New Severian Forum
Along the Via Colonnata, proceeding towards the harbour, on the left, are a series of tabernae, between which are the entrances to the New Forum of the Severan period. The wall that enclosed the square had different building techniques: limestone and brick. The porticoes of the forum had cipolin columns, with Roman-Asian bases and capitals in white marble. In the triangular spaces between arch and arch there were large medallions with Gorgon or Nereid heads. Among the innumerable architectural fragments that now clutter the Forum area, extraordinary are these heads, all different from each other, with eyes with heart-shaped pupils, with the Gorgons having a 'necklace' of snakes and the Nereids with eyebrows shaped like fish fins. The temple, of Italic type, stands on a high podium and rests on the south-western perimeter wall of the forum. It was accessed from the square by an imposing flight of steps at the front. The columns that surrounded the temple on three sides were made of red granite, and rested on tall white marble dice decorated with gigantomachia scenes (three are on display in the Museum of Tripoli, one in the Museum of Leptis Magna). The basilica was a large rectangular hall enclosed by two apses on the short sides, and divided into three naves by a double row of columns. The columns on the lower floor supported the architrave with the inscription that is now on the floor in the nave. Exceptional, for their rich decoration, are the four pillars that, on both short sides, flank the apses and mark the beginning of the interior colonnades. The latter are decorated with a plant motif of acanthus leaves, rosettes and animals. The pillars on the flanks of the north-western apse (entering from the Forum, on the left) are instead decorated with figures of the Dionysian procession within vine racemes; those of the south-eastern apse (entering from the Forum, on the right) with depictions of Hercules. The two apses are decorated with columns. Between the columns were niches for statues. Behind the apses, between them and the perimeter wall of the basilica, there are staircases that provided access to the galleries above the side ships. Still well preserved is the staircase behind the south-eastern apse (entering from the Forum, on the right). The baptistery, with a cruciform baptismal font, was placed in the hall flanking the north-western apse to the west. Leaving the long north-eastern side of the basilica (opposite the entrance to the Forum), one reaches a monumental passageway that connected the Via Colonnata to the north-western sector of the city .
