Roman Africa

[Ursus]

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.

 

 

Indeed, and when the Vandal hordes trounced the token legion, seizing Africa's tax base and grain supply for themselves, it was effectively the end of the Western Empire.

 

Roman Africa was probably the most important province in the West after Italy. It's interesting that not much is written about it. It's interesting to speculate, before the Islamic invasions, that part of Africa was more a part of Western civilization than Britain and northern Gaul.

 

Given the increasing trend in Romanophile studies to study native cultures other than Greece under Roman dominion, it shouldn't be too long before some enterprising scholar gives us a full fledged account of this area. I can see a burgeoning explosion of Romano-Punic studies.

[Kosmo]

I found the topic very interesting.

 

Despite the image of carthaginians as a trading nation, I think that the prosperity of Carthage was based on the agricultural production of the hinterland.

 

The supply system of Rome needed African products but some say that romans did not payed for them but took the goods as tribute in kind. This type of system would have quickly decreased production but we see great investments were made. That means money were given to the food producers by Annona.

 

The great food production of N Tunisia needed a market as much as Rome needed supplies. I see the decay of vandal power as a result of the destruction they brought on their own market - Rome. With no outside market the production had to be reduced to subsistence level and the trade and the cities were dead. The prosperity of N Africa depended on that of Rome/Italy and that was not looking good anyway.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve! Does anybody know if there was any kind of trans-saharian trade or contact during the Empire?

[Kosmo]

I've read an exclent article, that I can not quote now, that there was no transaharian route.

[ASCLEPIADES]

I've read an exclent article, that I can not quote now, that there was no transaharian route.

Thank you, K

[caldrail]

Correct, nothing crossed the sahara. As I understand it, camels were introduced to the region during the medieval period and thats what opened up the interior to travel. It should be born in mind that the sahara wasn't as close to the coast as it is today. Back then, there were areas of grassland or savannah. For the romans, the desert was an impenetrable barrier. It was only the persistent presence of nomads that required any control of this southern border.

[M. Porcius Cato]

The great food production of N Tunisia needed a market as much as Rome needed supplies. I see the decay of vandal power as a result of the destruction they brought on their own market - Rome. With no outside market the production had to be reduced to subsistence level and the trade and the cities were dead. The prosperity of N Africa depended on that of Rome/Italy and that was not looking good anyway.

 

Excellent point!

[caldrail]

No not really. If the north african agriculture produced surplus then they could easily feed themselves and seek markets regardless of whether the city of rome demanded it all. Granted there would have been an economic decline because foodstuffs wasn't going to get sold in the shortterm, but I don't read this in history. Africa doesn't seem to suffer the market collapse you'd expect, but then they had a large population and it could survive alone quite happily. The invasion of the vandals doesn't seem to have caused any long term upset either, since they were keen to live off the prosperity of the african coast.

[Flavia Gemina]

Correct, nothing crossed the sahara. As I understand it, camels were introduced to the region during the medieval period ....

 

Sorry, but I disagree. I'm sure there would have been caravans across North Africa selling goods of all sorts, including slaves. The Sahara was, as has been pointed out, savannah as well as desert, and not as inhospitable as today. As for camels, Caesar introduced them to Africa in the first century BC. Camel bones have been found in Ostia and there is a VIVARIUM or animal holding area just south of Ostia (for beasts brough from North Africa for the arena in Rome). There is, I believe, a Roman toy camel in the British Museum.

 

Also my characters travel by camel caravan from Sabratha to Volubilis in my forthcoming book... so that proves it!

 

Flavia

Edited July 11, 2007 by Flavia Gemina

[ASCLEPIADES]

Thank you, FG. Excellent link. I hope that your characters get to Volubilis without any problem.

[Flavia Gemina]

Thank you, FG. Excellent link. I hope that your characters get to Volubilis without any problem.

 

I hope so too! You can read about their exploits in October when The Beggar of Volubilis is published!

 

Vale.

 

Flavia

Edited July 11, 2007 by Flavia Gemina

[Klingan]

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

 

Welcome to UNRV! Sounds like a very interesting phase you're going into, I'm stuck in it since forever. I'm very much looking forward to this.

 

If you have not seen the pictures yet (as hinted twice earlier) I recommend taking a look in the Guess the ancient city thread. There is a picture of a town called Timgad founded by Trajanus as a military colony for his nearby troops. It's considered by many as the 3rd best conserved city from the roman period after Pompeii and Herculaneum. It's well worth taking a closer look at.

[caldrail]

Correct, nothing crossed the sahara. As I understand it, camels were introduced to the region during the medieval period ....

 

Sorry, but I disagree. I'm sure there would have been caravans across North Africa selling goods of all sorts, including slaves. The Sahara was, as has been pointed out, savannah as well as desert, and not as inhospitable as today. As for camels, Caesar introduced them to Africa in the first century BC. Camel bones have been found in Ostia and there is a VIVARIUM or animal holding area just south of Ostia (for beasts brough from North Africa for the arena in Rome). There is, I believe, a Roman toy camel in the British Museum.

 

Also my characters travel by camel caravan from Sabratha to Volubilis in my forthcoming book... so that proves it!

 

Flavia

 

Not across the interior. Along the coast or the nile certainly, but the romans regarded the interior of the sahara as inpenetrable and horses/oxen/donkeys weren't up to the job. In roman times the desert was well in evidence, and whilst I accept your point about grassland, these areas were found on the periphery, not the center. The only reason nomads were able to survive on the arid border was the presence of oases, these are in short supply as you get further in. There's no historical record of trans-saharan trade that I'm aware of, and what trade existed with more southerly parts of africa was either by ship of egyptian barge.

 

Addendum - The only trade routes that I've found go around the sahara, not across it. There wasn't much to trade on the southern edge and I don't think the romans were aware of anyone living down there. The inhabitants of what is now Chad traded east with a christian nubian kingdom called Alwa, somewhere in the sudan area during the late empire/byzantine era. There is however mention of roman exploratory missions into the desert but apparently all they found were 'troglodytes' (presumably cave dwelling tribesmen) whom they had a confrontation with. Also, dromedarii are recorded in egypt around 150AD, but apart from a few agricultural animals introduced by the romans from the middle east they were not widespread in north africa until later periods. The Roman World by John Wacher has a chapter on roman north africa and egypt, although it emphasises strategic concerns.

Edited July 13, 2007 by caldrail

[Nerva]

I saw a piece on History Channel International the other day called "The Roman Empire in North Africa." I immediately thought of this thread.

 

Anyway, they are running it again Sat, 8/12/07 at 4pm and again at 11pm Eastern (USA).

 

From their website: http://www.historyinternational.com

Journey back in time to the fertile territories of Northern Africa, which inevitably became part of the Roman Empire after the Punic Wars. Using stylish period reconstructions, location photography, groundbreaking 3D graphics and animation, and commentary by leading authorities, we take viewers on a tour of what remains of the major Roman cities in the region, including the underground city of Bulla Regia, the city of Dougga, and the Colosseum of El Jem, and cover many aspects of Roman life in the colonies.

 

They go into a lot of detail about sites other than ancient Carthage using excavations at some of the smaller towns south of that great city. Hope some of you are able to see this. Do you get Hist. Int in Europe?

[M. Porcius Cato]

Thanks for the tip, Nerva. Hopefully, the episode will inspire a good entry to the Historical Essay Contest.