Carthage, Archdiocese of

CARTHAGE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - I. HISTORY. - The origins of the Carthaginian Church, as indeed those of the African Church in general, are still obscure: the hypothesis of a direct apostolic preaching finds no support in the most ancient testimonies of African writers themselves, such as Tertullian and St. Augustine; they insist rather on the relations between the African Church and that of Rome, while not denying that the first news of the new faith could have reached Africa and particularly Carthage either from Alexandria or from the ports of Syria and Asia Minor. It seems that the regular preaching of the Gospel and the founding of the Church must plausibly have been the work of ministers sent or come from Rome: hence the bond of dependence and devotion that bound Carthage and Africa to the Roman see, and the characteristically Latin stamp that African Christianity always bore.

When Carthage had its first bishop is not known: the first certain one is Agrippinus, who lived between the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd, but it does not seem credible that before him the Carthaginian Church had not had its own hierarchy of its own, when one considers that already in 180 Africa had its first known martyrs (those of Scilli) and not from a city, but from a modest village of the interior, and that already before the end of the same century, in the time of the African pope Victor, a bishop is remembered at Leptis Magna, an important city, but by far lesser than Carthage. If therefore in this period the Church of Carthage enters into history, with an organization complete in every part, in the hierarchy and in the composition of the various categories of the faithful (confessors, widows, virgins), undeniably one must admit for it a preceding period of life, whose vicissitudes nevertheless remain for now unknown. On the other hand Agrippinus, by the very position that Carthage held with respect to all the other African provinces, already appears to us to enjoy a certain primacy in the face of the bishops of proconsular Africa and of Numidia: in fact he convoked at Carthage a synod, whose date is unknown, to discuss the question of the baptism of heretics. To other councils later than this some passages of Tertullian and of St. Cyprian seem to allude: but nothing precise can be said about them.

Donatus (236-48), who had Privatus, bishop of Lambaesis, condemned by a synod of 90 bishops, was succeeded by St. Cyprian (248-58) (v.), who took a notable part in the question of the lapsi (v.) and affirmed episcopal authority in the face of the schism of Novatus and Felicissimus. Against Novatian he ranged himself on the side of Pope Cornelius, but the question of the baptism of heretics brought him into conflict with Pope Stephen, in which Cyprian, according to the practice of the African Church, adhered to a principle opposed to that of the Roman Church. Two, or according to some three, councils, in 255 and 256, supported and confirmed Cyprian's thesis; lively letters were exchanged with Rome, yet no rupture of mutual communion was reached. The new persecution ordered by Valerian in 257 pushed the conflict into the background; and the relations between Rome and Carthage, both struck in their heads, Pope Stephen and Cyprian, martyred in September 258, returned to their original cordiality.

From this time on the bishop of Carthage is the recognized head of the bishops of proconsular Africa and of Tripolitania; but also the bishops of nearby Numidia and of more distant Mauretania recognized the supremacy of Carthage in affairs that concerned all of North Africa and relations with the other nearer countries.

From the second half of the 3rd century the names of two bishops are known, Lucianus and Carpophorus, of whom nevertheless one can establish neither the succession nor whether they were the only ones to occupy the see of Carthage in this period: at the time of the persecution of Diocletian (303) this was held by Mensurius.

On another occasion the prudent and moderate conduct of the bishop aroused the protest and opposition of the more unbridled elements of African Christianity, so prone, by the very character of those populations, to intolerance, and gave rise to that Donatist schism which, for more than a century, drawing into itself causes of a social, economic and political order, divided and afflicted the African Church. The schism broke out only after the death of Mensurius (311), when against his successor Caecilian the opposing party set up another bishop in the person of Majorinus; on the latter's death, probably at the end of 315, he was succeeded by Donatus, called the Great.

The struggle grew fiercer also through the intervention of the imperial authority, which convoked councils at Rome and at Arles for the condemnation of the Donatists.

The legitimate bishop was unanimously recognized at Rome and outside Africa: Caecilian took part, the only one among all the African bishops, in the Council of Nicaea (325), and his successors did likewise: Rufus in one of the councils of Rome against the Arians around 340, Gratus in that of Sardica (343), Restitutus in that of Rimini (359). In 349 the emperor Constans sent to C. two officials, Macarius and Paul, to attempt a pacification of the parties, but their mission failed and there were bloody conflicts; Gratus convoked a council, hoping to bring the adversaries to better counsel, but in vain, because Donatus, who died in exile (between 350 and 355), was succeeded by Parmenian, who wrote much against the Catholics. The period from 390 to 411 is marked by an almost uninterrupted series of councils, normally convoked at C. by the bishop Aurelius, to put an end to the schism.

On the Catholic side the struggle is personified in St. Augustine, still a simple priest at the Council of Hippo (393), later bishop, and in Aurelius, the greatest of the bishops of C. after Cyprian; to them is due the happy conclusion of the Council of June 411, presided over by Aurelius himself, at which no fewer than 279 Donatist bishops and 286 Catholic bishops were present.

At the same time or shortly afterwards the Church of C. had to suffer, though to a much lesser degree, from other errors: Manichaeism and Pelagianism. Pelagius in person had gone to C., but had left almost at once, leaving there his companion Caelestius; the latter too, however, had been forced to depart from it after a first council, convoked in 411 by Aurelius, had condemned his error. Other councils followed in the years thereafter until 418, always on the same question. Moreover, in this period councils were held at C. almost annually, and the Carthaginian see, thanks not only to its position of primacy but also to the virtues of its bishop, bound in unity of purpose and doctrine with St. Augustine, enjoyed a very high authority throughout Africa. This authority was exercised both in the religious and in the civil sphere. Thus Aurelius successfully upheld the rights of the Africans in the question whether it was lawful or not for bishops and clergy to appeal to Rome in case of disputes; he promoted the drafting of a codex canonum Ecclesiae africanae; he overcame the last resistance of paganism, establishing in 399 his own cathedra precisely in the cell of the temple in which the Carthaginian goddess Caelestis had until then been venerated; finally he defended his city from the violence of the comes Marinus.

The probable year of Aurelius' death is 429; he was succeeded by Capreolus, of whom we know that he had himself represented at the Council of Ephesus by the deacon Bessula: during the episcopate of Capreolus Africa was invaded by the Vandals, but C., as is well known, was not taken by them until 439, when the bishop Quodvultdeus occupied the Carthaginian cathedra.

The invasion of the Arian Vandals marked the beginning of new mourning and new persecutions for the Catholics; the struggle, now more and now less intense under Genseric, reached the height of violence with his successor Huneric. The Church therefore remained almost desolate, and in that state it endured until, in 454, Valentinian succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a new bishop, Deogratias, distinguished for his charitable assistance to the prisoners captured in the Sack of Rome. After the death of Deogratias in 457, the see of C. remained vacant once again for many years; for an ordinance of the king forbade the ordination of new bishops in Zeugitana, thereby bringing about what Victor of Vita calls "the closing of the churches." In 475 a relaxation of the previous severities allowed the exiles to return to their homeland, but C. could not have a bishop of its own again until 481, under Huneric, thanks to an edict that granted equality of rights to the two cults: the Catholic and the Arian.

This bishop was Eugenius, whose name is linked to the new and harsher phase of the struggle, which has its culminating episode in the Council of 484. C. then had alongside the Catholic bishop an Arian patriarch, Cyrila, who accused Eugenius, bringing about a renewal of the persecution. The emperor of the East Zeno intervened, obtaining from Huneric the convocation of a council: 470 bishops were present at its opening, on 1 February 484. However, the obstructionist and provocative attitude of the Arians caused the assembly to fail from the very beginning, and it was followed immediately by the sending into exile of Eugenius and of many other members of the Catholic clergy. Their return could take place only after the death of Huneric, under Gunthamund; but at the accession of Thrasamund, Eugenius was once again forced to abandon his see and went to settle in Gaul at Albi, where he died in 505. The see of C. thus remained vacant, nor could the presence at C. of Fulgentius of Ruspe bring anything but momentary relief to that vacancy; he had been recalled from his exile in Sardinia by king Gunthamund, who wished to be instructed in the Catholic faith, but was soon afterwards made to leave because of the protests of the adversaries. In 523 Hilderic granted the return of the exiles and the election of a new bishop, Boniface: thus on 5 February 525 a council could be assembled in the basilica of Agileus, directed above all at setting in order, after so many trials, the Church of C., and in general the whole African Church.

With the Byzantine conquest the Catholic faith regained full and secure independence, and with it the rights and privileges that the Vandals had abolished. To C. was reconfirmed the position of primacy that it had previously held, and which in the years of persecution the bishops of Byzacena had attempted to usurp. In order to regulate the new situation that had arisen, Reparatus, who had succeeded Boniface, convoked a council in 536, which closed with the sending to Rome and Constantinople of delegations to present to the Pope and the emperor the requests of the African episcopate, requests that were fully granted.

During the controversy of the Three Chapters, Africa, and therefore C. as well, was wholly united against Constantinople and, after the Iudicatum of Pope Vigilius, also against Rome, with which relations were broken. The bishop Reparatus went to Constantinople to take part in the council summoned by Justinian, but was arrested and sent into exile at Euchaida, where he died on 7 January 563. After Frimosus, appointed in his place, Publianus appears about fifteen years later, in 581. The correspondence of Gregory the Great, on the other hand, makes known to us a certain Dominicus as bishop of C. From the letters of St. Gregory it appears that at this time Donatism had regained strength in Africa: the Pope exhorts the clergy to combat it energetically, and for this purpose a council was in fact held at C. in 594. The fortunes of the Carthaginian Church now become more obscure, while the political and economic conditions of Africa grow more serious, and from the East, toward the middle of the 7th century, the threat of the Muslim invasion looms. When this fell upon the eastern provinces of Syria and of Egypt, the flight before it of numerous elements of the population and of the clergy brings into Africa the doctrinal struggles then alive in Eastern Christianity, in particular those of Monothelitism and Monophysitism, from which the African Church had instead on the whole remained aloof. Famous is the dispute held in July 645 at C. between the abbot Maximus and Pyrrhus, former patriarch of Constantinople, which ended with the latter's momentary abjuration of error.

A few years later the whole of Africa as far as the Atlantic is overrun by the Arabs, who at the end of the century establish their dominion there. The small number of the invaders did not, however, suddenly change the physiognomy and the way of life of the region, which only gradually declined and became depopulated. The see of C. was naturally bound to be among the last to be extinguished. It is still remembered in the second half of the 11th century, after the second and more serious invasion of the Banu Hilal. From a letter of Leo IX of 1053 it emerges that Africa still has at this time five bishops, over whom the Pope reaffirms the primacy of the Carthaginian one, a certain Thomas. Twenty years later, in 1073, Gregory VII writes to the bishop of C. Cyriacus and to the faithful dependent on him, lamenting that these have accused their pastor before the Muslims, causing him new sorrows in addition to those brought upon him by the condition of his city. In 1076, alongside Cyriacus there remains only one other bishop in Africa; the Pope is concerned to consecrate a third so as to enable the three to consecrate new ones in turn if need be. This is the last document we have concerning the Carthaginian see, and it is not rash to suppose that with the death of Cyriacus or of one of his immediate successors it remained constantly vacant: indeed, precisely with the end of the 11th century every remnant of Roman and Christian life in Africa is irremediably extinguished, so that when such life reappears after about two centuries, it shows itself with an imprint totally different from the ancient one. Therefore when in 1192 the bishop of C. is seen still figuring in the Liber censuum of the Church of Rome, very probably it is a purely formal remembrance, with no counterpart in an actual existence.

The Church of C. has instead come back to life at the end of the 19th century, after the Treaty of Bardo (12 May 1881) placed the state of the Bey of Tunis under the protectorate of France. With the bull Materna Ecclesiae caritas, of 10 Nov. 1884, Leo XIII re-established the primatial see of C., appointing as its titular Cardinal C. Lavigerie, formerly apostolic administrator of Tunisia and archbishop of Algiers. A few months earlier the construction had been begun, on what had been the acropolis of ancient C., of the new cathedral dedicated to St. Louis, king of France: the church was consecrated on 15 May 1890. By pontifical brief of 5 Aug. 1918 it was raised to the dignity of Basilica. Cardinal Lavigerie (d. 1892) was succeeded by Msgr. Combes (1893-1922), Msgr. Lemaître (1922-39) and the present titular, Msgr. Gounot, formerly coadjutor of his predecessor with the right of succession.

Catholic life has taken wide development on the very site of the ancient city with the foundation of many religious institutions, and from it radiates over nearby Tunis and the rest of the region.

The International Eucharistic Congress of 1930, the 15th centenary of the death of St. Augustine, consecrated the Catholic rebirth of the glorious African metropolis.

Pietro Romanelli

II. COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE (1 May 418)

1. History

In the series of the Councils of C. it is the 15th or 16th. It is of great importance both because of the gravity of the doctrine defined: the relations between Grace and nature, and because of the gravity of the error condemned: Pelagianism. The Council of C. has a close connection with the Council of Diospolis (Lydda; cf. Acts 9:32), whose doctrinal definitions it in a certain sense took up and completed by adding the condemnation of the heresiarch. At that of Diospolis, held on 20 Dec. 415 in the presence of 15 bishops, with Pelagius himself present, there was discussion of the doctrine of original sin and its effects; of the necessity and function of Grace; of the nature and limits of free will with regard to the attainment of perfection (cf. Mansi, IV, 312-20). The doctrine defined was strictly orthodox: Pelagius subscribed to the condemnation of the doctrines attributed to him and was thus readmitted to the communion of the faithful. But the response of Diospolis above all surprised the bishops of the Church of Africa, who, assembled in Council at C. to the number of 68, and then at Milevis to the number of 61 in 416, reconfirmed the condemnation launched against Pelagius in 411, beseeching Innocent I to strengthen it with his authority. Innocent I indeed, on 27 Jan. 417, confirmed and made his own the decisions of the African Council, but refused his recognition to the Council of Diospolis. Pelagius and Celestius then, with vague and equivocal professions of faith, attempted to deceive the good faith of Pope Zosimus, Innocent's successor. Pelagius in fact succeeded, obtaining personal absolution. Zosimus communicated the news to the bishops of Africa, reproaching them with precipitancy and misunderstanding in the condemnation of Pelagius and inviting them to support their reasons before his tribunal within two months. Aurelius, bishop of C., then begged him to hold off, and meanwhile on 1 May 418 assembled at C. a plenary assembly of 214 bishops: this is precisely the historic Council of C. in question. The Council, having reaffirmed the previous condemnations of 311 and 416 against the persons of Pelagius and Celestius and against their doctrines, condensed into nine canons the traditional doctrine on original sin, Grace and free will. Meanwhile, however, Zosimus, without the knowledge of the African bishops, in March 418 condemned the two innovators. In the summer of that same year, moreover, he published a document that has remained famous in history, the Epistola

Tractoria, in which he obliged all the bishops of the world to subscribe to the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy. It was a plebiscite of faith throughout the Church; only 18 Italian bishops, stirred up by Julian of Eclanum, refused to subscribe.

2. Doctrinal content

Let us premise: 1) although for a long time attributed to the Council of Milevis (416), it is by now established that the canons in question are those of the Council of C. (418; cf. H. Noris, Historia pelagiana, I, Louvain 1702, p. 42 ff.); 2) the number of the canons has also been long discussed: some codices report eight, another nine. The disputed canon is the third in the series of nine canons and is missing in the codices that enumerate only eight. Its authenticity is sufficiently established (P. Ballerini, Ad s. Leonis Magni opera appendix: PL 56, 112-14). The inspiration of the canons, if not their drafting, is certainly that of St. Augustine, who with his works also provides their best commentary.

The Pelagian doctrine maintained the integrity of human nature, in no way weakened by Adam's personal fall. This theory is combated in the first three canons of the Council of C., by defining the existence, transmission and effects of original sin. Beginning from the effects and more precisely from the most conspicuous external effect, the first canon establishes the penal character of death, against the Pelagian error that called it a natural and necessary consequence of the human constitution, denying the existence of the preternatural gift of immortality. The second canon establishes: 1) the existence and universality of original guilt for all without distinction, children included; 2) the reason for guilt in the strict sense in original sin; 3) the manner of transmission, carnal generation; 4) the remedy and its absolute and universal necessity, spiritual regeneration through Baptism. To the denial of guilt and punishment in the fall of origin, Pelagianism had added the confusion of the natural and supernatural order: heaven is an inheritance by strict right of nature in the state in which Adam was created, that is, of the state in which children are born. This precisely is what the third canon condemns, while at the same time denying unbaptized children an intermediate place of true happiness. The Fathers of the Council of C., anxious to eliminate the coexistence of the state of guilt with the state of supernatural happiness, make children share with the devil an unhappiness in the privative sense, that is, insofar as it is privation of God, without pronouncing on positive unhappiness, that is, on punishments by way of chastisement.

Guilt is canceled by Grace: in the next three canons, therefore, the nature, necessity and function of Grace are defined. Pelagianism, anticipating the Lutheran error, maintained that Grace is synonymous with remission of guilt, but rejected the concept of Grace in the sense of prevenient help to avoid guilt, claiming for free will alone the merit of avoiding evil. The fourth canon, condemning this error, claims for Grace both rising from the fall and having avoided it. We grant — the Pelagians equivocated — that Grace goes before us so as not to fall, but only in the sense that it enlightens the intellect as to what is to be done or avoided, not insofar as it moves the will to will effectively what the intellect has known. Grace — the fifth canon resumes — influences the intellect to enlighten it and the will to move it effectively to the good. We also grant that Grace influences the will — the Pelagians insisted — but in the sense that it helps it to will more easily what, absolutely speaking, it could also will by itself, albeit with greater difficulty. The sixth canon then intervenes to establish the absolute, not merely relative, impossibility of free will with regard to the performance of the works of the divine law, since Jesus Christ has warned us: sine me nihil potestis (not difficilius potestis) facere (Jn 15:5).

Grace must therefore assist us in everything; but even with the help of Grace man is not impeccable: this is the thesis of the last three canons, which at the same time suggest the absolute and universal necessity of prayer, in condemnation of the opposing Pelagian doctrine that called it, if not indecorous for free will, at least useless and superfluous. Not out of humility, declares the seventh canon, but in truth everyone must acknowledge himself a sinner. Everyone, therefore, must ask God's mercy through prayer, which, the eighth canon explains, is necessary no less for the sinner than for the just man, who must therefore pray for himself and not only for others, as the Pelagians interpreted it, being intimately convinced, the ninth canon concludes, that he too is needy and deficient and therefore with no less sincerity than the sinner must cry out to God: dimitte nobis debita nostra (Mt. 6, 12).

In conclusion: the Council of C., blunting the subtleties of the heresy, thwarting its equivocations, crushing every attempt at evasion, sapped the resistance capacity of Pelagianism and closed its first phase of struggle; at the same time it anticipated the refutation of the errors of future centuries, setting out in clear, synthetic, complete terms the traditional thought of the Church on the complex problem of the relations between Grace and nature.

Vito Zollini

III. ARCHAEOLOGY

It is not possible to identify the most ancient meeting places of the Christian community of C., referred to by Tertullian with the word ecclesia (De virginibus velandis, 13: PL 2, 907; De pudicitia, 4: ibid., 987); they must have been located within the city (P. Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l'Afrique chrétienne depuis les origines jusqu'à l'invasion arabe, I, Paris 1901, p. 16). St. Cyprian spent the last night together with his people in the quarter of Saturn. The Basilica Novarum is certainly of pre-Constantinian origin and in all probability is the same one that was called in areis novis or of Tertullus, the friend of St. Cyprian (Ep., 12), as Cardinal G. Mercati first pointed out, as early as 1898 (D'alcuni nuovi sussidi per la critica del testo di s. Cipriano, in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto, 19 [1898], pp. 321-63; study republished in G. Mercati, Opere minori, II [*Studi e Testi, 77], Vatican City 1937, p. 153 ff.). It is mentioned in a letter of Mensurius, bishop of C., from the Diocletianic era (PL 43, 638). It possessed a library and an archive, from which in 303, in place of the Holy Books, the civil authority carried off heretical books (Optatus, 1, 19; 3, 1); St. Augustine preached there once (Serm., 14: PL 38, 111). The hall was so vast that Bishop Deogratias in 455 lodged there the prisoners of Genseric (Victor of Vita, De pers. Vand., 1, 8, 25). C., like Rome, was administered by seven deacons, each placed over one of the seven ecclesiastical regions. Thus from documents we know a Liberatus archidiaconus Ecclesiae carthaginensis regionis sextae, a Gaudiosus diaconus regionis quintae, a Mena fu lector regionis qu(artae) o qu(intae)*: CIL, VIII, 13-423. Some basilicas are known by their regional designation: for example, in a basilica of the II region the Councils of 403 and 410 were held (PL 43, 814); in the III region there existed a basilica dedicated to St. Peter, where St. Augustine delivered the 15th sermon (PL 38, 115); the basilica of St. Paul was in the VI region.

The Basilica Restituta or Ecclesia catholica Restituta was within the city; Victor of Vita designates it as the one «in qua semper episcopi commanebant» (De pers. Vand., 1, 5). A first Council was held there in the year 390; others until 419. It was occupied by the Arians; St. Augustine preached there several times (Serm., 19, 29, 90, 112, 277; PL 38, 132, 185, 559, 643, 1257). Procopius alludes to a basilica near the Forum (De Bello Vand., II, 14).

The basilicas of Gratian, Theodosius and Honorius are known only from documents. St. Augustine preached there (Serm., 156, 163; PL 38, 849, 889). That of Honorius was in the temple of Caelestis. On Easter day of 399 Bishop Aurelius placed his cathedra in the cella of the temple that is supposed to have been the hill of Juno (A. Audollent, Carthage romaine, Paris 1901, pp. 262 and 538). Procopius recalls that Justinian had built at C. the basilicas of the Theotocos and of St. Prima.

The Theotocos stood in the dependencies of the palace. In it were copied some verses inserted in the anthology of C. (Anthol. lat., n. 380); Monceaux believes they were placed beneath two frescoes representing the Nativity and the Passion of Jesus Christ. It has been thought possible to recognize the remains of the basilica on the hill of Byrsa. The basilica of St. Prima was erected by Justinian in honor of a martyr of Abitina. A basilica in honor of the martyr Julian (probably of Antioch) is recalled by Leontius in the life of Gregory of Agrigento (PG 98, 563).

In the region of the Mandracium, one of the ports of C., was located the basilica Sancti Agilei. Agileus is a martyr recalled in the calendar of the Church of C. on 25 January.

Occupied by the Vandals, it was restored to the Catholics by Gunthamund in 487 (Prosperi Aquitani Appendicula ad Chron.; PL 51, 606). The people led there in triumph St. Fulgentius with the other bishops who had been exiled to Sardinia (Vita Fulgenti; PL 65, 145). The Council of the year 525 was held there. Bishop Dominic sent relics of the martyr Agileus to Gregory the Great (Gregorii I Registr., XII, 1). A sermon for the natalem s. Agilei is known (Possidii indiculus; PL 46, 19).

To the Byzantine period belongs a small oratory adapted in a hall of a Roman public building on the north-east slope of the so-called hill of Juno, behind Byrsa. It is a hall divided into two naves by a row of columns (L. Poinsot and R. Lantier, L'archéologie chrétienne en Tunisie [1920-32], in Atti del III Congresso di archeol. crist., Vatican City 1934, p. 390).

All the other basilicas of C. are cemeterial and therefore outside the city. C. had no underground burials but under the open sky; in places called cemeteries, as a passage of Tertullian shows (De anima, 51: PL 2, 738), but for the most part areae. The Christians of C. possessed them at least from the time of Tertullian, because he speaks explicitly de areis sepulturarum nostrarum (Ad Scapulam, 3: PL 1, 701). The majority of the Christian cemeterial areas are found between the road from Tunis to La Marsa, the Koudiat-Zateur and Sidi-bou-Said, generally contiguous to Roman tombs; a group of the Byzantine period (6th cent.) is found in the lower city, near Douar-ech-Chott and the quarter of the ports (R. Lantier, Notes de topographie carthaginoise. Cimetières romains et chrétiens, in Comptes-rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles lettres, 1922, pp. 22-28). On these areas various basilicas arose.

The basilica of Damous-el-Karita was discovered in 1878 in the zone north of C. between the so-called hill of Juno and the village of Sidi-bou-Said. A very vast enclosed area, with a semicircular atrium, a portico with a gallery of black marble columns; from the atrium occupied by tombs one passes to the north into a trichora chapel, while opposite one enters a quadrilateral divided into 9 naves (m. 65 x 45) with two apses situated to the south-east and to the south-west. In the center of the quadrilateral remain the bases of four great pillars which Gsell supposed supported a dome (Chronique africaine, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 18 [1898], p. 222). There also remain the four bases of a ciborium. The floor of the central nave and of the apses was decorated with mosaic; beneath that of the minor naves were tombs. A funerary cella with 5 arcosolia was a small hypogeum with as many arcosolia. To this basilica there follows to the south-west a second one (m. 35.70 × 24.55) containing a baptistery. Other halls and cells follow. Nearby there was found, in 1912, an underground rotunda with 16 columns of Numidian marble provided with capitals, with animals and acanthus leaves. From Damous-el-Karita comes the most beautiful example of non-funerary Carthaginian sculpture, that is, bas-reliefs relating to the infancy of Jesus, dated by De Rossi, by Bayet and by Audollent to the 4th cent., by Bréhier and by Lapeyre to the 5th cent. and by Wilpert to the 6th cent. They represent, on two slabs, four scenes: the announcement of the birth to the shepherds, the adoration of the shepherds, the reappearance of the star and the adoration of the Magi. It is probable that originally they decorated the door of the basilica near which they were found in 1883 (A.-L. Delattre, La basilique de Damous-el-Karita, Constantine 1892; id., in Recueil de Constantine, 24 [1880], pp. 37-68; 25 [1881], pp. 279-395; 27 [1883], pp. 1-53).

The basilica of the holy Scillitan martyrs, or of Celerina. – The group of the twelve martyrs of Scillum, killed at Carthage on 17 July 180 (BHL 7527, BHG 1645), had a basilica over its tomb, in which St. Augustine preached (Serm., 155: PL 38, 841); their anniversary was still celebrated in the 6th century, as the calendar of the Church of Carthage shows. Victor of Vita calls the basilica Scillitanorum vel Celerinae. Under this name is known the martyr mentioned by St. Cyprian as a relative, together with Lawrence and Egnatia, of the confessor Celerinus (Ep., 39, 3); she is indicated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum under the dates of 3 February and of 24 and 28 September. St. Augustine preached "in basilica Celerinae" (BHL 4906, 7). Delehaye asks whether the eponym is the martyr or the foundress (H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 279).

The Basilica Maiorum was discovered by Delattre in 1906 at Mcidfa, between the station of Ste-Monique and that of La Marsa. The building material has been scattered between La Marsa and Sidi-bou-Said; only wretched remains of pillars are left; the basilica (61 × 45 m.) had seven naves divided by columns. Beneath the pavement was a burial area. In the center of the central nave stood the confessio, consisting of a small chapel measuring 3.60 × 3.70 m. In front, in the apse itself, were small niches for relics. Near the confessio a well was filled with human bones and with about 7,000 fragments of Christian inscriptions. Among the ruins of the building was collected an inscription of the 6th century relating to the martyrs Satur, Saturninus, Revocatus, Secundulus, Felicitas, Perpetua, passi nonis martiis, and Maiulus (CIL, VIII, 25,038); that is, the group, with the exception of Maiulus, indicated in the Passio of Perpetua and Felicitas. But given the late date of the inscription, it could be a matter of simple relics (P. Monceaux, Histoire litt. de l'Afrique chrétienne, IV, Paris 1912, pp. 469-70). A second epigraph mentions Santus Secundulus (CIL, VIII, 25,038ᵃ); a third is dedicated Perpetue filie dulcissimae (A.-L. Delattre, Le Cimetière de Mcidfa à Carthage, in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles lettres, 1906, p. 402 ff.; id., L'area chrétienne et la basilique de Mcidfa à C., ibid., 1907, pp. 118 ff., 516 ff.; id., La Basilica Maiorum. Tombeau des saintes Perpétue et Félicité, ibid., 1908, p. 59 ff.; 1911, pp. 566-83).

The acts of St. Cyprian clearly distinguish the ager Sexti, the place of martyrdom, from that of the burial, which took place ad areas Macrobi Candidiani... in via Mappaliensi iuxta piscinas (PL 3, 1505), the place where St. Augustine indicates the memoria beati Cypriani (Conf., V, 8, 15: PL 32, 713), or held his sermons ad mensam Cypriani (Serm., 131: PL 38, 729). Victor of Vita points out, outside the walls, two basilicas egregias et amplas dedicated to St. Cyprian, unam ubi sanguinem fudit, aliam ubi eius sepultum est corpus, qui locus Mappalia vocitatur (De pers. Vand., I, 1, 5).

It seems that in the time of St. Augustine, at the place of St. Cyprian's martyrdom, the ager Sexti, there was only a mensa (cf. Serm., 310: PL 38, 1413) and not yet the basilica, which, however, was already built in the year 439, when it was occupied by Genseric (Ch. Saumagne, Les basiliques cypriennes, in Revue archéologique, 66 [1909], p. 188 ff.).

Near the sea, in the place called "les larmes de Ste-Monique," opposite Sidi-bou-Said, Father Delattre discovered a basilica built over pagan tombs. It has seven naves (60 × 35.65 m.) divided by spolia columns, with Ionic and Corinthian capitals; the presbytery is deep, the ciborium stands almost at the center of the middle nave, the altar must have been of wood; beneath the pavement, especially in the presbytery, there are many tombs, some decorated with mosaics, others constructed from strigillated sarcophagi. The hall is preceded by a rectangular atrium (35.55 × 20 m.), provided with a spacious underground chamber. Against the northeast side of the building there is an underground room with eight tombs. Father Delattre collected from the earth more than 9,400 fragments of funerary inscriptions, some furnished with consular dates of the years 424, 438-39, 454; but none of these fragments contains a confirmation of his hypothesis that this basilica is the one erected over the tomb of St. Cyprian (A. Delattre, Une grande basilique près de Ste-Monique à Carthage, in Comptes-rendus de l'Acad. des Inscript. et Belles lettres, 1916, pp. 150-64; 1917, pp. 507-29).

Basilica of Dermech. – In 1899, 100 m. from the Baths of Antoninus, near the sea, on the slope of Bordj-Djedid, a basilica with seven naves was found, built entirely in one pour, with the entrance on the south side above the oldest Punic necropolis of the city. The hall, measuring 40 × 21 m., had a mosaic pavement, spolia columns; the middle nave had eight twin columns; the wooden altar was covered by the ciborium supported by four columns of pink marble, with bases adorned with Greek crosses. Beneath the altar was a cavity for relics. On the north side, through two doors, one entered the baptistery, consisting of a rectangular hall, with a square enclosure of 12 granite columns connected by cancelli. In the center was the hexagonal font covered by a ciborium supported by four columns of pink marble; the water was supplied by a channel from a cistern. To the north of the baptistery a door led into an apsidal hall divided into three naves, the consignatorium; behind it other small rooms; to the northeast many Christian tombs, among them a sarcophagus with the Good Shepherd and a banquet scene. Gauckler dated the basilica to the last times of Vandal rule or to the Justinianic age; it was destroyed at the time of the Arab invasion of 695; it does not seem to have served much for worship and bears traces of fire and looting (P. Gauckler, Basiliques chrétiennes de Tunisie, Paris 1913, p. 17).

Basilica of Bir-el-Knissia ("well of the Church"). – Near the Arab village of Douar-el-Chott, on the road between La Goulette and La Marsa, remains of a Christian church appeared as early as 1888, brought to light by further excavations in 1913 and 1922.

The much-ruined building (46.60 × 25.60 m.) had three naves, with a mosaic pavement that covered many tombs; its remains date it between the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., but there are no elements to determine this precisely (A.-L. Delattre, La basilique de Bir-el-Knissia à Carthage, in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles lettres, 1922, pp. 302-307; 1923, pp. 449-51).

The basilica of Faustus. – A martyr Faustus of Abitina was martyred at Carthage in February of the year 304 (P. Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l'Afrique chrétienne depuis les origines jusqu'à l'invasion arabe, III, Paris 1901, p. 540); but it is not known whether he is to be identified with the eponym of the cemetery basilica mentioned by Victor of Vita (De pers. Vand., 1, 8; 2, 6, 17; 3, 9). It was built before the year 418, in which a council met there; others were held there in 419 and 421. St. Augustine preached there several times (Serm., 23, 111, 261: PL 38, 155, 645, 1202). Bishop Deogratias, who had been consecrated there in 454, reduced it to serve as lodging for the prisoners taken at Rome by Genseric. It is still mentioned in 535.

Basilica of Bir-Ftouha. - On the road between La Malga and La Marsa, by means of excavations carried out on several occasions at the localities known as Bir-Ftouha (1888, 1895, 1897, 1928), there has been brought to light a hexagonal baptistery with a mosaic floor and fragments of columns that have been held to belong to a basilica; the excavations of 1928-29 have revealed a bath building and a trichora occupied by Christian burials (A. Delattre, La basilique de Bir-Ftouha à Carthage, in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et Belles lettres, 1928, pp. 252-55; 1929, pp. 23-29). The basilicas of C. so far explored all belong in their constructions to the period of Byzantine domination. E. Albertini recognizes in their architecture an affinity with that of the East and particularly with Syria (L'Afrique du Nord française dans l'histoire, Lyon-Paris 1937, p. 116). The only building with just three naves is that of Bir-el-Knissia; the others all have at least five, and at Damous-el-Karita they reach as many as nine and eleven. The apse is flanked by the diaconicum and the prothesis, which communicate only with the side naves; these are lacking, however, in the basilica Maiorum and at Damous-el-Karita. The basilicas of St. Cyprian and of Bir-Knissia are provided with an atrium. At Dermech the ciborium is surrounded by cancelli; the altar must have been of wood; in the basilica Maiorum there is the confessio; the columns generally come from earlier Roman buildings.

The floor of the basilicas was covered with mosaic decoration, rich in birds, fish, vine tendrils, and canthari; in the basilica of Bir-Ftouha there are the four rivers of paradise, and the deer drink from them.

A characteristic decoration in the interior of the basilicas is sometimes offered by squares of terracotta, perhaps it was [done] with simple floral decorations; there are some examples of crosses, or animals such as deer, lions, dolphins, and twice the B. Virgin with the Child Jesus. They have been dated to the 4th century (R. de la Blanchère, Carreaux de terre cuite à figures, in Revue archéologique, 45 [1888], p. 303). In an underground chapel beneath the hill known as that of St. Louis, a fresco was identified with a nimbed figure on its right and three other figures of the same dimensions and two others smaller. It is believed that the central figure represented Jesus Christ.

In 1935 it was detached and placed in the Lavigerie museum, also called that of St-Louis de Carthage, established to preserve the more perishable archaeological material, illustrated from as early as 1899 by Delattre, Babelon, Boulanger and Martin with successive supplements in 1913 and 1915. Other material is preserved in the Alaoui museum at the Bardo, illustrated by Gauckler and by La Blanchère in 1907 with successive supplements due to Poinsoot, Hautecoeur, Méri, Merlin, Drappier up to 1921. From documents one also learns of the existence of certain monasteries, such as the female one in quo reliquiae s. Stephani sitae sunt (De promissionibus: PL 51, 842). Gauckler held that it was near the basilica of Dermech. The general Solomon in the time of Belisarius had erected a monastery toward the port of Mandracum, in which Ariobindus later took refuge. Near the basilica of Celerina the monastery of Bigna is recorded (Victor of Vita, Passio hear. martyr., III, 52).

A Jewish cemetery at the locality Gamart was found on several occasions from 1887 to 1903 in the zone to the northwest of ancient C., where today is the Arab village of Gamart. It consists of more than one hundred and five small burial chambers (A.-L. Delattre, Gamart ou la néropole juive de Carthage, Lyon 1895; id., Deux hypogées de Gamart, in Revue tunisienne, 11 [1904], p. 8 ff.).

G. B. De Rossi illustrated an ivory pyxis with the scene of the multiplication of the loaves discovered at C. and later passed to Livorno (Pisside eburnea cartaginese sulla quale è effigiato Gesù Cristo distribuente i pani eucaristici, in Boll. d'arch. crist., 5th series, 2 [1891], pp. 47-54) and furthermore Antiche forme trovate in C. per colare in piombo medaglie di devozione e croci da appendere sul petto (ibid., pp. 146-48). - See Pl. LIV.