Hippo Regius Research Articles

Urban Development in the City of Hippo Regius in Algeria according to Ancient Iconography. Case Study of the Mosaic of the Seafront Villa

The study of ancient cities is of great importance in understanding today's cities. Information on the way of life ofancient populations and urban organization in this period can be obtained from various archaeological elementsunearthed, particularly in mosaics and iconography, which prove to be loaded with symbols and meanings. Thisstudy aims to highlight the role of archaeological sources in the representation of architectural and urban elements,and to interpret their symbolism and significant imprint. For this purpose, the research takes as its case study theHippo seafront mosaic dating from the 3rd century A.D., which represents Hippo Regius, currently the city of Annabain Algeria, founded in the 3rd century BC as a roman colony on the Mediterranean coast. Reading the mosaic hasenriched our knowledge of the city of Hippo, providing visual information on its landscape, architecture, socioeconomic activities, and importance as a seaport. Its credibility was demonstrated using a comparative approach that compares the depicted details with evidence from archaeological, historical, and iconographic discoveries.

On Christian Asylum in Augustine’s Sermones

In the late 4th century, bishops utilized the so-called ius intercessionis right to intervene in order to help those in need, be they the persecuted, the accused or the convicted. These actions of a bishop were rooted foremost in the idea of mercy and it was also due to this right that a bishop became the one to decide about the granting of the right to asylum – a right which was gradually extended to Christian churches at the time. St. Augustine encounters the issue of Christian asylum as the bishop of Hippo Regius in Africa mainly in his preserved correspondence, but he talks about seeking sanctuary in Christian churches also in one of his sermons, specifically in Sermo 302 delivered on the feast of St. Lawrence. This paper focuses on presenting the circumstances of a violent act in Hippo Regius and its implications to potentially sanctuary seeking in local Christian church, particularly on the ground of analysis of post sermonem to Sermo 302.

:Numidia Romana? Die Auswirkungen der römischen Präsenz in Numidien (2. Jh. v. Chr.–1. Jh. n. Chr.)

:<i>Numidia Romana? Die Auswirkungen der römischen Präsenz in Numidien (2. Jh. v. Chr.–1. Jh. n. Chr.)</i>

Valuing the Work of Jaume Huguet: A Painter and his Materials

The Consecration of Saint Augustine in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona (Fig. 1) comes from the high altar retable of the church of Sant Agustí Vell in the city, whose paintings were commissioned from Jaume Huguet in 1463, but not completed until 1486.1 The panel shows the imposing figure of the saint in elaborate vestments presented full face, enthroned before a cloth of honour and flanked by a press of full-length figures, two of whom, symmetrically arranged, place a bishop’s mitre upon his head: this is Augustine consecrated as bishop of Hippo Regius. The viewer’s attention is caught by two prominent features: the dense array of individualised and characterful heads occupying a band in the top third of the painting, and the opulent decoration which involves a profusion of surface ornament. The jewels on the mitres and liturgical gloves of the principal figures, their...

The Chronology of Augustine’s "Tractatus in Iohannis Evangelium" 1–16 and "Enarrationes in Psalmos" 119–133 Revisited

In the year 2002 Milewski published an article devoted to the current state of research concerning Augustine’s Commentary on the Gospel of John where, among other topics, he reports on the state of research in the chronology of this work by Augustine, and after a brief summary of the latest solutions proposed by prominent Augustinian scholars he concludes that the history of the Tractates’ composition calls for a careful appreciation of their development and appearance over the course of Augustine’s busy episcopate and in relation to his other pastoral endeavours. This study therefore serves as the point of departure for our present article in which we would like to contribute to the recently proposed solution to certain questions related to the chronology of the two series of Augustine’s homilies, i.e. Tractatus in Iohannis Evangelium 1-16 and Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133, especially in those points where the present solutions appear to be rather vague. Hence, our analysis concerns primarily the division of Tractates 1-12 and 13-16 made by Le Landais, and consequently accepted by all later scholars. Moreover, it focuses on some key points of the chronology: the dating of Tractate 7 at a pagan festival, the so-called dies sanguinis, proposed by La Bonnardière, then the synchronization of Tractates 1-16 with the parallel series of Enarrationes in Psalmos 119-133, and, finally, the re-evaluation of the year of the delivery of both series of homilies, dated between the years 406/407 or 407/408. Our argumentation is based, first and foremost, on the principle similar topic means similar liturgical time thanks to which we can place Tractates 10-12 of the Commentary on John’s Gospel right before the beginning of the Lenten season. Consequently, it enables us to include Tractates 13-16 in Augustine’s preaching activity during the Lenten season until as late as the beginning of the Easter Octave. In addition, if we admit that Tractate 7 was not delivered on the so-called dies sanguinis feast related to the rites of Cybele and Attis but on the occassion of another unknown local festival of an aitiological myth in Hippo Regius, we do not need to place it on the 24th of March as La Bonnardière did. Finally, these findings help us outline the new synchronized chronology of the two series of Augustine’s exegetical homilies for both the years 406/407 and 407/408.

La conquête de l’Afrique romaine par les Vandales (429-439 après J.-C.)

Menacés par l’arrivée des Goths et attirés par la prospérité de l’Afrique, une région militairement mal défendue, les Vandales traversèrent le détroit de Gibraltar. Arrivés sur leur nouvelle terre, ils remportèrent une première bataille en rase campagne, mais ils connurent des difficultés pour prendre Hippone. Ensuite, ils vainquirent une deuxième fois en plaine, à l’est d’Hippone, puis ils s’emparèrent de Carthage, par ruse.

From Christianising Africa to Africanising Christianity: Some hermeneutical principles

During the early church’s initial expansion phase where congregations were established in Syria, Asia Minor, Achaia, Italy and Africa there were strong leadership structures in Alexandria, Carthage, Hippo Regius and Ethiopia. Over a period of two millennia the Christian church with a westernised character has spread all over Africa. Today there is a strong African consciousness and critical approach to Africanise Christianity, to decolonise it and to de-Westernise it. This research endeavours to contribute to the dialectic and critical debate and reasoning surrounding the Africanising of Christianity. There is the attempt, from a holistic perspective, to set some hermeneutical principles in place within this approach. This article approaches this topic from three perspectives. Firstly, it gives a brief overview of the spread and growth of Christianity into Africa with reference to six epochs to contextualise the reasoning in the following sections. Secondly, it points out some difficulties that were experienced during the rapid growth of Christianity and changes in its theology. During the past few decades Africa has not only endeavoured to regain its political and cultural identity, but also to claim an own Christian identity by Africanising Christianity. Thirdly, the article discusses some proposed hermeneutical principles that should be considered during the formation of a new Christian identity.

Pastoral lessons from Augustine’s theological correspondence with women

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was a fourth- and fifth-century monk-bishop who left a great imprint on the spiritual leaders of his day by overseeing the monastery at Hippo Regius and also authoring a significant corpus of letters that were pastoral in nature. What is often overlooked in the study of his pastoral ministry and, thus, the focus of this article, is Augustine’s theological correspondence with 15 different women. Through surveying the themes and issues in these letters, I have endeavoured to show that, though a monk, Augustine did care for women in his pastoral ministry and his letters show that he discussed with women many of the issues of his day (pastoral issues, church matters, monastic ideas, theology, and practical theology) that he also discussed with his male correspondents. In short, Augustine believed that these women were much like his mother Monica – capable of grasping biblical and theological issues – and he valued them as an important part of the church. I conclude the article by summarising Augustine’s approaches to and values for ministering to women.

MINERO‐PETROGRAPHIC AND GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ‘GRECO SCRITTO’ MARBLE FROM CAP DE GARDE, NEAR HIPPO REGIUS (ANNABA, ALGERIA)*

This work presents the results of the first mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical characterization of the marble quarried from the Cap de Garde headland, not far from Annaba (Algeria). This site is traditionally held by archaeologists to be the main source of supply of the so‐called ‘greco scritto’ marble, which was much used by the Romans for architectural and decorative–ornamental purposes, locally from the first century bc, and in Rome and central and southern Italy from the late Flavian period until the fourth century ad. The databank relating to the quarried material, created here for the first time, is used to establish the origin of ‘greco scritto’ found in six important Roman cities of North Africa: Hippo Regius and Cuicul (Djemila), in Algeria; Volubilis, in Morocco; Cyrene, in Libya; and Carthage and Utica in Tunisia. The results of this archaeometric study support the hypothesis (already put forward by authors) that the ‘greco scritto’used in the Roman Mediterranean originated from different sites, and suggest the existence of a number of North African quarries, also in the vicinity of Annaba.

Nuancing Augustine's Hermeneutical Jew: Allegory and Actual Jews in the Bishop's Sermons

AbstractBy investigating Augustine's preaching on the Jews, this paper seeks to nuance recent scholarship that maintains that the bishop's doctrine of the Jews took shape not in the context of his daily interactions with real Jews in Hippo Regius but rather against the backdrop of various aspects of his theology. A consideration of Augustine's homiletic corpus reveals a biblically-constructed and theologically-crafted "hermeneutical Jew." At the same time, however, Augustine the preacher also repeatedly refers to actual Jews in his late antique North African context. After reviewing the basic historical and historiographical evidence for Jews in ancient North Africa, it is here argued that it is precisely for actual Jews and their potential proselytes that Augustine spins the hermeneutically-crafted Jew (indeed, several of them) out of his allegorical interpretation of various biblical stories.

Tractates on the Gospel of John, 28-54 (review)

Reviewed by: Tractates on the Gospel of John, 28-54 David Dawson St. Augustine . Tractates on the Gospel of John, 28-54. Translated by John W. Rettig. Fathers of the Church, 88. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1993 Pp. 326. $34.95. This volume is the third installment in Rettig's ongoing translation of Augustine's 124 sermons on the gospel of John for the Fathers of the Church Series (vol. 78 contains translations of sermons 1-10 on Jn. 1.1-2.21, and vol. 79 contains sermons 11-27 on Jn. 2.23-6.72). In the sermons translated in this volume, Augustine treats the gospel of John from 7.13 to 12.50. Rettig's translation is based on the critical text edited by R. Willems, found in volume 36 of the Latin series of the Corpus Christianorum. While each volume contains a bibliography (basically the same in all three volumes) and two indices (of general terms and scripture references), only the first volume contains Rettig's full introduction (there is also a much briefer introduction to the second volume). The main introduction addresses the following topics: the setting in which the sermons were delivered, their literary style, allegorical exegesis, christology, christological and trinitarian heresies, the dates of the sermons, the term "tractate," and the critical text of the sermons. Aimed at a broad audience ranging from the religiously interested layperson to the scholar of Augustine, Rettig's introduction alternates between homily-like summaries of Augustine's theological views and more technical discussions of scholarly issues such as the problem of dating the sermons. By means of his own homiletical tone and style, Rettig seems to be trying to prepare lay readers to attend to and appreciate the highly rhetorical style of the sermons they are about to read. Rettig contends that "Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is the major theme that runs through all these Tractates" (vol. 78, p. 13). He observes further that Augustine's sermons on John were intended to counter the influence of various heresies. He notes in particular that Manichaeism (which, he adds, was really another religion, though heavily "christianized" in North Africa) was not a grave danger for Augustine, given the evidence of the tractates. Rettig offers a fairly lengthy discussion of Donatism, though he does not tie it to the tractates in any specific way. He also notes Augustine's concern with Pelagianism. As for Arianism, Rettig observes that Augustine wrote de Trinitate during the period in which he delivered the sermons on John, but suggests that Arianism was a modest threat at best, and that Augustine's treatment in the tractates is only occasional and rather academic. Arianism was not the live threat that the other three movements were. Rettig offers a detailed and lengthy discussion of the dating of the sermons. He notes that the Maurist Benedictine edition places the 124 tractates (and 10 tractates on the Epistles) in or shortly after 416. He then describes in considerable detail a new proposal for dating that splits the 124 tractates into two groups. Sermons 1-54 (with 10 tractates on the Epistles intervening between 12 and 13) were delivered before Augustine's congregation in Hippo Regius. Debates continue [End Page 479] regarding the dating and character of sermons 55-124. Rettig offers a lengthy and detailed summary of these debates. Surprisingly, he does not offer the reader his own conclusions or explain what important differences the various dating options would make for the interpretation and analysis of the sermons. Rettig acknowledges the difficulty of translating the highly rhetorical language of Augustine's sermons into English: " . . . Augustine created a new homiletic style of high aesthetic impact. The translator is not altogether confident that his translation even adequately captures the alluring beauty of Augustinian Latinity" (vol. 78, p. 8). He empathizes with the 1913 lament of E. Pope (vol. 78, p. 8, n.25): "Many . . . find it impossible to read these Tractates in the original, but if they are obliged to make use of a translation, they lose much of the beauty and force of the original. For Augustine's power and charm lie...

Suetonius ‘ab epistulis’

In 1900 Macé suggested that Suetonius may very well have been procurator of the Greek and Latin libraries before becomingab epistulis; two of his successors in the latter office passed to it from the former. Macé went on: ‘Si on venait à découvrir une inscription concernant notre secrétaireab epistulis, il ne serait pas surprenant que le texte en fût ici parallèle à ceux que nous avons conservés sur ses deux collègues.’ These were prophetic words, for in 1952 there was published an inscription concerning Suetonius, discovered in the Forum of Hippo Regius (Bône in Algeria), which reveals that he was indeeda studiis a bybliothecis ab epistulis imp. Caesaris Traiani Hadriani Aug.

Augustinus Rhetor: A study, from the Confessions, of St. Augustine's secular career in education

The Confessions of Augustine carry his life down to the age of thirtythree, from his birth at Tagaste in Numidia in A.D. 354 to A.D. 387, when he was converted to Christianity by Ambrose in Milan. He wrote the Confessions ten years later, in A.D. 397–8, at the age of forty-three or forty-four, when he had just been made Bishop of Hippo Regius, the modern Bône, in North Africa. The work is an autobiography, the one exstant autobiography in Latin literature: but it is peculiar in being addressed primarily to the Deity and in being a record not of the writer's own achievements intended for his own glory, but of all the way by which the power of God had led him. So while in places it does narrate the events of his life and the development of his mind and thought, at other places it breaks out into rapturous praise and adoration of his Redeemer and becomes not so much a narration as a prose hymn, sometimes in a minor key of contrite repentance for the sins and faults of youth now pardoned, sometimes in an exalted strain of ecstatic love, worship, and devotion towards the One to whose service he is now wholly surrendered. Under the eye of the Omniscient, Augustine reviews his life from childhood till his conversion: it is a stern and unflinching self-examination: the pranks of his boyhood are tested for early evidences of sin with the same relentless analysis as the vices, the ambitions, and self-will of his youth and manhood. We have his school-days at his native Tagaste and at the neighbouring town of Madaura: we have the turbulence of his adolescence at Carthage: we see him as a student of rhetoric at Carthage and as a professor of rhetoric at Carthage, Rome and Milan: we are told how the beginnings of his spiritual awareness were excited by the reading of Cicero's Hortensius: we learn of his long association with the quasi-Christian sect of the Manichaeans, of his growing dissatisfaction with their doctrine of a material and finite Deity, and of his long perplexity about religious problems—until through the preaching of Ambrose at Milan and through a study of Neo-platonism, he comes to a realization of an immaterial, non-temporal, non-spatial One.

Another note on the Vandal occupation of Hippo Regius

It is usually held that Hippo Regius, after successfully resisting a siege by the Vandals in 430–1 A.D., was abandoned by its inhabitants and burned by the invaders, and that it was afterwards reoccupied by the Romans. There are, however, certain difficulties involved in the acceptance of this view, which is based on the following passage in the Life of St. Augustine by Possidius: ‘Of the innumerable churches he [St. Augustine] saw only three survive, namely those of Carthage, Hippo and Cirta, which by God's favor were not demolished. These cities too still stand, protected by human and divine aid, although after Augustine's death the city of Hippo, abandoned by its inhabitants, was burned by the enemy.’In The Journal of Roman Studies (vol. xiv, pp. 257–8), Mr. E. C. Howard published ‘A Note on the Vandal Occupation of Hippo Regius’, in which he suggests that ‘Hippo,’ in the passage quoted above, refers not to Hippo Regius, now Bona, but to Hippo Diarrhytus (or Zarytus), now Bizerta. That his suggestion is impossible will be shown below. But first, in order to facilitate an understanding of the whole question, it will be necessary to review briefly certain portions of the history of the period, to state the problem, and to outline Mr. Howard's arguments.

A note on the Vandal occupation of Hippo Regius

It is usually held (e.g. Bury, History of Later Roman Empire, ed. 1923, vol. 1, pp. 248, 249) that Hippo Regius was abandoned by the Romans shortly after the unsuccessful siege by the Vandals in the course of which St. Augustine died; that the Vandals burnt it; and that it was subsequently reoccupied by the Romans. This seems a very singular and unlikely sequence of events. The idea is derived from a passage in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Life of St. Augustine, by Possidius, the principal, if not the only, strictly contemporary document. He says, to quote the translation by Weiskotten (p. 115): ‘Of the innumerable churches he saw only three survive, namely, those of Carthage, Hippo and Cirta, which by God's favour were not demolished. These cities, too, still stand, protected by human and divine aid, although after Augustine’s death the city of Hippo, abandoned by its inhabitants, was burned by the enemy. … And it increased his grief and sorrow that this same enemy also came to besiege the city of the Hippo-Regians, which had so far maintained its position.’