Sour El-Ghozlane (or Souk El Ghoziane) is a town and

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

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

's central-northern, just-landlocked

Bouïra Province Bouïra ( Kabyle: Tawilayt n Tuvirett, ar, ولاية البويرة, french: Wilaya de Bouira) is a province (''wilaya'') in the Kabylie region (also known as Tazwawa) in Algeria. History The province was created from parts of Médéa (dépar ...

. According to the 1998 census it has a population of 42,179.

History

Pre Historic

A prehistoric tool (biface) testifying to the human presence from

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

times was found west of the city. It is a town inhabited since prehistoric times, the first city founded in Roman province in the center of deep Algeria, a Roman fortress but originally a

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 ...

n city. Its construction dates from the year 33 av. AD during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Auzia quickly became a powerful city, capital of the highland regions, which relegates to a secondary role the strategic importance of the Roman city of Djemila, the ancient Cuicui, in the wilaya of Setif because of its remoteness from the centers Of Roman power.

Roman Empire

At the time of the Roman presence in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, the city bore the name of Auzia. The remains of a theater have been spotted there. It is the location of the Roman city

Auzia Auzia was a Roman- Berber colonia in present-day Sour El-Ghozlane, Algeria. The area was located around 150 km south-east of Algiers, in the ancient province of Mauretania Caesariensis. History Auzia probably took the name from the Ber ...

, in the province

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 ...

.Names of cities in Algerie in (A.D. 138) Roman times and names now
fro
E-DZ Community , Education & Learning

Algerian History, Culture, Art, Law, Politics
(order by start date; start date: 21 Dec 2008). The name Auzia is still used as a

Roman Catholic 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 lette ...

titular bishopric 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 ...

. Then, Auzia was part of the division of the

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 ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. Its position as a city at the gates of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

marked the beginning of the period when the Roman conquest reached the limits of the world known at the time and where the Roman civilization. The city of Auzia has two characteristics in Roman history in North Africa, its great influence on its bureaucratic and military structure and its strategic location as a great religious edifice. Like the construction of the temple of Apollo, supposed to be located at the present site of the civil hospital of Sour-El-Ghozlane. Auzia was equipped with an

amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

built by the city's bourgeois institution to host shows, such as

gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

ial fights. The

ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

also have a bath house,

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

and

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

s. In addition, Auzia is identified as a city with political power dominated by a patriarchal link and entirely in the hands of two comices, organized to reflect at best the tribal divisions of the city. On the other hand, its administrative and military status reveals that it was definitively subjected to the order of the

with the status of autonomous city of the Roman province (free zone: region of Algiers to Bou-Saada) caesarean. Auzia is a large city of ovoid form, destined to serve as capital in this region of central Algeria, Auguste had it endowed with several public edifices: a forum (present room of the festivals), several temples, a curia, a market, a theater and large thermal baths. Auzia was erected on a hill at a moderate altitude, where to this day a wall was in good condition in some places, revealing a kind of citadel which protected the inhabitants. Around the year 17

Tacfarinas Tacfarinas ( Latinised form of Berber Tikfarin or Takfarin; died AD 24) was a Numidian Berber from Thagaste, located in the province of Proconsular Africa (now Souk Ahras, in Algeria), who was a deserter from the Roman army who led his own Mus ...

, who had served in the Roman Army before deserting to take the lead of a revolt by federated Berber tribes and their

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

neighbors, whose leaders Mazippa, and the Cinithians revolted against the

Roman army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

. The insurrection, based on the tactics of harassment (contemporary guerrilla warfare), stretched from Little Syrte in the east to

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, ...

in the west and lasted seven years. The proconsul Cornelius Dolabella ended the war by besieging the fort of Tacfarinas, presumably situated at Auzia, in the year 24 apr. AD It was also the most frequented Roman tourist spot for the gazelle hunting that the city itself was named by the Algerian administration Sour-El-Ghozlane meaning Rampart of the Gazelles. For a long time, Auzia was a commercial city but its development was hampered by several internal conflicts and violent tribal revolts.

French Colonial

Sour El Ghozlane served under the French as a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

post from 1845 and received the name of Aumale in honor of the

Duke of Aumale Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

, son of

Louis Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...

Famous Residents

The poets Djamel Amrani (1935-2005), Messaour Boulanouar (1933), Kaddour M'Hamsadji (1933) and Arezki Metref (1952) are natives of Sour El-Ghozlane and M'hamed Aoune lived there. Mourad Kaouah (1919-1989) and the French actor

Jean-Claude Brialy Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director. Early life Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland ...

(1933-2007) were also born there. In La Chimère and the Gui (ed. Of the Writers, 2002) General Norbert Molinier speaks at length about his childhood in Aumale. A text by Jean Sénac entitled Poetry by Sour-El-Ghozlane was published in 1981 by L'Orycte, and reprinted in Jean SénacJean Sénac, Pour une terre possible (Paris, Marsa, 1999). Conrad Detrez and Vital Lahaye taught in the early 1970s at El-Ghazali High School in Sour El-Ghozlane.

Sources and References

{{Bouïra Province Communes of Bouïra Province Algeria geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia Algeria Bouïra Province