Romans in the Heart of Africa: The Expedition to find the Source of the Nile (60AD)
Added 2022-08-08 02:13:13 +0000 UTCSurprise, new video!
Punic Sicilian Wars part II will debut later this week. For now, enjoy this video on the Roman expedition to the heart of Africa.
In this documentary, we explore this history of ancient Africa as it was understood by the people of the Mediterranean. We begin with the stories relayed by Herodotus through his accounting of the places, animals, and people that inhabited the vast lands of Libya. We look specifically at examples of Phoenician and Greek explorers who sought to discover its secrets. We then turn to the ascendancy of the Romans and how the efforts they took to understand what laid beyond their borders.
Part of this involves the forgotten wars of Augustus including the Roman invasion of Arabia and the Roman invasion of Nubia. These helped expand the bounds of the known world but still much remained a mystery. It is for this reason that in 60 AD Emperor Nero would launch an expedition to find the source of the Nile. We aim to reconstruct this journey of the Romans in North Africa who may have gotten as far as the equatorial regions of modern Sudan and Uganda.
