Leptis continued to flourish under the empire before Byzacena was ceded to the Vandals in AD442. The city was retaken by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 533, during the Vandalic War. It then formed part of the Praetorian Prefecture of Africa and later part of the Exarchate of Africa. The city was largely destroyed during the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the latter part of the seventh century, although a ribat was built there, probably on the ruins of an earlier Byzantine fortress. The city itself was abandoned and never resettled.