The Vandals were one of the more powerful Germanic tribes who penetrated the defences of the Roman Empire on the River Rhine as the empire declined during the 5th century. And this Germanic tribe caused a major headache for not only the western but the East Roman Empire as well. The Vandals would occupy the rich provinces of North Africa after travelling through much of Western Europe. And they would also comprehensively sack Rome, no less, in 455CE. On top of that they made numerous raids all across the Mediterranean as the Western half of the Empire collapsed. So a very powerful and dangerous adversary as Rome entered its twilight period during the 5th century. ‘Rex Vandalorum et Alanorum’ is the latin for King of the Vandals and Alans. And that’s the title that rulers like Geiseric and Huneric adopted after their conquest of North Africa and consolidation of their empire and as they caused havoc throughout the Roman provinces.
The Arian religion of the Vandals
This Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa didn’t last long though – just over a hundred years – and the whole recorded history of the Vandals only really spans around a hundred and seventy years. The fact is they disappear quickly from history after they were defeated by Belisarius, the great Byzantine general of the 6th Century.
But it wasn’t only militarily but on the religious front as well that the Vandals posed problems for the Roman Empire which by this time was now officially Christian or rather Catholic Christian. While Catholicism could be considered the mainstream sect, there were, in the 5th Century, numerous other versions of Christianity – or heresies as they were termed by the Catholic church. The Germanic tribes like the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths and of course the Vandals themselves had been converted to the strain of Christianity called Arianism. Arianism originated from the teachings of the bishop Arius in Egypt in the early part of the 4th Century. Arius had cottoned on to various verses in the Bible where it was written Jesus was begotten rather than being eternal and therefore he preached that Christ was a lesser being than God himself not being eternal. And this strand of Christianity very nearly became the main stream of the religion with most of the barbarians having adopted Arianism as well as several Roman Emperors in the east and west at various periods.
Now Arian Christianity was considered the biggest heresy by the Catholics so there wasn’t much love lost between these two sects of early Christians. This wasn’t such a sore issue in Europe as the Visigoths and Ostrogoths and other various tribes who had occupied the Western Roman Empire never showed much animus towards Catholic Christians and were generally tolerant apart from isolated examples of persecution. The Vandals, though, were quite the opposite. They committed a huge number of atrocities during their time on Catholics who they saw in turn as heretics. And so we are going to take a look at the religion of the Vandals, their religious policies, their intolerance and the internecine war and issues between the Christians in North Africa as the Vandals began their persecution of Catholics. But let’s take a look at the rise of the Vandals first – how they came to be such a power in the first place – and how they migrated from Northern Europe to North Africa and established their kingdom.
Origin of the term ‘Vandalism’
Where does the name Vandal actually originate from? Well, it’s suspected that it comes from perhaps the same word that the modern German word ‘Wandeln’ comes from. Wandeln means wanderer. And if that’s the case then the name is a pretty apt one as the Vandals were some of the most widely travelled of the barbarian tribes that moved into the Roman Empire during the 4th and 5th century. The term Vandalism itself – as used today – was coined in the late eighteenth century and came about because of the excessive destruction the Vandals caused, or were said to have caused, in Rome during its sacking. It was first used by a chap called Henri Grégoire, the bishop of Blois in 1794 during the height of the chaos of the French Revolution. Grégoire saw the destruction carried out on pieces of art by the mobs in the cities as the revolution spread. And in his tract titled ‘Report on the Destruction Brought About by Vandalism, and on the Means to Suppress It’ he made a parallel with the senseless destruction that he saw in French cities with the Vandal sack of Rome labelling the mobs’ acts as ‘Vandalisme’ and thus making sure the Vandal tribe would always be associated with savage chaos. “I created the word to kill the thing”, he later explained – meaning the destruction by the mob – by labelling it in such a way. And so for this reason the name of this tribe will always now be associated with chaos and barbarity.
The Vandal dynasty and Christianity
| Date | Ruler | Religion |
|---|---|---|
| d.335 | Wisimar | Pagan |
| 359–406 | Godigisel (led Vandals westwards from Pannonia) | Pagan? |
| 407–428 | Gunderic (led Vandals through Gaul and Spain) | Arian Christian. Anti-Catholic |
| 428–477 | Gaiseric (led Vandals to North Africa, found Vandal Empire) | Arian Christian. Major persecution of Catholics,Golden age |
| 477–484 | Huneric | Arian Christian. Major persecution of Catholics |
| 484–496 | Gunthamund | Arian Christian. More tolerant |
| 496–523 | Thrasamund | Arian Christian. Favoured bloodless persecution |
| 523–530 | Hilderic | Arian Christian but favoured religious freedom |
| 530–534 | Gelimer (Last ruler, captured and taken to Constantinople) | Arian Christian. Heavily intolerant |
The Vandal people had nine rulers that we know of covering that span of roughly 200 years. In terms of religion, it’s uncertain when the tribe converted to Christianity. No contemporary account of that time mentions the actual conversion process. Some historians reckon the tribe was converted before it crossed into the Roman Empire while others think the Vandals were converted during their time in France or Spain. But from worshipping the Germanic gods they became almost fanatical Christians or rather Arian Christians accepting this new Christian belief with very strong religious fervour and becoming strongly intolerant to the cost of the Catholics in Spain and Africa as we’ll find out later. And this became apparent during the reign of Gunderic, the third ruler that we know of, onwards during their time in Spain. But its one of the more fascinating stories that we have little information on – how a pagan tribe who had the usual allegiance to pagan gods suddenly in the space of a generation became militant Christians developing more Christian zeal than any of the other groups of barbarians or even the Romans themselves. We know Stilicho (the half Vandal Commander of the western Roman Army and a Christian himself) ordered the burning of the Sibylline books in Rome itself in 405CE as part and parcel of measures taken to continue the forcing of pagans to convert to Christianity. This Arian Christian zeal was strongest during the time of Geiseric and his son Huneric but continued at a lesser level in terms of persecution of Catholics right till the end of the Vandal Empire.
And in fact it could be said to be part of the reason for the collapse of the Vandal empire in 534CE. For the last King Gelimer had ousted the previous ruler Hilderic because he had a much softer approach towards Catholics than Gelimer was happy with. And this change in regime gave the Byzantine emperor Justinian the excuse to declare war against the Vandals and destroy the Vandal Kingdom.
Primary sources on the Vandals
In terms of sources on the Vandal history we are lucky to have a number of contemporary or near contemporary sources. The best source and certainly on the religious policies of the Vandals is ‘A History of the African Province Persecution, in the Times of Genseric and Huneric, the Kings of the Vandals’. And that’s written by a contemporary of Geiseric called Victor Vitensis (or Victor of Vita) a chap who experienced the rule and the policies of the Vandals personally. Victor is suspected to have been the bishop or certainly a man of the church in a place called Vita in North Africa at the time. And he wrote his book around 484CE when the Vandal occupation had been consolidated for some time and Arian persecution of Catholics was continuing. And his main motive for writing the book apart from describing the Vandal conquest is really, as the name of the book suggests, to narrate the religious persecution that was taking place against this fellow Catholics.
The other main source on the Vandals is that of Procopius of Caesarea (c.500-after 565) who was a well known sixth century Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima and who wrote extensively on the Justinian period of Byzantine history. Procopius’ book ‘De Bello Vandalico’ or the Vandal war was written circa 550 CE. His account as the name suggests is mainly of the war to reconquer this part of Africa by Belisarius. In fact Procopius accompanied the Byzantine army to Africa during the War. So while Victor deals with the earlier part of the Vandal history, Procopius narrates the end of the Vandal Kingdom. So together these two books could be considered essential reading as they cover these vital and eventful periods pretty well.
Another source is that of Isidore of Seville (560-636). Isidore was a late fifth century/early sixth century Visigothic scholar in Spain who provides further information in his work called ‘A history of the Gothic, Vandal and Suebi kings’. (Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum) The section on the Vandals though is a fairly short one although informative.
There are details on the Vandals written in the works of other late Roman and early Byzantine period historian and writers. One of these for example is written by Salvian of Marseille. Salvian was a fifth century Christian living in the province of Gaul or France as we know it now. Salvian in his work ‘De gubernatione Dei’ or ‘The Government of God’ blames the decline of the Romans on their failure to follow Catholicism with vigour. And he criticised the Romans for their decadence and oppression of the poor, their like of theatre and games. And he almost shows support for the Vandals who he says have none of the moral corruption and decadent practices of the Romans. And he suggests this is the reason for their success. Salvian is probably the most interesting source we have on the declining state of Roman Govt and the spread of barbarian rule, the increasing taxes and the general decadence of the twilight period of the Western Roman Empire. And there are various other works where the Vandals and events related them are mentioned including Paulus Orosius, Sidonius Apollinaris, Jordanes a gothic historian, Zosimus, Priscus, St Augustine, Olympiodorus, Hydatius amongst others. Hydatius wrote the Chronicle which documents the chaotic situation Spain found itself in during this 5th century when Vandals, Alans, sieves and Goths fought against each other for mastery of the Iberian peninsula.
In terms of modern research, by general consensus, the best relatively recent book on the Vandals is that written by Professor Christian Courtois called Les Vandales et l’Afrique or the Vandals of Africa released in 1957 in which he writes his near three decades worth of research on the tribe. Unfortunately it’s written in French and I’m not at all sure there had been any translation into English.
Early history of the Vandals
Historians like Tacitus in the first century briefly mention the Vandals – he calls them Vandillii – but we have no clear idea of their origins prior to that. Tacitus does mention the Vandals believed – along with two other Germanic tribes – that they were descended from the Germanic god Tuisto. Pliny also mentions the tribe in his work ‘Natural history’ which he wrote around 77CE. Pliny writes that the Vandals were considered one of the five main tribes in Germania, the other tribes being the Burgundians, the Goths, and the much lesser well known Varini and Charini. Some sources put the Vandals in the Crimean region while others show them as originating from Scandinavia and working their way south. Others put them near the Vistula river in Poland at some point. However by the late 4th and early 5th Centuries we know the Vandals had settled in Eastern Europe on the left bank of the Danube adjacent to the Roman province of Pannonia and their King at the time was a man called Godigisel. The Vandals had not grown into a serious threat at this stage and some Vandals actually pop up as confederates in the Roman Army. In fact Stilicho, the famous Roman Generalisimo during the late 4th and early 5th Century was half Vandal himself, his father had been a Vandal Cavalryman having married a Roman woman of high rank after serving the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens. So we know they had a relatively warm history with the Romans extending a few decades before their invasion.
Conversion by Ulfilas
As far as the conversion of the barbarian tribes across the Danube – the Goths for example – is concerned we know that this began in earnest around 341CE. That was when an Arian Christian Goth called Ulfilas was made bishop of his people in Antioch and then later sent north of the Danube to begin the conversion of the Gothic tribes. Ulfilas would translate the Bible into Gothic and triggered off the conversion of the whole tribe. The Vandals being adjacent to the Goths in location at this time, its likely they were converted around the same time. In fact this is more than likely considering they converted to the Arian Christianity of Ulfilas rather than Catholic Christianity which was more likely to happen if they had converted during their time in France and Spain although some accounts like Paulus Orosius suggest they became Christian after they crossed the Rhine and that remains a possibility as well. We simply don’t have enough information about their conversion.
Migrating to France
The late fourth century was a pretty uncertain time for the Roman Empire and the various tribes that bordered Roman territory. And that was because the much feared Huns were advancing from the east and driving all before them and many of these Germanic tribes were therefore anxious to move into Roman lands for safety. Procopius, the Byzantine scholar, also attributes the motivation to migrate to famine suggesting there had been several years where the crops had failed in the trans-Danube lands. No doubt the Huns moving westwards also helped the decision to be made. And at this time Godigesel the king of the Vandals also decided to up sticks to escape the huns. But interestingly not all the Vandal tribe migrated some preferring to take their chance agains the Huns. Procopius writes that…
When the Vandals originally pressed by hunger, were about to remove from their ancestral abodes, a certain part of them was left behind who were reluctant to go and not desirous of following Godegisel. – Procopius
So the decision to move west – after having been settled in that area for some time – obviously wasn’t an easy one. In fact there are some suggestions that Stilicho the Vandal commander of the Roman army even invited them in to balance the power of the Franks as the Franks had already moved into Northern France. And this is mentioned by Jordanes the Gothic historian. He writes as follows…
A long time afterward they the Vandals were summoned thence to Gaul by Stilicho, Master of the Soldiery, Ex-Consul and Patrician, and took possession of Gaul. Here they plundered their neighbours and had no settled place of abode. – Jordanes
But importantly Zosimus another chronicler does not mention this however simply narrating their crossing without any invitation.
Some years before, Arcadius being in his sixth consulate, and Probus was his colleague, the Vandals, uniting with the Alani and the Suevi, crossed in these places, and plundered the countries beyond the Alps. -Zosimus
Whatever the case, Godigisel quietly but ambitiously led them from the region of Pannonia moving along the banks of the Danube River westwards up to and north along the Rhine with the intention to cross over into what is now Belgium. But before they could cross the Rhine, Godigisel lost his life in a hard fought battle against the Franks who had been given that particular area to guard as federates of the Romans. The Vandal army according to contemporary sources was only saved by the timely arrival of their allies the Alans.
King Gunderic
After his death in the battle against the Franks, Godigisel was succeeded by his eldest son, Gunderic who would lead them for the next twenty odd years and who was just as ambitious it seems as his father. According to the chronicler, Prosper of Aquitaine, the Vandals would cross into Gaul on the 31st December 406 near the city of Mainz or Mogontiacum as it was called then. Edward Gibbon writes that the Rhine was quite possibly frozen at this time and therefore bridges or boats were not required making the crossing much easier although it seems this is really only speculation by Gibbon as no contemporary account mention the river being frozen.
Having crossed the Rhine by whichever means the Vandals cause havoc in France as they swept through the country moving southwards. St. Jerome in 409CE would in a letter write of the swathe of destruction the Vandals caused as they made their way through the province comparing it to the coming of Satan the Anti-Christ perhaps suggesting the tribes including the Vandals were the antichrist themselves.
I shall now say a few words of our present miseries. A few of us have hitherto survived them, but this is due not to anything we have done ourselves but to the mercy of the Lord. Savage tribes in countless numbers have overrun all parts of Gaul. The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and–alas! for the commonweal!–even Pannonians. For “Assur also is joined with them.” – St. Jerome
Jerome mentions Mainz, Strasbourg and other cities along the borders of the Empire being destroyed with the barbarians making their way down south as far as Toulouse in the direction of Spain. But France wasn’t the final destination for the Vandals, Alans and Sueves. The Vandals would settle in Gaul for around three years before deciding to head further south into the Iberian peninsula or what is now Spain. Unfortunately despite this three year long stint we still don’t really know much about events during this time. None of the first hand sources curiously have much at all to say about what the Vandals did, which cities they besieged and what their rule was like and so on which is a great shame.
But their stay in Spain is a lot better documented. Spain ended up being divided between the Vandals, the Alans and the Suevi. The Asding Vandals, one branch of the Vandal tribe would for a time occupy Galicia, the extreme north-west of Spain while the other separate branch of the tribe called the Silingians occupied Baetica, the extreme south of Spain. Meanwhile the Suevi, another Germanic tribe would occupy the western part of Iberia and the Alans, the allies of the Vandals got Lusitania in the west and Carthaginiensis in the centre. Some areas and cities still managed to remain in Roman control even at this time however. So the Iberian peninsula was heavily fractured at this point.
Now under King Gunderic the Vandals would remain in Spain for around two decades in which time they would plunder the Balearic Islands, Cartagena and Seville amongst other places before they were pushed out by the more numeric Visigoths who had also invaded the Iberian peninsula themselves. This chaos and war between the barbarian tribes fighting for turf meant that these were by consensus pretty tough times for the civilians of Spain. Isidore of Seville, the sixth century church historian writes of their arrival and just as in Gaul he describes them rampaging through the peninsula causing huge disruption and damage. Hydatius, a bishop in Spain at the time also writes in similar terms.
While the barbarians ran wild through the Spanish provinces, and evil pestilence raged, the tyrannical tax collector plundered and the soldier used up the supplies stored in the cities. Terrible famine prowled, so that human beings were compelled by hunger to devour human flesh and mothers fed on the murdered and cooked bodies of those they had borne. Beasts, accustomed to the bodies of those slain by the sword, famine and plague, and fed by the bodies of whatever men they had killed, ran wild bringing death to the human race. And thus, with the four plagues of sword, famine, pestilence and beasts raging through the entire world, those things proclaimed by the Lord through his prophets were fulfilled.- Hydatius
From 416 to 418CE the Vandals came under increasing pressure from the Visigoths who were now allies with the Romans and who with Roman encouragement had invaded Spain. The Siling Vandals who had settled in Baetica were destroyed by the Goths. And the Goths in fact nearly destroyed the Alans as well with the Alan king Addax (Attaces) being killed in an encounter. Now what this meant was that what was left of the Alan nation would voluntarily accept Gunderic as their king. And this is why the later Vandal Kings styled themselves as Rex Vandalorum et Alanorum or King of the Vandals and Alans.
But even with these setbacks the Vandals under the able leadership of Gunderic and now strengthened by the remnants of the Alan tribe would get even more daring. And by this time the Vandals had mastered the art of building and sailing ships as well. And it remains a curious fact that of the numerous tribes that had crossed into the Roman borders it was only the Vandals who became proficient in the art of seafaring. But using these new naval skills they began to make extensive raids across the Mediterranean plundering the Balearic islands for example and Mauretania in North Africa in 425CE which they no doubt found was very weakly defended and may have helped in making their decision to cross to North Africa later on.
King Gunderic would die in 429CE and Isidore of Seville attributes his death to divine anger, the Christian God, he suggests, deciding to end his reign of terror against Catholics. For Gunderic was already waging war against them in Spain.
Since with the authority of his royal power he irreverently stretched forth his hands against the basilica of the martyr Vincentius of this city, by the decision of God he was presently seized by a demon at the gate of the shrine and perished. – Isidore
King Gaiseric and the conquest of Africa
With his death, Geiseric, his much more famous half brother would now become King. Geiseric was a military genius and would lead the Vandals into what could be called their golden age. Writing a century later, Jordanes the Goth historian gives a memorable description gleaned from other sources of the new King of the Vandals.
Geiseric, still famous in the City for the disaster of the Romans, was a man of moderate height and lame in consequence of a fall from his horse. He was a man of deep thought and few words, holding luxury in disdain, furious in his anger, greedy for gain, shrewd in winning over the barbarians and skilled in sowing the seeds of dissension to arouse enmity. Such was he who, as we have said, came at the solicitous invitation of Boniface to the country of Africa. There he reigned for a long time, receiving authority, as they say, from God Himself. – Jordanes
And Procopius also writing much later describes him in glowing terms.
Geiseric had been excellently trained in warfare and was the cleverest of all men. – Procopius
Finally one last surprising thing on the man himself – Isidore of Seville suggests in his writings that Geiseric had been a Catholic but who had later changed to the Arian belief .
…his reign lasted forty years; from a Catholic he became an apostate and is said to have been the first to go over to the Arian falsehood. -Isidore of Seville
Now if this is true then perhaps some of the Vandal tribe too were Catholic but it raises the issue of why he and they would convert to Arianism from Catholicism. Most scholars don’t seem to accept this however and the general impression is that the Vandals were always Arian as converts.
So why did Geiseric decide to cross over into Africa. Well there may have been several reasons for this. The Goths as mentioned had moved into the Iberian peninsula and had successfully defeated the Alans and Vandals recently. They were said to be much more numeric in number as well and therefore had considerably more resources to call upon. And they were also allies of the Romans as well. So these were important reasons of course but Geiseric had also in the Vandal raids against North Africa perhaps noticed the weakness of the Roman position there and the lack of sufficient garrisons in the African cities.
A third reason speculated is that the Roman Commander of North Africa, a general called Boniface actually invited the Vandals to cross over in a spot of intrigue and politicking with a rival strongman, the famous Roman general Aetius. And this is what Procopius suggests writing that Boniface sent an embassy over to Geiseric promising friendship and that if the Vandals crossed into North Arica he would promise them territory in Libya as well as a pact of mutual assistance in case of external threats. Jordanes leaves a similar account of the intrigue Boniface was involved in:
Geiseric, King of the Vandals, had already been invited into Africa by Boniface, who had fallen into a dispute with the Emperor Valentinian and was able to obtain revenge only by injuring the Empire. So he invited them urgently and brought them across the narrow strait known as the Strait of Gades, scarcely seven miles wide, which divides Africa from Spain and unites the mouth of the Tyrrhenian Sea with the waters of Ocean. – Jordanes
The Vandals, of course, could hardly refuse being promised some of the richest provinces of the Roman Empire. In fact North Africa was the breadbasket of the Empire in terms of grain with other exports being oil, olives, grapes, pomegranates dates and all sorts of vegetables so it was a very tempting target. And it wasn’t just food either. A vast amount of marble too was quarried in these provinces and exported all across the empire. So a very wealthy province indeed. In fact Alaric the Goth after sacking Rome in 410CE was known to be heading south hoping to cross into Africa as well. So other tribes like the Goths had had their eyes on these provinces too.
Preparations for crossing
Whatever the case, we know the Vandals moved to Mellaria (or Tarifa) as its known today, just to the west of Gibraltar where they would make their crossing. Geiseric seems to have been pretty meticulous in working out his strength and the numbers he needed for the crossing going as far as a head count of the entire Vandal and Alan contingent including men, women and children. And they seem to have crossed over lock stock and barrel by all accounts.
The Vandals and the Alans he Geiseric arranged in companies, appointing over them no less than 80 leaders whom he called Chillarchs (leaders of 1,000), making it appear that his host of fighting men in active service amounted to 80,000. And yet the number of the Vandals and Alans was said in former times to amount to no more than 50,000. – Procopius
From this number, if we exclude women and children, we can estimate a fighting strength of around 15-20,000 strong. So a relatively strong force although one which could have been dealt with by the Romans had had sufficient strength amongst the garrisons in Africa.
The crossing into Spain
The crossing would take place in May of 429CE. The Vandals sailing across the straits of Gibraltar to the province of Mauretania. And apparently sources say they landed near TingIs or (Tangiers) as its know today. Having crossed and met little or no opposition, Geiseric quickly occupied the whole of Mauritania. The Vandals had the fortune of finding allies as soon as they crossed as well. The Alans as well as other tribes had also crossed over with them. But they also got the support of the local moors who saw a chance to throw off the yoke of the Romans. Procopius writes that Geiseric’s army had Moorish auxiliaries by 430CE, a year after they had crossed. The Romans could do nothing and the Emperor at this time, Valentinian III, agreed to cede to the Vandals the territory that they already occupied on the promise that they wouldn’t invade more territory. By this he meant the rich provinces to the east and major cities like Hippo Regius and Carthage.
But it wouldn’t take Geiseric long to violate that agreement and the Vandal army began advancing further eastwards. And they made pretty good progress only being temporarily stopped at the siege of Hippo Regius. In May 430, The Vandal army met a Roman force under Boniface who had now turned against them at a place called Calama near Hippo Regius. The Vandals had probably the larger force we are told by contemporary accounts, but the numbers must have been fairly close as otherwise Boniface would not have risked battle in the open plains. The Roman army was beaten and Boniface himself forced to take refuge in Hippo and Geiseric would immediately lay siege to the city. Hippo Regius which eventually be taken after a lengthy siege of fourteen months from May 430 to July 431 before the city finally fell. Conditions inside the city and in the Vandal camp were terrible and in fact the Vandals had to raise the siege as they ran out of supplies before they could return to capture the city. During this time they again beat a Roman army under Boniface and the East Roman general Aspar before returning to lay siege to the city for a second time. Bishop Capreolus of Carthage would later describe the situation in North Africa during the siege when he travelled to the Synod of Ephesus in July 431CE.
The prompt ability of any that could travel is impeded by the excessive multitude of enemies and the huge devastation of the provinces everywhere which presents to eye-witnesses one place where all its inhabitants have been killed, another where they have been driven into flight, and a wretched vista of destruction spreading out far and wide and in every direction. – Bishop Capreolus of Carthage
Luckily for the Romans the Vandals had exhausted themselves in taking Hippo and Carthage, the big prize in North Africa didn’t come under attack for another eight years. A few years later, in February 435 (although some sources say 436) another treaty was concluded with Rome. Procopius tells us that the treaty was very much down to Geiseric’s initiative:
After defeating Boniface and Aspar in battle, Geiseric displayed a foresight worth recounting, whereby he made his good fortune thoroughly secure. For fearing lest, if once again an army should come against him from both Rome and Byzantium, the Vandals might not be able to use the same strength and enjoy the same fortune…. He was not lifted up by the good fortune he had enjoyed, but rather became moderate because of what he feared and so he made a treaty with the Emperor Valentinian providing that each year he should pay the Emperor tribute from Libya and he delivered one of his sons, Huneric, as a hostage to make this agreement binding. So Geiseric both showed himself a brave man in battle and guarded the victory as securely as possible. – Procopius
It could be Procopius get this date wrong as there was a treaty made in 442. Whatever the case, the Vandal were now officially allies of the Roman Empire and had been given North Africa on the condition they did not attack Carthage. Not that this treaty had that much of an effect in the longer term in restraining Geiseric. In fact it only only encouraged the Vandals and they made a sizeable raid on Sicily in 438CE pillaging the entire island.
The capture of Carthage (439CE)
And then further capitalising on Roman weakness, and summoning up his own strength Geiseric managed to take Carthage in October 439 making it his new capital. Carthage was the capital of Roman Africa so this was a major blow to the empire. Quodvultdeus, the Bishop of Carthage at the time, writes of the fury of the Vandals as they entered the city.
Horrible death has soiled all the streets… pregnant women slaughtered… babies taken from the arms of their nurse and thrown to die on the street…the cries of those that have lost in this assault a husband or a father. – Quodvultdeus, the Bishop of Carthage
To make matters worse, a Roman fleet had also been in the harbour at the time of the fall of the city and the Vandals found themselves with more than they had ever hoped for. Not just the city and its treasures and wealth but a ready made fleet to facilitate further invasions. Meanwhile the bishop Quodvultdeus and other Catholic clergy were forced to strip and led into leaky ships and boats, naked, and told to row towards Italy where these desperate men would eventually make it although no doubt the Vandals probably hoped they wouldn’t.
And so having captured the city, Carthage now became the capital of the Vandals instead and would be the launchpad for further conquests and raids over the next few decades all across the Mediterranean. Procopius writes of their travels:
Every year, at the beginning of spring Geiseric made invasions into Sicily and Italy, enslaving some of the cities, razing others to the ground, and plundering everything. When the land had become destitute of men and of money, he invaded the domain of the Emperor of the East. And so he plundered Illyricum (modern Croatia), most of the Peloponnese and the rest of Greece, and all of the Islands which lie near it. And then he went off again to Sicily and Italy and kept plundering and pillaging all places in turn. One day when he had embarked on his ship in the harbour of Carthage, and the sails were ready to be spread, the pilot asked him against what men did he go? And in reply he said: “Plainly against those with whom God is angry.” – Procopius
The Romans, or rather the East Roman Empire did make some attempts to destroy the Vandals. One of these was in 441CE. When one of the largest fleets – containing it was said 1100 ships – the cost of which would nearly bankrupt the empire was assembled. The fleet was to transport a large army to Carthage and to retake the city as well as to take on the vandal army. However it was badly led and the mission aborted . The fleet had to eventually turn back anyway as the troops withdrawn from the various garrisons to make up this army only triggered war with Persia while the Huns took advantage in the north.
And that was a shame from the Roman point of view as we know shortly after this in 442CE there was some sort of minor civil war amongst the Vandals with some at least of the Vandal nobles not particularly happy with Geiseric keeping so much of the wealth that they were plundering for himself and giving himself more power as time went on. Prosper of Aquitaine, another chronicler of the time mentions that this civil war resulted in more dead Vandals than any other conflict the Vandals had so far been in. And so if an attack had taken place in this time, the much weakened Vandals would have been hard pressed to protect their territory. But be that as it may things stabilised after that and Geiseric in fact seems to have got even more confident in the years after this. In 445, for example a Vandal fleet sailed all the way to the Atlantic coast of what is now Portugal. There they raided Turonium (modern day Turonio) in Gallaecia. Now that was quite a feat – for the distance was around 1500 miles from Carthage – and this showed their level of expertise in both sailing and shipbuilding by this time.
The pact with Attila the Hun (451CE)
It has to be said Geiseric was quite open to forming alliances with other barbarian rulers as well if that would help extend his own power. And that included the Huns. The Huns under their king Attila were by the 440s threatening both the eastern and Western Roman Empires. Now the Vandals weren’t actively involved militarily with the Huns but if we are to believe Jordanes the Goth historian, there was some sort of agreement between Geiseric and Attila and according to him, it was one of the underlying reasons the Visigoths stood alongside the Romans when Attila invaded Gaul in 451:
When Geiseric, King of the Vandals, learned that Attila’s mind was bent on the devastation of the world, he incited him by many gifts to make war on the Visigoths, for he was afraid that Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, would avenge the injury done to his daughter. She had been joined in wedlock with Huneric, Geiseric’s son, and at first was happy in this union. But afterwards he was cruel even to his own children, and because of the mere suspicion that she was attempting to poison him, he cut off her nose and mutilated her ears. He sent her back to her father in Gaul thus despoiled of her natural charms. So the wretched girl presented a pitiable aspect ever after, and the cruelty which would stir even strangers still more surely incited her father to vengeance. – Jordanes
And this alliance forming even though he was nominally an ally of the Roman Empire showed the foresightedness of Geiseric in protecting his new kingdom by not allowing any other local powers the time or chance to raise forcers against him.
The sack of Rome (455CE)
But it was the sack of Rome for which King Geiseric and the Vandals are perhaps most famous for. In 455CE sixteen years after the capture of Carthage, Geiseric assembled his force stopping at Sardinia to add that to his empire before sailing on to Italy and Rome. The sack of Rome lasted two weeks and was a comprehensive despoliation of the city, much more devastating than the looting done by Alaric the Goth 45 years earlier in 410CE. And this was afterwards accompanied by various major raids all across the Mediterranean making the Vandals a nuisance from Spain to Greece. The Vandal possessions would in the mean time expand to not just North Africa but Sicily, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Corsica. Five years after the sack of Rome, the then western Roman Emperor Majorian gathered a large army and fleet of 300 ships at Cartagena in Spain in the spring of 460. And the mission was to destroy the Vandal Kingdom once and for all and recapture North Africa for the Empire. However the Roman fleet was destroyed in suspicious circumstances so another chance was lost to the Romans. And in 467 yet another opportunity for the Romans went begging. The eastern Roman Emperor annoyed at the ever increasing Vandal piracy in the Mediterranean gathered a large force to destroy the menace. Procopius describes the preparations.
The Emperor Leo, wishing to punish the Vandals because of these things, was gathering an army against them; and they say that this army numbered 100,000 men. And he collected a fleet from the whole of the Mediterranean showing great generosity to both soldiers and sailors, for he feared lest from a parsimonious policy some obstacle might arise to hinder him in his desire to carry out his punishment of the barbarians. – Procopius
Now this fleet reached a place called Mercurium around 60km from Carthage but the fleet was destroyed by Vandal fire ships at the Battle of Cape Bon ending any chance of attacking the Vandals on land or sea in the near future.
The Vandal administration
So, all in all, the Romans had a huge amount of misfortune against the Vandals being defeated for one reason or another time and time again while the Vandals achieved success in pretty much every venture and battle. And this twenty year period from 455 to 476 during the rule of Geiseric could be considered the peak of Vandal power and Procopius the early Byzantine historian writes of the confidence that Geiseric showed during this time. When a sailor once asked him when the Vandal fleet was being made ready who they were planning to sail against, Geiseric is famously to have said, ‘ plainly against those with whom God is angry’ suggesting it was pot luck who got the bad news and that the almighty was surely on their side.
On civil matters during Geiseric’s time and after, the Vandal Kings importantly made no attempt to integrate Romans and Vandals into a single nation. The Vandals were very much the masters and the Romans were the subjects. They were kept apart not only by religion but also by law as well. Having said that, the Vandals adopted Roman-style clothing wearing light linen tunics adapted for the African climate. Mosaics from North Africa show Vandals looking very similar to Romans of that time, but they reserved certain aspects of dress and appearance for themselves only. Victor of Vita tells us that the Vandals kept their hair long in contrast to the short hair of the Romans. This seems to have been in common with other Germanic peoples as well, as several monuments show long-haired German warriors alongside short-haired Romans. And long hair was a matter or pride for the Vandals. If a Roman for example grew long hair and was seen in a Catholic church, his hair would be pulled out as a punishment to maintain the divide between the races.
In the matter of wealth, a considerable change also occurred as Vandals took over the huge farming estates that had formerly belonged to Romans. Procopius gives us a detailed account of how Geiseric went about land redistribution:
Among the Libyans all who happened to be men of note and conspicuous for their wealth he Geiseric handed over as slaves, together with their estates and all their money to his sons…. And he robbed the rest of the Libyans of their estates which were both very numerous and excellent, and distributed them among the nation of the Vandals. As a result of this, these lands have been called ‘Vandal Estates’ up to the present time. And it fell to the lot of those who had formerly possessed these lands to be in extreme poverty and to be at the same time free men. – Procopius
Geiseric commanded that all the lands which he had given over to his sons and the other Vandals should not be subject to any kind of taxation. But as much of the lands did not seem as good to him he allowed to remain in the hands of their former owners but assessed so large a sum to be paid on this land in taxes that nothing whatsoever remained to those who retained their farms. And many of them were sent into exile or killed…. Thus the Libyans were visited with every form of misfortune. – Procopius
One other interesting point to note – on the matter of defence Procopius also mentions Geiseric dismantling the walls protecting the towns and cities in North Africa – apart from Carthage the capital. And this was so that if a city was captured by the Romans or Moors it would be difficult to defend. This worked to Geiseric’s advantage in this period of Vandal strength but would be a severe disadvantage when Belisarius led a Byzantine army against them sixty odd years later. By this time the Vandal strength had weakened and without walls no city apart from Carthage could be defended easily.
Decline of the Vandals
The era of strong Vandal power over the Mediterranean wasn’t to last much longer than Geiseric himself. He died on the 25 January 477CE, only a few months after the Roman Empire in the west officially came to a close. After him there were other Vandal Kings who presided over what could best be described as a gentle decline with the Vandals losing their ambition for adventure and plunder across the Mediterranean and becoming more insular and wallowing in the luxury of their African existence. Procopius describes the state they had fallen into:
For all the nations which we know, that of the Vandals is the most luxurious and that of the Moors the most hardy. For the Vandals, since the time when they gained possession of Libya, used to indulge in baths, all of them, every day, and enjoyed a table abounding in all things, the sweetest and best that earth and sea produce. And they wore gold very generally, and clothed themselves in the Medic garments which they now call silk, and passed their time, thus dressed, in hippodromes and in other pleasurable pursuits, and above all else in hunting. And they had dancers and mimes and all other things to hear and see which are of a musical nature or otherwise merit attention among men. And the most of them dwelt in parks, which were well supplied with water and trees; and they had great numbers of banquets, and all manner of sexual pleasures were in great vogue amongst them. – Procopius
The late-fifth century Roman rhetorician, Malchus, also writes a damning indictment of the state of the Vandals of the post-Geiseric generation losing their energy and pursuing softer pleasures.
After the death of Geiseric, they had fallen completely into softness, and had maintained neither the same strength for action nor had the same military establishment which he had kept ready for use so that he meaining Geiseric always moved more quickly than his opponent calculated. – Malchus
The Kingdom would come to an end during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian when Belisarius was sent with a fleet and a large army to retake North Africa. Belisarius destroyed the Vandal army at the Battle of Ad Decimum followed by the Battle of Tricamarum in 533CE with the Vandal King Gelimer shortly giving himself up later on and being taken to Constantinople as a prisoner.
In retrospect, by allowing the barbarian tribes to cross the Rhine and Danube during the late 4th and early 5th century, the Romans had set themselves up for a huge host of problems with various tribes setting up independent kingdoms across the entire western Roman Empire with only Italy largely remaining in Roman hands.
In part two of this post I’ll discuss perhaps the most interesting and fascinating side of the history of the Vandal Kingdom and that was the religious situation and the efforts of the Vandals to force Arian Christianity particularly on the Catholics and catholic clergy. We know the religious situation was pretty complicated at that time. The bulk of the population at this time were now Catholics. And these Catholics had been persecuting other Christian denominations with whom they had deep theological differences. These were sects like the Arians or the Donatists for example who were particularly strong in North Africa. But there were non-Christian communities as well – Jews obviously, but Manichaeans as well who followed the teaching of Mani, a Persian prophet – as well as Greco-Roman pagans – all of whom had no interest in Christianity and may well have welcomed the Vandals for that meant the end of persecution by the Catholic authorities.
