Gregory the Patrician

Gregory the Patrician (d. 648 AD) was a Byzantine governor, and self-proclaimed Emperor of the province of Africa.

Career

Gregory the Patrician was related by blood to the Imperial House of Heraclius, through the Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II's cousin Nicetas. Gregory was appointed Exarch of Africa by the Emperor Constans sometime during the first half of the 7th century. The office of Exarch combined civil authority and military command in a single governor. In 647 A.D. Gregory rebelled against the Eastern Roman Empire over the religious controversy between Monothelitism and Monoenergism. He declared the independence of his province from the Eastern Roman Empire and proclaimed himself Emperor of Africa (i.e. the territory of the Exarchate of Africa, not the continent). The new empire was able to keep her Amazigh allies, of which 100,000 would later fought for the Emperor Gregory.

He established his seat of government at Sufetula in central Tunisia to avoid effective Byzantine retaliation. However, at that time, the Arabs were sweeping out of Arabia throughout the Middle East. The result was that the city of Carthage was overcome with refugees fleeing Egypt (notably Melkites), Palestine and Syria. This seemed to have raised religious tensions. But more importantly it made apparent to the Emperor the threat level posed by the invading Arabs. Between 647 to 648, the Arabs under Abdulla-bin-Sarh and Abdallah-bin-Zubeir attacked Gregory's city of Tripoli. The invading Arab Army was supported by Berber tribesmen. The Emperor Gregory engaged the Arabs at the Battle of Sufetula in 648 supported by 100,000 Amazigh tribesmen. This great battle lasted for days until Gregory was tricked and murdered by the Arabs beneath the walls of his own capital city. His army was then routed and harried by the victorious Arabs deep into Tunisia and Algeria. With Gregory's death the African Empire came to an end. But Muslim rule was brief, and the province of Africa reverted briefly to Byzantine rule under the Exarch Gennadius before being lost to the Arabs forever. Gregory the Patrician was the only man in history ever to call himself "Emperor of Africa".

Legacy

Gregory the Patrician’s Greek-led, multiracial African enclave was vaguely reminiscent of Egypt under the Macedonian Ptolemies. But it did not survive long enough to have a cultural impact separate from its Byzantine identity. In the end, both Gregory and his empire were forgotten – consigned to the footnotes of history. But in 647 A.D. both seemed a possible bulwark against Muslim Arab expansion in Northern Africa.

References

* "A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races", p. 14, Harry Hamilton Johnson
* "Man Against the Desert", p. 61, Ritchie Calder
* African Glory, p. 65, J.C. DeGraft-Johnson