Buruni is an ancient city of the Maghreb, in North Africa. The city has been identified with ruins at Henchir-El-Dakhla in Tunisia.
Buruni is an ancient city of the Maghreb, in North Africa. The city has been identified with ruins at Henchir-El-Dakhla in Tunisia.
Buruni, was an ancient Roman city of the Bagradas Valley identifiable with Henchir-El-Dakhla in modern Tunisia. [1] There is no record of the city in Punic or pre Roman Berber, times, and is presumed to be a Roman foundation, probably of coloni status.
The Bagradis valley became Roman after the Third Punic War about 146BC [2] and it quickly became an important region for agriculture, [3] with the rolling plains home to numerous Imperial estates. The area around Buruni fell to the Vandal Kingdom around 423 and for a century was ruled by the Arian kings until in 533 the Orthodox Byzantines replaced them.
The area was held by Byzantium until the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the end of the 7th century.
The saltus burunitanus (CIL VIII 10570 = ILS 6870) is an ancient Roman era document. The document is a letter of reply from emperor Commodus regarding a complain by a group of peasants on an imperial estate in Buruni complaining of maltreatment by the estate manager. [4] [5] One Lurius Lucullus, wrote on behalf of the peasants that the procurator of the estate had arrested and flogged some of the workers even those who were Roman citizens. [6]
The document names one official Allius Maximus, [7] an official of the rank of conductor, as subject of the major part of the complaint. [8] The text was published in 1880, by Dr. Dummartin, was one of dozen similar petitions to the emperor at the time. The Saltus Burunitanus shines a light on the social structure and lifestyles of Roman North Africa in the early empire. [9] A time when the Maghreb was much more fertile and supported a much larger population, than today.
Some time after Commodus a Christian community formed in the city which was known as the episcopus Buronitanus. [10] The community developed as an ancient Latin Rite Bishopric of the Roman province of Africa Proconsolare, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Carthage. The only bishop of Buruni known to us, was Fausto, a Catholic mentioned at the end of the 5th century by Victor of Vita in his history of the Vandal persecution.
Today the diocese of Buruni survives as titular see of the Catholic Church. [11] [12] The current bishop is Daniele Libanori.
Known bishops
North Africa or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal.
Mauretania is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, seminomadic pastoralists of Berber ancestry, were known to the Romans as the Mauri and the Masaesyli.
Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sirte. The territory was originally inhabited by Berber people, known in Latin as Mauri indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt; in the 9th century BC, Phoenicians built settlements along the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping, of which Carthage rose to dominance in the 8th century BC until its conquest by the Roman Republic.
Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria.
The name Early African Church is given to the Christian communities inhabiting the region known politically as Roman Africa, and comprised geographically somewhat around the area of the Roman Diocese of Africa, namely: the Mediterranean littoral between Cyrenaica on the east and the river Ampsaga on the west; that part of it that faces the Atlantic Ocean being called Mauretania, in addition to Byzacena. Thus corresponding somewhat to contemporary Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The evangelization of Africa followed much the same lines as those traced by Roman civilization.
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The Lex Manciana is a Roman law dealing with tenancy agreements of imperial estates in Roman North Africa.
Pupput, also spelled "Putput", "Pudput", "Pulpud" and "Pulpite" in Latin, sometimes located in Souk el-Obiod ou Souk el-Abiod, is a Colonia in the Roman province of Africa which has been equated with an archaeological site in modern Tunisia. It is situated on the coast near the town of Hammamet, between the two wadis of Temad to the north and Moussa to the south. Much of the Pupput is buried under modern holiday developments which have been built over the major part of the site.
Girus Tarasii was a town in the Roman province of Numidia that became a residential episcopal see. It is tentatively identified with ruins situated at what is now called Henchir-Tarsa in Algeria.
Calama was a colonia in the Roman province of Numidia situated where Guelma in Algeria now stands.
Henchir Mettich is a town of the Bagradas Valley region in Tunisia, c.50 km west of the ancient city of Carthage. The area around Henchir Mettich is currently a semi-arid district of mostly barren hills, some of which are currently cultivated with olive trees.
Henchir-El-Hatba is a village and an archaeological site in Tunisia. It was a Roman Catholic diocese.
Dzemda is a locality in Tunisia.
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Canapium was a Roman–Berber town in the province of Africa Proconsolare. Its stone ruins are located near Henchir-El-Casbath, in the region of Mornag, Tunisia.
Sidi-Meskin is a railway town, and archaeological site in Gouvernorat of Jendouba, Northern Tunisia. It is located in the Medjerda valley at 36.45N, 8.66E, outside of Bou Salem and is nearby to Djendouba, Mechtat el Anad and Djebel Bou Rbah. The town is located at an elevation of 430 meters above sea level, and has a mosque and railroad station.
Limisa is a town and archaeological site in Kairouan Governorate, Tunisia. It is located 50 kilometers west of kairouan. The town was a Roman Catholic diocese.
Garriana was a Roman town of the province of Byzacena during late antiquity. The town has tentatively been identified with the ruins at Henchir-El-Garra in modern Tunisia. The name Henchir-El-Garra simply means the Ruins of Garria.
Gunugus or Gunugu was a Berber and Carthaginian town in northwest Africa in antiquity. It passed into Roman control during the Punic Wars and was the site of a colony of veteran soldiers. It survived the Vandals and Byzantines but was destroyed during the Muslim invasion of the area.
Temuniana was a Roman town of Roman North Africa which existed during the Vandal Kingdom, Byzantine Empire and Roman Empire.