Gaumer explores the relationship between Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and Cyprian of Carthage (200-258), but is primarily concerned with the authority and influence of Cyprian in late antique
Roman Africa and with the battles that occurred in a long struggle over the right for various Christian factions and their government allies to stake an exclusive claim to orthodoxy and tradition established by Cyprian.
Christianity in
Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs.
Two collections of his influential studies on the environment and the social groups in North Africa were published in 1995, and in 2011 his new pathbreaking book on religious violence and martyrdom in late
Roman Africa won several scholarly awards.
Synopsis: Using a combination of literary and archeological evidence, "Christianity in
Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs" is an in-depth, profusely illustrated compendium laying out and documenting the development of Christian practices and doctrine in
Roman Africa (contemporary Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) from the second century through the Arab conquest in the seventh century.
Augustine, the celebrated bishop of Hippo in
Roman Africa from 395 to 430, thought the cloud had already moved from the horizon to the center of his Mediterranean sky, overshadowing, indeed threatening, his "City of Man."
Augustine, a fifth-century bishop of Hippo in
Roman Africa, became intrigued by Mani's idea, studied it exhaustively, and finally repudiated it as heretical.
Augustine and Catholic Christianization; the Catholicization of
Roman Africa, 391-408.
The French, Spanish and Italian republics of the 16th to 18th centuries all had strong links to the area and, before that, this was the heartland of
Roman Africa.
Dr Divya Tolia-Kelly, Lecturer in Geography at Durham University said: "The 'Romans' who lived on the Hadrian's Wall Frontier certainly weren't all from Rome, and through telling their stories we hope to show what a culturally diverse place the North of England was at this time." The exhibition will include artefacts relating to Septimius Severus, a Roman Emperor born in Leptis Magna, one of the colonised cities of
Roman Africa. Severus came to the North East of England to campaign against the tribes north of the Wall.
In the third essay of this section, David Riggs looks at the Christianization of rural communities in
Roman Africa. He suggests that the conventional picture of simple, passive peasants coerced to accept Christianity is inaccurate.