que quatre pourraient entrer dans lespace dun
ongle; la diversit des couleurs de ces pierres les fait paratre dune peinture dlicate. Cette peinture mosaque reprsente deux hommes nus pchant au bord de la mer. On voit deux poissons
dans les filets, dont lun tche de senfuir. Sur le ct on voit un homme nu qui dort. Ce tombeau
est fait en arc, et la peinture est dans la faade du fond. Le sol est pav de pierres semblables,
mais plus grandes, qui reprsentent des vases et des fleurs. Ce spulcre mritait dtre vu, par
lart avec lequel il a t fabriqu; mais il a t maltrait par les Maures, cause quils sont ennemis des figures, comme il leur est dfendu den avoir par leurs lois. Le frontispice, le haut et les
cts ont t gts lorsquon la dcouvert.
[ ]
191 Carton, le Docteur, La campagne dHadrumte, in BSA_Sousse_III_1905_168186.
See 175: de noter cette observation quand, aprs mtre dirig vers lest, je trouvai, au sud de la
piste qui longe le bord mridional du jardin, el: 50 mtres de celui-ci, une monticule blanc et
conique, de 3 mtres environ de diamtre qui venait dtre ventr par les chercheurs de pierres.
Ceux-ci en avaient retir deux grandes amphores et quelques autres petits vases dont les fragments jonchaient le sol, ainsi quune belle dalle en calcaire de Hergla. Il ny a pas de doute possible ici, il sagit dune tombe et beaucoup de monticules isols quon rencontre sur le plateau
sont identiques.
[
192]SHD GR1H910 Gnie, Direction de Constantine, 1857 Mmoire militaire sur Stif, 2: Tous
nos villages modernes sont btis sur les ruines danciennes constructions; MSour, entrautres,
on voit encore les restes dun bourg fortifi, dune tendue assez considrable and then lists
other considerable ruins in the environs. This dossier also contains a multi-page chart of building
work 184155, divided into enceinte btiments militaires travaux civils et de colonisation,
which has notes on what happened to parts of the earlier enceintes.
[
193]Domergue_1893_143144 on the ruins of Seriana: Aprs avoir dcrit lancienne situation
des ruines romaines de Seriana, il convient daborder lexamen de ltat actuel de ces dbris. Mais
nous devons commencer par faire, en quelques mots, lhistorique de lpoque de transition qui
en vit lanantissement presque complet. Avec les restes de lantiquit disparurent alors tous les
travaux prparatoires de la colonisation, dtruits par la mme main. Ds larrive des premiers
appendix
colons, je me sentis dans le vide et dans limpossibilit de procder leur installation. Ce fut un
moment douloureux de ma carrire et jen ai gard le triste souvenir. Je devais exposer immdiatement cette situation et je le fis dans les termes suivants: / Je viens de constater que le lotissement des terres de Seriana, cr depuis deux ans par mon service, nexiste plus aujourdhui que
sur le papier; ce qui en reste sur le terrain na plus de caractre officiel, ne garantit aucune contenance et rend impossible toute mise en possession des nouveaux colons. Je nai pas rechercher
les auteurs du vandalisme qui a dtruit ce travail, mais je dois prsenter mes observations. Il est,
dailleurs, facile de les vrifier par les moyens dont ladministration dispose elle-mme. / Il est
rare, en principe, quun territoire de colonisation, nouvellement alloti, encore vide de colons et
lou aux indignes en attendant leur arrive ou livr aux entreprises des travaux publics avant
leur installation, alors que personne, en dehors des fonctionnaires et agents de ladministration,
nest m par un sentiment de prservation, ne soit pas livr cette sorte de pillage qui consiste
dtruire le travail effectu par les services publics au point de nen pas laisser de traces.
[
194]Domergue_1893_144145 on the ruins of Seriana: En ce qui concerne les restes de lantiquit et la ncropole de Seriana, lentreprise des travaux publics ne recule devant aucun moyen
pour se procurer au meilleur prix, sans travail pnible et sans frais dextraction, les matriaux
qui lui sont ncessaires pour les constructions, le pavage des rues et ltablissement des routes.
Dans un pays o les roches de toute nature sont si massives et si abondantes quil pourrait servir
de carrire la plus vaste des entreprises, lentrepreneur brise impitoyablement tout ce qui reste
de lantique ncropole romaine, arrache de leurs lits souterrains les tombeaux des anciens pour
les rduire en cailloux et sme la dvastation sur les restes de cette vieille cit, aussi grande,
si lon en juge par ltendue de ses vestiges, que Lambsis et Diana. Ses vhicules, fourgons et
tombereaux, parcourent en tout sens le territoire, et toute pierre qui nest pas enracine dans le
sol, quelle soit un objet dart, un docunuent dpigraphie ou une simple borne de lotissement,
est immdiatement enleve et transporte sur ses chantiers. Deux cents indignes et autant de
bourriquots font cette besogne. La corve dure depuis deux ans et se renouvelle tous les jours.
Plus de trois cents pierres moules, la plupart inscrites, ont dj t dtruites; on fait du cailloutis avec des statues et huit cents bornes qui fixaient le travail de lotissement et dterminaient les
lots des futurs colons sont aujourdhui sur les chantiers de construction et vont passer sous le
marteau. Cest la ruine et la dvastation. Jappelle lattention de lautorit suprieure sur les faits
que jai lhonneur de signaler. / Telle fut notre plainte. On nous rpondit que ces ruines romaines
noffraient aucun intrt archologique, et la destruction continua avec une ardeur sans gale:
ctait de la fureur et rien ne fut respect. Les travaux des Romains et ceux de ladministration
franaise continurent subir le mme sort. Telle tait la puissance de cette entreprise et laudace de ces entrepreneurs! Telle aussi, hlas! lindiffrence qui rgnait ailleurs.
[
195]Domergue_1893_160 Seriana, the colons village: Les rues, bien perces, sont bordes de
trottoirs o poussent avec vigueur de beaux jeunes arbres. Des caniveaux longent ces trottoirs
sur toute leur longueur et prsentent en bordure une ligne continue de belle maonnerie faite
avec des matriaux de choix. Nous avons tudi ces pierres et nous les avons comptes. Dans la
rue principale, huit parmi les plus belles prsentent sur la face visible des motifs dornementation et douze portent lamorce dune ddicace. Nous parlons seulement des inscriptions que le
hasard de la construction rend apparentes; il est certain que beaucoup de ces matriaux, faonns sous le marteau, sont de mme provenance et portent sur dautres points cachs les mmes
traces. Les rues adjacentes nous offrent le mme spectacle sur la chausse et presque toutes

les maisons de Seriana contiennent quelque intressant dbris. Nous y voyons, sur le seuil, des
fragments de colonnes et des chapiteaux qui servent ordinairement de siges aux nombreuses
familles de nos braves colons. Ces restes font partie du mobilier domestique, en attendant quils
soient utiliss pour la construction.
[
196]Pallary_1894_1213.
[
197]Bulletin Officiel du Gouvernement Gnral de lAlgrie, sixime anne, 1866, Algiers 1867,
604: Report by Randon to the Emperor in September 1866, from the Commission administratif
de Stif, propos the tribal land of the Righa-Dahra. Some 700ha ont t donns en concession des indignes, and then Ruines Romaines: Les dix-huit parcelles composant cette catgorie ne prsentent aucun intrt archologique; elles sont toutes occupes par des villages ou
gourbis indignes, et, sur lopposition des Djemas, le Domaine sest dsist. Une seule ruine
dite dAn-Toumella, dans le douar dAin-Titest, prsente une certaine importance. Quoique le
Domaine ne lait point revendique, le Gouverneur Gnral est davis, avec la Commission, de
la comprendre dans les proprits domaniales. Cette rserve (1 h. 80a.) na t lobjet daucune
opposition.
[
198]Domergue_1893_121 Seriana: Afin de donner un souvenir ces monuments dont
quelques-uns, grossirement encastrs dans les murs des maisons ou recueillis briss dans les
demeures des colons, ont chapp jusqu ce jour la dernire destruction, je me servirai des
notes prises, il y a douze ans, sur les lieux mmes et pieusement conserves depuis cette poque.
[
199]Domergue_1893_164165 on the ruins of Seriana: Tout individu qui prend possession du
sol dans les conditions actuelles de la colonisation en Algrie sait que les monuments de lantiquit, les objets dart qui se trouvent sur les terres lui concdes ou vendues et ceux quil pourra
dcouvrir dans lavenir sont la proprit de lEtat. Cela est imprim en toutes lettres sur le titre
de concession quil possde et quil doit prsenter au gomtre charg de sa mise en possession.
Il faut rappeler tout de suite cette prescription salutaire ceux qui lont oublie et il faut le faire
administrativement.
[
200]Pallu_de_Lessart_1886_73 Seriana: M. Bedouet a veill jusquici avec un soin jaloux la
conservation des restes de lancienne Seriana. Grce son intervention, aucun colon ne parait
stre appropri de pierres romaines. Mais est-ce suffisant? Je ne le crois pas. Ces pierres, gnralement bien conserves, gisent au milieu des champs o elles sont couches pour la plupart.
Leau du ciel emplit les creux des lettres; elle sen vapore en les rongeant peu peu. On pourrait, ce me semble, faire sans inconvnient lune des deux choses suivantes: ou dresser solidement les pierres place, sur dans le sens vertical, ou bien les transporter le long des grandes alles
darbres qui ornent la petite colonie. Il ny aurait dans la cration de ce muse en plein air rien
qui ne soit conforme aux instructions administratives. On pourrait aussi utiliser pour les pices
plus dlicates le fort byzantin auquel il serait facile de mettre une porte.
[
201]Carton_1906_39 writing on Larchologie en Tunisie: La surveillance des monuments
par les socits locales nattnue pas la ncessit dun inspecteur des antiquits actif, vigoureux,
sachant faire un croquis, mais surtout montant cheval et capable de surprendre les entrepreneurs dans leurs chantiers. / Ceux-ci ne devraient tre autoriss user des pierres antiques qu
condition de payer les dplacements de linspecteur des antiquits et de lui avoir prsent les
pierres dont ils dsirent se servir.
[
202]Carton_1906B_388 writing on Carthage: the Arabs at Carthage: Mais ce nest pas labandon seul qui pse sur ces ruines, cest quelque chose de plus triste encore. Dj, en effet, sactive
appendix
luvre affreuse de dmolition, commence depuis quatre cents ans, et que nous voyons se perptuer de nos jours. Dix-sept sicles dacharnement nont pas encore eu raison des richesses de
Carthage! / Dans cette maison au portique de marbre, aux murs orns de fresques que lave la
pluie tombant par les terrasses croules, des Arabes travaillent. Les uns retirent des dcombres
amoncels les lourdes poutres de cdre demi calcines pour en porter le bois aux fours chaux
voisins et vers les boulangeries ou les bains de Tunis. Dans les ruines mmes, auprs des fours,
des hommes entassent les torses, les membres de statues en marbre recueillis sur le forum et sur
le parvis des temples. Le marbre fait, en effet, dexcellente chaux! / De riches entrepreneurs
dj! se sont installs dans ses ruines. Leurs ouvriers, grand renfort de cordes et de leviers,
font tomber les murs, arrachent les scellements en plomb des colonnes et le bronze des portes
pour les porter au fondeur. Ils renversent les portiques pour en expdier les chapiteaux vers les
mosques de Kairouan, ou Tunis pour dcorer les nouveaux palais des chefs arabes. Des nes,
des chars, des bateaux sloignent en tous sens, chargs des dbris de la malheureuse cit.
[
203]Tunis-journal_1889_8_Oct: Avis aux Entrepreneurs, Maons et Tailleurs de Pierres. M.
Bosq, professeur de strotomie, rue Sidi-Kassem, 17, prs de lhpital italien, donnera des leons
de coupe de pierres et dappareils partir du 21 octobre prochain, de huit heures dix heures du
soir. Le prix de la leon sera de 15 francs par mois.
[
204]Robert_1903_58 commune mixte des Maadid: La voie ferre dAlger Constantine
traverse le nord de la commune. / Les ruines romaines et byzantines sont trs nombreuses dans
les divers douars et dnotent combien la colonisation tait dveloppe (Voir la carte archologique). / LAdministration franaise a t bien inspire en crant neuf villages prs desquels se
trouvent des ruines romaines quelquefois trs importantes, comme Crez, Lecourbe, BordjRedir. / Nous donnons ci-aprs, lnumration des ruines avec leurs noms indignes, les dnominations franaises, leur superficie approximative et les douars dans lesquels elles se trouvent.
[
205]Goyt_and_Reboud_1881_52, Une excursion Djebel-Sgao: lOued-Klon, o nous faisons notre premire station. M. Laumesfeld y a bti une maison sur lemplacement dune villa
romaine, dans les ruines de laquelle on a trouv un coffret en argent cisel dune grande valeur
artistique, quatre ou cinq pierres tumulaires et une borne milliaire de lpoque diocltienne.
[
206]Luciani, D., Excursion archologique dans la rgion de Collo, in RNMSADC XXIII
18831884, 63108. See 8081: A environ deux kilomtres louest de Cheraa, la route de
Bessombourg passe devant la ferme Tranchier, situe au pied dun norme bloc de granit, et
construite en pierres de taille extraites dune ruine romaine dont lemplacement est cinquante
mtres plus haut. A langle ouest de la maison, jai remarqu sur une pierre de taille un dessin en
relief qui a la forme dune hache; quelques personnes pensent que cest un phallus.
[
207]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_7374 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Entre le Djebel
Azem et le Djebel el-Haoua, trois petits groupes de ruines, distants de plusieurs centaines de
mtres, portent le nom dH. Dibba. Dans celui du centre, qui est le plus important, gisent des
fragments architecturaux qui ont probablement appartenu une chapelle chrtienne: fts de
colonnes et de demi-colonnes, bases socle lev du type ordinaire. De lautre ct du Djebel
el-Haoua, il y avait des ruines An-Yagou; la construction du village franais les a fait presque
entirement disparatre.
[
208]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894_526 Ruines romaines au nord des Monts de Batna, in the
dpartement de Constantine: En regagnant vers le sud-ouest la route de Lamiggiga Diana,
lon ne rencontre quune seule ruine dans le Bled el Taga, marcageux et malsain; H. Guesseria

tait un hameau, prs dune source abondante, 6 kilomtres au nord de Sriana. Les pierres
antiques ont presque toutes servi construire la ferme de lAn Taga. A 300 mtres au nord de
cette ferme, traces dun petit fortin de basse poque.
[
209]Reboud, le docteur V., Excursion dans le bassin de lOued-Guebli, in RNMSADC XXII
1882, 163190. See 169170: Bientt nous descendons, au milieu de vastes champs de bl et dorge,
le versant occidental des collines qui sparent le bassin de lOued Ref-Ref de celui de lOued
Guebli. / Notre point de direction est la grande plaque de verdure, forme par la vigne de M.
Tournier, qui a 75 hectares de superficie. La maison de M. Tournier slve sur les ruines dune
terme romaine, dont les restes renfermaient des colonnes, des chapiteaux et des pierres portant
des inscriptions; les plus belles ont t encastres dans les murs; les deux suivantes se trouvent
sur la faade de la maison, de chaque ct de la porte dentre.
[
210]Reboud, V., Excursion archologique dans les cercles de Guelma, de Souk-Ahras et de
Lacalle, in RNMSADC 2 series 7, Constantine 1876, 154. See 4950: notre caravane sarrte un
moment sur les bords du Khelidj, prs dune haute butte quon na point encore fouille. Les
indignes donnent le nom de Khelidj au vaste canal qui se dtache de la Seybouse au-dessus
de Sidi-Denden, serpente au milieu de la plaine et vient se jeter dans la mer un peu louest
du marabout de Sidi-bou-Nechmea. Est-ce un simple canal de desschement ou un ancien
lit de la Seybouse? Pour quelques-uns, cette dernire opinion se fonde sur ce que la Table de
Peutinger place Hippo Regius cinq milles romains au nord-ouest de lUbus. / Quoiquil en soit,
six grandes fermes, vritables oasis, slvent aujourdhui sur les bords du Khelidj, au milieu des
ruines danciens tablissements agricoles o lon recueille chaque jour monnaies, lampes, vases
en terre, fragments de plomb, de marbre blanc conservant encore quelques restes dinscriptions.
[ ]
211 Papier_1886_99: Nous avons dit que M. Verdier avait trouv sur sa proprit du bord
de la Seybouse une grande quantit de grosses pierres de taille dont il stait servi tout naturellement pour ses constructions. Il nous a fait voir, en effet, quen maints endroits sa maison,
ses curies et ses hangars reposaient sur une ligne de pierres de taille trouves en place et quil
na eu qu relier entrelles par du mortier pour en faire de solides fondations; que toutes les
encoignures de ses btiments ntaient bties quavec des pierres semblables parmi lesquelles il
sen trouvait mme qui mesuraient prs dun mtre cube. / Il na pu nous donner le plan exact
des ruines sur lesquelles il avait difi sa maison et toutes ses dpendances, mais il nous a dit
quelles lui avaient sembl appartenir un difice assez considrable. Nous ayant appris, dailleurs, que linscription qui lui avait valu notre visite, avait t trouve sur lemplacement mme
de son habitation et fait voir aussi, dans son jardin, un norme ft de colonne de 1m87 de circonfrence, plant debout sur un magnifique chapiteau dordre composite et trouv au mme
endroit, il y a tout lieu de croire que cet difice ntait autre quune basilique chrtienne dont
Gustus ou Gusteus avait t un des sous-diacres. / Or, notre opinion cet gard mrite dautant
plus de crance, qu droite et gauche de sa maison, M. Verdier trouve encore tout bout de
champ de nombreux ossements et de nombreuses pierres tombales qui indiquent quun cimetire existait de chaque ct de la basilique, comme on en voit encore autour des glises dans
beaucoup de nos villages europens. / M. Verdier qui nignorait pas combien tout ce qui touche
larchologie mintressait, me conduisit sur les divers points de sa proprit o il compte trouver encore une abondante carrire de pierres de taille en grs et en mollasse marine, et le
hasard aidant, quelque belle inscription mon service. En tous ces endroits, il net pas de
peine me convaincre, en effet, quune petite ville, un bourg avait exist l sous les Romains, car,
de tous cts, sur un espace dau moins cinq ou six cents mtres de long, des ranges de pierres
appendix
de taille affleuraient et l au niveau du sol ou se devinaient sous terre par le soulvement et
labaissement successifs du terrain environnant.
[
212]Carton_1888_442: jai pu me rendre compte que les suppositions que je faisais au sujet
de la topographie des lieux taient exactes, en visitant, prs des ruines de Zin, une ferme
romaine qui a t mise au jour rcemment. / Un Italien, possdant l quelques terrains et
voulant y construire une ferme et des magasins, eut lide dutiliser dans ce but les restes de
cette construction. Il dblaya le sol jusqu la profondeur de 2m,50 ou 3 mtres, hauteur des
murailles restes debout, de sorte que dun coup doeil, on peut, en inspectant ces fouilles, se
faire une ide trs exacte de ce qutaient alors ces maisons. and no suggestion he was doing
anything wrong.
[
213]Papier_1886_9495 inscription 15: En 1881, M. Verdier, colon et propritaire dune belle
et grande ferme situe sur la rive droite de la Seybouse, 11 kilomtres environ S.-E. de Bne,
dcouvrait, en faisant creuser les fondations de sa maison et de ses curies, de nombreuses et
grosses pierres de taille attestant que, sur lemplacement de sa proprit, il existait, sans doute,
sous les Romains, une maison de matre, une villa et peut-tre mme tout un pagus ou village...Je constatai tout dabord et non sans quelque surprise, quau lieu dtre scle dans un
mur, la pierre servait de marche la porte dentre de la maison dhabitation. Je pris donc la
libert de faire remarquer notre aimable hte que, si dure et si rsistante que pouvait tre cette
dalle, linscription quelle portait ne pouvait quen souffrir et seffacer la longue, ce quil fallait
viter tout prix. M. Verdier me promit de lenlever de l et de la mettre en lieu de sret, ce dont
je le remerciai vivement au nom de tous les amis de lantiquit.
[
214]RA 1867 issue 65, Chronique, 396: La quatrime inscription t trouve au bordj de
Sidi Hamar. Situ sur la route Guelma, 5 kilomtres du village de Penthivre, bordj appartenant
M. Allegro., chef descadron en retraite, qui la fait construire sr un mamelon form par les
ruines dune antique villa o lon rencontre beaucoup de pierres de grand appareil, des colonnes,
une mosaque, des lampes, des conduits en plomb.
[
215]RA 1857 issue 6, Antiquits du cercle de Tns, at Orlansville, 435436: Nous allmes
revoir la Ferme, aujourdhui colonie agricole o la culture reparat; ctait jadis un tablissement
militaire, o il y avait 84 hectares en valeur, ds 1845. La garnison exploitait alors, en outre, 70
hectares sur dautres points. Ds cette poque, on avait plant plusieurs milliers darbres dans les
grandes rues, sur les places et les promenades; on avait fond la ppinire, jardin bien entretenu
que les sauterelles ont cruellement maltrait Tanne dernire (en 1848). / Cet essor officiel,
imprim ds lorigine, ne sest pas maintenu au mme degr dnergie; et les efforts particuliers
nont pas compens le ralentissement de laction publique. Lagriculture prive na gure produit
jusquici Orlanville que la ferme de M. le commandant Vincent, tablissement conduit avec
intelligence et activit. Mon compagnon ne trouva quun reproche faire au fondateur, ce fut de
ne pas avoir adopt la division classique de la villa romaine en Urbana, Rustica et Fructuaria. Il
voulut bien lui pardonner de ne pas avoir donn pour entre sa ferme un ttrastyle flanqu de
200 colonnes en marbre grec, gyptien, numidique, comme la fameuse villa Gordienne. Notre
ami tait dcidment en veine dindulgence.
[
216]RA 1866 issue 58, Chronique, 306307, near Tipasa: Le Castellum de Ksob-El-Halou.
Derrire une petite maison isole appartenant M. Etourneau, concessionnaire de lHaouche
Sidi Rachid, sur lemplacement du futur village de Beausjour, au bord mme de la mer et sur le
ct oriental de Chabet Ksob el-Halou (Ravin du roseau sucr, ou de la canne sucre), on trouve
un chteau fort, antique, assez apparent encore, bien quil ait t fortement mis contribution

pour fournir les matriaux de la maison dont on vient de parler et dune autre habitation qui
se rencontre un peu au de, lEst. Pendant que lentrepreneur de ces deux constructions
modernes dmolissait la pauvre forteresse romaine, les ponts-et-chausses faisaient, de leur
ct, disparatre un ancien bassin (que nous avions vu trs-bien conserv nagures) pour
ouvrir une route entre la mer et la plaine. Ce bassin, situ 150m environ au-del du fort, vers
le Sud, emmagasinait, pour lusage de sa petite garnison, leau dAn el-Hallouf qui y descendait
du versant Nord du Sahel par une conduite dont on retrouve encore quelques vestiges; mais
comme celle fontaine se tarit au coeur de lt quand lhiver na pas t suffisamment pluvieux,
on avait mnag sous la cour du Castellum une trs-belle citerne qui existe encore, et dautres,
peut-tre aussi, sous les logements et les magasins qui entouraient cette cour, et que des amas
de dcombres ne permettent pas dapercevoir aujourdhui. Cette prcaution, qui tait bien dans
les habitudes romaines, devait assurer une bonne rserve pour les temps de scheresse. / Malgr
les dgradations que le temps et les hommes lui ont infliges, le plan de cette btisse, et mme
son lvation sur quelques points, peuvent encore se deviner.
[
217]Toussaint_1906_227 re. Brigades topographiques: Henchir-ed-Douamis. Ruines situes
au col vers les sources de lOued-Leben. Ancienne Saia Major. Aujourdhui peu prs indistinctes; nombreuses citernes. Dans la cour de la ferme europenne construite au milieu des
ruines, fondations dun petit arc de triomphe auquel appartenait probablement linscription
encastre lextrieur du mur denceinte; dans cette mme cour sont runies quelques inscriptions recueillies dans les ruines et dont lune donne le nom de la localit antique.
[
218]Gsell_and_Graillot_1894B_76 Ruines romaines au nord de lAurs: Casae se composait
de trois agglomrations de maisons, lune sur lemplacement du village actuel et au nord de
ce village; une autre huit cents mtres environ plus au sud-ouest, sur un terrain en pente, au
lieu o se trouve actuellement la ferme Bdouet (autrefois Chassaing); la troisime lest, la
ferme Loubatire. A lpoque byzantine, un fort fut construit au nord du village. Il est carr, et
mesure 41 mtres de ct. Au milieu des faces nord-est et ouest, savance un bastion de 3m 60 de
front et de profondeur. Sur la face sud il y a, au lieu dun bastion, une porte faisant aussi saillie;
une arcade, encore bien conserve, la surmonte. Les murs sont doubles; on y a employ divers
matriaux emprunts des difices plus anciens: bases de colonnes, fragments de corniches,
caissons funraires, etc. Dans la ferme Bdouet un autre difice, de forme rectangulaire et de
construction identique, appartient aussi lpoque byzantine.
[
219]Jacquot_1907_82 writing of Roman roads around Stif: Stif Prigotville: Ce trac
emprunte, au sortir de Stif, le chemin du Gnie jusqu la cte 1171 et labandonne pour descendre sur lOued-Fermatou. / Sur sa route, il rencontre les ruines romaines des fermes Lagarde,
Pradeille et Milhau (voir litinraire) et les ruines romaines de la cte 1171. De ces dernires, il
ne reste plus rien, tout ayant t dtruit pour servir la construction du bordj de la Compagnie
Genvoise. L cesse le chemin du Gnie, qui file droite vers An-Regada et Mons.
[
220]Gauckler, Paul, Dcouvertes faites La Malga, in Bulletin Archologique 1896, 151:
Javais autoris au mois de novembre 1896 le cheik de la Malga chercher de la pierre dans un
terrain situ en face de la gare, Carthage. / Les recherches, que je surveillais attentivement,
ont pris bientt un caractre dintrt tel que je me suis dcid intervenir moi-mme pour me
substituer au cheik dans son contrat de location avec le propritaire du champ, et poursuivre,
au bnfice du Muse du Bardo, les travaux commencs avec un tout autre but. Je me trouvais
effectivement en prsence de ce premier cimetire des officiales dont lexistence a t signale, il
appendix
y a quinze ans dj, par le P. Delattre. Ce cimetire na jamais t fouill mthodiquement, mais
il a t boulevers, de fond en comble, par les recherches souterraines dArabes chercheurs de
pierres et dantiquits, qui ont arrach presque toutes les inscriptions des tombeaux. Un assez
grand nombre de monuments funraires ont t ventrs et pills; mais il en reste dautres, dans
les espaces compris entre les fouilles des premiers explorateurs, qui nont pas t atteints ou
nont subi que de faibles dommages.
[
221]Dor_1895_46, 57 Fontaine-du-Gnie, near Cherchel: Dans le primtre du centre de
Fontaine-du-Gnie, prs du marabout qui existe sur le bord de la mer, on a trouv de nombreuses
pierres de taille qui dnotent, en cet endroit, un certain nombre de constructions romaines
difies autrefois. Il en est de mme sur la concession du sieur Richard, o lon a dcouvert
aussi de trs belles pierres de taille. Dans cette rgion les colonnes de granit se rencontrent
frquemment. Au-dessus du village, on reconnat trs bien du reste, les anciennes carrires do
les Romains extrayaient le granit et dans lequel ils taillaient leurs colonnes. Plusieurs dentre
elles sont encore enfouies dans le sol. Le plus bel chantillon qui ait t mis au jour est le superbe
monolythe extrait du sol o il tait enfoui, et rig sur la grande place du village...Les europens
lappellent ordinairement le Granit en raison des carrires qui existent dans les environs et
dont les Romains tiraient de magnifiques colonnes dont un des plus beaux chantillons est le
monolithe mesurant dix mtres de hauteur sur un mtre de diamtre moyen pesant 30,000
kilogrammes, qui a t rig sur la place publique.
[
222]Rambaud_1888_91: En rsum, lAlgrie, qui gale et dpasse mme la France en
superficie, possde 15 millions dhectares de terres cultivables (Tell), qui certainement nourriront
un jour, non pas trois millions, mais dix millions dhabitants. Les grands travaux que nous avons
entrepris, desschements, reboisements, irrigations, sondages artsiens, la cration de grandes
industries, le dveloppement de la marine et du commerce, pourront mme, plus tard, doubler
ou tripler ce chiffre. Le plus difficile ne serait pas de vaincre et de fconder la nature en Algrie,
ni mme dy acclimater et dy rpandre notre race. Les Romains lont fait avant nous et, sauf
les ruines, ils nont pas laiss de traces de leur domination. Nous avons entrepris une uvre
autrement dlicate et bien digne, par sa difficult mme, de tenter le gnie dun grand peuple.
Il ne sagit pas seulement de refaire tranquille et sr un pays boulevers par quatorze sicles
de guerres et danarchie, mais dy apaiser le fanatisme, dy calmer les haines, dy rconcilier
lOrient avec la civilisation occidentale, de former, avec des indignes de toute race et des colons
franais ou trangers une socit compacte et organise, de crer en quelque sorte dlments
contradictoires un tre nouveau limage de la France. Tel est le problme qui simpose nous.
Comme le sphinx de la lgende antique, ou nous le rsoudrons, ou il nous dvorera.
[
223]Rogniat_1840_56 on colonisation and the tribes: Je me rsume; on ne peut former de
colonisation en Afrique, quen garantissant aux colons la sret complte de leurs familles et de
leurs proprits; ils ne peuvent trouver celle sret contre les dprdations et les ravages des
Arabes, qu labri dune ligne dfensive continue; cette ligne, forme dun mur flanqu de tours,
coterait au plus 1,500,000 fr., pour enceindre du ct de terre les cent lieues carres qui forment
le territoire actuel dAlger. Sa garde et sa dfense contre les partis arabes et kabayles, exigeraient
habituellement quatre mille combattants; il faudrait de plus, avoir un petit corps darme de
cinq mille combattants, opposer aux armes africaines.
[
224]Bouville_1850_34: Depuis dix neuf ans la France dpense annuellement cent millions
pour lAlgrie. Dans un an, nous y aurons accumul deux milliards. Pour la reprsentation de

ces sacrifices, nous avions 120,000 Europens dont moiti franais, au moment o monseigneur
le duc dAumale y commandait. Lanne dernire, on a envoy quatorze mille Parisiens, et le
chiffre total nest plus que de 117,000. / Cette population nest donc que flottante. Elle ne stablit
pas. Elle se borne fonder de petites boutiques et des maisons de prostitution qui se ferment
aussitt que les profits baissent. Le nombre des colons franais, malgr la faveur du transport
gratuit, y dpasse peine celui des colons trangers qui y viennent avec leurs ressources...Sur
les 14,000 colons dont le transport a cot 14 millions, 2000 ont dj reparu sur les boulevards
de Paris; sur les 12,000 restant, quelques-uns travaillent; beaucoup soccupent de chasse et de
pche, en attendant quils tirent aussi une traite sur le budget pour les frais de retour. Mais quant
llment indigne, tout pos, tout acclimat, et pourvu de btail, quel parti en a-t-on tir, quel
progrs lui a-t-on fait faire? Aucun!!
[
225]Lasnavres_1865_115 on the difficulties of colony-founding: Ce qui me console, consolation que je me fais un devoir de faire prouver par tous ceux qui ne trompent pas lEmpereur,
cest que les Europens, si ce nest quelques malheureux colons ou quelques aventuriers qui
auraient fini de bien faire en Europe, ne rpondront nullement vos appels, quelque ritrs
et tout avantageux quils paratraient tre. La France doit donc renoncer coloniser cette terre
qui sera toujours pour elle une terre maudite, et puisque lamour-propre national nous impose
malheureusement la ncessit de la conserver, contentons-nous de la gouverner militairement.
[
226]Charmes_1883_329: [Tunisia] crer administrativement des villages, y faire des concessions gratuites de terrains, y organiser trop rapidement et par des moyens violents la petite proprit serait anssi absurde que dangereux. On a vu en Algrie les tristes effets de cette mthode
de colonisation en terre chaude. Elle soulve contre nous la haine des indignes sans parvenir
faire des colons srieux. Dans ltat o nous trouvons les contres africaines, aprs des sicles
de barbarie, le climat est trop dur, le sol est devenu trop strile, le pays est trop dpourvu de
ressources, les conditions de la vie rurale y sont trop difficiles pour que les Europens puissent
semparer immdiatement de la main-doeuvre et lappliquer directement la petite culture. Ils
se ruinent l o les Arabes, qui ne mangent presque rien et que la plus forte chaleur ne fatigue
pas, trouvent laisance, presque la fortune.
appendix
1 Carton_1894_30: Bien plus, dans la connaissance de ces splendides vestiges du pass qui
couvrent le sol de la Tunisie et en font comme un vaste muse o les vases, les sculptures, sont
remplacs par des monuments entiers, il y a aussi une question de patriotisme / A ce point de
vue la Tunisie peut rivaliser avec lItalie pour attirer les touristes. En faisant mieux connatre
ces beauts de notre Afrique nous dtournerons un peu son profit le courant des voyageurs et
drainerons leur argent vers notre colonie.
[ ]
2 Hron de Villefosse, Discours, in BACTHS 1905, Paris 1905, LXXVIIIXCIV, followed by
Stphane Gsell, XCIVXCIX, and then the Minister, XCIXCIII for an overview of archaeological
activity thus far in French Algeria. See LXXXVIIILXXXIX: Au nom du Comit des travaux historiques, au nom des Socits savantes dont les dlgus nous entourent, je salue lAlgrie et son
gouverneur gnral; je salue les reprsentants des grands tablissements publics et des associations prives dont les efforts, sans cesse renouvels, ont contribu rpandre dans ce pays
lamour de la science et le got des recherches.
[ ]
3 Revue Africaine, nd but perhaps 1836. The term civilisation gets used a lot herein 70
occurrences. 2 from the Introduction to the volume: Le mouvement irrsistible qui tend unir
lOrient lOccident ne peut saccomplir sans soulever des conflits qui doivent se rsoudre dans
la Mditerrane, et il semble que le gnie qui veille aux destines de la France, en plantant son
drapeau sur les rives africaines, ait voulu lui faire pressentir lavance la part quelle doit prendre
aux vnemens qui se prparent. Tout est grand, tout est imposant, tout est magique dans cette
conqute. Tout y retrace de potiques et puissans souvenirs, et nos soldats, en poursuivant
Abdel-Kader, nouveau Jugurtha, peuvent voquer les grands noms de Metellus, de Marius et de
Sulla. Toutes ces ruines qui vivaient il y a deux mille ans nont pas seulement un grand intrt
pour la science, elles vont se relever, et le monde ancien servira ainsi de fondement un monde
nouveau.
[ ]
4 Drohojowska, Mme la contesse, LHistoire de lAlgrie raconte a la jeunesse, Paris 1848,
350: Quant la colonisation contre laquelle sest leve en France tant dopposition, pourquoi
serait-elle impossible? La fertilit manque-t-elle cette terre? Nul nose dire, oui. Lantiquit
serait l pour le dmentir et aprs lantiquit ceux de nos compatriotes qui ont visit ce sol,
admir sa force productive, les dmentiraient aussi. On a dit: leau, le bois, les bras manquent.
Il est reconnu que les deux premires craintes ne sont pas fondes. LAlgrie na, il est vrai, ni le
Gange, ni le Nil pour la fconder; mais cela est-il donc ncessaire? LItalie, comme lAfrique
franaise, na que de petits cours deau, est-elle pour cela peu fertile? Quant au bois, il est
faux quil manque en Afrique. LArabe, il est vrai, le dtruit, parce que, peuple pasteur, il nen
a pas besoin, tandis que sa cendre tendue sur la terre lui sert dengrais; mais outre que le sol
est excellent pour faire crotre rapidement le chne lige et le chne vert et que des plantations
y seraient faciles et productives, le colon y trouve des forts toutes venues, chaque jour on en
dcouvre de nouvelles. Reste les bras?...Ici un moyen bien simple vient en aide au besoin de
la colonie. Que lEurope y verse son trop plein, que la France y envoie chaque anne un nombre
considrable de colons, et bientt notre conqute ralisera toutes les esprances que lon en a
conues. Du reste lagricuture y fait dj de sensibles progrs; les prjugs qui montraient lAlgrie comme malsaine et le voisinage des Kabales et des Arabes, mme allis, comme dangereux
et toujours menaant, tombent peu peu, et chaque jour de nouvelles concessions sont sollicites et accordes par le gouvernement.
[ ]
5 Fortin dIvry_1845_56: Ce nest plus une colonie, mais un empire magnifique, deux
journes des ports franais, quil sagit de peupler et de coloniser. Car la conqute en est faite et
[ ]

assure, bien quon en dise, malgr les difficults et les revoies qui se rpteront et se succderont
toujours avec moins dintensit peut-tre pendant un quart de sicle.
[ ]
6 Moll_1861_221: Il dpend de la seule volont humaine de rveiller cette splendeur dautrefois, et de faire de lAlgrie le berceau de la civilisation pour tout un continent. Telle est la tche
de la France, tche noble mais immense et quil est rserv au sicle futur seulement de voir
saccomplir. Ce ne sera quaprs de longs travaux et de grands efforts que nos ides modernes
de progrs et de libert pourront prendre racine dans une contre puise par douze sicles de
barbarie et de despotisme sanglant.
[ ]
7 Saint-Martin_1863_101: Voil ce que nous avons fait depuis trente ans en Algrie. La
France a droit den tre fire autant que du progrs de ses armes, car il est digne dune grande
nation de faire marcher de pair luvre de lintelligence avec luvre de la force. LAngleterre,
qui senorgueillit juste titre des investigations scientifiques quelle poursuit ou encourage dans
ses nombreuses colonies, nen pourrait citer aucune o elle ait autant fait dans le mme espace
de temps; et si nous remontons jusquaux poques les plus brillantes de la puissance grecque
et romaine, on peut dite que lantiquit tout entire a runi en dix sicles moins de notions
positives sur le monde alors connu, que nous en un tiers de sicle dans nos provinces africaines.
[ ]
8 Carton_1894_21: Une question vient alors de suite sur les lvres. / Pourrons-nous dans
un laps de temps plus ou moins long rendre ce pays son antique richesse? Pour mon compte,
jai la profonde conviction que la chose est possible, et que le Franais nchouera pas l o le
Romain, avec des moyens moins puissants, a pu russir.
[ ]
9 Rufer_1907_366: La France aura le bonheur et la gloire de russir o les autres peuples ont
succomb. Cest notre conviction!
[ ]
10 Tunis-Journal 16 & 18 July 1889. Part-reproduced also in Le Petit Tunisien. Le service des
Antiquits et des Arts a t presque entirement occup, pendant les premiers mois de 1889, par
lExposition universelle, o il tient une place importante. De compte demi avec un propritaire
tunisien, il a procd lenlvement, Carthage, dune mosaque de 60 mtres carrs qui dcore
le patio de notre palais lesplanade des Invalides...Les officiers de la brigade doccupation
ont souvent particip aux recherches scientifiques et archologiques. / M. le docteur Carton,
aide-major A Souk-el-Arba, a bien voulu se charger de diriger la fouille de la ncropole de BullaRegia, dont les dpouilles ont dj pu figurer lExposition universelle. Les entreprises de ce
genre vont pouvoir prendre plus dextension, lan prochain, grce une subvention spciale que
la ville de Paris a bien voulu nous assurer.
[ ]
11 JDPL 27 December 1845: Stif possde aussi un cercle purement militaire, mais parfaitement tenu et administr et qui a une bibliothque de 7 & 800 volumes, laquelle est ouverte aux
sous-officiers. Le muse Sillgue, muse en plein air, est une collection trs remarquable et fort
curieuse des pierres retires des constructions romaines, et ranges avec ordre sur la belle promenade o figure la statue du duc dOrlans. il est dsirer que ces dbris prcieux dune autre
poque soient bientt mis labri des intempries des saisons; toutefois on ne peut quapplaudir
lheureuse ide de M. le gnral Sillgue, de runir et de conserver aux archologues des lmens dtudes que le vandalisme dtruit ailleurs.
[ ]
12 JDPL 17 September 1850. Reprints the whole of the 1850 report from Minister of War to
the President, which I have excerpted in this file. Depuis la disparition des voies romaines, il ny
avait plus en Algrie de routes qui mritassent ce nom. On en tablit de plus ou moins larges,
au fur et mesure que le besoin sen faisait sentir, soit pour former des tablissemens militaires
on agricoles, soit pour faciliter la marche des corps darme. / Ce ne furent dabord que des
appendix
chemins ouverts en simples terassemens, mais plus tard ils furent modifis et se rattachrent
un systme gnral de voies de communication conu en vue de la domination complte du
pays, du maintien de la pacification et de la colonisation future. Ce systme gnral, adopt ds
1847, prsente un rseau complet au triple point de vue etc
[ ]
13 JDPL 5 June 1887. M. le docteur Rouire, dlgu de la Socit de gographie de Tours, en
Tunisie dune chausse romaine non connue encore aujourdhui. Cette chausse est dans son
genre un des travaux les plus remarquables accomplis par les Romans en Afrique. Elle est jete
sur la Sebkha Halk-el-Mengel (i.e. large inland lake), 3 kilomtres lest dErghla.
[ ]
14 JDPL 21 October 1851. Une mosaque romaine dune grande beaut vient dtre dcouverte Aumale. Cette mosaque a t trouve dans la concession dun colon nomm Londe,
lextrmit de la rue de lHpital, lentre de la place du Jardin, prs de la porte de Medeah.
Elle tait pinca au centre dune cour entoure dcuries, presque fleur du sol. A en juger par
les vestiges qui subsistent, elle formerait langle suprieur gauche dun magnifique pavement
dune tendue considrable et dune rare magnificence. Dans cet tat de mutilation, elle prsente encore une largeur de 4 mtres sur une longueur de 2 mtres.
[ ]
15 JDPL 30 August 1849. From the Akhbar of 23 August: Notre systme doccupation est tellement ncessaire et si bien le rsultat fatal de la nature des choses que partout o nous prenons
position nous trouvons les traces des Romains, le peuple le plus militaire de lantiquit. Dans
beaucoup dendroits mme la pioche de nos sapeurs, en creusant une redoute, a rencontr les
fondations du praesidium ou du castrum, difi il y a une douzaine de sicles.
[ ]
16 JDPL 20 September 1839. Philippeville: Les transports sur Constantine donnent beaucoup dactivit ici. Les constructions y sont nombreuses quatre ou cinq rues passables sont
presque entirement termines et en somme Philippeville prsente dj laspect dun joli bourg
de France. / Les Romains devaient avoir ici des tablissemens immenses, en juger par ce qui
reste et que des sicles nont pu dtruire. Il existe, tant ici qu Stora des magasins vots plein
cintre, done grandeur prodigieuse. On voit Philippeville les restes dun beau quai en pierres
de taille, soutenu par des colonnes de granit; des arnes, des ponts, des cirques bien conservs,
ainsi que les traces dune ville aussi tendue que lest Alger mais en juger par les boulemens,
la quantit de terre qui recouvre dautres constructions et les pierres tailles jetes au loin et
enfouies plusieurs centaines de pieds, il est probable que cette ville a prouv quelque grande
rvolution qui laura dtruite en un jour.
[ ]
17 JDPL 24 July 1842. Cinq normes caisses venant dAlgrie, et remplies dantiquits,
viennent darriver au palais des Beaux-Arts. Ces antiquits consistent en bas reliefs et poteries
qui ont t dcouverts dans des ruines romaines. Les artistes les antiquaires et les amateurs les
plus clbres de la capitale ne cessent pas dadmirer ces prcieux restes douvrages dart, qui
remontent bien videmment lpoque de loccupation romaine.
[ ]
18 JDPL 24 Jan 1844. Charles Lenormant writes: Nous venons de voir chez M. Alphonse
Denis, dput du Var, un buste en marbre dcouvert rcemment Cherchell, dans lAlgrie.
Jusquici nos possessions dAfrique navaient produit, en fait dobjets antiques, que des morceaux
peu remarquables sous le rapport de lart celui-ci est dun autre ordre; il se distingue par un
travail la fois large, souple et vrai; la conservation en est presque parfaite. A lexception dune
lgre mutilation du nez et du coup de pioch oblig qui a abattu une partie de loreille droite et
fait une entaille dans le cou du mme ct, il ne manque rien cette sculpture dont lpiderme
est intacte partout ailleurs; le bloc est du plus beau marbre de Paros.

19]Bertrand_1903_187 Philippeville: Vers 1845, un conducteur des Ponts et Chausses,
M. Laborie, runit les divers objets gisant pars de tous cts et les fit transporter dans lintrieur
du thtre romain, class depuis comme monument historique. Lemplacement du bureau de
M. Laborie se trouvant mitoyen avec celui du thtre romain, ce fonctionnaire put veiller assez
facilement la conservation de ces collections et ce fut une chose heureuse, car, cette poque,
le thtre romain ntait pas cltur. / Dans sa sance du 14 fvrier 1853, le Conseil municipal
met le vu que les objets dart runis au thtre romain, qui sert de cour lcole primaire,
soient remis ladministration communale, charge par elle de prendre les dispositions ncessaires pour leur entretien et leur conservation. Dans sa runion du 3 septembre suivant, cette
assemble vote un crdit de 500 fr. en 1853 et de 500 fr. en 1854 pour la conservation des antiquits. Le Ministre de la Guerre se rserve la facult de rclamer la possession des antiquits quil
dsirerait placer au muse algrien institu Paris ou dans tous autres muses nationaux.
[ ]
20 Hron_de_Villefosse_1905_179 address to the Congrs des Socits savantes at Algiers,
a round-up of the achievements of French (and a little foreign) scholarship in Algeria and
Tunisia. Citing Gaston Boissier in his Promedades Archologiques: Vers la fin de lanne 1839,
le Gouvernement institua une commission scientifique destine faire connatre les richesses
de lAlgrie. Malheureusement elle commena ses travaux un moment o les hostilits avec
Abd-el-Kader ne laissaient; gure dautre champ ses investigations: que quelques parties du
littorale; pendant les oprations militaires il tait impossible de scarter des sentiers ouverts
par nos colonnes, il fallait se borner glaner sur les traces de larme. La priode active de cette
commission fut close en alors que les succs du marchal Bugeaud rouvraient le pays tous les
genres de recherches. Le chef descadron dartillerie Delamarre, dont le nom demeure attach
aux premires explorations de Lambse et de la province de Constantine, lingnieur Fournel et
larchitecte Ravoisi furent les meilleurs ouvriers de ces premires recherches officielles. / Cest
vers la mme poque quon expdie Paris quelques monuments destins former au muse
du Louvre le fond de la galerie algrienne, devenue aujourdhui la salle des antiquits du nord
de lAfrique. Un arrt du duc de Dalmatie dcide presque en mme temps que larc de triomph
de Djimila sera transport en France pour tre rebti sur une des places de la capitale! Pense
discutable qui, du reste, ne fut pas mise excution. On tait encore dans la priode un peu
confuse des ttonnements et des essais; la pacification ntait pas compltement assure; des
soucis de tout genre proccupaient lautorit militaire. On comprenait cependant en haut lieu
que lAlgrie ne devait pas tre dpouille de toutes ses richesses et quil fallait en organiser la
mise en valeur pour en assurer le respect. On introduisit dans les actes de concession une clause
destine sauvegarder les droits de lEtat sur les objets dcouverts; on cra un fonctionnaire
charg de veiller sur les monuments historiques. Charles Texier, connu par ses explorations en
Asie Mineure, reut cette importante mission.
[ ]
21 Hron_de_Villefosse_1905_19 address to the Congrs des Socits savantes at Algiers:
Renan a eu bien raison de dire que lexploration scientifique de lAlgrie serait un des titres de
gloire de la France au XIXe sicle. Elle a t conduite avec un succs qui est bien notre oeuvre
et dont la France peut, bon droit, se montrer fire. Elle se complte et sachve. La plupart des
grandes ruines ont maintenant livr leurs secrets, une abondance incroyable de matriaux en
est sortie; ils nont quun tort, celui dtre un peu trop disperss. En parcourant nos provinces
africaines, en admirant les difices antiques qui en en forment la parure et lattrait, en visitant les
muses organiss par les soins de nos confrres algriens, on peut apprcier plus compltement
[
appendix
les efforts accomplis depuis trente ans pour sauvegarder les richesses archologiques dont
se glorifie lAlgrie. Le Gouvernement de la Rpublique a mis tout en oeuvre pour activer
lexploration et la rendre plus fconde; elle est conduite avec une mthode, avec une sollicitude
que vous serez unanimes reconnatre. Les hommes minents qui ont t investis tour tour
du gouvernement gnral ont compris la grandeur et lintrt dune tche dont ils ont favoris
laccomplissement de tout leur pouvoir. Depuis le soldat, depuis le colon le plus modeste
jusquaux fonctionnaires de tout rang et aux officiers de tout grade, chacun est venu apporter
son concours ce grand ouvrag. Lhumble travailleur qui exhume un monument indit a droit
notre reconnaissance aussi bien que le savant qui lexplique.
[ ]
22 Lavigerie_1881_78: Le sjour que je fais, en ce moment, en Tunisie, et les rivalits
ardentes que jy trouve, me persuadent de plus en plus quil y a ici, mme dans le pacifique
domaine de la science, une question dhonneur national auquel nous ne pouvons rester
indiffrents. La France est, en vertu dun trait qui date de cinquante annes, propritaire de
lantique citadelle de Carthage, sur laquelle flotte son drapeau (1). Elle ne doit pas se laisser
prcder par les autres nations, dans les recherches dart, dhistoire, darchologie, auxquelles
cette terre convie tous ses visiteurs. Nulle part, en effet, on ne trouve recueillir, sur le mme
sol, de traces plus intressantes et plus nombreuses dun pass illustre. Les civilisations les plus
diverses, Numide, Phnicienne, Punique, Romaine, Vandale, Grco-Byzantine, Arabe enfin, sy
sont succd. Aussi les ruines de Carthago sont-elles, encore aujourdhui, une carrire immense
et incomparable des plus intressants dbris. Douze sicles y ont puis, il est vrai; mais elles
rservent encore au ntre des richesses inattendues. / Cest ce que comprennent les socits
savantes des autres nations de lEurope, et particulirement de lAngleterre, de lItalie, de lAllemagne. Avec une ardeur qui les honore, leurs envoys parcourent, fouillent sans cesse ces
ruines. Ils sarrachent tout ce que le hasard fait rencontrer sous la charrue des Arabes, et ils en
enrichissent les collections et les muses de leur patrie. With the following footnote: 1. Par un
trait conclu en 1830, aprs la prise dAlger, le Dey de Tunis a cd, perptuit, la France, pour
y lever un monument national au Roi saint Louis, le plateau de Byrsa, qui tait le contre mme
de Carthage au temps de sa splendeur. Le drapeau franais y est arbor.
[ ]
23 Hron_de_Villefosse_1905_182 address to the Congrs des Socits savantes at Algiers:
Aprs les vnements de 1870, une insurrection violente bouleversa lAlgrie. Lorsque le calme
eut succd la tempte, une re de prosprit souvrit pour nos tudes. La cration rapide de
nouveaux villages en territoire civil, sur des points occups prcdemment par les Romains, la
facilit des communications devenue de plus en plus grande, lappui que les pouvoirs publics
prtaient aux recherches, contriburent favoriser cet lan scientifique. Les Algriens, tous ceux
que les hasards de leur carrire civile ou militaire avaient fixs dans ce pays, mirent leur honneur
signaler et respecter les souvenirs des civilisations disparues. Une gnration nouvelle de
savants, forms par les travaux et par lexprience de leurs devanciers, se prsenta pour faire
fructifier lhritage de Lon Renier. Les uns avaient suivi au Collge de France les leons du
matre, dautres arrivaient de lcole normale, de lEcole des langues orientales vivantes ou de
nos coles franaises dAthnes et de Rome. Mieux arms que les prdcesseurs pour tirer parti
des documents dcouverts, ils en dmontrrent limportance avec une force nouvelle. Lactivit
devint si grande, les dcouvertes se multiplirent avec une telle rapidit, quil est bien difficile
de retracer aujourdhui les phases de ce grand mouvement sans risquer de paratre injuste ou
dtre inexact. then speaks of the importance of the CIL, with over 23,000 inscriptions to date.

24]Diehl_1892_99: La conqute de lAlgrie par la France na pas t uniquement une
conqute militaire. Ds les premiers jours de loccupation, nos officiers dAfrique comprirent
tout lintrt et toute limportance de ces magnifiques ruines romaines que chaque expdition
nouvelle offrait, presque intactes encore, leurs yeux blouis; beaucoup dentre eux simprovisrent alors archologues, et au milieu des luttes journalires, des combats incessants quil fallait
livrer pour souvrir un chemin travers un pays inconnu, ils trouverent le temps et prirent la
peine de noter avec soin les antiquits quils rencontraient sur leur route, de copier les inscriptions, de dterrer les statues ou les bas-reliefs, de dessiner les monuments; et ils furent, comme
on la dit les premiers nous avertir des richesses archologiques dont tait couvert le sol de
lAfrique. Then provides detailed examples, 99104.
[ ]
25 Beul_1875_83 Cyrene: En somme, le temple de Vnus a donn au Muse britannique six
statues, vingt-neuf statuettes, trois bustes, vingt-six ttes spares, un bas-relief et trois inscriptions. Certes, la moisson est riche et elle a singulirement accru le butin quun second navire de
guerre anglais vint recueillir son tour Marsa Susah. MM.Smith et Porcher partirent en mme
temps. Ils jugeaient, non pas le sol puis, mais les principaux points suffisamment explors du
reste, les difficults que leur suscitaient les Arabes rendaient chaque jour leur rsidence dans le
pays plus imprudente. Lenlvement des marbres jusqu la mer ne se fit pas sans des complications assez graves, dont ils ont fait le rcit dans leur dernier chapitre. / La Cyrnaquecontient
encore, pour les archologues, des secrets attrayants et des promesses certaines. Les Anglais
ne lignorent pas, et ils ont, de plus que nous, lactivit pratique et lesprit dentreprendre.
Rcemment encore, le vice-consul dAngleterre Benghazi dcouvrait dans la ncropole des
objets prcieux dont sest enrichi le Muse britannique.
[ ]
26 Beul_1875_238 after instancing Layard at Nineveh and Fellows in AM, Enfin le systme
inaugur par lord Elgin est pratiqu avec une sorte de rgularit par lAngleterre: ce qui jadis a
soulev tant dindignation est cit aujourdhui sans envie et avec loges, dabord parce que lon
est convaincu quil faut arracher les chefs-doeuvre antiques lincurie barbare des musulmans,
ensuite parce que ces chefs-doeuvre taient, pour la plupart, enfouis sous le sol, et parce quils
sont la proie lgitime de ceux qui les dcouvrent. La science profite surtout de ces pacifiques
conqutes et ses applaudissements font taire les rivalits nationales. Ibid., 238239: Le gouvernement franais avait, du reste, donn lexemple au gouvernement anglais, lorsquil avait mis
coup sur coup la disposition de trois consuls dans la haute Asie, Botta, Place, Fresnel, des
sommes considrables votes par les chambres. Mais cela ne suffit pas il faudrait imiter notre
tour les Anglais, donner des instructions tous nos agents dans le Levant, tenir leur attention
en veil, et, sans en faire des archologues de profession, les avertir que toutes leurs dcouvertes
seront agrables la France, que des fonds particuliers leur seront allous, et quaprs laccomplissement de leurs devoirs diplomatiques, rien ne sera plus favorable leur avancement. Ce qui
est arriv M. Newton montre quel serait le fruit dune semblable organisation, toutes les fois
quun poste serait confi un homme instruit et rsolu. then recounts Newtons discoveries,
and the loot he had hauled back to the UK.
[ ]
27 LIndpendant de Mostaganem_7_Aug_1892C, article reprinted from Le National: Que le
Louvre reoive, en don gracieux, quelques morceaux particulirement rares ou dlicats, cest une
attention dont il faut savoir gr nos colons. / Leur droit de garder le reste nest pas contestable. /
Dailleurs, cest dans leurs cadres quil faut voir les antiquits de lAfrique franaise, sous le soleil
qui en illumine les dtails. / Elles font piteuse mine sur quelque palier obscur de lescalier du
[
appendix
Muse assyrien, comme cette pierre absidale du cercle des sous-officiers de Lambse, longtemps
tiquete sous le nom de tribune des sous-officiers. Des sous-off parlementaires! / Tout savant
est aujourdhui doubl dun touriste. Les rudits iront, nen doutez pas, jusqu Sousse, voir les
peintures murales de nos tirailleurs, comme ils sont alls Tbessa, Timgad, comme ils vont
partout o les appelle une attraction nouvelle. / Et plus le tourisme africain, savant ou profane
sera en faveur, mieux on connatra notre magnifique domaine trop ignor, et notre colonisation
trop souvent calomnie.
[ ]
28 Demaeght, Commandant, Notice sur les fouilles excutes dans les ruins de Portus
Magnus, in Socit de Gographie et dArchologie de la Province dOran XIX, 1899, Oran 1899,
485496. See 485: M. Georges Simon, membre de notre Socit, vient de faire pratiquer ses
frais, par un dtachement de 40 prisonniers militaires, des fouilles dans les ruines de PortusMagnus, situes quelques kilomtres seulement de sa proprit des Hamyans, lun des plus
beaux domaines de lAlgrie. Ces recherches poursuivies pendant 15 jours dans lunique but
denrichir de nouveaux spcimens les collections dobjets antiques du Muse dOran, qui lui doit
dj dimportantes sries montaires, ont produit une abondante rcolte. Elles auraient t plus
fructueuses encore sil avait pu les entreprendre vers la partie centrale de lantique cit, dans les
terrains voisins du forum, dcouvert et dblay en partie il y a trois ans, mais il a d y renoncer en prsence des prtentions peu acceptables des propritaires de ces terrains. / Les objets
recueillis proviennent de deux ncropoles de lpoque romaine situes prs de lenceinte de
lancienne ville et de trois autres emplacements o lon na trouv aucune trace de spulture.
then short descriptions of the loot, mainly lamps and urns.
[ ]
29 Tissot_1885_259 reporting on archaeological missions in Africa: Nous devons M. le
lieutenant Esprandieu, qui a accompagn M. Letaille dans une partie de sa mission, trois plans
intressants des ruines de Siguese (Pont Romain), Laribus (Lorbes) et Mactaris (Makter). On ne
saurait trop encourager nos officiers faire des travaux de ce genre, auxquels leurs tudes les ont
parfaitement prpars. Les plans de M. Esprandieu sont habilement dessins et reprsentent
un labeur considrable, dont lAcadmie lui sait gr.
[ ]
30 De la Blanchre, Alger, Paris 1890; Doublet/Gauckler, Constantine, Paris 1892; De la
Blanchre, Oran, Paris 1893; Gsell, Philippeville, Paris 1896; identical setup; Gsell, Tbessa, Paris
1902; Ballu/Cagnat, Timgad, Paris 1902.
De la Blanchre, Algiers, Paris 1890, the first volume in the series; 4: Le but de cette
entreprise nest pas de remplacer les catalogues dans le cas trop frquent o ils nexistent pas, ni
de les rectifier, complter, doubler en quelque sorte lorsquils existent. Dailleurs un catalogue
ne se fait utilement que quant tout est log, class et rang dune manire dfinitive, ce qui
na encore eu lieu nulle part...Ce quon explique ici, et ce quon reprsente, sera toujours le
fruit dune slection. Ibid., 45: Les muses dAlgrie sont plus riches quon ne le pense, et plus
riches quils ne le paraissent. Ils devraient ltre cent fois plus. La millime partie des trsors qui
ont t barbarement dtruits, ou que lon a laisss se perdre, depuis un demi-sicle, dans notre
colonie, suffisait former dimcomparables collections. Ce qui a fait dfaut, ce nest pas la bonne
volont: il y a toujours eu une grande somme. Rpartie, au caprice de la fortune, entre quelques
administrateurs, quelques officiers, quelques savants, quelques propritaires, gens de got; ce
qui nexistait pas, et ce qui manque encore, ctait lensemble, la direction, lunit de vues, la suite
dans laction. Then bemoans the lack of any central museum, personnel to safeguard antiquities,
plus the lack of logical collecting policies, so that no museum has comprehensive collections. 5:

On ny voit nulle part, comme au Bardo ou Carthage, tout le produit dune grande fouille,
then gives examples. 710: lists the unsatisfactory accommodation of most museums, and rails
against the missed opportunities at Tebessa, where materials are scattered negligently around.
[ ]
31 Gauckler, Cherchel, Paris 1895, 50 for the statues: Une cinquantaine de statues en marbre
blanc, plus ou moins mutils et dune trentaine de ttes isoles. Elle est plus riche elle seule que
toutes les autres collections algriennes runies, et la valeur des oeuvres quelle renferme est en
rapport avec leur nombre. Beaucoup dentre elles ne sont, il est vrai, que de mdiocres produits
de lart provincial romain, comparable aux lourdes et disgrazieuses statues des muses de
Philippeville, de Lambse ou de Tbessa. Mais il en est dautres, assez nombreuses, qui frappent
premire vue par la beaut de leurs formes et de leurts proportions, oeuvres dune lgance
tout hellnique et telles que lon ne rencontre que bien rarement de semblables en Afrique.
Which author identies as Graeco-Roman copies.
[ ]
32 Marye_1899_II: La fondation en remonte 1854. Elle fut dabord confie la surveillance
du Gnral, Commandant en chef; puis elle passa sous lautorit du Prfet du dpartement. Mais
en 1889, sur un voeu du Conseil suprieur, lEtat commit la faute dabandonner la Ville dAlger
les collections qui lui appartenaient, sans se rserver mme le droit de contrle ou dinspection.
Le rsultat ne se fit pas attendre. La municipalit sintressa loeuvre tant que restrent aux
affaires ceux qui avaient vot la mesure, puis, moins de dix ans aprs en avoir pris la charge, en
1889, pour des raisons entirement trangres la science, que je nai pas rappeler ici, elle en
dcida la suppression et mit en vente ce qui la composait. On en tira une somme drisoire: le
fauteuil du dey dAlger ne rapporta pas plus de 15fr.; une partie mme ne trouva pas dacqureur,
fort heureusement.
[ ]
33 Pellissier_1853_302303: Zian, que je crois, avec M. Hase, la Zita de lItinraire, est un
point archologique qui mrite une mention particulire. A en juger par ltendue du terrain
que couvrent les ruines amonceles cet endroit, il a du exister l une ville fort importante;
mais il ny a pas cependant le moindre reste apprciable de monument quelconque; tout est
confus et pars sur le sol. Aprs avoir parcouru ces dcombres pendant plus dune heure, jallais
les quitter, dsesprant dy rien trouver, lorsque japerus quelques corps blancs faisant saillie
sur la plate-forme dun petit tertre: ctaient des statues de marbre blanc, jetes ple-mle dans
une fosse commune, comme des cadavres aprs une bataille, et recouvertes dun peu de sable. Je
descendis aussitt de cheval, et je fis enlever une partie de ce sable. Je pus alors compter jusqu
dix statues entasses les unes sur les autres, et peut-tre la terre en recouvrait-elle un plus grand
nombre, ce dont je ne pus massurer, nayant pas ma disposition les moyens de dplacer ces
lourdes masses. Je nai pu distinguer bien nettement, dans cet entassement de sculptures, quune
Diane sans tte et mutile dune partie de ses membres, mais dont le torse, qui est intact, ma
paru fort beau. Je mempressai, aprs avoir fait cette dcouverte, dcrire Tunis, pour demander
au bey la concession de ces statues et, en gnral, de tout ce que les fouilles pourraient produire
sur ce point. Son altesse me la trs-gracieusement accorde; de sorte que toutes les antiquits
de Zian sont dsormais proprits franaises, et pourront tre enleves quand on le voudra.
Lopration serait peu coteuse, car Zian est peu loign de la mer.
[ ]
34 Reinach_and_Babelon_1887_54: Les ruines de Zian ont t explores pour la premire
fois par E. Pellissier, qui passa quelques heures sur les lieux. [cites Pellissiers account]. Ces
lignes taient imprimes en 1853, mais le voyage de Pellissier date de 1846. Il avait annonc
au Ministre des affaires trangres que les statues de Zian appartenaient la France, et des
mesures furent effectivement prises pour les y transporter. Dans une lettre de M. Mattei, vice-
appendix
consul de France Sfax, M. Tissot, nous trouvons ce qui suit: Vous devez vous rappeler quen
1851 je fus dsign pour accompagner la Sentinelle Zarzis, do je me rendis avec Saint-Quentin
dans lintrieur pour retirer douze statues plus ou moins mutiles qui furent embarques sur
la Sentinelle, commandant Dupr. Nous prmes les statues dans lancienne ville Zita municipium, aujourdhui Zian. Ainsi, daprs un tmoignage qui nous a t ritr de vive voix, douze
statues en marbre provenant de Zian ont t embarques sur la Sentinelle destination de
France, en 1851. Nous navons pas trouv trace de ces uvres dart dans le catalogue des sculptures du Louvre publi par M. Froehner. Sont-elles arrives au muse? Sont-elles restes dans un
arsenal maritime? Cest une question qui vaudrait la peine dtre tudie, mais sur laquelle nous
devons nous contenter dattirer lattention.
[ ]
35 Reinach_and_Babelon_1887_5556: Quand nous sommes arrivs Zian, nous avons
trouv sur le sol cinq grandes statues en marbre acphales...Zian devait contenir un trs grand
nombre de statues de marbre; outre les cinq que nous avons signales et les douze (?) enleves
en 1851 par la Sentinelle, on a dcouvert au mme endroit, il y a quelques annes, une statue
dempereur romain, probablement de Tibre, que nous avons eu loccasion de voir Sousse.
[ ]
36 Tissot_1888_206207 Zin: Les ruines qui existent Zin sont fort tendues. On y
remarque entre autres celles dun castrum et de trois ou quatre grands difices, dont le plus
considrable parat avoir t une basilique. Cest dans cette dernire enceinte que Pellissier a
trouv les dix statues de marbre blanc que Barth y a encore vues en 1849. Quelques-unes de ces
statues ont t transportes en France en 1851, lors de lexpdition de laviso la Sentinelle sur les
ctes mridionales de la Rgence; les autres gisent encore la mme place.
[ ]
37 Diehl_1892_111: Et enfin, lorsque par un hasard, par une sage prvoyance, on songeait
transporter au Louvre quelques-uns de ces monuments dAfrique, que de fois ils sgaraient en
chemin ou du moins mettaient quelque quarante annes parvenir leur adresse, comme il
arriva ces douze statues de marbre blanc, acquises par un consul de France dans une ville du
Sud Tunisien, embarques en 1851 destination du Louvre sur un btiment de guerre, et depuis
lors choues Toulon, oublies en quelque coin de larsenal maritime, o on les a retrouves
rcemment, la suite dune rclamation formelle, trente-cinq ans aprs quelles y avaient t
dposes!
[ ]
38 Cagnat_1901_63 relaying a 1694 account of Leptis Magna: Vous avez entendu parler dun
grand nombre de Colonnes qui sont Paris sur le Quay, entre la porte de la Confrence et le
Cours, dans une avant-court du Palais des Thuileries, et dont il reste encore un fort grand nombre
Toulon qui doivent estre transportes icy. Je croy vous avoir dj dit que ces colonnes viennent
de Lebida, autrement Leptis, Ville ancienne dtruite, et dont le Territoire est aujourdhuy sous
le gouvernement de ltat de Tripoly. Then relays contents of a letter from M. Durand, jeune
Gentilhomme, who described the site.
[ ]
39 Cagnat_et_al_1890_222: On devra photographier, ainsi que nous lavons dit, toutes les
statues et tous les bas-reliefs que lon rencontrera. On peut les considrer tous ou presque tous
comme indits.
[ ]
40 Bourde_1880_5455: Le mot muse, en Algrie, ne doit pas faire songer de vastes salles
o les objets sont soigneusement rangs, catalogus et tiquets. Cette sorte de muse ny existe
nulle part, sauf Alger. Il sagit simplement de quelques dbris, morceaux de statue, fts de
colonnes, stles votives, inscriptions funraires, disposs pour leffet pittoresque dans un jardin.
Jen ai vu bien peu; si josais, je dirais mme que je nen ai vu aucun dans tout le voyage, qui ft
rellement digne du nom doeuvre dart. A en juger par ce qui en a survcu la sculpture romaine

me parat tre reste toujours demi barbare en Afrique. Linfluence grecque ne sest pas fait
sentir jusque-l. On a retrouv dans lest de la province de Constantine et dans la rgence de
Tunis, o la domination romaine a t le plus longtemps et le plus solidement assise, des restes
de monuments fort remarquables. Je ne les ai pas vus, mais, par les relations des explorateurs
et par les photographies quil est facile de se procurer, on peut constater quil convient de les
admirer dans leur ensemble les masses en sont imposantes et bien ordonnes, mais le dtail
de lornementation est presque toujours de valeur infrieure. Je ne crois pas quil soit sorti de
lAfrique un seul antique clbre. Il faut donc renoncer chercher des motions artistiques dans
les muses algriens ils ne peuvent satisfaire que la curiosit de larchologue.
[ ]
41 Notice des beaux livres dart et de littrature, composant la bibliothque de M. Horace Vernet,
Versailles 1852, includes large numbers of illustrated books, especially costume, animals (Stubbs
Anatomy of the Horse), travel, portraits, as well as LIllustration 18431852 his Voyage en Orient
is already advertised in that periodical for 11 March 1843. Notice des principaux objets dart et de
curiosit qui seront vendus dans latelier de M. Horace Vernet...15 dcembre 1852, Versailles 1852
includes 120 weapons, such as Turkish and Arab rifles, Indian and Polish sabres, and 31 daggers,
including the one used to assassinate Klber.
[ ]
42 Prat_1930_18: after 1835: dans les grands tableaux de la campagne dAlgrie, Vernet
sefforcera de montrer la vie et le mouvement des armes; dautres, aprs lui, Yvon, Alphonse de
Neuville, Detaille, Aim Morot, iront plus loin, sapprocheront davantage de lme terrible des
batailles; et puis, brusquement, le visage de la guerre va changer, et ses peintres chercheront une
nouvelle manire. Mais ce nest pas en ces brves pages quil est possible desquisser un sujet de
pareille importance. The last battle recorded, according to Wikipedia, is Wagram in 1809. As the
www.chateauversailles.fr site has it, Depuis son inauguration, la galerie est reste intacte, complte de lensemble des uvres commandes par le Roi-citoyen pour son ornement. Elle reste
lun des plus impressionnants tmoignages du projet de Louis-Philippe pour Versailles et lun
des plus beaux exemples des grands amnagements de muses au XIXe sicle.
[ ]
43 Ministre de la guerre. tat-Major de larme. Section historique. Liste chronologique
des tableaux formant la Collection du Ministre de la guerre reprsentant les batailles, combats
et siges livrs par larme franaise (16281887). Paris, 1901, in-8o.
[ ]
44 Esquer_1929_37: Aprs 1830, le ministre de la Guerre fit excuter une srie de peintures
reprsentant les batailles, combats et siges livrs par larme franaise, de manire complter
la collection des aquarelles et gravures de Bagetti sur les campagnes de la Rvolution et de
lEmpire. En mme temps, il commenait une srie moderne qui devait comprendre les
campagnes dAfrique. De 1830 1848, cette srie forme un ensemble de 44 aquarelles (combats,
vues, uniformes) pour lAlgrie seule. / La Direction du Dpt de la Guerre sadressa ses peintres
ordinaires, en particulier Simon Fort (17981861) et Thodore Jung (18031865), le matre et
llve, tous deux Strasbourgeois.
[ ]
45 SHD 2M5.
[ ]
46 Esquer_1929_38: Daprs des croquis pris sur les lieux par des officiers de larme
dAfrique tait tablie une maquette du sujet. Ainsi les tableaux de Fort sur les campagnes
de Mascara et de Constantine ont t faits daprs les esquisses des capitaines Gent et Pajol.
Cette maquette tait soumise des tmoins des vnements qui indiquaient les modifications
faire. Elles portaient sur laspect du terrain, larchitecture des constructions, la vgtation,
latmosphre, lclairage daprs la position du sol, lordre de marche des troupes, les dtails des
uniformes et de larmement, etc. Cette minutie qui tendait obtenir lexactitude absolue fait de
appendix
ces tableaux de vritables documents. Leur valeur artistique nest dailleurs pas ngligeable. Ce
sont l oeuvres de peintres sincres et connaissant leur mtier. LArtiste a pu louer avec raison le
talent hardi et vigoureux de Simon Fort, loccasion du Sige dAnvers et de la Vue gnrale de
litinraire suivi par le marchal Vale depuis Constantine jusqu Alger oeuvre de science fort
remarquable...peinte avec une hardiesse et une solidit peu communes.
[ ]
47 SHD MR1978, Fonds Prval.
[ ]
48 SHD MR1978, Fonds Preval: Rapport fait au Roi, 1814, by Secretary of State, Ministre de
la Guerre.
[ ]
49 SHD 3M278.
[ ]
50 SHD 3M293: schedule of 1796; the same carton also lists the Ingnieurs according to the
armies to which they were attached and the maps (e.g. Rhine, Switzerland) on which they were
working.
[ ]
51 SHD 3M258: this includes Cassinis Carte de lAcadmie, with 183 sheets at 5 francs each;
plus a Map of the Thtre de la guerre en Italie depuis...le 29 septembre 1792; Plan du sige de
Dantzig, 23 avril 1807.
[ ]
52 SHD 3M277.
[ ]
53 SHD 3M258: the same man had the concession for the Ponts et Chausses et des Mines,
and for the Socit de Gographie.
[ ]
54 SHD 3M277, Instruction Reglementaire for the Ingnieurs Gographes Artistes, written
by General Meunier, Director:, 17 nivoise An VII.
[ ]
55 SHD 2M4.
[ ]
56 SHD 2M4.
[ ]
57 Cagnat_1896_567: Ce grand mouvement archologique dont la Tunisie tait agite devait
avoir son contre-coup en Algrie. L, on soccupait depuis longtemps, il est vrai, de la recherche
des antiquits. Ce nest point dans une compagnie qui a compt L. Renier parmi ses membres,
quil convient dinsister sur ce sujet. Dautres, sa suite, avaient tourn leur activit du mme
ct et tenaient honneur de ne pas laisser perdre la tradition du matre; notre vice-prsident
ne me contredira certes pas. Et cependant un certain ralentissement semblait se produire: les
dcouvertes se faisaient moins nombreuses; surtout, les publications devenaient plus rares;
malgr un effort mritoire tent par lcole des lettres dAlger, il semblait que tout llan de la
science franaise se portt vers lest, attir par la nouveaut dun territoire rcemment acquis
notre protectorat.
[ ]
58 Cagnat_1896_561 in Tunisia since 1881, as well as visiting scholars: Fidles aux coutumes
que leur avaient lgues leurs frres, darmes algriens, les officiers du corps doccupation
staient mis, eux aussi, tudier les antiquits dans les villes o ils tenaient garnison, aux
environs des camps, dans les contres quils traversaient; les agents consulaires, les ingnieurs
de la Compagnie Bne-Guelma recueillaient, pour leur part, ce quils rencontraient; si bien
que, de tous cts, les communications affluaient, soit ici, soit au Ministre de linstruction
publique. Il suffit, pour comprendre quelle fut la fcondit archologique de ces premires
annes dexploration, douvrir les Comptes rendus de notre Acadmie, les Archives des Missions
scientifique, le Bulletin archologique du Comit des travaux historiques, ou mme des
priodiques indpendants comme la Revue archologique et le Bulletin pigraphique, qui,
cette poque, existait encore. Pourtant on navait pas commenc une seule fouille srieuse, on
navait eu proprement qu se baisser pour recueillir ce qui soffrait la surface du sol. Ibid.,
56971 for list of excavations in Algeria.

59]Fraud_1878_6: Le champ dexploration est en Algrie dune fcondit immense...de
travaux hydrauliques, de barrages, de ponts, daqueducs, de temples, de monuments grandioses,
enfin de fortifications de diffrents ges et peuples...pigraphie...monnaies authentiques.
Then describes monument types from megaliths onward. Then gives due recognition to Arab
monuments. Unillustrated just a brief overview.
[ ]
60 Journal Gnral de lAlgrie et de la Tunisie 24 October 1889. Report on La Tunisie lExposition, on the Invalides: Parmi ces antiquits, on remarquera des reproductions de mosaques
du cimetire chrtien de Samta, des plans en relief de Carthage et des temples de Sbetla, des
antiquits romaines et puniques provenant des fouilles excutes sur le territoire de la Rgence.
Il ne faut pas oublier que Tunis, lantique Tunes, est riche en dbris et substructions de toutes
sortes. Le territoire de la Tunisie a t foul aux pieds par de nombreuses armes romaines,
carthaginoises et barbares. Cest l, sur cette terre clbre, qui vit natre Apule et combattre
Saint-Louis, cest l que se sont drouls les mouvants pisodes de la Salammb, ce chef-doeuvre
de Flaubert. Il ne faut donc pas stonner outre mesure si notre colonie tunisienne nous offre,
ct de son exposition commerciale et industrielle, une trs complte exposition dantiquits. /
En quittant les galeries consacres larchologie tunisienne, on sort par une porte centrale intrieure, et on se trouve devant une faade de Kairouan, orne dlgantes vrandahs et de portes
aux mille clous formant, arabesques. A cot se dresse une coupole monumentale, reproduction
de celle qui surmonte le mihrab de la grande mosque dAkba Kairouan, puis une autre maison
prs de Bab-Djeladine, et une faade de maison de Tunis avec portes cloutes et fentres moucharabies corbeille en fer forg.
[ ]
61 LAvenir de Tbessa 24 June 1900. Haidra: Les mille ruines qui vous entourent, vestiges
de la gloire et de la puissance romaine, vous transportent, malgr vous, aux poques les plus
recules des temps hroques. / Ici, des pierres avec des inscriptions, l-bas des colonnes encore
debout, des tombeaux, des statues de marbre dont la finesse et le poli vous tonnent et vous surprennent; plus loin, larc de triomphe de Septime Svre qui dfiant les outrages du temps, nous
reste presque intact avec toute ses inscriptions. Haidra est une vritable merveille. / Pour nous,
elle fut une ville de plaisance ou les grandes familles romaines venaient hiverner. Les mosaques,
les nombreux Cames dune valeur relle que lon trouve la surface du sol, semblent le prouver
surabondamment. Dernirement, encore, les ouvriers de M. Giorgi ont dterr deux superbes
mosaques, une delle surtout est appele attirer lattention de tous les plus grands archologues du monde. Elle reprsente, une jeune fille dans une nacelle pchant la ligne. Des rougets,
des crevisses, des crabes et autres poissons la constellent.
[ ]
62 LAvenir de Tbessa 22 June 1900. Algeria at the Exposition Universelle, Trocadero:
Pntrons dans le palais par la porte du rez de chausse. Nous nous trouvons en face dune vaste
cour mauresque, au centre de laquelle slve le plan en relief de la ville de Timgad, ancienne
cit romaine dcouverte depuis quelques annes, aux confins du dsert et dont les fouilles ont
mis nu des difices considrables, indices dune civilisation avance. Il ny a rien d exagr
confirmer Timgad le nom de Pompi africaine que les archologues lui ont donn.
[ ]
63 LAvenir de Tbessa 25 October 1903. Details of an archaeological tour of Tbssa set up
for the Syndicat de la Presse, their glory pressed home in a speech: Plusieurs dentre-vous, je le
sais, sont rests merveills en prsence de tant de grandeurs disparues. Les ruines de la grande
Basilique Romaine gisant ple-mle dans un colossal dsordre ont suffit, elles seules, pour vous
donner une ide exacte de limportance de ce centre sous loccupation Romaine. Les archologues de nos jours valuent ce monument quinze millions de notre monnaie. Vous conviendrez
[
appendix
avec moi, quil ny a rien dtonnant cela, mes chers amis, surtout lorsquon pense que toutes les
colonnes de marbre que vous avez vues gisant les unes ple-mle, les autres debout, dgrades
par le temps, viennent de toutes les parties du monde.
[ ]
64 LAvenir de Tbessa 15 November 1903. Press visit to Tbessa: Les mosaques, qui couvrent
plusieurs centaines de mtres, sont trs curieuses voir; leur dessin et leur coloris soul de toute
beaut el dmontrent victorieusement par leur solidit que les chaux du pays taient soit dit
en passant et sont encore aussi durables que celles du Teil et dautres lieux tant prnes par
ladministration et si chres pour les contribuables. / Nous quittons ce glorieux vestige de lantique Thveste et nous visitons les remparts dont lpaisseur atteint jusqu cinq et six mtres
sur une hauteur parfois plus de dix mtres. Une maison romaine encore debout, attire notre
curiosit.
[ ]
65 Poulle_1884_207208 writing of Timgad and Lambessa: Au point de vue de lart, les
ruines de lAlgrie ne nous ont pas fourni de types bien remarquables, ni bien originaux; mais il
faut considrer que la civilisation romaine fut trs uniforme et que, dans tous les pays annexs,
elle porta ses moeurs, sa manire de vivre et de btir, ce qui explique lanalogie entre les monuments de lAfrique et ceux des contres les plus septentrionales des Gaules. Ce nest donc pas au
point de vue de lart quil les faut tudier; lItalie et la Provence nous ont lgu, de ce ct, des
modles qui ne nous laissent plus rien apprendre. / Ce quil faut chercher dans ces ruines, que
labandon partiel du pays et leur ensevelissement ont tenues lcart des transformations, subies
par les villes de lEurope, ce sont des dispositions densemble permettant den reconstituer les
lignes principales et de se faire ainsi une ide de ce qutait une cit lpoque des empereurs.
[ ]
66 Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_1137: Le 3 avril 1875, la runion des socits savantes
la Sorbonne, M. Chabouillet, parlant au nom de la section dArchologie du Comit des
travaux historiques et scientifiques, rendait un clatant hommage aux officiers de notre
arme dAfrique, qui, entre deux expditions, trouvaient encore le moyen de recueillir, chemin
faisant, de nombreuses et intressantes observations sur lpigraphie et larchologie de la
contre. Messieurs, disait lorateur, au risque doffenser la modestie de lancien directeur des
fortifications de la province de Constantine (le gnral Creuly), je cite textuellement cette phrase
[i.e. Creuly had the honour of founding the Socit archologique de Constantine] emprunte
au rcit dune exploration de la rgion du Chettba par M. Cherbonneau, qui lui-mme, avec
M. Lon Renier, fut, en 1852, lun des trois instigateurs de cette compagnie (la Socit
archologique de Constantine); ce nest pas seulement pour payer au premier de ces trois
archologues le tribut dloges quil mrite ce titre et tant dautres; je veux saluer dans la
personne dun de ses plus dignes reprsentants notre patriotique et savante arme, larme
qui, aprs avoir arrach la barbarie les trois belles provinces qui forment aujourdhui lAfrique
franaise, a su y maintenir notre domination, et, ds les premiers jours, sest si activement
employe, de concert avec la population et les fonctionnaires civils, rechercher, conserver
et expliquer les nombreux monuments laide desquels on crira quelque jour son histoire,
cest--dire un incomparable trsor historique.
[ ]
67 Esquer_1929_4345: Cette mme anne, Raffet suivit le comte Anatole Demidoff dans le
voyage scientifique quil entreprenait en Russie mridionale et en Crime. Au retour, il apprit que
Constantine tait prise et ds le 24 novembre il crivait de Marseille o il purgeait sa quarantaine
ses diteurs les frres Gibaut: ce Jai appris en passant Syra que les Franais taient entrs
vainqueurs dans Constantine. Je vais profiter de ma quarantaine pour me procurer tous les
renseignements sur lexpdition et jajouterai six sujets ceux que jai dj faits. Jai vu et dessin

des Arabes et des Bdouins et il ajoutait avec la modestie quil le caractrisa toujours: Jespre
mettre plus de vrit dans mes dessins. Du reste, ils ne sont pas autrement que je les ai faits; il y
a seulement plus de varit dans les physionomies. / Parmi les compagnons que la quarantaine
procurait Raffet se trouvaient des officiers qui prcisment venaient de faire la campagne. Il
se lia plus particulirement avec le chef descadron Richepance dont il a trac plusieurs fois le
portrait et qui lui fournit les renseignements quil cherchait. Et Raffet commence aussitt ses
croquis, en recommandant aux Gibaut, dix jours aprs sa premire lettre, de lui faire tenir des
pierres toutes prtes, car il se propose de se mettre au travail ds son arrive Paris, de manire
avoir termin un nouvel album de six planches le 20 janvier...Il avait retrouv Richepance
Paris et ce dernier, rpondant aux questions minutieuses de Raffet, lui donna sur les vnements
dans lesquels il avait jou un rle actif des indications aussi prcises que le dsirait lartiste.
then Esquer recounts many further details that Raffet incorporated in his results.
[ ]
68 Esquer_1929_52: Raffet nest jamais all en Algrie. Le seul point de la terre africaine o il
ait pass quelques heures est Tanger, au cours de son voyage en Espagne en 1847. Il en a rapport
une vue de la ville et de sa casbah. Cependant il est lartiste qui a rendu avec le plus dexactitude
et de vie la geste de larme dAfrique. / Cela tient dabord au soin avec lequel il se documentait.
Puis, il avait suivi les oprations du sige dAnvers et les manoeuvres du Camp de Compigne
qui lavaient familiaris avec les volutions dune arme. Surtout il avait le don de crer la vie.
Suivant le mot de Braldi, il a t extraordinaire dans limprovisation de ce quil na pas vu: les
vnements de la Rvolution, les batailles de lempire, les guerres dAfrique.
[ ]
69 Esquer_1929_54 The Expdition des Portes de Fer: Dauzats a utilis pour le Journal de
lExpdition des Portes de Fer lessentiel des tudes quil avait prises en Afrique. Sa part et celle
de ses collaborateurs stablit ainsi. Decamps a fait trois hors-texte et dix vignettes, A Raffet,
charg de lillustration militaire on doit vingt trois planches hors-texte (surtout des portraits
questres) et soixante-neuf vignettes dans le texte. Dauzats qui incombait la partie pittoresque
du livre composa quatre-vingt- huit dessins dont quatorze hors-texte. Ce sont l des documents
(vues, sites, monuments, types) saisis daprs nature, dune grande fidlit et dont lexcution
la fois sobre et pousse est dune rare matrise. Dauzats eut aussi fournir Decamps et
Raffet des renseignements sur un pays quil tait le seul des trois avoir, parcouru. Cette triple
collaboration et lexcution de louvrage font de celui-ci une ds plus belles ditions du XIX
sicle.
[ ]
70 Mirecourt_1857_4849 Horace Vernet: minemment actif et nhsitant jamais entreprendre les plus longs voyages, quand il a besoin de chercher un dtail de murs, de connatre
un site, un champ de bataille, ou de voir un costume, Horace Vernet traversa quinze ou vingt
fois la Mditerrane pour aller tudier la guerre dAfrique sur les lieux mmes. Il assistait aux
expditions, prparait ses croquis sous le coup de feu, vivait, mangeait, dormait dans les tentes,
au milieu des Arabes, et revenait, imbu de couleur locale, se remettre en face de sa toile. Dou
dune mmoire surprenante, il noublie rien de ce qui une fois a frapp ses regards. Les moindres
dtails, les poses, les gestes, la figure des hommes, les particularits les plus minutieuses dun
fait, les circonstances les plus fugitives dune action, tout se grave, tout se strotype en quelque
sorte dans son cerveau; il se rappelle, au bout de vingt ou trente ans, une forme, un mouvement, une attitude. Gricault, son ami le plus intime et le plus cher, disait de lui: Sa tte est un
meuble tiroirs. Il ouvre, regarde, et trouve chaque souvenir en place.
[ ]
71 Mirecourt_1857_7677 Horace Vernet: Seul, il a pu fter leur got les chefs bdouins
lorsquils sont venus Paris en 1845. Il les appela dans son atelier de Versailles, o stendaient
appendix
de long en large, en guise de tapis, des peaux de lions, de tigres et de panthres. Partout, dans les
coins, aux murailles, rangs en faisceaux ou pendus en trophes, lil rencontrait des yatagans,
des poignards, des sabres recourbs, de longues carabines damasquines dor, un muse complet
darmes africaines, sans compter les selles brodes de pierreries, les pipes bout dambre, et
mille autres objets chers ses htes. Ils retrouvaient l comme par enchantement tous les souvenirs, toutes les joies, toutes les habitudes de la tente, du dsert, de la patrie. Un repas vraiment
bdouin termina la fte.
[ ]
72 Gsell_1912_IV: Louvrage de Delamare compte 193 planches. Il devait tre accompagn
dun texte explicatif, que Delamare et Renier avaient t charges de rdiger et qui na point paru.
Cest cette lacune regrettable que nous avons voulu combler, dans la mesure du possible: on
comprend qu plus de soixante ans de distance, il na pas toujours t facile didentifier des
monuments souvent peu importants, des ruines dont beaucoup nexistent plus et sur lesquelles
les renseignements sont rares ou font entirement dfaut.
[ ]
73 Gsell_1912_IIIII: Les dessins qui oui t publis et un grand nombre dautres, qui sont
rests indits, tmoignent de lactivit de Delamare pendant ces cinq annes. Il sacquitta de sa
mission avec une conscience vraiment admirable. Les inexactitudes que lon a constates dans
ses relevs sont, en somme, peu nombreuses. Elles portent surtout sur les inscriptions: on sait
que les textes pigraphiques africains sont souvent dune lecture difficile et il ne faut pas oublier
que Delamare ntait pas un spcialiste. / En mme temps, il rendit dautres services aux tudes
archologiques. Une mosaque, qui reprsente Neptune et Amphitrite, ayant t dcouverte
en 1842 aux portes de Constantine, il obtint du ministre de la guerre quelle ft transporte en
France. On le chargea de lenlever el de lexpdier. Lanne suivante, le ministre lui confia en
outre la mission de runir et de faire embarquer les fragments de sculpture et autres dbris de
lart antique qui se trouvent pars sur divers points de la province de Constantine. Cette tche
ne fut pas toujours aise. Dans des papiers de Berbrugger ( la Bibliothque dAlger), jai retrouv
un volumineux dossier, indiquant les rsistances que Delamare prouva, en 1843, pour se faire
remettre des antiquits conserves Philippeville, au service des Ponts et Chausses: lingnieur,
Laborie, voulait les garder pour constituer un muse local. Dans la longue correspondance
change en cette circonstance entre les divers services comptents, je lis lannotation suivante,
crite par un haut fonctionnaire, probablement le gouverneur gnral Bugeaud, que ces querelles
impatientaient: Ces savants mettent le dsordre partout avec leurs exigences, dans lintrt de
leurs grands travaux, quils ne publient jamais. / Delamare parvint cependant rassembler
un grand nombre de sculptures, de bas-reliefs, surtout dinscriptions latines, qui constituent en
majeure partie le muse africain du Louvre. Ces antiquits sont en gnral dnues de toute
valeur artistique et leur entre dans notre muse national a soulev des critiques qui ne sont
pas tout fait injustifies. Les savants doivent cependant tre reconnaissants Delamare davoir
ainsi sauv beaucoup de monuments instructifs.
[ ]
74 Jacquot_1907_110 writing of Roman roads around Stif, Fermatou: Ces ruines occupaient
plusieurs hectares. Delamare y a vu deux tombeaux encore debout, quil a fait figurer dans une
des planches intitules Stif; il nen reste plus rien! M. Gsell nen a reconnu les traces que grce
un morceau de moulure de stylobate pour lun, une pierre avec oves et deux fragments de
chapiteau corinthien pour lautre.
[ ]
75 Gsell_1912 passim for destruction, listed by plate: 9. Djidjelli: minaret de la mosque;
caserne; 13. Djidjei: spultures; 18. Philippeville: entirement dtruit en 1845; 1921. Philippeville:
several parts of the mosaic of the Nereides; 49 road Philippeville-Constantine: mausoleum,

inscription on N. side destroyed; 88. Guidjel: Le fortin antique a t entirement dtruit
pour la construction dun bordj (aujourdhui ferme Morin) situ 200 mtres de l; 90. Road
Stif-Constantine, mausoleum, destroyed; 96. Mons parts of stelai, then whole, now in part
destroyed; mausoleum, upper storey destroyed; 111. Fountain found at Philippeville, now
destroyed; 120 Constantine, S. wall of kasbah with lots of spolia; 124 Constantine: remains of
a monumental construction near the arch in rue Camaran; 137138. Constantine: remains of a
rich Roman villa; 176 Guelma: parts of the baths; parts of the towers of the Byzantine citadel;
190191 Bne: parts of the remains of an aqueduct; Fort Cigogne. NB he seems to deal only with
material in towns, and large monuments on the roads.
[ ]
76 Janon_1973_193194: Delamare dont les dessins et les gravures sont une source prcieuse
pour nous permettre de retrouver laspect des ruines vers 1850. Malheureusement, la suite don
ne sait quelles difficults, un seul volume des planches graves sous la direction de Delamare
fut dit.
[ ]
77 Gsell_1922_20 at Guelma, A lpoque de Justinien, le patrice Solomon fit lever une
place forte Calama...Dans leurs murs, les Byzantins avaient employ bon nombre de pierres
portant des inscriptions latines, dont les unes taient visibles, dont les autres furent dgages
lors des dmolitions que ncessita la construction de la citadelle franaise. / Ds le mois de
novembre 1836, Berbrugger copia quelques inscriptions Guelma (publies dans le Moniteur
algrien, n 266, 24 dcembre 1836)...Malheureusement, beaucoup dinscriptions, dont on na
pas toujours de bonnes copies, ont t dtruites; la perte des nos. 232, 233, 247, 271, 272, 276, 279,
280, 281, 285, 280, 287, 290, 428 est particulirement regrettable. Several entries labelled Pierre
de mausole...qui avait t employe dans la forteresse byzantine so funerary antiquities
were not safe.
[ ]
78 Oulebsir_1994_65: Larchitecture arabe de lAlgrie est, quant elle, peu reprsente, ou
du moins, les planches qui lui sont consacres sont peu nombreuses. A. Ravoisi remarquait
certes dans son introduction la ncessit dtudier cette forme darchitecture locale afin den
conserver la trace et en perptuer le souvenir dans les villes o elle existe, et o de nouveaux
besoins auront bientt fait disparaitre un grand nombre de ces intressants difices, mais il
constatait aussi que: larchitecture arabe, telle quelle se montre dans toute la rgence dAlger,
est loin de prsenter le caractre grandiose et monumental que les architectes du Kaire et des
principales villes du Levant ont su lui imprimer. Dautre part, le budget imparti la publication
des volumes consacrs aux monuments de lAlgrie tant trop faible, un nombre important de
planches furent supprimes, gnralement celles traitant de larchitecture mauresque. Les rares
planches retenues reprsentent pour lessentiel par des plans, des coupes, des lments de
dcor, voire des faades les difices les plus accessibles, ceux o larme franaise avait amnag sa base.
[ ]
79 Dureau_de_la_Malle_1837_XIIXIII: Le 22 janvier 1835, M. le marchal duc de Trvise
[Minister of War, 18341835] tendit encore le cercle dinvestigations trac prcdemment par
M. le duc de Dalmatie. / En demandant, dit-il, quon voult bien soccuper des recherches
historiques propres faire connatre ltat de lAfrique sous la domination des Romains, mon
prdcesseur navait nullement entendu limiter cette priode les investigations auxquelles on
jugerait convenable de se livrer, et navait pas perdu de vue de quelle importance il tait a la fois
pour la science et ladministration de bien connatre galement tout ce qui se rapporte ltablissement des Arabes en Afrique, et des Turcs sur la cte dAlger. / Avant de donner suite ces
appendix
propositions dont je reconnais toute limportance et lutilit, il me parait ncessaire dattendre
les progrs ultrieurs et la consolidation de lautorit franaise en Afrique. Alors, lacadmie
doit en tre bien convaincue, le concours actif du dpartement de la guerre et de ladministration locale secondera efficacernent laborieux efforts. Jusque-l nanmoins, jai lieu de croire
que, pour la partie arabe, comme pour la partie romaine, elle trouvera dans les documens dj
recueillis, des matriaux importans quelle pourra consulter avec fruit.
[ ]
80 Cagnat_1896_5678: On ne pouvait pourtant pas sparer ce qui jadis avait t runi;
loeuvre algrienne devait tre reprise et marcher de pair avec loeuvre tunisienne. Tout dabord,
avant de poursuivre lexploration ou de subventionner de nouvelles fouilles, il convenait de
publier les documents dcouverts depuis longtemps et demeurs inconnus. Or, qui le croirait?
lindit abondait dans les collections municipales et chez les particuliers. Les inscriptions taient
gnralement imprimes, et pour la plupart au Corpus; mais beaucoup de monuments figurs
navaient jamais t reproduits par la gravure, ni mme parfois mentionns. Je pourrais citer,
au muse de Lambse, des statues et des groupes de marbre qui, trouvs en 1852, sont rests
compltement inconnus jusqu lanne dernire. Il fallait rompre avec une insouciance dont
nous tions comptables envers ltranger. Le service des Missions scientifiques, au Ministre
de linstruction publique, envers lequel larchologie africaine a contract, pendant ces quinze
dernires annes, tant de grosses dettes de reconnaissance, le comprit et nous permit de rparer
le mal. hence the monographs on Algerian museums, and creation of a new museum at Algiers.
[ ]
81 Schulten_19001901_254 writing on Roman Africa: Les antiquits au XIXe sicle. La
conservation des antiquits et laugmentation de leur nombre laide des fouilles, aprs avoir
t le sport de riches particuliers et lobjectif du dilettantisme princier, est devenue une tche
de lEtat. Ce fait doit tre compt au nombre des progrs importants raliss par notre sicle
dans le domaine de lesprit. LAllemagne doit contempler avec orgueil les fouilles quelle a faites
en Grce et en Asie mineure: Olympia, Pergame et Prine, ainsi que lexploration du limes
romain, entreprise connue un devoir dhonneur de la patrie unie; la France a dpens des millions la dcouverte des lieux consacrs Apollon: Dlos et Delphes; et la Turquie elle-mme,
en foiulant Constantinople un splendide nuise, a montr quelle veut remplir au moins cette
tche dun Etat civilis. / Il y a cent ans de cela, les antiquits chappaient encore la loi. Le
premier venu, comme les Anglais dans leurs prgrinations, pouvait facilement enlever des pays
classiques dlaisss labandon comme la Grce et lAsie Mineure sous la fcheuse domination
des Turcs, ou bien lItalie sous celle des papes ou des Bourbons ce qui lui plaisait. Aujourdhui,
on a mis fin aux dprdations archologiques comme le faisait lord Elgin, car, dans lintervalle,
ltude des monuments anciens a cess dtre un sport pour devenir une science.
[ ]
82 Gungl_1906_242243 Faut-il restaurer les thtres antiques? Cites Andr Hallays protest against the project to restore the theatre at Orange: Jai sous les yeux la liste des travaux que
lon veut entreprendre: cette restauration est belle et bien une reconstruction complte. / On
prtend rtablir tous les gradins du thtre; une partie des gradins suprieurs a dj t restitue:
leffet en est pitoyable. / Le mistral quand il lui prend fantaisie de troubler le spectacle glace
les acteurs et les spectateurs: on fermera les grandes brches par o il pntre dans le thtre. /
Pour rendre plus forte et plus parfaite lillusion du public, on reconstruira la scne antique! Et
lon balaiera les dbris de sculptures et de corniches qui, disperss sur le sol, formaient le pittoresque dcor de la ruine. / Puis lon relvera les murailles croules et lon arrachera les lierres!
Bref on nous donnera un monument tout neuf qui joindra aux agrments du confort la beaut

dune vignette pour manuel darchologie. / Ainsi seront satisfaits quelques badauds amis du
bric brac, quelques rimeurs auxquels il faut un sous-Odon et quelques hteliers dsireux de
tondre les htes du Bayreuth franais.
[ ]
83 Wilkin_1900_145146 Timgad: the Algerian Pompei is well worth going a long way to
see, if only because it is probably the most complete Roman colonial town in existence. The
Government spends from forty-five to fifty (we were variously informed on this point, but the
sum is at any rate sufficiently generous to teach us a lesson in England) thousand francs a year on
excavation and reconstruction. It is a pity that it does not confine itself to these two legitimate
objects. As it is the triumphal arch perhaps the finest building in the place is in danger of
being restored out of all recognition, like the Roman bridge at El Kantara. The French frequently
err as much in this direction as we too often do in the other. They renovate according to their
ideas of what should be there; we neglect without any ideas at all. Both processes produce
the destruction of ancient monuments. The Arch of Orange is an instance of the one, the
Roman Wall of the other. What they want is a less feverish desire to make everything level and
symmetrical. What we want is a few hundred pounds a year spent on preserving what is and
on excavating what might be. If a poverty-stricken country like Italy can spend money on such
objects, surely the wealthiest community in the world might spare the few sovereigns necessary,
for instance, to rescue Silchester from the plough, for at present the excavators are obliged to
cover up the results of their labours as soon as they have plotted them and to leave the finest
site in the country half forgotten and wholly buried, till a less economical age arrives, because it
is wanted wanted to grow turnips. The remedy is not far to seek. If any other deserving cause
receives money, it publishes a long list of names and subscriptions and the prosperity of that
cause is assured. Why should not Archaeology do the same?
[ ]
84 Leclerc_de_Pulligny_1884_202 Lambessa: Actuellement, on restaure le praetorium, avec
le got douteux de cette cole que lon a vue loeuvre; repassant des chanes entires de pierres
neuves, tailles grands frais, quand il ny avait qu se baisser, pour rlever les anciennes assises,
tout appareilles, et couvertes en plus de la prcieuse patine du temps. Un Arabe en burnous
bleu, perch immobile sur un bloc, comme le hron des tangs, trne au milieu de lantique
Lamboesis; cest le gardien de la cit teinte.
[ ]
85 Gungl_1906_244 Faut-il restaurer les thtres antiques?: Disons tout de suite que
cest dune restauration de ce genre que la ncessit nous a paru simposer pour le thtre de
Carthage. Si lon tient compte de ltat respectif dans lequel se trouvent lun et lautre difices,
celui dOrange et celui de Carthage, les travaux entreprendre ici seraient plus dlicats, en
mme temps quils modifieraient plus heureusement laspect de la ruine. Le thtre dOrange,
en effet, sil a subi linjure du temps, na eu que peu souffrir de celle des hommes; les colonnes
et les chapiteaux dont lminent critique parisien dit, un peu paradoxalement, quils forment le
pittoresque dcor de la ruine, sont tombs sur le sol: ils ny ont point t prcipits. Le hasard
de leur chute ne fut pas sans charme; et lon y retrouve ce quEdouard Drumont appelle quelque
part, en parlant du Vieux Paris, la grce apaise et souriante de ce qui a vcu. Les ruines du
thtre carthaginois prsentent, elles, la tristesse sinistre de ce qui a t tu. La restauration de
ldifice qui nous est cher, pour discrte quelle demeurt, aurait donc, nous le rptons, transformer la figure actuelle du monument, laquelle est moins dune ruine que dune dmolition.
[ ]
86 Maupassant_1997_212213 in 1888: Un peuple fanatique, errant, peine capable de
construire des murs, venu sur cette terre couverte de ruines laisses par ses prdcesseurs, y
ramassa partout ce qui leur parut le plus beau et, son tour, avec ces dbris de mme style et de
appendix
mme ordre, leva, m par une inspiration sublime, une demeure son Dieu, une demeure faite
de morceaux arrachs aux villes croulantes, mais aussi partfaite et aussi magnifique que les plus
pures conceptions des plus grands tailleurs de pierre.
[ ]
87 Carton_1899_134 in North Africa: On sait, en effet, combien les restes de villes, de simples
pagi, de fermes mme y abondent. Une inoubliable impression saisit le voyageur lorsquil parcourt cette contre. Capitoles encore debout, portes triomphales, monuments publics levs il
y a 1,800 ans, y semblent abandonns dhier. Et ce ne sont pas seulement ces restes imposants
qui frappent, ce sont aussi les portes des praedia, les enceintes de villas, les restes de modestes
rigoles o coula jadis leau des sources, les ponceaux sur les ravins. Tous montrent combien
industrieuse et active fut une population qui navait laiss, sans lamnager, aucun point dune
contre o rgne aujourdhui la solitude. / Facilement, on se croirait transport dans un pays
que ses habitants, surpris par quelque catastrophe pompienne, ont abandonn brusquement,
et qui est demeur depuis tel quil tait alors, sans avoir connu la lente dcomposition, uvre
du temps, des mtores et de lhomme. / La Tunisie est, sans contredit, celle de nos provinces de
lAfrique du Nord o les ruines sont de beaucoup les plus abondantes, les mieux conserves, les
plus grandioses. Ce nest pas que lAlgrie nen possde galement, le beau livre que M. Cagnat
publie sur Timgad en ferait foi au besoin. Mais ce pays, pendant les premires annes de notre
occupation, a connu quelques-unes des vicissitudes que je viens dindiquer et qui ont priv lEurope de tant de monuments antiques. La fivre de construction qui a svi dans les centres de
nouvelle formation, lirrespectueuse rapacit des entrepreneurs, souvent renforce dune sorte
de haine contre les restes du pass, y ont caus dirrparables dgts.
[ ]
88 Gurin_1862_II_379380 Tunisia: Sil ma t impossible de parcourir cette contre tout
entire et en tous sens, au moins en ai-je fait le tour peu prs complet. Sur mon passage, jai
dcouvert un certain nombre de bourgs et mme de villes antiques considrables qui avaient
chappe aux recherches des voyageurs prcdents. L o javais t devanc par des investigations antrieures aux miennes, et o je marchais sur un terrain connu et explor, jai tch, en
ltudiant avec plus de soin, dajouter des documents nouveaux et plus prcis ceux que lon
possdait dj. Chemin faisant, jai recueilli jour par jour, heure par heure, et le plus souvent
minute par minute, comme le prouve la suite continue de mon journal, toutes les notes, tous
les renseignements, toutes les inscriptions qui pouvaient jeter une lumire plus grande sur la
gographie et en mme temps sur lhistoire des localits que je visitais tour tour. Est-ce dire
pour cela que je croie avoir puis cette matire? Loin de moi une pareille prtention. Ce nest
pas, en effet, en aussi peu de temps que je pouvais seul accomplir une tche qui demanderait de
longues annes, des ressources considrables, des fouilles entreprises sur beaucoup de points
pour tre mene bonne fin. Rduit moi-mme, jai essay simplement de faire, dans la limite
de mes forces et des moyens qui avaient t mis ma disposition, tout ce quil ma t possible
dentreprendre et dexcuter en huit mois.
[ ]
89 Poir_1892_138 Tunisia: Sans doute presque tous les monuments de valeur, du moins
ceux qui taient apparents, ont disparu depuis longtemps, et les colonnes de marbre, arraches
aux cits chancelantes dHadrumte, de Leptis ou de Suftula, ont servi dcorer les mosques
de Kairouan et de Tunis et les glises de la Sicile. Mais, sous le sol de cette ancienne province
dAfrique, qui fut si riche, si prospre, au tmoignage des auteurs latins, sous cette alluvion de
trois ou quatre civilisations superposes, que de choses prcieuses, que de statues, de mosaques,
de bas-reliefs et de chapiteaux ne reste-t-il pas dcouvrir, malgr tant de fouilles dj faites?

90]Cardaillac_1891_122: after the Vandals, earthquakes etc which destroyed so many settlements, Le but des archologues est de reconstituer ces dbris du pass et de restituer leur nom et
leur caractre ces ruines reprsentant des cits autrefois brillantes et peuples, qui aujourdhui
dorment, sous une paisse couche de cendre, du pesant sommeil de loubli. / Des entrailles de
ces ruines ddaignes ont surgi de prcieux renseignements sur la valeur relative et relle des
centres quont occups ou traverss des peuples si divers. / Les inscriptions notamment ont
rendu dimmenses services lhistoire, lconomie politique, la science gographique de
lAlgrie. / Enfin, ces dcouvertes permettent de suivre lhistoire et le dveloppement des arts,
de lindustrie, les transformations successives dune civilisation dont les phases caractristiques
appartiennent aux plus intimes manifestations de lhumanit.../ Aussi ne peut-on quapprouver les mesures prises par le Gouvernement pour conserver les derniers vestiges de lantiquit,
pars dans nos diverses provinces de lAlgrie, et devons-nous de tous nos efforts faciliter la
tche de ceux auxquels cette mission dlicate a t confie.
[ ]
91 Diehl_1892_107108: Assurment, et nul ne fait difficult de le reconnatre, la conqute
a dimprieuses et lgitimes exigences: aux premiers jours de loccupation, lorsquil fallait,
sans retard, assurer a nos soldats les abris ncessaires, garantir notre tablissement rcent par
de nombreuses et solides dfenses, il tait fort naturel que lon prit, sans trop choisir, parmi
ces dbris du pass, tout ce qui se rencontrait sous la main des ouvriers; aujourdhui mme,
on admet volontiers que les matriaux sans valeur, les blocs pars en si grand nombre sur
lemplacement de toute ville antique, soient mis sans discussion la disposition des entrepreneurs et des colons. Mais, par je ne sais quelle rage de destruction inintelligente, ce nest jamais
ces matriaux-l quon emploie: on aime mieux dmolir mthodiquement un difice bien
conserv encore, sans doute parce que sa longue dure atteste lexcellence des moellons dont il
est fait; on prend plaisir retailler soigneusement en blocs rguliers les morceaux darchitecturc
demeurs intacts, lgantes corniches, frises dlicatement ouvres, chapiteaux aux feuillages
panouis; on samuse marteler et mettre en pices les inscriptions chappes au naufrage de
lantiquit. La routine est si forte, dit ce sujet un tmoin oculaire, que nous avons vu des colons
venir arracher des pierres dans les ruines, au pied mme des approvisionnements tablis leur
intention; et les maons chargs des travaux de btisse, lorsquon leur demande si quelques
inscriptions ont pass entre leurs mains, rpondent volontiers dun petit ton satisfait quils en
ont eux-mmes cass pas mal. De cette sorte, chaque construction de pont ou de route, chaque
fondation de village nouveau, chaque tablissement de ligne ferre devient un dsastre pour les
antiquits. En vain, les circulaires administratives, les instructions des gouverneurs gnraux
tentaient de mettre un terme ces dtestables pratiques: toutes les recommandations restaient
lettre morte. En vain, une loi rservait lEtat les inscriptions et les monuments dcouverts dans
les concessions; cette mesure protectrice devenait une cause de mines nouvelles, car les colons
se htaient deffacer sur les pierres tout signe dantiquit, afin de conserver des matriaux utiles
dont ils se jugeaient les propritaires lgitimes. Quant aux oeuvres dart, leur destine tait plus
lamentable encore: les mosaiques les plus belles, les plus curieuses, celles de Hammam-Lif,
celles de la villa de Pompeianus lOued-Atmenia, mouraient misrablement dabandon, livres
avec une rare insouciance toutes les chances de destruction; et pour plusieurs dentre ces
monuments, il ne reste pas mme un bon dessin qui nous en garde lexact souvenir. On a fait du
pltre avec la moiti des statues dcouvertes Cherchell; et cest par hasard que la Vnus, oeuvre
dart la plus remarquable peut-tr quait donne jusquici lAfrique romaine, a t sauve de la
[
appendix
charrette qui lemportait au four a chaux: encore la tte de la statue, retrouve, parait-il, aupres
du torse, na pas echapp la ruine; confondue parmi les dbris condamns, elle a partagt
leur sort.
[ ]
92 Poulle_1884_209210 Lambessa: Le Ministre de lInstruction publique sest mu de cet
tat de choses [viz vandalism], et des instructions ont t envoyes aux Prfets pour mettre un
terme ces dvastations; pour les arrter, il ny a donc qu tenir la main lexcution de ces
instructions. / Dans les travaux de fouilles opres par ses soins, la Commission des Monuments
historiques a fait mettre de ct tous les matriaux sans valeur et pouvant, sans inconvnients,
tre employs dans les constructions modernes; plusieurs milliers de mtres cubes de pierres et
de moellons ont t, de ce chef, mis la disposition des colons et des entrepreneurs. La routine
est si forte, lhabitude si bien prise, que nous en avons vu venir arracher des pierres dans les
ruines, au pied mme des approvisionnements tablis leur intention.
[ ]
93 SHD Gnie. 1H50: Correspondance 1837: Letter headed in MS Guelma: Instruction
publique et beaux arts, 10 august 1837, to the GG from Chagny.
[ ]
94 Revue_du_Cercle_Militaire_1889_11691170 Les ruines de lancienne ville romaine de
Thlepte: Dans les fouilles que nous avons excutes explique le commandant, notre
but na pas t de trouver des objets, des statues, des pices susceptibles dtre emportes et
denrichir un muse. Nous avons voulu reconstituer une ville militaire romaine en levant
son trac, dcouvrir des difices ensevelis depuis des sicles, et en prsenter aux juges plus
comptents que nous, archologues et architectes, qui ne peuvent se rendre sur le terrain mme,
des plans mathmatiquement faits. / Et M. Pdoya [an army commandant] a tenu sa promesse.
Il a donn dabord une description gnrale des ruines, puis de trs intressants dtails sur
lenceinte fortifie de la ville, dont il a dress un plan complet.
[ ]
95 Audollent_1890_423, Tiklat: Depuis la cration du village, en 1872, une quantit assez
grande dinscriptions ont t retrouves dans le sol. Les copies figurent au C. I. L. VIII; vingt-cinq
des originaux, avec des fragments de colonnes et de chapiteaux, subsistent sur une petite place
dEl Kseur. Les transporter Bougie, on ne saurait songer le faire sans sexposer au mcontentement des colons. Ils sont fiers de leurs ruines et entendent garder pour eux tout ce quelles
produisent. Ces sentiments pourraient sans doute faciliter la cration dun petit muse que viendraient enrichir les trouvailles successives.
[ ]
96 Tribalet_1901_284285 around Tatahouine, Tunisia: Au dbut de loccupation militaire
de la rgion, quelques fragments de corniches, des pierres grossirement sculptes purent tre
soustraites par les officiers du poste au vandalisme des indignes. Apports dans le camp de
Tatahouine, ces dbris, dont lexamen pouvait prsenter quelque intrt, furent disposs dans la
maonnerie dun pignon faisant partie dun btiment actuellement en ruines. Les officiers qui
avaient pris lheureuse initiative de recueillir ces pierres omirent de transmettre leurs successeurs des renseignements sur leur provenance. Lorigine exacte de ces dbris tait dautant plus
difficile dterminer quaucun deux ne prsentait dinscription; mais leur examen donnait
supposer quils avaient d appartenir des monuments puniques ou no-puniques. La connaissance de lemplacement exact do ils avaient t tirs prsentait un certain intrt et, la suite
de quelques renseignements, assez vagues dailleurs, recueillis leur sujet, des recherches furent
entreprises, dans le courant du mois de mai 1900, aux environs immdiats du camp et du village
de Tatahouine. Celles-ci amenrent la dcouverte de quelques pierres tailles au ciseau sur les
pentes dune croupe situe au Sud-Est du village. Quelques vestiges de maonnerie au mortier

de chaux qui, dans une rgion o les indignes ont lhabitude deffectuer leurs constructions au
pltre, rvlent en gnral des substructions antiques, furent releves sur un point.
[ ]
97 RA 14 Algier 1870, 7: Statuts de la Socit Historique Algrienne:...elle emploie tous les
moyens dont elle peut disposer pour assurer la conservation des monuments historiques fixs
au sol et prvenir autant que possible, la dispersion des autres dans des collections particulires
ou ils demeurent sans utilit pour la science.
[ ]
98 Tribalet_1901_284 around Tatahouine, Tunisia: Les indignes qui ont coopr au dveloppement assez rapide de ce petit centre commercial prlevrent les matriaux qui leur taient
ncessaires dans les ruines avoisinantes, derniers vestiges des gnrations qui staient dveloppes dans la rgion, avant et au cours de la domination romaine. Les traces des constructions
leves cette poque recule ont, en grande partie, disparu, et cest par un examen attentif du
sol et souvent aussi avec laide du hasard quil est possible den relever quelques-unes.
[ ]
99 Pellet_1916_285: Sur le dsir exprim par le Comit de la Socit de Gographie dOran,
je suis all, le 17 avril dernier, visiter les fouilles faites sur lemplacement de lantique Mina par
la Compagnie du Chemin de fer de lEtat, dans le but de se procurer les terres ncessaires un
grand remblai excut au passage suprieur franchissant la voie P.-L.-M. Ces fouilles ont t
faites sur le versant dun contrefort au pied duquel passe la ligne Relizane-Tiaret par Fortassa,
4 kilomtres environ au Sud-Est de la premire de ces localits. Elles ont mis dcouvert des
pierres tombales, des pierres de taille, des tronons de colonne, des socles, des chapiteaux, une
auge, une fontaine, des jarres et une quantit de menus objets. Beaucoup de ceux-ci, ma-t-on
affirm, ont t emports pendant les travaux par les ouvriers et les visiteurs qui les ont conservs ou vendus. / Les pierres transportables, offrant de lintrt, ont t entreposes la gare de
lEtat par les soins de M. Martin, chef de district. Les plus lourdes sont restes sur place. Je nai
pas retrouv deux pierres dj releves. Peut-tre ont-elles t retournes, cest--dire linscription place sur le sol.
[
100]RA 1859 issue 20, 105109. Livret de la Bibliothque et du Muse dAlger, Q&A from a
visitor to the Conservator. 109: V. Est-il vrai ainsi que je lai lu quelque part que ce ntait
qu grands frais et avec des dtriorations que les antiquits arrivaient au muse dAlger? / C.
La premire allgation est exagre; lautre compltement inexacte. Sil existe un endroit dans la
colonie o lon fasse restaurer des statues antiques par un serrurier, ce nest pas Alger, je puis vous
en donner lassurance. Mais notre pauvre Muse a deux espces dennemis: les uns voudraient
que tout allt Paris; les autres que tout restt dans les provinces africaines, au lieu mme o
chaque chose se dcouvre. Outre que ce dernier point obligerait dattacher un conservateur
chaque article, si lon tenait ne pas le voir enlever ou dtruire, il condamne logiquement ces
magnifiques muses dEurope qui ont rendu accessible tous ltude de lantiquit. Car, si parmi
les hommes studieux il en est qui aient assez de richesse pour aller tudier chaque objet sa
place primitive, aucun deux, certes, nen trouverait jamais le temps. / Sans exclure en aucune
faon les collections secondaires, reconnaissons la ncessit dune collection centrale, ncessit
proclame par le bon sens des nations et des sicles; reconnaissons-la, surtout en Algrie, o la
science rclame son tour ses lettres de naturalisation.
[ ]
101 Pachtre_1909_1 Guelma museum: Quand, aprs la conqute, on construisit Guelma sur
les ruines de lantique Calama, on dterra beaucoup dantiquits. Les unes furent dtruites; les
autres servirent de matriaux. Dautres prirent le chemin de Constantine, de Bne, dAlger. Les
plus prcieuses furent recueillies au Louvre. Le reste, sans grande valeur(s), fut entass dans un
coin de lancien jardin.
appendix
102]Pachtre_1909 Guelma museum, 2: Ce muse avait grand besoin de mriter son nom.
Il manquait duvres auxquelles on pt sarrter. De 1903 1908, M. Joly dblaya la plus grande
partie des ruines dAnnouna, situes 25 kilomtres louest de Guelma. Il dcouvrit les deux
forums de Khamissa et le nymphe do sortait la source de la Medjerda. A Mdaourouch, il dgagea de grands thermes. Ces fouilles rapides, entre autres rsultats, donnrent la plus belle rcolte
dinscriptions, de sculptures, de monuments darchitecture. / On ne pouvait songer laisser sur
place, en leur cadre naturel, les antiquits dcouvertes. Announa, Khamissa, Mdaourouch sont
aujourdhui des localits dsertes, loignes de tout village franais. Abandonnes sur place, les
uvres dterres auraient bien vite t dtruites par lArabe. M. Joly fit un choix parmi ses trouvailles. Il donna aux plus prcieuses lhospitalit de Guelma.
[
103]Vars_1896_205 Russicada, Objets divers: Par cet aperu rapide et succinct, on peut se faire
aisment une ide de limportance et de la richesse des souvenirs de lantiquit que reclait ce
point du littoral algrien, et que notre occupation a exhums. Mais combien manquent lappel
dans ce Muse pourtant si riche! Avec quelle ardeur de Vandales les a-t-on soustraits la science
du pass, soit pour les dbiter en matriaux de construction, dans le vain espoir dconomiser la
main doeuvre, soit pour en faire trafic. Combien eussent-ils mieux travaill dans lintrt de leur
ville et, par suite, dans le leur propre, tous ceux qui ont dtruit ou fait disparatre les vestiges de
lantiquit, sils staient efforcs de les livrer aux zls conservateurs qui se succdent, depuis
de longues annes, au Muse! Ils eussent aisment constitu, en raison de labondance des
vestiges quils ont rencontrs, un vritable centre dattraction et dtude, non seulement pour les
archologues de profession, mais encore pour une innombrable quantit de gens du monde qui,
sans tre vritablement entendus sur lantiquit, sintressent pourtant tout ce qui la rappelle.
Les savants et les amateurs se fussent donn rendez-vous Philippeville, ce qui et imprim un
vritable essor aux affaires et incontestablement accru la prosprit gnrale.
[
104]Pulszky_1854_60: I visited the ruined site of the ancient Roman city Rusgonium, at
about fifty miles east of Algiers, on Cape Matifu, with Mr. Adrian Berbrugger, late Secretary of
Marshal Clauzel, and Keeper of the Library and Museum of Algiers. In 1837, the Government
placed certain funds at his disposal to make excavations. The ruins are of great extent, but of
little importance. Only one building is still imposing by reason of the grandeur of its remains.
We could easily make out the ancient walls of the city, which, to the east and north, are still
pretty well preserved. There is, besides, a tower traceable, but its form is not antique; it seems
that in later times it has been transformed into a Christian church. The material of these ruins
is porphyry from Cape Matifu, bad bricks, excellent cement, white marble from the Atlas, and
granite, which I could not trace anywhere in Algeria. The Sheikh of the Kashnas, Omar-Benel-Bedawi, told me that there was a tradition, according to which the city had been deserted
in consequence of a famine; and there was an inscription found here which mentioned the
occurrence of a year of dearth and famine. The Sheikh would not believe that we are not
treasure-seekers, and told us of the method by which the Arabs try to discover treasures: some
mysterious words are to be written on a piece of paper, which is left to the mercy of the winds;
and wherever the paper remains lying on the ground, there is the place for digging. / The result
of Berbruggers excavations did not answer his expectations. Many fragments of statues and
reliefs were discovered; but all of them either greatly damaged, or of no artistical value. The
period of the bloom of the Province of Africa was not that of the bloom of art. Yet many rare gold
coins were bought from the Arabs of the neighbourhood, all of them belonging to the period of
the Eastern Roman Empire.
[

105]Cagnat_et_al_1890_109 En dehors des statues trouves Cherchel, qui sont soit des
uvres grecques, soit des rpliques doeuvres grecques, apportes pour la plupart, en Afrique
sous Juba II, en dehors aussi de quelques fragments de Carthage, qui ont sans doute la mme
origine ou sont dus des artistes imbus des traditions de lart grec, lAfrique na pas encore donn
de monuments figurs qui prsentent une relle valeur artistique. Ceux quon y a trouvs ont la
banalit doeuvres romaines ou la rudesse dessais nafs excuts par des artistes locaux. Mais
tout grossiers quils sont, ils ont, mme les plus petits, une valeur pour qui voudrait faire lhistoire de lart africain, soit dans ses relations avec celui de la Phnicie, soit dans les modifications
quil a subies au contact des modles grco-romains. Il est donc trs souhaitable que lon reproduise et que lon signale tous ceux que lon rencontrera.
[
106]Mlia_1918_1112 archaeologists and spies, and liars to boot: En juin 1914, les archologues allemandes, Lo Frobenius, Martins, Corman, Carl Aniens, Fischer, Derenburg, von Stetten
et Bauskhe sont encore en Algrie. Ils viennent de parcourir le dpartement de Constantine et,
le 3 juin, la Dpche de Constantine publie lentrefilet qui suit: On nous signale des invasions
darchologues allemands. Ils oprent, en ce moment, des fouilles considrables Siba et dans
les environs dEl-Guerrah. Ils ont dj recueilli, parat-il, quantit de matriaux du plus haut intrt scientifique quils ont expdis aux muses de leur pays. Comme il est interdit aux simples
particuliers de disposer des richesses archologiques quils dcouvrent, on nous demande pourquoi les savants doutre-Rhin font exception la rgle commune et peuvent en toute libert
exploiter notre rgion au profit de Berlin. / Le prfet de Constantine veut faire saisir ces matriaux, mais, le 16 juin, Lo Frobenius dclare, sous la foi du serment, que les colis contenant les
richesses archologiques sont dj expdis en Allemagne. / On sincline devant le serment de
ce chef de mission officiellement accrdit par le gouvernement allemand, on ne perquisitionne
pas ainsi lhtel de la Rgence, Alger; o il est descendu et dont le propritaire-grant est un
de ses compatriotes. Or, les colis suspects taient encore cet htel et y restrent jusquau 22
juin, jour o ils furent embarqus sur le bateau allemand York. / Le 17 juin 1914, Lo Frobenius
a mme laudace dcrire au gouverneur gnral de lAlgrie: Je vous serais infiniment reconnaissant, monsieur le Gouverneur gnral, si vous vouliez bien faire aviser M. lAdministrateur
Tiaret, et donner, si possible, des ordres pour quun agent puisse maccompagner afin dter des
difficults possibles et dempcher des malentendus. / Ces Frobenius, Martins, Corman, Cari
Aniens, Fischer, Derenburg, von Stetten, Bauskhe prtendent aussi faire des voyages dtudes
scientifiques dans le Sud algrien. En ralit, ils soccupent bien plus dautres choses, surtout
de la lgion trangre. Le 17 avril 1914 ne se sont-ils pas entretenus Sfissifa avec un caporal et un
soldat boulanger de ce rgiment et ne leur ont-ils pas fait faire un copieux repas au cours duquel
les langues se dlirent?
[
107]Poir_1892_139: Je sais bien quau seizime sicle, les papes eux-mmes et les riches
cardinaux ne se sont pas gns pour dvaliser, Rome, le Colise, le thtre de Marcellus et la
basilique Julienne. Mais du moins les blocs de travertin quon en tirait ont-ils servi Bramante
et Michel-Ange pour lever les plus belles constructions de la Renaissance, le palais de la
Chancellerie, le palais Farnse: le vandalisme alors, si lamentable ft-il, ne profitait pas seulement des oeuvres vulgaires.
[
appendix
1 De_Montagnac_1885_427B.
2 Carton_1899_134135: Car, il faut le reconnatre, ce sont ceux-l mme qui se disent les
hritiers des Romains en Afrique qui ont fait disparatre les plus beaux tmoignages de leurs
droits ce patrimoine, les difices laisss par leurs prdcesseurs et que, par une ironie du sort,
les ravisseurs eux-mmes avaient respects. / Quant on se prit smouvoir de la disparition des
monuments o notre civilisation retrouvait chaque pas les traditions de son art et mme de sa
littrature il tait dj bien tard. / Fort heureusement, pour lhonneur de la science franaise, la
faute commise en Algrie a profit la Tunisie et amen la cration dun Service qui recueille et
protge les vestiges du pass dune faon sinon complte, en raison des faibles ressources dont il
dispose, du moins dans une mesure suffisante pour viter dirrparables pertes.
[ ]
3 Lassus_1956_49: Le Service des Antiquits de lAlgrie est install lintrieur des grilles du
parc de Galland, dans un immeuble class, une villa mauresque qui va nanmoins tre dtruite,
pour llargissement, indispensable, du boulevard du Telemly en bordure duquel elle se trouve
place. Du mme coup, le Muse Stphane Gsell est appel disparatre dans un proche avenir:
sans pravis, la Mairie a rcemment entrepris la construction dune cole, dans la partie du parc
de Galland situe entre le Muse et lavenue Franklin-Roosevelt. The President comments on
Lasus energy with the words: Il remarque justement que lon fouille beaucoup en Algrie et que
lon publie peu ou trs peu. Il veut y porter remde. Il veut aussi mettre au point en quelques
annes une refonte complte de lAtlas archologique de lAlgrie de Stphane Gsell. Je crois pou
voir lassurer que lappui de lAcadmie ne lui manquera pas.
[ ]
4 Grenier_1948_409: Je tiens signaler lAcadmie la bienveillance avec laquelle
M. Leschi, directeur du Service des Antiquits, continuant une vieille tradition, accueille
sur les champs de fouille de lAlgrie les membres de lEcole franaise de Rome. En 1947, il
a attribu M. Galand les fouilles de Mons une vingtaine de kilomtres lest de Djemila.
M. Galand y a dgag des constructions jadis reconnues par Delamare et qui semblent bien tre
le capitole dune ville importante occupant tout le plateau. Ltude topographique de la rgion
environnante, claire par une inscription nouvelle, lui a permis de retrouver le nom antique
qui est Mopht(i) de la Table de Peutinger. Les fouilles de M. Galand seront publies dans le
prochain volume des Mlanges. / En 1948, lAlgrie a accueilli M. Leglay qui M. Leschi a attribu
le champ de fouille de Rapidum (Masqueray, dans la rgion dAumale) o des recherches
avaient t entreprises autrefois par M. Seston. Le fort sy trouve flanqu dune ville qui a ellemme son enceinte fortifie et dont les trois quartiers, distincts, semblent remonter chacun
une poque diffrente. M. Leglay reviendra lanne prochaine Rapidum. Je ly ai vu au travail
cette anne; des dcouvertes importantes ne sont pas encore venues le rcompenser mais le
terrain me semble bien prpar pour une exploration fructueuse. / Grce aux directeurs des
Antiquits dAlgrie, comme de Tunisie et du Maroc, lAfrique du Nord devient de plus en plus le
champ de fouilles de lEcole franaise.
[ ]
5 Bastide_1880_388389 around Sidi-Bel-Abbs: Nous savons quun officier suprieur en
non activit, qui occupe ses loisirs de grandes tudes sur la topographie et larchologie de
cette rgion, a fait oprer des fouilles importantes en diffrents endroits de larrondissement;
mais nous ne connaissons pas les rsultats complets quil a obtenus et que le monde savant
aurait le plus grand intrt voir publier. / Cette ignorance est dautant plus regrettable que,
indpendamment des Vandales, qui dtruisirent au lieu de crer, et des hrtiques, qui mirent
tout en uvre pour effacer les tmoins du Christianisme, laction du temps a galement permis
[ ]
[ ]
full endnote texts conclusion

denfouir un grand nombre de ces richesses archologiques quil faut aller chercher maintenant
sous terre, pour les retrouver peu prs intactes, grce linsouciance des Arabes et des Turcs,
sans parler de celles que les colons, certainement inconscients, ont dtruites en les utilisant
par fragments pour leurs constructions. / Il et cependant t bien facile, avec un peu de prvoyance, de sauver ces antiques souvenirs, qui nous auraient permis de reconstituer le pass, au
double point de vue de lhistoire et de la colonisation de ce pays.
[ ]
6 Gastineau_1865_5859 Algeria: Les premiers chrtiens, dans leur haine du gnie paen,
commencrent loeuvre de destruction que les Vandales et les Arabes consommrent. Cependant
les cadavres profans des gants de lantiquit ntaient pas entirement mconnaissables. La
moiti dun arceau tait rest en quilibre sur le pan dune muraille, un chapiteau la feuille
dacanthe navait t qucorn; un ft supportait la premire pierre dun arc-de-triomphe sous
lequel avaient pass victorieuses les lgions romaines; les inscriptions du lapicide se lisaient
facilement sur les tombeaux en marbre; grce lindestructible ciment romain, les murs dun
temple ddi Vnus taient encore debout; statues de divinits paennes et de proconsuls
dormaient paisibles sur lherbe lorsquon 1831 le gnie de lutilitarisme, plus destructif que les
fureurs du chrtien primitif, du Vandale et de lArabe, prit ces pierres, ces grands souvenirs lapidaires de lhrosme et de la beaut antiques, et les employa ldification de casernes, dglises,
de villages; de sorte quon bat le tambour dans un prtorium, on fait la cuisine devant la statue
coupe en pierre de taille du Jupiter olympien, on dit la prire dans le temple de Diane victorieuse. Cest ainsi que disparaissent les grandes choses de ce monde: le marteau et le carnage
dabord, lindiffrence, la profanation et loubli ensuite. / Lancienne Rome na pourtant pas disparu enentier du sol africain, quelle avait couvert de ses tablissements, de ses routes, de ses
aqueducs, de ses palais de marbre, de ses monuments, devant lesquels nos villages algriens la
Potemkin font la plus piteuse figure.
[ ]
7 AJA I 1885, 90 VANDALISM. Algeria is naturally one of the richest existing storehouses
of remains of Roman antiquity. Since the French conquest, much as has been done by men of
learning to catalogue and interpret these remains and to collect the smaller ones, the government
has not taken efficacious measures to preserve its precious heritage from wanton destruction.
Through the ignorance and rapacity of individuals and local authorities, and in some cases
by military ordinance, roads have been paved with inscriptions, statues burned for lime, and
countless architectural monuments destroyed. Tunisia is even richer in Roman remains than
Algeria, and, now that the country is to be thrown open again to civilization, Tunisian antiquities
are menaced by the same dangers. The menace has already become reality in some cases, as at
Tabarca, where the new town is springing up at the cost of the ruins of the old. An unusually
flagrant instance of vandalism, however, is the destruction last spring of a number of arches and
piers of the magnificent Roman aqueduct which supplied Carthage with water, in order to use
the materials as ballast for a new highway.
[ ]
8 Leclercq_1881_231 Lambessa, Standing on what was left of the circus: Du haut de ses
gradins nous avons contempl la campagne environnante, silencieuse et abandonne: l o
slevait autrefois une somptueuse ville romaine couvrant une superficie de 600 hectares, nous
avons vu un campement de Bdouins, et nous navons pu nous empcher de songer que nos
grandes capitales modernes auront peut-tre un jour une destine semblable
[ ]
9 Hugonnet_1858_154: il est bon de noter que lun des arguments employs le plus volontiers par ceux qui prchent le progrs, nous est au contraire une chose nuisible en Algrie. Je
veux parler des vestiges de la grandeur romaine, des nombreuses ruines ddifices et de routes
appendix
laisses par les enfants de Romulus. Jai entendu dire des indignes: Nous ne savions pas
autrefois ce que ctaient que ces longues lignes paves, travers champs, maintenant que nous
avons vu travailler les Franais leurs routes, nous voyons bien ce que cest, les roumis sont
revenus prendre possession du pays de leurs anctres, dont ils ont conserv les habitudes travailleuses. Cest trs-bien; mais quand nous disons: Voyez ces ruines, considrez comment
nos pres staient tablis partout, comment ils avaient civilis tout le pays, jusquaux confins du
Sahara, au milieu desquels on trouve encore des amas de dcombres; le musulman pense intrieurement cette autre chose: Tout cela a dj disparu une fois, devant lhabitant de la tente
(car il sattribue lexpulsion des Romains), donc, il peut bien arriver une seconde disparition.
[ ]
10 Bulletin Archeologique 1891, LII, Gaston Boissier on digging in Algeria: Pour entreprendre
ces fouilles, dont le succs est certain, nous avons une raison qui me semble dcisive; ce nest
pas seulement lintrt de la science qui nous le commande, cest le ntre. Il y a entre nous et
les anciens matres de ce pays une solidarit laquelle nous ne pouvons pas, nous ne devons
pas nous soustraire. Les indignes nous appellent des roumis; ils nous regardent comme les
descendants et les hritiers de ceux qui les ont si longtemps gouverns et dont ils gardent
confusment un grand souvenir. Acceptons lhritage. Messieurs; nous y trouverons notre profit.
Du moment que nous nous rattachons ce pass glorieux, nous ne sommes plus tout fait
des trangers, des intrus, des gens arrivs dhier, quune heureuse aventure a jets sur un sol
inconnu. Nous avons des prdcesseurs, des anctres; nous venons continuer et finir une grande
uvre de civilisation interrompue pendant des sicles. Nous reprenons possession dun ancien
domaine, et ces vieux monuments, devant lesquelles lArabe ne passe pas sans un sentiment de
respect et de frayeur, sont prcisment nos titres de proprit.
appendix
1 Materials for this table from Pellissier_de_Reynaud_III_1854_2478.
2 Urbain_1862_4748 writing on colons and natives: La France possde lAlgrie depuis
trente-deux ans. Elle y a dpens, en moyenne, soixante millions par anne, cest--dire la
somme norme dun milliard neuf cent vingt millions de francs. On a valu la perte en hommes
jusqu 25,000 par an; prenons seulement le chiffre annuel de 15,000, cest 480,000 mes pour
la priode de trente-deux annes. Larme a support dabord la grosse part de cet holocauste
pour lequel la guerre frappait moins de victimes que la maladie; mais depuis quon a amlior
linstallation du casernement et des hpitaux militaires, cest la population civile qui paye la
mort le tribut le plus considrable. Enfin, la guerre, qui a dur depuis 1830 jusqu la fin de 1847,
a fait prir dans la population indigne plus de 500,000 mes. Quant aux pertes matrielles causes par les ravages de la guerre, on ne peut pas les fairo monter moins de deux milliards de
francs. Ce chiffre na rien dexagr, si lon songe au nombre de bestiaux, de grains, dustensiles
de toutes sortes, aux rcoltes pendantes, aux arbres fruitiers, aux maisons, qui ont t dtruits
pendant une lutte de dix-huit annes. Ainsi, deux milliards de francs dpenss par la France,
un demi-million dhommes sacrifis; du ct des indignes, deux milliards de perte et 500,000
hommes disparus: voil le passif effrayant devant lequel la conscience sarrte attriste.
[ ]
3 Thouvenin_1900_327.
[ ]
4 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_3435: La guerre que les Kabales nous ont faite sest borne
des attaques impuissantes contre Bougie, Philippeville, Cherchel, Gigelli, Blida et Miliana, parce
que ces villes sont en plein territoire kabale, presque porte de fusil de ces montagnards, dont
les succs militaires nont gure consist quen des assassinats de sentinelles; leurs hostilits
nont jamais t quune pure et simple protestation contre la violation de leur territoire. / Ce ne
sont donc pas l les ennemis qui auraient pu compromettre depuis 1840 notre conqute, et qui
ont motiv laugmentation de larme jusquau chiffre norme de 80,000 hommes. La force relle
du pays, celle que nous navons pas encore atteinte, ce sont les Arabe, les cavaliers arabes, dont
le nombre est denviron 25,000 dans toute lAlgrie.
[ ]
5 Le_Pays_de_Bourjolly_1849_27 writing on agricultural colonies: suggests strategicallysited cavalry to firefight colonial problems, but: Quant la qualit des troupes, il faut que les
rgiments dAfrique ne reoivent pas des recrues mais des soldats faits, notamment dans la cavalerie, o linstruction est plus longue et plus difficile que dans linfanterie. Ainsi, jai vu des rgiments de cavalerie ayant 500 chevaux lcurie, et 400 recrues qui ne pouvaient pas encore les
monter. Il y a donc urgence de revenir au systme qui tait encore suivi en 1841, celui de recruter
les rgiments dAfrique dhommes faits et pris dans les rgiments de lintrieur.
[ ]
6 Leblanc_de_Prbois_1844_119120 the current figures dont add up: En supposant quaucun de ces 25 mille colons ne meure, il faudra 20 ans pour peupler 1200 lieues raison de 420
habitants par lieue carre, chiffre suffisant cause de la raret des eaux, ou plutt 40 ans, en
tenant compte des pertes et une dpense de plus dun milliard. / Pour peupler seulement la zone
comprise entre la mer et une ligne passant par Tlemcen, Mascara, Miliana, Medeah, Hamza,
Setif, Constantine et Tiffech, ou bien environ 4,500 lieues carres, beaucoup moins que la moiti
du pays; il faudrait plus de deux cents ans...A quoi sert donc ds lors de batailler pour soumettre toute lAlgrie, puisquen supposant que lon y jette par an 25,000 colons militaires, on ne
pourrait coloniser au plus que la dixime partie du pays en 50 ans. A quoi sert de dvouer cette
uvre strile une arme de prs de 100,000 hommes et dy dpenser prs de 100 millions par an,
pour semparer de terrains que nous ne pourrons utiliser avant des sicles.
[ ]
[ ]
full endnote texts appendix

7 Rozet_and_Carette_1850_105106: En France larme est denviron 300,000 soldats et la
population denviron 30,000,000 dhabitants. Chaque soldat suffit donc la scurit de 100 habitants. / LAlgrie la fin de 1830 avait une arme de 37,000 hommes et une population europenne de 602 habitants; chaque habitant occupait donc au soin de sa sret 62 soldats. De
lanne suivante ce nombre tait rduit 6; en 1834 il tait de 3, cest--dire quil ne fallait plus
pour garder un habitant que 3 soldats. En 1839 chaque habitant ne reprsentait plus que deux
soldats. Enfin en 1845 larme et la population atteignirent lune et lautre le chiffre de 95,000. La
population tait arrive au pair, chaque colon avait son soldat. Enfin en 1846 10 soldats garantissaient la sret de 11 colons. / Laccroissement progressif de la population civile a permis
dajouter larme, par la cration des milices algriennes, une force relle dont leffectif slve
aujourdhui plus de 12,000 hommes.
[ ]
8 Fillias_1860_286 Bugeaud writes in 1842: Pour soumettre les tribus indignes de lAlgrie,
il a fallu une arme de 75,000 hommes. Une arme gale est ncessaire pour les maintenir dans
la soumission. Abd-el-Kader est dtruit et sa puissance est renverse; mais on sest berc dune
folle illusion lorsquon a cru que cette ruine tant opre nous pourrions ramener en France une
partie de nos forces. Si lon veut examiner attentivement ltat social des populations arabes,
parpilles sur un immense territoire, on reconnatra quil est moins difficile de les vaincre que
de les tenir sous le joug.
[ ]
9 Teissier_1865B_116, 186.
[ ]
10 Teissier_1865B_3 Province of Algiers: 18,5000 sqkm, 857,000 natives, 83,000 Europeans;
4: in the province of Algiers: Sur ces 90 villes ou villages, il nen existait que 9 au moment de la
conqute. Le bilan de la colonisation europenne est donc de 81 villages crs; et si lon compte,
en moyenne, 1,000 hectares cultivs autour de chaque village, on trouve le chiffre considrable
de 100,000 hectares dfrichs ou remis en culture, en 35 ans.
[ ]
11 Castellane_1853_II_138 village of Sig, and General de Lamoricire: The little colony, he
saw at once, required government; to be placed under some firm positive authority, empowered
to decide summarily all disputes, and with resources sufficient to rescue the poor people from
the sufferings with which the approaching winter season threatened them. An order was
consequently immediately sent to the commandant, Charras, immediately to pitch his bivouac
in the close vicinity of Sig, which being done, the soldiers instantly became lime-burners, stonecutters, masons, and labourers; and a few months later any one who passed through St. Denisdu-Sig, would not have known it; the village was transformed.
[ ]
12 Guyot_1885_3334: En 1871, lAssemble Nationale crut presque compenser la perte
de lAlsace et de la Lorraine en attribuant aux Alsaciens-Lorrains 100,000 hectares en Algrie.
Sur 159,000 optants, 3,261 seulement sembarqurent; les 155,000 autres avaient une mfiance
justifie. Linstallation des 900 familles qui staient laiss sduire, cota 6 millions de francs,
soit 6,888 francs par famille pour les maisons et lassistance, sans compter beaucoup dautres
faux frais. Si on avait donn cette somme chacune delles pour se crer une nouvelle position
en France, il est probable quelle en et tir meilleur parti quen Algrie. Ces ouvriers de fabrique,
habitus la vie des villes, la bire, la forte nourriture, ne sacclimatrent pas. Les documents
officiels nenregistrent jamais les insuccs. Mais M. Guynemer, visitant les villages deux ans
aprs, ny trouvait plus que 2,000 habitants. La plupart, ds le premier jour, avaient mang leurs
poules et leurs brebis, staient servi des portes et des fentres en guise de bois de chauffage. Les
plus tenaces empruntrent sur leur concession, la firent cultiver par des Arabes et, au bout des
cinq ans exigs pour quils en devinssent propritaires, la vendirent et disparurent.
[ ]
appendix
13]Guyot_1885_3637: On rpte partout que, daprs le recensement de 1881, le chiffre de
la population franaise est en Algrie de 233,900 ttes; mais on oublie de dduire de ce chiffre
larme de terre, 41,626 hommes; larme de mer, 571 hommes; la gendarmerie et la pohce, 4,578
hommes; total 46,775 hommes (chiffres du recensement). / En ralit, tous ces efforts multiplis
nont abouti qu amener 195,000 Franais en Algrie. Sur ces 195,000 Franais, les fonctionnaires,
agents et employs de tout ordre, pays par lEtat, les dpartements et les communes avec leurs
familles, arrivent au chiffre de 35,113. Nous navons pas le dtail du clerg europen. Il faut ajouter
les pensionns et retraits rfugis la solde de ltat, 7,465. Les chemins de fer ne sont tablis
quavec les subsides de la mtropole. Leurs employs sont en ralit des employs pays par les
contribuables franais. Ce ne sont pas des colons. Ce personnel monte 16,260. / Ces 60,000
individus nont pas fait de lmigration gratuite et spontane. Restent donc 135,000 Franais, dont
il faudrait dduire les mdecins de colonisation et un certain nombre de professions analogues. /
Sur ces 135,000 Franais, 29,455 sont des concessionnaires qui ont cot lEtt 59,836,000
francs, soit 2,031 fr. par tte.
[ ]
14 Guyot_1885_38: Restent donc moins de 100,000 Franais habitant lAlgrie, avec leurs
ressources, leurs frais et vivant de leur propre travail et de leur propre initiative. / En divisant
par 4, chiffre dune famille peu prolifique, vous aboutissez ce rsultat: 25,000 Franais
producteurs. / Le chiffre de leffectif des troupes de terre donne: 1875, 60,000 hommes; 1876,
50,598; 1877, 55,357; 1878, 55,149; 1879, 55,937; 1880, 52,762; 1881, 81,250. Il ny a eu que le jour
du recensement o il a t infrieur 50,000. Prenons ce dernier chiffre comme moyenne. /
Supposez une gravure reprsentant un laboureur gard par deux soldats, un chaque bout de
son sillon. Vous riez et vous vous criez: Cest une caricature. Pas du tout: Cest le tableau
exact de lAlgrie. 25,000 colons multipli par 2 soldats, gale 50,000!
[ ]
15 Masqueray_1886_13: Maintenant, cest lEurope qui prdomine son tour, une seconde
fois, dans tout le bassin occidental de la Mditerrane. Nous y reprenons, en lamliorant,
loeuvre des Romains. Notre politique ne diffre de la leur que sur un point, ladministration
des vaincus quo nous lverons jusqu notre niveau au lieu de les rduire en servitude; mais,
pour tout te reste, nous marchons sur leurs traces. Nos villes et nos villages se btissent sur
lemplacement des leurs, et nous voulons comme eux, en Afrique, donner la suprmatie
llment europen. Dj nos trois cent soixante dix-sept mille Franais, Italiens et Espagnols,
galent peu prs en nombre les Arabes venus de la Haute Egypte; dans un sicle, nous ferons
quilibre tous les Orientaux qui les ont prcds depuis le commencement de la domination
byzantine.
[

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The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of

North Africa, 18301900

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hw

The Military and Colonial

Byzantine Fortresses and French Scholarship87

Lon Renier, Inscriptions and the Mission Civilisatrice217

Seriana: Documented Destruction320

Setting the Scene: Algeria in Context

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 4|doi .63/9789004271630_002

setting the scene: algeria in context

radically changed by the Arab invasions.5 This introductory scene-setting lays

setting the scene: algeria in context

setting the scene: algeria in context

to be commercially and militarily advantageous au nom du progrs, au nom

setting the scene: algeria in context

setting the scene: algeria in context

Franc 1928, 289294.

setting the scene: algeria in context

Socit Archologique de la Province de Constantine eight are connected with

Nogures 1962 for a blow-by-blow account, well-referenced to published primary sources.

setting the scene: algeria in context

complicated changes in administration,22 and the turnover of commanders23

Collot 1987: 3137 La complexit de ladministration franaise (18301848). 3844 Dual

setting the scene: algeria in context

soldiers were sufficient, and for what containment, or expansion further

setting the scene: algeria in context

Baroli 12992, 33.

setting the scene: algeria in context

disappeared. This was the marteau de la civilisation described by Vayssettes

setting the scene: algeria in context

Gran-Aymerich 2000; Grange 2000.

setting the scene: algeria in context

Although powerful colonialist interests eventually developed, the military

The French Conquest

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 4|doi .63/9789004271630_003

the french conquest

Planning & Logistics

The French invasion,1 seen as a delayed attempt to re-establish imperial

a more recent war: I have no confidence in improvised military adventures in

the french conquest

Roman monuments in France, as well as mediaeval castles and fortifications.4

the french conquest

Logistics and Supply[44]

Contributing to the manifold difficulties of the early years, and exacerbated

the french conquest

the french conquest

prsenterons. A ce prix seulement lAfrique est nous.[86] What is more, with

the french conquest

the french conquest

Andrew & Kanya-Forstner 1974.

the french conquest

to be of help. Gnral Pelet, its director from 1830, collected intelligence on

the french conquest

or commission sketches of archaeological features. On Clauzels expedition

les Romains parcouraient ce pays o nous semblons craindre aujourdhui de

Occupying the Ground

the french conquest

Berthier 1942, 2335 romanisation: in the 238,231ha of the commune mixte of An