Hippo Regius
Coordinates: 36 ° 50 ′ 22 ″ N , 7 ° 44 ′ 7 ″ E
Hippo Regius was an ancient coastal town in Numidia , Numidia in what is now eastern Algeria , near the mouth of the Seybouse River. The ruins are in the south of the city of Annaba .
history
Phoenician time
Like Carthage, Hippo was born in the 9th or 8th century BC. Founded by the Phoenicians from Tire as a trading post.
Roman time
At the time of the 2nd Punic War , the Massylian ruler Gala (Massylier) conquered this colony. 205 BC The later consul Gaius Laelius landed in the port of Hippo Regius, with which the Roman offensive in North Africa began. Massinissa , the son of Gala, made the city from 201 to 149 BC. To one of the residences of the Numid kings (hence their epithet Regius). 46 BC Chr. Was Hippo Regius after the victory of Caesar at Thapsus the Roman Empire incorporated and the province of Africa nova slammed shut. Initially the city was just a municipality and later got the legal status of a colony . Trade in Hippo flourished as Rome (and Carthage) obtained most of its African products from here.
Christian bishops of Hippo can be traced back to 259 AD. Saint Augustine , who came from Thagaste , about 70 kilometers south, came to Hippo in 391 after spending several years in Italy and founded the first African monastery there. He was Bishop of Hippo from 395 until his death in 430. In 393 and in the years thereafter, the Council of Hippo took place here in several meetings .
In 431, after an 18-month siege, the city was captured by the Vandals under Geiseric and was then the capital of the Vandal Empire for eight years until the conquest of Carthage.
Byzantine Empire
After the conquest of the old provincia africa by the Eastern Roman general Belisarius , Hippo came to the Byzantine Empire in 533 . In 698 the city was stormed by Muslim Arabs and destroyed to the ground.
Arab time
In the 11th century, Arabs founded the city of Beleb-el-Anab a few kilometers from the ancient city center, which developed into today's Annaba.
Archaeological finds
French excavations have brought to light some remarkable ruins in Hippo, including temples, theaters, the forum and also an early Christian basilica, which is referred to as the Episcopal Church of St. Augustine.
literature
- VM Holmes: Hippo Regius from the earliest times to the Arab conquest. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1970
- Marcel Le Glay: Hippo 6). In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1160.
- Erwan Marec: Hippone la Royale, antique Hippo Regius . 2nd Edition. Algiers 1954.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Polybios 12, 1; Titus Livius 29, 3, 7.
- ↑ Silius Italicus , Punica 3, 259.
- ↑ Ptolemy 4: 3, 2; Itinerarium Antonini 20, 3.
- ↑ Church canon decisions up to the end of the Middle Ages on joerg-sieger.de, accessed on November 17, 2014