Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa

364 Pages·2004·4.433 MB·English

by  Andrew Merrills (editor)

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VANDALS, ROMANS AND BERBERS
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Vandals, Romans and Berbers
New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa
Edited by
A. H. MERRILLS
First published 2004 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © A. H. Merrills, 2004
A. H. Merrills has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa
1. Vandal s-Africa, North - History. 2. Christianity -Africa, North -History -To 1500.
3. Africa, North-History-To 647.4. Africa, North-Civilization. Africa, North-Church
history, I. Merrills, A. H.
939.7'03
US Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa /edited by
A. H. Merrills.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1.Africa North -History -To 647. 2. Vandals -Africa, North -History. 3. Vandals -
Africa-Intellectual life. I. Merrills,A.H. (Andrew H.), 1975-. II. Title.
DT198.V362004
939'.703-dc22
2004003418
ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-4145-2 (hbk)
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Contents
Lists of Illustrations vii
List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Vandals, Romans and Berbers: Understanding Late Antique North Africa 3
A. H. Merrills
Part 1 African Identities 29
1. The Vandals: Fragments of a Narrative 31
Walter Pohl
2. The Settlement of the Vandals in North Africa 49
Andreas Schwarcz
3. The House of Nubel: Rebels or Players? 59
Andy Blackhurst
4. From Arzuges to Rustamids: State Formation and Regional Identity 77
in the Pre-Saharan Zone
Alan Rushworth
Part 2 Written Culture 99
5. ‘Romuleis Libicisque Litteris’:Fulgentius and the ‘Vandal Renaissance’ 101
Gregory Hays
6. Vandal Poets in their Context 133
Judith W. George
7. The Perils of Panegyric: The Lost Poem of Dracontius and its 145
Consequences
A. H. Merrills
8. The So-called Laterculus Regum Vandalorum et Alanorum: 163
A Sixth-century African Addition to Prosper Tiro’s Chronicle?
Roland Steinacher
v
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vi Vandals, Romans and Berbers
9. Who Wrote the Ostraka from the Ilôt de l’Amirauté, Carthage? 181
Jacqueline F. Godfrey
10. Literacy and Private Documentation in Vandal North Africa: 199
The Case of the Albertini Tablets
Jonathan P. Conant
Part 3 The African Church in Context 225
11. Who were the Circumcellions? 227
Brent D. Shaw
12. From Donatist Opposition to Byzantine Loyalism: The Cult of 259
Martyrs in North Africa 350–650
W. H. C. Frend
13. Intentions and Audiences: History, Hagiography, Martyrdom, and 271
Confession in Victor of Vita’s Historia Persecutionis
Danuta Shanzer
14. Disputing the End of African Christianity 291
Mark A. Handley
Select Bibliography 311
Index 331
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List of Illustrations
I.1 Late Roman and Vandal North Africa 2
4.1 North Africa: Relief and major regional divisions (with the 78
principal inland centres of the early Islamic era marked)
4.2 Moorish successor states (after Christian Courtois, Les Vandales 80
et l’Afrique (Paris, 1955), p. 334)
4.3 Western Mauretania Caesariensis in late Antiquity 81
4.4 Plan and profile of one of the Djedars 83
4.5 The location of the Djedars 85
4.6 The Maghreb in the eighth–ninth centuries AD(after J. M. Abun 89
Nasr, A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period(Cambridge,
1987, p. 44)
4.7 The spread of Christianity: The Church of Khafagi Aamer in 92
the Tripolitanian pre-desert (photo courtesy of J. N. Dore)
4.8 Khafagi Aamer: painted figure on wall plaster (photo courtesy 93
of J. N. Dore)
4.9 Gsur in the wadi Buzra (photo courtesy of J. N. Dore) 97
9.1 Letterforms from the Ilôt de l’Amirauté archive 187
9.2a Letterforms from Ann Arbor, Uni. Of Mich. P. Inv. 5271e 189
9.2b Letterforms from Paris, BNF, Nouv. Acq. Lat., 3147 189
9.3 Letterforms from Manchester, John Rylands Library, P. Ryl. 192
GK 623 and Strasbourg BNP. Lat. 1
9.4a Letterforms from London, BL. P. 447 (50 per cent reduction) 193
9.4b Letterforms from Geneva, P. Lat. III (50 per cent reduction) 193
9.5 Letterforms from Leipzig, P. Inv. 530 (50 per cent reduction) 194
9.6 Letterforms from Vienna, Nat. Bibl. Pap. Vindob. L8 and 194
L125 (50 per cent reduction)
9.7 From the beginning of lines 2 and 3, ostrakon 13, from the Ilôt 195
de l’Amirauté archive
Appendix 197
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List of Contributors
Andy Blackhurst Formerly of University College, London
Jonathan P. Conant Department of History, Harvard University
W. H. C. Frend, F.B.A. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Judith W. George Open University (Scotland)
Jacqueline F. Godfrey Department of Classics, King’s College, London
Mark A. Handley Honorary Fellow, University College, London
Gregory Hays University of Virginia
A. H. Merrills King’s College Cambidge
Walter Pohl Forschungsstelle für Geschichte des Mittelalters,
Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften
Alan Rushworth The Archaeological Practice, Newcastle upon Tyne
Danuta Shanzer University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Brent D. Shaw Department of Classics, Princeton University
Andreas Schwarcz Forschungsstelle für Geschichte des Mittelalters,
Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften
Roland Steinacher Forschungsstelle für Geschichte des Mittelalters,
Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften