Obba

This article is about the Roman town. For the fungus genus in the Polyporales, see Obba (fungus).
For the Yoruba goddess, see Oba (goddess).

Obba was a town in the Roman province of Africa and a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of Carthage (episcopal see), the Metropolitan see of the Northe African ecclesiastical province. It is also included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.[1]

Location

Obba was near Carthage,[2] in modern Tunisia, and is placed in the Roman province of Africa by the Annuario Pontificio. Sophrone Pétridès is a lone voice in placing it in the Roman province of Byzacena,[3] further south.

According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, it is the modern Ebba. (Ebba?)

Pétridès says the town was situated on the highway from Carthage to Theveste (modern Tebessa), seven miles from Lares (now Lorbeus) and sixteen miles from Altiburus (Henshir Medina).

Werner Huß sees as the most likely location modern Henchir Bou Djaoua or Henchir Merkeb en-Nabi.[4]

History

Polybius mentions the town, under the name of Abba, as the place Syphax retreated to after Massinissa and the Romans burned his camp near Utica,[5] and Titus Livius mentions it as where Syphax linked up with a body of 4000 Celtiberian mercenaries raised by Hasdrubal.[6]

Former Bishopric

A diocese was established there around 200 AD and suppressed around 600 AD. Three bishops are known:

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored as a Latin titular see circa 1890 and had many incumbents, albeit with some intervals, of the lowest (episcopal) rank (with a single archiepiscopal exception), both secular and regular :

References

Sources and External Links

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