Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/39

Rh the controul of government, this river was the ancient Bagrada.

passing a triumphal arch of bad taste at Basil-bab, I came the next day to Thugga, perhaps more properly called Tucca, and by the inhabitants Dugga. The reader in this part should have Doctor Shaw's Work before him, my map of the journey not being yet published; and, indeed, after Shaw's, it is scarcely necessary to those who need only an itinerary, as, besides his own observations, he had for basis those of Sanson.

at Dugga a large scene of ruins, among which one building was easily distinguishable. It was a large temple of the Corinthian order, all of Parian marble, the columns fluted, the cornice highly ornamented in the very best style of sculpture. In the tympanum is an eagle flying to heaven, with a human figure upon his back, which, by the many inscriptions that are still remaining, seems to be intended for that of Trajan, and the apotheosis of that emperor to be the subject, the temple having been erected by Adrian to that prince, his benefactor and predecessor. I spent fifteen days upon the architecture of this temple without feeling the smallest disgust, or forming a wish to finish it; it is, with all its parts, still unpublished in my collection. These beautiful and magnificent remains of ancient taste and greatness, so easily reached in perfect safety, by a ride along the Bagrada, full as pleasant and as safe as along the Thames