Hippone2

2.Location:

 

Settlement at the mouth of the river Seybousse, that is located on a large semicircular bay between Cape Garde and Cape Rosa and is protected by Mount Edough.

About 2 miles from the centre of modern Annaba, former Bône, are the ruins of Hippo Regius. This town had a varied history which probably extended over a period of nearly 1500 years. It was probably founded by the Phoenicians and was destroyed at the beginning of the Medieval period. It was built in a plain dominated  by two hills, one of which rising to a height of about 175 feet is known as the “Hill of St.Augustine”, while the other, which is 110 feet high, is called the “Gharf el Artran.”

‘The question of the location of the ancient mouth of the Seybouse in relation to the site of the town presents the following difficulty; El Békri, who lived in the 11^th century, says: “Elle (Hippo Regius) est située – sur une colline – qui domine la ville de Sebous” *  and the ruins are today near the river Seybouse, but the Tabula Peutingeriana places the mouth of this river  UBUS about five miles to the east of Hippo Regius. The most probable explanation of this problem is the one accepted by Gsell. It is that the branch of the Seybouse, known as “El Khelidj”, marks the earlier course of the Seybouse in its lower reaches and that the change of the main stream to the present course occurred some time prior to the 11^th century. The time and cause of this change are unknown. It is probable that until this change took place the sea reached farther inland than it does at present and that the harbour was not far from Gharf el Artran.’

[Holmes van Mater Dennis, 1970].

 

* There are two possible explanations of the expression “la ville de Sebous”; either that El Békri mistook the name of the river for that of a village, or that an unimportant village grew up near the mouth of the river and took its name from the river.

[Description de l’Afrique Septentrionale (JA 1859) + The Geographer of Ravenna (in: Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia]