It was definitely doable, but I think it's a case similar to Scotland. No doubt because of the topography, which favours the defenders and guerilla warfare. It would require a second legion in North Africa, one specifically devoted to Mauretania. Since Rome had four legions to devote to Britain, I think Mauretania and the rest of Africa (west of Egypt) could get two. Maybe pull a legion from Britain? Conquer and secure Caledonia and then pull a legion from Britain?
But that does make the border very defensible, since the Sahara peoples are not particularly threatening and the Atlas makes a good barrier against them. Volubilis is also protected from Berbers from the south in this case and can remain under direct Roman rule and thus thrive and prosper like the later cities during Muslim rule which used the ruins of it as building material.
It's just...Mauretania will not be a wealthy province. Mauretania is a wholly average province for agriculture, is decent for pastoralism, good fishing grounds, and was a key source of Tyrian purple and other dyes since Phoenician times. Maybe Romans can get something going with the phosphate resources there? Overall, it's a poorer and more remote version of Hispania. You can most do anything in Mauretania better in the other African provinces or in Hispania. Perhaps the best parts are the trade routes to sub-Saharan Africa or the New World, neither of which are really open in the early Roman Empire. There's also zinc, antimony, and most importantly some silver to found in areas where the Romans seem to never have gotten/explored enough. There's always the PODs of sugar being introduced to Rome, in which Mauretania can make its wealth with sugar due to the general lack of good sugar lands (since unlike Spain, Portugal, other European countries, no New World) in the Roman Empire. But that seems like cheating, plus Hispania, the rest of Africa, and certain Meditteranean islands (Crete, Sicily) will do sugar better.
Aside from that, it would be interesting to see how even more Roman trade would effect the Canarians/Guanche.
yes there is the longer they leave it anyway with the spread of the camel opening up the transaharan trade routes! I think it would be more in the vein of fortified oasis and forts along trading routes simular to roman morroco! septimus severus would most likely be the best candidate with his OTL investment in north africa (his home town for one!)
Mauretania is a world away from Lepcis Magna. But I do agree a local-born North African would be the best candidate to help improve North Africa. Maybe a North African dynasty comes to power earlier than the Severans? Or, hell, someone with a powerbase in Mauretania to begin with. I like the idea of someone descended from Ptolemy of Mauretania in some form, what with his ancestry in Mark Antony, Cleopatra (thus the Ptolemaic dynasty), and the native kings of Mauretania. Maybe get his offspring mixed with certain other figures like
this guy to make quite an impressive pedigree for the man. Obviously a different end to the Julio-Claudian dynasty is needed.
Definitely the larger introduction of the camel earlier than OTL would have made Mauretania far more useful to Roman aims.
