Mauretania Tingitane

The old Amazigh kingdom of the West part of Morocco takes the name of Mauretania Tingitane. Two centuries of pax romana allow then, through town planning and the trade, the development of a prosperous company, that will not come to upset the appearance of Christianity and that will not deteriorate - at least not as much as one it believes generally -, the later sudden appearance of the Vandals: much deeper and final will be the influence of the Arab conquerors on this “Romanized” civilization more than “Roman”. The Romans called Mauretania Tingitane, of the name of its capital, Tangier, the portion of Morocco which they occupied; they distinguished it by this means from its neighbor, Mauretania Caesareans, thus indicated because its principal city was Caesarea, today Cherchell. One will take guard with the fact that Mauritania - with an “I“, is a modern State which has nothing to do with ancient Mauretania.

The Amazigh kingdom of the West, in prey with the desire of conquest of Rome Much smaller than current Morocco, Tingitane was limited by the sea to the west and north and the south by the wadi Bu Regreg. In the east, no indisputable trace of Roman presence was found beyond perforated of Taza. It thus seems that the valley of Muluya had been abandoned to the nomads, and that both Mauretanias did not have any common border. This area entered the history very early. The first men on whom we have information spoke an Amazigh language. After the foundation of Carthage, in 814 B-C., according to the tradition, the Punic merchants moved towards the extreme Occident, until Mogador, today Essauira, to install there “emporium” . These navigators also explored the grounds located at the south, up to a point difficult to specify, as enigmatic Travel of Hanno shows it. At the end of III century B. - C., the Imazighen, which had been subject to strong Punic influences in all the fields, were organized in monarchy.

The Moorish kingdom of the West, sometimes plain with the kingdom of the East, sometimes separated from him, developed an original but badly known civilization, in the fields economic, social, cultural and religious. Its prosperity attracted, its originality worried. After having let live an independent Amazigh State long enough, Rome decided to annex it to transform it into province. In 40 AD, Caligula, jealous of the last king, Ptolemy, made it perish in the amphitheatre of Lyon. Actually, the States customers, which prevented the Roman Empire from extending all around the Mediterranean basin, disappeared the ones after the others and, if Caligula had not killed Ptolemy, another circumstance had brought to the same result. Caligula having been assassinated into 41 AD, it is its successor, Claudius, who was confronted with the local opposition: one freed from Ptolemy, Aedemon, indeed caused a revolt against Rome, movement of which the width and the duration were variously estimated. But repression was undoubtedly effective since, as of 42 AD, a new governor, Suetonius Paulinus, could conduct a campaign, as much intimidation than of reprisals, against the nomads of the Sahara.

The organization and the maintenance of the Pax Romana

As from this moment, Mauretania profited from Roman peace during nearly two centuries. It is true that Amazigh, henceforth called the Moors, caused a series of disorders; insurrections are attested throughout second century. But, there still, the question of the width of these revolts remains discussed. The negotiations ended invariably in an agreement, which the erection of a furnace bridge of Peace sealed, a divinized abstraction. Various facts let think that peace reigned rather largely. The Roman State sent as governor a procurator “ducenar”, which received two hundred and thousand per annum sesterces of wages - from where its name -, and represented the emperor.

It is not known if he resided at Tangier or Volubilis: the historians are in conflict on this point. It is known on the other hand that it was assisted by a powerful army because the archaeologists found lists of units engraved on bronze plates, that they call “military diplomas” and to which they can quote some five wings of cavalry and about fifteen troops of infantry, that is to say a quota ranging between five thousand and ten thousand men. Moreover, the archaeologists located approximately fifteen camps, preserved more or less well, which were divided into three defensive systems: all in the south, a linear defence, similar to the famous Hadrian's Wall in Brittany, left towards the east since Sala; it is still called Seguia Faraoun. On Sebu were located the camps of Thamusida and Souk el-Arba; around Volubilis, garrisons had been installed in Sidi Mussa bu Fri, Aïn Schkur and Tocolosida.

A time of urbanization and prosperity

The natives were associated the management of the province and its prosperity. A famous bronze plate, the table of Banasa, shows how a chief of tribe could obtain, for him and his, the famous Roman citizenship. The province covered cities, proof of the enrichment of immigrants and natives related the ones to the others by marriages. These cities obtained legal statutes conferring privileges to them and set up monuments. Thus Volubilis, Tangier, Banasa, Lixus counted with the number of the colonies. Sala was municipe before becoming colony. Also let us quote of other agglomerations, like Ceuta, for example.

Volubilis ends up extending on forty hectares inside its enclosure. In the center, it had a forum, a basilica - or covered forum - and a capitole, temple of the very Roman triad formed by Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Thermal baths, oil mills there were also found, but they are especially the rich person houses the notable ones who made his originality. In Thamusida, a camp is initially attested, which sheltered a military troop - of thousand soldiers -, then a city developed around this military area, according to a well-known process. The prosperity of these cities rested partly on the exploitation of the sea, partly on that of the ground. The majority of the agglomerations were indeed ports; Tingitane was besides famous for its production of garum, a brine of fish very appraisal like condiment and largely exported - the volume of these exchanges supposing the practice of an almost industrial fishing. In the plains of the interior, the peasants cultivated corn, like everywhere, produced a wine which was not snuffed and oil which, on the other hand, was sold well outside. In addition to these productions, known by many amphoras, Tingitane also provided to Rome deer for the combat of the circuses and to the areas close to the wood of luxury.

The time of the overcome crisis

The company of the province did not present a quite great originality: as much of other provinces, Tingitane counted especially the notable municipal ones and ordinary citizens. Freed appear y to have been rather numerous, that which one can deduce that the slaves were it also. The richness attracted moreover many foreigners there; a Jewish colony, in particular, is established there, and Volubilis had its synagogue. Rich people, without to have encouraged a particularly original art, appreciated the sculptures, bronzes, the mosaics. All honoured with the gods of a great banality: initially some indigenous divinities, like Aulisua, then and especially of the Roman gods, particularly the triad Capitolin, and finally of the Eastern gods, such Isis and Mithra.

During the century III, a serious crisis shook the whole of the empire, without saving Tingitane: the population declined, the economy regressed, the Romanization also. However, as of IV century, Tingitane, like the whole of the Roman world, took again life. Diocletian and Tetrarchs reorganized the administrations provincial and municipal, as well as the army. In the province, the civil and military capacities were then strictly separate, and the new governors, called praesides (in the singular praeses), confined in strictly civil, legal tasks essentially - the governor being the supreme judge of the province. In same time, the military authority was entrusted to the count de Tingitane, who had under his orders at least eight units, stationed in camps inherited the High-Empire or built on this occasion. The cities all, henceforth called civitates, found prosperity thanks to a general resumption of the economy.

If the pagan worships are transferred partly restored in the cities in the place which was theirs, a new religion made its appearance, Christianity. Between 295 AD and 298 AD, in Tangier, the Marcellus centurion, who refused a military service implying of the pagan obligations and the practice of the imperial worship, was martyrs. The new faith seems however less dynamic in Tingitane than in the remainder of Africa or in Spain; Bishopric of Lixus and Tangier, though certainly former to the beginning of VII century - without one being able to specify their creation date exactly today -, are clearly attested only at this period. In this reappearing world a terrible catastrophe emerges then: the Germans, having crossed the Rhine in the night of December 31, 406 AD, were spread in the south-west of Gaul and gained Spain. During May 429 AD, some of them, the Vandals, undertook to cross the Straits of Gibraltar: king Genseric, accompanied by eighty thousand warriors and their families, invaded Africa. The Vandals were not delayed a long time in Tingitane and took the way of the east, to reach Carthage into 439 Ad. However, the Roman Occident had lived; he succeeded another world, that of the barbarian Occident, which was going to still know beautiful years of prosperity.

Tingitane and Islam

The period which followed the passage of the Vandals was, until a very recent date, strong evil known. The history of Morocco between V and VII century, the irruption of the Vandals left to some time the inhabitants without any authority other than local; this geographical insulation involved a weakening of the sedentary to the profit of the semi nomads, Romanized with the profit of the Imazighen. It is in this context that is attested, in Caesarean it is true, the kingdom independent of Altava. Then monarchy vandal, installed in Carthage, sought to control Mauretania, without however reaching that point fully, while the Visigoths installed in Spain also sought them to establish their domination there, moreover without deploying much energy.

Lastly, the Byzantines made pass the area under their authority from 534, but it was not without difficulty: they ran up on one side against the authority of an Amazigh prince called Garmel, other with the always long-lived ambitions of the Visigoths. If during this period Tingitane attended the decline of its traditional elites, urban, with the profit of the semi nomads, the cities took again life thereafter: Tangier played even a part more important than in the past, like Septem (Ceuta), Lixus, Sala and Volubilis, which went until starting a clear recovery at the Byzantine period. Always presents and respected, the Romanization, the Latin language, the right, the habits, knew however a certain decline, manifest in the reduction in the inscriptions, which testifies to a retreat of the writing.

The economy followed a similar way. Corn, wine and oil always constituted the basis of the food, therefore of the agricultural life. As for the salting, they knew a rebirth with Septem and Lixus, just as the trade with Sala. More than in the past, Morocco turned to the Atlantic. Indeed, if the Straits of Gibraltar remained an essential element of prosperity, new trade-circuits took shape; thus, of the Spanish and Gallic ceramics imports, attested as of V century, took place coming from Africa and of the East for the period of V-VII centuries.

The Romanization, which constituted a long time a whole of values respected in Mauretania Tingitane, went hand in hand with the urbanization and a Christianization undoubtedly real and old, but badly known. The true historical rupture is placed in fact at the time of the arrival of the Arab conquerors, which imposed by the weapons their language and their religion. As often, they had to face local resistance. Animated by an Amazigh prince called, in our sources, Kokaila, and which could well have been Caecilius, this opposition, weak it is true, came too late: just as Roman Morocco had made place in Romanized Morocco. Romanized Morocco was to be erased in front of Moslem Morocco.