Thapsus

Thapsus (less commonly, Tapsus) was an ancient city in what is modern day Tunisia. Its ruins still exist at Ras Dimas near Bekalta, approx. 200 km SE of Carthage. Originally founded by Phoenicians, it served as a marketplace on the coast of the province Byzacena in Africa Propria. Thapsus was established near a salt lake on a point of land eighty stadia (14.8 km) from the Island of Lampadusa.

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In 46 BC, Julius Caesar defeated Metellus Pius Scipio and the Numidian King Juba with a tremendous loss of men near Thapsus (see Battle of Thapsus). Caesar exacted a payment of 50,000 sesterces from the vanquished. Their defeat marked the end of opposition to Caesar in Africa. Thapsus then became a Roman colony.

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The city should not be confused with the medicinal herb Verbascum thapsus.

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Bekalta: Bekalta, Arabic: ???????? (al-Bikalita), is a Tunisian coastal town , around 30 km. south of Monastir and around 14 km. northeast of Mahdia. The main activities of the local population are agriculture and fishing....

Carthage: :This article is about the ancient city-state of Carthage in North Africa. For other uses of the word, see Carthage (disambiguation)....

Phoenicia: Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though an...