Vandals

"Vandal" and "Vandali" redirect here. For other uses, see Vandal (disambiguation).

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe which entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals may have given their name to the region of Andalusia, which according to one of several theories of its etymology was originally Vandalusia (which would be the source of Al-Andalus — the Arabic name of Iberian Peninsula), in the south of present day Spain, where they temporarily settled before pushing on to North Africa.

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 Clovis I.

The Vandals' 'traditional' reputation: a colored steel engraving of the Sack of Rome (455) by Heinrich Leutemann (1824–1904), c 1860–80

Origins

Some archaeologists and historians identify the Vandals with the Przeworsk culture, but controversy surrounds potential connections between the Vandals and another, possibly Germanic tribe, the Lugii (Lygier, Lugier or Lygians). Some academics believe that either Lugii was an earlier name of the Vandals, or the Vandals were part of the Lugian federation. Jordanes refers to Vandals as Gothic (East Germanic) speakers, and name etymologies support the notion of Vandalic being near related to Gothic.

The Przeworsk culture (green) in the first half of the 3rd century. The map shows the extent of the Wielbark culture (Goths) in red, a Baltic culture (probably the Aesti) in yellow, and the Debczyn Culture, pink. The Roman Empire is in purple.

Similarities of names have sometimes led to speculatively appointing homelands for the Vandals in Norway (Hallingdal), Sweden (Vendel), or Denmark (Vendsyssel). The Vandals are assumed to have crossed the Baltic into what is today Poland somewhere in the 2nd century BC, and to have settled in Silesia from around 120 BC. Tacitus recorded their presence between the Oder and Vistula rivers in Germania (AD 98); his identification was corroborated by later historians: according to Jordanes, they and the Rugians were displaced by the arrival of the Goths. This tradition supports the identification of the Vandals with the Przeworsk culture, since the Gothic Wielbark culture seems to have replaced a branch of that culture.

Some Medieval authors used the ethnonym "Vandals" applying it to Slavic peoples: Wends, Losatians or Poles.

History

Simplified map of the various incursions into the Roman Empire, showing the Vandals migrations from Germany through Dacia, Gaul, Iberia, and into North Africa, and the eventual sack of Rome in 455 CE.

The Vandals were divided in two tribal groups, the Silingi and the Hasdingi. At the time of the War of the Marcomanni (166–180) the Silingi lived in an area recorded by Tacitus as Magna Germania, now Silesia. In the 2nd century, the Hasdingi, led by the kings Raus and Rapt (or Rhaus and Raptus) moved south, and first attacked the Romans in the lower Danube area. In about 271 the Roman Emperor Aurelian was obliged to protect the middle course of the Danube against them. They made peace and settled in western Dacia and Panonia.

According to Jordanes' Getica, the Hasdingi came into conflict with the Goths around the time of Constantine the Great. At the time, the Vandals were living in lands later inhabited by the Gepids, where they were surrounded "on the east [by] the Goths, on the west [by] the Marcomanni, on the north [by] the Hermanduri and on the south [by] the Hister (Danube)." The Vandals were attacked by the Gothic king Geberic, and their king Visimar was killed. The Vandals then migrated to Pannonia, where after Constantine the Great (about 330) granted them lands on the right bank of the Danube, they lived for the next sixty years.

In 400 or 401, possibly because of attacks by the Huns, the Vandals along with their allies (the Sarmatian Alans and Germanic Suebians) started to move westward under king Godigisel. Some of the Silingi joined them later. invaded westward, into Roman territory, under king Godigisel. Some of the Silingi joined them later. Around this time, the Hasdingi had already been Christianized. Through the Emperor Valens (364–78) the Vandals accepted, much like the Goths earlier, Arianism, a belief that was in opposition to that of Nicene orthodoxy of the Roman Empire, yet there were also some scattered orthodox Vandals, among whom was general Stilicho, the minister of the Emperor Honorius.

Gaul

In 406 the Vandals advanced from Pannonia travelling west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who populated and controlled Romanized regions in northern Gaul. Twenty thousand Vandals, including Godigisel himself, died in the resulting battle, but then with the help of the Alans they managed to defeat the Franks, and on December 31, 406 the Vandals crossed the frozen Rhine to invade Gaul, which they devastated terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

Iberia

On October 13 409 they crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula. There they 'received land' from the Romans, as foederati, in Gallaecia (Northwest) and Hispania Baetica (South), while the Alans got lands in Lusitania (West) and the region around Carthago Nova. The Suebi also controlled part of Gallaecia. The Visigoths, who invaded Iberia before receiving lands in Septimania (Southern France), crushed the Alans in 426, killing the western Alan king Attaces. The remainder of his people subsequently appealed to the Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. Later Vandal kings in North Africa styled themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum ("King of the Vandals and Alans").

North Africa

The Vandal conquest of North Africa is considered as a strategic move. The Vandals took North Africa as a base for raiding the Mediterranean Sea, much like the Vikings. They settled mainly in the lands corresponding to modern Tunisia and northeastern Algeria. It was under the reign of king Geiseric (Genseric, Gaiseric), Gunderic's half brother, when Vandals started building a Vandal fleet, to plunder the Mediterranean.

Approximate location of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia

In 429, political maneuvering in Rome was to change the landscape forever. Rome was ruled by the boy emperor Valentinian III (who rose to power at the age of 8), and his mother Galla Placidia. However, the Roman General Flavius Aëtius, in vying for power, convinced Galla Placidia that her General Boniface was plotting to kill her and her son to claim the throne for himself. As proof, he implored her to write him a letter asking him to come to Rome and she would see that Boniface would refuse. At the same time Aëtius sent Boniface a letter stating that he should disregard letters from Rome asking him to return for they were plotting to kill him. When Boniface saw the letter from Rome, and believed there was a plot to kill him, he enlisted the help of the Vandal King Gaiseric. He promised the Vandals land in North Africa in exchange for their help. However, once it was known that the whole thing was a plot, and Boniface was once again in Rome's favour, it was too late to turn back the Vandal invasion.

Gaiseric crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with the entire tribe of 80,000 and moved east, pillaging and looting as they drove more and more refugees toward the walled city of Hippo Regius. Gaiseric realized that they wouldn't be able to take the city in a direct assault, so began a months long siege on the walls of Hippo Regius. Inside Saint Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the Arian invaders, knowing full well that the fall of the city would spell conversion or death for many Christians. On August 28th, 430AD, St. Augustine died 3 months into the siege of the city, perhaps from hunger or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested due to the invaders. After 14 months, hunger and the inevitable diseases were ravaging both the city inhabitants and the Vandals outside the city walls.

Peace was made between the Romans who in 435 granted them some territory in Northern Africa, but it was broken by Gaiseric, who in 439 made Carthage his capital. The Vandals took and plundered the city without a fight, entering the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome. Gaiseric then built the Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans into a powerful state with the capital at Saldae; he conquered Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands.

Differences between the Arian Christian faith of most of the Vandals and the Nicaean Trinitarian Christians (who included the official church of the Roman Empire and later Byzantium as well as Donatists) was a constant source of tension in their African state. Most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, persecuted non-Arian Christians to a greater or lesser extent. Members of the clergy were exiled, monasteries were dissolved, and general pressure was used on non-conforming Christians. Although Trinitarian Christianity was rarely officially forbidden (the last months of Huneric's reign being an exception), they were forbidden from making converts among the Vandals, and life was generally difficult for the non-Arian Christian clergy, who were denied bishoprics.

Sack of Rome

Main article: Sack of Rome (455)

During the next thirty-five years, with a large fleet, Geiseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western Empires. After Attila the Hun's death, however, the Romans could afford to turn their attention back to the Vandals, who were in control of some of the richest lands of their former empire. In an effort to bring the Vandals into the fold of the Empire, Valentinian III offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Geiseric's son. Before this "Treaty" could be carried out, however, politics again played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome. Petronius Maximus, the usurper, killed Valentinian III in an effort to control the Empire. Diplomacy between the two factions broke down, and in 455 with a letter from the Empress Licinia Eudoxia, begging Geiseric's son to rescue her, the Vandals took Rome, along with the Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia.

The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine offers the only fifth-century report that on 2 June 455, pope Leo the Great received Geiseric and implored him to abstain from murder and destruction by fire, and to be satisfied with pillage. Whether the pope's influence saved Rome is, however, questioned. The Vandals departed with countless valuables, including the spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem booty brought to Rome by Titus.

Temporary consolidation

From 462, the Vandal kingdom included North Africa and the islands of the Mediterranean, including Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands. However, like the other Germanic kingdoms on Roman soil, the African kingdom of the Vandals soon began to decay from the lack of religious and racial unity between the two populations.

In 468 they destroyed an enormous Byzantine fleet sent against them. Following up the attack, the Vandals tried to invade the Peloponnese but were driven back by the Maniots at Kenipolis with heavy losses. In retaliation, the Vandals took 500 hostages at Zakynthos, hacked them to pieces and threw the pieces overboard on the way to Carthage.

The Arian Vandals treated the Catholics more harshly than other German peoples. Catholic bishops were punished by Geiseric with deposition, exile, or death, and laymen were excluded from office and frequently suffered confiscation of their property. It is said of Geiseric himself that he was originally a Catholic and had changed to Arianism about 428; this, however, is probably an invention. He protected his Catholic subjects when his relations with Rome and Constantinople were friendly, as during the years 454–57, when the Catholic community at Carthage, being without a head, elected Deogratias bishop. The same was also the case during the years 476–77 when Bishop Victor of Cartenna sent him, during a period of peace, a sharp refutation of Arianism and suffered no punishment.

Decline

Geiseric, one of the most powerful personalities of the 'era of the Migrations', had been the power of the seas. He died at a great age on 25 January, 477 A.D. According to the law of succession which he had promulgated, not the son but the oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed to the throne (law of seniority). He was succeeded by his son Huneric (Hunerich, 477–484), who at first protected the Catholics, owing to his fear of Constantinople. But from 482 Huneric's reign was mostly notable for its religious persecutions of the Manichaeans and Catholics in the most terrible manner.

Gunthamund (484 – 496), his cousin and successor, sought internal peace with the Catholics and protected them once more. Externally, the Vandal power had been declining since Geiseric's death, and Gunthamund lost large parts of Sicily to the Ostrogoths and had to withstand increasing pressure from the autochthonous Moors.

While Thrasamund (496–523), owing to his religious fanaticism, was hostile to Catholics, he contented himself with bloodless persecutions.

The turbulent end

Hilderic (Hilderich, 523 – 530) was the Vandal king most tolerant towards the Catholic church (which had condemned Arianism at the First Council of Nicaea in 325). He granted it religious freedom; consequently Catholic synods were once more held in North Africa. However, he had little interest in war, and left it to a family member, Hoamer. When Hoamer suffered a defeat against the Moors, the Arian faction within the royal family led a revolt, raising the banner of national Arianism, and his cousin Gelimer (530 – 533) became king. Hilderic, Hoamer and their relatives were thrown into prison. Hilderich was deposed and murdered in 533.

This was taken as an excuse for interference by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, who declared war on the Vandals. The armies of the Eastern Empire were commanded by Belisarius, who, having heard that the greatest part of the Vandal fleet was fighting an uprising in Sardinia, decided to act quickly, and landed on Tunisian soil, then marched on to Carthage. In the late summer of 533, King Gelimer met Belisarius ten miles south of Carthage at the Battle of Ad Decimium; the Vandals were winning the battle until Gelimer's nephew Gibamund fell in battle. Gelimer then lost heart and fled. Belisarius quickly took Carthage while the surviving Vandals fought on.

On December 15, 533, Gelimer and Belisarius clashed again at Ticameron, some 20 miles from Carthage. Again, the Vandals fought well but broke, this time when Gelimer's brother Tzazo fell in battle. Belisarius quickly advanced to Hippo, second city of the Vandal Kingdom, and in 534 Gelimer surrendered to the Roman conqueror, ending the Kingdom of the Vandals. North Africa became a Roman province, from which the Vandals were expelled. Gelimer was honourably treated and received large estates in Galatia. He was also offered the rank of a patrician but had to refuse it because he was not willing to change his Arian faith.

List of kings

1. Godigisel (359–407)
2. Gunderic (407–428)
3. Geiseric (428–477)
4. Huneric (477–484)
5. Gunthamund (484–496)
6. Thrasamund (496–523)
7. Hilderic (523–530)
8. Gelimer (530–534)

Vandalic language

Main article: Vandalic language

Very little is known about the Vandalic language which was of the East Germanic linguistic branch, closely related to Gothic (known from Ulfilas's Bible translation), both completely extinct.

Vandals in present day etymology

The Swedish king has been styled since the middle ages as Suecorum, Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex or King of the Swedes, the Goths and the Vandals. The present king, Carl XVI Gustaf dropped the title in 1973 and currently styles himself simply as King of Sweden.

References to the Vandals

• "Vandalism" is from the French vandalisme, which originated during the French revolution. The verb vandalize is first recorded in 1800. The term "vandalism" has come to mean senseless destruction as a result of the Vandals' sack of Rome under King Geiseric in 455. Historians agree that the Vandals were no more destructive than other invaders of ancient times. During the Enlightenment, Rome was idealized, so the Goths and Vandals were disparaged. John Dryden writes: Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the matchless Monuments deface (1694). The word "goth" has gained architectural and other associations since Dryden's time, but "vandal" has not.
• The name Andalusia (Spain's southernmost region) is possibly derived from the ethnic name "Vandal", (Vandalusia).
• Robin Hemley's short story, The Liberation of Rome depicts a conversation between a professor of Roman History and a hostile student of "over half" Vandal ancestry.
• Stephen Lawhead's book, Pendragon, which recasts the medieval King Arthur fable in 5th-6th Century Celtic Britain, finds the Vandals invading Britain, having just been expelled from Carthage.
• The University of Idaho intercollegiate athletic teams are known as the Vandals.
• A skit performed by Monty Python's Flying Circus referenced the Vandals on April 20, 1969.
• A skit in the popular television series Saturday Night Live featured Steve Martin as a Roman general and depicted Vandals "TP'ing" the Roman camp and ordering pizzas in the general's name.

See also

• Migrations period
• Auriwandalo
• Timeline of Portuguese history - Germanic Kingdoms (5th to 8th Century)
• Venedes
• Veneti
• Vindelici
• Wends

Further reading

• John Julius Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries
• Westermann, Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)
• Pauly-Wissowa
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Lord Mahon Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope, The Life of Belisarius, 1848. Reprinted 2006 (unabridged with editorial comments) Evolution Publishing, ISBN 1-889758-67-1. [1]
• Online Etymology Dictionary: Vandal
• Brian Adam: History of the Vandals
• Ivor J. Davidson, A Public Faith, Chapter 11, Christians and Barbarians, Volume 2 of Baker History of the Church, 2005, ISBN 0-8010-1275-9
• Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution ISBN 0-85323-127-3. Written 484, non-NPOV primary source.
• F. Papencordt’s Geschichte der vandalischen Herrschaft in Afrika

External links

• Blume, Mary. "Vandals Exhibit Sacks Some Cultural Myths", International Herald Tribune, August 25, 2001.