Brought onto the throne following the suspicious death of his brother, which the public learned upon Norban's death had been assassinated by him, Norban still had the problem of the Arabs in Africa to deal with. They were inching ever closer to the major Aegyptus population centers and had already taken the cities in Axum province. As mentioned in the previous article, Norban and his troops managed to achieve victory before they could take Thebes and began to slowly push them out of the borders of Rome. All Arabs were pushed out in 995 and all that remained was to expel them completely from the continent. Their Caliph had long since returned to his palace, but the generals and their troops were nonetheless left behind to continue the fighting.