Türk

They get constantly BTFO by the dozens of northern african native kingdoms... They bearly hold some parts of the coast..

pic related, africa circa 600 ad

>They bearly hold some parts of the coast..
Lol

Greeks during Ptolemy did learn that the Nile or a part of it came from the Ethiopian highlands. Organizing military expeditions south through the Nile was too treacherous because of the rapids that begin from Aswan, pic related.

I'm speaking about the Byzantinian empire in 600 ad, wich is the subject of this thread, you're off topic with the roman empire (in 180 ad)

Btw,

your map =/= reality In 180 ad most of the nothern african tribes and native population was independant from Rome (because nomadic and harsh mountains + military power)

Pic related is more accurate.

The problem with those old maps / amateurs maps is that they doesn't know about the recent discoveries of ancient nothern africa and the native kingdom of that time. the problem is that the anglo academics can't read french and most of the work is by french historians

It's easier to travel east to west than north to south. North to south you deal with significant climate differences which they were unprepared for.
All coastal routes or the nile were already controlled by other, albeit small, kingdoms. The nile itself had cateracts which were hard to cross, and heavy human population throughout, who were already loyal to their local rulers for centuries. Also, the nile flows south to north.
Empty desert created a barrier, even if you're able to cross it you meet savannah full of dangerous animals, then dense tropical jungle. None of those areas are exactly rich or worth conquering at that time. Especially not enough for the extreme amount of effort it would have taken to take and hold them. Africa is just too damn big. Plus they had their hands full defending their own languishing borders.

Where does the thread say it's specifically about Rome in 600ad?

*500 ad I mean.

>Where does the thread say it's specifically about Rome in 600ad

Well the map is ": Africa in 500 AD." and the first message is "Why didn't Byzantine Empire just conquer all of Africa"

There was no Byzantine empire in 180 ad. Anything non-byzantine related is off topic

>There was no Byzantine empire in 180 ad. Anything non-byzantine related is off topic
There's no such thing as the "Byzantine Empire", it was the Roman Empire and it controlled all of North Africa

le ebig bait! xd

>gag
>>>r/lgbt

No bait, just facts

RETARD

Africa is fucking huge for one, and sparsley opulated, thus conqering in africa isnt so much about controlling territory as it is in europe, but about controlling people, which is a bit of a different affair.

Also since its where humans evolved and the ecosystem can support a much larger population of hunter gatherers convincing people to farm is hard and ruling over hunter gatherers is just not really a big deal.

Also its full of nasty insects and diseases and presators and theres a fuckhuge desert between byzantium and most of africa

supply lines and africans being too stupid to have food.
You can't control a region if you can't feed your men.

Mongolia is also a desert, they would have been fine following the Nile and would not need to cross anything as arid as some of the drylands from their Homeland.

Yes it would, it's fertile and it has water. It's not the same at all

The Romans sent an expedition down the Nile once. Eventually they entered a swampy area where it became difficult to get their boat through and they feared being attacked by the natives if they ventured on land so they turned back.

>it's fertile
It can be made fertile by dredging the nile. It is not inherently fertile.

The only useful land in Africa is the southern part its mostly shitty jungles, shitty deserts and shitty savannahs.

Retard alert

Cattle and millet were major exports on the eastern end of the sahel

Persian threat

Best land in Africa were the North and South coasts

Arabs ruined the maghreb with their retarded overgrazing

But it has water and fish, what's the hassle of marching down it?