Sidi-Meskin, anciently known as Thunusuda, is a

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

and archaeological site in the Gouvernorat of Jendouba, Northern

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 in the Medjerda valley at 36.45N, 8.66E, outside of Bou Salem, and is near 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 (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

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

History

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

Bulla Regia Bulla Regia was a Berbers, Berber, Punics, Punic, and ancient Romans, Roman town near present-day Jendouba, Tunisia. Its surviving ruins and archaeological site are noted for their Emperor Hadrian, Hadrianic-era semi-subterranean housing, a prote ...

and Chemtou. The 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

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 what is now northern Tunisia. When the Second Punic War ended in 20 ...

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 Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

. The Valley fell to the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

around 423 and for a century was ruled by the

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

kings until in 533 the Orthodox

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 ...

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

Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The conquest of the Maghreb by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century ...

at the end of the 7th century. During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, under the name of Thunusuda the town was part of

Roman North Africa Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisi ...

, Africa Proconsularis. 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 A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

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 archbi ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church 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 ...

References

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