Icosium

Icosium
Shown within Algeria
Location Algeria
Region Algiers Province
Coordinates 36°46′35″N 3°03′31″E / 36.7763°N 3.0585°E / 36.7763; 3.0585

Icosium was a Phoenician, Berber and Roman city and bishopric (now a Latin titular see) in the casbah area of Algiers.[1]. In Icosium was created a Roman colonia in Romano-Berber Africa from Augustus times[2]

History

A 'roman veterans' colony was founded at Icosium during the reign of Juba II (Plin. HN 3,19; 5,20). Under Vespasian, the city became a "Colonia Latina" (CIL VIII Suppl. 3, 20853).Brills N.P. [3]

According to Greek myth, Icosium was founded by 20 companions of Hercules,[4] the Greek name, Ικοσιον, being claimed to derive from εικοσι, the Greek word for twenty.

However, the settlement was occupied by Punic settlers from at least as early as the 3rd century BC. They called it Yksm, which is believed to have meant "seagull's island", and which was eventually transcribed as Icosium in Latin.[4] The original Punic name is reflected in the modern Arabic name for Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر‎, pronounced Al Jaza'ir), which means "the islands" .

Icosium remained a small trading post in the Phoenician and Carthaginian periods. In 146 BC, Icosium became part of the Roman Empire. The berber revolt of Tacfarinas damaged the city, but soon Icosium was repopulated with some roman colonists. The city was given Latin rights by emperor Vespasian. Roman Icosium existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city of Algiers.[5] The rue de la Marine follows the lines of what used to be a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun.[6]

Algiers presents but few Roman remains; and it is still uncertain what name it bore under Latin sway, some thinking it "Icosium", and others Jomnium. Mr. Blofeld says that there are Roman ruins on the banks of the Savus (Haratob), south-east of Algiers; and he thinks this more probably the site of Icosium than Algiers. Mr. Berbrugger mentions the remains of a Roman via, Rue de la Marine, near the port of the capital, which he thinks must have corresponded in most respects with the old Moorish harbour before 1830. Mr. S. Marie informs us that at the quarter of the Gate of Victory, in the old town, there stood on one side of the gate, in 1845, a fountain of white marble, constructed among the ruins of a Roman aqueduct. — John Reynell Morell

Roman colonists settled in Icosium under Augustus and -after was promoted to Roman colonia by Vespasian- latin was the language spoken in the city in the first century AD. In the following century many Berbers settled in the growing city and latin started to lose importance as the main language spoken, remaining only the language of the ruling elite.

Christianity started to be worshipped in the late 2nd century, and in the early 4th century was the main religion of the local Romanised Berbers in the city. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century.[7] At the Christian council of Carthage in 419 AD (promoted by Saint Aurelius) went the bishop Laurentius "Icositanus", as representative of Mauretania Caesariensis: Saint Augustine wrote about him in his letter 209, sent to Pope Celestine I.[8]

Icosium remained part of the Roman Empire until the 5th century AD, when it was conquered by Vandals in 430 AD. But in 442 AD, an agreement between the Roman empire and the Vandals allowed Icosium to be occupied by the Romans during the Vandal control of northern Mauretania Caesariensis. Some berber tribes took control of the city at the beginning of the 6th century, but the town was later reconquered by the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). It happened just before the Arab conquest in the late 7th century. The city was given Latin rights by Roman emperor Vespasian.

The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century. It remained part of the Roman Empire until the 5th century AD, when it was conquered by Vandals. The town was later reconquered by the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) before the Arab conquest in the 7th century.

Icosium was then destroyed by the Arabs and reduced to a very small village in the 8th century: most of the romanized inhabitants were killed or sent as slaves to Damascus. Until 950 AD only ruins remained of the Roman Icosium.

The Roman town stretched out along the coast with the hill behind it. It was protected by a rampart with towers. Parts survive today in several places...the fortifications enclosed part of the modern kasbah to the SW and the Bab-el-Oued district (of Algiers) to the NE. They extended as far as the former Bresson square to the SE. Outside, villas surrounded by gardens were located on the coastal plain and, more often, on the sides of the hills. The villas have produced sculptures: two female heads, a statue of Pomona, another statue of a female deity, a head of the emperor Hadrian; all are in the Algiers Museum. Inside the lower town, which was densely populated, a network of streets at right angles to each other formed insulae. Their plan can often be traced in the modern urban grid. The decumanus maximus followed the modern Bab-Azoun street...Of the monuments discovered or noted inside the town, the public baths are of particular importance. Four cisterns placed side by side and two ornamental mosaics indicate that a first bath building was under the old cathedral. A second was located under the former church of Notre Dame des Victoires. A third has been discovered in the suburbs to the SE, near the Jardin d'Essai. According to the inscription (CIL VIII, 9256), a mithraeum no doubt existed. No church is known, but t capitals and a fenestella confessionis (at the Algiers Museum) indicate the presence of an edifice for Christian worship.M.Leglay

Only in the 10th century started to be again developed (by Buluggin ibn Ziri) to what is now the capital of modern Algeria. Indeed the Casbah of Algiers (a world heritage site of the UNESCO) is founded mainly on the ruins of old Icosium. It is a mid-sized city which, built on a hill, goes down towards the sea and is divided in two: the High city and the Low city, that now are dangerously crumbling [9]

Ecclesiastical history

Circa 400 a Diocese of Icosium was established under Roman rule, which was suppressed circa 500, presumably by the Arian Vandals. Three bishops are known from antiquity.

Titular see

In 1700 the diocese was nominally restored as titular bishopric of Icosium (Curiate Italian Icosio). The incumbents, all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank, were:

On 10 August 1838 the titular see ceased to exist as the residential diocese was restored under the city's modern name as Roman Catholic Diocese of Algiers, which was promoted on 25 July 1866 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Algiers.

References

  1. ↑ Roots of Algiers (in French)
  2. ↑ Detailed map of Mauretania Caesariensis
  3. ↑ Icosium
  4. 1 2 Edward Lipiński (2004). Itineraria Phoenicia. ISBN 90-429-1344-4.
  5. ↑ Map of ancient remains in the marine quarter of Algiers
  6. ↑ El Djazaı̈r: histoire d'une cité d'Icosium à Alger
  7. ↑ Diocese of Icosium
  8. ↑ Lettera 209, 8 (in Italian)
  9. ↑ Smithsonian: Save the Casbah


Coordinates: 36°46′35″N 3°03′31″E / 36.7763°N 3.0585°E / 36.7763; 3.0585

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