Africa | Roman territory, North Africa

Africa in ancient times Roman history, Rome's first North African territory, at times approximates modern Tunisia . It became 146 v. After destruction Carthage at the end of the acquired during the third Punic War .

Original included the Province the area that 149 v . Ch. Carthage ; This was an area of ​​approximately 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 sq mi) separated from the kingdom of Numidia on the west by a ditch and a causeway running southeast from Thabraca (modern Ṭabarqah) to Thaenae (modern Thīnah) passed. About 100 v. The province's border was extended further west, almost to the modern-day Algerian-Tunisian border.

The province won in the 1st century v . Chr. Of Importance , as Julius Caesar and later the Emperor Augustus founded a total of 19 colonies there. Most notable among these was New Carthage, which the Romans called Colonia Julia Carthage; It quickly became the second city in the Western Roman Empire. Augustus extended the borders of Africa south to the Sahara and east to Arae Philaenorum at the southernmost point of the Include Gulfs of Sidra . To the west it connected the old province Africa Vetus ("Ancient Africa") with what Caesar had referred to Africa Nova ("New Africa") - the ancient kingdoms of Numidia and Mauritania - so that the western border of the province of the river Ampsaga (modern Rhumel) in the modern Northeast Algeria was . The province generally retained these dimensions until the late 2nd century n . Chr. At , as a new province of Numidia , created in the western end of Africa was formally constitutes under the emperor Septimius Severus . A century later, Diocletian two provinces in his empire restructuring: Byzacena and Tripolitania from the south and east of the old province.

The original territory annexed by Rome was Indigenous populated Libyan who lived in small villages and a relatively simple culture . 122 v. Chr . However, excited a failed attempt by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus to colonize Africa, the interest of Roman farmers and investors. In the 1st century v . Ch. Roman colonization, combined with Augustus's successful pacification of hostile nomadic movements in the region, created conditions that led to four centuries of prosperity. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries n . Chr . Arose Considerable private estates were erected, many public buildings were erected, and an export industry for grain, olives, fruit, and hides flourished. Significant elements of the urban Libyan population have been romanized, and many Municipalities gained Roman citizenship long before it was extended to the entire empire ( ad 212). Africans increasingly entered the imperial administration, and the territory even produced an emperor, Septimius Severus (r. Ad 193-211). The province also claimed an important Christian church, which until 256 n. More than 100 bishops had and lights like the church fathers Tertullian, Cyprian and St. Augustine of Hippo. The numerous and magnificent Roman ruins in various places in Tunisia and Libya testify to the prosperity of the region under Roman rule.

By the late 4th century, however, city life had declined. The Germanic vandals under Gaiseric reached the province in 430 and soon made Carthage their capital. Roman civilization in Africa, despite the Vandals' inferiority in numbers and their subsequent destruction at the hands of the Byzantine General Belisarius in year 533 into an irreversible decline. When Arab invaders took Carthage in 697, the Roman province of Africa offered little resistance.