TIPASA

modern Algerian village noted for its ruins; it is located in Blida dpartement on the Mediterranean coast 42 miles (68 kilometres) west of Algiers. A Phoenician outpost from the 5th century BC, Tipasa later became a colony of Latium, then of Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. St. Salsa, according to legend, was martyred there in the 4th century, and, after the rivalries between Catholics and the Donatist heretics over the sanctity of ministers, the town was destroyed at the end of the 5th century. Among its ruins are a Roman forum, a curia, four thermal baths, a theatre, and a large cathedral with nine naves. The modern village, founded in 1857, is in a vine-growing district. Pop. (1977 prelim.) 4,621.