VOLUBILIS

North African archaeological site, located near Fs in the Jebel Zerhoun Plain of Morocco. Under the Mauretanian king Juba II in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, Volubilis became a flourishing centre of late Hellenistic culture. Annexed to Rome about AD 44, it was made a municipium (a community that exercised partial rights of Roman citizenship), and it became the chief inland city of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. Known to the Arabs as Oulili, Walila, or Walili, it became the capital of Idris I (founder of the Idrisid dynasty) after 788. Roman ruins on the site are extensive; among the most noteworthy are a forum, a 2nd-century AD basilica, and the Arch of Caracalla (AD 217).