Topographie religieuse de Thugga, Dougga : ville romaine d'Afrique proconsulaire, Tunisie

Thugga, a city of Libyan origin that was annexed for a while to the territory of Punie Carthage, was merged into Africa Nova in 46 A.D. It stands on the side of a hill, dominating the ancient road from Carthage to Theveste, which was the commercial and strategic artery of the province. The archaeological and epigraphic sources related to religious life cover a period from the reign of Massinissa to that of Diocletian. Twenty-three places of worship, called African sanctuaries, Italic temples and simple chapels, have been identified in the city. One hundred and twenty-three religious inscriptions reveal the names of many gods of local and Roman origin.

The most prominent element in the development of the city was the coexistence throughout two centuries of a majority of peregrines, the Thuggenses, and a minority of Carthaginian citizens, the pagani. For a long time, they shared neither the same institutions, nor the same pantheon, and the evolution of judicial and cultural relations between the two communities found its expression in the choice of cults that they publicly honoured and in the religious installations of their respective territories.