Téboursouk ( ') is a town and commune in the

Béja Governorate Béja Governorate ( ' ; ) is one of the twenty-four governorates of Tunisia. It is in northern Tunisia and has a brief coastline relative to its size. It covers an area of 3,740 km² and had a population of 303,032 as of the 2014 census. Th ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. It is located at 36° 27′ 26″N, 009° 14′ 54″E.

Population

In 2004 it had a total population of 10,987,Recensement de 2004 (Institut national de la statistique)
and of 22,115 inhabitants in 2014.General Census of the Population and the Household 2014 by Governorates
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Geography

The town is part of the

governorate A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions ...

of Béja, and it constitutes a municipality. Located at the foot of the Téboursouk Mountains in the Tunisian ridge, the city is built half-way up a hill at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It overlooks

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

groves in the valley of Wadi Khalled. Téboursouk is located on the territory of the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

tribe of the Bejaoua, near the Drid tribe, at the northern end of the Haut-Tell. Located away are the ruins of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

city of

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 repres ...

History

During the Roman Empire, Téboursouk was known as "''Tubursico-Bure''", and was in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) 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 ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The ruins of ancient Thubursicum Bure are a large

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

enclosure of pentagonal form, erected under the reign of

Justin II Justin II (; ; died 5 October 578) was Eastern Roman emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the niece of Justinian's wife Theodora. Justin II inherited a greatly enlarged but overextended empir ...

(565-578), and whose northern front encompasses a Roman gate and cemetery. The Roman city was considered a

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (: ) 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 privileges ...

. The city obtained the statute of municipality in 1904 under the French protectorate and the status of chief town of delegation at the

independence of Tunisia Tunisian independence was a process that occurred from 1952 to 1956 between France and an independence movement, led by Habib Bourguiba. He became the first Prime Minister of Tunisia, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia after negotiations w ...

. In 2004, the municipality celebrated the centenary of its creation.

Bishopric

During Roman and Byzantine times the city was the seat of a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

, the suffragan of

Archdiocese of Carthage The Archdiocese of Carthage is a Latin Catholic titular see originally established as a diocese in Carthage, Roman Empire, in the 2nd century. Agrippinus was the first named bishop, appointed around 230 AD. The diocese, in its earlier form, ...

. There are four documented bishops of Téboursouk. ''Servus Dei'' is mentioned by

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

in his ''Contra Cresconium'' around 404 and he had as a competitor the

Donatist Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...

Bishop,

Cyprian Cyprian (; ; to 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 Christian writer of Berbers, Berber descent, ...

, who, according to the testimony of Augustine, was deposed by Primianus (the Donatist Bishop of Carthage) becauseContra Petilian, III, 34.40 Cyprian was caught in a

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

. At the conference of Carthage of 411 between Catholic bishops and Donatists the same Servus Dei was joined by the Donatist bishop Donatus who had replaced the now disgraced Cyprian. Bishop Reparatus attended the

Council of Carthage (525) The Councils of Carthage were church synods held during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries in the city of Carthage in Africa. The most important of these are described below. Synod of 251 In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cyprian ...

. Today Tubursico-Bure survives as

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

ric and the current titular bishop is Mykhaylo Bubniy,

Exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'') was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and early Byzantine Empire, ...

Archbishop of Odesa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teboursouk Communes of Tunisia Populated places in Béja Governorate Roman towns and cities in Tunisia Ancient Berber cities Catholic titular sees in Africa

Population

Geography

History

Bishopric

See also

References