Roman expeditions to lake Chad and western Africa

The Roman expeditions to lake Chad and western Africa were a group of military and commercial expeditions undertaken by the Roman Empire in order to explore the area of western and central Africa south of the Sahara desert.

Historical background

These explorations were undertaken between the first century BC and the second century AD, when was created the Roman limes from Roman Mauritania to Roman Libya. There were five recorded by Roman historians:

  • The first expedition -according to Plinius- was the one of Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC reached the river Niger near actual Timbouctou. He moved from Libyan Sabratha and conquered with ten thousand legionaries the Garamantes capital in actual Fezzan and sent a small group of his legionaries further south across the Ahaggar mountains in order to explore the "land of the lions": they found a huge river (the Niger) that in their opinion was going toward the Nile river Indeed in 1955, many Roman coins and some Latin ceramics were found in the area of actual Mali
  • The second was done in the year 41 AD by Suetonius Paullinus, afterwards Consul, who was the first of the Romans who led an army across Mount Atlas. At the end of a ten days' march he reached the summit,—which even in summer was covered with snow,—and from thence, after passing a desert of black sand and burnt rocks, he arrived at a river called Gerj...he then penetrated into the country of the Canarii and Perorsi, the former of whom inhabited a woody region abounding in elephants and serpents, and the latter were Ethiopians, not far distant from the Pharusii and the river Daras (modern river Senegal). From the first century after Christ there is evidence (coins, fibulas) of Roman commerce and contacts in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit in actual Mauritania.
  • The third expedition was done by Valerius Festus in 68-70 AD. He -probably by orders of Nero- repeated the travel done by Balbus, but this time he started from the Tunisian south.
  • The forth expedition was done by Septimius Flaccus in 76 AD and reached the lake Chad through the Tibesti mountains
  • The fifth was done by Julius Matiernus in 86 AD and reached lake Chad and territories of actual northern Central African Republic. Ptolemy wrote that Matiernus did a travel of four months from southeastern Libya in order to reach the land called Agisymba, populated by rhinoceros and elephants.

Further south

Romans explored the coast of western Africa and reached even the Gulf of Guinea.

Indeed the western coast of Africa was explored by the Romans after the conquest of northern Maroc (then called Mauretania Tingitana): the Roman vassal king Juba II organized a successful trade from the area of Volubilis. Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century Roman author and military officer, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania, stated that a Roman expedition from Mauritania visited the islands of the archipelago of the Canaries and Madeira around 10 AD and found great ruins but no population, only dogs (from those animals he called the islands, using the Latin word "canarius" or "canis" for dog).

According to Pliny the Elder, an expedition of Mauretanians sent by Juba II to the archipelago visited the islands: when King Juba II dispatched a contingent to re-open the dye production facility at Mogador (historical name of Essaouira, Morocco) in the early 1st century AD Juba's naval force was subsequently sent on an exploration of the Canary Islands, Madeira and probably the Cape Verde islands, using Mogador as their mission base.

We have even recorded historically that, according to Pliny the Elder, the Greek Xenophon of Lampsacus stated that the Gorgades (Cape Verde islands) were situated two days from "Hesperu Ceras" (today called Cap-Vert), the westernmost part of the African continent, showing a knowledge of the area by the Romans. They even knew of the Hesperides: some researchers, like Duane Roller, have even identified the Hesperides with the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea.

Furthermore, according to Pliny the Elder and his citation by Gaius Julius Solinus, the sea voyage time crossing the Gorgades (Cape Verde islands) to the islands of the Ladies of the West ("Hesperides", actual São Tomé and Príncipe and Fernando Po) was around 40 days: this fact has created academic discussions about the possibility of further Roman travels toward Guinea and even the Gulf of Guinea. A Roman coin of the emperor Trajan has been found in Congo.

See also

  • Nero expedition to Nile sources

Bibliography

  • Henry Lhote. L'expédition de Cornelius Balbus au Sahara, in Revue africaine, 1954.