ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the fifth century, before the Vandal invasion, northwest Africa was the only Roman territory in the west which had not yet suffered barbarian incursions from eastern or northern Europe. In spite of the miseries of so many of its inhabitants, its fields continued to yield their generous harvests, its olive trees produced huge quantities of oil, its vineyards and orchards were heavy with fruit, and its pastures still supported horses and sheep and cattle. It is true that a survey of Honorius in AD 422 suggests that the acreage under cultivation had shrunk, perhaps considerably; but if some land had been deserted it was only the most unproductive, and what remained under cultivation was still splendidly fruitful. The unfailing African sun and the scrupulous upkeep by a hard-working peasantry of the irrigation works which utilized every drop of water combined to sustain the province's reputation for fertility. No wonder Alaric the Goth in ravaged Italy, and the Visigoths and Vandals in disputed Spain, had seen it as a promised land.
