Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MAURITANIA Country WEST AFRICA".
and Mauritania (Maurousia, from mauros, "black").
The most westerly of the principal divisions of northern Africa, lying between
the Atlantic on the west, the Mediterranean on the north, Numidia on the east,
and Gaetulia on the south; but the districts embraced under the names of Mauretania
and Numidia respectively were of very different extent at different periods. The
earliest known inhabitants of all northern Africa west of the Syrtes were the
Gaetulians, who were displaced and driven inland by peoples of Asiatic origin,
who are found, in the earliest historical accounts, settled along the northern
coast under various names; their chief tribes being the Mauri or Maurusii, west
of the river Malva or Malucha (Muluia); thence the Massaesylii to (or nearly to)
the river Ampsaga (Wady-el-Kebir), and the Massylii between the Ampsaga and the
Tusca (Wady-Zain), the western boundary of the Carthaginian territory. Of these
people, the Mauri, who possessed a greater breadth of fertile country between
the Atlas and the coasts, seem to have applied themselves more to the settled
pursuits of agriculture than their kindred neighbours on the east, whose unsettled
warlike habits were moreover confirmed by their greater exposure to the intrusions
of the Phoenician settlers. Hence arose a difference, which the Greeks marked
by applying the general name of Nomades to the tribes between the Malva and the
Tusca; whence came the Roman names of Numidia for the district, and Numidae for
its people. Thus Mauretania was at first only the country west of the Malva, and
corresponded to the later district of Mauretania Tingitana, and to the modern
empire of Morocco, except that the latter extends further south; the ancient boundary
on the south was the Atlas.
The Romans first became acquainted with the country during
the war with Iugurtha in B.C. 106. From 106 to 33 the kingdom of Mauretania was
increased by the addition of the western part of Numidia, as far as Saldae, which
Iulius Caesar bestowed on Bogud, as a reward for his services in the African war.
A new arrangement was made about 25, when Augustus gave Mauretania to Iuba II.,
in exchange for his paternal kingdom of Numidia. Upon the murder of Iuba's son,
Ptolemaeus, by Caligula (A.D. 40), Mauretania became finally a Roman province,
and was formally constituted as such by Claudius, who added to it nearly half
of what was still left of Numidia--namely, as far as the Ampsaga, and divided
it into two parts, of which the western was called Tingitana, from its capital
Tingis (Tangier), and the eastern Caesariensis, from its capital Iulia Caesarea
(Zershell), the boundary between them being the river Malva, the old limit of
the kingdom of Bocchus I. The latter corresponded to the western and central part
of the modern French department of Algiers. These "Mauretaniae duae"
were governed by an equestrian procurator. In the later division of the Empire
under Diocletian and Constantine, the eastern part of Mauretania Caesariensis,
from Saldae to the Ampsaga, was erected into a new province, and called Mauretania
Sitifensis from the inland town of Sitifi (Setif); at the same time the western
province, Mauretania Tingitana, seems to have been placed under the same government
as Spain, so that we still find mention of the two Mauretanias, meaning now, however,
Caesariensis and Sitifensis. From A.D. 429 to 534 Mauretania was in the hands
of the Vandals, and in 650 and the following years it was conquered by the Arabs.
Its ancient inhabitants still exist as powerful tribes in Morocco and Algeria,
under the names of Berbers, Kabyles, and Tuariks. Under the later Roman emperors
Mauretania was remarkable for the great number of its episcopal sees.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Mauretania the NW. coast of Africa, now known as the Empire of Marocco,
Fez, and part of Algeria, or the Mogh'rib-al-akza (furthest west) of the natives.
I. Name, Limits, and Inhabitants.
This district, which was separated on the E. from Numidia, by the
river Ampsaga, and on the S. from Gaetulia, by the snowy range of the Atlas, was
washed upon the N. coast by the Mediterranean, and on the W. by the Atlantic.
From the earliest times it was occupied by a people whom the ancients distinguished
by the name Maurusii (Maurousio, Strab. i. p. 5, iii. pp. 131, 137, xvii. pp.
825, 827; Liv. xxiv. 49; Virg. Aen. iv. 206; Maurensioi, Ptol. iv. 1. § 11) or
Mauri (Mauroi, Blacks, in the Alexandrian dialect, Paus. i, 33 § 5, viii. 43.
§ 3; Sall. Jug. 19; Pomp. Mela, i. 4. § 3; Liv. xxi. 22, xxviii. 17; Horat. Carm.
i. 22. 2, ii. 6. 3, iii. 10. 18; Tac. Ann. ii. 52, iv. 523, xiv. 28, Hist. i.
78, ii. 58, iv. 50; Lucan iv.678; Juv. v. 53, vi. 337; Flor. iii. 1, iv. 2); hence
the name Mauretania (the proper form as it appears in inscriptions, Orelli, Inscr.
485, 3570, 3672; and on coins, Eckhel, vol. vi. p. 48; comp. Tzchucke, ad Pomp.
Mela, i. 5. § 1) or Mauritania (Mauritania, Ptol. iv. 1. §2; Caes. B.C. i. 6,
39; Hirt. B. Afr. 22; Pomp. Mela, i. 5; Plin. v. 1; Eutrop. iv. 27, viii. 5; Flor.
iv. (the MSS. and printed editions vary between this form and that of Mauretania);
he Maurousion ge, Strab. p. 827). These Moors, who must not be considered as a
different race from the Numidians, but as a tribe belonging to the same stock,
were represented by Sallust (Jug. 21) as a remnant of the army of Hercules, and
by Procopius (B. V. ii. 10) as the posterity of the Cananaeans who fled from the
robber (lestes) Joshua; he quotes two columns with a Phoenician inscription. Procopius
has been supposed to be the only, or at least the most ancient, author who mentions
this inscription, and the invention of it has been attributed to himself; it occurs,
however, in the history of Moses of Chorene (i. 18), who wrote more than a century
before Procopius. The same inscription is mentioned by Suidas (s. v. Chanaan),
who probably quotes from Procopius. According to most of the Arabian writers,
who adopted a nearly similar tradition, the indigenous inhabitants of N. Africa
were the people of Palestine, expelled by David, who passed into Africa under
the guidance of Goliah, whom they call Djalout. (St. Martin, Le Beau, Bas Empire,
vol. xi. p. 328; comp. Gibbon, c. xli.) These traditions, though so palpably fabulous,
open a field to conjecture. Without entering into this, it seems certain that
the Berbers or Berebers, from whom it has been conjectured that N. Africa received
the name of Barbary or Barbaria, and whose language has been preserved in remote
mountainous tracts, as well as in the distant regions of the desert, are the representatives
of the ancient inhabitants of Mauretania. (Comp. Prichard, Physical Hist. of Mankind,
vol. ii. pp. 15-43.) The gentile name of the Berbers-Amazigh, the noble language-
is found, according to an observation of Castiglione, even in Herodotus (iv. 191,
ed. Bahr),- where the correct form is Mazyes (Mazues, Hecataeus, ap. Steph. B.
s. u.), which occurs in the MSS., while the printed editions erroneously give
Maxues (Niebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Ethnog. and Geog. vol. ii. p. 334),-as well as
in the later Mazices of Ammianus Marcellinus (xxix. 5; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol.
iii. p. 471; comp. Gibbon, c. xxv.).
II. Physical Geography.
From the extraordinary capabilities of the soil-one vast corn
plain extending from the foot of Atlas to the shores of the Atlantic-Mauretania
was formerly the granary of the world. (Plin. xviii. 20.) Under a bigoted and
fanatical government, the land that might give food to millions, is now covered
with weeds. Throughout the plains, which rise by three great steps to the mountains,
there is great want of wood; even on the skirts of the Atlas, the timber does
not reach any great size-nothing to justify the expression of Pliny ( opacum nemorosumque
v. 1; comp. Journ. Geog. Soc. vol. i. pp. 123-155; Barth, Wanderungen).
Strabo (xvii. pp. 826-832) has given an account of the productions
of Mauretania, marvellous enough, in some particulars, as where he describes weasels
as large as cats, and leeches 10 ft. long; and among other animals the crocodile,
which there can scarcely be any river of Marocco capable of nourishing, even if
the climate were to permit it. (In Aegypt, where the average heat is equal to
that of Senegambia, the crocodile is seldom seen so low as Siout.) Pliny (viii.
1) agrees with Strabo (p. 827) in asserting that Mauretania produced elephants.
As the whole of Barbary is more European than African, it may be doubted whether
the elephant, which is no longer found there, was ever indigenous, though it may
have been naturalised by the Carthaginians, to whom elephants were of importance,
as part of their military establishment. Appian (B. P. 9) says that when preparing
for their last war with the Romans, they sent Hasdrubal, son of Gisco, to hunt
elephants; he could have hardly gone into Aethiopia for this purpose. Shaw (Trav.
p. 258; Jackson, Marocco, p. 55) confirms, in great measure, the statements of
Strabo (p. 830) and of Aelian (H. A. iii. 136, vi. 20) about the scorpion and
the phalangium, a species of the arachnidae. The solitanus, of which Varro (de
Re Rustica, iv. 14. § 4; Plin. ix. 82) gives so wonderful an account, has not
been identified. Copper is still worked as in the days of Strabo (p. 830), and
the natives continue to preserve the grain, legumes, and other produce of their
husbandry in matmoures, or conical excavations in the ground, as recorded by Pliny
(xviii. 73; Shaw, p. 221).
Mauretania, which may be described generally as the highlands of N.Africa,
elevates itself like an island between the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the
great ocean of sand which cuts it off towards the S. and E. This plateau separates
itself from the rest of Africa, and approximates, in the form and structure, the
height, and arrangement of its elevated masses, to the system of mountains in
the Spanish peninsula, of which, if the straits of the Mediterranean were dried
up, it would form a part.
Many rivers flow from this great range, and fall into the Mediterranean,
and the Atlantic. Of these, the most important on the N. coast were, in a direction
from E. to W., the Ampsaga, Usar, Chinalaph, and Mulucha; on the W. coast, in
a direction from NE. to SW., the Subur, Sala, Phuth, and Lixus.
The coast-line, after passing the Ampsaga (Wadel-Kibir) and Sinus
Numidicus, has the harbours Igilgilis (Jijeli), Saldae Ps. (Bujeiyah), and Rusucurrium
(Tedlez). Weighing from Algiers, and passing Iomnium (Ras-al-Kanatir), to stand
towards the W., there is a rocky and precipitous coast, mostly bold, in which
in succession were the ports and creeks IOL (Zershell), Cartenna (Tenez), Murustaga
(Mostaghanom), Arsenaria (Arzan), Quiza (Wahran or Oran); Portus Magnus (Marsa
Kibir), within Metagonium Prom. (Ras-al-Harsbah); and Acra (Ishgun). The Mulucha
falls into the Gulf of Melilah of the charts. About 10 miles to the NW. of this
river lay the Tres Insulae (Zaphran or Ja'ferei group); about 30 miles distant
from these rocks, on a NW. by W. rhumb, was Rusadir Prom. (Cap Tres Forcas of
the Spanish pilots, or Ras-ud-Dehar of the natives), and in the bight formed between
it and the Mulucha stood Rusadir (Melilah.) W. of Cap Tres Forcas, which is a
termination of an offshoot of the secondary chain of the Atlas, was the district
of the Metagonitae extending to Abyla (Jebel-el-Mina). From here to Tingis (Tangier)
the coast is broken by alternate cliffs and coves; and, still standing to the
W., a bold shore presents itself as far as the fine headland of Ampelusia (Cape
Spartel; Ras-el-Shukkur of the natives). From Cape Spartel to the SSW. as far
as Zilis (Arzila), the coast-line is a flat, sandy, and shingly beach, after which
it becomes more bold as it reaches Lixus (Al-Haratch or Laraiche). (Smyth, The
Mediterranean, pp. 94-99.) A description of the SW. coast is given in the article
Libya (Comp. C. Muller, Tab. ad Geog. Graec. Minors, ed. Didot, Paris, 1855; West
Coast of Africa surveyed, by Arlett, Vidal, and Boteler, 1832; Cote occidentale
de l'Afrique au Depot de la Marine, Paris, 1852; Carte de l'Empire de Maroc, par
E. Renou, 1844; Barth, Karte vom Nord Afrikanischen Gestadeland, Berlin, 1849.)
III. History and Political Geography.
The Romans first became acquainted with this country when the
war with Hannibal was transferred to Africa; Mauretania was the unknown land to
the W. of the Mulucha. In the Jugurthine War, Bocchus, who is called king of Mauretania,
played the traitor's part so skilfully that he was enabled to hand over his kingdom
to his two sons Bogudes and Bocchus, who were associated upon the throne. These
princes, from their hostility to the Pompeian party, were confirmed as joint kings
of Mauretania by J. Caesar in B.C. 49. During the civil war between M. Antonius
and Octavius, Bocchus sided with the latter, while Bogudes was allied with Antonius.
When Bogudes crossed into Spain, Bocchus seized upon his brother's dominions;
a usurpation which was ratified by Octavius. In B.C. 25, Octavius gave to Juba
II., who was married to the daughter of Cleopatra and Antonius, the two provinces
of Mauretania (afterwards called Tingitana and Caesariensis) which had formed
the kingdom of Bogudes and Bocchus, in exchange for Numidia, now made a Roman
province. Juba was succeeded by his son Ptolemy, whom Selene, Cleopatra's daughter,
bore to him. (Strab. xvii. pp. 828, 831, 840.) Tiberius loaded Ptolemy with favours
on account of the assistance he gave the Romans in the war with Tacfarinas (Tac.
Ann. iv. 23-26); but in A.D. 41 he was put to death by Caligula. (Dion Cass. lix.
25; Suet. Cal. 26; Seneca, de Tranq. 11.)
In A.D. 42, Claudius divided the kingdom into two provinces, separated
from each other by the river Mulucha, the ancient frontier between the territories
of Bocchus and Jugurtha; that to the W. was called Mauretania Tingitana, and that
to the E. Mauretania Caesariensis. (Dion Cass. lx. 9; Plin. v. 1.) Both were imperial
provinces (Tac. Hist. i. 11, ii. 58; Spart. Hadr. 6, Mauretaniae praefectura ),
and were strengthened by numerous Roman coloniae. M. Tingitana contained in the
time of Pliny (l. c.) five, three of which, Zilis, Babba, and Banasa as they were
founded by Augustus when Mauretania was independent of Rome, were reckoned as
belonging to Baetica. (Plin. l. c.; Pomp. Mela, iii. 10. § 5.) Tingi and Lixus
were colonies of Claudius (Plin. l. c.); to which were added in later times Rusadir
and Volubilis (Itin. Ant.). M. Caesariensis contained eight colonies founded by
Augustus, Cartenna, Gunugi, IgilgiIi, Rusconiae, Ruazus, Salde, Succabar, Tubusuptus;
two by Claudius, Caesareia formerly IOL the capital of Juba, who gave it this
name in honour of his patron Augustus, and Oppidum Novum; one by Nerva, Sitifis;
and in later times, Arsenaria, Bida, Siga, Aquae Calidae, Quiza, Rusucurrium,
Auzia, Gilva, Icosium, and Tipasa in all 21 well-known colonies, besides several
municipia and oppida Latina. The Notitia enumerates no less than 170 episcopal
towns in the two provinces. (Comp. Morcelli, Africa Christiana, vol. i. pp. 40-43.)
About A.D. 400, Mauretania Tingitana was under a Praeses, in the diocese of Spain;
while Mauretania Caesariensis, which still remained in the hands of the diocese
of Africa, was divided into Mauretania I. or Sitifensis, and Mauretania II. or
Caesariensis. The emperor Otho had assigned the cities of Mauretania to Baetica
(Tac. Hist. i. 78); but this probably applied only to single places, since we
find the two Mauretaniae remained unchanged down to the time of Constantine. Marquardt,
in Becker's Handbuch der Rom. Alt. pp. 230-232; Morcelli, Africana Christiana,
vol. i. p. 25.)
In A.D. 429, the Vandal king Genseric, at the invitation of Count
Boniface, crossed the straits of Gades, and Mauretania, with the other African
provinces, fell into the hands of the barbarian conquerors. Belisarius, the Africanus
of New Rome, destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals, and Mauretania again became
a Roman province under an Eastern exarch. One of his ablest generals, John the
Patrician, for a time repressed the inroads of the Moors upon Roman civilisation;
and under his successor, the eunuch Solomon, the long-lost province of Mauretania
Sitifensis was restored to the empire; while the Second Mauretania, with the exception
of Caesareia itself, was in the hands of Mastigas and the Moors. (Comp. Gibbon,
cc. xli. xliii.; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. viii.) At length, in A.D. 698-709,
when the Arabs made the final conquest of Africa, - desolated for 300 years since
the first fury of the Vandals,-the Moors or Berbers adopted the religion, the
name, and the origin of their conquerors, and sunk back into their more congenial
state of Mahometan savages.
Pliny (l. c.) makes out the breadth of the two Mauretaniae as 467
M. P.; but this will be too much even for Tingitania, where Mount Atlas lies more
to the S., and more than 300 M. P. beyond the utmost extent of any part of Caesariensis.
The same author gives 170 M. P., which are too few for Tingitania, and 879 M.
P., which are too many for Caesariensis. (Shaw, Trav. p. 9.)
The following tribes are enumerated by Ptolemy (iv. 2. § § 17-22)
in I. Mauretania Caesariensis - Toducae (Todoukai), on the left bank of the Ampsaga;
to the N. of these, Coedamusii (Koidamousioi), and still more to the N., towards
the coast, and to the E. on the Ampsaga, Mucuni (Moukounoi) and Chituae (Chitouai);
to the W. of the latter, Tulensii (Toulensioi and Baniuri (Baniouroi); S. of these,
Machures (Machoures), Salasii (Salassioi), and Malchubii (Malchoubioi); NW. of
the Tulensii, and to the E. of Zalacus M., and on the coast, Macchurebi (Makchoureboi);
W. of these, and N. of Zalacus, on the mouth of the Chinalaph, Machusii (Machousioi);
below them on the other side of Zalacus, Mazices (Mazikes); and S., up to the
Garaphi M., Banturarii (Bantourarioi); still further to the S., between Garaphi
M. and Cinnaba M., Aquensii (Akouensioi), Myceni (Mukenoi), and Maccurae (Makkourai);
and below them, in the S., on the N. spurs of Cinnaba, Enabasi (Enabasoi); W.
of these, between Garaphi M. and Durdus M., Nacmusii (Nakmousioi), Elulii (Eloulioi),
and Tolotae (Tolotai); N. of these and Durdus M., Dryitae (Druitai); then Sorae
(Sorai); and on the W. of the Machusii, Taladusii (Taladousioi). The Herpeditani
(Herpeoitanoi) extended into II. Mauretania Tingitana (Ptol. iv. 1. § § 10-12);
to the S. of them, the Maurensii (Maurensioi); toward the SW., Vacuatae (Ouakouatai),
Baniubae (Banioubai); then, advancing to the N., Zegrensii (Zegrensioi), Nectiberes
(Nektiberes), Jangaucani (Iangaukanoi), Volubiliani (Ouabilianoi), Verves (Oueroueis),
and Socosii (Sokossioi), upon the coast; to the W., the Metagonitae (Metagonitai);
and to the S. of them, Masices (Ma'sikes), and Verbicae or Verbices (Ouerbikai
al. Ouerbikes); to the S. and to the W. of the Volubiliani, Salinsae (Salinsai)
and Cauni (Kaunoi); still further to the S., to the Little Atlas, Bacuatae (Bakouatai)
and Macanitae (Makanitai).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
