Project Group C: Control and Attachment, Project C3

Sedentariness and Nomadism under Roman Rule in the Maghreb

PROGRAMMe

The research project deals with the Roman dominion over nomadic groups in north Africa, especially the region which is nowadays called the Maghreb. The goal is to investigate through which instruments the Roman empire controlled or tried to control the nomadic groups in this territory. We work now on four case studies:

1. The grant of Roman citizenship to some chiefs of nomadic groups or "tribes" in the province of Mauretania Tingitana. The Roman emperor Marc Aurel stresses in an edict dating 177 A.D. (the so called Tabula Banasitana) that this way of integration is used in this case only as an exception, because usually the grant of Roman citizenship would presuppose the existence of sedentarian structures. But it seems nevertheless that this policy failed in the Tingitana. There exists a very interesting set of inscriptions concerning a tribe called the Baquates. Some of their chiefs received the Roman citizenship, but it seems that even one hundred years later in 280 A.D. the Baquates have not changed their way of life fundamentally.
2. The office of the praefectus gentis which occurs only in North Africa. This is a Roman administrator whose duties are not yet clear. In other parts of the Roman empire and also in North Africa tribal units were usually called civitas not gens, so gens may here designate nomadic groups. As consequence we assume that the praefectus gentis was responsible for nomadic tribes.
3. There exists a much disputed epigraphic text found in northern Tunisia. The text deals with some regulations concerning an imperial estate and lists—in a rather unspecific way—some groups of people who have the right to use land on this estate. It seems that nomadic groups were amongst them and that the text shows the attempt of the Roman empire to integrate nomadic groups on an economic basis.
4. In the Annals of the Roman historiographer Tacitus we find a literary account concerning the "rebellion of Tacfarinas" in the years 17–24 A. D. Tacfarinas was a chief of the nomadic Musulamii. One of the most interesting episodes is Tacfarinas' claim for land. During the war the Romans refused this claim. But other sources show us that 80 years later there existed a territory of the Musulamii marked by boundary stones. One wonders if this may not be a result of Tacfarinas' rebellion.

Publications

Prof. Dr. Charlotte Schubert

Der Eid des Hippokrates. In print.

Die Inschrift von Henchir Mettich (CIL VIII 25902). Ein Beispiel für die Interaktion von sesshaften und nicht-sesshaften Bevölkerungsgruppen im römischen Nordafrika. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 4/1 (2003), 181–210.

Athen und Sparta in klassischer Zeit. Ein Studienbuch. Stuttgart/Weimar 2003.

Hippokrates: Ausgewählte Schriften (griechisch-deutsch). Düsseldorf/Zürich 2003.

Die Macht des Volkes und die Ohnmacht des Denkens. Stuttgart 1998.

Land und Raum in der römischen Republik. Die Kunst des Teilens. Darmstadt 1996.

Perikles. Darmstadt 1994.

Juniorprof. Dr. Alexander Weiß

Sklave der Stadt. Untersuchungen zur öffentlichen Sklaverei in den Städten des römischen Reiches. Stuttgart 2004 (Historia Einzelschrift 173). Im Druck.

Die Grenzen der Integration. Rom und die Baquaten. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 202 (2002).

Limocincti in Irni. Zur Ergänzung des Duumvirnparagraphen 18 der lex Irnitana. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135 (2001), 284–286.

with M. Weiß: Giftgefüllte Nattern oder geisterfüllte Verkündigerinnen. Frauen, Frauenbilder und die Verbreitung der christlichen Botschaft. Münster (Antike Kultur und Geschichte 4). In print.

Dr. des. Roxana Kath

Nulla mentio pacis – Untersuchungen zum Umgang der Römer mit militärischen Rückschlägen in der Zeit der Republik. Diss. (Dresden 2003). In print.