The Vandals

Stephanie CriddleEcomuseum Cap de Cavalleria, Menorca

Session 1, May 2012

Origins

East Germanic tribe 5th and 6th

centuries “Wanderers”

Migration 400/401 AD Moved West probably

under pressure from the Huns and in search of new land.

Travelled through Europe as refugees until reaching the South of Spain.

“Vandalusia”

Geiseric/Gaiseric/Genseric

c. 389 – 477 AD“Caesar King”

429 AD Invasion of North Africa due to its wealthy cities, olive groves and grain fields.439 AD Occupation of CarthageControl of the Mediterranean

Sacking Of Rome

• 455 AD• Kidnap of the

imperial women ie. Empress Eudoxia and her daughters

• Looting of gold and silver

Vandalism

Sacking of Rome Lack of visible cultural heritage Persecution of Orthodox

Christians

Continuity of Roman culturePoetrySecular LiteratureLittle evidence of persecution

Coins Mostly silver and

bronze Small Reused Roman coins

End of the Vandals

• 534 AD Loss of Carthage to Emperor Justinian and friends.

References• Berndt, G. M. and Steinacher, R. (2008), Minting in Vandal North Africa: coins of the

Vandal period in the Coin Cabinet of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. Early Medieval Europe, 16: 252–298.

• Bigelow, Poultney (1918). Genseric, king of the Vandals and first Prussian Kaiser. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

• Clover, Frank M. and R.S. Humphreys, eds, Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity (University of Wisconsin Press) 1989

• George, Judith (2004), "Vandal Poets in their Context", Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa, Ashgate Publishing, pp. 133–144

• Merrills, A. H. "The Origins of ‘Vandalism’1." International Journal Of The Classical Tradition 16, no. 2 (June 2009): 155-175. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2012).

• Merrills, Andy; Miles, Richard (2010), The Vandals, John Wiley & Sons• "Gaiseric." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (November 2011): 1.

Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2012).