Altava was an ancient

Romano Romano may refer to: Food * Pecorino Romano, a hard, salty Italian cheese * Romano cheese, an American English and Canadian English term for a class of cheeses Places Italy Municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium * Arcinazzo Ro ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–19 ...

city in present-day

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. It served as the capital of the ancient Berber Kingdom of Altava. During the French presence, the town was called ''Lamoriciere''. It was situated in the modern Ouled Mimoun near

Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the p ...

History

Altava was located in western

Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Caesariensis (Latin for " Caesarean Mauretania") was a Roman province located in what is now Algeria in the Maghreb. The full name refers to its capital Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell). The province had been part of the King ...

on the Roman road from strategic

Theveste Theveste was a Roman colony situated in the present Tébessa, Algeria. History In 146 BC, the Romans conquered the region, where existed an old city called " Tbessa". Theveste was founded by the Romans in 75 AD near an old Berber village located ...

to Numerus Syrorum (current

Maghnia Maghnia () (formerly Marnia) is a town in Tlemcen Province, northwestern Algeria. It is the second most populated town in Tlemcen Province, after Tlemcen. The current population is over 200,000. History Archaeologists have found evidence of pre ...

). Altava was a city populated mainly by Berbers under

Septimius 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 suc ...

, with a small Roman garrison. The garrison—according to historian M. Ruiu—was the ''Cohors II Sardorum'' and protected the new lines of the Roman empire moved south from the Mediterranean shores to a military road called ''Nova Praetentura''. This road went from

Rapidum Rapidum was a Roman settlement and fort located in Mauretania Caesariensis, nearly 100 km south of Icosium (Algiers). History The Romans built a fort in what is now Sour Djouab (south of present-day Algiers) during the first century of t ...

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

to Altava and Numerus Syrorum at the border of

Mauretania Tingitana Mauretania Tingitana ( Latin for "Tangerine Mauretania") was a Roman province, coinciding roughly with the northern part of present-day Morocco. The territory stretched from the northern peninsula opposite Gibraltar, to Sala Colonia (or Chel ...

. Altava, according to historian Lawless, was a

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

that achieved independent status from the castrum-fort of the garrison and had a huge Forum and an important pagan temple, later converted into a Christian church (showing the growing presence of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

between

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 ...

. The Roman settlement had an area of nearly 13 hectares and was surrounded by farms. Emperor

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

reorganized the Roman Empire in 298 AD and later withdrew from the area of

Volubilis Volubilis (; ar, وليلي, walīlī; ber, ⵡⵍⵉⵍⵉ, wlili) is a partly excavated Berber-Roman city in Morocco situated near the city of Meknes, and may have been the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania, at least from the time of Kin ...

, the Rif mountains in northern Morocco and the western Algerian Atlas mountains after the Crisis of the 3rd Century. Berber rulers created a small independent kingdom there, centered on the capital Altava and the fully Romanised city of

. From the 7th century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historians usually called it the Kingdom of Altava. After the Vandal invasion in 429 AD, Altava became the capital of an independent Berber state. This Mauro-Roman kingdom was situated near Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana, at some distance from the Vandal nucleus. Although a Berber polity, it borrowed the sociocultural, military and religious structure of the Roman Empire. Between 550 and 578 AD, Altava served as the capital of the independent Christian Berber kingdom of

Garmul Garmul was a Berber king of the Mauro-Roman Kingdom. Garmul, who destroyed a Byzantine army in 571, launched raids into Byzantine territory, and three successive generals (the praetorian prefect Theodore and the ''magister militum'' Theoctistus in ...

. The last time the kingdom of Altava was cited historically was in connection with a campaign of

Gennadius Gennadius or Gennadios may refer to: People * Gennadius of Constantinople (died 471), Patriarch of Constantinople from 458 to 471 * Gennadius of Massilia (5th century) Roman historian, best known for his work ''De Viris Illustribus'' * Gennadius ( ...

, a ''

magister militum (Latin for "master of soldiers", plural ) was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, ...

'' sent by the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

. He defeated the Berbers and the ruler of Altava in 578 AD and his small kingdom was probably incorporated to the Byzantine Empire. We have no historical records about Altava in the seventh century, but it is also conceivable that the kingdom of Altava (or at least a small section of it) lasted until its conquest by the Arabs around 700 AD.Philippe Sénac et Patrice Cressier : "''Histoire du Maghreb médiéval VII - XI ème siècle''" Armand Colin. Paris. France. 2012

Notes

Bibliography

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800
* Bowna, Alan. ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337''. Cambridge university Press. Cambridge, 2005 * * Lawless, R. ''Mauretania Caesartiensis: anarcheological and geographical survey''. Durham University. Durham, 196
Altava
* * Ruiu, Maria Antonietta. ''La Cohors II Sardorum ad Altava (Ouled-Mimoun, Algeria)''. Universita' degli Studi di Sassari. Sassari, 2012 * Villaverde Noé, Vega. ''Tingitana en la antigüedad tardía, siglos III-VII: autoctonía y romanidad en el extremo occidente mediterráneo''. Ed. Real Academia de la Historia. Madrid, 2001 , 9788489512948

History

Notes

Bibliography

See also