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 544 APPENDIX John contrived to enter Theo(losioi)olis, when it was besieged by the host of Mermeroes, and took part in the defeat of that general at Daras (Coripp., ih. 70 sqq. ). He brought with him to Africa a trusted comicillor named Recinarius — latcri RcrimiriuK hnfrcns (ib. 2, 314),— who had been employed in the negotia- tions with Chosroes in a.d. 544. It would ])robably have been impossible for the Roman ])ower to hold its own in Africa, if the ]Ioors from the Syrtis Major to Mt. Atlas had been united in a solid league. It is highly important to observe that the success of the Empire depended on the discord of the INIoorish chiefs, and that the forces upon which John relied in the war were more Moorish than Roman. The three most im- portant chiefs were Antala, king of the Frexenses (Fraschisch), in Byzacium ; Cusina, whose tribe ' was settled under Mount Aurasius, in the neighbourhood of Lambaesis ; and Jaudas, king of the ISIoors of Mt. Aurasius. Cusina and Antala were always on opposite sides. Antala was loyal to Rome, when Cusina re- belled in 53.5 ; Cusina was true to Solomon, when Antala took up arms in 544. John was now supported by Cusina, and by Ifisdaias, the chief of another tribe in Numidia. The first battle was fought in the interior regions of Byzacium, in the winter a.d. 540-7, and Antala was routed. John returned to Carthage, but in the following summer had to face a great coalition of the Syrtic tribes, including the Laguantan and the Marmarides, under the leadership of Carcasan. This league was not joined b.y 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 unable to resume hostilities till the following year. He retired to Laribus in Western Zeugitana, a town which Justinian had fortified :— ^ urbs Laribus mediis surgit tutissima silvis et muris munita novis quos condidit ipse lustinianus apex, orbis dominator Eoi occiduique potens Romani gloria regni. Here he was close to Numidia and his Moorish confederates, the faithful Cusina and the savage Ifisdaias, and here he spent the winter a.d. 547-8. He succeeded in obtaining the helj) 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 i)lace, probabl}- in B}-zacium. The Mar- maridae and Southern Moors had now been joined by Antala. His wise advice was not to renture 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 b_v 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 encamjied 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 IMarta was brilliantly retrieved. Car- casan fell, and the ISIoors were so effectually broken that Africa had rest for about fourteen years. John remained in Africa as iimgistcr militum, at least till A.D. 553, in which year we find him undertaking an expedition to Sar- dinia.^ In A.D. 5(52 the Moorish troubles broke out again. Cusina, the faithful ad- herent to the Roman cause, was treacherously killed by John Rogatinus, the magister militum, and his sons roused the Moors to vengeance, and devastated the provinces.'' 1 The name is not certain. The verse 3, 408, Cusina Mastracianis secum viribus ingens is obviously corrupt. -A plan of the citadel is given in Diehl, rAfrique byzantine, p. 273. 3 Procop. B. G., 4, 24. ■* John Malalas, p. 495, ed. Bonn. Cp. Diehl, p. 599.