LAMBESIS. – In Numidia (present-day Algeria) on the Aures, on the Roman road to the desert. It was the seat of the Third Augustan Legion from the beginning of the 2nd century AD until the Diocletianic age.
Already by the mid-3rd century, L. had its own bishop; apart from the heretic Privatus, who was deposed, Bishop Januarius attended the Council of Carthage in 256. At L. in 258 the saints Marian and James were martyred (v.).
Their names also appear in an inscription Constantine (v.). Instead, the martyrs Lucian, Felix, and the other 36 whose names the Martyrology lists under February 23 at L. are not from that city. S. Gsell described a Christian chapel (measuring 20 x 11.75 m), with three naves, discovered in a cemetery at L.; it had an elevated apse and beneath the altar were two tombs (Monuments antiques de l'Algérie, II, Paris 1901, p. 220, fig. 128). In the Museum of L. noteworthy is the front panel of a Christian sarcophagus on which, from left to right between two spiral columns, are roughly carved: a laurel wreath with a flower in the center; a two-handled vase; and a shepherd carrying on his shoulders a ram with the characteristic 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 dedicatory votive inscription beginning: “in n(omine) Domini (Nostri) Crist(i) e termini: ‘in Cristo viva ut in me (litus crescens)’” (CIL, 8, 1848).