Thibaris was a town in the late
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 ...
of
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 ...
.
Location
An inscription fixes the exact site at the
ruins
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
now called Henshir Hamamet, in a plain watered by the Wady
Tibar, which has retained the name of the town. These ruins are situated about five miles north-east of Djebba, near the Djebel Gorra Tunaiai. There are galena and calamine mines at
Djebba Djebba Djebba, also known as Thigibba Bure, is a town and an ancient archaeological site is located in Bājah, Tunisia. Djebba is an archaeological/prehistoric site in Tunisia located at latitude: 36°28'32.45" longitude: 9°4'53.54" in the Béja ...
. The former were worked even in ancient times and are mentioned in a letter from Saint
Cyprian
Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Chri ...
to the faithful of Thibaris (Ep. lvi). The chief ruins are those of an
aqueduct and a
Christian church
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym fo ...
.
Bishopric
The bishopric of Thibaris was a
suffragan see
A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...
of the
metropolitan see
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 t ...
of
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 ...
, the capital of the province.
[''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 988]
Two bishops of Thibaris are known:
[
* Vincent, present at the Council of Carthage in 256;
* Victor, at the Conference of Carthage in 411, where his rival was the ]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 ...
, Victorian.
References
{{reflist
Catholic titular sees in Africa