Imran Abdullah

Ancient Rome was more diverse than many thought, and many foreigners were immigrants like workers, soldiers or slaves. According to David Noy, the foreigners in Rome: Citizens and Strangers, these immigrants came from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Greek, Libyan, Berber and Jewish.

Although xenophobia was undoubtedly present in Rome, many immigrants took Romanian citizenship, giving them rights to avoid expulsion. Some of the most important Roman personalities - including writers, poets, popes, priests and even an emperor - were descendants of North Africa.

Roman prominent from Africa
In his book "North African Stones Speak," American author and historian Paul McKendrick mentions examples of prominent Roman figures from North Africa, where the acceptance of Roman citizenship by members of the ruling class in African cities led to the emergence of Roman-African elites, such as the comic poet Ternius.

Born in Carthage in 185 BC, Ternateus was a slave in Rome and bore the title of master according to custom, and wrote a collection of comedy plays that contributed to the preservation of the Latin language. Marcus Fronto was born as a Roman citizen in the Newmidian capital of Cirta (present-day Constantine) at the end of the 1st century AD, calling himself a Bedouin Libyan and gaining fame as a rich lawyer and preacher.

The Romanian politician and legislator Julian was born in Sousse, Tunisia.Amazigh writer Lucius Apollius was a philosopher, writer, and Romanian poet.He was born around 125 AD in Madur, now called Madawrosh in the Wilayat of Souk Ahras in Algeria.His Golden Ass is the oldest written novel in the world.

Roman-African Emperor
The 21st Roman Emperor Severus I was born in the city of Libdeh (now east of Tripoli, Libya) in 193 AD, and rose to the pyramid of Roman positions before he came to the head of Roman power after the death of Emperor Bertinax.

Severus, descended from the north of the continent, ruled the empire for 18 years in the second century AD, and his reign saw persecution of Christians throughout the empire.

Pope Glacius I was originally Amazigh, born in North Africa, and the Papacy took over the Catholic Church at the end of the fifth century AD as the third descendant of North Africa.

Amazigh Christian writer Tertullian was born in Carthage of Tunisia in the middle of the second century AD. To the Father in Christian doctrine.

Amazigh-born North African-born Lectantius was an advisor to Constantine I, the Roman Christian emperor, and the philosopher Augustine, born in the present-day Taghasset of eastern Algeria, was an influential figure agreed among most different Christian denominations.

African Romans
The Roman Empire included the province of Africa in 146 BC after the defeat of Carthage and the Phoenicians. The empire eventually took control of the entire Mediterranean coast of North Africa, adding Egypt to the province within 30 BC and Mauritania in 44 AD.

The name of the African Romans is called the North African Romans who used Latin letters in writing between the Romans entering the country and the Arab conquest. African Romans lived in all coastal cities, in modern Tunisia, western Libya and eastern Algeria.

Most Roman Africans are native to the Amazigh people or the local Punic, the Western Phoenicians and the people of Carthage in present-day Tunisia. In addition to these and those there were descendants of the Romans who came directly from Rome itself, or from the various regions of the empire as soldiers and retirees.

Because the African region was one of the richest regions of the empire and rivaled only Egypt, Syria and Rome itself, the population from across the vast empire migrated to the cities of Roman North Africa, including veterans of the Roman army who owned agricultural land as a reward for their military service

The Roman-African population spoke a mix of Latin, Amazigh and Punic languages, and gradually converted to Arabic and Islam from the Umayyad period until the Unitarian era. African Latin retained its effects within the Arabic and Amazigh dialects currently used in the region.