Battle of Sufetula (546 or 547)

For the 647 battle at the same location, see Battle of Sufetula (647).

Battle of Sufetula
Part of the Moorish wars
Date 546/547 Location near Sufetula, Byzacena, Byzantine Empire (now Sbeitla, Tunisia) Result Byzantine temporary victory
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire Pro-Roman Berbers	[Frexes] Laguatan Ifuraces Kingdom of the Aurès
Commanders and leaders
John Troglita Putzintulus Geiserith Cutzinas	Antalas  (or temporary exile[1]) Ierna  Carcasan Bruten Iaudas
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Sufetula took place in either late 546 or early 547, at Sufetula in Byzacena, a province of Byzantine Empire, in what is now Tunisia during the Moorish uprisings against the Byzantines. It was fought by Byzantine forces led by John Troglita, against Moorish rebels led by Antalas.^[2] The battle resulted in a crushing Byzantine victory: the Berbers suffered heavy losses, and the battle-standards lost at the battle of Cillium in 544 were recovered by the Byzantines.^[3][4]

Background

In late 546, when John Troglita reached Carthage, the situation was dire: the imperial troops, under Marcentius the dux of Byzacena and Gregory the Armenian in Carthage, were few in number and demoralized. They held out in the coastal cities, blockaded by the Moors of Byzacena under their chieftain Antalas, while the Leuathae and Austurae tribes from Tripolitania were raiding Byzacena with impunity. Diplomatic efforts, however, secured the allegiance of the Moorish leaders Cutzinas and Ifisdaias, who joined the imperial army with several thousand of their men. In addition, the tribesmen of the Aurès Mountains under Iaudas withdrew to Numidia on learning of Troglita's arrival and pursued a course of armed neutrality.^[5]

Upon his arrival in Carthage, Troglita reorganized his troops, bolstering the local forces with the veterans he had brought with him – mostly horse archers and cataphracts – and marched out to meet the rebels. At Antonia Castra, emissaries from Antalas presented themselves, but Troglita rejected their terms and imprisoned them. The Byzantine army marched into Byzacena, relieved the beleaguered cities, and joined up with Marcentius. The Moors, taken by surprise by the imperial army's swift advance, withdrew again to the mountainous and wooded interior, where they gathered their forces under the leadership of Ierna of the Leuathae and Antalas. Corippus suggests that they hoped that Troglita would not maintain his pursuit in the midst of winter and that they would have the advantage over the imperial army in this terrain. Troglita encamped near the Moorish positions and dispatched an envoy, Amantius, to bring Antalas his terms: the general offered amnesty in exchange for submitting to imperial authority again.^[6] But Procopius and several others sources in fact mention Antalas as having migrated in the south and was joined by Libyans tribes under the leadership of Carcasan after he took the lead of them since the death of Ierna at Sufetula.^[7]

Battle

Corippus narrates the subsequent battle at length, but his imitation of Virgilian verse provides little concrete detail: it is clear that it was a long, indecisive, and bloody conflict, which probably took place to the south or east of Sbeitla in late 546 or early 547. Eventually, the Byzantines prevailed and drove back the Moors, breaking through their defenses and storming their camp. According to Corippus, Ierna, who was the chief priest of the god Gurzil, was killed while trying to protect an image of the god. Many other tribal leaders fell, and the remainder scattered. The remains of the Tripolitanian tribes abandoned Byzacena, and Antalas was forced to lay down arms. In addition, many prisoners were released from the Moorish camp, and among the treasures captured there were the military standards lost by Solomon at Cillium in 544. These were dispatched to Constantinople, while Troglita held a triumphal entry into Carthage.^[8]

Aftermath

Despite the victory, the war kept raging, and the berber chieftain of the Ifuraces Carcasan joined the leader of the coalition in exile Antalas chieftain of the Frexes according Procopius ^[9][10] along with various other chieftains such as Bruten, took control of the remainder of rebel libyans tribes armies. They inflicted a heavy defeat on the Byzantine forces at the Battle of Marta,^[11] but he was later decisively defeated in the Battle of the Fields of Cato, ending the Berber revolts and (temporarily) pacifying the Berbers of North Africa.

References

1. "Procope : Histoire de la guerre des Vandales (livre II)". remacle.org. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
2. Timothy J. Stapleton: A Military History of Africa. Praeger, 2013. ISBN 0313395691. p. 17.
3. Martindale 1992, pp. 87, 647.
4. Bury 1958, p. 147.
5. Diehl 1896, pp. 366–368.
6. Diehl 1896, pp. 366, 368–369; Martindale 1992, pp. 612, 647.
7. "Procope : Histoire de la guerre des Vandales (livre II)". remacle.org. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
8. Diehl 1896, pp. 369–371; Martindale 1992, pp. 612, 647.
9. "Procope : Histoire de la guerre des Vandales (livre II)". remacle.org. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
10. Martindale, Jones et Morris 1992, p. 270.
11. Gibbon, Edward (1958). The End of the Roman Empire in the West: The Barbarian Conquests and the Transition to the Middle Ages: A. D. 439-565. Harper.

Sources

• Bury, John Bagnell (1958) [1923]. History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, Volume 2. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-20399-9.
• Diehl, Charles (1896). L'Afrique Byzantine. Histoire de la Domination Byzantine en Afrique (533–709) (in French). Paris, France: Ernest Leroux.
• Martindale, John R., ed. (1992). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume III, AD 527–641. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-20160-8.