Thabraca

A titular see of Numidia near the sea, between the Armua and the Tusca. Thabraca was the last Numidian city in the direction of the Zeugitana and was a Roman colony. It was connected by a road with Simitthu, to which it served as a port for the exportation of its famous marbles. At Thabraca Gildo, the brother of Firmus, committed suicide. Under Genseric it had a monastery for men and one for women. It is now Tabarka, annexed to the civil district of Souk el-Arba, Tunis, and a rather important fishing centre. Confronting it, at a distance of about 365 yards, is the small Island of Tabarca, where the Genoese Lomellini, who had purchased the grant of the coral fishing from the Turks, maintained a garrison from 1540 to 1742. Here may still be seen the ruins of a stronghold, a church, and some Genoese buildings. At Tabarka the ruins consist of a pit used as a church and some fragments of walls which belonged to Christian buildings. There are also two Turkish fortresses, one of which has been repaired. The city contains several Christian cemeteries, many of the tombs having covers adorned with curious mosaics. An inscription (C.I.L., VIII, 173-82) mentions the cult of the martyr Anastasia and her companions. The bishops of Thabraca, who met with those of the proconsulate, were: Victoricus, at the Council of Carthage (256); Rusticianus, at the conference of Carthage in 411, where his competitor was the Donatist Charentius, and signer in 416 of the letter from the council of Proconsular Africa to Pope Innocent; Clarissimus, who in 646 signed the letter from the same Council to patriarch Paul of Constantinople against the Monothelites.

SMITH, Dict. Greek and Roman Geog., S.V.; TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne: Numidie (Paris, 1894), 277-80; DIEHL, L'Afrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.

S. Pétridès.