DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0258
190
Roman Africa
interest in our own times ; one of them, known as the Enfida
estate or saltus, in the beylik of Tunisia, having been the subject
of a dispute which contributed more than anything else to the
French protectorate of that country and its ultimate submission
to the rule of France. The causes of this long-pending contro-
versy between Kheir-el-Din, the prime minister of Tunis in
1879, and the Bey, are too well known to need repetition.
After much litigation and a round of diplomatic correspondence,
this magnificent estate, comprising more than 300,000 acres, and
with a population of about 7,000 settled occupants, was finally
handed over in perpetuity to the Societe Franco-Africaine.
The traveller going south from Tunis passes through the
middle of this domain, which in form may roughly be described
as a parallelogram, lying between the towns of Susa and Ham-
mamet on the coast, and Kairouan and Zaghouan in the
interior.
The origin of these vast estates may be traced to the
earlier days of Roman colonisation, when successful settlers
found themselves involved in dispute with exacting governors or
tyrannical emperors. The result was that confiscation ensued,
and territory after territory became the private property of the
Emperor himself, or of some member of the imperial family.
Nero stands conspicuous for his arbitrary conduct and cruel
exactions of lands and herds, merely to gratify the whim of a
passing hour or the rapacity of some greedy court official.
Such was the growth of these estates that, in the time of Trajan,
one half of Roman Africa, according to Pliny, was in the hands
of six proprietors, the Emperor being by inheritance the largest
owner. Fronto, in one of his letters to Marcus Aurelius, refers
to the great African domain held by Matidia, niece of Trajan,
known as the saltus Matidia, and tells us that the Emperor,
prompted by delicacy of feeling, refused to accept it at her
decease, but was afterwards forced to do so at the instigation of
his wife Faustina, whose personal influence over this philosophic
ruler of mankind is generally acknowledged. An interesting
inscription relating to this estate was brought to light nearly
forty years ago in the district of Bou-Areridj in that portion of
the Medjerda plains which lies in the province of of Mauritania
Sitifensis.1 Some dispute appears to have arisen during the
1 C.l.L. No. 8S12. Vide Rcc. de Const. 1864, p. 101. Payen and Renier descrip.
Roman Africa
interest in our own times ; one of them, known as the Enfida
estate or saltus, in the beylik of Tunisia, having been the subject
of a dispute which contributed more than anything else to the
French protectorate of that country and its ultimate submission
to the rule of France. The causes of this long-pending contro-
versy between Kheir-el-Din, the prime minister of Tunis in
1879, and the Bey, are too well known to need repetition.
After much litigation and a round of diplomatic correspondence,
this magnificent estate, comprising more than 300,000 acres, and
with a population of about 7,000 settled occupants, was finally
handed over in perpetuity to the Societe Franco-Africaine.
The traveller going south from Tunis passes through the
middle of this domain, which in form may roughly be described
as a parallelogram, lying between the towns of Susa and Ham-
mamet on the coast, and Kairouan and Zaghouan in the
interior.
The origin of these vast estates may be traced to the
earlier days of Roman colonisation, when successful settlers
found themselves involved in dispute with exacting governors or
tyrannical emperors. The result was that confiscation ensued,
and territory after territory became the private property of the
Emperor himself, or of some member of the imperial family.
Nero stands conspicuous for his arbitrary conduct and cruel
exactions of lands and herds, merely to gratify the whim of a
passing hour or the rapacity of some greedy court official.
Such was the growth of these estates that, in the time of Trajan,
one half of Roman Africa, according to Pliny, was in the hands
of six proprietors, the Emperor being by inheritance the largest
owner. Fronto, in one of his letters to Marcus Aurelius, refers
to the great African domain held by Matidia, niece of Trajan,
known as the saltus Matidia, and tells us that the Emperor,
prompted by delicacy of feeling, refused to accept it at her
decease, but was afterwards forced to do so at the instigation of
his wife Faustina, whose personal influence over this philosophic
ruler of mankind is generally acknowledged. An interesting
inscription relating to this estate was brought to light nearly
forty years ago in the district of Bou-Areridj in that portion of
the Medjerda plains which lies in the province of of Mauritania
Sitifensis.1 Some dispute appears to have arisen during the
1 C.l.L. No. 8S12. Vide Rcc. de Const. 1864, p. 101. Payen and Renier descrip.