Gummi
Statio 17 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni has the inscription NAVICVLARI GVMMITANI DE SVO. Below the text is a grain measure flanked by two branches, presumably grain ears. We are dealing with the city of Gummi and the import of grain.
Statio 17 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni. Photo: Gerard Huissen.Through vague association the city of Gummi has often been identified with Alipota-Mahdia or Salakta on the east coast of Tunisia. This is not correct, making certain publications useless for this statio (for example Younes 2005). There are two candidates (Dessau 1912). Two ancient bishoprics named Gummi are known. One is Gummi in Africa Proconsularis, today Bordj-Cédria, Tunisia. Bishops are known from 411, 525 and 1053 AD. The other is Gummi in Africa Byzacena, today Henchir-El-Senem or Henchir-Gelama, Tunisia. Bishops are known from 484 and 641 AD. Bordj-Cédria is a suburb of Tunis, on the coast of the Gulf of Tunis. Henchir-El-Senem is in south-east Tunisia, ca. 16 km inland. The former is therefore the one we are looking for. In the Ravenna Cosmography, compiled around 700 AD, Gumis is placed between Maxula and Carpus, on the Gulf of Tunis.
Map of the area. From Pierre Salama, Les Voies Romaines de l'Afrique du Nord, Algiers 1951.As the crow flies Gummi is 60 kilometres to the south-west of Misua (Sidi Daoud, using statio 10 on the Piazzale) and 18 kilometres to the south-east of Carthago (Tunis, using statio 18). The place has not been investigated archaeologically. Remains of a small shrine of Saturnus Augustus have been noted: an architrave, Corinthian capitals, columns and bases, made of white marble. The temple could be identified through a votive inscription:
S(aturno) A(ugusto) S(acrum)
L(ucius) POMPONIVS
CVRIVS QVI
ET CACCA V(otum) S(olvit)
L(ibens) A(nimo) SACERD(os)CIL VIII Suppl. 4, 24110.
Literature:
- P. Gauckler, "Stations romaines d'Ad aquas et de Gumis sur la voie de Carthage a Hadrumète", Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques 1893, 182-185.
- R. Cagnat - P. Gauckler, Les monuments historiques de la Tunisie: Les temples Païens, Paris 1898, 79-80.
- H. Dessau s.v. Gummi, Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Halbband 14, Band VII,2, 1912, col. 1935.
- A, Younes, "Recherches sur les installations halieutiques à Gummi à l'époque antique", Byzacium antique et Sahil médiéval: urbanisme et occupation du sol, Tunis 2005, 37-80.
