 At the onset of the year 533 CE, Justinian had been Byzantine Emperor for close to six years. In that time, he had completely reformed the Byzantine Empire, secured his eastern border by striking a peace deal with Persia, and violently quashed a major revolt that had risen in Constantinople. With his rule secure, he was now well situated to pursue his ambitions, the restoration of the Roman Empire. His first target, the Vandalic Kingdom of North Africa. But before he began, he needed one thing, a Cassus Belli. Even back then, people still considered it important to have a Cassus Belli, or justification for war. You can't just go off conquering people, you have to make sure there's a flimsy pretext in place first, so that's exactly what Justinian started looking for. The Vandals snatched North Africa from the Romans in 439, about four decades before the collapse of the Western Empire. Vandals groups like the Vandals, Goths, and Franks began establishing themselves in Roman territory, most continued Roman institutions and traditions, at least nominally. Not the Vandals, they established their own government, distinguished themselves from the Romans with their Germanic language and clothing, and practiced a different brand of Christianity than the native population, who they actively persecuted. North Africa had been a part of Rome for centuries, and the population there still considered themselves Romans, needless to say, they were constantly at odds with the Vandal ruling class. The Vandals were also at odds with the Empire. Over the 5th century, the Vandals had constantly raided the Italian coasts of the Western Empire. They had even sacked the city of Rome in 455. Even after the fall of the West, relations between the Vandals and the Eastern Empire were tense. Luckily for the Byzantines, in 523 a pro-Roman prince named Haldaric ascended to the Vandal throne and the next few years saw the greatest Roman Vandal relations of all time. He was so pro-Roman that Justinian had hoped to peacefully integrate North Africa back into the Roman fold. However, the Vandal elites were less enthusiastic about this, and in 530, Justinian's hopes were dashed when Haldaric's rival, Gelimer, carried out a coup. Haldaric was imprisoned, and the Roman persecution resumed. With Gelimer in charge, his rule proved to be factious and divisive. Some of the Vandal elite did not recognize his rule as legitimate, and much of the native Romans were resistant to Vandal rule. It all came to a head when both of these factions rebelled in 533, which Justinian maybe had a hand in. Civil disorder broke out in Sardinia and Triple-Atenia. Leaders of both factions immediately petitioned Justinian to intervene, to which Justinian was like, oh, you want me to help restore the pro-Roman guy to the throne? Well, if you insist. And so he began preparations for an invasion. He sent officers to help coordinate the rebels and appointed General Belisarius to the head of an expeditionary force. Belisarius proved himself an excellent commander in the war against Persia and a trustworthy ally during the Great Riots, so he was an obvious choice. And so it was that as Justinian successfully divided the Vandals, Belisarius began his mission of reconquest. After mustering his forces in Constantinople, Belisarius departed for North Africa at the head of an army of around 15,000, a small, but highly capable force. On the way, the expedition faced a number of setbacks which nearly doomed the voyage. Namely, the supplies were improperly prepared and became moldy, causing many soldiers to fall ill. Belisarius planned out a number of stops along the way at which they could get fresh supplies. His decisive action here enabled his army to land healthy and strong, rather than sick and weak. Advantage? Check. Later, they reached Sicily where Belisarius received fantastic news. Gelimer had sent his brother, a good chunk of his army, and almost his entire navy to put down the rebellion in Sardinia. This presented Belisarius with an incredible opportunity. The Vandal army, while large, was inexperienced and poorly led. Even though Belisarius had a much smaller force, he felt comfortable duking it out on the ground with them. On the other hand, the Vandal's greatest asset was their navy, which was the largest and most powerful in the Mediterranean. The fact that they were off messing around in Sardinia was a dream come true. Almost unanimously, Belisarius's generals urged him to attack the Vandal capital of Carthage. It made sense, but doing so would put them just close enough to the Vandal fleet's area of operations. He didn't want any surprises, so he instead chose to land a ways down the coast from Carthage where the Roman ships could safely provide support and Belisarius could adequately scout the area. Advantage? Check. After drying his feet off in North Africa, Belisarius began moving his force north towards Carthage. Gelimer heard of the landing and was shocked. He executed Hildaric, the pro-Roman guy, and came up with a plan of his own. His brother, Amitus, would march from Carthage to Add Decimum, the 10th mile marker south of Carthage. There, he would engage Belisarius and prevent him from passing. At the same time, Gelimer's nephew Gibbemond would flank Belisarius from the direction of the salt pans. Finally, Gelimer's force, which had been shadowing Belisarius, would flank the Byzantines from behind, enveloping and crushing them. It seemed like a good plan, but relied on Belisarius being quite careless. It also required complex coordination over hundreds of miles, which, even for a modern army, could be quite difficult to pull off. It was a long shot. Advancing up the coasts, Belisarius obsessively sent scouts to gather intel about his surroundings. He wanted to make sure he knew as much about the area as possible. Advantage? Soon, a scouting party returned with news. They had located Gelimer's army, which had been shadowing them. With this information, Belisarius had his slow-moving infantry set up a fortified encampment a few miles from Add Decimum. Should Gelimer attack them, they would be safe within their fort and buy Belisarius time to react. As they were building the encampment, a small contingent of around 300 cavalrymen, led by John the Arminian, and a band of around 600 Hunnic allies a few miles to the west, continued to Add Decimum. As the contingent under John approached Add Decimum, they encountered Amethyst's party, who had left Carthage early. Amethyst was not expecting an engagement so soon, and his forces were disorganized and moving loosely. John ordered his troops to charge, and even though they were egregiously outnumbered, they were able to crush the Vandal Force piecemeal because of their disorganized state. Amethyst was killed early in the fighting, and the rest of the Vandals fled back to Carthage with John giving chase. At almost the exact same time, the Hunnic detachment encountered Gibemond's flanking force near the saltpans. For one reason or another, the Vandals completely froze. Some say it's because they knew of the Hun's ferocious reputation and panicked, but there's no way to know for sure. Regardless, the Huns charged into the Vandal Force, which outnumbered them nearly four to one and made quick work of them. Gibemond was also killed, making him the second Vandal commander to fall. Soon after, Gelimer's force arrived at Add Decimum, where they engaged a small Roman contingent. The Romans were heavily outnumbered, but they were able to rally back to Belisarius and inform him of the day's events. Much to Gelimer's dismay, it had been obvious an engagement had already occurred here, and that Amethyst's forces had fled. With the amount of Vandal body's Gelimer was under the impression that a much larger force, perhaps even the main Roman army, had been responsible for this and were already on their way to Carthage. Around this time, Gelimer found the body of Amethyst and reportedly suffered a severe emotional breakdown. Let's take a moment to reflect on what's happened here. Half of Gelimer's army had already been defeated. Gelimer had completely lost track of Belisarius, and to top it off, he was now an emotional wreck. What a disaster. Not knowing what to do, Gelimer chose to start setting up camp and wait for reinforcements to return from Sardinia. Belisarius, now knowing exactly what had happened, set out for Add Decimum. When they approached, Belisarius ordered a charge at first sight. The disorganized Vandal army stood no chance and routed. Gelimer, with whatever survivors there were, fled inland. The battle was over. The next day, Belisarius marched his army to the city of Carthage where he found the gates wide open. The Roman population was ecstatic at his arrival and welcomed him into the city. Two months later, Gelimer had regrouped his forces and received reinforcements from his brother who had returned from Sardinia. They began marching their army to Carthage. Belisarius, confident and wanting to end the campaign decisively, marched his army out to meet them. They met for battle at Trichomerum where the Vandals arrayed themselves in a single line. Belisarius tried to coax the Vandals into attacking, but when this didn't work, he ordered a frontal assault. The Roman troops charged, regrouped and charged again a total of three times until the Vandals broke. They specifically targeted Gelimer's brother who was given away by his unique armor. By the third charge, he had been killed. Seeing this, Gelimer again suffered an emotional breakdown and fled. Belisarius had won a second decisive battle against the Vandals. A short time later, Gelimer was captured. The campaign was over and North Africa was brought back into the Roman fold. Belisarius proved to be incredibly popular with both the common soldier and the local population. After Gelimer's capture, some jealous junior commanders wrote to Justinian warning him that Belisarius would proclaim himself king of North Africa. Justinian was skeptical, but decided to test Belisarius anyway. He offered Belisarius to either stay in Carthage as the governor or return to Constantinople for a triumph. Belisarius wisely chose to return to Constantinople. And so it was that Belisarius, with Gelimer a prisoner, enjoyed one of the last Roman triumphs in recorded history, one that turned out to be well deserved. The North African campaign is the perfect example of what made Belisarius such a great military commander. He had a keen understanding of his own strengths and weaknesses, both strategic and tactical. In addition, he was willing to take decisive actions to magnify his strengths and exploit his enemy's weaknesses. His leadership was dynamic and he was able to capitalize on his opponent's mistakes. His approach to warfare was methodical and he was not motivated by the pursuit of personal glory. He rarely took actions that were flashy and risky instead making decisions that would secure the best advantage for his army. He understood the tactical capabilities of each individual unit and how to use them effectively. He knew that information was key and did his best to stay well informed of enemy movements at all times. Lastly, he avoided overextending his forces and opening them up to undo danger. The brilliance of his strategic mind facilitated him stringing together a number of victories and decisively ending the North African campaign. These are characteristics of general shift that have been desirable across all time and even modern military commanders can find value in studying Bellissaries. I hope to cover more of his accomplishments in the near future. Until then, thanks for watching.