Geiseric & The Kingdom of The Vandals

it was during the f4 28 that a vast and terrifying fleet appeared off the shores of North Africa the coast had been controlled by the Romans for over 500 years now and it largely been a peace for those long centuries far away as it was from the hostile northern and eastern borders new empire but now as terrified Roman citizens and slaves alike gazed out into the open sea they realized to their terror that the frontier had come to them tens of thousands of battle-hardened desperate Germanic warriors from beyond the borders of the Empire and the vessels yet they were accompanied by their families women children livestock and all manner of other goods and equipment it was clear from the start that this was no mere invasion force it was an entire nation on the roof fleeing deep into Roman territory whose stronger more dangerous folks from beyond the frontier to the east and more than happy to claim any Roman territory that they could conquer along the way if the contemporary sources are to be believed as many as 80,000 men women and children crossed over from Spain led by the new king geysering a young and energetic ruler who seems to have planned the Seaboard migration for years to the abject horror of the established Roman order in western Mediterranean the Vandals had arrived guys Erick seems to have been born in modern-day Hungary around 400 AD as an illegitimate son of the current king of the vandals the vandals themselves had likely lived in Central Europe for many years prior to this they were just one of a vast multitude of Germanic tribes who had poured over the frontier into the Roman Empire during this time most of whom had been interned pushed westwards by a mass population displacement caused by the Hunnic invasions a nomadic step people generally seen as a far more terrifying enemy of the Romans in 406 the entirety of the vandal nation and a company where large numbers of fleeing Alan's zwei be Burgundians and numerous other tribes faithfully crossed over the Rhine in an event often seen as one of the final nails in the coffin of the Western Roman Empire whose army was far away to the south of the time in Italy facing Alaric and his Visigoths who had already crossed over the rhine some years before leaving havoc in the wake just a small force auxiliaries contested the crossing although they did manage to kill King gotta go soft during the fighting it was too little too late either and the vast majority of the Vandal people had already crossed over the river into the fertile and rich heartland of the Empire guys uruk's half-brother gundrick took charge after his father's death in the rhine and led his people deep into the Empire raiding and pillaging them alongside the various other Germanic tribes who had also lost whilst also searching for a new home for his people by four to eight they had traveled as far as the south of Spain and they were now engaged in war but that already fairly well established busy Goths and the new clients this way be by the time gundrick died in four to eight guys Erick had likely been his right-hand man for many years and he took up the reins not as a novice but as a seasoned tactician and leader by all accounts an ambitious man and fiercely intelligent it seems likely that he had already been planning to cross over to North Africa for a number of years by the time he assumed the kingship and now with renewed hostilities with the Visigoths to reckon with a tribe who heavily outnumbered them he seized his chance to put his Seabourn plan into action in four to eight possibly after an invitation from the Roman governor of North Africa when a fascist they were fallen out with the Roman general ATS and wished to use the Vandals a mercenary army to his advantage the vast Germanic force which also included various other people such as allons floated over the Straits of Gibraltar in the massive fleet if bonifacius had indeed invited the Vandals over to say that he underestimated them would be a colossal understatement as the vast army moved eastwards across the coastline they caused great devastation and violence wherever they went finally turning on Bonifacio's himself in 430 and annihilating his army in battle and crushing the combined might of the eastern and western roman armies that had been sent to apprehend them in 4:35 after years of raiding in North Africa the Romans and the Vandals finally came to terms with Emperor Valentinian the third officially ceding the provinces of Marashi Anna and Numidia two guys were thus allowing him to keep the areas of North Africa that he had already conquered under the condition that the Vandals would fight for Rome as Feder RT an agreement to whereby they would offer military service to Rome in return for protection the agreement lasted for just a few years until 439 when guys are ignited that the remaining Roman lands in North Africa have been left largely undefended because events playing out in Gaul before the year was a he moved his forces into the largest and most important city of North Africa the metropolis of Carthage before making it his new capital for the first time since the Punic Wars well over 500 years earlier Rome now faced a powerful enemy in the city of Carthage right on his doorstep contrary to the modern connotations of the word vandal Roman population was actually allowed to stay in the city relatively untouched and much of the city's infrastructure and architecture was kept intact the citizens of Carthage and its surrounding areas were even allowed a new level of religious freedom and to the Vandals who like the Goths before them were Arian Christians a sect of Christianity decreed to be heretical by the mainstream Roman Church although wealthy Roman Catholics taxed more than they have been previously the common folk actually paid far less taxes than they had previously paid and the Romans remain powerless to act against the usurpation another prize lay at Carthage to the majority of the Navy of the Western Empire which bolstered guys Erick stone fleet turning the Vandals overnight into the greatest threat to Roman maritime supremacy since the Carthaginians over five centuries before guys Erick then proceeded to capture Sicily Sardinia Corsica and the Balearic Islands while strengthening his defenses and his fleet until Rome finally recognized the vandal Kingdom as an independent country in 442 the next 30 years guys and his fleet raided all over the Mediterranean at will living as pirates and Raiders and taking the newfound wealth back to Carthage which became a vast powerhouse and a center of Aryan Christianity but 455 impossibly the greatest feat of his rule guys arrived outside the eternal city of Rome with this army Valentinian the third had just been murdered and usurped his Emperor by Petronius Maximus because of this guy Zurich likely didn't see his peace treaty with Valentinian as well it anymore to the Vandal Kings Credit Pope Leo the first begged him not to destroy the city or murderous inhabitants guys Erick agreed simply carrying away most of its riches but leaving its architecture and people intact the Romans never forgot this act and in for 6-8 both halves of the empire launched a vast invasion force against the Vandals according to procopius the force numbers from a hundred thousand was drawn from all corners of the eastern empire now by far the more prosperous of the two halves several massive sea battles ensued with the Vandals losing as many as three hundred and forty ships in the first encounter yet succeeding and destroying as many as six hundred Roman ships in the second the Romans called off the campaign and guys I recommend the master of the western Mediterranean until his death in 477 ruling from modern-day Algeria all the way to Libya in the aftermath of his death and in the absence of his strong rule which had lasted for nearly 50 years the Vandal Kingdom soon entered a Swift decline and eventual collapse in 534 ad you

Channel: History Time

Views: 130,980

Keywords: iMovie, vandals, vandal invasions, barbarian invasions, fall of rome, fall of the roman empire, geiseric, the vandals, romans, rome, roman history, history of tome, history of rome, goths, hunnic invasions, carthage, carthaginian

Id: qNXfLt2onG0

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2017