's
Aphricae Tabula I, depicting Mauretania Tingitana in 1540 After the death in 40 AD of
Ptolemy of Mauretania, the last
Ptolemaic ruler of the
Kingdom of Mauretania, in about 44 AD
Roman Emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom to the
Roman Empire and partitioned it into two
Roman provinces: Mauretania Tingitana and
Mauretania Caesariensis. The Roman occupation did not extend very deep into the Maghreb. In the far west, the southern limit of imperial rule was Volubilis, which was ringed with military camps such as
Tocolosida slightly to the south east and Ain Chkour to the north-west, and a fossatum or defensive ditch, or commonly known as a trench. On the Atlantic coast Sala Colonia was protected by another ditch and a rampart and a line of watchtowers. This was not a continuous line of fortifications: there is no evidence of a defensive wall like the one that protected the turbulent frontier in
Britain at the other extremity of the Roman Empire. Rather, it was a network of forts and ditches that seems to have functioned as a filter. The
limes – the word from which the English word “limit” is derived – protected the areas that were under direct Roman control by funnelling contacts with the interior through the major settlements, regulating the links between the nomads and transhumants with the towns and farms of the occupied areas. The same people lived on both sides of these limes, although the population was quite small. Volubilis had perhaps twenty thousand inhabitants at most in the second century. On the evidence of inscriptions, only around ten to twenty per cent of them were of European origin, mainly Spanish; the rest were local. Roman historians (like
Ptolemy) considered all of Morocco north of the
Atlas Mountains part of the Roman Empire, because in the times of
Augustus, Mauretania was a vassal state and its rulers (like
Juba II) controlled all the areas south of Volubilis. The effective control of Roman legionaries, however, was up to the area of Sala Colonia (the castra "Exploratio Ad Mercurios", south of
Sala Colonia, is the southernmost Roman settlement discovered until now). Some historians, like
Leo Africanus, believe the Roman frontier reached the area of
Casablanca, founded by the Romans as a port named "Anfa". Indeed, the modern city of
Azemmour in central Morocco lies on the ancient
Azama, a trading port of Phoenician and later
Roman origins. Still today can be seen the remains of a Roman deposit for grain in the so-called "Portuguese cisterns".
Pliny the Elder described in some detail the area south of the Atlas Mountains, when
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus undertook a military expedition in 41:
Roman province During the reign of the
Numidian King
Juba II, Emperor
Augustus had already founded three
colonias (with Roman citizens) in Mauretania close to the Atlantic coast:
Iulia Constantia Zilil,
Iulia Valentia Banasa and
Iulia Campestris Babba. This western part of Mauretania was to become the province called Mauretania Tingitana shortly afterwards. The region remained a part of the Roman Empire until 429, when the
Vandals overran the area and Roman administrative presence came to an end. in the time of
Hadrian (ruled 117–138 AD), showing, in northwestern Africa, the
imperial province of
Mauretania Tingitana (Morocco) The most important city of Mauretania Tingitana was
Volubilis. This city was the administrative and economic center of the province in western Roman Africa. The fertile lands of the province produced many commodities such as grain and olive oil, which were exported to Rome, contributing to the province's wealth and prosperity. Archaeology has documented the presence of a Jewish community in the Roman period. The principal exports from Mauretania Tingitana were purple dyes and valuable
timber. Tingitana also supplied Rome with agricultural goods and animals, such as lions and leopards. The native
Mauri were highly regarded and recruited by the Romans as soldiers, especially as light cavalry.
Clementius Valerius Marcellinus is recorded as the governor (
praeses) between 24 October 277 and 13 April 280. According to tradition, the martyrdom of
St Marcellus took place on 28 July 298 at
Tingis (Tangier). During the
Tetrarchy (Emperor
Diocletian's reform of Roman governmental structures in 297), Mauretania Tingitana became part of the
Diocese of Hispaniae, 'the Spains', and, by extension, part of the
Praetorian prefecture of Gaul, thus it was across the sea from the European territory of Diocese and Prefecture it belonged to. Mauretania Caesariensis was in the
Diocese of Africa.
Lucilius Constantius is recorded as governor (praeses) in the late fourth century. The
Notitia Dignitatum shows also, in its military organisation, a
Comes Tingitaniae with a field army composed of two
legions, three
vexillations, and two
auxilia palatina.
Flavius Memorius held this office (comes) at some point during the middle of the fourth century. However, it is implicit in the source material that there was a single military command for both of the Mauretanian provinces, with a
Dux Mauretaniae (a lower rank) controlling seven
cohorts and one
ala. The Germanic
Vandals established themselves in the province of
Baetica in 422 AD under their king,
Gunderic, and, from there, they carried out raids on Mauretania Tingitana. In 427 AD, the
Comes Africae, Bonifacius, rejected an order of recall from the Emperor
Valentinian III, and he defeated an army sent against him. He was less fortunate when a second force was sent in 428 AD. In that year, Gunderic was succeeded by Gaiseric, and Bonifacius invited
Gaiseric into Africa, providing a fleet to enable the passage of the Vandals to Tingis and
Septem (Ceuta). Bonifacius intended to confine the Vandals to Mauretania, but, once they had crossed the straits, they rejected any control and marched on
Carthage.
Byzantines In 533 AD, the
Byzantine general
Belisarius reconquered the former
Diocese of Africa from the Vandals on behalf of the Emperor
Justinian I. All the territory west of
Caesarea had already been lost by the Vandals to the Berber "
Mauri", but a re-established
Dux Mauretaniae kept a military unit at Septem (modern
Ceuta). This was the last Byzantine outpost in Mauretania Tingitana; the rest of what had been the Roman province was united with the
Byzantine part of
Andalusia under the name of the
Praetorian prefecture of Africa, with Septem as administrative capital. Most of the Maghreb littoral was later organised as the
Exarchate of Africa, a special status in view of the outpost defense needs. Inscriptions at
Volubilis and the
Mausoleum at Souk El Gour also provide evidence that, during the 6th and 7th centuries, Tingitana functioned as an indigenous principality. When the
Umayyad Caliphate conquered all of Northern Africa, it brought
Islam to the local adherents of the
traditional Berber religion and
Christianity. The two Mauretania provinces were consolidated as the territory of
al-Maghrib (Arabic for 'the West', and still the official name of the
Sharifian Kingdom of Morocco). This larger province also included over half of modern Algeria. Stone ruins dating from the Roman era exist at various archaeological sites, including the
Capitoline Temple at
Volubilis, the palace of
Gordius,
Sala Colonia, Tingis and
Iulia Constantia Zilil. ==See also==