for managing a province and the disciplined legions were very efficient with this moreover a diplomatic line of communications also existed between the roman garrisons and local tribes as they had agreements for trade the exchange of letters and even the return of runaway slaves as we see here evidently the tripolitanian frontier was far from a static military border as many would assume instead it was an extremely dynamic social border where roman troops were expected to control the movements in their sections of the frontier and to stand on guard against any potential threat even when soldiers retire they can still play a big role in a province the military garrisons at the frontier were supported by a large network of civilian fortifications behind them roman and native settlers erected large rectangular fortified farms known as cantenaria in the region today more than NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN of these small structures had been found in case of an emergency the farms would have acted as fortified positions and rallying points for the civilians of the region to fall back to they could then be transformed into improvised militia forces as large numbers of veterans would have also been present among civilians the city of girza for example had a large number of ex-soldiers from the auxilia and the third legion like one named megan who lives to the venerable age of NUMBER_TOKEN even in their NUMBER_TOKENs these veterans could take up arms and bolster the size of the garrisons or delay enemy troops until reinforcements could arrive due to the presence of a single legion it is unsurprising that the area is known to have boomed during the next few centuries vines olives dates and figs became the main produce of the region something achieved by a huge investment in cisterns dams and irrigation systems as well as a stable level of peace that the roman army was able to provide the area despite its great development the frontier policy of tripolitania came under intense scrutiny and criticism from parts of the upper echelons of the roman empire the historian cassius dio thought the whole effort to have been a waste of money as it only committed more precious roman resources to another backwater region of the empire either way the legions of rome showed that they were more than fighting units that could bring peace and prosperity to even the most distant lands of the empire or violence and instability were they to ever depart from them regardless it is a fact that the legions were a crucial cog in the huge machine that was the roman empire please like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video and consider joining our patrons who provide crucial support in the making of these videos feel free to check out others we've made like on the training and military careers in the army i hope to see you all in the next one
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