Mutual Benefits Rome and Africa Shared
Africans took to the colonizing of their land with as much
enthusiasm as the Romans. Rule by the Romans here did not
translate into subjugation, but opportunity.
By Caesar’s day, Africa Nova
produced nearly 50,000 tons of grain per year. Regular winter
rains, mild springs without frost, long ripening summers with no
threat of a sudden storm gave Africa the most reliable harvests
of the empire. If there were any bad years, it left no record of
widespread famine for there was always wheat in Rome. After a
century of direct Roman rule, Africa took over Egypt’s
former position as the city’s principle supplier of corn,
producing a half million tons of grain per year, two thirds of
the metropolis’s requirement. Thus did Africa acquire the
title, the "granary of Rome."
Africa also exported woolen and leather goods, apparently
manufactured by the natives in Mauretania, marble, wood, precious
stones, dyes, and gold dust. Also of special interest were
Africa’s exotic animals; elephants, leopards, panthers and
camels.
Most exports were sent from Carthage, and the city once again
became one of the grander in the Mediterranean. To Africa’s
advantage, the sea journey from the Italian peninsula was much
shorter than to Spain or to Egypt. Therefore, it was cheaper to
trade with Carthage, thanks to less transport cost and shipwreck
liability.
By this time, African natives were themselves enjoying the
prosperity of their nation, but also the status of government
positions within Rome. In AD 117, Lusius Quietus, a Moorish
chieftain, was appointed to the senate by Trajan. AD 143 marks
the rise of Marcus Cornelius Fronto of Cirta to the position of
consul.
It would seem by this time that Africa had reached its
agricultural heights, but sometime in the mid second century
after Christ, a new plateau was in sight. Rome’s growing
population had an ever growing need for olive oil, which was used
for cooking, lighting, and a base for perfume. The olive tree,
requiring little water (less than a palm tree) and being able to
grow in otherwise infertile land, was soon to become
Africa’s second largest cash crop.
Peasants were encouraged by land owners to work previously
uncultivated fringe land that could not be used for wheat to grow
olives. Tax concessions were also granted to those taking up the
growing of this new type of crop. Since it takes ten years for an
olive tree to bear fruit, those planting olive trees in Africa
were not taxed for that land for those years. Southern Africa
Nova and southern Numidia were to become vast olive orchards.
Despite all that Africa did for the empire, it was never able
to overcome the social stigma of having once been the home to the
villainous Carthaginians. Speaking the public opinion of the
time, Severus Antonius, a ship captain of the fourth century
after Christ, wrote,
Africa was a fine country but the Africans were not worthy
of it, for they were cunning and faithless, and there might
be some good people among them, but not many.
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