place
Africa
The Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia and adjacent), administered from Utica; the western Mediterranean's chief grain region after Sicily.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 11.7 §3 I did not go into Africa
After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus and his murder in Egypt, the surviving Pompeian leaders regrouped in the province of Africa with Numidian (Juba's) support. Cicero is defending his refusal to join that last stand, which others held against him.
- Ad Atticum 11.10 §2 The news brought from Africa
The Pompeian remnant under Scipio, Cato, and king Juba was massing in the province of Africa for a last stand against Caesar, which would end at Thapsus in 46 BC. Reports of its strength fed Cicero's fear that the war was far from over.
- Ad Atticum 11.12 §3 we have far more to worry about over Africa
After Pharsalus the surviving Pompeians regrouped in the Roman province of Africa, where Cato, Metellus Scipio, and King Juba were assembling a new army. Cicero, who had abandoned the cause and returned to Italy, dreaded that their resistance would prolong the war and expose his desertion.
- Ad Atticum 11.24 §5 the African business can be brought to an end
The "African business" is the war against the Pompeian forces under Metellus Scipio, Cato, and king Juba massed in the province of Africa. Atticus hoped it might be settled by negotiation; Cicero, rightly, saw no prospect of that — Caesar crushed them at Thapsus in April 46 BC.
- Ad Familiares 4.7 §3 who have taken themselves to Africa
After Pharsalus (48 BC) the surviving Pompeian leadership regrouped in the province of Africa, where they were finally crushed by Caesar at Thapsus in April 46 BC. Cicero contrasts these die-hards with Marcellus's "middle course" of quiet withdrawal.
- Ad Familiares 5.21 §3 my waiting on the African news
In spring 46 BC Cicero awaited word of Caesar's campaign against the Pompeian remnant in Africa, decided at the battle of Thapsus (April 46 BC). The outcome would settle the fate of the surviving republican cause and, Cicero feared, his own.
- Ad Familiares 6.13 §2 from the time when the first despatch came from Africa
The decisive battle of Thapsus in Africa (April 46 BC) ended Pompeian military resistance; the dispatch announcing Caesar's victory was the moment when Pompeian exiles' fates became Caesar's sole decision.
- Ad Familiares 6.13 §3 the African cause
The phrase encompasses the whole Pompeian last stand in the province of Africa Vetus (modern Tunisia), where Scipio, Cato, and other diehards had rallied after Pharsalus; Ligarius had been among the commanders there.
- Ad Familiares 10.24 §4 the African army
The veteran legions stationed in the province of Africa (under the proconsul Q. Cornificius), which the republican commanders hoped to summon to Italy to reinforce the war against Antony.