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77-532: Mauri (Μαῦροι) by Strabo , who wrote in the early 1st century, as the native name, which was also adopted into Latin, while he cites the Greek name for the same people as Maurusii (Μαυρούσιοι). The name Mauri as a tribal confederation or generic ethnic designator thus seems to roughly correspond to the people known as Numidians in earlier ethnography; both terms presumably group early Berber-speaking populations (the earliest Libyco-Berber epigraph dates to about

154-468: A French colony in 1903; it was named after ancient Mauretania in spite of its being situated considerably to the south of the ancient province. Strabo Strabo ( / ˈ s t r eɪ b oʊ / ; Greek : Στράβων Strábōn ; 64 or 63 BC – c.  24 AD ) was a Greek geographer , philosopher , and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of

231-585: A Moorish chieftain with whom Romanus had quarrelled, raised a revolt, winning several Roman regiments to his side". Theodosius defeated the rebellion, but was executed shortly thereafter in Carthage . Firmus' brother Gildo , also a Moorish chieftain, joined the Romans and helped defeat Firmus' revolt. As a reward, he was given the post of magister utriusque militiae per Africam , or master of foot soldiers and cavalry for Africa. In 397 he broke his allegiance to

308-530: A date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD ;23 of Juba II , king of Maurousia ( Mauretania ), who is said to have died "just recently". He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, but not always consistently. It is an encyclopaedic chronicle and consists of political, economic, social, cultural, and geographic descriptions covering almost all of Europe and

385-757: A descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Although the Geographica was rarely used by contemporary writers, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire . It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469. The first printed edition was published in 1516 in Venice . Isaac Casaubon , classical scholar and editor of Greek texts, provided

462-491: A valuable source of information on the ancient world of his day, especially when this information is corroborated by other sources. He travelled extensively, as he says: "Westward I have journeyed to the parts of Etruria opposite Sardinia; towards the south from the Euxine [Black Sea] to the borders of Ethiopia; and perhaps not one of those who have written geographies has visited more places than I have between those limits." It

539-527: A very rocky mountain, called the Trojan mountain; beneath it there are caves, and near the caves and the river a village called Troy, an ancient settlement of the captive Trojans who had accompanied Menelaus and settled there. Strabo commented on volcanism ( effusive eruption ) which he observed at Katakekaumene (modern Kula , Western Turkey). Strabo's observations predated Pliny the Younger who witnessed

616-582: Is "... pro-Roman throughout the Geography. But while he acknowledges and even praises Roman ascendancy in the political and military sphere, he also makes a significant effort to establish Greek primacy over Rome in other contexts." In Europe , Strabo was the first to connect the Danube (which he called Danouios) and the Istros – with the change of names occurring at "the cataracts," the modern Iron Gates on

693-490: Is not known when he wrote Geographica , but he spent much time in the famous library in Alexandria taking notes from "the works of his predecessors". A first edition was published in 7 BC and a final edition no later than 23 AD, in what may have been the last year of Strabo's life. It took some time for Geographica to be recognized by scholars and to become a standard. Alexandria itself features extensively in

770-431: Is proper,' he observes in continuation, ' to derive our explanations from things which are obvious, and in some measure of daily occurrences, such as deluges, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and sudden swellings of the land beneath the sea; for the last raise up the sea also, and when the same lands subside again, they occasion the sea to be let down. And it is not merely the small, but the large islands also, and not merely

847-521: The Diocese of Africa into disarray. Valentinian decided to give Theodosius the command of the expedition to suppress the rebellion. Theodosius' son was made dux of the province of Moesia Prima , replacing his father as commander in Illyricum, while Theodosius himself started mustering his troops at Arles . In the spring of 373 Theodosius sailed to Africa and led a successful campaign against

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924-637: The Diocese of the Britains ) by Valentinian, Theodosius put down the Great Conspiracy (367–368) and the usurpation of Valentinus . After restoring order in Britain he returned to continental Europe and fought against the Alemanni ; as Valentinian's magister equitum (Master of Horse) he successfully invaded Alemannic territory (371 or 370). In 372 Theodosius led a successful campaign against

1001-628: The Mauritanias . In the 370s, Mauri raided the Roman towns of Northwest Africa. Theodosius the Elder campaigned against them in 372. A Moorish tribe called the Austoriani are specified as participating in these raids. According to Jones, who follows Ammianus Marcellinus , the raids into Tripolitania were caused by the "negligence and corruption of Romanus, the comes Africae ... in 372 Firmus ,

1078-645: The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb , there seem to have been continued Mauri resistance for another 50 years. The Chronicle of 754 still mentions Mauri but by the High Middle Ages the endonym seems to have disappeared, while Christian sources begin to apply the term Mauri, Moors to the Islamic populations of the Maghreb and Andalusia in general. The modern state of Mauritania received its name as

1155-715: The Roman Republic into the Roman Empire . He is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Additionally, Strabo authored historical works, but only fragments and quotations of these survive in the writings of other authors. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus (in present-day Cappadocia ) in around 64   BC. His family had been involved in politics since at least

1232-585: The magister equitum praesentalis at the court of the Emperor Valentinian I , in which capacity he prosecuted another successful campaign (370/371) against the Alemanni . In 372 Theodosius was deployed to Illyricum and led an army against the Sarmatians ; he appears to have secured a victory in battle and successfully brought the campaign to an end. In the same year, Firmus , a Mauretanian prince, rebelled against Roman rule and plunged

1309-554: The Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until he reached Philae , after which point there is little record of his travels until AD 17. It is not known precisely when Strabo's Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius . Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around AD 17 or AD 18. The latest passage to which

1386-524: The Aristotelian Xenarchus and Tyrannion who preceded him in teaching Strabo, Athenodorus was a Stoic and almost certainly the source of Strabo's diversion from the philosophy of his former mentors. Moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which Strabo would not otherwise have known about. Strabo is best known for his work Geographica ("Geography"), which presented

1463-620: The Austuriani group of Mauri. The Eastern Empire (at that time under regents for the young Emperor Theodosius II ) sent a squadron of Unigardi barbarians. Synesius of Cyrene praised these barbarian federates and requested more. After the fall of Rome , the Germanic kingdom of the Vandals ruled much of the area. Neither Vandal nor Byzantine could extend effective rule; the interior remained under Mauri (Berber) control. The Vandal army

1540-695: The Elder ( Latin : Theodosius major ), was a senior military officer serving Valentinian I ( r.  364–375 ) and the Western Roman Empire during Late Antiquity . Under his command the Roman army defeated numerous threats, incursions, and usurpations. Theodosius was patriarch of the imperial Theodosian dynasty ( r.  379–457 ) and father of the emperor Theodosius the Great ( r.  379–395 ). Appointed comes rei militaris per Britannias (commander of mobile military forces for

1617-561: The Euxine [Black Sea] was so great, that its bed must be gradually raised, while the rivers still continued to pour in an undiminished quantity of water. He therefore conceived that, originally, when the Euxine was an inland sea, its level had by this means become so much elevated that it burst its barrier near Byzantium, and formed a communication with the Propontis [Sea of Marmara], and this partial drainage had already, he supposed, converted

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1694-484: The Mauri began raiding again. The general Solomon fought a series of campaigns against them, putting a stop to the raids, until a Byzantine troop rebellion in 536. Following the troop mutiny the Mauri were able to raid again with impunity into Byzantine territory. Solomon was recalled and replaced with Germanus , who pacified the troop rebellion; then Solomon was recalled to fight against the Mauri again in 539. Because of

1771-626: The Mauri war and the troop rebellion, the Byzantines had difficulty collecting taxes from the newly conquered province. Justinian was preoccupied with wars against the Ostrogoths and Persians and was unable to apply much resource to controlling the Mauri, opening the door to further Mauri rebellions in the 540s and later. Solomon succeeded in establishing Byzantine control over Mauri in Byzantine territory. However, his nephew Sergius invited

1848-482: The Mauri, with some of them killed. The Vandal king Huneric (477–484) exiled 4966 catholic bishops and priests across the southern border of the Vandal kingdom into Mauri territory. Huneric was an Arian Christian and wanted only Arian clergy in the Vandal kingdom. Exiling catholic clergy to the Mauri was thus Huneric's means of establishing Arian dominance in the Vandal kingdom of north Africa. Hilderic (523–530)

1925-481: The Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, until at least 31 BC. In 29 BC, on his way to Corinth (where Augustus was at the time), he visited the island of Gyaros in

2002-614: The Mediterranean: Britain and Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, Germania, the Alps, Italy, Greece, Northern Black Sea region, Anatolia, Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. The Geography is the only extant work providing information about both Greek and Roman peoples and countries during the reign of Augustus. On the presumption that "recently" means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or

2079-452: The Roman army and were well known as members of the comitatus , the emperor's mobile army, prior to the reign of Diocletian. Jones cites the record of a consular interrogation from Numidia in 320, in which a Latin grammarian named Victor stated that his father was a decurion in Cirta (modern Constantine ), and his grandfather served in the comitatus, 'for our family is of Moorish origin'. By

2156-661: The Romanian/Serbian border. In India , a country he never visited, Strabo described small flying reptiles that were long with snake-like bodies and bat-like wings (this description matches the Indian flying lizard Draco dussumieri ), winged scorpions, and other mythical creatures along with those that were actually factual. Other historians, such as Herodotus , Aristotle , and Flavius Josephus , mentioned similar creatures. Charles Lyell , in his Principles of Geology , wrote of Strabo: He notices, amongst others,

2233-529: The Romans defeat his brother's rebellion. With Mascezel's help, a Roman force of 5000 men defeated Gildo and restored control over northwest Africa to the Western Empire. Stilicho then saw to it that Mascezel was eliminated. To replace Gildo, Stilicho put his brother-in-law Bathanarius in charge of military affairs in Africa in 401. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries, large numbers of troops from

2310-642: The Sarmatians. Within the same year Firmus , a Mauritanian prince, rebelled against Roman rule with the help of African tribes like the Abanni and Caprarienses . Theodosius was sent to Africa and in two hard-fought campaigns (373–374) put down the insurrection. In 376, after the death of emperor Valentinian, he was arrested and executed, presumably as he was seen as a threat to the new western emperors Gratian and Valentinian II . Theodosius's title in Latin

2387-544: The Western Empire, then under the control of the child emperor Honorius and his master of soldiers Stilicho . Gildo withheld the corn ships from Rome and declared allegiance to Stilicho's enemy Eutropius in Constantinople. Eutropius sent encouragement but no troops or money. The Roman Senate declared Gildo a public enemy ( hostis publicus ). Gildo had another brother called Mascezel . At some point, Gildo executed Mascezel's children. Because of this, Mascezel helped

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2464-528: The age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus , a highly respected tutor in Augustus's court. Despite Xenarchus's Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he also learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus . Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he

2541-567: The campaigning season he sent a message to Valentinian to inform him that the provinces of Britain had been restored to the Empire. He also informed the emperor that he had created a new province which he had named Valentia (probably for Valentinian). Known to have been with him on this expedition were his son Theodosius , and the future emperor Magnus Maximus , possibly a relative. On his return from Britain Theodosius succeeded Jovinus as

2618-768: The chiefs of a local Mauri tribe called the Levathi to a parley, and massacred them in 544. This led to a Mauri uprising, in which Solomon was killed. Justinian gave control of the Byzantine African province to Sergius, but Sergius was incompetent, so Justinian sent Areobindus as general. The Byzantine duke of Numidia, Gontharis, wishing to become king of Africa, supported the Mauri in secret. The Byzantine troops were not being paid on time and were frequently unreliable. Gontharis occupied Carthage and killed Areobindus, only to be killed in turn by an Armenian Byzantine loyalist, Artabanes . Artabanes managed to regain control of

2695-661: The early Christian era, the byname Mauritius identified anyone originating in Africa (the Maghreb ), roughly corresponding to Berber populations. Two prominent "Mauritian" churchmen were Tertullian and St. Augustine . The 3rd-century Christian saint Mauritius , in whose honour the given name Maurice originated, was from Egypt. When Aurelian marched against Zenobia in 272, his army included Moorish cavalry. The Notitia Dignitatum mentions Roman cavalry units called Equites Mauri, or Moorish cavalry. Many Mauri were enlisted in

2772-586: The eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August AD 79 in Pompeii : …There are no trees here, but only the vineyards where they produce the Katakekaumene wines which are by no means inferior from any of the wines famous for their quality. The soil is covered with ashes, and black in colour as if the mountainous and rocky country was made up of fires. Some assume that these ashes were the result of thunderbolts and subterranean explosions, and do not doubt that

2849-539: The explanation of Xanthus the Lydian, who said that the seas had once been more extensive, and that they had afterwards been partially dried up, as in his own time many lakes, rivers, and wells in Asia had failed during a season of drought. Treating this conjecture with merited disregard, Strabo passes on to the hypothesis of Strato , the natural philosopher, who had observed that the quantity of mud brought down by rivers into

2926-535: The fall of his father, the younger Theodosius retired to his estates in the Iberian Peninsula , where he married Aelia Flaccilla in 376. According to Ambrose , those who had killed the elder Theodosius had also plotted against the safety of his son during his retirement. The younger Theodosius had returned to the Danube frontier by 378 when he was appointed magister equitum . Following his successes in

3003-463: The family's support for Rome might have affected their position in the local community, and whether they might have been granted Roman citizenship as a reward. Strabo's life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush , as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome . Travel throughout

3080-551: The field he was elevated at Sirmium ( Sremska Mitrovica ) to the rank of augustus by the emperor Gratian ( r.  367–383 ) on 19 January 379. After the accession of his son, Theodosius the Elder was deified and given the consecratio in Latin : Divus Theodosius Pater , lit.   'the Divine Father Theodosius';, and statues of him were set up. Theodosius I joined himself with

3157-448: The first critical edition in 1587. Although Strabo cited the classical Greek astronomers Eratosthenes and Hipparchus , acknowledging their astronomical and mathematical efforts covering geography, he claimed that a descriptive approach was more practical, such that his works were designed for statesmen who were more anthropologically than numerically concerned with the character of countries and regions. As such, Geographica provides

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3234-564: The forum was fortified. All this suggests reduced prosperity and population and increased threat of war, most likely with the Mauri. Jones argues that because of the failure to commit enough resources to thoroughly pacify the region, it never contributed more taxes to Justinian's government than it cost in resources to maintain control. However, some Mauri were recruited into the Byzantine armies for service overseas, and at least two African regiments were raised and assigned to Egypt. A major Mauri revolt against Byzantine rule took place in 569, during

3311-554: The hot masses burst out from the ground as estimated by a logical reasoning. Such type of soil is very convenient for viniculture , just like the Katanasoil which is covered with ashes and where the best wines are still produced abundantly. Some writers concluded by looking at these places that there is a good reason for calling Dionysus by the name ("Phrygenes"). Count Theodosius Count Theodosius ( Latin : Theodosius comes ; died 376), Flavius Theodosius or Theodosius

3388-412: The islands, but the continents, which can be lifted up together with the sea; and both large and small tracts may subside, for habitations and cities, like Bure, Bizona, and many others, have been engulfed by earthquakes.' Strabo commented on fossil formation mentioning Nummulite (quoted from Celâl Şengör ): One extraordinary thing which I saw at the pyramids must not be omitted. Heaps of stones from

3465-464: The last book of Geographica , which describes it as a thriving port city with a highly developed local economy. Strabo notes the city's many beautiful public parks, and its network of streets wide enough for chariots and horsemen. "Two of these are exceeding broad, over a plethron in breadth, and cut one another at right angles ... All the buildings are connected one with another, and these also with what are beyond it." Lawrence Kim observes that Strabo

3542-637: The left side into marshy ground, and that, at last, the whole would be choked up with soil. So, it was argued, the Mediterranean had once opened a passage for itself by the Columns of Hercules into the Atlantic, and perhaps the abundance of sea-shells in Africa, near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon , might also be the deposit of some former inland sea, which had at length forced a passage and escaped. But Strabo rejects this theory as insufficient to account for all

3619-458: The legendary story of Typhon takes place in this region. Ksanthos adds that the king of this region was a man called Arimus. However, it is not reasonable to accept that the whole country was burned down at a time as a result of such an event rather than as a result of a fire bursting from underground whose source has now died out. Three pits are called "Physas" and separated by forty stadia from each other. Above these pits, there are hills formed by

3696-570: The mobile imperial field army (the comitatus ) were permanently stationed in Africa to maintain order against the Moors. A.H.M. Jones estimated that out of a total of 113,000 men in the comitatus 23000 were stationed in Africa. These troops were in addition to the limitanei , the permanent border armies; but the limitanei were insufficient against the Moors and so portions of the field army were placed alongside them. These troops were, according to Jones, then unavailable for their original purpose, which

3773-469: The next (AD 24), at which time he is thought to have died. He was influenced by Homer , Hecataeus and Aristotle . The first of Strabo's major works, Historical Sketches ( Historica hypomnemata ), written while he was in Rome ( c.  20 BC ), is nearly completely lost. Meant to cover the history of the known world from the conquest of Greece by the Romans, Strabo quotes it himself and other classical authors mention that it existed, although

3850-552: The only surviving document is a fragment of papyrus now in the possession of the University of Milan (renumbered [Papyrus] 46). Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialities throughout his early life at different stops during his Mediterranean travels. The first chapter of his education took place in Nysa (modern Sultanhisar , Turkey) under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus , who had formerly taught

3927-401: The phenomena, and he proposes one of his own, the profoundness of which modern geologists are only beginning to appreciate. 'It is not,' he says, 'because the lands covered by seas were originally at different altitudes, that the waters have risen, or subsided, or receded from some parts and inundated others. But the reason is, that the same land is sometimes raised up and sometimes depressed, and

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4004-417: The quarries lie in front of the pyramids. Among these are found pieces which in shape and size resemble lentils. Some contain substances like grains half peeled. These, it is said, are the remnants of the workmen's food converted into stone; which is not probable. For at home in our country (Amaseia), there is a long hill in a plain, which abounds with pebbles of a porous stone, resembling lentils. The pebbles of

4081-488: The rebels in the east of Mauritania. At the end of the campaigning season, when he led his army into western Mauritania, he suffered a major setback. In 374 Theodosius invaded western Mauritania again. This time he was more successful, defeating the rebels and capturing Firmus. In 375, when the Emperor Valentinian suddenly died, Theodosius was still in Africa. Orders arrived for Theodosius to be arrested; he

4158-550: The reign of Justin II , in which the praetorian prefect was killed. The following year, the magister militum was killed. In 571 another magister militum was killed. During the reign of the Emperor Maurice , 582–602 there were another two, smaller, Mauri rebellions. The Byzantine Empire would remain in control of North Africa until the late 600s, when the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb ended Byzantine rule in Africa. After

4235-655: The reign of Mithridates V . Strabo was related to Dorylaeus on his mother's side. Several other family members, including his paternal grandfather, had served Mithridates VI during the Mithridatic Wars . As the war drew to a close, Strabo's grandfather had turned several Pontic fortresses over to the Romans. Strabo wrote that "great promises were made in exchange for these services", and as Persian culture endured in Amaseia even after Mithridates and Tigranes were defeated, scholars have speculated about how

4312-525: The reign of Nero in the Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus : "Geryon's meads, a wealthy prize to tempt the fierce Moor's avarice, where Baetis huge, so legends say, rolls downward on his western way to find the shore." The Baetis is the modern Guadalquivir , so this poem implies Mauri raiding into Baetica in the first century CE. Mauri from the mountains beyond the border of the Roman Empire crossed

4389-401: The sea also is simultaneously raised and depressed so that it either overflows or returns into its own place again. We must, therefore, ascribe the cause to the ground, either to that ground which is under the sea, or to that which becomes flooded by it, but rather to that which lies beneath the sea, for this is more moveable, and, on account of its humidity, can be altered with great celerity. It

4466-453: The sea-shore and of rivers suggest somewhat of the same difficulty [respecting their origin]; some explanation may indeed be found in the motion [to which these are subject] in flowing waters, but the investigation of the above fact presents more difficulty. I have said elsewhere, that in sight of the pyramids, on the other side in Arabia, and near the stone quarries from which they are built, is

4543-481: The situation in Britain; he found out that the troops in Britain had either refused to fight against an enemy superior in numbers, or had been on furlough when the invasion began. Furthermore, he found out that the enemy had broken up their forces into small raiding parties which were plundering at will. When his army finally crossed the Channel with the onset of favorable spring weather, Theodosius had made his plans and

4620-575: The sons of the Roman general who had taken over Pontus. Aristodemus was the head of two schools of rhetoric and grammar, one in Nysa and one in Rhodes . The school in Nysa possessed a distinct intellectual curiosity in Homeric literature and the interpretation of the ancient Greek epics. Strabo was an admirer of Homer 's poetry, perhaps as a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around

4697-399: The straits of Gibraltar to raid into the Roman province of Baetica, in what is today southern Spain, in the early 170s. Mauri raided Baetica again in the late 170s or 180s in the reign of Commodus . At that time they besieged the town of Singilia Barba , which was freed from the siege by the arrival of Roman troops from the province of Mauretania Tingitana , led by C. Vallius Maximianus. By

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4774-421: The third century BC). In 44 AD, the Roman Empire incorporated the region as the province of Mauretania, later divided into Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana . The area around Carthage was already part of Africa Proconsularis . Roman rule was effective enough so that these provinces became integrated into the empire. Mauri raids into the southern Iberian Peninsula are mentioned as early as

4851-457: The time of Diocletian, Moorish cavalry were no longer part of the mobile field army, but rather were stationed along the Persian and Danube borders. There was one regiment of Equites Mauri in "each of the six provinces from Mesopotamia to Arabia". The Mauri were part of a larger group called Equites Illyricani, indicating previous service in Illyricum . While many Mauri were part of the Roman empire, others resisted Roman rule. As Gibbon related for

4928-491: The troops stationed in Africa, and this in turn due to the numerous wars being fought by Justinian elsewhere. The Mauri had taken large areas of land from the Vandals during the reign of the ineffective Hilderic, and the Byzantines never recovered these territories. Within the area of Byzantine control, almost every town was fortified, even far from the border areas. Many towns appear to have been reduced in size as populations concentrated within reduced fortified areas. In some towns

5005-428: The troops. His successor, John Troglita , defeated the Mauri revolt in 546–547. Following this defeat there were no more Mauri rebellions until 563, and this one was quickly suppressed. A.H.M. Jones states that the grave difficulties experienced by the Byzantines in establishing control over the Mauri following the conquest of the Vandal kingdom, were in large part due to a failure to supply enough money and resources to

5082-409: The winter of 368–369, large numbers of troops drifted back into their units, bringing vital intelligence that would help Theodosius plan the next phase of his campaign. In 369 Theodosius campaigned all through Roman Britain, restoring its 'chief towns' and hunting down enemy war parties and traitors. Ammianus Marcellinus records that he put down a rebellion by the Pannonian Valentinus . At the end of

5159-416: The years 296–297, "From the Nile to Mount Atlas, Africa was in arms." Diocletian's co-emperor Maximian campaigned against the Mauri for two years, entering into their mountain fastness to terrify them of Rome's power. This may be the reason why the border legions of northwest Africa were reinforced in Diocletian's time with seven new legions spread through Tingitania , Tripolitania , Africa , Numidia , and

5236-534: Was comes rei militaris ( viz. "companion [ of the emperor ] for military affairs"; the word comes is the origin of the medieval European feudal title of count and its homologues. Theodosius is first mentioned in historical records by Ammianus Marcellinus with reference to his appointment to the command to restore order in Britain. According to Hughes, It is clear that prior to his appointment to such an important military enterprise Theodosius must have been well known to Valentinian and that his military ability

5313-433: Was besieged for three months, until the city's suffering became too unbearable and he surrendered. Otherwise, for the most part the Mauri did not resist Belisarius, but waited for the outcome of the battle and gave their allegiance to the Byzantines when it was done. The Vandals had lost a great deal of the original Roman territory to the Mauri, including everything west of Caesarea . As soon as Belisarius left Africa in 534,

5390-409: Was given command of part of Valentinian's comitatensis (the Imperial Field Army) and early in the year he marched on Bononia ( Boulogne-sur-Mer ), Rome's harbour on the Channel . Taking advantage of a break in the weather, Theodosius crossed the Channel, leaving the bulk of his troops in Bononia to await clearer weather. He landed at Rutupiae ( Richborough ), and started gathering intelligence on

5467-400: Was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, a fact of some significance considering Strabo's future contributions to the field. The final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites , a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus passed onto Strabo his philosophy, his knowledge and his contacts. Unlike

5544-575: Was not a standing army, and under the later Vandal kings (from Huneric to Gelimer ), its strength deteriorated. No frontier army was set up to protect against Mauri incursions, so the Mauri encroached on the border areas of the kingdom. Later, when Belisarius reconquered Africa for the Byzantine Empire in 533–534 , he had little difficulty establishing rule over the Vandal Kingdom , but his successors had great difficulty controlling

5621-409: Was not able to control Mauri attacks. In 530 he was deposed and replaced with Gelimer . The Byzantine Emperor, Justinian , used this as an excuse for invasion, as he had treaty relations with Hilderic. Justinian's general Belisarius quickly reestablished control over the former Roman province of Africa . King Gelimer sought refuge with a Mauri chieftain in the city of Medeus on Mount Papua. There, he

5698-539: Was ready to move. The Roman army marched on Londinium (London) and re-established Imperial control of Britain's largest city. Using Londinium as his base of operations, Theodosius divided his army into detachments and sent them to attack bands of marauders within reach of the city. The Romans quickly killed or captured many of the small enemy raiding parties, relieving them of their booty, supplies and prisoners. Theodosius also sent messengers offering pardon to deserters and ordering them to make their way to Londinium. Over

5775-501: Was respected, but unfortunately how he had earned such respect is unknown. Other scholars agree with the supposition that Theodosius won the trust of Valentinian I in his earlier career. In 368, Theodosius was raised to the high Roman military rank of comes rei militaris and sent to northern Gaul and Britannia to recover the lands lost to the Great Barbarian Conspiracy in the previous year. Theodosius

5852-552: Was taken to Carthage , and put to death in early 376. The reasons for this are not clear, but it is thought to have resulted from a factional power struggle in Italy after the sudden death of Emperor Valentinian in November 375. Shortly before his death, which he accepted calmly, Theodosius received Christian baptism — delaying the rite until the end of one's life was common practice at the time, even for lifelong Christians. At

5929-552: Was to respond to barbarian invasions rapidly and wherever necessary. In 411–412, the dux Libyarum (commander of Roman forces in Libya) was named Anysius. He is recorded as the commander of a war against the Austuriani Mauri. Synesius of Cyrene praised him for courage and effective management of the war. In the year 412, the limitanei (permanently stationed border guards) of Cyrenaica needed help to resist attacks by

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