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Description:
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Christianity spread rapidly in North Africa during the 3rd century C.E. During the following century, it also became a center for the Donatist movement, splitting Christians over doctrinal and social issues. Hippo played a role in the history of early Christianity as the site of several Church councils (393, 395 and 426); and, between 395 and 430 it was the bishopric of Augustine, the great philosopher, theologian, monastic founder and opponent of the Donatist position which maintained that the effectiveness of Sacraments depended on the moral character of the minister.Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the controversy among Orthodox and Donatist Christians was played out within the boundaries of Hippo. However, the Donatist position was banned by the Conference of Carthage in 411. Silhouetted on the horizon of this image is St. Augustine Basilica, built during the French colonial period (1881-1900) in a style similar to the cathedral at Carthage and Sacre Coeur in Paris. The site for the basilica marked sacred territory in Punic times with a shrine to Tanit (4th-late 3rd C., B.C.E.). When the Romans took over the city, they eradicated the Carthaginian holy place and built cisterns to hold the community’s water supply.Excavations of the site are chiefly the work of Erwan Marec, a French naval officer, whose studies were published in the mid-20th C. June 1983
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