List of Byzantine forts and other structures in the Maghreb

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 Western Roman Empire since 439, had considerable difficulties defending the national borders against the Berbers or keeping the Berbers under Vandal rule under control. which prompted large landowners and smallholders alike to fortify their farms. 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 border as well as within the area ruled by the Eastern Romans. 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. Some of them even served as a stylistic model for building your 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. This makes it considerably more difficult to identify a fortress in the Maghreb as Byzantine.

Overview
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Literature

 * Denys Pringle: The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest. An Account of the Military History and Archaeology of the African Provinces in the Sixth and Seventh Century (= British Archaeological Reports. International Series 99). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford 1981, ISBN 0-86054-119-3 (reprint 2001).
 * 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. 552–569.
 * Susan Raven: Rome in Africa. 3rd edition, Routledge, London, 1993, ISBN 0-415-08150-5, p. 209–230.


 * further pictures not usable in Wikipedia for copyright reasons: Résultats de recherche pour : fort byzantin