Basic HTML Version
now associate with eastern and southern
Africa had its home in this beautiful
setting. It was like one big National
Park providing Rome with a)most every
need.
Nortb Africa Today
The mountains are still here.
So
are
sorne of the finest soils on earth. And,
there is still beauty in the region, but it
is a North Africa altogether different
from that of Roman days. The magnifi–
cent trees which astonished the ancients
ARE GONE -
not a single specimen of
those giants is left for anyone to
admire. The elephants and many other
animals, once so prolific in the area,
have disappeared completely. Sorne of
the other wilder animals maintained an
existence a Iittle longer, but the last !ion
in the region was finally kílled in 1922.
And too, the grain fields which at one
time waved in the wind, like tbe
vast areas of Kansas, are now mostly
desert.
The whole character of the land has
changed.
It
is nothing like it once was.
And tbe pitiful fact is that the land
needn't have b<:come this way at al!.
Who is to blame for the destruction
of this former paradise? Not sur–
prisingly, it was
MAN -
mostly the
Romans themselves - who brought
about the change.
The Roman Plunder
The spoilation of North Africa was
already happening in the First Century
of our era. Pliny upbraids the Romans,
especially the nobility, for their destruc–
tion of the natural environment to sat–
isfy their own greed for luxury. He
mentious how wealthy Romans were
ransacking the forests of North Africa,
indiscriminately killiug off the ele-