Mauretania Tingitana

Quick Facts: Who was Mauretania Tingitana?

Subject:

Mauretania Tingitana

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A major Roman province covering modern northern Morocco, centered on Tingis.

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2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

Mauretania Tingitana (Latin for "Tangerine Mauretania") was a Roman province, corresponding with northern Morocco. The territory stretched from the northern peninsula opposite Gibraltar, to Sala Colonia (or Chellah) and Volubilis to the south, and as far east as the Mulucha (or Malva) river. Its capital city was Tingis(present-day Tangier). Other major cities of Mauretania Tingitana were Iulia Valentia Banasa (near Sidi Kacem), Septem, Rusadir, Lixus (near Larache), and Tamuda (near Tétouan). After the death in 40 AD of Ptolemy of Mauretania, the last Ptolemaic ruler of the Kingdom of Mauretania, in about 44 AD Roman Emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom to the Roman Empire and partitioned it into two Roman provinces: Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

The Mulucha (Moulouya River), located around 60 km west of modern Oran, Algeria, became the border separating them. The Roman occupation did not extend very deep into the Maghreb's interiors. In the west, the southern limit of Roman imperial rule was Volubilis, which was ringed with military camps such as Tocolosida slightly to the southeast and Ain Chkour to the north-west, and a fossatum or defensive ditch, or commonly known as a trench. On the Atlantic coast, Sala Colonia Salé, Morocco was protected by another ditch and a rampart and a line of watchtowers. This was not a continuous line of fortifications: there is no evidence of a defensive wall, such as the one which protected the turbulent frontier in Britain at the other extremity of the Roman Empire.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Rather, it was a network of forts and ditches that seems to have functioned as a filter. The limes – the word from which the English word “limit” is derived – protected the areas that were under direct Roman control by funnelling contacts with the interior through the major settlements, regulating the links between the nomads and transhumants, with the towns and farms of the occupied areas. The same people lived on both sides of these limes, although the population of Volubilis was rather small. Volubilis had perhaps 20,000 inhabitants during the second century. On the evidence of inscriptions, around 10-20 percent of them were of European origin, mainly Iberian; the rest of the inscriptions were local to the city.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Mauretania Tingitana

True or False: “The primary defensive structure protecting the entire length of Mauretania Tingitana was a continuous stone wall, similar to Hadrian's Wall.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): Instead of a single continuous wall, Roman control relied on a network of forts, ditches, and watchtowers that functioned more as a filter system.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

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