ALANS AND VANDALS
Part of the Alans, fleeing the invasion of the Huns, headed west in the 70s of the 4th century, uniting with the Vandals who lived in Pannonia. A few years later, probably in the early 1990s, the areas where Alans and Vandals lived together could no longer provide them with sufficient living conditions. This forced large masses of Alans and Vandals to rush to the west in search of richer pastures. It was out of the question to return to the east, since the united hordes of Goths, Huns and Alans advanced from behind, who also moved west in search of better lands, which forced the people of Pannonia to move even further west.
This resettlement of the Alans and Vandals to the west did not pass by the attention of the Roman commander Stilicho, who himself was half a Vandal and had many Alans from Italy devoted to him in his army.
Therefore, he was not slow to invite the westward-bound Alans and Vandals to settle in Noricum and Raetia as allies of Rome.
Unfortunately, Stilicho could not organize enough acceptable living conditions for them in the new lands, so in the winter of 401, they began to devastate those provinces that they should have defended. Stilicho crossed the Alps and put an end to the devastating raids. Defeated, the Alans and Vandals apparently moved north and east into the Germanic lands beyond the Rhine and outside the empire.
After 5 years, they reasserted themselves when, on December 31, 406, they sent their horses across the ice-covered Rhine and again invaded the territory of the empire. One group of Vandals, led by their king Godegisel, entered into battle with the Frankish allies of Rome, in which Godegisel was killed. His detachment was already in danger of complete annihilation, when the army of the Alans, probably led by Respendial, came to their aid and, having attacked the Franks, saved the remaining Vandals. The barbarians, who successfully invaded the territory of the empire, were faced with a choice - either to become allies of Rome, settling somewhere on Roman lands, or to continue robbery and robbery of the empire. Although the Alans and Vandals had rather unpleasant memories of their settlement in Raetia and Noricum in 400, nevertheless the Roman authorities in Gaul began to negotiate with them. Therefore, when Respendial and Godegizel fought with the Franks, another Alanian leader, Goar, concluded an agreement with the Romans.
Since the supporters of Goar were settled in strategically important points, the Alans and Vandals, having met with hostility from the empire, began to plunder Gaul. The sources of that time list about two dozen cities that were devastated, including Terouan, Arras, Tournai, Amiens, Laon, Reims, Mayens, Worms, Spear, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Metz, Langre, Besancon, Otho, Clermont-Ferrand , Yuze, Arles, Beziers, Oz, Bazas, Angoulême and Meng-on-Laure. Much of this information, however, is dubious. But if at least half of these references are accurate, then it makes sense to assume that the Alans and Vandals were divided into several, if not many, groups. The sources usually mention the Vandals and occasionally the Vandals and Alans together, but the Alans are never mentioned separately. Therefore, it should be assumed that the separation of the Alans and Vandals occurred during these campaigns not on a tribal basis.
Information indicating that the invaders met with any resistance from the Gallo-Romans has not been preserved. Bishop Peacock Beziers reprimanded his flock for not resisting the enemy. He resents the fact that when the Vandals burned and the Alans plundered, the inhabitants of Beziers were busy replanting vines. According to the bishop, the only thing that interests them is theater and astrology, while they are sorely lacking in patriotism and good morals. Peacock compares material benefits and a strong religious spirit in favor of the latter, arguing that it is this spirit that is able to reliably protect even from the Alans.
It should be noted that when the Alans and Vandals devastated Gaul, the troops of the empire were stationed there at that time. When Constantine III seized power in Britain and landed in Gaul in 407, he brought with him most of the fighting troops from Britain. He also had the support of the Frankish federates, who had once been defeated by the Alans of Respendial, as well as the support of the Allemans who inhabited the banks of the Rhine. It is quite possible that between Constantine, on the one hand, and the leaders of the Alans and Vandals, on the other, there was an agreement according to which both sides did not interfere with each other.
One of the commanders of Constantine, Gerontius, even had a personal Alanian guard in Gaul. This fact alone suggests the possibility of contacts between Constantine and the Alans.
But how many Alans served in the troops of Constantine? Of the barbarians who joined him, Constantine created a special regiment of the so-called "proud" - the Honorians. The regiment was commanded by Gerontius, who captured Spain. As a reward for his faithful service, Gerontius thanked the barbarians in an unusual way - he allowed them to plunder the plains of Palantia. Subsequently, he allocated land for the Alans so that they could control all the routes from the Pyrenees. However, in 409 the Honorians allowed the Alans and Vandals to invade Spain.
It can be assumed that the Honorians themselves were Alans, and therefore they allowed their brethren to enter Spain unhindered. Among the toponymic evidence in the Pyrenean passages, the name Breche d'Allans is found. This toponymic name, which has survived to this day, shows that at least a part of the Honorians settled to protect the passes were Alan.
Having invaded Spain, the Alans and Vandals continued the robbery and robbery with which they marked their stay in Gaul. The Spanish-Roman population, as well as the friendly inhabitants of Gaul, did not seem to even try to resist. They simply locked themselves in fortified cities in the hope that the Alans and Vandals would leave on their own. However, the mounted Alans and Vandals did not attempt to besiege the fortresses. The inhabitants, who would have managed to get out of the fortifications at the risk of their lives, found devastated fields there. In some areas, people were driven to starvation and, according to contemporaries, it was not unusual for mothers to eat their children.
After two years of devastation and robbery, the Alans and Vandals concluded an agreement with the Spanish-Romans on the division of lands. The Alans settled in Lusitania and Cartagena, the Vandals among the Suebi. Their settlements were formed on the basis of hospitality, that is, the Alans and other invaders became guests of the Roman landowners, thus receiving a significant part of the income from their estates. In exchange for this, the guests "protected" their hosts. Apparently, these agreements brought temporary peace to Spain.
The Alans and Vandals who settled in Spain hoped that Rome would recognize them as federates. They turned to Emperor Honorius, asking for peace and promising to give hostages, as well as offering to fight on the side of Rome as allies. But Constantine, the commander of the Roman troops in the west, preferred with the help of the Visigoths, who had gone over to his side, to defeat the Alans and Vandals in Spain and subjugate them. The Visigoths attacked the Alans living in Lusitania and the Ziling Vandals in Baetica. According to sources, after a war that lasted three years, the Visigoths broke the enemy, almost destroying him. Fredbal, king of the Zeeling Vandals, was captured, and Addock, king of the Alans in Lusitania, was killed. Another Vandal king in Kallakia, Guntaric, was apparently recognized as an ally of Rome. The Visigoths not only did not fight him, but also opposed the Alans in Cartagena, where Guntaric significantly undermined the forces of Respendial. When these barbarian groups were suppressed, Guntaric in Spain got the better of the remaining Vandals and Alans. At the same time, he relied on the support of the Roman commander Constantine, who recalled the Visigoths from Spain and settled them in southern Gaul.
This act suggested that there was some kind of agreement between Rome and Guntaric.
The further fate of the remaining Alans - supporters of Ad-dok and Respendial - cannot be separated from the history of the Vandals led by Guntarikh and his successors. After a short stay in Spain, the Alans and the Vandals crossed the sea and captured North Africa. For more than 100 years, their stay there was marked by very important events that testify to their role in the Western Mediterranean, for example, the capture and sack of Rome by the Alans and Visigoths, then their defeat by Belisarius. Although these events were repeatedly retold in detail, the role of the Alans in them was always belittled. There was even a tendency to assert that the Alans were completely assimilated by the outnumbered Vandals. Modern sources, however, show that the Alans remained a significant and integral force in the total mass of the barbarians, among whom were not only the Vandals, but also other tribes.
Bishop Possidius of Kalma, who was in Hippo during the siege of Alans and Vandals, which lasted more than a year, clearly distinguishes between Alans and Vandals, adding that among them were also Goths. This differentiation of Alans and Vandals is also noted by the poet Dracontius, who worked at the end of the 5th century in North Africa. He was the court poet of the Vandal king Guntamund, a touchy and sentimental man. So, in a poem that scolded the barbarians, Draconty includes the Alans among them, but omits the Vandals - an obvious calculation to indulge the stupidity of the monarch, Procopius claims that both the Alans and the Vandals were in the troops of the North African kingdom. And he adds that the term "Vandal" is often used to designate all barbarians of non-Moorish origin in North Africa, Emperor Justinian, who finally destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals and the Alans, testifies to the existence of both peoples.
But the most convincing evidence of the role of the Alans in the kingdom is the fact that the king retained the title of Rex Vandalorum et Alanorum, i.e. "King of the Vandalo-Alan". After the adoption of this title by Guntaric around 419, all his successors retained it until the fall of the kingdom under the blows of Rome. If the Alans were assimilated by the Vandals, then there would be no need for such a double title, which served as a constant reminder to the descendants of the Alans of their former independence.
Rather, on the contrary, because the double title of the king had political significance, indicating the preservation of a certain independence by the Alans; and that would be a good reason to keep it.
Further, it should be noted that in the troops of the kingdom, where the Alans played an important role, the cavalry troops were the predominant element; the kings of the Vandals and the Alans treated the infantry with little respect. This was, however, characteristic not only of the Alans, but also of all steppe nomads, although, on the other hand, the Germans, for example, also used foot troops.
If the Vandals, apparently, began to master the idea of equestrian combat under the influence of their Alanian allies, then the Alans, in turn, adopted Arianism from them, successfully combining it with their religion.
Thus, although the Alans and Vandals strove to preserve their ethnic traditions, which was noticed by their contemporaries, nevertheless they influenced each other in at least two areas that were most important for them: religion and military affairs.
The Kingdom of the Vandals is among the first of all existing Germanic kingdoms in the 5th-6th centuries in northern Africa. Today these are such states as Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. The leader of the Vandals Gaiseric created it in 439 at a time when a tribe from Spain moved to northern Africa. Participation in the resettlement itself was taken by both ethnic vandals and other ethnic groups, such as the Alans, who subjugated the population of the Roman provinces in the ten-year war, which is considered Romanized, and who began to rule over part of the native tribes. The kings officially called themselves kings of the Vandals.
Then came the period when the vandals began to carry out sea raids towards the Western Roman and Byzantine Empire, and the most famous expedition was carried out in 455 - this was the capture of Rome for two weeks. And the year 534 became the period during which the kingdom was destroyed by the emperor of Byzantium, Justinian I. And the remaining vandals after that disappeared, being among the native population of North Africa. Here, the Vandals gradually took over a significant territory, subsequently creating an independent kingdom, and Carthage made its capital. The arrival of the Vandals was enthusiastically welcomed by many Roman subjects in Africa, especially those who were adherents of Christian sects that were persecuted by the Roman government. Vandals began to persecute Christians - Trinitarians. Vandals in Africa managed to maintain order and law. In addition, they confiscated numerous estates and raised taxes. Half a century later, the ships of the Vandals (a Germanic tribe that became the only tribe that created its own fleet at that time) managed to dominate the territory of the western Mediterranean. The most famous act of the Vandals, which made it a household name ("vandalism"), is represented by the sack of Rome in 455, when the city was systematically plundered and destroyed for two weeks.
Visigoths vandals. From what the name of the tribe itself comes is not established. Most likely, this is the Indo-European word weise (wise), but there are versions that it came from the phrase "Rising Sun Goths", or Eastern Goths. The division of the Goths is first mentioned during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. Similar tribal names were retained until the onset of the 5th century, but subsequently some of the Gothic tribes moved beyond the Danube, a territory that was part of the Roman Empire. They began to be called, respectively, in a generalized way - the Goths.
The beginning of the independent history of the Visigoths tribe was their invasion in 256, into the possessions of the Roman Empire, when they crossed, including the Goths, across the lower Danube in order to flood the Balkan Peninsula with their own presence. For fifteen years they managed to keep Macedonia in their power. But September 268 changed everything when Emperor Claudius II defeated the Visigoths during the Battle of Nis. This is the area, the territory of which is now considered modern Serbia. By the emperor Aurelian they were expelled from Thrace and the territory of Illyria. In 270, the Romans abandoned the province of Dacia, and the Visigoths were lucky enough to settle in the abandoned territories. 322 was the year of the conclusion of an agreement between the Visigoths and Constantine the Great, according to which the tribe received the status of federates (allies). Such a policy was considered common for Rome in relation to the barbarian tribes. Under the agreement, for an annual fee, the Visigoths undertook to protect the imperial borders and provide their people for serving in the imperial army. The Visigoths had to send forty thousand warriors of their tribe under the Roman banners. In addition, in the army of Constantine, the Visigothic leaders, named Ariarich and Aorih, served in the detachments.
Vandal Savage. This is a character invented in 1943. Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell first featured him in Green Lantern vol.1 #10. Vandal Savage is 50,000 years old, he is the leader of the Cro-Magnon tribe, the most ordinary savage, but he was such until a strange meteorite crashed to Earth. After Savage approached him, he received radiation, thanks to which the vandal became immortal and invulnerable. No matter how badly he was sometimes injured, all the same, all injuries healed quickly. Savage had to go through the era and almost always he had power and was a high-ranking figure. He acted as the leader of the tribe, the leader of the pirates, the centurion who led the legions of Rome, the senator, the leader of the pirate community in the Caribbean, the nobleman in the Wild West, the officer of the Third Reich and the greatest magician.
From the unimaginable depths of history, the name of the ancient people, the Alans, has come down to us. The first mention of them is found in Chinese chronicles written two thousand years ago. The Romans were also interested in this warlike ethnic group, who lived on the borders of the empire. And if today there is no “Alana” page with a photo in the atlas of the living peoples of the world, this does not mean that this ethnic group has disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace.
Their genes and language, traditions and attitude were inherited by direct descendants -. In addition to them, some scientists consider the Ingush to be the descendants of this people. Let's open the veil over the events of bygone eras in order to dot the i's.
Millennial history and geography of settlement
Byzantines and Arabs, Franks and Armenians, Georgians and Russians - with whom they just did not fight, did not trade and did not enter into alliances with the Alans in their more than a thousand-year history! And almost everyone who came across them, one way or another, recorded these meetings on parchment or papyrus. Thanks to eyewitness accounts and records of chroniclers, today we can restore the main stages in the history of the ethnos. Let's start with the origin.
In the IV-V Art. BC. Sarmatian tribes roamed over a vast territory from the Southern Urals to the nomadic. Eastern Fore-Caucasus belonged to the Sarmatian union of the Aorses, who were described by ancient authors as skillful and brave warriors. But even among the Aorses there was a tribe that stood out for its special militancy - the Alans.
Historians believe that, although the relationship between this warlike people with the Scythians and Sarmatians is obvious, it cannot be argued that only they are their ancestors: in their genesis in a later period - from about the 4th century. AD - other nomadic tribes also took part.
As can be seen from the ethnonym, it was an Iranian-speaking people: the word "Alan" goes back to the common word "arya" for the ancient Aryans and Iranians. Outwardly, they were typical Caucasians, as evidenced not only by the descriptions of chroniclers, but also by DNA archeological data.
About three centuries - from I to III AD. - they were reputed to be a thunderstorm of both neighbors and distant states. The defeat inflicted on them by the Huns in 372 did not undermine their strength, but, on the contrary, gave a new impetus to the development of the ethnic group. Some of them, during the Great Migration of Nations, went far to the west, where, together with the Huns, they defeated the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, and later fought with the Gauls and Visigoths; others - settled in the territory of the central.
The morals and customs of these warriors of those times were harsh, and the way of waging war was barbaric, at least in the opinion of the Romans. The main weapon of the Alans was a spear, which they masterfully wielded, and fast war horses made it possible to get out of any skirmish without loss.
The favorite maneuver of the troops was a false retreat. After an allegedly unsuccessful attack, the cavalry retreated, luring the enemy into a trap, after which it went on the offensive. Enemies that did not expect a new attack were lost and lost the battle.
The armor of the Alans was relatively light, made of leather belts and metal plates. According to some reports, the same ones protected not only warriors, but also their war horses.
If you look at the territory of settlement on the map in the early Middle Ages, then, first of all, the huge distances from to North Africa will catch your eye. In the latter, their first state formation appeared - which did not last long in the 5th-6th centuries. Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans.
However, that part of the ethnos, which was surrounded by tribes distant in culture and traditions, rather quickly lost its national identity and assimilated. But those tribes that remained in the Caucasus not only retained their identity, but also created a powerful state -.
The state was formed in the VI-VII centuries. Around the same time, Christianity began to spread in its lands. The first news of Christ, according to Byzantine sources, was brought here by Maximus the Confessor (580-662), and Byzantine sources call Gregory the first Christian ruler of the country.
The final adoption of Christianity by the Alans took place at the beginning of the 10th century, although foreign travelers noted that Christian traditions in these lands were often intricately intertwined with pagan ones.
Contemporaries left many descriptions of the Alans and their customs. Described as very attractive and strong people. Among the characteristic features of culture, the cult of military prowess, combined with contempt for death, and rich rituals are noted. In particular, the German traveler I. Shiltberger left a detailed description of the wedding ceremony, which attached great importance to the chastity of the bride and the wedding night.
“The yas have a custom according to which, before the marriage of the maiden, the groom's parents agree with the mother of the bride that the latter must be a pure maiden, otherwise the marriage would be considered invalid. So, on the day appointed for the wedding, the bride is brought to the bed with songs and laid on her. Then the groom approaches with young people, holding a drawn sword in his hands, with which he strikes the bed. Then he, together with his companions, sits down in front of the bed and feasts, sings and dances.
At the end of the feast, they undress the groom to his shirt and leave, leaving the newlyweds alone in the room, and a brother or one of the closest relatives of the groom appears outside the door to guard with a drawn sword. If it turns out that the bride was no longer a girl, then the groom informs his mother about this, who approaches the bed with several friends to inspect the sheets. If on the sheets they do not meet the signs they are looking for, then they are sad.
And when the bride's relatives arrive in the morning for the feast, the groom's mother already holds in her hand a vessel full of wine, but with a hole in the bottom, which she plugged with her finger. She brings the vessel to the mother of the bride and removes her finger when the latter wants to drink and the wine pours out. “That's exactly what your daughter was like!” she says. For the bride's parents, this is a great shame and they must take their daughter back, as they agreed to give a pure maiden, but their daughter did not turn out to be one.
Then the priests and other honorable persons intercede and convince the groom's parents to ask their son if he wants her to remain his wife. If he agrees, then the priests and other persons bring her to him again. Otherwise, they are bred, and he returns the dowry to his wife, just as she must return dresses and other things donated to her, after which the parties can enter into a new marriage.
The language of the Alans, unfortunately, has come down to us in a very fragmentary way, but the surviving material is enough to attribute it to the Scythian-Sarmatian. The direct carrier is modern Ossetian.
Although not many famous Alans went down in history, their contribution to history is undeniable. In short, they were the first knights with their fighting spirit. According to the scholar Howard Reid, the legends about the famous King Arthur are based on the great impression that the military culture of this people made on the weak states of the early Middle Ages.
Their worship of the naked sword, impeccable possession, contempt for death, the cult of nobility laid the foundation for the later Western European knightly code. The American scientists Littleton and Malkor go further and believe that Europeans owe the image of the Holy Grail to the Nart epic with its magic bowl Watsamonga.
Legacy controversy
The kinship with the Ossetians and Alans is not in doubt, however, in recent years, the voices of those who believe that there is the same connection with, or more broadly - have been heard more and more often.
One can have different attitudes towards the arguments that the authors of such studies cite, but one cannot deny their usefulness: after all, attempts to understand genealogy allow one to read little-known or forgotten pages of the history of one's native land in a new way. Perhaps further archaeological and genetic research will provide an unambiguous answer to the question of whose ancestors the Alans are.
I would like to end this essay somewhat unexpectedly. Do you know that about 200 thousand Alans live in the world today (more precisely, their partially assimilated descendants)? In modern times they are known as yases, they have lived in Hungary since the 13th century. and remember their roots. Although their language has long been lost, they maintain contact with their Caucasian relatives, who were rediscovered by them more than seven centuries later. So, it's too early to put an end to this people.
background
However, the contemporaries of the invasion Prosper of Aquitaine and Idacius in their chronicles do not report the version of the invitation of the Vandals by Boniface, although Prosper noted that the parties to the conflict called for help " tribes that did not know how to use ships". Historians suggest that they are Goths-federates on the side of Rome and vandal mercenaries in the army of Boniface.
Capture of Numidia
According to an eyewitness to the invasion of Possidia (Life of St. Augustine), the aliens were an ethnic conglomerate of Vandals, Alans, Goths and other barbarian tribes.
When the Vandals arrived in Africa, Boniface, having established peaceful relations with Rome, wanted to send them back, as a result of which a war broke out. Boniface successfully withstood a 14-month siege (430-431) in the city of Hippo in Numidia, but left it to the Vandals in July, evacuating the inhabitants.
At the end of the same year, a large army arrived from Rome and Constantinople to help Boniface, led by the Byzantine commander Aspar. In a battle in 432, the Vandals won. Boniface was recalled to Rome, where he received the title of commander-in-chief of the troops (magister militum). The Western Empire nevertheless managed to hold on to Carthage and most of the African provinces.
The success of the barbarians in the conquest of lands is explained by the support of the lower strata of the population of the Roman provinces. Salvian of Marseilles, who visited Africa during these years, remarks: “ The hardest thing is that they [the poor] ask, under the influence of too great burdens, even the arrival of enemies and pray to God that they may be given to endure together from the barbarians the ruin that they previously endured one by one from the Romans.» Among African Christians from the poorest classes, the idea was popular that the barbarian invasion would be a divine weapon in the fight against the rich and the power of the Roman Empire. Social contradictions were superimposed by a religious conflict between the orthodox Catholic Church, which supports imperial power, and the Donatist current of Christianity, popular among the poor in northern Africa. The decree of Emperor Valentinian III of 445 contains an indication that runaway slaves and columns fought in the army of the Vandals.
An eyewitness to the invasion of Possidius in the Life of St. Augustine figuratively described the picture of disasters and destruction that befell the North African provinces. According to him, of the numerous churches, only 2 survived, in Carthage and Cirta, the rest were burned along with the cities.
The kingdom of the Vandals and Alans covered the territories of modern Tunisia, eastern Algeria and western Libya. The Vandals' allies in Africa included the local Berber tribes of the Moors, and relatively few ethnic Vandals formed the ruling class in the new barbarian state.
Kingdom under Gaiseric. 439-477 years
Strengthening the kingdom. 439-454
The Vandals stood out among other Germanic nations in that they became a sea people. The Mediterranean Sea in the ancient Germanic languages was called " sea of vandals"(Wendels, Ventilseo).
Another difference from the early German states was the strengthening of absolute royal power. Taking care of his dynasty, Gaiseric ordered to drown the wife of his brother Gunderic, who was king before him, and exterminated all his children. Geiseric ceased to convene national meetings, he issued a law according to which the people lost the right to elect kings. Power was assigned to the descendants of Geiseric in the male line. A ruling stratum was formed, whose members were rewarded for serving the king without taking into account old family ties or the nobility of the family. The discontent of the Vandal nobility led to a conspiracy in 442, the participants of which were crucified after torture. According to Prosper of Aquitaine " more people died than if the Vandals had been defeated in the war.»
The following economic policy was pursued: Geiseric confiscated the best lands and distributed them to the vandals, preserving their freedom to their former owners. Less fertile plots remained with the former owners, but, unlike the vandals, they were heavily taxed.
During the Great French Revolution, the term “ vandalism” arose, the appearance of which is associated precisely with the sack of Rome in 455, although synchronous evidence does not confirm any special destruction of the city or disasters of the inhabitants compared to other ruins of Rome by the barbarians in the 5th century.
Wars with the empire. 460-468
The coasts of both empires suffered from the raids of the Vandals; barbarians plundered Italy, Sicily, Illyria, Greece, islands in the Aegean Sea.
Basilisk fled to Sicily, where he joined with Marcellianus, and after the murder of the latter by one of his associates, he returned to Constantinople. Heraclius also withdrew from Libya.
Peace with empire. 475
In the 470s, the period of wars and raids of the Vandals in the Mediterranean ended. In 474, Zenon became the Byzantine emperor, who entered into negotiations with Gaiseric. Zeno's ambassador, the patrician Severus, managed to achieve the release of captives captured during a raid on the Greek Nicopolis in Epirus. The king freed the prisoners belonging to the vandal royal family, the rest were redeemed by the North at its own expense. In exchange for the recognition of the kingdom of the Vandals and Alans within the existing borders, Gaiseric made peace with the empire in 475, which was maintained for 60 years until the Byzantine intervention under Justinian the Great, which ended the Germanic kingdom in northern Africa.
Kingdom under Gaiseric's successors. 477-533 years
According to the law of Gaiseric, the throne was inherited by a descendant of Gaiseric in the male line, who would be the oldest of all his relatives. His son Gunerikh became the ruler. Under him, a number of Berber tribes in the mountainous regions in the south fell away from the vandals. Huneric severely persecuted not only Catholics, but also the Arian clergy and even his relatives (the families of the brothers Henson and Theodoric), wanting to transfer the throne to his son contrary to Geiseric's will.
Then the power was inherited by his nephew Guntamund (484-496), son of Genzon, son of Geiseric. During his reign, internal wars with the Moors continued.
After his death from illness, power passed to his brother Thrazamund (496-523), during which the Moors in Libya inflicted a heavy defeat on the Vandals. On the other hand, Thrasamund strengthened the foreign policy position of the kingdom with a dynastic marriage to Amalafrid, the sister of the eminent Gothic king Theodoric. His 27-year reign is characterized by a soft policy towards Catholics; torture and executions of opponents of the state religion Arianism are a thing of the past. Many Roman poets moved to Carthage, glorifying the king of the Vandals, which indicates the beginning of the cultural romanization of the barbarians.
War with Byzantium. 533-534 years
The war of Byzantium against the vandals and the end of the vandal kingdom was described by a direct participant in these events Procopius, secretary of the commander of the Byzantine army
Following the Visigoths, the Germanic tribe of the Vandals created their kingdom on Roman territory; in the 3rd century n. e. it moved from the inner regions of Germany to the Danube, to Dacia, at the beginning of the 4th century. - to Pannonia, and then, under the pressure of the Huns, moved to the west. Together with other barbarian tribes, the Vandals at the beginning of the 5th century. broke through the Roman defenses on the Rhine, invaded Gaul and subjected it to terrible devastation. From Gaul, the Vandals, together with the Alans and Suebi, crossed to Spain, where after some time they clashed with the Visigoths.
In 429, the Vandals, along with the Alans, crossed the strait (modern Gibraltar) into North Africa. They were led by King Geiseric, who managed to use the rebellion of the Roman governor in North Africa, the uprisings against Rome of local tribes (Berbers) and the unbroken popular movement of agonists. He conquered most of North Africa, where an independent Vandal kingdom arose with its capital in Carthage. The Vandals, who were Arians, seized the lands and property of the Roman nobility and the Catholic Church in the part of North Africa where they settled (modern Tunisia and Libya). Having then taken possession of the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaiseric in 455 attacked Italy from the sea and captured Rome. The vandals subjected the city to a terrible defeat and devastation, destroyed many cultural monuments and works of art. This is where the later term “vandalism” comes from, which usually refers to the wild destruction of cultural property.
The Vandal kingdom lasted until 534, when the troops of Emperor Justinian defeated the Vandals and annexed North Africa to Byzantium.
Formation of the Burgundian kingdom
In southeastern Gaul in the 5th century. the Kingdom of Burgundy was formed. Together with the Vandals, Alans and Sueves, the Burgundians at the beginning of the 5th century. crossed the Rhine and founded their kingdom on the middle Rhine with its center in Boris. In 437 the Burgundian kingdom was defeated by the Huns, and the remnants of the Burgundians were settled by Rome as federates in Sabaudia (modern Savoy), south and southwest of Lake Geneva. Later, the Burgundians spread to the valley of the upper and middle Rhone and Saone with their tributaries, and in 457 a new Burgundian kingdom took shape with its capital in Lyon.
The Burgundians carried out the division of land with the local population. Obviously, the lands were divided not only by the nobility, but also by other landowners. The Burgundians received half of the forests, meadows, and pastures, one third of the slaves, and at first half, and later two thirds of the arable land of the Gallo-Romans. The Burgundians settled in consanguineous groups (large families), which were called headlights (and their members - faramans). The Burgundians, like the Visigoths, did not meet resistance from the population of Gaul, who sought to get rid of Roman domination, from excessive taxes. According to a Gallo-Roman cleric of the 5th c. Salviana, the Roman plebs "unanimously declare that he should be allowed to live with the barbarians ...". Some representatives of the local nobility began to serve the barbarian kings. In 534 the Burgundian kingdom was conquered by the Franks.