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Tacfarinas (Latinised form of Berber language Tikfarin or Takfarin; died AD 24) was a Numidians from Thagaste, located in the province of Proconsular Africa (now Souk Ahras, in Algeria), who was a deserter from the Roman army who led his own Musulamii tribe and a loose and changing coalition of other Berber tribes in a war against the Romans in North Africa during the rule of the emperor Tiberius (AD 14–37). Though Tacfarinas' personal motivation is unknown, it is likely that the Roman occupation under Augustus of the traditional grazing grounds of the Musulamii was the determining factor.
Nevertheless, Tacfarinas' large-scale raids caused severe disruption of the province's grain production, which in turn threatened civil disorder in Rome. The Romans were for a long time unable to eradicate their enemy because of the Numidians' extraordinary mobility and their support from the many desert tribes. Tacfarinas was finally captured and killed in AD 24 by a combination of determined pursuit and a lucky break in intelligence.
A direct consequence of the war was the registration of the entire Tunisian plateau for land taxation and its conversion to mainly wheat cultivation. The Musulamii and other nomadic tribes were likely permanently excluded from what had been their summer grazing grounds and subsequently forced to lead a more impoverished existence in the Aurès mountains and the arid zone. The conflict also probably sealed the long-term fate of the client kingdom of Mauretania, which was annexed in AD 44 by the emperor Claudius.
This has led C.R. Whittaker to doubt that Tacfarinas' revolt was ever a serious threat to Roman rule in Africa, suggesting that Tacitus may have exaggerated the war's importance for dramatic effect.CAH X 596 In favour of this view is the inability of Tacfarinas' forces to take Roman fortified positions or to stand up to Roman armies in pitched battle; against it are Tacfarinas' establishment of a Roman-style force, the despatch of an extra legion to the war zone, and the award of triumphal honours to no less than three Roman for successes in the war (implying, in each case, the killing of at least 5000 insurgents), all events indicating more than just low-level guerrilla warfare.Smith's (1890) Triumphus
North of the Atlas Mountains, the land was fertile and well-watered (there is evidence that rainfall was heavier than today and that the desert had not encroached as far north). The Berbers living inside the fertile zone were largely sedentary. In contrast, on the southern fringes existed tribes that led a semi-nomadic existence. They practised transhumance, living off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. They spent the summers on the central plateau of Tunisia and the Aurès of northeast Algeria, where there was good grazing for the animals. In winter, they lived around the (pronounced "shots") around Lake Tritonis, a string of large salt lakes on the desert southern fringes of the Roman province. In winter, this region contained plentiful freshwater in the form of seasonal torrents from the Aurès mountains to the North. These tribes included the Gaetuli, Musulamii, and Garamantes, as well as the nomadic elements of the Mauri.
In 45 BC, Roman dictator perpetuus Julius Caesar defeated and killed king Juba I, and annexed his kingdom of Numidia to the Roman province, calling it Africa Nova ("New Africa"). This, however, dispossessed the ancient pro-Roman dynasty of Numidian kings founded by Massinissa, whose decision during the Second Punic War to switch allegiance from Carthage had been critical to the decisive Roman victory at the Battle of Zama 158 years earlier. The Numidian king's young son, Juba II, was brought up and educated at Rome, where he became a close friend of Caesar's grand-nephew Octavian, who assumed the title of Augustus after he became sole ruler of the Roman empire in 30 BC.
Caesar's settlement was modified in 25 BC by Augustus. He placed Juba II on the vacant throne of Mauretania, and added to it the southern and eastern parts of Africa Nova. Juba thus nominally ruled a vast realm stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar in the west to Cyrenaica in the east. Augustus' strategic conception was that Juba's native warriors would provide the Roman province's first line of defence against incursions by the nomadic desert tribes. But Juba proved unequal to the task, not least because the fiercely independent desert tribes refused to recognise his overlordship, despising him as a tool of Roman imperialism.CAH X 592
The Tunisian plateau was also the traditional summer grazing region of the semi-nomadic Musulamii and Gaetuli. The result of Roman encroachment in this region was prolonged and bitter conflict between the nomads and Rome during Augustus' rule. His proconsuls in Africa fought a series of campaigns against the nomads: campaigns are recorded in 21 BC, 19 BC, c. 15 BC, c. AD 3, and AD 6, some large enough to gain Roman triumph for their generals, each of which implied the killing of at least 5,000 of the enemy. After AD 6, no major operations are recorded, but the conflict mutated into a chronic low-level guerrilla resistance to Roman rule. It was in this context of conflict that Tacfarinas grew up.CAH 593, 596
Still, the desert tribes' relationships with the Romans were not exclusively hostile. Many tribal nomads are known to have volunteered to serve in the Roman army, in both the regular auxilia and irregular native foederati (allied) units (although conscription was still common at this time, and was another cause of discontent). The army provided the prospect of a well-paid career that gave scope for the tribesmen's martial nature, which was highly regarded by the Romans. Numidian cavalry ( equites Numidarum or Maurorum), which had played a prominent role in Roman armies since the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), were regarded as the best light cavalry in the Roman world. A Numidian cavalryman rode his small but agile and resilient desert mount without bridle, saddle, or stirrups, restraining it by a loose rope round its neck and directing it by leg movements and voice commands. Unarmoured, he was protected by just a small round leather shield. His weaponry consisted of several javelins.Livy XXXV.12Trajan's Column Exceptionally fast and manoeuvrable, Numidian cavalry would harass the enemy by hit-and-run attacks, riding up and loosing volleys of javelins, then scattering and retreating faster than any opposing cavalry could pursue. They were superbly suited to scouting, harassment, ambush, and pursuit.Sidnell (2006) 172 Numidian foot soldiers were also predominantly light infantry, relying on speed and manoeuvrability.Sallust Jug. 59, 74 However, both Numidian foot and mounted warriors were vulnerable in close-order combat with Roman troops, who mainly wore metal armour.
Thereafter, Tacfarinas rapidly gained the support of some of the Mauri people, the western neighbours of the Musulamii, substantial numbers of whom were brought over by a leader called Mazippa, presumably a rebel against the Roman-installed king of Mauretania, Juba II. The Cinithii tribe who lived within Roman territory in southern Tunisia also joined him. While Tacfarinas trained a division of specially selected men into a Roman-style force, Mazippa led his traditional light-armed Mauri horsemen on devastating raids deep into Roman-occupied territory.
By AD 17, the Roman proconsul of Africa, Marcus Furius Camillus was in a quandary. The threat to his province was now far more serious than the usual border raiding by the desert tribes. But while Tacfarinas relied on hit-and-run raids, he had little effective response. Although Camillus' own forces (the 3rd legion and at least the same number of auxiliaries, totaling approximately 10,000 men) were now greatly outnumbered by Tacfarinas' followers, Camillus decided to capitalise on the Romans' advantages in armour and training by offering Tacfarinas a decisive pitched battle. To this end, he led out into the field most of his force. Tacfarinas felt confident that with superior numbers, his newly modelled army, combining the best elements of Roman and Numidian warfare, was equal to the challenge. His men joined battle with the Romans and were utterly routed. Tacitus gives no details on how this was accomplished, but later events suggest that the Numidian line was probably broken by the legionary infantry charge.Tacitus IV.24 Tacfarinas fled into the desert with the shattered remnants of his army and Camillus was awarded triumphal honours.
In 18, Camillus was replaced by Lucius Apronius as proconsul of Africa. Tacfarinas launched a series of lightning raids on Roman territory, destroying the villages he had ransacked and disappearing into the desert before Roman forces could intervene. Emboldened by success, Tacfarinas attempted a conventional siege operation. His men surrounded a strategic Roman fort on the river Pagyda (location uncertain) held by a cohort of the 3rd legion. Its commander, one Decrius (presumably the cohort's most senior centurion - the pilus prior or "front spear" centurion), "considered it disgraceful that Roman legionaries should sit besieged by a rabble of deserters and tramps", Tacitus reports. Decrius ordered a sortie. His troops tried to break through the besiegers, but were soon forced back by the far superior numbers of enemy. Decrius, cursing his standard-bearers for not standing their ground, shouted at his men to follow him. Although struck by arrows in one eye and in several other places, he rushed at the enemy. But his men retreated into the fort as their commander went down fighting.Tacitus III.20 Roman soldiers were forbidden to retreat before an enemy unless ordered to do so by their commander. When Apronius was informed of the incident, he ordered the cohort to be decimated for cowardice. This ancient, extreme and rarely used form of military punishment required every tenth man in the unit (i.e. ca. 50 men in this case), chosen by lot, to be flogged to death in front of their comrades. The savage penalty "evidently had a salutary effect", according to Tacitus: at the next fort to come under attack by Tacfarinas, Thala (Thala, Tunisia, the site of a Roman victory over an earlier Numidian rebel leader, Jugurtha, some 120 years before), the garrison of 500 elderly veterans beat off the assailants.Tacitus III.21
The reverse at Thala impressed on Tacfarinas the difficulty of conducting conventional operations against the Romans. So he reverted to guerrilla tactics, retreating before the advancing Romans, then attacking their supply-lines in the rear. The Romans were soon exhausted and frustrated, unable to respond effectively. Eventually, however, the sheer volume of plunder that Tacfarinas had taken forced him to adopt a more stable base, near the Mediterranean coast in the puppet-state of Mauretania. Here he was surprised by a flying column of auxiliary cavalry and special light-armed legionaries under the proconsul's own son, Lucius Apronius Caesianus (presumably the 3rd legion's tribunus militum - deputy commander). Tacfarinas was forced to flee into the Aurès mountains, abandoning most of his booty. For this result, Apronius (senior) was also awarded triumphal honours.Tacitus IV.23
Installed in Africa, Blaesus issued his amnesty offer, which was successful in bringing over many of Tacfarinas' war-weary allies. The new proconsul also employed innovative tactics to deal with his elusive enemy. With a doubled contingent, he was able to cover Tacfarinas' various entry routes into the province more thoroughly, dividing his forces in three divisions covering the western, central and southern sectors respectively. He built a large number of new forts ( castella), many very small, accommodating only a single centuria of troops (80 men). These were garrisoned year-round, as opposed to only in the campaigning season as previously. From these, small, highly mobile units of desert-trained troops would sally forth and keep Tacfarinas' bands under constant pressure.Tacitus III.74 This system, similar to the blockhouses used by the British to suppress the Boer insurgency in the latter, guerilla phase of the South African War of 1899-1902, virtually extinguished Tacfarinas' raiding operations. Blaesus' campaign achieved its crowning success in AD 22, when his men captured Tacfarinas' brother. After this, Blaesus withdrew his troops to normal winter quarters in the province. Tiberius accepted this as marking the end of the war. He granted Blaesus the rare privilege of adopting the honorary title of imperator ("victorious general"), the last time this was accorded to a person outside the imperial house. When Blaesus returned to Rome at the end of his term in 23, he was also accorded triumphal honours, the third such award in the Tacfarinas War. The emperor now ordered the withdrawal of the 9th legion from Africa, confident that it was no longer needed. But Tacitus suggests that Blaesus and Tiberius were being over-optimistic about the situation, given that Tacfarinas himself was still at large with a substantial following.
By the start of the AD 24 campaign-season, Tacfarinas felt strong enough to lay siege to the Roman strongpoint of Thubursicum (Thubursicum, Algeria or Teboursouk, Tunisia). Dolabella hurriedly assembled all his available troops and rushed to raise the siege. Once again, the Numidians proved unable to withstand the Roman infantry charge and were routed on first assault and fled westwards into Mauretania. Dolabella now embarked on an all-out effort to hunt down the ever-elusive Tacfarinas, as it was evident that, unless its leader was eliminated, the insurgency would never end. The proconsul summoned assistance from Ptolemy, in whose kingdom Tacfarinas had taken refuge, and who supplied large numbers of those Mauri horse who had remained loyal to him. Thus reinforced, Dolabella divided his force into four divisions advancing in parallel to cover as much territory as possible, with the allied cavalry acting as scouts, criss-crossing between the main columns. These tactics soon paid off, as the crucial intelligence was obtained that Tacfarinas had established a camp near the half-ruined fort of Auzea (Sour El-Ghozlane, SE of Algiers), which Tacfarinas' men had themselves previously burnt down. Well to the west of the Roman province, the site was surrounded by extensive forests and Tacfarinas evidently discounted the possibility that the Romans could discover his location, as he apparently failed to post a screen of sentries in the woods. In a repeat of Caesianus' raid four years earlier, Dolabella immediately despatched a flying strike-force of light-armed infantry and Numidian cavalry. They approached Tacfarinas' camp unobserved, under cover of the woods and the pre-dawn darkness. At the break of dawn, the Numidians, many of whom were still asleep and unarmed, and whose horses were grazing at a distance, were jolted awake by the clamour of Roman trumpets sounding the charge. The Romans attacked the camp in full battle-order as the disorganised Numidians scrambled to pick up their weapons and to find their horses. The complete surprise resulted in a massacre, made all the bloodier by the Romans' lust for revenge after years of hardship and humiliation. Acting on strict orders, the Roman centurions directed their men against Tacfarinas himself. The latter and his entourage were soon surrounded by overwhelming numbers, and in a fierce fight his bodyguards were killed and his son taken prisoner. Recognising that this time there was no possibility of escape, Tacfarinas impaled himself on the massed spears of his assailants.Tacitus IV.25
Dolabella applied to the Senate for triumphal honours. But his motion was voted down at the behest of Tiberius, despite the fact that arguably Dolabella deserved the accolade more than any of his three predecessors, since unlike them, he had actually brought the war to an end by eliminating its instigator. Tacitus suggests that the reason was Sejanus' concern that his uncle's glory should not be diminished by comparison. Doubtless, Tiberius' embarrassment that the war had flared up again after he had declared it won also played a part.Tacitus IV.26
The Garamantes, fearing that their own clandestine support for Tacfarinas may have been revealed to the Romans, despatched an embassy to Rome to protest their loyalty, although it is unknown how successfully. Ptolemy, king of Mauretania, was rewarded for his real loyalty by the title rex, socius et amicus populi Romani ("king, ally and friend of the Roman people" i.e. puppet-king). As a special token of esteem, the ancient ritual was revived, whereby the title was conferred in person by a Roman senator, who travelled to the king's capital with an accompanying gift of triumphal regalia: an ivory baton and a toga (all purple, with embroidered gold border).
Ironically, that same toga eventually caused Ptolemy's downfall, according to the Roman historian Suetonius. Many years later, in AD 40, the Mauretanian king wore it on a state visit to Rome as guest of the emperor Caligula (ruled 37–41). When the two leaders entered the amphitheatre together, the toga and its owner were accorded much admiration by the crowd. In an apparent fit of envy, the deranged emperor ordered Ptolemy's immediate execution.Suetonius Caligula 35 Beyond Suetonius' superficial explanation, it is likely that the Roman government was becoming concerned by Ptolemy's growing wealth and independence of action and that his removal from power, if not outright execution, was planned. Dio Cassius suggests that Ptolemy was executed because he had become too wealthy.Dio LIX.25 Ptolemy had started issuing gold coins, which was the traditional prerogative of an independent head of state. Another likely factor was Ptolemy's distinguished pedigree, which gave him a dangerously broad appeal in north Africa. On his father's side, Ptolemy was the scion of the ancient Numidian dynasty founded by king Massinissa (ruled 201–148 BC), who was Ptolemy's direct ancestor in 5 generations. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Mark Antony (the last Roman political rival to Augustus) and Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of an independent Egypt. It must have worried the Roman leadership that if Ptolemy ever turned against Rome, his pedigree, wealth and power could endanger the whole Roman position in north Africa.CAH X 597
Indeed, Ptolemy had by this time become a far more popular ruler than on his succession sixteen years earlier, when thousands of his Mauri subjects had defected to Tacfarinas. His execution sparked a massive anti-Roman revolt under one Aedemon, who is described as a freed slave in Roman sources but was more likely a Mauri prince. For the Roman military, the revolt proved as arduous as that of Tacfarinas and its suppression required the services of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and Gnaeus Hosidius Geta, two of the finest generals of the Julio-Claudian era. After its end in 44, Caligula's successor Claudius decided to annex Ptolemy's kingdom, dividing it into two , Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana. By this means, he brought the territory between Roman Africa and Roman Spain and the entire Berber people under direct Roman rule.CAH X 598
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