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The Vandals: More Than a Term of Abuse

History & Finds The Vandals: More Than a Term of Abuse placeholder

The Vandals were an East Germanic people whom Tacitus counts, under the name Vandilii, among the old Germanic tribal groups. Originally between the Oder and the Vistula, they moved west in the Migration Period.

The long march to Africa

Their path led through Gaul and Spain all the way to North Africa. Under King Geiseric they took Carthage in 439 and founded a powerful sea kingdom that dominated large parts of the western Mediterranean.

The sack of Rome in 455

In AD 455 the Vandals took Rome and plundered it for two weeks – methodically, not indiscriminately. The kingdom lasted until 534, when it was conquered by the Eastern Roman general Belisarius.

"To the Germani belong the Vandilii … an old and genuine name."after Tacitus, Germania 2 (public domain, own translation)
What is documented: Vandilii in Tacitus (Germania 2), the march through Gaul/Spain, Geiseric's kingdom with Carthage (from 439), the sack of Rome in 455 and the end in 534 (Procopius, late-antique historians).
What is interpretation: "Vandalism" as a word for blind destructiveness only arose in 1794 in the French Revolution (Abbé Grégoire) – the historical Vandals sacked Rome deliberately and, according to the sources, largely spared people and churches. The insult is a modern distortion.

The Vandals belong to the great East Germanic wandering peoples – like the Goths and Heruli. Continue with them.

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