Jugurtha, War, Dacians

Unfortunately, because of the many North African revolts against Roman authority, historians tend to mention only those that were of exceptional violence and intensity.

 One such rising, known as the Jugurthine War (112-105 A.D) was initiated by the nationalist fervour of the North African patriot Jugurtha.

Directing an unrelenting guerrilla war, Jugurtha became a formidable adversary to his enemies, inflicting embarrassing defeats upon the Roman legions.

"The wars of Jugurtha," writes Graham Webster, demonstrated the value of the nimble Moorish horsemen who Trajan later found so useful against the Dacians. During the Dacian Wars of Eastern Europe (101-105), the Roman military relied heavily upon highly mobile units of Moorish cavalry.

On a Roman column dedicated to the wars of Trajan in Dacia, there is a special relief devoted to a large body of galloping horsemen easily recognisable as Moors. They are depicted with tiered and plaited rows of curled hair, short tunics, and saddle-less with only a single bridle. Another work dated to the same period is terracotta human head found in the Dacian city of Suicidava.

Described by archaeologists as the head of a "Negro or Moor," it is in many respects similar to the horse cavalry depicted on the Roman column. Black soldiers, specifically identified as Moors, were actively recruited by Rome and served tours of duty in Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, etc.

An original brass military diploma which dates from the middle of the second century A.D. mentions Moorish soldiers in Moesia, which is modern Serbia. Another military diploma of A.D. speaks of Moorish soldiers from Africa in Dacia, or modern Romania, and also of auxiliary troops of the Dacian Moors.

A Roman document, Notitia Dignitatum dates from the beginning of the fifth century A.D., mentions several Moorish battalions in the Balkans and the Moorish military colony Ad Mauros was located on the Inn River near Vienna; and in what modern Besarabia, there is was a city called Maurocastrum.

According to the document Notitia Dignitatum, 2500to 5000 illyrian Moorish soldiers, in five separate military units, had served in the Near East. From this document we must deduce that at the beginning of the fifth century at least 100,000 descendants of Moors lived in Illyricum, which was located in the present-day Balkans.

Regarding specific military men of Moorish extraction, there were several Rome honourably, or had ancestors that participated in Rome’s foreign wars. In 253 A.D., for example, "After his departure, the governor of Lower Moesia (modern Serbia), M. Aemilius Aemilianus, a Moor born Mauritania, in defeating the Goths and was proclaimed emperor by his troops. In another case, Zenophilus, Consul of Numidia, boasts that my grandfather is a soldier; he had served in the Commitatus, for our family is of Moorish origin. To the Commitatus belonged the renowned Equites Mauri, a Black horse cavalry of North Africa.

Spain, Moor, Armenia, Tigranes

For example, the city of Osuna, in southern Spain, has yielded several archaeological works depicting Blacks with tightly curled hair which archaeologists have labeled "Negroid." As long ago as 170 A.D., writes Durant, "the Mauri Moors invaded Spain from Africa."

Bronze Male Statuette

Even earlier, according to Laroui, "The Berbers of that region [North Africa] made incursions into Baetica, Spain. But the use of the term "Berber" perhaps camouflages the issue here. Regard­ing the same event, W.T. Arnold' speaks of "Moorish incursions in Baetica as early as the first century. Interestingly enough, many of these Moors were Christians. During the sixth century, the Byzantine historian Procopius and the Latin poet Corippus compiled precious documents regarding the Moors in post­ Roman North Africa.

During this period the dominance of the Vandals, Germanic tribes who had invaded North Africa in 429 and seized several provinces (including Mauretania), was challenged politically and militarily. In providing a veritable war correspondent's view, Procopius chronicled the vicious assaults and ultimate victories of the Moorish rebels.

This was recorded in his volume, appropriately entitled The Wars: When the Moors wrested Aurasium from the Vandals, not a single enemy had until now ever come there or so much as caused the barbarians to be afraid that they would come. And the Moors of that place also held the land west of Aurasium, a tract both extensive and fertile. And beyond these dwelt other nations of the Moors, who were ruled by Ortaias. This statement shows that the Moors were not only perceived by Procopius as numerically significant, but demonstrates that they occupied an extensive portion of northwest Africa.

During this same period Byzantine arms began moving into Africa. With them came strong efforts to renew the grip of Roman dominance. The Empror Justinian sent in General Johannes Troglita to quell the challenge to Byzantine authority, but was forced to face a full-scale war. There was a great slaughter and taking of prisoners, as recounted by Corippus in the military epic Iohannis. Corippus recorded not only the slaying of several Moorish chieftains;

he also mentioned a number of captives that were as "black as crows. One Moorish ruler, Garmu (king of Mauretania), engineered the crushing of the Bvzantine army in 571 A.D. Such events established the situation in North Africa prior to the Arab invasions late in the seventh century.  An attempt to end the division of Armenia was made at about 165 B.C, when an Artaxiad ruler sought to suppress his rival, the attempt failed however, and it was left to his descendant Tigranes II (95 B.C.) to establish, by his conquest of Sophene, a unity that was to last almost 500 years. Top Bronze male statuette with a gold mask, found in Cadiz (Andalusia, Spain) in 1928, dated back to 8th or 7th century B.C.E.

Tigranes

Under Tigranes, Armenia ascended to a pinnacle of power unique in its history and became, albeit briefly, the strongest state in the Roman east. Extensive territories were taken from the kingdom of Parthia in Iran, which was compelled to sign a treaty of alliance. Iberia (Georgia), Albania, and Atropatene had already accepted Tigranes' suzerainty when the Aramaeans, tired of anarchy, offered him their crown (83 B.C.). And with that, Tigranes penetrated as far south as Canaan.

Armenian culture at the time of Tigranes was Persian, as it had been, and as it was fundamentally to remain for many centuries. The Armenian empire lasted until Tigranes became involved in a struggle between his father-in-law, Mithradates VI of Pontus and Rome.The Roman general Lucius captured Tigranocerta, Tigranes' new capital in 69 B.C, but He failed to reach Artashat.

But in 66 B.C, the legions of Pompey, aided by one of Tigranes' sons, succeeded in reaching Artashat. Tigrane was compelled to give up Syria and other conquests in the south, and to become an ally of Rome. Armenia thus became a buffer state, and often a battlefield between Rome and Parthia. Maneuvering between these two larger neighbors, the Armenians gained a reputation for deviousness. The Roman historian Tacitus called them an ambigua gens (“ambiguous people”).

Hercules, Vercingetorix, Arvernian, Roman

In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged. Alcmene was born to Electryon, king of Mycenae and a son of Perseus. Her mother was either Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia, or Lysidice, daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia.

 Ercole and Tereco 50 – 79 B.C.E., fresco in Naples 

Hesiod describes Alcmene as the tallest, most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed by no person born of mortal parents. It is said that her face and dark eyes were as charming as Aphrodite's, and that she honoured her husband like no woman before her. She was the great-granddaughter of Zeus. Top left: Ercole and Tereco 50 – 79 B.C.E., fresco in Naples, National Archaeological Museum in the Greek Mythology Telefo (the Child) is the son of Eracle (Heracles) and Auge, daughter of the king Tegea, Alio. Top left: Vercingetorix

One of the last, or perhaps the last, of the original Black civilizations to be destroyed by the Romans, was the Arverni of southern France. They were an advanced culture who lived in cities and were wealthy in gold and silver, (as attested to by the huge booty taken from them by the Romans). Their demise came about because of a revolt against Rome by another Black Gaul city called "Carnutes".

In early 52 B.C, Carnutes used the turmoil that accompanied the death of Publius Clodius Pulcher; a Roman politician, as an opportunity to rebell; they slaughtered all of the Romans in their territory. Seeing this, "Vercingetorix" a young nobleman of the Arvernian capital city of Gergovia, moved to join the rebellion. He was however rebuffed by the nobles of Gergovia, forcing him to raise an army in the countryside. He then returned to Gergovia and took the city, whereupon he was declared king.

Vercingetorix

In most historical accounts, it is said that Vercingetorix unified all of the Gaul's under his command. In his campaign against Julius Caesar, Vercingetorix was at first successful, but over time, the tide began to turn.

Left: Roman coin; struck in 44 B.C.E. to commemorate the defeat of Vercingetorix (pictured) last king of the Arveni. The end came at the Battle of Alesia, the capital city of another of the Black Gaul people, the Mandubii. At Alesia, Vercingetorix made his last stand. Caesar instead of making a direct assault surrounded the city with fortifications in order to starve them out.

When Vercingetorix sent for reinforcements, Caesar built another set of fortifications to his rear, to hold back the reinforcements.When the reinforcements arrived, they were of insufficient number to break through Caesars line. After many loosing battles to break out, Vercingetorix was forced to mount his horse, ride out and surrender to Caesar. Vercingetorix was taken prisoner and imprisoned in the Tullianum in Rome for five years, before being publicly displayed in Caesar's triumph in 46 B.C, after which he was executed.

Gergovia, Alesia, and all the other Black Gaullic cities were destroyed, and their people killed or displaced. The destruction was so complete that at this time, the only known evidence of their existence is Roman coins, (such as the one above), and written Roman accounts. Such was the respect these leaders inspired in the hearts of their enemies, that some royal crests and coats-of-arms in Europe were emblazoned with Moorish heads.

Moorish, Spain, Negro, Berber, Muslim

The invasion of Spain in the eighth century and the survival of the Muslim dynasties in the eleventh owe a great deal to African military prowess and leadership.

Sancho I, 925 A.D.

 Chinyelu celebrates the military exploits of Tarik (who conquered Spain in 711 A.D.) of Yusuf Ibn Tashifin, leader of the Almoravides, who routed Alphonso VI's army in 1086 (15,000 Africans facing 70,000 Europeans) assuming leadership of Muslim Spain in 1091, and of Yakub al-Mansur who conquered Spain and Portugal on two separate occasions to become the most powerful ruler in the world.

The Moor, whom the classical Greek and the Roman authors called Berber were black, and affiliated with the then contemporary peoples of the East Africa area. The word Berber was used in fact to refer to peoples of the Red Sea area in Africa as well as North Africans.

It was an ancient belief that the nomads dwelling in Arabia were the same peoples whose ancestors had in earlier times roamed the deserts of East West and Central Africa.

The original Black Berber, who were called moors, were the north African ancestors of the present day dark brown and brown Black peoples of the Sahara and the Sahel, mainly had always called Fulani, Tuareg, Zenagha of Southern Morocco, Kunta and Tebbu of the Sahel countries as well as other Black Arabs now living in Mauritania and throughout the Sahel.

They also include Trarza of Mauritania and Senegal, the Mogharba as well as dozens of other Sudanese tribes, the Chaamba of Chad and Algeria, and the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria.

According to Wayne Chandler, the Garamantes of the Sahara can be considered ancestors of the true Moors. The Sahara, he contends, came to the occupied by two distinct groups the original Garamantes and the Berber who he later relates to as “Tawny or white Moors”.

Original Coat of Arms of Sardinia

However, this view is very problematic. The Arabs, themselves, rarely used the term Moor. They often used the term Berber for the non-Arabian people of Northwest Africa with whom they came in contact and who joined with them in the invasion of Europe. The early Christians also used the term "Saracen" indiscriminately to cover both "Moors" as well as other Muslim populations in general.

The Moors, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, are people who are commonly supposed to be black or very dark and it is synonymous with the word for "Negro" in many contexts. Rashidi and Brunson provides numerous examples of the synonymy of Moor with Black during the Euro­pean Renaissance and earlier. The word runs like a ripple across a vast pool of languages.

During the European Renaissance, explorers, writers and scholars began to apply the term Moor to Blacks in general. A prominent example of this tendency can be found in the work of Richard Hakluyt, a fifteenth-century traveler. Hakluyt recorded that, in old times the people of Africa were called Aethiopsand Nigritae, which we now call Moores, Moorens, or Negroes.In the Romance languages (Spanish, French and Italian) of Medieval Europe, Moor was translated as Moro, Moir, and Mor. Derivatives of the word Moor may be found even today in these same languages.

Coat of Arms of Xavier family

In Spanish, for example, the word for blackberry is mora a noun which originally meant Moorish woman. Also in Spanish, the adjective for dark-complexioned, which now means brunette, is moreno. We find a similar legacy in the French language. In French moricaud means dark-skinned or blackamoor, while morillon means black grape. Again, as in the Spanish, the Italian word mora means Negro or Moorish female. Also in Italian, mora means blackberry, while moraiola means black olive. In Arabic literature the word Moor was fairly non-existent and the term Berber was applied to practically all the inhabitants of the Maghrib (Islamic North Africa west of Egypt).

The Arab use of the word Berber presents further difficulty since the term embraces many clans, not all of whom are Black. It is because of this that Rashidi and Brunson, as well as the anthropologist Dana Reynolds, have goneto the trouble in certain contexts to identify those Berber clans of Africoid or ' predominantly Africoid origin.The most important identifier, of course, is to be found in medieval painting and sculpture.

Coat of Arms of Moor

It is claimed that certain Islamic traditions inhibited the representation of the human image in the work of Muslim artists and even in cases (some medieval Persian art, for example) where this inhibition does not seem to have obliterated portrait art, the human image is often frozen, non-individualistic and unreal.

We are grateful, therefore, that, in spite of their prejudices, the Christians left vivid images of the Black Muslims.

While the Black figure at times takes on a demonic quality or emerges as an exaggerated caricature of the African, these paintings and sculptures are an indisputable witness to his presence and importance in this period. Such illustrations are to be found in the Cantigas of Santa Maria, allegedly written by Alphonso X (1254-1286). They are filled with images of the Moor and are mostly Black types.