The List of Byzantine forts and other structures in the Maghreb lists photos of the fortresses built between 533 and 698 on the territory of the Byzantine Empire in the Maghreb. On one hand, they served to pacify the Berbers within the empire and, on the other hand, to ward off external enemies.
Background The Vandals, who had ruled in the heartland of the former Roman Province of Africa since 439, had considerable difficulties defending the national borders against the Berbers or keeping the Berbers under Vandal rule under control.Denys Pringle: The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1981, ISBN 0-86054-119-3 (reprint 2001), p. 97. which prompted large landowners and smallholders alike to fortify their farms.compare Averil Cameron: Vandal and Byzantine Africa in: Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, Michael Whitby (editor): The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 14: Late Antiquity. Empire and Successors. AD 425–600. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-32591-9, p. 556. After the Eastern Roman reconquest of the areas conquered by the Vandals in the 5th century and renewed subjugation of small Roman-Berber states established in the same period, various fortresses were built there both on the borderDenys Pringle: The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1981, ISBN 0-86054-119-3 (reprint 2001), p. 28 f. as well as within the area ruled by the Eastern Romans.Susan Raven: Rome in Africa. 3rd edition, Routledge, London,1993, ISBN 0-415-08150-5, p. 214 f.; also compare Gabriele Crespi: Die Araber in Europa. Sonderausgabe, Belser, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-7630-1730-5, p. 27 about the reasons given. Some of the smaller Roman forts were also repaired.
Essentials Construction of the fortresses took place mainly during the second term of office of the praetorian prefect Solomon 539 to 544, whereby the substance of older Roman buildings was often used as building material. Most of the fortresses are significantly smaller than their Roman predecessors and mostly classify as forts. Many of these forts were subsequently used and rebuilt by the Arabs and Ottomans. In parts they even served as a stylistic template for the construction of their own fortresses. In addition, building material from Byzantine buildings was used for the construction of a number of Arab fortresses, such as the Fort Sidi Salem Bou Ghara near the Roman city of Gigthis.D. Pringle: The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest, Oxford 1981, p. 295. This makes it considerably more difficult to identify a fortress in the Maghreb as Byzantine.
Overview [
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