DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0374
298
Roman Africa
European races.1 To these peculiar features of North Africa
may be attributed the partial success which attended the rising
of frontier and desert tribes at all periods of the Roman occu-
pation, fully sufficient to account for difficulties experienced
by the Roman legions in suppressing a long series of tribal
revolts. Till the time of Trajan, colonisation by the Latin race
was confined mostly to the towns already peopled by Cartha-
ginians or the descendants of old Phoenician traders. The
accession of this princely ruler marks a starting-point in the
history of Roman Africa. Under the twelve Caesars progress
had been checked by the almost insuperable difficulties attend-
ing the invasion of an unknown country, peopled by races
whose habits of life and methods of warfare had nothing in
common with the more advanced civilisation of the people of
Italy, and the islands under Roman domination. Trajan seems
to have been born at the right time. His noble bearing and
distinguished generalship, coupled with administrative abilities
of a high order, roused the enthusiasm of his subjects to a
degree unknown since the days of Augustus. The African
provinces reaped a full share of benefits from the career of such
a ruler. Colonisation was attended with marked success. Cities
and towns sprang up at the Emperor's bidding. Native tribes-
men found themselves unmolested, their forms of religion and
habits of life undisturbed, and encouragement given to a free
interchange of commercial products. Under the Antonines the
good work still progressed, was checked for a time under the
rule of the worthless Commodus, and reached its climax in the
strong hands of Septimius Severus. Inscriptions innumerable
bear ample testimony to the condition of the African popu-
lation at this period, and monumental remains, which still greet
the traveller in some of the less trodden parts of this fair land,
bear ample evidence of the presence of large communities
1 It is nearly twenty-five years since Captain Roudaire published his report on
the Chotts or lakes forming a large portion of the southern boundary of North Africa.
{Etude relative au Projet de Mer Interieure, Paris, 1877.) His investigations seemed
to show that the Palus Tritoniiis of the ancients, into which Ulysses sailed, is the
stretch of water separating Djerba from the mainland, rather than the inner lake behind
the Oasis of Gabes, marked Palus Tritonitis on every map and chart, both ancient
and modern, and that in prehistoric times all these chotts were united and formed of
themselves an inland sea. (Vide G. Boissiere, p. 25 et seq. Also Sir R. L.
Playfair, Travels, p. 271.)
Roman Africa
European races.1 To these peculiar features of North Africa
may be attributed the partial success which attended the rising
of frontier and desert tribes at all periods of the Roman occu-
pation, fully sufficient to account for difficulties experienced
by the Roman legions in suppressing a long series of tribal
revolts. Till the time of Trajan, colonisation by the Latin race
was confined mostly to the towns already peopled by Cartha-
ginians or the descendants of old Phoenician traders. The
accession of this princely ruler marks a starting-point in the
history of Roman Africa. Under the twelve Caesars progress
had been checked by the almost insuperable difficulties attend-
ing the invasion of an unknown country, peopled by races
whose habits of life and methods of warfare had nothing in
common with the more advanced civilisation of the people of
Italy, and the islands under Roman domination. Trajan seems
to have been born at the right time. His noble bearing and
distinguished generalship, coupled with administrative abilities
of a high order, roused the enthusiasm of his subjects to a
degree unknown since the days of Augustus. The African
provinces reaped a full share of benefits from the career of such
a ruler. Colonisation was attended with marked success. Cities
and towns sprang up at the Emperor's bidding. Native tribes-
men found themselves unmolested, their forms of religion and
habits of life undisturbed, and encouragement given to a free
interchange of commercial products. Under the Antonines the
good work still progressed, was checked for a time under the
rule of the worthless Commodus, and reached its climax in the
strong hands of Septimius Severus. Inscriptions innumerable
bear ample testimony to the condition of the African popu-
lation at this period, and monumental remains, which still greet
the traveller in some of the less trodden parts of this fair land,
bear ample evidence of the presence of large communities
1 It is nearly twenty-five years since Captain Roudaire published his report on
the Chotts or lakes forming a large portion of the southern boundary of North Africa.
{Etude relative au Projet de Mer Interieure, Paris, 1877.) His investigations seemed
to show that the Palus Tritoniiis of the ancients, into which Ulysses sailed, is the
stretch of water separating Djerba from the mainland, rather than the inner lake behind
the Oasis of Gabes, marked Palus Tritonitis on every map and chart, both ancient
and modern, and that in prehistoric times all these chotts were united and formed of
themselves an inland sea. (Vide G. Boissiere, p. 25 et seq. Also Sir R. L.
Playfair, Travels, p. 271.)