The Romans took Carthage and its territories in 146 BC. Thus was born Africa, the province of Roman Africa which, a century later, would include Numidia and Tripolitania.

The Roman-Africans (Afers), Punic and Romanized Berber people, the Moors who retained their ancestral language and way of life, and the Roman settlers constituted the population for over four centuries. They embraced Christianity with such fervor that the province became by far the most Christianized of the Western Roman Empire. For a long time persecuted by Rome, Christian Africans were caught up in the turmoil of the Donatist schism, when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire.

In 439, the Vandals who came to settle in Roman Africa offered the country one of the most beautiful and unknown pages of its history, despite the religious tensions caused by their Arianism. In 533, they were driven out by Justinian's Byzantines, who, coming as liberators, did not expect the fierce resistance of the Moors.

The country sank into a deep socio-economic crisis, dozens of fortresses were erected on the borders, but the province managed to save Byzantium from the Sassanian Persians by offering a local dynasty to the imperial throne, the Heraclids, in 610. However, it was just a few years later that the Arabs would come into play...

We are pleased to have as our guests today: Mr. Taher Ghalia, historian and archaeologist specialized in architecture and mosaics of Late Antiquity, and Mr. Mohamed Ben Abbes, historian specialized in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

*The podcast director extends his sincere thanks to the honorable professors Adnan El Ghali and Nouri Boukhchim.