Before the Roman annex­a­tion of Numidia, the town of Thug­ga, built on an ele­vat­ed site over­look­ing a fer­tile plain, was the cap­i­tal of an impor­tant Liby­­co-Punic state. It flour­ished under Roman and Byzan­tine rule, but declined in the Islam­ic peri­od. The impres­sive ruins that are vis­i­ble today give some idea of the resources of a small Roman town on the fringes of the empire.