Ancient Libya

During the Iron Age and Classical antiquity, Libya (from Greek Λιβύη: Libyē, which came from Berber: Libu) referred to the area of North Africa directly west of the Nile River (modern-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco). Ancient Libya is not to be confused with the modern country of Libya, which represents the eastern part of the territory at the time. Ancient Libya was one of the three continents of the ancient world (Libya, Asia, and Europa). The territory also had part of the Mediterranean Sea named after it called the Libyan Sea or Mare Libycum (which was the part of the Mediterranean south of Crete, between Cyrene and Alexandria). Greek and Roman geographers placed the dividing line between Ancient Libya and Asia at the Nile because the entire region south of the Mediterranean and west of the Nile was not only homogeneous linguistically (Berber languages were used throughout North Africa as far as the Atlantic coast) but also racially (with Libyan people or Berbers.) During Roman times, the area of Ancient Libya was split into four main regions: Mauretania, Numidia, Africa Proconsularis, and Libya (which retained the original name). Subsequently, the name ‘Africa’ was later extended to the whole continent, named after the Roman province of Africa (which occupied parts of modern-day Tunisia and modern-day Algeria).