Vandals I

The Vandals crossed the frozen Rhine on the last day of 406, leaving behind whatever homeland they'd occupied in Germania. Roman frontier defenses had collapsed. The Vandals, along with Alans and Suevi, poured into Gaul like floodwater through a broken dike. They weren't exploring or seeking alliance - they came as desperate refugees fleeing Hunnic pressure, knowing return meant destruction. What followed was twenty years of constant movement through Gaul into Hispania, fighting everyone they encountered, living off plunder because settlement meant vulnerability to Roman counterattack. Vandal society militarized completely during these years. Every able man fought. Women and children traveled with armies. They developed brutal efficiency at siege warfare - Roman cities fell when Vandals appeared because defenders knew what awaited if walls failed. In 429, the entire people crossed to North Africa under Gaiseric, perhaps 80,000 total. This gamble transformed them from landless raiders into a kingdom.

North Africa's wealth astonished them. Carthage and its hinterland produced grain that fed Rome itself. The Vandals seized the richest agricultural land in the western Mediterranean. But Gaiseric recognized that holding Africa required controlling the sea. Within years, Vandals who'd never seen ocean became Mediterranean naval power. They captured the Roman African fleet, impressed Roman sailors, learned naval warfare through practice. Vandal fleets raided Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, even sacked Rome in 455 - a thoroughly planned operation that stripped the city of portable wealth over two weeks. This wasn't mindless destruction but calculated plunder, filling ships with artwork, gold, sacred vessels from churches and temples. Everything valuable that could be moved went to Carthage. Gaiseric's ruthlessness made Vandal synonymous with destruction, but he built a functioning kingdom. The problem was he built it entirely on military force. Vandals remained Arian Christians ruling Catholic Roman-African population. They seized estates but relied on Roman managers to work them. Vandal warriors lived off tribute and plunder rather than developing administrative systems.

Vandal strength peaked under Gaiseric - a remarkable combination of military effectiveness on land and sea. They mastered siege warfare, taking fortified cities that had resisted for centuries. The naval transformation gave them unprecedented mobility - strike anywhere in the Mediterranean, return to African harbors before enemies could respond. Plunder from these raids enriched the kingdom spectacularly. Sacred objects, artistic treasures, everything Rome had accumulated went to Carthage in Vandal ships. Their destructive reputation itself became a weapon - cities sometimes surrendered rather than face Vandal siege. Yet every strength contained fatal weakness. The kingdom depended entirely on military force and royal authority. When Gaiseric died, successors couldn't maintain his control. The Arian-Catholic division poisoned relations with subjects. Vandals never developed administrative structures, remaining essentially a warrior aristocracy extracting wealth from conquered population. When Belisarius arrived with Byzantine forces in 533, the kingdom collapsed almost immediately. A century of conquest ended in months. The Vandals who'd terrorized the Mediterranean disappeared so completely that within generations people forgot they'd ever been more than raiders.