Byzacena

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Byzacena (also Byzacium , ancient Greek Βυζάκις Byzákis or Βυσσᾶτις Byssâtis ) was a province of the Roman Empire .

Towards the end of the 3rd century, the Roman Emperor Diocletian split off two smaller provinces, Byzacena and Tripolitania, from the large province of Africa as part of his administrative reforms . The former comprised the Sahel region of Tunisia .

Hadrumetum became the capital of the newly created province of Byzacena and, after Carthage, developed into the most important city in Roman North Africa.

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 Vandal Empire in North Africa. In 590 the Byzacena became part of the Exarchate of Carthage . Around 670 the Byzacena was conquered by the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi , who founded Kairuan in the same year . When the exarch and the Berber prince Kusaila ibn Lemzem defeated Uqba ibn Nafi in 683, the province was recaptured, but finally fell to the Arabs in 698 at the latest.

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