[5][6] Scipio Africanus landed nearby, took the town, and pillaged the surrounding countryside in 204 BC ahead of his siege of Utica during the Second Punic War.

[5] Its peninsula preserved an ancient and important temple to "Apollo", probably representing a continuation of the Carthaginian worship of the healing god Eshmun harmonized with the Greco-Roman pantheon.

[12] He established fortifications to prevent the harbor's use by Christian powers and attracted refugee Moriscos by the provision of certain liberties at Porto Farina, Rafraf, and Ras el-Djebel.

Any such action, he felt, should begin with the English, one of whose captains had recently sold a company of Tunisian troops as galley slaves to the Knights of Malta instead of transporting them to Smyrna (present-day Izmir) as arranged.

Because his sustained assault was able to silence the town's defenses entirely, the engagement is celebrated as the first successful naval attack on shore-based fortifications.

Muhammad Talak and Ali Bey were arrested and strangled in Porto Farina in 1682 as part of the chaotic struggles of the later Muradid dynasty.

[19] Similarly, when Venice took exception to Tunisian-based piracy in the early 1780s, its leaders ordered a series of bombardments that included an attack by Admiral Emo's fleet on Porto Farina on September 6, 1784.

[19] The beylik's arsenal was finally removed in 1818, but fear that a similar fate might befall its navy as had Algeria's caused the bey to hire dredgers and workers to improve conditions; he was again able to bring his fleet into the harbor by December.

[21] When a severe storm destroyed the beylik's fleet at anchor off La Goulette on February 7–8, 1821, however, such efforts were discontinued and the sandbar off Porto Farina was allowed to continue to grow.

[23] In the early years of Tunisia's French occupation, the Bizerte Port Company (French: Compagnie du Port de Bizerte) made an attempt to again dredge access to Porto Farina's harbor but a storm from the northeast closed the channel almost immediately after its opening and further attempts were abandoned.

[25] The ancient bishopric survives today as a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church[26] and the current bishop is Geoffrey James Robinson of Australia.