LAMBESIS. – In Numidia (present-day Algeria), on the Aures, along the Roman road toward the desert. It was the seat of the III Augusta legion from the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. until the Diocletianic period.
As early as the middle of the 3rd century, L. had its own bishop; apart from the heretic Privatus, who was deposed, the bishop Januarius took part in the Council of Carthage in 256. At L., in 258, Giacomo (v.) were put to death.
Their names also appear in the inscription CONSTANTINE (v.). On the other hand, the martyrs Luciano, Felice, and another 36 whom the Martyrology assigns to 23 February at L. are not from that city. S. Gsell described a Christian chapel (20 × 11.75 m), with three naves, discovered in a cemetery at L.; it had a raised apse, and beneath the altar were two tombs (Monumenta antiques de l'Algérie, II, Paris 1901, p. 220, fig. 128). In the Museum of L. the front section of a Christian sarcophagus is noteworthy; crudely carved upon it, from left to right, between two spiral columns, are a laurel wreath with a flower in the middle; a double-handled vase; and a shepherd carrying on his shoulders a ram with the characteristically large African tail (R. Cagnat, Musée de Lambèse, Paris 1895, pl. 7).
Also preserved are two architectural fragments bearing the monogram of Christ between the two apocalyptic letters, and a votive and dedicatory inscription that begins: « in n(omine) Domini N(ostr) Crist(i) » and ends: « in Cristo vivas ut in me (lius crescas) » (CIL, 8, 18488).