People

Garamantes

The Garamantes were a Berber people of the Libyan Sahara, whose chief town Garama survives as Germa in the Fezzan. Rome knew them as dangerous neighbours: around 20 BC the proconsul Cornelius Balbus campaigned against them, and the poet Virgil praised Augustus for stretching his empire to where the Garamantes lived. Just above their name the map draws a salt lake, labelled as vast salt pans that grow and shrink with the moon, which matches the late Roman historian Orosius, who placed them beside a salt lake. The Tabula seems to be the last source to locate them precisely.

Fully based on scientific information from TP-Online (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt). More on Wikipedia.

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