Jendouba is presumably the heiress of " Bulla Régia ". The Numidian city, became Punic, then Roman, and that, after the destruction of Carthage at the end of the third Punic war in 146 before JC.
  The city had the privilege to possess, since the first century before JC, the status of " Municipe " that is to say municipality. Then, the city of Simmithu acquired the status of municipality.
This privilege enabled Bulla Régia to become the main city of the northwest, especially for its strategic site on the main road joining Carthage to Bône,  was of utmost importance.
  Destroyed and abandoned, on a big city in the same way as famous as Bulla Régia, was founded , on the big plains to the south of Medjerda, to continue to carry and to hold the torch of civilization and public-spiritedness in spite of tribe waves crossing the region and coming from the Arabian Penninsula or from inside the country. The core of the city of Jendouba began to take its shape around the small railway station constructed by the French. September 1st,1879 marked the birth of agglomeration " Souk El Arbaa " which thereafter became the city of Jendouba.
   Modest, simple in its constructions, its architecture and its  appearance the city of Jendouba was a developed city.
   A decade after, the city gradually spread southward to form the first streets, namely, the Mohamed Ali street and the Sakiat Sidi Youssef street.

Since its foundation, the city of Jendouba  was known as " Souk El Arbaa ". This appelation refers to the day of the weekly market that is held every Wednesday. 
   Inhabitants of the adjacent farming zone formed  the future city under the name of " The Barraka " the Shack. Besides, the appellation, " Jendouba ", was established officially in 1966  by presidential decree on April 30, 1966.
   Researches done by local and national historians on the real etymology of the name of Jendouba are not numerous. There are two versions, one of  Professor Tahar Mzai, native of the region, who affirms that the word Jendouba refered to a big tribe settled on plains of the region. 
The other thesis is that of the historian Hassen Hosni Abdelwaheb who claims in his letter sent to the town council in 1966 that  since the 11th century of the Hegire, the region of Jendouba, was named after certain originary from the Bani Hilal tribes who settled in the big plains of the Medjerda.