Thysdrus began as a small Carthaginian and Berber village. Following the Punic Wars, it was refounded as a Roman town and probably received some of Julius Caesar's veterans as settlers in 45BC. Punic culture remained long predominant, with the city minting bronze coins as late as Augustus with Punic inscriptions. Some bore Astarte's head obverse and a lyrereverse; others bore "Poseidon"'s head obverse and a capricorn reverse. Roman Africa was less arid than modern Tunisia, and Thysdrus and the surrounding lands in Byzacena were an important center of olive oil production and export. Its greatest importance occurred under the Severan dynasty in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. Septimius Severus was a native of Roman Africa and bestowed a great deal of imperial favor upon it. He raised Thysdrus to municipality status with partial Roman citizenship. By the early 3rd century when its huge amphitheater was built, Thysdrus rivaled Hadrumetum as the second city ofRoman North Africa, after Carthage. The city had even a huge racetrack, nearly as large as the Circus Maximus at Rome and capable of accommodating about 30,000 spectators. In AD238, Thysdrus was at the center of a struggle to control the Roman Empire. After Maximinus Thrax killed Emperor Alexander Severus at Moguntiacum in Germania Inferior and assumed the throne, his oppressive rule resulted in universal discontent. Maximinus's procurator in Africa, in particular, sought to extract the maximum level of taxation and fines possible, including falsifying charges against the local aristocracy. A riot among the 50,000 Thysdrians ended with the death of the procurator, after which they turned to Gordian and demanded that he accept the dangerous honor of the imperial throne. After protesting that he was too old for the position, he eventually yielded to the popular clamor of the Thysdrians and assumed both the purple and the epithetAfricanus on March 22. According to Edward Gibbon: Due to his advanced age, he insisted that his son M. Antonius Gordianus be acclaimed as his coruler. A few days later, Gordian entered the city of Carthage with the overwhelming support of the population and local political leaders. Meanwhile, in Rome, Maximinus's praetorian prefect was assassinated and the rebellion seemed to be successful. Gordian in the meantime had sent an embassy to Rome under the leadership of P. Licinius Valerianus to obtain the Senate's support for his rebellion. The senate confirmed the new emperor on 2 April and many of the provinces gladly sided with Gordian. Opposition would come from the neighboring province of Numidia. Its governor Capelianus, a loyal supporter of Maximinus and a stalwart opponent of Gordian, renewed his alliance to the emperor and invaded the province of Africa with the only legion stationed in the region and other veteran units. GordianII, at the head of a militia army of untrained soldiers mostly from Thysdrus and surroundings, lost the Battle of Carthage and was killed. Gordian took his own life in his villa near Carthage by hanging himself with his belt. The Gordians had "reigned" only thirty-six days. Following this abortive revolt, Capelianus's troops sacked Thysdrus. Thysdrus was subsequently raised to the level of a colony by in AD244. It was the seat of a Christiandiocese, which is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees. All the same, it never really recovered.
Later history
Around 695, the Romano-Berber queen Kahina destroyed most of the olive trees of the Thysdrus area in her final attempt to stop the Arab invasion. She made her final stand at the amphitheater, but was defeated. In the next centuries, Thysdrus largely disappeared from the record, with a worsening arid climate apparently damaging its olive oil production. By the 10th century, many of Thysdrus's buildings had been dismantled for use in construction at Kairouan. In the 19th century, French colonizers found only a small village named El Djem, with a few hundred inhabitants living around the remains of the amphitheater and barely eking out enough production from their farms to survive.
