Cyrenaica was a North African Province of the Roman Empire. It had been part of the Empire since around the same time as Aegyptus. Cyrenaica was originally made up of two former provinces, one by the same name and the other known as Marmarica. Cyrenaica used to be controlled by the island of Crete but had recently become independently governed and Crete joined with their ethnically similar neighbor of Greccia. Cyrenaica was a center of trade and movement from other areas of Northern Africa into and out of Aegyptus especially. The full names of all of the North African Provinces, with the exception of Aegyptus, include the name Mauretania which was the name of North Africa. However, with the independent development of each of these Provinces they all have gained general recognition by their