The House Catalog

Germain observed that this building's unusual arrangements suggest a collective building, possibly a baths complex, rather than a private residence. His account describes no workshops, kilns, vats, mills, or other production installations. The building holds reception spaces, decorated rooms, and baths, but no clear manufacturing areas [Germain 1969].

Excavations in 1933 on the hill south of the Capitol, reported by Christofle, re-examined the Temple of Mercury first noted by Ballu in Sept années de découvertes (1911: 29). Christofle confirmed the temple's existence but corrected its orientation: the building runs north-south, not east-west as Ballu had stated, with the cella resting on three small barrel-vaulted rooms and a well-built east-west cross-wall interpreted as part of the temple precinct enclosure. A larger platform of pebble-mortar concrete, 22 x 33 m, lay 10 m from the south wall of the Capitol courtyard on the axis of the cella, and a third monument of about 10 x 22 m stood some 10 m further away. A post-Roman cemetery was installed across the hill; Christofle read it as Berber or possibly Arab, from the west-east orientation of the graves, the absence of grave goods in male burials, and the bead necklaces and bronze bracelets found in female ones [Christofle 1938: 355-356]. The house's published name places it north of the Capitol, but the excavation records locate it to the south; the discrepancy is unresolved.

This house lies outside the walls to the north-west of the city, beside the Filadelfes Baths, on the rising ground the excavators cleared in the 1920s; its traced plan confirms the position. An earlier version of the catalog filed it under the south-east quarter by mistake, and the record now carries the north-west label.

Christofle's 1938 catalogue records an inscribed square column-die in blue limestone, 0.81 m high and 0.385 m square, with letters of 0.045-0.05 m, recovered from the peristyle of this house. The inscription is likely a dedication to Macer Saturninus, son of M. Memmius Macer, legate of Augustus pro praetore and designated consul. It is one of the very few domestic-context inscriptions catalogued by Christofle [Christofle 1938: 444-445].

In his report of the 1933 excavations, Christofle uses the Entrepôt as a landmark for work on the north side of the Decumanus Maximus, opposite the Christian cemetery. There an excavation of 50 x 32 m, behind three lowered sidewalk kerbs with cart ruts still visible, revealed three contiguous private Roman houses. The easternmost had a portico carried on six square pilasters 0.50 m on a side, their bases and lower piers still in place. The middle house opened from a vestibule onto a paved courtyard around a well five metres deep, masonry above and dry-stone below; fragments of a fine bronze palm were recovered from its shaft, and grooves in the surrounding paving once held the vertical slabs of a well-curb. The westernmost house, the most damaged, stood immediately beside the Lambèse Gate, its interior divisions wholly lost. These three houses, directly opposite the Entrepôt, would be its closest known elite domestic neighbours [Christofle 1938: 359].

The house stands outside the walls south of the city, close to the line the Cardo would follow if extended beyond the gates. The catalog uses that projected line as the boundary between the south-eastern and south-western quarters; this house lies on its western side, so its record carries the south-west label. Earlier versions filed it under the south-east quarter.

This house held the corner of the city's two great streets, the Cardo and the Decumanus, directly south of the library, with porticoes along both. Four shops opened under the Decumanus portico, cut off from the dwelling by a continuous wall, and private baths filled the north-west corner. Its largest room kept two fine ornamental mosaics, and the tablinum beside the well-preserved atrium carried the picture mosaic of a nereid borne by a marine centaur, which Ballu judged the best preserved yet found at Timgad. All three mosaics went to the museum [Ballu 1911: 83-85].

First block of the fourth row, on the east side of the Cardo, entered from the street on its north side: a paved atrium with a fountain on its east side and a finely worked rainwater stone, six rooms in the southern part and ten, at a lower level, in the northern part [Ballu 1911: 81].

Second block of the fourth row, divided in two by a wall parallel to the Cardo. The western section kept a brick water conduit crossing a room of 10 by 8 metres, a sandstone-paved atrium, and a mosaic of white, red and black cubes forming squares interlaced in lozenges. Ballu judged the house luxurious in its prime, later demolished and long reoccupied; a small engraved figure of a dancer was found on one of its limestone slabs [Ballu 1911: 81-82].

Third block of the fourth row, east of the previous one: a paved atrium with a basin on the north face, ringed by rooms on all four sides. Ballu found the building of little interest [Ballu 1911: 82].

Placement note: Ballu bounds the house by the third and fourth streets parallel to the Decumanus and places it equidistant from the Small Northern Baths and the library, which fixes the block one row further north than previously recorded [Ballu 1903: 95; Ballu 1911].

Second block of the Decumanus row, facing the House of the Gardens across the great street, south-east of the library. An eight-bay portico fronted the Decumanus with four large shops behind it; the two eastern shops stood over well-preserved cellars, one lit by five light-shafts, with a staircase projecting onto the east street. The tablinum kept a mosaic of curved rosettes with birds, a cock, a kingfisher and a stork, now in the museum [Ballu 1911: 85-86].

The one ruin Ballu records in the third row, directly south of the previous block. A broad stone-paved vestibule with two doors on the east street led to a central atrium where nine stone mangers for Byzantine horses were found; a stone table still stood in the vestibule. Five small rooms lined the south side, a long room ran along the west street, and four rooms closed the north side [Ballu 1911: 80-81].

The first block of the second row, on the east flank of the Cardo just south of the Small Northern Baths. A door with three steps led from the Cardo into a mosaic-paved vestibule, with an atrium beyond keeping its column bases and a central well, and private baths at the north-east corner. A small cold plunge east of the atrium was later converted into a baptistery when a Christian basilica was built over the eastern part of the house in the Byzantine period; a dedication to the great eternal god by Flavius Donatus and his wife Tertulla was found here [Ballu 1911: 79-80].

The second block of the second row, east of the basilica house. Four small shops faced the north street, with amphora remains that may point to oil storage, a concreted basin in the south-west corner, and only faint traces of the interior walls [Ballu 1911: 80].

Third house of the Decumanus row, badly damaged: half the portico columns survive, with four shops on the south front and a limestone-paved atrium surrounded by ten rooms, three keeping concrete floors [Ballu 1911: 86].

Ballu reached this block first in his tour of the north-east quarter: the one insula worth noting in the first row, immediately east of the Small Northern Baths. Three shops opened onto the northern boulevard, one keeping its back-room; behind them lay a vestibule and the levelled remains of an atrium. The eastern third of the block, five rooms and a large vestibule encroaching on the street, had no communication with the rest of the building [Ballu 1911: 79].

Fourth insula of the Decumanus row, 22.70 by 26 metres, bounded east by the street along the west wall of the Great Eastern Baths. Five shops opened on the Decumanus and a staircase encroached on the east street. The house had a colonnaded central court and a private bath suite whose hypocaust piles survive. In the Byzantine period a stable was fitted into its largest hall, with nine stone mangers found in place and four more nearby. Earlier visitors took the ruin for an inn; Ballu read it as a private house refitted for Byzantine cavalry [Ballu 1911: 86; the baths first noted Ballu 1903: 54].

First of the two fifth-row houses, level with the library and one file east of it, entered from the street on its south. A bending corridor vestibule descended four steps to a paved atrium with a basin, and a mosaic-floored portico led to the tablinum. A sandstone latrine seat with three openings came from a western room, and a second stone-paved atrium with an octagonal well lay off the east street. In all, twelve rooms, two atria and a vestibule [Ballu 1911: 82-83].

Second fifth-row house, on the third file east of the Cardo, beside the street running down to the House of the Gardens, the only paved street of the four that framed it. Little survived beyond threshold traces on the east and north sides, the remains of one important room in the eastern part, and a central atrium [Ballu 1911: 83].

The one new house Ballu records in the fifth row. A party wall divided it into two equal halves: the eastern half held two dwellings of seven and four rooms, one with a basin, and yielded fine amphorae and stone troughs taken to the museum; the western half held twelve rooms, a good cellar, a basin and shops. Ballu concluded that three families lived in the block. He does not say which position in the row it held; the four other blocks of the row are houses he had already published in 1903, so this record is placed at the row's western end, the only block not yet described, and its position is treated as probable rather than certain [Ballu 1911: 79; Ballu 1903: 96-98].

Last house of the fourth row, fronting the Cardo. A stone-paved central court of 7.90 by 9.08 metres kept the four corner columns of its porticoes, with a square basin and well at its centre, and a limestone vestibule joined the court to the Cardo. At the north-west corner lay private baths with three heated rooms, a warm room, a hot room and a sweat-room, served by a furnace room off the north street, beside a cold room with a small semicircular plunge 1.20 metres deep [Ballu 1911: 78].

Ballu's 1903 tour names this house only briefly: the house of Januarius, west of the northern Cardo and separated from it by a then-unexcavated block. His 1911 report places the house of Januarius, with the Christian basilica and baptistery, among the known squares of the north-west quarter's fourth row, and the unexcavated block on the Cardo, dug in 1911, stands at the row's east end. Together the two reports fix this house one block west of the Cardo in the fourth row, where it is placed as probable [Ballu 1903: 96; Ballu 1911: 77-78].

Ballu records that this 1903 house was largely destroyed when its remains were reused as the vestibule of the Byzantine basilica. His 1911 report counts the basilica block among the known squares of the north-west quarter's fourth row, which places the house in the row's third position, where it is recorded as probable [Ballu 1903: 96; Ballu 1911: 77].

Second block of the fourth row: a densely divided block of four series of rooms from north to south, ending on the south street in suites two rooms deep, with a paved room and plunge basin at the south-east corner. Its two stone-paved courts, each with a basin and both placed on the eastern street, struck Ballu as its most unusual feature [Ballu 1911: 78].

First block of the fourth row, along the western boulevard. The northern half is almost effaced, keeping only traces of concrete and mosaic paving. The southern half preserves an axial entrance from the south street: a vestibule between two large corner rooms leads to a central chamber, with a stone-paved atrium and basin on its west and a large room on the east street. Brick tombs of the Christian period, without grave goods, were dug into the ruin [Ballu 1911: 77].

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 3, fifth position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Ballu recorded an upper storey, with a staircase of seven steps still surviving when the house was cleared. The tablinum's west wall preserved painted plaster imitating coloured marbles. The house was destroyed rapidly by fire: grain lay carbonized in place and columns had fallen beside their bases. Latrines stood to the right of the entrance, and a paved corridor of 3.55 x 9.75 m served all the rooms around a small atrium (9.55 x 4.50 m) with a square well [Ballu 1911: 72-76]. The house was drawn in GIS from the georeferenced plans and satellite imagery in August 2026. The drawing keeps an open question the sources disagree on: Wilson's plan puts the main street door on the east side, while Ballu describes it on the south, beside the staircase and latrines. The southern reading fits Ballu's description best, and both openings are recorded so the question stays visible rather than being decided silently.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 3, third position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 3, second position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 3, first position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 2, fifth position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 2, fourth position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 2, third position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 2, second position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

A large square limestone basin stood here, 2.10 m per side and in good condition, its fountain fed through a pierced stone pipe. In the eastern part of the insula, Ballu noted a paved room opening on the north street, beside a larger corner room with traces of mosaic at the north-east angle [Ballu 1911: 67].

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 1, fifth position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 1, fourth position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 1, third position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 1, second position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

Placement note: Ballu describes this house inside the city, in the north-west quadrant's row 1, first position counting from the western boulevard; the quarter he frames is bounded by the city's northern and western boulevards and the Cardo, five squares wide by six rows deep [Ballu 1911: 64-79]. The record was previously filed under an extramural NW quarter.

An isolated residential building of 20.25 x 21.40 m, fronting the Cardo Maximus with a portico of five columns and two square piers. An east-west wall divided it into two equal portions: the southern part held an atrium and six rooms, one with a mosaic fragment, and the northern part six rooms linked by three wide doors [Ballu 1903: 96]. A figured mosaic panel of Diana and Actaeon carried the signature SELIVS P G, restored as Seliu[s] p(in)g(ebat); its jewelled figures led to its removal to the museum for the sake of its colours. Germain also records a figured mosaic in the north-west corner room (6.60 x 5 m) and a mosaic paving fragment in a southern room [Germain 1969: 19, 21].

Ballu described a house of modest footprint, 21 x 24 m, entered through a doorway 2.10 m wide, with an atrium of 10.50 x 10.60 m; the portico on the Decumanus was carried by eight square pillars of which only the footings remain. Opposite the entrance stood a planter opening of 2.20 m, and bifrons tragic-mask heads crowned the stone uprights. The tablinum was reached through three bays on two columns, with fauces on each side leading to corner alae, which bounded the house on the south. Ballu noted that the house stood in a zone reserved for public buildings, and took it for the residence of a magistrate or important personage [Ballu 1897: 224-226]. The 1905 account gives an atrium about 10 m square with a portico about 2 m wide of ten columns, four across and three deep, a central well some 9 m deep in the atrium, and an entrance vestibule about 5 m wide; the tablinum floor carried a geometric mosaic with vegetal ornament, and geometric mosaics in brown and yellow ran under the atrium porticoes [BCB 1905: 88-92]. Germain calls the house's dimensions modest (assez restreintes) [Germain 1969: 37]. Ballu later noted that the house's columns had been re-erected [Ballu 1903: 110], and his 1909 report calls the street west of the insula 'la voie dite de la maison aux jardinières', the only paved one around that block [Ballu 1909, BCTH: 114-115]. Placement note: Germain's plan sets this house in his insula 70, the block immediately east of the Forum on the south side of the Decumanus, and the project's georeferenced overlay agrees; the record has accordingly been moved to that block from the neighbouring one north of the Decumanus.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Curie path and the Cardo Maximus South, between the 2nd and 3rd south Decumani [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Cardo Maximus South on the east and the Museum path on the west, between the 2nd and 3rd south Decumani [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Museum path on the east and the triumphal-arch path on the west [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the block north-west of the theatre court, its south side on the 4th south Decumanus [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Cardo Maximus South on the east and the Museum path on the west, separated from the theatre-side block by the Small Central Baths [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Museum path on the east and the triumphal-arch path on the west [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the block immediately south of the twenty-first house, bordered on the east by the theatre court [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Curie path on the east and the Cardo Maximus South on the west [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the west flank of the Cardo Maximus South and the east side of the Museum path, linked to the twenty-second house by a street fountain [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Museum path on the east and the triumphal-arch path on the west [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Curie path on the west, between the 5th south Decumanus and the south boulevard [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Curie path on the east and the Cardo Maximus South on the west, on the south boulevard row [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Cardo Maximus South on the east and the Museum path on the west, on the south boulevard row [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Curie path on the east, the Cardo Maximus South on the west, and the Decumanus Maximus on the north [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the last house in the south-west angle of the original city, between the Museum path and the triumphal-arch path [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Cardo Maximus South on the east and the Museum path on the west, just south of the Decumanus [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.

Measuring 20.40 x 20.65 m, this isolated building split into two communicating halves: the eastern part held antechambers opening on the first and second Decumanus, while the western part comprised four rooms and a long vestibule of 12.80 m opening on the second Decumanus [Ballu 1903: 102].

Placement note: re-derived from Ballu's own street boundaries — the Cardo Maximus South on the east and the Museum path on the west, between the 1st and 2nd south Decumani [Ballu 1903]. The earlier placement followed his walking order laid mechanically across the grid.