The Fossa regia or ditch of Scipion was a ditch traced by the Romans in North Africa at ends of delimitations administrative.

The ditch was initially traced after the destruction of Carthage in -146 by the troops of Scipion Émilien. This last was assisted of a commission of ten members to fix the limits of the province and to materialize the border between the territory conquered by Rome, and transformed into Roman Province and the territory left to the combined kings numides of Rome. The ditch left the estuary Oued to el-Kebir it towards Thabraca (Tabarka), went down towards the south, passed in on this side Vaga (Béja) and Thugga (Dougga) and after having circumvented by the south Djebel Zaghouan, emerged in small Syrte, in the south of Thaenae (Henchir Tina), leaving Sfax apart from the provincial territory. The layout took again that of the border punico-numide after the conquests numides of -149. After -46, the Western part of the Fossa regia was used as limit between the province of Africa nova , with the west, and the province of Africa vetus in the east. The union of these two provinces within Africa proconsulaire, under Auguste, did not remove any significance with the ditch. There remained and played always a part since it was hollowed out again under the Flaviens. One indeed found between 1893 and 1938 nine terminals dating from the reign of Vespasien and showing that it had charged, at the time of his censure in 74 two legates to hollow out again the layout of the old border. It was about a cadastral operation which made it possible to delimit grounds allotted before (centuries) and to identify those which returned to the state: the fossa regia , as hollowed out again under Vespasien indeed marked the limit between several centuriations: the emperor carried out the resequencing of the Ager publicus in Africa. The legates were the former consul Caius Rutilius Gallicus and the legate of the legion '' IIIa Augusta '' Sextus Sentius Caecilianus.

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