The ''Limes Tripolitanus'' was a frontier zone of defence of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, built in the south of what is now

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and the northwest of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

. It was primarily intended as a protection for the tripolitanian cities of

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Originally a 7th-centuryBC Phoenician foundation, it was great ...

Sabratha Sabratha ( ar, صبراتة, Ṣabrāta; also ''Sabratah'', ''Siburata''), in the Zawiya DistrictOea in Roman Libya.

History

The ''Limes Tripolitanus'' was built after

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

. It was related mainly to the Garamantes menace. Septimius Flaccus in 50 AD did a military expedition that reached the actual

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

and further south. Wadi buzra

The Romans did not conquer the Garamantes so much as they seduced them with the benefits of trade and discouraged them with the threat of war. The last Garamantes foray to the coast was in AD 69, when they joined with the people of Oea (modern Tripoli) in battle against

The Romans, in order to defend the main Roman cities of Tripolitania ( Oea,

Sabratha Sabratha ( ar, صبراتة, Ṣabrāta; also ''Sabratah'', ''Siburata''), in the Zawiya DistrictSahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, which convinced the Garamantes that their advantage in desert warfare no longer held. After that the Garamantes started to become a

client state A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite sta ...

of the Roman Empire, but nomads always endangered the fertile area of coastal Tripolitania. Because of this Romans created the Limes Tripolitanus The first fort on the

limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a ...

was built at Thiges, to protect from nomad attacks in 75 AD. The limes was expanded under

emperors An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania ...

and

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...

, in particular under the legatus Quintus Anicius Faustus in 197-201 AD. Indeed, Anicius Faustus was appointed ''

legatus A ''legatus'' (; anglicised as legate) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman Army, equivalent to a modern high-ranking general officer. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the officer ...

'' of the Legio III ''Augusta'' and built several defensive forts of the Limes Tripolitanus in Tripolitania, among which Garbia and Golaia (actual Bu Ngem) 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 of Gaerisa (actual Ghirza), situated away from the coast and south of Leptis Magna, developed quickly in a rich agricultural area Ghirza became a "boom town" after 200 CE, when the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (born in Leptis Magna) had organized the ''Limes Tripolitanus''. Former soldiers were settled in this area, and the arid land was developed. Dams and cisterns were built in the Wadi Ghirza (then not dry like today) to regulate the flash floods. These structures are still visible: there it is among the ruins of Gaerisa a temple, which may have been dedicated to the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–19 ...

semi-god " Gurzil", and the name of the town itself may even be related to his name. The farmers produced cereals, figs, vines, olives, pulses, almonds, dates, and perhaps melons. Ghirza consisted of some forty buildings, including six fortified farms (Centenaria). Two of them were really large. It was abandoned in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. With

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

the limes was partially abandoned and the defence of the area was delegated to the Limitanei. The Limes survived as an effective protection until

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

times (Emperor

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized '' renova ...

restructured the Limes in 533 AD). Nomad warriors of the Banu Hillal tribe captured the centenaria/castra of the Limes in the 11th century and the agricultural production fell to nearly nothing within a few decades: even Leptis Magna and Sabratha were abandoned and only Oea survived, which was from now on known as Tripoli.

Current situation

today, very substantial remains survive, e.g., the limes castles at Abu Nujaym (ancient Golaia) and

Al Qaryah al Gharbīyah AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

, the frontier village Gaerisa, and about 2,000 fortified farms (''

Centenaria A centenarium is a type of Ancient Roman fortified farmhouse in the Limes Tripolitanus. It is called even in the plural ''centenaria'', because in the Limes Tripolitanus there were more than 2000 of these "fortifications", connected to create a def ...

'') like Qaryat. Tunisia has several sites attached to the limes. In 2012, some of these sites were presented to UNESCO in order to register them as World Heritage.Frontières de l'Empire romain : Limes du Sud tunisien
UNESCO. The south gate tower of the ''clausura'' at Wadi Skiffa ( Tataouine Governorate.

Tebaga Clausura

The Tebaga Wall is a 17 kilometers-long fortification line built along the

Tebaga Gap The Tebaga Gap of southern Tunisia is a low mountain pass located in rough rocky broken country giving entry to the inhabited coastal plain to the north and east from much less hospitable desert dominated terrain in southern and south-western Tun ...

or ''Clausura'' between the range of Jebel Tebaga and the hills of the Matma Mountains. Michael Mackensen: ''Kastelle und Militärposten des späten 2 und 3 Jahrhunderts am "Limes Tripolitanus"'', 2010

Forts (castrum)

Ghadames Ghadames or Ghadamis ( Berber: ''ʕadémis''; ar, غدامس, Libyan vernacular: ''ɣdāməs'', Latin: ''Cidamus, Cydamus'', it, Gadames) is an oasis Berber town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya. The ...

() *

Mizda Mizda or Mesdah (Tamazight: ⵎⵉⵣⴷⴰ, ''Mizda'') is a town in the Nafusa Mountains in Libya. It was the capital of the former Mizda District Mizda was one of the districts of Libya. In the 2007 reorganization of Libyan districts its ter ...

() * Bani Waled () * Abu Nujaym () * Qaryat ()

References

Sources

* Bacchielli, L. "La Tripolitania" in ''Storia Einaudi dei Greci e dei Romani (Geografia del mondo tardo-antico)''. Einaudi, Milan, 2008. * Graeme Barker e.a., ''Farming the desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey'' (1996 Paris and Tripoli) * Margot Klee, ''Grenzen des Imperiums. Leben am römischen Limes'' (2006 Stuttgart) *

Jona Lendering Jona Lendering (born 29 October 1964) is a Dutch historian and the author of books on antiquity, Dutch history and modern management. He has an MA in history from Leiden University and an MA in Mediterranean culture from the Amsterdam Free Unive ...

, 'Sherds from the Desert. The Bu Njem Ostraca' in:
Ancient Warfare
' 1/2 (2007) * David Mattingly, ''Roman Tripolitania'' (1995 London) * Erwin Ruprechtsberger, ''Die römische Limeszone in Tripolitanien und der Kyrenaika, Tunesien - Libyen'' (1993 Aalen)

External links

* * * *{{cite web , url= http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/Picts/salama2.html , title= Detailed map showing the Limes Tripolitanus at Tunisia-Libya border , publisher= Georgetown University , access-date= October 3, 2011 Roman frontiers Roman Libya Africa (Roman province) History of Tripolitania Roman fortifications in Tunisia Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Libya Fortifications in Libya Roman fortifications in Africa Roman fortifications in Roman Africa