Libya is known as a country of startling contrasts and magnificent scenery, with some of the most interesting antiquities in the world. It is one of the last unspoilt countries on the Mediterranean Sea, teaming with outstanding classical ruins, bustling markets, fertile oases, cultural diversity, and breathtakingly beautiful deserts.

Our North African country shelters some of the most interesting, best-preserved archaeological ruins from the Roman and Greek periods.

Among these ruins are three World Heritage sites, that along with a chequered history that goes back to the sea-faring Phoenicians and Carthaginians.

The fact that the country in modern times had been closed to the conventional tourist, combine to make Libya very popular among tourists who want to visit some of the world’s best Roman ruins. Libya is in fact home to the finest Roman ruins in the world.

The capital, Tripoli, is a stunning city that more than lives up to the moniker ‘The jewel of the Mediterranean.

It is a city that brims with history, starting with the Medina (Old City) and its narrow whitewashed streets and crammed with mosques (the highlights of which are the Gurgi and the Karamanli mosques) and private dwellings that date from the Ottoman period and are constructed around internal courtyards.

Inside the Medina are the bustling souks (markets), and the last traces of Roman occupation, foremost of which is the city’s castle, constructed over many centuries, that has the discernible Ottoman and Spanish influences, and is home to the National or Jamahiriya Museum.

Another trace of the Roman occupation and very well known is the Roman triumphal marble Arch of Marcus Aurelius, situated close to the Medina and the Green Square in the Libyan capital. Its marble was imported from Greece.

This surprisingly well-preserved arch of Roman co-Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Antoninus Augustus) dates from AD163. Marcus Aurelius lived for 59 years, between 121 and 180 AD.

The arch was built as a testament to the might of the Roman army. Its sturdy appearance may be easier to understand when you learn that the authorities relocated it from Leptis Magna.

Built in the Greek style this arch, that straddles the decumanus maximus and the cardo-maximus in the ancient Roman city of Oea, which is now Tripoli, testifies to the existence of the ancient Roman city.

Besides Roman columns re-used in newer buildings in the medina, this is the only existing Roman monument in the city.

Examining the engravings on the arch, one can see the goddess Ath-ena riding in a chariot towed by griffin and images of local people surrendering to the Roman forces.

Marcus Aurelius was the last of the “Five Good Emperors” who governed the Roman Empire from 96 to 180, and is also considered one of the most important stoic philosophers.

His tenure was marked by wars in Asia against a revitalized Par-thian Empire, and with Germanic tribes along the limes Germanicus into Gaul and across the Danube.

Marcus Aurelius was kown as an intelligent, serious-minded and hardworking young man. He was never very strong physically. But those close to him spoke with admiration of his devotion to duty in spite of the handicap of physical weakness.

He was very well loved and when he was going to be made emperor he refused unless equal powers were conferred simultaneously on his brother Lucius Commodus. They ruled jointly.

Two emperors thus ruled the Roman world for the first time, an innovation, but like most Roman innovations one for which there was ample precedence. It set an example that was followed with increasing frequency.

Marcus and Lucius were joint rules then, but Marcus had more authority. He had been consul once more than Lucius.

Most important still, Marcus Aurelius had shared in the imperial powers for nerly 14 years and he was ten years older than Lucius.

There was little doubt in men’s mi-nds whch emperor was the senior. But they were to work together for the good of the state.

Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, 180 in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna).

He was immediately deified and his ashes were reutrned to Rome, and rested in Hadrian’s mausoleum (modern Castel Sant’Angelo).

Source: The Tripoli Post