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[[File: Gaiseric.jpg|256px|thumbnail|left|Modern Depiction of Gaiseric Leading the Sack of Rome in AD 455]]__NOTOC__
Today, most people are familiar with the term “vandalism” and its meaning. Generally speaking, vandalism usually refers to wanton acts of mayhem and destruction, usually directed toward property and those who engage in such acts are termed “vandals.” A historical examination of the term reveals that its history is much more interesting and important than some broken windows or graffiti; it originated with the name of a Germanic tribe that wrought destruction across Europe and North Africa in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. For a brief period in world history, the Vandals were one of the most important peoples in late antiquity as they established kingdoms in Spain and North Africa and threatened the very existence of Rome, even going so far as to sack the city in AD 455. Despite only being around for a short period historically speaking, the Vandals deeply influenced the psyche of Europe, which ultimately resulted in their name being forever associated with acts of craven property destruction.
===The Great Migrations===
The Vandals, though, were not a people who could not resist the thrill and financial benefits of plunder and pillage. They were compelled to vandalize more lands, but the success of their conquests meant that there were few lands left to pillage that they did not rule. In 455, Gaiseric decided to turn his sights toward the greatest prize of all – Rome. After Rome was sacked by the Goths in AD 410, it was a shell of its former glory, but still a prize for any warlord who dared to attempt a repeat performance. According to the sixth century Byzantine historian Procopius, Gaiseric sacked Rome like the Goths before him, but followed up the feat by kidnapping the entire imperial family.
For the Vandals, the sack of Rome was their high point. In less than 100 years the Vandals were obliterated by the Byzantine Empire, but the memory of their violent deeds were carried on by generations of Europeans until the modern period.
===The Legacy of the Vandals in Modern Times===
After the collapse of their dynasty in AD 534, knowledge of the Vandals receded into the depths of Europe’s collective psyche, only to be rekindled in the eighteenth century. It was during the eighteenth century in France – the period known today as the “Enlightenment” – when scholars, known as savants, became interested in a factual history of the ancient world. Scholars believed that by studying the ancient world, such as the fall of Rome, they could identify historical processes that were taking place in the present. Many in France’s elite circles, especially members of the Church, saw the French Revolution as bearing all the hallmarks of Rome’s decline: it was replete with degeneracy, a lack of order and civility, and most of all a propensity towards extreme acts of violence. In It was in this social and political milieu of eighteenth century France when Henri Grégoire, the Bishop of Blois, wrote a report about the effects of the French Revolution titled, <i>Rapport sur les destructions opérées par le vandalism, et sur les moyens de le réprimer</i> in 1794. <ref> Merrills, A. H. “The Origins of ‘Vandalism.’” <i>International Journal of Classical Tradition</i> 16 (2009) p. 155</ref> Since the Vandals did not stay in Gaul very long and were there mainly to pillage, they came to be viewed by the modern French in an extremely negative way. The term caught on quickly with <i>”Vandalisme”</i> being an entry in the fifth edition of the <i>Dictionnaire de l’académie française</i> in 1798.<ref>Merrills (2009) p. 156</ref> From eighteenth century France, the word eventually made it into English where it became the pejorative “vandalism” that it is today, forever associating acts of property destruction with a once great kingdom.{{Mediawiki:Roman History}} ===References===<references/>