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Punic tongue, even among the higher classes, as late as the reign of the Antonines.[1] Again, the native races, known as the Moors, Kabyles, or Berbers,[2] were more prone to live by war and rapine than to bow to the Roman sovereignty. On several occasions, therefore, the African provinces had been the scene of serious revolts which had to be suppressed with all the force of the Imperial arms.[3] Christianity spread rapidly among this heterogeneous and hot-blooded population and, as might have been anticipated, assumed a very
- [Footnote: East (88 B.C.) they were considerable enough to send him an embassy
proffering their aid; Athenaeus, v, 50.]
- ↑ Thus the son-in-law of Apuleius at the age of twenty could speak only Punic; Apology; cf. Procopius, De Bel. Vand., ii, 10. There were in Numidia, he says, two white columns on which was inscribed, "We are those who fled before the face of the robber, Joshua, the son of Nun." Some notion of the dress of the Carthaginians under the Empire may be formed from mosaics unearthed of late years and preserved in French museums. There was nothing very characteristic, but I may quote the following summary of what is to be seen. "Hommes en longue dalmatique verte ou blanche ornée de larges bandes de broderies, avec le manteau triangulaire de laine brune enveloppant le buste, et l'orarium passé autour du cou; femmes en étroites robes collantes brodées au cou et au poignet, serrées à la taille par un ceinture rouge et que recouvre une ample tunique aux larges manches de couleur éclatante, avec les bijoux sur la poitrine, l'écharpe claire flottant sur les épaules et parfois encadrant le visage; enfants en culottes collantes alternées de jaune et de rouge, ou courtes tuniques blanches à bandes de couleur"; Diehl, L'Afrique Byzant., Paris, 1896, p. 392. A mosaic found in Numidia shows a Roman mansion with horses, etc., and might pass for a view of an English manor-house; Tissot, Géog. Comp. d'Afrique Rom., Paris, 1884, p. 360.
- ↑ An exhaustive treatise has been devoted to the manners and customs of this people by Hanotaux and Letourneux, La Kabylée, 3 vols., Paris, 1892.
- ↑ One of the most important revolts was suppressed by Theodosius, father of the first emperor of that name; another by Stilicho, the famous general and father-in-law of Honorius; Claudian, De Bel. Gildonico.
