The foundation of Siponto (now Manfredonia) was attributed by Strabo to Diomedes, the hero of the Trojan war. Here, besides, there are some evidences of dwellings from the Neolithic age. It was then an important centre of the “Dáunia” (by the people of the “Dauni”, of Illyrian origin). Siponto was conquered by Pyrrhus [319-272 BC] (330 BC), then subjugated by the Romans, that found a colony in 194 BC.
The city was long contended between Byzantines and Lombards, then occupied by the Normans (1039). In the late Middle Age it decayed to the burying of the port and marshes. The first bishop of the city was the local noble San Giustino, ordained by Saint Peter in the year 44. For this reason Siponto was a major Archbishopric of Italy. It was joined from 668 to 1034 to Benevento. Pope Alexander II (1061-1173) divided definitively the two dioceses, appointing the Archbishop Gerardo di Siponto, a German Benedictine monk of the order. Pirates and earthquakes of 1223 and 1255 ruined Siponto; the inhabitants was therefore collected by Manfredi in a new city short distance towards the Northwest. Important traces of the past is the Church of “Santa Maria Maggiore” (consecrated in 1117 by Pope Pasquale II [1099-1118]) which is one of the most important buildings of Romanesque and Apulian style in the early decades of the XI century. Adjacent to the Church, there are the remains of a Pale Christian Church and catacombs.
Farther is the St. Leonhard's church dating back to the 11th-12th century, with a sculpted portal; it owned to the Teutonic Knights. After the decay of Siponto, the new city was built by Manfredi, son of Frederick II of Swabia (1194-1250), called "Mandredonia", in honour of Manfredi, who, like the father, had an important strategy about Manfredonia, that he wanted to become the administrative capital of Apulia; indeed he built in the city a Mint, which coined the so-called " Golden tarì". Manfredi reigned in practice, as Regent, from 1250, when Frederick II died, until 1266, when near Benevento he was defeated by Charles of Anjou (1226-1285), who hated so Manfredi that attempted to erase his memory even changing the name to Manfredonia, calling it "Novellum Sipontum" ("New Siponto").
The thing was recorded by the chroniclers, as Salimbene da Parma (1221-1288), who wrote that "rex Karolus habet eam exosam, tantum quod eam audire nominari non potest, immo, quod vult appelletur Sipontus Nova" (" to King Charles of Anjou was the name of Manfredonia so detestable that he have would that it were called ‘Novellum Sipontum’ [‘New Siponto’]. Anyway even King Charles understood the strategic importance of the city, and the Anjou completed the city walls, started by Manfredi.
In the following centuries, due to its strategic importance, it was the subject of sieges and lootings. Charles III of Bourbon 1740 instituted in Manfredonia the commercial court of the province and the city became part of the Kingdom of Italy with the unification (1861).
Etymology
The first who spoke us about Siponto was Strabo (58-25 BC), who proposed an etymology of the city which still enjoys a broad consensus. Strabo indeed thought that Siponto, a Greek town ("Sipous"), derived from the Greek "Sepion" which means " cuttlefish ": "[…] ', ' Sipus Graeci Sipontum nuncuparunt ab ejectis to fluctu, sepiis […]", or "the Greeks called Siponto from ' Sipus ', because of the cuttlefishes shot on the beach by the waves of the sea".
Of course some ancient and contemporary scholars thought that the hypothesis of Strabo was a "false etymology". According to G. Semerano ("The Origins of European Culture", 1984: 811), the toponym counts as a "place rich in waters"; indeed, he asserts that "the name of Siponto, in Greek ‘Sipous’ is explained with naive ‘trouvaille’ with the phenomenon ‘cuttlefishes’, in Greek ' Sepion ', thrown from the waves on the shore, while the term ' sipous ' makes good original Habitat instead", filled with water and wetlands.
Which is obviously true, because in the Middle Ages Siponto was abandoned to found the "New Sipontum", i.e. Manfredonia, for the marshes. In fact, as explained Giovanni Villani (1276-1348), a famous Florentine chronicler, "Manfredi (1232-1266) made undo the city of Siponto in Apulia, because, for the marshes that were around, it wasn't healthy". This is amply demonstrated by contemporary studies, which underline the fact that the swamps "are a traditional physical character of the coast of Salento" (See " The man and his environment in the Norman-Swabian ‘Mezzogiorno’ of Italy", Dedalo, 1989: 29).
In fact the Greek word "Sipous" may be, as has been noted, a misleading etymology, because, in reality, the suffix "Sip-" might be "Ydr"; if so it would not "Sip-ous", but "Ydr-ous", the root of the Greek word "Ydor" ("water"), which confirms that "Sipontum" was born in an area rich in water and marshes (see "Studi Etruschi", Rinascimento del Libro , 1965, vol. 33: 704).