Beniane Explained

Official Name:Beniane
Settlement Type:Commune and town
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Pushpin Mapsize:300
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Algeria
Subdivision Name1:Mascara Province
Subdivision Type2:District
Unit Pref:Imperial
Population As Of:1998
Population Total:4530
Utc Offset:+1

Beniane (Colonial French Bénian) is a town and commune in Mascara Province, Algeria at the site of ancient Ala Miliaria, a former bishopric which earns a Latin Catholic titular see. According to the 1998 census it has a population of 4,530.[1]

History

Modern Beniane corresponds to the ancient city of Ala Miliaria in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis, which was important enough to be one of the many suffragans of the capital Caesarea Mauretaniae's Metropolitan Archbishopric.

It was the episcopal see of Mensius, one of the Catholic bishops whom the Arian Vandal king Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484 and then exiled. Archaeological excavations in the early 20th century brought to light inscriptions showing that there was a strong Donatist presence in Ala Miliaria, with bishops named Nemessanus (404-422) and Donatus (c. 439).[2] [3] [4]

Titular see

No longer a residential bishopric, Ala Miliaria is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular bishopric[5] since the diocese was nominally restored in 1933.

It has had the following incumbents, of the lowest (episcopal) rank:

Sources and external links

35.1°N 14°W

Notes and References

  1. http://www.statoids.com/ydz.html Statoids
  2. J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1912, p. 477
  3. [Auguste Audollent]
  4. Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 73
  5. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013,), p. 828