UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
from the accounts of the phase of conquest. During the last quarter of
the first century before our era, a long series of triumphs celebrated by
Roman generals over the Maurusiani, Musulamii, Gaetulians and Garamantes
afford indisputable evidence that the indigenous populations were
never completely subjugated despite the Roman victories. 2
The best-known of these wars is that of the Numidian Tacfarinas,
which lasted for eight years under the reign of Tiberius, and extended
to all the southern confines of North Africa, from Tripolitania as far
as Mauretania. It is often summarily presented by modern historians as
a struggle between civilization and the Barbaric world, an effort by the
nomadic and semi-nomadic indigenous population to halt the Roman
advance and the process of settlement, thereby rejecting the benefits of
a superior form of civilization and a better social order. 3 However, the
demands attributed by Tacitus to Tacfarinas give a clearer idea of the
deep-seated causes of the resistance of the indigenous inhabitants. The
Numidian leader took up arms to force the all-powerful emperor to
recognize his people's right to land, for the Roman conquest had been
immediately followed by the sequestration of all the fertile land. The fields
of the sedentary Numidians were laid waste; the areas traditionally roamed
by the nomads were steadily reduced and limited; veterans and other
Roman and Italian colonists established themselves everywhere, starting
with the richest parts of the country; tax-collecting companies and
members of the Roman aristocracy, senators and knights, carved out huge
estates for themselves. While their country was being exploited in this
way, all the autochthonous nomads, and all the sedentary inhabitants who
did not live in the few cities spared by the succession of wars and
expropriation measures, were either reduced to abject poverty or were
driven into the steppes and the desert. Their only hope therefore lay
in armed resistance, and their principal war aim was to recover their
land.
Military operations continued throughout the first two centuries of our
era, and the Roman thrust towards the south-west stirred up the tribes
which assembled and dispersed in the area stretching from the valley of the
Moulouya to the Djebel Amour and the Ouarsenis. Having easily established
themselves in the coastal strip and in the north-east, the Romans
advanced by stages in the southern part of what is modern Tunisia, as
well as in the High Plateaux and the Saharan Atlas. Under the Julio-
Claudian emperors, the frontier of the conquered territory stretched from
Cirta in the west to Tacape in the south, and included Ammaedara, which
was the headquarters of the Legio III Augusta, Thelepte and Capsa. Under
the Flavian emperors, the legion established itself at Theveste and the
boundary was pushed forward as far as Sitifis; the Nementcha region
466
2. P. Romanelli, 1959, pp. i7Sff.
3. ibid., pp. 227ff.