Vandals

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The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals may have given their name to the region of Andalusia, which was originally Vandalusia, then Arabic Al-Andalus, in the south of 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

The Vandals were first 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.

Similarities 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 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.

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 the 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 Vandals were divided in two tribal groups, the Silingi and the Hasdingi. At the time of the War of the Marcomanni (166-181) 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, 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 the Goths, on the west Marcomanni, on the north ^*" target="_blank" >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 the main Trinitarian Christianity in the Roman Empire, which later grew into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, 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

In October 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").

Africa

From 427 their king was Geiseric (Genseric, Gaiseric), Gunderic's half brother, who proved to be the one great Vandal king. He started building a Vandal fleet, which in 429 landed in North Africa with about 80,000 of his followers. It is a disputed point whether he was called to Africa by the Roman governor Boniface on account of the intrigues of Aetius. In 429, after becoming king, Geiseric crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and moved east toward Carthage. Peace was made between the Romans who in 435 granted them some territory in Northern Africa, but it was broken by Geiseric, 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 spectating at the races at the hippodrome. Geiseric then built the Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans into a powerful state with a 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 tensions in their African state. Most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, more or less persecuted Catholics. 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.

Sack of Rome

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. Diplomacy between the two factions broke down, and in 455 the Vandals took Rome and 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, and the Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia. It is asserted that the Empress Eudoxia had asked him to free her from her hated marriage with the Emperor Petronius Maximus, the murderer of her husband Valentinian III.

It is said 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, that is Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, but like the other Germanic kingdoms on Roman soil, the kingdom of the Vandals in Africa soon began to decay from the lack of unity of religion and of race among the two populations.

By 468 they destroyed an enormous Byzantine fleet sent against them.

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 terror of the seas. He died at a great age on 25 January, 477. 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 incompetent 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 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 most Catholic-friendly of the Vandal kings, who favoured them and granted 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 till Gelimer's nephew Gibamund fell in battle, 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 Galicia. 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

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. 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 use of the name Vandal

The name Andalusia (Spain's southernmost region) is possibly derived from the ethnic name "Vandal"
The term "vandal" has come to mean senseless destruction as a result 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 abstract term "vandalism" is from the French vandalisme and dates from the French revolution. The verb vandalize is first recorded in 1800.
The Vandals are the mascot of the University of Idaho.
The Vandals is the name for a Los Angeles area punk rock band.
Vandals RFC is a Rugby Union Football Club in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Robin Hemley's short short story, The Liberation of RomeAnthologized in Shapard and Thomas, Sudden Fiction (Continued) (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996; previously appeared in North Carolina Humanities and The Big Ear: Stories by Robin Hemley depicts a conversation between a professor of Roman History and a hostile student of "over half" Vandal ancestry.

Sources and references

John Julius Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries
Westermann, Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)
Pauly-Wissowa
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 0801012759
Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution ISBN 0853231273. Written 484, non-NPOV primary source.

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