APPENDIX K. 575 Note on the Cities from which the Bishops came to the Seventh Council of Cyprian and Third on Baptism on the first of September, A.D. 2561 (pp. 366 sqq.). A short sketch has been given in the text of the interests which invested most of these cities under the Empire. But the cities and their 1 Principal Authorities: Inscriptiones Africa Latina, Gust. Wilmanns (Corp. Inscriptt. Latt., vol. VIII. i., ii.), fo., Berl., 1881 and Supplementum (Afr. Proc.), R. Cagnat et Johan. Schmidt, fo., Berl., 1891. Annuaire 1853 ff. Inscriptions Romaines d'Algérie, L. Rénier, Paris, 1858 ff. Société Archéologique de la Province de Constantine. Revue Africaine, Alger, Paris, Constantine, 1856 ff. Fouilles à Carthage, M. Beulé, 4to., Paris, 1861. Explorations Epigraphiques et Archéologiques en Tunisie, M. R. Cagnat, 3 fascicules, Paris, 1883-1886. Géographie comparée de la Province Romaine d'Afrique, C. Tissot (Exploration Scientifique de la Tunisie), Paris, 1884-1888. 2 vols. 4to. and Atlas. Remains of the Roman occupation of N. Africa with special reference to Algeria, Al. Graham (Transactions of R. Inst. of British Architects, vol. 1. N.S., Lond., 1885). Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce, Col. Sir R. L. Playfair, 4to., Lond., 1887. Various Monographs on Discoveries at Carthage, by le R. P. Delattre, 8vo., Lille (Desclée), 1888-1890. Trésor de Chronologie, d'Histoire et de Géographie, Cte de Mas Latrie, fo., Paris, 1889. Untersuchungen über die äussere Entwicklung der Afrikanischen Kirche, Dr A. Schwarze, Göttingen, 1892. Excursions in the Mediterranean, Algeria and Tunis, Sir Grenville T. Temple, Lond., 1835. Four Months in Algeria, J. W. Blakesley, 8vo., Cambridge, 1859. occupation of the country are indeed so remarkable that I have cast into the form of a long Note fuller particulars. This Note cannot pretend to originality, although I felt it a duty and found it an intense enjoyment to visit some of these remarkable sites. I have to rely on published investigations and, where possible, I have verified the authorities, although mistakes are, I fear, inevitable in summarizing so large a number of statements. Some explorations have been so assiduous and their records so monumental that increasing research will rather increase than lessen their value'. The gratitude of learning will never be withdrawn from Charles Tissot or Gustavus Wilmanns. To recapitulate a few necessary points. The Council of Carthage of the year 256 (September 1) is described in contemporaneous minutes as 'The meeting of very many Bishops of the province of Africa, Numidia, Mauritania.' It must not be understood as if the 87 were an approximately even representation of the sees of the continent. At the most two Mauritanian Bishops, and one whose see Great Sahara, H. B. Tristram, 8vo., London, 1860. Carthage and her Remains, Dr N. Davis, 8vo., London, 1861. Ruined Cities within Numidian and Carthaginian Territory, N. Davis, 8vo., London, 1862. Travels in Tunisia, A. Graham and H. S. Ashbee, imp. 8vo., London, 1887. Maps: Carthage, Caillat, 1877. Perthes (Afrika), West Sahara (1), Central Sahara (2). Spruner-Menke, Atlas antiq. no. xxxi. Afrique Reg. Sep tentrionale (Service géographique de l'Armée-R. de Lannoy de Bissy), 1, 2, 6. Carte de Reconnaissance (Serv. géogr. de l'Armée) Tunisie iii. Environs de la Tunisie et de Carthage, Paris, Dépôt de la Guerre. Algérie et Tunisie, Pelet, 1891. Above all, the grand Atlas archéologique de la Tunisie (Ministère de l'Instruction Publique), Paris, 3 livraisons, 1893-5. was half in Numidia, appear for this vast Province. There were twice as many from the Proconsular Province as from the larger Numidia, and of the 55 who represented the Province 12 came from within five and forty miles of Carthage. The bare roll of the eighty-seven names would be a wonderful witness to the commanding influence of Cyprian, but to review their cities is to realize the material which was being shaped into Christendom. If we could revive but a faint picture of those cities, their number, their beauty, their wealth, resources and administration, we should stand amazed at the power and the policy, the magnificence and the elaboration with which Rome organized so resourceful a continent so wickedly won. But a separate interest still lies in the fact that the Christians had so immediately and so vigorously laid hold on the centres of life and activity, and faced on new principles the problems which defied that Roman genius of rule and grew more intricate both in spite of and in consequence of its efforts. Buildings may be mentioned in this Note which belong to a later century than Cyprian's, but already in his time many of the cities were full grown and magnificent, and it is strange to remember how actively heathen growth was going on side by side with Christian growth. In most of these towns which lay so thick in that resourceful region there was a bishop, a stipendiary1 staff of presbyters, organized on a collegiate or quasi-canonical plan of life and work, and a set of deacons administering the more secular affairs and providing for the monetary needs of the Church. Many of these places have ruins of more than one Christian basilica, which no doubt succeeded to private halls, secular rooms, and 'fabricæ' like Fabian's, which were used in Cyprian's time. The bishop was everywhere elected by and represented an enlightened and steadily increasing portion of the community. What his powers were, sole or joint, we have seen. He had been brought up like every educated Roman within constant sight of the administration of firm justice, of revenue, of military force, within sound, and possibly in the practice, of eloquence and argumentation, amid the publicity of the wildest pleasures, and with his precise place assigned him in the body politic, under the name but without the least substance of liberty. The only liberty known was that which was being re-formed under the new constitution which he himself represented. The Episcopus Christianorum was called sacerdos. There were many sacerdotes in every town: flamens, pontiffs, ministers of the beautiful temples, and countless altars. The higher of these were great civilians and generals who officiated from time to time for an hour of their secular day. Some were hereditary keepers of the gods' homes and of the gods themselves; some were nominated and lived partly by endowments, partly 1 Epp. 1. 1; 34. 4; 39. 5; see note 3 on p. 305 sup. on offerings. But the new sacerdotes had begun to live among them, each at once the elect of men and the successor to powers which 'loved not the world, neither the things which were in the world.' He was the ambassador of One God who had had and was having real dealings with men, touching things inexpressible by the voices of heathen prayer; things which had nothing to do with prosperity, or material, or disease, which triplet was the hope or fear of the heathen. It was some such person, who with his personal equation as various as tides of life could make it, came glowing with the faith of Christ from each of eighty-six cities to the central chair of the Province. The list runs off merely, as it would seem, according to the seniority of the prelates, with perhaps a queue of late comers. But with a little effort we can cast those cities into groups, we can even now attach somewhat of a living idea to their names. We shall thus appreciate the significance of the list and the force of the thoughts which rise out of it. I will group them as follows, merely for convenience and easy recogni tion on the map, as they lay in the eye of neighbours or travellers. Municipium Julium Utika: Colonia Julia Elia Hadriana Augusta Utika. 5. Three Routes to Carthage from the cities on the Syrtes and First; from the group of sees close round the Metropolis, within a radius of 45 miles, twelve bishops came to the Council. UTICA, with memories of primæval rivalry with Carthage, still ranked as the second city of Africa, but was now fast ceding that place to Hadrumetum, for the Bagradas was silting up its grand military and merchant harbours, and banking the sea out further every year from immense structures Bou-Châter. reared for the health, pleasure, and defence of its many generations. In Bishops in its miles of fragments we trace Phoenician works almost as extensive and more solid than the finest Roman. From Cape Carthage Utica lies full 484, 525, 556, in view across the curve of the bay, pale against the hills which hide 646, 684. Bizerte on the northern trend of the coast. A.D. 303; at Arles 314, 339, 411, 419, Colonia Julia Hippo Diarrhytus. In Stap ρυτος, Ptol. Hippone Zarito, Itin. Benzert, Bizerte. Bps. 401404, 411, 484, 525, 646. Bizerte, even in its strangely altered name, is HIPPO DIARRHYTUS. It occupied picturesquely both banks and the mid-island of the tida! adit of its north lake with its garden shores. The fame of neither city seemed ever clear from the unpatriotic memory of having deserted Carthage in its extremity, and Hippo was now a poor-spirited, self-contained provincial town1, living by its marvellous fisheries. 1 See the pretty sarcastic story of Pliny, Ep. ix. 33. From THINISA, which lay on the coast between the two, came evigga, Ptol. the Bishop Venantius; from Hippo Petrus, and from Utica Aurelius1. From Carthage, looking due east across the glorious gulf, a good way beyond the eastern spur of the Horns of Ben Gournin, Secundinus would discern his own CARPOS2, with its fashionable hot-springs-scene later on of Donatist savagery. It. Ant. Thinissa, Mraisa. Out of sight on the far side of the same eastern promontory lay 484, 525, 646. NEAPOLIS, the north horn of the gulf then called after it, now Gulf of Col. Julia Neapolis. Hammamet an African Bay of Naples. It was a Carthaginian factory, Nebel. the nearest African harbour to Sicily, captured by Agathocles and by 484, 525, 646. Piso, and an early Colonia.' Edrisi saw great ruins of it, but they have all passed into the mean carcase of the Arab town. Its Bishop Junius was the last who spoke in the Council. He speaks of the earlier conciliar decisions as 'what we once for all sanctioned1,' and in each of the former Council-lists his name appears-and as a senior. Some element of either distance or lateness enters into the list of A.D. 257, as the Tripolitan Bishops are all together at the end. Bps.411, 419, Aurelianum Southward a few miles, between Mount Zaghouan and the sea, was Municipium SEGERMES, only ruins still to us, not identified until 18845. Nicomedes Augustum was one of the seniors. Segermes. 641. The tiny Oued Meliana, with its deep torrent channel, drains into the Bps. 411,484, Lake of Tunis a fertile waste once thick with cities. In its upper dale it Colonia Julia skirts on the south-east the site of GREAT THUBURBO, one of Pliny's Aurelia 'eight Colonies,' founded by Julius, improved by Commodus. One of 1 Sentt. Epp. 49, 72, 41. see p. 421, n. 2. 3 Thucydides vii. 50. He calls Neapolis a Καρχηδονιακὸν ἐμπόριον; that is, not one of the Emporia proper which were the towns on the little Syrtis from Thenæ, though those between the two Syrtes are sometimes understood in the word. Morcelli thought Neapolis of Tripoli was here meant, since it follows the other Tripolitan sees and Leptis Magna. Tissot holds this Neapolis to be only a new quarter of Leptis Magna. Still the order is remarkable; although geographical arrangement does not appear (except as above) in the list, and the non-representation of the greater Neapolis might seem unlikely too. 86. Commoda 4 Quod semel censuimus, Sentt. Epp. Bps. 314 5 Sentt. Epp. 9-C. I. L. VIII. i. n. 910, and Suppl. 1., p. 1164, nn. 11170 and 11172. Cf. Bullet. archéol. du Com. des Trav. Hist. 1885, p. 162, 1886, p. 71. 6 Sentt. Epp. 18. No reason to doubt that the see is Thuburbo majus. Now and in 314 at Arles there is no appearance of two synonymous cities. But in 411, bishops from "Thuburbo majus' and 'minus' attend the Collation of Carthage. Tuburbis, Plin. Bovßovpßw, Ptol. Tuburbo Majus, Peut. Tuburb, Thubur, Inscrr. But the great inscription, by finding which in 1857 M. Tissot first identified the place, has Thuburbo, like the text of Cyprian. (Arles), 411, 484. |