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Roman Africa

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The ruins of Timgad in present-day Algeria, founded as a colonia under the emperor Trajan
Mosaic from El Djem, Tunisia

Roman Africa or Roman North Africa is the culture of Roman Africans that developed from 146 BC, when the Roman Republic defeated Carthage and the Punic Wars ended, with subsequent institution of Roman Imperial government, through the 5th and 6th centuries AD under Byzantine Imperial control. In referring to "Africa", the Romans themselves meant mainly northern Africa or Mediterranean Africa, with Roman Egypt a separate province having a distinct Greco-Egyptian culture and society, and Aethiopia representing the largely unknown bounds of sub-Saharan Africa. The loose geography of "Roman Africa" encompasses primarily present-day Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and northern Morocco.

Government

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The Roman Imperial and later the Byzantine presence manifested in a series of evolving but defined administrative provinces. In the late Republic (starting in the mid-2nd century BC) through the Principate and the Crisis of the Third Century, these were:

After Diocletian's formation of the Tetrarchy, the Diocese of Africa was the overarching imperial administration of North Africa, excluding Mauretania Tingitana.

Byzantine North Africa (AD 533 through ca. 698/700) was governed as:

Culture

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North Africa is particularly known for the abundance and quality of its Roman-era mosaics and for its influence on the intellectual development of Christianity in late antiquity through Carthaginian theologians such as Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine of Hippo.

See also

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References

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Sources

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  • Cilliers, Louise (2019). Roman North Africa: Environment, Society and Medical Contribution. Amsterdam University Press.
  • Cherry, David (1998). Frontier and Society in Roman North Africa. Clarendon.
  • Clark, Elizabeth A.; Smith, Zachary B., eds. (2024). Colors and Textures of Roman North Africa: Essays in Memory of Maureen A. Tilley. Catholic University of America.
  • Conant, Jonathan (2012). Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Vol. 4. Cambridge University Press.

Religion

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  • Burns, J. Patout; Jenson, Robin M., eds. (2014). Christianity in Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs. Eerdmans.
  • Frend, W. H. C. (1952). The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa. University of Michigan Press.
  • Gaumer, Matthew Alan (2016). Augustine's Cyprian: Authority in Roman Africa. Brill.
  • Lander, Shira L. (2016). Ritual Sites and Religious Rivalries in Late Roman North Africa. Cambridge University Press.

Mosaics

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