Coordinates: 36°52′57″N 07°45′00″E

Hippo Regius
Hippo Regius (also known as Hippo or Hippone) is the ancient
name of the modern city of Annaba, Algeria. It historically Hippo Regius
served as an important city for the Phoenicians, Berbers,
Romans, and Vandals. Hippo was the capital city of the Vandal
Kingdom from 435–439 C.E.[1] until it was shifted to Carthage
following the Vandal Capture of Carthage (439).

It was the focus of several early Christian councils and home to

the Philosopher, Theologian and Doctor of the Church Saint
Augustine of Hippo.[a]

Hippo Regius ruins

Contents
History
Ecclesiastical history
Council of Hippo
Titular episcopal see
See also
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links Shown within Algeria
Location Algeria
Region Annaba Province
History
Coordinates 36°52′57″N 07°45′00″E

Hippo is the latinization of ʿPWN (Punic: 𐤍𐤅𐤐𐤏),[2][3] probably

related to the word ûbôn, meaning "harbor".[4] The town was first
settled by Phoenicians from Tyre around the 12th century BC. To
distinguish it from Hippo Diarrhytus (the modern Bizerte, in
Tunisia), the Romans later referred to it as Hippo Regius ("the Royal
Hippo") because it was one of the residences of the Numidian kings.
Its nearby river was latinized as the Ubus and the bay to its east was
known as Hippo Bay (Latin: Hipponensis Sinus).

A maritime city near the mouth of the river Ubus, it became a

Roman colonia[5] which prospered and became a major city in Hippo Regius on the map of Roman
Roman Africa. It is perhaps most famous as the bishopric of Saint Numidia, Atlas Antiquus, H. Kiepert,
Augustine of Hippo in his later years. In AD 430, the Vandals 1869
advanced eastwards along the North African coast and laid siege to
the walled city of Hippo Regius.[6] Inside, Saint Augustine and his
priests prayed for relief from the invaders, knowing full well that the fall of the city would spell death or
conversion to the Arian heresy for much of the Christian population. On 28 August 430, three months into
the siege, St. Augustine (who was 75 years old) died,[7] perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields
outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. After 14 months, hunger and the inevitable diseases were
ravaging both the city inhabitants and the Vandals outside the city walls. The city fell to the Vandals and
King Geiseric made it the first capital of the Vandal Kingdom until the capture of Carthage in 439.[8]

It was conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in 534 and was kept under Roman rule until 698, when it
fell to the Muslims; the Arabs rebuilt the town in the eighth century. The city's later history is treated under
its modern (Arabic and colonial) names.

About three kilometres distant in the eleventh century, the Berber Zirids established the town of Beleb-el-
Anab, which the Spaniards occupied for some years in the sixteenth century, as the French did later, in the
reign of Louis XIV. France took this town again in 1832. It was renamed Bône or Bona, and became one of
the government centres for the Constantine (departement) in Algeria.[5] It had 37,000 inhabitants, of whom
10,800 were original inhabitants, consisting of 9,400 Muslims and 1400 naturalized Jews. 15,700 were
French and 10,500 foreigners, including many Italians.

Ecclesiastical history
Hippo was an ancient bishopric, one of many suffragans in the former Roman province of Numidia, since
French colonial rule a part of the residential see of Constantine. It contains some ancient ruins, a hospital
built by the Little Sisters of the Poor and a fine basilica dedicated to St. Augustine. Under St. Augustine
there were at least three monasteries in the diocese besides the episcopal monastery.[5]

The diocese was established around 250 AD. Only these six bishops of Hippo are known:

Saint Theogenes[9](256? – martyr 259?)

Saint Leontius[9] (? – 303?)
Fidentius (? – martyr ?304)
Valerius (388? – 396), who ordained St. Augustine
the "Doctor of Grace", Saint Augustine (354 – 28 August 430, coadjutor in 395, bishop in 396)
Heraclius (coadjutor in 426, bishop in 430).

It was suppressed around 450 AD.

Council of Hippo

Three church councils were held at Hippo (393, 394, 426)[5] and more synods – also in 397 (two sessions,
June and September) and 401, all under Aurelius.[10]

The synods of the Ancient (North) African church were held, with but few exceptions (e.g. Hippo, 393;
Milevum, 402) at Carthage. We know from the letters of Saint Cyprian that, except in time of persecution,
the African bishops met at least once a year, in the springtime, and sometimes again in the autumn. Six or
seven synods, for instance, were held under St. Cyprian's presidency during the decade of his administration
(249–258), and more than fifteen under Aurelius (391–429). The Synod of Hippo of 393 ordered a general
meeting yearly, but this was found too onerous for the bishops, and in the Synod of Carthage (407) it was
decided to hold a general synod only when necessary for the needs of all Africa, and it was to be held at a
place most convenient for the purpose. Not all the bishops of the country were required to assist at the
general synod. At the Synod of Hippo (393) it was ordered that "dignities" should be sent from each
ecclesiastical province. Only one was required from Tripoli (in Libya), because of the poverty of the bishops
of that province. At the Synod of Hippo (393), and again at the Synod of 397 at Carthage, a list of the books
of Holy Scripture was drawn up,[10] and these books (including some considered apocryphal by Protestants)
are still regarded as the constituents of the Catholic canon.

Titular episcopal see

The Hippo(ne) diocese was nominally revived in 1400 as Catholic Latin titular bishopric of the (lowest)
episcopal rank, for which no incumbent is recorded.

It ceased to exist on 23 September 1867, when the see was formally united with the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Constantine.

See also
Auzia
Caesarea of Mauretania
Cirta
Chullu
Mauretania Caesariensis
Milevum
List of cultural assets of Algeria

References

Notes
a. "A Berber, born in 354 at Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras) in Africa, he died as Bishop of Hippo
(later Bone, now Annaba) in 430, while the Vandals were besieging the town."Braudel 1995,
p. 335

Citations
1. Merrills, Andy; Miles, Richard (2010-01-15). The Vandals (https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/97814443
18074). Wiley. ISBN 978-1-4051-6068-1.
2. Head et al. 1911, p. 886.
3. Ghaki 2015, p. 66.
4. Brown (2013), p. 326.
5. Pétridès 1910.
6. Collins 2000, p. 124
7. Portalié 1907.
8. Merrills & Miles 2009, p. 60.
9. Tabbernee 2014.
10. Havey 1907.

Sources
Braudel, Fernand (1995). A History of Civilizations (https://books.google.com/books?id=im_HHEpf-msC).
Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-012489-7.

Brown, Peter (2013), Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of
Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD, Princeton: Princeton University Press,
ISBN 1400844533
Ghaki, Mansour (2015), "Toponymie et Onomastique Libyques: L'Apport de l'Écriture
Punique/Néopunique" (https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/50105050/To
ponymie_et_onomastique_Lapport_de_lecriture_punique_neopunique.pdf) (PDF), La
Lingua nella Vita e la Vita della Lingua: Itinerari e Percorsi degli Studi Berberi, Studi
Africanistici: Quaderni di Studi Berberi e Libico-Berberi (in French), No. 4, Naples: Unior,
pp. 65–71, ISBN 978-88-6719-125-3, ISSN 2283-5636 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2283
-5636)
Havey, Francis Patrick (1907). "African Synods" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclop
edia_(1913)/African_Synods). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 1.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Head, Barclay; Hill, G.F.; MacDonald, George; Wroth, W. (1911), "Numidia" (http://snible.org/coins/
hn/numidia.html), in Ed Snible (ed.), Historia Numorum (http://snible.org/coins/hn/index.htm
l) (2nd ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 884–887
Merrills, Andrew; Miles, Richard (2009). The Vandals (https://books.google.com/books?id=yTIHPo
yMOFYC). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-1808-1.
Pétridès, Sophron (1910). "Hippo Regius" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_
(1913)/Hippo_Regius). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 7. New York:
Robert Appleton Company.
Portalié, Eugène (1907). "St. Augustine of Hippo" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclo
pedia_(1913)/St._Augustine_of_Hippo). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic
Encyclopedia. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Tabbernee, William, ed. (2014). Early Christianity in Contexts: An Exploration across Cultures and
Continents (https://books.google.com/books?id=rN0tBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT292). Baker
Academic.

Further reading
Laffi, Umberto. Colonie e municipi nello Stato romano Ed. di Storia e Letteratura. Roma, 2007
ISBN 8884983509
Mommsen, Theodore. The Provinces of the Roman Empire Section: Roman Africa. (Leipzig 1865;
London 1866; London: Macmillan 1909; reprint New York 1996) Barnes & Noble. New
York, 1996
Smyth Vereker, Charles. Scenes in the Sunny South: Including the Atlas Mountains and the Oases
of the Sahara in Algeria. Volume 2. Publisher Longmans, Green, and Company. University
of Wisconsin. Madison,1871 ( Roman Hippo Regius (https://books.google.com/books?id=V
ofVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA131) )

External links
GigaCatholic, with residential episcopal incumbents biography links (http://www.gcatholic.org/d
ioceses/former/hipp0.htm)

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