Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.[2]
"Vandal" and "Vandali" redirect here. For other uses, see Vandal (disambiguation). For more information about vandalism on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Vandalism.
The Vandals migrated to the area between the lower Oder and Vistula rivers in the second century BC and settled in Silesia from around 120 BC.[3][4][5] They are associated with the Przeworsk culture and were possibly the same people as the Lugii. Expanding into Dacia during the Marcomannic Wars and to Pannonia during the Crisis of the Third Century, the Vandals were confined to Pannonia by the Goths around 330 AD, where they received permission to settle from Constantine the Great. 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 also pushed westwards, crossing the Rhine into Gaul along with other tribes in 406.[6] In 409, the Vandals crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, where the Hasdingi and the Silingi settled in Gallaecia (northwest Iberia) and Baetica (south-central Iberia).
On the orders of the Romans, the Visigoths invaded Iberia in 418. They almost wiped out the Alans and Silingi Vandals who voluntarily subjected themselves to the rule of Hasdingian leader Gunderic. Gunderic was then pushed from Gallaecia to Baetica by a Roman-Suebi coalition in 419. In 429, under king Genseric (reigned 428–477), the Vandals entered North Africa. By 439 they established a kingdom which included the Roman province of Africa as well as Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and the Balearic Islands. They fended off several Roman attempts to recapture the African province, and sacked the city of Rome in 455. Their kingdom collapsed in the Vandalic War of 533–34, in which Emperor Justinian I's forces reconquered the province for the Eastern Roman Empire.
As the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days,[7] Renaissance and early-modern writers characterized the Vandals as prototypical barbarians. This led to the use of the term "vandalism" to describe any pointless destruction, particularly the "barbarian" defacing of artwork. However, some modern historians have emphasised the role of Vandals as continuators of aspects of Roman culture, in the transitional period from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages.[8]
Classification
As the Vandals eventually came to live outside of Germania, they were not considered Germani by ancient Roman authors. Neither another East Germanic-speaking group, the Goths, nor Norsemen (early Scandinavians), were counted among the Germani by the Romans.[18]
Since the Vandals spoke a Germanic language (mainly:Vandalic) and belonged to early Germanic culture, they are classified as a Germanic people by modern scholars.[19]
Known kings of the Vandals:
Latin literacy
All Vandals that modern historians know about were able to speak Latin, which also remained the official language of the Vandal administration (most of the staff seems to have been native Berber/Roman).[93] Levels of literacy in the ancient world are uncertain, but writing was integral to administration and business. Studies of literacy in North Africa have tended to centre around the administration, which was limited to the social elite. However, the majority of the population of North Africa did not live in urban centres.[94]
Judith George explains that "Analysis of the [Vandal] poems in their context holds up a mirror to the ways and values of the times".[95] Very little work of the poets of Vandal North Africa survives, but what does is found in the Latin Anthology; apart from their names, little is known about the poets themselves, not even when they were writing. Their work drew on earlier Roman traditions. Modern scholars generally hold the view that the Vandals allowed the Romans in North Africa to carry on with their way of life with only occasional interference.[96]
Attribution: