Huneric

Huneric or Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the Vandals (477–484) and the oldest son of Genseric. He dropped the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to Eudocia, daughter of western Roman Emperor Valentinian III (419–455) and Licinia Eudoxia. She left him, probably in 472. She had one son by him, Hilderic.

Huneric was the first Vandal king who used the title King of the Vandals and Alans. Despite adopting this style, and that the Vandals maintained their sea-power and their hold on the islands of the western Mediterranean Sea, Huneric did not have the prestige that his father Genseric had enjoyed with other states.

Biography

Huneric was a son of King Gaiseric, and was sent to Italy as a hostage in 435, when his father made a treaty with the emperor Valentinian III. After his return to the Vandal court at Carthage, he married a daughter of Theodoric I, king of the Visigoths; but when this princess was suspected of attempting to poison her father-in-law, she was mutilated and was sent back to Europe. Huneric became king of the Vandals on his father's death in 477. Like Gaiseric he was an Arian, and his reign is chiefly memorable for his cruel persecution of members of the orthodox Christian Church in his dominions. Licinia Eudoxia was Huneric's second wife.