Rusucurru

The martyrdom of Saint Marciana, born in Rusuccuru

Rusucurru (or "Rusuccuru") was a Roman colonia in Berber Africa. Today it is called Dellys in coastal Algeria.[1]

History

Rusucurru was a colony founded on a small Phoenician settlement by emperor Augustus.[2]

The colonia was populated by veterans of Roman legions and had a thermae with cisterns, even now partially existent.[3]

The names of certain localities on the coast between Icosium (Algiers) and Saldae (Bedjai)—Cissi, Rusucurru, Iomnium, Rusippisir, Ruzasus—are known from ancient itineraries and geographers.... At Dellys practically nothing remains of the ancient town. It has been covered by the settlement which has expanded since the beginning of the French colonization. Perseus [4]

Christianity appeared in the early third century and quickly grew in importance: Saint Marciana -who was martyred in 303 AD- was born in Rusuccuru[5] During the persecutions of Christians by Roman Emperor Diocletian, she was accused of having smashed a statue of Diana. Marciana was thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Caesarea. She was gored to death by a bull and mauled by a leopard.[6]

The Vandals conquered temporarily the city, but the Byzantines in 533 AD expelled them and reinstated the roman way of life. The arrival of the Arabs destroyed partially the city, but until the eighth century the city survived (with a small community of Romanised Christian Berbers). In the last centuries of existence, Rusuccuru became an episcopal see. The names of a few of its bishops are known:[7]

No longer a residential see, the bishopric of Rusuccuru is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.[8]

After the tenth century Rusucurru disappeared until the nineteenth century, when the French colonists recreated a village near the small port of Tedelles in 1845[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Journal officiel algérien n° 65-100 du 7 décembre 1965 Décret n° 65-246 du 30 September 1965, with changes in the names of Algerian municipalities; p 1063 and after
  2. ↑ Detailed map showing Rusucurru near Icosium (Algiers)
  3. ↑ Map showing the roman city of Rusucurru
  4. ↑ Rusuccuru
  5. ↑ Marciana of Mauretania Saint Marciana
  6. ↑ St. Marciana - Catholic Online
  7. ↑ Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 268
  8. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 961
  9. ↑ JP Laporte. Enc. Berbere: Dellys/Rusucurru ()

Bibliography

See also