TIMGAD. — This is ancient Thamugadi in Numidia, in present-day Algeria. The perimeter of the city, enclosed by a wall, was laid out by the legate L. Munatius Gallus of the Third Augustan Legion. Trajan holds the title of conditor coloniae (CIL, VIII, 1784); the city thus 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 attested by Procopius, and later occupied by the Byzantines. The Byzantine citadel was built in 539, as attested by an inscription known from two copies (E. Diehl, Inscriptions latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925–31, no. 805 and L. Leschi, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1941–42, pp. 133–34). The text begins with “Deo auctore” and states that the citadel was erected in the thirteenth year of Justinian and Theodora, under the supervision of Solomon, Prefect of Africa. To the southwest of the citadel, the patrician Gregory, Duke of Tigisis, had a chapel built around the year 645, as recorded by an inscription found on the frieze of a side door (CIL, VIII, 1782). The building, measuring 14 m × 10 m, had three naves divided by columns taken from earlier monuments. The Acta Mammarii assign to Timgad five martyrs from the time of Bishop Novatus: Crispinus, Faustinianus, Laurentius, Leucio, and Dindinus. At the Council of Carthage in 256, Novatus appears as bishop of Timgad (St. Augustine, De Baptismo, VI, 11, 17). On 8 December 320, a trial presided over by the consular Zenophilus, governor of Numidia, began in Timgad, arising from a complaint by Silvanus, the schismatic bishop of Constantine, against the deacon Nundinarius (Gesta apud Zenophilum). In 397, the Donatist bishop of Timgad, Optatus, a follower of the comes Gildo, held an assembly there, earning the epithet “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 rival 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, a basilica measuring 27.50 m × 15 m, divided into three naves by pillars and columns with a deep apse, was explored in 1903 (A. Ballu, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1904, p. 166; P. Monceaux, Timgad chrétienne, Paris 1911, pp. 24–25). Another basilica was identified in the northwest suburb; it measures 40 m × 18 m, with perimeter walls still standing up to 1.50 m in height; it was divided into three naves by ten paired columns on each side and two semi-columns, with capitals of various styles; the presbyterium, enclosed by marble screens, ended in a raised apse accessible by two small side staircases; the floor was of opus musivum; traces remain of where a wooden altar was fixed; on either side of the presbyterium were two chapels, the one on the right in communication with it; the one on the left had a floor of opus musivum and a terminal apse. To the right of the vestibule is the baptistery, rectangular with four columns and a circular piscina, accessible by two steps; it had a floor of opus musivum, of which two tendrils emerging from a vase remain. The building was surrounded by a series of other rooms, including one with a staircase leading to an upper floor; to the east of the basilica a large rectangular courtyard measuring 33 m × 18 m was identified, believed to have been a kind of cloister. In the southwest suburb, between 1906 and 1909, a grand basilica measuring 63 m × 23 m with three naves was recognized, the central one 10 m wide and the side naves 5.15 m. A series of 16 pillars supported paired columns beyond the four terminal pillars; 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 funnel for libations was fixed (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). Moreover, the remains of an inscription in opus musivum read: “Dignis digna meren(tibus coronam leg(as et) vi(va)” (in Chris). (P. Monceaux, Sur une mosaïque trouvée à T., in Comptes rendus de l’Académie des inscriptions 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 six columns each. Access to the three doors of the basilica was 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 room with rich opus musivum pavement; from the four corners acanthus tendrils emerged from a vase, forming volutes; in the center was a hexagonal piscina 1 m deep, 4 m wide, and 1.90 m long, approached by three steps covered in opus musivum with monograms of Christ at the corners, which allow a dating between the 4th and 5th centuries. The baptistery communicated with another hall measuring 9.60 m × 8 m. Perpendicular to the basilica was another rectangular chapel measuring 19 m × 17 m, entirely decorated with opus musivum, with an apse; in the Byzantine period a smaller chapel of about 10 m on each side with its own baptistery was created within II. In the middle of the nave a large stone sarcophagus containing bones was discovered. Much later, a second chapel with Byzantine characteristics was created within the nave. Beneath this chapel another, smaller one was found (18 m × 13.50 m); beneath the presumed location of the altar, three stone caskets containing reliquaries of terracotta were found, one of which bore incised motifs of Egyptian inspiration; within the chapel, attributed to the 4th century, numerous tombs were found. Near these buildings a house was identified on whose threshold, in the opus musivum pavement, was the inscription: “Haec iubente sacerdote Dei Optato perfeci.” E. Albertini proposed recognizing here the Donatist bishop Optatus (Un témoignage épigraphique sur l’évêque donatiste Optat de Thaumagadi, in Comptes rendus de l’Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1939, pp. 100–103). The entire complex of these buildings was later enclosed by a wall, and in the Byzantine period a monastery was added, of which a large courtyard measuring 42 m × 16 m was recognized, along with other smaller courtyards with porticoes and galleries, a rectangular building 23 m × 8 m, and a series of symmetrically arranged cells (H.-J. Marrou, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1932–33, p. 173 ff.).
A Christian oratory was later identified against the western curtain wall, divided into three naves by two columns on each side, with small columns supporting the altar; nearby, a series of tombs were found in the room to the north of the oratory (A. Ballu, in Bulletin archéologique du Comité, 1921, pp. LXVIII–LXXX). In the suburb to the west, a Christian cemetery in long use was identified, in which spolia material was employed. A limestone sarcophagus bore the inscription “A x 12” and the epitaph of a “Flavia Albula of good memory, placed in this sarcophagus, in which she lived for eighty-five years” (E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, Berlin 1925–31, no. 2640). The Christian necropolis at the extreme northwest end yielded a series of mostly tile-covered and anonymous tombs, with a few rare sarcophagi; a church with three naves divided by columns, but with the smaller nave on the left flanked by a courtyard with a portico full of tombs.
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Today the diocese of T. has a population of 150,000, of whom 90,029 are Catholics; it has a clergy of 94 diocesan priests and 30 religious (Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Stigmatines) serving 74 parishes. There are 63 churches with resident priests, 11 missions, 4 hospitals, 1 orphanage, 3 agricultural schools, 1 normal school for teachers, and 1 school of domestic science. The total area of the diocese of T. is 32,000 square miles.
The apostolic vicariate of Temiskaminge was erected on 22 Sept. 1908 by separation from Pembroke. It was later raised to the diocese of Haileybury, with the same boundaries, by Benedict XV on 31 Dec. 1915. The diocese of Haileybury was divided on 3 Dec. 1918 to form the dioceses of Hearst, Amos, and the apostolic vicariate of James Bay, and at the same time a portion was also given to the diocese of Trois-Rivières. On 10 Dec. 1938 the see of Haileybury was transferred to T. (Ontario) and the name of the diocese was changed to that of T.
The Gospel was first preached in the territory by Fr de Bellefeuille, a Sulpician, and by the priest Dupuy. Annual visits were then made until the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were entrusted with the territory in 1843. The greatest missionary was Fr Giovanni Nicola Laverlochere, O.M.I. The missionaries settled at Fort Temiskaminge, then moved to Ville Marie in 1886. The first apostolic vicar was Mgr Elie-Anicet Latupile.