Historical Ecosystems. Roman Frontier and Economic Hinterlands in North Africa
Abstract
Some observations pertaining to fundamental aspects of the Roman frontier in North Africa are here presented. The main aim is to give evidence of the strong link between the legal arrangements of the provincial territories, i. e. Roman use and ownership of land, and the shifting character of the frontier areas. I think that a fundamental knock-on effect took place in the genesis of the frontier, originated by changes in the legal status of cities and provincial territories over about three centuries. I also suggest a different definition of frontier, especially to avoid the traditional labels of ‘political line’, ‘border area’, ‘buffer zone’, that seem to me to be quite inadequate. Another element will be the analysis of a specific socio-economic phenomenon of the North African frontier: the nundinae.