The prodigious sight and the fine ear of the Mauri and its occasional use in military intelligence and exploratio. Notes on Julius Africanus, Cesti VII, 16.
Abstract
A fragment of the writer Julius Africanus (Cesti VII, 16) mentions the extraordinary visual and auditive capacity of the Mauritanians. For this reason they were very suitable for surveillance work, as well as for the mission to explore the territories. The author also mentions their habit of sleeping with a piece of wood under their heads, and putting their ears close to a hole, to be vigilant and perceive the sound of approaching people or weapons. Add some weird camouflage way to uncover secret enemy conversations.
References
Austin N. J. E., Rankov N. B. (1995), Exploratio. Military and political intelligence in the Roman world from the Second Punic War to the battle of Adrianople, London: Routledge, 1995.
Baillie Reynolds P.K. (1923), The troops quartered in the castra peregrinorum, Journal of Roman Studies 13, 168-189.
Bennet Ch. E. (1925), Frontinus: The Stratagems and the Aqueducts of Rome, London: Heinemann.
Birley E. (1966), Military Intelligence in the Historia Augusta, en: Bonner Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 1964/1965, Bonn, 35-42.
Coulston J.C. (1988), Trajan’s Column: The Sculpting and Relief content of a roman propaganda Monument,Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph. D. at the University of Newcatgel upon Tyne.
Cupcea G. (2009), The missions of the soldiers in the limes provinces. Frumentarii in Dacia, en: O. Ţentea Y I. C. Opriş (eds.), Near and Beyond.The Roman Frontiers, Bucharest: National History Museum of Romania, 305-314.
Habas R. E. (1994), The Jewish origin of Julius Africanus, Journal of Jewish Studies, 44, 86-91.
Kagan K. (2011), Spies Like Us: Treason and Identity in the Late Roman Empire, en R.W. Mathisen, D. Shanzer (eds.), Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World. Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity, Farnham: Asghate, 2011, 161-173.
Lepper F., Frere, S. (1988), Trajan’s Column. A new Edition of the Cichorius Plates. Introduction, Commentaty and Notes, Gloucester, Alan Sutton.
Liberati A. M., Silverio E. (2010), Servizi segreti in Roma antica. Informazioni e sicurezza dagli initia Urbis all’impero universale, Roma: «L’Erma» di Bretschneider.
Panciera S. (2006a), Genio castrorum peregrinorum, en Id., Epigrafi, Epigrafia, Epigrafisti. Scritti vari editi e inediti (1956-2005) con note complementari e indici, Roma: Quasar, 1421-1439.
Panciera S. (2006b), Signis legionum. Isegne, immagini imperiali e centuriones frumentarii a peregrinis, en Id., Epigrafi, Epigrafia, Epigrafisti. Scritti vari editi e inediti (1956-2005), Roma: Quasar, 1453-1464.
Panciera S. (2006c), Castra peregrina. Vecchi e nuovi documenti epigrafici, en Id., Epigrafi, Epigrafia, Epigrafisti. Scritti vari editi e inediti (1956-2005) con note complementari e indici, Roma: Quasar, 1471-1482.
Perea Yébenes S. (2017), Tronos ensangrentados (ca. 251-350). Quiebra del sacramentum militar y traición: de la securitas Augusti al crimen maiestatis, en: L. Montecchio (ed.), Tradimento e traditori nella Tarda Antichità, Perugia: Edizioni Graphé, 1-34.
Rankov N.B. (1990), Frumentarii, the castra peregrina and the Provincial officia, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 80, 1990, 176-182.
Santos Yanguas N. (1977), El servicio policial secreto romano en el Bajo Imperio según Amiano Marcelino, Memorias de Historia Antigua, 1, 127-139.
Sheldon R.M. 2005, Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome, London – New York: Frank Cass.
Sinnigen W. J. (1959), Two Branches of the Roman Secret Service, The American Journal of Philology, 80.3, 238-254.
Spaul J. E. H. (1994), Ala². The Auxiliary Cavalry Units of the Pre-Diocletianic Imperial Roman Army, Andover: Nectoreca Press.
Speidel M.P. (1983), Exploratores. Mobile Elite Units of Roman Germany, Epigraphische Studien 13, 63-78.
Thee C. R. (1984), Julius Africanus and Early Christian View of Magic, Tubingen: J.C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Vieillefond J-R. (1970), Les ‘Cestes” de Julius Africanus. Étude sur l’Ensemble des fragments, avec édition, traduction et commentaires, (Publications de l’Institut français de Florence. Collection d’études d’histoire, de critique et de philologie, ser. 1, 20), Paris: Librairie Marcel Didier et Firenze: Edizioni Sansoni Antiquariato, 1970.
Wallraff M., Mecella L. (Eds.) (2009), Die Kestoi des Julius Africanus un ihre Überlieferung, (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 165), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.
Wallraff M., Roberto U., Pingéra K. (2007), Iulius Africanus. Chronographie. The Extant Fragments, translated by W. Adler, (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.
Wallraff M., Scardino C., Mecella L., Guignard Chr. J.-D. (Eds.) (2012), Iulius Africanus, Cesti. The Extant Fragments. Translaled by Adler W. (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte), Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
Copyright (c) 2020 Sabino Perea Yébenes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CaSteR is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives Licence 4.0 (CC-BY-ND). With the licence CC-BY-ND, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download and share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. The work must be properly attributed to its author. It should be also mentioned that the work has been first published by the journal CaSteR.
Having published these contributions for the first time, CaSteR will have the right to publish them integrally or partially as reprints or possibly as part of a thematic issue, in both digital and printed format.
It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or the journal.