Kasserine

In classical antiquity Kasserine was a Roman colony, known as Cillium. Under Roman Emperor Vespasian (69–79) or Titus (79-81), it was elevated to the rank of municipium, and under the Severan dynasty (193-235) to that of colonia (Cillilana). It became Roman territory following the defeat of Carthage in 146 BC, belonging to the provinces of Africa, Africa Vetus, Africa Proconsularus, and finally Africa Byzacena following the reforms of Diocletian in 314 AD.

Archaeological evidence remains on site: mausoleums, triumphal arches, thermae, a theatre and a Christian basilica.[3]

Tomb of the Flavii

One noted monument is the Tomb of the Flavii, built for local landowner Titus Flavius Secundus in the late second century AD. The Tomb contains a 110-line poem memorializing Flavius, and is the "longest extant Latin funerary epitaph from antiquity.[4]"

The theater was built at the end of the first century AD, probably to celebrate elevation of the town to a municipium,[5] It was restored, and reopened for performances in 2018.[6]

In 544 the Byzantines were defeated by the Berbers in the Battle of Cillium.

The town was renamed Kasserine, meaning "The Two Palaces", which is a reference to the two Roman mausoleums.[7]

In 1906, an attack by local bedouin on isolated settler farms near Kasserine, and the French civil administration offices during the Thala-Kasserine Disturbances was the first violent resistance to French authority under the protectorate.

Cillium was important enough in the Roman province of Byzacena to become a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Hadrumetum.

Cillium was represented at the Conference of Carthage (411) between Catholic and Donatist bishops by the Catholic Tertiolus and the Donatist Donatus. In 484, Fortunatianus of Cillium was one of the Catholic bishops whom the Arian Vandal king Huneric summoned to Carthage and then exiled.[8][9][10]

Kasserine is located in western central Tunisia. By road it is 200 kilometres west of Sfax, 246 kilometres (180 mi) south-west of Tunis, 166 kilometres (141 mi) south-west of Sousse.

Kasserine is divided into 11 districts:

• El Arich
• Ennour District
• Essalem District
• Ezzouhour District
• El Bassatine District
• El Fath District
• El Karma District
• El Khadhra District
• El Manar District
• Olympic District
• Zouhour District

Haggui in action for Bayer Leverkusen in 2007.

Kasserine's most popular sport club is the AS Kasserine (football, soccer).

• Faouzia Aloui (born in 1958), a poet and fiction writer.[17][18]
• Karim Haggui (born January 20, 1984), a football defender

• GigaCatolic, with titular ncumbent biography links

• Battle of the Kasserine Pass
• Kasserine Dam
• History of Roman-era Tunisia