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  Shown within Tunisia | |
| Location | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Region | Monastir Governorate |
| Coordinates | 35°37′15″N11°02′30″E / 35.62083°N 11.04167°E /35.62083; 11.04167 |
Thapsus, also known asTampsus and asThapsus Minor to distinguish it fromThapsus in Sicily,[1] was aCarthaginian andRoman port near present-dayBekalta,Tunisia.
Thapsus was established onRas ed-Dimas, an easily defended promontory on Tunisia'sMediterranean coast. It was near asalt lake. It was about 135 km (84 mi) from the island ofLampedusa and approximately 200 km (120 mi) southeast ofCarthage.
Thapsus was founded by thePhoenicians. It served as a waypoint on the trade routes between theStrait of Gibraltar andPhoenicia and as a market for the inland products of the area.Diodorus Siculus write thatAgathocles of Syracuse conquered the city.[2]
Duringhis civil war,Julius Caesar defeatedMetellus Scipio and theNumidian kingJuba I at the costly 46 BCBattle of Thapsus. Caesar exacted a payment of 50,000sesterces from the vanquished. The victory marked the end of opposition against him in Africa. Thapsus subsequently became aRoman colony in theprovince ofByzacena. The town's enormousmole may have been begun by the local emperorsGordian I,II, andIII, but their reigns were too brief to have finished the work.[3] The construction may have been abandoned partway through; Thapsus was never known as a world-class port and, after the collapse ofThysdrus in the 3rd century, all the area's maritime trade is known to have occurred through the harbors atSullecthum,Thaenae,Leptis, andGummi.[4]
Thapsus's surviving ruins include anamphitheatre and variousmosaics. Thapsus was the site of one of the Roman Empire's greatestharbor moles, a hugeconcrete and stonebreakwater extending almost a kilometer from shore; only the first hundred or so meters, however, remain above water.[3]
Inantiquity, Thapsus was aChristianbishopric. It was probably asuffragan but nometropolitan is known. The only known bishop wasVigilius, the author of several controversial works against theArians and theEutychians. He was one of the Catholic bishops whom kingHunneric of theVandals summoned to his court inCarthage in 484 and then exiled.[5]
TheCatholic Church reëstablished it in 1914 as atitular see.[6] It is a Latin title of the lowest rank, with one archiepiscopal exception.
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