Lambaesis

Lambaesis

Arch of Septimius Severus.
Shown within Algeria
Alternate name	Lambaesa (Lambese)
Location	Tazoult, Batna Province, Algeria
Coordinates	35°29′20″N 06°15′21″E / 35.48889°N 6.25583°E / 35.48889; 6.25583Coordinates: 35°29′20″N 06°15′21″E / 35.48889°N 6.25583°E / 35.48889; 6.25583
Type	Settlement
History
Periods	Roman Empire
Site notes
Condition	In ruins

Lambaesis (Lambæsis), Lambaisis, or Lambaesa (Lambèse in colonial French), is a Roman ruin in Algeria, 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Batna and 17 miles (27 km) west of Timgad, located next to the modern village of Tazoult. The former bishopric is also a Latin Catholic titular bishopric.

Lambaesa was founded by the Roman military. The camp of the third legion (Legio III Augusta), to which it owes its origin, appears to have been established between 123 and 129 AD, in the time of Roman emperor Hadrian, whose address to his soldiers was found inscribed on a pillar in a second camp to the west of the great camp still extant. However, other evidence suggests it was formed during the Punic Wars.

The town is built 622 m above sea level in the plain and on the spurs of the Djebel Asker

By 166 AD mention is made of the decurions of a vicus, 10 curiae of which are known by name; and the vicus became a municipium probably at the time when it was made the capital of the newly founded province of Numidia. Lambaesis was populated mainly by Romanized Berbers and by some Roman colonists with their descendants: Latin was the official and commonly used language (even if local Berbers spoke their own language mixed with Latinisms).

III Augusta was disbanded by Gordian III and the legionaries dispersed among the North African provinces. But the legion was restored in the 250s by Valerianus and Gallienus and from then on the legion was known as Augusta Restituta. Its final departure did not take place till after 392 AD (the town soon afterwards declined).