Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/294

 which, running through Mascula and Diana towards Sitifis, presents the appearance of an "Appian Way" with its temples, porticoes, and other monuments.

North of Tebessa there are no centres of colonisation until we reach the Mejerda basin. In the intervening tract, where the vestiges occur of no less than a hundred and fifty Roman towns or hamlets, the only French stations are the so-called borj, constructed at considerable expense along the Tunisian frontier, and rendered nearly useless since the line of military defences has been advanced to Kef, in the territory of the regency. In the upper Melleg valley the chief station on the route between Tebessa and Constantine is the village of Meskiana, in a district covered with prehistoric and Roman ruins. Formerly the whole of this

region was covered with olive groves, as is evident from the oil-presses, remains of which occur in every Roman farmstead. Suk-Ahras, the chief place on the frontier plateau, occupies the site of the ancient Thagaste, the birthplace of the famous Austin, bishop of Hippo. Until 1852 a mere military station threatened by the powerful Hanensha tribe, Suk-Ahras has since become a flourishing town, as the chief centre of trade and intercourse between the two ports of Bona and Tunis. Here large tracts have already been brought under cultivation, and the slopes of the hills, recently overgrown with scrub, are now under crops or planted with vineyards. Of Roman antiquities