Iulia Campestris Babba

Map showing the Roman city of "Babba" (enlarge Morocco section)

Iulia Campestris Babbais aMauretaniancity created as Roman colony around 30 BC by emperorAugustus.Its actual location is currently unknown, though its existence is confirmed by the literature.

Characteristics

Colonia Iulia Campestris Babba was one of the threecoloniasinMauretania Tingitana(in northernMorocco) founded by emperorAugustusbetween 30 and 25 BC for veterans of thebattle of Actium.Nearly 10,000 legionaries settled inIulia Valentia Banasa,Iulia Constantia Zililand Babba, according to historianTheodore Mommsen.

The city of Babba in Mauritania Tingitana was probably situated on or near the river Lixus (El Haratel); and was made a colony in honor ofJulius Caesar,as its name Iulia indicated. It was also called Campestris because away from the seaThe city was populated by Roman colonists and their descendants and by romanisedberbers.

The exact location of Babba has been debated by many scholars,but one of the most probable possibilities is that Babba was the "Oppidum Novum" (actualKsar el-Kebir) of the "Itineraries of Antonius Augustus".Indeed, historian Euzennat believe that" can not be excluded in these circumstances that it was the colonia Iulia, which might have disappeared in the troubles of the second century AD before being reborn as Oppidum novum ".But some researchers argue that Babba can be the old Roman city of "Tremulae" (actualBasra) and even the city ofThamusida.

Iulia Campestris Babba was probably "Oppidum Novum" on this map of the Roman roads in Morocco

The city was probably abandoned at the end of the third century, by orders of emperorDiocletian.Indeed, Rome's control over the city probably ended following the chaos of theCrisis of the Third Century,when theRoman Empirenearly disintegrated as a series of generals seized and lost power through civil wars, palace coups and assassinations. Roman rule collapsed in much of Mauretania and was never re-established. Only a northern section of Mauretania Tingitana remained under Roman control. In 285 AD, Diocletian reorganised what was left of the province to retain only the coastal strip betweenLixus,TingisandSeptem(modernCeuta).

Bibliography

• Boube J.A propos de Babba Iulia CampestrisBull. Archéo. Maroc, t. 15, 1983-1984 (1986), p. 131-137.
• Euzennat M.Babba Iulia Campestris,in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, R. Stillwell éd., Princeton, 1976

See also

• Roman 'Coloniae' in Berber Africa
• Iulia Valentia Banasa
• Iulia Constantia Zilil
• Lixus
• Tingis
• Septem
• Sala (Roman colonia)