Abstract
Much scholarly attention has focused on the military and defensive character of Rome's frontier provinces, with trade recognized as a significant element only in rare or exceptional cases (India, Silk Road). Based on a study focusing on the central Sahara, this contribution will argue that economic contacts at the limits of the Roman Empire were more generally both complex and important. To a large extent, trade relations beyond provincial territories underpinned Roman attempts at hegemonic control beyond the garrison zone, and gave the Empire's neighbors alternative strategies to war and raids on which to build their own relations with the Empire. The Garamantes were the most important people of the central Sahara, a powerful and populous kingdom based on vast sedentary oasis farming communities and pastoral groups in the surrounding area. The pioneering work of Charles Daniels in the years 1960-1970 and my own investigations into their territory in southern Libya have provided a substantial amount of information on their economic relations with the Roman Empire. A hitherto little-known aspect has been the demonstration that the Garamantes developed a significant manufacturing capacity (metallurgy, textile production, beadmaking, glasswork) to service their Saharan trade networks. These new data call for a significant reassessment of the nature of Rome's relations with its Saharan neighbors.
