Mauretania Caesariensis

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mauretania Caesariensis" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Provincia Mauretania Caesariensis
Province of the Roman Empire
42 AD–Late 7th Century
The province of Mauretania Caesariensis within the Roman Empire, c. AD 125
Capital	Caesarea
Historical era	Classical antiquity, Late Antiquity
• Incorporated into the Roman Empire as a full province	42 AD
• Vandal Conquest	430s AD
• Byzantine partial reconquest by Vandalic War	534 AD
• Muslim conquest	Late 7th Century
Preceded by Succeeded by Mauretania Vandal Kingdom Vandal Kingdom Umayyad Caliphate
Today part of	Algeria

Part of a series on the
History of Algeria
Prehistory Aterian Culture (80,000 BC) Iberomaurusian Culture (20,000 BC) Capsian culture (10,000 BC) Rock art in Oran, Djelfa, Tassili and Ahaggar Roknia Related: Archeology of Algeria
Antiquity Madghacen Jedars Phoenician settlement Ancient Carthage Numidia (202–46 BC) Punic Wars (264–146 BC) Jugurthine War (111–106 BC) Roman Mauretania and Africa (146 BC–590 AD) Vandal Kingdom (435–534 AD) Mauro-Roman Kingdom (477–578 AD) Kingdom of the Aurès (484–703 AD) Kingdom of Altava (578–708 AD) Prefecture of Africa (534–585 AD) Exarchate of Africa (585–698 AD) Early African Church Partenia Fossatum Africae Gemellae
Middle Ages Arab conquest (647–709 AD) Umayyad Caliphate (703–744 AD) Ifranids (742–1066 AD) Muhallabids (771–793 AD) Rustamids (776–909 AD) Idrisids (789–828 AD) Aghlabids (800–909 AD) Fatimids (909–1171 AD) Maghrawas (970–1068 AD) Zirids (973–1152 AD) Hammadids (1014–1152 AD) Almoravids (1040–1147 AD) Almohads (1121–1269 AD) Marinids (1215–1465 AD) Hafsids (1229–1574 AD) Ziyyanids (1235–1556 AD)
Modern times Regency of Algiers (16th–19th centuries) Ottoman governors Kingdom of Beni Abbas Kingdom of Kuku Spanish Oran Barbary pirates / slave trade First Barbary War Second Barbary War French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) French conquest French governors Resistance Pacification Emirate of Abdelkader Fatma N'Soumer Mokrani Revolt Cheikh Bouamama World War II Sétif and Guelma massacre Algerian War (1954–1962) Nationalism RCUA FLN GPRA 1958 crisis 1961 putsch Évian Accords Independence referendum Pieds-noirs Harkis Oujda Group
Contemporary era 1960s–80s FFS rebellion 1965 coup d'état Berber Spring 1988 riots 1990s–2000s Algerian Civil War Timeline Massacres FIS GIA High Council of State Civil Concord Black Spring Peace Charter Insurgency in the Maghreb 2010s to present Arab Spring Hirak Movement COVID-19 pandemic
Related topics Outline of Algeria Military history of Algeria (List of wars involving Algeria) Postal history of Algeria (List of people on stamps of Algeria) History of North Africa
v t e

Mauretania Caesariensis (Latin for "Caesarean Mauretania") was a Roman province located in present-day Algeria.^[1] The full name refers to its capital Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell).

The province had been part of the Kingdom of Mauretania and named for the Mauri people who lived there. Formerly an independent kingdom, and later a client state of Rome, it was annexed into the Empire formally during the reign of Claudius and divided into two provinces about 42 AD. A third province, named Mauretania Sitifensis, was later split off from the eastern portion during the reign of Diocletian in 293 AD. During and after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, most of the hinterland area was lost, first to the Vandal Kingdom and later to the Mauro-Roman Kingdom, with Roman administration limited to the capital of Caesarea. The land was reconquered by Rome during the reign of Justinian. This province was a part of Praetorian prefecture of Africa, later Exarchate of Africa. The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb brought an end to Roman rule in Mauretania, permanently this time, which became ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate as part of Medieval Muslim Algeria.

In the middle of 1st century AD, Roman emperor Claudius divided the westernmost Roman province in Africa, named Mauretania (land of the Mauri people, hence the word Moors), into Mauretania Caesariensis (named after its capital, one of many cities simply named Caesarea after the imperial cognomen that had become a title) and Mauretania Tingitana.

Mauretania Caesariensis included eight colonies founded by the Emperor Augustus: Cartennas, Gunugu, Igilgili, Rusguniae, Rusazu, Saldae, Zuccabar, Tubusuctu; two by the Emperor Claudius: Caesarea formerly the capital of Juba, who gave it this name in honour of his patron Augustus, and Oppidum Novum; one by the Emperor Nerva: Setifis; and in later times, Arsenaria, Bida, Siga, Aquae Calidae, Quiza Xenitana, Rusucurru, Auzia, Gilva, Icosium and Tipasa in all 21 well-known colonies, besides several municipia and oppida Latina.

Under Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform, the easternmost part was broken off from Mauretania Caesariensis as a separate small province, Mauretania Sitifensis, called after its inland capital Sitifis (now Sétif) with a significant port at Saldae (presently Béjaïa).^[2]

At the time of Diocletian and Constantine the Great, both Sitifensis and Caesariensis were assigned to the administrative Diocese of Africa, under the Praetorian prefecture of Italy, while Tingitana belonged to the Diocese of Hispania under the Praetorian prefecture of Gaul, so it was an enclave separate from the European territory of Diocese and Prefecture it belonged to.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a Germanic Vandal Kingdom was founded, but the remaining Eastern Empire (now known to historians as the Byzantine Empire) recaptured the area around 533, but most of Mauretania Caesariensis remained under the control of local Moorish rulers such as Mastigas, and it was not until the 560s and 570s that Byzantine control was established inland.

During the reign of Maurice, the empire was reorganized and a number of Exarchates were founded, among them the Exarchate of Africa which included Mauretania, among other territories. Mauretania Sitifensis was re-merged back into this province, and was granted the name "Mauretania Prima".

The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb for the caliphate under the Umayyad dynasty meant the end of the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa and Late Antique Roman culture there and Mauretania Caesariensis became part of the westernmost Islamic province called Maghreb.^{[citation needed]}

The principal exports from Caesariensis were purple dyes and valuable woods; and the Amazigh or Mauri were highly regarded by the Romans as soldiers, especially light cavalry. They produced one of Trajan's best generals, Lusius Quietus, and the emperor Macrinus.

Caesarea was a major center of Judaism before 330, and Sitifis was one of the centres of the soldier cult of Mithraic mysteries. Christianity spread throughout in the 4th and 5th centuries.

Among the ruling class, Trinitarian Christianity was replaced by Arianism under the Germanic kingdom of the Vandals, which was established in 430, when the Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.

Ancient episcopal sees of Mauretania Caesariensis listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees:^[3]

• Notitia Dignitatum

• Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgschichte (in German)