Byzantine Empire Control Over North Africa
Byzantine Empire’s rule over North Africa lasted from 533 to around 700. It is always linked to Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) and his famous military leader, Belisarius. The author Procopius wrote about how Belisarius defeated the earlier Vandal Empire in 533 and 534.
It was hard to beat the Vandals, but the Vandals’ resistance had already been weakened by Roman Christians leaving the cities in North Africa because they didn’t believe in Vandal Aryanism and by the independence of the native people, who the Romans called “Mauri” or “Berbers” but who were actually Moors.
Even though there isn’t a lot of written or archaeological evidence, it looks like there was a lot of continuity in local government between the Roman, Vandal, and Byzantine empires. This was true in the capital city of Carthage and in well-known towns like Cillium, Casae Calanae, Apisa Maius, Calama, Hippo Regius, Bagai, and Lepcis Magna. But we don’t know much about the language and racial makeup of the settlers or how these towns were run during the Byzantine era.
The Berbers were mostly herders, while most Byzantine farmers spoke Punic or Latin. There were probably only a few thousand troops, a few hundred government workers, and a few dozen merchants who came from Greece. When the Byzantine Empire had the most land, it was organized into four praetorian prefectures: Italy, Illyricum, the East, and most importantly, “Africa.”
Byzantine “Africa” was made up of what is now Tunisia, the eastern part of Algeria, and western Libya. It was split into six provinces, each with its own governor (or dux), and they were called Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Stitifensis, Zeugitana, Byzacena, Tripolitania, and Numidia.
There were about 10,000 people living in Byzantine Carthage at this time, making it the biggest city in all of Africa. When looked at as a whole, Justinian’s reaffirmation of Roman (the Byzantines always called themselves “Roman”) dominance in the Mediterranean needed a huge military and bureaucratic structure, which cost a lot of money. A ground tax, also known as a “tribute,” and the annona, which was a land tax, were placed on all people in the empire, even those in North Africa.
People say that the high cost of local taxes is one reason why the Berbers in North Africa will not give up their resistance to Byzantine rule. Newly discovered Byzantine fortifications show that the Byzantine Empire’s political power reached from the Mediterranean to the large Dorsal of Tripolitania, which includes the Mountains of Tebessa, the Aures Plateau, and Hodna. However, it didn’t have much of an effect on the Berbers who lived in the deep interior or the Atlas region (modern-day Morocco).
Beyond the coastal plain, Byzantine power relied on unstable alliances and gave administrative power to the leaders of friendly Berber tribes. In exchange for cash payments, these leaders sometimes collected taxes and helped keep the border area relatively orderly.
When the Berbers came to attack, the Byzantines relied less on their forts (which were stronger than those of the Romans) and more on their soldiers (comitatenses and limitanei) being able to fight them in the field.
However, independent and obstinate tribe chieftains were in charge of the African Prefecture’s edges. There were violent uprisings in 539, 544–548 (again), and 563 (again), but the Byzantines put them down after a lot of work and loss of life and money.
The terrible effects of the Bubonic Plague in 542–543 made people feel even more in trouble at the time. As Justinian’s rule came to an end and as new emperors took over, the Byzantine military garrison relied more and more on diplomacy and using one Berber subgroup against another.
During the Byzantine era, there was a lot of trade between North Africa and other parts of the empire, like Asia Minor. One important part of this trade was the sale of wheat, which formed a big part of the prefecture’s taxes to the imperial government in Constantinople. “Red Slip” pottery from Africa was another well-known item that was in high demand in many parts of the Mediterranean.
In turn, Carthage brought silks, oils, and spices from the Near East. One reason Emperor Justin (Justinian’s uncle) went on the famous Red Sea expedition was to help the kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia invade Himyar in southwest Arabia in 524 and 525. He did this to take control of the eastern spice and silk trades at the expense of the Persians. During Justinian’s reign, there were more diplomatic and business contacts with Axum. The Byzantines followed Orthodoxy, while the Ethiopian Church followed the Monophysite doctrine. However, the emperors of the House of Justin always saw Axum as a brother Christian country and ally.
Scientists today are rethinking how much the Byzantine empire’s culture has affected Africa. The Greek language (often used with Latin) and the priests and leaders of the Orthodox Church played a big part in this. A new study shows that the North African Church and both Rome and Constantinople had an interesting and changing relationship.
It also shows that the Novidae people in Nubia in the Nile Valley were mostly converted to Christianity in the sixth century by Byzantine missionaries working for Constantinople and not by Coptic church priests in Egypt.
Even though Byzantium failed in its final attempt to replace the Persians as the dominant trade power between the Near East and Asia, the Byzantine Empire still controlled the Mediterranean Basin until the middle of the seventh century. This included Egypt, most of the northwest African coast, Dalmatia, northwest Italy, Crete, Corsica, Malta, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands.
Even though Berber tribes were still raiding, the chronicles give the sense that Byzantine North Africa was mostly stable and doing well from 564 to the 640s.
During the reigns of Emperors Maurice (582–602) and Heraclius (610–641), the empire’s borders were getting more and more strained. One sign of this was that the military, led by exarchs, took control of the important strategic prefectures of Italy and Africa, removing civilian administrators from those positions. Over the next few hundred years, these exarchates set the tone for the further militarization of local government.
It was attacked from the outside by the Persians in Asia, the Lombards in northern Italy, and the growing power of Islam in North Africa. These changes, however, were not enough to stop the loss of territory. In 647, a small group of Egyptian raiders beat an army led by exarch Gregory at Sufetula in Numidia. This was the first Arab attack on the eastern side of the African Exarchate.
The Byzantine Empire was still in North Africa after this and after an Arab force arrived by sea in 660. At least some of Byzantine “Africa’s” military backing came from the Berbers, who helped the kingdom hold out against repeated Arab attacks until Carthage fell in 698.
Its last act wasn’t until 709–710, when Muslims marched on the port of Ceuta on their way across the Straits to Spain.
Also Read: Roman Conquest Of Egypt: Roman Invasion And Occupation Of Ancient Egypt
