Tunisia And the Modern Barbary Pirates

ion, the Emperor Justinian despatched an armament under Belisarius, who entered Carthage in triumph after a campaign of eight days (September, 533). The characteristic of the Byzantine Byzantines, domination was revealed by this ra- (A.D. 633-698.) ' pidity of conquest. A firm government was immediately set up, and the fortresses which had been dismantled were restored to more than their original strength. But the utmost resources of the Empire and the repeated campaigns of her most famous generals could not avail to pacify the Berbers, who were scarcely subdued in one place when they broke out in another. They had come very near obtaining their independence when, in 647, an Arab invasion brought about one more change in the mastery of the country. The people welcomed this, in the same way that they had welcomed the Vandal invasion, as a respite from oppression, and did all they could to facilitate its triumph. The Arabs were at first bought off, but they constantly re-appeared, and soon showed signs of consolidating their conquests. In 670 they built the foundations of their future capital at Kairwan, and in 698 were masters of the whole country. But for the presence of the French, the Tunisia of to-day cannot differ very widely from that of the Arab domination in the nth century. It is The Arabs. 111 , . " (a.d. to that noblest and most picturesque portion of the human race that we owe the change- lesshess of the golden East. The...