Many Roman cities looked alike. Checkerboard streets, a forum lined by temples and porticos, a theater, fountains, baths. These shared features, however, should not obscure the remarkable flexibility of Roman urban planning, which is epitomized by the spectacular ruins of Jamila, Algeria. There was a basic template for newly founded Roman cities inspired by the marching camps of the legions. There was also a standard set of monuments that ambitious local aristocrats tended to build. But Roman cities scattered across an empire that spanned three continents were never as similar as modern American cities. They shared a basic architectural language

and an accent on public places. Beyond that, variety was the rule. Ja, ancient Quoul is a fascinating illustration of what Roman urban planning could achieve. Like Timgad featured in one of my earlier videos, Jamila was located in the Roman province of Numidia, now eastern Algeria. Again, like Timgad, it was a veteran colony laid out by military surveyors. Unlike Timgad, Jamila was located in a spectacular mountain valley. The setting seems to have inspired the site's modern name, which means the beautiful one in Arabic.

Jamila never had more than a few thousand inhabitants. A medieval European town of that size would have had a few churches, a scattering of mansions built by wealthy merchants, and perhaps a city hall. The only truly monumental structure, however, would have been the cathedral or largest church. Roman cities, by contrast, invested massively in public building. Over the course of three centuries, Jila's leading citizens poured their wealth into a cityscape that was both typically Roman and completely unique. The original settlement was centered on a broad street that paralleled the crest of the ridge on which Jamila stood. Though laid out to be straight, it bent halfway between the gates to match the contours of the land. The main street

was lined with cowades. Besides being practical, the covered walkways beneath them sheltered pedestrians from rain and the summer sun. They had a monumental effect, unifying the building facades and connecting the street with the porticos of the forum. The forum occupied nearly a tenth of the space within Jamila's original walls. Though laid out when the city was founded, it was developed gradually as benefactors presented themselves and funds for new projects became available. It took nearly a century for the whole ensemble to be completed. On one side was the Basilica Julia, a covered hall used as both a courtroom and covered marketplace. On the other was the Kiraa where the city council met. Over both Kiraa and Basilica

towered the capoleum, a temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Manurva that advertised Jamila's status as a Roman colony. During the reign of Antonyinus Pius around the time the capoleium was being completed, the wealthy brothers gas and Lucius Cosinius financed the construction of a market with 18 shops next to the forum. The market was a gift to the people of Ja, a gift for which the Cosinius brothers expected to be repaid with the gratitude of their fellow citizens.

The Cosinius brothers almost certainly lived in large town houses near the forum. Their mansions and those of their contemporaries, however, were replaced in late antiquity by the even grander residences visible today. The most spectacular of these was the so-called house of Bacus. Centered like the mansions of Pompei on a large courtyard with pools and a parasyle, it grew over the centuries to include gardens, a large fish pond, and a banqueting hall with space for up to 90 diners. By the late 2nd century, when the market of Cosinius was built, Jamila was growing beyond the bounds of its original walls. The main street was extended past the gates, and a new district emerged, not planned as a unit like the original city, but growing

organically under the direction of the city council. This area was already home to the theater, built outside the walls to take advantage of a steep slope. In keeping with Jamila's modest size, it had seats for only about 3,000 spectators. As in the coliseum, however, rank determined seating. The first three rows, separated from the rest by a stone barrier, were reserved for the elite. Between the theater and the original walls, a large plaza, in effect, a second forum, was laid out, its entrance framed by a triumphal arch dedicated to Carakala. The plaza was dominated by an imperial cult temple for the Sever

family, its height accentuated by a monumental staircase. The building advertised loyalty to the imperial family and not incidentally the wealth and generosity of the benefactors who had financed it. Just beyond the severe forum stood the great baths, another product of Jamila's high imperial prosperity. Like the BS of Carakala built in Rome a few decades later, they had a symmetrical plan with pairs of warm and steam rooms flanking the central frigidarium and calarium. They boasted elegant mosaics, a covered gymnasium, and a 24 seat latrine, all the latest amenities of Roman civilization, and they expressed that most Roman form of imperialism, control over water.

The crisis of late antiquity came lightly and late to Jamila. Like most of Roman Africa, the city seems to have adopted Christianity relatively early. Around the end of the 4th century, an entire ecclesiastical quarter with three churches, a bath, a bishop's palace, and a baptistry rose on the hill behind the sever plaza. Here, as in contemporary Rome, Christians built on the outskirts. This was not at that late date because they were socially marginalized. It seems instead to have reflected a sense of respect for the time-honored monuments of the city center. For half a millennium, Ja grew along the crest of the ridge on which it had been

founded. When the population began to dwindle in late antiquity, the city died from the roots, retreating slowly uphill. By the end of the sixth century, when most of the inhabitants were gone, Jamila looked very different than it had under the Antonine or Severign emperors. To the end, however, the city's public places retained an organic, harmonious, monumentality, centered on the colonated Main Street and the two forums adjoining it. That visual unity produced by generations of complimentary construction was as much a part of Jamila's beauty as the gray green mountains in which it stood. For a full tour of Jamila, follow the link on screen and in the description to the video on my travel channel, Scenic

Routts to the Past. On my other channel, Tolenstone Footnotes, you'll find an interview about the late Bronze Age collapse with Eric Klene. Check out the Tollen Stone Patreon for my Rome in review series where I'll soon be exploring the first season of HBO's Rome. And see the Tolden Stone Trips page for my latest tours. Thanks for watching.