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The Limes Tripolitanus II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. G. Goodchild
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Extract

In a previous article in this Journal the writer and Mr. J. B. Ward Perkins gave a summary historical and archaeological sketch of the Roman Limes in Tripolitania, illustrated by the two sites, Ain Wif and Gasr Duib, investigated in 1948. Further evidence of the character of this Limes was obtained in the summer of 1949 when air and ground reconnaissances were made over a considerable area of the frontier zone, with the aid of the Royal Air Force and of the military authorities in Tripolitania. Since this new information relates particularly to the indigenous elements in the Tripolitanian frontier army, and to the types of fortified homesteads occupied by the limitanei—aspects which were referred to very briefly in the former article—it has seemed desirable to incorporate it in a supplementary paper, preceded by a note on the historical regio Arzugum, which is evidently to be identified, at least in part, with the Tripolitanian frontier zone.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1-2 , November 1950 , pp. 30 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © R. G. Goodchild 1950. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 JRS XXXIX (1949), 81–95.

2 The writer must record his great indebtedness to these authorities, and to the Oxford Craven Committee for a travelling grant. As in previous campaigns, every assistance was given by the British Administration in Tripolitania.

3 Orosius 1 2 90.

4 Rend. Pont. Acc. iv (1926), 155–166, where the evidence of the Councils for the episcopal sees of Tripolitania is fully documented and discussed.

5 Augustine, Epist., 93.

6 Rend. Pont. Acc. iv (1926), Tav. IX.

7 Orosius 1, 2, 100. In this passage the Subventani are sited on the coast adjoining the Lesser Syrtis.

8 Notitia Dignitatum, Occ. XXI (dux provinciae Tripolitanae).

9 Augustine, Epist., 46–7.

10 St. Augustine clearly refers to the military rank rather than to the municipal office.

ll Oliverio, , Doc. Ant. Afr. Ital. II, 135–163Google Scholar.

12 Cf. Synesius, Epist., 104.

13 Bates, O., The Eastern Libyans (London, 1914), 68Google Scholar, n. 7; cf. Amm. Marc. XXVI, 4, 5; XXVIII, 6, 2.

14 Corippus, , Johannis II, 148Google Scholar.

15 Belardinelli, A., La Ghibla (Tripoli, 1935) pl. opp. p. 24Google Scholar; cf. Beguinot, F., Rivista degli Studi orientali XXIV (1949), 14–15Google Scholar.

16 The discoveries made at Bir ed-Dreder in 1949 will be fully published elsewhere.

17 Jerome, , ad Pammachium I, 19Google Scholar.

18 CIL VIII, 17317, 17393, 5217; Merlin, IL Tun., 1199. Cf. the fifth-century ‘tribune’ of Verulamium: Collingwood and Myres, Roman Britain and the English Settlements, 306.

19 For these centenarii cf. JRS XXXIX (1949), 92, and Reports and Monographs of the Antiquities Department in Tripolitania no. 2 (1949), 32–4.

20 Messrs. E. E. D. M. Oates and R. M. Bradfield made the survey on which fig. 4 is based.

21 No dating evidence was found during the course of the surface examination, but the building is closely akin to dated fourth-century forts found in Numidia (cf. n. 22).

22 Fig. 5 is based on the following site-plans: Benia bel-Recheb—Donau, BAC 1903, 358 (fig. 7); Aquae Herculis and Seba Mgata—Baradez, Fossatum Africae (1949) 10, 223; Bourada—Guey, , Mél. d'Arch et d'Hist. LVI (1939), 193Google Scholar; M'doukal (Aqua Viva)—Leschi, Revue africaine nos. 394–5 (1943), 9.

23 Cod. Theod. VII, 15, 1.

24 Bartoccini, , Afr. Ital. 11 (1928-1929), 106–110Google Scholar, illustrates Henscir Suffit, an example of this type near Jefren. The type of masonry may be a less reliable indication of period in the Gebel areas which were more highly romanized than the regions farther to the south.

25 These plans were obtained during the 1949 campaign and, in the case of the Bir Scedeua specimens, are largely the work of Mr. M. H. Ballance. Mr. M. H. de Lisle has obtained a similar series of plans from the hinterland of Misurata.

26 Bartoccini, l.c., explains the indirect entrance of Henscir Suffit as intended ‘to shield the intimate life of the house from extraneous eyes’. There is no evidence that the early Libyans had such Islamic scruples about their womenfolk, who are portrayed unveiled on contemporary funerary monuments. The doorway systems encountered in these buildings are patently defensive in purpose.

27 As in a building at Faschiet el-Habs, close to Mselletin; but in general the main area of ancient olive-presses is in the Gebel, where there was always higher rainfall and more abundant topsoil.

28 For light signals, cf. Synesius, Epist., 130. Apart from their residential function, the Tripolitanian towers may be compared with those depicted on Trajan's Column.

29 Baradez, o.c. 161. The Numidian fossata have still to be conclusively dated.

30 Of these emperors only Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander, Gordian III and Philip are recorded on building inscriptions. The other names are from milestones.