Thenae

For the town of ancient Arcadia, Greece, see Thenae (Arcadia). For the town of ancient Crete, Greece, see Thenae (Crete).

Thenae
Thaena or Thaenae

Ruins of the Roman thermae of Thaenae
Shown within Tunisia
Location	Sfax Governorate, Tunisia
Coordinates	34°41′14.4″N 10°43′13.8″E
Type	Settlement

Thenae or Thenai (Ancient Greek: Θεναί), also written Thaena and Thaenae, was a Carthaginian and Roman town (civitas) located in or near Thyna, now a suburb of Sfax on the Mediterranean coast of southeastern Tunisia.

Name

A coin of Thaena with the Punic legend 𐤕𐤏𐤉𐤍‬𐤕

The city was founded with the Punic name tʿynt (Punic: 𐤕𐤏𐤉𐤍‬𐤕), similar to Semitic transcriptions of Tayinat in Turkey. Head also transcribes it as Thainath. The Punic name was transcribed into Greek as Thaína (Θαίνα) and Thenae (Θεναί), and into Latin variously as Thenae, Thaena, and Thaenae. Strabo called the town Thena (ἡ Θένα) and Ptolemy called it both Thaina (Θαίνα) and Theaenae (Θέαιναι). At a later period it became a Roman colony with the name of Aelia Augusta Mercurialis.

History

Thenae was founded as a Phoenician colony on the Mediterranean coast of what is now southeastern Tunisia. Along with the rest of ancient Tunisia, it passed into Carthaginian and then Roman control during the time of the Punic Wars.

Thenae issued its own bronze coins around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, with a female head (either Serapis or Astarte) obverse and a four-columned temple reverse. It also bore the town's name in Punic characters.

In the surviving ruins, there are a bath house, a wealthy house (domus), city walls, lower-class housing, and an early Christian basilica.

Bishopric

Thenae was the seat of a Christian bishopric during late antiquity. According to a life of St Fulgentius, a council was held at Thenae (Latin: Thenitanum Concilium). There are six documented bishops of the ancient diocese:

• Eucrazio, who assisted the 256 council in Carthage called by St Cyprian to discuss the question concerning the lapsii;
• Latonio (Catholic) and Securo (Donatist), competing bishops who appeared at the 411 council in Carthage;
• Pascasio, who took part in the 484 synod in Carthage convened by the Vandal king Huneric and was afterwards exiled;
• Pontian, who intervened in the 525 council in Carthage; and
• Felix, who attended the antimonotelite council of 646.

Today, Thenae survives as a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church. Modern bishops have been:

• Thomas Franz Xaver Spreiter (1906–1944)
• Louis Francis Kelleher (1945–1946)
• Thomas Joseph McDonough (1947–1960)
• Paolo Ghizzoni (1961–1972)
• Andrzej Maria Deskur (1974–1985)
• Marian Duś (1985–current), former auxiliary bishop of Warsaw

See also

• Autenti and Taparura, nearby Roman settlements

References

Citations

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Thenae". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

Bibliography

• Chapot, Victor (1928), The Roman World, Biblo & Tannen Publishers.
• Ghaki, Mansour (2015), "Toponymie et Onomastique Libyques: L'Apport de l'Écriture Punique/Néopunique" (PDF), La Lingua nella Vita e la Vita della Lingua: Itinerari e Percorsi degli Studi Berberi, Studi Africanistici: Quaderni di Studi Berberi e Libico-Berberi, vol. No. 4, Naples: Unior, pp. 65–71, ISBN 978-88-6719-125-3, ISSN 2283-5636, archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-28, retrieved 2018-11-03 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help). (in French)
• Head, Barclay; et al. (1911), "Byzacene", Historia Numorum (2nd ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 876.
• Leone, Anna (2007), Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest, Edipuglia, ISBN 9788872284988.