African Kingdoms

Prefecture & Exarchate of Africa (Eastern Roman Empire) (North Africa)
AD 534 - 703

Rome Aquitani Tribes Canaanite States Celtic Tribes Classical Colonies Germanic Tribes Iberian Tribes Mesopotamian States Syrian States

Beginning in the twelfth century BC, the Phoenicians quickly prospered in their fertile coastal home in the Levant, creating a great trading empire across the Mediterranean. The conquest of the homeland in the seventh century BC by Assyria forced many of the colonies to develop into self-governing city states of their own.

Phoenician Colonisation of ancient North Africa became more intense with the establishment of Carthage as an ancient 'North African Colony' on the modern Tunisian coast in the late ninth century BC. Once there they quickly surpassed neighbouring Utica to increase Phoenician concentration in the western Mediterranean.

At first competition came from Greeks who had founded their own colonies along the northern Mediterranean. Centuries later, it was with emergent Rome, which sacked Carthage in the mid-second century BC and took control of the North African coast. The region was reorganised into a Roman province which, by 25 BC, was known as Africa Proconsularis.

In AD 439 with Germanic tribes able to penetrate deep into what by then was Western Roman territory, Carthage and Utica were conquered by the invading Vandali. They formed their own powerful kingdom along the North African coast which easily repelled any attempts to retake it. Western Roman food supplies suffered because of this, amid a general and unstoppable decline.

The Vandali controlled Carthage for almost a century until, in response to the usurpation of the throne by Gelimer, Eastern Roman General Belisarius was sent to North Africa with an army. In one campaigning season the previously invulnerable Vandali were conquered, delivering a great stretch of the North African coast into Eastern Roman hands.

The region remained firmly in Roman hands, first as the 'Prefecture of Africa' (a civil district) and then as the 'Exarchate of Africa' (a military district), until it was conquered by the Islamic empire in the seventh century. North Africa apparently provided a template for a general reorganisation of the Eastern Roman empire under Emperor Heraclius into military districts and 'themes'.

Overall administration of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia were also added to this exarchate, while the provinces of Africa Proconsularis, Byzacena, Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis, Numidia, and Tripolitania were all inherited from the destruction of the Vandali in 534.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Geography, Strabo, the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith, from the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, from The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: AD 527-641, John R Martindale, A H M Jones, & John Morris (Cambridge University Press, 1992), from The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium: Niketas, Walter Emil Kaegi (Alexander P Kazhdan, Ed, Oxford University Press, 1991), from Unger's Bible Dictionary, Merrill F Unger (1957), from The Cambridge Ancient History, John Boardman, N G L Hammond, D M Lewis, & M Ostwald (Eds), and from External Links: Carthage (Ancient History Encyclopaedia), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science), and History of the Later Roman Empire, John Bagnall Bury (Dover Books, 1958, reprint of the original 1923 work, available via the Bill Thayer Site.)

534

Commander of Eastern Roman invasion forces (Apr-May).

534

Only temporarily in command of the Eastern Roman invasion force, the former praetorian prefect, Archelaus, is given the post of provisioning the army. The invasion fleet is considered to be a small one, perhaps hinting at the limits of Roman naval facilities in the Mediterranean.

Shown here are two sides of a typical coin issued during the reign of Justin I and then Justinian I of Byzantine Constantinople between AD 518-565, at the very beginnings of restored Roman control of Africa

Even so, the forces which General Belisaurius commands are highly professional. The previously powerful Vandali are defeated in a single campaigning season and North Africa is under Roman control once again.

534

Magister militum, May-Sep.

535

Having secured control of Carthage for Romans for the first time in almost a century, in the form of the 'Prefecture of Africa', General Belisarius proceeds from North Africa to capture sections of Italy, which he reorganises into the Eastern Roman exarchate of Ravenna.

534 - 536

Magister militum & praetorian prefect (from 535).

534 - 536

Having taken over the reigns of power in North Africa, almost immediately Salomon is forced to face and defeat a large-scale incursion by native Berbers. In 536 an attempted assassination and a related mutiny by the army forces him to flee Carthage.

He is able to return to his post in 539, following an emergency return to North Africa by General Belisarius. The general quickly defeats the mutineers and makes safe the prefecture.

The Eastern Roman empire's highly successful General Belisarius and his wife, Antonina, who not only accompanied him on campaign but became involved in the planning

536

Praetorian prefect in December.

536 - 539

Magister militum. Later appointed to Ravenna?

539 - 543

Restored as prefect. Killed in battle.

541 - 542

The 'Plague of Justinian' strikes Constantinople with the arrival of bubonic plague, probably carried on grain ships from Egypt. Justinian is one of the few to contract the disease and survive, but the rest of the Eastern Roman empire is devastated by it, and critically weakened at the point at which it is about to conquer all of Italy and bring it under the rule of one Roman emperor for the first time since AD 395.

The plague probably also contributes to the rapid rise of the Islamic empire in the following century, as the number of available troops who are fighting on many fronts to secure the empire is too low to contain the Arab tidal wave.

543

Salomon's second term of office may have started with another notable victory over the Berbers - one which secures the Eastern Roman position in North Africa - but it ends in his defeat and death at the hands of Berbers in the Battle of Cillium. He is succeeded by his nephew, Sergius, who quickly proves to be entirely unsuitable to the position.

Ravenna had been the home of the last Western Roman emperors, as well as the capital of the succeeding Goths and Ostrogoths, before serving the same role for the Eastern Romans

544 - 545

Nephew. Failed and was recalled.

545

With the ineffective Sergius being recalled, a senator named Areobindus is sent to North Africa. He has under his command a general named Artabanus, a descendant of the Arsacids of Lesser Armenia.

Facing a rebellion of the local military forces and a Moorish invasion which is allied to the rebel, Guntherius, Artabanus eventually defeats them all, but it takes time. Senator Areobindus is killed by Guntherius after taking fright and virtually gifting Carthage to the rebels.

545

Senator & expedition leader. Murdered by Guntherius.

545

Leader of military uprising. Ruled and assassinated.

545 - 546

Praetorian prefect under Guntherius.

546

Magister militum. Killed Guntherius. Recalled.

546 - 552

Finally pacified region after fighting in Mesopotamia.

546 - 548

As the former dux Mesopotamiae, John Troglita is appointed to assume command in Africa and secure the Eastern Roman hold on the region. The 'Moors' of Byzacena are defeated across the winter of 546-547 but those of Tripolitania reverse John's improved position and raiding resumes.

Berbers with their superb horsemanship and guerrilla tactics were highly valued as auxiliary troops in the Roman army, particularly in their native North Africa where they excelled in desert combat

John reorganises his forces, creates alliances with several local tribal leaders, and inflicts a decisive battleground defeat on these Moors at the Fields of Cato in 548. North Africa is once again safe.

552

Probably amid much celebration across the empire, the death of Totila at the Battle of Taginae allows the city of Rome to be retaken by Constantinople, which governs Italy from Ravenna.

The city remains under domination by the Eastern Romans until the eighth century but a civil government slowly emerges to take control of Roman regional affairs in the late ninth century, often vying for power with the pope.

The now-peaceful prefecture of Africa remains largely anonymous during this period, as is often the case for Eastern Roman districts which are not threatened by war or revolt.

This romantic painting shows the amphitheatre of the Italian city of Tusculum, native territory of what by the end of the ninth century would become the influential counts of Tusculum who dominated the early post-Frankish Roman civil authority

552 - 555

Praetorian prefect.

555 - 558

Possibly same as consul of Ostrogothic Rome (522).

558 - 562

Restored, and potentially died in office (date uncertain).

562 - 563

Magister militum.

563

John Rogathinus makes the mistake of murdering Cutzinas, an aging tribal leader, when the latter is in Carthage to receive his annual pension. The dead leader's sons and followers rise up, and the tribune Marcian, nephew of the emperor, has to lead an expeditionary force into North Africa to restore peace.

563

Praetorian prefect.

563 - 565

Magister militum.

565

Praetorian prefect. Returned in 570s.

565

Thomas begins the construction of a series of fortifications as Constantinople focuses attention on the prefecture. The administration is strengthened, expanded, and decentralised. The declining Garamantes civilisation undergoes attempts to draw it into Christianity.

What are now Roman ruins at Batna in Algeria would still have been largely habitable during Eastern Roman ownership of the region, some seven hundred years after the first Roman settlement there

565 - 569

569 - 570

Praetorian prefect. Killed by Mauro-Romans.

570 - 571

Magister militum. Killed by Mauro-Romans.

571

Troops of the Mauro-Roman kingdom in what had been the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis destroy an Eastern Roman army. In fact their ruler, Garmul, is responsible for killing three Roman administrators of Africa in this period.

The empire is already being assailed from all sides, what with the Lombards having invaded Italy, and some North African troops have already been sent to active theatres of war, thereby weakening the prefecture's defences.

571 - 574

Magister militum. Killed by Mauro-Romans.

574 - 578

Name unknown. Possibly Thomas, below.

578

Reappointed as praetorian prefect.

577 - 579

King Garmul of the Mauro-Roman kingdom invades the prefecture of Africa. With diplomatic ties with the kingdom having broken down, Gennadius is appointed as magister militum Africae under the new prefect, Thomas, to deal with the problem - possibly earlier than 578 as preparations are long and extensive while the campaign is launched in 577.

Altava was the capital of the Mauro-Roman kingdom, an ancient city in what is now Algeria which can be found at Ouled Mimoun near Tlemcen on the Roman road from Theveste

578

Magister militum, possibly from 574. Remained after 578.

579

Under Thomas as praetorian prefect and Gennadius as magister militum, the Mauro-Roman kingdom of Garmul is defeated during a short but highly effective campaign. Garmul is killed in 579 as his kingdom collapses. Part of it is incorporated into the prefecture while other areas become incorporated into Berber states. Roman control of the entire region is resumed.

578 - 582

Praetorian prefect.

582 - 590

Praetorian prefect.

590 - 591

Praetorian prefect.

591 - 594

Previously magister militum, now exarch.

591

Under Gennadius the prefecture of Africa becomes the 'Exarchate of Africa' (often, but not permanently it seems. The title may be more of a personal one than one which is attached to the office).

The exarch in Africa is the direct military and civil representative of the Eastern Roman emperor, and as such he wields considerable power over the entire western half of the North African coast, the islands (including Sardinia and Corsica), and Iberia.

A good telling off by Pope Gregory I was all it took to convert the Barbagians of Sardinia, that and some solid politicking behind the scenes, no doubt

The province of Tripolitania is detached from Africa to be given to the province of Egypt, while Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Sitifensis are merged to form the new province of Mauretania Prima.

The reduced Mauretania Tingitana, little more than the city of Septum (Ceuta), is combined with citadels along the Iberian coast and the Balearic Islands to form Mauretania Secunda.

594 - 598

Exarch. Killed or recalled?

c.585 & 596

Two serious Berber revolts would seem to be the reason for Gennadius being reappointed as exarch of Africa. Pantaleon's fate is unknown - he is likely either killed while attempting to suppress the latest revolt or is recalled to Constantinople.

598 - 600

Reappointed again. Retired.

600 - 602

Praetorian prefect. Temporary posting.

602 - 611

Exarch. Father of Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius.

608 - 610

In conjunction with his son, Heraclius 'the Younger', Exarch Heraclius of Africa (and previously magister militum of Armenia) revolts against the usurper Eastern Roman emperor, Phocas.

The younger Heraclius uses Africa as a base from which he is able to overthrow Phocas and begin his own Heraclian dynasty in Constantinople. His father passes away shortly after learning of the good news.

The reign of Heraclius was one of modest success and great catastrophe during which large swathes of territory in North Africa and the Near East were lost while diplomacy and intrigue served to bring the Turkic tribes of the Black Sea coast under a degree of control (the emperor is pictured far right, beheading Khusro II of the Sassanid empire, although it was actually Khusro's own son who overthrew him)

611 - 614

Name unknown.

614 - 617

617 - 619

Name unknown.

619 - 627

Exarch? Cousin of Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius.

619

Nicetas is the former exarch of Egypt, forced to flee by the Islamic invasion which he had been unable to prevent. He seems not to be mentioned by contemporary sources after that but, thanks to an anecdote which is not accepted by all historians, he is believed to serve as exarch of Africa until his death as he is a firm supporter of Emperor Heraclius.

627 - 633

Praetorian prefect. A Heraculid by birth.

633 - 641

Exarch.

640

The Islamic invasion and conquest of Egypt begins in the later months of 640. A victory at the Battle of Heliopolis delivers much of the country to the Arabs, but the Babylon Fortress (in the region of modern-day Coptic Cairo) has to be besieged for several months before it surrenders.

Al-Fustat was the first capital of Islamic Egypt, built by Amr ibn al-As, but most of it was deliberately burned down in 1168 and the remains were absorbed into Cairo

The Eastern Roman capital at Alexandria, capital of Egypt for a thousand years, surrenders a few months later and a peace treaty is signed in late 641 in the ruins of a palace in Memphis. Refugees pour into the exarchate of Africa, alerting both Peter and Gregory to the seriousness of the problem.

641 - 648

Restored. Rebelled in 646. Killed.

645

Islamic Egypt is briefly re-conquered by Eastern Roman forces in 645, but the imperial victory is short-lived. Its forces are subsequently defeated at the Battle of Nikiou and Egypt is secured for good by the Arabs. The loss is a disaster for the Romans, while the stream of refugees from Egypt into Carthage is also causing some destabilisation.

646 - 647

Seemingly making the most of confusion in the empire due to the loss of Egypt, the exarchate of Africa is declared an independent state by Gregory 'the Patrician', as he throws off the authority of Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II.

This light solidus was minted during the eventful reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II, with his face on the obverse

The reason is at least partially theological (yet another doctrinal dispute over the nature of Jesus Christ of the likes which for decades have dogged the Papacy), but the exarchate has long been semi-autonomous anyway. He establishes Sufetula (modern Sbeïtla) as his capital as it is further from the coast than is Carthage, and is more secure for that reason.

Gregory's troops are severely defeated by the invading troops of the Islamic empire under the command of Abdullah Ibn Sa'ad of Egypt, and Gregory himself is killed in 648. The exarchate appears to be occupied for perhaps a year or so by the Arabs while the Roman forces hold the fortresses.

In 649 the Arabs withdraw, allowing the Eastern Romans to regain some level of control there. The country's interior remains firmly in the hands of the native Berbers, who repel any attempts to subdue them.

In a rare defeat during the seventh century, the invading Arab army found itself unsuccessful when it tried to take the fortress of Old Dongola during its second attempt to capture the kingdom

649 - 664

The Eastern Roman empire remains in control of the exarchate until 667. It is governed by General Gennadius, seemingly without him being appointed by the emperor. Now continually under threat of invasion by the Islamic forces to the east, a more military bias is clearly needed in the region's governance and generally it works.

Unfortunately for the empire's security, the Berbers have slipped entirely out of imperial control, reducing the amount which can be gathered in taxes. Gennadius himself rebels in 664, proclaiming Carthage to be independent of Constantinople.

648 - 665

Eastern Roman general. Rebelled. Overthrown & expelled.

665 - 667

Within a year of rebelling against imperial control, Gennadius is overthrown by loyalists within his own kingdom. He is expelled and flees to the Islamic empire in Damascus. He is successful in persuading the caliph to give him an army of reconquest but he dies when they reach Alexandria and the army is temporarily leaderless.

The exarchate of Africa is reunited with Constantinople, but the period of unrest has probably distracted imperial troops and resources. The Islamic empire snatches control of parts of the region in 667, with the wali of Ifriqiyya and the Maghreb launching raids farther west.

The Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus was built between AD 706-715 on the site of the Basilica of St John, which itself had been converted from the Temple of Jupiter

665 - 695?

Eastern Roman exarch? Uncertain.

686

An Islamic force led by Zoheir ibn Kais, wali of Ifriqiyya and the Maghreb, defeats a joint army of Eastern Romans and Berbers on the Qairawan plain which is commanded by Berber leader Khusalah.

The victors are not strong enough to follow up their victory with territorial gains. During this period Islamic mentions of a figure who is known as al-At'riyūn are generally attributed to Eleutherios, although there seems to be no other confirmation that he is exarch of Africa.

695 - 698

The wali of Ifriqiyya and the Maghreb, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, captures Carthage in 695 and the Eastern Roman administration retreats, possibly to Caralis on Sardinia. Hasan advances into the Atlas Mountains.

Taking advantage of his absence, an Eastern Roman fleet arrives to retake Carthage in 697. Within a year Hasan returns and defeats Emperor Tiberius III at the Battle of Carthage.

The Islamic empire conquered Eastern Roman Carthage through a series of campaigns over the space of half a century, with Roman control over the region gradually weakening during a series of military defeats

Africa is abandoned to the Islamic empire, except for the small territory of Ceuta (known to the Romans as Septem). It is the last time that Constantinople will rule the region for eight hundred and sixty-six years.

Carthage is again destroyed, as is Utica, to be replaced by Tunis as the regional capital. The country itself will eventually bear the same name as this new capital: Tunisia.

695? - 703

Prefect. In Ceuta/Septem?

703? - 711

In Ceuta? Possibly a vassal of Roderic of the Visigoths.

710 - 711

Ceuta (Septem), and the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar), are apparently turned over to the Islamic empire by 'Count Julian', as the empire prepares its invasion of Visigothic Iberia. Following the successful invasion, Julian is said to be granted the lands there that he desires, leaving Ceuta in Islamic hands.

In AD 469/470 the Visigoths expanded their kingdom to its largest extent, reaching Nantes in the north and Cadiz in the south, but it was not to last (click or tap on map to view full sized)