own bronze coins with the head of "Neptune" or the Sun. During the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar, G. Considius Longus secured Hadrumetum for the Optimates with forces equivalent to two legions. Despite being reinforced by Gn. Calpurnius Piso's Berber cavalry and footmen from Clupea, however, he was obliged to allow Caesar to land nearby on 28 December 47BC. According to Suetonius, this landing was the occasion of the famously deft recovery, when Caesar tripped while coming ashore but dealt with the poor omen by grabbing handfuls of dirt and proclaiming "I have you now, Africa!" () Caesar's attempts to negotiate with Longus were rejected but the campaign subsequently led to his victory over Metellus Scipio and Juba at Thapsus, after which Longus was killed by his own men for the money he was carrying and the town went over to Caesar. Hadrumetum was one of the most important communities in Roman North Africa because of the fertility of its hinterland (modern Tunisia's Sahel), which made it an important source of Rome's grain supply. It quarreled with its neighbor Thysdrus over the temple of a goddess equated to Minerva, which stood on their shared border. Under Augustus, Hadrumetum's coins bore his face obverse and the name (and often face) of Africa's proconsul reverse; after Augustus, the mint was closed. Hadrumetum revolted while Vespasian was proconsul of Africa. It nonetheless continued to prosper; Trajan gave it the rank of a Roman colony, giving its residents Roman citizenship. A breathtaking legacy of intricate mosaics survives from this era, together with many early Christian objects from the catacombs. It was the second city in Roman Africa after Carthage and the birthplace of Clodius Albinus, who attempted to become emperor in the 190s. At the end of the 3rd century, it became the capital of the new province of Byzacena (modern Sahel, Tunisia). Later history In 434, it was largely destroyed by the Vandals; their fervent Arianism produced a number of orthodox martyrs in the remaining community, including SSFelix and Victorian. A century later, Hadrumetum was retaken and rebuilt by the Byzantines during the Vandal War. It was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th century. The ruins of Hadrumetum stood in the village of Hammeim, from the later Sousse, which grew up to include them in its outskirts. Under colonial rule, the French engineer A. Daux rediscovered the jetties and