Africa (Roman province)

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Africa Proconsularis
Province of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire
146 BC–AD 439 534–698
The province of Africa within the Roman Empire
Capital	Zama Regia, Utica, then Carthago
Historical era	Classical antiquity-Late antiquity-Early Middle Ages
• Established after the Third Punic War	146 BC
• Vandal Conquest of Carthage	439 AD
• Byzantine reconquest by Vandalic War	534
• Reorganization into the Exarchate	591
• Fall of Carthage	698
Preceded by Succeeded by Ancient Carthage Numidia Vandal Kingdom Ifriqiya
Today part of	Tunisia Libya Algeria

Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sidra. The territory was originally and still is inhabited by Berbers, known in Latin as the Mauri, indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt. In the 9th century BC, Semitic-speaking Phoenicians from West Asia built settlements along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping. Carthage, rising to prominence in the 8th century BC, became the predominant of these.

Africa was one of the wealthiest provinces in the western part of the Roman Empire second only to Italy. It was said that Africa fed the Roman populace for eight months of the year, while Egypt provided the remaining four months' supply.^[1][2][3] In addition to Carthage, other large settlements in the province were Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia), the capital of Byzacena, and Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria).