VIBONA. — The ancient diocese of V., called « Hipponium » by the Latins, at the southern extremity of the Gulf of S. Eufemia, was destroyed by the Saracens in the second half of the 10th century. In its place arose Monteleone di Calabria, which recently resumed the ancient name of Vibo Valentia.
It was first a Greek colony and then a Roman municipium; it was enclosed by massive walls, of which eloquent remains still survive. Christianity arrived there early, and an episcopal see was established there, one of the oldest in Calabria, whose existence is certain by the 5th century. However, it does not seem possible to identify with it that Roman « Bubonensis episcopus » who took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It seems instead very probable that Giovanni, bishop of V., was one of the three bishops of the Bruttium to whom Pope Gelasius addressed a decretal in 496. Indeed, in 499 a Giovanni, bishop of V., took part in the Roman Synod of Pope Symmachus. S. Gregorio Magno recalls two bishops of V.: Rufino, who died in 599, and Venerio, last mentioned in 603. Other prelates follow: Papinio at the Synod of Martino I in 649; Crescente at the Synod of s. Agatone in 679; and Stefano at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. After that, there is complete silence. Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries it appears in the Greek Diatiposi as a suffragan of Reggio, but no incumbent is mentioned. The frequent Saracen incursions of the 10th century eventually destroyed it, forcing the few surviving inhabitants to take refuge in a safer place, away from the coast, where they founded the settlement of Monteleone, which was later fortified by the Emperor Federico II and became one of the most important centres of Calabria. The Normans, however, found nothing there but desolation, and for this reason, around 1080, they established the diocese of Mileto with the territory of the two ancient and neighbouring dioceses of V. and Tauriana.