SBEITLA (anc. Sufetula)  , a ruined city of Tunisia, 66 m . S.W. of Kairawan . Long buried beneath the sand, this is the most beautiful and extensive of the Roman cities in the regency . It stands at the foot of a hill by a river, here perennial, but at a short distance beyond lost in the sands . The chief ruin is a rectangular walled enclosure, 238 ft. by 198 ft., known as the Hieron, having three small and one large entrance . The great gateway is a fine monumental arch in fair preservation, with an inscription to Antoninus Pius . Facing the arch, within the Hieron, their rear walls forming one side of the enclosure, are three temples, connected with one another by arches, and forming one design . The length of the entire facade is 118 ft . The principal chamber of the central temple, which is of the Composite order, is 44 ft. long; those of the side temples, in the Corinthian style, are smaller . The walls of the middle temple are ornamented with engaged columns; those of the other buildings with pilasters . The porticos have fallen, and their broken monolithic columns, with fragments of cornices and other masonry, lie piled within the enclosure, which is still partly paved . (In 1901 a violent storm further damaged the temples and forced the gateway out of the perpendicular.) The other ruins include a triumphal arch of Constantine, a still serviceable bridge and a square keep or tower of late date .

The

early history of Sufetula is preserved only in certain inscriptions . Under Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius it appears to have been a flourishing city, the district, now desolate, being then very fertile and covered with forests of olives . It was partly rebuilt during the Byzantine occupation and became a centre of Christianity . At the time of the Arab invasion it was the capital of the exarch Gregorius, and outside its walls the battle was fought in which he was slain; his daughter, who is said by the Arab historians to have fought by the side of her father, became the wife of one of the Arab leaders . The invaders besieged, captured and sacked Sufetula, and it is not afterwards mentioned in history . It was not until the close of the 19th century that the ruins were thoroughly examined by French savants . See A . Graham, Roman Africa (London, 1902) ; Sir R . L . Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce (London, 1877) .