Exarch of Africa
| Exarchate of Africa Exarchatus Africae |
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| Exarchate of the East Roman Empire | |||||
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| Capital | Carthage | ||||
| Historical era | Early Middle Ages | ||||
| • | Foundation of Exarchate | 585/590 | |||
| • | First Arab invasion | 647 | |||
| • | Battle of Carthage (698) | 698 | |||
The Exarchate of Africa or of Carthage, after its capital, was the name of an administrative division of the Byzantine Empire encompassing its possessions on the Western Mediterranean, ruled by an exarch (viceroy). It was created by emperor Maurice in the late 580s and survived until the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the late 7th century.
The Maghreb along with Corsica and Sardinia and the Balearic Islands were reconquered by the Byzantine Empire under Belisarius in the Vandalic War of 533 and reorganized as the Praetorian prefecture of Africa by Justinian I. It included the provinces of Africa Proconsularis, Byzacena, Tripolitania, Numidia, Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Sitifensis, and was centered at Carthage. In the 560s, a Roman expedition succeeded in regaining parts of southern Spain, which were administered as the new province of Spania. After the death of Justinian, the Empire came into increasing attacks on all fronts, and the remoter provinces were often left to themselves to cope as best as they could, with Constantinople unable to provide assistance.
The Late Roman administrative system, as established by Diocletian, provided for a clear distinction between civil and military offices, primarily to lessen the possibility of rebellion by over-powerful provincial governors. Under Justinian I, the process was partially reversed for provinces which were judged to be especially vulnerable or in internal disorder. Capitalizing upon this precedent and taking it one step further, the emperor Maurice sometime between 585 and 590 created the office of exarch, which combined the supreme civil authority of a praetorian prefect and the military authority of a magister militum, and enjoyed considerable autonomy from Constantinople. Two exarchates were established, one in Italy, with seat at Ravenna (hence known as the Exarchate of Ravenna), and one in Africa, based at Carthage and including all imperial possessions in the Western Mediterranean. The first African exarch was the patricius Gennadius.
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