When most people think of Tripolitania, in western Libya, they think of the magnificent Roman cities and UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Lepcis Magna and Sabratha, as well as Libya’s capital, Tripoli. And they should, for these cities are home to some of the best preserved buildings from anywhere in the former Roman Empire.
 |
| The amphitheater at Lepcis Magna (a photo by Capuozzo Pietro) |
 |
| The Severan basilica at Lepcis Magna (a photo by Sasha Coachman) |
 |
| The theater at Sabratha (a photo by Sasha Coachman) |
 |
| The Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli (a photo by Daniel and Kate Pett) |
These
sites have been in the news recently because of the threat posed to them by
ISIS, which briefly occupied modern Sabratha in February 2016, and because of
the heroic efforts Libyans have taken to protect their archaeological sites. The sites and their protectors deserve much
more attention. In this post I want to
talk about the history and archaeology of Tripolitania. Who built these incredible cities? How did they pay for such opulent
building? Why do these sites matter
today?
First
some background about the region. The
region takes its name from the ancient Greek word for “three cities.” In antiquity these cities were Lepcis Magna,
the most important of the three, Oea, which lies underneath modern Tripoli, and
Sabratha. These cities controlled vast
territories that extended south into the Jafara Plain and the Western
Mountains. Today, as in the past, the
Jafara Plain is too arid to support agriculture. The Western Mountains, which stretch in an
arc from the Mediterranean coast east of Lepcis Magna to modern Tunisia, contain
much of the region’s agriculturally productive land.
Tripolitania
has long been an object of study. European
colonizers took an early interest in its ruins because the Roman character of
the coastal cities justified their colonial projects. More recent scientific studies, such as the
one by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeology Survey (1979-1989), have shed new
light onto the cultural, political, and economic history of the region. Recent books by David Mattingly, Graeme
Barker, and Philip Kenrick have synthesized a lot of the archaeological and
historical data in English. This post
owes much to their work.
In
my last post I explored the prehistory of the region and the Western Mountains in particular. I found that the Western
Mountains facilitated the movement of people and Stone Age technologies between
east and west, north and south. One
group to settle in the region was likely the ancestors of the Berbers, but because of their uncertain identity, historians have chosen simply to call them “Libyans.” Libyans lived a semi-nomadic existence, tending
herds of sheep and goats and farming where they could. They were probably living much as their
ancestor had when the first Phoenicians arrived in the late 9th or
early 8th century BCE.
The
Phoenicians came to Libya from what is now Lebanon in search of new opportunities for trade. They initially
founded the city of Carthage in modern Tunisia.
In the following centuries new Phoenician settlements sprang up along
the north coast of Libya. Lepcis Magna
was founded in the 7th century BCE, Sabratha in the 6th
century BCE, and finally Oea in the 5th century BCE. These three cities, collectively called the
Emporia, were to become fabulously wealthy from trans-Saharan trade and from
the production and sale of one commodity in particular, olive oil. They formed close relations with the local
Libyan populations and often intermarried with them. Though they maintained contact with their
Phoenician homeland, their connections in North Africa mattered more, and for
this reason historians call them Libyphoenicians. They spoke and wrote in Punic (a language
related to Phoenician) and Libyan (likely a Berber dialect).
The
cities of the Emporia remained under the influence of Carthage until Carthage’s
defeat by the Romans in the Punic Wars (264-146 BCE). After this epic struggle Rome took a greater
interest in the region. Rome supported
Masinissa, the king of Numidia (in what is now Algeria) against Carthage and
allowed him to extend his influence into Tripolitania. After the final destruction of Carthage in
146 BCE, Rome annexed all of Carthage’s territory, and the Emporia became Rome’s allies. In 46 BCE Julius
Caesar invaded North Africa chasing his enemies in his civil war with Pompey. The cities that had sided with Pompey,
notably Lepcis Magna, were fined and made subjects of Rome.
As
subject cities they paid tribute to Rome and received Roman administrators and
garrisons, but the Romans did not permanently settle Tripolitania or
systematically exploit its people and resources. The Romans’ only goals were to promote peace,
build cities, and collect taxes. They
occasionally led military expeditions against the tribes of the interior, such
as the Garamantes, and build forts and roads to control the movement of nomads
across the frontier. Gheriat el-Gharbia and Bu-Njem are examples of Roman frontier forts. There were probably other forts at places
like Zintan, Ain el-Auenia, and Mizda.
Otherwise
the Libyphoenicians were left on their own.
As members of the Roman Empire they accumulated massive amounts of
wealth. Their wealth was based on the
cultivation of olive trees on their estates in the Western Mountains. They pressed olives into olive oil, which they
sold all over the Empire. Some rural
farmers also grew olives and were able to benefit from trade in olive oil, but by
and large most of the wealth accumulated in the coastal cities.
With
their wealth the Libyphoenicians built grand cities in the Roman style with all
the urban amenities one would expect of a Roman city, like baths, colonnaded
streets, and theaters. Wealth also
enabled the Libyphoenicians to join the ranks of the Roman elite and one of
their own, Septimius Severus, was able to become the Roman emperor (193 CE –
211 CE).
Outside
the cities in the more remote reaches of Tripolitania life went on as it had
for thousands of years. Punic and Roman
influences were weak here and became much weaker in the 4th and 5th
centuries CE when the magnificent coastal cities shrank and the Romans pulled
their soldiers out. Then the Vandals and
later the Byzantines came and went, leaving no lasting influence. Throughout
these turbulent centuries of the early Middle Ages many Libyans continued to
practice pastoralism and seasonal farming in wadis and to organize their society
into villages and tribes. The arrival of
Arab armies in the 7th century was to mark the beginning of ethnic,
linguistic, cultural, and political developments that continue to define modern
day Libya.
Thus
the main take-away is that the opulent cities of the coast – Lepcis Magna, Oea,
and Sabratha – are just as much a part of Libyan history as Roman history. They were built at a unique moment in human
history when the continent spanning empire of the Romans unified the entire
Mediterranean region. The Roman Empire enabled
the local elite, like the Libyphoenicians of Tripolitania, to grow rich and
show off their wealth by lavishing their cities with magnificent Roman-style
buildings. Otherwise the Romans
themselves were only fleeting interlopers in Libyan history.
