Vandals - Reference Center

Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Vandals

Vandals, ancient Germanic tribe. They originated in N Jutland and, along with other Germanic peoples, settled in the valley of the Oder about the 5th cent. B.C. They appeared in Pannonia and Dacia in the 3d cent. A.D., apparently under imperial aegis. In the early 5th cent., the Vandals began a migration that was to take them farther than any other Germanic people. They invaded (406) Gaul, where the Franks, as allies of Rome, refused them permission to settle. In 409 they crossed the Pyrenees to Spain. After meeting opposition there, they concluded a peace with Roman Emperor Honorius, who recognized their right to the land, subject to imperial authority. While in Spain, however, they continued to fight the Romans and Visigoths and were able to develop their maritime power. In 428, Gunderic, the Vandal king, died and was succeeded by his brother, Gaiseric, whose leadership carried the tribe to its greatest heights. Pressed by the Goths, and taking advantage of unsettled conditions in Africa, the Vandals crossed (429) to that continent and defeated the Roman general Boniface. The tradition that they came at Boniface's invitation is probably false. By 435 the Vandals controlled most of the Roman province of Africa, and in 439 they took Carthage. Their vessels made pirate attacks on ships in the Mediterranean, and they went on plundering expeditions to Sicily and S Italy. In 442, Valentinian III recognized Gaiseric as an independent ruler, and Vandal migration ceased. The next years were spent in building a powerful kingdom. Their fleet controlled the Mediterranean, and even the Eastern Empire felt their power. In 455, Rome was sacked by Gaiseric's troops, and Empress Eudoxia and her two daughters were taken as hostages. The Vandals were Arian Christians, and, especially under Gaiseric and his son, Hunneric, they harshly persecuted Orthodox Christianity. The Roman emperors Marjorian and Leo I made attempts to destroy Vandal power, but Zeno was forced to make peace (476) with Gaiseric. After the death (477) of Gaiseric, however, the Vandals declined quickly as a dominant power. In 533, Justinian I sent against them an army under Belisarius, which after meeting weak resistance, captured Carthage. With this overwhelming defeat the Vandals ceased to exist as a nation. The Vandals were not an artistic people, and they left no monuments of their reign. The modern use of their name is probably derived from the fear and hatred felt toward them by African Catholics and a reminiscence of the sack of Rome.

See J. B. Bury, The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians (1928, repr. 1967); J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West, 400–1000 (3d ed. 1967).

Wikipedia search results for: Vandals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goth Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under. The Vandals are perhaps best known for their sack of Rome in 455. Although they were not notably more destructive than others, the high regard which later European cultures held for ancient Rome led to the association of the name of the tribe with vandalism: senseless destruction, particularly in diminution of aesthetic appeal or destruction of objects that were completed with great...more »

Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Vandals

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Basiliscus
Basiliscus, d. c.477, usurper at Constantinople (475–76). He was responsible for the failure of the expedition sent (468) against the Vandals by his brother-in-law Leo I. He usurped the throne...
Ricimer
Ricimer, d. 472, Roman general of the tribe of the Suebi. After winning (456) two victories over the Vandals, he allied with the senate and deposed (456) Emperor Avitus. Thereafter the true ru...
Stilicho, Flavius
Stilicho, Flavius, d. 408, Roman general, a Vandal. He was the chief general of Theodosius I, whose niece he married. By order of Theodosius, he served after Theodosius' death (395) as the reg...
Leo I, Byzantine emperor
Leo I, d. 474, Byzantine or East Roman emperor (457–74). Chosen by the senate to succeed Marcian, he sought to counteract the preponderance of Germans in the Roman army by enlisting Isaurians....
Gaiseric
Gaiseric or Genseric, c.390–477, king of the Vandals and Alani (428–77), one of the ablest of the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire. He led (429) his people from Spain into Africa, possib...
Belisarius
Belisarius, c.505–565, Byzantine general under Justinian I. After helping to suppress (532) the dangerous Nika riot (see Blues and Greens), he defeated (533–34) the Vandals of Africa, and capt...
Boniface
Boniface, d. 432, Roman general. He defended (413) Marseilles against the Visigoths under Ataulf. Having supported Galla Placidia in her struggle with her brother, Emperor Honorius, Boniface f...
Gerontius
Gerontius, d. 411, Roman general, b. Britain. He at first supported the usurper Constantine (d. 411), and was left in charge of Spain. He set up (409) his own candidate, Maximus, as emperor, a...
Susah
Susah or Sousse, ancient Hadrumetum, city (1994 pop. 125,000), NE Tunisia, on the Gulf of Hammamat, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a fishing port and export point for olive oil. The ci...
Valentinian III
Valentinian III, 419–55, Roman emperor of the West (425–55). Two years after the death of his uncle, Honorius, he was placed on the throne by his cousin Theodosius II, who deposed the usurper ...

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