Bonchor

Bonchor is the leading figure of the Dii Mauri, the indigenous 'Moorish gods' whose collective cult survived under Roman rule in Numidia and the Proconsular province. He is best known from a third-century relief and Latin dedication found at Vaga (modern Beja, Tunisia), now in the Bardo Museum, where seven deities are carved together: Bonchor stands in the centre holding a scepter, flanked by the goddesses Vihinam and Varsissima, the healer Macurgum and the god Matilam, with the horsemen Macurtam and Iunam at the edges. His central placement and regalia mark him as the head of this local pantheon, though the meaning of his name remains uncertain.

Domains

• chief of the moorish gods

Powers

• to preside over the assembly of the Moorish gods

Sources

• Bonchor is the central and evidently pre-eminent god of the Dii Mauri, the group of seven Moorish deities named on the third-century dedication and bas-relief from Vaga (Beja) in Roman Africa.: Gabriel Camps, 'L'inscription de Beja et le probleme des Dii Mauri,' Revue africaine 98 (1954): 233-260. (secondary); Marcel Benabou, La resistance africaine a la romanisation (Paris: Francois Maspero, 1976). (secondary)