Saldae was an important port city in the ancient

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, located at today's

Béjaïa Béjaïa (; ; ar, بجاية‎, Latn, ar, Bijāya, ; kab, Bgayet, Vgayet), formerly Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean port city and commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Béjaïa is ...

(in

Kabylia Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of th ...

, eastern

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

). It was generally a crossroads between eastern and western segments of Northern Africa, from the time of

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

to the end of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

from the continent.

History

Saldae was first inhabited by

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 ...

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

. A minor port in Carthaginian and in early

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 letter ...

times, it was a border town between Rome and

Juba Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a populatio ...

, located to the east of the ancient Berber kingdoms.

Roman era

It was made officially a Roman colony -named ''Civitas Salditana''- during the reign of Roman emperor Octavianus

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. It is mentioned in

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

's ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

''. The ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites'' reports: Béjaïa - Cippe romain

The city grew in size with new buildings and the emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...

settled the city with many Roman veterans, increasing its population and importance in the province of

Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Caesariensis (Latin for "Caesarean Mauretania") was a Roman province located in what is now Algeria in the Maghreb. The full name refers to its capital Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell). The province had been part of the Kingd ...

, and when that was divided, in the new Late

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Mauretania Sitifensis Mauretania Sitifensis was a Roman province in Northwest Africa. The capital was Setifis. History In the later division of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Diocletian, the eastern part of Mauretania Caesariensis, from Saldae to the river Ampsa ...

. The city was under the Roman

ius __NOTOC__ ''Ius'' or ''Jus'' (Latin, plural ''iura'') in ancient Rome was a right to which a citizen (''civis'') was entitled by virtue of his citizenship ('' civitas''). The ''iura'' were specified by laws, so ''ius'' sometimes meant law. As on ...

(law) and its citizens were endowed with full civil rights. Saldae was a center of a

area fully

Romanised Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

, that in the late third century was even fully Christian. In the 3rd century AD, Gaius Cornelius Peregrinus, a ''decurion'' (town councillor) of Saldae, was a ''

tribunus Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

'' (military tribune, a commander at cohort level) of the auxiliary garrison at

Alauna Carvetiorum Alauna was a castrum or fort in the Roman province of Britannia. It occupied a coastal site just north of the town of Maryport in the English county of Cumbria (formerly part of Cumberland). It was linked by a Roman road to the Roman fort an ...

, in northern

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. An altar dedicated by him was discovered shortly before 1587 in the north-west corner of the fort, where it had probably been re-used in a late-Roman building (). Casbah de béjaia

Vandal, Byzantine and modern era

In the 5th century, Saldae became the capital of the short-lived Vandal Kingdom of the Germanic

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

, which ended in about 533 with the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

conquest, which established an African prefecture and later the

Exarchate of Carthage The Exarchate of Africa was a division of the Byzantine Empire around Carthage that encompassed its possessions on the Western Mediterranean. Ruled by an exarch (viceroy), it was established by the Emperor Maurice in the late 580s and surviv ...

. After the 7th-century Arab conquest, Saldae declined and had practically disappeared by the end of the first millennium. In the 11th century, it was refounded as

(v.) by the

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 (1913–196 ...

Hammadid The Hammadid dynasty () was a branch of the Sanhaja Berber dynasty that ruled an area roughly corresponding to north-eastern modern Algeria between 1008 and 1152. The state reached its peak under Nasir ibn Alnas during which it was briefly the ...

dynasty, which made it their capital, and it became an important port and centre of culture.

Ecclesiastical history

With the spread of Christianity, Saldae became a

bishopric 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 associate ...

. Its bishop Paschasius was one of the Catholic bishops whom the

Arian Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...

Vandal king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was m ...

summoned to the

Council of Carthage (484) The Councils of Carthage were church synods held during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries in the city of Carthage in Africa. The most important of these are described below. Synod of 251 In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cyprian ...

and then exiled. Christianity survived the Arab conquest, the disappearance of the old city of Saldae, and the founding of the new city of

. A letter of

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII ( la, Gregorius VII; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana ( it, Ildebrando di Soana), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint ...

(1073–1085) exists, addressed to ''clero et populo Buzee'' (the clergy and people of Béjaïa), in which he writes of the consecration of a bishop named Servandus for Christian north Africa.

Titular see

No longer a residential bishopric, Saldae is today listed by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 963 It has had a long list of incumbents, mostly of the lowest (episcopal) rank, a few of intermediate (archiepiscopal) rank: * Albertus,

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...

(O.F.M.) (1415–1442) * Johannes Frey, O.F.M. (1457.08.19 – 1474.04.08) * Erasmus Perchinger, O.F.M. (1482.11.06 – 1483.09.26) * Mathias Schach,

Carthusians The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...

(O. Cart.) (1495.11.19 – 1515.11.05) * Konrad Mair (1517.07.21 – 1522) * Hieronim Antoni Szeptycki (1739.07.20 – 1759.09.24) * Ignatius Krzyzanowski (1762.06.14 – ?) * Bernard-Claude Panet (Titular bishop 1806.07.12 – 1819.01.12), ''later Titular Archbishop (1819.01.12 – 1825.12.04)'' * Daniel O’Connell, O.E.S.A. (1834.04.25 – 1867.07.10) * Joseph-Henri-Jean-Marie Prud’homme (1937.01.29 – 1952.01.05) *

Hélder Pessoa Câmara Hélder is a given name in Portuguese. The unrelated German-Jewish surname "Helder" is also given the accent in Portuguese, such as the Portuguese poet Herberto Hélder (1930-). The name is sometimes confused with Heitor. People named Hélder incl ...

(Titular Bishop 1952.03.03 – 1955.04.02), ''later Titular Archbishop (1955.04.02 – 1964.03.12)'' * Titular Archbishop Henri-Martin-Félix Jenny (1965.05.15 – 1966.02.15) *

Marie-Joseph Lemieux Marie-Joseph Lemieux (1902–1994) was a Catholic archbishop and diplomat of the Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in ...

(1966.09.24 – 1994.03.04), later bishop and still later Archbishop * Sylvester Carmel Magro, O.F.M., (1997.03.10 – ...),

Apostolic Vicar Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

This titular see has, confusingly, for a long time ''concurrently'' had a counterpart (also Latin) called Bugia, the Italian form of Béjaïa, the modern name of former Saldae. Thus Bugia was the alternative title borne lastly by

George Hilary Brown George Hilary Brown (1784 – 1856) was an English prelate who served as the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool from 1850 to 1856. Early life George Hilary Brown was born in Clifton, Lancashire on 15 January 1784, the son of William Bro ...

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

from 5 June 1840 until 22 April 1842, when he became residential

bishop of Liverpool The Bishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.''Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 100th edition, (2007), Church House Publishing. . The diocese stretches from Southport in the no ...

Notes

Bibliography

Geoff Crowther Geoff Crowther (15 March 1944 – 13 April 2021) was a British travel writer who wrote for BIT and Lonely Planet. Life Early life Crowther was born on 15 March 1944 in Halifax, West Yorkshire. His parents worked in a cotton mill. He attended ...

& Hugh Finlay. ''Béjaïa & the Corniche Kabyle, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia: a travel survival kit''. Lonely Planet, 2nd Edition, April 1992 * Serge Lancel et Omar Daoud. ''L'Algérie antique : De Massinissa à Saint Augustin''. Place des Victoires, 2008 () * Mommsen, Theodore. ''The Provinces of the Roman Empire'' Section: Roman Africa. (Leipzig 1865; London 1866; London: Macmillan 1909; reprint New York 1996) Barnes & Noble. New York, 1996 * Reynell Morell, John. ''Algeria: The Topography and History, Political, Social, and Natural, of French Africa''. Publisher N. Cooke. London, 1854

Sources and External links

Images of Saldae
in Manar al-Athar digital heritage photo archive {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Algeria Catholic titular sees in Africa Roman towns and cities in Mauretania Caesariensis Ancient Berber cities