JUSTINIAN AND THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 135
- >ne or two attempts at reunion, the Roman Catholics have
been distinct from Greek Catholics and from Russian Christians. Hilderic, the weak king of the Vandals from 523 to 530, lad been favorable to the orthodox Catholics rather than
- o the Arians, and friendly to Justinian, whose R
Dverlordship he recognized nominally. When the of North /andals, dissatisfied with his rule, deposed him, ind made Gelimer their king, Justinian had a pretext for in-
- erference. Belisarius, with an army of some twenty thou-
sand whose chief strength lay in its heavy-armed mailed
- avalry (cataphracti) , quickly defeated the Vandals in two
)attles and Gelimer surrendered in 534. Sardinia, Corsica, md the Balearic Isles were also occupied by Justinian's ieutenants, and the spoils taken from Rome in 455 were ecovered. The Moors or Berbers, however, who had already >een winning their native soil back from the Vandals, naintained a stubborn resistance for fourteen years more. ! ustinian was never able to conquer much of Mauretania, the vesternmost stretch of North Africa and equivalent to mod- •rn Morocco. But he held Ceut a, the important citadel guarding the Straits of Gibraltar. He thoroughly fortified jhe frontier of what he had gained — a great labor, since the j/andals had razed the fortifications of most towns except parthage. Huge ruins remain to-day to show on how vast a cale the work was done. The African provinces had suf- lered terribly during the long struggle with the wild Berbers, .nd complained of the heavy taxation of Justinian's officials. Ve may get some idea of the population of North Africa It this time from the exaggerated complaint of the Secret listory that five million people were slain in the course of ts conquest, and from the large corps of officials employed 1 governing it. At the head was the praetorian prefect, liter known as the "exarch," who received a larger salary han did all the members of his staff together. Beneath him /ere his staff of about four hundred persons, seven gover- nors with fifty helpers each, and six dukes with forty clerks 'piece in charge of the frontiers — ■ altogether a thousand
