Stotzas served as a bodyguard of the general Martinus in the army under Belisarius that had conquered the Vandal kingdom in Africa in 533–534. In 536, a military mutiny broke out in the Byzantine army in Africa against its leader, Solomon. The rebels chose Stotzas to lead them, and aimed to expel the imperial loyalists and establish Africa as a separate state, ruled by themselves. Stotzas marched against the capital, Carthage, with an army of 8,000 men, joined by at least a thousand surviving Vandals and several escaped slaves. He besieged the city, which was on the point of surrendering when Belisarius suddenly arrived from Sicily. Stotzas lifted the siege and retreated to Membresa, where his army was defeated by Belisarius. The rebels fled into Numidia, where Stotzas persuaded most of the Byzantine garrison to join him, after murdering their officers; according to the historian Procopius, at this point two thirds of the Byzantine army in Africa had gone over to the rebel camp.