Louise Cilliers, Roman North Africa: Environment, Society and Medical Contribution

The purpose of this monograph is ‘to envision these four authors [Helvidius Vindicianus, Theodorus Priscianus, Caelius Aurelianus and Cassius Felix] in their own environment and frame of time’ (p. 11). The result does just that. Louise Cilliers succeeded in offering a friendly introduction to the environment and society in which these late antique authors produced their work. In a simple, friendly, yet authoritative, the author skilfully reads the uninitiated reader through this seldom studied subject outside advanced academic seminar halls.The first chapter is an untypically lucid introduction to the history, environment, population, and cultural life in Roman North Africa (pp. 15–57). Without assuming prior knowledge, and without unnecessarily burdening her readership with superfluous technical data, this chapter covers the history of Roman North Africa (pp. 15–25), its environment (p. 26), its natural resources and their application (pp. 27–32). Cilliers then moves on to a succinct description of the human geography, with a section on the cities of Roman North Africa (pp.32–41) and population and languages used (pp. 41– 50). This chapter ends up with a short comment on the cultural life and medical literature produced in Roman North Africa, leading naturally to the following chapter on the health facilities in the cities of North Africa (pp.57–78).