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‘A man of deep thought and few words’ is how the chronicler Jordanes described Gaiseric (born AD c.389), King of the Vandals. ‘He holds luxury in disdain, is furious in his anger, greedy for gain, shrewd in winning over the barbarians and skilled in sowing the seeds of discord among his enemies.’
As a young man of 20, Gaiseric won a following among the aristocrats who hunted and raided alongside his royal father – but Gaiseric was illegitimate, his mother one of the king’s concubines. On the king’s death, it was announced he had wished his eldest legitimate son, Gontharis, to succeed to his power. To pass him over could split the tribe in bitter rivalry.
‘But Gontharis was still a child,’ wrote the historian Procopius, ‘and not of very energetic temper, whereas Gaiseric had been excellently trained in warfare and was the cleverest of all men.’ Many accepted this and, sometime in 428, the boy Gontharis was removed, making Gaiseric undisputed ruler of the Vandals.
Germanic warriors
The Vandals were a Germanic confederation of tribes from beyond the Danube. In 406, their war bands, in alliance with fellow barbarians of the Alans and Suevi rode west, crossed the Rhine, and invaded France. Theirs was a lean, hard army of young men, leaving their homeland and families behind, searching for wealth and excitement. After a few years of marauding, they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain in 409.
The Roman Empire was not interested in hiring them as a useful buffer against peasant revolts, seeing them for what they were: gangs of freebooters little interested in constructive settlement. In Spain, however, the Vandals grew up. The Empire employed Visigoths to harass and hunt them. Between battling with Romano-Hispanic landlords and rival barbarian tribes, and then being hammered by the Visigoth imperial enforcers, the chief Vandals began to desire a land in which they could settle, free from attack, to raise their families. They had grown tired of war, but war would not leave them alone.
Gaiseric understood the desires of his older comrades. Those raw, young men who had ridden into Spain 20 years ago now had all the wealth they wanted – the comfortable Roman way of life they had dreamed of. And yet, every year, they saw their brothers and the sons of their Spanish wives die in relentless feuding and raiding. Other barbarians were hard on them, while the Vandals would never be invited to serve on behalf of the Empire. Their presence in Spain would not be tolerated and, as long as other barbarians were ambitious for imperial employment, the Vandals would remain a target for every imperial-backed marauder. But among Gaiseric’s young contemporaries, the mood was different. They were still hungry for adventure and triumph in war. Somehow, Gaiseric had to find a compromise.
Seaborne raiders
At the beginning of the 420s, the Vandals had won a great victory against a Romano-Goth army led by the politician and general Castinus. It gave them the confidence to establish their power in the ports of southern Spain, formerly Roman strongholds. There, they employed native ship-builders and learned the craft of seamanship. Soon, Vandal boats were riding the waves towards Mallorca and Minorca, and the north African coast of the Roman province of Mauretania.
Such seaborne raiding may have appealed especially to Gaiseric. At some stage, he had suffered a severe fall from his horse which left him permanently lame. Ever after, riding could not have been a favourite activity. On board ship, however, he could satisfy his need for excitement. In lightly built oar- and sail-driven ships, he sped towards foreign coasts. While his retainers ensured his share of the booty, the Vandal warlord gathered valuable information. He already knew the north African provinces were the chief suppliers of grain and oil to the Empire. But he also learned the strength and nature of the defences of this imperial breadbasket. Becoming King of the Vandals in 429, it seemed this was the direction his people should take. A final savage combat with the Suevi convinced him that the Vandals should cross the narrow strait of water to Africa.
Bearing in mind the situation in Spain, the seaborne success of the Vandals in the late 420s, and the accession of their first new king since 406, it seemed more than likely the Vandals would move on to Africa. That said, many chroniclers insist that Gaiseric was invited into Africa by Boniface, chief imperial warlord of the entire region. As comes Africae, Boniface had established great power through force of arms and the patronage of Placidia, mother of Western Emperor Valentinian III.
‘Boniface was a heroic man,’ wrote the contemporary Olympiodorus. ‘He fought valiantly against the barbarians, sometimes attacking with a few troops, sometimes with many, and occasionally even engaging in single combat.’
Olympiodorus records his willingness to bloody his hands. A landowner came to Boniface complaining his young wife was being seduced by one of the warlord’s followers. He bewailed the disgrace and beseeched Boniface to set it right. In an action befitting a young ‘Godfather’, Boniface made his way personally to the field in which the acts of seduction took place. He then surprised the barbarian with the estate owner’s wife and cut off his head. The next day, the landowner was called before Boniface and the decapitated head revealed. The man was shocked – and forever in Boniface’s debt.
In the early 420s, Boniface maintained a firm grip on the Roman province of North Africa, defending it against the incursions of powerful Moorish tribesmen. By the middle of the decade, however, the situation was proving increasingly difficult. The theologian Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine), a friend and adviser, wrote to the warlord wondering at his lack of action: ‘Who would ever have believed that Boniface… should now have suffered the barbarians to be so bold, to destroy and plunder so much, and to turn into desert such vast regions once densely peopled?’
Vandal invasion
Augustine was not the only Roman concerned with the breakdown in Boniface’s leadership. In 427, he was recalled to the imperial court at Ravenna to explain his failure. He refused and two armies were sent to get him. Surprisingly, given the reason he was under attack, Boniface emerged triumphant from the assault. But at what cost?
Several chroniclers maintain that, in his desperation, Boniface invited the Vandals into Africa to assist him against the imperial forces from Italy. It was they who won him a respite from a displeased Emperor. And yet, almost as soon as Boniface had beaten off this threat, there began a war between him and the Vandals. Certainly both sides in this Roman civil war may have requested mercenaries from the Vandals, and Boniface through his wife may have had special connections with the Arian Germans (followers of a Christian heresy that believed Jesus Christ was a creation of God, not part of the Trinity). But it seems foolish of Boniface to invite Gaiseric and his followers into Africa without some formal treaty.
What seems more likely is that Gaiseric was fully aware of the weakness of Boniface. When the imperial forces came to battle with the rebel warlord, Gaiseric took advantage of the chaos and went ahead with his own planned invasion. A fleet was constructed and, while uncertainty ruled, the Vandal king reputedly landed with 80,000 followers.
If the arrival of the Vandals in Africa was a mixed blessing for Boniface, depending on which story you believe, it was a catastrophe for the Catholic communities of Mauretania. The bishop Possidius described the dread felt by Catholics: ‘They poured into Africa from across the sea in ships from Spain, a huge host of savage enemies arrived with every kind of weapon and trained in war… There was no limit to their savage atrocities and cruelties. Everything they could reach they laid waste, with their looting, murders, tortures… and countless other unspeakable crimes.’
It is from these outraged Catholic accounts that our concept of the Vandals as wild, wanton destroyers is derived – and it was the fierce partisanship between Catholic and Arian Christians that made the ensuing war in North Africa so bitter. One can compare it to the religious conflict of later centuries between Catholic and Protestant. Once, when Gaiseric was embarking on a piratical expedition, the ship’s pilot asked him where he was going. ‘Against all who have incurred the wrath of God,’ he boomed.
The siege of Hippo
Soon after Gaiseric landed on the Mauretanian coast, Boniface clashed with the pirate horde. As Possidius suggests, the Vandals included adventurers from other Germanic tribes, as well as Spanish and Moorish marauders. At the core of Boniface’s army were his bucellarii – his private army. Their ranks thinned by fighting the Italian imperialists, any gaps would have been filled by prisoners from the defeated Romano-Goths. To this may be added native auxiliaries. Despite this array, Boniface was overwhelmed and the countryside lay open to Gaiseric. Boniface fell back to the fortified coastal town of Hippo Regius (now Annaba in Algeria). The Roman warlord probably felt compelled to draw his line of defence here, as Augustine was bishop of the community.
Unable to capture the town in a direct assault, Gaiseric settled for a siege. Refugees from all around crowded inside its walls. Each day, they saw the Vandal siegeworks grow larger, depriving them even of their sea links. Catholic priests joined together in prayers for a hasty release, strengthening the resolve of the citizens against the Arians.
Three months into the siege, Augustine fell ill, and, within days, Boniface’s venerable adviser was dead. The blow to the garrison’s morale was tremendous. Eventually, messengers broke through the Vandal lines and, after several months, a relief army was dispatched from Constantinople to Carthage under the leadership of the Roman general Aspar.
After 14 months, hunger and disease were ravaging the Vandals as much as Hippo’s besieged inhabitants. With news of Aspar at Carthage and skirmishing along the coast between the two cities, Gaiseric decided to relax the siege and enter into negotiations. Gaiseric still maintained the upper hand and wanted a good settlement. Boniface was allowed out of Hippo with his bodyguard, but having failed to stop the Vandals, his power in Africa was handed to Aspar, and he sailed to Italy to be reconciled with his Emperor.
Aspar established better relations with Gaiseric. He was an Alan (from north-east of the Black Sea) by birth and Gaiseric’s official title was ‘King of the Vandals and Alans’. The two warlords exchanged gifts and ambassadors. Gaiseric was now established in Hippo, while Aspar maintained imperial authority in Carthage. This division of the coastline was officially acknowledged in 435. Gaiseric obtained what every barbarian chieftain desired: a treaty with the Empire legally accepting barbarian claims. Using the face-saving convention of proclaiming the Vandals foederati, they were granted all regions west of Carthage. In reality, the Vandals would no sooner fight on behalf of the Empire than anyone else.
Pirate horde
Gaiseric had won an independent kingdom in North Africa for his people – the first and only assault on this rich province by Germanic barbarians. His regime was rigorously Arian. Catholic communities were disrupted and any priests refusing to perform the Arian service were banished or enslaved. It was also determinedly piratical. As in Spain, the Vandals augmented legitimate trading wealth with raids on prosperous neighbours. Hippo was an excellent port for such expeditions, and all raiders paid a proportion of their booty to Gaiseric.
In 437, the coasts of Sicily were plundered, pointing the way for future action, though the presence of imperial forces in Carthage proved inhibiting. In 439, Gaiseric launched a surprise attack on the province. According to the writer Hydatius, he captured it by trickery. Aspar had returned to Constantinople in 434 and the defences appear to have been soft. The shipyards of Carthage were a great prize for the Vandals. It enabled them to equip a fleet the equal of any opposition. How the Empire ever allowed this catastrophe to occur must be one of the most monumental blunders in its history. In the hands of Gaiseric, Carthage once more rose as a great enemy of Rome.
By the spring of 440, a vast fleet manned by Vandals, Alans, Goths, Romano-barbarians, and Moors had set out from Carthage for Sicily – now a principal supplier of oil and grain to Italy. The island’s coastal towns were looted, Palermo besieged, and loaded ships returned to Gaiseric’s court. The Eastern Empire responded by sailing a powerful fleet into Sicilian waters in 441 – but a major invasion of the Balkans by the Huns, and the threat of a Persian attack, quickly forced the ships homeward. As a result, the Western Emperor thought it more astute to prevent further assaults with a treaty.
Barbarian statesman
In 442, Gaiseric was acknowledged as an independent ruler. He was granted control of the most valuable land around Carthage and Hippo, as well as land to the west dominating the straits of Gibraltar, while Egypt and eastern North Africa remained part of the Eastern Empire.
Within his kingdom, Gaiseric settled his foremost retainers on the rich villa estates around Carthage, thus keeping a close eye on them. The transformation of the region from Roman to Vandal only affected the upper classes of society. The great imperial estate-holders were dispossessed, if they had not already fled, while everyone else continued their lives as before, resenting their new Vandal rulers only as much as they had the Romans they replaced. The exception to this continuity was, of course, the Catholic priesthood. They suffered terribly.
With his power base secure, Gaiseric emerged as a statesman as well as a warlord. ‘The occupier of Libya has dared to tear down the seat of Dido’s kingdom and has filled the Carthaginian citadel with northern hordes,’ announced the poet Merobaudes. ‘But since then, he has taken off the garb of the enemy and desired ardently to bind fast the Roman faith by more personal agreements, to court the Romans as relatives of himself, and to join his and their offspring in matrimonial alliance.’ It was true.
A marriage was proposed between Eudocia, daughter of the Western Emperor, and Huneric, son of Gaiseric – a great honour for a barbarian leader. But whose idea was it? It seems possible the Roman general Flavius Aetius (see MHM 142, October/November 2024), chief defender of the Western Empire, realised the impossibility of defeating the Vandals in battle, and saw the betrothal as the best hope for peace. Or it could be the Emperor Valentinian desired a powerful alliance with a barbarian force that would counter-balance the considerable power of Aetius with his Huns and Goths. Either way, the result led to Gaiseric’s first major political blunder.
Huneric was already married to a Visigoth princess when the imperial offer of marriage arrived. Gaiseric had to make his son free again. They contrived that the poor Visigoth girl should be accused of trying to poison the Vandal king. As a punishment for the fictional crime, her ears and nose were cut off, and the disfigured girl was sent back to her father in Toulouse. This savagery enraged the king of the Visigoths. He swore revenge. From then on, the Vandals and Visigoths were the bitterest of enemies. The proposed marriage between Vandal and Roman fell through, and Gaiseric was left only with a new enemy.
Nevertheless, Gaiseric seems to have been assured of Roman friendship and the remaining decade saw little serious conflict between them. Gaiseric sat back and enjoyed the considerable fruits of his African estates. He was in his mid-50s and may have felt he had attained all he wished. ‘He is sunk in indolence,’ reported the poet Sidonius. ‘And thanks to untold gold, no longer knows aught of steel. A drunkard’s heaviness afflicts him, pallid flabbiness possesses him, and his stomach, loaded with continual gluttony, cannot rid itself of the sour wind.’ Certainly, Gaiseric was enjoying himself, but he was far from slowing down. The events of 455 would demonstrate this only too clearly.
The Sack of Rome
In 454, Aetius was murdered by a suspicious Emperor. The next year, Valentinian was himself stabbed to death by avenging bucellarii. The story goes that Eudoxia, the Emperor’s widow, was then forced to marry Maximus, usurper of the vacant throne. To get her revenge, Eudoxia wrote to Gaiseric, inviting him to take possession of Rome.
No such invitation was needed. Gaiseric’s peace treaty had been with Aetius and Valentinian. Now they were dead, so was the treaty. Vandal agents reported the weakness of a new regime trying to establish itself. Gaiseric was angered by the news that Maximus had hurriedly married his son to Eudocia, for so long promised to Huneric. For more than ten years, the Vandal fleet had been built up. It was now cut loose.
As the Vandal fleet sailed along the Italian coast in 455, no one challenged it. Maximus could not rely on the army’s support, and by the time Vandal sails came in view of the port of Rome, he was on the road to Ravenna. An angry Roman crowd recognised him and stoned him to death.
Unopposed, Gaiseric entered Rome. He was met by Pope Leo I, who persuaded the Vandal king from fire and slaughter, to content himself solely with plunder. For two weeks, Gaiseric stayed in the imperial palace. The Empress Eudoxia, her two daughters, Eudocia and Placidia, and Gaudentius, the son of Aetius, all became his prize prisoners. To this were added all the treasures of the palace, loaded on ships to Carthage. Part of the gilded roof of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was removed. The invaluable vessels of Solomon’s Temple, taken by Titus from Jerusalem, passed on to the Vandals.
Gaiseric was now master of the Western Mediterranean. He could have seized the Emperorship but probably considered it more trouble than it was worth. Instead, he finally had the satisfaction of seeing his son married to the daughter of a Roman Emperor. After their brief stay, Gaiseric and the Vandals sailed back to their stronghold in Carthage. The Vandal king continued to dominate the Mediterranean for another 20 years – a remarkably long reign for a barbarian warlord.
Vandal kingdom
Gaiseric seems to have wanted to impress the Classical world with his tolerance and civilisation. In return, the Eastern Emperor recognised his kingdom’s full extent, including western Africa, the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. Gaiseric was content. Gazing from his palace, he considered his life. He had observed the Western Roman Empire breaking up, and humbled a dizzying succession of Emperors, Western and Eastern. He had outlived all the great warlords: Aetius, Attila, Theodoric, Ricimer, Aspar.
In 476, he witnessed the deposition of the last Western Emperor. The next year, he was dead. In an age of relentless assassinations, it is significant of Gaiseric’s stature that he was allowed to die a natural death. In his will, he proclaimed his eldest son Huneric as successor. But no one could hope to continue the success of Gaiseric.
Within a few years, the Moors revolted and the great kingdom began to crumble. No one could command the respect Gaiseric had won. Just over 50 years later, the Vandal kingdom was crushed by the Byzantines and the last Vandal king taken as prisoner to Constantinople. The Vandal kingdom of North Africa was the creation of Gaiseric alone.
Tim Newark is the former editor of Military Illustrated magazine and the author of Medieval Warlords, among numerous other military history titles.
All Images: Wikimedia unless stated
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