Korba
Korba ('), ancient Curubis, is a town in Tunisia on the eastern shore of the Cap Bon. It was the place of exile of the Carthaginian bishop Cyprian in the year leading up to his martyrdom. Modern Korba is in the Nabeul Governorate and had a population of 48,314 in 2014.
Korba

Habib M'henni · CC BY-SA 3.0
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Korba. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Official Name — Korba • Native Name — قربة • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — Tunisia • Subdivision Type1 — Governorate • Subdivision Name1 — Nabeul Governorate • Unit Pref — Imperial • Population As Of — 2022 • Population Total — 65542 • Population Blank1 Title — Ethnicities • Population Blank2 Title — Religions • Timezone — CET • Utc Offset — 1
History
History
Ancient geographers and itineraries mention the town Curubis on the African coast between Clupea (modern Kelibia) and Neapolis (modern Nabeul). The earliest historical record is an inscription from the time of the Roman civil war, which records that the Pompeian generals P. Attius Varus and Gaius Considius Longus fortified the town in 48—47 BC. In the years after the civil war the town was made a Roman colony, colonia Iulia Curubis (Pliny the Elder refers to it as libera, "free"), perhaps as part of Julius Caesar's attempt to rid his army of older soldiers and at the same time hold Africa against Pompeian forces. In the year AD 257, the Carthaginian bishop Cyprian was exiled there; his biographer Pontius, who accompanied him into exile, praises the place (12): "provisum esse divinitus … apricum et conpetentem locum, hospitium pro voluntate secretum et quidquid apponi eis ante promissum est, qui regnum et iustitiam dei quaerunt." ("by God's favour a sunny and appropriate place was provided, a refuge secluded as he wished, and whatever was previously promised to be set before those who seek the kingdom and justice of God"). • Illustration — Cape Bon as shown on the 4th century Roman Map, Tabula Peutingeriana. The town had its own theatre. An inscription of the late 2nd century honours the citizen who had created it. Remains of an aqueduct survived to modern times; and the contribution to a mosaic in Ostia by shipowners of Curubis suggest that the town also possessed a port, which has not survived. A recent account of the life in Korba may be found in Mounira Khemir's narrative "Un coin du carré bleu"
Ecclesiastical history
Ecclesiastical history
By the year 411, Curubis, like many African towns, had its own bishop. The bishopric survived through the Arian Vandal and Orthodox Byzantine empires, only ceasing to function with the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. The cathedra of the bishopric was based in the civitas of Curubis.
Bishops
Bishops
• In the year AD 257, the Carthaginian bishop Cyprian was exiled there. • In 411 the Donatist Victor took part in the joint Conference of Carthage (411) between Catholic and Donatist bishops. • In 484 Felix attended the Council called by the Arian king Huneric and was then exiled to Corsica. • Peregrinus was at the Council of Carthage (525). • Bennatus signed a condemnation of Monothelitism at the Council of Carthage (646).
Titular see
Titular see
The diocese was refounded as a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1930s. The titular bishops are: • Paul-Marie Dumond (27 Apr 1912—19 Feb 1944); • Joseph-Paul Strebler (8 Nov 1945—14 Sep 1955); • Rafael Valladares y Argumedo (18 Aug 1956—31 Aug 1961); • Paul Grégoire (26 Oct 1961—20 Apr 1968); • Eugène-Jean-Marie Polge (25 Apr 1968—25 Jun 1970); • Jean Cuminal (2 Jan 1975—6 May 1982); • Emerson John Moore (3 Jul 1982—14 Sep 1995); • Walter Pérez Villamonte (16 Dec 1995—7 Mar 1998); • Claudio Silvero Acosta (26 Mar 1998 Appointed —).
Population
Population
2014 Census • Homes — Families — Males — Females — Total • 15273 — 12598 — 24433 — 23857 — 48290
Literature
• Broughton, T.R.S. (1929) The Romanization of Africa Proconsularis (Baltimore and Oxford: The Johns Hopkins Press and OUP) • Dessau, H. (1901) "Curubis" R.E. IV 1893 • Mommsen, T., (1895) "Inschriften von Curubis und Lilybaeon", Hermes 30, 456-62 (online at Gallica) • Trousset, P. (1994) "Curubis (Korba)" Encyclopédie Berbère, 2157 (Aix-en-Provence: Édisud)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Korba, Tunisia, revision 1291748500 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Cited in the source article.
- 2.Recensement de 2004 (Institut national de la statistique) Census
- 3.Plin. nat. 5, 24 libera (sc.oppida) Curubis, Neapolis "free cities, Curubis, Neapolis"; Ptol. 4, 3, 2; Itin. Anton. Aug. p. 56, 7. al. See Dessau (1901); TLL Onom. II 771, 11 sqq.
- 4., , , L'Année épigraphique (AE). — 1895. — № 69; Mommsen (1895), 456-60 with discussion of the inscription; Dessau (1901)
- 5.Degrassi A. Inscriptiones latinae liberae rei publicae (ILLRP). — Torino, 1957. — 298 ps. — Pp. 226—227. — № 394
- 6.Broughton (1929), 54-5; CIL VIII 980 and 12452. The town was apparently already a colony by the year 45 BC, when an inscription, CIL VIII 12451, shows a duovir again repairing the walls, or possibly, as Mommsen (1893), 460, suggests, completing the construction begun by the Pompeian generals. For discussion of the puzzles of this inscription, see CIL I 2 p. 951, with further literature.
- 7.Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (ed. Dessau) n. 9407.
- 8.Trousset (1994); CIL XIV 4549, 34 naviculari Curbitani (late second century).
- 9.10 Mounira Khemir, "Un coin du carré bleu" in Enfances tunisiennes, Ed. Elyzad, Tunis, 2010
- 10.Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 7 (Cosimo, Inc., 2008) p380.
- 11.William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1 (C.C. Little and J. Brown, 1844) p913.
- 12.F. J. Foakes-Jackson, A. History of the Christian Church: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 461 (Cosimo, Inc., 2005) p79.
- 13.J. Ferron, v. Curubis in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Paris 1956, coll. 1115-1116
- 14.Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, pp. 149–150
- 15.Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 465
- 16.Titular Episcopal See of Curubis at GCatholic.org.
- 17.Curubis atcatholic-hierarchy.org.
- 18.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 877.
- 19.التعداد العام للسكان والسكنى 2014. ins.tn.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 September 2026.
Elsewhere in General
22,760 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- KoprivnicaPlace
- KoprivshtitsaPlace
- KöprübaşıPlace
- KopychyntsiPlace
- KorbachPlace
- KorçëPlace
- KorčulaPlace
- KorczynaPlace
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Korba?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.