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Mauretania Tingitana was a Roman province located in northwestern Africa, coinciding roughly with the northern part of modern Morocco and spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The province extended from the northern peninsula, opposite Gibraltar, to Chellah (or Sala) and Volubilis to the south, and as far east as the Oued Laou river.

Its capital city was the city of Tingis, modern Tangier, after which it was named. The major cities of the province included, Volubilis, Lixus, and Tamuda.
In Antiquity, Mauretania was originally an independent Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa (named after the Maure tribe, after whom the Moors were named), corresponding to western Algeria, and northern Morocco. The kingdom of Mauretania was not sited where modern Mauritania lies, on the Atlantic coast south of Western Sahara.
(môr’ətā’nēə) , ancient district of Africa in Roman times. In a vague sense it meant only “the land of the Moors” and lay W of Numidia, but more specifically it usually included most of present-day N Morocco and W Algeria. The district was not the same as modern Mauritania. It was a complex of native tribal units, but by the 2d cent. B.C. when Jugurtha of Numidia was rebelling against Rome, Jugurtha’s father-in-law, Bocchus, had most of Mauretania under his control. The Roman influence became paramount, and Augustus, having met opposition in restoring Juba II (see under Juba I) to the throne of Numidia, placed him instead (25 B.C.) as ruler of Mauretania. Revolts later occurred, and Mauretania was subdued (A.D. 41–A.D. 42); Emperor Claudius I made it into two provinces—Mauretania Caesariensis, with Caesarea (modern Cherchel) as capital, and Mauretania Tingitana, with Tingis (modern Tangier) as capital. Roman influence was never complete, and native chieftains remained powerful
With the rise of the Roman Empire, Mauretania became a Roman ‘client’ (i.e., vassal) kingdom. The Romans placed Juba II of Numidia there as client-king. When Juba died in 23, his Roman-educated son Ptolemy of Mauretania succeeded him on the throne. Caligula killed Ptolemy of Mauretania in 40. Claudius annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province in 44, under an imperial (not senatorial) governor.

Not depriving the Mauri of their line of kings would have contributed to preserving loyalty and order, it appears: “The Mauri, indeed, manifestly worship kings, and do not conceal their name by any disguise,” Cyprian observed in 247, doubtlessly quoting a geographer rather than personal observation, in his brief euhemerist exercise in deflating the gods entitled On the Vanity of Idols. [citation needed]

In the first century, Emperor Claudius divided the Roman province of Mauretania into Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana along the line of the Mulucha (Muluya) River, about 60 km west of modern Oran:

* Mauretania Tingitana, named after its capital Tingis (now Tangier); it corresponded to the Spanish plaza de soberanía, “sovereign enclave”) and northern Morocco
* Mauretania Caesariensis, comprising western and central Algeria as far as Kabylia.

Mauretania gave to the empire one emperor, the equestrian Macrinus, who seized power after the assassination of Caracalla in 217 but was himself defeated and executed by Elagabalus the next year.

Since emperor Diocletian’s Tetrarchy reform (293), the country was further divided in three provinces, as the small, easternmost region Sitifensis was split off from Mauretania Caesariensis.

The Notitia Dignitatum (circa 400) mentions them still, two being under the authority of the Vicarius of the diocese of Africa:

* a Dux et praeses provinciae Mauritaniae et Caesariensis, i.e., a Roman governor of the rank of Vir spectabilis, who also holds the high military command of ‘duke’, as the superior of eight border garrison commanders, each styled Praepositus limitis, named (genitive forms) Columnatensis, Vidensis, Praepositus limitis inferioris (i.e., lower border), Fortensis, Muticitani, Audiensis, Caputcellensis and Augustensis.
* an (ordinary, civilian) Praeses in the province of Mauretania Sitifensis

Author: samysamy25

Keywords: Morocco berbers Amazigh Tamazight Imazighen Mauritania Tangitana Moors Moorish Volubilis Tamuda Lixus