Sicca Veneria

SICCA VENERIA. - It is the Roman Colonia Iulia Veneria Cirta nova Sicca in proconsular Africa, today El-Kef in Tunisia.

Known from the time of the First Punic War (Sallust refers to it simply as Sicca), it was part of the Kingdom of Masinissa; it became a Roman colony under G. Caesar and under Augustus. It was an episcopal see from the time of St. Cyprian, and its prelates are known in 348, 411, 484 and 649. Today it is only a titular see. In 1894 the rev. Guidicelli excavated the great church of Dar-el-Kouss, with three doors leading into three naves, separated by 2 rows of 7 paired columns, with a floor decorated with mosaics. On the keystone of the apse the letters DMNS (Dominus) are carved in relief, and within a wreath is a Greek cross bearing on each of its arms one of the letters PTRS; p. Gauckler proposed the reading: « Dominus Christus, Sanctus Petrus »; p. Monceaux: « Sanctus Petrus » (p. Gauckler, Rapport épigraphique sur les découvertes faites en Tunisie par le service des Antiquités dans le cours des cinq dernières années, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1897, pp. 412-13; P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, Paris 1909, p. 202). The great mosque (Djemâa Kebira) also occupied part of a Christian basilica with a Greek cross plan (E. Denis, Note sur une basilique chrétienne du Kef, in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1893, pp. 144-45, and pl. 14). Among the Christian inscriptions are remembered the one with the words « in hoc signum semper vinces Aio » written around a cross (CIL, VIII, 1767); the sepulchral ones are in CIL, VIII, 1768 ff.; one with the expression « in hoc loco quiebit » for « quievit » was published by L. Poinsoot (Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1925, p. 100). Noteworthy is a metal amulet found at El-Kef, now at The Hague, on one side of which is written around an owl: « Id non praevales inf(austum) ligabit te brachium Dei, Quiriace in Deo vivas » and on the other a deprecatory formula against envy ending « Quiriace, satamalina non tibi praevalent. Ligabit te brachium Dei et Christi et signum sigillum Salomonis ». At S. Arnobius the Elder was born (v.).

Enrico Josi