# Ghirza and the Fortified Farms (c. 350)

URL: https://allhistories.com/libya/timeline/350-ghirza-and-the-fortified-farms
Location: Ghirza (Wadi Ghirza), Libya
Themes: main-event

In late antiquity the defence and cultivation of the Tripolitanian frontier lands passed increasingly into the hands of local Libyan families. In the wadis of the pre-desert, where flood-water farming allowed the cultivation of cereals and olives, they built fortified farmhouses (gsur) and organised communities that combined agriculture with military duties as allies or limitanei of Rome. Ghirza, in the Wadi Ghirza about 250 kilometres south-east of Tripoli, is the best-known of these settlements. Flourishing especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, it consisted of some forty buildings, including large fortified houses and a temple, around which stood an exceptional group of monumental tombs. These mausolea, some in the form of temples and others of obelisks, are decorated with reliefs showing ploughing with camels and oxen, harvesting, hunting and banquets. Latin inscriptions name the owners, with Libyan names such as Marchius Nimira and his son Fydel. Ghirza illustrates the fusion of Roman and indigenous Libyan culture in the frontier zone. The settlement remained occupied into the sixth century or later, and its tombs provide some of the most vivid images of rural life in Roman Libya. At this point in the timeline (c. AD 300–500), the Roman Emperor was Constans I (9 September 337 – 18 January 350); the Roman Emperor was Constantius II (9 September 337 – 3 November 361).

## Why it matters
Ghirza is a unique record of the Romano-Libyan farming communities that defended and cultivated the Tripolitanian frontier in late antiquity.

Ruler at the Time: [Constans I](https://allhistories.com/libya/rulers/constans-i)

Roman Emperor: Constantius II

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Gerisa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerisa)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Ghirza](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Ghirza)
- [Wikipedia — Limes Tripolitanus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limes_Tripolitanus)
- [Wikipedia — Roman, Vandal And Byzantine Libya (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Libya)