ere finished. Every here and there, on hill or crag,
crowned with basilicas and temples, radiant in the sun, might be seen the
cities of the province or of its neighbourhood, Thibursicumber, Thugga,
Laribus, Siguessa, Sufetula, and many others; while in the far distance,
on an elevated table-land under the Atlas, might be discerned the Colonia
Scillitana, famous about fifty years before the date of which we write for
the martyrdom of Speratus and his companions, who were beheaded at the
order of the proconsul for refusing to swear by the genius of Rome and the
emperor.

If the spectator now takes his stand, not in Sicca itself, but about a
quarter of a mile to the south-east, on the hill or knoll on which was
placed the cottage of Agellius, the city itself will enter into the
picture. Its name, Sicca Veneria, if it be derived (as some suppose) from
the Succoth benoth, or "tents of the daughters," mentioned by the inspired
writer as an object of pagan worship in Samaria, shows that it owed its
foundation to the Phoenician colonists of the country. At any rate, the
Punic deities retained their hold upon the place; the temples of the
Tyrian Hercules and of Saturn, the scene of annual human sacrifices, were
conspicuous in its outline, though these and all other religious buildings
in it looked small beside the mysterious antique shrine devoted to the
sensual rites of the Syrian Astarte. Public baths and a theatre, a
capitol, imitative of Rome, a gymnasium, the long outline of a portico, an
equestrian statue in brass of the Emperor Severus, were grouped together
above the streets of a city, which, narrow and winding, ran up and down
across the hill. In its centre an extraordinary spring threw up
incessantly several tons of water every minute, and was inclosed by the
superstitious gratitude of the inhabitants with the peristylium of a
sacred place. At the extreme back, towards the north, which could not be
seen from the point of view where we last stationed ourselves, there was a
sheer descent of rock, bestowing on the city, when it was seen at a
distance on the Mediterranean side, the same bold and striking appearance
which attaches to Castro Giovanni, the ancient Enna, in the heart of
Sicily.

And now, withdrawing our eyes from the panorama, whether in its distant or
nearer objects, if we would at length contemplate the spot itself from
which we have been last surveying it, we shall find almost as much to
repay attention,