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"But Gizeric took Eudoxia captive, together with Eudocia and Placidia, the children of herself and Valentinian, and placing an exceedingly great amount of gold and other treasures in his ships and sailed to Carthage, having spared neither bronze nor anything else whatsoever in the palace. He plundered also the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and tore off half of the roof. Now this roof was of bronze of the finest quality, and since gold was laid over it exceedingly think, it shone as a magnificent and wonderful spectacle. But of the ships with Gizeric, one, which was bearing the statues, was lost, they say, but with all the others the Vandals reached the port in the harbour of Carthage."<ref> Procopius of Caesarea. <i>History of the Wars.</i> Translated by H. B. Dewing. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1916), III, v. 1-5</ref>
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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 Vandal Kingdom of North Africa===
As Gaiseric and the Vandals were facing potential doom at the hands of the Romans and their Visigoth allies, an individual entered the scene who helped change the course of history for the Vandals, Rome, and the entire Mediterranean world of late antiquity. A Roman general named Boniface had managed to establish his own defacto kingdom in the region of what is today Tunisia. Seeing that Boniface presented a problem for the already disintegrating Roman Empire, the Emperor Valentinian III (ruled AD 425-455) recalled the general to Rome. Boniface refused the order and then defeated a Roman army sent to rein him in, but when the recalcitrant general learned that the emperor was sending a Goth army, he made the historically important decision of inviting the entire Vandal nation to North Africa. Knowing that his options were severely limited in Spain, Gaiseric accepted Boniface’s offer, leading 80,000 Vandals and Alans across the Strait of Gibraltar in May 429.<ref> Bury, p. 118</ref>
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The alliance between Boniface and Gaiseric did not last very long. Boniface attempted to make a new deal with the Romans in order to remove the Vandals from North Africa. The result was a series of bloody battles between Boniface’s forces and the Vandals that took place from 430 until 432. Boniface was vanquished and the Vandals established hegemony over North Africa as a result. With Boniface out of the way, the Vandals were free to turn their rage on the local population, which was largely the result of religious differences. Although the Vandals professed to be Christians, they were followers of Arianism, which was a non-Trinitarian sect. According to Gregory of Tours, the Vandal King Hunneric (ruled AD 477-484) was especially brutal towards Catholics, forcing “saints to suffer many tortures, first the rack, then the flames, then the pincers and after all that death itself.”<ref> Gregory of Tours, II.3</ref>
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/>{{Contributors}}
