Tacfarinas

Tacfarinas (Latinised form of Berber Tikfarin or Takfarin; died AD 24) was a Numidian Berber from Thagaste, located in the province of Proconsular Africa (now Souk Ahras, in Algeria), who was a deserter from the Roman army who led his own Musulamii tribe and a loose and changing coalition of other Berber tribes in a war against the Romans in North Africa during the rule of the emperor Tiberius (AD 14–37). Though Tacfarinas' personal motivation is unknown, it is likely that the Roman occupation under Augustus of the traditional grazing grounds of the Musulamii was the determining factor.

Nevertheless, Tacfarinas' large-scale raids caused severe disruption of the province's grain production, which in turn threatened civil disorder in Rome. The Romans were for a long time unable to eradicate their enemy because of the Numidians' extraordinary mobility and their support from the many desert tribes. Tacfarinas was finally captured and killed in AD 24 by a combination of determined pursuit and a lucky break in intelligence.

A direct consequence of the war was the registration of the entire Tunisian plateau for land taxation and its conversion to mainly wheat cultivation. The Musulamii and other nomadic tribes were likely permanently excluded from what had been their summer grazing grounds and subsequently forced to lead a more impoverished existence in the Aurès mountains and the arid zone. The conflict also probably sealed the long-term fate of the client kingdom of Mauretania, which was annexed in AD 44 by the emperor Claudius.

Apart from a passing mention by another (minor) author, the Annales by the Roman historian Tacitus (written c. AD 98) is the sole surviving ancient source on the Tacfarinas War. Tacitus gives a relatively detailed account, but its exclusivity makes it difficult to assess its accuracy and the war's significance. Tacitus was fascinated by the psychology of emperor Tiberius, whom he regarded as the quintessential flawed tyrant and the way that the long, drawn-out insurgency in Africa with its many crises exposed his weaknesses; as with, for example, the emperor's explosion of fury when he received envoys from Tacfarinas demanding concessions in return for peace. This was not only due to Tiberius' exasperation with the insurgency. Adding insult to injury, Tacfarinas was a commoner by birth, an affront to the status-conscious Romans. To Tiberius, a scion of the illustrious and patrician Claudia gens and ruler of a vast empire, it seemed intolerable that such a person should be seeking to deal with him on an equal basis like a foreign king. Tacitus relates with relish Tiberius' feelings of personal humiliation.

This has led C.R. Whittaker to doubt that Tacfarinas' revolt was ever a serious threat to Roman rule in Africa, suggesting that Tacitus may have exaggerated the war's importance for dramatic effect. In favour of this view is the inability of Tacfarinas' forces to take Roman fortified positions or to stand up to Roman armies in pitched battle; against it are Tacfarinas' establishment of a Roman-style force, the despatch of an extra legion to the war zone, and the award of triumphal honours to no less than three Roman proconsuls for successes in the war (implying, in each case, the killing of at least 5000 insurgents), all events indicating more than just low-level guerrilla warfare.

In Roman times, the indigenes of the Maghreb all belonged to peoples whom the Romans called, loosely east to west, the Libyae, the Afri (in what is now Tunisia and Algeria, from which the name Africa is probably derived), the Numidians (eastern Algeria), and Mauri (western Algeria and Morocco), from which the term "Moors" was derived.

North of the Atlas Mountains, the land was fertile and well-watered (there is evidence that rainfall was heavier than today and that the desert had not encroached as far north). The Berbers living inside the fertile zone were largely sedentary. In contrast, on the southern fringes existed tribes that led a semi-nomadic existence. They practised transhumance, living off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. They spent the summers on the central plateau of Tunisia and the Aurès of northeast Algeria, where there was good grazing for the animals. In winter, they lived around the chotts (pronounced "shots") around Lake Tritonis, a string of large salt lakes on the desert southern fringes of the Roman province. In winter, this region contained plentiful freshwater in the form of seasonal torrents from the Aurès mountains to the North. These tribes included the Gaetuli, Musulamii, and Garamantes, as well as the nomadic elements of the Mauri.

Africa Vetus ("Old Africa"), the land territory of Phoenician Carthage (roughly corresponding to modern northeastern Algeria and Tunisia), fell into Roman hands after the final defeat and destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (146 BC). The fertility of its soil was proverbial among the Romans, far greater than it is today. The province was populous (c. 1.5 million inhabitants, roughly the same as contemporary Britain) and was, by 50 BC, the most important source of the City of Rome's grain supply. It was said that Africa fed the Roman populace for eight months of the year, while Egypt provided the remaining four months' supply. The province was a land of vast estates (latifundia) owned by absentee landlords. Pliny the Elder states that in the time of the emperor Nero (ruled 54–68), half of all arable land in the province was owned by just six Roman senators. Until 45 BC, the rest of northwest Africa was organised as two Berber Roman satellite-states, Numidia (Tripolitania, western Tunisia/eastern Algeria) and Mauretania (central/western Algeria and Morocco).