[3] Initially characterized by religious pragmatism, the occupation soon shifted under pressure from African bishops and the Pope,[4] Justinian then issued legislation to enforce Nicene Christianity, as indicated in Novella 37, which prohibited the practices of Jews, pagans, Donatists, and Arians.
At the beginning of 535, while the Byzantine general Solomon was busy dealing with the revolt of the Berbers of Byzacena, led by the chiefs Cutzinas, Esdilasas, Medisinissas and Iourphouthès, Iaudas took the opportunity to take his 30,000 warriors to invade and plunder the countryside of Numidia, as far as the region of Tigisis (present-day Aïn el-Bordj, in Algeria), taking a large number of prisoners.
[8] In 534-535, the Berbers of Byzacena, insurgents against the new power, were defeated by Solomon during the battles of Mammes and Mount Bourgaon, which placed Iaudas in the front line against the Empire.
[9][10] Iaudas reappears in the sources in 537 when he joined Stotzas, the leader of a major Byzantine army mutiny, and reconciled with one of his old rivals, Orthaïas, who commanded Berber tribes located west of the Aurès.
At the end of 545, he emerged again to attack the Empire at the head of an army from Numidia, which he joined with the great coalition of insurgents led by Antalas and the Laguatan, and participated with them, in 546, in the negotiations with another Byzantine dissenter, the usurper of Vandal origin Guntarith, and then in the war waged against the new general sent by Justinian, replacing Solomon, John Troglita.
[11] He participated in the victorious battle of the Fields of Cato against Antalas and Carcasan and would have provided a contingent of 12,000 men according to Corippus, who presents him as the famulatus Iaudas, the only one who, in the descriptions of the Berber auxiliaries in the Johannide, appears as an ally in spite of himself, who acts under duress.