Send Gift Baskets to Ceuta, Spain

Military and commercial traffic is controlled by the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenicians realized the narrow isthmus separating Almina Peninsula from the African mainland made Ceuta eminently defendable and established an outpost there early in the 1st millennium B.C. It is referred to in Greek geography by various forms of Abyla, the ancient name of Jebel Musa, located nearby. Besides Calpe, the other Pillar of Hercules, now known as the Rock of Gibraltar, the Phoenicians also established Kart in San Roque, Spain. Several other anchorages nearby became Phoenician and then Carthaginian ports, now Tangiers and Cádiz.

Most of northwest Africa was left to the Roman client states of Numidia and Mauretania after Carthage was destroyed in the Punic Wars. During the Roman era, Punic culture flourished in what the Romans called “Septem.” When Caesar and his heirs annexed North Africa directly as Roman provinces in 46 B.C., most of Septem’s Berber residents continued to speak and write in Punic as late as Augustus.

In A.D. 40, Caligula assassinated Ptolemy and seized his kingdom, which Claudius organized in A.D. 42, adding Septem to the province of Tingitana and raising it to the status of a colony. Later, it was Romanized and flourished into the late 3rd century, trading heavily with Roman Spain and becoming famous for its salted fish. Overland connections were established with Tingis (Tangiers) and Volubilis through roads. Septem had 10,000 inhabitants under Theodosius I in the late 4th century, nearly all of whom spoke African Romance, a dialect of Latin spoken locally.

As Count Boniface’s protection against the empress dowager, Vandals crossed the strait near Tingis around 425 and quickly conquered Roman North Africa. The Berber king Gaiseric focused on the rich lands around Carthage; However, the Romans eventually accepted his conquests; he continued to raid the lands but soon lost control of Tingis and Septem. Belisarius, Justinian’s victorious general, hastened along the coast and established Septem as the westernmost outpost of the Byzantine Empire around 533. In contrast to the ancient Roman administration, Eastern Rome didn’t extend far into the hinterland, making Septem their regional capital instead of Tingis, which was less secure.