Macomades was a Carthaginian and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

city in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. It was located near present-day Oum-El-Bouaghi,

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

History

Macomades was established as an inland

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...

trading post under the name ( xpu, 𐤌𐤒𐤌𐤀, "Place"). It was about from

Cirta Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria. Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia; its strategically important port city ...

. It issued its own bronze coins with an Egyptian-style god's head

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ...

and a reverse bearing either a hog and galloping

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

or a disk in a crescent, a symbol of the Punic goddess

Tanit Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon. Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...

. It was a town in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Numidia. It was overrun by the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

during the 7th-century Muslim invasion.

Religion

No later than AD256, the town was the seat of a Christian

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

. The diocese was in abeyance after the Muslim conquest of the region until it was restored by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1933 as a

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

(').1

List of bishops

* Cassius, at the council of Carthage called in 256 by Saint

Cyprian Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Christ ...

us to discuss the 'lapsed' Christians who preferred forced idolatry to

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

* Donatus, mentioned after 406, praised by

Saint Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afric ...

in '' Contra Cresconium'' for abjuring the heresy

Donatism Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and ...

* Aurelius participated in the 411 council of Carthage (where both Catholic and heretical bishops were invited) as well as his Donatist counterpart from Macomades, Sallustius * Pardalius was exiled after participating in the 484 synod of Carthage, called by the Vandal king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was m ...

, an Arian; in 487 he parttook, probably as Numidian delegate, in

Pope Felix III Pope Felix III (died 1 March 492) was the bishop of Rome from 13 March 483 to his death. His repudiation of the '' Henotikon'' is considered the beginning of the Acacian schism. He is commemorated on March 1. Family Felix was born into a Roman s ...

's Lateran Council. * Florentino Armas Lerena (8 April 1967 25 November 1979), while first

Bishop-Prelate In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an Holy Orders, ordained Minister (Catholic Church), minister who holds the fullness of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, sacrament of Holy orders in the Catholic Church, holy orders and is responsible ...

Territorial Prelature of Chota The Territorial Prelature of Chota ( la, Praelatura Territorialis Chotensis) is a Roman Catholic territorial prelature, an administrative division not within a diocese, located in the city of Chota in the Ecclesiastical province of Piura Pi ...

and still on emeritate * Ricardo Watty Urquidi (27 May 1980 6 November 1989), as Auxiliary Bishop of

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, later Bishop of

Nuevo Laredo Nuevo Laredo () is a city in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Laredo, United States. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Lar ...

, Bishop of

Tepic Tepic () is the capital and largest city of the western Mexican state of Nayarit, as well as the seat of the Tepic Municipality. Located in the central part of the state, it stands at an altitude of above sea level, on the banks of the Rí ...

* Francisco Clavel Gil (from 27 June 2001), emeritus as former Auxiliary Bishop emeritus of

References

Citations

Bibliography