Ad fines Africae Romanae

The Mauretania Tingitana and Caesariana, later integrated into the Roman Empire, are different from the other African provinces because of their important rural communities (gentes) with a particular organisation, recognised by Rome, built around family ties and customaries respect. These regions are also the first to leave the Empire when the Vandal invasion of Africa speeds up Moorish kingdoms’ formation, each characterised by ethnical identity construction, according to the intensity of the contacts with Roman civilisation during the previous four centuries. This volume includes an analysis of these contacts based on the Moorish population’s marginality level, from peripheral territories of the Romanised cities to the border areas. 

The new tribal structures assertion during the centuries before the Arab conquest result partly in the fact that the tribal nobles, romanised and converted to Christianity, loss trust in the Roman institutions after the Firmus’ war; another reason is the arrival of Moorish populations from the south: a part of Africa turned towards main roads and exchanges with the pre-Saharan and Saharan areas.