Cuicul (Djemila). A city in a mountainous region of northwestern Numidia (Algeria), situated on a rocky spur between two streams, the Guergour and the Betame, above the main road between the Roman provinces of Africa and Mauretania. Formerly a Berber fort, and then dependent on Cirta (Constantine), Cuicul was made a Roman colony by the emperor Nerva (AD 96-98). It owned fertile wheat-growing land, and in the second century, enlarged by the immigration of Romanized Berbers, became an imposing city. Under the rule of the African Septimius Severus (193-211) and his son Caracalla (211-17) it produced a number of their principal advisers and governors.

Important remains survive. The town plan has become clear from recent excavations; in contrast to the camp-like regularity of other towns, it is improvised to fit the cliff-top site. The forum and adjacent public buildings, including a market, can be seen. Houses with splendid and distinctive mosaic pavements of which the most famous is a hunting scene from the 'House of Bacchus,' testify to continuous occupation from the second to the fourth or fifth century. At the height of the city's prosperity, before and after 200, its dimensions were enlarged to include new areas outside the old walls and extended up the slopes of an adjacent hill. These quarters contain a theater, large baths of the reign of Commodus (AD 180-92), arches of different epochs, and temples of Saturn and the Severan dynasty, close to an extensive additional forum. An earthquake in 365 caused major damage, but new buildings were very soon erected. A Christian quarter contains two basilicas, a baptistery, and a palace for the bishops, one of whom attended the Carthage Council in 256. In the fifth century the city declined, though a bishopric still existed in 553.