Aggar was a town and

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

(now titular) in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Byzacena Byzacena (or Byzacium) (, ''Byzakion'') was a Late Roman province in the central part of Roman North Africa, which is now roughly Tunisia, split off from Africa Proconsularis. History At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Dioclet ...

. One of two cities in the area, it left vast ruins that are now called (Henchir) Sidi Amara. These edifices are situated in the plain of

Siliana Siliana ( ') is a modern farming town in northern Tunisia. It is located at around , 130 km south-west of the capital Tunis. It is the capital of the Siliana Governorate. It is located 10 kilometers away from Jama where the Battle of Zama oc ...

, around 60 kilometres east of

Maktar Maktar or Makthar (), also known by other names during antiquity, is a town and archaeological site in Siliana Governorate, Tunisia. Maktar was founded by the Berber Numidians as a defense post against Carthaginian expansion. At the end of the ...

. A distinct Sidi Amara further north in Tunisia holds the ruins of the Ancient town of

Avioccala Avioccala was a Roman and Byzantine era town in the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis in northern Tunisia. The town lasted from 30BC to about 640AD, and has been tentatively identified with the stone ruins at Sidi-Amara, Tunisia. The city was ...

, located in the

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Ruins

The ruins of Aggar, whose identity is confirmed by inscriptions found there, include those of a triumphal arch opening onto a large porticoed area, with a temple behind it, which must have been the forum and the capitol. A

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

fortress, 30 m square with square, slightly projecting corner towers was built on an arcaded structure identified as a temple of Juno. Another temple of unidentified dedication adjoins this citadel. Outside the city proper stands a two-storey mausoleum of a certain C. Marius Romanus with roofing almost intact. A ruined

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

can also be seen. About 1500 metres west of the town, the wadi Jilf was crossed by a bridge originally of ten arches, of which six remain.M. H. Fantar, "Aggar" in ''Encyclopédie Berbère''
/ref>A. Ennabli, ''Aggar (Henchir Sidi Amara) Tunisia'' in ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites''
/ref>

History

Aggar appears in the ''

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin Language, Latin for 'The Peutinger Map'), also known as Peutinger's Tabula, Peutinger tablesJames Strong (theologian) , James Strong and John McClintock (theologian) , John McClintock (1880)"Eleutheropolis" In: ''The Cyclopedia of Bibli ...

'' In AD 232, Aggar was granted the rank of ''

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (: ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ('duty holders'), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privileges ...

'' (CIL VIII 1, 714),"Aggar." Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider (editors), ''Brill’s New Pauly. Antiquity volumes'' (Brill Online, 2014) Retrieved 7 October 2014
/ref> and later became a '' colonia''.

Ecclesiastical history

Aggar was among the many cities of sufficient importance in

Roman North Africa Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisi ...

to become a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

of the Metropolitan of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

, in the papal sway, but faded, plausibly at the seventh century advent of Islam. The only historically documented bishop of Aggar is Donatus, one of the Catholic bishops whom the

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established 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 ma ...

summoned to a Council of Carthage in 484 and then exiled,Stefano Antonio Morcelli
''Africa christiana''
Volume I, Brescia 1816, pp. 71–72 unlike their schismatical

Donatist Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...

counterparts (none reported from Aggar).

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1933 as a Latin

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 ...

''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 827 of Aggar (Latin = Curiate Italian) / Aggaritan(us) (Latin adjective). It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank: * Joseph Ludwig Buchkremer (28 October 1961 24 August 1986 (death)), first as

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

Diocese of Aachen The Diocese of Aachen () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church located in Germany and one of the six dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cologne. The incumbent bishop is Helmut Dieser, who was appointed by Pope Francis on 23 September ...

(Germany) (28 October 1961 4 October 1979), then as emeritate * Alfred Kostelecky (12 November 1986 10 February 1990) as Auxiliary Bishop of Wien (Austria) (12 November 1986 10 February 1990); later Military Ordinary of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

(Austria) (12 November 1986 22 February 1994), emeritate as Titular Bishop of

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; Lower_Austria.html" ;"title=".e. Lower Austria">.e. Lower Austria , ) is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administr ...

(10 February 1990 22 February 1994 (death)) * František Radkovský (17 March 1990 31 May 1993) as Secretary General of Czech Bishops' Conference (1990 7 July 1993) and Auxiliary Bishop of

Archdiocese of Prague The Archdiocese of Prague (Praha) (; ) is a Metropolitan Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. The cathedral archiepiscopal see is St. Vitus Cathedral, in the Bohemian and Czech capital Prague, entirely sit ...

(Czech Republic) (17 March 1990 31 May 1993); later Bishop of

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

(Czech Republic) (31 May 1993 12 February 2016 (retired)) * Antoni Józef Długosz (18 December 1993 ...), first as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Częstochowa (Poland) (18 December 1993 7 May 2016 (retired)), then as emeritate.

References

Sources and external links