ROMANS IN NORTH AFRICA | Facts and Details

ROMAN RULE IN NORTH AFRICA

Juba II of Mauretania, the son of Juba I and client king of Numidia (30–25 BC) and Mauretania (25 BC – AD 23), who had a very successful reign; His first wife was Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII (Cleopatra) and Marc Antony

After the defeat of Carthage in 146 B.C., Carthaginians territory was claimed by Rome. Under the Roman Emperor Augustus, beginning 29 B.C., Carthage was rebuilt, the Roman-African territory was expanded and systematic Roman colonization took place. By the middle of the A.D. first century, almost all of North Africa was under Roman control. Some local people prospered under Roman rule. Juba II married the daughter of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony and wrote treatises in Greek about philosophy and botany.

African Provinces of the Roman Empire
Africa proper (Libya, former Carthage, 146 B.C.).
Cyrenaica and Crete (74, 63 B.C.).
Numidia (Algeria, small parts of Tunisia, Libya, 46 B.C.).
Egypt (30 B.C.).
Mauretania (western Algeria, Morocco, A.D. 42). \~\

Like the Carthaginians, the Romans ruled the coastal regions but did not penetrate very far into the interior. Some Berbers settled in Roman-controlled areas along the coast. Many clung to their independent ways and remained in the deserts.

Roman rule ushered in a long period of peace and stability in the Mediterranean. The Romans ruled North Africa for 400 years, turned into the breadbasket for the entire Roman Empire and established 180 cities in northern Tunisia alone. Trade prospered. North Africa reached its peak under Roman rule in the 2nd and early 3rd century under the Severin Emperors (A.D. 193-225).

After the Punic Wars, North Africa was reduced to the form of a Roman province. It comprised all the land which had hitherto been subject to Carthage. Utica was made the new capital city, where the Roman governor was to reside. Riches earned from grains, olives and grapes allowed Romans to build lavish villas with elaborate mosaics. Towns could afford some of the grandest amphitheaters and baths in the entire Roman Empire.

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Punic Wars

The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage were pivotal in making Rome a great empire. They began in 264 B.C., and lasted for 118 years with Rome ultimately prevailing. There were three Punic wars. They are regarded as the first world wars. The number of men employed, the strategies and the weapons employed were like nothing that ever been seen before. "Punic" come from the Roman word for "Phoenician, " a reference to Carthage.

When the wars began Rome and Carthage were the two most powerful states in the Mediterranean. They both began as small cities and emerged as major powers around the 5th century B.C. They were briefly allied against the Greeks but later fought one another over lucrative trade routes.

Rome became the major power of the Mediterranean after it defeated Carthage, annexing territory in Sicily, North Africa and Spain. While fighting against Carthage the Romans also amassed large amounts of territory as spoils from wars against Macedonia, the home of Alexander the Great. All the cities which had favored Carthage were punished by the loss of their land, or the payment of tribute. The cities which had favored Rome were allowed to remain free.

Carthage

Carthage

Carthage (10 miles north of modern Tunis in Tunisia) was once the greatest city in the world. It was the home of Hannibal, who threatened Rome with his elephants and huge armies, and was the center of a great Phoenician trading empire that extended across North Africa and the Mediterranean. The period when Carthage was the dominate power in the ancient world is called the Punic Era. Little more than foundations and walls remain of the great city today.

Carthage has also been portrayed as one of the world’s most decadent cities. In his novel “Salambo” , Flaubert depicted Carthage as a city of unimaginable wealth and indescribable debauchery and violence, in addition to romanticizing Hannibal and his elephants. This apect of Carthage’s reputation is at least partly due to the fact that most of what we know about it is based accounts by its enemies, Greece and Rome.

In 814 B.C., the Phoenician city state of Tyre founded Carthage — Qart-hadasht or “new city” — in northern Africa. Today, Carthage is an affluent neighborhood of Tunis in Tunisia. It emerged as powerful city state when Tyre was sacked by the Babylonians in 6th century B.C. Today, ancient Carthage is a modern, wealthy suburb of Tunis.

Plutarch called the Carthaginians a "course and gloomy people." Appian describe them as "cruel and arrogant." The Greek historian Plybius wrote in the 2nd century B.C. they " were far superior, both in the speed of their ships and they way they built them, and also in the experience and skill of their seamen.”

Numidia and Mauretania

According to ArtNews: The Kingdom of Mauretania, which emerged after the fall of Carthage at the end of the third Punic War in 146 B.C.E., stretched from central present-day Algeria westward to the Atlantic, thereby covering what is currently northern Morocco and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Mauretania ultimately became a client state of the Roman Republic. Under Juba II, a client-King of Rome, Volubilis developed into a city with Roman-influenced art and architecture. Volubilis in present-day Morocco became a center of commerce when Emperor Claudius annexed Mauretania and established the Roman provinces of Mauretania, Tingitana, and Mauretania Caesariensis. It exported such commodities as grain, olive oil, and wild animals for public entertainment. By the end of the 2nd century C.E., Volubilis had a population of approximately 20,000. [Source Francesca Aton, ArtNews, October 27, 2022]

Numidia after the Punic Wars

Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. On account of its fidelity to Rome, Numidia was continued as an independent ally. In this way the condition of every city and people was dependent upon the extent of its loyalty to Rome. After Africa was made a province, it soon became a Romanized country. Its commerce passed into the hands of Roman merchants; the Roman manners and customs were introduced; and the Latin language became the language of the people. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) \~]

Numidia was originally divided between the Massylii state in the east and the Masaesyli in the west. During the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.), fought between Rome and Carthage Masinissa, king of the Massylii, defeated Syphax of the Masaesyli to unify Numidia into the first unified Berber state.The kingdom began as a sovereign state and an ally of Rome and later alternated between being a Roman province and a Roman client state. [Source Wikipedia]

Juan Pablo Sánchez wrote in National Geographic History: During the Second Punic War in the third century B.C. Allying himself with Rome, King Masinissa, united the region under his rule as the kingdom of Numidia. His land prospered, and following Rome’s destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C., Masinissa’s son, Micipsa, continued ruling as a Roman ally. [Source: Juan Pablo Sánchez,National Geographic History, February 4, 2021]

Libya and the Romans

For more than 400 years,Tripolitania (part of Libya around Tripoli) and Cyrenaica (eastern part of Libya) were prosperous Roman provinces and part of a cosmopolitan state whose citizens shared a common language, legal system, and Roman identity. Roman ruins like those of Leptis Magna, extant in present-day Libya, attest to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller towns enjoyed the amenities of urban life — the forum, markets, public entertainments, and baths — found in every corner of the Roman Empire. Merchants and artisans from many parts of the Roman world established themselves in North Africa, but the character of the cities of Tripolitania remained decidedly Punic and, in Cyrenaica, Greek. Tripolitania was a major exporter of olive oil, as well as being the entrepôt for the gold and slaves conveyed to the coast by the Garamentes, while Cyrenaica remained an important source of wines, drugs, and horses. The bulk of the population in the countryside consisted of Berber farmers, who in the west were thoroughly "Punicized" in language and customs. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Libya: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1987*]

Although the African provinces profited as much as any part of the empire from the imposition of the Pax Romana, the region was not without strife and threat of war. Only near the end of the first century A.D. did the army complete the pacification of the Sirtica, a desert refuge for the barbarian tribes that had impeded overland communications between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. But for more than two centuries thereafter commerce flowed safely between markets and ports along a well-maintained road system and sea lanes policed by Roman forces who also guaranteed the security of settled areas against incursions by desert nomads. The vast territory was defended by one locally recruited legion (5,500 men) in Cyrenaica and the elements of another in Tripolitania, reinforced by tribal auxiliaries on the frontier. Although expeditions penetrated deep into Fezzan, in general Rome sought to control only those areas in the African provinces that were economically useful or could be garrisoned with the manpower available.*

As part of his reorganization of the empire in 300, the Emperor Diocletian separated the administration of Crete from Cyrenaica and in the latter formed the new provinces of Upper Libya and Lower Libya, using the term Libya for the first time as an administrative designation. With the definitive partition of the empire in 395, the Libyans were assigned to the eastern empire; Tripolitania was attached to the western empire.*

Map of Roman North Africa

Algeria Under the Roman Era

Increases in urbanization and in the area under cultivation during Roman rule caused wholesale dislocations of Berber society. Nomadic tribes were forced to settle or move from traditional rangelands. Sedentary tribes lost their autonomy and connection with the land. Berber opposition to the Roman presence was nearly constant. The Roman emperor Trajan (r. A.D. 98-117) established a frontier in the south by encircling the Aurès and Nemencha mountains and building a line of forts from Vescera (modern Biskra) to Ad Majores (Hennchir Besseriani, southeast of Biskra). The defensive line extended at least as far as Castellum Dimmidi (modern Messaad, southwest of Biskra), Roman Algeria's southernmost fort. Romans settled and developed the area around Sitifis (modern Sétif) in the second century, but farther west the influence of Rome did not extend beyond the coast and principal military roads until much later. [Source: Helen Chapan Metz, ed. Algeria: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1994 *]

The Roman military presence in North Africa was relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces. Starting in the second century A.D., these garrisons were manned mostly by local inhabitants.*

Aside from Carthage, urbanization in North Africa came in part with the establishment of settlements of veterans under the Roman emperors Claudius (r. A.D. 41-54), Nerva (r. A.D. 96-98), and Trajan. In Algeria such settlements included Tipasa, Cuicul (modern Djemila, northeast of Sétif), Thamugadi (modern Timgad, southeast of Sétif), and Sitifis. The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the "granary of the empire," North Africa, according to one estimate, produced 1 million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was exported. Other crops included fruit, figs, grapes, and beans. By the second century A.D., olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item.*

The beginnings of the decline of the Roman Empire were less serious in North Africa than elsewhere. There were uprisings, however. In A.D. 238, landowners rebelled unsuccessfully against the emperor's fiscal policies. Sporadic tribal revolts in the Mauretanian mountains followed from 253 to 288. The towns also suffered economic difficulties, and building activity almost ceased.*

The towns of Roman North Africa had a substantial Jewish population. Some Jews were deported from Palestine in the first and second centuries A.D. for rebelling against Roman rule; others had come earlier with Punic settlers. In addition, a number of Berber tribes had converted to Judaism.*

Timgad, a Roman city in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria

Christianity and Jews in Roman-Era North Africa

Christianity arrived in the second century and soon gained converts in the towns and among slaves. More than eighty bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended the Council of Carthage in 256. By the end of the fourth century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some Berber tribes had converted en masse.*

A division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist controversy began in 313 among Christians in North Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden under the Emperor Diocletaian (r. 284-305). The Donatists also opposed the involvement of Emperor Constantine (r. 306-37) in church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who welcomed official imperial recognition.*

The occasionally violent controversy has been characterized as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius. Augustine (354-430) maintained that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Christ. In his sermons and books Augustine, who is considered a leading exponent of Christian truths, evolved a theory of the right of orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in Carthage in 411, Donatist communities continued to exist through the sixth century.*

Under the Ptolemies, Cyrenaica had become the home of a large Jewish community, whose numbers were substantially increased by tens of thousands of Jews deported there after the failure of the rebellion against Roman rule in Palestine and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Some of the refugees made their way into the desert, where they became nomads and nurtured their fierce hatred of Rome. They converted to Judaism many of the Berbers with whom they mingled, and in some cases whole tribes were identified as Jewish. In 115 the Jews raised a major revolt in Cyrenaica that quickly spread through Egypt back to Palestine. The uprising was put down by 118, but only after Jewish insurgents had laid waste to Cyrenaica and sacked the city of Cyrene. Contemporary observers counted the loss of life during those years at more than 200,000, and at least a century was required to restore Cyrenaica to the order and prosperity that had meanwhile prevailed in Tripolitania.*

By the beginning of the second century, Christianity had been introduced among the Jewish community, and it soon gained converts in the towns and among slaves. Rome's African provinces were thoroughly Christianized by the end of the fourth century, and inroads had been made as well among the Berber tribes in the hinterland. From an early date, however, the churches in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica developed distinct characteristics that reflected their differing cultural orientations. The former came under the jurisdiction of the Latin patriarch, the bishop of Rome, and the latter under that of the Coptic (Egyptian) patriarch of Alexandria. In both areas, religious dissent became a vehicle for social revolt at a time of political deterioration and economic depression.*

coast of North Africa

Olive Production in Tunisia Crashed Because Roman Iron Production

Zach Zorich wrote in Archaeology Magazine: After the Romans conquered the Phoenicians of northern Africa in 146 B.C., they allowed them to maintain their cultural traditions, but imposed a new economic system. The drastic cost of this was evident at Zita, a city in present-day Tunisia that was once famous for its olive groves. A team of American researchers and archaeologists from Tunisia’s National Heritage Institute compared the quantity of iron slag and carbonized olive pits in soil from the city’s iron smelting workshops. [Source: Zach Zorich, Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2022]

When the Romans took over, they increased iron production, but the problems didn’t begin until about A.D. 200. “We can see clearly in the archaeological record that they lost the balance between producing fuel and producing olive oil,” says archaeologist Brett Kaufman of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He believes that plagues and political instability may have created economic pressures that led to shortsighted decisions. To feed Rome’s appetite for iron, the olive orchards that had sustained Zita’s economy for centuries were fed into the smelting furnaces, leading to the city’s collapse around A.D. 450. “It’s just shocking to think about the emotional cost for the people who realized that they were feeding an empire and losing their own city in the process,” says Kaufman.

Bustling Roman Port in Morocco?

In November 2023, archaeologists announced they unearthed a large, a bustling port city near Rabat, the capital of modern-day Morocco, that contained out thermal baths and working class neighborhoods Researchers from Morocco’s National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage presented described these discoveries made at Chellah — a 3.15-square-kilometer (1.2-square-mile) UNESCO World Heritage Site that was almost five times the size of Pompeii. [Source: Sam Metz, Associated Press, November 3, 2023]

Sam Metz of Associated Press wrote: , Scholars believe the area was first settled by the Phoenicians and emerged as a key Roman empire outpost from the second to fifth century. The fortified necropolis and surrounding settlements were built near the Atlantic Ocean along the banks of the Bou Regreg river. Findings have included bricks inscribed in neo-Punic, a language that predates the Romans' arrival in Morocco. The main excavation is larger than that of Volubilis, widely visited ruins 111 miles (179 kilometers) east of Rabat.

Abdelaziz El Khayari, a professor of pre-Islamic archaeology from Morocco’s National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage, said that the site's significance stems from its location on the water, which likely made it an important trading site, facilitating the exchange of materials including the import of Italian marble and export of African ivory. He said that new excavations underscored the city's wealth and hoped to find out more in the coming months and years. “We still haven't discovered the actual port,” he said.

Reuters reported: The archaeological site, now the third largest in Morocco, will offer insight into the lives of Roman settlers and romanised Moroccans or Mauro-Romans in that era, El Khayari said. The Roman-era bath spans over 2000 square meters (21,527 square feet) resembling imperial counterparts in Rome, he said. [Source: Reuters, November 3, 2023]

Unique Roman Watchtower Found in Morocco

In October 2022, a team of Polish and Moroccan archaeologists said they found a one-of-akind A Roman watchtower in Morocco. Francesca Aton wrote in ArtNews: The tower was found at the site of El Mellali near the ancient city Volubilis, along the southern border of the ancient Roman province. It was constructed about four miles south of the largest city in this region of Roman Africa, according to a statement from the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Morocco. [Source Francesca Aton, ArtNews, October 27, 2022]

“On the basis of satellite images, we selected several sites that have a common feature: an oval plan with a rectangle or a square inscribed in it,” Maciej Czapski, an archaeologist and Ph.D. student from the University of Warsaw and a member of the Polish-Moroccan research group, told Heritage Daily. “We chose this particular site because it is located farthest to the south. There could be a place associated with the presence of the Roman army.“

The foundations and walls of the tower were uncovered during the excavations. Within the structure were the remnants of an internal staircase and cobblestone fragments that once surrounded the fortification. Military artifacts—including javelins, nails from Roman sandals, and belt fragments—were also discovered at the structure. Using them, the archaeologists were able to date the structure to sometime between the 1st century CE and 3rd century CE. They said they believe the structure was in use during the reign of Antoninus Pius, who ruled as Roman Emperor from 138–161 CE. [Source Francesca Aton, ArtNews, October 27, 2022]

North African desert

Roman Administration in North Africa

The Notitia Dignitatum (Register of Dignitaries, c. A.D. 400) is an official listing of all civil and military posts in the Roman Empire, East and West. It survives as a 1551 copy of the now-missing original and is the major source of information on the administrative organization of the late Roman Empire. William Fairley wrote: “The Notitia Dignitatum is an official register of all the offices, other than municipal, which existed in the Roman Empire.... Gibbon gave to this document a date between 395 and 407 when the Vandals disturbed the Roman regime in Gaul. [Source: Notitia Dignitatum (Register of Dignitaries), William Fairley, in Translations and Reprints from Original Sources of European History, Vol. VI:4 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), 1899].

“The Notitia Dignitatum has preserved for us, as no other document has done, a complete outline view of the Roman administrative system in early fifth century. The hierarchic arrangement is displayed perfectly. The division of prefectures, dioceses and provinces, and the rank of their respective governors is set forth at length. The military origin of the whole system appears in the titles of the staff officers, even in those departments whose heads had, since the time of Constantine, been deprived of all military command.”### Administrative Positions in Africa

Proconsul of Africa
Under the control of the worshipful proconsul of Africa:
The proconsular province and its two legates.
His staff is as follows:
A chief of staff from the school of confidential agents the first class,
A chief deputy,
Two receivers of taxes,
A chief clerk,
A custodian,
A chief assistant,
A keeper of the records,
Assistants,
Secretaries,
Notaries, and the rest of the staff.
[Source: Notitia Dignitatum (Register of Dignitaries), William Fairley, in Translations and Reprints from Original Sources of European History, Vol. VI:4 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), 1899].

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024