Market of Leptis Magna
About
A local benefactor, Annobal Tapapius Rufus, paid for this market out of his own pocket around 9 BCE, giving the city two elegant octagonal pavilions inside a rectangular portico. One held a stone measuring table for grain and produce; the other, built around a small pool, likely sold fish fresh off the boats from Leptis's harbor. Bilingual Latin and Neo-Punic inscriptions over its doors are among the oldest Latin texts found anywhere in the city, already more than a century old by 117 CE.
What happened here
Trade is regulated and everyone is aware of it. Weights and measures are checked against the standards kept by the aediles, and short measure gets you fined and named. Stalls are arranged by trade, with the fish and meat kept to one side and downwind where the town has any choice. Prices swing with the shipping season and are shouted rather than displayed. Much of the meat on sale has come from a sacrifice, so the religious calendar shows up in the supply. Slaves buying for a household argue harder than their owners would. The upper floors, where there are any, are offices and storage let by the town for rent. It opens at dawn and the good produce is gone by mid-morning.
In ancient writing
- Anonymous, Bilingual dedicatory inscriptions, Market of Leptis Magna market entrance and central tholos
Latin over the entrance, Neo-Punic on the architrave of a central pavilion, naming Annobal Tapapius Rufus as founder.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →