Between the first century BC and the fourth century AD, several expeditions and explorations to
Lake Chad and
western Africa were conducted by groups of military and commercial units of
Romans who moved across the
Sahara and into the interior of Africa and its coast. However, there was a more significant
Roman and
Greek presence in modern-day
Eritrea and Ethiopia. The primary motivation for the expeditions was to secure sources of gold and spices from Axumite piracies.[1]
Background
Romans referred to Sub-Saharan Africa as
Aethiopia (Ethiopia), which referred to the people's "burned" skin.
All these expeditions were supported by legionaries and had mainly a commercial purpose. Only the one conducted by emperor
Nero seemed to be a preparative for the conquest of
Ethiopia or
Nubia; in 62 AD, two legionaries
explored the sources of the Nile.[5]
One of the main objectives of the explorations was to locate and obtain
gold, using
camels to transport it overland back to Roman provinces on the Mediterranean coast.[6]
The explorations near the coasts were supported by Roman ships and deeply related to overseas commerce.
Main explorations
The Romans conducted five main explorations: two in the western Sahara, two in the central Sahara, and one in the area of
Lake Chad.
Western Sahara expeditions
In western Sahara there were two Roman expeditions but, just south of the
Atlas mountains:
Cornelius Balbus expedition:[7] According to Pliny, the first Roman expedition through the Sahara was the one led by
Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC probably reached the
Niger River near
Timbuktu. He embarked from Libyan
Sabratha and with ten thousand legionaries conquered the
Garamantes capital in
Fezzan. He then sent a small group of his legionaries further south across the
Ahaggar Mountains to explore the "land of the lions”. There they found the Niger River, which in their opinion flowed into the Nile River. In 1955, Roman coins and ceramics were found in the area of
Mali.
Suetonius Paulinus expedition: The second was done in the year 41 AD by
Suetonius Paulinus, a Roman Consul, who was the first of the Romans who led an army across the Atlas range. At the end of ten days' march he reached the mountains summit covered by snow and later he arrived at a river called Gerj. He then penetrated into the semi deserted country south of
Morocco and some of his legionaries probably went near the river Daras (modern
Senegal river).
From the first century AD there is evidence (coins and
fibulae) of Roman commerce and contacts in
Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near
Tichit in
Mauritania.
Central Sahara expeditions
The two main explorations/expeditions in the central Sahara were:
Flaccus expedition: In the first century AD,
Lake Chad was a huge lake and two Roman expeditions were carried out in order to reach it: Septimius Flaccus and Julius Maternus reached the "lake of hippopotamus" (as Lake Chad was called by
Ptolemy). They moved from coastal
Tripolitania and passed near the Tibesti mountains. Both did their expeditions through the
Garamantes' territories, and were able to leave a small garrison on the "lake of hippopotamus and rhinoceros" after 3 months of travel in desert lands.Ptolemy wrote that in 50 AD Septimius Flaccus carried out his expedition in order to retaliate against nomad raiders who attacked
Leptis Magna, and reached Sebha and the territory of Aozou.[8] He then reached the Bahr Erguig,
Chari, and
Logone Rivers in the lake Chad area, described as the "land of Ethiopes" (or black men) and called Agisymba.
Matiernus expedition: Ptolemy wrote that around 90 AD Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) carried out a mainly commercial expedition. From the Sirte gulf he reached the
Oasis of Cufra and the
Oasis of Archei, then arrived—after 4 months travelling with the king of the Garamantes—to the
Bahr Salamat and
Bahr Aouk Rivers, near modern-day
Central African Republic in a region then called Agisymba. He went back to
Rome with a rhinoceros with two horns, that was shown in the
Colosseum.[9]According to Raffael Joorde, Maternus was a diplomat who explored with the king of Garamantes the territory south of the
Tibesti mountains, while this king executed a military campaign against rebellious subjects or as a "
razzia".[10]
Niger River area
However some historians (like Susan Raven[11]) believe that there was even another Roman expedition to sub-Saharan central Africa: the one of
Valerius Festus, that could have reached the equatorial Africa thanks to the
Niger River.
Festus expedition: Pliny wrote that in 70 AD a legatus legionis, or commander, of the
Legio III Augusta named Festus repeated the Balbus expedition toward the
Niger River.[12] Festus went to the eastern
Hoggar Mountains and penetrated the
Air Mountains as far as the
Gadoufaoua plain. Gadoufaoua (Touareg for “the place where camels fear to go”) is a site in the
Tenere desert of
Niger known for its extensive fossil graveyard, where remains of Sarcosuchus imperator, popularly known as SuperCroc, have been found). Festus finally arrived in the area in which
Timbuktu is now located. Some academics, such as Fage,[13] think that he only reached the
Ghat region in southern
Libya, near the border with southern Algeria and Niger. However, it is possible that a few of his legionaries reached as far as the Niger River and went down to the equatorial forests navigating the river to the estuary in what is now
Nigeria. Something similar may have occurred in the
exploration of the Nile done under Emperor Nero.
Maritime explorations
The Roman vassal king
Juba II organized successful trade from the area of
Volubilis. Pliny the Elder, who was not only an author but also a military officer, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania in the first century AD, stated that a Roman expedition from Mauritania visited the islands of the archipelago of the
Canaries and
Madeira around 10 AD and found great ruins but no population, only dogs (the basis of the name the Canaries).
According to Pliny the Elder, an expedition of Mauretanians sent by Juba II to the archipelago visited the islands: when King Juba II dispatched a contingent to re-open the dye production facility at
Mogador (historical name of Essaouira,
Morocco) in the early 1st century AD, Juba's naval force was subsequently sent to explore the
Canary Islands, and possibly
Madeira, using Mogador as their base.
Other Roman coins have been found in
Nigeria and
Niger, and also in
Guinea,
Togo, and
Ghana. However, it is much more likely that all these coins were introduced at a much later date than that there was direct Roman intercourse so far down the western coast. No single article unmistakably originating in Africa south of the Equator has been discovered in the Graeco-Roman world or in contemporary Arabia, nor is there any mention of such an article in written records: while the coins are the only ancient European or Arabian articles that have been found in the central parts of Africa.[14]
The Romans had two naval outposts in the Atlantic coast of Africa:
Sala Colonia near present
Rabat and
Mogador in southern Morocco (north of
Agadir). The island of Mogador prospered from the local
purple dye-making industry (highly esteemed in imperial Rome) from the reigns of Augustus until
Septimius Severus. Augustus, based on the discovery of a sunken merchant ship from southern
Hispania in the
Djibouti area (found by his adoptive son
Gaius Caesar when he sailed toward
Aden), wanted to organize an expedition from
Egypt to
Mogador and Sala around Africa, but it seems that it never took place.
^Roman objects are, indeed, found in the Sahara, and, significantly, along the western caravan route. Numerous Roman artifacts have been found at the Garamantes' capital of Germa in the
Fezzan. Most striking is the large Roman-syle mausoleum found there, evidence either of Roman presence or of Romanization of the elite. Between Germa and Ghat in the Hoggar have been found Roman ceramics, glass, jewelry and coins dating from the 1st to the 4th centuries. Farther down the route, at the oasis of Abelessa, is the site known locally as the Palace of Tin Hinan. There is a charming local legend about it, but it seems to have been a fortress, in one room of which was found the skeletal remains of a woman, along with a number of Late Roman objects, including a lamp, a golden bracelet and a 4th-century coin. Finally, there was a cache of Roman coins found at Timissao only 600 kilometers from the Niger. Heinemann-University of California-UNESCO (
p.514 Map)
Coleman De Graft-Johnson, John. African glory: the story of vanished Negro civilizations. Black Classic Press. New York, 1986
ISBN0933121032
Fage, JD. The Cambridge History of Africa Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1979
ISBN0521215927
Mattern, Susan. Rome and the enemy: imperial strategy in the principate. University of California Press. San Francisco, 2002
ISBN0520236831
Miller, J. Innes. The Cinnamon Route in the Spice Trade of the Roman Empire. University Press. Oxford, 1996
ISBN0-19-814264-1
Pliny the Elder (1855).
The Natural History. Translated by John Bostock; H.T. Riley. London: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
Raven, Susan. Rome in Africa. Publisher Routledge. London, 2012
ISBN113489239X
Roth, Jonathan. The logistics of the Roman Army at war (264 B.C. – A.D. 235). Köln : Brill, 1998 (Columbia studies in the classical tradition ; Vol. 23)
ISBN90-04-11271-5
The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 2 (from CA. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050). Michael Crowder (& J. Fage). Cambridge University Press, 1975 ISBN
ISBN052122215X