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North Africa: roads and the frontier

Caracalla travelled through North Africa with his family in 202 AD. Of course his father then also visited his hometown Lepcis Magna. Caracalla did not live long enough to visit the area again, although it will surely have been on his agenda.

Quite a few cities were given the status of municipium or colonia by Caracalla. As in the north-western empire, he had much work done on the road system, on coastal roads and roads in the interior: about 100 milestones have been preserved. Activity was particularly intense in 216 AD.



Click on the image to enlarge.
North Africa in the Atlas Antiquus of Justus Perthes, 1897.
The atlas was published in Gotha in central Germany.

Work on the frontier seems to have been restricted to the completion of the work of his father. An inscription from Calceus Herculis (El Kantara, Algeria) documents the building of a burgus speculatorius Antoninianorum, a fortified observation post (HD033487).



Roman Bridge at El Kantara, Algeria.
Photo: Wikimedia, Midou.dambri.