Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.
Donatism was a heresy leading to schism in the Church of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in the long-established Christian community of the Roman Africa province in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus, Donatism flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries.
Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria. Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia; its strategically important port city was Russicada. Although Numidia was a key ally of the ancient Roman Republic during the Punic Wars, Cirta was subject to Roman invasions during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Eventually it fell under Roman dominion during the time of Julius Caesar. Cirta was then repopulated with Roman colonists by Caesar and Augustus and was surrounded by a "confederation of free Roman cities" such as Tiddis, Cuicul, and Milevum. The city was destroyed in the beginning of the 4th century and was rebuilt by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who gave his name to the newly constructed city, Constantine. The Vandals damaged Cirta, but emperor Justinian I reconquered and improved the Roman city. It declined in importance after the Muslim invasions, but a small community continued at the site for several centuries. Its ruins are now an archaeological site.
Donatus Magnus, also known as Donatus of Casae Nigrae, became leader of a schismatic sect known as the Donatists in North Africa. He is believed to have died in exile around 355.
Ticonius, also spelled Tyconius or Tychonius was an African Donatist writer whose conception of the City of God influenced St. Augustine of Hippo.
Saint Optatus, sometimes anglicized as St. Optate, was Bishop of Milevis, in Numidia, in the fourth century, remembered for his writings against Donatism.
The Primate of Africa is an honorific title in the Roman Catholic church, but in early Christianity was the leading bishop (primas) in Africa except for Mauretania which was under the bishop of Rome and Egypt which was suffragan to Alexandria.
The history of Roman-era Tunisia begins with the history of the Roman Africa Province. Rome took control of Carthage after the Third Punic War (149–146). There was a period of Berber kings allied with Rome. Lands surrounding Carthage were annexed and reorganized, and the city of Carthage rebuilt, becoming the third city of the Empire. A long period of prosperity ensued; a cosmopolitan culture evolved. Trade quickened, the fields yielded their fruits. Settlers from across the Empire migrated here, forming a Latin-speaking ethnic mix. The Carthaginian society made up of native Phoenician-speaking Libyans (Berbers) and Phoenicians, as well as Berber-speaking Libyans, was becoming gradually romanized, some native Libyans like Apuleius and Septimus Severus became great figures of the Roman empire. Christianity became gradually spread among the Northwest Africans, offering to the Roman Catholicism three of its Popes, as well as Augustine of Hippo. During the eclipse of the Roman Empire, several prominent Libyans revolted. A generation later the Vandals, a Germanic tribe, arrived in Tunisia with the help of the Maurii and reigned over the Roman province for nearly a century. Several Libyan (Berbers) revolts occurred during the reign of the Vandals in the former Roman Africa, some detached themselves and established self-rule at the periphery. The Byzantine Empire eventually recaptured the area from the Vandals into its dominion in 534, which endured until the Islamic conquest, completed in 705. Then came the final undoing of ancient Carthage.
The Archdiocese of Carthage, also known as the Church of Carthage, was a Latin Catholic diocese established in Carthage, Roman Empire, in the 2nd century. Agrippin was the first named bishop, around 230 A.D. The temporal importance of the city of Carthage in the Roman Empire had previously been restored by Julius Caesar and Augustus. When Christianity became firmly established around the Roman province of Africa Proconsulare, Carthage became its natural ecclesiastical seat. Carthage subsequently exercised informal primacy as an archdiocese, being the most important center of Christianity in the whole of Roman Africa, corresponding to most of today's Mediterranean coast and inland of Northern Africa. As such, it enjoyed honorary title of patriarch as well as primate of Africa: Pope Leo I confirmed the primacy of the bishop of Carthage in 446: "Indeed, after the Roman Bishop, the leading Bishop and metropolitan for all Africa is the Bishop of Carthage."
Secundus of Tigisis was an early church leader and primate of Numidia. He was a leading organiser of the early Donatist movement in Carthage.
Majorinus was the leader of a schismatic Christian sect in Roman North Africa known as the Donatists.
Felix, Bishop of Aptunga, in proconsular Africa was a 4th-century churchman, at the center of the Donatist controversy.
Maximian was a 4th-century Bishop of Carthage and founder of a splinter group that left Donatism.
Optatus of Thamugadi was, from 388 to 398, a donatist bishop in the city of Thamugadi (Timgad) in the Roman province of Numidia. He was an important subject in the anti-donatistic polemic of Augustine, who was at that time a bishop in Hippo Regius and who called him evil.
Vageata, also known as Vageatensis, was a Roman-Berber town in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. It is also known as Bagatensis, and epigraphical evidence remains attesting to this etymology, due to the interchange of 'v' for 'b' is a common phenomenon in Latin and Greek place names.
Marcarius was an imperial notary sent in 340 to enforce an imperial edict against the Donatist community, in Bagai, Numidia, Roman North Africa.
Primian (Primianus) was an early Christian Bishop of Carthage, and leader of the Donatist movement in Roman North Africa. Seen as a moderate by some in his faction, he was a controversial figure in a time of fragmentation of the Donatists, a reactionary branch of Christianity.
Parmenian was a North African Donatist bishop, the successor of Donatus in the Donatist bishopric of Carthage. He wrote several works defending the rigorist views of the Donatists and is recognized as "the most famous Donatist writer of his day", but none of his writings have survived.
Petilianus was an eminent Donatist of the 5th century Roman North Africa, who is known to history through the letters he wrote to the Catholic Bishop Augustine of Hippo and discourses in Augustine's replies. Although most of what we know of him comes from Augustine, his main theology seems to have been "that the true church was only composed of those who were repentant."
The First Council of Cirta was a synod of bishops called by Secundus of Tigisis, the Primate of Numidia in AD 303 or 305.
