site's logo and link back to the English-speaking home page decorative picture arrow back

North Africa Under the Romans

pages decorative bandeau, reminder of the one of the main entry home page and the localized home page

That page is allowing for some swift lights about the presence of Rome in North Africa as it also allows to a more accurate cultural definition of that part of the Mediterranean Sea which, by the Carolingian times, was under the rule of the 'King of Africans' as far as its northeast was concerned

North Africa is home to Berbers. Berbers are descendants of prehistoric men of that part of Africa. By about 20,000 years ago, a part of a group of humans which lied between Eritrea and Ethiopia, settled in North Africa as, by about 6500 B.C. they were provided, through their maternal branch, by a supply of population which came from the Iberic Peninsula. That may remind a legend according to which Medes, Persians and Armenians which belonged to the army of Hercules, a Greek heroe, who had died in Spain, crossed the Straight of Gibraltar. Berbers also were featured with negroids genes. Such a West-East move might also be evoked in terms that Berbers would be the heirs of Cham and Canaan. That eventually brought to that, by the Neolithics, a particular group of that people may be spotted, the Caspians, who are the ancestors to Numidians especially and, more certainly, the ancestors and founders of the Berber culture in general. By about between 5500 and 2000 B.C. they were a people of wadis and mountain passes as they fed upon snails. By about 3000 B.C., the Caspians colonized the Sahara Desert down to the Hoggar mountains at a time when that desert, albeit still wet, was entering a rapid phase of drought. Caspians thus are the authors of the rock paintings in the Tassili N'Ajjer. The following step in history, by about 2500 B.C., Capsians gave birth to miscellaneous Berber peoples. Getulians were their direct descendants -and the most numerous of those- as they settled by the southern boundary of the Algerian Tell. Shephers and nomads, riding horses and camels, they episodically moved North as they were parted into a western (in nowadays Morocco) and eastern (area of Tebessa and Soukh-Ahras, Algeria, mostly belonging to the Zenete tribe) branch. A coalition of Getules conqered Egypt by 1000 B.C. and founded there the 22nd dynasty. Maurs are Berbers of western North Africa. Garamantians, which likely originated from a fraction of the original Berber people who had settled West of the Nile River, in Egypt, eventually became nomads between Libya and Moroccan Atlas range as they maybe reached down to the Niger River and Gao. They were the most civilized of the ancient Berbers, having reached the state level, with large fortified cities along the Saharan oasis where they trade ivory, gold and slaves from Sudan and Niger. Touaregs, at last, are that branch of Berbers who settled in central Sahara and represent a transition to black peoples. Ancestors of Touaregs are issued from a metissage between the 'Iberomaurusian' civilization, a one of Homo sapiens South of Oran, Algeria, and Capsians, which occurred about the 9th millenium B.C. Other, independent tribes exist too as they are ill-determined, like the Baquates, Bavars or Musulamis as some are better defined like Numidians in the Tell, that wealthy area of North Africa which lies between the Mediterranean and the steppes, as composed with the Massaesyls West and Massyls East. Berbers were a people of tribes, with chieftains or kings, as they occasionally formed powerful confederations. During the Antiquity, they came to be named, before the Roman conquest, like Libyans, Maures, Getulians, Garamantians, or Numidians. Miscellaneous invaders then came to their contact. The Phoenician merchants, who founded coastal counters. Carthagenians, a people formed by a mixing between Phoenicians and Berbers. Romans and, finally, Arabs. Greeks distinguished Berbers into Libycs, Numidians and Maurs. Berber populations managed to persist until current times despite those successive occupations as North Africa, generally, keep being the land of Berbers. Berbers name themselves 'Imazighen,' plural for 'Amazigh,' the etymology of which may be 'free men' or 'organized rebels.' Amazigh might also be the ancestor to the Berber tribes. Berber language, or the 'Tamazight,' for 'languages of Imazighen,' is a branch of the afro-asiatic language family and a chamito-semitic language like Hebrew, Coptic or Chadic languages. That language perpetuated itself along history like the tribes did as current Magrebian Arabic languages are stil strongly influenced by it. North Africa however features a compartimented relief. That is few propitious to unity. Berbers thus, despite they traded between them, never managed, at the exception of the three Maur and Numidians kingdoms, to unite. Albeit they kept a propension to revolt, they mostly always let their country opened to foreign occupation. A simple picture of what the Berbers left, in terms of civilization, to North Africa might be the following. The Numidians (which lived in current eastern Algeria) were horsemen, Maurs (who lived in Morocco and in western and central Algeria and who are said to be the descendants of Persians and Armenians who composed the Greek god Hercule's army) were nomads and merchants as Getulians (who lived by the beginnings of the Sahara desert, South of Aures Mounts, Algeria) were horsemen of the desert and they once conquered Egypt. Garamantians (who lived in western Libya and who controlled the commercial routes of the oasis) possessed, although anthropophagians, a advanced urban civilization

Since about 250 B.C., the rising power in the antique world is Rome. After it conquered the whole of Italy, the wester Mediterranean looked like a logical expansion area, which is to bring to the long confrontation of the Punic Wars, those wars with Carthage, lasting 120 years. Berber populations logically were involved. By the early Punic Wars, North Africa, beyond Carthage, featured three Berber kingdoms with Mauretania, the kingdom of Maurs, West, and two Numidian ones. The kingdom of the Massaesyls in the center of current Magreb and the kingdom of the Massyls, East. Getulians and Garamantians at the time mostly had turned mercenaries of Carthage and those kingdoms. King Massinissa of the Massyls, contributed in a decisive manner to the victory of Rome over Carthage and the Massaesyls but he eventually displayed a power that Rome could not tolerate as he extended his rule down to Cyrenaic. As his kingdom passed to Jugurtha, his grandson who allied himself to Mauretania, he was betrayed by that latter kingdom and Numidia was conquered by Rome by 105 B.C. Mauretania was gratified by Rome with the Numidian kingdom of the Massaesyls as it likely was involved into the last fights of the Egyptian Ptolemaeus and hellenism against Rome. Mauretania was progressively conquered by Rome until in 40 A.D. Getulians, during the Punic Wars, dedicated themselves to Rome as they were rewared by lands located at the border with Mauretania. But the fact that they turned settlers from nomads brought to their rapid dissapearance like a people. Mauric horsemen, as far as they are concerned, then served like Roman troops in Europe. Garamantians who drove four-horses charriots, resisted Rome until by 70 A.D. as they managed to trigger a general revolt of Berbers from Mauretania to Cyrenaic. That was suppressed by Roman and their Getulian allies. How did Rome, after the conquest of North Africa, organize its new territories? First, that was constituted by a period still dynamic, which led to the control of the whole of North Africa. A first Roman province was created, the 'Africa.' Modest in size, it represented the current northwestern Tunisia, which was the former territory of Carthage as a ditch, or the 'Fossia Regia' is protecting it. When Jugurtha lost Numidia, the western part of it was given to the Mauretanian kingdom as the eastern remained a Roman protectorate. Numidia, under Augustus, became a Roman province of itself, the 'Africa Nova,' and Augustus eventually merged the Africa Nova and what had become the 'Africa Vetus' ('the old Africa') into a single, senatorial province, or the 'Africa Proconsularis.' After the kingdom of Numidia had been given back, for a few time, to a king who, by 25 B.C. became king of a Mauretania which itself had turned into a Roman protectorate, the Numidian kingdom then was definitively shared between Mauretania and the Africa Proconsularis. That part integrated into the Roman province, or 'Numidia,' however remained governed by a imperial legate, a unique status under the Roman empire, as that legate, during long, was the commander to the Legio III Augusta, that Roman legion which had in charge to complete the conquest of Africa and then to control those territories. That likely had a role in the importance of Numidia. By 42 A.D., when Mauretania was in turn occupied, it was parted into two Roman, procuratorian provinces, westernmost Mauretania Tingitana, and Mauretania Caesariensis in former territories of the Numidian Massaesyls. North Africa began to turn into the provider to Rome with wheat and circus games beasts. A following period then, under the Roman emperors Flavians, until in about 100 A.D., was a period of stabilization as North Africa was romanized. The 2nd century A.D. under the Antonine emperors is known like the century of the 'Pax Romana as the African provinces also are reaching their apogee. For the first time they were honored with the visit of a Roman emperor, Hadrian, by 128 A.D. A 'African party', in Rome, is using its role, which turned primordial into the supplies to the capital city of the Empire. Septimus Severus, at last, the first of the Severian emperors, by the turn of the 3rd century, African by birth, became emperor. Mauretania remained a more distant territory, subject to the recurring revolts of Berber tribes. Numidia at the time became a province of its own as it was detached from Africa Proconsularis by 193. Roman presence extended too West and South as Roman roads grid is developing and the area in Tripolitania, current Libya, is also turning into a commercial farming region. Roman Africa, before the Roman crisis of the 3rd century, is inhabited by 7 to 8 million people, which is about one-sixth of the total population of the Roman empire. The Roman crisis of the 250's -which, by the way, began in El-Jem, Tunisia, was due to usurpations of the imperial power and the Barbarian pressure on the bordiers of Germania and Persia, also affected Africa. The Roman system of defense weakened as did Roman influence too. Tribes are rebelling. Emperor Diocletian, by the end of that century, by late 3rd century A.D., reorganized the Roman province in the whole empire. Mauretania Sitifiensis (or Tabianensis) was created as detached from Mauretania Caesariensis as Mauretania Tingitana is still extant and Numidia too (which was briefly shared into a Numidia Cirteanensis and Numidia Militiana (or the Army Numidia). Africa Proconsularis, as far as it is concerned, was parted into three new provinces, the Proconsularis -North- the Byzacium -center- and the Tripolis -southeast. As economic wealth was back in the 4th and 5th centuries, North Africa was the place of a series of usurpations and rebellions which kept basing themselves upon the role of those provinces into the supplies of Rome. Great Invasions then brought the Vandals in North Africa. They adhered to the Arian heresy as they founded a kingdom to which escaped some Berber kingdoms like in the Ouarsenis or the Aures ranges. Vandals were vainquished during the Justinian reconquest, by 534 A.D. as Byzantines aimed to retake control of Berbers. They focused upon the eastern provinces however as those were the older territories of Rome in the area. They built fortresses. That area entered a renewed economic prosperity and kept its role of wheat supplier to the Byzantine capital Constantinople. By 670 A.D. at last, came the last conquerors of North Africa, the Arabs. Ceuta, in the West was taken as soon as by 709. North Africa turned into the Ifriqiya as Berbers, who were Christians, were assimilated. That assimilation was rebel at first and then with a chaotic period as it eventually was definitive relatively early. A lot of Berbers, during the 8th century, adhered to the Karijism, a dissident Islamic cult. Roman occupation of North Africa had systematically encouraged the production of cereals to supply for Rome's needs and it even looks like that the production of olive oil however constituted the most part of North African wealth. Farming of trees also is important like the production of local products too. Troubles of the 3rd century do not look like they braked the economic dynamism of the African provinces too much. North Africa, at last, played a great role into the development of the Church in the Roman empire. As a syncretisme between Berber religions and Rome had yielded the famed 'African Saturn,' as North Africa had remained a land of magics and that the imperial religion was much strong, it was in the African Roman provinces that the Church got westernized, passed to Latin language and merged its Greek and Roman elements as a important number of martyrdoms occurred. North Africa was home to Tertullian or St. Augustine. One has to note that Roman Africa will have extended from the Moroccan coast to the Gulf of Syrte as the Roman province of Cyrenaic (current region of Bengazi), albeit with a Berber population too along with the West of Egypt -or the current Machrek- were not part of it. Albeit also Roman provinces, they are culturally more rattached to the area of the Ptolemaeus kings of Egypt as they are cut from Roman North Africa by the desert. Of note too that, despite a apparent unity of the Berber identity, each of those North African provinces, under the Roman rule, preserved a own identity. That matched the ancien Berber kingdoms as those had based themselves upon uniting natural regions of North Africa. Rulers of that kingdoms themselves had had to often face rebellions of some of their subjects. Carthage never acceded to a status of the capital city of entire North Africa and remained the one of one of the Roman provinces only. North Africa kept parting between fertile plains and plateaus which were isolated by mountains and dry steppic regions whence tribes were a threat to sedentary peoples. The history of the Roman presence in North Africa thus of sort took back to what the occupation of Carthage had been, that is of a conquerant obliged to occupy the fertile plains first and then is obliged to progressively control the regions which are a harbour to plunderers. It is also possible that a dividing line existed between the former territories of Carthage, from Bejaia, Algeria to the Gulf of Syrte, Libya, and Numidias and Mauretania, as the western part of the Numidian country turned the Mauretania Caesariensis. Like everywhere else, the Late Roman Empire, in North Africa, saw a revival of ancient identities as the new Proconsularis encompassed down to Hippone, or the former territory of Carthage which until then had been part of the Roman Numidian province

The North African Limes

Like everywhere else, the Roman presence deepened in North Africa through the construction of roads as each pacified area was protected from the one still outside the borders of Rome. Such a protective limit was called a 'limes,' a typically Roman defensive system which was established at the borders of the Empire. The originality of the Roman limes in North Africa consisted into 'rocade,' or stategic roads with forts along and, exceptionally, walls or ditches. That was due to that the North African terrain did not feature large rivers, like in Europe as it is stretching West-East on another hand. That strategic roads allowed to the swift motion of troops and merchants as transversal roads made the link between the rocade road and cities or the coastal areas. The territories under Roman occupation eventually brought to a limes which was encompassing the whole of North Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to Great Syrte. The first period of the Roman occupation, the one of Carthage, until in about 22 A.D., began like a permanent military presence -of one legion at least- which was likely based in Utica. Roman civil wars, by the end of the Republic, increased the troops up to four legions under triumvir Lepidus. Since the rule of Augustus, one legion only, the Legio III Augusta, became responsible for the security of the first Roman province as it had its barracks in Ammaedara, a town at the border between current Tunisia and Algeria. It long was commanded by the imperial legate of Numidia. Roads further are built, starting at Carthage. By 22 A.D., during a revolt, Romans built a first strategic road between Leptis Minor (about current Sousse, Tunisia) and Hippo Regius (Annaba, Algeria) through Cirta (Constantine, Algeria) at the effect of allowing swift motions to the Augusta Legio. That is also of way of monitoring the Aures Mountains, home to the tribe of Musulami and the area of the Great Chotts, home to Getulians. Then, until in about 100 A.D. Rome assured its grip upon the Aures and Mauretania Caesariensis. One axis of the Roman progresses, under the Flavian emperors, by the end of the 1st century A.D., consisted into encircling via the South, from Tacapa (Gabes, Tunisia), the Aures Mountains, a former part of Numidia, area to the Zenetes, a restive Getulian tribe. The city of Theveste (Tebessa, Algeria) thus turns a strategic crossroad and home to Legio III Augusta! The city of Lambaesis (Lambese, Algeria) is also built North of the Aures. The annexion of Mauretania, by 42 A.D., came to complicate the Roman advances. Rome first only can allow itself a coastal road in Mauretania Caesariensis, which links harbors from Igligli (Jijel, Algeria) to Rusaddir (Melilla, Morocco). Under Emperor Trajan only, by 105 A.D., were the Aures definitively encircled by a line of camps from Tacapa to Setif (Algeria) through Biskra (a oasis South of the Aures Mountains) and a pacified Numidia. Under Hadrian, by 125, gateways to Mauretania Caesariensis are fortified against Mauric tribes. Legio III Augusta then moved to Lambaesis to get closer to that new border. Under both reigns, the control upon Mauretania Caesariensis expands as Rome builds a rocade route in the hinterland which links the Chelif valley, Algeria to the city of Cuicul (Djemila, Algeria), in Numidia through the previous line of the Hadrian forts. Moreover, at a undetermined date -that however likely lasted through several reigns- the 'Fossatum Africae' is set in place, a impressive series of protective constructions South and West of the Aures range. That was a 13 to 33-foot wide ditch, with a mound, or a wall added, with towers or forts either side. The aspect of that fortification might match the one of the Hadrian or Antonine Walls in Great Britain as it also might date to a ulterior period. It was in Numidia, from the Ziban to the Aures ranges, in current Algeria, that the southern border of Roman North Africa was the most naturally fortified by the terrain. The area however was also the one for the South-North invasions which crossed the 'breach of Biskra,' by the end of a Saharan route of oasis. Until in 200 A.D., the African limes reach its apogee. The progression of Rome in Mauretania Caesariensis kept on before the crisis of the 3rd century, under the Flavian emperors. By 201 A.D. they built a new strategic road, or the 'Nova Praetentura.' It roamed South of the Ouarsenis range and the former territories of the Massaesyl kingdom, from Uzinaza (Saneg, Algeria) to Pomaria and Numerus Syrorum (Tlemcen, Algeria and Maghnia, Morocco, respectively) and it featured army posts as civilian farmers also settled along. The troops of Numidia, by 198 A.D. also establised a very advanced fort in Castellum Dimmidi (northeast of Laghouat, Algeria), on the last ridges before the Sahara desert, in the purpose of countering nomad raiders. By that same time, about 201 A.D., Emperor Septimus Severus had both rocade roads of Limes Tripolitanus built to fortify the country around Libyan coastal cities of d'Oea, Sabratha and Leptis Magna. More advanced posts were also established at the confines of Sahara in Cydamus (Ghadames, Algeria) and Bu Njem (Libya) for helping caravans of merchants to Fezzan and Garamantians. Through the lines of forts which stretches through the Great Chotts area, Numidia now is linked to Tripolitana. As far as Mauretania Tingitana is concerned, the westernmost of the Roman provinces in North Africa, or current Morocco, a first note is that there was no continuity with Mauretania Caesariensis as Romans never managed to settle in-between, in eastern Morocco. Any travel had to be made by sea. That might have been due to a kind of arid area which starts at the Sahara's border 250 miles South from the coast as it reaches there by the current city of Mellila as that region might have been of a lesser farming potential in North Africa. Mauretania Tingitana was organized based upon two North-South roads which left from Tingi (Tangiers, Morocco) towards Sala (Saleh) or Volubilis. Along both roads, garrissons look like they had been installed to watch over Roman cities. In terms of the safety in the country, and tribal (or even nomadic) areas, that was guaranteed by agreements concluded with tribes, like the Bacuatae in the Volubilis area. One may considered that it is by that epoch that the North African limes reached it largest expansion! That was also a time when Romans in Tripolitana got wealthy through the Saharan trade routes. Camels also are beginning to appear there and used for merchandise or the military. But that also was a time when numerous Berbers left North and passed into the desert where they settled and subdud the Saharan peoples. Farming areas are associated with the posts of the limes and soldiers-peasants appeaer. Like in Syria, a other desertic area, the African limes was established along the 120-millimeters yearly rain line

The crisis of the 3rd century A.D. had the Roman system of defense to weaken. The Legio III Augusta is terminated by 238 A.D. (but re-created by 253) and the army organigram is reorganized to move more troops to most threatened regions like Numidia. Southern posts of both Mauretaniae and Numidia are abandoned like are too the advanced Saharan posts. Once a relative peace back by the 4th century, and with the Roman provinces new scheme, Roman strategy is being changed, like it was also for other borders of the Empire. On the limes proper, is to be found a relatively mediocer army of drafted soldiers. It is spread, by group of a hundred troops in forts, the number of which has been multiplied. The limes between Numidia and Tripolitana is the area with the most forces. Behind, on a other hand, faraway from the limes, a strong, mobile, projecting army can intervene at locations which pose problem. Two Mauric rebellions occurred during the 4th century as that new defensive system allowed Romans to withstand the Vandal invasion some time. It was a time when camels had become generalized, allowing Berbers to raids against the limes. Some Berbers, on a other hand, may also be associated to the defense of Rome. In Syria, where Rome is facing the Persian Sassanids, Romans builts strong fortresses with a limes on the haut plateau and a war of siege. In North Africa, at the contrary, Rome opted for a war of movement! At the borders of Numidia however, a more closed type of limes was maintained, similar to the one of Germany or the Hadrian Wall, with forts each 1.2 or 1.8 mile. After Justinian reconquered North Africa, Byzantines reached back to the limes of the time of Hadrian. What troops did protect North Africa during the Roman rule? As soon as by 6 B.C., once the Roman civil wars over, it was the 'Legio III Augusta', also named the 'Tertio Augustani', or also the 'exercitus Africae,' which became the sole Roman legion present in North Africa. It settled in Ammaedara (Haidra, current Tunisia), at a location from which it could aim to pacify the Tunisian Dorsale. It always had like its commander the highest dignitaries of Africa's Roman provinces. It featured at that time 5,000 foot soldiers and 120 horsemen. As the Roman settlement advanced, it took its quarters in the city of Theveste (Tebessa, Algeria) by 75 A.D. and, as soon of in 81, one detachment settles in Lambaesis (Lambese, Algeria) at the piedmond of the Aures Mountains. Legio III Augusta was a major vector to the romanization of North Africa as, since the 2nd century A.D., its soldiers are originating from there at 92 percent and, by the end of the 3rd century, soldiers are, by 60 percent, romanized Africans. The Tertio Augustani had to protect 7.5 million of inhabitants. As far as the Mauretania Caesariensis is concerned, the Legio III Augusta, was helped by auxiliary units as it also used alliances with Mauric tribes. By 125 A.D. further, Emperor Hadrian, had, at the confines of that province, to come units originating from the East as, as such, they were used to dry conditions, with the Cohort II of Sardians and the Cohort VI of Commagenians. Cohort I of Mounted Syrians settled close to Biskra, Algeria. To get closer to those units, Legio III Augusta is moving into Lambaesis by 128 A.D. It remained there until the end of the 3rd century. Beyond its main barracks, the legion had some more sites in the area, or it also manned the Saharan fort of Bu Njem. By 198 A.D. Tertio Augustani is found South of Mauretania Caesariensis, in the Saharan fort of Castellum Dimmidi, with detachments of the Legio III Gallica and horsemen of Ala Ia Pannoniorum. Mounted Palmyrean Archers, meharists using camels came to add by 226. Limes, South of the Aures, for example, is featuring 20 forts, or 'castella,' along a distance of 37 miles, with 100 troops each. The Third Legion also manned the advanced Tripolitan Saharan posts. Mauretania Caesariensis, from a legal point of view, could only be defended through auxiliary units instead of a legion, which was manned by citizens. By 107 A.D., that province is seeing 6,000 soldiers in its forts, under 3 cavalry wings and 10 cohorts. Cherchell (Algeria), the provincial capital-city, was protected by miscellaneous units, of which the Cohort VI of Dalmatians. Some authors think that, generally, the Roman superiority on the limes held into the valor of soldiers and the cavalry, which was of use against mobile tribes. Limes forts have a plan into two parts. One part is a closed wall and reinforced at either angle and the middle of northern and southern sides as a massive fortification is found in the middle of the western ones, with a door East. The other part if made of one building at the center of the wall. Along the outer part of the wall, more rooms are found to accommodate the soldiers and storages. Baths are also extant. Legio III Augusta was terminated by 238 A.D. as it was swiftly reinstated by 253. It is still mentioned by 321 and then in the Notitia Dignitatum. In the Tripolitana province, the area is divided into 'regions,' as troops consisting of vexillationes and numeri- are reduced to the benefit of more threatened areas. Roman strategy is modified, like described above and parted into a army of the limes proper and a mobile, projecting one -which consists of three Palatines legions, height legions -of which the Tertio Augustani- and nineteen vexillationes. Each Roman legion at the time holds 1,000 troops only. New commanders of those defensive systems are now 'comes' and 'duces' ("counts" and "dukes"). By the Late Empire, a estimation is that the whole Roman empire was secured through 360,000 sedentary troops along a 3,800-mile long limes, not taking in account foederati and gentiles, those soldiers-peasants of the Roman limes

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site Learning and Knowledge In the Carolingian Times / Erudition et savoir à l'époque carolingienne, http://schoolsempire.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 12/11/2011. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
Free Web Hosting