Sululos
Sululos was a Roman era Municipium of the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis that flourished from [1] which flourished from 30 BC - AD 640.[2] The ancient town was officially known as Municipium Septimium Aurelium Severianum Apollinare Sululitanum and is tentatively identified with ruins at Bir-el-Heuch, (Bir-el-Ach)[3] 36.461372, 9.605158 in what is today Tunisia.
The town was in the region of the Merjerda (Bagrada) and Oued Miliane rivers and, 4 km north of Djebel Riban, 35 km east of Dougga and 60 km soüthwest of Tunis.
History
We know that in 168AD the city is still a civitas (town) but under Septimius Severus and Caracalla it had been raised to a municipium status.
Babelon records an aqueduct with a source in the South-Vedic area near Ain Sense, a temple and a bridge,[4] later converted into a fortress.[5] 6 kilometres north of the ruins of Bir-el-Ach, was found a Base for statue of Valentinian I (364–375) now on display at the Bardo Museum.[6]
The town was also the seat of an ancient Christian bishopric,[7][8] and one bishop is known to have attended the Council of Carthage (411). The diocese effectively ceased to function with the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb but was re-established in 1927 as a titular bishopric of the Roman Catholic Church.[9] The current Bishop is John Baptist Tseng Chien-tsi.[10][11]
References
- R.B. Hitchner, R. Warner, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, and S. Gillies, 'Sululos: a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2012
- Barrington Atlas: BAtlas 32 E4 Sululos
- About: Sululos, Bir-el-Ach
- E. Babelon - R. Cagnat - S. Reinach, Archaeological Atlas of Tunisia. Archaeological Atlas of Tunisia: special edition of the topographical maps published by the Ministry of War. Accompanied by an explanatory text written by Mm (Paris 1893);
- Anna Leone, Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest (Edipuglia srl, 2007 ) p348.
- Base for statue of Valentinian I, emperor. From Sululos (Africa Proconsularis) at Last Statues of Antiquity, Oxford University.
- Apostolische Nachfolge – Titularsitze
- Sululos at Catholic-hierarchy.org.
- Titular Episcopal See of Sululos at GCatholic.org.
- Le Petit Episcopologe, Issue 152, Number 13,374
- Titular Episcopal See of Sululos, at GCatholic,org.