28 Facts About Vandals

1.

Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is southern Poland.

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2.

Around 400, raids by the Huns from the east forced many Germanic tribes to migrate west into the territory of the Roman Empire and, fearing that they might be targeted next, the Vandals were pushed westwards, crossing the Rhine into Gaul along with other tribes in 406.

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3.

In 409, the Vandals crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, where the Hasdingi and the Silingi settled in Gallaecia and Baetica .

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4.

Name of the Vandals has been connected to that of Vendel, the name of a province in Uppland, Sweden, which is eponymous of the Vendel Period of Swedish prehistory, corresponding to the late Germanic Iron Age leading up to the Viking Age.

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5.

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

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6.

Ptolemy furthermore mentioned the Silingi who were later counted as Vandals, as living south of the Semnones, who were Suebians living on the Elbe, and stretching to the Oder.

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7.

The Vandals then migrated to neighbouring Pannonia, where, after Constantine the Great granted them lands on the right bank of the Danube, they lived for the next sixty years.

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8.

From this, historian Peter Heather concludes that at this time the Vandals were located in the region around the Middle and Upper Danube.

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9.

Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

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10.

In 425, the Vandals pillaged the Balearic Islands, Hispania and Mauritania, sacking Cartagena and Seville in 425.

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11.

Vandals was succeeded by his half-brother Genseric, who although he was illegitimate had held a prominent position at the Vandal court, rising to the throne unchallenged.

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12.

Vandals's raised a new army in Italy and convinced her nephew in Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, to send an army to North Africa led by Aspar.

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13.

Romans and the Vandals concluded a treaty in 435 giving the Vandals control of the Mauretania and the western half of Numidia.

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14.

The city was captured without a fight; the Vandals entered the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome.

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15.

Vandals's siege of Palermo in 440 was a failure as was the second attempt to invade Sicily near Agrigento in 442 .

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16.

Vandals'storian 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.

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17.

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.

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18.

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.

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19.

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.

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20.

In 469 the Vandals gained control of Sicily but were forced by Odoacer to relinquish it in 477 except for the western port of Lilybaeum .

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21.

From 477 onwards, the Vandals produced their own coinage, restricted to bronze and silver low-denomination coins.

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22.

Vandals granted it religious freedom; consequently Catholic synods were once more held in North Africa.

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23.

Gelimer quickly assembled an army, and met Belisarius at the Battle of Ad Decimum; the Vandals were winning the battle until Gelimer's brother Ammatas and nephew Gibamund fell in battle.

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24.

Again, the Vandals fought well but broke, this time when Gelimer's brother Tzazo fell in battle.

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25.

Many Vandals went to Saldae where they integrated themselves with the Berbers.

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26.

Some few Vandals remained at North Africa while more migrated back to Spain.

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27.

Vandals was able to capture Carthage, but was assassinated by the Byzantines shortly afterwards.

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28.

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.

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