A centenarium is a type of

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

fortified

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a men's social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 34 active chapters in the United States and Canada.FarmHouse Fraternity New Memb ...

in the

Limes Tripolitanus The ''Limes Tripolitanus'' was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire, built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya. It was primarily intended as a protection for the tripolitanian cities of Leptis Magna, Sabrath ...

. 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 defensive system against desert tribe raids.

History

The first ''centenaria'' were built during the reign of

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

and during

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 cursus honorum, the ...

expansions of

Roman Libya The area of North Africa which has been known as Libya since 1911 was under Ancient Rome, Roman domination between 146 BC and 672 AD (though the region was briefly taken by the Vandals in 430 AD, and then recaptured by the Byzantine Empire, Byzant ...

and

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, when the Limes Tripolitanus was established. From around the time of disbandment of the

Legio III Augusta Legio III Augusta ("Third Augustan Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army The Imperial Roman Army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army ...

in 238 AD,

legionaries The ancient Rome, Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius''; : ''legionarii'') was a citizen soldier of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Republic and ...

built around two thousand ''centenaria'' in the areas around

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by #Names, other names in classical antiquity, antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Established as a Punic people, Puni ...

and

Sabratha Sabratha (; also ''Sabratah'', ''Siburata''), in the Zawiya DistrictGherait esh-Shergia and Gasr Banat. Some were characterized by the presence of paleochristian churches.Christian churches in Limes Tripolitanus
/ref> Indeed, Leptis Magna, the main city in Roman

Tripolitania Tripolitania (), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province of Libya. The region had been settled since antiquity, first coming to prominence as part of the Carthaginian empire. Following the defeat ...

, prospered mainly because Rome stopped bandits from plundering the countryside. The

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

– mainly under Trajan and Septimius Severus – curbed unrest among local tribal groups with the creation of the Limes Tripolitanus and with the creation and development of cities (like Gaerisa) and forts (like Garbia) with Centenaria farms around the southern periphery of Leptis area. The ''centenaria'' system of production, based on autochthonous Berbers who were partially Latinized and often even Christians, was successful and worked very well until

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

times. ''Centenaria'' remained in use for several centuries after the

Arab conquest of North Africa The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabia that expanded rapidly un ...

in the second half of the seventh century, until the system collapsed in the eleventh century CE. Some have been turned into lavish

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

s, such as Suq al-Awty. There is much conjecture about the origin of the word ''centenarium'' and whether it is etymologically tied to the locally built fortified farmhouses called Gasr (plural ''Gsur''). Probably their Latin name was due to the fact that one hundred men (one hundred is said in Latin ''centum'') worked each fortified farm, under the orders of a former

centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

References

Bibliography

* Di Vita, Antonino. ''Quaderni di archeologia della Libia''. Volume 5 Ed. L'ERMA di Bretschneider. Roma, 1967 {{ISBN, 887062062X Roman fortifications in Africa Roman Tripolitania Latin words and phrases