Hippone4

4.Climate:

 

S.Gsell concludes this issue as follows:

‘As for North Africa properly so-called, it enjoyed a climate if not like, at least very analogous to, the present climate. Drought was usual in the summer, and sometimes lasted during the whole year. The rains were irregular and often torrential; there were in general much less abundant in the interior of the country than in the neighbourhood of the Atlantic and of the Mediterranean – that is from the Strait of Gibraltar to Cape Bon. It is possible that this country may have been a little moister than today; in lack of proof one may invoke certain indications which are not without value. But, to put it briefly, if the climate of Barbary has changed since the Roman period, it is only to a very slight extent.’

[S.Gsell, Histoire ancienne de l’Afrique du Nord, Paris 1913 in a translation by Mater Dennis III].