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Byzantine North Africa
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Byzantine North Africa
Byzantine rule in North Africa spanned around 175 years. It began in the years 533/534 with the reconquest of territory formerly belonging to the Western Roman Empire by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire under Justinian I and ended during the reign of Justinian II with the conquest of Carthage (698) and the last Byzantine outposts, especially Septem (708/711), in the course of Islamic expansion.
The region's administrative structure was initially in line with the typical late Roman administrative structures that had been existing for the past 300 years. Civil powers were thus in the hands of a Praetorian prefect, the head of the supreme civil administrative authority in the Late Roman Empire. The military powers, however, were incumbent on a Magister militum per Africam. These powers were merged into single office from 591 at the latest, and East Roman North Africa became the heartland of one of two exarchates, with the founding of which the East Roman Emperor Maurice (582–602) was able to counteract the consequences of imperial overstretch through bundling and decentralization. No further change in these administrative structures took place until the end of Byzantine rule.
The reconquest of this region was of the greatest strategic and economic significance and the most enduring of all conquests in the West. While the Lombard kingdom was established in parts of East Roman Italy after 568 and East Roman rule in southern Spain came to an end amidst the final and most desperate Roman-Persian war, the areas reconquered in the Maghreb remained entirely in the East Roman hands until the Islamic expansion. This made the region the most important cornerstone of Eastern Roman/Byzantine power in the West.
The rapid establishment of Eastern Roman rule in today's Maghreb was the result of the increasing political vacuum in the African provinces of the former Western Empire and the Germanic successor state of the Vandals, which was primarily characterized by the dissolution of regional power and administrative structures.
With the partition of the empire in 395, all Roman areas in Africa west of the Great Syrte became part of the Western Roman Empire. Specifically, these were the provinces of Tripolitania, Byzacena, Zeugitana (also called Proconsularis provincia or Africa proconsularis), Numidia, Mauretania Sitifensis, Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana. These provinces could be considered, at least in part, to be the heart of the western empire, since they supplied Italy with grain and generated a large part of the western empire's tax revenues. From 429 they were caught up in the political turmoil of the migration of peoples by the Vandals crossing at Septem. At the latest after the assassination of Emperor Valentinian III. In 455 no region in Africa was under Western Roman rule.
In parts of western Roman North Africa in 439, with the conquest of Carthage by the Vandals under their king Geiseric, a de facto independent empire ruled by predominantly Germanic warriors had been established. This Vandal Kingdom dominated the western Mediterranean region with its powerful fleet and brought Corsica and Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the western tip of Sicily under his control. This was extremely consequential for Western Rome, as Africa was a rich and heavily urbanized province; In addition to olive production, the function of the province as a granary for Western Rome, especially Italy, was of central importance.
In 441 an Eastern Roman attempt to defeat the Vandal fleet and end their rule failed. Rather, the Western Roman Empire had to recognize the Vandal rule east of Numidia in a treaty in 442. In 468, the kingdom of the Vandals became the target of another, this time large-scale, joint venture between the Western Empire under Anthemius and the Eastern Roman Empire under Leo I. However, this Vandal campaign failed catastrophically, mainly because the Vandal king Geiseric succeeded in setting fire to the large Roman fleet. After Vandal raids along the coast of eastern Roman Illyricum (and possibly the failure of another, smaller Roman campaign in 470), the eastern Roman emperor Zeno guaranteed the Geiseric family in a treaty (foedus) in 475 ownership of the province of Africa and the islands; subsequently there were no more conflicts between the Vandal Kingdom and the Eastern Roman Empire for decades.
In the 94 years of its existence, the kingdom of the Vandals was characterized by dynastic disputes over dominance and, above all, by the contrast between the Nicene Roman population and the Vandals, who were Romanized but adhered to the Arian faith of Christianity. In addition, they had considerable difficulties in defending the national borders against the Berbers or in keeping the Berbers under Vandal rule under control. This situation prompted large landowners and smallholders alike to fortify their farms. However, contrary to older opinions, the time of the Vandal Kingdom was not an era of serious economic decline, rather trade relations continued, although probably limited by the independence of the Vandal Kingdom and its aggressive foreign policy, especially under Geiseric.
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Byzantine North Africa
Byzantine rule in North Africa spanned around 175 years. It began in the years 533/534 with the reconquest of territory formerly belonging to the Western Roman Empire by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire under Justinian I and ended during the reign of Justinian II with the conquest of Carthage (698) and the last Byzantine outposts, especially Septem (708/711), in the course of Islamic expansion.
The region's administrative structure was initially in line with the typical late Roman administrative structures that had been existing for the past 300 years. Civil powers were thus in the hands of a Praetorian prefect, the head of the supreme civil administrative authority in the Late Roman Empire. The military powers, however, were incumbent on a Magister militum per Africam. These powers were merged into single office from 591 at the latest, and East Roman North Africa became the heartland of one of two exarchates, with the founding of which the East Roman Emperor Maurice (582–602) was able to counteract the consequences of imperial overstretch through bundling and decentralization. No further change in these administrative structures took place until the end of Byzantine rule.
The reconquest of this region was of the greatest strategic and economic significance and the most enduring of all conquests in the West. While the Lombard kingdom was established in parts of East Roman Italy after 568 and East Roman rule in southern Spain came to an end amidst the final and most desperate Roman-Persian war, the areas reconquered in the Maghreb remained entirely in the East Roman hands until the Islamic expansion. This made the region the most important cornerstone of Eastern Roman/Byzantine power in the West.
The rapid establishment of Eastern Roman rule in today's Maghreb was the result of the increasing political vacuum in the African provinces of the former Western Empire and the Germanic successor state of the Vandals, which was primarily characterized by the dissolution of regional power and administrative structures.
With the partition of the empire in 395, all Roman areas in Africa west of the Great Syrte became part of the Western Roman Empire. Specifically, these were the provinces of Tripolitania, Byzacena, Zeugitana (also called Proconsularis provincia or Africa proconsularis), Numidia, Mauretania Sitifensis, Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana. These provinces could be considered, at least in part, to be the heart of the western empire, since they supplied Italy with grain and generated a large part of the western empire's tax revenues. From 429 they were caught up in the political turmoil of the migration of peoples by the Vandals crossing at Septem. At the latest after the assassination of Emperor Valentinian III. In 455 no region in Africa was under Western Roman rule.
In parts of western Roman North Africa in 439, with the conquest of Carthage by the Vandals under their king Geiseric, a de facto independent empire ruled by predominantly Germanic warriors had been established. This Vandal Kingdom dominated the western Mediterranean region with its powerful fleet and brought Corsica and Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the western tip of Sicily under his control. This was extremely consequential for Western Rome, as Africa was a rich and heavily urbanized province; In addition to olive production, the function of the province as a granary for Western Rome, especially Italy, was of central importance.
In 441 an Eastern Roman attempt to defeat the Vandal fleet and end their rule failed. Rather, the Western Roman Empire had to recognize the Vandal rule east of Numidia in a treaty in 442. In 468, the kingdom of the Vandals became the target of another, this time large-scale, joint venture between the Western Empire under Anthemius and the Eastern Roman Empire under Leo I. However, this Vandal campaign failed catastrophically, mainly because the Vandal king Geiseric succeeded in setting fire to the large Roman fleet. After Vandal raids along the coast of eastern Roman Illyricum (and possibly the failure of another, smaller Roman campaign in 470), the eastern Roman emperor Zeno guaranteed the Geiseric family in a treaty (foedus) in 475 ownership of the province of Africa and the islands; subsequently there were no more conflicts between the Vandal Kingdom and the Eastern Roman Empire for decades.
In the 94 years of its existence, the kingdom of the Vandals was characterized by dynastic disputes over dominance and, above all, by the contrast between the Nicene Roman population and the Vandals, who were Romanized but adhered to the Arian faith of Christianity. In addition, they had considerable difficulties in defending the national borders against the Berbers or in keeping the Berbers under Vandal rule under control. This situation prompted large landowners and smallholders alike to fortify their farms. However, contrary to older opinions, the time of the Vandal Kingdom was not an era of serious economic decline, rather trade relations continued, although probably limited by the independence of the Vandal Kingdom and its aggressive foreign policy, especially under Geiseric.
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