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Rossi, Alessandro
2013.
Muscae Moriturae Donatistae Circumvolant.
p.
339.
Article contents
The Memoriae Apostolorum in Roman North Africa1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
A certain number of extant inscriptions and oral traditions which still linger in remote places, as in the Djebel Nefouca, to the south of Leptis Magna and Oea, indicate that there was a time when the cult of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul existed in Roman Africa; but the distribution of evidence, which is largely derived from the fringes of the Roman province, in Mauretania and in southern Numidia, invites the question why places so far removed from the Latin influence of the proconsular province should show such interest in the see of Rome and its founders.
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References
2 Siar of Chemmakhi, for instance, mentions the existence of a ‘great apostolic mosque’, at Temezda (quoted by Mesnage, Pére J.Le Christianisme en Afrique. Les origines (Alger, 1914), 32Google Scholar).
3 For the name see CIL viii, p. 829.
4 I have not included the suspect inscription CIL viii, 9716, b.
5 I have not included in this list a lead plaque found with a reliquary at Biar Haddada, W. of Sétif, which Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 312, reads (Mig)ginis, Don ∣ [at]i, Paul[i], P[e]t[ri], cal(endas) [fe]br[uarias]. This reading is highly conjectural, as the metal plate on which it was scratched is very much oxidised. A glance at the inscription in CIL viii, 8731, and the ‘Enquête’ does not altogether confirm M. Monceaux's conclusions.
6 The lines of this inscription ‘Victorinus septimu idu septembres ∣ Miggin idus septembres ∣ memoria sacta ∣ et dabula it de lignu crucis’ are in a rougher script than the rest of the inscription, and are almost certainly later. The corona in this case is simply the usual round depression one finds in Berber funerary tables of the Pagan Christian and Moslem periods. An examination of the stone in Algiers Museum leads me to believe that the cross in the middle of the depression is contemporary with the later inscription.
7 This is H. Jaubert's explanation, l.c. I think it more probable than the suggestion made in CIL viii, p. 1680, that the stone was brought from Hr. Taghfaght, 7 km. away.
8 I have filled in ‘a[postolorum]’ after seeing the copy of the stone published in Monceaux, l.c. The only alternative would seem to be ‘a[ngelorum]’ and that is unparalleled, while ‘[sancto]s apostolos’ is to be found on the inscription from Castellum Tingitanum, CIL viii, 9715.
9 Monceaux gives as an alternative conjecture ‘hie conf[essi sunt]’ l.c.
10 The view of Professor H. Lietzmann seems to be the most reasonable. ‘Wir haben keine Kunde uber das Eindringen der neuen Religion in Afrika. Dass sie von Rom aus dorthin gekommen ist, darf man als wahrscheinlich annehmen.’ Geschichte der alten Kirche ii (BerlinLeipzig, 1936), 220Google Scholar.
11 With the exception of the valley of the Seybouse, and an area west and south of Sitifis.
12 Revelation iii, 11 and 14.
13 Published by J. A. Robinson Texts and Studies (1891) i, no. 2. 14
14 The last letter of Pope Gregory dealing with Donatism is dated to 598 (Ep. viii, 13 and 15).
15 Tertullian in De Anima, 55, emphasises that Perpetua in the vision of Saturus saw only martyrs in Paradise ‘solos commartyres’ : cf. Passio Perpetuae (Robinson, o.c.) 11.
16 Tertullian, De Pudicitia 21.
17 Ibid.
18 Acta Scillitanorum, ed. Robinson, J. Armitage in Texts and Studies i, 2 (1891), 106–121Google Scholar. ‘Saturninus proconsul dixit: Quae sunt res in capsa uestra ? Speratus dixit : Libri et epistulae Pauli uiri justi.’
19 At Hadrumetum, and probably at Tacape and Sullectum also, catacombs, dating from the early second century A.D. have been discovered. See J. Mesnage, Le christianisme en Afrique, 57.
20 De Exhortatione Castitatis, iv (ed. Roberts, A. and Donaldson, J., Edinburgh, 1870, 8Google Scholar).
21 Cyprian, Ep. iii, 3Google Scholar (CSEL 471).
22 Supra, p. 34, no. 13 : CIL viii, 10693.
23 Cyprian, Ep. xxi, 3Google Scholar; CSEL 531. Cf. Collatio Carthaginensis j, 187, ‘Domnus Marculus’ (PL xi, 1329).
24 Cayrel, P., ‘Une basilique donatiste de Nurnidie’ Mélanges li, 1934. 133Google Scholar.
25 Supra, p. 33, nos. 6 and 7.
26 Cf. CIL viii, 9716, from Castellum Tingitanum.
27 ‘Presbyter Saturninus,’ in the Acta Saturnini 2, 6, 8, etc. (PL viii, 689–703).
28 PL xxxviii, 116, no. 15.
29 ‘ Codex canonum Eccl. Africana,’ in Hardouin, Concilia, 1, b. 388.
30 The Catholics held at that date 62 identifiable sees in this province to their opponents' 34, with 61 divided between rival claimants.
31 Bruns, H. T., Canones apostolorum et conciliorum, saeculorum iv–vii (Berlin, 1839), 156Google Scholar.
32 Said with reserve on a probable ‘Petrus’ dedication seen in the vaulting of a Byzantine basilica at Sicca Veneria (kef) CIL viii, 27690; cf. R. Gauckler, Bulletin archéologique du comité des travaux historiques, 1897, 413.
33 Coll. Carth. (in o.c., n. 23) 121, 198, 208. Th e Catholic bishop might be from Thelepte in he proconsular province.
34 R. Hamy in Bulletin de géographie historique, 1904, 33–61, cited by Gsell, S., Histoire ancienne de l' Afrique du Nord vi (Paris, 1927), 178Google Scholar. Uppenna is not a Punic name and dolmens are found in the neighbourhood.
35 Notitia Byzacensis 82, in Victor Vitensis vii, 126.
36 Coll. Carth. i, 180.
37 Supra, p. 34, no. 16: CIL viii, 10707, 10708.
38 Supra, p. 33, no 5 : CIL viii, 20600.
39 A Montanist inscription of late fourth-early fifth-century date was found at Mascula; CIL viii, 2274.
40 As one can see, neither Ad Maiores nor Ad Turres on the edge of the Sahara are strictly speaking on the High Plains.
41 Coll. Carth. i, 133.
42 Augustine, , Enarratio in Psalmum 21, ii, 26Google Scholar (PL xxxvi, 177); cf. E. Albertini, CRAI, 1939, 100.
43 It measures 46 m. by 22 m., excluding the atrium in front. The Donatists held a council at Theveste in 363 (Optatus, , De schismate Donatistarum 11, 18Google Scholar, i, ed. Ziws CSEL (1893), 52).
44 See Monceaux, P. ‘L'épigraphie donatiste,’ Revue de Philologie xxxiii (Avril-Juillet, 1909), 112–161Google Scholar.
45 E. Albertini in Journal des Savants, 1930 (Jan.), 23–30.
46 For land-grabbing on behalf of, and by members of this organisation, cf. for Africa, Cyprian, De lapsis, 6 (CSEL iii, 240); Passio Donati 2 (PL viii, 754); Augustine, Tractatus vi, in Johann. 25 (PL xxxv, 1436); ‘Codex Canonum Af. eccles,’ in Bruns, Canones selectae conciliorum 192 (no. cxxi), 114 (canon viii, First Counci l of Carthage), 397 (Third Council of Carthage), 134 (Canon xlix).
47 Optatus iii, 4 (CSEL 82).
48 Ibid. iii, 4, p. 81.
49 Cf. Coll. Carth. (o.c.) 1, 187.
50 Orosius vii, 36; cf. Augustine, , Contra itteras Petiliani ii, 184Google Scholar; 209 (PL xliii, 316, 330).
51 Acta Saturnini 18, 19; Collat. Carth. iii, 258; Passio Donati, 13–14 (PL viii, 757–758), cf. Augustine, , Contra Epistolam Parmeniani ii, 3Google Scholar, 6 (PL xliii, 53); Contra Gaud. i, 27, 31 (PL xliii, 724, etc.).
52 Augustine, , Contra litteras Petiliani ii, 159Google Scholar (PL xliii, 308) : ‘uos ergo non colitis…’
53 Prudentius, Peristephanon i, 74, and xiii, especially lines 60–70.
54 As those of Calendio at Aquae Caesaris (Youks), Hr. el-Hamascha and Ksar Tibinet. Jaubert l.c., 18, 173, 207.
55 Acta Saturnini 19.
56 Supra, p. 34, no. 15 : CIL viii, 17714.
57 Supra, p. 33, no. 7 : CIL viii, 23040a; cf. Ada Saturnini 2–4. Saturninus also appears on a stone recently found by M. André Berthier in a cemetery basilica at Hr. R'Zel some 30 km. N of Timgad. ‘Lucilla’ on the Uppenna stone may or may not be the same person as the founder of the Donatist party: Optatus i, 20, p. 22.
58 Supra, p. 33, no. 5 : CIL viii, 20600; cf. Acta Saturnini 5 (PL viii, 693).
59 H. Jaubert, Recueil de Constantine 1912, 22.
60 Supra, p. 35, no. 19 : CIL viii, 5352.
61 Supra, p. 33, no. 10 : CIL viii, 18656.
62 Supra, p. 32 f., nos. 2–4 : CIL viii, 9714–6.
63 Supra, p. 35, no. 21 : CIL viii, 17746.
64 l.c. 153.
65 E.g. at Theveste on a third century inscription, CIL viii, 16589; at Calama, CIL viii, 5492; and at Sitifis, CIL viii, 8645.
66 Supra, p. 33, no. 4 : CIL viii, 9716.
67 And two other unknown martyrs ‘Floras’, and ‘Vitalis’; cf. S. Gsell in Bulletin du comité des travaux historiques 1897, 573; Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 325.
68 CIL viii, 9714 ‘sancto et beatissimo Ae … martyrium dixit’ (Monceaux's reading of the inscription; ‘Enquête’ 329). The phrase ‘martyrium dixit’ probably means ‘ he confessed’. It occurs both in the Passio Montani, and the Donatist Passio Donati 2 (cited from Monceaux, l.c.).
69 Cf. Passio Donati (o.c.) 3; Optatus o.c. iii, 1, p. 67.
70 Monceaux Enquête, 311; Recueil de Constantine, 1912, 133. Donatus, Miggin and Baric are also mentioned along with other native martyr s as Methun and Stiddin at Hr. el-Hamascha (CIL viii, 10686).
71 Cf. the letter of Maximus, a grammarian of Madaurus, to Augustine, about 386 (Aug. Ep. 16, 2; CSEL xxxiv, 37), and CIL viii, 16660 from Theveste—‘Meggini sanctissime’. Miggin both in this inscription and in that at Kherbet Oum el Adham may be a Circumcellion. In that case the Donatism of both could hardly be in doubt. See J.H. Baxter, JTS 1925, 21–37.
72 Acta Saturnini, 9.
73 It may have been for this reason that lectors were often boys : cf. CIL viii, 453, from Ammaedara; Victor Vitensis, De Persecutione Vandalica iii, 34, p. 89. The bishop preaching a sermon was merely the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. Cf. decision of Donatist Council at Zertei, 414, reproduced in Augustine, Contra Gaud. 1 37, 48 (PL xliii, 736).
74 Passio Isaaci 8 (PL viii, 771) ‘ambos uoluit Dominus sibimetipsos esse doctores’.
75 Pontius, Vita Cypriani i (CSEL iii, xci) : cf. the mosaic from the funeral chapel of Alexander, Bishop of the Catholic town of Tipasa, ‘Clausula iustitiae est ∣ martyrium uotis optare. ∣ habes et aliani similem ae∣li-mosinam viribus facere ’ ∣ (CIL viii, 20906).
76 Acta Saturnini (o.c.)4.
77 Cf. an inscription found at Berrouaghia near Zabi, dated to A.D. 474 and dedicated in the name of God and the Holy Spirit only : E. Albertini in CRAI 1925, 261.
78 Augustine, , Contra Cresconium ii, i, 2Google Scholar (PL xliii, 468) ‘quia Donatum habent pro Euangelio’; Contra litteras Petiliani iii, 16, 19 (ibid. 356–7), ‘Paraclet i nomen imponat …’
79 Passio Donati 13 (PL viii, 757).
80 Passio Isaaci (PL viii, 769).
81 Acta Crispinae (Th. Ruinart, Acta Martyrum, Ratisbon, 1859, 477–9, at p. 479). Ruinart, p. 479, footnote 10, ‘ … Iesum Christum, cui est laus, uirtus, honor et imperium cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto per infmita saecula.’
82 Acta Saturnini, Appendix, 19.
83 That ‘Deo laudes’ was the Donatist war-cry is shown by Augustine, Contra litteras Petiliani ii, 65, 146Google Scholar (PL xliii, col. 306) Enarratio in Ps. 132, 6 (PL xxxvi, xxxvii, col. 1732).
84 Leschi, L. ‘Basilique et cimitiére donatistes de Numidie (Ain Ghorab)’, Revue africaine lxviii, 1936, 35Google Scholar.
85 This is suggested by the method of dating ‘a(nno regis N. ) XI’, differing from he Byzantine ‘indictiones’, and the Roman anno provinciae …', and also by the ype of cross on the inscription. The stone rom Hr. Taghfaght isj probably fourthearly fifth-century. The matter would be clinched if CIL viii, 17716 ‘ … is ep … ’ rom the same basilica could be reconstructed, as H. Jaubert suggests, ‘[Vital]isep[iscopus].’ Vitalis was Donatist bishop of Mascula in 411, but the reconstruction seems to be too hazardous to serve as foundation for an argument : cf. H. Jaubert, o.c. 203.
86 Supra, p. 34, no. 16 : CIL viii, 10707, 10708.
87 Supra, p. 35, no. 21 : CIL viii, 17746; Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 237; Jauber t o.c. 212. Th e Ain Ghorab inscription CIL viii, 2220, of Vandal date, shows that Donatism was still a force in this period.
88 Supra, p. 35, no. 21 b.
89 L. Leschi, Basilique et cimetiére 32.
90 Coll. Carth. (o.c.) i, 116.
91 Ibid. i, 197.
92 M. André Berthier has recently found a ‘Deo laudes’ inscription here, now in Constantine Museum.
93 Collat. Carth. i, 187.
94 Ibid. i, 182.
95 Jaubert, H., Recueil de Constantine xlvii, 1913, 789–791Google Scholar. The mention of the monarchist anti-pope St. Hippolytus on this inscription is not surprising. In the Donatist hierarchy the Bishop of Rome yielded precedence only to the Primate of Numidia and the Bishop of Carthage, Hippolytus was himself a martyr.
96 P. Monceaux, Rev. phil., 1909, 116, 132; H. Jaubert, o.c. 198.
97 L. Leschi, o.c. 31.
98 Cf. CIL viii, 20482; Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 310.
99 The see of Bishop Privatus, excommunicated for ‘indiscipline’ about 243 (Cyprian, , Ep. 59, 10Google Scholar; CSEL iii, 677).
100 Revue africaine, 1928, 21.
101 Cf. I Corinthians i, 1; 1 Thessal. iii, 15.
102 E.g. Acta Saturnini (o.c.) 8, 9, 12.
103 Instructiones ii, 8.
104 Augustine, , Psalmus contra Partem Donati l. 16Google Scholar (PL xliii, 25).
105 Augustine, , Contra litteras Petiliani ii, 20, 44Google Scholar (PL xliii, 273).
106 Augustine, Ad catholicos ep. 15–37, 16–40 (PL xliii, 419 and 421); Coll. Carth. iii, 258 (PL xi, 1409).
107 Le Commandant Bigeard in Recueil de Constantine, 1907, 19.
108 H. Jaubert, o.c. 189.
109 CIL viii, 10969.
110 Optatus o.c. iii, 4.
111 Supra, p. 32, no. 1: CIL viii, 21496.
112 Supra, p. 35, no. 20: CIL viii, 5666.
113 Supra, p. 34, no. 12: CIL viii, 17715.
114 Supra, p. 34, no. 11: ILCV 2065.
115 Supra, p. 34, no. 14: Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 336.
116 Supra, p. 35, no. 18: Monceaux, ‘Enquête’ 314.
117 The stone in question is now in the church of the Sacré Coeur, at Constantine.
118 S. Gsell and H. Graillot, ‘Les ruines romains au nord de l'Aurès,’ Mélanges 1893, 498–502.
119 Coll. Carth. i, 187.
120 Ibid. i, 198.
121 P. Courcelle, ‘Une seconde campagne de fouilles à Ksar-el-Kelb,’ Mélanges 1936, 183.
122 Optatus o.c. ii, 18 (Ziwsa ed. 51).
123 Their native language seems to have been Libyan. The use of the form ‘Victoriais’ suggests this. See Schmidt's comment under CIL viii, 15791.
124 Augustine, , De baptismo contra Donatistas i, 1Google Scholar; Contra Cresconium ii, 31, 39, iii, 1, 2, and iv, 17, 20 (PL xliii, 109, 489, 497 and 559).
125 De Civitate Dei xxii, 8; CSEL xl, 602.
126 Ep. 52, 2; CSEL xxxiv, 2, 150.
127 On the dating of the chrismon, see Gsell, S., Monuments antiques de l'Algérie ii (1901), 115Google Scholar n.
128 As might be suggested from Irish evidence where St. Bridget was sometimes associated with St. Mary. Cited from Toynbee, A. J., Study of History ii, 326Google Scholar.
129 Passio Marculi (PL viii, 762).
130 Supra p. 33f., no. 10: CIL viii, 18656.
131 Supra, p. 33, no. 6: CIL viii, 23041.
132 As Leptis Magna: cf. Procopius, , De aedificiis, vi, 4Google Scholar.
133 As Thuburbo Maius.
134 As Thamugadi.
135 Hippo does not appear on the episcopal list of 484; see CSEL vii, 119–123.
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