Cabaon was a Berber chief of Tripolitania in the beginning of the sixth century, known essentially by a rather long passage in the Vandal War of Procopius, for his tactics during the Tripolitania expedition in 523.
During the reign of Thrasamund, for unspecified reasons, the Vandals launched an expedition against Cabaon. Although not himself a Christian, the Moorish leader then decided, according to Procopius, to send spies on the backs of the Vandals to repair the damage that the Arian fanatics would cause to the buildings of the worship. The ensuing battle in an unknown place was a disaster for Thrasamund's troops, baffled by Berber tactics. In a pattern that would be repeated later, they took shelter behind a rampart of camels and fought on foot, essentially making use of ranged weapons that decimated the Vandals squadrons. The battle seemed to be a resounding success for the Berbers, but the immediate consequences were unknown because Procopius never mentioned Cabaon again, and no link was established between that battle and the long Moorish Wars later. The episode, however, had a rather rich historiographic posterity. The Byzantine compilers were fascinated by the paradoxical respect shown by Cabaon towards Catholic worship; the latter of which interested Evagrius, and led him to copy the passage from Procopius in his Ecclesiastical History. [1]
Year 533 (DXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iustinianus without colleague. The denomination 533 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.
Thrasamund (b.450–d.523), became King of the Vandals and Alans in 496, the fourth king in a line of rulers over the North African Kingdom of the Vandals. He was the son of Gento and the grandson of the Vandal Kingdom's founder, Gaiseric. Thrasamund ruled longer than any other Vandal king in Africa aside from his grandfather. He was known for his commitment to Arianism and for his antagonism towards Catholics. Upon his death in 523, Thrasamund was succeeded by his cousin, Hilderic.
The military history of Libya covers the period from the ancient era to the modern age.
The Vandalic War was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Vandalic Kingdom of Carthage in 533–534. It was the first of Justinian I's wars of the reconquest of 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.
John Troglita was a 6th-century Byzantine general. He participated in the Vandalic War and served in North Africa as a regional military governor during the years 533–538, before being sent east to the wars with the Sassanid Persians. As dux Mesopotamiae, Troglita distinguished himself in several battles, and was noticed by agents of the Byzantine emperor, Justinian I. In summer 546, Justinian chose John Troglita to assume overall command of Byzantine forces in Africa, where a succession of revolts by the indigenous Moorish tribes and within the imperial army itself had seriously reduced the Byzantine position. Troglita quickly secured an initial victory in the winter of 546/547 against the Moors of Byzacena, but was defeated in summer 547 by the tribes of Tripolitania, and Africa was once again laid open to destructive raids. Troglita reorganized his army and secured the assistance of some tribal leaders, and confronted and decisively defeated the tribal coalition at the Fields of Cato in summer 548. This victory spelled the end of the Moorish revolt and heralded an era of peace for Africa. Troglita was also involved in the Gothic War, twice sending some of his troops to Italy to assist against the Ostrogoths.
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.
The Battle of Cape Bon was an engagement during a joint military expedition of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires led by Basiliscus against the Vandal capital of Carthage in 468. The invasion of the kingdom of the Vandals was one of the largest amphibious operations in antiquity, with 1,113 ships and over 50,000 personnel.
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.
The Laguatan was a Berber clan that inhabited the Cyrenaica area during the Roman period. They have been described as primarily raiders and nomadic, but others consider them a settled group who also raided.
The Vandal Kingdom or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and the Mediterranean for 99 years from 435 to 534 AD.
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.
Gento was the fourth and youngest son of Genseric, the founder of the Vandal Kingdom in Africa, and father of the vandal kings Gunthamund and Thrasamund. According to Procopius, at the Battle of Cape Bon during the Vandal War (461–468) the Vandals seized a Roman ship. A Roman General named John leaped off the ship to his death despite Gento, “offering pledges and holding out promises of safety.” Gento died in battle in 477.
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 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.
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.
The Tripolitania expedition or the Oea expedition was a battle in 523 between various nomadic Berber ("Moor") confederations of Tripolitania led by Cabaon which previously seized lots of territory from, and raided several settlements of the Vandal Kingdom, and king Thrasamund of the Vandals who was attempting to restore Vandalic control over the territories lost to the advancing Berber tribes. The battle ended in a decisive Berber victory, and a complete collapse of Vandalic control over much of Tripolitania.
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.