SICCA VENERIA. — This is the Roman Colonia Iulia Veneria Cirta nova Sicca in proconsular Africa, today El-Kef in Tunisia.
Known since the First Punic War (Sallustius refers to it simply as Sicca), it formed part of the Kingdom of Massinissa; it became a Roman colony under G. Cesare and Augustus. It was an episcopal see from the time of s. Cipriano, and its bishops are known in 348, 411, 484, and 649. Today it is only a titular see. In 1894 the Rev. Guidicelli excavated the large 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 are carved in relief the letters DMNS (Dominus), and within a wreath there is a Greek cross, each of whose arms bears one of the letters PTRS; Fr. Gauckler proposed the reading: « Dominus Christus, Sanctus Petrus »; Fr. 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) likewise occupied part of a Christian basilica in the form of a Greek cross (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, mention should be made of the one bearing the words « in hoc signum semper vinces Aio », written around a cross (CIL, VIII, 1767); the funerary inscriptions are in CIL, VIII, 1768 ff.; one containing the expression « in hoc loco quiebit » for « quievit » was published by L. Poinsoot (Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1925, p. 100). A noteworthy object is a metal amulet found at El-Kef, now in The Hague, on which one side bears, written around an owl: « Id non praevales inf(austum) ligabit te brachium Dei, Quiriace in Deo vivas », and on the other a formula of supplication against envy ending « Quiriace, satamalina non tibi praevalent. Ligabit te brachium Dei et Christi et signum sigillum Salomonis ». Elder (v.) was born at S.