ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a number of basilicas that served Arian communities. Two examples come from Vandal North Africa: The large coemeterial and martyrial basilica at Mcidfa outside Carthage and the smaller central basilica of Ammaedara, now Hadra, in what is today south-western Tunisia. The theological concept that came to be known as the Arian creed, differing from the canons of the council of Nicaea in its evaluation of the relation between God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, went through different phases. Created in the early fourth century, the concept was developed considerably and intermittently favoured by a large number of bishops in the Roman Empire and even by the imperial court itself, but finally declared heretic at the end of the fourth century. In North Africa, Arianism played only a marginal role before the Vandal kingdom was established. Arian and Nicene churches basically looked the same, both in architecture and imagery.
