Giacobbe Giusti, Triumph of Poseidon and Amphitrite showing the couple in procession, detail of a vast mosaic from Cirta, Roman Africa, now at the Louvre
« Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite« , a Roman mosaic from Cirta, now in the Louvre (ca. 315-325 AD)
Provincia Africa Proconsularis | |||||
Province of the Roman Empire | |||||
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The province of Africa within the Roman Empire |
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Capital | Zama Regia, then Carthago | ||||
Historical era | Antiquity | ||||
• | Established after the Third Punic War | 146 BC | |||
• | Invasion of the Vandals | 5th century | |||
Today part of | Tunisia Libya Algeria |
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History of Tunisia |
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Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northwest African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libyaalong the Gulf of Sirte. The territory was originally inhabited by Berber people, known in Latin as Mauri(English: Moor; Spanish: Moro) indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt; in the 9th century BC, Phoenicians built settlements along the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping, of which Carthage rose to dominance in the 8th century until its conquest by the Roman Republic.
It was one of the wealthiest provinces in the western part of the Roman empire, second only to Italia. Apart from the city of Carthage, other large settlements in the province were Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia), capital of Byzacena, and Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria). Besides Latin, the official language, Punic and Berber languages were commonly spoken.
References
- Lennox Manton, Roman North Africa, 1988.
- Susan Raven. Rome in Africa. 3rd ed. (London, 1993).
- Monique Seefried Brouillet, From Hannibal to Saint Augustine: Ancient Art of North Africa from the Musee du Louvre, 1994.
- A. I. Wilson, Urban Production in the Roman World: The View from North Africa, 2002.
- Duane R. Roller, The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene: Royal Scholarship on Rome’s African Frontier (New York and London, Routledge, 2003).
- Elizabeth Fentress, « Romanizing the Berbers, » Past & Present, 190,1 (2006), 3-33.
- Michael Mackensen and Gerwulf Schneider. Production centres of African Red Slip Ware (2nd-3rd c.) in northern and central Tunisia: Archaeological provenance and reference groups based on chemical analysis, 2006.
- Cordovana, Orietta Dora, Segni e immagini del potere tra antico e tardoantico: I Severi e la provincia Africa proconsularis. Seconda edizione rivista ed aggiornata (Catania: Prisma, 2007) (Testi e studi di storia antica)
- Dick Whittaker, « Ethnic discourses on the frontiers of Roman Africa », in Ton Derks, Nico Roymans (ed.), Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2009) (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, 13), 189-206.
- Erich S. Gruen, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton, PUP, 2010), 197-222.
- Mennen, Inge, Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193-284 (2011)
- Stewart, John, African states and rulers (2006)