Tacfarinas
Male, Deceased Person
– 0024
Who was Tacfarinas?
Tacfarinas was a Numidian deserter from the Roman army who led his own Musulamii tribe and a loose and changing coalition of other Ancient Libyan tribes in a war against the Romans in North Africa during the rule of emperor Tiberius.
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 and engaged four successive Roman proconsuls of the province of Africa, 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 successfully 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.
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