Lares, formerly a titular archiepiscopal see in pro-consular Africa. In ancient times it was a fortified town, mentioned by Sallust (Jugurtha, xc), later it received the name of Colonia A‘lia Aug. Lares. At least five of its bishops are known: Hortensian, who took part in 252 and 255 at the Councils of Carthage; Victorinus who with his Donatist colleague Honoratus figured at the conference of Carthage; Quintian who lived at the time of the persecution of Huneric (about 480); Vitulus, who was living in 525 in the time of King Hilderic. St. Augustine (Ep. ccxxix), Victor Vitensis (Hist. Pers. Vand., 6 and 9), Procopius (Bell. Vand., II, 22 and 28), also Arabian and other historians mention the town. It is the Lorbeus of to-day, between Tunis and Tebessa; the ruins cover a large area, which would indicate that once it had been a town of considerable importance. A mosque has taken the place of a church, and the ruins of a basilica are still visible.
Gams, Series episcoporum, I, 466; Toulotte, Géographie de lV Afrique chrétienne proconsulaire (Paris, 1892), 191-4.
S. Varian.