 Location of Saldae in the second century AD, during Hadrian's reign | |
  Shown within Algeria | |
| Location | Algeria |
|---|---|
| Region | Béjaïa Province |
| Coordinates | 36°45′00″N5°04′00″E / 36.75°N 5.066667°E /36.75; 5.066667 |
Saldae was an important port city[1] in the ancientRoman Empire, located at today'sBéjaïa (inKabylia, easternAlgeria). It was generally a crossroads between eastern and western segments of Northern Africa, from the time ofCarthage to the end of theByzantine Empire from the continent.
Saldae was first inhabited byNumidianBerbers. A minor port in Carthaginian and in earlyRoman times, it was a border town between Rome andJuba, located to the east of the ancient Berber kingdoms.
It was made officially a Roman colony -namedCivitas Salditana- during the reign ofRoman emperor OctavianusAugustus. It is mentioned inPliny the Elder'sNaturalis Historia.[2]
ThePrinceton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites reports:
The Roman period has left more abundant remains. Vestiges of the ramparts are visible at several places....Of the monuments which have been preserved or noted, particularly interesting are the remains of a temple underneath the church, built on the site of a mosque. The temple was undoubtedly near the forum, whose location is indicated by the bases of statues. In the immediate vicinity the public baths have produced a large ornamental mosaic (a piece of it is on exhibit in the church). Other public baths were on the site of the Civil Hospital. Two similar mosaics were found there; they depict heads of sea godOceanus flanked byNereids (nymphs). One is at the Algiers Museum, the other at the town hall of Béjaïa. A third public bath was located near the high school. Cisterns and basins are still visible (indeed, still in use) at several places in the upper town. They were fed by the Toudja aqueduct, which brought water from springs located 21 km to the West....West of the middle town a rounded depression has been supposed variously to have been the site of a circus, an amphitheater, and a theater. No ancient remains are known that settle the question. A single inscription (CIL, VIII, 8938) mentions "ludi circenses".Many Roman sculptures have been found in the area around the town, some carved in the rock, some found in the ground, others as sarcophagi. A sarcophagus with strigils is at the Louvre. Few sculptures come from Saldae itself, mainly some capitals and votive stelae dedicated to Saturn.[3]
The city grew in size with new buildings and the emperorVespasian settled the city with many Roman veterans, increasing its population and importance in the province ofMauretania Caesariensis, and when that was divided, in the new LateRoman province ofMauretania Sitifensis.[3]
The city was under the Romanius (law) and its citizens were endowed with full civil rights. Saldae was a center of aMauretania Caesariensis area fullyRomanised, that in the late third century was even fully Christian.
In the 3rd century AD, Gaius Cornelius Peregrinus, adecurion (town councillor) of Saldae, was atribunus (military tribune, a commander at cohort level) of the auxiliary garrison atAlauna Carvetiorum, in northernBritain. An altar dedicated by him was discovered shortly before 1587 in the north-west corner of the fort, where it had probably been re-used in a late-Roman building ([4]).
In the 5th century, Saldae became the capital of the short-livedVandal Kingdom of the GermanicVandals, which lasted about a century until 533 with theByzantine conquest, which established an African prefecture and later theExarchate of Carthage.
After the 7th-century Arab conquest, Saldae declined and had practically disappeared by the end of the first millennium.
In the 11th century, it was refounded asBéjaïa (v.) by theBerberHammadid dynasty, which made it their capital, and it became an important port and centre of culture.
With the spread of Christianity, Saldae became abishopric. Its bishop Paschasius was one of the Catholic bishops whom theArian Vandal kingHuneric summoned to theCouncil of Carthage (484) and then exiled.
Christianity survived the Arab conquest, the disappearance of the old city of Saldae, and the founding of the new city ofBéjaïa. A letter ofPope Gregory VII (1073–1085) exists, addressed toclero et populo Buzee (the clergy and people of Béjaïa), in which he writes of the consecration of a bishop named Servandus for Christian north Africa.[5][6][7]
No longer a residential bishopric, Saldae is today listed by theCatholic Church as atitular see.[8]
It has had a long list of incumbents, mostly of the lowest (episcopal) rank, a few of intermediate (archiepiscopal) rank:
This titular see has, confusingly, for a long timeconcurrently had a counterpart (also Latin) calledBugia, the Italian form of Béjaïa, the modern name of former Saldae. Thus Bugia was the alternative title borne lastly byGeorge Hilary Brown,titular bishop from 5 June 1840 until 22 April 1842, when he became residentialbishop of Liverpool.
36°45′N5°4′E / 36.750°N 5.067°E /36.750; 5.067
Romano-Berber cities in Roman North Africa | ||
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