MER ORI eA AND OL IT ryE PROMISE 105 
Photo from ‘‘The Gateway to the Sahara,” by Chas. Wellington Furlong: Scribner’s 
“TN THE HEART OF TRIPOLI STANDS . . . THE ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS” 
“Evidences of the Roman occupation confront one on every hand. Columns of a Pagan 
Rome support the beautiful domed vaultings of some of the mosques, or are set in as corner 
posts to the houses at every other turn, and the drums thrown lengthwise and chiselled flat 
are used as steps or door-sills. Beyond the walls of the town fragments of tessellated pave- 
ment laid down two thousand years ago are occasionally found. Two Roman tombs decorated 
with mural paintings were recently discovered about a mile or so from the city. In the very 
heart of Tripoli stands what once must have been one of the most splendid triumphal arches 
of antiquity. It is known to the Moors as the Old Arch; to the Europeans as the Arch of 
Marcus Aurelius, in whose honor it was erected A. D. 164.” 
