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While ancient Cyrenaica was part of the Greek world, the region further to the West, neighbouring Carthage, became the birthplace of several Phoenician colonies, and later was at the heart of the struggle for influence between Greeks and Phoenicians/Carthaginians in Africa. In this article, we will discover the Phoenician colonies in the West of modern-day Libya.
Leptis Magna and the original Tripolitania
Between the 7th and the 6th Century BCE, Phoenician salesmen founded three colonies on the Libyan coast: Leptis (Khoms), Oyat (Tripoli), and Sabratha. In 515, prince Dorieus of Sparta tried to establish a Greek colony in the region, but he was pushed back by the Phoenicians from Leptis. Later, Oyat was conquered by the Cyrenaican Greeks, who gave it the Greek name Oea, and then retaken by the Carthaginians, after which the three cities became part of the Carthaginian Empire. Leptis – now called Leptis Magna, to distinguish it from Leptis Parva (Lemta, Tunisia), became Carthage’s main Eastern port.
After the Punic Wars, the region was taken over by King Massinissa of Numidia. Leptis Magna took the side of the Romans during the Jugurthine War, and was consequently made a free city when Rome took control of the region after Jugurta’s defeat.
During the Roman area, the region was first part of the province of Africa. By the beginning of the 3rd Century CE, it became known as Tripolitania, because of its three cities (tri polis). Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211), born in Leptis Magna, made Tripolitania a fully autonomous Roman province.
Under the influence of Carthage, Tripolitania became one of the most strongly Christian regions in the Roman Empire. The names of the bishops of Leptis Magna, Oea, and Sabratha, are mentioned in the list of participants at several regional church councils that were organised in Carthage.
Roman Tripolitania started declining in the 5th Century. Its capital, Leptis Magna, was almost abandoned by the time of the Arab conquests. The Arabs renamed Oea into Tripoli, like the region itself, and made it their new regional capital.
After Leptis Magna
The Libyan coasts, from Leptis Magna to Cyrene, were especially feared by seamen, because of sanbanks, known as the Syrtes, on which many ships got wrecked. Ancient geographers distinguished the Syrtis Maiores (Golf of Sidra) and the Syrtis Minor (Golf of Gabes). This is why there was no major port city between Leptis Magna and Cyrene.
However, there was a Phoenician-built commercial station, known as Thubactis in Roman times, on the site of the modern-day city of Misrata. Nothing of the old city is left today and its exact location is unclear: either to the East, to the West, or to the South of the oasis of Misrata. The modern-day city was built by the Arabs.
Another Phoenician city with no remains left, Macomedes-Euphranta, was built on the site of the modern-day city of Sirte. This region was known to be highly dangerous, full of bandits on land and pirates at sea. Due to its isolation, it was the last region in Africa where Punic, the language of the Carthaginian Empire, was still spoken, in the 5th Century. The central Libyan desert, which was virtually impossible to cross through by land before the camel was introduced into North Africa, marked the border between Phoenicians/Carthaginians and Cyrenean Greeks.
Central Libya is inhabited since the Roman era. The Romans built a city, Corniclanum, on the site of the modern city of Ajdabiya. This site was chosen for its drinkable water reserves, and became an important staging post on the road from Tripolitania to Cyrenaica.
