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Ruspe

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Ruspe or Ruspae was a town in the Roman province of Byzacena, in Africa propria.[1] It served as the episcopal see of Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe. It is now a Roman Catholic titular bishopric.

Name

The name "Ruspe" is usually understood to be a hellenization of a Phoenician name including the element "rush" (Punic: 𐤓𐤔‬, rš), meaning "head" or "headland".[2]

The Tabula Peutingeriana notes the Byzacenan towns of Ruspina and Ruspe, the latter being to the south of the former.[3] Ptolemy's Geography usually mentions the same two towns in the same order,[4] although Stevenson's defective English translation gives "Ruspina" and "Rheuspena".[5] The name "Ruspe", a Greek feminine singular name, also appears in a list of dioceses that the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria saw as dependent on itself at the beginning of the 8th century.[2] Henricus de Noris considered it equivalent to the Latin Ruspa. "Ruspae", a Latin feminine plural name, was preferred by Alexander MacBean,[6] William Smith,[7] Morcelli;[8] Mesnage,[2] and the Annuario Pontificio.[9]

Geography

According to the Tabula Peutingeriana, Ruspe was situated between Acholla and Usilla. It was near the promontory that Ptolemy called Brachodes, the Romans' Caput Vadorum, later known as Capaudia or—in Arabic—Qaboudia[10] (cf. Chebba).

Ruspe was commonly[2][11] identified with the ruins known as Sbia or Henchir Sbia in present-day Tunisia, four miles west of that cape.[12] An alternative site is that of the ruins known as Ksour Siad.[12] In the mid-20th century, a new argument emerged in favour of Koudiat Rosfa, 30 kilometers north of Sfax,[13] because of the discovery in 1947 of an inscription at Henchir Bou Tria[14] that seems to identify that place with ancient Acholla.[11] (Saumagne had earlier proposed to identify it with Ruspe.)[11] A nearby headland is called Rass Bou Tria.[15] This identification of Acholla gives grounds for considering Ptolemy mistaken in placing Acholla and Usilla north of Cape Brachodes and for identifying Ruspe as Koudiat Rosfa, which is seen as having preserved the ancient name in an Arabic form.[12] Excavations at Koudiat Rosfa have not confirmed the perhaps flattering description applied to the city by Fulgentius's biographer Ferrandus: "a noble town illustrious for its famous inhabitants" (Latin: nobile oppidum clarissimis habitatoribus prorsus illustre).[11]

Religion

The city was important enough in the Roman province of Byzacena to become a suffragan of its Metropolitan of Archdiocese of Hadrumetum, but was to fade.

Bishops of Ruspe earlier than Saint Fulgentius (Italian: Fulgenzio di Ruspe) whose names are known are

The immediate successor of Fulgentius was Felicianus, his companion in exile, who participated in the Council of Carthage (534).

Titular see

No longer a residential bishopric, Ruspae (the spelling used in the Annuario Pontificio) is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[17]

The bishops who have held this title are:

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Ruspe is a titular see of the Catholic Church.[18]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Titular see of Byzacena in Africa, mentioned only by Ptolemy (IV, 3) and the "Tabula" Peutinger. According to the first it was on the coast between Acholla (Kasr el Abiah) and Usilla (Henshir Inshilla); the "Tabula", or map of Peutinger, states that it was six (doubtless twenty-six) miles from the latter place. It is identified with the ruins called Ksour Siad, seventeen miles from Acholla. Others believe it to be at Henshir Sbia, four miles west of Cape Kapoudia (north of the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia), its name being preserved at Koudiat Rosfa near Ras el Louza. It seems more probable that Koudiat Rospa is itself the ancient Ruspe. Four bishops of the see are known: Stephanus, exiled by King Huneric (484); St. Fulgentius, consecrated in 508, died in 533; Felicianus, his companion in exile and successor, who assisted at the Council of Carthage (about 534); Julianus, who signed in 641 the Anti-Monothelite letter of the bishops of Byzancena to the Emperor Constantine.

SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman geogr., s. v.; MULLER, Notes on Ptolemy, ed. DIDOT, I, 622; TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne: Byzacene et Tripolitaine (Montreuil, 1894), 164-6.

References

  1. Back to citation Macbean, A. (1773). A Dictionary of Ancient Geography: Explaining the Local Appellations in Sacred, Grecian, and Roman History. London: G. Robinson. p. 14. OCLC 6478604.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Back to citation occurrence 2.3 J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, (Paris, 1912), pp. 140–141
  3. Back to citation Image of section of the Tabula Peutingeriana with Ruspe
  4. Back to citation Henricus de Noris in Migne's Supplement to the Works of Augustine, Patrologia Latina, vol. 47, col. 297B
  5. Back to citation Book IV, Chapter 3
  6. Back to citation Alexander MacBean, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of Ancient Geography (G. Robinson, 1773)
  7. Back to citation William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854)
  8. Back to citation Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, (Brescia, 1816), pp. 265–266
  9. Back to citation Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 961
  10. Back to citation William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854); G. Ch. Picard, "Ruspe" in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica (Treccani 1965); Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 5 (Baudry's European Library, 1840), chapter 41, footnote 15
  11. Back to citation occurrence 11.0 Back to citation occurrence 11.1 Back to citation occurrence 11.2 Back to citation occurrence 11.3 G. Ch. Picard, "Ruspe" in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica (Treccani 1965)
  12. Back to citation occurrence 12.0 Back to citation occurrence 12.1 Back to citation occurrence 12.2 Sophrone Pétridès, "Ruspe" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1912)
  13. Back to citation The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976)
  14. Back to citation Henchir Bou Tria: Tunisia
  15. Back to citation Rass Bou Tria
  16. Back to citation J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, (Paris, 1912), pp. 140–141; Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, (Brescia, 1816), pp. 265–266; Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, (Leipzig, 1931), p. 468.
  17. Back to citation Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 961; La sede titolare nel sito di www.catholic-hierarchy.org; La sede titolare nel sito di www.gcatholic.org
  18. Back to citation Wikidata item Q6113758
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