The Farashish Amazighs and their leader, The victor Antlas
In the late Roman era, Africa was divided into several kingdoms founded by Amazigh tribes, the most famous of which was the Kingdom of Namamsha in the present-day states of Kef and Siliana, and part of Souk Ahras and Tebessa, the Kingdom of Charne (Chaouarnia), a confederation of Fraiches in the Sebaspeb region from the east of Tebessa to Ibazsen, that is, the Tunisian coast, a confederation of Ouaghman in the south-east. Tunisian and part of Libyan territory. These kingdoms fought several battles with the Romans, Byzantines, and Vandals, most notably the battles of Commander Antlass against the Byzantines.
Antlas, son of Affanfan, is the leader of the Farashish, and the capital of the Farashish at that time was Tala in Kasserine. Antlas began leading battles since he was 17 years old against the Vandals, and continued to clash with them from 523 to 532, that is, a period of 9 years, inflicting heavy losses on them that forced them to fight. Despite the retreat and their appeasement of him, the influence of the tribe, which allied with other tribes, increased. After the Byzantines landed on the mainland of Africa and occupied the narrow areas of the Vandals, they courted the Amazigh tribes, and we remember that they were offering Antlas an annual salary in exchange for his appeasement of them, but as a result of their strengthening, they began skirmishes. Then they killed Antlass's brother, and the latter became angry, and his anger increased after the Byzantines killed eighty sheikhs from his family.
He sent Antlas to organize his ranks in preparation for war and to discipline the Byzantines as they had previously disciplined the Vandals. The ranks were organized and the knights prepared their swords. The Byzantine landlords were expelled from their farms, and the Amazighs began to boil. They killed a large number of Byzantines, destroyed churches, burned crosses, and hung the horns of the bull, which is a sign of declaring war. The bull is a symbol of the god Aghurzel, the god of war. The Amazighs had abandoned the Christian religion en masse when they saw the oppression of the Romans in the name of religion, so they returned to their ancient beliefs.
And it moved and invaded the area of Ibazin, which is called today the Tunisian coast, and expelled the Byzantines from it, destroyed their churches, and subjected them to severe abuse in retaliation for the killing of eighty sheikhs from it, but the leader of the Byzantines sent a message to them stating his readiness for peace and his apology for killing the sheikhs, and that he would swear on the Bible that he would not repeat the same thing. But Luata mocked him and told him that she would fight him and test the power of this book called the Bible
The Byzantine commander prepared for war and fortified himself in Tebessa. Antlas had defeated the Byzantines in several previous battles and joined the army. A day later, the two armies met and the Byzantines were badly defeated, and their leader fled, but his horse got tired and stumbled and fell, so his guard picked him up and put him on the horse again, but the leader was weak, so the Amazigh knights caught up with him, killing him and him. A group of his guards. To be honest, we mention the names of several other Berber commanders in that period, such as Fazmul, Yabadas, Yarna, Karkazan, and others, who succeeded in completely annihilating armies and killing several Byzantine and Vandal generals. This period weakened the Amazighs greatly and depleted their strength, which made the mission easier for the invaders. The Arabs, despite this, did not convert the Amazighs to Islam until after 12 apostasies.
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