Milevum
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Milevum is the Latin name of a Catholic (now titular) Ancient episcopal see in the Roman province of Numidia.
[edit] History
In Ptolemy's "Geography", IV, iii, 7, the city is mentioned under the name of Mileum or Mireon. During the Roman era it was called Colonia Sarnensis Milevitana, after the River Sarnus in Campania, whence the colonists had emigrated. This name is often found in the inscriptions of the city.
Together with Cirta, Collo and Rusicade, Milevum formed the confederation known as the Four Colonies, the territory of which was very extensive.
In the sixth century the Byzantine Emperor Justinian had Milevum enclosed by a fortified wall, which still stands and forms a rampart for the Arab city of Milah (Diehl, "L'Afrique byzantine", Paris, 1896, 603 sq.).
Milevum, modern Arabic name Milah, was under French colonial rule a city in the department of Constantine in Algeria, with in the early 20th century 8000 inhabitants, 400 of whom are Europeans.
It has yielded quite a number of Latin inscriptions from this city and a colossal statue of Saturn.
[edit] Eccesiastical history
Two councils were held at Milevum, one in 402 and the other in 416.
The second appealed to Pope Innocent I for the repression of the Pelagian heresy. Among the bishops of this titular see were Pollianus, present at the Council of Carthage in 255 and martyred two years later; St. Optatus, noted for his work against the Donatists, died circa 385, and commemorated on 4 June; Honorius; Severus, fellow-countryman and friend of St. Augustine Benenanus (484); Restitutus, who attended the Fifth Œcumenical Council in 553.
[edit] Source
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
