Vandals Vandals United States National Academy of Sciences Category="Ancient Germanic peoples"Category="Ancient Roman enemies and allies"Category="Ethnic groups of Europe"Category="History of the Germanic peoples"Category="Late Antiquity"Category="Vandal history"

: For other uses, see Vandal (disambiguation).

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. The Vandals may have given their name to the province of Andalusia (originally, Vandalusia, then Al-Andalus), in modern Spain, where they temporarily settled before pushing on to 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.

Origins

[image] The Vandals were identified with Przeworsk culture in the 19th century. 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.

Similarity of names have suggested 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 have settled in Silesia from around 120 BC. Tacitus recorded their presence between the Oder and Vistula rivers in Germania (AD 98) 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.

In medieval times, there was a popular belief that Vandals were ancestors of Poles. That belief originated probably because of two facts: first, confusion of the Venedes with Vandals and secondly, because both Venedes and Vandals in ancient times lived in areas later settled by Poles. In 796, in the Annales Alamanici, one can find an excerpt saying, "Pipinus ... perrexit in regionem Wandalorum, et ipsi Wandali venerunt obvium" ("Pepin went to region of the Vandals, which Vandals did come out to oppose him"). In Annales Sangallenses, the same raid (however, put in 795) is summarised in one short message, "Wandali conquisiti sunt" ("The Vandals were destroyed"). This means that early medieval writers gave the name of Vandals to Avars.

History

The two subdivisions of the Vandals were the Silingi and the Hasdingi. 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, then made peace and settled in western Dacia (Romania) and Roman Hungary.

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. Much like the Goths earlier, the Vandals adopted Arianism, a belief that was in opposition to that of the main Trinitarian Christianity in the Roman Empire, which later grew into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Gaul

The Vandals travelled west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who populated and controlled the Roman possessions in northern Gaul. 20,000 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 Rhine to invade Gaul. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

Iberia

In October 409 they crossed the Pyrenees mountain range 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. Still, the Suebi, who also controlled part of Gallaecia, and the Visigoths, who invaded Iberia before receiving lands in Septimania (Southern France), and crushed the Alans, whose surviving remnant hailed Gunderic as their king.

Africa

Gunderic's half brother Geiseric started building a Vandal fleet. In 429, after becoming king, Geiseric crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and moved east toward Carthage. In 435 the Romans granted them some territory in Northern Africa, yet in 439 Carthage fell to the Vandals. Geiseric then built the Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans into a powerful state (the capital was Saldae), and conquered Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands.

Differences between the Arian heresy adhered to by the Vandals and Rome's Catholics or Donatists was a constant source of tensions in their African state. Most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, more or less persecuted 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.

Sack of Rome

In 455, the Vandals took Rome and plundered the city for two weeks starting June 2. They departed with countless valuables, spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem brought to Rome by Titus, and the Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia. By 468 they destroyed an enormous Byzantine fleet sent against them.

Decline

At Geiseric's death in 477, his son Huneric became king. Huneric's reign was mostly notable for its religious persecutions of the Manichaeans and Catholics. Gunthamund (484-496) sought internal peace with the Catholics. 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 Moors.

Hilderic (523-530) was the most Catholic-friendly of the Vandal kings. 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, and Gelimer (530-533) became king. Hilderic, Hoamer and their relatives were thrown into prison.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian I declared war on the Vandals. The action was led by Belisarius. Having heard that the greatest part of the Vandal fleet was fighting an uprising in Sardinia, he 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 at first, but when Gelimer's nephew Gibamund fell in battle, the Vandals 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.

List of Kings

Vandalic Language

Very little is known about the Vandalic language which was of the East Germanic linguistic branch, closely related to Gothic (known from one Bible translation), both completely extinct. Some traces may remain in Andalusian dialect, the southernmost group of Spanish dialects, which is however far more strongly permeated with Arabic from the later Moors (711 to 1492, first and last Muslim rule in Iberia).

Modern heritage

The name Andalusia is a most likely derived from the name "Vandal."
Somewhat unfairly, the term "Vandals" became proverbial for barbaric plunder and destruction oweing to the speed with which they captured Rome. In truth they didn't damage the city any more than did other invaders, including Christian armies.
The Vandals are the mascot of the University of Idaho.

Sources and References

Pauly-Wissowa
Westermann Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)