Altava

Altava was located between Rusadir (actual Melilla) and Oran

Altava is an ancient Roman city, located in modern-day Algeria. Named Lamoriciere at the time of the French presence, is located at Ouled Mimoun near Tlemcen.

History

Altava was located in western Mauretania Caesariensis on the Roman road from strategic Theveste to Numerus Syrorum (actual Maghnia). Altava was a city populated mainly by Berbers under Septimius Severus, with a small roman garrison. The garrison -according to historian M. Ruiu- was the Cohors II Sardorum and protected the new limes of the Roman empire moved south from the Mediterranean shores to a military road called Nova Praetentura . This road went from Rapidum in Numidia to Altava and Numerus Syrorum at the border of Mauretania Tingitana.[1]

Altava, according to historian Lawless, was a vicus that achieved independent status from the castrum-fort of the garrison and had a huge Forum and an important pagan temple, later converted to Christian church. The Roman settlement had an area of nearly 13 hectares and was surrounded by farms[2]

Emperor Diocletian reorganized the Roman Empire in 298 AD and later withdrew from the area of Volubilis, the Rif mountains in northern Morocco and the western Algerian Atlas mountains after the Crisis of the 3rd Century. Berber rulers created a small independent kingdom there, centered around the capital Altava and the fully Romanised city of Volubilis. From the 7th century Byzantine historians usually called it the "Kingdom of Altava".

This kingdom acted as a small Roman client state, but sometimes the Berber tribes living in that semi-free territory raided the Roman cities of the coast. This Mauro-Roman kingdom was never conquered by the Vandals, who destroyed the Roman presence in the Maghreb in 429-435 AD.

The Western kingdom more distant from the Vandal kingdom was the one of Altava, a city located at the borders of Mauretania Tingitana and Caesariensis....It is clear that the Mauro-Roman kingdom of Altava was fully inside the Western Latin world, not only because of location but mainly because it adopted the military-religious-sociocultural-administrative organization of the Roman Empire...[3]

After the Vandal invasion in 429 AD, Altava became the capital of an independent Romano-Berber state. Between 550 and 578 AD the city was the capital of the independent Berber kingdom of Garmul.

The last time the kingdom of Altava was cited historically was in connection with a campaign of Gennadius, "Master of the Soldiers" sent by the Eastern Roman Empire. He defeated the Garmules berbers and the ruler of Altava in 578 AD and his small kingdom was probably incorporated to the Byzantine Empire.[4]

We have no historical records about Altava in the seventh century, but it is also conceivable that the kingdom of Altava (or at least a small section of it) lasted until its conquest by the Arabs around 700 AD.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Altava and the Roman "Cohors II Sardorum
  2. ↑ Lawless, R. Mauretania Caesartiensis: anarcheological and geographical survey Section: The Roman Civilian Sites. p.122-195
  3. ↑ Noé Villaverde, Vega: "El Reino mauretoromano de Altava, siglo VI" (The Mauro-Roman kingdom of Altava) p.355
  4. ↑ Martindale et al. " The Prosopography of the later Roman Empire" Vol.III
  5. ↑ Philippe Sénac et Patrice Cressier : "Histoire du Maghreb médiéval VII - XI ème siècle" Armand Colin. Paris. France. 2012

Bibliography

See also

Coordinates: 34°53′11″N 1°01′29″W / 34.88639°N 1.02472°W