The city of Chebba derives its name from the headland 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east, which was classically known as Caput Vada (headland above the shoals).[3][4][5]
The Byzantine general Belisarius landed here in 533 and went on to inflict a devastating defeat on the Vandals.[6] The town of Chebba was founded by Justinian about 534 CE after the defeat of the Vandals,[3] and named Justinianopolis.[7]
The headland (Caput Vada) is now known as Ras Kaboudia[3] and is site of the ruins of the bordj (harbor fortress) of Bordj Khadidja, which was built upon Byzantine foundations.[8] The fortress guarded the harbor entrance and was one of a chain of similar forts built by the Abbasids along the coast of North Africa in the 8th century. It was later renamed after Khadija Ben Kalthoum, a poet of the eleventh century, who was born in Chebba.[9]
^The shoals (Latin vada) refer to the shallows between the headland and the Kerkennah Islands, see Hannezo (1905)
^In a footnote Gibbons says The Caput Vada of Procopius (where Justinian afterwards founded a city - Da Ædific. l. vi. c.6) is the promontory of Ammon in Strabo, the Brachodes of Ptolemy, the Capaudia of the moderns, a long narrow slip that runs into the sea (Shaw's Travels, p. 111). Gibbons, Edward (1854) The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire John Murry, London, volume 5 page 105,
^Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell) (1923) "Chapter XVII: The Reconquest of Africa" History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I. to the death of Justinian: Volume 2 Macmillan, New York, page 130, OCLC499411636
^Guérin, Victor (1862) Voyage archéologique dans la Régence de Tunis, Volume 1 Henri Plon, Paris, page 150, OCLC23427230; in French
^Sadiqi, Fatima et al. (2009) Women writing Africa: The Northern region Feminist Press at The City University of New York, New York, page 89, ISBN978-1-55861-588-5
