Tingis (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

; grc-gre, Τίγγις ''Tíngis'') or Tingi ( Ancient Berber:), the ancient name of

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, was an important Carthaginian, Moor, and Roman port on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It was eventually granted the status of a Roman

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

and made the capital of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Mauretania Tingitana and, after Diocletian's reforms, the

diocese of Hispania The Diocese of Hispania was a late antique administrative unit ('' Dioecesis'') of the Roman Empire on the Iberian Peninsula. It existed from 314 to about 409 AD. Its capital was Augusta Emerita. The Diocese was governed by a vicarius responsibl ...

Legends

The

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

claimed that Tingis had been named for a daughter of the titan

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

, who was supposed to support the vault of heaven nearby. They claimed that the Berber

legends A legend is a historical narrative, a symbolic representation of folk belief. Legend(s) or The Legend(s) may also refer to: Narrative * Urban legend, a widely repeated story of dubious truth * A fictitious identity used in espionage Books, co ...

comported with the stories of

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

's labors, which carried him to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and the North Atlantic to retrieve the golden apples of the

Hesperides In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan At ...

. Having killed her husband

Antaeus Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part ...

and again condemned her father to eternally supporting the

firmament In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God during his creation of the world to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. The concept was adopted into the subsequent ...

, Hercules slept with Tinja and fathered the Berber hero Syphax. Syphax supposedly founded the port of Tingis and named it his mother's honor after her death.. The gigantic skeleton and tomb of Antaeus were tourist attractions for ancient visitors. The

Caves of Hercules The Caves of Hercules is an archaeological cave complex located in Cape Spartel, Morocco. Location Situated west of Tangier, the popular tourist attraction is adjacent to the summer palace of the King of Morocco. Topography The cave has tw ...

, where he supposedly rested on Cape Spartel, remain one today.

History

Punic port

Tingis was founded in the early 5th centuryBC by Carthaginian colonists,. who variously recorded the name of their settlement as ( xpu, 𐤕𐤍𐤂), (), and (). The town is sometimes connected to the voyages of Hanno the Navigator.

Mauretanian city

After the Punic Wars,

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

lost control of the colony to the Roman-allied kings of Mauretania. Its name during this time appears in Greek and Roman sources variously as Tenga, Tinga, Titga, &c. It maintained strong ties to its Carthaginian heritage, issuing bronze coins with Punic legends reading "City of Titga" (, ), "City of Tinga" (, ), or "people of Tinga" (, ). These bore Baal or (via

interpretatio Graeca ''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient G ...

) Demeter's head

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ...

and

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

reverse.

Roman provincial capital

The town came under Roman rule in the 1st centuryBC. Q.Sertorius, took and held Tingis for a number of years in the 70sBC as part of his war against Sulla's regime in Rome. Tingis grew in importance as a free city under

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

and then as a

under Claudius, who made it the capital of Mauritania Tingitana. As a Roman colony, it bore the formal name , the " Julian colony of Tingis". Under the early empire, it began to use Latin script, issuing its bronze coins with the legend ; these bore Augustus and

Agrippa Agrippa may refer to: People Antiquity * Agrippa (mythology), semi-mythological king of Alba Longa * Agrippa (astronomer), Greek astronomer from the late 1st century * Agrippa the Skeptic, Skeptic philosopher at the end of the 1st century * Agri ...

's heads

and Baal's head reverse. As a provincial capital, Tingis developed and prospered. In the 4th century, it surpassed

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 ...

when that city was left south of the Roman lines and unprotected by

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...

s. Tingis at its peak reached 20,000 inhabitants, all thoroughly romanized and mostly Christian. Tingis was famed throughout the Roman Empire for its fishing conserve industry. 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 ...

, two Roman roads were constructed from Tingis: one on the Atlantic coast to Sala Colonia and the second into the mountainous interior toward Volubilis. During Diocletian's reform of Roman governmental structures in AD296, Mauretania Tingitana became part of the

Diocese of Hispania The Diocese of Hispania was a late antique administrative unit ('' Dioecesis'') of the Roman Empire on the Iberian Peninsula. It existed from 314 to about 409 AD. Its capital was Augusta Emerita. The Diocese was governed by a vicarius responsibl ...

. Tingis remained the capital of the larger territory, maintaining its status and development.

Later history

Justinien représenté sur une mosaïque de l’église San-Vitale à Ravenne

The

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

conquered and occupied Tingis around AD425 before sweeping across the Roman Maghreb. Between 534 and 682, Tingis was restored to

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 ...

control. Tingis was fortified and a new church erected. However, its commercial strength had waned, a change attested by its decreased issuance of coins. Tingis fell under the control of the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

as part of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in 702, after which it was reduced to a small town more commonly discussed under the name

. Moussa Ibn Noussair organized the conquest of Spain from Tingis and nearby Septem in 706.

Religion

The Christian history of Tingis started during the second half of the first century, under Claudius's rule.Cass. Dio XLVIII 45.3 Originally, the city was part of the larger province of Mauretania Caesariensis, which included most of the Roman Maghreb. Later the area was subdivided, with the eastern part keeping the former name and the newer part receiving the name of Mauretania Tingitana. It is not known exactly at what period there may have been an episcopal see at Tangier in ancient times, but in the late Middle Ages Tangier was a titular see (i.e., an honorific fiction for the appointment of curial and auxiliary bishops). For the historical reasons given above, one official list of the Roman Curia places the see in Mauretania Caesariensis. Towards the end of the third century, Tingis was the scene of the martyrdom of StMarcellus, mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 30 October, and of St.Cassian, mentioned on 3 December. Indeed, according to tradition, the martyrdom of StMarcellus took place on 28 July 298. A small Christian community survived in Tangier as late as the 10th century. Due to its Christian past, Tangierunder the name Tingisis still a titular see of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * . *Rachid, Mueden. ''Las colonias y municipios de la Mauretania Tingitana (Tingis, Zilis, Lixus, Banasa, Thamusida, Sala, Volubilis)'' University of Sevilla. Sevilla, 2010. * . {{coord, 35, 47, N, 5, 49, W, display=title, region:MA_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Roman towns and cities in Morocco Mauretania Tingitana Phoenician colonies in Morocco Roman towns and cities in Mauretania Tingitana