Description
Book SynopsisThe studies collected in this volume cover three broad areas of the history of North Africa as part of the Roman Empire. Studies devoted to the history of ''political institutions'' are followed by ones that detail aspects of interactions between nomad and sedentarist communities in the African provinces. The book concludes with two studies on African christianity. In all of these, special attention is given to the indigenous institutions, economies and beliefs that informed the confrontation between ''African'' and ''Roman''. The studies in general argue for a strongly ''interactionist'' approach to historians'' reconstruction of the history of the period and the region - a perspective that would emphasise the continuous conflict between the two world of African and Roman.
Trade Review’Throughout his career, Shaw has been a breaker of accepted icons...Variorum Press is to be commended for producing a set of volumes that makes a significant portion of the author’s splendid work available in one place.’ Canadian Journal of History...This collection...is a model of careful scholarship in both environmental and social history. Canadian Journal of History, Joint review with Environment and Society in Roman North Africa
Table of ContentsContents: Rural markets in North Africa and the political economy of the Roman Empire; The undecemprimi in Roman Africa; The structure of local society in the early Maghrib: the elders; The Elder Pliny’s African geography; The formation of Africa Proconsularis; ’Eaters of flesh, drinkers of milk’: the ancient Mediterranean ideology of the pastoral nomad; Fear and loathing: the nomad menace and Roman Africa; Autonomy and tribute: mountain and plain in Mauretania Tingitana; Soldiers and society: the army in Numidia; The elders of Christian Africa; African Christianity: disputes, definitions and ’Donatists’; Critical Bibliographical Addenda; Index.
