The Kingdom of Masuna, also described as the Mauro-Roman kingdom of Altava, was a Christian Berber kingdom which dominated much of the ancient Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis from the capital city of Altava (in present-day Algeria). Scholars are in disagreement about whether the polity aimed for independence as a kingdom or was part of a loose confederation, an alternative hypothesis drawn from contextual knowledge about Berber tribal alliances. In the fifth century, Roman control over the province weakened and Imperial resources had to be concentrated elsewhere, notably in defending Roman Italy itself from invading Germanic tribes. Moors and Romans in Mauretania came to operate independently from the Empire. However, regional leaders may not have necessarily felt abandoned by the Romans.
The rulers of this region repeatedly came into conflict with the Vandals of the neighboring Vandalic Kingdom, which had been established following the Vandalic conquest of the Roman province of Africa. The founder of the polity, Masuna, allied with the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire during their reconquest of Northern Africa in the Vandalic War. Following the Eastern Roman victory over the Vandals, local leaders maintained their alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire, assisting it in wars against invading Berbers of other tribes and kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of the Aurès.
Eventually, the diplomatic ties between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Altava polity broke down. The military leader Garmul, whom some historians identify as a successor king to Masuna's state, invaded the Eastern Roman Praetorian Prefecture of Africa in an attempt at capturing Roman territories. The smaller Kingdom of Altava has been proposed as a continuation of Masuna's state. Altava and surrounding kingdoms continued to rule over the Maghreb until the conquest of the region by the Umayyad Caliphate in the seventh and eighth centuries.
History
Background
Mauretania and western Numidia, previously a Roman client kingdom, were fully annexed by the Roman Empire in 40 AD and divided into two provinces under Emperor Claudius; Mauretania Tingitana ("Tangerine Mauretania") and Mauretania Caesariensis ("Caesarian Mauretania"), with the separating border designated as Moulouya River.
Northern Africa was not as well-defended as frontiers that saw frequent attacks, such as those against Germania and Persia, but the economic importance of the African provinces made them important to retain. To this end, defensive structures were constructed alongside their borders, such as the Fossatum Africae; a 750 km long linear defensive structure composed of ditches, stone walls and other fortifications. This structure remained in consistent use until the Vandal conquest of the province of Africa. The Mauretanian frontier, not as well defended as that of the African frontier, was known as the Limes Mauretaniae.
The fifth century saw the collapse and fall of the Western Roman Empire. The inland territories of Mauretania had already been under Berber control since the fourth century, with direct Roman rule confined to coastal cities such as Septem in Mauretania Tingitana ("Tangerine Mauretania") and Caesarea in Mauretania Caesariensis ("Caesarian Mauretania"). The Berber rulers of the inland territories maintained a degree of Roman culture, including the local cities and settlements, and often nominally acknowledged the suzerainty of the Roman Emperors.
As barbarian incursions became more common even in previously secure provinces such as Italy, the Western Roman military became increasingly occupied to defend territories in the northern parts of the Empire. Even the vital Rhine frontier against Germania had been stripped of troops in order to organize a defense against a Visigothic army invading Italy under Alaric. The undermanned frontier allowed several tribes, such as the Vandals, Alans and Suebi, to cross the Rhine in 406 AD and invade Roman territory.
In Mauretania, local Berber leaders and tribes had long been integrated into the imperial system as allies, foederati and frontier commanders and as Roman control weakened, they established their own kingdoms and polities in the region. The presence of romanized communities along the frontier regions of the provinces meant that the Berber chieftains had some experience in governing populations composed of both Berbers and Romans. Following the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the state grew into a fully-fledged Barbarian kingdom not entirely unlike those that had sprung up in other parts of the former Empire. Though most other Barbarian kingdoms, such as those of the Visigoths and Vandals, were fully within the borders of the former Roman Empire, the state extended beyond the formal imperial frontier, also encompassing Berber territories never controlled by the Romans.
According to the Eastern Roman historian Procopius, the Moors only began to truly expand and consolidate their power following the death of the powerful Vandal king Gaiseric in 477 AD, after which they won many victories against the Vandal kingdom and established more or less full control over the former province of Mauretania. Having feared Gaiseric, the Moors under Vandal control revolted against his successor Huneric following his attempt to convert them to Arian Christianity and the harsh punishments incurred on those who did not convert. In the Aurès Mountains, this led to the foundation of the independent Kingdom of the Aurès, which was fully independent by the time of Huneric's death in 484 AD and never came under Vandal rule again. Under the rule of Huneric's successors Gunthamund and Thrasamund, the wars between the Berbers and the Vandals continued. During Thrasamund's reign, the Vandals suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of a Berber king ruling the city Tripolis, named Cabaon, who almost completely destroyed a Vandal army that had been sent to subjugate the city.
"King of the Moors and Romans"
One of the Berber rulers of Mauretania, Masuna, titled himself as Rex gentium Maurorum et Romanorum, which may be translated as either "king of the people of Mauri and of the Romans" or as "king of the Mauri and Roman peoples". Although many Berber warlords had employed the term rex or "king" to describe themselves, the full inscription on which this title is found suggests grander ambitions, the scope of which has been debated by historians. Masuna may have considered himself the chief of a loose confederation, or the founder of a kingdom uniting specific ethnicities. For Greg Fisher and Alexander Drost, the historical context of Rome's loss of control over North Africa suggests that the Latin term rex was neither a full acceptance of Roman imperial command nor a challenge to it, but an expression of tribal identification within Romanized language and culture.
This unique inscription is located on a fortification in Altava (modern Ouled Mimoun, in the region of Oran), dated 508 AD. It states that Masuna possesses Altava and at least two other cities, Castra Severiana and Safar, as mentioned is made of officials he appointed there. As the seat of an ecclesiarch diocese (the diocese of Castra Severiana, an ancient bishopric which flourished during Late Antiquity), the control of Castra Severiana may have been particularly important.
The historian Alan Rushworth has proposed that Masuna indeed possessed a kingdom centered at the inscription's location in Altava. In contrast, Jean-Paul Laporte believes that while there were "kings of the Moors and Romans" alive at this time, the inscription is insufficient to conclude that Masuna was actually among them. Andy Merrills rejects the idea that "any one individual or family enjoyed a monopoly over military power", and suggests that Masuna was part of a larger confederation and that he adopted the title to indicate the prestige accumulated by his construction of a castrum.
The name Masuna gives to his polity identifies it as being on the territorial interface of two distinct populations, the coastal and settled provincial Romani (Romans) and the tribal Mauri (Moors, or Berbers) situated around and beyond the former Roman frontier. Devolution policies enacted by the Romans in the fifth century would have prepared local rulers for this type of dual rule. The citizens of the Roman cities were subjects of a formal and organized administration headed by appointed officials, such as those appointed by Masuna. The military manpower was derived from the Berber tribes over which control was maintained through the control of key individuals, such as tribal leaders, by issuing honors and estates to them. As Masuna's polity, like others in the region, adopted the military, religious and sociocultural organization of the Roman Empire, it continued to be fully within the Western Latin world. The administrative structure and titulature used by the rulers of the kingdom suggests a certain romanized political identity in the region.
This Roman political identity was maintained by other smaller Berber kingdoms in the region as well, such as in the Kingdom of the Aurès where King Masties claimed the title of Imperator during his rule around 516 AD, postulating that he had not broken trust with either his Berber or Roman subjects.
The Eastern Roman Empire and the Vandals
Eastern Roman records referring to the Vandal Kingdom, which had occupied much of the old Roman province of Africa and coastal parts of Mauretania, often refer to it with regards to a trinity of peoples; Vandals, Alans and Moors, and though some Berbers had assisted the Vandals in their conquests in Africa, Berber expansionism for the most part, was focused against the Vandals and would lead to the expansion of the kingdom of Masuna and other Berber kingdoms of the region, such as the Kingdom of the Aurès.
A Berber king identified by the historian Procopius of the Eastern Roman Empire as Massonas allied with the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire in 535 AD against the Vandal Kingdom during the Vandalic War. Some writers have conflated Massonas with Masuna, but Gabriel Camps and other historians believe them to be separate people. When Belisarius and the Eastern Roman forces arrived in Northern Africa to invade and restore Roman rule over the region, local Berber rulers willingly submitted to Imperial rule, only demanding in return the symbols of their offices; a silver crown, a staff of silver gilt, a tunic and gilded boots. Essentially client kings, many of the Berber rulers proved recalcitrant. Those rulers that were not directly adjacent to Imperial territories were more or less independent, though nominally still Imperial subjects, and were treated with larger amounts of courtesy than the ones directly bordering the Empire, as to keep them in line.
Gelimer, the final Vandal king, attempted to recruit the Berber kingdoms to fight for him but very few Berber troops took part in fighting for the Vandal side. Though the Vandals had supplied the Berber kings with symbols of their offices similar to those supplied by the Romans, the Berber kings did not consider the Vandals to hold that power securely. During the Vandalic war, most Berber rulers waited out the conflict in order to avoid fighting for the losing side.
Following the Eastern Roman re-conquest of the Vandal Kingdom, the local governors began to experience problems with the local Berber tribes. The province of Byzacena was invaded and the local garrison, including the commanders Gainas and Rufinus, was defeated. The newly appointed Praetorian prefect of Africa, Solomon, waged several wars against these Berber tribes, leading an army of around 18,000 men into Byzacena. Solomon defeated them and returned to Carthage, though the Berbers later rose again and overran Byzacena. Solomon once again defeated them, this time decisively, scattering the Berber forces. Surviving Berber soldiers retreated into Numidia where they joined forces with Iabdas, King of the Aurès.
Masuna, allied with the Eastern Empire, and another Berber king, Ortaias (who ruled a kingdom in the former province of Mauretania Sitifensis), urged Solomon to pursue the enemy Berbers into Numidia, which he did. Solomon did not engage Iabdas in battle, however, distrusting the loyalty of his allies, and instead constructed a series of fortified posts along the roads linking Byzacena with Numidia.
Masuna was succeeded by Mastigas (also known as Mastinas) by 535 AD. Pierre Morizot identified Mastinas with Masties, the leader of the Kingdom of the Aurès mentioned above. Procopius states that Mastigas was a fully independent ruler who ruled almost the entire former province of Mauretania Caesariensis, except for the former provincial capital, Caesarea, which had been under control of the Vandals and was in Eastern Roman hands during his time. However, a coin attributed to Mastigas describes him as a dux, or Roman military commander. The rulers of Berber polities of this time period continued to regard themselves as subjects of the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople. Even when they were at war with him or engaged in raids of Imperial territory, Berber rulers employed titles such as dux or rex.
Possible continuity
Pointing to the large group of dated Latin inscriptions at Altava and Tlemcen, Fisher and Drost suggest that "a political entity with some state-like features" originating with Masuna continued there until roughly 589–599.