Scillium
Encyclopedia
Scillium is the name of an ancient city and now titular episcopal see in the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, suffragan of Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

.

Perhaps the name should be written Scilium: the real name was possibly Scilli, or better, Scili.

On 17 July, 180, six martyrs (Scillitan Martyrs
Scillitan Martyrs
The Scillitan Martyrs were a company of twelve North African Christians who were executed for their beliefs on July 17, 180. The martyrs take their name from Scilla , a town in Numidia...

) suffered for the Faith at Scillium; later, a basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 in which St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 preached was dedicated to them (near Douar esh-Shott, west of the town). The Greek version of their Acts, in an addition which is later, says they were natives of "Ischle, Ischle, in Numidia". This name is a Greek transcription of Scillium. The tradition is already recorded in the primitive calendar of Carthage. The Greek compiler intended possibly to speak not of the Province of Numidia, but of the Numidian country and so would have placed Scillium in Proconsular Numidia. In an epitaph of Simitthu, now Chemtou
Chemtou
Chemtou or Chimtou is an ancient site in northwestern Tunisia, located 20 km from the city of Jendouba, near the Algerian border.Ancient Simitthu is known for its important marble quarries which were exploited from the 2nd century BC.The Chemtou Museum displays artifacts discovered in the...

, we read Iscilitana; Simitthu was certainly in Proconsular Numidia, but was Scillium near it? A definitive answer is impossible, and the exact location of Scillium is unknown.

Two of its bishops are mentioned: Squillacius, present at the Conference of Carthage, in 411; and Pariator, who signed the letter addressed in 646 by the council of the proconsulate to the Patriarch Paul of Constantinople against the Monothelites.

The town is mentioned in the seventh century by Georgius Cyprius under the name of Schele.

Scillium was the native place of St. Cucuphas, martyred at Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, and of St. Felix
Felix of Girona
Saint Feliu of Girona is a Catalan saint. He was martyred at Girona after traveling from Carthage with Saint Cucuphas to Spain as a missionary....

, martyred at Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...

.
  • Scillium must not be confounded with Silli, or Sililli, in Numidia, the situation of which is unknown nor, as Battandier does , identified with Kasrin
    Kasserine
    Kasserine is the capital city of the Kasserine Governorate, in west-central Tunisia. It is situated below Jebel ech Chambi, Tunisia's highest mountain. Its population is 76,243 . In classical antiquity it was a Roman colony known as Colonia Cillilana or plain Cillium.- See also :* Battle of the...

    , which is Cillium, a see of Byzantium.
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