Belisarius Retakes Carthage for Justinian

On the morning of September 15, 533, the Roman general Belisarius led his expeditionary army through the open gates of Carthage. Two days earlier, his cavalry had routed the Vandal king Gelimer at the battle of Ad Decimum, fought ten miles outside the provincial capital. Although the gates stood open on the evening of the fourteenth, Belisarius ordered his soldiers to encamp outside the walls overnight to prevent disorder and guard against potential ambushes in the dark. Entering at daybreak, he was escorted to the palace of the Vandal kings, where he ate the dinner prepared for Gelimer's expected victorious return.

The imperial expedition to North Africa formed the opening offensive of Emperor Justinian's campaign to reclaim former Western Roman territories. In 530, the pro-Roman Vandal monarch Hilderic had been deposed and imprisoned by Gelimer, providing Justinian with a pretext to intervene. After concluding peace with the Sassanid Empire in 532, Justinian mobilized an invasion force, appointing Belisarius to command. The general had recently earned distinction on the Persian front and had played a prominent role in suppressing the Nika riots in Constantinople. The Roman fleet set sail in June 533, carrying about fifteen thousand soldiers, among them some five thousand cavalry, on roughly five hundred ships crewed by many thousands of sailors. Modern accounts put the army at between fifteen and sixteen thousand men.