Mauretania Caesariensis
Provincia Mauretania Caesariensis | |||||
Province of the Roman Empire | |||||
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The province of Mauretania Caesariensis within the Roman Empire, c. AD 120 | |||||
Capital | Caesarea | ||||
Historical era | Classical Antiquity | ||||
• | Established | AD 42 | |||
• | Muslim conquest | 7th century | |||
Today part of | ![]() |
Mauretania Caesariensis was a Roman province located in present-day Algeria, in north-west Africa, with its capital at Caesarea (now Cherchell), hence the name Caesariensis.
Contents
Historical background

In the 1st century AD, Roman Emperor Claudius divided the westernmost Roman province in Africa, named Mauretania (land of the people of the Mauri, hence the word Moors), into Mauretania Caesariensis (named after its capital, one of many cities simply named Caesarea after the imperial cognomen that had become a title) and Mauretania Tingitana.
Under Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform, the easternmost part was broken off from Mauretania Caesariensis as a separate small province, Sitifensis, called after its inland capital Sitifis (Sétif) with a significant port at Saldae (presently Béjaïa).
At the time of Diocletian and Constantine the Great, both Sitifensis and Caesariensis were assigned to the administrative Diocese of Africa, in the praetorian prefecture of Italy, while Tingitana was an outpost of the Diocese of Spain. Caesarea was a major center of Jewry before 330, and Sitifis was one of the centres of the soldier cult of Mithras. Christianity spread throughout in the 4th and 5th centuries.
Religion
Among the ruling class, Trinitarian Christianity was replaced by Arianism under the Germanic kingdom of the Vandals, which was established in 430, when the Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. The Vandal kingdom was extinguished by the Byzantine armies around 533, but most of Mauretania Caesariensis remained under the control of local Moorish rulers such as Mastigas, and it was not until the 560s and 570s that Byzantine control was established in the interior. The Byzantine Exarchate of Africa was in its turn overrun by the Muslim caliphate under the Umayyad dynasty, ending Late Antique Roman culture there; most of former Mauretania Caesariensis became part of the westernmost Islamic province, henceforth called (al-)Maghrib.
Episcopal sees
Ancient episcopal sees of Mauretania Caesariensis listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees:[1]
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Economy
The principal exports from Caesariensis were purple dyes and valuable woods; and the Amazigh or Mauri were highly regarded by the Romans as soldiers, especially light cavalry. They produced one of Trajan's best generals, Lusius Quietus, and the emperor Macrinus.
See also
References
- ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013
Sources
- Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgschichte (in German)
- Pages using columns-list with unknown parameters
- Mauretania Caesariensis
- Provinces of Roman North Africa
- History of Mauretania
- Ancient Algeria
- Pre-Islamic North Africa
- States and territories established in the 1st century
- 1st-century establishments in the Roman Empire
- 40s establishments in Africa
- 7th-century disestablishments in the Roman Empire
- 7th-century disestablishments in Africa