Masties (reigned 426–494 or 449–516) was the ruler of

Kingdom of the Aurès The Kingdom of the Aurès (Latin: ''Regnum Aurasium'') was an independent Christian Berber kingdom primarily located in the Aurès Mountains of present-day north-eastern Algeria. Established in the 480s by King Masties following a series of Berber ...

, a Roman-Berber kingdom in Algeria.

Biography

During the

fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...

in the second half of the 5th century, several Roman-Berber kingdoms (including that of Altava) were formed in the mountainous areas of the provinces that were not controlled by the Vandal Kingdom. Since the deposition of

Romulus Augustulus Romulus Augustus ( 465 – after 511), nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne by his father, the ''magister militum'' Orestes, and, at that time ...

by Odoacer in 476, and the assassination of the last legitimate Western emperor,

Julius Nepos Julius Nepos (died 9 May 480), or simply Nepos, ruled as Roman emperor of the West from 24 June 474 to 28 August 475. After losing power in Italy, Nepos retreated to his home province of Dalmatia, from which he continued to claim the western im ...

in 480, these kingdoms had become

vassal state A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...

s of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

. Masties established his territory in Numidia with

Arris In architecture, an arris is the sharp edge formed by the intersection of two surfaces, such as the corner of a masonry unit; the edge of a timber in timber framing; the junction between two planes of plaster or any intersection of divergent a ...

as his residence. In order to legitimize his reign with the Roman Provincials, he accepted the title of '' Imperator'' and declared himself openly as a Christian after 476, as part of a rebellion against the Vandal king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was m ...

. According to an inscription found at Arris, Masties reigned for 67 years as a

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...

, and 40 years (or only 10 years) of them as an Emperor of "Romans and Moors" until 516 AD, where he knew how to practice a skillful policy to balance between the Byzantines and the Moors. There is no indication that the "empire" of Masties was recognized by

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

, in which the Berber princes were considered as "usurpers". He was later succeeded by

Iaudas Iaudas or Iabdas was a Berber leader of the sixth century and king of the Kingdom of the Aurès who held the Byzantines in check for a long time in the Aurès, and played an important role in the Berber revolts following the Byzantine reconquest. ...

Historical sources

*Funeral inscription found in the Aurès mountains at

(L'Année Épigraphique 1945: 97
ECDS entryEDH entry HD019959

References

Bibliography

*Michael Maas: ''The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila''. Cambridge University Press, 2014,
pp. 277-278
* *Philip Rosseau (ed.): ''A Companion to Late Antiquity''. Wiley, 2012,
p. 579
* . *

Jehan Desanges Jehan Desanges (3 January 1929 – 23 March 2021) was a French historian, philologist and epigrapher, a specialist in the topic of North Africa during Antiquity. Biography Desanges was born in Nantes. He graduated in 1953, and was a lecturer at ...

: ''À propos de Masties, imperator berbère et chrétien''. In: ''Ktema'' 21, 1996, pp. 183–188. * Paul-Albert Février: ''Masuna et Masties.'' In: ''Antiquités africaines'' 24, 1988, pp. 133–147
online copy
. * Pierre Morizot: ''Pour une nouvelle lecture de l'Elogium de Masties''. In: ''Antiquités africaines'' 25, 1989, pp. 263–284. * Pierre Morizot: ''Masties a-t-il été imperator?'' In: ''

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik The ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' (commonly abbreviated ZPE; "Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy") is a peer-reviewed academic journal which contains articles that pertain to papyrology and epigraphy. It has been described as " ...

'' 141, 2002, pp. 231–240
JSTOR
* {{Barbarian kingdoms 5th-century Berber people 5th-century monarchs in Africa 5th-century Romans Berber rulers