Madauros

Madauros

Ruis of Madauros
Shown within Algeria
Location Algeria
Region Souk Ahras Province
Coordinates 36°04′36″N 7°49′12″E / 36.076667°N 7.82°E / 36.076667; 7.82

Madauros (Madaurus, Madaura) was a Roman-Berber city and a former diocese of the Catholic Church in the old Roman province of Numidia.

History

Madaurus was made a Roman colony 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.[1] It was the native town of Apuleius, known as author of the famous novel The Golden Ass, who was born there in 123 AD.[2] Saint Augustine of Hippo was a student there.

The city was fully Romanised in the fourth century, with a population of Christian Berbers, who spoke mainly Latin, according to Theodore Mommsen.[3]

Madauros was the see of a Christian diocese. There were three famous bishops of this diocese: Antigonus, who celebrated the Council of Carthage in 349 AD; Placentius, who celebrated the 407 and 411 AD Christian Conference; and Pudentius who was forced into exile, alongside others present at the Christian conference of 484 AD, because of the vandal king Huneric.

The city of Madaurus, known since 300 BC, did not survive to the Arabic invasions of the late seventh century. Probably it was destroyed by its inhabitants themselves by order of Kahina, the so-called "Beautiful Romano-berber Queen".

The ruins of Madauros are close to the actual city of M'Daourouch, in current Algeria. It is possible to see:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madaure.

Notes

  1. ↑ Perseus: Madauros
  2. ↑ Apuleius (123–180 AD), works of the famous Romano-Berber writer
  3. ↑ Theodore Mommsen. The Provinces of the Roman Empire. Section: Africa

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.