History
The history of the site goes back to the Punic and Numidian periods. The findings in the ruins of the ancient city testifies of a cultural diversity of the city influenced as well by Berbers, Carthaginians and mainly by Romans.
The inscriptions that have been found are in three ancient languages, Latin, Libyan, and Punic. [2] Epigraphy reflects particular local cults to Ba'al Hammon (equivalent to Roman Saturn) and Mercury.
Initially the "Civitas Popthensis" was probably a big village at the centre of an opulent agricultural land with cereal, olive growing, as many presses and livestock have been found in and out of the city. Not far from major trade routes, the city organized the local exchanges between the people of the plain and those of the mountains. Civitas Popthensis was located at the foot of the "Alpes Numidicae" and near the present border between Tunisia and Algeria [3]
Its period of maximum prosperity seems to be at the beginning of the 3rd century, under emperor Septimius Severus. From the area ruins and the evaluation of the flow of water, Julien Guey, a French archeologist, estimated the population of the agglomeration around 10,000 and 12,000 inhabitants. Civitas Popthensis had huge Roman baths and probably a Roman theater.
Paul Monciaux found a Christian epitaph of the beginning on the fifth century, that shows the importance of Christianity in the city when was under the influence of Saint'Augustine. [4] Christianity remained dominant until the arrival of the Arabs, who destroyed the city at the end of the seventh century.
However the history of the city is still not explored; furthermore 80% of this legacy is still buried under the Earth: Serious excavations are needed to illuminate the past of this city.
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![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thamusida</span> Berber, Carthaginian, and Roman river port near [[Kenitra]], [[Morocco]]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Thamusida%2C_Mauretania_Tingitana%2C_Morocco_%2838384660375%29.jpg/320px-Thamusida%2C_Mauretania_Tingitana%2C_Morocco_%2838384660375%29.jpg)
Thamusida was a Berber, Carthaginian, and Roman river port that was near the present-day towns of Kénitra and Mehdya in Morocco. Under the Roman Empire, it formed a part of the province of Mauretania Tingitana.
Madauros was a Roman-Berber city and a former diocese of the Catholic Church in the old state of Numidia, in present-day Algeria.
Pupput, also spelled "Putput", "Pudput", "Pulpud" and "Pulpite" in Latin, sometimes located in Souk el-Obiod ou Souk el-Abiod, is a Colonia in the Roman province of Africa which has been equated with an archaeological site in modern Tunisia. It is situated on the coast near the town of Hammamet, between the two wadis of Temad to the north and Moussa to the south. Much of the Pupput is buried under modern holiday developments which have been built over the major part of the site.
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Auzia was a Roman-Berber colonia in present-day Sour El-Ghozlane, Algeria. The area was located around 150 km south-east of Algiers, in the ancient province of Mauretania Caesariensis.
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Rusazus was a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman town located near Cape Corbelin, Algeria. Its ruins are near the town of Azeffoun.
