SICCA VENERIA. - It is the Roman Colonia Iulia Veneria Citta nova Sacca in proconsular Africa, today El-Kef in Tunisia.
Noted since the First Punic War (Sallust simply calls it Sicca), it was part of the Kingdom of Massinissa; it became a Roman colony under Julius Caesar and Augustus. It was a bishopric seat from the time of St Cyprian, and its prelates are known in 348, 411, 484 and 649. Today it is merely a titular see. In 1894 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 mosaic-decorated floor. In the keystone of the apse the letters DMNS (Dominus) are carved in relief, and within a crown is a Greek cross, each arm bearing one of the letters PTRS; Fr. Gauckler proposed the reading: «Dominus Christus Sanctus Petrus»; Fr. Monceaux: «Sanctus Petrus» (Fr. Gauckler, Rapport épigraphique sur les découvertes faites en Tunisie par le service des Antiquités dans le cours des cinq dernières années, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1897, pp. 412-13; Fr. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, Paris 1909, p. 202). The great mosque (Djémâa Kebira) also occupies part of a Christian basilica in the form of a Greek cross (E. Denis, Note sur une basilique chrétienne du Kef, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1893, pp. 144-45, and pl. 14). Among the Christian inscriptions may be noted one with the words «in hoc signum semper vinces A» 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. Poinsot (Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1925, p. 100). Notable is a metal amulet found at El-Kef, now in The Hague, on one side of which is written around an owl: «Id non praevales infaustum ligabit te brachium Dei, Quiriae in Deo vivas» and on the other a deprecatory formula against envy ending «Quiriae, satamalina non tibi praevalent. Ligabit te brachium Dei et Christi et signum sigillum Salomonis». St Arnobius the Elder was born at S. (v.).