Vandals

a group of tribes of eastern Germans.

The Vandals originally lived in the Scandinavian Peninsula. At the turn of the first century B.C. they resettled on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and by the third century A.D. they had moved to the Danube. In 335 they were settled in Pannonia as Roman foederati. At the beginning of the fifth century the Vandals (together with the Alani) moved westward; over several years they laid waste to Gaul, and in 409 they settled in Spain. Subsequently, after being pushed to the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Vandals, led by their king, Genseric (who ruled from 428 to 477), crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 429. In the course of ten years (meeting support from slaves and colonists) they conquered the Roman province of Africa (in 439 they captured Carthage), where they established their own kingdom. From here the Vandals carried out devastating raids on the islands and coasts of the western Mediterranean Sea (in 455 they plundered Rome itself).

On part of the territory of North Africa the Vandals confiscated the landholdings of the Roman magnates and divided them up among themselves. This speeded up the disintegration of the clan-tribal system and furthered the coming of age of elements of the feudal system among the Vandals. During the years 533-534 the Vandal kingdom, weakened by differences between the aristocracy, which had enriched itself, and the rank-and-file soldiers, was conquered by Byzantium; the Vandals were absorbed into the local population.