North Africa’s Place in the Mediterranean Economy of Late Antiquity

The Mediterranean Sea was the economic focal point of the Roman Empire. Rome’s armies first established an empire across these waters beginning back in the times of the Roman Republic. In 200 CE, the Mediterranean was still the channel that connected the vast Roman Empire. The greatest imperial cities were located along the seacoast, and ships could cross the waters in a fraction of the time it would take to traverse the empire on land. Among the ships that carried people, news, and goods across the Mediterranean were vessels from North Africa. The region held a special position inside the Mediterranean economy as it contributed a variety of goods to the markets of the empire, notably grain, olives, slaves and pottery. North Africa’s loss to the Vandals in 439 CE greatly affected the economy of the Roman world, but it did not end North Africa’s important role inside the Mediterranean economy. The wares and grain of North Africa continued to flow out across the Mediterranean, just in a changed position of trade between different states rather than a single monolithic empire.

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