Back to menu

Curubis

Statio 34 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni has the inscription NAVICVLARI CVRBITANI D(e) S(uo). Below the text is a black frame with a rather enigmatic depiction flanked by two dolphins, and the abbreviation SNFCC. We are dealing with the city of Curubis.



Statio 34 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Photo: Gerard Huissen.

Curubis, the modern city of Korba, was on the eastern shore of Cape Bon, Tunisia.[1] The identification is ascertained by inscriptions. The city was made a colonia by Caesar or Octavianus (Colonia Iulia Curubis).



Map of the area. From Pierre Salama, Les Voies Romaines de l'Afrique du Nord,
Algiers 1951. See also the atlas of Samuel Butler from 1907.

There must of course have been a harbour, but only very slight remains of piers have been spotted. In 1860 arches of an aqueduct could still be seen and, to the south of the village, open-cast quarries and tombs hacked out in the rock. The presence of an amphitheatre has been deduced from an inscription mentioning munera (CIL VIII Suppl. 1, 12453). Another inscription records the building of a theatre by a private person, not long after the death of Antoninus Pius.

M(arco) MANLIO C(ai) F(ilio) QVIR(ina) MODESTO QVIETIA
NO EQVO PVBLICO ET IN QVINQ(ue) DECVR(ias) ADLEC
TO A DIVO PIO FL(amini) PERP(etuo) IIVIRALIC(io) ET CVRATOR(i)
ALIMENTORVM CVRIA POBLICIA
OB SINGVLAREM IN PATRIAM MVNIFI
CENTIAM THEATRO PROPRIA PECVNIA
EIVS EXSTRVCTO PATRONO SVA P(ecunia) P(osuit)
Inscription recording the construction of the theatre by Marcus Manlius Modestus Quietianus.
AE 1908, 162; EDCS-10300650. Photo: Ben Abdallah Zeïneb 1986, nr. 373.

In 257 AD the Carthaginian bishop Cyprianus was exiled to the city, about which his biographer Pontius comments: "By God's favour a sunny and appropriate place was provided, a refuge secluded as he wished". In 411 AD the bishop of Curubis, Victor, was present at the Council of Carthage. In 484 AD bishop Felix attended a council called by the Vandal king Huneric and was exiled to Corsica when he refused to swear allegiance. Bishop Peregrinus was present at the Council of Carthage in 525 AD. In the early 5th century the city is mentioned briefly by Augustinus:

Ex mimo quidam Curubitanus non solum a paralysi, verum etiam ab informi pondere genitalium cum baptizaretur salvus effectus est, et liberatus utraque molestia tamquam mali nihil habuisset in corpore de fonte regenerationis ascendit. Quis hoc praeter Curubim novit et praeter rarissimos aliquos qui hoc ubicumque audire potuerunt? Nos autem cum hoc comperissemus, iubente sancto episcopo Aurelio etiam ut veniret Carthaginem fecimus, quamvis a talibus prius audierimus de quorum fide dubitare non possemus. A former actor of Curubis was cured of paralysis when he was baptized, and also of an abnormal enlargement of his genital organs. Freed of both evils he came up from the font of regeneration as if he had had nothing wrong with his body. Who knows of this, except the people of Curubis, and a very few who have had opportunity to hear the story elsewhere? When I heard of it I arranged that the man should come to Carthage by order of the holy bishop Aurelius, although we had earlier heard the facts from men of whose honesty we could not doubt.
Augustinus, De Civitate Dei, XXII, 8,5. Translation George E. McCracken.



Curubis, written as Cubin, on the Tabula Peutingeriana (to the right of the red R).

Ancient capitals and an inscription were reused in the oratory of Sidi Daass in Korba.



Reused ancient capitals in the oratory of Sidi Daass. Photo: Grira 2019, fig. 1.

Literature:
- CIL VIII.1, 977-981; CIL VIII.2, 10525; CIL VIII Suppl. 1, 12451-12453; CIL VIII Suppl. 4, 24099-24102; EDCS-10300650.
- V. Guérin, Voyage archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis, tome second, Paris 1862, 241-244.
- Th. Mommsen, "Inschriften von Curubis und Lilybaeon", Hermes 30,3 (1895), 456-462.
- M. Bréal, "Inscription de Curubis", CRAI 39,1 (1895), 31-34.
- A. Merlin, "Mosaïques tombales découvertes au Nord de Kourba, l'ancienne Curubis", CRAI 58,2 (1914), 100-104.
- B. Ben Abdallah Zeïneb, Catalogue des inscriptions latines païennes du musée du Bardo, Rome 1986, nrs. 372, 373, 519.
- M. Grira, "Curubis dans le Bellum Africum: à propos d'un nouvel exemplaire des inscriptions de l'enceinte", Ville et archéologie urbaine au Maghreb et en Méditerranée, Tunis 2019, 163-178.

Notes:
[1] Not to be confused with Korbous, colonia Iulia Karpitanorum on the Gulf of Tunis. There is uncertainty about the place of discovery of mosaics (Kourba near Carthage? Utica?), but I have no access to the relevant publication: L. Poinssot - P. Quoniam, "Bêtes d'amphithéâtre sur trois mosaïques du Bardo", Karthago 3 (1951-1952), 129–165; see also AE 1953, 147.