Roman Africa

[Urbs Aedificator]

Ave Civitas! This being my first post, I wish you all a hearty hello. Recently my interest in things Roman have led me to start to do research

in the area of Roman Africa, to me, a much ignored area. Are there members here in the forum who are also interested in Roman Africa, and

particularily the cities therein.

If anyone is interested in sharing their knowledge, and possibily good internet sites, I would look forward to the discussion.

Thanks

Alex

[M. Porcius Cato]

I have some nice images posted of the "House of Falling Waters" from Utica in the "Guess the Ancient City" thread. More generally, I'm keen to learn as much as possible about Roman Africa generally and Utica in particular.

[The Augusta]

Ave Civitas! This being my first post, I wish you all a hearty hello. Recently my interest in things Roman have led me to start to do research

in the area of Roman Africa, to me, a much ignored area. Are there members here in the forum who are also interested in Roman Africa, and

particularily the cities therein.

If anyone is interested in sharing their knowledge, and possibily good internet sites, I would look forward to the discussion.

Thanks

Alex

 

 

Welcome, Alex - I hope you enjoy your time as a member of our community.

 

I too wish to learn more about Roman Africa, although my knowledge at the moment is very rudimentary and has been fostered largely by my growing interest in the Emperor Septimius Severus. There is a brief history of the province - or, more especially, the Tripolitana area, in Birley's biography: Septimius Severus: The African Emperor, which I am currently reviewing for the Forum. Other than that, the one volume of the Cambridge Ancient History that I possess (Vol X: The Augustan Empire) has useful overviews of the province of Africa during the principate of Augustus. But I would certainly be willing to join in any discussions as our collective knowledge grows on this topic.

[Urbs Aedificator]

Thanks for the replies. M.P. Cato, why the interest in Utica in particular? The Augusta, Septimius Severus came from the city on the North African coast, I have somewhat arbitrarily decided to start my research from, Leptis Magna, no?

I feel in many ways that Leptis Magna( and other N. African cities) were in such a remote area of the Republic/Empire that they would have been able to flourish

without too heavy a hand from Rome, and less vexed by barbarian incursions until near the end of the Western Empire.

Fascinating none the less.

Cheers.

Alex

[M. Porcius Cato]

Thanks for the replies. M.P. Cato, why the interest in Utica in particular?

 

Because that's where my namesake Cato Uticensis made his last stand against Caesar. The Uticans, in appreciation of Cato, subsequently erected a heroic statue of him. My portrait at left is of a portrait bust of Cato found at Utica and (last I checked) displayed in the museum there.

 

Utica is also historically interesting because it was the first major city in Africa to stand with Rome against Carthage and was the capital city of the province.

 

BTW, welcome to UNRV Urbs. Hope to see more of your posts.

Edited July 6, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Flavia Gemina]

I feel in many ways that Leptis Magna( and other N. African cities) were in such a remote area of the Republic/Empire that they would have been able to flourish without too heavy a hand from Rome, and less vexed by barbarian incursions until near the end of the Western Empire.

 

The coastal cities of North Africa like Leptis Magna, Carthage, Cyrenica, etc weren't remote at all! According to 'Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day', Africa was only 2 days away from Ostia with a favourable wind. (I personally think that's a bit optimistic). North Africa was the 'bread-basket' of Rome, growing most of the wheat that Romans ate. Huge grain ships started sailing back and forth as soon as the sailing season opened. Ostia was full of granaries to store the wheat and bakeries to bake it. From there -- and from Claudius's new harbour of Portus a couple of miles north -- it was shipped up the Tiber to Rome.

 

I visited Sabratha a few months ago for my researches and was struck by how similar it was to the Italian port of Ostia, in layout, size, look, etc... In fact, the beast importers of Sabratha even had their own office in Ostia's 'Forum of the Corporations'. It's the one with the delightful black and white mosaic of an elephant. Even Volubilis, several hundred miles inland (in what is now Morocco) seemed completely Roman to me.

 

And as for Alexandria, a good week's distance from Ostia, it was considered the second most sophisticated city in the Empire!

 

Vale.

 

Flavia.

[caldrail]

North Africa was the most heavily urbanised part of the roman empire, at least along the coast. The presence of crops and gardens means that the area was well watered by irrigation, wells, or even possibly because the climate may not have been so dry away from the african interior. The trade in animals for the games was particularly important for Leptis Magna and Alexandria, and the last named is well known as a center of learning. North Africa was not a backwater in any way whatsoever. Egyptian stone, and grain in particular, was a valuable resource, not to mention the various native peoples who served Rome as auxillaries, legionaries, or even hated enemies during the punic wars.

[miguel]

Welcome to unrv, Alex.

Sorry that I don't know much about this but, may I ask why you have such great interest in Roman Africa?

[The Augusta]

Just a mild corrective to Flavia and Caldrail, here. Alexandria was part of Egypt and therefore NOT part of the Roman province of Africa, as such. I think the Romans made this distinction. It is actually quite a little idiosyncracy of theirs. We would very much term Egypt as being part of North Africa, but to the Romans it was sort of vaguely 'the east' - at least during the Republic and early Principate.

 

Interesting point made by Flavia about the province of Africa not seeming to be 'so far away', as this very point is something Birley explores in his biography of Severus, when his thesis is that it was the very sense of 'otherness' that shaped much of that Emperor's character. It is not a point I am sure I agree with, but I mention it only to show that there are two definite schools of thought.

 

This should prove to be a fascinating topic.

[ASCLEPIADES]

I have some nice images posted of the "House of Falling Waters" from Utica in the "Guess the Ancient City" thread. More generally, I'm keen to learn as much as possible about Roman Africa generally and Utica in particular.

As MPC was saying, today there are no less than seven pics from five different roman cities over three present countries of north Africa in the "Guess the Ancient City" thread (excluding Aegyptus, of course).

[Urbs Aedificator]

Welcome to unrv, Alex.

Sorry that I don't know much about this but, may I ask why you have such great interest in Roman Africa?

Miguel, it's funny, but I seem to go through phases, when it comes to my studies of the Ancient Romans. I've researched the Roman military ad naseum(if that's possible ), I've gone through my Pre Republic, Republic, Early, Middle, and Late Roman Empire phases, but during all that time, for some obscure reason I never cast my eyes towards Roman Africa. As my name hints at, I'm going through a city building/planning phase, and although the founding of Colonia took place all over the Empire, I virtually knew nothing of the cities on Rome's African underbelly. So here I stand. So far though books and internet reference sites on this subject initially seem scarce.

Right now if I had the money, and the time I would travel to Leptis Magna,Hadrumetum,Carthago,Utica,Thamugas,Lambaesis,Hippo Regius,Volubilis, et al and take in these sites and try to get a feel as to what they were like, why they were sited where they were, and what benefits each city site conferred on the citizens.

Cheers.

Alex

[docoflove1974]

Just a mild corrective to Flavia and Caldrail, here. Alexandria was part of Egypt and therefore NOT part of the Roman province of Africa, as such. I think the Romans made this distinction. It is actually quite a little idiosyncracy of theirs. We would very much term Egypt as being part of North Africa, but to the Romans it was sort of vaguely 'the east' - at least during the Republic and early Principate.

 

Was this because the Romans viewed Egypt as part of Alexander's empire, therefore part of the east?

[caldrail]

More likely because it was a seperate kingdom in its own right, not to mention a province that was held very closely by augustus.

 

Roman africa supplied cereals, olives, vines. There were plenty of arid grasslands and my reading suggests that these steppes were receding in roman times. The north african elephant is now extinct thanks to the romans, and indeed many of the species we associate with lower africa are no longer present for that reason besides any ecological limits. It appears the african provinces were often turbulent, since the various nomadic tribes were never pacified. The romans even tried penning them into reservations with absolutely no success whatsoever. Sounds familiar?

[ASCLEPIADES]

Just a mild corrective to Flavia and Caldrail, here. Alexandria was part of Egypt and therefore NOT part of the Roman province of Africa, as such. I think the Romans made this distinction. It is actually quite a little idiosyncracy of theirs. We would very much term Egypt as being part of North Africa, but to the Romans it was sort of vaguely 'the east' - at least during the Republic and early Principate.

 

Was this because the Romans viewed Egypt as part of Alexander's empire, therefore part of the east?

The name Africa (from latin Afer of uncertain ethymology, probably phoenician) was used for the land around Carthage, mostly included in modern day Tunisia. It was made a province after the III punic war and persisted with various denominations until the muslim conquest and even after (arab Ifriquiya); most of Antiquity the term for the continent was Libya, a word that came through the greek from the pharaonic Egypt, where it was used for the land located to the west of the Nile valley at least since the XIX dynasty. When the ancients began to divide the known world into continents, most of them (for example, Herodotus, Dionysius, Pliny, Sallust, Hirtius) fixed the boundary of Asia and Libya at the descent of the Nile or even at Catabathmus Magna (31

[M. Porcius Cato]

Adding to Asclepiades' post, the borders of the imperial Africa Proconsularis reflected the integration of several republican territories, including "Africa Vetus" (old Africa) and "Africa Nova" (new Africa).

 

In 146 BCE, Africa Vetus (see map here) was restricted to about 5,000 sq mi of north and central Tunisia, lying north east of Scipio's fossa regia ('royal ditch') that stretched from Thabraca to Hadrumetum. This territory comprised the most fertile lands of the old Carthaginian empire, with the remainder being given to the descendants of the Numidian king Masinissa. The province was governed by a praetor from Utica. Including Utica, the lands and property of seven Punic cities that had supported Rome in the war with Carthage remained in private hands, with the remaining land confiscated as ager publica. The Roman organization led to a large number of Roman and Italian farmers and traders settling in the region, with many of Marius' veterans given land west of the fossa regia. Further, the original republican territory of Africa Vetus thrived in later centuries. According to Kaplan (in his fascinating Atlantic article),

Archaeologists have uncovered 200 Roman cities in the fertile farmlands of northern Tunisia, where the vast majority of the population lives. North Africa was the granary of the Roman Empire and produced more olive oil than Italy. The Romans built thousands of miles of roads there, and also bridges, dams, aqueducts, and irrigation systems; one aqueduct alone, still partially visible near the town of Zaghouan, carried 8.5 million gallons of water daily to Carthage, fifty-five miles to the north. Fifteen percent of Rome's senators came from Tunisia. Not only the Romans but also the fifth-century Vandals and every conqueror since, including the French in the nineteenth century, made the fertile north of Tunisia their base in North Africa.

In 46 BCE, after the battle of Thapsus, the Numidian territory of Juba I was seized by the Queen of Bithynia and added to the province. This territory of Africa Nova included the colonies of Clupea, Curubis, and Neapolis, as well a territory around Cirta that was given to new Caesarian oligarch, P. Sittius. Compared to that of Africa Vetus, Africa Nova has had a somewhat indifferent history.

 

Under Octavian, the boundaries were redrawn several times, until finally the united Africa Proconsularis came to extend from Arae Philaenorum to the river Ampsagas in eastern Algeria. The capital of Africa Proconsularis was moved from loyal and wealthy Utica to the greatly revived Carthage and was administered by a hen-pecked proconsul, instead of an elected praetor, who was given command of the Legio III Augusta.

 

In many ways, Roman Africa presents an almost perfect contrast to Roman Britain. Unlike Britain, Africa (especially Africa Vetus) urbanized rapidly and was thoroughly Romanized. In consequence, in over 300 years, the whole area from Cyrenaica to the Atlantic was protected by only a single legion and auxiliaries.