View source for Thapsus

{{Short description|Ancient Punic city}}
{{About|the North African city|the medicinal herb|Verbascum thapsus|the prehistoric village in Sicily|Thapsos}}
{{Infobox ancient site
  |name = Thapsus
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  |image = Tunisia_Antica.jpg
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  |map_type = Tunisia
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  |location = [[Tunisia]]
  |region = [[Monastir Governorate]]
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'''Thapsus''', also known as '''Tampsus''' and as '''Thapsus Minor''' to distinguish it from [[Thapsos|Thapsus in Sicily]],{{sfnp|Lipiński|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC&pg=PA363 363]}} was a [[Carthaginian Empire|Carthaginian]] and [[Roman Empire|Roman]] port near present-day [[Bekalta]], [[Tunisia]].

==Geography==
Thapsus was established on [[Ras ed-Dimas]], an easily defended promontory on Tunisia's [[Mediterranean]] coast. It was near a [[salt lake]]. It was about {{convert|135|km|sp=us|abbr=on|0}} from the island of [[Lampedusa]] and approximately {{convert|200|km|sp=us|abbr=on}} southeast of [[Ancient Carthage|Carthage]].

== History ==
Thapsus was founded by the [[Phoenicians]]. It served as a waypoint on the trade routes between the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and [[Phoenicia]] and as a market for the inland products of the area.
[[Diodorus Siculus]] write that [[Agathocles of Syracuse]] conquered the city.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.perseus-grc2:20.17 Diodorus Siculus, Library, §20.17.1]</ref>

During [[Caesar's Civil War|his civil war]], [[Julius Caesar]] defeated [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica|Metellus Scipio]] and the [[Numidia]]n king [[Juba I of Numidia|Juba{{nbsp}}I]] at the costly 46{{nbsp}}BC [[Battle of Thapsus]]. Caesar exacted a payment of {{formatnum:50000}} [[sestertius|sesterces]] from the vanquished. The victory marked the end of opposition against him in Africa. Thapsus subsequently became a [[Colonia (Roman)|Roman colony]] in the [[Roman provinces|province]] of [[Byzacena]]. The town's enormous [[harbor mole|mole]] may have been begun by the local emperors {{nowrap|[[Gordian I]]}}, [[Gordian II|II]], and [[Gordian III|III]], but their reigns were too brief to have finished the work.{{sfnp|Davidson & al.|2014|p=35}} The construction may have been abandoned partway through; Thapsus was never known as a world-class port and, after the collapse of [[Thysdrus]] in the 3rd century, all the area's maritime trade is known to have occurred through the harbors at [[Sullecthum]], [[Thaenae]], [[Leptis Parva|Leptis]], and [[Gummi in Byzacena|Gummi]].{{sfnp|Davidson & al.|2014|p=38}}

== Remains ==
Thapsus's surviving ruins include an [[amphitheatre]] and various [[mosaics]]. Thapsus was the site of one of the Roman Empire's greatest [[harbor mole]]s, a huge [[Roman concrete|concrete]] and stone [[breakwater (structure)|breakwater]] extending almost a kilometer from shore; only the first hundred or so meters, however, remain above water.{{sfnp|Davidson & al.|2014|p=35}} In 2022, the location of a possible [[Roman theatre (structure)|theatre]] was detected by [[Geophysical survey (archaeology)|geophysics]] .{{sfnp|Tranoy & al.|2023}}

== Religion ==
In [[classical antiquity|antiquity]], Thapsus was a [[Early Christianity|Christian]] [[bishopric]]. It was probably a [[suffragan]] but no [[Metropolitan bishop|metropolitan]] is known. The only known bishop was [[Vigilius of Thapsus|Vigilius]], the author of several controversial works against the [[Arianism|Arians]] and the [[Eutychians]]. He was one of the Catholic bishops whom king [[Hunneric]] of the [[Vandals]] summoned to his court in [[Carthage]] in 484 and then exiled.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14556a.htm Sophrone Pétridès, "Thapsus" in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York 1912)]</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]] reëstablished it in 1914 as a [[titular see]].<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 983</ref> It is a Latin title of the lowest rank, with one archiepiscopal exception.
 
* Valentín García y Barros (1914.12.10 – 1916.08.26)
* Arturo Celestino Alvarez (1919.12.18 – 1921.05.09)
* Andrew James Louis Brennan (1923.02.23 – 1926.05.28)
* Vincenzo Celli (1927.04.08 – 1951.10.17)
* Antonio Torasso, I.M.C. (1952.01.10 – 1960.10.22)
* Paul-Émile Charbonneau (1960.11.15 – 1963.05.21)
* Tomás Enrique Márquez Gómez (1963.06.25 – 1966.11.30)
* Alfredo Cifuentes Gómez (1967.03.10 – 1970.12.02), as titular Archbishop
* [[Ludwig Averkamp]] (1973.01.18 – 1985.11.07)
* [[Vladas Michelevičius]] (1986.11.13 – 2008.11.12)
* [[Ignacio Carrasco de Paula]] (2010.09.15 – ...), president-for-life of the [[Pontifical Academy]]

== References ==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{citation |last=Davidson |first=D.P. |author2=R.A. Yorke |display-authors=1 |contribution-url=http://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/NorthAfrica/Thapsus/Thapsus-Yorke2014.pdf |contribution=The Enigma of the Great Thapsus Harbour Mole |date=2014 |ref={{harvid|Davidson & al.|2014}} |title=International Journal of Nautical Archaeology |volume=43, No.{{nbsp}}1 |pages=35–40 }}.
* {{citation |last=Lipiński |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Lipinski (orientalist) |title=Itineraria Phoenicia |series=''Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta'', No.{{nbsp}}127, ''Studia Phoenicia'', Vol.{{nbsp}}XVIII |publisher=Uitgeverij Peeters |location=Leuven |date=2004 |isbn=9789042913448 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC }}.
*  {{citation  |last1=Tranoy |first1=Laurence |last2=Sghaïer |first2=Yamen |last3=Brassous |first3=Laurent |last4=Nejma |first4=Mohamed Ben |last5=Bruniaux |first5=Guillaume |last6=Carozza |first6=Jean-Michel |last7=Fornaciari |first7=Lorenzo |last8=Gadhoum |first8=Ahmed |last9=Haddad |first9=Fatma |last10=Lachaussée |first10=Nicolas |last11=Lévêque |first11=François |last12=Mathé |first12=Vivien |last13=Touihri |first13=Chokri |last14=Volto |first14=Natacha |title=Thapsus, port antique de Méditerranée |journal=Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger |date=2023 |doi=10.4000/baefe.7660 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/baefe/7660 |language=fr |issn=2732-687X}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t1722.htm GigaCatholic, linking to titular see incumbent biographies]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100213011723/http://www.thapsus.org/places.php?id=3 Mosaics of Thapsus]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110728090756/http://www.thapsus.org/places.php?id=1 Amphitheatre of Thapsus]
* {{cite web |url=http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/324827 |title=Places: 324827 (Thapsus) |author=Hitchner, R., R. Warner, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies |date=16 August 2024 |access-date=March 8, 2012<!-- 3:14 pm -->|publisher=Pleiades}}

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[[Category:Phoenician colonies in Tunisia]]
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