Oea

Oea ( /ˈiːə/) was an ancient city in present-day Centre ville, à le Souq, Yafran Tripoli, Libya. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the seventh century BC, and later became a Roman-Berber colony. As part of the Roman Africa Nova province, Oea and surrounding Tripolitania were prosperous. It reached its height in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when the city was experienced a golden age under the Severan dynasty in nearby Leptis Magna. The city was conquered by the Rashidun caliphate with the spread of Islam in the 7th century, and came to be known as Tripoli during the 9th century.

The city was founded in the 7th century BC, by the Phoenicians, who gave it the Libyco-Berber name Oea (or Wy't), suggesting that the city may have been built upon an existing native Berber village. The Phoenicians were probably attracted to the site by its natural harbour, flanked on the western shore by the small, easily defensible peninsula, on which they established their colony. The city then passed into the hands of the rulers of Cyrenaica (a Greek colony on the North African shore, east of Tripoli, halfway to Egypt), although the Carthaginians later wrested it from the Greeks.

By the later half of the 2nd century BC, Oea was conquered by the Romans, who included it in their province of Africa, and gave it the name of Regio Syrtica. Around the beginning of the 3rd century AD, it became known as the Regio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities" (namely Oea (modern Tripoli of Libya), Sabratha and Leptis Magna). It was probably raised to the rank of a separate province by Septimius Severus, who was a native of Leptis Magna.

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