Madauros (''Madaurus'', ''Madaura'') was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
-
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–19 ...
city and a
former diocese of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
in the old state of
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 ...
, in present-day
Algeria
)
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, map_caption =
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, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
.
History
The birth of the city dates back to the 5th century BC under the aegis of the
Punics
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
.
Madauros was made a
Roman colony
A Roman (plural ) was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city. It is also the origin of the modern term '' colony''.
Character ...
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
Nerva (; originally Marcus Cocceius Nerva; 8 November 30 – 27 January 98) was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the succeeding rulers of the Flavian dy ...
.
The city was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers who spoke mainly
African Romance, according to Theodor Mommsen.
Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...
: 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 ( ar, مداوروش) in present-day
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. It is possible to see:
* A Roman mausoleum with some statues.
* A Roman theatre, reduced in size because of a Byzantine fortification made in 535.
* Some small Roman
thermae
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 ...
.
* A Roman basilica of the Byzantine era with three sections of columns.
* Some epitaphs, with Latin inscriptions.
Notable residents
Apuleius, the author of the famous novel ''
The Golden Ass'', which is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety, was born in Madauros in the 120s. Lucius, the (fictional) protagonist of the novel, is also from Madauros.
Saint Augustine of Hippo studied in Madauros in the 4th century.
See also
*
Caesarea, Numidia
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
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, ...
Notes
Bibliography
* Gurney, Hudson ''The works of Apuleius'' Publisher Bell (University of California Libraries). London, 1878
* Gsell, Stephane. ''Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord en 8 tomes, Inscriptions de Madaure'', ibid., p. CLXX-CLXXIV. Paris, 1922
* Mommsen, Theodore. ''The Provinces of the Roman Empire''. Barnes & Noble Ed. New York, 2005
External Links
Images of Madauros (M'daourouch)in Manar al-Athar digital image archive
{{Authority control
Archaeological sites in Algeria
Roman towns and cities in Algeria
Ancient Berber cities
Former populated places in Algeria
Populated places established in the 1st century
Populated places disestablished in the 7th century
7th-century disestablishments in the Exarchate of Africa
es:Madaura