Byzantine North Africa

The last imperial period of Roman North Africa begins and ends in narratives of invasion and conquest: Belisarius' campaign of 533/4, celebrated in glorious and oddly archaic triumph in Constantinople, and the bumbling imperial defense – or daring Muslim conquest, depending on perspective – ending in the fall of Roman Carthage, not once, but twice, in 695 and again in 698. Much emphasis in the historiography of late Roman North Africa has been placed on military events, both traditionally and also more recently in Walter Kaegi's 2010 study on Byzantine collapse and Muslim conquest. And yet, looking beyond high drama and hyperbole in both contemporary and more modern accounts, one cannot fail but wonder at the relatively minor forces engaged both in the 530s and in the late seventh century. North Africa, especially Proconsularis and Byzacena, was arguably the most wealthy and most densely urbanised territory of the Roman West. Its loss in the fifth century precipitated the fall of western imperial government, and in the seventh century it was capable of sponsoring Heraclius' successful bid for the imperial throne. So, should not the Vandal kingdom have been capable of a much stronger opposition against Justinian's reconquest, should not Justinian II and Leontius have done much more to defend North Africa? In order to gain a better understanding of how North Africa rather easily re-entered and re-exited imperial control, this paper is looking at the interaction between imperial institutions and regional socioeconomic development. Two questions are going to be examined. First we are looking at the outcomes of a century of Vandal government: to what extent did the Vandal kingdom, despite its strongly imperial ideology, weaken structures of state government and administration, thus perhaps strengthening control by socioeconomic elites, both "Vandal" and "Afro-Roman" landowners, over bureaucratic and institutional government? Secondly we have to ask whether the imperial government in the sixth and seventh century ever was truly successful in what Justinian's legislation proudly proclaimed was a reestablishment of the status quo ante. Did North Africa really become fully integrated into bureaucratic imperial government, did it become an "ordinary" part of the Empire? That the West in general and North Africa in particular remained important to Constantinople is not in question, one could point to Constans II move to Syracuse in the 660s, but what we are going to argue is that the imperial government in the long run failed to demonstrate its essential relevance for the efficient administration of North Africa to the local elites. North Africa was imperial, but imperial institutions remained weak.

The purpose of this paper is to present several avenues of reflection linked first to the onomastics of the African episcopate of the Byzantine period, then to its development. A quick overview of the most typical characteristics of onomastics of this period will be presented, followed by a description of the remarkable development of this African episcopate between the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century. It will conclude with observations on the African onomastic repertoire of the Protobyzantine era, which reflects the evolution of mentalities within the very interior of the African Christian people and the different circles within it.

Si de nombreuses questions demeurent sans réponse à propos des dernières communautés donatistes en Afrique tardo-antique, on connaît bien dorénavant les étapes qui ont abouti à la disparition du “schisme” africain. Après la conférence de Carthage 411 et un nouvel édit d’union du 30 janvier 412, un nombre important de donatistes se rallièrent à la grande Église mais d’autres plus fermes résistèrent dans l’Afrique du Nord: ce fut le cas de Gaudentius, évêque de Thamugadi, qui menaça de se brûler vif dans son église entouré par ses fidèles, ou d’Emeritus, évêque de Caesarea, qui avait engagé une vaine discussion avec Augustin. Néanmoins, la Catholica africaine déchirée par le grand schisme ne retrouverait jamais sa parfaite unité. À Ala Miliaria des épitaphes révèlent la survivance du donatisme dans les confins méridionaux de la Maurétanie Césarienne. Avec l’époque vandale et byzantine, la tradition donatiste allait se poursuivre d’une manière souterraine en Numidie méridionale: la correspondance de Léon le Grand et après lui du pape Grégoire Le Grand témoigne d’une persistance du donatisme dans ces régions.

In the early 660’s, a Frankish chronicler wrote that the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, learned through astrology that his empire would be devastated by a circumcised nation.  He decreed that all Jews be baptised and wrote to the Frankish king Dagobert urging him to do the same.  Both were startled when a new circumcised nation, the Arab Muslims, emerged and swiftly conquered much of Heraclius’s empire.  The story seems like something invented after the Muslim conquest though a strikingly similar account occurs in Islamic hadith literature. 

That two accounts agreeing on many things are found in widely separated traditions suggests a reality behind the story.  Other texts point to a sudden, intense, and widespread persecution of the Jews before and independent of the appearance of the first Muslim invaders: Heraclius ordered all Jews throughout the Empire to be baptized on May 31, 632.  Many fled rather than accept baptism.  Some of the newly baptized would return to Judaism though others remained Christian.

Heraclius wrote to Visigothic Spain via the Pope (though the Spanish church rebuked him) as well as to the Franks, yet his religious policy was far from successful in his own realm. Within a decade, Egypt and the Levant had been lost to Muslim rule (and the Jews saved) while, in the regions over which imperial control remained, some Jewish communities survived the period of persecution and soon began to recover.  It was beyond imperial frontiers that Heraclius’s campaign may have had its longest lasting impact.  In Gaul, both the Frankish church and civil authorities had already been groping towards such policies and, under Heraclius’s prompting and Dagobert’s leadership, they may have succeeded in creating the first Christian state purged of Jews.  For the next century, there is no evidence of Jews in Francia.

A short account of Byzantine belt buckles that have been documented by the author in the National Museum of Carthage and other Museums in Algeria, Tunisia and Western Libya. The text is limited to a typo-chronological overview. A more detailled study will be given in the second volume of the study of Late Antqiue dress accessories form North Africa that is in preparation.

Ce trésor d’or byzantin découvert au cours des fouilles exécutées en 2002 sur le site de Sidi Khalifa, l’antique Pheradi Maius (Tunisie) se compose de 17 solidi de Justinien Ier, Justin II, Tibère II et Maurice Tibère. Il vient s’ajouter aux quelques trésors connus enfouis vers la fin du vie siècle et le début du VIIe siècle.

Cities of North Africa experienced a long occupation up to the late 7th c. CE. Despite numerous studies on Late Antique urbanism, no systematic investigation of urban hydraulics has been carried out so far. This paper examines the hydraulic topography of three cities in the Byzantine period (ca. 6th c. CE): Leptis Magna (Tripolitania), Sbeitla (Byzacena), and Timgad (Numidia). This analysis assesses to what extent Late Antique societies managed the cities' water supply by maintaining or transforming preexisting hydraulic networks. It considers the continuity of aqueducts and the reorganization of water networks, the state of hydraulic management and technology, and the perception of water resources. The hydraulic networks inherited from the Early Roman period were to some extent preserved, although greatly adapted to new concerns for security and new technical and environmental constraints, illustrating the resilience of Late Antique societies.

In Post-Revolutionary Tunisia, debates on History and Memory are fraught with difficulties. If it happens sometimes that they are confused, Memory is not the History but the one with the other maintain close relations. History and memory have in common to be related to time. Faced with this type of problematic, the exegesis of symbols, discourses and testimonies must recognize the fallacious and even delusional character of historical interpretations loaded with ideology and subjectivity. But despite all these difficulties peculiar to epistemology and the representation of the Tunisian History, the problem is surmountable from the moment when hermeneutics takes on the responsibility of thinking what culture could bequeath as a collective heritage.

In 1891 Louis Carton discovered a Severian copy of the lex divi Hadriani de rudibus agris in the rural site of Aïn Wassel, and this is why
in 1994 this site was chosen in order to investigate the work and living conditions of the sharecroppers who had asked Septimius Severus the
application of that lex. The lex granted the land for cultivation to the coloni who had requested this application, allowing them to bequeath
it to their heirs. Many historic and juridical studies had analyzed this and other six (now seven) so-called ‘great agrarian inscriptions’, which
were found in the Medjerda valley, but so far no field research had been conducted.
The 252 m2 excavated during three campaigns between 1994-96 have revealed part of a Byzantine farm built around 600 AD on top of a previous
structure and abandoned in the early 8th c. This chronology is based on the in-depth analysis of a conspicuous amount of pottery, amphoras,
coins, glass and metal finds. The excavation also aimed at providing a stratigraphic model to apply to the other sites discovered during the field
survey of Map 33 (Téboursouk) of the Carte Nationale des Sites Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques in progress, on behalf of
the Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunisie, s. http://rusafricum.org
Thanks to the excavation we have a precise chrono-typology of pottery and amphoras, the stratigraphic sequence of the Vandal and Byzantine
period was outlined, which was confirmed by other data coming from the field survey. The size of the excavated area -252 m2 -, is rather
limited compared the 8000 m2 of the whole settlement, but all the same significant. Until today Aïn Wassel is the only rural site of Africa
Proconsularis which has been excavated with stratigraphic method, published in detail and thanks to archaeological field survey related to
the surrounding rural region. The field survey outlined the history of the settlement, which started on or near the estate of the Late Republican
triumphator, Titus Statilius Taurus, who was the brilliant general of Octavian. After the transfer from Statilius’ great-grandson to Agrippina
or Nero, the estate took the name of Saltus Neronianus. Its farmers worked as sharecroppers in accordance with the tenure arrangement,
known as lex Manciana, with remarkable success. When their neighbours of the Aïn Djemala settlement asked Emperor Hadrian to apply
that same tenure arrangement to their estate, they referred to the [i]ncrementum habita[torum] in the Saltus Neronianus. By 200 AD the
farmers of Aïn Wassel asked Septimius Severus to apply the lex divi Hadriani, which had extended the exploiting rights also to fields which
were uncultivated for ten continuous years. The application of the lex was probably monitored by Caius Rossius Crescens, emissary of Marcus
Rossius Vitellus, who was a collaborator of Septimius Severus, and at the end of his carreer decurio, flamen perpetuus and patronus of Bulla
Regia. He became also procurator tractus Carthaginiensis and procurator ducenarius IIII publicarum provinciae Africae. Crescens
was buried in or near the settlement and his funerary stele with epitaph was reused as building material in the Byzantine farm.

Tra le opere della collezione Gualino il piatto con Nereide occupa una posizione di particolare rilievo: esso appartiene a quella classe di oggetti di toreutica che testimoniano la sopravvivenza di stili e iconografie di matrice classica ed ellenistica nell'arte tardoantica e protobizantina (Kitzinger [1977] 1989, pp. 38-41, 119-125). Tali opere in metallo-normalmente argento-si suddividono sostanzialmente in tre fasi, che risalgono all'e-tà degli imperatori Teodosio (379-395), Giustiniano (527-565) ed Eraclio (610-641). Nonostante la difficoltà nell'attribuire all'iconografia e allo stile di questi oggetti una precisa collocazione cronologica e geografica-visto il perdurare dei motivi iconografici e la diffusione degli stessi-grazie alle iscrizioni e, soprattutto, ai bolli apposti sul retro, è stato possibile in molti casi stabilire una datazione ad annum e una localizzazione pre-cisa (Matsulevich 1929; Cruikshank Dodd 1961; Cruikshank Dodd 1968; Cruikshank Dodd 1992). Prima che si fosse compreso che i timbri sul retro venivano apposti duran-te le fasi di lavorazione del manufatto, molti di questi oggetti erano stati considerati dai primi studi come opere classiche del II o III secolo e ancora oggi gli argenti sprovvisti di simili informazioni rimangono opere controverse. Si tratta principalmente di missoria (vassoi cerimoniali), di piatti o bacili, di cofanetti, decorati con raffigurazioni tratte dal repertorio mitologico-perlopiù divinità, nereidi, satiri, tritoni-con uno stile che, coerentemente con i temi raffigurati, riprende forme risalenti all'arte classica di Roma. Si è di fronte, quindi, a testimonianze preziose: esse dimostrano la persistenza di un linguaggio formale di matrice antica ancora vitale, accanto a quelli dalle tendenze più astrattizzanti che caratterizzano i principali sviluppi dell'arte tardoantica e protobizan-tina. Si tratterebbe di una delle testimonianze di quel fenomeno noto come "ellenismo perenne" che è stato riconosciuto da Ernst Kitzinger ([1977] 1989, p. 122). Queste circostanze si realizzarono forse anche grazie al relativo isolamento nel quale avrebbero operato gli atelier che producevano opere di toreutica, dove artisti spe-cializzati potevano continuare a riprodurre modelli antichi conservati e trasmes-si all'interno del laboratorio. Il repertorio iconografico profano non doveva essere avvertito come estraneo, neppure dall'aristocrazia cristiana, che ricorreva a queste opere preziose per celebrare occasioni importanti. Principali centri di produzione furono Roma e, soprattutto, Costantinopoli, ma accanto ad essi vanno ricordate almeno Alessandria e Antiochia. Altri centri sono stati identificati, di volta in volta, in base al luogo di ritrovamento o alla presenza di iscrizioni. Nel caso del piatto della collezione Gualino ci si trova dinanzi a cir-costanze eccezionali: grazie ai bolli presenti sul retro, l'opera si colloca a Cartagine nel 541, quindicesimo anno di regno di Giustiniano. Si conferma in questo modo una produzione toreutica cartaginese di età giustinianea con caratteri stilistici propri che dimostra come la dominazione vandalica in Africa non avrebbe interrotto l'attività degli atelier attivi nella produzione di opere in metallo. Non solo, ma non sarebbe venuta meno neppure la sopravvivenza di forme e stili di tradizione classica che al tempo di Giustiniano avrebbero così ricevuto nuovo impulso.

Giugno 533: Belisario lascia il porto di Costantinopoli al comando di un’armata composta da circa 15 mila uomini. L’obiettivo del magister militum per Orientem è l’Africa vandala, governata in quel momento da Gelimero. Dopo una rapida campagna, conclusasi vittoriosamente nell’inverno del 534, inizia il governo bizantino dell’Africa nord occidentale. L’intenzione di questo contributo è quella di delineare il riordinamento politico, civile e militare delle provincie tornate sotto controllo imperiale attraverso le evidenze di due epigrafi rinvenute nelle provincie di Proconsolare e Byzacena. La prima, conservata in situ a Theveste (Tebessa), ricorda il magister militum e praefectus Libiae Solomone, protagonista della pacificazione successiva alla vittoria sui Vandali e della stagione di rinnovamento del circuito difensivo bizantino africano. Il compito affidatogli da Giustiniano fu svolto attraverso la ristrutturazione della città e declinato nel segno di un rinnovamento civile ed istituzionale della comunità che la abitava. La seconda iscrizione si pone in continuità con il tema ideologico della “rinascita” propagandato dall’epigrafe di Theveste, arricchendo inoltre la prosopografia dei funzionari della catena gerarchica africano-bizantina. Rinvenuta a Cululis Theodoriana (Ain Djelloula), l’iscrizione restituisce l’impegno bizantino nella riorganizzazione amministrativo-istituzionale delle città africane. In essa, su disposizione imperiale, Solomone affida al tribunus cittadino la ricostruzione delle mura urbiche. Tratto interessante, sono i termini utilizzati dal committente nella descrizione degli obiettivi che sottendono all’opera edilizia, presentata come metafora della rinascita della città e dei suoi abitanti grazie al loro nuovo inserimento nella sfera di governo dell’imperatore.

From a longue durée perspective, the nomadic populations of North Africa and their mobility based pasture economies are one of the striking factors of a long term social and economic continuity in late antique and early medieval North Africa. This paper aims at a) tracing the social and economic diversity of nomadic societies, comparing the area of the Atlas Mountains and the High Steppe to the costal hinterland of the Syrtes, and b) discussing the close interdependence of nomadic and sedentary communities in late antique North Africa. In terms of settlement and economy nomadic societies also included sedentary elements. At the same time nomads were integrated in the agricultural economies of the rural and more urbanised areas of North Africa; they provided animal products for urban markets and were part of regional labour markets and trade systems. A closer look at the economic role of nomads also needs to take in account tax regulations enacted by the Roman government, which were adjusted to the mobile economies of the North African frontier zones, and the impact of agrarian expansion and Empire-wide markets on the nomadic environments of the steppe since the 2nd c. A.D.

Chapter 2 discusses the stratigraphic evidence of the archaeological excavation conducted in the years 1994-1996 by the University of Trento on the south east slope of the hill of Aïn Wassel. The research, that covered an area of about 250 squared meters, led to the discovery of the north-western part of a large Byzantine farm probably organized in three masonry blocks around a large open courtyard. The building that was unearthed by the archaeological excavation was apparently composed by sixteen rooms (A. 1, A. 2, A.3, A. 4, A.5, A. 6, A. 7, A. 8, A. 9, A. 10/13, A. 11/16/17, A 12, A. 14, A. 15, A. 18, A. 19). Not in all rooms the archaeological deposits were completely removed due to various reasons.

In every single room the excavated deposits are analysed in detail. The description of the stratigraphy is organized in a diachronic sense, starting from the deeper levels and from the earliest periods to reach the superficial levels and the more recent periods. This description is based on a chronological framework: the periodization of the archaeological evidence is divided in three main Periods of different duration, Period I  corresponding to the evidence preceding the construction of the Byzantine farm, Period II to the construction, the use and the abandonment of the rural settlement, and Period III to the long time span going from the disuse of the ancient building to the modern age.  The Periods were in turn divided into Phases called A, B and C. Within this grid the 253 contexts (‘actions’) have been assembled in groups of actions called Activities.

The complexity of the relationships between single actions and between actions and activities has been translated into diagrams; in particular, one single matrix of activities interprets the archaeological evidence of the entire excavation, while the stratigraphic sequences of any single room are illustrated by detailed stratigraphic matrices, in which all the actions composing the activities are displayed.

After the discussion of the stratigraphic evidence regarding every single room, the chronological data are briefly examined and the most significant dating finds are displayed in tables. Some hypotheses are also expressed about  the functionality of the living spaces.

The final section of this chapter summarizes the main conclusions of the research, starting with the interpretation of the most ancient evidence (4th-6th c. AD), consisting in the scarce remains of a masonry building and in a late antique burial, that preceded the construction of the Byzantine rural settlement. The construction technique and the building materials, the functional organization of the living spaces and the chronology of the farm, built between the late 6th and the beginning of the 7th century AD and abandoned by the beginning of the 8th century AD, are then examined. Finally the scant archaeological evidence concerning the period that followed the abandonment of the rural settlement (8th-20th c. AD) is briefly discussed.

This chapter examines the terracotta containers used for transport and storage (amphoras and jars) found during the archaeological excavation of Aïn Wassel. Most of them were in fragments, but in some cases they were fully or partially reassembled. We have 1968 assembled items, mainly consisting of body sherds and only occasionally belonging to rims, handles or bases; only 290 fragments can be used to reconstruct the shape and typology of the vessels. The most significant fragments were moved to the Archaeology Laboratory of the University of Trento, where it was possible to complete their graphic and photographic documentation; other material was stored in the warehouses created inside the Roman cisterns of Dougga.

The stereoscopic microscope analysis showed that almost all vessels belong to the North African production; import amphoras are almost completely absent: there is only one fragment of a Late Roman Amphora 1, a transport wine container produced in the Aegean region. The numerous amphoras prove that food was imported from different areas of the Provincia Africa; they mainly date to the 7th c AD.

Most of the African vessels found during the excavation are different from known amphora types. Only a very limited number could be compared to types used for interprovincial trade, in particular Keay LXI and LXII; however, they show only a generic morphological and technological similarity to those types. Other types found in the site of Aïn Wassel are the amphora Keay L, two small spatheia, two ovoid jars and a significant number of Castrum Perti type amphorae: all of them have interprovincial diffusion.

As for the other types identified at Aïn Wassel (amphoras and jars), there is an almost complete lack of typological comparisons, probably due to the state of research on this subject in North Africa. This suggests a limited local production which was little widespread, probably meant for ‘intraprovincial’ trade only. This is the case of four large-sized cylindrical amphorae found in situ in room A. 15: only two of them can be compared with a type called Sidi Jdidi 2/Bonifay 55, which was produced in the region of Nabeul/Hammamet/Sidi Jdidi and is not known outside Africa. The other ones, Aïn Wassel 1 e 2, find no parallels in Africa nor elsewhere and may be considered a local production – even if amphora kilns are not yet known in the Dougga region. They were probably used as transport containers and also for storage and processing of agricultural products; various types of jars found in the excavation were also used for transport and storage. Unfortunately there is no evidence about their content: probably it was olive oil; in one case olive kernels were found together with the amphora fragments.

The final part of Chapter 4 is dedicated to the contextualization of the finds coming from Aïn Wassel in the wider African scene and to some considerations about the economic history of North Africa in Late Antiquity. In particular, the evidence provided by the amphoras of Ain Wassel shows that this settlement was well-placed within a lively intraprovincial market, until the beginning of the Islamic age. This helps us in correcting the idea of a drastic fall of the agricultural production of the African countryside in the 7th century AD.

The short period of Byzantine rule in the Maghreb belies the region’s importance to the empire in the sixth and seventh centuries. Given the profound economic and strategic significance of the province of “Africa,” the territory was also highly contested in the Byzantine period—by the empire itself, Berber kingdoms, and eventually also Muslim Arabs—as each of these groups sought to gain, retain control of, and exploit the region to its own advantage. In light of this charged history, scholars have typically taken the failure of the Byzantine endeavor in Africa as a foregone conclusion. The symposium sought to reassess this pessimistic vision both by examining those elements of Romano-African identity that provided continuity in a period of remarkable transition, and by seeking to understand the transformations in African society in the context of developments in the larger post-Roman Mediterranean. An international group of researchers from North America, Europe, and North Africa, including both well-established and emerging scholars, addressed topics including the legacy of Vandal rule in Africa, historiography and literature, art and architectural history, the archaeology of cities and their rural hinterlands, the economy, the family, theology, the cult of saints, Berbers, and the Islamic conquest, in an effort to consider the ways in which the imperial legacy was re-interpreted, re-imagined, and put to new uses in Byzantine and early Islamic Africa.

4349. These courses serve academic teaching purposes. They examine the historical context, the residential and anthropogenic environment of the regions of the Middle East, North Africa and Armenia during the Early Christian and Byzantine period (2nd-15th century). It will be studied historical and social issues which are related to archaeology and architecture. In particular, the topics that will occupy the course are:
• Towns’ History
• Society and Culture
• Anthropogeography
• Topics of Gender
• Religion as a socio-political and cultural factor
• Multicultural co-existence /Perceptions
• Environment and Seismicity
• Public, private and religious buildings
• Byzantium and the West
• Crusades/Fortifications
The approach is interdisciplinary and the analytical tools of the course are based on a range of cognitive fields, such as historiography, archaeology, travelling texts, the history of city architecture, social sciences, geography and anthropology.
The course aims to enrich students’ knowledge of the history and archaeology of the Middle East and the southeastern regions of the Medieval world in general through the search for the human and building footprint.

Nell’estate del 647 il generale araboʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī l-Sarḥ invase la Byzacena alla testa di circa ventimila uomini. Nei pressi di Sufetula, il suo esercito affrontò e sconfisse le truppe del patrizio Gregorio, spezzando la resistenza romana alla prima penetrazione araba nella provincia. Questo famigerato evento segnò l’inizio del lungo conflitto che oppose impero e califfato per il controllo delle province africane. La storiografia sull’Africa bizantina, sempre più copiosa a partire dagli anni ’80 del XX secolo, si è però occupata solo in maniera marginale della questione. Di conseguenza, la ricostruzione di questi avvenimenti dipende ancora largamente da quanto scritto da Charles Diehl nel 1896. In sintesi, secondo l’eminente studioso francese successivamente alla disfatta di Sufetula l’impero non sarebbe stato più in grado di attuare una strategia difensiva efficace. La protezione della provincia sarebbe quindi stata affidata alle confederazioni tribali maure, solo occasionalmente rinforzate da sparuti contingenti romani. La conclusione dell’esperienza bizantina in Africa appariva quindi già delineata alla metà del secolo VII. Tuttavia, grazie principalmente all’allargamento del corpus relativo alle fonti sul tema, è possibile argomentare che la teoria di Diehl vada rivista. L’intenzione di questo contributo, quindi, è quella di analizzare i quasi cinquanta anni di guerra che opposero Arabi e Romani prestando la dovuta attenzione al ruolo svolto dall’impero nel coordinare l’attività bellica nel nord Africa. Sarà interessante notare come gli Arabi non si trovarono davanti una provincia completamente sguarnita, ma un territorio presidiato sotto il profilo militare che fino alla definitiva caduta di Cartagine (699) Bisanzio tentò di difendere.

The article raises issues related to the organization of the civil provincial administration after the Byzantines regained control of North Africa in 533 as a result of the war with the Vandal kingdom. In comparison to the state known from the fifth century, the legislation of emperor Justinian introduced many changes in the administration scheme, primarily by establishing the prefectures of Africa, which replaced the diocese that had functioned previously. After the year 533, some provinces that hat previously belonged to other territorial units during the late Roman Empire, for example Sardinia and Corsica, passed to the authority of the prefect of Cartage. The research results presented in the article are intended to trace the territorial changes of African provinces during the sixth century, as well as the titles of their governors and the scope of their competence.

The focus of this thesis is on nomad-sedentary interrelations in 3rd to 6th century North Africa. It analyses violent conflicts, social structure and political integration of gentile groups and processes of economic integration and exchange between nomads and sedentary.

The article focuses on the Latin inscription engraved on a large silver plate of the early Byzantine age, now in Turin in the Galleria Sabauda (formerly in the Gualino collection). The paleography of the lettering confirms the contemporaneity of the engraved text and the plate (mid-6th century), while the lexicon and concepts show significant points of contact with the language and thoughts of St. Augustine. The comparison between the inscription and the pagan image in the central roundel of the plate – a Nereid riding astride a sea lion – shades new light on some aspects of the culture and religiosity of African society, in the decades between the end of the kingdom of the Vandals and the beginning of the Byzantine rule.