Lares, also called Laribus, was a city of Roman Africa and medieval Ifriqiya, located at modern Henchir Lorbeus, Tunisia.
On the east, Laribus bordered the fertile plain belonging to Tamajanna, another early medieval city under its administration.
In the middle ages, this was an important crossroads with routes leading to Qayrawan (by way of Ubba or Tamajanna) in the east, Baja and Tunis to the north, and the Zab region (by way of the Oued Mellègue and Fahs al-Bull) to the west.
[2]: 240–1 Medieval sources described Laribus as having two springs: 'Ayn Rabah, which was within the citadel walls, and 'Ayn Ziyad, which was considered the better of the two and served as the main supply of drinking water.
[2]: 245 Laribus was built up under the reign of Justinian, forming part of the second line of fortifications defending Roman Africa against invasion from the southwest.
When the city of Carthage was captured by Arab forces in the late 690s, Byzantine and Berber troops withdrew to Laribus; they remained there until Musa ibn Nusayr's campaign in the region.
[2]: 245 At the end of October 907, after Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i had conquered the western part of Aghlabid territory, Ziyadat Allah III hastily mustered a defense force at Laribus, leaving it under the command of the prince Ibrahim ibn Abi al-Aghlab.
[1]: 115 Abu Abdallah avoided a direct confrontation with the Aghlabid army and instead took a long detour to the south, by way of Kasserine.
[2]: 243 In early 908, Ibrahim marched south to stop Abu Abdallah's advance, and the two armies fought an inconclusive battle at Dar Madyan.
The fighting lasted until the asr prayer (late afternoon), when a unit of 575 Kutama warriors, having circled around the battlefield in a deep streambed, attacked the Aghlabid army in the flank.
The next day, 19 March, Laribus offered an unconditional surrender to the Kutama, who then massacred its inhabitants and looted the city.
In 382 AH (992-3 CE), the Zirid ruler al-Mansur dismissed the governor of Laribus and appointed his freedman Qaysar in charge of the city.
[2]: 245 The bishopric of Lares in the Late Roman province of Africa Proconsularis was a suffragan of its capital Carthage's Metropolitan Archbishopric, but like most was to fade.
The diocese was nominally restored as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric in the 18th century, until 1933 also called Lari in Curiate Italian.