De Tamazeni/Tamazeri à Tamajer/Tamager : une cité libre ou pérégrine méconnue ?

Abstract

This contribution, extending our studies of Roman centuriation in North Africa, concerns the absence of the latter in a well-defined area in the south-west of Hadrumetum, which does not result from the destructive effects of time and human action, reflects a historical reality in relation to the administrative and political geography of this region of Byzacium at the beginning of the Empire. The precision of the contours of this territory leds to the identification of a site perched near BirTamajer whose toponym in the middle Ages was Tamager/Tamajer. The city, well attested in the early Middle Ages, was founded on the structures of an ancient agglomeration. The possible derivations of this toponym containing the Libyan affix Ta- followed by the triliteral root MJR or MGR reveals its antiquity and belonging to the Libyan lexical sphere with a high probability that the Roman name of the site could have been Tamazeni (or Tamazeri), site of a 7th century bishopric.The city could have been part of the list of the 30 free cities (oppida libera) of Pliny, or of the peregrine cities under the principate of Augustus.

Keywords

• Byzacium
• Hadrumetum
• centuriation
• oppidum
• free city
• peregrine city