Vandal Kingdom

Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans
Regnum Vandalorum et Alanorum
Vandaliric
435–534
Coin depicting Gelimer (530–534) of Vandal Kingdom
Coin depicting Gelimer (530–534)
The Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in 526 AD
The Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in 526 AD
CapitalHippo Regius
435–439[1]
Carthage
439–534[2][3]
Common languagesLatin (spoken by elite and clergy)
Vulgar Latin and African Romance (spoken by common people)
Vandalic (spoken among elite)
Punic (spoken among common people)
Alanic (spoken among Alanic elite)
Numidian (spoken among common people in rural areas)
Medieval Greek (spoken among common people)
Religion
Arianism (among elite)
Nicene Christianity
then Chalcedonian Christianity
GovernmentPre-feudal Monarchy
King 
• 435–477
Gaiseric
• 477–484
Huneric
• 484–496
Gunthamund
• 496–523
Thrasamund
• 523–530
Hilderic
• 530–534
Gelimer
History 
435
534
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Africa (Roman province)
Sicilia (Roman province)
Praetorian prefecture of Africa
Kingdom of the Aurès
Today part ofFrance
Italy
Spain
Algeria
Tunisia
Libya

The Vandal Kingdom (Latin: Regnum Vandalum) or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans (Latin: Regnum Vandalorum et Alanorum) was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and the Mediterranean for 99 years from 435 to 534 AD.

In 429 AD, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Hispania to North Africa. They advanced eastward, conquering the coastal regions of what is now Tunisia, and Algeria. In 435, the Western Roman Empire, then ruling North Africa, allowed the Vandals to settle in the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania when it became clear that the Vandal army could not be defeated by Roman military forces. In 439, the Vandals renewed their advance eastward and captured Carthage, the most important city of North Africa. The fledgling kingdom then conquered the Roman-ruled islands of Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the western Mediterranean. In the 460s, the Romans launched two unsuccessful military expeditions by sea in an attempt to overthrow the Vandals and reclaim North Africa. The conquest of North Africa by the Vandals was a blow to the beleaguered Western Roman Empire, as North Africa was a major source of revenue and a supplier of grain (mostly wheat) to the city of Rome.

Although primarily remembered for the sack of Rome in 455 and their persecution of Nicene Christians in favor of Arian Christianity, the Vandals also supported the continued construction of educational institutions in their kingdom. According to historian Richard Miles, North Africa hosted "many of the most innovative writers and natural scientists" of the late Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire.[4]

The Vandal Kingdom ended in 534, when it was conquered by Belisarius in the Vandalic War and incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire). The surviving Vandals either assimilated into the indigenous African population or were dispersed among the Byzantine territories.[5]

  1. ^ Andrew Merrills and Richard Miles, The Vandals (Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 60.
  2. ^ An Empire of Cities, Penelope M. Allison, The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Roman World, ed. by Greg Woolf (Cambridge University Press, 2001), 223
  3. ^ Andrew Merrills and Richard Miles, The Vandals, 3.
  4. ^ Merrills & Miles 2009, p. 1
  5. ^ Lawrence, Thomas Christopher (2012-10-26), "Vandals", The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12213, ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6, retrieved 2021-03-26

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