Tripolitania

David J. Mattingly

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781135782825
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

"Lepcis Magna", one of the greatest of the Roman cities of North Africa and one of the most famous archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, was situated in the region of Tripolitania. Birthplace of the Emperor Septimius Severus, the city has yielded many well-preserved monuments from its Roman past. Mattingly presents valuable information on the pre-Roman tribal background, the urban centres, the military frontier and the regional economy. He reinterprets many aspects of the settlement history of this marginal arid zone that was once made prosperous, and considers the wider themes of Romanization, frontier military strategy, and economic links between provinces and sources of elite wealth.

1
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

1
INTRODUCTION

Although Tripolitania was administered as part of Africa Proconsularis until the third century AD, there were sound geographical reasons for eventually differentiating it as a separate territory. The physical relief and climate of the region distinguish Tripolitania from Rome’s other territories in North Africa. It stands apart as a hybrid between Mediterranean and Saharan zones, and may even be considered to lie outside the Maghreb proper, which is characterized by the Atlas mountains (Tell) and high plains (steppe). In terms of structure and climate Tripolitania is more immediately Saharan, although the long littoral imposes certain Mediterranean cli matic nuances.¹ The main ecological zones are well defined and have imposed the essential conditions and limitations of settlement in the region.

Early modern explorers noted with astonishment the extensive remains of ancient settlement in zones then almost devoid of population (Plate 1).² Similar observations were made in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and, perhaps inevitably, there was speculation that major climatic change had occurred in the post-classical period. Modern research, however, suggests that the ancient conditions were much the same as those of today and a good deal of information on the ancient environment can be assembled from a combination of ancient and modern sources. We shall first examine the meagre ancient sources and then consider the comparative value of studies of the modern geography, climate and ecology of the region.

2
ANCIENT EVIDENCE FOR GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, FLORA AND FAUNA

The ancient sources relating to the geography and climate of North Africa are the starting point for this brief survey. It is self-evidently important to establish to what extent the ancient environment of Tripolitania was similar to and/or different from that of today.

As we shall see below, modern Tripolitania comprises three fundamental geographic zones: the coastal plain (known as the Gefara in the central sector), a curving chain of hills (the Gebel) and the predesert plateau beyond (Dahar) that shades off into the true desert. This tripartite division is echoed in a number of sources. Strabo describes mountains and plains lying between the coast and the Garamantes, and also mentions large lakes (chotts?) and ‘rivers which sink beneath the earth and become invisible’ (wadis). Pliny described the Gefara as a desert separating the Emporia from Africa Proconsularis, which it certainly is in its central sector where movable sand dunes extend right up to the coast. South of there, he mentioned forests full of wild beasts, presumably a reference to the then wooded Gebel. Beyond was a desert and then came the land of the Garamantes. The sixth-century African poet Corippus gave vivid descriptions of a relatively arid Gefara, a wooded and populous Gebel and desolate desert lands of Dahar and Syrtica.³

More commonly Latin and Greek authors only had detailed information on coastal features and described desert lands of the interior without reference to the wooded and fertile Gebel. There are ample references to show that the desert regions had much the same character then as now. The oases of the Sahara are vividly described by Herodotus as spring mounds and by Lucan as isolated, spring-fed ‘woods’ within the desert. Cato’s celebrated crossing of the Syrtic desert with an army of 10,000 in 48 BC was difficult to emulate, even for small groups or individuals, until the construction of the ‘Littorea’ road in the 1930s. The ‘sweltering Syrtes’ (Syrtes…aestuoses) of Horace and the ‘burning sands of a thirsty land’ (calidas terrae sitientis harenas) of Corippus were not the products of poetic exaggeration, as the number of other examples shows.⁴

Of the coastal features which are described, Strabo’s account of the lake of Zuchis (Sebkha Taourgha) and the wooded Cephalea promontory (Ras Misurata) are particularly evocative. Similarly, Procopius’ description of sand dunes covering part of Lepcis Magna at the time of the Byzantine reconquest is supported by archaeological evidence and the modern state of the site.

Several sources referred to the perils of navigation along the Syrtic coast. The lack of good anchorages, the unpredictable shallows and the wrecking activities of the coastaldwelling Nasamones tribes all contributed to the number of lost ships and the bad reputation of the inshore waters. As Strabo observed, however, the wrecks were mainly the result of sailors being loath to lose touch with the shoreline in spite of the perils involved.

The difficulty with this Syrtis and the Little Syrtis is that in many places their deep waters contain shallows and the result is, at the ebb and flow of the tides, that sailors sometimes fall into the shallows and stick there, and that the safe escape of a boat is rare. On this account sailors keep at a distance when voyaging along the coast, taking precautions not to be caught off guard and driven by winds into these gulfs. However, the disposition of man to take risks causes him to try anything in the world and particularly voyaging along coasts.

Sea traffic between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania was not entirely discouraged, but the greater volume of trade and shipping probably moved north and west of Lepcis to Carthage and Rome as a consequence.⁵

In spite of its reputation as one of the granaries of Rome, Africa was always a country of low rainfall and of few perennial springs, streams or rivers, a situation neatly summed up in Sallust’s phrase, ‘impoverished in water from sky and land’ (caelo terraque penuria aquarum). Periods of drought and crop failures are attested in the sources and Hadrian’s visit to Africa in AD 128 coincided with the end of a five-year drought Consequently he was highly esteemed in Africa afterwards.

Literary and archaeological evidence show that the rain which did fall was carefully utilized by the construction of control walls, dams, terraces and cisterns. Strabo described a ‘Carthaginian wall’ built in a wadi near Lepcis, and Frontinus described dam building as an ‘African habit’. In another revealing passage, he contrasted Italian and African attitudes to flood water:

In Italy a pretty big dispute may flare up in order to keep off flood water. But in Africa the same issue is handled quite differently. Since that is a very dry area, they have no dispute on this score unless someone has stopped rain water flowing on their land. They make embankments and catch and retain the rain water, so that it may be used on the spot rather than flow away.

The well-known Lamasba inscription, which gives details of the distribution of irrigation water to landholders, comes from a region of Algeria with over 400 mm rainfall (annual average). The fact that such measures were necessary because of a dispute between landholders over irrigation water, and in an area where commercial dry cultivation of cereals should have been possible in any case, implies that the pattern of rainfall was as unpredictable in the past as it is today. The archaeological remains of ancient hydraulic works are extensive, but much more detailed study is needed for us to understand all the different systems of water management.⁶ The evidence seems, nevertheless, to suggest that Roman Africa developed agriculturally not as a result of higher rainfall, but through the careful control and management of the available water resources. Some regions were clearly worse off than others. Strabo described the Greater Syrtes coastline as ‘destitute of water’ and Africa in general as being like a leopard skin, with spots of dense habitation surrounded by desert. Sallust’s description of a semi-arid zone around Capsa (Gafsa) also rings true of the steppe today. An inscription from Bu Njem exhorted the soldiers to relax in the baths away from the ‘heat beating on these endless sands’ and to enjoy a respite from ‘the sun and fitful wind’s scorching’. The latter remark is evidently a reference to the notorious hot desert wind (ghibli), which is also noted in other sources.⁷ The available evidence supports the view that rainfall in antiquity was neither abundant, nor reliable.

Referring to Africa Vetus and the Numidian kingdom, Sallust described the land as fertile and good for crops and pasture but with relatively few trees. It is likely that the eastern Maghreb was never as well afforested as the Great Atlas ranges further west. But Pliny and Strabo both attest woods and forest on the coast and in the Gebel in Tripolitania. The cultivation of extensive ‘forests’ of olive trees began at an early date and Pliny was referring snobbishly to quality, and not to quantity, when he said that Africa was not noted for its wine and oil, but only its grain. As observed already, Tripolitania is not suited for commercial cereal cultivation and it is significant that the cash crop par excellence in antiquity, as today, was the olive. Although olive cultivation extended well beyond the region now considered economically viable, the evidence again indicates better water management rather than climatic change as the main factor. There is evidence for a wide variety of other fruit trees in Africa and Tripolitania in the Roman period: peaches, pomegranates, nectarines, plums, apples, jujubes, pears, figs (highly rated by Pliny), vines, almonds, pistachios, carobs. The once celebrated lotus tree evidently diminished in importance with the spread of arboriculture in the favoured areas of the coastal plain and Arab folklore remembered a time when Tripoli’s orchards (‘forest’) extended to the Gebel. Evidence for modern cultivation will be discussed below.

Relief carvings from mausolea in Tunisia and Libya and mosaics from Lepcis and Zliten illustrate agricultural activities in the region (Plates 59–61). These confirm that, in spite of the low rainfall, cereals were cultivated as a dietary staple. Documentary records from the Roman fort at Bu Njem show that it was supplied with grain and olive oil by small scale cultivators of the pre-desert.⁸

Current research in the Sofeggin and Zem-Zem has produced a wealth of new environmental evidence from ancient middens, from which a detailed picture of the flora is now emerging. Preliminary results show a remarkable range of crops and plants for such a marginal zone (Table 1:1), although it is paralleled by the surviving cultivation at Beni Ulid and from a similar area of the Negev desert in Palestine. It is particularly interesting to note that the list of wild plants (that is the ‘natural vegetation’) indicates a dry or arid-zone environment much as today. The cultivation of olives, cereals and so on can be related to the archaeological evidence for the development of a runoff farming technology.

The cultivation of date palms and other crops in the oases of the northern Sahara is also attested by the ancient sources. Archaeological survey and excavation in Fezzan has corroborated this. The palaeobotanical samples obtained from the Garamantian hillfort of Zinchecra are particularly important in attesting the early cultivation of bread wheats, along-side date palms and a range of other irrigated crops. Palms were used extensively in construction work in both fort and vicus at Bu Njem.⁹

Table 1:1. Evidence for Roman period cultivated and wild plants from the Sofeggin and Zem-Zem area (data from Ghirza, the ULVS (van der Veen 1981; 1985a/b) and personal observation (of timber samples)). Key to water dependency ratings: IR=irrigated conditions needed; WD=water dependent; WD*=water dependent, but some drought resistance; DR= drought resistant.

Table 1:2. Wild and domesticated animals attested in Tripolitania and the northern Sahara in antiquity (this is not intended to be comprehensive. The * denote species now extinct in the region).

The faunal record in antiquity reveals a decline in wildlife numbers and species from late prehistoric times onwards. Cave paintings and rock carvings from the north and central Sahara show that at one time it was much less arid than today. The spread of desert necessitated a northward or southward movement of many species and many of those that remained north of the desert in Tripolitania and Maghreb have died out through overkill by man, rather than for climatic reasons (Table 1:2). North Africa was one of the main hunting grounds for the animal displays (venationes) in amphitheatres around the Roman empire. Several early sources refer to a Tripolitanian ‘wild beast zone’ and Pliny specifically mentions elephants in the hinterland of the Emporia. The elephant was, moreover, one of the civic symbols of Lepcis and of Sabratha, perhaps indicating a connection with the trade in wild beasts.

The expansion of agriculture in the Roman period was achieved at the expense of potential predators or competitors in the ‘wild beast zone’.¹⁰ The lion survived in the Moroccan Atlas until 1922, the auroch until the 1940s and the ostrich is also recently extinct. Many other species such as the rhinoceros, giraffe and elephant were probably already hunted to the point of extinction during the Roman period.

There is now some information on the pastoral economy of ancient farmers in the Tripolitanian predesert zone. The results of faunal analysis of material collected by the ULVS, though based on a small sample, are illuminating. Of 4,225 large mammal bones recovered from midden sampling and small-scale excavation, 1,070 were identifiable to species. No less than 721 were sheep or goat bones, with 200 gazelle (196 from a single site), 40 camel, 30 pig, 29 bovid, 13 canid, 11 equid, 7 human, 2 antelope, 1 cat. On Roman period sites, the vast majority of the sheep/goats were killed in their second year of life, indicating that their p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Plates
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 Geography and Climate
• 2 The Tribal Background
• 3 History, Administration and the Infrastructures of Government
• 4 The Army and Frontier Development
• 5 The Archaeology of the Frontier (First-Third Centuries AD)
• 6 Cities, Towns and Villages
• 7 Economy and Trade
• 8 The Cultural Character of Tripolitania
• 9 Late Roman Historical Summary
• 10 Late Roman Frontier Arrangements
• 11 Economy and Culture in Late Roman Tripolitania
• 12 De-Romanization and Secession
• Notes
• Bibliography and Abbreviations