UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Sahara in classical antiquity
known Roman coins called 'spintrian', which were probably struck for the
use of courtesans, the ancients believing that these ruminants had
lascivious instincts which were quite exceptional!
I am inclined to agree with those historians who attach quite exceptional
importance to the increasing use of camels in the Sahara. Supple-footed,
adaptable to all terrains, amazingly abstemious thanks to the metabolic
water secreted by his organism, this animal proved providential for all
the nomads, who were handicapped by the drawbacks of the horse at a
time when the climate was becoming alarmingly drier. Camels meant
increased mobility for individuals and for groups, an advantage which had
been recognized for a long time in Arabia. It is even thought that changing
the method of harnessing especially by altering the position of the saddle
made it possible to train 'meharis', camels for racing and for use in battle. 4 '
For several centuries the use of these animals spread slowly but
systematically, to judge by the abundance in all regions of the great desert
of 'cameline' rock drawings, hard to date, alas, and obviously of far later
workmanship than the fine 'caballine' pictures. Though no classical text
mentions their possessing the camel, the Garamantes and their subjects
must eventually have come to this invaluable auxiliary - hence, probably,
the regularity of their trade relations with the most distant zones. It is
perhaps not merely by chance that all the Roman material in the region
of Ghat and Abalessa is fourth century. In this period camels were also
plentiful in northern Tripolitania, where the Roman authorities could
normally requisition 4000, to the cost of the city of Leptis. The supply
of camels also greatly strengthened the nomads' potential for attack on
Roman territories.
Rome's 'Sahara policy'
For lack of documents, we do not know whether Punic Carthage was much
alarmed at the presence of powerful tribes on her southern frontiers.
Excavations at Garama prove that at least during the second and first
centuries before our era, the ports of the Syrtic coast, which then belonged
to the kingdom of Numidia, had trade relations with the Fezzan, relations
on which their wealth was largely dependent.
Roman history is better known. The main lines of Latin policy can be
briefly summarized as follows: occupation of the agricultural lands of the
Maghrib required strategic cover to the south. In these regions the
Saharan nomads were a nuisance. Their seasonal migrations into the
colonized territory, ineluctable because essential to their survival, had their
uses in that they made the products of the steppe and the desert available
to the settlers, but there was always the risk of their creating conflict with
the sedentary tribes. Even the distant Garamantes seemed dangerous, in
41. T. Monod, 1967.
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