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 580 APPENDIX a great coalition of the Syrtic tribes, including the Laguantan and the Marmaridee, under the leadership of Carcasan. This league waB not joined by Antala. The Romans suffered a complete defeat near Marta, a place about ten Roman miles from Tacape on the Lesser Syrtis (Partsch, Procem. p. xxxiii.), and John was un- able to resume hostilities till the following year. He retired to Laribus in Western Zeugitana, a town which Justinian had fortified: — 2 urbs Laribus mediis surgit tutissima silvis et muris munita novis quos condidit ipse Iustinianus apex, orbis dominator Eoi occiduique potens Romani gloria regni. Here he was olose to Numidia and his Moorish confederates, the faithful Cusina and the savage Ifisdaias, and here he spent the winter a.d. 547-8. He succeededin obtain- ing the help of king Jaudas, who was generally hostile to Rome; and the whole army, including the immense forces of Cusina and Ifisdaias, assembled in the plain of Arsuris, an unknown place, probably in Byzacium. The Marmaridae and Southern Moors had now been joined by Antala. His wise advice was not to venture on a battle until they had wearied the enemy out by long marches, and the Moors withdrew to the south of Byzacium. But John declined to pursue them ; he fortified himself in a stronghold on the coast of that province, where he would probably have awaited their attack if the event had not been hastened by the impatience of his mutinous soldiers. With the help of his Moorish allies he repressed the sedition, but thought it wise to lead his army down into the plains. He encamped in an unknown region called the " fields of Cato," and the Moors, pressed by hunger, were soon compelled to leave their camp and take the field. The defeat of Marta wa6 brilliantly retrieved. Carcasan fell, and the Moors were so effectually broken that Africa had rest for about fourteen years. John remained in Africa as magister militum, at least till a.d. 553, in which year we find him undertaking an expedition to Sardinia. 3 In a.d. 562 the Moorish troubles broke out again. Cusina, the faithful ad- herent to the Roman cause, was treacherously killed by John RogatinuB, the magister militum, and his sons roused the Moors to vengeance, and devastated the provinces. 4 In this account I have been assisted by the disquisition of J. Partsch, in the Prooemium to his edition of Corippus, and by the narrative of Diehl, in L'Afrique byzantine. 20. THE EXARCHS— (P. 418, 452) The earliest mention of the name Exaroh in connexion with the government of Italy is in a letter of Pope Pelagius II. to the deacon Gregory (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. 82, p. 707 ; cp. Diehl, Etudes sur l'administration byzantine dans l'exarchai de Ravenne, p. 173), dated Oct. 4, 484. Seven years later we meet the earliest mention of an Exarch of Africa (Gregory the Great, Ep. i. 59), in July, 591. Under the Emperors Justin and Tiberius (a.d. 565-582) the supreme military governor is entitled magister militum. It is therefore undoubtedly right to ascribe to Maurice (Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, p. 478) the investiture of the military governor with extraordinary powers and a new title designating his new position. Gennadius was the first exarch of Africa. From the first hour of the Imperial restoration in Africa military and civil governors existed side by side, and the double series of magistri militum (and exarchs) and Praetorian Praefe;ts can be imperfectly traced till the middle of the seventh century. 1 On some exceptional occasions the two offices were united in a single individual. Thus Solomon was both magister militum and Praetorian Praefect in a.d. 535, and again in a.d. 539, &c. ; and Theodoras held the same powers in a.d. 569. Throughout, the tendency was to subordinate the civil to the military governor, a A plan of the citadel is given in Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, p. 273. 3 Procop. B. G. 4, 24. 4 John Malalas, p. 495, ed. Bonn. Cp. Diehl, p. 599. 1 See list of Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, p. 596-9.