Romans in sub-Saharan Africa

Roman expeditions to sub-Saharan Africa west of the Nile River

Between the first century BC and the fourth century AD, several expeditions and explorations to Lake Chad and western Africa were conducted by groups of military and commercial units of Romans who moved across the Sahara and into the interior of Africa and its coast. However, there was a more significant Roman and Greek presence in modern-day Eritrea and Ethiopia. The primary motivation for the expeditions was to secure sources of gold and spices from Axumite piracies.[1]

Background

Romans referred to sub-Saharan Africa as Aethiopia (Ethiopia), which referred to the people's "burned" skin. They also had available memoirs of the ancient Carthage explorer, Hanno the Navigator, being referenced by the Roman Pliny the Elder (c. 23–79)[2] and the Greek Arrian of Nicomedia (c. 86–160).[3] However, how much they were read, believed, or found interesting to the Romans is unknown.

Characteristics

The Romans organized expeditions to cross the Sahara along five different routes:

All these expeditions were supported by legionaries and had mainly a commercial purpose. Only the one conducted by emperor Nero seemed to be a preparative for the conquest of Ethiopia or Nubia; in 62 AD, two legionaries explored the sources of the Nile.[5]

One of the main objectives of the explorations was to locate and obtain gold, using camels to transport it overland back to Roman provinces on the Mediterranean coast.[6]

The explorations near the coasts were supported by Roman ships and deeply related to overseas commerce.

Main explorations

The Romans conducted five main explorations: two in the western Sahara, two in the central Sahara, and one in the area of Lake Chad.

Western Sahara expeditions

In western Sahara there were two Roman expeditions but, just south of the Atlas Mountains:

  • Cornelius Balbus expedition:[7] According to Pliny, the first Roman expedition through the Sahara was the one led by Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC probably reached the Niger River near Timbuktu. He embarked from Libyan Sabratha and with ten thousand legionaries conquered the Garamantes capital in Fezzan. He then sent a small group of his legionaries further south across the Ahaggar Mountains to explore the "land of the lions”. There they found the Niger River, which in their opinion flowed into the Nile River. In 1955, Roman coins and ceramics were found in the area of Mali.
  • Suetonius Paulinus expedition: The second was done in the year 41 AD by Suetonius Paulinus, a Roman Consul, who was the first of the Romans who led an army across the Atlas range. At the end of ten days' march he reached the mountains summit covered by snow and later he arrived at a river called Gerj. He then penetrated into the semi deserted country south of Morocco and some of his legionaries probably went near the river Daras (modern Senegal river).

From the first century AD there is evidence (coins and fibulae) of Roman commerce and contacts in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit in Mauritania.

Central Sahara expeditions

The two main explorations/expeditions in the central Sahara were:

  • Flaccus expedition: In the first century AD, Lake Chad was a huge lake and two Roman expeditions were carried out in order to reach it: Septimius Flaccus and Julius Maternus reached the "lake of hippopotamus" (as Lake Chad was called by Ptolemy). They moved from coastal Tripolitania and passed near the Tibesti mountains. Both did their expeditions through the Garamantes' territories, and were able to leave a small garrison on the "lake of hippopotamus and rhinoceros" after 3 months of travel in desert lands.
    Ptolemy wrote that in 50 AD Septimius Flaccus carried out his expedition in order to retaliate against nomad raiders who attacked Leptis Magna, and reached Sebha and the territory of Aozou.[8] He then reached the Bahr Erguig, Chari, and Logone Rivers in the lake Chad area, described as the "land of Ethiopes" (or black men) and called Agisymba.
  • Matiernus expedition: Ptolemy wrote that around 90 AD Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) carried out a mainly commercial expedition. From the Sirte gulf he reached the Oasis of Cufra and the Oasis of Archei, then arrived—after 4 months travelling with the king of the Garamantes—to the Bahr Salamat and Bahr Aouk Rivers, near modern-day Central African Republic in a region then called Agisymba. He went back to Rome with a rhinoceros with two horns, that was shown in the Colosseum.[9]
    According to Raffael Joorde, Maternus was a diplomat who explored with the king of Garamantes the territory south of the Tibesti mountains, while this king executed a military campaign against rebellious subjects or as a "razzia".[10]

Niger River area

Roman exploration of Nigeria

However, some historians (like Susan Raven[11]) believe that there was even another Roman expedition to sub-Saharan central Africa: the one of Valerius Festus, that could have reached the equatorial Africa thanks to the Niger River.

  • Festus expedition: Pliny wrote that in 70 AD a legatus legionis, or commander, of the Legio III Augusta named Festus repeated the Balbus expedition toward the Niger River.[12] Festus went to the eastern Hoggar Mountains and penetrated the Air Mountains as far as the Gadoufaoua plain. Gadoufaoua (Touareg for “the place where camels fear to go”) is a site in the Tenere desert of Niger known for its extensive fossil graveyard, where remains of Sarcosuchus imperator, popularly known as SuperCroc, have been found). Festus finally arrived in the area in which Timbuktu is now located. Some academics, such as Fage,[13] think that he only reached the Ghat region in southern Libya, near the border with southern Algeria and Niger. However, it is possible that a few of his legionaries reached as far as the Niger River and went down to the equatorial forests navigating the river to the estuary in what is now Nigeria. Something similar may have occurred in the exploration of the Nile done under Emperor Nero.

Roman coins in Africa

Roman coins have been found in areas of the present-day Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, and Togo. However, it is much more likely that all these coins were introduced at a much later date than that there was direct Roman intercourse so far down the western coast. No single article unmistakably originating in Africa south of the Equator has been discovered in the Graeco-Roman world or in contemporary Arabia, nor is there any mention of such an article in written records: while the coins are the only ancient European or Arabian articles that have been found in the central parts of Africa.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Roman objects are, indeed, found in the Sahara, and, significantly, along the western caravan route. Numerous Roman artifacts have been found at the Garamantes' capital of Germa in the Fezzan. Most striking is the large Roman-syle mausoleum found there, evidence either of Roman presence or of Romanization of the elite. Between Germa and Ghat in the Hoggar have been found Roman ceramics, glass, jewelry and coins dating from the 1st to the 4th centuries. Farther down the route, at the oasis of Abelessa, is the site known locally as the Palace of Tin Hinan. There is a charming local legend about it, but it seems to have been a fortress, in one room of which was found the skeletal remains of a woman, along with a number of Late Roman objects, including a lamp, a golden bracelet and a 4th-century coin. Finally, there was a cache of Roman coins found at Timissao only 600 kilometers from the Niger. Heinemann-University of California-UNESCO (p.514 Map)
  2. ^ Pliny the Elder 1855, Book 2 Chapter 7
  3. ^ Arrian 2013, p. 265.
  4. ^ Romans in Azania/Raphta
  5. ^ Buckley, Emma; Dinter, Martin (3 May 2013). A Companion to the Neronian Age. John Wiley & Sons. p. 364. ISBN 9781118316535.
  6. ^ Roth, Jonathan 2002. The Roman Army in Tripolitania and Gold Trade with sub-Saharan Africa. APA Annual Convention. New Orleans.
  7. ^ Balbus expedition and successive expeditions, with map
  8. ^ John Coleman De Graft-Johnson, "African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations", p. 26
  9. ^ Agisymba and Maternus
  10. ^ Raffael Joorde, "Römische Vorstöße ins Innere Afrikas südlich der Sahara: die geheimnisvolle Landschaft Agisymba", Dortmund: 2015
  11. ^ Susan Raven, Susan, Rome in Africa, 3rd ed. London, 1993
  12. ^ Pliny the Elder. "Naturalis Historia", V, 5.36
  13. ^ Cambridge History of Africa, p. 286
  14. ^ Walker, Eric Anderson (1963). The Cambridge History of the British Empire. CUP Archive. p. 69.

Bibliography

  • Arrian (2013). Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica. Translated by Hammond, Martin. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 978-0-19-958724-7.
  • Coleman De Graft-Johnson, John. African glory: the story of vanished Negro civilizations. Black Classic Press. New York, 1986 ISBN 0933121032
  • Fage, JD. The Cambridge History of Africa Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1979 ISBN 0521215927
  • Mattern, Susan. Rome and the enemy: imperial strategy in the principate. University of California Press. San Francisco, 2002 ISBN 0520236831
  • Miller, J. Innes. The Cinnamon Route in the Spice Trade of the Roman Empire. University Press. Oxford, 1996 ISBN 0-19-814264-1
  • Pliny the Elder (1855). The Natural History. Translated by John Bostock; H.T. Riley. London: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
  • Raven, Susan. Rome in Africa. Publisher Routledge. London, 2012 ISBN 113489239X
  • Roth, Jonathan. The logistics of the Roman Army at war (264 B.C. – A.D. 235). Köln : Brill, 1998 (Columbia studies in the classical tradition ; Vol. 23) ISBN 90-04-11271-5
  • The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 2 (from CA. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050). Michael Crowder (& J. Fage). Cambridge University Press, 1975 ISBN ISBN 052122215X

Read other articles:

Este artículo se refiere o está relacionado con un proceso electoral reciente o actualmente en curso. La información de este artículo puede cambiar frecuentemente. Por favor, no agregues datos especulativos y recuerda colocar referencias a fuentes fiables para dar más detalles. ← 2022 •  • 2024 → Elecciones para gobernador de 20233 gobernaciones Fecha 14 de octubre de 2023(1° vuelta, Luisiana)7 de noviembre de 2023(Kentucky y Misisipi)18 de noviembr...

 

 

mir-451miR-451 microRNA secondary structure and sequence conservationIdentifiersSymbolmir-451RfamRF00722 miRBase familyMIPF0000148OMIM612071Other dataRNA typemicroRNADomain(s)Eukaryota; VertebrataPDB structuresPDBe In molecular biology mir-451 microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms. miR-451 regulates the drug-transporter protein P-glycoprotein, potentially promoting resistance to the chemotherapy drug Paclita...

 

 

Museum Forum Wissen (2022) Treppenhaus, erstes Obergeschoss (2022)Gebäuderückseite des Museums Forum Wissen (2022) Das Forum Wissen (Eigenschreibweise: FORUM WISSEN) ist ein interdisziplinäres Universitätsmuseum der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Göttingen. Es hat seinen Sitz im 1879 ursprünglich als Naturhistorisches Museum eröffneten Gebäude.[1] Nach einem durchgreifenden Um- und Anbau wurde das neue „Wissensmuseum“ im Juni 2022 eröffnet. Grundlage der über 15...

Hình minh họa hoạt động của một mạch LC, là một mạch RLC không có trở kháng. Dòng chảy qua lại giữa các bản tụ và xuyên qua cuộn cảm. Năng lượng dao động qua lại giữa điện trường của tụ điện (E) và từ trường của cuộn cảm (B) hoạt động tương tự như trong mạch RLC, ngoại trừ nếu có R thì dao động này sẽ tắt dần theo thời gian. Mạch điện RLC (hoặc mạch LCR, mạch CRL hay mạch...

 

 

Professional graduate school of the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in law The University of TexasSchool of LawParent schoolUniversity of Texas at AustinEstablished1883; 140 years ago (1883)School typePublic law schoolEndowment$215.5 million (2018)[1][2]DeanBobby Chesney[3]LocationAustin, Texas, United States30°17′19″N 97°43′51″W / 30.288666°N 97.730762°W / 30.288666; -97.730762Enrollment1,005 (2018)[...

 

 

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted. (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article is written like a story. Please help rewrite this article to introduce an encyclopedi...

Overview of crime in Bangladesh Bangladeshi police car. Crime in Bangladesh is present in various forms such as drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, contract killing, fraud, human trafficking, robbery, corruption, black marketeering, political violence, terrorism and abduction, wildlife trafficking, among others. Narcotics trafficking Bangladesh is used as a transit route for narcotics produced in neighboring countries.[1] The Annual Report for 2007 from the International Na...

 

 

Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada Maret 2023. Kampanye Melawan Pajak Rumah dan Air (bahasa Inggris: Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes; CAHWT) adalah kelompok yang menentang pengenalan pajak properti dan air di Republik Irlandia. Kelompok ini menyerukan boikot untuk digunakan untuk efek ini. ...

 

 

School in Pretoria, Gauteng, South AfricaPretoria High School for GirlsPretoria High School for Girls, Park Street Pretoria entranceAddress949 Park Street, ArcadiaPretoria, GautengSouth AfricaCoordinates25°45′03″S 28°13′35″E / 25.7508°S 28.2265°E / -25.7508; 28.2265InformationSchool typeAll girls public schoolMottoProsit Spes Labori(We Work in Hope)Established10 October 1902; 121 years ago (1902-10-10)FounderThe Rt Hon. Lord MilnerSister s...

Nughedu Santa Vittoria Nughèdu Santa ItòriaKomuneComune di Nughedu Santa VittoriaLokasi Nughedu Santa Vittoria di Provinsi OristanoNegara ItaliaWilayah SardiniaProvinsiOristano (OR)Pemerintahan • Wali kotaFrancesco MuraLuas • Total28,57 km2 (11,03 sq mi)Ketinggian496 m (1,627 ft)Populasi (2016) • Total485[1]Zona waktuUTC+1 (CET) • Musim panas (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)Kode pos09080Kode area telepon0783Situs we...

 

 

Place in Florida listed on National Register of Historic Places United States historic placeBritish FortU.S. National Register of Historic PlacesU.S. National Historic Landmark Show map of FloridaShow map of the United StatesLocationFranklin County, FloridaNearest citySumatraCoordinates29°56′N 85°1′W / 29.933°N 85.017°W / 29.933; -85.017Area7 acres (2.8 ha)Built1814NRHP reference No.72000318[1]Significant datesAdded to NRHPFebruary 23, 19...

 

 

Cuban actress and singer (1915–2004) Raquel RodrigoBorn(1915-03-11)11 March 1915Havana, CubaDied18 March 2004(2004-03-18) (aged 89)Madrid, SpainOther namesRaquel Rodrigo LópezOccupation(s)Actress, SingerYears active1932–1997 (film) Raquel Rodrigo (1915–2004) was a Cuban actress and singer who appeared in Spanish films. In 1935, she appeared in the music film Paloma Fair.[1] Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1932 Carceleras 1933 Una morena y una rubia 1934 Odio 19...

2015 tvN television series For the Thai remake, see Oh My Ghost (Thai TV series). For the Japanese single, see Oh My Ghost? (Watashi ga Akuryō ni Natte mo). Oh My GhostAlso known asOh My GhostessHangul오 나의 귀신님Revised RomanizationO Naui Gwisinnim GenreRomanceComedy dramaThrillerWritten byYang Hee-seungYang Seo-yoonDirected byYoo Je-wonStarringPark Bo-youngJo Jung-sukLim Ju-hwanKim Seul-giComposersIm Ha-youngYoo Jong-hyeonKim Sung-yoolCountry of originSouth KoreaOriginal languageKo...

 

 

2017 action role-playing video game 2017 video gameLittle Witch Academia: Chamber of TimeDeveloper(s)A+ GamesPublisher(s)Bandai Namco EntertainmentSeriesLittle Witch AcademiaEngineUnityPlatform(s)PlayStation 4, Microsoft WindowsReleaseJP: 30 November 2017WW: 15 May 2018Genre(s)Action role-playing Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time[a] is an action role-playing video game developed by A+ Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, based on the anime franchise Little Witch Aca...

 

 

Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, stuntman and martial artist In this Chinese name, the family name is Yuen. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification, as it includes attribution to IMDb. IMDb may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources...

Questa voce sull'argomento ginnasti giapponesi è solo un abbozzo. Contribuisci a migliorarla secondo le convenzioni di Wikipedia. Takuji Hayata Nazionalità  Giappone Ginnastica artistica Palmarès Competizione Ori Argenti Bronzi Olimpiadi 2 0 0 Mondiali 0 0 2 Per maggiori dettagli vedi qui Il simbolo → indica un trasferimento in prestito.   Modifica dati su Wikidata · Manuale Takuji Hayata (早田 卓次 Hayata Takuji?; Tanabe, 10 ottobre 1940) è un ex ginnasta g...

 

 

War Thunder Разработчик Gaijin Entertainment Издатель Gaijin Entertainment Локализатор Allcorrect Group[1] Дата анонса 1 апреля 2011 года Даты выпуска 1 ноября 2012 года (бета-тест)15 августа 2013 года (онлайн-релиз) Последняя версия 2.32(31 октября 2023) Жанры танковый симулятор, авиасимулятор, симулятор морских ...

 

 

Austrian footballer (born 1997) Konrad Laimer Laimer with RB Leipzig in 2022Personal informationFull name Konrad LaimerDate of birth (1997-05-27) 27 May 1997 (age 26)Place of birth Salzburg, AustriaHeight 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]Position(s) Midfielder, right-backTeam informationCurrent team Bayern MunichNumber 27Youth career2002–2007 USC Abersee2007–2014 Red Bull SalzburgSenior career*Years Team Apps (Gls)2014–2016 FC Liefering 19 (0)2014–2017 Red Bull Salzbu...

Village in Illinois, United StatesGolf, IllinoisVillage logoLocation in Cook County and the state of IllinoisCoordinates: 42°03′27″N 87°47′31″W / 42.057562°N 87.791995°W / 42.057562; -87.791995CountryUnited StatesStateIllinoisCountyCook CountySettled1830sIncorporated1928Area[1] • Total0.45 sq mi (1.16 km2) • Land0.45 sq mi (1.16 km2) • Water0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)Populati...

 

 

Ásdís Hjálmsdóttir Ásdís Hjálmsdóttir nel 2012. Nazionalità  Islanda Altezza 175 cm Peso 65 kg Atletica leggera Specialità Lancio del giavellotto, lancio del disco, getto del peso Società Ármann Record Giavellotto 63,43 m (2017) Peso 16,08 m (2016) Peso 15,96 m (indoor - 2017) Disco 50,63 m (2016) Carriera Nazionale 2006- Islanda Palmarès Competizione Ori Argenti Bronzi Giochi dei piccoli stati d'Europa 6 3 0 Per maggiori dettagli vedi qui Statistiche aggiornate al 16 ag...

 

 

Strategi Solo vs Squad di Free Fire: Cara Menang Mudah!