Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae

Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae is a Byzantine-era document. It is a list of the bishops and their sees in the Latin provinces of North Africa.[1] The cause of its preparation was the summoning of the episcopate to Carthage, 1 February, 484, by the Arian King of the Vandals, Huneric (477–84). Arranged according to provinces in this order: Proconsularis, Numidia, Byzacena, Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis, Tripolitana, Sardinia. It names also the exiled bishops and vacant sees, and is an important authority for the history of the African Church and the geography of these provinces. It is incorporated in the only extant manuscript to the history of the Vandal persecution by Bishop Victor Vitensis.[2][3][4][5]

Description

Roman North Africa

The Notitia provinciarum and civitatum Africae is the conventional title long, in Latin but it is also known as the Notitia or Notitia Africae which is in turn, abbreviated in NA.[6] it is a record of the Bishops of North Africa[7] and represents a register of the provinces and cities of Africa, and the Organization of the Catholic Church (?) in North Africa at the end of the 5th century, an important time in the development of Catholic dogma. It also by inference describes the extent of the Vandal Kingdom at that time. The Notitia lists the Catholic Bishops (nomina episcorum catholicorum) who participated in the conference held at Carthage, February 1 484,[8] convened by Huneric.

It summarizes the total number of bishops, in North Africa, the number of those who died in the Vandal Persecution, those who remained alive and, among these those who were relegated (exciled), and those who fled (fugerunt). It lists four hundred and eighty-three dioceses in seven provinces, five of which follow the secular Roman provinces. The order of the provinces seems to follow the chronological order of the creation of the primaties.

The author of the Notitia is unknown. It having long been attributed, wrongly, to Victor of Vita,[9] and its author is designated, by convention, as the Vita Pseudo-Victor.

Bishops named in the Notitia

See also

References

  1. ↑ Victor of Vita
  2. ↑ Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae
  3. ↑ Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae
  4. ↑ Johan Leemans, Episcopal Elections in Late Antiquity (Walter de Gruyter, 2011)p485.
  5. ↑ J. D. Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver, The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 2.
  6. ↑ Klaus-Peter Johne, in dans Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider et Manfred Landfester (dir.), (Brill's, trad. de l'allemand par Christine F. Salazar et Francis G. Gentry, at brillonline.com)
  7. ↑ Notitia Africae.
  8. ↑ La Notitia comporte une erreur sur la date de la conférence, qui eut lieu le jour des calendes de février (1er février) de la huitième année du règne de Hunéric (484), et non dans la sixième année de son règne (482).
  9. ↑ Victor Vitensis, Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Africae (Centre Traditio Litterarum Occidentalium, Brepols (Firm), Brepols Publishers, 2010 )
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