La fontaine Utere felix de Carthage, une installation de banquet de l'Antiquité tardive et son décor

The Utere Felix fountain decorated with an array of mosaics, sculptures and paintings with marine themes was discovered in 1919 at Carthage near the Byrsa Hill. This little monument, object of polemics between archaeologists, was quickly forgotten to such an extent that its track got lost. Thanks to record documents, it was possible to accurately locate the fountain again in the town plan, to understand its hydraulic operation and to complete the already very precise description made by Raymond Lantier and published in Bulletin du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques. A comparison with the other preserved stibadia with fountain of the same type, like the one of El Ruedo (province of Cordoba) or at Faragola (Pouilles, Italy) enabled to grasp the peculiarities of this 4th century facility, like the spray of flowers on the seat or the form of the apsis basin with niches and outgoing water jets forming a half circle. The themes of mosaics and paintings decoration are analysed by comparison with decorative arrays coming from monuments of Rome (paintings of the Domus under Farnesina ai Ballauri, Hypogeum of Via Livenza) or from North Africa (houses in Utique, Trifolium House of Dougga, House of the New Hunt or House of the Fishing in Bulla Regia).