Tacfarinas with Dr Jo Ball

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

Dr. Jo Ball joins the Ancient History Hound podcast to discuss Tacfarinas, an ordinary Numidian man who deserted the Roman army and led a sustained multi-year rebellion in North Africa beginning around AD 17, exploiting Roman political weakness under Tiberius and military overstretch caused by Germanicus's German campaign. The conversation covers the deep background of Roman involvement in the Maghreb, the provocations — land surveys, taxation, and a road cutting through nomadic pasture lands — that ignited the revolt, and the four pro-consuls who struggled to suppress it, including one who resorted to the near-extinct punishment of decimation after his troops fled the battlefield. Along the way the hosts explore the elite Numidian cavalry, the rarity of decimation compared to its historical reputation, the political awkwardness of Roman triumphs, and a tangent about the Venus Erisina cult as a propaganda tool.

As heard by us

A grounded look at a North African revolt that exposed the limits of Roman control.

This episode treats Tacfarinas as a revolt, but the real interest is how it exposes the limits of Roman control in Northwestern Africa. Neil and Dr.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Roman revolt story that shows how empire gets rattled.

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