RUINES ROMAINS DE LAMBESE. — Voie ouest
Dated 1916
Publisher: Neurden & Co
Lambaesa was founded by the Roman military. The camp of the third legion (Legio III Augusta), to which it owes its origin, appears to have been established between AD 123–129, in the time of Roman emperor Hadrian, whose address to his soldiers was found inscribed on a pillar in a second camp to the west of the great camp still extant. However, other evidence suggests it was formed during the Punic Wars. The town is built 622 m above sea level in the plain and on the spurs of the Djebel Asker.
By AD 166 mention is made of the decurions of a vicus, 10 curiae of which are known by name; and the vicus became a municipium probably at the time when it was made the capital of the newly founded province of Numidia. Lambaesis was populated mainly by Romanized Berbers and by some Roman colonists with their descendants: Latin was the official and commonly used language (even if local Berbers spoke their own language mixed with Latinisms).
Wikipedia.
Lambaesis once served as the capital of Roman Numidia and was, for a long time, the partner and sometime rival of nearby Timgad. . . . Lambaesis consisted of a military camp – not unlike a modern military base, with barracks, armoury, hospital and so on – surrounded by a wall and watchtowers, and civilian camps outside the perimeter.
Lonely Planet
Eleven km SE of Batna and 140 km from Constantine, the settlement was the headquarters of the legate of the Third Augustan Legion from the 2d c. A.D. When the province of Numidia was officially created in 197-198, it became the capital. . . . This camp is scarcely visible except by aerial photography. It has been wrongly called the “camp of the auxiliaries.” Probably it was a camp built by the soldiers for the imperial visit. We know now that an earlier camp, dating to A.D. 81, existed in the district called the civilian town, S of the modern built-up area. The N district was mainly occupied by the large camp (500 x 420 m). This camp was greatly damaged when in 1851 a penitentiary was built in the SW part; the village built later on was also constructed on the ruins.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
LAMBESE. – La Voie et la Porte Nord.
c.1910
Publisher: Ley & Fils
Google Street VIew (approximate)
Two streets, one running E-W, the other N-S, divided the large camp into four parts of unequal size. At the intersection is a rectangular building (36.6 x 23 m) called the praetorium. It forms a sort of quadruple arch of triumph. On the outside it is adorned with pilasters and Corinthian columns; it has large arched openings. South of this building extended a flagged court (65 x 37 m) surrounded on three sides by a portico onto which a series of rooms opened.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
On level ground about two-thirds of a mile from the centre of the ancient town stands the camp, its site now partly occupied by the penitentiary and its gardens. It measures 1,640 feet (500 m) by 1,476 feet (450 m), and in the middle rise the ruins of a building commonly called, but incorrectly, the praetorium. This noble building, which dates from 268, is 92 feet (28 m) long by 66 feet (20 m) broad and 49 feet (15 m) high; its southern façade has a splendid peristyle half the height of the wall, consisting of a front row of massive Ionic columns and an engaged row of Corinthian pilasters.
Wikipedia.
