Overview
Among the four hills that marked the topography of Carthage (Byrsa, Juno, the Odeon and Saint Monica), the Odeon hill harbors the park of the Roman villas in reference to its Roman period sumptuous aristocratic houses; these include the Houses of Cryptoporticus, Bassilica, the Aviary, the Rotunda and the Lions. This district is organized according to an Augustan cadastral system dividing it into urban blocks measuring 141 by 35 m, and succeeding a Punic necropolis from the Hellenistic period (3rd -2nd centuries BC).
The first Roman period monuments, dating from the 1st century, were either modest dwelling and venues for craft activities, such as the production of garum. The district gained elements of its current configuration only from the Antonine-Severian period onwards, in the 2nd century. This new conception of the urban fabric gave the district its aristocratic residential aspect with the construction of a nymphaeum, an odeon and several sumptuous villas richly decorated with mosaic and marble pavements. One of the original pavements, remarkable for its uniqueness, depicts a polychrome tigress skin on a white background.
At the western end of the district, Tertullian tells us, and archaeology confirms it, the construction of an Odeon, with the same north-south axis as the adjoining theatre, on the remains of older burials. This is the monument that hosted the musical concerts and the Pythian games (literary competition) during which the emperor of African origin Septimius Severus awarded the Pythicus agon. (prize).
At the other eastern end of the site, remains of the Christian cult were excavated, identified with the monastery of Bigua, which included the locus of the seven monks of Capsa/Gafsa, victims of the persecutions of the Vandal king Huneric in 483 AD.
