Africa had enjoyed peace and prosperity for a few years, until the arrival of the great plague in about 542, during which the people of the province had suffered greatly.

At the same time, the arrogant behavior of some Roman governors had alienated the Mauri leaders, such as Antalas at Byzacena, and provoked them to rise up and raid Roman territory.

The renegade soldier Stotzas had been welcomed by the Mauri, given the daughter of a local prince in marriage, and allegedly raised to king in 541.

In 544, however, he and Antalas rebel against Constantinople’s rule.

So it is that during a battle with the Mauri at Cillium in Byzacena in 544, the Romans are defeated and Solomon himself killed.

Solomon is succeeded by his nephew, Sergius, who as dux of Tripolitania had been largely responsible for the Moorish uprising.

Sergius is both unpopular and of limited abilities, while the Mauri gather together under the leadership of Antalas.

The Moors, aided by Stotzas, are able to enter and sack the coastal city of Hadrumetum by trickery.

A priest named Paulus is able to retake the city with a small force without help from Sergius, who refuses to march forth against the Moors.

Despite this setback, the rebels roam the provinces at will, while the rural population flees to the fortified cities and to Sicily.

Areobindus, a man of senatorial rank and husband to his niece Praejecta but otherwise undistinguished, is sent by Justinian with a few men to Africa, not to replace Sergius, but to share command with him.

Sergius is entrusted with the war in Numidia, while Areobindus undertakes to subdue Byzacena.

Areobindus sends out a force under the able general John against Antalas and Stotzas.

Because Sergius does not come to their aid as requested, the Romans are routed at Thacia, but not before John mortally wounds Stotzas in single combat.

The effects of this disaster at least force Justinian to recall Sergius and restore unity of command in the hands of Areobindus.

Areobindus is overthrown soon after and murdered in March 546 by Guntharic, the dux Numidiae, who had come into negotiations with the Moors and intends to set himself up as an independent king.

Guntharic himself is overthrown by loyal troops under the Armenian Artabanes in early May.

Artabanes is elevated to the office of magister militum Africae, but is soon recalled to Constantinople.

The man Justinian sends to replace him is the talented general John Troglita, whose exploits are celebrated in the epic poem Iohannis, written by Flavius Cresconius Corippus.

Troglita had already served in Africa under Belisarius and Solomon, and had had a distinguished career in the East, where he had been appointed dux Mesopotamiae.

Despite his numerically weak forces, he manages to win over several Moorish tribes.

John Troglitas decisively defeats Antalas and his allies in early 547 and drives them from Byzacena.

As Procopius recounts: And this John, immediately upon arriving in Libya, had an engagement with Antalas and the Moors in Byzacium, and conquering them in battle, slew many; and he wrested from these barbarians all the standards of Solomon, and sent them to the emperor—standards which they had previously secured as plunder, when Solomon had been taken from the world.

—Procopius, The Vandalic War II.XXVIII A few months later, however, the tribe of the Leuathae (Laguatan), in Tripolitania, rises up, and inflicts a severe defeat upon the imperial forces in the plain of Gallica.

John Troglita flees to …

…Lunci (nine kilometers south of Mahares) and is forced to withdraw north to …

…the fortress of Laribus (near modern El Kef).

The Leuathae are joined by Antalas, and the Moors once again raid freely as far as Carthage.

John musters his force early in 548, and together with several allied Moorish tribes, including the former rebel Cutzinas, utterly defeats the Moors at the battle of the Fields of Cato, killing seventeen of their leaders and putting an end to the revolt that has plagued Africa for almost fifteen years.

The young king marries Philippa of Hainaut in 1328.