Les deux baptistères de Sidi Jdidi (Tunisie)

The Christian topography and architecture of Sidi Jdidi (Tunisia), possibly identified as the city of Aradi, has been studied for ten years. Three churches have been completely excavated, two of them, at the northern limit of the little town, are part of the ‘episcopal group’. The third church, in the south part of the city, has been understood to be a church devoted to the cult of relics. The aim of this contribution is to describe the two baptisteries found near the apse of each basilica belonging to the ‘double church’ and to look for their meaning. Further it gives the occasion to describe the becoming of an episcopal group between the end of the fourth century and the sixth century. During the Byzantine period, a baptistery appears to have been erected near the western basilica : it has quite large dimensions and its shape, a Latin cross ended by an apse, seems original too. The piscina, at the crossing of the arms, was planned as a polylobe. An analysis of the masonry work shows that this baptistery...