TEBESSA

TEBESSA. – Theveste, a city and ancient diocese situated in Proconsular Africa, present-day Algeria, is now a titular see.

From the beginning of the reign of Tiberius until the Flavians, T. was the seat of the III Augusta Legion. In 508 T. was occupied by the Vandals, as attested by an inscription (CIL, VIII, 16516; S. Gsell, Les monum. ant. de l'Algérie, II, Paris 1901, p. 273, no. 1). Around 535 another inscription records that T. “a fundamentis aedificata est” by the Byzantine commander Solomon (CIL, VIII, 16507). At that time the city was fortified and enclosed by walls with 14 towers and three gates (Ch. Diehl, L'Afrique byzant., Paris 1896, pp. 186–90). Among the known bishops of T., the first is Lucius, present at the Council of Carthage in 256, condemned to the mines of Sigus in 257 and later buried in the areas of Faustus at Carthage; a Romulus Tebestianus was bishop in 348; in 411, at the Conference of Carthage, there was the bishop Urbicus; the epitaph of Palladius, who was bishop for 12 years, is known (CIL, VIII, 2009); Felix was bishop in 484. In the year 883 T. was still a bishopric. Among the martyrs of T., the best known are: Maximilian, martyred on 12 March 295, whose remains were brought to Carthage by the matron Pompeiana and deposited

(from Serès De Roch, Tébessa, Algori 1928, plan f. l.)
TEBESSA - Plan of the Christian basilica with its annexes (4th–6th centuries). The course of the cemetery gallery beneath the buildings is noteworthy.

near those of s. Cipriano (BHL, 5813; H. Delehaye, Les Passions des mart. et les genres litt., Bruxelles 1921, pp. 104–10). Crispina, wealthy and noble, a mother of a family, born at Tagura, was martyred at T. in the time of the proconsul Anullinus on 5 December 304. s. Agostino repeatedly praises her (In Psalm., 120 and 137; PL 37, 1616–17; 1775, 1777, 1783; Sermo 286, 2; PL 38, 1298; Sermo 354, 5; ibid., 39, 1565; De virgin., 44, in CSEL, 41, 5, 3, p. 290; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Osservaz. sopra gli atti di s. Crispina, in Nuove note agiorg. [Studi e testi, 9], Roma 1902, pp. 21–35; 79–80). Near T. an inscription was found reading: «(memoria) Sanctae Crispinae martiris» (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigr. chrét. d'Afrique, Parigi 1908, n. 337). In front of the monumental entrance to the great basilica, in 1944, a staircase was discovered leading, at a depth of 9 m., into a gallery more than 200 m. long, reaching a trefoil chapel with a skylight and many tombs; in the pavement there are two formae, one bearing the mosaic inscription of a Gaudentia; in the apse, two raised tombs form an altar. In the walls of the gallery, the loculi are closed with tiles, one of them with a marble slab bearing the inscription «SVREIA IN PACE». The foundations of the basilica blocked the galleries of the hypogeum. Beneath the eastern trefoil chapel, a Christian cemetery was discovered, in which the following mosaic inscription was read inside a wreath commemorating «XI K(al). Ian(uaria) memoria sanctorum Heracli, Donati, Zebrocis, Secundiani, Victoriani, Publiciae, Meggenis» and below «Novellus diaconus votum»; to the left of the wreath one reads «Donatus lector in pace»; to the right «Victor diaconus in pace» and above «Ieta memoriam si quia violaverit viola(b)it illum Deus». The large building discovered in 1858 on the road between T. and Sicca Veneria was explored between 1888 and 1892; since it lay outside Solomon’s citadel, it was enclosed within a solid trapezoidal wall flanked by towers, 180 m. long and 90 m. wide. A large staircase led to a quadriporticus with columns having bases and Corinthian capitals, with a fountain in the centre; through three doors one entered the basilica, divided into three naves by pillars fronted by columns; above it rose a second order. The end of the central nave was closed by a series of vertical slabs with small pillars, with a free passage 1.20 m. wide in the centre. At the back of the apse, the base for the cathedra was found; the entire pavement consisted of geometric mosaics. To the right of the basilica are a baptistery and a staircase of 12 steps leading into a three-apsed room, with a floor of ornamental mosaics, walls faced with marble, and vaults decorated with mosaics of glass tesserae. Four carved pillars adorned with vine tendrils, fish, etc., were found there. In front of the left apse, a mosaic with a male orant and an inscription dated 508 was found; near the staircase, a marble sarcophagus was discovered, with three allegorical figures interpreted in various ways (S. Gsell, Musée de T., Parigi 1902; G. Wilpert, La chiesa rom. nel Sarcofago di T., in Riv. arch. crist., II [1934], pp. 249–64; id., Sarcofagi, III, pp. 57–62).

(phot. Apt)

TEREI, saints, martyrs - Excavations at the «martolet» (1945). On the right, the architect L. Blondel indicates the site of one of the pits where Bishop Teodulo of Octodurus is said to have deposited the bones of the martyrs of Agaunum, according to the account of Eucherius. The apse is that of the basilica built by s. Sigismondo (515) - St-Maurice.

(phot. Mas)