FARIANA. - It is the name of the modern village in Tunisia, a short distance from which, at the locality Medinet el Kdim, lie the ruins of ancient Thelepte. The city was important above all as a road junction in connection with the military defense of Byzacena, within whose district it was included after the Diocletianic reform, and of Numidia: it still retained this function in the Byzantine age, when Justinian surrounded it with walls (Procopius, De aedif., VI, 6). In the Empire it held the rank of colony, probably from Trajan's time.
In the history of Christianity it is already recorded as an episcopal see in 256; other bishops of it appear at the Councils of 401 (at this one, besides a Catholic bishop, two Donatist bishops of the city seem to have been present), of 418, of 484; it is finally still registered in the Descriptio orbis Romani of George of Cyprus between the 6th and 7th centuries: its Christian community therefore survived until the time of the Arab invasions: whether it persisted even afterward cannot be said.
Alongside not a few remains of pagan monuments (a theater and baths) and a Byzantine fortress, the city shows the ruins of at least seven churches with four chapels, all generally reduced to a few remnants, from which the plan of the original buildings can be reconstructed only with difficulty: in any case, the number of these and the size of some of them testify to the vigor attained by Christian life in the city. Some churches have an adjacent cemetery area or isolated tombs.
The largest of them, situated at the edge of the Roman settlement, is about 52 m. long and 25 m. wide, and is preceded by a rectangular, enclosed forepart, divided into three rooms; inside it has five naves, of which the central one is separated from the side ones by large quadrangular piers with engaged columns, and ends at the rear with an apse; the opening of this seems to have been closed by an architrave on columns, almost like an iconostasis; the fragment of the shaft of one of these columns presents a very low relief decoration with tendrils intertwined around a monogram and a chalice between two peacocks; other architectural elements (capitals and corbels) have a similar decoration. Joined to the left side of the church is a small apsidal building, divided into two rooms: probably a baptistery with its consignatorium; fragments of decorative terracotta tiles were found there, frequent in the Christian buildings of Tunisia. The building can be dated to about the middle of the 5th century.
Another church, right in the center of the Roman city, seems to have been preceded by a quadrangular atrium, an element very rare in Africa; the interior, about forty meters long, had three naves with an apse and side chapels next to it; singular is the presence of a counter-apse, built at a later time, probably to receive the tomb of some venerated personage. The first construction of the church could be ascribed to the 4th century.
A third basilica is close to the first in size (45 x 18.65 m.) and in its internal division into five naves, the central one with columns, the side ones with octagonal piers. It is preceded on the front by a rectangular court, and ends with an apse circular on the inside, polygonal on the outside: such a form of the apse would suggest that the church dates to no earlier than the Vandal period, if not indeed Byzantine.
Of the other minor churches, mention should be made of the one situated outside the city toward the southwest, in the midst of a Christian burial ground: in the apse a mosaic inscription bore a verse of a psalm; another similar inscription was in the presbytery before the apse, above a tomb, with the record of a Tamorins et comites, certainly martyrs deposited there, perhaps the same ones whom the Hieronymian Martyrology marks on July 10. The date of construction of the church is perhaps the 4th century. In the building was found a small stone column adapted at the top into a basin, perhaps for ablutions. Of the minor chapels the most singular is one adjacent to grottoes carved into the rocky wall, on the side of a torrent, and certainly used for the burial of venerated personages.
A native of Thelepte was St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (468-532).