Roman North Africa

Roman North African is the province created along the north coast in 146 BCE after the defeat of the Carthaginian Empire. Named Africa Proconsulares it covered a territory spanning present day Tunisia, Northeast Algeria and the coast of Libya. Including original Phoenician and Carthaginian coastal areas developed to enable shipping and trading in the Mediterranean, it was very affluent, it was second only to Italia and enforced Roman policy to thwart the possibility of another North African power. Divided into territories and ruled by Roman officials chosen by the Roman Senate and part of the Empire under various names until the 7th century CE, it was nicknamed “the granary of the empire” and provided much of the Empire’s agriculture, textiles, wine, timber, livestock, marble and wool. Simple slipped utilitarian terracotta pottery, more decorative ceramics with etched and stamped designs and wares known as African Red Slip were made in North African pottery production centers, shipped to Italia and elsewhere in the Empire and are in represented our collection.