The Principality of Garama
Map of the Principality of Garama
under
H.R.S.H., Prince William I de Alabona-Ostrogojsk
(The Arms of the Royal House are shown in the upper left corner to indicate sovereignty)
Brief History of the Garamantes
Of the Garamantes themselves, it is known that they inhabited Phezania (the Fezzan region of the Sahara Desert) by the Third Millennium before Christ, occupying the numerous pases that dot the region and established their capitol at Garama (modern Germa) some 400 miles south of Sabratha and 430 miles south of Pepcis Magna. They were known to be powerful and warlike, mastering the horse and chariot before the introduction of the camel into the region. This 200,000-plus square mile area today occupies portions of the modern states of Libya, Chad, Niger and Algeria. This tribe of Tripolitania, over time, came to control the lucrative caravan trade within the central regions of the Great Desert and were known to have conducted raids on their Carthaginian and, later, Roman neighbors to the north, pillaging as far north as Pepcis Magna on the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as slave raids as far south as Lake Chad.
It was not until 19 B.C. that the Garamantes were brought into the Roman World when Lucius Cornelius Balbus, Proconsul of Africa, invaded the Fezzan and occupied the cities, towns and oases of the Garamantes. It is at Garama that the Roman Empire reached its farthest incursion south into the African continent. Later, in the sixth century A.D., the Byzantine Empire assumed control of Garama and established a permanent fortification at Zuila (modern Zuela) and this corresponds with the time in which the Garamantes accepted Christianity.
On May 22, 1826, The August Basileus Basilion, Dyarchus Autokrates, made the sovereign decision to honor and perpetuate the historic memory of the Nation of the Garamantes, accepting the opinion of the Perpetual Council in Defense of the Memory and Renewal of the Holy Roman Empire, by establishing and instituting a hereditary, titular Princely Dynasty for the Nation of the Garamantes. Also established in perpetuity at that time were the titles, qualifications, rights, duties and prerogatives inherent in the titular Sovereign Prince, Head of the Garamic Dynasty, which was granted to H.R.S.H., Prince William I de Alabona-Ostrogojsk, who then also became Sovereign Prince of Garama.
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