A note on the Vandal occupation of Hippo Regius

Extract

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.’