a comparative study of a Roman frontier province. - Historia Antigua

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CHAPTER 3:
THE TRIBAL BACKGROUND I
3: 1 INTRODUCTION
1. Dyson 1974,277-83; Warmington 1972,291-96.
2. Csell HAAN V; 1928b; Bates 1914; Camps 1960; 1980; Desanges 1962; Rachet
1970,29-53; Brogan 1975,267-89; Fentress 1979,18-60, are a represen-
tative selection of the chief general works.
3. Fentress 1979,4-5. For comparison the works listed in note 5, below
are loaded with modern political conceptions.
4. Louis 1975, is an excellent example of a relevant ethnographic work.
His study of the agricultural communities of the western Tripolitanian
Cebel in the recent past is the essential complement to Trousset 1974,
which presented solely the Roman period material.
5. For instance, Csell n ux V; 1926,149-166; Guey 1939,178-248;
Leschi 1942,47-62; Rachet 1970; Benabou 1976, passim,. but particularly
pp. 71-72.
6. The chief difference between the most recent work and that written in
the days of French colonial rule, is that the balance of sympathy has
shifted in favour of the African "freedom fighters" and away from the
"long suffering and beneficent" Roman imperialists'. The continuing
influence of the "conflict" theories is evident in the account of
MacKendrick 1980.
7. Desanges 1962.
8. Bates 1914, particularly 51-71 for the analysis of the primary sources
and maps.
9. Brogan 1975,267-289; Daniels 1970a; 1971a. See also 3: 3 note 53.
10. Gsell, HAAN V, passim; Bates 1914, passim; Fentress 1979,18-60 are the
chief relevant works.
11. Although the Libyan language was common to all the Berber tribes, there
were at least forty distinct dialects. Writing seems to have been
restricted to funerary and dedicatory uses and little is consequently
known about the language. There are at least four distinct Libyan
alphabets; Chabot 1940, i-vii; Brogan 1975,268-76; Marichal 1979,
436-37; Rebuffat 1975a, 165-87; Daniels, 1975 249-65.
12. Bates 1914,67-69, on the problems with the late sources.
13. Pliny, V, 43-46, echoes Mela's account (I, 8,41-48) which in turn
draws some of its material from Herodotus (IV, 174; 'IV, 183; IV, 186).
Fentress 1979,18-42 and Appendix 1,191-200, has collected and
discussed the various source references on economic and social matters
for Numidia. Her discussion of the problems of the sources is
particularly
valuable.
14. See notes 19-21 below relating to Balbus' campaign of c. 20-19 B. C.
In the same section (V, 38) Pliny mentioned the campaign made by
Valerius Festus in A. D. 70. See now a new edition of the North African
section (Book V) of the Natural History, edited with commentary by
Desanges.
15. Pliny, V, 34 and Strabo. I, 5,33, both misplaced the Asbytae known in
Cyrenaica from other sources; Desanges, 1962,147-49. In the same way,
Ptolemy, IV, 6,3, located the Cinyphii too far west of their known
position in the Cinyps (Caam) valley.
16. In the passages quoted in note 13, above, Pliny and Mela used fantastical
information to give the impression that tribes became increasingly
barbaric
and degenerate the further one progressed away from the coast.
This is particularly misleading in the case of the Garamantes.
See also Chapter 3: 3.