SETIF. — It is Sittifis, a Roman colony of veterans founded by Nerva in Mauretania (Algeria), called “Colonia Nerviana Augusta Martialium veteranorum Sittifensium.”
At the end of the 3rd century it became the capital of Mauretania Sitifensis (CIL, VIII, 8475-76). It suffered a violent earthquake in the time of St. Augustine. The first mention of bishops of S. occurs in a letter of St. Augustine from the year 409, where the bishop Severus is named (Ep., 111); Novatus attended the Council of 419; he is mentioned in letters 185 and 229 of St. Augustine; he died in 440, as attested by his epitaph (CIL, VIII, 8634; P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 134, no. 201). Laurence was probably the bishop who on 3 April 424 dedicated a memorial to the Roman martyr of the same name (CIL, VIII, 8630): “in hoc loco sancto deposita sunt.” Donatus was bishop in 484; Optatus around 525; Crescitura dates from the 5th or 6th century; it was still an episcopal see at the beginning of the 8th century (H. Gelzer, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2 [1893], p. 26); today S. is only a titular see. Remains of a church with a baptistery were found in S.; to the northwest of the city an oratory dedicated to the martyrs Justus and Decurius was discovered, with the inscription: “qui bene confessi vicerunt arma maligna, praemia victores Christi meruere coronam” (G. B. De Rossi, Scoperta di insigni storiche epigrafi di Milevi [Milet], di Sittif [S.], etc., in Bull. arch. crist., 2ª serie, 6 [1875], p. 171; 3ª serie, 1 [1876], tav. 3; CIL, VIII, 8631). On a brick the following inscription was found: “Hic m(e)m(oriae) s(an)(c)t(o)- rum Stefani (et) Juliani pos(itae) su(n)t XII K(a)l(en)- das apr(i)(es) N(abori) e S(an)(c)t(i) Stefani” (CIL, VIII, 8632). Other Christian sanctuaries were located north of the city of S.; inscriptions were found there in musiva (ibid., 8629, 2409; S. Gsell, Monuments de l’Algérie, II, Paris 1901, p. 256). S. had in 409 a monastery of monks and a bishop’s school (St. Augustine, Ep., 84, 1). Among the Christian inscriptions discovered is a fragment of an epitaph of a presbyter (CIL, VIII, 20411). The epitaph of the year 384 of a funerary chapel made by a certain “Flavius Eustasius” and his wife “Julia Crescentina” contains the formula “in nomine Dei et Cristi eius” (ibid., 20412). Some Christian inscriptions are inspired by the Psalms (ibid., 8621-25); one records the feast of Christmas: “Natale Domini Cristi VIII. Kal. Ianuarias” (ibid., 8628; P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 126, no. 307).
SETIF — SEVENTY VERSION
436
a sanctu Crescituru episcu(po) die III Kl aprilis amen. Vincent, Felix and Victoria are the martyrs of Abitina put to death at Carthage on 12 Feb. 304 (S. Gsell, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1899, p. 454, no. 6).
At 50 km southeast of S. at the site Henchir-el-Ateuch, a three-aisled basilica has been known since 1893 (M. Simon, Fouilles dans la basilique d’Henchir-el-Ateuch, in Mélanges d’arch. et d’hist., 51 [1934], pp. 143-77). At Guellal (the ancient Castellum Dianense) the inscription was found: “me(n)sa Migini subdiaconi die III idus iunias” (E. Albertini, Inscriptions romaines d’Algérie, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1925, p. 172, no. 3).