Afri (singular,
Afer) was the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
name for an ancient people located on the shores of the southern
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
near the city of
CarthageCarthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian...
, nowadays
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
. The first record of their existence was made during the
Punic WarsThe Punic Wars are a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world...
(264-146 BC) between
ancient RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Carthage. The name may be connected with
PhoenicianPhoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called "Pūt" in Ancient Egyptian, "Canaan" in Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and "Phoenicia" in Greek and Latin. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew...
`afar,
dustDust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameters less than 20 thou . Particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution...
(also found in other
Semitic languagesThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
), or with Berber
`ifri,
caveA cave or cavern is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like sea caves, rock shelters, and...
(see
TataouineTataouine is a city located in southern Tunisia at . It is the capital of the Tataouine Governorate...
). The classical historian Flavius Josephus asserted that the region had been invaded by descendants of
AbrahamAbraham is the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites and Edomite peoples, as described in the book of Genesis. He is widely regarded as the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims....
's grandson
EpherEpher was a grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus claimed, had invaded Libya. According to the Bible, he was a son of Midian....
, who gave it their name.
The singular
Afer was used as a Roman
cognomenThe cognomen was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary...
for people from the region of Carthage (see
AferAfer may refer to:* Afer, an individual of the Afri tribe after which the continent of Africa is probably named* Afer, a Roman cognomen in reference to Africa; see below for some examples of people with this name...
).
The most common etymology for the continent of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
is traced to this group.
Afri (singular,
Afer) was the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
name for an ancient people located on the shores of the southern
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
near the city of
CarthageCarthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian...
, nowadays
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
. The first record of their existence was made during the
Punic WarsThe Punic Wars are a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC. They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world...
(264-146 BC) between
ancient RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Carthage. The name may be connected with
PhoenicianPhoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called "Pūt" in Ancient Egyptian, "Canaan" in Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and "Phoenicia" in Greek and Latin. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew...
`afar,
dustDust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameters less than 20 thou . Particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution...
(also found in other
Semitic languagesThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
), or with Berber
`ifri,
caveA cave or cavern is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like sea caves, rock shelters, and...
(see
TataouineTataouine is a city located in southern Tunisia at . It is the capital of the Tataouine Governorate...
). The classical historian Flavius Josephus asserted that the region had been invaded by descendants of
AbrahamAbraham is the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites and Edomite peoples, as described in the book of Genesis. He is widely regarded as the patriarch of Jews, Christians, and Muslims....
's grandson
EpherEpher was a grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus claimed, had invaded Libya. According to the Bible, he was a son of Midian....
, who gave it their name.
The singular
Afer was used as a Roman
cognomenThe cognomen was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary...
for people from the region of Carthage (see
AferAfer may refer to:* Afer, an individual of the Afri tribe after which the continent of Africa is probably named* Afer, a Roman cognomen in reference to Africa; see below for some examples of people with this name...
).
The most common etymology for the continent of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
is traced to this group. The Romans referred to the region as
Africa terra (land of the Afri), based on the stem
Afr- with the adjective suffix -
ic- (giving
Africus,
Africa,
Africum in the nominative singular of the three
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
genders). Following the defeat of Carthage in the
Third Punic WarThe Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage, and the Roman Republic...
, Rome set up the
provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italian peninsula...
of
AfricaThe Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, north-eastern Algeria and the Mediterranean coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor...
. Arabic converted this Latin name into
IfriqiyaIn medieval history, Ifriqiya or Ifriqiyah was the area comprising the coastal regions of what are today western Libya, Tunisia, and eastern Algeria. This area included what had been the Roman province of Africa....
.
The name is still extant today as Ifira and Ifri-n-Dellal in Greater Kabylia (Algeria). A
BerberBerber beliefs or Amazigh beliefs are the beliefs of the indigenous Berber people of North Africa . These beliefs were influenced primarily by the beliefs of the Berbers' Egyptian neighbors, as well as by other people who lived in the area, such as Phoenicians, Jews, Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans...
tribe was called Beni-Ifren in the Middle Ages, and Ifurace was the name of a Tripolitan people in the 6th century. Troglodytism was frequent in northern Africa and still occurs today in southern Tunisia.
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
wrote that the
GaramantesThe Garamantes were a Saharan Berber people who used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded a prosperous kingdom in the Fezzan area of modern-day Libya, in present-day Sahara desert...
, a North African people, used to live in caves. The Greeks also called an African people who lived in caves
TroglodytaeThe Troglodytae or Troglodyti , were a people mentioned in various locations by many ancient Greek and Roman geographers and historians including Agatharcides, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, Tacitus, Josephus, etc. The earlier references call them Trogodytes, which was evidently altered later...
.