The Vandals were a Germanic people belonging to the family of Eastern Tribes. The term “Vandilii” is used by Tacitus in his Germania. They settled between the Elbe and Vistula. At the time of the Marcomannic War (166-81 AD) they lived in what is now Silesia. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD they settled along the Danube River. The Vandals and their ally, the Sarmatians, invaded Roman territory along upper Rhine river in AD 270.

Around 271 AD the Roman Emperor Aurelian was obliged to protect the middle course of the Danube against them. In AD 330 they were granted lands in Pannonia on the right bank of the Danube by Constantine the Great. The Vandals were Arian (Aryan) Christians, meaming they did not recognize Jesus as God.

They entered Gaul (now France) in 406, invaded Spain in 409, and fought in the latter country against both the Visigoths (another Germanic tribe) and the Romans. While in Spain, they became accomplished shipbuilders, which led to the next phase of their (and Rome's) history.

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 for centuries 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 (Romania) and Roman Hungary.

According to Jordanes' History of the Goths dicovered around 1850 by Theodore Mommsen, 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. 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.

In 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 changing climate had an unexpected effect. For the first time, the Rhine froze over, allowing the Vandals to cross and invade Gaul, which they devastated terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

In 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").

Into Africa
From 427 their king was Geiseric (Genseric, Gaiseric), Gunderic's half brother, arguably the greatest Vandal king, who started building a Vandal fleet, to plunder the Mediterranean.

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 Bonifice, was plotting to kill her and her son to claim the thrown for himself. As proof, he implored her to write him a letter asking him to come to Rome and she would see that Bonifice would refuse. At the same time Aëtius, sent Bonifice a letter stating that he should disregard letters from Rome asking him to return for they were plotting to kill him. When Bonifice 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 Bonifice was once again in Rome's favor, it was too late to turn back the horde.

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 St. 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 Catholics. 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 it's close cousin, disease were ravaging both the city inhabitants along with 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 faith adhered to by the Vandals and Rome's Catholics or Donatists was a constant source of tension in their African state. Most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, persecuted Catholics to a greater or lesser extent. Members of the clergy were exiled, monasteries were dissolved, and general pressure was used on non-conforming Catholics. Although Catholicism 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 Catholic clergy, who were denied bishoprics.

The 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. At the bequest of Pope Leo, they refrained from ravaging Rome's citizens, but they plundered the city for two weeks starting June 2. They departed with countless valuables, including spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem brought to Rome by Titus.

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; moreover, the Vandals had only booty in mind, nor was the plundering as extreme as later tradition and the expression "vandalism" would imply.

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 and End of Days

Geiseric, one of the most powerful personalities of the era of the Migrations, had been the terror 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.

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 honorably 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

The VANDALS Kingsline

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