Vandals

thumb|Vandal [[Cavalry|cavalryman, , from a mosaic pavement at Bordj Djedid near Carthage]]

thumb|150px|Vandal, painted by [[Lucas de Heere, 16th century|alt=]]

The Vandals were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned in passing by a small number of Roman writers in the first and second centuries, but became more prominent starting in the late second century during the tumultuous Marcomannic Wars of the Romans against many of the Germanic peoples north of the Danube, when Hasdingi-led Vandals took the side of the Romans, in exchange for territory in or near Dacia. It was also under Hasdingi leadership that large numbers of Vandals later migrated and formed a powerful Vandal Kingdom which ruled Roman North Africa for several generations until it was conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in 534.

Tribes categorized in the early period as Vandals included the Warini, Gutones, and Burgundians who all then lived near what is now Poland and Eastern Germany, but these tribes were not referred to as Vandals in later records. Archaeologists associate the early Vandals with the Przeworsk culture, which has led to some scholars equating them to the Lugii, who were another group of Germanic peoples associated with that same archaeological culture and region.

In the third and fourth centuries the Dacian Vandals, who were the focus of Roman interest, came under pressure not only from Romans, but also from the increasingly powerful Goths who now dominated the region to their east. In the late 4th century the region was overwhelmed by incoming Goths, Alans and Huns, and in the early 5th century, Hasdingi and Silingi Vandals, together with several neighbouring peoples also led by kings, began a major armed migration of their own, first to Roman Gaul, then further west into the Iberian Peninsula where they created several short-lived kingdoms.

The new Iberian kingdoms came under pressure from Romans and Visigoths, who invaded Iberia in 418, and almost wiped them out. The Alans and Silingi Vandals voluntarily subjected themselves to the rule of Hasdingian leader Gunderic. In 429, under a new Hasdingian king Genseric (reigned 428–477), the Vandals entered North Africa. By 439 they had established the Vandal kingdom which included the Roman province of Africa as well as Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and the Balearic Islands. They fended off several Roman attempts to recapture the African province, and they sacked the city of Rome in 455. Their kingdom collapsed in the Vandalic War of 533–534, in which the forces of Emperor Justinian I reconquered the province for the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

Renaissance and early-modern writers characterized the Vandals as prototypical barbarians, due to their 14-day Sack of Rome, leading to the use of the term "vandalism" to describe any form of wanton destruction, particularly the "barbarian" defacing of artwork. However, some modern historians have emphasised the role of Vandals as continuators of aspects of Roman culture, during the transitional period from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages.

Name

thumb|right|Neck ring with plug clasp from the Vandalic [[Treasure of Osztrópataka displayed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria]]

The ethnonym is attested as Wandali and Wendilenses by Saxo, as Vendill in Old Norse, and as Wend(e)las in Old English, all going back to a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as *Wanđilaz. The etymology of the name remains unclear. According to linguist Vladimir Orel, it may stem from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wanđaz ('turned, twisted'), itself derived from the verb *wenđanan (or *winđanan), meaning 'to wind'. Alternatively, it has been derived from a root *wanđ-, meaning 'water', based on the idea that the tribe was originally located near the Limfjord (a sea inlet in Denmark). The stem can also be found in Old High German wentilsēo and Old English wendelsǣ, both literally meaning 'Vandal-sea' and designating the Mediterranean Sea.

The Germanic mythological figure of Aurvandill has been interpreted by Rudolf Much to mean 'Shining Vandal', although this has been rejected in later scholarship. Much forwarded the theory that the tribal name Vandal reflects worship of Aurvandil or the Divine Twins, possibly involving an origin myth that the Vandalic kings were descended from Aurvandil (comparable to the case of many other Germanic tribal names).

Some medieval authors conflated the ethnonyms Vandals and Veneti, applying both to West Slavic peoples and giving rise to the term Wends, which came to denote various Slavic-speaking groups and is still used of the Lusatians. Modern scholarship, however, derives Wend from Veneti and does not equate the Veneti with the Vandals.

The name of the Vandals has been connected to that of Vendel, the name of a province in Uppland, Sweden, which is also eponymous of the Vendel Period of Swedish prehistory, corresponding to the late Germanic Iron Age leading up to the Viking Age. The connection is considered tenuous at best and more plausibly the result of chance, though Scandinavia is considered the probable homeland of the tribe prior to the Migration Period.

Classification

Once the Vandals came to live outside of Germania, they were no longer considered Germani by ancient Roman authors.

Since the Vandals spoke a Germanic language (mainly Vandalic) and belonged to early Germanic culture, they are classified as a Germanic people by modern scholars.

History

Origins

thumb|right|upright=1.35|Germanic and Proto-Slavic tribes of Central Europe around 3rd century BC

thumb|right|upright=1.35|Tribes of Central Europe in the mid-1st century AD. The Vandals/[[Lugii are depicted in green, in the area of modern Poland.]]

Early classical sources

The earliest mention of the Vandals is from Pliny the Elder, who used the term Vandili in a broad way to define one of the major groupings of all Germanic peoples. Tribes within this category whom he mentions are the Burgundiones, Varini, Carini (otherwise unknown), and the Gutones.

Tacitus mentioned the Vandilii, but only in a passage explaining legends about the origins of the Germanic peoples. He names them as one of the groups sometimes thought to be one of the oldest divisions of these peoples, along with the Marsi, Gambrivii, and Suebi, but does not say where they live, or which peoples are within this category. On the other hand, Tacitus and Ptolemy give information about the position of Varini, Burgundians, and Gutones in this period, and these indications suggest that the Vandals in this period lived between the Elbe and Vistula rivers.

Writing in the 2nd century, Ptolemy mentioned the Silingi, who were later counted as Vandals, as living south of the Semnones, and who were Suebians living east of the Elbe, and stretching to the Oder.

The Hasdingi, who later led the Vandal invasion of Carthage, do not appear in written records until the 2nd century and the time of the Marcomannic wars. The Lacringi, who may also have been Vandals, appear in 3rd-century records.

Lugii

The Lugii, who were also mentioned in early classical sources in the same region, are likely to have been the same people as the Vandals. The Lugii are mentioned by Strabo, Tacitus, and Ptolemy as a large group of tribes between the Vistula and the Oder. Strabo and Ptolemy do not mention the Vandals at all, only the Lugii. Tacitus mentions them in a passage about the ancestry of the Germanic peoples without saying where they lived, and Pliny the Elder in contrast mentions the Vandals but not the Lugii. Walter Pohl and Walter Goffart have noted that Ptolemy seems to distinguish the Silingi from the Lugii, and in the 2nd century the Hasdings, when they appear in the Roman record, are also distinguished from the Lugii. Herwig Wolfram notes that "In all likelihood the Lugians and the Vandals were one cultic community that lived in the same region of the Oder in Silesia, where it was first under Celtic and then under Germanic domination." The bearers of the Przeworsk culture mainly practiced cremation and occasionally inhumation.

Introduction into the Roman Empire

thumb|upright=1.25|Vandalic [[Gold leaf|gold foil jewelry from the 3rd or 4th century]]

right|thumb|upright=0.9|Reconstruction of an Iron Age warrior's garments representing a Vandalic man, with his hair in a "[[Suebian knot" (160 AD), Archaeological Museum of Kraków, Poland]]

In the 2nd century, two or three distinct Vandal peoples came to the attention of Roman authors: the Silingi, the Hasdingi, and possibly the Lacringi, who appear together with the Hasdingi. Only the Silingi had been mentioned in early Roman works, and are associated with Silesia.

These peoples appeared during the Marcomannic Wars, which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. During the Marcomannic Wars (166–180) the Hasdingi (or Astingi), led by the kings Raus and Rapt (or Rhaus and Raptus) moved south, entering Dacia as allies of Rome. However they eventually caused problems in Dacia and moved further south, towards the lower Danube area. Together with the Hasdingi were the Lacringi, who were possibly also Vandals.

In about 271 AD, the Roman Emperor Aurelian was obliged to protect the middle course of the Danube against Vandals. They made peace and stayed on the eastern bank of the Danube. According to him the Vandals then migrated to neighbouring Pannonia, where, after Constantine the Great (in about 330) granted them lands on the right bank of the Danube, they lived for the next 60 years.

In the late 4th century and early 5th, the famous magister militum Stilicho (died 408), the chief minister of the Emperor Honorius, was described as being of Vandal descent. Vandals raided the Roman province of Raetia in the winter of 401/402. From this, historian Peter Heather concludes that at this time the Vandals were located in the region around the Middle and Upper Danube. It is possible that such Middle Danubian Vandals were part of the Gothic king Radagaisus's invasion of Italy in 405–406 AD.

While the Hasdingian Vandals were already established in the Middle Danube for centuries, it is less clear where the Silingian Vandals had been living, though it may have been in Silesia.

In Britannia

In AD 278, Emperor Probus, on defeating the Vandals and Burgundians, transferred many of them to Britain. It is unknown where they were settled, though Silchester seems to be a likely candidate. The city bears the name of the Silingi, is only one of six that existed in Roman Britain that did not survive the sub-Roman era, and appears to have been ritually cursed – likely by the Anglo-Saxons – before being abandoned.

In Gaul

In 405 AD, 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. According to the Frigeridus fragment cited by Gregory of Tours, around 20,000 Vandals, including Godigisel himself, died in this Vandal–Frankish war, but then with the help of the Alans they managed to defeat the Franks, and on December 31, 405, the Vandals crossed the Rhine, probably while it was frozen, to invade Gaul, which they devastated terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

===In Hispania===

thumb|upright=1.3|Migrations of the Vandals from Scandinavia through Dacia, Gaul, Iberia, and into North Africa. Grey: Roman Empire. N.b.: a. C. = BC («después de Cristo» in Spanish) and d. C. = AD («antes de Cristo» in Spanish).

On October 13, 409, they crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula. There, the Hasdingi received land from the Romans, as foederati, in Asturia (Northwest) and the Silingi in 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 on the orders of the Romans before receiving lands in Septimania (Southern France), crushed the Silingi Vandals in 417 and the Alans in 418, killing the western Alan king Attaces. The remainder of his people and the remnants of the Silingi, who were nearly wiped out, 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"). In 419 AD, the Hasdingi Vandals were defeated during Asterius campaign by a Roman–Suebi coalition. Gunderic fled to Baetica, where he was also proclaimed king of the Silingi Vandals. In 422, Gunderic decisively defeated a Roman-Suebi–Gothic coalition led by the Roman patrician Castinus in the Vandal war of 422. It is likely that many Roman and Gothic troops deserted to Gunderic following the battle. In 429, the Vandals departed Spain, which remained almost totally in Roman hands until 439, when the Suebi, confined to Gallaecia, moved south and captured Emerita Augusta (Mérida), the see city of Roman administration for the whole peninsula.

Genseric is often regarded by historians as the most able barbarian leader of the Migration Period. Michael Frassetto writes that he probably contributed more to the destruction of Rome than any of his contemporaries. This Suebi army was defeated near Mérida and its leader Heremigarius drowned in the Guadiana River while trying to flee.

Kingdom in North Africa

Establishment

thumb|upright=1.35|right|The Vandal Kingdom at its greatest extent in the 470s

thumb|upright=1.35|[[Bronze coin of Bonifacius Comes Africae (422–431 CE), who was defeated by the Vandals. Legends: DOMINIS NOSTRIS / CARTAGINE]]

The Vandals under Genseric (also known as Geiseric) crossed to Africa in 429. Although numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates, based on Procopius's assertion that the Vandals and Alans numbered 80,000 when they moved to North Africa, Peter Heather estimates that they could have fielded an army of around 15,000–20,000.

According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Bonifacius, the military ruler of the region. Seeking to establish himself as an independent ruler in Africa or even become Roman Emperor, Bonifacius had defeated several Roman attempts to subdue him, until he was mastered by the newly appointed Gothic count of Africa, Sigisvult, who captured both Hippo Regius and Carthage. Bonifacius subsequently barricaded himself inside Hippo Regius with the Vandals besieging the city. perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. The death of Augustine shocked the Regent of the Western Roman Empire, Galla Placidia, who feared the consequences if her realm lost its most important source of grain.

The Romans and the Vandals concluded a treaty in 435 giving the Vandals control of the Mauretania and the western half of Numidia. Genseric chose to break the treaty in 439 when he invaded the province of Africa Proconsularis and seized Carthage on October 19. The city was captured without a fight; the Vandals entered the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome. Genseric made it his capital, and styled himself the King of the Vandals and Alans, to denote the inclusion of the Alans of northern Africa into his alliance. His forces also occupied Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands. His siege of Palermo in 440 was a failure as was the second attempt to invade Sicily near Agrigento in 442 (the Vandals occupied the island from 468 to 476 when it was ceded to Odovacer). Historian Cameron suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcomed by the population of North Africa as the great landowners were generally unpopular.

The impression given by ancient sources such as Victor of Vita, Quodvultdeus, and Fulgentius of Ruspe was that the Vandal take-over of Carthage and North Africa led to widespread destruction. However, recent archaeological investigations have challenged this assertion. Although Carthage's Odeon was destroyed, the street pattern remained the same and some public buildings were renovated. The political centre of Carthage was the Byrsa Hill. New industrial centres emerged within towns during this period. Historian Andy Merrills uses the large amounts of African Red Slip ware discovered across the Mediterranean dating from the Vandal period of North Africa to challenge the assumption that the Vandal rule of North Africa was a time of economic instability. When the Vandals raided Sicily in 440, the Western Roman Empire was too preoccupied with war with Gaul to react. Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441; however, it only progressed as far as Sicily. The Western Empire under Valentinian III secured peace with the Vandals in 442. Under the treaty the Vandals gained Byzacena, Tripolitania, and the eastern half of Numidia, and were confirmed in control of Proconsular Africa as well as the Vandal Kingdom as the first barbarian kingdom was officially recognized as an independent kingdom in former Roman territory instead of foederati. The Empire retained western Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces until 455.

Sack of Rome

thumb|upright=1.35|right|The Sack of Rome, [[Karl Briullov, 1833–1836]]

During the next 35 years, with a large fleet, Genseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western Empires. Vandal activity in the Mediterranean was so substantial that the sea's name in Old English was Wendelsæ (i. e. Sea of the Vandals). 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 Genseric's son. Before this treaty could be carried out, however, politics again played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome. Petronius Maximus killed Valentinian III and claimed the Western throne. Petronius then forced Valentinian III's widow, empress Licinia Eudoxia, to marry him. Diplomacy between the two factions broke down, and in 455, with a letter from Licinia Eudoxia begging Genseric's son to rescue her, the Vandals took Rome, along with the Empress and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia.

The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine offers the only 5th-century report that, on 2 June 455, Pope Leo the Great received Genseric 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. Eudoxia and her daughter Eudocia were taken to North Africa. In 457, a mixed Vandal-Berber army returning with loot from a raid in Campania were soundly defeated in a surprise attack by Western Emperor Majorian at the mouth of the Garigliano river.

As a result of the Vandal sack of Rome and piracy in the Mediterranean, it became important to the Roman Empire to destroy the Vandal kingdom. In 460, Majorian launched an expedition against the Vandals, but was defeated at the Battle of Cartagena. In 468, the Western and Eastern Roman empires launched an enormous expedition against the Vandals under the command of Basiliscus, which reportedly was composed of 100,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships. The Vandals defeated the invaders at the Battle of Cap Bon, capturing the Western fleet, and destroying the Eastern through the use of fire ships. In retaliation, the Vandals took 500 hostages at Zakynthos, hacked them to pieces and threw the pieces overboard on the way to Carthage.

In the 470s, the Romans abandoned their policy of war against the Vandals. The Western general Ricimer reached a treaty with them, From 477 onwards, the Vandals produced their own coinage, restricted to bronze and silver low-denomination coins. The high-denomination imperial money was retained, demonstrating in the words of Merrills "reluctance to usurp the imperial prerogative".

Although the Vandals had fended off attacks from the Romans and established hegemony over the islands of the western Mediterranean, they were less successful in their conflict with the Berbers. Situated south of the Vandal kingdom, the Berbers inflicted two major defeats on the Vandals in the period 496–530. He protected his Catholic subjects when his relations with Rome and Constantinople were friendly, as during the years 454–457, when the Catholic community at Carthage, being without a head, elected Deogratias bishop. The same was also the case during the years 476–477, when Bishop Victor of Cartenna sent him, during a period of peace, a sharp refutation of Arianism and suffered no punishment. Huneric, Genseric's successor, issued edicts against Catholics in 483 and 484 in an effort to marginalise them and make Arianism the primary religion in North Africa. Generally, most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, persecuted Trinitarian Christians to a greater or lesser extent, banning conversion for Vandals, exiling bishops, and generally making life difficult for Trinitarians.

Decline

According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: "Genseric, one of the most powerful personalities of the "era of the Migrations", died on 25 January 477, at the great age of around 88 years. According to the law of succession which he had promulgated, the oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed. Thus he was succeeded by his son Huneric (477–484), who at first tolerated Catholics, owing to his fear of Constantinople, but after 482 began to persecute Manichaeans and Catholics."

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I declared war, with the stated intention of restoring Hilderic to the Vandal throne. The deposed Hilderic was murdered in 533 on Gelimer's orders. and met Belisarius at the Battle of Ad Decimum; the Vandals were winning until Gelimer's brother Ammatas and 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 the Battle of Tricamarum, approximately from Carthage. Again, the Vandals fought well but eventually 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 Byzantine conqueror, which marks the end of the Vandal kingdom.

North Africa, comprising northern Tunisia and eastern Algeria in the Vandal period, became a Roman province again, from which the Vandals were expelled. Many Vandals went to Saldae (today called Béjaïa in north Algeria) where they integrated with the Berbers. Many others were put into imperial service or fled to the two Gothic kingdoms: the Ostrogothic and the Visigothic. Some Vandal women married Byzantine soldiers and settled in north Algeria and Tunisia. The choicest Vandal warriors were formed into five cavalry regiments, known as Vandali Iustiniani, stationed on the Persian frontier. Some entered the private service of Belisarius. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia states that "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." In 546 the Vandalic Dux of Numidia, Guntarith, defected from the Byzantines and raised a rebellion with Moorish support. He was able to capture Carthage, but was assassinated by the Byzantines shortly afterwards.

List of kings

Known kings of the Vandals:

Wisimar (d. 335)
Godigisel (359–406)
Gunderic (407–428)
Gaiseric (428–477)
Huneric (477–484)
Gunthamund (484–496)
Thrasamund (496–523)
Hilderic (523–530)
Gelimer (530–534)

Family tree of the kings of Vandals

Latin literacy

All Vandals that modern historians know about were able to speak Latin, which also remained the official language of the Vandal administration (most of the staff seem to have been native Berber or Roman). Levels of literacy in the ancient world are uncertain, but writing was integral to administration and business. Studies of literacy in North Africa have tended to centre around the administration, which was limited to the social elite. However, the majority of the population of North Africa did not live in urban centres.

Judith George explains that "Analysis of the [Vandal] poems in their context holds up a mirror to the ways and values of the times". Very little work of the poets of Vandal North Africa survives, but what does is found in the Latin Anthology; apart from their names, little is known about the poets themselves, not even when they were writing. Their work drew on earlier Roman traditions. Modern scholars generally hold the view that the Vandals allowed the Romans in North Africa to carry on with their way of life with only occasional interference.

Legacy

right|thumb|The Vandals' traditional reputation: a coloured steel engraving of the Sack of Rome (455) by [[Heinrich Leutemann (1824–1904), c. 1860–80]]

Since the Middle Ages, kings of Denmark were styled "King of Denmark, the Goths and the Wends", the Wends being a group of West Slavs formerly living in Mecklenburg and eastern Holstein in modern Germany. The title "King of the Wends" is translated as vandalorum rex in Latin. The title was shortened to "King of Denmark" in 1972. Starting in 1540, Swedish kings (following Denmark) were styled Suecorum, Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex ("King of the Swedes, Geats, and Wends"). Carl XVI Gustaf dropped the title in 1973 and now styles himself simply as "King of Sweden".

The modern term vandalism stems from the Vandals' reputation as the barbarian people who sacked and looted Rome in AD 455. The Vandals were probably not any more destructive than other invaders of ancient times, but writers who idealized Rome often blamed them for its destruction. For example, English Restoration poet John Dryden wrote, Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, / Did all the matchless Monuments deface.

The term Vandalisme was coined in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution. The term was quickly adopted across Europe. This new use of the term was important in colouring the perception of the Vandals from later Late Antiquity, popularizing the pre-existing idea that they were a barbaric group with a taste for destruction. Vandals and other "barbarian" groups had long been blamed for the fall of the Roman Empire by writers and historians.