AH-03 Africa Vetus

The old province occupied only part of Carthage’s former sphere. Its towns, farming districts, Punic traditions, and Roman public land developed within a settlement designed to eliminate a rival state and exploit a strategically valuable territory. Neighbouring Numidian kingdoms remained outside the original jurisdiction.

Government dealt with revenue, land, local communities, courts, and Roman commercial interests. The destruction of Carthage did not mean the disappearance of all urban or agricultural life across the province. Existing communities adapted under new sovereignty, while settlers and officials introduced new claims and institutions.

The designation Vetus became useful when Caesar created Africa Nova in 46 BCE. It distinguished different conquest and administrative histories within a region later brought into a larger combined arrangement. The eventual rise of refounded Carthage changed the provincial urban hierarchy, but should not erase Utica’s earlier role or the old province’s separate institutional beginnings.