Rusadir

() was a Punic name meaning "Powerful" or "High Cape", after its nearby headland. The format is similar to other Punic names along the North African coast, including Rusguniae, Rusubbicari, Rusuccuru, Rusippisir, Rusigan (Rachgoun), Rusicade, Ruspina, Ruspe, and Rsmlqr. The settlement's name was hellenized as Rhyssádeiron (). It appears in Latin as Rusadir, Rusicada, and Rusadder. As a Roman colony, it was also known as Flavia. ==Geography==

Like Abyla (present-day Ceuta), Rusadir was located on a small, easily defended peninsula connected to mainland Africa by a narrow isthmus. Its namesake cape is small but includes a large rocky hill, which was fortified. It lies at the northern end of a small bight which formed its harbor, itself part of the eastern shore of a much larger bight that stretches across the southern Mediterranean coast from Cape Three Forks (the classical '''') Rusadir's own small bight lies beside a kind of natural amphitheater on the eastern slope of a steep rock high, where modern Melilla has grown up. ==History==

Punic town Rusadir was established as a Phoenician colony By the early 7th century a Christian bishop with seat in the city was mentioned in the Thronus Alexandrinus. By 700, Rusadir was conquered by Musa ibn Nusayr on behalf of the Umayyad Caliphate. With an uncertain existence as populated settlement by the mid 9th century, the city was repopulated by Berbers by the late 9th century (c. 890), when it was already known by its new name, Malila/Melilla/Amlil. It was seized by an Andalusian army on behalf of Abd al-Rahman III, emir (soon-to-be Caliph) of Córdoba in 926–927. It was conquered by the Castilian nobleman Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán in 1497 andunder the name Melilla (q.v.)was formally annexed by Castile in 1506. ==Religion==

Rusadir remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church. ==See also==