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Tingis


Tingi (current Tangier in Morocco) was an important Roman-Berber colonia in the Maghreb. The Berber name "Tingi" was adapted by the Romans into Tingis, after which the province of Mauretania Tingitana was named. Tingis also served as its capital.

The commercial city of Tingis (Τιγγίς in Ancient Greek), came under Roman rule in the course of the 2nd century BC (146 BC). Later Tingi grew in importance first as a free city under Augustus, and then as a colony called Colonia Iulia Tingi under Claudius who made Tingis capital of Mauritania "Tingitana" of Hispania.

Called Colonia Iulia Tingi on its coins, governed most likely under Latin law and at first attached administratively to Spain, it became under Claudius a Roman colony and chief city of the province of Mauretania Tingitana after it was set up. In 297 the city probably served Maximianus as a base during his campaign against the Moorish rebels, and it was very likely about this time that the Christians Marcellus and Cassienus were put to death. The former belonged to a Spanish community, the latter, however, probably to a local church which funerary inscriptions show existed in the 4th-5th c. although there is no mention of a bishopric until the 6th c.The limits of the ancient settlement are clearly marked by the necropoleis discovered to the NW (that of Marshan and Avenue Cenario), to the W (Mendoubia) and S (Bou Kachkach). Nothing remains of the substructures, which could still be seen on the seashore at the beginning of the century. There were also some baths underneath the Casbah, and confused remains of a monument—apparently a Christian basilica—have been uncovered in the Rue de Belgique. So far as the rest of the city is concerned one can only presume that the forum was situated on the site of the Petit Socco and what was perhaps a temple on the site of the Great Mosque, and that the decumanus maximus corresponded roughly to the Zenga Es Siaghine. Among the few antiquities that have been discovered, the only noteworthy finds, aside from inscriptions and a few mosaic fragments, are a statue of a woman of indifferent workmanship and a mutilated head of the emperor Galba.

Since then Tingis grew greatly in importance and in the fourth century it was the main Roman city of Mauretania Tingitana, bypassing Volubilis after that city remained south of the Roman limes and no more protected by the Roman legions. The city in those years enjoyed huge development and importance, reaching 20,000 inhabitants (all fully romanized and mostly Christians).


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