Tripolitania (Roman province)

Tripolitania was a province of the Roman Empire. Between the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century AD it had been known as Syrtica; in the 3rd century it was renamed Tripolitania meaning "region of the three cities", referring to Oea (modern Tripoli of Libya), Sabratha and Leptis Magna.

Following the defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars, Ancient Rome organized the region (along with what is now modern day Tunisia and eastern Algeria), into a province known as Africa, and placed it under the administration of a proconsul.

Tripolitania was the least urbanized region in Roman Africa.^[1]

During the Diocletian reforms of the late 3rd century, all of North Africa was placed into the newly created Diocese of Africa, of which Tripolitania was a constituent province.