Editing Hippo Regius

{{short description|Ancient name for the modern city of Annaba, Algeria}}
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  |image = Hippone.JPG
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  |caption = [[Basilica of Saint Augustine (Annaba)|Basilica of Saint Augustine]] overlooking the ruins of Hippo Regius
  |map_type = Algeria
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  |location = [[Algeria]]
  |region = [[Annaba Province]]
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'''Hippo Regius''' (also known as '''Hippo''' or '''Hippone''') is the ancient name of the modern city of [[Annaba]], [[Algeria]]. It served as an important city for the [[Phoenicia]]ns, [[Berbers]], [[Roman Empire|Romans]], and [[Vandals]]. Hippo was the capital city of the [[Vandal Kingdom]] from AD 435 to 439,{{sfn|Merrills|Miles|2009|pp=}} after which it was shifted to [[Carthage]] following the Vandal [[capture of Carthage (439)|capture of Carthage]] in 439.

It was the focus of several early [[Christianity|Christian]] councils and home to [[Augustine of Hippo]], a [[Church Father]] highly important in [[Western Christianity]].{{efn|"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."{{harvnb|Braudel|1995|p=335}} }}

== History ==
{{further|Maghreb placename etymology}}
[[File:Mileve Hippo Thagaste in Numidia.JPG|right|thumb|Hippo Regius on the map of Roman [[Numidia (Roman province)|Numidia]], ''Atlas Antiquus'', H. Kiepert, 1869]]
Hippo is the [[latinization of names|latinization]] of {{smallcaps|ʿpwn}} ({{langx|xpu|𐤏𐤐𐤅{{popdf}}𐤍}}),{{sfn|Head|Hill|MacDonald|Wroth|1911|p=886}}{{sfn|Ghaki|2015|p=66}} probably related to the word ''ûbôn'', meaning "harbor".{{sfnp|Brown|2013|p=326}} The town was first settled by [[Phoenicians]] from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] around the 12th century{{nbsp}}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 [[Numidia]]n kings. Its nearby river was Latinized as the Ubus and the bay to its east was known as Hippo Bay ({{langx|la|Hipponensis Sinus}}).

A maritime city near the mouth of the river Ubus, it became a Roman [[colonia (Roman)|colonia]]{{sfn|Pétridès|1910}} which prospered and became a major city in [[Roman Empire|Roman]] Africa. It served as the [[Diocese|bishopric]] of [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] of Hippo in his later years. In AD 430, the [[Vandals]] advanced eastwards along the North African coast and [[Siege of Hippo Regius|laid siege to the walled city of Hippo Regius]].{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} 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 [[Arianism|Arian confession]] for much of the Christian population. On 28 August 430, three months into the siege, St. Augustine (who was 75 years old) died,{{sfn|Portalié|1907}} perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. Hunger and the inevitable diseases were ravaging both the city inhabitants and the Vandals outside the city walls who lifted the siege after 14 months.<ref name="Merrills">{{cite book|author=Andrew Merrills, Richard Miles|title=The Vandals|year=2009|publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4443-1808-1|pages=55}}</ref> The peace treaty of 435 acknowledged the Vandals' possession of the city<ref name="Merrills" /> and [[Geiseric|King Geiseric]] made it the first capital of the [[Vandal Kingdom]] until the [[Battle of Carthage (439)|capture]] of Carthage in 439.{{sfn|Merrills|Miles|2009|p=60}}

It was conquered by the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] in 534 and was kept under Roman rule until 698, when it fell to the [[Muslim]]s; 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.{{sfn|Pétridès|1910}} It had 37,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,800 were original inhabitants, consisting of 9,400 Muslims and 1,400 naturalized Jews. 15,700 were French and 10,500 foreigners, including many Italians.

== {{anchor|Bishops}}<!-- [[Bishop of Hippo]] redirects here-->Ecclesiastical history ==
Hippo was an ancient bishopric, one of many suffragans in the former [[Roman province]] of [[Numidia]], a part of the residential see of [[Constantine, Algeria|Constantine]]. It contains some ancient ruins, a hospital built by the [[Little Sisters of the Poor]] and a fine [[Basilique Saint Augustin|basilica]] dedicated to St. Augustine. Under St. Augustine there were at least three monasteries in the diocese besides the episcopal monastery.{{sfn|Pétridès|1910}}

The diocese was established around 250 AD. Only these six bishops of Hippo are known:
* Saint Theogenes{{sfn|Tabbernee|2014}}(256? – [[martyr]] 259?)
* Saint Leontius{{sfn|Tabbernee|2014}} (died 303?)
* [[Fidentian|Fidentius]] (martyr ?304)
* Valerius (388?–396), who ordained St. Augustine
* the "Doctor of Grace", Saint Augustine (354 – 28 August 430, [[Coadjutor bishop|coadjutor]] in 395, bishop in 396)
* Heraclius (coadjutor in 426, bishop in 430).

It was suppressed around 450 AD.

=== Council of Hippo ===
{{main|Synod of Hippo}}
Three church councils were held at Hippo (393, 394, 426){{sfn|Pétridès|1910}} and more synods – also in 397 (two sessions, June and September) and 401, all under Aurelius.{{sfn|Havey|1907}}

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 [[Cyprian|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, Libya|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,{{sfn|Havey|1907}} and these books 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 ==
{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
* [[Auzia]]
* [[Caesarea of Mauretania]]
* [[Cirta]]
* [[Chullu (Roman city)|Chullu]]
* [[Mauretania Caesariensis]]
* [[Milevum]]
* [[List of cultural assets of Algeria]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book|last=Braudel|first=Fernand |author-link=Fernand Braudel|title=A History of Civilizations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=im_HHEpf-msC|year=1995|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-012489-7}}
* {{citation |first=Peter |last=Brown |title=Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2013 |isbn=978-1400844531 }}
* {{citation |last=Ghaki |first=Mansour |contribution=Toponymie et Onomastique Libyques: L'Apport de l'Écriture Punique/Néopunique |contribution-url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/50105050/Toponymie_et_onomastique_Lapport_de_lecriture_punique_neopunique.pdf |pages=65–71 |date=2015 |location=Naples |publisher=Unior |editor=Anna Maria di Tolla |display-editors=0 |title=La Lingua nella Vita e la Vita della Lingua: Itinerari e Percorsi degli Studi Berberi |series=Studi Africanistici: Quaderni di Studi Berberi e Libico-Berberi |volume=4 |isbn=978-88-6719-125-3 |issn=2283-5636 |language=fr |access-date=2018-11-02 |archive-date=2020-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428044658/https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/50105050/Toponymie_et_onomastique_Lapport_de_lecriture_punique_neopunique.pdf |url-status=dead }} 
* {{cite CE1913|last=Havey|first=Francis Patrick|volume=1|wstitle=African Synods}}
* {{citation |last1=Head |first1=Barclay |editor=Ed Snible |first2=G.F.|last2= Hill |first3=George |last3=MacDonald |first4=W. |last4=Wroth  |url=http://snible.org/coins/hn/index.html |title=Historia Numorum |contribution=Numidia|contribution-url=http://snible.org/coins/hn/numidia.html |pages=884–887 |date=1911 |edition=2nd |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press }}
* {{cite book|last1=Merrills|first1=Andrew |last2=Miles|first2=Richard |title=The Vandals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTIHPoyMOFYC|year=2009|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-1808-1}}
* {{cite CE1913|last=Pétridès|first=Sophron|volume=7|wstitle=Hippo Regius}}
* {{Cite CE1913|last=Portalié|first=Eugène|volume=2|wstitle=St. Augustine of Hippo}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Tabbernee|editor-first= William |date=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rN0tBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT292 |title=Early Christianity in Contexts: An Exploration across Cultures and Continents|publisher= Baker Academic|isbn= 9781441245717 }}
{{refend}}

===Further reading===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* 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 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=VofVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA131 Roman Hippo Regius])
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/hipp0.htm GigaCatholic, with residential episcopal incumbents biography links] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122519/http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/hipp0.htm |date=2016-03-04 }}

{{Romano-Berber cities in Roman Africa}}
{{Phoenician cities and colonies navbox}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hippo Regius}}
[[Category:12th-century BC establishments]]
[[Category:History of Annaba]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Algeria]]
[[Category:Catholic titular sees in Africa]]
[[Category:Numidia (Roman provinces)]]
[[Category:Phoenician colonies in Algeria]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Roman towns and cities in Algeria]]