10-06-2014, 01:08 PM
You're quite right that there were, apparently, no imperial expeditions to North Africa between Severus's campaign against the Garamantes in AD203 and Maximian's against the Quinquegentiani of Mauretania in AD297-99.
However, the long and relatively open African frontier seems to have been a rowdy place, and there were quite possibly a few provincial wars against bandits or tribespeople from the deserts. One of these seems to be recorded on inscription CIL VIII, 9047 from Auzia in Mauretania Caesariensis (modern Algeria): an equestrian officer named Q. Gargilius Martialis is commended for defeating 'rebels' led by a man called Faraxen; Martialis later died in an ambush, c.AD260.
As for Harry Sidebottom: his books do include a number of possibly fictional conflicts, including a Roman expedition to Ireland some time in the 240s which is alluded to on several occasions (I notice that the reference to fighting in the 'High Atlas' in his first novel is compared to the 'Hibernian' conflict - both are, I think, imaginary wars). The African war in Iron & Rust is, I believe, hypothetical, but not unlikely - Gordian II was a legate of his father as governor, and the two of them seem to have been hailed by the provincials as similar to Scipio. This implies some sort of military action in defense of the province prior to their acclamation.
However, the long and relatively open African frontier seems to have been a rowdy place, and there were quite possibly a few provincial wars against bandits or tribespeople from the deserts. One of these seems to be recorded on inscription CIL VIII, 9047 from Auzia in Mauretania Caesariensis (modern Algeria): an equestrian officer named Q. Gargilius Martialis is commended for defeating 'rebels' led by a man called Faraxen; Martialis later died in an ambush, c.AD260.
As for Harry Sidebottom: his books do include a number of possibly fictional conflicts, including a Roman expedition to Ireland some time in the 240s which is alluded to on several occasions (I notice that the reference to fighting in the 'High Atlas' in his first novel is compared to the 'Hibernian' conflict - both are, I think, imaginary wars). The African war in Iron & Rust is, I believe, hypothetical, but not unlikely - Gordian II was a legate of his father as governor, and the two of them seem to have been hailed by the provincials as similar to Scipio. This implies some sort of military action in defense of the province prior to their acclamation.
Nathan Ross
