Assuras

Assuras, sometimes given as Assura and even shortened to Assur (not to be confused with the Assyrian capital Ashur), was a town in the Roman province of Proconsular Africa.

Ruins of its temples and theatres and other public buildings are at Henchir-Zenfour.

Bishopric

At an early stage Assuras became the centre of a Christian diocese. Records are extant of the names of seven of its bishops. The first of these is Fortunatianus. He was deposed because of defecting from the Catholic faith in the Decian persecution. Saint Cyprian of Carthage speaks of him in a letter that he wrote to the Christians of Assuras in about 252, which shows that he tried to recover the see from which he had been driven. He was replaced by Epictetus, who died before 256, the year in which his successor Victor took part in a council at Carthage convoked by Cyprian to deal with the problem of the lapsi.

Praetextatus was at the council held at Cabarsussi in 393 by a breakaway group of Donatists led by Maximianus and signed its acts. The participants were condemned in the following year by a council that the main Donatist body, which recognized Primianus as Bishop of Carthage, held at Bagai.Saint Augustine says Praetextatus was one of the twelve bishops who consecrated Maximianus as Bishop of Carthage.