CAPUT AFRICAE
probably an institution (paedagogium)
for the training
of imperial pages, mentioned in Reg. in
Region II and on
several inscriptions (
CIL v. 1039;
vi. 1052, 8982-8987), that may have
been named
from some monument belonging to it or in the immediate
neighbourhood.
It is quite probable that there was also a street named from
it, the vicus
Capitis Africae, running probably from the south-east end
of the Colosseum
to the Macellum Magnum, the present church of S.
Stefano Rotondo, along
the east side of the temple of Claudius. The name was
preserved by the
churches of S. Agatha and S. Stephanus in caput Africae
(HCh 165, 475),
the latter of which existed till the fifteenth century (
LPD
ii. 45;
DE i.
350-351 ; Ann. d.
Inst. 1882, 191-220 ; HJ 238-239).
