tribal confederation · Egypt, North Africa and Sudan

Austuriani

360 CE – 450 CE (approx.)

A Libyan desert people whose raids on Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in the late 4th and 5th centuries exposed Roman weakness.

Origins

The Austuriani (Austoriani) are known only from Roman writers. They lived in the desert hinterland of the Gulf of Sirte and first appear in the 360s, when they raided the territory of Leptis Magna after one of their men, Stachao, was burned alive by the Romans.

Rule and society

They were camel-using pastoral tribes without a known central government. Ammianus Marcellinus describes their raids of 363 to 365, which devastated the farms around Leptis and Oea, and the failure of the military count Romanus, who demanded supplies and camels before acting. In the early 5th century they raided Cyrenaica repeatedly, as Bishop Synesius of Ptolemais reports in his letters.

Decline and legacy

After the mid-5th century the name disappears. They were probably absorbed into, or renamed as, the larger Laguatan confederation, which continued to press on Tripolitania and Byzantine Africa.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Austuriani. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/austuriani
MLA
“Austuriani.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/austuriani. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Austuriani.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/austuriani.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Austuriani’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/austuriani (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻