praefectura praetorio Africae Praetorian prefecture of Africa Praet. prefecture of the East Roman Empire ← 534 – ca.590 → Capital Carthage Historical era Late Antiquity  - conquest of Vandal Kingdom 534  - Moorish revolt defeated 548  - reorganization into Exarchate 590 Political subdivisions Zeugitana Byzacena Numidia Mauretania Sitifensis Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Tingitana

The praetorian prefecture of Africa (Latin: praefectura praetorio Africae) was a major administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire, established after the reconquest of northwestern Africa from the Vandals in 533-534 by Emperor Justinian I. It continued to exist until the late 580s, when it was replaced by the Exarchate of Africa.

History[link]

Establishment[link]

In 533, the Roman army under Belisarius defeated and destroyed the Vandal Kingdom that had existed in the former Roman territories of Northern Africa. Immediately after the victory, in April 534, the emperor Justinian published a law concerning the administrative organization of the newly acquired territories. The old provinces of the Roman Diocese of Africa had been mostly preserved by the Vandals, but large parts, including all of Mauretania Tingitana, much of Mauretania Caesariensis and large parts of the interior of Numidia and Byzacena, had been lost to the inroads of the Amazigh tribes, collectively called the Mauri (Moors). Nevertheless, Justinian restored the old administrative division, but raised the overall governor at Carthage to the supreme administrative rank of praetorian prefect.

From the aforesaid city, with the aid of God, seven provinces with their judges shall be controlled, of which Tingi, Carthage, Byzacium, and Tripoli, formerly under the jurisdiction of proconsuls, shall have consular rulers; while the others, that is to say, Numidia, Mauritania, and Sardinia shall, with the aid of God, be subject to governors.

—Codex Iustinianus, I.XXVII

Indeed, Justinian's intent was to, in the words of the historian J.B. Bury, "wipe out all traces of the Vandal conquest, as if it had never been".^[1] The churches were restored to the Chalcedonian clergy, and the remaining Arians suffered persecution. Even the land ownership was reverted to the status prior to the Vandalic conquest, but the scarcity of valid property titles after 100 years of Vandal rule created an administrative and judicial chaos. The military administration was headed by the new post of magister militum Africae, with a subordinate magister peditum and four regional frontier commands (Tripolitania, Byzacena, Numidia, and Mauretania) under duces. This organization was only gradually established, as the Romans pushed the Mauri back and regained these territories.^[2]

The Moorish Wars[link]

When the Romans landed in Africa, the Moors maintained a neutral stance, but after the quick Roman victories, most of their tribes pledged loyalty to the Empire. The most significant tribes were the Leuathae in Tripolitania, and the Frexi in Byzacena. The Frexi and their allies were led by Antalas, while other tribes in the area followed Cutzinas. The Aurasii (the tribes of the Aurès Mountains) in Numidia were ruled by Iaudas, and the Mauretanian Moors were led by Mastigas and Masuna.^[3]

First Moorish uprising[link]

After Belisarius departed for Constantinople, he was succeeded as magister militum Africae by his domesticus (senior aide), the eunuch Solomon from Dara. The tribes of Mauri living in Byzacena and Numidia almost immediately rose up, and Solomon set out with his forces, which included allied Moorish tribes, against them. The situation was so critical that Solomon was also entrusted with civil authority, replacing the first prefect, Archelaus, in the autumn of 534. Solomon was able to defeat the Mauri of Byzacena at Mamma, and again, decisively, at the battle of Mt. Bourgaon in early 535. In the summer, he campaigned against Iabdas and the Aurasii, who were ravaging Numidia, but failed to achieve any result. Solomon then set about erecting forts along the borders and the main roads, hoping to contain the raids of the Moors.

Military mutiny[link]

Africa, with the provinces of Byzacena, Zeugitana and Numidia.

In the Easter of 536 however, a large-scale military revolt broke out, caused by dissatisfaction of the soldiers with Solomon. Solomon, together with Procopius, who worked as his secretary, was able to escape to Sicily, which had just been conquered by Belisarius. Solomon's lieutenants Martinus and Theodore were left behind, the first to try to reach the troops at Numidia, and the second to hold Carthage.^[4] Upon hearing about the mutiny, Belisarius, with Solomon and 100 picked men, set sail for Africa. Carthage was being besieged by 9,000 rebels, including many Vandals, under a certain Stotzas. Theodore was contemplating capitulation, when Belisarius appeared. The news of the famous general's arrival were sufficient for the rebels to abandon the siege and withdraw westwards. Belisarius, although able to muster only 2,000 men, immediately gave pursuit and caught up and defeated the rebel forces at Membresa. The bulk of the rebels however was able to flee, and continued to march towards Numidia, where the local troops decided to join them.^[5] Belisarius himself was forced to return to Italy, and Justinian appointed his cousin Germanus as magister militum to deal with the crisis.

Germanus managed to win over many of the rebels to his side by appearing conciliatory and paying their arrears. Eventually, in the spring of 537, the two armies clashed at Scalae Veteres, resulting in a hard-won victory for Germanus. Stotzas fled to the tribesmen of Mauretania, and Germanus spent the next two years in re-establishing discipline in the army. Finally, Justinian judged the situation to have been stabilized enough, and in 539 Germanus was replaced by Solomon. Solomon carried on Germanus' work by pruning out of the army those of suspect loyalties and strengthening the network of fortifications. This careful organization enabled him to strike successfully against the Aurasii, evicting them from their mountain strongholds, and firmly establish Roman rule in Numidia and Mauretania Sitifensis.^[6]

Second Moorish uprising and the revolt of Guntharic[link]

Africa enjoyed peace and prosperity for the next few years, until the arrival of the great plague ca. 542, during which the people of the province suffered greatly. At the same time, the arrogant behaviour of some Roman governors alienated the Mauri leaders, such as Antalas at Byzacena, and provoked them to rise up and raid Roman territory. So it was that during a battle with the Mauri at Cillium in Byzacena in 544, the Romans were defeated and Solomon himself killed.^[7][8] Solomon was succeeded by his nephew, Sergius, who as dux of Tripolitania had been largely responsible for the Moorish uprising. Sergius was both unpopular and of limited abilities, while the Mauri, joined by the renegade Stotzas, gathered together under the leadership of Antalas.^[9] The Moors, aided by Stotzas, were able to enter and sack the coastal city of Hadrumetum by trickery. A priest named Paulus was able to retake the city with a small force without help from Sergius, who refused to march forth against the Moors. Despite this setback, the rebels roamed the provinces at will, while the rural population fled to the fortified cities and to Sicily.^[10]

Justinian then sent Areobindus, a man of senatorial rank and husband to his niece Praejecta, but otherwise undistinguished, with a few men to Africa, not to replace Sergius, but to share command with him. Sergius was entrusted with the war in Numidia, while Areobindus undertook to subdue Byzacena. Areobindus sent out a force under the able general John against Antalas and Stotzas. Because Sergius did not come to their aid as requested, the Romans were routed at Thacia, but not before John mortally wounded Stotzas in single combat. The effects of this disaster at least forced Justinian to recall Sergius and restore unity of command in the hands of Areobindus.^[11] Soon after, in March 546, Areobindus was overthrown and murdered by Guntharic, the dux Numidiae, who had come into negotiations with the Moors and intended to set himself up as an independent king. Guntharic himself was overthrown by loyal troops under the Armenian Artabanes in early May. Artabanes was elevated to the office of magister militum Africae, but was soon recalled to Constantinople.^[12]

The man Justinian sent to replace him was the talented general John Troglita, whose exploits are celebrated in the epic poem Iohannis, written by Flavius Cresconius Corippus. Troglita had already served in Africa under Belisarius and Solomon, and had a distinguished career in the East, where he had been appointed dux Mesopotamiae. Despite his numerically weak forces, he managed to win over several Moorish tribes, and in early 547 he decisively defeated Antalas and his allies, and drove them from Byzacena. As Procopius recounts:

And this John, immediately upon arriving in Libya, had an engagement with Antalas and the Moors in Byzacium, and conquering them in battle, slew many; and he wrested from these barbarians all the standards of Solomon, and sent them to the emperor—standards which they had previously secured as plunder, when Solomon had been taken from the world.

—Procopius, De Bello Vandalico II.XXVIII

A few months later, however, the tribe of the Leuathae, in Tripolitania, rose up, and inflicted a severe defeat upon the imperial forces in the plain of Gallica. The Leuathae were joined by Antalas, and the Moors once again raided freely as far as Carthage.^[13] Early in the next year John mustered his forces, and together by several allied Moorish tribes, including the former rebel Cutzinas, utterly defeated the Moors at the battle of the Fields of Cato, killing seventeen of their leaders and putting an end to the revolt that had plagued Africa for almost 15 years.

Peace restored[link]

The famous Lady of Carthage (fr) mosaic, possibly a portrait of Theodora, one of the major surviving pieces of Byzantine art in modern Tunisia

For the next decades, Africa remained tranquil, allowing it to recover. Peace might not have lasted as long, had not Troglita perceived that the complete eviction of the Mauri from the interior of the provinces, and the complete restoration of the province to its ancient bounds was impossible. Instead, he opted to accommodate himself with the Moors, promising them autonomy in exchange for becoming the Empire's foederati.^[14] The loyalty of these dependent princes of the various Moorish tribes was secured by means of annual pensions and gifts, and the peace was kept by a strong network of fortifications, many of which still survive to the present day.

The only interruption to the province's tranquility was a brief Moorish revolt of 563. It was caused by the unwarranted murder of the aged tribal leader Cutzinas, when he came to Carthage to receive his annual pension, by the magister militum, John Rogathinus. His sons and dependents rose up, until an expeditionary force under the tribune Marcian, nephew of the Emperor, succeeded in restoring the peace.^[15]

During the reign of Justin II (565–578), great care was shown to Africa. Under the prefect Thomas, during the period 565–570 the network of fortifications was further strengthened and expanded, the administration reformed and decentralized, and largely successful efforts were made to proselytize the Garamantes of the Fezzan and the Gaetuli, living to the south of Mauretania Caesariensis.^[16] At the same time, Africa was one of the more tranquil regions of the Empire, which was being assaulted on all sides, which allowed for troops to be transferred from the province to the East.^[17]

Conflict with the kingdom of Garmules[link]

In Mauretania, between the Roman outpost of Septum and the province of Caesariensis, various small Moorish kingdoms, which also ruled over Romanized urban populations, had been established ever since the arrival of the Vandals. Little information exists about them, but these were never subdued by the Vandals, and claimed continuity from the Roman Empire, their leaders styling themselves with titles such as imperator, like the chieftain Masties at Arris, or, in the case of king Masuna of Altava (modern Ouled Mimoun, Algeria), rex gentium Maurorum et Romanorum. By the early 530s, an autonomous Roman-Moorish "kingdom" had been established by Garmules, with its capital at Altava. When Belisarius defeated the Vandals, he too had acknowledged Roman suzerainty, but soon, taking advantage of the Moorish revolts, he renounced it. In the late 560s, he launched raids into Roman territory, and although he failed to take any significant town, three successive generals (the praetorian prefect Theodore and the magister militum Theoctistus in 570, and Theoctistus' successor Amabilis in 571) are recorded by John of Biclaro to have been killed by Garmules' forces.^[18] His activities, especially when regarded together with the simultaneous Visigoth attacks in Spania, presented a clear threat to the province's authorities; Garmules was not the leader of a mere semi-nomadic tribe, but of a fully-fledged barbarian kingdom, with a standing army. Thus the new emperor, Tiberius II Constantine, re-appointed Thomas as praetorian prefect, and the able general Gennadius was posted as magister militum with the clear aim of reducing Garmules' kingdom. Preparations were lengthy and careful, but the campaign itself, launched in 577–78, was brief and effective, with Gennadius utilizing terror tactics against Garmul's subjects. Garmules was defeated and killed, and the coastal corridor between Tingitana and Caesariensis secured.^[19]

Establishment of the Exarchate[link]

Gennadius remained in Africa as magister militum for a long time (until the early 590s), and it was he who became the first exarchus of Africa,^[20][21] when Emperor Maurice established the exarchate in the late 580s, uniting civil and military authority in his hands. The exarchate extended over North Africa, the imperial possessions in Spain, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and Corsica. It prospered greatly, and under Heraclius, African forces overthrew the tyrant Phocas in 610. The exarchate was a practically autonomous entity from the 640s on, and survived until the fall of Carthage to the Arabs in 698.

[edit] List of known praefecti praetorio Africae

• Archelaus (534)
• Solomon (1st time, 534-536)
• Symmachus (536-539)
• Solomon (2nd time, 539-544)
• Sergius (544-545)
• Athanasius (545-548, perhaps up to 550)
• Paul (ca. 552)
• John (ca. 558)
• John Rogathinus (ca. 563)
• Thomas (1st time, 563-565)
• Theodore (ca. 570)
• Thomas (2nd time, 574-578)
• Theodore (ca. 582)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Brett, Michael; Fentress, Elizabeth (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-20767-8. 
• Bury, John Bagnell (1923). History of the Later Roman Empire Vols. I & II. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/home.html. 
• Cameron, Averil (2000). "Vandal and Byzantine North Africa". Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors A.D. 425-600, The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. XIV. Cambridge University Press. pp. 552–569. ISBN 0-521-32591-9. 
• Cameron, Averil (1982). "Byzantine Africa: The Literary Evidence". University of Michigan Excavations at Carthage, Vol. VII. University of Michigan Press. pp. 29–62. 
• Diehl, Charles (1896) (in French). L'Afrique byzantine. Histoire de la domination byzantine en Afrique (533– 709). Paris: Ernest Leroux. http://www.archive.org/details/lafriquebyzanti00diehgoog. 
• Martindale, John R.; Jones, A.H.M.; Morris, J. (1992). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. IIIa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-20160-8. 
• (French) Moderan, Yves (2003). Les Maures et l'Afrique romaine, IV-VII siècle. 
• Pringle, Denys (1981). The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest: An Account of the Military History and Archaeology of the African Provinces in the Sixth and Seventh Century. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. ISBN 0-86054-119-3. 
• Procopius, De Bello Vandalico (BV), Volume II.
• (Spanish) Francisco Aguado - El Africa BizantinaPDF (2.03 MiB)
• (Spanish) Hilario Gómez - Ciudades del Africa Romano BizantinaPDF (1.16 MiB)
• Raven, Susan (1993). Rome in Africa. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08150-5. 

The praetorian prefecture (Latin: praefectura praetorio, in Greek variously named ἐπαρχότης τῶν πραιτωρίων or ὑπαρχία τῶν πραιτωρίων) was the largest administrative division of the late Roman Empire, above the mid-level dioceses and the low-level provinces. Praetorian prefectures originated in the reign of Constantine I (r. 306-337), reaching their more or less final form in the last third of the 4th century and surviving until the 7th century, when the reforms of Heraclius diminished the prefecture's power, and the Muslim conquests forced the East Roman Empire to adopt the new Theme system. Elements of the prefecture's administrative apparatus however are documented to have survived in the Byzantine Empire until the first half of the 9th century.

History[link]

Map of the Roman Empire under the Tetrarchy, showing the dioceses and the four Tetrarchs' zones of control.

The office of the praetorian prefect had a long history dating back to the origins of the Roman Empire: initially, its two holders were the commanders of the Praetorian Guard, but gradually, they became the emperor's chief aides, and amassed considerable administrative and judicial responsibilities. The exact process of transformation to the chief civilian administrator of a specific territorial circumscription is still unclear.^[1] A common misconception, based on Zosimus, is that Constantine I established the praetorian prefectures as definite territorial administrations as early as 318, or in 324, after his victory over Licinius.^[2]

During the Tetrarchy, when the number of holders of the imperial office multiplied (two senior emperors, the Augusti, and two junior colleagues, the Caesares), there is evidence for the existence of only two prefects at each time, presumably assigned to each of the Augusti. At that stage, the prefect's power was still immense. In the words of A.H.M. Jones, he was "a kind of grand vizier, the emperor's second in command, wielding a wide authority in almost every sphere of government, military and judicial, financial and general administration. He was the emperor’s chief of staff, adjutant-general, and quartermaster-general...".^[3] Following Diocletian's abdication in 305, civil war erupted among the various co-emperors,during which time each of the contenders appointed his own prefect, a pattern carried on during the period where the Empire was shared between Licinius and Constantine I.^[4]

Following Constantine's victory over Licinius and the unification of the Empire under his rule, the office was transformed. The prefect's military duties were removed by the creation of the purely military offices of the magister peditum and magister equitum ("Master of the Foot/Horse"), and the establishment of the magister officiorum as the powerful head of the palatine bureaucracy and the civil service at large provided a counter-balance to the prefect's power.^[5][6] These reforms were the result of both the lack of officials suitable for the prefect's wide-ranging tasks,^[7] and of the desire to reduce the potential challenge to the emperor's authority posed by the over-mighty prefect.^[8] The office of the prefect was consequently converted into a purely civilian administrative one, albeit retaining the highest position in the imperial hierarchy, immediately below the emperor himself.^[9] Another important departure from Tetrarchic practice was the increase in the number of holders: no less than five prefects are attested for ca. 332. This development is likely related to Constantine's giving his four sons specific territories to administer, envisioning a partition of imperial authority among them following his death. In this, the origins of the later territorial prefectures may be detected.^[10]

The four prefectures of the Roman Empire, as they appear in the Notitia Dignitatum, ca. 400 AD.

After Constantine's death in 337, his three surviving sons partitioned the Empire between them. As each new Augustus had his own praetorian prefect, this division created the first of what would gradually become the permanent praetorian prefectures: the western prefecture of Gaul (dioceses of Gaul,Viennensis, Hispania and Britain), the central prefecture of Italy, Illyricum and Africa (dioceses of Italy, Africa, Pannonia, Dacia and Macedonia) and the prefecture of the East (dioceses of Thrace, Asia, Pontus, Oriens). Egypt was part of the diocese of Oriens until 367. With the creation of the separate prefecture of Illyricum (dioceses of Pannonia, Dacia and Macedonia) in 356–357, and despite the occasional abolition of the latter, the picture that appears in the early 5th-century Notitia dignitatum ("list of dignities") was complete. The only major change was the removal of the diocese of Pannonia (renamed to "Diocese of Illyricum") from the prefecture of Illyricum and its incorporation into the prefecture of Italy in 379. The diocese of Italy was in practice divided into two: of Italy in the north, and Suburbicarian ("under the City") Italy in the south including Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. There were no vicars appointed to the dioceses of Gaul and Dacia, because the praetorian prefects of Gaul and Illyricum were resident. When the prefect of Italy was in Milan, a vicar for Illyricum was appointed to reside in Sirmium; when the prefect resided in Sirmium, the post was lapsed, and a vicar was appointed to reside in Milan in place of the prefect.

In the course of the 5th century, the Western Empire was overrun by the invasions of Germanic tribes. However, the prefecture of Italy was retained by the new Ostrogothic Kingdom, which was still de jure part of the Empire, and Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great even re-established the prefecture of Gaul in the small portion of Gaul he conquered in the 510s. After the reconquest of Northern Africa by the Eastern Empire during the Vandalic War of 533–534, the new provinces were grouped by emperor Justinian I into a new praetorian prefecture of Africa, which would later be transformed into the Exarchate of Africa. The praetorian prefecture of Italy was also re-established after the end of the Gothic War, before it too evolved into an exarchate. In the East, the prefectures would continue to function until the mid-7th century, when the loss of most eastern provinces to the Muslim conquest and of the Balkans to Slavic tribes led to the creation of the Theme system. In the meantime, however, reforms under Heraclius had stripped the prefect from a number of his subordinate financial bureaux, which were set up as independent departments under logothetes.^[11] The last time the prefect of the East is directly attested comes from a law of 629.^[12] According to some scholars however, traces of the system survived into the early 9th century: Ernst Stein demonstrated that some aspects of the Illyrian prefecture survived in the administration of Thessalonica,^[13] while John Haldon, based on sigillographic evidence and references in the Byzantine Taktika, has documented the survival of the earlier civilian provincial administration within the theme system, with the prefect in Constantinople possibly in a supervisory capability, until the 840s.^[14]

Authority and powers of the prefect[link]

The insignia of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum, as depicted in the Notitia Dignitatum: the ivory inkwell and pen case (theca), the codicil of appointment to the office on a blue cloth-covered table, and the state carriage.^[15]

Originally, the praetorian prefects were drawn from the equestrian class. Constantine's reforms entailed the reservation of this office for members of the senatorial class, and its prestige and authority were raised to the highest level, so that contemporary writers refer to it as the "supreme office".^[16] In the divided Empire, the two senior prefects were those of the East and of Italy, residing in the courts of the two emperors and acting effectively as their first ministers, while the prefects of Illyricum and Gaul held a more junior position.^[17]

The prefects held wide-raging control over most aspects of the administrative machinery of their provinces, and only the magister officiorum rivalled them in power. The prefects fulfilled the roles of supreme administrative and juridical official, already present from the time of Septimius Severus, and that of chief financial official, responsible for the state budget. In their capacity as judges, they had the right to pass judgment instead of the emperor (vice sacra), and, unlike lower governors, their decision could not be appealed.

Their departments were divided in two major categories: the schola excerptorum, which supervised administrative and judicial affairs, and the scriniarii, overseeing the financial sector.^[18]

This section requires expansion.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Notitia dignitatum
• Bury, John Bagnell (1923). History of the Later Roman Empire, Volume I, Chapter II. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/2*.html#1. 
• Haldon, John F. (1997). Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31917-1. 
• Jones, A.H.M. (1964). The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey. 
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
• Kelly, Christopher (2006). "Bureaucracy and Government". In Lenski, Noel. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52157-4. 
• (Greek) Morrison, Cécile, ed. (2007). Le Monde byzantin, tome 1: L'Empire romain d'Orient, 330-641. Athens: Polis Editions. ISBN 978-960-435-134-3.