Volubilis is a Berber, then proto-Carthaginian, settlement situated near the city of Meknes. It developed from the 3rd century BC onward as the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onward and expanded to cover about 42 hectares.
About Volubilis in brief
Volubilis is a partly excavated Berber city in Morocco situated near the city of Meknes. It developed from the 3rd century BC onward as a Berber, then proto-Carthaginian, settlement before being the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onward and expanded to cover about 42 hectares. The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its remoteness and indefensibility on the south-western border of the Roman Empire. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, first as a Latinised Christian community, then as an early Islamic settlement. In the late 8th century it became the seat of Idris ibn Abdallah, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty of Morocco. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed for being an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire. The origins of its name are unknown but may be a Latinisation of the Amazigh word Walilt, meaning oleander, which grows along the sides of the valley. The word is mentioned in Horace’s Epistles : labitur, et labetur in omne volubil is aevum. In Classical Latin, the word was pronounced like a \”w,\” making the pronunciation closer to modern Amazight and Arabic pronunciations. The ruins remained substantially intact until they were devastated by an earthquake in the mid-18th century and subsequently looted by Moroccan rulers seeking stone for building Meknes in the 1950s.
During and after the period of French rule over Morocco, about half of the site was excavated, revealing many fine mosaics, and some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status houses were restored or reconstructed. It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that the site were definitively identified as that of the ancient city of Volubili. The area around Volublis has been inhabited at least since the Late Atlantic Neolithic, some 5,000 years ago; archaeological excavations at the site have found Neolithic pottery of design comparable to pieces found in Iberia. By the third century BC, the Carthaginians had a presence there, as evidenced by the remains of a temple to the Punic god Baal and finds of pottery and pottery in the Phoenician language. The Punic magistrates retained the title of “Juba II” for a considerable time after the end of Punic rule. Juba II was placed on the Mauretan throne by Augustus in 25BC and turned his attention to building a royal capital at Volubillis. He married Cleopatra Selopatra II, the daughter of Mark Antopony and his son Pleto Selene II, who was educated in Rome and married to Cleopatra Selene.
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This page is based on the article Volubilis published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
