Tzazo (also known as Tzazon or Zano) was the brother to King Gelimer (530–534), the last

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal ...

ruler of the

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. Tzazo died on 15 December 533 during the

Battle of Tricamarum The Battle of Tricamarum took place on December 15, 533 between the armies of the Byzantine Empire, under Belisarius, and the Vandal Kingdom, commanded by King Gelimer, and his brother Tzazo. It followed the Byzantine victory at the Battle of ...

, which finally brought to an end the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

in North Africa. Tzazo had not been involved in the earlier

Battle of Ad Decimum The Battle of Ad Decimum took place on September 13, 533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, and the Byzantine Empire, under the command of General Belisarius. This event and events in the following year are sometimes ...

because

Godas Godas (died 533) was a Visigoths, Gothic nobleman of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa. King Gelimer of the Vandals made him governor of the Vandalic province of Sardinia, but Godas stopped forwarding the taxes he collected and declared himself r ...

, likely instigated by the

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

, had declared the Vandal province on the island of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

independent from

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

. King Gelimer was unaware that the Byzantines were planning an invasion and sent Tzazo to repress the rebellion, which he did. After his defeat at Ad Decimum, Gelimer recalled the victorious Tzazo, Tzazo and his expeditionary force of 5,000 Vandals Gelimer went on the offensive. Their joined forces marched on

, damaging the city’s aqueduct. Belisarius had spent the weeks since the Battle of Ad Decimum strengthening the city defences; he did not want to face a siege and he was beginning to grow suspicious of the loyalty of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

and other barbarians under his command, knowing some of his army was being approached by agents of Gelimer. The Battle of Tricamarum took place on December 15, 533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer and his brother Tzazo, and the Byzantines commanded by Belisarius. The two forces met some 30 miles outside Carthage and the Roman cavalry immediately charged the Vandal lines, reforming and attacking two more times. In the third charge, the Vandalic lines broke, with Tzazo cutting down 20 Byzantine soldiers before he himself was slain. Gelimer’s forces, who were ill-prepared for the sudden attack by Belisarius, only reached the battlefield several hours after the fighting had ended. Finding his slain brother, Gelimer lost heart and fled to the mountains of

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

, where he sought refuge with the Berber tribes in the area. Gelimer, motivated by hunger and desperation, eventually gave himself up to the Emperor.

References

Vandal warriors 533 deaths People killed in action Year of birth unknown Vandalic War {{Africa-royal-stub