Thacia Montana

A titular see in Africa Proconsularis, suffragan of Carthage. An inscription discovered in the ruins known as Henshir Bedji, among them a church, near Bordj Messaoudi, seems to indicate that this was the site of the municipium of Thacia, to which Wadi Tasaa, or Tessa, also owes its name. It was located on the highway between Carthage and Theveste, midway between Musti (Mest) and Drusiliana (Khanguet Kdim), Tunisia. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (IV, 3), the "Tabula Peutinger.", and the "Geogr. Ravennat." (151); it was fortified during the Byzantine period, and at the end of 545 the Byzantine general, John, was defeated and slain there. On the other hand, at the present Eufida, 6 1/4 miles west of Botria (Henshir Batria), at the ruins called Henshir Zaktoun, an inscription has been found proving the existence at that place of another municipium called Thaca, also fortified during the Byzantine period. Mgr. Toulotte ("Geog. de l'Afrique Chretienne Proconsulaire, Paris, 1892, 258-60) assigns to the first locality two bishops, the Donatist Cresconius, present at the Council of Cabarsussi in 393, and Victor, who in 646 signed the letter against the Monothelites from the Council of Proconsular Africa to the Patriarch Paul of Constantinople; to the second locality he assigns Rufinus, present at the Council of Carthge in 525, and Probus who in 646 signed the letter to the Patriarch Paul. The two last-named were entitled bishops of "Tacia Montana". It may be questioned whether they were really bishops of Thaca, or if there was not near Thacia a place of the same name to which was added a distinctive epithet. The official list of titular sees of the Roman Curia mentions only Thacia Monana and identifies it with Bordj Messaoudi.

MULLER, Notes a Ptolemee, ed. DIDOT, I, 651; DIEHL, L'Afrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.

S. Pétridès.