Utica (Bordj bou Chateur). A coastal city in North Africa (Tunisia), thirty miles northwest of Carthage. Although now lying six miles inland, in ancient times it stood on a promontory at the mouth of the river Magradas (Medjerda), and possessed a port. Traditionally the oldest Phoenician settlement in north Africa, it was outstripped by Carthage, but remained the second center of the Carthaginian homeland. At the end of the Second Punic War Utica was besieged by Scipio Africanus the Elder (204 BC), buti n the Third War supported the Numidian King Masinissa against Carthage (149). After the fall of Carthage (146), it was rewarded with some of the conquered city's lands, and became the capital of the new Roman province of Africa and the residence of numerous Italian financiers and businessmen.

In 81, during the civil war between Sulla and the followers of Marius, Utica became the base of Pompey the Great's campaign against the followers of Marius in Africa. In 45, it sided with the Pompeians against Julius Caesar and after their defeat was the scene of the famous suicide of the younger Cato, who in consequence was known as Uticensis. Although made to suffer severely for this allegiance -and dealt a severe blow by the refoundation of Carthage- the Uticans received the status of a Roman municipium from Octavian (the future Augustus) in 36, and under Hadrian (AD 117-138) gained colonial rank, which was confirmed by Septimius Severus (193-211). Their maritime trade suffered from the silting up of their port, but intensified agricultural activities provided partial compensation.

The basic features of the Roman Republican city can be traced, but under the Principate more elaborate development took place. Two theaters were constructed, as well as large baths at the foot of the hill, and extensive cisterns fed by an aqueduct. On the south side of the colonnaded, hundred-and-twenty-foot wide, main street (partly built over a Carthaginian cemetery, and bordering the Roman forum), extended a residential district containing a number of important houses erected in the time of Severus and frequently altered and restored in later periods. Shops are also to be seen, and the conversion of one of the private dwellings into a grain store, during the fourth century, perhaps indicates a deterioration in the living standards of the local ruling class. The locations of the Capitolium and of temples of Apollo and Jupiter (mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Plutarch respectively) still present problems of identification.

Michael Grant, A Guide to the Ancient World (Michael Grant Publications LTD, 1986), 678.