SEPUNTUM, or SIPUS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Apulia, so denominated (according to Strabo) from the great quantity of sepiae or cuttlefish that are thrown upon the coast. Diomedes supposed by the same author to have been the founder of this place; which appears from Livy to have become a colony of Roman citizens. In the early ages of Christian hierarchy, a bishop was fixed in this church; but, under the Lombards, his see was united to that of Beneventum. Being again separated, Sipontum became an archiepiscopal diocese in 1094, about which time it was so ill treated by the Barbarians, that it never recovered its splendour, but sunk into such misery, that in 1260 it was a mere desert, from the want of inhabitants, the decay of commerce, and the infalubrity of the air. Manfred having taken these circumstances into consideration, began in 1261 to build a new city on the sea-shore, to which he removed the few remaining Sipontines. (See the article MANFREDONIA.) Sipontum was situated at the distance of a mile from the shore. Excepting a part of its Gothic cathedral, scarce one stone of the ancient city now remains upon another.