Moors already invaded Spain before the muslim conquest

**~~Hamilcar~~** · 02-19-2021, 11:34 PM

For people who weren't aware of it :

In the 170’s A.D., Moorish troops from western North Africa repeatedly plundered the south of the Iberian peninsula. The latter events are known thanks to two passages in Historia Augusta and two inscriptions from Baetica; ancient historiography made them popular under the term of ≪Moorish invasions≫. [...] The Mauri would have made a first irruption in the Iberian Peninsula on an undetermined date between 169 and 174 AD. AD and would have stayed from a few months to several years according to the authors, before returning to 177. [...] Thanks to two passages from the Historia Augusta and four inscriptions, we know of the existence of two campaigns against the Mauri carried out in the south of the Iberian Peninsula around 172 and 177.

https://journals.openedition.org/pallas/15391?lang=en

M. Benabou dates from 171 AD the first crossing of the Moors in Baetica. Mr. Reddé approves the dating proposed by W. Seston and M. Euzennat, from a bronze plaque discovered in Banasa, of the procuratorate of C. Vallius Maximianus in Tingitana around 177 AD. Immediately after this charge, he was dux of Baetica (Cil II, 1120, Italica). The victory of his troops in Baetica was celebrated in Rome, which earned the ninth imperial greeting to Marcus Aurelius. [...] The Moors moved, therefore, to Iberia as a tribal group and not under the authority of a king responding to official missions. This is why the authors of Historia Augusta and the epigraphic sources agree in considering the Moors, who came to the south of Spain, as being rebels or "hostes populi Romani". Nowadays, specialists will say that the Moors did not have the approval of Rome or some sort of "tacit permission" to carry out their actions in Spain.

Le passage des Maures en Bétique au IIe siècle ap. J. -C., Houcine Rahmoune, p. 110-111

Here an inscription from the city of Italica in Andalusia that pay tribute to Vallius Maximianus for defeating the moors :

Apart from the inscription of Singilia Barba, we have no direct traces of the devastation committed by the Mauri. Undoubtedly it is advisable not to blindly follow the Historia Augusta and to moderate the extent of the destruction committed. The Mauri took advantage of the relative military thinning of the south of the Iberian Peninsula to launch a series of relatively targeted incursions on the probably wealthy but poorly defended cities of Baetica. Certainly, the life of the entire province was visibly disrupted by these attacks, as the Italica inscription shows. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that these incursions seem all the more brutal and important as they break the "previous peace" of southern Hispania which has lasted for more than three centuries.

https://journals.openedition.org/pallas/15391?lang=en

These moors probably came from north-east morocco/western algeria :

It is necessary to return to the oldest hypothesis, that of the populations of the Mediterranean coast between Russaddir and Portus Magnus, not because the Riffians have been from the origins a people living on raids, but because they have the material means of 'invest nearby Baetica. The Strait of Gibraltar area, which is highly urbanized, should not have been used for embarkation or passage; on the other hand, on the coast which goes from Russaddir to Siga, located “opposite” Malaca for the Ancients, Roman settlements are almost non-existent. In addition, according to recent work by R. Rebuffat, a people called Maurensioi, a name directly linked to that of Mauri, would occupy this region of northern Tingitana, near the Sokossioi. They could be the authors of the incursions; they would have crossed the Sea of Alboran to Malaca and would have reached Singilia Barba by land, the Guadalhorce which connects the territory of the two cities being navigable only for a very short distance.