Zattara Explained

Zattara was an ancient Roman and Byzantine town in the Africa province. It was located in present-day Kef ben-Zioune, south-east of Calama, Algeria. The city was a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.

Zattara was a Roman municipality. Its stone ruins cover an area of fifteen hectares, hemmed in by the foothills of Kef Rih-west Hills and bounded on one side by a deep wadi ravine. A necropolis was also situated to the west. The edifices were destroyed in Roman times, but rebuilt by the Byzantines.

The citizens of the town seemed to serve in 6th legion (victrix).^[1]

There are many inscriptions at Zattara.^[2] Among these inscriptions is an important one attesting to its status as a municipium, which reads municipii Zat(taresis) porticu et rostris.^{[3] [4]}

Bishopric

The town was also the seat of an ancient bishopric in the province of Numidia.^[5] It was founded around 400AD but ceased to effectively function with the coming of Islam in the 7th century. The see was nominally refounded in 1927^[6] and remains a titular today.^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

Known bishops

• Licentius Council of Carthage (411) fl.411. (Donatist)^[11] fl411.
• Gennaro or Januarius (fl 484) participated in the Council of Carthage (484) under the Vandal king Huneric and was one of the four prelates who presented the Arian king of the profession of the Catholic-faith African bishops.
• Felice (525–535) (Catholic)^[12]
• Cresconio (fl. 553) attended the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.
• Anton Oomen (1929–1957).
• Arthur Douville (1967–1970).
• Tadeusz Werno (1974–2022).

Notes and References

1. Vivien G.. Swan. Vivien G. Swan. 1992 . Legio VI and its Men: African Legionaries in Britain. Journal of Roman Pottery Studies. 5. 1–34.
2. Samuel Ball Platner, Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2015) p 586.
3. Anthony R. Birley, The Roman Government of Britain (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005) p202.
4. J. B. Bury, "A Lost Caesarea", The Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 1, No. 1 (1923), pp. 1–9.
5. Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae Volume 3 (Straker, 1843)p229.
6. http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t2004.htm Zattara
7. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013)
8. J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, (Paris 1912), p. 398.
9. H. Jaubert, "Anciens évêchés et ruines chrétiennes de la Numidie et de la Sitifienne" (Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine, vol. 46, 1913), p. 105.
10. Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, (Brescia 1816), p. 188
11. Serge Lancel, Saint Augustine (Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd, 2002) p251.
12. Henri Irénée Marrou, André Mandouze, Anne-Marie La Bonnardière, Prosopographie de l'Afrique chrétienne (303–533) p443.