Thugga, titular see of Numidia, perhaps the Numidian fortress of Tocai mentioned about 305 B. c. by Diodorus Siculus (XX, v, 4). King Masinissa probably captured Thugga from Carthage in the second century B.c. A pagus under Claudius I, Thugga was dependent on the Roman colony of Carthage. Under Marcus Aurelius it included a pagus and a civitas; Septimius Severus erected it into the municipium, Septimianum Aurelium liberum Thugga, which became a colony in 261 under Gallian. Justinian built a fortress there which is still partly preserved (Procopius, “De eedificiis”, VI, 5). The existence of a pagus and a civitas explains why there were two bishops, Saturninus and Honoratus, who assisted at the Council of Carthage in 256. A Donatist bishop, Paschasius, went to the Council of Carthage in 411. Thugga is now Dougga, a village of Tunis, famous for its ruins, among which are the temple of the Capitol built under Marcus Aurelius, a theatre, three triumphal arches, Roman necropoli, and a Punic mausoleum.
TOULOTTE, Géog. del’ Lafrique chrétienne. Proconsulaire, 285-88; Ip», Byzacéne et Tripolitaine, 208; SALADIN in Nouvelles archives des missions scientifiques, II, 448-529; Carton, Dougga (Tunis, 1911). S. VarLun.