Auzia 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 lette ...

- Berber colonia in present-day

Sour El-Ghozlane Sour El-Ghozlane (or Souk El Ghoziane) is a town and commune in Algeria's central-northern, just-landlocked Bouïra Province. According to the 1998 census it has a population of 42,179. History Pre Historic A prehistoric tool (biface) testifyi ...

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. 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 Berber pagan god "Auzius", because under

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 Pr ...

a Roman

castrum In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...

was founded near a small Berber village with that name The city constituted of a castrum (fort) and a vicus (small city): Auzia achieved autonomous status as

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the priv ...

in the second century and later was renamed ''Colonia Septima Aurelia Auziense'' by emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...

. As a Roman colonia, its people received full status of Roman citizenship rights.

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

wrote about a "Castellum Auziense", as the headquarters of the Roman garrison commander in Mauretania Caesariensis's central

limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a ...

(border fortifications). According to the historian Richard Lawless, Auzia was a vicus that achieved independent status from the castrum (fort) garrison and had a ''

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 ...

'' (market square) and an important pagan temple, later converted into a Christian church. The Roman settlement (probably with nearly 4,000 inhabitants around 200 AD) was surrounded by farms.Lawless, R. ''Mauretania Caesartiensis: anarcheological and geographical survey'' Section: The Roman Civilian Sites. p.122-195 Auzia had even a theater and a small "circus" for chariot races, created around 227 AD according to epigraphic evidence Auzia achieved prosperity mainly because it was at the center of some roads in Roman Africa: from Auzia there were roads toward the Mediterranean sea ( Caesarea) and the Saharan interior with the Atlas mountains. In 290 AD, however, the

Bavares The Bavares (also Babares or Baveres) were a Berber tribe living in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD. They are known only from inscriptions. They are sometimes portrayed as nomads and other times ...

tribe attacked Auzia and the city suffered huge destruction.

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

and

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 ...

troops occupied temporarily the city. It was reduced to a small village when Arabs conquered the region at the end of the seventh century.

Archaeology

According to the sources, the French had undertaken several excavations in the ruins of Auzia without ever revealing the slightest historical fact to scientific research because of the policy of francization which was aimed at erasing all trace of civilization old or present on the territory Algerian. In addition, the reconstruction of Auzia would have destroyed several historical sites in the time of the Duke of Aumale. All the large-scale excavations were carried out secretly by the French authorities, who forbade access to the sites to the Arabs, which means that they wanted to hide all the increasingly numerous A civilization fundamentally different from that of the Roman Empire. The French administrative decision prompts the workers with a confidential note to destroy all objects and funeral inscriptions found in the site of the temple of Apollo, completely destroyed to build the civil hospital there - a truth conveyed through history by Algerians who participated in the construction of the city of Aumale. At the same time, Auzia was not occupied by inhabitants, it was about Roman ruins that the French choose for the construction of the city of Aumale. The inhabitants of the region, mostly from the tribes of Ouled Driss, Ouled Faârha and Ouled Khalouf who occupied the Dirah Mountains, organized themselves and succeeded in uniting all the tribes to oppose the French troops and then to be forced into negotiations.

Urban design

The study of the urbanism of 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 ...

reveals that the town of Auzia was fenced by a long wall of quarry stone, supposedly removed from the quarry located as the departmental road connecting Sour-El-Ghozlane - Ain-Bessem. A wall 75 cm wide and 6.7 km long surrounding the city. The total area of Auzia is 920 hectares. Inside, the Romans built a large military barracks at the entrance of Bab-El-Gurt (currently). There were several cohorts, commanded by a tribune militum, a squadron of Moorish vexillaries (light and mobile troops recruited from the provinces), supported in force by a cavalry corps (led by three decurions and a Præfectus equitum. Which was important for the Roman Empire and had a regional military district in charge of surveillance and intervention at the scale of the Tirinadi (Berrouaghia) region in the Djurdjura and Biban Mountains. (Djouab), the second in Afoul (Chalalat el-Adhoura) and the third in the mountains of Jebel Lakhdar in Achir (The ruins located 4 km from Ain-Boucif reveal the existence of this bastion advanced).

Population

The total area of Roman construction in the city of Auzia, a space of more than 720 hectares, reveals that the city was populated by a population of more than 12 000 to 13 000 inhabitants, that it would be the largest Roman city of Central Algeria, more important than Tipaza. But this figure could be increased in view of its status as a large military barracks. In addition, the shape of the city reveals a common principle of construction rules, based on the keys of modern urbanism namely the four functions: habitat, work, leisure and circulation. This quality of modern city that can be made of Auzia, attracted the inhabitants of all the tribes, which had resulted in a galloping demography which prompted the Roman authorities to found another city in the region, first to defend Auzia Repeated attacks by the Moors in a protected place, like a fortified enclosure. This was the origin of the foundation of CASTELLUM AUZIENS.

Former and Titular bishopric

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

was present in the Auzia area during the third century. It achieved the status of episcopal see. It was one of the many suffragans of the metropolitan Archbishopric of Mauretania Caesariensis, the capital of the 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 ...

of Mauretania Caesariensis, and faded like most. The ancient diocese of Auzia was nominally revived in 1594 as a Latin Catholic

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 ...

of the lowest (episcopal) rank. It had many incumbents - all episcopal - until its suppression in 1913. * Jean Daffis (1594.01.19 – 1597.11.10) * Jean de Bertier (1602.02.25 – 1602.08.31) * Antoine de Coues (1604.03.15 – 1616) *

Bishop-elect In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an Holy Orders, ordained Minister (Catholic Church), minister who holds the fullness of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, sacrament of Holy orders in the Catholic Church, holy orders and is responsible ...

Alphonse d’Elbène (1608.02.04 – 1608.02.08) * Henri Clausse de Fleury (1608.04.28 – 1624.09.18) * Philibert du Sault (1618.07.23 – 1623.05.25) *

Pedro Luis Manso Zuñiga Pedro Luis Manso Zuñiga (died 16 December 1669) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Auxiliary Bishop of Burgos (1648–1669).

(1648.07.06 – 1669.12.16) * Jacques de Bourges,

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons de ...

M.E.P. (1679.11.25 – 1714.08.09) * Lorenzo Taranco Mujaurrieta (1736.02.27 – 1745.03.08) * Peter Creagh (1745.04.12 – 1747) * Vincenzo Sangermano,

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(B.) (1792.02.14 – ?) * John MacLaughlin (1837.02.21 – 1840.08.18) * Vincenzo Bufi Bocci (1838.02.15 – 1850.07.21) * Giovanni Battista Arnaldi (1852.03.18 – 1853.03.07) (later Archbishop * Vitale Galli (1875.07.05 – 1876.01.11) * Antonio Piterà (1877.03.20 – 1913.05.10) It was restored in 1933, and since was nearly continuously filled, again all incumbents of episcopal rank: * Francis Hong Yong-ho (홍용호 프란치스코) (1944.03.24 – 1962.03.10) * Francisco Xavier Gillmore Stock (1962.09.04 – 1990.05.27) * Markijan Trofimiak (1991.01.16 – 1998.03.25) * Ludwig Schick (1998.05.20 – 2002.06.28) (later Archbishop) * Dominique Marie Jean Denis You ((2002.12.11 – 2006.02.08) * Yaroslav Pryriz,

Redemptorists The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...

(C.SS.R.) (2006.03.02 – 2010.04.21) * F. Richard Spencer (2010.05.22 – ...), Auxiliary Bishop of the Military Ordinariate of United States of America (USA).

Notes

Bibliography

* Lawless, R. ''Mauretania Caesartiensis: anarcheological and geographical survey''. Durham University. Durham, 196
Auzia
* Smith Reid, James. ''The Municipalities of the Roman Empire'' The University of Michigan Press. Chicago, 1913.

Sources and external links

{{Romano-Berber cities in Roman Africa Catholic titular sees in Africa Archaeological sites in Algeria Roman towns and cities in Mauretania Caesariensis Populated places established in the 2nd century 2nd-century establishments