[2][3] Born into a very old Italian family established in Franche-Comté since the 12th century,[4] Tissot's father, a lawyer and aggregated professor of philosophy, chose to teach this subject in Bourges and later in Dijon, and also taking charge of his son's education.

[3] As a consul, Tissot lived successively in Spain, Thessaloniki, and Edirne, collaborating with Charles de La Valette on Herzegovina and a reconciliation attempt between Turks and Montenegrins.

Concurrently, he continued his research on Roman roads in Tunisia, publishing inscriptions revealing the name and location of Banasa and a map of Mauretania Tingitana in the Revue archéologique.

[3] During a leave he obtained, Tissot explored the Bagradas River, reconstructing the Roman road from Carthage to Hippo Regius via Bulla Regia, documenting numerous inscriptions.

[2] Appointed as an extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Constantinople (1880),[3] then to London (1882), elected as a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1880), Tissot refused to follow the advice of Salomon Reinach and to entrust the exploration of Tunisia to the students of the École française de Rome.