Cartennae

Cartenna's name was variously recorded by the Greeks as Karténna (), Kártina (), Kártinna (), and Karténnai (). It was usually Latinized as Cartennae or Cartenna, but appears as Cartinna in Mela. These names seem to combine the Punic word for "city" () with a Berber placename element (), also seen in the Phoenician names for Cirta, Tipasa, and Sabratha. The name does not derive from the river but from nearby Cape Tenes. Notionally refounded as a Roman colony, it was also known as after its imperial patron. ==History==

Phoenician colony Cartennae was established as a Phoenician colony by the 8th centuryBC. It lay at the mouth of the Wadi Allala (the classical Cartennus). In addition to trading in the usual ivory, hides, and cedar of the interior, Cartennae was apparently the site of an important copper mine. Like other colonies in the western Mediterranean, Cartennae eventually fell under Carthaginian control. Roman colony After the Punic Wars, Cartennae was dominated by the Romans. The first emperor Augustus established a colony of veterans from the 2nd Legion there in 30BC and the city started to grow in importance. Augustus even founded in what is now coastal Algeria the following Roman colonies: Igilgili, Saldae, Tubusuctu, Rusazu, Rusguniae, Aquae Calidae, Zuccabar and Gunugu. All these colonies were connected to Cartennae in a military way with strong commercial links. During the centuries of Roman domination Cartennae was a rich city with a forum, theater, baths, library and aqueducts, but it was devastated during the revolt of Firmus in the years 372–375. Despite the continuation of its name in modern Ténès, identification of the site was long delayed by misinformation in surviving geographical accounts of Roman North Africa, including Ptolemy the Antonine Itineraries. Distances in the gazetteers were apparently thrown off by Ptolemy's misreckoning of longitude and by the lack of Roman roads in the area, A necropolis has been excavated and formerly served as a public park. ==Religion==

Cartennae was a Christian bishopric in antiquity and the early medieval period and was reëstablished as a Catholic titular see in the 20th century. The earliest known bishops of Cartennae were Rogatus (from whom came the name "Rogatism") and Vincentius, who espoused the belief that the church should not use force to compel orthodox belief; their arguments survive only in the form of StAugustine's invective against them. Other known bishops are Rusticus, who in 418 assisted at the disputation between Saint Augustine and the Donatist Emeritus in Caesarea in Mauretania; Victor, a contemporary of Gaiseric (and therefore of the mid-5th century) and the author of several works; and Lucidus, one of the Catholic bishops whom Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484 and then exiled. ==References==