UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa
were the duties of the fleet of Alexandria. The composition of the African
legion was very varied at first, but subsequently nearly all the recruits
came from the local population. There were, however, some eastern corps
- the cohors Chalcidenorum, the Palmyrian archers - which were made
up of Syrians accustomed to desert warfare.
Administrative organization and military problems
On 13 January —27, Octavian, on whom the title of Augustus was
conferred three days later, divided the provinces of the empire, in accordance
with the approved principle, between himself and the senate. Africa,
which had long since been conquered and pacified and was bound to the
senatorial class by many traditions of an economic as well as a political
nature, fell among the provinces to be administered by the senate. Its
western boundary ran through Ampsaga - Cuicul - Zarai - Hodna, and
in the south-east its territory included a coastal plain in Tripolitania
stretching as far as the altars of the Philaeni which marked the frontier
with Cyrenaica. This provincia Africa, to which the epithet proconsularis
was also applied, combined the two provinces successively established by
Rome in North Africa: one had consisted of the Punic territory conquered
in —146, and was known as Africa Vetus, and the other had been created
by Caesar after his African campaign against the Pompeians and their ally,
King Juba I of Numidia, and was called Africa Nova. In addition to these
territories there were the four Cirtean colonies which Caesar had assigned
to the Italian adventurer P. Sittius.
As in republican times, the Roman senate continued during the imperial
period to delegate a governor in Africa. He was a very high-ranking
official, for he was one of the two senior ex-consuls present in Rome at
the time of drawing lots for the provinces; he therefore bore the title of
proconsul and, unless his term of office was prolonged as an exceptional
measure, he held his appointment in Carthage for only one year. In addition
to his judicial prerogatives, by virtue of which he was the supreme judge
of the province both in civil and in criminal cases, he was invested with
administrative and financial powers: he supervised the administration and
the municipal authorities, autonomous though they were in principle, and
notified them of imperial laws and regulations; he directed the execution
of major public works and sanctioned expenditure; he exercised supreme
control over the department responsible for keeping Rome supplied with
African corn, and over the operation of the fiscal system, the proceeds
of which were earmarked for the aerarium Saturni, the treasury of the
senate. He was assisted by propraetor legates, one of whom resided in
Carthage itself, and the other at Hippone, and by a quaestor, who was
in charge of the financialadministration. Furthermore, as already mentioned,
he was provided with a small contingent of troops, about 1600
strong, for the maintenance of law and order.
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