Africa (Roman province)

Africa Proconsularis
Province of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire
146 BC–AD 439
534–698

The province of Africa within the Roman Empire
CapitalZama Regia, Utica, then Carthago
Historical eraClassical antiquity-Late antiquity-Early Middle Ages
• Established after the Third Punic War
146 BC
439 AD
• Byzantine reconquest by Vandalic War
534
• Reorganization into the Exarchate
591
698
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Ancient Carthage
Vandal Kingdom
Ifriqiya
Today part ofTunisia
Libya
Algeria

Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sidra. The territory was originally and still is inhabited by Berbers, known in Latin as the Mauri, indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt. In the 9th century BC, Semitic-speaking Phoenicians from West Asia built settlements along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping. Carthage, rising to prominence in the 8th century BC, became the predominant of these.

Africa was one of the wealthiest provinces in the western part of the Roman Empire, second only to Italy. In addition to Carthage, other large settlements in the province were Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia), the capital of Byzacena, and Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria).

The Roman empire in the time of Hadrian (ruled 117–138 AD), showing, in northern Africa, the senatorial province of Africa Proconsularis (E. Algeria/Tunisia/Tripolitania). 1 legion deployed in 125.