Ruspe

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

Name

The name "Ruspe" is treated as a Greek feminine singular word equivalent to Latin "Ruspa" by Henricus de Noris,^[1] and is the form used 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]

The name is taken to be really "Ruspae" (Latin feminine plural) by Alexander MacBean;^[3] William Smith;^[4] Morcelli;^[5] Mesnage;^[2] and the Annuario Pontificio.^[6]

Location and name

The Tabula Peutingeriana gives as coastal towns in the Byzacena province Ruspina and Ruspe, the latter being to the south of the former.^[7] Ptolemy's Geography mentions the same two towns in the same order^[1] (Stevenson's admittedly defective English translation of Ptolemy gives instead Ruspina and Rheuspena).^[8]

According to the Tabula Peutingeriana, Ruspe was situated between Acholla and Usilla, near the promontory that Ptolemy called Brachodes, the Caput Vadorum of the Romans, later Capaudia, Qaboudia in Arabic^[4][9][10] (cf. Chebba).

The name "Ruspe" is interpreted as including the Semitic element rus, meaning "head" or "headland".^[2] It is thus commonly^[2][9] identified with the ruins known as Henchir Sbia (or simply Sbia) in present-day Tunisia, four miles west of that cape.^[11] An alternative site is that of the ruins known as Ksour Siad.^[11]

In the mid-20th century, a new argument emerged in favour of Koudiat Rosfa, 30 kilometres north of Sfax,^[12] because of the discovery in 1947 of an inscription at Henchir Bou Tria^[13] that seems to identify that place with ancient Acholla.^[9] (Saumagne had earlier proposed to identify it with Ruspe.)^[9] A nearby headland is called Rass Bou Tria.^[14] 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.^[11] Excavations at Koudiat Rosfa have not confirmed the perhaps flattering description applied to the city by Fulgentius's biographer Ferrandus: nobile oppidum clarissimis habitatoribus prorsus illustre (a noble town illustrious for its famous inhabitants).^[9]

Ecclesiastical history

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 whose names are known are

• Secundus, who was at the Conference of Carthage (411) that brought together Catholic and Donatist bishops – Morcelli assigns him instead to an otherwise unknown diocese of Ruspina –
• Stephanus, one of the Catholic bishops whom the Arian Vandal king Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484 and then exiled.
• Fulgenzio di Ruspe

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

• Iulianus attended the Council of Carthage (646), an anti-Monothelitism council.^[2][5][15]

References

Sources and external links

• GigaCatholic, with titular incumbent biography links