The Quinquegentiani were a Classical Age

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 (1913–196 ...

tribal confederation inhabiting the lands between the cities of Saldae and Rusuccuru, a region which is now known as Kabylia. Their territory laid at the eastern border of the Roman province of

Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Caesariensis (Latin for "Caesarea, Numidia, Caesarean Mauretania") was a Roman province located in present-day Algeria. The full name refers to its capital Caesarea, Numidia, Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell). The province had ...

, and although they were officially under Roman rule, they acted very autonomously.

Etymology

The ethnonym ''Quinquegentiani'' means "People of the Five Tribes" in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. This suggests that the Quinquegentiani were a confederation of several different Berber tribes instead of a single tribe.

Divisions

Since the five tribes which in the 2nd to the 3rd century occupied this region are known. The constituent tribes of the Quinquegentiani were probably: the ''Toulensii'', the ''Baniouri'', the ''Tyndenses'', the ''Nababes'' and the ''Massinissenses''.

History

In AD 253, the Quinquegentiani, who had formed a confederation with the Bavares and the Fraxinenses, two other

tribes from the region, started attacking and pillaging Roman and Roman-aligned settlements in

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

. These hostilities led to a Roman intervention, but because of more urgent troubles, such as the death of Emperor Aemilianus and the imperial succession, the war lasted for a decade and the Romans finally managed to restore order in AD 262. The tribal confederation was then disbanded and the tribes were driven back to their native lands. The Quinquegentiani once again rebelled against Roman rule in AD 289. This time, they were once again backed by the Bavares. The rebellion was successful at first, but in 297, the Roman forces of Maximianus Herculius started a bloody offensive, which drove the rebels back to their native lands in the

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

and Grand Kabyle Mountains; however, Maximianus wasn't satisfied with this, and in early 298 he invaded their native lands to inflict a bigger punishment upon the rebels; by using

scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and i ...

tactics and by killing as many as he could, he supposedly drove the Quinquegentiani into the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. By spring 298, the war was concluded, and the Quinquegentiani disappeared from Roman records.

References

{{Authority control Military history of ancient Rome 3rd century in the Roman Empire Berber peoples and tribes Ancient Algeria Mauretania Caesariensis