berty and dignity). Jacques Gascou, in line with Paul Veyne�s interpretation, describes the situation thus: �Liberum, inThugga�s title, is a term [�] with which the city, which had waited a long time for the status of a municipium, is happy to flatter itself�.
Despite Gascou�s conclusion, efforts have been made more recently to identify concrete aspects of Dougga�s liberty. Claude Lepelley believes on the one hand that this must be a reference to the relations between the city and Rome and on the other hand that the term can cover a range of diverse privileges of differing degrees. It is known that the territory of Carthage, to which the Dougga pagus belonged until 205 CE, enjoyed such privileges: the inhabitants of the pagus even sent an appeal during Trajan�s reign to defend the immunitas perticae Carthaginiensium, the (fiscal) immunity of the territory of Carthage. The Dougga civitas had not been granted this concession, and the fusion of pagus with the civitas meant that the citizens of the pagus risked losing their enviable privilege. The liberty of the municipal founded during the reign of Septimius Severus could thus be a reference to the fiscal immunity made possible by and the region�s great wealth and by the emperor�s generosity to each municipium at the time of its fusion. During the reign of Gallienus, a certain Aulus Vitellius Felix Honoratus, a well-known individual in Dougga, made an appeal to the emperor �in order to assure the public liberty�. Claude Lepelley believes that this is an indication that the city�s privilege had been called into question, although Dougga appears to have been at least partially able to preserve its concessions, as evidenced by an inscription to the honor of �Probus, defender of its liberty�.
According to Michel Christol though, this interpretation overly restricts the meaning of the word libertas. In Christol�s view, it is important not to forget that the emperor�s decision in 205 must have been taken in
