The Olive Grove of Rome

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Jessica Biddlestone
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Olive Grove ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Central Tunisia

In 1892, the French resident general in Tunisia launched the first state-sponsored colonization effort in the Tunisian protectorate. Based on Paul Bourde’s study of ancient Roman agriculture, the colonization plan explicitly sought to remake Roman prosperity in central Tunisia by fostering the cultivation of olives. Examining Bourde’s study of the ancient past and his work as director of agriculture in Tunisia, this article explores the connections between the study of the Roman Empire and the development of colonialism in North Africa. In tracing this history, this article highlights how the study and use of Roman ruins in French Tunisia inspired an appreciation for the role that technology and material development played in supporting the spread of Roman civilization and culture.

Imperialism, Power, and Identity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Despite what history has taught us about imperialism's destructive effects on colonial societies, many classicists continue to emphasize disproportionately the civilizing and assimilative nature of the Roman Empire and to hold a generally favorable view of Rome's impact on its subject peoples. This book boldly challenges this view using insights from postcolonial studies of modern empires to offer a more nuanced understanding of Roman imperialism. Rejecting outdated notions about Romanization, the book focuses instead on the concept of identity to reveal a Roman society made up of far-flung populations whose experience of empire varied enormously. It examines the nature of power in Rome and the means by which the Roman state exploited the natural, mercantile, and human resources within its frontiers. The book draws on the author's own archaeological work in Britain, Jordan, and North Africa and covers a broad range of topics, including sexual relations and violence; census-taking and taxation; mining and pollution; land and labor; and art and iconography. The book shows how the lives of those under Rome's dominion were challenged, enhanced, or destroyed by the empire's power, and in doing so he redefines the meaning and significance of Rome in today's debates about globalization, power, and empire. This book advances a new agenda for classical studies, one that views Roman rule from the perspective of the ruled and not just the rulers. A new preface reflects on some of the reactions prompted by the initial publication of the book.

Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs

1990 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Over Time

It is now notorious that the production of inscriptions in the Roman Empire was not constant over time, but rose over the first and second centuries A.D. and fell in the third. Ramsay MacMullen pointed this out more than five years ago, with conclusions more cautionary than explanatory: ‘history is not being written in the right way’, he said, for historians have deduced Rome's decline from evidence that–since it appears only epigraphically–has merely disappeared for its own reasons, or have sought general explanations of decline in theories political, economic, or even demographic in nature, none of which can, in turn, explain the disappearance of epigraphy itself. Why this epigraphic habit rose and fell MacMullen left open to question, although he did postulate control by a ‘sense of audience’. The purpose of this paper is to propose that this ‘sense of audience’ was not generalized or generic, but depended on a belief in the value of romanization, of which (as noted but not explained by MacMullen's article) the epigraphic habit is also a rough indicator. Epitaphs constitute the bulk of all provincial inscriptions and in form and number are (generally speaking) the consequence of a provincial imitation of characteristically Roman practices, an imitation that depended on the belief that Roman legal status and style were important, and that may indeed have ultimately depended, at least in North Africa, on the acquisition or prior possession of that status. Such status-based motivations for erecting an epitaph help to explain not only the chronological distribution of epitaphs but also the differences in the type and distribution of epitaphs in the western and eastern halves of the empire. They will be used here moreover to suggest an explanation for the epigraphic habit as a whole.

scholarly journals Magnetic Survey at the Roman Military Camp of el Benian in Mauretania Tingitana (Morocco): Results and Implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Francesco Martorella
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Camp ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
Economic Studies

The topic of military settlements and the role of troops in the northern provinces of North Africa during the age of the Roman Empire has recently gained a strong interest in historical, archaeological, epigraphical, and economic studies. In particular, at Mauretania Tingitana (in the north-east area of modern-day Morocco), the presence of numerous military camps in the Early and Later Roman Empire has now been assessed. In this framework, the present work deals with the geophysical survey, by means of magnetometry, at the site of el Benian, where the largest military camp is located. In particular, the magnetic survey has highlighted the organization of the camp, almost totally unknown previously. The result of the magnetic survey has confirmed intense building activity over the centuries and made it possible to identify and characterize the structures typical of a military field.

scholarly journals Diversity and renewal of tropical elasmobranchs around the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) in North Africa: New data from the lagoonal deposits of Djebel el Kébar, Central Tunisia

10.26879/1085 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Adnet ◽  
Laurent Marivaux ◽  
Henri Cappetta ◽  
Anne-Lise Charruault ◽  
El Mabrouk Essid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Central Tunisia ◽  
Climatic Optimum

scholarly journals Local Religions in Roman North Africa on the Eve of the Middle Ages

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Chiara Ombretta Tommasi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Reliable Information ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
The Middle Ages

This paper considers how late antique Latin authors (mainly Augustine and Corippus) dealt with ancestral rites and practices of probable autochthonous (i. e. Berber) origin and provided an ideological resemantisation. Although motivated by anti-pagan pleas and also allowing for some exaggeration, they nevertheless provide reliable information, which can be compared against epigraphic evidence, and offer further contributions that enrich the knowledge of the North African local pantheon, otherwise largely documented by epigraphical evidence. It might therefore be surmised that, notwithstanding the deep Christianisation of the region, at the end of the Roman Empire, North Africa still witnessed the survival of residual and isolated pagan fringes.

scholarly journals Society of North Africa on the Eve of the Empire’s War with the Vandals and Its Attitude to Justinian’s Reconquista

2020 ◽  
pp. 198-205
Author(s):  
Natalya Zolotukhina ◽  
Nikolay Bolgov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
African Society ◽  
North African ◽  
Extreme Caution ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
Military Campaign ◽  
The Military

Introduction. The article presents an analysis of North African society on the eve of Belisarius’s campaign against the vandals in North Africa (533–534). The campaign directed by Justinian under the leadership of Belisarius aimed to return the territory of North Africa to the Roman Empire. Methods. The methodological basis of this work is the concept of the Late Antiquity, the core of which is studying the people’s mentality, since the existing work on this issue focuses solely on socio-economic and political cause-and-effect relationships of the further confrontation between the Moorish and Roman tribes. Actually, the methods are the following: the historical-systemic method was the most important (an attempt to analyze the specifics of North African society on the eve of the war with the Vandals). Analysis. We divided North African society into three groups: the Vandals, the Libyans, the Moorish. The last two groups and their attitude towards the inclusion in the Roman Empire were of the greatest interest. Some of the tribes supported Justinian’s idea of the Reconquista and fought against the Vandals. Some supported the vandals. Nomadic tribes remained neutral. In our opinion, supporting the military campaign against the Vandals was due not only to economic reasons, but also mental ones. Thus, the research interest was caused by the transition period but not only in relation to the “Late Roman – Early Byzantium” line, but also because the region was romanized (presence of Latin culture, including the language segment), then it was part of the Vandal kingdom, after that – part of the Roman Empire (synthesis of Greek and Latin culture, with the predominance of Greek one). Results. In the course of the campaign against the vandals, North African society was represented by several social groups: the Vandals, the Libyans and the Мооrish – tribes that have their own cultural characteristics. Some tribes, who were in the Romanized zone (before the arrival of the Vandals), were on the side of Belisarius and fought against the Vandals. With extreme caution, we can say that this was due not only to socio-economic or political reasons, but also to mental ones. In our opinion, Byzantine Africa was a synthesis of Latin and Greek with the prevalence of the latter, and the Romanized population still wanted to feel part of the Roman Empire.

RELIGIOUS COERCION IN THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE: THE CASE OF NORTH AFRICA

History ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 48 (164) ◽  
pp. 283-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER BROWN
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa

Rome, the Arabs, and Iconoclasm

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-149
Author(s):  
Edward J. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Christian Worship ◽  
Iconoclastic Controversy

By the early seventh century a combination of Persian invasions and, ultimately, Arab conquests removed the Roman Empire from the Middle East and North Africa. Although the emperor Heraclius sparked a brief but dramatic Roman resurgence in the early 630s, these traumatic losses pushed Romans to reintroduce the rhetoric of decline and renewal. Instead of focusing on the traditional, pagan Roman past as Romans had done in earlier centuries, their seventh- and eighth-century counterparts thought about how the empire’s Christian religious practices had fallen away from the ideals that had once made Rome a powerful Christian empire. One result was the Iconoclastic controversy, an argument between Romans who embraced the role of icons in Christian worship and others who wanted to suppress their use. Both sides claimed that the religious practices for which their opponents advocated had broken with the traditions that had once made the empire strong.

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