Kingdom of the Dorsale | |||||||||
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 Map of the Romano-Berber Kingdoms, according to the French historian Christian Courtois. Number 7 is the Kingdom of the Dorsale. | |||||||||
| Status | Rump state of theMauro-Roman Kingdom | ||||||||
| Common languages | Berber,African Romance Latin | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
| Historical era | Medieval | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Tunisia | ||||||||
TheKingdom of the Dorsale (also known as theKingdom of the Grand Dorsale) was a political-military confederation of the Frexes and Naffur Berber tribes located in what is present-dayTunisia.[1] This kingdom seems to have been established as a functional polityc. AD 510 by the Berber chieftain Guenfan.[2][3] The tribes of the Dorsale soon came into conflict with the largerVandalic Kingdom, and in 530, under the leadership of Guenfan's sonAntalas, they defeated the Vandals at the Battle of Great Dorsale.[4]
Following theVandalic War (533–534) and the capture of the Vandalic Kingdom by theByzantine Empire, Antalas became an ally of the empire, receiving supplies for his allegiance. In 543, however, a revolt broke out among the Berbers ofByzacena, which resulted in the execution of Antalas's brother Guarizila and the cessation of the subsidies by the Byzantine governor,Solomon. This treatment alienated Antalas, and when theLeuathae rebelled inTripolitania in the next year, he and his followers joined them. The united tribes inflicted a heavy defeat on the Byzantines in theBattle of Cillium, where Solomon himself was killed.[5][6]
