Sicca Veneria
Σίκκα
Sicca Veneria (Σίκκα or Σίκα Οὐενερία, Ptol. 4.3.30, 8.2.9), a considerable town of Numidia on the river Bagradas, and on the road from Carthago to Hippo Regius, and from Musti to Cirta, (Itin. Ant. pp. 41, 45.) It was built on a hill, and, according to Pliny (5.3. s. 2), was a Roman colony, We learn from Valerius Maximus (2.6.15) that it derived its surname from a temple of Venus which existed there, in which, agreeably to a Phoenician custom, the maidens of the town, including even those of good family, publicly prostituted themselves, in order to collect a marriage portion; a circumstance which shows that the town was originally a Phoenician settlement, devoted to the worship of Astarte. (Comp. Sal. Jug. 56; Plb. 1.66, 67.) Shaw (Travels, p. 87) takes it to be the modern Keff, where a statue of Venus has been found, and an inscription, with the words Ordo Siccensium. (Comp. Donati, Suppl. Thes. Murat. ii. pp. 266. 6; Orelli, Inscr. no. 3733.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.