Romans in sub-Saharan Africa

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Roman expeditions to sub-Saharan Africa west of the Nile River Trans-Saharan roman expeditions-explorations.png
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]

Contents

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 by the Romans is unknown.[ citation needed ]

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, a tribune and 2 centurions 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] [ page needed ]

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

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, just south of the Atlas Mountains:

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

Central Sahara expeditions

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

Niger River area

Roman exploration of Nigeria Expeditions rome nigeria.jpg
Roman exploration of Nigeria

However, some historians (like Susan Raven [12] ) 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.

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. [15]

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. 96. ISBN   9781118316535.
  6. Roth, Jonathan 2002. The Roman Army in Tripolitania and Gold Trade with sub-Saharan Africa. APA Annual Convention. New Orleans.
  7. Fage, J. D., ed. (1978). The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 286. ISBN   978-0-521-21592-3.
  8. Fage, J. D., ed. (1978). The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 286. ISBN   978-0-521-21592-3.
  9. John Coleman De Graft-Johnson, "African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations", p. 26
  10. Agisymba and Maternus
  11. Raffael Joorde, "Römische Vorstöße ins Innere Afrikas südlich der Sahara: die geheimnisvolle Landschaft Agisymba", Dortmund: 2015
  12. Susan Raven, Susan, Rome in Africa, 3rd ed. London, 1993
  13. Pliny the Elder. "Naturalis Historia", V, 5.36
  14. Cambridge History of Africa, p. 286
  15. Walker, Eric Anderson (1963). The Cambridge History of the British Empire. CUP Archive. p. 69.

Bibliography