Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Roman foothold in Mauretania slipped in the centuries after Juba II died, due to in-
creasingly organised Berber rebellions inland and attacks on the Atlantic and Mediter-
ranean coasts by the Vandals, Byzantines and Visigoths. But this new crop of marauding
Europeans couldn't manage Mauretania, and neither could Byzantine emperor Justinian.
Justinian's attempt to extend his Holy Roman Empire turned out to be an unholy mess of
treaties with various Berber kingdoms, who played their imperial Byzantine connections
like face cards in high-stakes games. The history of Morocco would be defined by such
strategic gamesmanship among the Berbers, whose savvy, competing alliances helped
make foreign dominion over Morocco a near-impossible enterprise for more than a mil-
lennium.
