Sidi-Meskin is a

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...

, and archaeological site in Gouvernorat of Jendouba, Northern

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. It is located in the Medjerda valley at 36.45N, 8.66E, outside of Bou Salem and is nearby to Djendouba, Mechtat el Anad and Djebel Bou Rbah. The town is located at an elevation of 430 meters above sea level, and has a mosque and railroad station. The climate in Sidi Meskine is warm and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

with more rainfall in the winter than in the summer. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as Csa and temperature averages 18.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 502 mm.

History

Historically, this region was important and wealthy. The historical importance comes clear with the nearby great Roman cities of

Bulla Regia Bulla Regia was a Berber, Punic, and Roman town near present-day Jendouba, Tunisia. Its surviving ruins and archaeological site are noted for their Hadrianic-era semi-subterranean housing, a protection from the fierce heat and effects of the sun ...

and Chemtou. Medjerda valley became

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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

after the

Third Punic War The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome. The war was fought entirely within Carthaginian territory, in modern northern Tunisia. When the Second Punic War ended in 201 ...

about 146BC and it quickly became an important region for agriculture, with the rolling plains home to numerous Imperial estates. The town is mentioned, like many other nearby settlements, in the Saltus Burunitanus document of Commodus. The Valley fell to the Vandal Kingdom around 423 and for a century was ruled by the Arian kings until in 533 the Orthodox

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

s replaced them. The area was held by Byzantium until the

Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb ( ar, الْفَتْحُ الإسلَامِيُّ لِلْمَغرِب) continued the century of rapid Muslim conquests following the death of Muhammad in 632 and into the Byzantine-controlled territories of ...

in the end of the 7th century. During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

Sidi-Meskine was a town 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 ...

, called Thunusuda. It was on the Medjerda river between Simitthu and Bulla Regia,Sidi-Meskine
''Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire''. and like them both was the seat of an ancient

bishopric In 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 provinces were administratively associate ...

, which survives today as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

References

Communes of Tunisia Populated places in Béja Governorate Cities in Tunisia Catholic titular sees in Africa {{RC-diocese-stub