Thænæ

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

A titular see in Africa Byzacena. It is mentioned in numerous ancient geographical documents and was a maritime city of Byzacium in Africa Propria, situated at the mouth of a river (now Wady Tina) which emptied into the Syrtis Minor. Its ruins (Henshire Tina) are somewhat north of Ounca, formerly Junca, Tunis. The city was crowned by a hill surmounted by an acropolis, its walls attained a length of about two Roman miles and it had a large cemetery. The name Thænæ has numerous variations in Greek and Latin writers, but is borne out by epigraphy. The Punic coins of the city show that its native name was Tainat. Under Hadrian or Antoninus it became a colony which was called "Colonia AElia Augusta Mercurialis Thaenitana". Six of its bishops are known, Eucratius at the Council of Carthage (256); Latonius, at the conference of Carthage (411), where he had as rival the Donatist Securus, and at a Council of Thelepte; Peregrinus, a former deacon of St. Augustine; Paschasius, exiled by Huneric in 484; Pontianus, present at the Council of Junca (525); Felix, who in 641 signed the letter form the provincial council to the emperor against the Monothelites. A council was held at Thænæ at the beginning of the fourth century, three of its canons being extant (Mansi, "Amplissima Coll. conciliorum", IV, 440).

SMITH, Dict. Greek and Rom. Geog., s.v. Thenae; GUERIN, Voyage archeologique dans la regence de Tunis (Paris, 1862), I, 178; MULLER, notes to Ptolemy, ed. DIDOT, I, 624; TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne: Byzacene et tripolitaine (Montreuil, 1894), 196-99.

S. PÉTRIDÈS