Hadrumetum was a Phoenician colony earlier than Carthage, and was already an important town when the latter rose to greatness.

In the 11th century B.C., the Phoenicians, astute traders who were on their way to becoming Carthaginians, sensed the possibilities of a port city south of present-day Tunis and founded Hadrumentum (modern Sousse, Tunisia).

Hadrumetum was one of the most important communities within the Carthaginian territory in northern Africa because of its strategic location on the sea in the heart of the fertile Sahel region. The city allied itself with Rome during the Punic Wars, thereby escaping damage or ruin and entered a relatively peaceful 700-year stint under Pax Romana.

Under the Roman Empire it became very prosperous; Trajan gave it the rank of a colonia. At the end of the third century it even became the capital of the newly-made province of Byzacena (modern Sahel, Tunisia).