DJEMILA (Arabic Gemilah). - It is the ancient Cuicil, a city of Numidia near the border with Mauretania. In this locality, already inhabited by groups of indigenous population, Nerva established a colony of veterans, which flourished rapidly so as to become, already by the middle of the 2nd century, an urban center of a certain importance; excavations have brought to light a notable part of it, so that today it can be considered one of the major archaeological sites of Roman Africa.
Christianity must have been preached there during the 2nd century and must have won numerous converts: by the middle of the 3rd century an episcopal see was already established: a Cuiculitan bishop, Pudentianus, indeed took part in the Council held at Carthage in 256 under the presidency of Cyprian; another bishop, Elpidophorus, was present at the Carthaginian Council of 348. In the interval the Cuiculitan Church must have felt the effects of the persecutions; in various inscriptions of the city nine martyrs are commemorated: a Claudius, celebrated on October 1; seven others: Arensis, Aurelius, Donatus, Aemilianus, Sola, Theodosius and Victoria on March 5 or May; finally a Pascentius whose feast day is not known: since none of them is remembered in the martyrologies, it cannot be excluded that some were Donatist martyrs. Cuicul in fact was also troubled by the schism: in 411 the Catholic bishop Cresconius, whose name is linked, as will be seen, to the construction of various buildings, declared at the Council of Carthage that his Donatist adversary had recently died. Another bishop of Cuicul, Victor, appears among the victims of the persecution of Huneric in 484; the last of whom there is record is Crescens, who took part in the Council of Constantinople of 553; how much longer the Christian community of the city survived is not known, but it is probable that, as for the most part in the rest of Africa, it declined immediately after the first Arab invasions of the second half of the 7th century.
The Christian buildings arose, as frequently happened, outside the center of the city already occupied by the two forums, the older one and the one added in the time of the Severans, and by their annexes; of two churches, which stood one to the northwest and the other to the east, only traces remain: of the first, in the inscription of the seven martyrs already mentioned, of the other in some architectural fragments, also marked with the names of martyrs: near the latter there perhaps also extended a cemetery.
To the southeast, on the other hand, a whole vast and notable complex of buildings has been brought to light, consisting of two basilicas, a chapel, a baptistery (besides, perhaps, the traces of an older baptistery), and a large house, in which the bishop's residence must probably be recognized; it is one of those complexes of which analogous examples are found both in other cities of Africa (Teveste) and outside it (Salona, Cimitile).
The buildings did not all arise at the same time, naturally. The oldest is the Basilica that may be called, by reason of its dimensions relative to the other, the lesser: it has three naves divided by columns, is 35 m. long (including the apse) and 16 m. wide, with its front facing west: the last part of the central nave was enclosed for the choir, slightly raised above the level of the rest of the church; this was decorated with mosaics of geometric and figured motifs (animals), and inscriptions commemorating those who had contributed to the decoration; among them appear a sacerdotalis and two tribunes. A staircase at the end of the left nave gave access to the crypt hollowed out beneath the apse, 3.50 m. lower, and connected, by means of a corridor, to the crypt of the neighboring greater basilica. The construction of the church can be dated to the 4th century.
The second basilica, adjacent to the first toward the south, but separated from it by a kind of narrow open esplanade, has much larger dimensions: 39.50 x 28 m.; it has the same orientation, but is divided into five naves by piers, against which columns were set in the central nave; beneath the apse was the crypt, which was reached, besides from the corridor already mentioned, by a staircase at the end of the first nave on the left. Also the floor of this church was decorated with mosaics; in the intercolumniations figures of wild beasts, hunting scenes, vases, doves beneath arches of foliage, etc.; in the rest, animals within panels or circles framed by braids and acanthus scrolls. At the end of the central nave was the choir, enclosed by balustrades: beneath a more recent mosaic was an older floor, on which, also in mosaic, a long metrical inscription commemorated bishop Cresconius: how he dedicated the basilica, depositing in it the relics of the ancient bishops (inati priores) and martyrs, which crowds of pilgrims hastened to venerate, rejoicing at the end of the (Donatist) schism; the last part of the text is the epitaph of bishop Cresconius himself. It is singular that the inscription is the reproduction, adapted with suitable variants, of two metrical inscriptions of Tipasa: to this city, famous for the sanctuary of St. Salsa, other elements of the Cuiculitan complex also refer. From the epigraph of Cresconius the basilica is dated to the first decades of the 5th century, when peace was restored to the African Church.
Separated by a street from the greater basilica, but with a different orientation and turning its apse toward the former, stands the chapel, a modest building of 19 x 11.50 m., with three naves, very poorly preserved: other constructions have appeared beneath it, among them a stretch of circular wall, in which perhaps the remnant of an older baptistery may be recognized.
In an excellent state of preservation, on the other hand, is the baptistery, which rises opposite the lesser basilica with the same orientation, though not exactly on its axis: this position of its might lead one to suspect that its construction should be connected with and considered contemporary with that of the lesser basilica rather than the greater, as is commonly believed. It is joined to a bath building, of small proportions, but complete in its parts, intended for the use of catechumens: the only other example of such a union of baptistery with baths known in Africa is that of Tipasa.
The baptistery proper consists of a rotunda between two rectangular porticoed wings. The first, built of brick faced on the inside with plaster with stucco ornaments, has a diameter of about 11.50 m. and comprises a circular corridor with two vestibules and a central room containing the baptismal font, of quadrangular shape, covered by a baldachin: in the walls of the corridor some niches were hollowed out; the floor was everywhere in mosaic: on the rim of the font, also in mosaic, was an inscription alluding to Baptism.
To the southwest of the greater basilica extends what is supposed to have been the bishop's dwelling, a large building reached from a wide porticoed street, and within which the rooms were grouped around two atria.
The whole complex of buildings was intersected and served by streets and staircases, which, while compensating for the differences in level of the strongly undulating terrain, facilitated access and the movement of the crowd in the various parts, evidence of that frequency of the faithful to which the epigraph mentioned above alludes.
Among the objects found in the excavations are two bronze patens with a monogram and one with the acclamation Deogratias, and a vessel, also of bronze, perhaps a holy water stoup.
Bibliography3 works
Pietro Romanelli