Tigzirt

TIGZIRT. - A modern village on the Roman ruins of Rusucurru in Mauretania Caesariensis, present-day Algeria. Rusucurru is mentioned by Pliny (Hist. nat., V, 2, 20), who attests that it obtained from Claudius the right of a city; an inscription declares it a municipium (CIL, VIII, 8995); another is dedicated to its municipium (ibid., 20710).

The Passio of St. Marciana, martyred at Caesarea, indicates Rusucurru as her homeland (Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, p. 569; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 369). In 411 the bishop Fortunatus is known; Nicellus or Nigellus was the bishop who represented the province at the Council of Carthage of 419; the Vandal king Huneric sent the bishop Mettun into exile in 484. Explorations brought to light in 1888 a large basilica whose excavation was completed in 1895. It was found between the Byzantine and the Roman enclosures; it occupies a rectangle of 38 × 21 m.; it had three naves divided by a double row of paired columns, but the central nave had its center bounded by eight pillars. The apse was raised about 1 m., it was reached by means of two stairways of four steps each, and it was separated from the nave by a row of 4 paired columns. On the two sides there opened entrances to give access to the diaconicon and the prothesis. In the center of the apse four columns arranged in a square formed the support of the ciborium erected above the altar, which must have been of wood because no trace of it remains. One entered the interior through three doors that opened onto a large atrium separated by a double row of paired columns. In the interior there were collected a series of carved pulvini representing architectural elements, monogrammatic crosses, also with the a and ω, animals, dolphins and other fish, Daniel among the lions, and a series of decorative cornices. The whole floor was covered with mosaics, among which a fragment representing a naked beardless man with one knee on the ground, his hands bound behind his back, before an altar from which flames issue, a scene interpreted as the sacrifice of Isaac. In the right nave, amid geometric mosaic decorations in the form of stars, there were two inscriptions also in mosaic; one said « Laboribus ex ultimis nomen non superest unquam, in labor est coepis sed finis cuncta decorat », the other epigraph was much more mutilated; furthermore, the remains of a fishing scene and of two large inscriptions on five lines each, perhaps in verse, have been recognized, which contained, it seems, the name of the donor Severus, who with his wife had fulfilled a vow. The left nave too had its floor covered with mosaics containing metrical inscriptions and decorations.

A characteristic of this building were the upper tribunes, which were reached by means of stairways situated on the two sides. The date of this singular basilica was fixed by P. Gavault between 432-55, but it underwent later alterations. To the north of the basilica and in communication with it is the Baptistery with a circular pool, to which one descends by three steps; two columns still in situ show that there was a baldachin.

In the southern part of the city and against the Roman enclosing wall P. Gavault recognized the ruins, now vanished, of a third building of 25 × 13 m. divided into three naves by two rows of pillars, with the central nave 5 m. wide, the right one 3 m., the left one 2.50 m.; the apse was preceded by an arch with two columns, one of which, surviving, was 3.20 m. high. In the cemetery to the east of the city P. Gavault identified a chapel of 20.10 × 11.50 m. with a raised apse, which was reached by means of three steps, and with three naves divided by pillars. S. Gsell published a Christian inscription from T. of the year 299 (Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1896, p. 217). Another inscription is to the « memoria » of a Codvultdeus who « acceptus est in pace » (E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925-31, no. 2923); there is then the epitaph preceded by the ✕ to a « Domitio Rufino magistro liberarum artium homini bono » (S. Gsell, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1896, p. 218, no. 184). In the foundation of a house a stone was found with the following inscription: « H(ic) s(ervus) X(Christi) cruore Eusebi martyria » (E. Albertini, Inscription martyrologique de T. (Algérie), in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et belles lettres, 1931, pp. 6-9). Eusebius is perhaps an African maître.

Enrico Josi