Praetorian prefecture of Africa
| Praetorian prefecture of Africa Praefectura Praetorio Africae |
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| Praet. prefecture of the East Roman Empire | |||||
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| 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 Sardinia |
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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.
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 almost all of Mauretania Tingitana, much of Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Sitifensis and large parts of the interior of Numidia and Byzacena, had been lost to the inroads of Berber 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, thereby ending the Diocese of Africa's traditional subordination to the Prefecture of Italy (then still under the rule of the Ostrogothic Kingdom). Seven provinces - four consular, three praesides - were designated:
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.
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