| Battle of Bourgaon | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Byzantine–Moorish wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Byzantine Empire | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Solomon Theodorus | Cutzinas Esdilasas  (POW)Mesdinissas Iourphoutes | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 50,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 50,000 | ||||||
The Battle of Bourgaon, or Mount Bourgaon was an engagement between troops of the Byzantine Empire and Berber rebels in North Africa. It marked the end of the first stage of the revolt.
After the Byzantine annexation of the Vandalic Kingdom in 534 [1] a group of Berber chieftains in North Africa, rebelled against the Byzantines in hope of carving out their own kingdoms and taking back modern day Tunisia and Algeria from the new overlords. The most important of these chieftains were Kutzinas, Esdilasas, Mesdinissas, and Iourphoutes. [2] In 534, they ambushed Byzantine commanders Aigan and Rufius, and killed them both. In 535, a Byzantine expedition defeated the Berber rebels at the Battle of Mammes. The Berbers retreated, and attempted to regroup at Mount Bourgaon, while the Byzantines pursued them.
Setting up their camp, Solomon observed the Berber positions. The Berbers were encamped on the mountain. The eastern slope of the mountain was very steep, while the western had a gentle slope. Thus the Berbers, not expecting the Byzantines to actually try and overtake them from the east, concentrated all their forces on the west. [3] The Byzantine troops were demoralized when met with the larger number of enemies, but after a speech by Solomon, they gained their bravery back, and prepared for the fight. [4] He sent his commander, Theodorus, with about 1,000 excubitors to take advantage of the Berber positions, and climb the eastern side of the mountain to ambush the Berbers. [5] Not even telling his own troops to avoid being betrayed, [6] the excubitors climbed up the mountain during the dead of the night without being noticed. [5] By dawn Solomon moved his troops up to the outskirts of the mountain, and by morning the troops of Theodorus showed themselves as well. Both detachments started a relentless attack against the surrounded Berber troops who panicked and attempted to flee, but had nowhere to do so. [7] The few that survived did so by trampling over the dead bodies of their comrades, and nearly all of the Berber warriors were caught, killed, or wounded. [6] [7] All of the Berber chieftains were able to flee except for Esdilasas, who was caught, and taken prisoner. [6] According to Procopius, the Berbera suffered 50,000 casualties, while the Romans suffered none, [4] although this was likely an exaggeration.
Following the battle and the decisive defeat of the Berbers, the chieftains scattered and fled. Cutzinas, the main leader of the revolt, fled to the Berber Kingdom of Arris led by king Iabdas, and continued to wage guerilla style warfare from there. In 536 Solomon attempted to defeat Iabdas, but had to retreat after suffering attrition and fearing betrayal. [8] In 540 he was able to temporarily overtake the kingdom through a campaign which saw Iabdas flee his kingdom, but this was short lived, and soon a much major revolt formed led by Antalas.
The 530s decade ran from January 1, 530, to December 31, 539.
The Battle of Ad Decimum took place on September 13, 533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, and the Byzantine Empire, under the command of General Belisarius. This event and events in the following year are sometimes jointly referred to as the Battle of Carthage, one of several battles to bear that name. The Byzantine victory marked the beginning of the end for the Vandals and began the reconquest of the west under the Emperor Justinian I.
The Battle of Tricamarum took place on December 15, 533 between the armies of the Byzantine Empire, under Belisarius, and the Vandal Kingdom, commanded by King Gelimer, and his brother Tzazon. It followed the Byzantine victory at the Battle of Ad Decimum, and eliminated the power of the Vandals for good, completing the reconquest of North Africa under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. The main contemporary source for the battle is Procopius, De Bello Vandalico, which occupies Books III and IV of his magisterial Wars of Justinian.
The Vandalic War (533–534) was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Byzantine Empire and the Germanic Vandal Kingdom. It was the first war of Emperor Justinian I's Renovatio imperii Romanorum, wherein the Byzantines attempted to reassert Roman sovereignty over territory formerly controlled by the Western Roman Empire.
The Praetorian Prefecture of Africa was an administrative division of the Byzantine Empire in the Maghreb. With its seat at Carthage, it was established after the reconquest of northwestern Africa from the Vandals in 533–534 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It continued to exist until 591, when it was replaced by the Exarchate of Africa.
Mauri was the Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, located in the west side of North Africa on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis, in present-day Morocco and northwestern Algeria.
Stotzas, also Stutias, Theophanes writes him Tzotzas (Τζότζας), was an East Roman (Byzantine) soldier and leader of a military rebellion in the Praetorian prefecture of Africa in the 530s. Stotzas attempted to establish Africa as a separate state and had been chosen by the rebelling soldiers as their leader. Nearly succeeding in taking Carthage, Stotzas was defeated at the Battle of the River Bagradas by Belisarius and fled into Numidia, where he regrouped. After another attempt at taking control of Africa, Stotzas was defeated by Germanus in 537 and fled with some of his followers into Mauretania.
Solomon was an East Roman (Byzantine) general from northern Mesopotamia, who distinguished himself as a commander in the Vandalic War and the reconquest of North Africa in 533–534. He spent most of the next decade in Africa as its governor general, combining the military post of magister militum with the civil position of praetorian prefect. Solomon successfully confronted the large-scale rebellion of the native Berbers, but was forced to flee following an army mutiny in spring of 536. His second tenure in Africa began in 539 and it was marked by victories over the Berbers, which led to the consolidation of the Byzantine position. A few years of prosperity followed, but were cut short by the rekindled Berber revolt and Solomon's defeat and death at the Battle of Cillium in 544.
Antalas was a Berber tribal leader who played a major role in the wars of the Byzantine Empire against the Berber tribes in Africa. Antalas and his tribe, the Frexes initially served the Byzantines as allies, but after 544 switched sides. With the final Byzantine victory in his and his tribe once again became Byzantine subjects. The main sources on his life are the epic poem Iohannis of Flavius Cresconius Corippus and the Histories of the Wars of Procopius of Caesarea.
Cutzinas or Koutzinas was a Berber tribal leader who played a major role in the wars of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire against the Berber tribes in Africa in the middle of the 6th century, fighting both against and for the Byzantines. A staunch Byzantine ally during the latter stages of the Berber rebellion, he remained an imperial vassal until his murder in 563 by the new Byzantine governor.
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.
Esdilasas was a Moorish tribal leader active during the rebellion in the province of Byzacena. In 534 and 535, he was among the Moorish leaders who rebelled against Byzantine authority in Africa. In late 534, he, along with the Berber tribal leaders Cutzinas, Iurfutes and Medisiníssas, defeated the Byzantine officers Aigan and Rufinus. In 535, however, the rebels were defeated by the Byzantine military commander Solomon, first at Mammes, then at Bourgaon. In the aftermath of Bourgaon, Esdilasas surrendered and was taken to Carthage.
The Mauro-Roman Kingdom, also described as the Kingdom of Masuna, was a Christian Berber kingdom which dominated much of the ancient Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis from the capital city of Altava. Scholars are in disagreement about whether the polity aimed for independence as a kingdom or was part of a loose confederation, an alternative hypothesis drawn from contextual knowledge about Berber tribal alliances. In the fifth century, Roman control over the province weakened and Imperial resources had to be concentrated elsewhere, notably in defending the Roman Italy itself from invading Germanic tribes. Moors and Romans in Mauretania came to operate independently from the Empire. However, regional leaders may not have necessarily felt abandoned by the Romans.
The Kingdom of the Aurès was an independent Christian Berber kingdom primarily located in the Aurès Mountains of present-day north-eastern Algeria. Established in the 480s by King Masties following a series of Berber revolts against the Vandalic Kingdom, which had conquered the Roman province of Africa in 435 AD, Aurès would last as an independent realm until the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in 703 AD when its last monarch, Queen Dihya, was slain in battle.
The Battle of Mammes or Battle of Mamma was an engagement between troops of the Byzantine Empire and an army of Moors in 534. The Byzantines were led by Solomon. The Moors used a tactic that had worked well with Vandals, they made a circle of camels which scared Byzantine horses to such an extent that horse archery became impractical. The Moors also hid some of their own cavalry in some nearby mountains. Solomon anticipated the trap and sent men to the side of the circle not facing the mountains. Due to the Moor formation these were not able to do much damage and when the Moors charged the fighting turned against them. Solomon then decided to attack the other side of the circle, predicting it to be weakened to such an extent that the hidden cavalry could not spring into action in time. Solomon’s prediction was correct, the Byzantines quickly broke through. They killed hundreds of camels, enslaved the Moor women and children and according to Procopius slew 10,000 men. The situation was not yet stabilized and the Moors soon returned but were decisively defeated at Mount Burgaon.
The Battle of Thacia took place in the autumn of 545, in Thacia. The Byzantine loyalists led by John the Armenian confronted the Berber rebel Antalas and his ally Stotzas, a renegade Byzantine. In the clash, the outnumbered Byzantines were defeated and John was killed, but not before mortally wounding Stotzas. The Byzantine rout triggers a crisis in Carthage.
The Byzantine–Moorish wars were a series of wars fought between the Byzantine Empire and the various Berber kingdoms which formed after the collapse of Roman North Africa. The war also featured other rebels such as the renegades of Stotzas and the Vandalic rebels of Guntarith. The war ended with the Berbers attempting to push the Romans out of Africa being defeated at the battle of the Fields of Cato, and the Byzantines being too weakened to take over the various newly formed kingdoms such as Altava and the Kingdom of the Aurès.
Aigan or Aïgan was a Hun general serving as a cavalry commander for the Byzantine Empire, active in the early 6th century.
Iaudas or Iabdas was a Berber leader of the sixth century and king of the Kingdom of the Aurès who held the Byzantines in check for a long time in the Aurès, and played an important role in the Berber revolts following the Byzantine reconquest.
The Siege of Carthage occurred around Easter of 536, when dissatisfied Byzantine soldiers revolted against Solomon, the ruler of the Praetorian prefecture of Africa, because he refused to share with the soldiers the wealth that had been plundered from the Vandal Kingdom, which had been defeated two years prior in 534. A sizeable number of these soldiers were also Arian Christians, and were disgruntled because Emperor Justinian had banned Arians from practicing their religion. Solomon, as well as his secretary, Procopius, fled to Sicily, where they informed Belisarius, who had just recently conquered the island, about the revolt. Carthage was being besieged by 9,000 rebels, 1,000 of which were Vandals. The rebels were being led by Stotzas, a former soldier in the Byzantine Army. After being made aware of the revolt by Solomon, Belisarius prepared for an invasion of Carthage to crush the revolt. He, along with Solomon, prepared an invasion force of 100 elite troops and around 2,000 regular troops, as well as one warship to blockade the city. By the time Belisarius arrived in c. June – August, the defenders of Carthage were considering surrendering to Stotzas and the rebels. Belisarius was significantly outnumbered, as he had about 2,100 troops compared to Stotzas's 9,000. However, he still presented a significant threat to the rebels, who lifted their siege of Carthage, and subsequently withdrew. Belisarius pursued the withdrawing rebels, and the two sides clashed at the Battle of Membresa, also known as the Battle of the Bagradas River. The battle ended in Stotzas's troops being defeated by those of Belisarius, and the former subsequently retreated, despite having suffered low casualties. Belisarius's troops then looted the abandoned rebel camp, where large amounts of gold and female slaves were found, which the rebels had seized during the siege. Stotzas would continue his to rebel against the Byzantines until his death in 545.