Limes Tripolitanus

The Limes Tripolitanus was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire, built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya.

According to Edward Bovill, author of the book The Golden Trade of the Moors, this campaign marked the Romans’ first use of camels in the Sahara, which convinced the Garamantes that their advantage in desert warfare no longer held.

Indeed, Anicius Faustus was appointed legatus of the Legio III Augusta and built several defensive forts of the Limes Tripolitanus in Tripolitania, among which Garbia [4] and Golaia (actual Bu Ngem)[5] in order to protect the province from the raids of nomadic tribes.

As a consequence the Roman city of Gaerisa (actual Ghirza), situated away from the coast and south of Leptis Magna, developed quickly in a rich agricultural area[6] Ghirza became a "boom town" after 200 AD, when the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (born in Leptis Magna) had organized the Limes Tripolitanus.

[10] Nomad warriors of the Banu Hillal tribe captured the centenaria/castra of the Limes in the 11th century and the agricultural production fell to nearly nothing within a few decades: even Leptis Magna and Sabratha were abandoned and only Oea survived, which was from now on known as Tripoli.