Thugga

Thugga

Titular see of Numidia, perhaps the Numidian fortress of Tocai mentioned about 305 B.C. by Diodorus S iculus (XX, v, 4). King Masinissa probably captured Thugga from Carthage in the second century B.C. A pagus under Claudius I, Thugga was dependent on the Roman colony of Carthage. Under Marcus Aurelius it included a pagus and a civitas; Septimius Severus erected it into the municipium, Septimianum Aurelium liberum Thugga, which became a colony in 261 under Gallian. Justinian built a fortress there which is still partly preserved (Procopius, "De ædificiis", VI, 5). The existence of a pagus and a civitas explains why there were two bishops, Saturninus an Honoratus, who assisted at the Council of Carthage in 256. A Donatist bishop, Paschasius, went to the Council of Carthage in 411. Thugga is now Dougga, a village of Tunis, famous for Its ruins, among which are the temple of the Capitol Built under Marcus Aurelius, a theatre, three triumphal arches, Roman necropoli, and a Punic Mausoleum.

TOULOTTE, GÈog, de l'Afrique chreÈtienne, Proconsulaire, 285-88; IDEM, ByzacÈne et Tripolitaine, 208; SALADIN in Nouvelles archives des missions scientifiques, II 448-529; CARTON, Dougga (Tunis, 1911).

S. VAILHÉ