The Arab conquest of North Africa did not happen all at once. During the first wave, Umayyad forces pushed deep into the former Roman Province of Africa and established the military base of Kairouan. But other conflicts drew these forces away, and Byzantine and local defenders pushed the garrisons back to Cyrenaica. Caliph Abd al-Malik responded by appointing Hassan ibn al-Nu'man to command an army that historians claim numbered 40,000 and sending him to reconquer what had been lost. Hassan employed a divide-and-conquer strategy, separating the Carthaginians from their Byzantine allies and dealing with each in turn. After subduing Tripolitania, he recaptured Kairouan, regrouped his forces, and prepared to march on Carthage itself.

In 697, Hassan isolated Carthage by conquering the surrounding towns and eliminating outlying garrisons. His forces met little resistance. When the Arab army arrived at the city gates, they established a land siege and offered terms. What followed was not a heroic last stand but a calculated exodus: the wealthiest citizens fled, carrying most of the city's portable wealth to Iberia, Italy, and Greece. Once the evacuees had departed, the remaining population surrendered without bloodshed. It was a pragmatic choice -- the people who stayed valued their lives over a city whose glory days were already centuries behind it.

Emperor Leontius, only three years into his reign, learned of Carthage's fall and ordered a mobilization. He assembled a force that included soldiers from Sicily, veteran Goth warriors, and the Karabisianoi Theme Navy, placing them under the command of John the Patrician. The expedition launched that autumn. Hassan had chained the great Cothon -- the ancient artificial harbor that had once sheltered the Carthaginian war fleet -- and departed with most of his army to fight Berber tribes to the west, confident the city was secure. John's fleet attacked by surprise, the largest ships with reinforced hulls leading the charge through the chain. The Byzantines poured into the city.

The Byzantine occupation of Carthage was brief. Hassan returned with his main force and launched heavy attacks on the walls. The Byzantines, recognizing they could not hold the city against a full-scale assault, manned their ships and embarked as quickly as possible, withdrawing to fight one more engagement at nearby Utica before retreating to Crete. The consequences were immense and irreversible. This was the final end of Roman and Byzantine control over Carthage -- and by extension, over all of North Africa. A city that had been continuously important to Mediterranean civilization since the 9th century BC passed out of the Greco-Roman world permanently.

Hassan spent five more years suppressing resistance in former Numidia before reaching the Atlantic coast. The Berber queen Kahina led a fierce guerrilla campaign against his forces, but she could not halt the Arab advance. By 709, Hassan had completed his conquest of North Africa and returned to the Levant. For the Byzantines, the loss triggered a political crisis. John the Patrician's forces, fearing punishment for their failure, mutinied during the voyage home. They hailed one of their officers, Apsimar, as emperor and sailed for Constantinople to seize the throne. Apsimar became the third emperor declared during the chaotic period known as the Twenty Years' Anarchy. Carthage, meanwhile, was deliberately dismantled -- its port facilities destroyed to prevent any future Byzantine return, its stones carried off to build the new Arab cities that would replace it.