Byzacena

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Provincia Byzacena
ἐπαρχία Βυζακινῆς
Province of the Byzantine Empire
c. 293–698

Map of Roman Africa and Egypt; Byzacena shown in top right.
CapitalHadrumetum
Historical eraAntiquity
• Division by Diocletian
c. 293
698
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Roman Empire
Rashidun Caliphate
Today part ofTunisia

Byzacena (or Byzacium) (Ancient Greek: Βυζάκιον, Byzakion and Βυσσᾶτις, Byssâtis)[1] was a Late Roman province in the central part of Roman North Africa, which is now roughly Tunisia, split off from Africa Proconsularis.

History

At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Diocletian divided the great Roman province of Africa Proconsularis into three smaller provinces: Zeugitana in the north, still governed by a proconsul and referred to as Proconsularis; Byzacena to its adjacent south, and Tripolitania to its adjacent south, roughly corresponding to southeast Tunisia and northwest Libya. Byzacena corresponded roughly to eastern Tunisia or the modern Tunisian region of Sahel.

The provincial civil governor first had the rank of Praeses, then of Consularis, while a dux was, after the reconquests of Justinian I, to command the army.Hadrumetum (modern Sousse) became the capital of the newly made province, whose governor had the rank of consularis. At this period the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Byzacena was, after the great metropolis Carthage, the most important city in Roman (North) Africa west of Egypt and its Patriarch of Alexandria.

The province shared the fate of Roman Africa and was the scene of the Battle of Tricamarum on December 15, 533 , which sealed the fate of the Vandals in North Africa. Subsequently, the Byzacena became part of Byzantine North Africa. Around 670 Byzacena was conquered by the Arab general ʿUqba ibn Nafiʿ , who founded Kairouan in the same year. When the exarch, together with the Berber prince Kusaila, defeated Uqba ibn Nafi in 683, the province was recaptured, but finally fell to the Arabs in 698 at the latest.

Episcopal sees

Ancient episcopal sees of Byzacena listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees:[2]

See also

References.

  1. ^ Procopius, History of the Wars, §4.12
  2. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013
  3. ^ located at Latitude: 36.19392 - Longitude: 10.02064.

urces and external links

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