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The area ofNorth Africa which has been known asLibya since 1911 was underRoman domination between 146 BC and 672 AD (though the region was briefly taken by theVandals in 430 AD, and then recaptured by theByzantines).The Latin nameLibya at the time referred to the continent ofAfrica in general,[1] seeAncient Libya. What is now coastal Libya was known asTripolitania andPentapolis, divided between theAfrica province in the west, andCrete and Cyrenaica in the east. In 296 AD, the EmperorDiocletian separated the administration ofCrete from Cyrenaica and in the latter formed the new provinces of "Upper Libya" and "Lower Libya", using the termLibya as a political state for the first time in history.
After the final conquest anddestruction of Carthage in 146 BC, northwestern Africa went under Roman rule and, shortly thereafter, the coastal area of what is now western Libya was established as a province under the name ofTripolitania withLeptis Magna capital and the major trading port in the region.
In 96 BC, Rome peacefully obtainedCyrenaica (left as bequeathing by the kingPtolemy Apion) with the so-called sovereignpentapolis, formed by the cities ofCyrene (near the modern village of Shahat), its port ofApollonia,Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (near modernBenghazi) andBarce (Marj), that will be transformed into aRoman province a couple of decades later in 74 BC. The Roman advance southward, however, was stopped by theGaramantes.
Cyrenaica had become part of the RomanEgypt already from the time ofPtolemy I Soter, despite frequent revolts and usurpations.[2]
In 74 BC, the new province was established, governed by a legate of praetorian rank (Legatus pro praetor) and accompanied by aquaestor (quaestor pro praetor), but in 20 BC Cyrenaica was united to the island of Crete in the new province ofCreta et Cyrenaica, because of the common Greek heritage.
The territory of Cyrenaica was characterized by the contrast between the coastal towns of the Pentapolis, inhabited byGreeks, and the territories inhabited byLibyans. The first had preserved their own institutions and were joined in an association, while their independence was recognized by thePtolemaic Constitution of 248 BC. In some of these cities there was a huge minority of the population made ofHebrews, who were organized with their own rules. The few Roman citizens in the province were organized into theConventus civium Romanorum.
The territory of Tripolitania was characterized by the presence of a strongpunic influence in the three main cities (Tripolitania means "land of three cities") ofOea (actual Tripoli),Sabratha andLeptis Magna, but by the end ofAugustus time the coastal area was nearly fullyRomanised.
Few were the raids of nomadic tribes of the desert against the cities of the province for at least the first two centuries. We know that at the time of EmperorDomitian, the Nasamones (a Libyan tribe living south ofLeptis Magna) rebelled, bringing destruction and defeating theLegatus legionis ofAugusta III Cneo Suelli Flacco, who had gone to meet them. But when he later returned with reinforcements, he crushed them all, so that Domitian could say before theRoman Senate the famous: "I prevented Nasamoni to exist".[3]
Instead more serious was theJewish revolt striking mainly the Pentapolis in the time ofTrajan (in 115–116 AD). In Cyrenaica, the rebels were led by one Lukuas or Andreas, who called himself "King" (according toEusebius of Caesarea). His group destroyed many temples, including those toHecate,Jupiter,Apollo,Artemis, andIsis, as well as the civil structures that were symbols of Rome, including theCaesareum, thebasilica, and thethermae (Imperial public baths). The Greek and Roman populations were massacred: the 4th-century Christian historianPaulus Orosius records that the violence so depopulated the province of Cyrenaica that new colonies had to be established by Hadrian:
The Jews ... waged war on the inhabitants throughout Libya in the most savage fashion, and to such an extent was the country wasted that, its cultivators having been slain, its land would have remained utterly depopulated, had not the Emperor Hadrian gathered settlers from other places and sent them thither, for the inhabitants had been wiped out.[4]
AfterHadrian, Christianity started to be the most important religion in Roman Libya until the arrival of the Arabs.
During the reign of EmperorSeptimius Severus (born in Leptis Magna) there was sitting on the "Chair of Peter"Pope Victor I (181–191), also from Libyan Leptis Magna and probably its bishop.[5] Until Victor's time, Rome celebrated theMass inGreek: Pope Victor I changed the language toLatin, which was used in his native Roman Libya. According toJerome, he was the first Christian author to write about theology in Latin.[6]
Furthermore,Arius, creator around 310 AD of the heresyArianism, came fromPtolemais. Some centuries later in Cyrenaica,Monophysite adherents of theCoptic Church welcomed the Muslim Arabs as liberators from Byzantine oppression.[7]
The best period of Roman Libya was under emperorSeptimius Severus, born inLeptis Magna. He favored his hometown above all other provincial cities, and the buildings and wealth he lavished on it made Leptis Magna the third-most important city in Africa, rivaling Carthage andAlexandria. In 205, he and the imperial family visited the city and received great honors. Among the changes that Severus introduced to this city were to create a magnificent new forum and to rebuild the docks.
He enriched all Libya, but mainly Tripolitania, defending it with an enlargedLimes Tripolitanus against theGaramantes: this powerful tribe was a client state of the Roman Empire, but as nomads they always endangered the fertile area of coastal Tripolitania.[8] Indeed, thelimes was expanded under emperorsHadrian and Septimius Severus, in particular under the legatusQuintus Anicius Faustus in 197-201 AD.
Anicius Faustus was appointedlegatus of theLegio IIIAugusta and built several defensive forts of the Limes Tripolitanus in Tripolitania, among which Garbia[9] and Golaia (actual Bu Ngem)[10] in order to protect the province from the raids of nomadic tribes. He fulfilled his task quickly and successfully.
As a consequence the Roman city ofGhirza, situated away from the coast and south of Leptis Magna, developed quickly in a rich agricultural area.[11] Ghirza became a "boom town" after 200 AD, when Septimius Severus had better organized the Limes Tripolitanus.
In late 202, Severus launched a campaign in the province of Africa. Anicius Faustus had been fighting against the Garamantes along the Limes Tripolitanus for five years, capturing several settlements from the enemy such asCydamus, Gholaia, Garbia, and their capitalGarama – over 600 km south ofLeptis Magna.[12]
By 203 the entire southern frontier of Roman Africa had been dramatically expanded and re-fortified. Desert nomads could no longer safely raid the region's interior and escape back into theSahara. For another century the legacy of Septimius Severus gave peace and prosperity to Roman Libya.
As aRoman province, Libya was prosperous, and reached a golden age in the 2nd century AD, when the city ofLeptis Magna rivalled Carthage and Alexandria in prominence.
For more than 400 years, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were wealthy Roman provinces and part of a cosmopolitan state whose citizens shared a common language, legal system and Roman identity.
Roman ruins, like those ofLeptis Magna andSabratha in present-day Libya, attest to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller towns enjoyed the amenities of urban life – forum, markets, public entertainments, and baths – found in every corner of the Roman Empire.[13]
Merchants and artisans from many parts of the Roman world established themselves in coastal Libya. Former soldiers were settled in the "Centenaria" area of Tripolitania, and the arid land was developed.[14] Dams and cisterns were built in the Wadi Ghirza (then not dry like today) to regulate the flash floods. These structures are still visible[15] As a consequence the area south of Leptis Magna became an important exporter of olive oil and cereals to Rome and the province was greatly "romanized", according toTheodore Mommsen.
The level of this romanization can be deducted even from the survival of theAfrican Romance: the 12th-century Arab geographerMuhammad al-Idrisi wrote that the people of the area ofGafsa (the Roman "Capsa", near northwestern Tripolitania) used a language that he calledal-latini al-afriqi ("the Latin of Africa").[16]
Tripolitania was a major exporter of agricultural products, as well as a centre for the gold and slaves conveyed to the coast by the Garamentes, while Cyrenaica remained an important source of wines, drugs, and horses.[17]
After Septimius Severus Roman Libya slowly declined for the next century of so, before being destroyed by thetsunami of 365 AD. A recovery faltered, and well before the Arab invasion in the mid-7th century, Greco-Roman civilization had been collapsing in the area exceptOea.
As part of his reorganization of the empire in 296 AD, the Emperor Diocletian separated the administration ofCrete from Cyrenaica and in the latter formed the new provinces of "Upper Libya" and "Lower Libya", using the termLibya for the first time in history as an administrative designation. Indeed, theTetrarchy reforms ofDiocletian changed the administrative structure:
In April 534 AD, the former Roman provincial system along with the full apparatus of Roman administration was restored, under apraetorian prefect.[18] During the following years, under the smart general Solomon, who combined the offices of bothmagister militum and praetorian prefect of Africa, Roman rule in Libya was strengthened (Theodorias was refounded[19]), but the fighting continued against the Berber tribes on the hinterland.[20]
Solomon achieved significant successes against them, but his work was interrupted by a widespread military mutiny in 536. The mutiny was eventually subdued by Germanus, a cousin ofJustinian, and Solomon returned in 539. He fell, however, in the Battle of Cillium in 544 against the united berber tribes, and Roman Libya was again in jeopardy. It would not be until 548 AD that the resistance of theBerber tribes would be finally broken by the talented generalJohn Troglita. The lastLatinepic poem ofAntiquity, thede Bellis Libycis ofFlavius Cresconius Corippus, was written about this struggle.
Successively the province entered an era of relative stability and prosperity, and was organized as a separateexarchate in 584 AD. Eventually, underHeraclius, Libia and Africa would come to the rescue of the Empire itself, deposing the tyrantPhocas and beating back theSassanids and theAvars.
But that was the last Roman achievement: in 642 AD Moslem Arabs started to conquer Libya. The Arabs succeeded in temporarily driving the Byzantines out of Tripoli in 645 AD, but they did not follow that conquest with the establishment of a permanent Arab presence in the city. No further raids were conducted until 661, when the newUmayyad dynasty under Mu'awiya ushered in a new era of Muslim expansion. An official campaign to conquer North Africa began in 663, and the Arabs soon controlled most major cities in Libya. Tripoli fell again in 666 AD, and this time the Muslims ensured their control of their new lands by not immediately retreating to Egypt after the conquest.
By 670 AD, all of Libya was in the hands of the Arabs: Roman rule since BC 2nd century had finally ended. Only inBenito Mussolini's time, more than one thousand years later, Libya was recreated as a political entity in 1934 (with a name borrowed from theDiocletian reforms).
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Life in Roman Libya was concentrated around a few coastal cities, mostly founded byGreeks andPhoenicians:
