Only after the defeat of Stotzas's rebellion (545), would Guntarith, the dux of Numidia, play a leading role.
With Moorish and Numidian support, he seized the province of Africa proconsularis and killed the imperial governor Areobindus in Carthage.
The wife of Areobindus, Praejecta, niece of emperor Justinian I, was however spared.
When Guntarith began to consolidate his power with purges and mass executions, the strategos Artabanes, probably with the approval of the praetorian prefect Athanasius, organized the assassination of Guntarith.
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