Mascula was an
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
colonia in
Numidia
Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...
. It is called
Khenchela
Khenchela ancient Mascula ( ar, خنشلة) is the capital city of the administrative Khenchela Province (''Wilaya''), number 40, in the north east of Algeria. Situated in the Aures Mountains, 1200 m above sea level. The city is mainly popu ...
in modern
Algeria
)
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, capital = Algiers
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, relig ...
.
History
Mascula was located in the
Aurès Mountains
The Aures Mountains ( ar, جبال الأوراس) are an eastern prolongation of the Atlas Mountain System that lies to the east of the Saharan Atlas in northeastern Algeria and northwestern Tunisia, North Africa. The mountain range gives its nam ...
(part of the
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It separates the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range. It stretches around through Moroc ...
), at above sea level, and has a cool
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
: it was one of the coldest cities in Numidia (even now it snows sometimes). The fresh location was chosen by Roman legionaries to retire as veterans.
Mascula was built under
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
and was garrisoned by the "7th company of Lusitanians". It was a castrum (with a nearby vicus) on the military road, that connected
Theveste
Theveste was a Roman colony situated in the present Tébessa, Algeria.
History
In 146 BC, the Romans conquered the region, where existed an old city called " Tbessa". Theveste was founded by the Romans in 75 AD near an old Berber village located ...
with
Sitifis
Sétifis (Arabic: سطيف; Berber: Sṭif), was a Romano town located in northeastern Algeria. It was the capital of the Roman province called ''Mauretania Sitifensis'', and it is today Setif in the Sétif Province (Algeria).
History
Sitifis wa ...
and that followed the slopes of the Aures mountains. Mascula was connected with the fortifications of Tinfadi, Vegesela, Claudi and Tliamugas. Mascula was the most important of these forts from a strategic point of view, because controlled the numidian access to the Sahara.
Mascula in the fourth century was at the center of the
Donatism
Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and t ...
controversy, and there are beautiful mosaics discovered from those years
There are even some
Roman baths
In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...
from the late third century, still efficiently working after recent restoration.
Mascula was even one of the centers of Romano-berber resistance against the Arabs, under queen
Kahina. It seems that was renamed -after the Moslem conquest- with the name of one of the daughters of Kahina: Khenchela (meaning "angel" in berber).
Notes
Bibliography
* Dunbabin, Katherine. ''Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World''.Publisher Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1999
* Graham Alexander. ''Roman Africa: An Outline of the History of the Roman Occupation of North Africa, Based Chiefly Upon Inscriptions and Monumental Remains in that Country''. Publisher Longmans, Green, and Company. London,1902 (University of California)
See also
*
Cirta
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 w ...
*
Lambaesis
Lambaesis (Lambæsis), Lambaisis or Lambaesa (''Lambèse'' in colonial French), is a Roman archaeological site in Algeria, southeast of Batna and west of Timgad, located next to the modern village of Tazoult. The former bishopric is also a La ...
*
Theveste
Theveste was a Roman colony situated in the present Tébessa, Algeria.
History
In 146 BC, the Romans conquered the region, where existed an old city called " Tbessa". Theveste was founded by the Romans in 75 AD near an old Berber village located ...
*
Sitifis
Sétifis (Arabic: سطيف; Berber: Sṭif), was a Romano town located in northeastern Algeria. It was the capital of the Roman province called ''Mauretania Sitifensis'', and it is today Setif in the Sétif Province (Algeria).
History
Sitifis wa ...
*
Milevum
Milevum (in Latin even "Milev" or "Mireon"; ''Μιραίον'' in Ancient Greek) was a Roman–Berber city in the Roman province of Numidia. It was located in present-day Mila in eastern Algeria.
History
In Ptolemy's "Geography" (vol. IV, i ...
{{Romano-Berber cities in Roman Africa
Archaeological sites in Algeria
Roman towns and cities in Algeria
Ancient Berber cities
Former populated places in Algeria
Populated places established in the 2nd century
2nd-century establishments