Ksar-El-Kelb

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Ksar-El-Kelb is an archaeological site in Tebessa, Algeria. [1] [2] It existed in the Roman province of Numidia and is highly believed to be the location of the Ancient city and former bishopric of Vegesela in Numidia, which remains a Latin Catholic titular see. [3] [4]

History

The modern name translates to Castle of the Dog, [5] and was known in antiquity as Vegesela when it was a Roman Era Imperial estate [6] and a station on the African Limes [7] between Bagai and Theveste in Algeria [8] located at 35.37199,7.485505. [9]

The town had a rectangular Basilica [10] and was a center of Donatist beliefs. [11] Three inscriptions were uncovered in this site; on the door of the basilica, a Constantinian monogram and the inscription “Domus Dei” and “Aula Pacis”, while the keystone to an internal arch was inscribed “Deo laudes h(ic) omnes dicamu(s)”. This was already enough to convince scholars that this was in fact a Donatist church. Of greater interest, however, was the discovery of the third inscription, a memoria, at the end of the southern part of the building: “Memoria domni Machuli” — domnus being equivalent to sanctus or martyr. This left no doubt that at Ksar el Kelb the cult of the Donatist bishop and martyr Marculus of Thamugadi was practised. At the Council of Carthage the Donatist bishop of Nova Petra also remembered Marculus in similar words.

The Church Building was a memorial to, and a burial for the Martyr Marculus, Identification is based on the finding of the memoria. The memoria of Marculus was characterised by a hole, inside of which were found a few bones and pieces of glass, possibly the relics of Marculus himself. [12]

In 347 imperial emissary, Macarius, sent by Constans, stopped here during his purge of the Donatists. Marculus and 9 other bishops, including Donatus of Bagai were executed and tortured by Macarius. [13] an event that damaged relationships between Donatist and Roman Catholics till the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, 300 years later.

The event was still the basis of hostilities generations later and in many ways birthed the Donatist idea of resistance to the state.

In Roman Antiquity the town and bishopric of Germania in Numidia was nearby.

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References

  1. ↑ Leone, Anna (2016-07-01). "Tracing the Donatist Presence in North Africa: An Archaeological Perspective".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ↑ Cayrel, Pierre (1934). "Une basilique donatiste de Numidie". Mélanges de l'école française de Rome. 51 (1): 114–142. doi:10.3406/mefr.1934.7246.
  3. ↑ GCatholic http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1946.htm
  4. ↑ "Frontiers in the Roman World: Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Durham, 16-19 April 2009)", Frontiers in the Roman World, Brill, 2011-05-10, ISBN   978-90-04-21503-0 , retrieved 2024-02-07
  5. ↑ Brent D. Shaw, Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 1 Sep. 2011
  6. ↑ Brent D. Shaw, Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 2011)p183.
  7. ↑ "Vegesela, Ksar el Kelb – Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire". imperium.ahlfeldt.se. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
  8. ↑ Barrington Atlas, 2000, pl. 34 F2
  9. ↑ "TM Places". www.trismegistos.org. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  10. ↑ Pierre Courcelle, Une seconde campagne de fouilles à Ksar-el-Kelb Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire (1936) Vol53 Num1 pp.166-197.
  11. ↑ Jairus Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (OUP Oxford, 17 May 2007).p7.
  12. ↑ Michel, Anne (2005), Lancel, Serge; Guédon, Stéphanie; Maurin, Louis (eds.), "Aspects du culte dans les églises de Numidie au temps d'Augustin : un état de la question", Saint Augustin : La Numidie et la société de son temps, Scripta Antiqua (in French), Pessac: Ausonius Éditions, pp. 67–108, ISBN   978-2-35613-297-0 , retrieved 2024-02-07
  13. ↑ Brent D. Shaw, Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 2011) p183.
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