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Antalas

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Antalas
Moorish King of the Frexes gens[1]
King of Byzacena's Moors[2]
Moorish Rebels Coalition Commander in Chief[3]
Reignbefore 530 – after 548
Bornc. 500

Antalas (Greek: Ἀντάλας; c. 500 – after 548) was a Berber tribal leader who played a major role in the wars of the Byzantine Empire against the Berber tribes in Africa. Antalas and his tribe, the Frexes initially served the Byzantines as allies, but after 544 switched sides. With the final Byzantine victory in his and his tribe once again became Byzantine subjects. The main sources on his life are the epic poem Iohannis of Flavius Cresconius Corippus and the Histories of the Wars of Procopius of Caesarea.

Life

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Antalas was born c. 500, and was the son of a certain Guenfan ruler of the Frexes gens, according to Corippus. He belonged to Frexes tribe of Byzacena (modern central Tunisia).[4][5] Corippus reports that Antalas career began at the age of seventeen, stealing sheep. He soon followers around him and became a brigand, fighting against the Vandals. By 530, he had become leader of the Berbers in Byzacena, and in the same year led them to a decisive victory against the Vandals forces of King Hilderic led by the Prince and General Hoamer (name given by Procopius, Corippus calls him Hildimer) that contributed as reason in a coup d'état orchestrated led by Gelimer a member of Vandal aristoracy using the justification of his defeat against the Berbers and his close ties with Romans and as Hilderic was an ally of Byzantines, this reason gave a legitimacy for a casus belli to the Empreror Justinian and Belisarius in order to get back Africa from the Vandals.[6][7]

Following the Vandalic War (533–534) and the capture of the Vandalic Kingdom by the Byzantine Empire, Antalas became an ally of the empire, receiving subsidies and supplies in exchange through the foedus promoting peace between the sides. In the winter of the year 543, however, an accusation of revolt from Solomon denounced by Corippus through the ability of a poet giving voice to Antalas in Iohannis,[8] which resulted in the execution of his brother Guarizila and the cessation of the subsidies by the Byzantine governor, Solomon. This treatment alienated Antalas, and when the Leuathae rebelled in Tripolitania in the next year, he and his followers joined them. The united tribes inflicted a heavy defeat on the Byzantines in the Battle of Cillium, where Solomon himself was killed.[9][10]

Roman and Byzantine Africa, with the provinces of Byzacena, Zeugitana and Numidia

With the death of the capable Solomon, his nephew Sergius, whose arrogant treatment of the Leuathae had prompted their rebellion in the first place, was appointed governor in Africa. Stotzas, a renegade Byzantine soldier who had led an unsuccessful rebellion a few years earlier, now joined Antalas from his refuge in Mauretania. Antalas wrote to the Byzantine emperor, Justinian I, asking for Sergius' dismissal, but in vain. Justinian only dispatched the patrician Areobindus in early 545 to share command with Sergius, but both were militarily incompetent and spent their time bickering with each other.[6][11] While Sergius remained inactive at Carthage, Antalas and Stotzas led their troops north and managed to trick Himerius, the commander of Hadrumetum, into leaving the town with his troops and rendezvous with another Byzantine commander, John. Himerius fell into the trap, and while his soldiers mutinied and joined Stotzas, he was forced to betray Hadrumetum to save his life.[12] Finally, in late 545 Areobindus ordered the reluctant John to advance and meet the joint army of Antalas and Stotzas, which was encamped at Sicca Veneria. John's troops were considerably outnumbered by the rebel forces, and in the Battle of Thacia his army was routed and he himself was killed, but not before mortally wounding Stotzas in a duel.[11][13]

After the defeat at Thacia, Sergius was relieved and Areobindus replaced him. At this time, the ambitious Byzantine dux of Numidia, Guntharic contacted the various Berber leaders in a bid to unseat Areobindus. Antalas was promised the rule of Byzacena, half the treasure of Areobindus and 1,500 Byzantine troops as his command. In order to increase pressure on Areobindus, the Berbers and the renegade followers of Stotzas approached Carthage. At the same time, Areobindus himself had secret contacts with another Berber leader, Cutzinas, leader of the Numidian Berbers. Cutzinas had promised to murder Antalas once battle was joined, but Guntharic revealed this plan to Antalas. In the event, due to Areobindus' timidity, a battle did not take place; in March Guntharic seized Carthage and murdered Areobindus.[11][14]

Now master of Carthage, Guntharic refused to honour his agreement with Antalas, and the latter withdrew his men into Byzacena. There, in an effort to reconcile himself with the emperor, he contacted the dux of Byzacena, Marcentius, who had fled to an offshore island, proposing to make common cause against Guntharic. Guntharic sent an army under Cutzinas and Artabanes against Antalas and defeated him.[15] Guntharic himself was murdered soon after (May 546) by a conspiracy headed by Artabanes, and Carthage and the army returned to the Empire's allegiance. Justinian now sent an experienced soldier, John Troglita, to impose order on the troubled African provinces.[16] Gathering his forces, Troglita marched out of Carthage into Byzacena. Antalas sent an embassy to the Byzantine general, but the latter rejected his demands and imprisoned the envoys. Shortly after, he sent an emissary of his own, who placed Antalas before the choice of battle or immediate submission. Antalas refused to submit, and the two armies confronted each other near Sbeitla in Byzacena in late 546 or early 547. The battle resulted in a crushing Byzantine victory: the Berbers suffered heavy losses, and the battle-standards lost at Cillium were recovered by the Byzantines.[17][18]

In the summer, however, Antalas joined the Berbers of Tripolitania (though he is not mentioned by Corippus, Procopius records his presence) and inflicted a heavy defeat on Troglita at the Battle of Marta. After their victory, the Berbers raided even to the outskirts of Carthage.[18][19] In the next year, Antalas again joined the Tripolitanian Berbers, under their leader Carcasan, when they invaded Byzacena. In contrast to the impetuous Carcasan, Antalas advocated a more cautious scorched earth tactic when Troglita marched forth to meet them. Nevertheless, when the two adversaries met later in the summer in the Battle of the Fields of Cato, the result was a decisive Byzantine victory: Carcasan fell, and the Berber revolt was crushed as Antalas and the surviving leaders submitted to Troglita. Nothing further is known of him after that.[18][20]

First mention of Antalas and the Frexes in the Iohannis

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In the second song, Corippus make a clear description of Antalas and his tribe and family where he explains the first main reasons for what is sometimes called the great libyque war or the 2nd uprising of the Byzantine-Moorish wars.

Latin: Primus init bellum, fraterna morte coactus, Maurorum Princeps, Romanis subditus olim

Principibus, gratus ducibus fidusque magistris, Antalas ; diramque movens in proelia dextram Erexit furiale fremens, qua turbidus omnes Impulit armatas bellorum ad praemia gentes. Finibus in Libycis suscepta pace fidelis

Ille fuit plenosque decem perfecerat annos. Heu, ducis ignari quale indiscretio bellum Movit et extinctas fecit recalescere flammas ! Tunc furor incerti posuit plantaria Martis ; Perfidiae crimen vel tantae semina mortis Ira dedit. Gentes Libyae commovit amaras acrior et totum turbavit cladibus orbem. Hunc consanguineis sequitur densissima turmis Frexes et tumida laudat cervice regentem, Fortis gens et dura viris, bellique tumultu

Effera, seu pedes it campis praesumpta per hostes, Sive frementis equi pulsat calcaribus armos.

English: [28] The first, Antalas, Prince of the Moors, formerly subject to the Roman emperors, agreeable to governors, faithful to generals, began the war, urged on by the death of his brother. Committing to the fight his inflexible arm, he raised it in a furious roar with which, all agitated, he drove the brazen-armored tribes towards the spoils promised by war. Having [formerly] accepted peace, he had been faithful within the borders of Libya, and had spent [thus] ten full years. Alas! What a war the lack of discernment of an ignorant leader unleashed by rekindling extinguished flames! Fury then sowed the seeds of an uncertain fight. Anger brought an accusation of great perfidy or rather the seeds of death. Antalas, suddenly more ardent, set the embittered Libyan tribes in motion and upset the whole world by his massacres. The closely-ranked Frexes, whose squadrons are descended from his own blood, accompany him and, their heads swollen with pride, cheer their leader. They are a courageous tribe, with hardened men, and savage in the melee of combat, whether on the plains they advance on foot, presumptuous, through the enemies, or whether they press with their spurs the flanks of quivering horses.

(Translation of the French Historian Yves Modéran)[21]

References

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  1. ^ Nicholson, Oliver (2018). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-256246-3.
  2. ^ The Tragedy of Empire From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy. Harvard University Press. 2019. ISBN 978-0-674-66013-7.
  3. ^ War, Rebellion and Epic in Byzantine North Africa A Historical Study of Corippus' Iohannis. Cambridge University Press. 2023. ISBN 978-1-009-39198-6.
  4. ^ Desanges, J. (1998-02-01). "Frexes". Encyclopédie berbère (in French) (19): 2935. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1970. ISSN 1015-7344.
  5. ^ Camps 1988, p. 706-708.
  6. ^ a b Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, p. 86.
  7. ^ "Corippe, la Johannide (chant III)". remacle.org. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  8. ^ "Corippe, la Johannide (chant IV)". remacle.org. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  9. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 86, 1175–1176.
  10. ^ Bury 1958, p. 145.
  11. ^ a b c Bury 1958, p. 146.
  12. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 86, 599–600.
  13. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 86, 641.
  14. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 86–87, 108–109.
  15. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 87, 818.
  16. ^ Bury 1958, pp. 146–147.
  17. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 87, 647.
  18. ^ a b c Bury 1958, p. 147.
  19. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 87, 647–648.
  20. ^ Martindale, Jones & Morris 1992, pp. 87, 648–649.
  21. ^ Modéran, Yves (2003), "Chapitre 2. Le catalogue des tribus de la Johannide", Les Maures et l’Afrique romaine (IVe-VIIe siècle), Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (in French), Rome: Publications de l’École française de Rome, pp. 43–61, ISBN 978-2-7283-1003-6, retrieved 2024-12-04

Sources

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