By 420 AD, the Silingi Vandals had been pushed from Pannonia across Gaul and deep into Spain by the Goths and Franks. After the death of King Gunderic, son of Godegisel, in battle with the Franks in 428 AD, the Vandals elected Gunderic's bastard half-brother, Gaiseric (a.k.a. Genseric) as their king. Gaiseric convinced his people and their Alan allies to abandon Spain for North Africa, possibly at the invitation of the Roman Governor Boniface, who needed allies as a hedge against the intrigues of the Patrician Aetius in Rome.
Eighty thousand in number, including thirty thousand warriors, the Vandals crossed at the Straights of Gilbralter in 429 AD and seized lands from the local Berbers. There was a treaty of peace with Rome in 435 AD, but Gaiseric soon broke it and set about conquering the rich Roman northern African province including the 14 month seige of Hippo (in which the famous St. Augustine perished) and culminating with the sack of Carthage, which Gaiseric made his capital in 438 AD.
Having secured his kingdom, Gaiseric left intact the efficient Roman bureaucracy and set about building a great fleet. Tracing their origins to Vendsyssel, the northernmost region of Jutland, the Germanic Vandals quickly resumed their sea-faring ways, and became the terror of the Mediterranean. Over a period of thirty-five years, Gaiseric's fleets ravaged the coasts of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. In 455 AD, a Vandal army landed in Italy and plundered the Eternal City of Rome itself, only sparing it the torch when Pope Leo the Great personally implored Gaiseric to abstain from murder and destruction by fire.
In 460 AD, the Vandals destroy the Roman fleet off Cartagena, confirming their mastery of the western Mediterranean. By 462 AD the Vandal Kingdom included the Roman provinces of North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands. In 476 AD, Gaiseric sold eastern Sicily to Theodoric, king of the Visigoths and then launched raids into Greece and Dalmatia, threatening the Byzantine capital at Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor Leo I and his Western counterpart Anthemius joined forces to deal with the Vandal threat. Leo financed a fleet of 1000 ships that set sail in 468 AD to capture Carthage. A three-pronged attack under the overall command of Leo's brother-in-law, the incompetent Basiliscus, was poorly coordinated and ended in an embarrassing and costly withdrawal. After 474 AD, the new Eastern emperor Zeno was forced to negotiate a treaty of peace with Gaiseric to prevent further raids. The African Vandal kingdom had reached its zenith.
Gaiseric died in early 477 AD, and the throne went to his eldest son Huneric in accordance with the Vandal law of succession by seniority. Huneric, who by several accounts was not the most competent of rulers, was swayed by his Arian Christian bishops and soon began a reign of savage persecutions within the Kingdom against the orthodox Romano-Christian majority; creating numerous martyrs for the Catholic Book of Saints and committing unspeakably cruel acts that gave the Vandal name much of its bad historical connotation.
Huneric died in 484 AD, and was followed in the Kingship by Gunthamund (484-496 AD), Thrasamund (496-523 AD), Hilderic (523-530 AD), and the last Vandal King Gelimir (530-535 AD). A vigorous and warlike people under Gaiseric, the Vandals gradually became soft with the riches of their conquests and absorbed in the religious and internal politics of the former Roman North African province in which they were always a minority of the population.
But things werent going to be nice for those stinky barbs for ever, oh no, for Byzantine emperor Justinian had gotten it stuck in his heard that resoring the Roman empire was a good idea (well, it was a good idea, but Rome wasnt built in a day ya know
) and in 533 AD, a Byzantine army under Belisarius landed in North Africa and launched a campaign to expel the Vandals and restore Roman rule. On Sept. 13, Belisarius met King Gelimir and his brother Ammatas with their army at the tenth milestone south of Carthage (Ad Decimum). The tide of battle stood against the Byzantines until Ammatas was killed. Gelimir lost his nerve and the Vandal army disintegrated in flight. Belisarius quickly occupied Carthage and within two years had eliminated the last of Gelimir's loyalists, marking the end of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa in 535 AD.
Eighty thousand in number, including thirty thousand warriors, the Vandals crossed at the Straights of Gilbralter in 429 AD and seized lands from the local Berbers. There was a treaty of peace with Rome in 435 AD, but Gaiseric soon broke it and set about conquering the rich Roman northern African province including the 14 month seige of Hippo (in which the famous St. Augustine perished) and culminating with the sack of Carthage, which Gaiseric made his capital in 438 AD.
Having secured his kingdom, Gaiseric left intact the efficient Roman bureaucracy and set about building a great fleet. Tracing their origins to Vendsyssel, the northernmost region of Jutland, the Germanic Vandals quickly resumed their sea-faring ways, and became the terror of the Mediterranean. Over a period of thirty-five years, Gaiseric's fleets ravaged the coasts of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. In 455 AD, a Vandal army landed in Italy and plundered the Eternal City of Rome itself, only sparing it the torch when Pope Leo the Great personally implored Gaiseric to abstain from murder and destruction by fire.
In 460 AD, the Vandals destroy the Roman fleet off Cartagena, confirming their mastery of the western Mediterranean. By 462 AD the Vandal Kingdom included the Roman provinces of North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands. In 476 AD, Gaiseric sold eastern Sicily to Theodoric, king of the Visigoths and then launched raids into Greece and Dalmatia, threatening the Byzantine capital at Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor Leo I and his Western counterpart Anthemius joined forces to deal with the Vandal threat. Leo financed a fleet of 1000 ships that set sail in 468 AD to capture Carthage. A three-pronged attack under the overall command of Leo's brother-in-law, the incompetent Basiliscus, was poorly coordinated and ended in an embarrassing and costly withdrawal. After 474 AD, the new Eastern emperor Zeno was forced to negotiate a treaty of peace with Gaiseric to prevent further raids. The African Vandal kingdom had reached its zenith.
Gaiseric died in early 477 AD, and the throne went to his eldest son Huneric in accordance with the Vandal law of succession by seniority. Huneric, who by several accounts was not the most competent of rulers, was swayed by his Arian Christian bishops and soon began a reign of savage persecutions within the Kingdom against the orthodox Romano-Christian majority; creating numerous martyrs for the Catholic Book of Saints and committing unspeakably cruel acts that gave the Vandal name much of its bad historical connotation.
Huneric died in 484 AD, and was followed in the Kingship by Gunthamund (484-496 AD), Thrasamund (496-523 AD), Hilderic (523-530 AD), and the last Vandal King Gelimir (530-535 AD). A vigorous and warlike people under Gaiseric, the Vandals gradually became soft with the riches of their conquests and absorbed in the religious and internal politics of the former Roman North African province in which they were always a minority of the population.
But things werent going to be nice for those stinky barbs for ever, oh no, for Byzantine emperor Justinian had gotten it stuck in his heard that resoring the Roman empire was a good idea (well, it was a good idea, but Rome wasnt built in a day ya know
) and in 533 AD, a Byzantine army under Belisarius landed in North Africa and launched a campaign to expel the Vandals and restore Roman rule. On Sept. 13, Belisarius met King Gelimir and his brother Ammatas with their army at the tenth milestone south of Carthage (Ad Decimum). The tide of battle stood against the Byzantines until Ammatas was killed. Gelimir lost his nerve and the Vandal army disintegrated in flight. Belisarius quickly occupied Carthage and within two years had eliminated the last of Gelimir's loyalists, marking the end of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa in 535 AD.
I did´nt knew much about that Vandals, but always wanted to know something(I did´nt even knew they were from my country, lol)
