The Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae ("Notice of the Provinces and Cities of Africa") is a Byzantine-era document listing the bishops and sees in the Roman provinces of North Africa, Sardinia and the Balearics.[1] The cause of its preparation was the council of Carthage held on 1 February 484 by the Arian king of the Vandals, Huneric (477–484).
It is arranged according to provinces in the following order: Proconsularis, Numidia, Byzacena, Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis, Tripolitana and Sardinia. It also names exiled bishops and vacant sees, and is an important authority for the history of the early African church and the geography of these provinces. It is preserved in the sole extant manuscript containing the History of the Vandal Persecution by Bishop Victor of Vita.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The Notitia provinciarum and civitatum Africae is the conventional long title in Latin, but it is also known simply as the Notitia Africae (NA).[7]
The Notitia lists the Chalcedonian (Catholic) bishops (nomina episcorum catholicorum) who participated in the council held at Carthage on 1 February 484, as well as those who were victims of the Vandal Persecution and those who were exiled or fled (fugerunt). It also by implication describes the extent of the Vandal Kingdom at that time.[8]
It lists four hundred and eighty-three dioceses in seven ecclesiastical provinces, five of which correspond to Roman provinces. The order of the provinces seems to follow the chronological order of their creation:
The author of the Notitia is unknown. It has long been attributed, wrongly, to Victor of Vita, and its author is designated, by convention, as Pseudo-Victor.[9]