The Roman Africans or African Romans ( la, Afri ; ar, Afariqa) were the ancient populations of
Roman North Africa
Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeri ...
that had a
Romanized culture, some of whom spoke
their own variety of
Latin as a result. They existed from the Roman conquest until their language gradually faded out after the
Arab conquest of North Africa in the
Early Middle Ages (approximately the 8th century AD).
Roman Africans lived in all the coastal cities of contemporary
Tunisia,
Western Libya, Eastern
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, as well as West Algeria and Northern
Morocco, though in a more limited fashion, mainly concentrated in the coastal areas and large towns. The area between East Algeria and Western Libya became known under Arab rule as
Ifriqiya, an
Arabized version of the name of the
Roman province of Africa.
Many Roman Africans were generally local
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
or
Punics
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
, but also the descendants of the populations that came directly from
Rome and
Roman Italy itself or the diverse regions of the Empire as legionaries and senators.
Language
Characteristics
The Roman-Africans first adopted the Roman pantheon under the rule of the
Roman Republic, but then were one of the first provinces to convert to Christianity. Among their best known figures were
Saint Felicita, Saint Perpetua,
Saint Cyprian and
Saint Augustine. Unlike the so-called
Mauri that mostly inhabited the westernmost part of Northwest Africa and were barely romanised, Roman Africans (like
Septimus Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succe ...
or saint
Aurelius Augustinus) had Latin names in addition to speaking Latin.
The African province was amongst the wealthiest regions in the Empire (rivaled only by Egypt, Syria and Italy itself) and as a consequence people from all over the Empire migrated into the province. Large numbers of
Roman Army veterans settled in Northwest Africa on farming plots promised for their military service.
Even so, the Roman military presence of Northwest Africa was relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in
Numidia. Starting in the 2nd century AD, these garrisons were composed mostly of local inhabitants. A sizable
Latin speaking population developed from a multinational background, sharing the northwest African region with those speaking
Punic and
Berber languages.
[Abun-Nasr, ''A History of the Maghrib'' (1970, 1977) at 35-37.] Imperial security forces began to be drawn from the local population, including the Berbers.
By the end of the Western Roman Empire nearly all of the African province was fully
Romanized, according to
Theodor Mommsen in his ''The Provinces of the Roman Empire''. Roman Africans enjoyed a high level of prosperity. Such prosperity (and romanisation) touched partially even the populations living outside of the
Roman limes
(Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome marking the borders of the Roman Empire, but it was not used by the Romans for that purpose. The term has been ex ...
(mainly the
Garamantes
The Garamantes ( grc, Γαράμαντες, translit=Garámantes; la, Garamantes) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest kno ...
and the
Getuli
Gaetuli was the Romanised name of an ancient Berber tribe inhabiting ''Getulia''. The latter district covered the large desert region south of the Atlas Mountains, bordering the Sahara. Other documents place Gaetulia in pre-Roman times along the ...
).
The Roman African populations kept their
Latin language, as well as their
Nicene
The original Nicene Creed (; grc-gre, Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας; la, Symbolum Nicaenum) was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is a ...
-
Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christolo ...
Christian religion, under the Germanic
Vandal occupation, the Byzantine restoration and the Islamic conquest, where they progressively converted to Islam until the near-extinction of Christianity in the Maghreb in the 12th century under the
Almohad
The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fo ...
s. The
African Romance
African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that was spoken in the Roman province of Africa by the Roman Africans during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, and several centuries after the annexation of the region b ...
Latin dialect constituted a significant
substratum of the modern varieties of the
Berber languages and
Maghrebi Arabic.
[ Tilmatine Mohand, ''Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et l'arabe nord-africain'' (1999), in ''Estudios de dialectologia norteafricana y andalusi 4'', pp 99–119]
After
their conquest, the Muslim conquerors distinguished three distinct categories of population in Northwest Africa: the foreign population from ''
Rūm
Rūm ( ar, روم , collective; singulative: Rūmī ; plural: Arwām ; fa, روم Rum or Rumiyān, singular Rumi; tr, Rûm or , singular ), also romanized as ''Roum'', is a derivative of the Aramaic (''rhπmÈ'') and Parthian (''frwm'') t ...
'' (
(Eastern) Roman Empire), mainly composing the military and administrative elite, who generally spoke Greek; the ''Afāriqah'': the Roman Africans, the native Latin-speaking community mostly concentrated in the urban areas; and finally the ''Barbar'' ( بربر ): that is, the Berber farmers that populated most of the rural countryside.
[''The muslim conquest and settlement of North Africa and Spain'', Abdulwahid Thanun Taha, Routledge Library Edition: Muslim Spain p21]
See also
*
African Romance
African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that was spoken in the Roman province of Africa by the Roman Africans during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, and several centuries after the annexation of the region b ...
*
Roman Africa (disambiguation)
*
Roman colonies in Berber Africa
Roman colonies in Berber Africa are the cities—populated by Roman citizens—created in Berber North Africa by the Roman Empire, mainly in the period between the reigns of Augustus and Trajan. These colonies were created in the area—now calle ...
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
*Gibbon. Edward ''
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...
'' (1888)
*Southern, Pat. ''The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine'' Routledge. London, 2001
Algeria in the Roman era
Ancient peoples of Africa
Latin language
Maghreb
Tunisia in the Roman era
Africa (Roman province)
Libya in the Roman era