Bagai

Coordinates: 35°32′04″N 7°07′03″E / 35.534434°N 7.1173845°E / 35.534434; 7.1173845
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bagai
Landscape around Bagai
Bagai is located in Algeria
Bagai
Shown within Algeria
LocationKhenchela Province, Algeria
RegionMaghreb
Coordinates35°32′04″N 7°07′03″E / 35.534434°N 7.1173845°E / 35.534434; 7.1173845
TypeSettlement
History
PeriodsRoman Empire, Vandal Kingdom, Byzantine Empire, Umayyad dynasty

Bagai was a

bishopric. The ancient city has been identified with ruins at Ksar-Bagaï outside of Baghai, in the Aurès Mountains of the El Hamma District in Khenchela Province, Algeria
.

Location

Bagai is a town in

Thamugadi (Timgad).[2]

6 kilometers to the south of Bagai is

Aquae Flavianae
was also near these ruins.

History

In the 2nd century, the city possessed monuments and dedications to the Roman Emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius.

Around 384,

Council of Carthage
.

The city was the most important capital in the conflict between Donatists and Catholics during the Late Empire. In the election of

Primianus of Carthage
, the region burst into flames again. The Berbers destroyed the city and ransacked the library.

In the 5th century, Baghai was invaded by the Vandals, who were later driven out by the Berbers. In 538, Guntarith, an officer of Byzantine general Solomon who reconquered the ancient Roman Africa settled his camp near the deserted city, but was defeated by the Berbers who regained control of the city, and strengthened it by surrounding it with an enclosure. It is the starting point of his second campaign in the Aurès.

In the

Fatimids took the city in 903.[5]

In 943, Abu Yazid took the city,[6][7] but after his death the city fell into the hands of the Zirids and then in 1015 to the Hammadids. The latter attacked the inhabitants of the city. Subsequently, the Banu Hilal destroyed the whole city.

Al Idrissi
mentions that there was a double wall around the city in his writings before it was destroyed.

Etymology

The city was called by Augustine Vagaïa. Procope of Caesarea transcribed it Bagaè[8] and the Arab historians (Ibn Khaldun, Al-Bakri, etc.) wrote Baghaïa.

Bishopric

Bagai was the

bishopric in Numidia, and a center of Donatism
.

Bagai was the home of Donatus of Bagai fl 347[9] and Marculus of Bagai fl 347.[10][11] Augustine wrote of many leading citizens of Bagai.[12]

In 340 Bagai was the site of a massacre by imperial legate Macarius which forever fractured the possibility of conciliation between Donatist and Catholic factions and made the schism increasingly violent.

In 401, divisions were still so strong in Bagai that when the

Donatist bishop Maximian of Bagai converted to Catholicism he was twice nearly murdered, such that Augustine
once said of him "He has more scars than limbs".

The Donatist Council of Bagai was held with 310 bishops in 394 AD. The Council of Bagai condemned Maximianist and supported Primian of Carthage as Primate of Africa.[13][14]

The

Roman Catholic Church.[15][16]

Bishops of Bagai


References

  1. ^ Huss, Werner (Bamberg), "Bagai", in: Brill's New Pauly, Edited by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider (antique), Manfred Landfester (history of recollection and science). Consulted online on 23 January 2017.
  2. ^ Vetusta Sapientia, The Election of Primian of Carthage - The Beginning of the End of Donatist Christianity, p7.
  3. ^ Vetusta Sapientia, The Election of Primian of Carthage - The Beginning of the End of Donatist Christianity, p7.
  4. ^ Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbères, édition Berti, Alger,2003
  5. ^ Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archélologique de la province de Constantine. Par Société archéologique de la province de Constantine. Publié par Alessi et Arnolet, 1874. Notes sur l'article: (year)1873–1874. page 216
  6. ^ Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbères, édition Berti, Alger,2003
  7. ^ Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archélologique de la province de Constantine. Par Société archéologique de la province de Constantine. Publié par Alessi et Arnolet, 1874. Notes sur l'article : (year)1873–1874. Page 217
  8. ^ Pierre Morizot, « A propos des limites méridionales de la Numidie byzantine », Antiquités africaines, no 35, 1999, p. 151–167
  9. ^ Augustine. letter, Parmeniani 3. 4. 21, cresconium grammaticum 3f
  10. ^ Richard M. Hogan, Dissent from the Creed: Heresies Past and Present (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2001) p109.
  11. ^ Brent D. Shaw, Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
  12. ^ Augustine. letter, Parmeniani 3. 4. 21, cresconium grammaticum 3f
  13. ^ Augustine, Contra Cresconium IV.4.5.
  14. ^ Jesse Hoover, The Contours of Donatism: Theological and Ideological Diversity in Fourth Century North Africa. (ProQuest, 2008) p231.
  15. ^ Bagai at catholic-hierarchy.org.
  16. ^ Titular Episcopal See of Bagai at catholic.org.
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