Orléansville [Chlef]

ORLÉANSVILLE [CHLEF]. - In Algeria, on the site of the ancient Castellum Tingitanum. The names of some of its bishops are known, such as Marinus in 324, known from an inscription; Cerealis in 431, mentioned by Isidore of Seville; Voconius and Boconius ca. 460, mentioned by Gennadius; Reparatus (460-75), whose epitaph is known; Peter ca. 484. Severinus is a Donatist bishop ca. 411.

In 1843 the basilica of Bishop Reparatus was discovered (26 x 16 m) with side entrances to the hall, divided into five naves by pillars with a raised apse and with another apse opposite, in which it is believed a baptistery was placed. The floor was covered with mosaics, with inscriptions, one of which indicated the beginning of the foundations on 21 Nov. 324 (CIL, VIII, 9708); in another the wish: semper pax (ibid., 9712); in a third, in a labyrinth pattern, one read Sancta ecclesia (ibid., 9710); a play of letters formed the inscription Marinus sacerdos (ibid., 9711). The mosaic inscription of Bishop Reparatus was later inserted there. To the northeast of O., in the locality Beni-Rached, in 1913 a large mosaic floor was found (9.40 x 5.70 m) having at its center a laurel wreath with the votive inscription placed by the donors, Florus and Matrona with their children, and the wish «cum clero tuo floresa ut hoc fieret Deus iussit». To the southwest of this dedication there then appears a second mosaic laurel wreath with the inscription « Pax ecclesiae catholicae semper » which refers to the period of the struggle against Donatism at the close of the 4th century; the first inscription suggests that at Beni-Rached too there was at that time an episcopal see (J. Carcopino, Note relative à une inscription chrétienne découverte près d'O., in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des. inscr. et belles lettres ... [1913], pp. 633-66). Three km. from O. a Christian hypogeum was found with tombs decorated with mosaics and inscriptions dated to the years 468 and 474 (CIL, VIII, 9713). There in 1850 was found the bronze lamp in the shape of a basilica, which later passed into the A. Basilewsky collection and is now in the "de l'Ermitage" museum in Leningrad (reproduced under the entry AFRICA, vol. I, col. 414).

Among the other inscriptions, now in the Museum of Algiers and coming from a chapel on the banks of the Chelif, two brick fragments are remembered in which a memoria apostolorum Petri et Pauli is recalled, ending with the expression iubente Deo et Christo, from the end of the 4th or the 5th century (CIL, VIII, n. 9714); the marble epitaph of the son of the tribune Fuscius, who died in 406 and was laid to rest near a memoria of the same apostles « apud sanctos Apostolos Petru et Paulu in nomine Dei et Cristi » (ibid., n. 9715).

Enrico Josi