Exarchate of Africa

Exarchate of Africa
Exarchate of the Byzantine Empire
591–698

Map of the Exarchate of Africa within the Byzantine Empire in AD 600.
CapitalCarthage
Historical eraLate Antiquity to Early Middle Ages
• Foundation of Exarchate
591
• Loss of last outposts in the Iberian Peninsula by the Visigoths
624
• First Arab invasion
647
698
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Praetorian prefecture of Africa
Umayyad Caliphate
Byzantine Sardinia
Visigothic Kingdom

The Exarchate of Africa was a division of the Byzantine Empire around Carthage that encompassed its possessions on the Western Mediterranean. Ruled by an exarch (viceroy), it was established by the Emperor Maurice in 591 and survived until the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the late 7th century. It was, along with the Exarchate of Ravenna, one of two exarchates established following the western reconquests under Emperor Justinian I to administer the territories more effectively.


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