Tacfarinas

Tacfarinas (Latinised form of Berber Tiqfarin, died AD 24) was a Numidian deserter from the Roman army who led his own Musulamii tribe and a loose and changing coalition of other Berber tribes in a war against the Romans in North Africa during the rule of emperor Tiberius (AD 14–37).

Although Tacfarinas' personal motivation is unknown, it is likely that the Roman occupation under Augustus of the traditional grazing grounds of the Musulamii, and denial of access to the latter, was the determining factor.

The war lasted for about 10 years (from ca. AD 15 to 24) and engaged four successive Roman proconsuls (governors) of the province of Africa (modern Tunisia), which, although a small part of the empire, was economically vital as the source of most of Rome's grain supply. It is unlikely that the Romans were ever in danger of being driven out of the province altogether, although in at least two periods, Tacfarinas' forces greatly outnumbered the Roman garrison. But the incapacity of Tacfarinas' lightly armed forces to defeat the Romans in set-piece battles or to assault Roman fortified points prevented him from achieving a decisive victory. Nevertheless, Tacfarinas' large-scale raids caused severe disruption of the province's grain production, which in turn threatened civil disorder in Rome.

The Romans, for their part, were, for a long time, unable to eradicate their enemy because of the Numidians' extraordinary mobility and ability to win the support of many desert tribes and even of more sedentary Numidian tribes within Roman territory. Tacfarinas was finally caught and killed in AD 24 by a combination of determined pursuit and a lucky break in intelligence.

The direct consequence of the war was the registration of the entire Tunisian plateau for land tax and its conversion to mainly wheat cultivation. The Musulamii and other nomadic tribes were likely permanently excluded from what had been their summer grazing grounds and forced to lead a more impoverished existence in the Aures mountains and the arid zone. The war also probably sealed the long-term fate of the client kingdom of Mauretania, which was annexed in AD 44 by the Emperor Claudius (ruled 41–54).

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