For the first two hundred years or so of its existence Thamugas appears to have enjoyed a peaceful and highly prosperous existence, being one of the chief strongholds of Christianity in North Africa, but this happy state of affairs was rudely interrupted in the fourth century by the Donatists, fanatical schismatics who by their persecutions of the orthodox precipitated a religious struggle which wrecked Rome’s African empire. Occupied in the following century by the Vandals, its importance rapidly declined, and when, in 535, the Byzantine general, Solomon, drew rein before its gates, he found it in ruins, the Berbers from the neighboring mountains having destroyed it in order that it might not be used as a base of military operations against them. Though rebuilt and repopulated, it did not much longer endure, passing from history in the seventh century, when, during the great Arab invasion, it was stormed, sacked, and burned. For twelve hundred years it lay neglected and almost forgotten, but in 1880 its systematic exploration and excavation was undertaken by the Service des Monuments Historiques of the Algerian government, though even to-day, after nearly fifty years of laborious effort, nearly two thirds of the city remain unearthed. The attraction of Timgad lies less in its turbulent history, however, than in the beauty of its ruins, considerable portions of which, thanks to the French excavators, now lie open like a book, from which even the casual visitor may obtain a graphic idea of what life was like in a frontier town of Roman Africa. Like all Roman camps, Thamugas was divided into four parts by two main streets—the Cardo Maximus and the Decumanus Maximus—which intersected at right angles, their pavements still showing the ruts of chariot wheels. At the junction of these thoroughfares was situated what would to-day be termed a municipal center, consisting of the Forum, the Theater, and other public buildings, which, judging from their remains, must have formed a group at once beautiful and imposing. The Forum, a spacious and stately building with the same dimensions as those of the Pantheon at Rome, was originally surrounded by a double row of marble columns, forty-five feet in height, some of which are still standing. Here was the principal rendezvous of the people of Thamugas, for the Forum was a place for the transaction of mercantile, political, and judicial business as well as a public promenade; a combination, as it were, of a stock-exchange, a city hall, a law-court, a convention building, and a public plaza. On one side the merchants and bankers discussed commerce and finance; on the other the judges dispensed justice; at the far end was a rostrum from which officials, politicians, and others who possessed “the gift of gab” read official communications, delivered funeral elegies, or thundered political orations.