The Religions of Ancient North Africa in Classical Literature

Abstract

Data on African pieties based on classic sources suffer a number of shortcomings – first, they stem from outsiders, namely Greek or Roman viewpoints, since no account was left by an author of African culture; secondly, written sources never center on religions proper; last of all, accounts are slanted in two ways that distort or make up realia: one is the barbarian topos that weighs especially against Punic Carthage and the other is the practice of interpretatio graeca et latina.