Mauretania Tingitana

From Freepedia

In the first century A.D., the Emperor Claudius divided the Roman province of Mauretania into Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana along the line of the Mulucha (Muluya) River, about 60 km west of modern Oran. Tingitana was the western province with its capital at Tingis, modern Tangier.

The principal exports from Tingitana were purple dyes and valuable woods; and the native Mauri were highly regarded by the Romans as soldiers, especially light cavalry. Clementius Valerius Marcellinus is recorded as governor (praeses) between 24 October 277 and 13 April 280.

According to tradition, the martyrdom of St Marcellus took place on 28 July 298 at Tingis. Under the Emperor Diocletian's reform of governmental structures, Mauretania Tingitana became part of the Diocese of Hispania (and hence of the Praetorian Prefecture of the Gauls), and remained so until its conquest by the Vandals. Lucilius Constantius is recorded as governor (praeses) in the mid to late fourth century. The Notitia Dignitatum shows a Comes Tingitaniae with a field army of 2 legions, 3 vexillations and 2 auxilia palatina; Flavius Memorius held this office at some point in the mid-fourth century. However, it is implicit in the sources that there was a single military frontier command for both of the Mauretanian provinces, with a Dux Mauretaniae controlling 7 cohorts and 1 ala.

The Vandals established themselves in the province of Baetica in 422 under their king Gunderic, and from there seem to have carried out raids on Mauretania Tingitana. In 427 the then Comes Africae Boniface rejected an order of recall from the Court of the Emperor Valentinian III, and defeated an army sent against him. He was less fortunate when a second force was sent in 428, in which year Gunderic was succeeded by Gaiseric; and Boniface invited Gaiseric into Africa, providing a fleet to enable the passage of the Vandals to Tingis in 429. Boniface's intention was to confine the Vandals to Mauretania, but once across the straits they rejected any control and marched on Carthage, inflicting grievous sufferings on the Mauretanian provincials.

In 533, Belisarius reconquered the Diocese of Africa from the Vandals on behalf of the Emperor Justinian I. All the territory west of Caesarea had been lost by the Vandals to the Mauri, but a re-established Dux Mauretaniae kept a military unit at Septem (modern Ceuta); this was the last outpost of Mauretania Tingitana.

Roman archaeological sites include Volubilis, an administrative center and the site of a palace of Gordius, and Augusta Zilil.

Further reading

• A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, Blackwell, Oxford 1964 ISBN0631150765
• J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire

External links

• Lacus Curtius site: Mauretania Tingitana: Roman Morocco
• Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "Mauretania"
• Passion of St Marcellus [1]