Musti or Mustis was an ancient city and bishopric in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Proconsular Africa Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeri ...

, now in northern

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. Its ruins, called Mest Henshir, are about eight miles from

Dougga Dougga or Thugga or TBGG was a Berber, Punic and Roman settlement near present-day Téboursouk in northern Tunisia. The current archaeological site covers . UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents " ...

, near Sidi-Abd-Er-Rebbou. It is also a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

titular see.

History

Musti was an important

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the Roman era, located along the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

that ran between

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

and Tebessa, eight miles from

, and near Sidi-Abd-Er-Rebbou. The limits of the town were set in 238 by two

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...

es, erected on this road which traversed Musti from east to west. Towards the end of 2nd century BC the

Roman general Roman generals were often career statesmen, remembered by history for reasons other than their service in the Roman Army. This page encompasses men whom history remembers for their accomplishments commanding Roman armies on land and sea. A * Man ...

Gaius Marius Gaius Marius (; – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important refor ...

settled his

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has ...

s here and at a later time it was elevated to the rank of a

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privi ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

or by

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

. The ancient Roman town lost its appearance when the Byzantines transformed it into a stronghold during their struggles against the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

. North Africa on Peutinger Table. The town has only been partially excavated, leaving a large area still to be researched, but nevertheless boasts remains of the

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

, the marketplace, built in white calcareous stoneMusti (El Krib)
at romanartlover.com. several

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

s, the

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s, a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. In ...

, and a number of Roman houses. There is also a church with a

baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

. Three temples have been identified at Musti though others were known, One of the temples was converted to a bascillica in the 4th century Musti is mentioned by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

, the ''

Itinerarium Antonini The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...

'', the

Peutinger Table ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the ''cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-cen ...

, and the

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

geographer

Vibius Sequester Vibius Sequester (active in the 4th or 5th century AD) is the Latin author of lists of geographical names. Work ''De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, gentibus, quorum apud poëtas mentio fit'' is made up of seven alphabetical lists of ...

, who narrates the killing at this place of an enormous serpent by

Regulus Regulus is the brightest object in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation designated α Leonis, which is Latinized to Alpha Leonis, and abbreviated Alpha Leo or α Leo. Re ...

. The inscriptions call the inhabitants Musticenses or Mustitani; the latter name is also used by

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

.Sophrone Pétridès, ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 10, 1911
/ref> The Byzantines turned much of the Forum into a

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

during their battles with the

Sights

The

located at the entrance of the site is still of unknown attribution. The eastern arch, which was in a very ruined state, was restored in 1967 by the National Institute of Art and Archaeology and the Historical Monuments Service. The nearby

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

of the Julii was also restored at this time. The entire restoration took 17 months to complete. The entrance of the site opens onto a large paved yard which leads to an attractive gateway. This gate had a covered walkway on the left and on the right. To the sides are the shops of the moneychangers and some bas-reliefs of well-wishing

genie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...

s. Near the gate are the remains of three temples (to

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

). Further on are ruins of a small 4th century Christian church, a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

with three naves and a raised sacred area (the

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

). It is adjoined by a large Byzantine fortification.

Recent archaeological research

In 2018, a joint Polish-Tunisian project was commenced by the

Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA UW; pl, Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiej UW im. Kazimierza Michałowskiego) operates as an independent research institute of the University of Warsaw under the p ...

and the Institute of Archaeology (both

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

) and the Tunisian Institut National du Patrimoine. A geophysical prospection using the

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

and

electrical resistivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows ...

methods was conducted to locate archaeological remains, both in the area where urban architecture was visible on the surface and in the town's vicinity. In 2019, a team of

epigraphist Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

s documented over 130 Latin inscriptions from the Roman period; their total number at the site is estimated at more than 500. Sondages were also made, and the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

of the layers was established, reaching back to the pre-Roman period (6th–3rd century BC) when Mustis was inhabited by

Numidian Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

tribes.

Ecclesiastical history

It was a bishopric,

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

of the

Metropolitan Archbishop Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

, both in the

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. There also was another city and bishopric called Musti in

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

(modern

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

), which Sophrone Pétridès confuses with the Musti in the Roman province of

, even to the extent of presenting the supposed single see as represented at the 411 Council at Carthage by four bishops, two

Donatist Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and t ...

(FelicianusPétridès, S.
Musti
In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. (Robert Appleton Company (New York City), 1911). Retrieved January 20, 2017. and Cresconius) and two Catholic (Victorianus and Leontius). J. Mesnage distinguishes between the two sees, assigning Felicianus and Victorianus to the Musti of Proconsular Africa, a suffragan of Carthage, and Cresconius and Leontius to what he calls Musti Numidiae. The

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

s also distinguishes between the two, calling one see simply Musti and the other Musti in Numidia.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 935 Mesnage also distinguishes between the sees of two other bishops of whom Pétridès speaks as bishops of a single Musti: an Antonianus of the Numidian Musti was one of the bishops whom the Vandal king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was m ...

exiled in 482, and the Januarius who in 646 signed the letter of the bishops of Proconsular Africa to Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, against the

monothelites Monothelitism, or monotheletism (from el, μονοθελητισμός, monothelētismós, doctrine of one will), is a theological doctrine in Christianity, that holds Christ as having only one will. The doctrine is thus contrary to dyotheliti ...

, was obviously of that province.

Titular see

In 1912, the diocese was nominally restored as a Latin

, of the lowest (episcopal) rank with a single (archiepiscopal) exception. It has had the following incumbents: * Jean-Ephrem Bertreux, Society of Mary (S.M.) (1912.06.01 – 1919.01.04) * Julien-Louis-Edouard-Marie Gorju,

White Fathers The White Fathers (french: Pères Blancs), officially the Missionaries of Africa ( la, Missionarii Africae) abbreviated MAfr), are a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right (for Men) Founded in 1868 by then Ar ...

(M. Afr.) (1922.04.26 – 1942.01.14) * Eugenio Raffaele Faggiano,

Passionists The Passionists, officially named Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (), abbreviated CP, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720 with a special emphasis on and de ...

(C.P.) (1956.09.25 – 1960.05.02) * Vicente Alfredo Aducci (1960.05.28 – 1962.05.03) * Oscar Félix Villena (1962.07.26 – 1970.02.11) * ''Titular archbishop'' Juan José Aníbal Mena Porta (1970.06.16 – 1970.11.25) * Aldo Del Monte (1970.12.29 – 1972.01.15) * Gaetano Bonicelli (1975.07.10 – 1977.06.11) (later Archbishop) * Antonio Ambrosanio (1977.08.27 – 1988.01.04) (later Archbishop) * Francisco João Silota, M. Afr. (74) (1988.01.18 – 1990.11.19) * Giuseppe Pasotto,

Stigmatines The Stigmatines officially named the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata ( la, Congregatio a Sanctus Stigmatibus) is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (Priests and Brothers). The Stigmatine Congregation was fo ...

(C.S.S.) (1999.11.09 – ...),

Apostolic Administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

References

Sources and external links

German Tunisia Projekt

Mustis Archaeological Project

Unesco pdf-file (French document)
* * Pius Bonifacius Gams
''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae''
Leipzig 1931, p. 467 * Stefano Antonio Morcelli
''Africa christiana''
Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 236 * J. Mesnage
''L'Afrique chrétienne''
Paris 1912, p. 424 {{DEFAULTSORT:Musti, Tunisia Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Africa Catholic titular sees in Africa Roman sites in Tunisia Former populated places in Tunisia