 Ruins of Madauros | |
  Shown within Algeria | |
| Location | Algeria |
|---|---|
| Region | Souk Ahras Province |
| Coordinates | 36°04′36″N7°49′12″E / 36.076667°N 7.82°E |
Madauros (Madaurus, Madaura) was a Roman-Berber city and a former diocese of the Catholic Church in the old state of Numidia, in present-day Algeria.
The birth of the city dates back to the 5th century BC under the aegis of the Punics. [1]
Madauros was made a Roman colony at the end of the first century and was famous for its "schola". A colony of veterans was established there; it was called Colonia Flavia Augusta Veteranorum Madaurensium under emperor Nerva. [2]
The city was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers who spoke mainly African Romance, according to Theodor Mommsen. [3]
Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this diocese: Antigonus, who celebrated the 349 Council of Carthage; Placentius, who celebrated the 407 Council of Carthage and Conference of 411; and Pudentius, who was forced into exile alongside others present at the Synod of 484 because of the Vandal king Huneric.
The ruins of Madauros are close to the actual city of M'Daourouch (Arabic : مداوروش) in present-day Algeria. It is possible to see:
Apuleius, the author of the famous novel The Golden Ass , which is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety, [4] was born in Madauros in the 120s. [5] Lucius, the (fictional) protagonist of the novel, is also from Madauros. [6]
Saint Augustine of Hippo studied in Madauros in the 4th century. [7]
Apuleius was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya. This is known as the Apologia.
Hippo Regius is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, Algeria. It historically served as an important city for the Phoenicians, Berbers, Romans, and Vandals. Hippo was the capital city of the Vandal Kingdom from 435 to 439 C.E. until it was shifted to Carthage following the Vandal Capture of Carthage (439).
The History of North Africa during the period of Classical Antiquity can be divided roughly into the history of Egypt in the east, the history of Ancient Libya in the middle and the history of Numidia and Mauretania in the West.
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.
Khamissa, ancient Thubursicum Numidarum or Thubursicum, is an Ancient Roman and Byzantine archeological site, in Souk Ahras Province of northeastern Algeria.
Thagaste was a Roman-Berber city in present-day Algeria, now called Souk Ahras. The town was the birthplace of Saint Augustine.
Mila is a city in the northeast of Algeria and the capital of Mila Province. In antiquity, it was known as Milevum or Miraeon, Μιραίον and was situated in the Roman province of Numidia.
M'daourouch is a commune in Souk Ahras Province, Algeria, occupying the site of the Berber-Roman town of Madauros in Numidia.
Abyla was the pre-Roman name of Ad Septem Fratres. Ad Septem Fratres, usually shortened to Septem or Septa, was a Roman colony in the province of Mauretania Tingitana and a Byzantine outpost in the exarchate of Africa. Its ruins are located within present-day Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city in northwest Africa.
Souk Ahras is a municipality in Algeria. It is the capital of Souk Ahras Province. The Numidian city of Thagaste, on whose ruins Souk Ahras was built, was the birthplace of Augustine of Hippo and a center of Berber culture. It was a city of great culture, described as the very hub of civilization.
Milevum was a Roman–Berber city in the Roman province of Numidia. It was located in present-day Mila in eastern Algeria.
The Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae is a Byzantine-era document listing the bishops and sees in the Roman provinces of North Africa, Sardinia and the Balearics. The cause of its preparation was the council of Carthage held on 1 February 484 by the Arian king of the Vandals, Huneric (477–484).
Icosium was a Berber city that was part of Numidia which became an important Roman colony and an early medieval bishopric in the casbah area of actual Algiers.
Tobna, also known by the ancient names of Tubunae or Thubunae, is a ruined former city in Batna Province of Algeria, located just south of the modern city of Barika. From this position, it once controlled the eastern part of the Hodna region, while M'Sila did the west. It flourished from the time of the Roman Empire through the Islamic Middle Ages, until it was sacked and destroyed by the Banu Hilal in the 11th century, after which it was finally abandoned.
Roman Tunisia initially included the early ancient Roman province of Africa, later renamed Africa Vetus. As the Roman empire expanded, the present Tunisia also included part of the province of Africa Nova.
Caesarea in Mauretania was a Roman colony in Roman-Berber North Africa. It was the capital of Mauretania Caesariensis and is now called Cherchell, in modern Algeria. In the present time Caesarea is used as a titular see for Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bishops.
Roman colonies in Berber Africa are the cities—populated by Roman citizens—created in Berber North Africa by the Roman Empire, mainly in the period between the reigns of Augustus and Trajan. These colonies were created in the area—now called Tamazgha by the Berbers—located between Morocco and Libyan Tripolitania.
The Roman Africans or African Romans were the ancient populations of Roman North Africa that had a Romanized culture, some of whom spoke their own variety of Latin as a result. They existed from the Roman conquest until their language gradually faded out after the Arab conquest of North Africa in the Early Middle Ages.
