Agisymba
Agisymba is a landscape in sub-Saharan Africa mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd century AD.
history
Ptolemy bases his description on the Marinos of Tire , who wrote between 107 and 115 AD , who described the journey of Julius Maternus into inner Africa. The King of Garamantes undertook 83-92 n. Chr. A military campaign in the countryside agisymba to the inhabitants of the region, which he regarded as his subjects, again under his dominion to bring. According to some historians, this military campaign is said to have been a raid to obtain slaves .
According to Ptolemy's information, Maternus reached Agisymba after a four-month journey, which, however, contained a few criss-cross movements. According to his information, Agisymba is said to have been located south of the Fessan . The landscape is portrayed as very extensive, mountainous and with its fauna. In particular, there are said to have been many rhinos, which indicates the presence of significant rivers and lakes. This description of the Asigymba region was the southernmost description of a region in the interior of Africa, of which the Romans had heard about during the imperial period at the end of the 1st century. According to this interpretation, Asigymba represented a boundary of the then known earth.
So far, historians have not been able to prove whether Agisymba was in the Aïr , in the Tibesti , in the extensive Lake Chad area or anywhere else. The intensive trade on the route of the central Sahara between Tripoli , the Fessan, the Kaouar valley and the Lake Chad region (the so-called “ Bornus Strait ”), which was already used before the Arabs , provides a clear indication that Ptolemy's direction is true corresponded. In Ptolemy's map (in his Geographica), Agisymba is referred to as a stretch of land that denotes the entire western part of the great landscape of Sudan .
The origin of the name Agisymba is also unknown, the name probably refers to an African origin. According to Dierk Lange's theory, the Agisymba case refers to an early Phoenician influence on the founding of states in central Sudan and could therefore be regarded as the forerunner of the Kanem empire first mentioned by Arab geographers .
swell
- Ptolemäus Geographika I 6f, 7.2, 8.2, 8.5, 9.8, 10.1, 11.4f, 12.2; IV 8.5, VII 5.2
literature
- Wilhelm Tomaschek : Agisymba . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 822.
- Jehan Desanges: Recherches sur l'activité des méditerranéens aux confins de l'Afrique , Rome 1978 (here: pp. 197–213).
- Werner Huss: Agisymba . In: Neuer Pauly , Vol. I, Stuttgart 1996 (Col. 260).
- Dierk Lange: Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa , Dettelbach 2004 (here: pp. 280–284).
Web links
- Dierk Lange: "West Africa and the Classical World - neglected contexts" (PDF; 1.2 MB) in: H. Bley et al. (Ed.), Africa in Context: References to the World in Past and Present , 19th International Conference of the VAD, Hannover 2004, 20 pp.