ATPASE These Majestic Roman Arches, Recently Unearthed in North Africa, Were the Main Entrance to the Gorgeous Subterranean Pa Which Nero and His Courtiers Used as a "Summer Resort." RITISH archeologists, digging near the modern city of Tunis, on the north shore of Africa, have un- earthed the remains of a magnificent sub- terranean palace--the first of its sort ever found--which was built by the Romans as a "Summer resort,"--a sort of ancient Deauville--at the height of their de- bauchery and glory. They built it deep-down in the cool earth to escape the fierce rays of the sun, with winding passage-ways leading to superb underground banquet halls, baths, kitchens and dungeons. Some of the big rooms, in which the fountains played, and which were magnifi- cently ornamented with paintings, tapes- tries and mosaics, had windows looking out on sunken gardens, also below the level of the earth but open to the sky, in which wild moonlight bacchanals were Some of the rooms of the palace are "in an excellent state of preservation, and tell a story of luxury apd refined wickedness which no modern city or ing place can equal. Nero himself, most cruel of all the Roman Caesars, occasionally repaired to the underground palace in Africa to par- ticipate in feasts and saturnalias and revels, the like of which Rome itself never saw. Surrounded by courtiers, flatterers and boon Sompahions, with the infamous Pop- at side--the beautiful woman to lease whose whims Nero had murdered th his wife and mother--he steeped in the monstrous vices and cruel- RRR ene - -- The Empress Eudoxia, Who Was Bald ¢ nie Under yiound by the Cruel Vandal King, i Genseric. ex Sueto nius and other historians at the banquet table, crowned with vine leaves an immortal god, while were brought in and Digging U p the Subterranean Palace Where Wicked Nero Held His Revels And Wherethe Vandal King, Genseric, § Turned Harems Into 'Dungeons for the Empress Eudoxia and this same secret palace which had been the scene of the tri- umphs and orgies of cruel . Roman emperors and queens bith of Christ up to about the year was to witness a poelic venge- 4 ance of a most appalling kind. At that period there arose in Eastern The Romans held Africa as a Germany a nation, or rather a set of province from a time before the tribes, called the Vandals, who threatened N Recently Unearthed Ruins of One of the Chambers in the Underground Palace in Deauville of the Ancient World." EY The Capture of the Roman Empress Eudoxia and Her Daughters by Genseric, 450 A. D. From a Painting in the Munich Gallery of Art. and finally conquered Rome, One of their great leaders was the Vandal king, Gen- seric, lame, cruel, vicious, an able military leader, filled with a bitter and lasting hate toward the Romans. Not content with laying waste Italy, Genseric led a horde of eighty thousand n, by ships to the North Shore of Africa, and conquered the entire province, driving the Romans out. Thie Roman eapital 8 Attica was Care thage, the grea which Rome cap- tured fro turi m centuries before, almost on the exact site of the x within a of ships, loaded them with his cut-throat followers, and set sail for Rome. While his other marauders were loot- ing the city, Genseric, followed by his own chosen band, broke into the palace. He didn't take the trouble to murder Vglen- tinian, the emperor. He didn't even bother to look for him. But he dragged the og and her two daughters nude, by e hair, from their royal couches, loaded them with chains, and took them back as slaves to Africa. The three unhappy women were thrown into the black dungeons, and Genseric gave - a mighty banquet in the brilliantly lighted adjoining hall to celebrate his home-com- I tables were turned at last. the A Typical Roman Feast in the Time of the Decadence. From the Painting by Albert Baur. conqQuERED © COLONY AF RICA Map of the African Coast, Where Nero's Palace Is Being Dug Up. Arrows Indicate the Path of the Conquering Vandals Under Genseric. Special object of preventing the dwellers re from feeling the heat of Summer, and in order to increase the coolness, trees were planted in the sunken courtyards, so that fresh air came in, and a subdued light filtering through the thick green leaves which no direct rays of the sun could Jensteate. At the entrances to the sleep- ng apartments little fountains of water continually played to 'cool the air as it entered. . The palace still contains, in an excellent state of preservation, somé magnificent specimens of Roman art. : The excavations are not yet sompleted, and it is believed that further digging reves! additional works of art and may, ight on the wi Nero :