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The Roman and Byzantine Limes in Cyrenaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. G. Goodchild
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Extract

Although Cyrenaica ranked, under the earlier Empire, as a senatorial province, it was too exposed to barbarian attack to be left undefended; and there is ample evidence that it had its own garrison—probably a small one—from the first century A.D. onwards. This garrison was evidently inadequate to prevent the outbreak of the Jewish Revolt of A.D. 115, and may consequently have been strengthened; but it was the crisis of the mid-third century that showed all too clearly the insecurity of the isolated Cyrenaican plateau. The Marmaric tribes invaded the province, and Cyrene itself seems to have been overwhelmed. The Diocletianic reforms resulted in the creation of a new ‘middle-eastern’ command under the Dux Aegypti Thebaidos utrarumque Libyarum, but the loss of the chapter of the Notitia Dignitatum enumerating the units stationed in the two Libyas makes it difficult to reconstruct the military organization of these provinces at the end of the fourth century. The works of Synesius help to fill the lacuna and at the same time provide a vivid picture of life in an invaded area.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 1-2 , November 1953 , pp. 65 - 76
Copyright
Copyright ©R. G. Goodchild 1953. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Ritterling, E., ‘Military forces in the senatorial provinces,’ JRS XVII (1927), 29 Google Scholar. cf. the inscriptions SEG IX, 773–795.

2 SEG IX, 9, recording the re-foundation of Cyrene as Claudiopolis by the prefect Probus (= Tenagino Probus, cf. Stein, A., Die Präfekten von Ägypten (Berne, 1950), 148–150 Google Scholar). It is significant that the latest imperial dedication hitherto found in the excavated areas of Cyrene is one (unpublished) of Gordian III. The absence of later dedications, especially in the Forum, can only mean that the city never really recovered, despite its ‘re-foundation’.

3 Ann. Epigr. 1889, 152; 1934, 7–8. A separate Duchy of the Two Libyas came into existence about 381, following the creation of the Egyptian Diocese. By 470, at the latest, Libya Pentapolis had its own Duke (Cod. Just, XII, 59, 10Google Scholar).

4 For a useful summary of the evidence provided by Synesius, see Pando, J. C., Life and Times of Synesius of Cyrene (Washington, 1940)Google Scholar. For the chronology of his works, see Lacombrade, P., Synésios de Cyrène (Paris, 1951)Google Scholar. The military units in the Pentapolis at this time included Arabian cavalry, Dalmatae, Marcomanni, Thracian cavalry, and Unnigardae.

5 Ammianus, XXVIII, 6. This Austurian invasion, which happens to be recorded in some detail owing to its connection with the scandal of Count Romanus, has perhaps been given undue weight by some modern commentators.

6 An Austurian invasion of Tripolitania at the end of the fourth century is attested by a Lepcis inscription (IRT 480): it is probably to be identified with that coniuratio of ‘Saturiani’ and ‘Sub-Afrenses’ recorded in Cod. Theod. VII, 19, 1. For the invasion of 449, see Priscus Panites, frag. 4, in Müller, , Frag. Hist. Graec. IV (Paris, 1851), 98 Google Scholar.

7 Johannes Antiochenus, frag. 216, in Müller, o.c. IV, 621. Stein, E. (Histoire du Bas-Empire II, 105 Google Scholar) dates this invasion about 513.

8 Romanelli's, P. account (La Cirenaica romana (Verbania, 1943), 197–205 Google Scholar) is topographically incomplete, and misleading in that his map (fig. 17) shows the modern roads, not the ancient ones.

9 The major works are: Pacho, J. R., Voyage dans la Marmarique et la Cyrènaique (Paris, 1830)Google Scholar; F. W., and Beechey, H. W., Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa (London, 1828 Google Scholar); Smith, R. M. and Porcher, E. A., History of the recent discoveries at Cyrene (London, 1864)Google Scholar; and Hamilton, J., Wanderings in North Africa (London, 1856)Google Scholar. A summary but well-illustrated narrative of the Halbherr expedition of 1910 is published in Africa Italiana IV (1930), 229—290.

10 These expeditions, sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries of London, were supported by British universities and learned bodies, including the Roman Society. A preliminary account appeared in Geogr. Journ. CXVIII (1952), 142–152 Google Scholar. I am indebted to a number of helpers, including Messrs. M. H. Ballance, J. Eames, D. Smith, D. Strong, and P. Titchmarsh, for the fort-plans here reproduced.

11 This defensive feature, which also occurs in fifth and sixth-century forts and towers in Syria, is sometimes inaccurately termed a ‘glacis’. The word ‘talus’ is used in this paper. Apart from its strictly military function, it may also have served as a reinforcement against earthquake shocks.

12 PBSR xx (1952), 97–8Google Scholar.

13 JRS XLI (1951), 14–15 Google Scholar.

14 The Agedabia inscriptions are to be found in SEG IX, 773–795. The Fatimid (?) fort has recently been excavated by Mr. C. N. Johns. For el-Heneia, Gasr, see Antiquity xxv (1951), 131–9Google Scholar.

15 Antiquity xxv (1951), 141–4Google Scholar.

16 Hamilton, o.c, 169.

17 It is curious that this fort at Msus has escaped attention. It was brought to my notice by Dr. W Haagemann, a former staff officer in the German Afrikakorps.

18 The coastal forts, including the notable example at Gasr el-Mtanneb, near Tocra, were probably constructed or strengthened after the Vandal conquest of the African provinces.

19 Visited by Hamilton (o.c, 24) but not hitherto planned.

20 They are closely akin to the examples illustrated in JRS XL (1950), 36 Google Scholar, fig. 6 and, like those examples, are sited in relation to the cultivable bed of the adjacent wadi.

21 The outlying forts of Gasr Bu Gassal and Gasr Abd el-Crim have yet to be surveyed; but others, such as Gasr Mgiahir (South) and Gasr Mushtashi, seem to be Islamic.

22 Pacho (o.c. 110) described this fort as ‘Saracenic’, but the only post-classical features are some small chambers built inside its walls.

23 The name Kuf applies, strictly speaking, only to the upper reaches of the great Jarjarummah valley; but it is usually, and conveniently, used to describe the whole region.

24 Mezzetti, O., Guerra in Libia (Rome, 1933), 144 Google Scholar, describing events in 1927. There does not appear to have been any important ancient road through this difficult and dangerous terrain.

25 First accurately described by Smith and Porcher (o.c. 22, and pl. 8). A rough sketch-plan appeared in Bull. Arch. Inst. Amer. II (1910)Google Scholar, pl. XXXVIII.

26 We are indebted to Mr. Wilkes, of the Cyrenaican Administration, for bringing this site to our notice.

27 In Cyrenaica, unlike Tripolitania (cf. JRS XXXIX (1949), 90 Google Scholar), there is no reason to suppose that vaulting came into vogue owing to lack of timber.

28 El-Bekri (ed. de Slane, Algiers, 1913), 13, referring to the ‘Wadi Makhil’. His description leaves no reasonable doubt that this is Mekili.

29 Procopius, , de aedif. VI, 2, 1Google Scholar. The fort was described as ‘Saracen’ by nineteenth-century travellers. Its remains, exposed by war-time bombing, have recently been studied by Mr. Christopher Musgrave.

30 Justinian, (Edict XIII, De dioecesi Aegyptiaca, ed. von Lingenthal, Zachariae, Leipzig, 1891)Google Scholar allocated two regular units (numeri) to a ‘Duke of the Libyan limes’ stationed at Paraetonium (Mersa Matruh). The view (cf. Romanelli, o.c. 171) that this Duke also defended the Pentapolis is difficult to accept.

31 Pacho, o.c. 120. His ‘Kasr Chendireh’ (pl. XI, 3) is clearly a Christian church.

32 The fact that one encounters buildings of this type at intervals along the modern highways of Cyrenaica is purely accidental. They are so common that they occur on almost any route one may choose to follow in the Pentapolis.

33 The exact date of these walls is still uncertain, as Hellenistic and early Roman masonry cannot easily be distinguished in Cyrenaica. The Acropolis of Cyrene was, however, restored by Q. Lucanius Proculus, proconsul, in the reign of Augustus, : Doc. Ant. Afr. Ital. I, 2, 181 Google Scholar, no. 49.

34 The excavation of the Forum is still unpublished; and the partition walls comprising the inner arrangements of this fortress have been cleared away.

35 Observations by the writer. Only a few traces of the later wall-circuit still remain.

36 SEG IX, 356; translation and commentary by Oliverio, in Doc. Ant. Afr. Ital. II, 2, 135–163 Google Scholar. Since a fragment of the same text has been found at Tocra, there is no reason to assume that Ptolemais was still, under Anastasius, the military headquarters of the province.

37 Honigmann, E. (ed.), Le Synekdemos d'Hierocles et Georges de Chypre (Brussels, 1939),47 and 61 Google Scholar.

38 JRS XLI, 13–14.

39 JRS XXXIX (1949), 83 Google Scholar and n. 14.

40 It is unfortunate that, superficially at least, inscriptions are completely lacking in these Cyrenaican forts of the interior. Excavations at a type-site like Gasr el-Heneia are greatly to be desired.

41 de Villard, U. Monneret, Deyr el-Muharraqah (Milan, 1928), 31–5Google Scholar. While admitting that these Coptic towers derive from fortifications on the Roman Limes, Monneret de Villard seeks an eastern origin, claiming that Roman architects did not construct towers divided into rooms at each floor-level. Such towers were certainly being built in the third century on the African frontiers (cf. the case of Gasr Duib), and may well have been adapted from the simpler watch-towers of the European frontiers.