Vandal
one of the Slavonic or Teutonic tribes who inhabited the banks of the Oder , and the sea coasts of Pomerania and Mecklenburg, about A. D. 250. At the beginning of the 5th century they traversed the Rhine, the Rhône, and the Pyrenees, and founded a powerful kingdom in Spain. They afterward passed into Africa under their king, Genseric, 429, and after a career of conquest on that continent, during which they had embraced Christianity, Carthage fell under their victorious arms, Oct. 9, 439.
Here they commenced the formation of a powerful navy, and fitted out an expedition against Rome, which they sacked June 15-29, 455. Having embraced the Arian heresy in 530, they carried on a cruel persecution against the members VANDERBILT of the orthodox faith. Their rule in Africa was destroyed by Belisarius, and the entire nation had disappeared from that continent 558. Hence, a person ignorant and barbarous, and hostile to the progress of the arts and literature.