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4- R E L I G I O U S P L A C E S<br />

4.15b The contents of a house-church at Cirta, North Africa-~ A.D. 303<br />

This document is apparently part of an official record of actions taken by the<br />

pagan authorities against a church in Cirta (the modern town of Constantine)<br />

during the emperor Diocletian's so-called 'Great Persecution. The list of<br />

confiscated property provides unique and detailed evidence for the material<br />

possessions of such a church at this period.<br />

See further: on the background to this persecution, Vol. 1, 242-4; Frend<br />

(1965) 477-535; on various aspects of the history and character of the document<br />

itself, Turner (1926); Barnes (1975); Lance! (1979); Barnes (1981)<br />

44-61. For a further (though abridged) extract, see Stevenson (1987) 273-5<br />

and Jones (1970) 332-5 (describing the persecutors' visits to the homes of the<br />

'readers', demanding that they hand over their texts).<br />

'Gesta apud Zenophilum', Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum XXVI (1893)<br />

186-8; j.-L. Maier, Le dossier du Donatisme I (Texte und Untersuchungen 134, Berlin,<br />

1987) 217-21<br />

In the eighth consulship of Diocletian and the seventh of Maximian on the<br />

fourteenth day before the Kalends of June , from the records of Munarius<br />

Felix, high priest for life, 1<br />

mayor of the colonia of Cirta. Arrived at the house where the<br />

Christians used to meet, Felix, high priest for life and mayor [of the town], said to Paul<br />

the bishop: 'Bring out the texts of the law and whatever else you have here, as has been<br />

instructed, so that you can obey the order.'<br />

Paul the bishop said: 'The readers 2<br />

have our texts, but we will give you what we have<br />

here.'<br />

Felix, high priest for life and mayor [of the town] said to Paul the bishop: 'Point out<br />

the readers or send for them.'<br />

Paul the bishop said: 'You know them all.'<br />

Felix, high priest for life and mayor of the town said: 'We do not know them.'<br />

Paul the bishop said: 'The municipal office knows them, that is the clerks Edusitis and<br />

Junius.'<br />

Felix, high priest for life and mayor of the town said: 'Leaving aside the matter of the<br />

readers, whom the office will point out, give us what you have.'<br />

Paul the bishop, and Montanus, Victor Deusatelius and Memorius the priests<br />

remained seated; Mars and Helius deacons stood by, as did Marcuclius, Catullinus,<br />

Silvanus and Carosus under-deacons. Jantiarius, Meraclus, Fructuosus, Miggin,<br />

Saturninus, Victor [son of Samsurictis] and the other diggers [brought forth the objects]. 3<br />

Victor son of Aufidius made the following brief record: two gold cups, also six silver cups,<br />

six silver jugs, a silver vessel, seven silver lamps, two candlesticks, seven small bronze<br />

candelabra with their lamps, also eleven bronze lamps with their chains, eighty-two<br />

women's tunics, thirty-eight cloaks, sixteen men's tunics, thirteen pairs of men's shoes,<br />

forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, nineteen rustic belts . 4<br />

112

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