Augustine was installed as Bishop at Hippo Regis in 395. Just to review, he was converted

back in 386. He was ordained in 391 and he was installed as Bishop in 395. He was 41

years old. He would hold that post for 35 years until his dying day in 430. Let's take

a look first at this city where he was Bishop Hippo Regis and then at his actual church

building in Hippo and then a brief glimpse into his work as a Bishop. Hippo Regis is in modern

day Algeria near the border of Tunisia. It sits right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

It was one of the last Roman cities to fall to the Vandals, which it did in 431. Hippo Regis has

everything you would come to expect from a Roman city. It has temples to the Roman gods,

which were converted to schools and Christian churches. It has a form, it has a theater spanning

325 meters. It could see 6,000 people. And of course, ruins of statues abound. There is an

enormous bronze bowl that looks like a giant trophy that commemorates Julius Caesar's victory in

North Africa in 46 BC. It had a sprawling marketplace and a very busy harbor. It appears that

the east was the wealthy side of town. Ruins of large Roman villas can be found there. And in

the city was a large basilica, a gustan's church. This church was nearly half a football field long.

It had a center nave and two side aisles. The floor was covered with mosaics. It had a marble

axe. It had wooden beams that were covered with terracotta tiles for the roof. The acoustics

in this building would have been exceptional. Between the altar and the congregation, there was a

large masonry structure of about four meters by three meters. And it is believed that on top of

this was a wooden lectern or pulpit. The pulpit from which a gustan would preach. At one time,

there was a body buried under it. And many believe that this was the original burial place of a

gustan. So we have his city, we have his church. What did he do as a bishop? Well first, he preached a

lot. And he also presided over the service at hippo. A typical service had three biblical readings,

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