Thapsus

This article is about the North African city. For the medicinal herb, seeVerbascum thapsus.For the prehistoric village in Sicily, seeThapsos.

Thapsus

Shown within Tunisia
Location	Tunisia
Region	Monastir Governorate
Coordinates	35°37′15″N11°02′30″E

Thapsus,also known asTampsusand asThapsus Minorto distinguish it fromThapsus in Sicily,was aCarthaginianandRomanport near present-dayBekalta,Tunisia.

Geography

Thapsus was established onRas ed-Dimas,an easily defended promontory on Tunisia'sMediterraneancoast. It was near asalt lake.It was about 135 km (84 mi) from the island ofLampedusaand approximately 200 km (120 mi) southeast ofCarthage.

History

Thapsus was founded by thePhoenicians.It served as a waypoint on the trade routes between theStrait of GibraltarandPhoeniciaand as a market for the inland products of the area. Diodorus Siculuswrite thatAgathocles of Syracuseconquered the city.

Duringhis civil war,Julius CaesardefeatedMetellus Scipioand theNumidiankingJubaIat the costly 46BCBattle of Thapsus.Caesar exacted a payment of 50,000sestercesfrom the vanquished. The victory marked the end of opposition against him in Africa. Thapsus subsequently became aRoman colonyin theprovinceofByzacena.The town's enormousmolemay have been begun by the local emperorsGordian I,II,andIII,but their reigns were too brief to have finished the work.The construction may have been abandoned partway through; Thapsus was never known as a world-class port and, after the collapse ofThysdrusin the 3rd century, all the area's maritime trade is known to have occurred through the harbors atSullecthum,Thaenae,Leptis,andGummi.

Remains

Thapsus's surviving ruins include anamphitheatreand variousmosaics.Thapsus was the site of one of the Roman Empire's greatestharbor moles,a hugeconcreteand stonebreakwaterextending almost a kilometer from shore; only the first hundred or so meters, however, remain above water.

Religion

Inantiquity,Thapsus was aChristianbishopric.It was probably asuffraganbut nometropolitanis known. The only known bishop wasVigilius,the author of several controversial works against theAriansand theEutychians.He was one of the Catholic bishops whom kingHunnericof theVandalssummoned to his court inCarthagein 484 and then exiled.

TheCatholic Churchreëstablished it in 1914 as atitular see.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 thePontifical Academy

References

Bibliography

• Davidson, D.P.; et al. (2014),"The Enigma of the Great Thapsus Harbour Mole"(PDF),International Journal of Nautical Archaeology,vol. 43, No.1, pp. 35–40.
• Lipiński, Edward(2004),Itineraria Phoenicia,Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta,No.127,Studia Phoenicia,Vol.XVIII, Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters,ISBN9789042913448.

External links

• GigaCatholic, linking to titular see incumbent biographies
• Mosaics of Thapsus
• Amphitheatre of Thapsus
• Hitchner, R., R. Warner, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies."Places: 324827 (Thapsus)".Pleiades.RetrievedMarch 8,2012.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)