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 ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , 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 African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that was spoken in the Roman province of Africa by the Roman Africans during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, and several centuries after the annexation of the region by ...

, 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 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 ...

; 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 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 ...

. 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 Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern- ...

, the author of the famous novel ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the no ...

'', 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.

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

History

Notable residents

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External Links