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Missua

Statio 10 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni has the inscription NAVICVLARI MISVUENSES HIC. Below the text are two ships, with a concave and a convex bow. Lower down is a building with battlements flanked by two fish, perhaps tuna. To the right are two joined fish, the astrological sign Pisces. We are dealing with Missua in Africa Proconsularis.



Statio 10 on the Piazzale delle Corporazioni.

Missua is near modern Sidi Daoud-Thonara on the east coast of the Gulf of Tunis, near Cape Bon, opposite and ca. 55 kilometers away from Carthago as the crow flies. Today the city has a fishing harbour, specializing in tuna. It has been suggested that the name Missua was derived from a Phoenician-Punic root meaning "hewing": not far away are remains of several quarries of sandstone. Pliny the Elder calls Missua an oppidum (Naturalis Historia 5,24). It can also be spelled with one "s", as on the Tabula Peutingeriana. Bishops are mentioned in the years 484 and 525. In his account of the Vandalic War in 533-534 AD Procopius calls Missua the sea-port (επινειον) of Carthage (De Bello Vandalico 4,14,40).



Map of the area. From Pierre Salama, Les Voies Romaines de l'Afrique du Nord, Algiers 1951.

Considerable remains of the city have been found near the harbour. Excavations have not yet taken place, so identifications are tentative. Located on the beach, near the marabout of Sidi Daoud, are the remains of a villa with a large fishpond. Walls of baths measuring 60 x 46 meters are standing 2 meters high. A structure around a large, oval depression may have been an amphitheatre. A stretch of the paving of a boulevard along the sea has been preserved. Near the present-day cemetery are marble architectural elements (a Corinthian capital, parts of columns) and remains of mosaics. There may have been a Christian basilica here. Not far away are the sandstone quarries of Tarfa, with cisterns and basins. In this area a theatre was built, and a necropolis has been found here. Remains of piers can still be seen in the sea. A building to the north of the harbour may have been a lighthouse or beacon.

1. Quarry.
2. Necropolis.
3. Theatre.
4. Fishpond.
5. Villa.
6. Boulevard.
7. Quay.
8. Submerged basin.
9. Lighthouse.

After Trabelsi 2019, fig. 16.



The fishpond. Trabelsi 2019, fig. 4.

In 1900 around 100 tombs were opened along the coast. These were tombs for inhumation. The body was covered by slabs creating an upside-down V. The tombs were marked by square cippi. The small objects that were found were taken to the Bardo Museum in Tunis: bronze coins on lamps, vases, some jewellery, mirrors, small chains, fibulae, pins, and bronze locks and handles of wooden boxes. The workers in the quarries were buried here, during the first few centuries AD.

In 1860 an important inscription was noted that had been extracted from the ruins shortly before. It is a base for a statue, 1.32 m. high, set up by the citizens of Missua between 389 and 439 AD. The statue was found next to it, a little over life-size, only the arms missing. It had been taken to La Goulette, the port district of Tunis. The inscription soon followed: in 1862 it was seen in La Goulette, where it had been reused as part of a machine. Fortunately the operator had positioned it in such a way that the inscription could not be damaged. The present whereabouts are unknown.

Ulrich Gehn comments: "The inscription was set up by by the citizens of Missua. Flavius Arpagius, the honorand, was patron of Missua. He was of senatorial rank and had made a career in the imperial administration. He started as an agens in rebus, a member of the much hated secret police. Later he became leading officer (adiutor) in the staff of the magister officiorum; on the peak of his career he was tribunus et notarius, a court office that gave access to the second highest senatorial rank of spectabilis. Flavius Arpagius was probably a native of Missua, since he held the office of flamen perpetuus of that city. A terminus post quem is given by the rank predicates recorded in our inscription. The office of tribunus et notarius was elevated to spectabilis rank by a law from 381 (Codex Theodosianus VI, 10, 2-3). The highest senatorial rank of illustris for the magister officiorum is first mentioned in a law from 398 (Codex Theodosianus XII, 1, 120). As a terminus ante quem of the inscription we suggest the Vandal incursion of 439."

Fl(avi) ARPAGII U(iri) C(larissimi)
Fl(avio) ARPAGIO FL(amini) P(er)P(etuo) HUIUSCE
CIUITATIS EX AGENTE IN
REBUS U(iro) C(larissimo) EX ADIUT(ore) INL(ustris)
UIRI MAG(istri) OFFICIOR(um) U(iro)
SPECTAB(ili) TRIB(uno) ET NOT(ario)
OB INSIGNIA EIUS ERGA
REM P(ublicam) MERITA ET PRAECIPUE
OB PAT(ronatus) BENEF(icia) STATUAM AD
AETERNITATEM MERI
TORUM EIUS MISS(uenses) CIVES
CONLOCAUERUNT		 Of Flavius Arpagius, of clarissimus rank.
For Flavius Arpagius, perpetual priest of this
city, former imperial
agent, of clarissimus rank, former assistant of the
master of offices of inlustris rank,
tribune and notary of spectabilis rank.
Because of his remarkable services
to the community, and, especially,
the benefits of his patronage, this statue,
as an eternal record of
his merits, the citizens of Missua
erected.
CIL VIII.1, 989; AE 1982, 930; EDCS-17700482; HD000447; LSA-2451.
U and V written as U.

Five other inscriptions were found in the city: funerary inscriptions and a dedication to Antoninus Pius.[1]

IMP(eratori) CAESARI
DIVI HADRIANI F(ilio)
DIVI TRAIANI PAR
THICI NEP(oti) DIVI NER
VAE PRONEPOTI
HADRIANO AN
TONINO AVG(usto)
PIO P(atri) P(atriae)

CIL VIII.1, 988; EDCS-17700481.		 D(is) M(anibus) S(acrum)
Q(uintus) MESCENIVS
IANUARIVS
VIX(it) AN(nos) XXXV
M(enses) VI D(ies) XII

T(erra) T(ibi) L(evis) S(it)

O(ssa) T(ibi) B(ene) Q(uiescant)

EDCS-10300669.
Q(uintus) MVCIVS LEZ
BIVS HIC SITVS
EST VIXIT PIE
ANNIS LXXXXVIII

CIL VIII.1, 990; EDCS-17700483.		 FELICITAS FIDELIS IN PACE
VIXIT ANNIS XXX D(e)P(osita)
   VIII ID(us) IANVAR(ias)

EDCS-08601060.		 [---C]aninius Glau[cus---]

EDCS-10300668.

In this part of the peninsula many remains have been found of fish farms, workshops for salting and the production of garum, fish sauce. The export may have been the primary purpose of this harbour, as is also suggested by the fish on the mosaic on the Piazzale. The sandstone from the quarries was used locally. The possible meaning of the building on the mosaic is discussed in the section about the Piazzale.



Main production areas of grain (top) and olive oil (bottom) in North Africa.
Callegarin 2005, figs. 1-2.

Literature:
- A. Berbrugger, Missua civitas (Sidi Daoud en Nebi), Revue africaine: journal des travaux de la Société historique algérienne 31, janvier (1862), 214-217.
- V. Guérin, Voyage archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis, tome second, Paris 1862, 217-224.
- CIL VIII,1, Berlin 1881, 988-990.
- P. Gauckler, "Reconaissance archéologique aux environs de Sidi-Daoud", Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques 1900, CLIII-CLVII.
- M.P. Gauckler - M.L. Poinssot, Description de l'Afrique du Nord. Catalogue des musées et collections archéologiques de l'Algérie et de la Tunisie. Musée Alaoui, Paris 1907.
- J.H.C. Kern, "A Roman Terra Sigillata Dish from Tunisia, in Leyden", Mnemosyne 11,2 (1958), 152-156.
- W.G. Sinnigen, "Two Branches of the Late Roman Secret Service", American Journal of Philology 80,3 (1959), 238-254.
- C. Lepelley, "Notes sur sept inscriptions africaines du Bas-Empire", ZPE 43 (1981), 185-193: 191.
- B. Ben Abdallah Zeïneb, Catalogue des inscriptions latines païennes du musée du Bardo, Rome 1986, nr. 410.
- S. Ben Baaziz, Carte nationale des sites archéologiques et des monuments historiques - 008 Sidi Daoud, Tunis 2000.
- H. Slim - P. Trousset - R. Paskoff - A. Oueslati (eds.), Le littoral de la Tunisie. Étude géoarchéologique et historique, Paris 2004.
- L Callegarin, "Productions et exportations africaines en Méditerranée occidentale (Ier siècle av. - IIe siècle de n.è.)", Pallas 68 (2005), 171-201.
- R. Hamrouni, "A propos du réseau portuaire de l'afrique romaine: cas du littoral tunisien", In Africa et in Hispania, études sur l'huile africaine, Barcelona 2007, 55-66.
- D.L. Stone, "Africa in the Roman Empire: Connectivity, the Economy, and Artificial Port Structures", AJA 118,4 (2014), 565-600: 573-574.
- S. Trabelsi, "Le port antique de Missua (Sidi Daoud). Découvertes sous-marines récentes", Méditerranée. Revue géographique des pays méditerranéens 2019.
- M. Kouka - S. Trabelsi, "Mobilité du trait de côte et destruction des vestiges archéologiques de la façade nord-occidentale du Cap Bon (Tunisie)", Méditerranée. Revue géographique des pays méditerranéens 2020.

Notes:
[1] AE 1953, 153 (EDCS-08601106; HD018653; HD025368) has also been assigned to Sidi Daoud - Missua, but this is not correct. The place of dicovery is questionable, but if it is Sidi Daoud, then that is a locality close to Carthago - Tunis (identified by Google Earth). See R.P. Delattre and J. Carcopino in Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques 1930-1931, 323, 361; P.J. Ferron, "Épigraphie romaine", Cahiers de Byrsa 1951, 225-228; A. Beschaouch, "Nouvelles observations sur les sodalités africaines", CRAI 129,3 (1985), 453-475: 460-464.