Balanced against this, though, was the fact that defeating the Vandals had reactivated trading networks between north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, the effect of which lasted a long time: there would be a Byzantine presence in Carthage until the end of the eighth century. And most immediately, the Vandal campaign provided a road map to further conquests in the central Mediterranean. Justinian’s next target was Ostrogoth Italy, where Rome’s “other” capital was, like Carthage, in barbarian hands. However, rebuilding the old Roman Empire would not prove so easy as regime change in one of
...more
