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Local Cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic and Latin in Roman Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Fergus Millar
Fergus Millar
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford
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Extract

No subject in the history of the Roman Empire has more significance or more pitfalls than that of the local cultures of the provinces. The evidence is in each case, with the exception of Judaea and Egypt, relatively slight, disparate and ambiguous. But, on the one hand, the subject has very real attractions, which may lead to the building of vast but fragile historical theories, attempting to bring the distinctive culture of an area into a schematic relationship with events such as political movements or the spread of Christianity. On the other, we can never escape the possibility that the denial of the survival of a significant local culture may be falsified by new evidence; even worse, a local culture may have existed in a form which left no written records or datable artefacts.

Yet the problem must be faced, not only for the intrinsic interest which such cultures present, but for the light the enquiry sheds on Graeco-Roman civilization itself. We might conclude for one area that Graeco-Roman culture remained the merest façade, for another that it completely obliterated a native culture. More commonly, we will find a mixture or co-existence of cultures. In such a situation, again, the local element might have been culturally and socially insignificant, or, as it was in Egypt and in Judaea, embodied in a coherent traditional civilization with its own language, literature, customs, religion and (in Egypt) art-forms.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2 , November 1968 , pp. 126 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Fergus Millar 1968. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 For the most recent collection, of the evidence see Charanis, P., ‘Ethnic Changes in the Byzantine Empire in the Seventh Century’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers XIII (1959), 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 K. Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain (1953), 76 f., esp. 97 f. Compare now S. S. Frere, Britannia: a History of Roman Britain (1967), 311 f., and J. Liversedge, Britain in the Roman Empire (1968), 315 f.

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29 J. G. Février, ‘La Constitution municipale de Dougga à l'époque numide’, Mélanges de Carthage (Cahiers de Byrsa X) (1964–5), 85.

30 W. M. Green, op. cit. (below, n. 39), p. 189.

31 See Galand, , Février, , Vajda, , Inscriptions antiques du Maroc (1966)Google Scholar; the Libyan inscriptions (nos. 1–27) are edited by L. Galand, whose introductory discussion (pp. 1–36) is also the most detailed and up-to-date treatment of the Libyan script.

32 Galand, op. cit. (n. 31), no. 1 (Plate I, 1) = RIL 882.

33 Reynolds, J. M., Brogan, O., Smith, D., ‘Inscriptions in the Libyan Alphabet from Ghirza in Tripolitania’, Antiquity XXXII (1958), 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 The book by Brogan, O. and Smith, D., Ghirza, forecast in Libya Antiqua I (1964), 66Google Scholar, n. 6.

35 By di Vita, A., ‘Archaeological News’, in Libya Antiqua I (1964), on pp. 141–2Google Scholar, with pl. LXXXI.

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37 Only the barest essentials are given here; compare P. R. L. Brown, ‘Christianity and Local Culture in Late Roman Africa’, above, pp. 85 ff.

38 Frend, W. H. C., ‘A Note on the Berber Background in the life of Augustine’, Journ. Theol. Stud. XLIII (1942), 188Google Scholar, and The Donatist Church (1950), esp. 57–8; Courtois, C., ‘S. Augustin et le problème de la survivance de la Punique’, Revue Africaine XCIV (1950), 259Google Scholar; Les Vandales et l'Afrique (1955), 126 f.

39 Green, W. M., ‘Augustine's Use of Punic’, Univ. of Calif. Stud, in Semitic Philology XI (1951), 179Google Scholar (I owe this reference to Mr. T. D. Barnes). See Simon, M., ‘Punique ou Berbère? Note sur la situation linguistique dans l'Afrique romaine’, Recherches d'histoire Judeo-Chrétienne (1962), 88Google Scholar; Février, P.-A., ‘Toujours le Donatisme. A quand l'Afrique ?’, Riv. di stor. e lett. religiosa II, 2 (1966), 228Google Scholar.

40 The most important passages for the Semitic character of the ‘lingua Punica’ are: In Ps. 123, 8; 136, 18; In Rom. imperf. 13; C. Petil. 2, 239; Quaest. Hept. 7, 16; Loc. Hept. 1, 24; and for its wide distribution: Ep. 66, 2; 84, 2; 108, 14; 209, 2 f.; Serm. 167, 4. All quoted in Green, op. cit. (n. 39).

41 For these points see Barnes, T. D., ‘The Family and Career of Septimius Severus’, Historia XVI (1967), 87 ff.Google Scholar, on pp. 96 f.

42 So, rightly, MacMullen, R., ‘Provincial Languages in the Roman Empire’, AJPh LXXXVII (1966), 1 ff.Google Scholar

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44 Müller, L., Numismatique de l'ancienne Afrique II (1861)Google Scholar; J. Mrzard, Corpus Nummorum Numidiae Mauretaniaeque (1955), e.g. no. 623–4 (Tingi).

45 The Punic inscriptions of Carthage and its vicinity (only) are contained in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum I (published in fascicules 1881–1962), nos. 166–6068; none appear to be from the Roman period. Others appear sporadically in the Répertoire d'épigraphie sémitique I–VII (1895–1950)Google Scholar. Note, however, Février, J. G., ‘Les Découvertes puniques et néopuniques depuis la guerre’, Studi orientali in onore di G. Levi della Vida I (1956), 274Google Scholar; J. Desanges, S. Lancel, ‘Bibliographie analytique de l'Afrique antique’ (appearing and to be continued in the new Bulletin d'archéologie algérienne)—so far: ‘1960–62’, BAA I (1962–1965), 277 ff.Google Scholar; ‘II, 1963–64’, ibid. II (1966–67), 315 ff.; and Teixidor, J., ‘Bulletin d'épigraphie sémitique’, Syria XLIV (1967), 163CrossRefGoogle Scholar (also the first of a series).

46 G. Charles-Picard, La Civilisation de l'Afrique romaine (1959), esp. 104, 109, 295.

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50 IRT, p. 80, and nos. 318 and 349a.

51 Vida, G. Levi della, ‘Le iscrizione neopuniche di Wadi El-Amud’, Libya Antiqua I (1964), 57Google Scholar; for the setting and date, O. Brogan, ‘The Roman remains in the Wadi el-Amud: an interim note’, ibid. 47 f.

52 Brogan, O., ‘Henscir el-Ausāf by Tigi (Tripolitania) and some related tombs in the Tunisian Gefara’, Libya Antiqua II (1965), 47Google Scholar, on p. 54 f., with pl. XVII–XVIII. The neo-punic text is given in the earlier publication by Berger, P., ‘Le Mausolée d'El-Amrouni’, Rev. Arch. XXVI (1895), 71Google Scholar.

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54 Goodchild, R. G., ‘The Latino-Libyan Inscriptions of Tripolitania’, Antiquaries Journal XXX (1950), 135CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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58 Vida, G. Levi della, ‘Sulle iscrizione “latino-libiche” della Tripolitania’, Oriens Antiquus II (1963), 65Google Scholar; idem, ‘Parerga Neopunica’, ibid. IV (1965), 59.

59 Brogan, O., Reynolds, J. M., ‘Inscriptions from the Tripolitanian Hinterland’, Libya Antiqua I (1964), 43 f.Google Scholar, nos. 3 (partially in Latin), 4, 5.

60 di Vita, A., ‘Il “limes” romano di Tripolitania nella sua concretezza archeologica e nella sua realtà storica’, Libya Antiqua I (1964), 65Google Scholar.

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62 In Psalm 118, 32, 8 (PL XXXVIII, 159 f.); see Green, op. cit. (n. 40), 185.

63 One may note the bilingual Latin (IRT 338) and neo-Punic text from Lepcis Magna dating to A.D. 53, where the Punic translates, with some difficulty, the expression ‘testamento adoptatus’. See della Vida, G. Levi, Rend. Acc. Naz. Lincei 1949, 400 f.Google Scholar, and cf. Février, J.-G., ‘Textes puniques et néopuniques rélatifs aux testaments’, Semitica XI (1961), 5Google Scholar.

64 Especially emphasized recently by L. Teutsch, Das römische Städtewesen in Nordafrika (1962).

65 See Charles-Picard, op. cit. (n. 47), 77 f.

66 The spread of Latin may be conveniently illustrated by the recent publication of fifty grave stelai, many of distinctly Punic style, from Sétif (Sitifis in Mauretania) dating to the second and third centuries; all have inscriptions in Latin. See Février, P.-A. and Gaspary, A., ‘Le Nécropole orientale de Sétif. Rapport sur les fouilles effectuées de 1959 à 1964’, Bulletin d'archéologie algérienne II (1967), 11Google Scholar.

67 See Israel Exploration Journal XII (1962), 235 ff. and 258 ff.Google Scholar