At an early stage Assuras became the centre of a Christian
diocese. Records are extant of the names of seven of its bishops. The first of these is Fortunatianus. He was deposed because of defecting from the Catholic faith in the
Decian persecution. Saint
Cyprian of Carthage speaks of him in a letter that he wrote to the Christians of Assuras in about 252, which shows that he tried to recover the see from which he had been driven. He was replaced by Epictetus, who died before 256, the year in which his successor Victor took part in a council at Carthage convoked by Cyprian to deal with the problem of the
lapsi. Praetextatus was at the
council held at Cabarsussi in 393 by a breakaway group of
Donatists led by Maximianus and signed its acts. The participants were condemned in the following year by a council that the main Donatist body, which recognized Primianus as Bishop of Carthage, held at Bagai. The successor of Praetextatus, Rogatus, was converted to the Catholic faith some time after 397. == References ==