Messad (sometimes Messaad; ) is a town in

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. It was the Roman Castellum Dimmidi.

History

It is about south of

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

. During the

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

period it was known as ''Castellum Dimmidi'' after the Romans under 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 cursus honorum, the ...

seized the settlement. It is unclear if the second part of the name, ''Dimmidi'', was a native name transliterated into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, or a new name given by the Romans. As the ''Castellum'' (castle) implies, the settlement was a fortress along the

Limes Tripolitanus The ''Limes Tripolitanus'' was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire, built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya. It was primarily intended as a protection for the tripolitanian cities of Leptis Magna, Sabrath ...

, the southern border of the province of

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

. It was a prosperous village and hosted a Roman garrison from roughly 198 to 240 AD. Dr. Rebound,
Notes Archéologiques sur les Ruines de Djelfa
, ''php4arab.com''. URL last accessed on 8 May 2006. Messaad has a population of nearly 120,000 inhabitants.

References

Historic Jewish communities in North Africa Jewish Algerian history Communes of Djelfa Province Cities in Algeria {{Djelfa-geo-stub

History

See also

References