Aspects Of Algeria, Historical-Political-Colonial

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: J.M. Dent Subjects: Islam Algeria France History / Africa / General History / Africa / North History / Europe / France Religion / Islam / General Religion / Islam / History Social Science / Islamic Studies Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III THE ROMAN PROVINCE OF MAURETANIA Circumstance rather than intention was responsible for the awakening of my interest in those first five centuries of our era during which Algeria intermittently formed part of the Roman Empire. The idea of interrupting my southward pilgrimage had never occurred to me until I found myself turned out of the train at Batna on a June morning, with the information that I could not continue my journey to Biskra till the burden and heat of the day were past. The prospect of ten hours in the dismal town of Batna was not to be endured, and I was just about to accept the invitation of a fellow-traveller to spend the day in his cedar forest on the Chellala, when I remembered the proximity of Timgad. The only way of reaching these stupendous relics of Roman power in Africa is a four-hours' drive across an arid plain, and that prospect made the shade of the cedars seem even more alluring. But I knew how speedily remorse would follow my realization of a missed opportunity. So after a hasty luncheon at the station buffet I started for Timgad, armed withan official letter from the amiable prefet of Batna to the directeur du service d'antiquite's, who supervises the actual work of excavation. From the point of view of comfort my equipage left everything to be desired. Its angles reminded me of the Cape cart in which I crossed aforetime the So...