Vandals

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a Germanic people allied, it is thought, to the Goths. When first known they occupied a region on the southern shore of the Baltic. They moved southward into the region now known as Moravia. In 406 they crossed the Rhine into Gaul, now known as France. In combination with other barbarians they invaded Spain and defeated the combined forces of the Goths and Romans. Under Genseric, their most noted leader, they crossed from Spain into North Africa and took possession of the Roman provinces along the southern coast of the Mediterranean. The Vandals adopted the form of Christianity known as Arianism; that is to say, they rejected in a measure the divinity of Christ. They persecuted the orthodox Christians. They subjugated Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and had great plans on foot to restore the ancient commercial supremacy of Carthage. In 455 they attacked Italy and plundered Rome. The sack of this city was accompanied, it was claimed, by wanton violence and destruction, not only of property, but of priceless treasures of art. It is now believed that the Vandals showed much more consideration than they have been credited with. Nevertheless vandalism has passed into literature as a term for wanton destruction. The Vandals were subjugated by the eastern general, Belisarius, in the reign of the emperor Justinian. They have disappeared as a people. It has been suggested that the fiery courage of the Barbary pirates, who gave the United States so much trouble at the beginning of the nineteenth century, may have been derived in part from an intermixture of Vandal blood. The name is preserved in the province of Andalusia, in southern Spain. See Genseric