Timgad

TIMGAD. - It is the ancient Thamugadi in Numidia, in present-day Algeria. The legate L. Munatius Gallus of the III Augustan Legion laid out its perimeter, enclosed by a wall. Trajan bears the title of conditor coloniae (CIL, VIII, 1784); the city in fact took the name Colonia Ulpia Thamugadis ex Numidia and belonged to the Papiria tribe.

The city was devastated by the Moors in the first half of the 6th century, as Procopius attests, and then occupied by the Byzantines. The Byzantine citadel was built in 539, as is attested by the inscription, known from two copies (E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925-31, no. 805, and L. Leschi, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1941-42, pp. 133-34). The text beginning "Deo favente" declares that the citadel was erected in the thirteenth year of Justinian and Theodora, under the direction of Solomon, prefect for Africa. To the southwest of the citadel the patrician Gregory, duke of Tigisi, had a chapel built around the year 645, as the inscription found on the frieze of a side door recalls (CIL, VIII, 1782). The building, measuring 14 x 10 m, had three naves divided by columns taken from earlier monuments. The Acta Monmarli assign to T. five martyrs from the time of Bishop Novatus, namely Crispinus, Faustinianus, Laurentius, Leucius and Ziddinus. In the Council of Carthage of 256, Novatus appears as bishop of T. (St. Augustine, De Baptismo, VI, 11, 17). On 8 December 320 the trial presided over by the consular Zenophilus, governor of Numidia, began at T., on the complaint lodged by Silvanus, schismatic bishop of Constantine, against the deacon Nundinarius (Gesta apud Zenophilum). In 397 Optatus, Donatist bishop of T., held a meeting at T.; he was a satellite of the comes Gildo, so much so that he was called Gildonianus (St. Augustine, Contra ep. Parmeniani, 2, 2, 4; 22, 42; De Baptismo, 2, 11, 16; Contra litteras Petiliani, 1, 10, 11; 24, 26; Contra Cresconium, 3, 60, 66; 4, 24, 31; Gesta cum Emerito, 9). In 411 the Catholic bishop Faustinianus had as his opponent the Donatist Gaudentius (P. Monceaux, Le dossier de Gaudentius, évêque donatiste de T., etc., in Revue de théologie, 31 [1907], pp. 111-33). In 484 Secundus was bishop. In the suburb to the northeast of the city, in 1903, a basilica measuring 27.50 x 15 m was explored, divided into three naves by piers and columns, with a deep apse (A. Ballu, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1904, p. 166; P. Monceaux, T. chrétien, Paris 1911, pp. 24-25). Another basilica was identified in the northwest suburb; it measures 40 x 18 m, with the perimeter walls still preserved to a height of 1.50 m; it was divided into three naves by ten paired columns per side and by two half-columns, with capitals of various styles; the presbytery, enclosed by marble cancelli, ended in a raised apse reached by two small side stairs; the floor was mosaic; the impressions remain of the place where the wooden altar was fixed; at the sides of the presbytery were two chapels, the one on the right in communication; the one on the left with a mosaic floor and a terminal apse. To the right of the vestibule is the baptistery, rectangular with four columns and a round piscina, reached by two steps; it had a mosaic floor of which two vine shoots issuing from a vase remain. The building was surrounded by a series of other rooms, among which one equipped with a staircase that led to the upper floor; to the east of the basilica a large rectangular courtyard of 33 × 18 m has been recognized, in which a kind of cloister has been thought to be identified. In the southwest suburb, between 1906-1909, a grand basilica of 63 × 23 m with three naves was recognized, the central one 10 m wide and the lesser ones 5.15 m. A series of 16 piers supported paired columns beyond the four terminal piers; the capitals were Corinthian; beneath the floor a series of tombs. Above a stone sarcophagus, the lid was fitted with a hole in which a kind of metal strainer was fixed for libations (H.-J. Marrou, Survivances païennes dans les rites funéraires des donatistes, in Hommages à J. Bidez et à F. Cumont [Collection Latomus, 2], Brussels 1949). Furthermore, the remains of a mosaic inscription "Dignis digna merentibus coronam legas et vi(va)s i(n Chris)to". (P. Monceaux, Sur une mosaïque trouvée à T., in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des inscr. et belles lettres, 1913, pp. 381-384). The façade was preceded by a square atrium 23 m on each side, with four porticoes supported by 6 columns per side. Access to the three doors of the basilica was gained by three steps; in the center of the atrium was a square basin with its water supply conduit. From the atrium one entered the baptistery, consisting of a rectangular hall with a rich mosaic floor; from the four corners acanthus shoots started from a vase, forming volutes; in the center the hexagonal piscina was 1 m deep, 4 m wide and 1.90 m long, and one descended into it by three steps covered in mosaic and with monograms of Christ at the corners, which allow dating between the 4th and 5th century. The baptistery was in communication with another hall measuring 9.60 × 8 m. At right angles to the basilica was another rectangular chapel measuring 19 × 17 m, entirely decorated with mosaics, with an apse; in the Byzantine period a smaller chapel about 10 m on each side was made within it, with its own baptistery. In the middle of the nave a large stone sarcophagus containing bones was discovered. Much later a second chapel was made in the choir, displaying the characteristics of the Byzantine age. Beneath the chapel another one of smaller dimensions was found (18 × 13.50 m); there, beneath the place where the altar is presumed to have stood, three stone caskets were found containing terracotta reliquary vessels, one of which bore engraved motifs of Egyptian inspiration; within the chapel, attributed to the 4th century, there were numerous tombs. Near these buildings a house was identified on whose threshold, in the mosaic floor, was the inscription: "Haec iubente sacerdote Dei Optato perfecit". E. Albertini proposed recognizing in it the Donatist bishop Optatus (Un témoignage épigraphique sur l'évêque donatiste Optat de Thamugadi, in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscr. et belles lettres, 1939, pp. 100-103). The whole complex of these buildings was then surrounded by an enclosure, and in the Byzantine period a monastery was added, of which a large courtyard of 42 × 16 m was recognized, along with other smaller courtyards, with porticoes and galleries, a rectangular building of 23 × 8 m and a series of cells arranged symmetrically (H.-J. Marrou, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1932-33, p. 173 ff.).

A Christian oratory was then identified against the enclosing wall in the western part, divided into three naves by two columns per side, and with small columns to support the altar; nearby, a series of tombs, also in the room to the north of the oratory (A. Ballu, in Bulletin archéol. du Comité, 1921, pp. LXVIII-LXXX). In the suburb to the west a Christian cemetery was identified, in use for a long time, in which spolia material was employed. A limestone sarcophagus bears engraved the A × Ω and the epitaph of a "Flavia Albula bonae memoriae in eo sarcofago constituta in quibus vixit annis octoginta quinque" (E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925-31, no. 2640). The Christian necropolis at the northwest end has yielded a series of tombs mostly of the cappuccina type and anonymous, a few rare sarcophagi; a church with three naves divided by columns, but with the lesser nave on the left flanked by a courtyard with a portico full of tombs.

In 1919 in a chapel a limestone stone was found with the following inscription: "B(onis) B(ene sit) | et gaudete Petrus et Lazarus | rogo te | Domine | subveni | Criste tu | solus meldicus sanctis et Penitentibus amaire mani(bus) | et pedibus Dei" (J. Carcopino, L'invocation de T. au Christ médecin, in Rendiconti della Pont. Accad. rom. di arch., 3rd series, 5 [1926-27], pp. 79-87; there the previous bibliography, furthermore P. Debauhhtay, L'invocation au Christ médecin de T., in Serta Leodensia, Liège 1930, pp. 31-32). The explorations have brought to light a rich harvest of Christian terracotta lamps with representations of the monogram 𐤁, both simple and with the letters A and 𐤁, of crosses, of palmettes, of vases, of fish, of peacocks, of deer, of doves, of Eve and the serpent, of the sacrifice of Abraham, of the Savior and also of the apostle Paul. Singular is a bronze lamp with a support (43 cm. high with a base formed by three lion's paws, and a limestone vase on which one reads "B(onis) × B(ene) × (hoc) urceum Tiburium Fortunatus fecit" (P. Monceaux, T. chrétien, Paris 1911, pp. 46-47). - See plate XI.

Enrico Josi