The king received
as ransom a part of the treasure of Valentinian.
as ransom a part of the treasure of Valentinian.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
But if the family was thus a unit for the payment of
fines, it had the compensating advantage of sharing the fine paid for
the murder of one of its members. Since the solidarity of the family
sometimes entailed dangerous consequences, it was permissible for an
individual to break these family ties. The man who wished to do so
presented himself at the mal before the centenarius and broke into
four pieces, above his head, three wands of alder. He then threw the
pieces into the four corners, declaring that he separated himself from his
relatives and renounced all rights of succession. The family included the
slaves and liti or freedmen. Slaves were the chattels of their master; if
they were wounded, maimed, or killed, the master received the com-
pensation ; on the other hand, if the slave had committed any crime the
master was obliged to pay, unless he preferred to give him up to bear
the punishment. The Franks recognised private property, and severe
penalties were denounced against those who invaded the rights of owner-
ship; there are penalties for stealing from another's garden, meadow,
corn-field or flax-field, and for ploughing another's land. At a man's
death all his property was divided among his sons ; a daughter had no
claim to any share of it. Later, she is simply excluded from Salic
ground, that is from her father's house and the land that surrounds it.
We find also in the Salic Law some information about the organisa-
tion of the State. The royal power appears strong. Any man who
refuses to appear before the royal tribunal is outlawed. All his goods
are confiscated and anyone who chooses may slay him with impunity;
no one, not even his wife, may give him food, under penalty of a very
All those who are employed about the king's person are
protected by a special sanction. Their wergeld is three times as high
as that of other Franks of the same social status. Over each of the
territorial divisions called pagi the king placed a representative of his
authority known as the grafio, or, to give him his later title, the comes.
The grafio maintained order within his jurisdiction, levied such fines as
were due to the king, executed the sentences of the courts and seized
the property of condemned persons who refused to pay their fines. The
pagus was in turn subdivided into “hundreds” (centenae). Each “hundred"
had its court of judgment known as the mâl; the place where it met
was known as the mâlberg. This tribunal was presided over by the
centenarius or thunginus—these terms appear to us to be synonymous.
Historians have devoted much discussion to the question whether this
official was appointed by the king or elected by the freemen of the
heavy fine.
CH. X.
## p. 302 (#332) ############################################
302
Crimes and Offences
“hundred. ” At the court of the “hundred all the freemen had a
right to be present, but only a few of them took part in the proceedings
--some of them would be nominated for this duty on one occasion, some
on another. In their capacity as assistants to the centenarius at the mâl
the freemen were designated rachineburgi. In order to make a sentence
valid it was required that seven rachineburgi should pronounce judg-
ment. A plaintiff had the right to summon seven of them to give
judgment upon his suit. If they refused, they had to pay a fine of
three sols. If they persisted in their refusal, and did not undertake
to pay the three sols before sunset, they incurred a fine of fifteen sols.
Every man's life was rated at a certain value; this was his price,
the wergeld. The wergeld of a Salian Frank was 200 sols ; that of a
Roman 100 sols. If a Salian Frank had killed another Salian, or a
Roman, without aggravating circumstances, the Court sentenced him to
pay the price of the victim, the 200 or 100 sols. The compositio in this case
is exactly equivalent to the wergeld; if, however, he had only wounded
his victim he paid, according to the severity of the injury, a lower sum
proportionate to the wergeld. If, however, the murder has taken place
in particularly atrocious circumstances, if the murderer has endeavoured
to conceal the corpse, if he has been accompanied by an armed band, or
if the assassination has been unprovoked, the compositio may be three
times; six times, nine times, the wergeld. Of this compositio, two thirds
were paid to the relatives of the victim; this was the faida and bought
off the right of private vengeance; the other third was paid to the
State or to the king : it was called fretus or fredum from the German
word Friede peace, and was a compensation for the breach of the public
peace of which the king is the guardian. Thus a very lofty principle
was embodied in this penalty.
The Salic Law is mainly a tariff of the fines which must be paid for
various crimes and offences. The State thus endeavoured to substitute
the judicial sentences of the courts for private vengeance, part of the
compensation being paid to the victim or his family to induce them to
renounce this right. But we may safely conjecture that the triumph of
law over inveterate custom was not immediate. It was long before
families were willing to leave to the judgment of the courts serious
crimes which had been committed against them, such as homicides and
adulteries; they flew to arms and made war upon the guilty person
and his family. The forming in this way of armed bands was very
detrimental to public order.
The crimes mentioned most frequently in the Salic Law give us
some grounds on which to form an idea of the manners and charac-
teristics of the Franks. These Franks would seem to have been much
given to bad language, for the Law mentions a great variety of terms
of abuse. It is forbidden to call one's adversary a fox or a hare, or to
reproach him with having fung away his shield; it is forbidden to
## p. 303 (#333) ############################################
Weapons of the Franks
303
call a woman meretrix, or to say that she had joined the witches at
their revels. Warriors who are so easily enraged readily pass to violence
and murder. Every form of homicide is mentioned in the Salic Law.
The roads are not safe, and are often infested by armed bands. In
addition to murder, theft is very often mentioned by the code—theft
of fruits, of hay, of cattle-bells, of horse-clogs, of animals, of river-boats,
of slaves and even of freemen. All these thefts are punished with
severity and are held by all to be base and shameful crimes. But
there is a punishment of special severity for robbing a corpse which has
been buried. The guilty person is outlawed, and is to be treated like a
wild beast.
The civilisation of these Franks is primitive; they are, above all else,
warriors. As to their appearance, they brought their fair hair forward
from the top of the head, leaving the back of the neck bare. On their
faces they generally wore no hair but the moustache. They wore close-
fitting garments, fastened with brooches, and bound in at the waist by a
leather belt which was covered with bands of enamelled iron and clasped
by an ornamental buckle. From this belt hung the long sword, the
hanger or scramasux, and various articles of the toilet, such as scissors
and combs made of bone. From it too was hung the single-bladed axe,
the favourite weapon of the Franks, known as the francisca, which they
used both at close quarters and by hurling it at their enemies from a
distance. They were also armed with a long lance or spear (Lat. framea)
formed of an iron blade at the end of a long wooden shaft. For defence
they carried a large shield, made of wood or wattles covered with skins,
the centre of which was formed by a convex plate of metal, the boss
(umbo), fastened by iron rods to the body of the shield. They were
fond of jewellery, wearing gold finger-rings and armlets, and collars
formed of beads of amber or glass or paste inlaid with colour. They
were buried with their arms and ornaments, and many
Frankish ceme-
teries have been explored in which the dead were found fully armed, as
if prepared for a great military review. The Franks were universally
distinguished for courage. As Sidonius Apollinaris wrote of them :
“from their youth up war is their passion. If they are crushed by
weight of numbers, or through being taken at a disadvantage, death
may overwhelm them, but not fear. ”
CH, X.
## p. 304 (#334) ############################################
304
CHAPTER XI.
THE SUEVES, ALANS AND VANDALS IN SPAIN, 409-429.
THE VANDAL DOMINION IN AFRICA, 429-533.
Thanks to its geographically strong position, the Iberian peninsula had
up till now escaped barbarian invasions ; when however the Roman troops
stationed to protect the passes of the Pyrenees gave way to negligence,
the Asdingian and Silingian Vandals, the (non-German) Alans and the
Sueves availed themselves of the favourable opportunity to cross the
mountains (autumn 409). For two whole years the four peoples wandered
about devastating the flourishing country, especially the western and
southern provinces, without settling anywhere; it was only when famine
and disease broke out and menaced their own existence that they were
persuaded to more peaceful relations. They concluded a treaty in the
year 411 with the Emperor, according to which they received land to
settle on as foederati, i. e. as subjects of the Empire with the duty of
defending Spain against attacks from without. The assignment of the
provinces in which the different peoples should settle was decided by
lot; Galicia fell to the Asdingians and the Sueves, while the Silingians
received Baetica (southern Spain), and the Alans, numerically the strongest
people, Lusitania (Portugal) and Carthaginensis (capital Carthagena).
Probably they divided the land with the Roman proprietors. The
peace brought about in this way did not however last long; the
Imperial Government had professed only to regard the arrangement as
a temporary expedient. As early as the year 416 the Visigoth king,
Wallia, appeared in Spain with a considerable army to free the land
from the barbarians in the name of the Emperor. First of all the
Silingians were attacked and, after repeated combats, completely destroyed
(418), their king, Fredbal, being carried to Italy as prisoner. As a
tribal name the name of Asdingians disappears: it only survived as the
appellation of members of the royal family. The Alans also, against
whom Wallia next marched, were severely beaten and so much weakened
that after the death of King Addac the people decided not to choose
another head but to join the Asdingian Vandals, whose kings from that
time bore the title Reges Vandalorum et Alanorum (418). Only the
recall of Wallia (end of 418) saved the Asdingians and the Sueves
## p. 305 (#335) ############################################
419–430]
Passage into Africa
305
from the extermination which menaced them. The former rallied
wonderfully: they first of all turned against their Suevian neighbours,
then under the rule of Hermeric, who had once more made overtures
to the Emperor, and pressed them back into the Cantabrian Mountains
from which they were only extricated by a Roman army which hurriedly
came to their assistance (419). Obliged to retreat to Baetica, the Vandals
encountered in 421 or 422 a strong Roman army under Castinus, but
owing to the treachery of the Visigoth troops who were fighting on the
Roman side they gained a brilliant victory. This success immensely
stimulated the power of the Vandals and their desire for expansion.
They then laid the foundation of their maritime power, afterwards so
formidable; we understand that they infested the Balearic Isles and the
coast of Mauretania in the year 425. At that time Carthagena and
Seville, the last bulwarks of the Romans in southern Spain, also fell into
their
power.
Three years later died Gunderic who had ruled over the Vandals
since 406. He was succeeded on the throne by his brother Gaiseric
(born about 400), one of the most famous figures in the Wandering of the
Nations (428). A year after his accession Gaiseric led his people over
to Africa. This undertaking sprang from the same political considera-
tions as had earlier moved the Visigoth kings, Alaric and Wallia : the
rulers of that province, whose main function it was to supply Italy with
corn, had the fate of the Roman Empire in their hands, but they were
themselves in an almost unassailable position so long as a good navy
was at their disposal. The immediate occasion was furnished by the
confusion which then reigned in Africa—the revolt of the Moors, the
revolutionary upheaval of the severely oppressed peasantry, the revolt
of the ecclesiastical sects, particularly the Donatists (Circumcelliones),
the manifest weakness of the Roman system of defence everywhere, and,
finally, a quarrel between the military governor of Africa, Bonifacius,
and the Imperial Government. The well-known story that Bonifacius
himself had called the Vandals into the land to revenge the wrongs he
had suffered is a fable, which first appeared in Roman authorities of a
later time and was invented to veil the real reason. The crossing took
place at Julia Traducta, now Tarifa, in May 429. Shortly before
embarking the Vandal king turned back with a division of his army
and totally defeated the Sueves in a bloody fight near Merida. The
Sueves had taken advantage of the departure of their enemies to invade
Lusitania.
According to a trustworthy account, Gaiseric's people
numbered at that time about 80,000 souls, i. e. about 15,000 armed men;
their numbers were made up of Vandals, Alans, and Visigoth stragglers
who had remained behind in Spain.
The Germans first met with the sternest resistance when they
entered Numidia in the year 430: Bonifacius opposed them here with
Correctly Gaisarix. The frequent form Genseric is philologically impossible.
-
1
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. XI.
20
## p. 306 (#336) ############################################
306
Capture of Carthage
[ 430-441
1
some hurriedly collected troops, but was defeated. The open country was
then completely given over to the enemy; only a few forts-Hippo
Regius (now Bona), Cirta (Constantine) and Carthage-were kept by
the Romans, Hippo mainly through the influence of St Augustine who
died during the siege 28 August 430. As it was impossible for
the barbarians to take these strongholds owing to their inexperience
in siege-work, and as the Romans in the meantime sent reinforcements
under Aspar into Carthage by sea, Gaiseric, after heavy losses, resolved
to enter into negotiations with the Emperor. On 11 Feb. 435, at
Hippo Regius, a treaty was concluded with the imperial agent Trigetius,
according to which the Vandals entered the service of the Empire as
foederati and were settled in the proconsulate of Numidia (capital Hippo),
probably in the same way as earlier in Spain, for here too no formal
cession of territory took place.
Gaiseric, however, no doubt regarded the situation thus produced
as only temporary. After he had again to some extent united his forces,
he posed as a perfectly independent ruler in the district assigned to him.
The arbitrary actions in which he indulged comprised the deposition of a
number of orthodox clergy who had tried to hinder the performance of
the Arian service. Vandal pirates scoured the Mediterranean and even
plundered the coasts of Sicily in 437. But on 19 Oct. 439, Gaiseric
unexpectedly attacked Carthage and captured the city without a stroke.
The occupation was followed by a general pillage which naturally did
not end without deeds of violence, even if we are not told of any
deliberate destruction or damage to particular buildings. The Catholic
clergy and the noble inhabitants of Carthage experienced the fate of
banishment or slavery. All the churches inside the town as well as
some outside were closed for orthodox services and given over to the
Arian clergy together with the ecclesiastical property.
Gaiseric must have expected that after these proceedings the Imperial
Government would use every possible means of chastising the bold
raiders of its most valuable province. To prevent this and to reduce
the Western Empire to a state of permanent helplessness by continuously
harassing it, he fitted out a powerful feet in the harbour of Carthage in
the spring of 440 with the special aim of attacking Sardinia and Sicily,
which were
now primarily relied upon to supply Italy with corn.
Although extensive preparations for defence had been arranged the
Vandals landed in Sicily without encountering any resistance and moved
to and fro, burning and laying waste, but returned to Africa in the same
year, 440, on hearing tidings of the approach of powerful Byzantine
succours. The expected Greek fleet certainly appeared in Sicilian waters
.
in 441, but the commanders wasted their time there in useless delay,
and when the Persians and the Huns invaded the borderlands which
had been denuded of troops, the whole fighting force was called back
without having effected anything. Under these circumstances the
5
## p. 307 (#337) ############################################
442-455]
Settlement in Africa
307
Emperor of Western Rome found himself obliged to conclude a peace
with Gaiseric, whose rule was officially recognised as independent, 442.
It is stated by some authorities that Africa was divided between the
two powers. The best parts of the country: Tingitian Mauretania (by
which the Straits of Gibraltar were controlled), Zeugitana or Proconsularis,
Byzacena and Numidia proconsularis fell to the Vandals, whilst
Mauretania Caesariensis and Sitifensis, Cirtan Numidia and Tripolis
remained to the Roman Empire.
This treaty forms an important epoch in the history of the Vandals
and marks the end of their migration. A final settlement of the
conditions for colonisation now took place. The Vandals settled down
definitely in the country districts of Zeugitana in the neighbourhood of
Carthage. Military reasons, which made a settlement of the people
desirable, especially in the neighbourhood of the capital city, as well as
the circumstance that the most fertile arable land lay there, were of
principal weight in this step. The former landowners---as many as had
not been slain or exiled during the conquest—had to choose whether,
after the loss of their property, they would make their home as freemen
elsewhere or remain as servants, i. e. probably as coloni, on their former
estates. The Catholic clergy, if they resided within the so-called Vandal
allotment, met with the same fate as the landowners, a measure which
was principally directed against their suspected political propaganda.
In the other provinces and especially in the towns the Roman conditions
of property remained as a rule undisturbed, although the Romans were
considered as a subject people and the land the property of the State or
the king. In order to deprive his enemies, internal or external, of every
possible gathering-point, Gaiseric next had the fortifications of most of the
towns demolished, with the exception of the Castle Septa in the Straits
of Gibraltar, and the towns Hippo Regius and Carthage. The last was
looked upon as the principal bulwark of the Vandal power. The
sovereign position which Vandal power had now attained found expression
in the legal dating of the regnal years from 19 Oct. 439, the date of
the taking of Carthage, which was reckoned as New Year's Day. There
is no trace here of any reckoning according to the consular years or
indictions, as was the custom, for example, in the kingdom of the
Burgundians, who continued to consider themselves formally as citizens
of the Roman Empire.
How powerful the kingdom of Gaiseric was at this epoch is seen
from the fact that the Visigoth king, Theodoric I, sought to form
alliance with him by marrying his daughter to the king's son Huneric,
the heir-presumptive to the throne. This state of affairs however did
not last long, for Gaiseric, under the pretext that his daughter-in-law
wanted to poison him, sent her back to her father after having cut off
her nose and her ears. Probably the dissolution of this coalition, so
menacing to Rome, was brought about by a diplomatic move on the part
CH. XI.
20--2
## p. 308 (#338) ############################################
308
The Sack of Rome
[455
of the West-Roman minister Aëtius, who held out prospects to the king
of the Vandals of a marriage between his son and a daughter of the
Emperor Valentinian III. Although the projected wedding did not
take place, friendly relations were begun between the Vandals and the
Romans which lasted until the year 455. Gaiseric was even induced to
allow the see of Carthage, which had been vacant since 439, to be again
filled.
But this friendly connexion ceased at once when the Emperor
Valentinian, the murderer of Aëtius, was himself slain by that general's
following (16 March 455). Gaiseric announced that he could not
recognise the new Emperor Maximus, who had had a hand in the
murders of Aëtius and Valentinian and had forced the widowed Empress
Eudoxia to marry him, as a fit inheritor of the imperial throne.
Under this pretext he immediately sailed to Italy with a large fleet,
which seems to have been long since equipped in readiness for coming
events. That he came in response to an appeal from Eudoxia cannot
be for a moment supposed. Without meeting with any resistance the
Vandals, amongst whom also were Moors, landed in the harbour of
Portus, and marched along the Via Portuensis to the Eternal City. A
great number of the inhabitants took to flight; when Maximus prepared
to do likewise he was killed by one of the soldiers of his body-guard
(31 May). On 2 June Gaiseric marched into Rome. At the Porta
Portuensis he was received by Pope Leo I, who is said to have prevailed
upon the king to refrain at least from fire and slaughter and content
himself merely with plundering.
The Vandals stayed a fortnight (June 455) in Rome, long enough to
take all the treasures which had been left by the Visigoths in the year 410
or restored since. First of all the imperial palace was fallen upon, all
,
that was there was brought to the ships to adorn the royal residence in
Carthage, among other things the insignia of imperial dignity. The
same fate befell the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, of which even the
half of the gilded roof was taken away. Among the plundered treasure
the vessels of Solomon's Temple, formerly brought to Rome by Titus,
took a conspicuous place. On the other hand, the Christian churches as
a rulé were spared. Murder and incendiarism also, as has been certainly
proved, did not take place, neither was there any wanton destruction of
buildings or works of art. It is therefore very unjust to brand Gaiseric's
people with the word “Vandalism,” which indeed came into use in
France no earlier than the end of the eighteenth century. Besides the
enormous spoil which the Vandals carried away were numerous prisoners,
in particular the widowed Empress Eudoxia with her two daughters,
Eudoxia and Placidia, as well as Gaudentius, the son of Aëtius. The
Vandals and the Moors divided the prisoners between them on their
return; nevertheless Bishop Deogratias raised funds to ransom many of
them by selling the vessels of the churches.
## p. 309 (#339) ############################################
465–460]
Avitus and Majorian
309
The capture of the Empress Eudoxia and her daughters gave the
king valuable hostages against the hostile invasion of his kingdom
which might now be expected. He was now fully master of the situation ;
his personality is from this time the centre of Western history. The
Vandal fleet ruled the Mediterranean and cut off all supplies from Italy,
so that a great famine broke out. In order to put an end to this
intolerable state of affairs, Avitus the new Emperor of Western Rome
(from 9 July 455) sent an embassy to Byzantium to induce the Emperor
to take part in a joint attack against the Vandal Empire, for in an
attack on Africa he could not dispense with the East-Roman fleet. But
Marcian, probably influenced by the chief general Aspar, all-powerful
in the East, still clung to inactivity and contented himself with asking
Gaiseric to refrain from further hostilities towards Italy and to deliver
up the prisoners of the imperial house, a proceeding which of course
was quite ineffectual.
The result of this lethargy on the part of both empires was that
the Vandals were in a position to seize the rest of the African provinces
belonging to Rome; even the Moorish tribes seem to have acknowledged
the Vandal sovereignty without positive resistance. Moreover Gaiseric
made an alliance with the Spanish Sueves who had invaded and
plundered the province of Tarraconensis (456) which belonged to the
Roman Empire. At the same time a Vandal fleet laid waste Sicily and
the bordering coast territory of South Italy. It is true that on land the
Romans succeeded, under Ricimer, in defeating a hostile division at
Agrigentum, as well as one at sea in Corsican waters, but these successes
had no lasting effect, for the Vandals still commanded the Mediterranean
as before. The populace, furious from the continued famine, compelled
Avitus to fly to Gaul, where he died at the end of the year 456.
His successor on the imperial throne, Majorian (from 1 April 457),
at once began in real earnest to consider schemes for the destruction of
the Vandal Empire. It might be looked upon as auspicious that not
long after his accession a body of Roman troops succeeded in defeating
a band of Vandals and Moors, led by Gaiseric's brother-in-law, who were
engaged in desultory plunder in South Italy. The Emperor himself
marched with a large army, which he had not got together without
difficulty, from Italy to Gaul, in November 458, in order to exact
recognition of his authority from the Visigoths and Burgundians who
had seceded from Rome, and his success in this task at once rendered
nugatory Gaiseric's conclusion of a Visigoth, Suevian and Vandal alliance.
In May 460 Majorian crossed the Pyrenees and moved upon Zaragoza
to Carthagena in order to cross from thence to Africa. The force that
had been raised was so impressive that the king of the Vandals did not
feel himself a match for it and sent messengers to sue for peace. When
peace was refused he laid waste Mauretania and poisoned the wells in
order to delay the advance of the enemy as much as possible. The
01. A.
## p. 310 (#340) ############################################
310
Majorian
[460–468
Roman attack, however, could not be carried out, for the Vandals
managed by means of treachery to seize a great number of the Roman
ships which were lying outside the naval harbour near the modern Elche.
Majorian had no alternative but to make peace with Gaiseric; his
authority, however, was so shaken by this failure that he was divested
of his dignity by Ricimer in August 461.
The result of the elevation of a new Emperor, Libius Severus, was that
Gaiseric once more declared the agreement he had but just made to be at
an end. He again began his naval attacks on Italy and Sicily. The
embassies sent to him by the West-Roman as well as by the Byzantine
Emperor Leo had no further result than the deliverance of Valentinian's
widow and her daughter Placidia, for he had previously given the elder
princess Eudoxia to his son Huneric in marriage.
The king received
as ransom a part of the treasure of Valentinian. It also seems that an
agreement was come to with the East-Roman Empire. On the other
hand the hostile relations with West-Rome continued, for Ricimer
refused to comply with Gaiseric's principal demand, the bestowal of the
imperial throne of the West upon Olybrius, Huneric's brother-in-law.
Every year in the beginning of spring detachments of the Vandal fleet
left the African harbours to infest the Mediterranean coasts. Unpro-
tected places were plundered and destroyed, while the garrisoned places
were carefully avoided.
The danger threatening the Western Empire reached its height
when the commander Aegidius, who maintained an independent position
in Gaul, made an alliance with Gaiseric and prepared to attack Italy in
conjunction with him. This scheme was not carried out, for Aegidius
died prematurely (464), but the situation still remained dangerous.
These miserable conditions lasted until the end of 467. The
energetic Emperor Leo had by this time succeeded in overcoming the
influence of Aspar, who had always been a hindrance to hostile measures
against the Vandals. He despatched a fleet under the command of
Marcellinus to convey the newly-created Western Emperor Anthemius
to Italy and afterwards proceed to Africa. But first he sent an embassy
to Gaiseric to inform him of the accession of Anthemius and to threaten
him with war unless he would relinquish his marauding expeditions.
The king instantly refused the demand and declared the agreements
made with Byzantium at an end. His ships no longer sought Italy, but
the coasts of the Eastern Empire: Illyria, the Peloponnesus and all
the rest of Greece felt his powerful arm, and even Alexandria felt
itself menaced. But when the attempt of Marcellinus to advance
against Africa miscarried on account of contrary winds, Leo determined
to make great warlike preparations and to destroy his terrible opponent
at one blow. Eleven hundred ships were got together and an army
of 100,000 men raised. The plan of campaign was to attack the Vandal
Empire on three sides. The main army was to march under Basiliscus
## p. 311 (#341) ############################################
468—477]
Last years of Gaiseric
311
direct to Carthage, another body under Heraclius and Marsus was to
advance overland from Egypt to the West, while Marcellinus with his
fleet was to strike at the Vandal centre in the Mediterranean. But
once more fortune favoured the Vandals. They succeeded under cover
of night in surprising Basiliscus' fleet, which was already anchored at
the Promontorium Mercurii (now Cape Bon), and destroyed a part
of it by fire. The rest took to flight and scarcely one-half of the fine
armada managed to escape to Sicily (468). The not unimportant
successes which the other Byzantine generals had in the meantime
achieved could not balance this catastrophe, and as a crowning mis-
fortune the able Marcellinus when on the point of sailing for Carthage
was murdered (August 468). Leo was therefore obliged to relinquish
further undertakings and make peace once more with Gaiseric.
The peace, however, only lasted a few years. After Leo's death
(Jan. 474) the Vandals again devastated the coast of Greece in frequent
expeditions. The Emperor Zeno, who was not prepared to punish the
marauders, was obliged to sue for peace, and sent the Senator Severus
to Carthage to superintend negotiations. It was agreed that the two
empires from that time should not be hostile to each other. The king
promised to guarantee freedom of worship to the Catholics in Carthage
and to permit the return of the clergy who had been banished for
political intrigues, although he could not be prevailed upon to allow
new appointment to the Carthaginian bishopric, vacant since
Deogratias' death (457). Besides this he restored without ransom the
Roman prisoners who had been allotted to him and his family, and gave
Severus permission to buy back the slaves allotted as booty among the
Vandals with the goodwill of their owners. In return the Byzantine
Emperor, as the overlord of both halves of the Empire, no doubt formally
recognised the Vandal kingdom in its then extent-it comprised the
entire Roman province of Africa, the Balearic Isles, Pithyusae, Corsica,
Sardinia and Sicily (autumn 476). Gaiseric soon afterwards made
.
over Sicily to Odovacar in return for the payment of a yearly tribute,
only reserving for himself the town of Lilybaeum, which had a strategical
importance as a starting-point for Africa.
On 25 January 477, Gaiseric died at a very great age after he
had raised the Vandal Empire to the height of its power. What he
accomplished, as general and politician, in his active life is beyond praise
and is unreservedly acknowledged by contemporaries. On the other
hand, a less favourable verdict must be pronounced on his statesmanship.
The Empire he established was a hybrid State and therefore bore from
the beginning the seeds of decay in itself. The nations under his rule
were kept strictly separate from each other, and the possibility of an
amalgamation, which might have been the foundation of a new political
organisation, was thus prevented. Herein is seen the truth found
by experience, that the existence of all kingdoms erected by conquest is
a
CB, XI.
## p. 312 (#342) ############################################
312
Huneric and Gunthamund
[477–487
bound
up
with the life of their creator unless the latter can succeed
in creating a united organism on a national, constitutional or economic
basis.
The decline was already noticeable under Gaiseric's eldest son and
successor, Huneric, the husband of the imperial princess Eudoxia. The
Moorish tribes living in the Aures mountains, after fighting for some
time with varying fortune, succeeded at last in shaking off the Vandal
rule. In a quarrel with the Eastern Empire over the surrender of
Eudoxia's fortune, Huneric early gave in; he was even willing to
permit the episcopal see at Carthage to be filled again (481) and grant
the Catholics in his Empire still greater freedom of movement. Only
when he learned that he had not to fear hostilities from Byzantium did
he shew himself in his true colours, a tyrant of the worst, most blood-
thirsty type. Then he raged against the members of his own house
and against his father's friends. Some of them he banished, others he
murdered in a horrible manner in order to secure the succession to his
son Hilderic. When nothing more remained for him to do in this
direction he proceeded to oppress his Catholic subjects. Among some
of the measures taken by him the most important is the notorious
Edict of 24 January 484, in which the king ordered that the edicts
made by the Roman Emperors against heresy should be applied to all
his Catholic subjects unless they adopted Arianism by 1 June in
that year. Next, orthodox priests were forbidden to hold religious
services, to possess churches or build new ones, to baptise, consecrate
and so forth, and they were especially forbidden to reside in any towns
or villages. The property of all Catholic churches and the churches
themselves were bestowed on the Arian clergy. Laymen were disabled
from making or receiving gifts or legacies ; court officials of the Catholic
creed were deprived of their dignity and declared infamous. For the
several classes of the people graduated money-fines were established
according to rank; but in case of persistence all were condemned to
transportation and confiscation of property. Huneric gave the execution
of these provisions into the hands of the Arian clergy, who carried out
the punishments threatened with the most revolting cruelty, and even
went beyond them. Repeated intervention on the part of the Emperor
and the Pope remained quite ineffectual, for they confined themselves
to representations. Perhaps Catholicism might have been quite rooted
out in Africa if the king had not died prematurely on 23 December 484.
Under his successor Gunthamund, better times began for the oppressed
orthodox Church. As early as the year 487 most of the Catholic
churches were opened again and the banished priests recalled. The
reason for these changed circumstances lay partly in the personal
character of the king, partly in the Emperor's separation from the Roman
Church which appeared to debar Gunthamund's Catholic subjects from
conspiring with Byzantium, and partly in the now ever-increasing
## p. 313 (#343) ############################################
484-523
Thrasamund
313
dimensions of Moorish rebellion. Gunthamund was very fortunate in
driving back these last to their haunts, but he did not succeed in com-
pletely defeating them. He absolutely failed when he attempted to
regain possession of Sicily during the struggle between Odovacar and
Theodoric the Great. The expedition sent thither was expelled by the
Ostrogoths, and the king was compelled even to relinquish the tribute
which had hitherto been paid to him (491).
Gunthamund died 3 September 496; Thrasamund, his brother,
distinguished for his beauty, amiability, wisdom and general culture,
succeeded him on the throne. He pursued yet a different course
from that of his predecessors with regard to the Catholics. He tried,
like Huneric, to spread Arianism in his kingdom, yet as a rule he avoided
the violent measures to which that king had recourse. Thus several
bishops, among whom was the bishop of Carthage, were once more
banished, but they were well treated in their exile. His action was
mainly due to religious fanaticism, for there was no ground for political
suspicion, at least during the greater part of his reign; the king was
on friendly terms with the schismatical Emperor Anastasius. After
the accession of the orthodox Emperor Justin (518) Thrasamund's
aversion to the Catholics is easier to understand, especially when
the Emperor took steps to improve the position of the orthodox
episcopate in Africa. The Vandal kingdom found a real support in
the alliance with the Ostrogoths in Italy. Theodoric the Great, swayed
by the desire to bring about an alliance of all German princes of the
Arian faith, wedded his widowed sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund,
whose first wife had died childless ; she came to Carthage with a retinue
of 1000 distinguished Goths as her body-guard as well as 5000 slaves
capable of bearing arms, and brought her royal husband a dowry of the
part of the island of Sicily round Lilybaeum (500). A temporary
interruption occurred in the alliance between the two States in 510-511,
because Thrasamund gave pecuniary support to Gesalech the pretender
to the Visigothic throne, who was not recognised by Theodoric; but on
the representation of his brother-in-law he repented and apologised.
Serious difficulties occurred in the Vandal kingdom once more through
the Moors. The tribes of Tripolis really succeeded in making them-
selves independent. At the end of his reign the king himself took the
field against them, but suffered defeat.
Thrasamund died on 6 May 523; he was succeeded by the al-
ready aged, utterly effeminate son of Huneric and Eudoxia, Hilderic,
who was averse from warfare. Thrasamund, having a presentiment of
future events, had exacted an oath from him not to restore to the
banished Catholics either their churches or their privileges, but Hilderic
evaded his pledge, for even before his formal accession, he recalled the
exiled clergy and ordered fresh elections in the place of those who had
died. In foreign politics also the new king turned entirely from the system
а
6. A.
## p. 314 (#344) ############################################
314
Hilderic
[ 523–530
hitherto followed, of alliance with the Ostrogoth kingdom, and entered
into a close connexion with the Byzantine Empire where Justinian, the
nephew of the ageing Emperor Justin, already practically wielded the
sceptre. Inasmuch as he had coins struck bearing the effigy of Justin I,
Hilderic formally gave the impression of recognising a kind of suzerainty
of the Byzantine Empire. To the opposition of Amalafrida and her
following he replied by slaughtering the Goths and Ainging the sister
of Theodoric into prison. To avenge this insult the Gothic king fitted
out a strong fleet, but his death (526) prevented the despatch of the
expedition, which would probably have been fatal to the Vandal kingdom.
Theodoric's grandson and successor Athalarich, or rather his mother
Amalasuntha, was content with making remonstrances, which of course
received no attention.
Though there was nothing to fear from the Ostrogoths, the danger
from the Moors waxed ever greater. After the year
525 it
appears
that
they had acquired control over Mauretania Caesariensis with the exception
of its capital city, of the Sitifensis Province and of southern Numidia
as well—Mauretania Tingitana had already been given up. But especially
momentous in its widespread results was the rise of Antalas who at the
head of some tribes in the southern part of Byzacene infested this
province more and more, and at last severely defeated the relieving
Vandal troops commanded by Oamer, a cousin of Hilderic. The dislike
of the Vandals to their king, which had been existent long before this
event, shewed itself fully at this failure. Hilderic was deposed by the
defeated army on its return home and was imprisoned together with his
followers, and in his stead the next heir to the throne Gelimer', a great-
grandson of Gaiseric, was called upon to rule (19 May 530). Doubtless
this usurpation was mainly the result of Gelimer's ambition and love of
power, but on the whole it was sustained by the will of the people.
They were discontented with the policy hitherto pursued towards the
Catholics and Byzantium as well as with the unwarlike, inconsistent
character of Hilderic, who was to Teutonic ideas utterly unworthy of
royalty.
This course of events was most welcome to the Byzantine Emperor,
who in any case had for some time past harboured some idea of the
plan which later he definitely announced for joining all the lands
belonging to the old Roman Empire under his own sceptre. Just as
he afterwards posed as the avenger of Amalasuntha, so he now became
the official protector of the rights of the deposed king of the Vandals.
He asked Gelimer in the most courteous manner not openly to violate
the law regarding the succession to the throne, which had been decreed
by Gaiseric and had been always hitherto respected, but to be satisfied
with the actual exercise of power and to let the old king, whose death
1 More correctly Geilamir as the name reads in inscriptions and on coins.
## p. 315 (#345) ############################################
530-533]
Gelimer
315
might shortly be expected, remain as nominal ruler. Gelimer did not
deign at first to answer the Emperor; when, however, the latter took
a sharper tone and demanded the surrender of the prisoners he haughtily
rejected the interference, emphatically claimed validity for his own
succession and declared that he was ready to oppose with the utmost
vigour any attack which might occur. Justinian was now firmly resolved
to bring matters to an armed decision, but first took steps to end the
war which had been begun against the Persians. In the year
532
peace
was concluded with them.
The scheme directed against the Vandal kingdom found no approval
from the body of crown councillors before whom Justinian laid it for an
opinion. They objected to the chronic want of money in the state
treasury and that the same fate might easily be prepared for the
Byzantines as had befallen Basiliscus under Gaiseric. The troops, too,
which had just sustained the fatigues of the Persian campaign, were little
fit to be again sent to an uncertain conflict against a powerful and
famous kingdom on the other side of the sea. Justinian was almost
persuaded to give up the undertaking when a fresh impulse, that of
religion, made itself felt. An oriental bishop appeared at Court and
declared that God himself had, in a dream, commanded him to reproach
the Emperor on account of his indecision and to tell him that he might
count on the support of Heaven if he would march forth to liberate the
Christian (that is, the orthodox) people of Africa from the dominion of
the heretics.
Through this kind of influence on the part of the Catholic clergy, and
through the endeavours of the Roman nobility who had been reinstated
by Hilderic but driven forth again by Gelimer, Justinian was entirely
brought round. Belisarius, previously commander-in-chief in the Persian
war, was placed at the head of the expedition with unlimited authority.
It was very fortunate for the Emperor that, in the first place, the Ostro-
goth queen Amalasuntha declared for him and held out prospects of
supplying provisions and horses in Sicily, and, further, that the Vandal
governor of Sardinia, Godas, rose against Gelimer and asked for troops
to enable him to hold his own, and finally that the population of
Tripolis, led by a distinguished Roman, Prudentius, declared itself in
favour of union with Byzantium.
In June 533 the preparations for war were completed. The army
mustered reckoned 10,000 infantry under Johannes of Epidamnus and
about 5000 cavalry, also the 5000 men of Belisarius' powerfully mounted
guard, 400 Heruls and 600 Huns. The fleet was composed of 500
transport vessels and 92 battleships under the command of Kalonymus.
Among Belisarius' attendants was the historian Procopius of Caesarea,
to whom we owe the vivid and trustworthy description of the campaign.
The departure of the ships took place at the end of July, and the last
hour of the kingdom which was once so powerful had struck.
CH, XI.
## p. 316 (#346) ############################################
316
Vandals and Romans
It is only in Africa that we are well acquainted with the internal
circumstances of the Vandal kingdom ; for of the parallel conditions in
the Spanish communities of the Sueves, Alans and the Silingian and
Asdingian Vandals we only know, at the present time, that they were
under monarchical rule. The centre of Vandal rule in Africa was Carthage;
here all the threads of the government converged, here the king also
held court. The Roman division of the land into provinces (Mauretania :
Tingitana, Caesariensis, Sitifensis ; Numidia ; Proconsularis or Zeugitana;
Byzacene; Tripolitana) remained the same. The districts assigned to
the Vandals, the so-called “Sortes Vandalorum,” were separated as
especial commands. The governing people were the Vandals of the
Asdingian branch which now alone survived, with whom were joined the
Alans and contingents from different peoples, among whom in particular
were Goths. The Alans, who probably were already Germanised at the
time of the transference to Africa, seem to have maintained a kind of
independence for a while, but in Procopius' time these foreign elements
had become completely merged in the Vandals. The Romans were by
far more numerous. These were by no means looked upon as having
equal privileges, but were treated as conquered subjects according to the
usages of war. Marriages between them and the Vandals were forbidden,
as they were in all the German States founded on Roman soil except
among the Franks. If, however, the hitherto existing arrangements
outside the Vandal settlements remained the same in the main and
indeed even the high offices were left in the hands of the Romans—this
only happened because the Vandal kings proved themselves incapable of
providing a fresh political organisation. On the other hand, the numerous
Moorish tribes were to a great extent held in only slight subjection.
They retained their autonomy, as they did in the time of the Romans,
but their princes received from the hands of the Vandal kings the
insignia of their dignity. Under Gaiseric's stern government they
conducted themselves quietly and completely left off their raids into
civilised districts, which had occurred so frequently in the last years of the
Roman rule, but even under Huneric they began with ever-increasing
success to struggle for their independence. The destruction which befell
the works of ancient civilisation in Africa must be placed to the account
of the Moors, not of the Vandals.
The first settlement of the Vandals in Africa was on the basis of a
treaty with the Roman Empire, when the people were settled among the
Roman landowners and as an equivalent became liable to land tax and
military service. The land settlement which took place after the
recognition of the Vandal sovereignty was carried out as by right of
conquest; the largest and most valuable estates of the country land-
owners in the province of Zeugitana were taken possession of and given
to individual Vandal households. Further particulars of the details are
wanting, yet it is certain that the Roman organisation arranged on the
## p. 317 (#347) ############################################
The Sortes Vandalorum
317
basis of landed property grants was not disturbed. The property only
changed hands, otherwise the conditions were the same as they had been
under Roman government. Of the villa, the manor house on the
Roman estate, a Vandal with his family now took possession, and the
coloni had to pay the necessary dues to the landed proprietor or his
representative and render the usual compulsory service. The profits of
the single estates were in any case on an average not insignificant, for
they made the development of a luxurious mode of life possible even
after an increase in the number of the population. The management of
the estate was, as formerly, directed only in a minority of cases by the
new masters themselves, for they lacked the necessary knowledge, and
service in the Court and in the army compelled them to be absent
frequently from their property. More often the management was
entrusted to stewards or farmers (conductores) who were survivals from
the earlier state of things. Nevertheless the position of the dependents
of the manor, wherever they were directly under the Vandal rule, must
have been materially improved in comparison with what it had been
forinerly, for we know from various authorities that the country people
were in no way content with the reintroduction of the old system of
oppression by the Byzantines after the fall of the Vandal kingdom.
The Vandals like the other German races were divided into three
classes slaves, freemen and nobles. The nobleman as he now appears
is a noble by service who derives his privileged position from serving the
king, not as earlier from birth. The freemen comprised the bulk of
the people, nevertheless they had, in comparison with earlier times, lost
considerably in political importance while the rights of the popular
assembly had devolved in the strengthened monarchy. The slaves were
entirely without rights, they were reckoned not as persons but as
alienable chattels. The position of the coloni who were taken over
from the Roman settlement was wholly foreign to the Vandals ; they
remained tied to the soil but were personally free peasants who kept
their former constitutional status.
At the head of the State was the King, whose power had gradually
become unlimited and differed but little from that of the Byzantine
Roman Emperor. His full official title was Rex Vandalorum et Alanorum.
His mark of distinction and that of his kindred was, as with the
Merwings, long hair falling to the shoulders. While the earlier rulers
dressed in the customary Vandal costume, Gelimer wore the purple
mantle, like the Emperor.
The succession to the throne was legally settled by Gaiseric's so-called
testament. Gaiseric, who himself had obtained the throne through the
choice of the people, ignoring probably the sons of his predecessor
Gunderic, who were still minors, considered himself after he had fully
grasped monarchical power as the new founder of the Vandal kingship,
as the originator of a dynasty. The sovereignty was looked upon as an
CH. XI.
## p. 318 (#348) ############################################
318
The King
inheritance for his family over which no right of disposal belonged to
the people. As however the existence of several heirs threatened the by
no means solidly established kingdom with the risk of subdivision into
several portions, Gaiseric established the principle of individual succession;
moreover he provided that the crown should pass to the eldest of his
male issue at the time being. By this last provision the government of
a minor, unable to bear arms, was made, humanly speaking, impossible.
The Vandal kingdom was the first and for a long time the only State in
which the idea of a permanent rule of succession came to be realised -
and rightly is Gaiseric's family statute reckoned in history among the
most remarkable facts relating to public law. It remained valid until
the end of the kingdom. Gaiseric himself was succeeded by his eldest
son Huneric who was succeeded in turns by two of his nephews
Gunthamund and Thrasamund, and only after the death of the latter
came Huneric's son Hilderic. Gelimer obtained the throne, on the
other hand, in a direct and irregular way, and his endeavours to represent
a
himself to Justinian as a legitimate ruler did not succeed.
The scope of the royal power comprised the national army, the
convening of the assembly, justice, legislation and executive, the appoint-
ments to the praefecture, the supreme control of finance, of police and of
the Church. Of any co-operation in the government by the people-
by the Vandals (not of course by the Romans) such as obtained in
olden times, there is no sign whatever.
The development of absolute government seems to have been com-
pleted in the year 442; according to the brief but significant statements
of our authorities several nobles, who had twice risen against the king
because he had overstepped the limits of his authority, were put to
death with a good many of the people. The origin of the royal power
is traceable to God; the dominant centre of the State is the king and
his court.
In war the king is in chief command over the troops and issues the
summons to the weapon-bearing freemen. The arrangement of the
army was, like that of the nation, by thousands and hundreds. Larger
divisions of troops were placed under commanders appointed especially
by the monarch and generally selected from the royal family. The
Vandals had been even in their settlements in Hungary a nation of
horsemen, and they remained so in Africa. They were chiefly armed
with long spears and swords, and were little suited to long campaigns.
Their principal strength lay in their feet. The ships they commanded
were usually small, lightly built, fast sailing cruisers which did not hold
more than about 40 persons. In the great mobility of the army as well
as of the navy lay the secret of the surprising successes which the
Vandals achieved.
But immediately after Gaiseric's death, a general
military decline began. Enervated by the hot climate and the luxury
into which they had been allured by the produce of a rich country,
## p. 319 (#349) ############################################
The Law
319
they lost their warlike capacity more and more, and thus sank before
the attack of the Byzantines in a manner almost unique in history.
The king is the director of the whole external polity. He sends
forth and receives envoys, concludes alliances, decides war and peace.
On single and peculiarly important questions he may take counsel
beforehand with the chiefs of his following, but the royal will alone is
absolute.
The Vandals were judged according to their national principles of
jurisprudence in the separate hundred districts by the leaders of the
thousands. Sentences for political offences were reserved for the king
as executor of justice in the national assembly. Legal procedure for the
Romans remained the same as before. Judgment was passed on trivial
matters by the town magistrates, on greater by provincial governors
according to Roman law but in the name of the king. Quarrels between
Vandals and Romans were of course settled only in the Vandal court of
justice according to the law of the victor. That the king often inter-
fered arbitrarily in the regular legal proceedings of the Romans is not
surprising, considering the state of affairs, but a similar arbitrary inter-
ference among the Vandals is a circumstance of political importance :
treason, treachery against the person of the king and his house, apostasy
from the Arian Church come into prominence, so that the life and
freedom of individuals were almost at the mercy of the monarch's
will.
The laws which the Vandal kings enacted were, as far as we know,
for the most part directed against the Romans and the Catholics. In
addition to the numerous edicts concerning religion the regulations
issued against the immorality so widespread in Africa are especially
worthy of remark, but like all regulations of the kind only possessed a
temporary efficiency. On the other hand, the law of royal succession
which we have already alluded to possessed universal validity.
The officials in the service of the Court and State as also those in
the Church are all subject to the royal power; they are nominated by
the monarch or at least confirmed by him, and can be deprived of their
functions by peremptory royal decree. The members belonging to the
household of the king represent different elements, spiritual and lay,
German and Roman, free and unfree together. The highest official in
the Vandal Court was the praepositus regni, whose importance lay entirely
in the sphere of the government of the kingdom; his position corresponded
to that of a prime minister. As holders of this office appear, so far as
is known, only persons of Teutonic nationality. An important post was
also that of head of the Chancery of the Cabinet, who had to draw up
the king's written edicts and was besides frequently entrusted with
different missions of especial political importance. The existence of a
special Arian court clergy is to be inferred from the fact that at the
princely courts house chaplains are mentioned. Besides these there
H. XI.
## p. 320 (#350) ############################################
320
The Officials
lived permanently at the Vandal Court a supernumerary class of men
who without holding any definite office enjoyed the favour of the king
and were employed by him in different ways. A number of them seem
to have borne the title comes as among the Franks, Ostrogoths and
others; from among them were taken, for example, the envoys sent to
foreign nations. Together with the provincial officials, who might be
temporarily present at the Court, and the Arian bishops, the persons of
principal position in the king's circle frequently co-operated in the
decision of important questions of state affairs. As a general designation
for these persons when they belonged to the laity the expression domestici
appears. Admittance into the royal household required an oath of
fealty.
fines, it had the compensating advantage of sharing the fine paid for
the murder of one of its members. Since the solidarity of the family
sometimes entailed dangerous consequences, it was permissible for an
individual to break these family ties. The man who wished to do so
presented himself at the mal before the centenarius and broke into
four pieces, above his head, three wands of alder. He then threw the
pieces into the four corners, declaring that he separated himself from his
relatives and renounced all rights of succession. The family included the
slaves and liti or freedmen. Slaves were the chattels of their master; if
they were wounded, maimed, or killed, the master received the com-
pensation ; on the other hand, if the slave had committed any crime the
master was obliged to pay, unless he preferred to give him up to bear
the punishment. The Franks recognised private property, and severe
penalties were denounced against those who invaded the rights of owner-
ship; there are penalties for stealing from another's garden, meadow,
corn-field or flax-field, and for ploughing another's land. At a man's
death all his property was divided among his sons ; a daughter had no
claim to any share of it. Later, she is simply excluded from Salic
ground, that is from her father's house and the land that surrounds it.
We find also in the Salic Law some information about the organisa-
tion of the State. The royal power appears strong. Any man who
refuses to appear before the royal tribunal is outlawed. All his goods
are confiscated and anyone who chooses may slay him with impunity;
no one, not even his wife, may give him food, under penalty of a very
All those who are employed about the king's person are
protected by a special sanction. Their wergeld is three times as high
as that of other Franks of the same social status. Over each of the
territorial divisions called pagi the king placed a representative of his
authority known as the grafio, or, to give him his later title, the comes.
The grafio maintained order within his jurisdiction, levied such fines as
were due to the king, executed the sentences of the courts and seized
the property of condemned persons who refused to pay their fines. The
pagus was in turn subdivided into “hundreds” (centenae). Each “hundred"
had its court of judgment known as the mâl; the place where it met
was known as the mâlberg. This tribunal was presided over by the
centenarius or thunginus—these terms appear to us to be synonymous.
Historians have devoted much discussion to the question whether this
official was appointed by the king or elected by the freemen of the
heavy fine.
CH. X.
## p. 302 (#332) ############################################
302
Crimes and Offences
“hundred. ” At the court of the “hundred all the freemen had a
right to be present, but only a few of them took part in the proceedings
--some of them would be nominated for this duty on one occasion, some
on another. In their capacity as assistants to the centenarius at the mâl
the freemen were designated rachineburgi. In order to make a sentence
valid it was required that seven rachineburgi should pronounce judg-
ment. A plaintiff had the right to summon seven of them to give
judgment upon his suit. If they refused, they had to pay a fine of
three sols. If they persisted in their refusal, and did not undertake
to pay the three sols before sunset, they incurred a fine of fifteen sols.
Every man's life was rated at a certain value; this was his price,
the wergeld. The wergeld of a Salian Frank was 200 sols ; that of a
Roman 100 sols. If a Salian Frank had killed another Salian, or a
Roman, without aggravating circumstances, the Court sentenced him to
pay the price of the victim, the 200 or 100 sols. The compositio in this case
is exactly equivalent to the wergeld; if, however, he had only wounded
his victim he paid, according to the severity of the injury, a lower sum
proportionate to the wergeld. If, however, the murder has taken place
in particularly atrocious circumstances, if the murderer has endeavoured
to conceal the corpse, if he has been accompanied by an armed band, or
if the assassination has been unprovoked, the compositio may be three
times; six times, nine times, the wergeld. Of this compositio, two thirds
were paid to the relatives of the victim; this was the faida and bought
off the right of private vengeance; the other third was paid to the
State or to the king : it was called fretus or fredum from the German
word Friede peace, and was a compensation for the breach of the public
peace of which the king is the guardian. Thus a very lofty principle
was embodied in this penalty.
The Salic Law is mainly a tariff of the fines which must be paid for
various crimes and offences. The State thus endeavoured to substitute
the judicial sentences of the courts for private vengeance, part of the
compensation being paid to the victim or his family to induce them to
renounce this right. But we may safely conjecture that the triumph of
law over inveterate custom was not immediate. It was long before
families were willing to leave to the judgment of the courts serious
crimes which had been committed against them, such as homicides and
adulteries; they flew to arms and made war upon the guilty person
and his family. The forming in this way of armed bands was very
detrimental to public order.
The crimes mentioned most frequently in the Salic Law give us
some grounds on which to form an idea of the manners and charac-
teristics of the Franks. These Franks would seem to have been much
given to bad language, for the Law mentions a great variety of terms
of abuse. It is forbidden to call one's adversary a fox or a hare, or to
reproach him with having fung away his shield; it is forbidden to
## p. 303 (#333) ############################################
Weapons of the Franks
303
call a woman meretrix, or to say that she had joined the witches at
their revels. Warriors who are so easily enraged readily pass to violence
and murder. Every form of homicide is mentioned in the Salic Law.
The roads are not safe, and are often infested by armed bands. In
addition to murder, theft is very often mentioned by the code—theft
of fruits, of hay, of cattle-bells, of horse-clogs, of animals, of river-boats,
of slaves and even of freemen. All these thefts are punished with
severity and are held by all to be base and shameful crimes. But
there is a punishment of special severity for robbing a corpse which has
been buried. The guilty person is outlawed, and is to be treated like a
wild beast.
The civilisation of these Franks is primitive; they are, above all else,
warriors. As to their appearance, they brought their fair hair forward
from the top of the head, leaving the back of the neck bare. On their
faces they generally wore no hair but the moustache. They wore close-
fitting garments, fastened with brooches, and bound in at the waist by a
leather belt which was covered with bands of enamelled iron and clasped
by an ornamental buckle. From this belt hung the long sword, the
hanger or scramasux, and various articles of the toilet, such as scissors
and combs made of bone. From it too was hung the single-bladed axe,
the favourite weapon of the Franks, known as the francisca, which they
used both at close quarters and by hurling it at their enemies from a
distance. They were also armed with a long lance or spear (Lat. framea)
formed of an iron blade at the end of a long wooden shaft. For defence
they carried a large shield, made of wood or wattles covered with skins,
the centre of which was formed by a convex plate of metal, the boss
(umbo), fastened by iron rods to the body of the shield. They were
fond of jewellery, wearing gold finger-rings and armlets, and collars
formed of beads of amber or glass or paste inlaid with colour. They
were buried with their arms and ornaments, and many
Frankish ceme-
teries have been explored in which the dead were found fully armed, as
if prepared for a great military review. The Franks were universally
distinguished for courage. As Sidonius Apollinaris wrote of them :
“from their youth up war is their passion. If they are crushed by
weight of numbers, or through being taken at a disadvantage, death
may overwhelm them, but not fear. ”
CH, X.
## p. 304 (#334) ############################################
304
CHAPTER XI.
THE SUEVES, ALANS AND VANDALS IN SPAIN, 409-429.
THE VANDAL DOMINION IN AFRICA, 429-533.
Thanks to its geographically strong position, the Iberian peninsula had
up till now escaped barbarian invasions ; when however the Roman troops
stationed to protect the passes of the Pyrenees gave way to negligence,
the Asdingian and Silingian Vandals, the (non-German) Alans and the
Sueves availed themselves of the favourable opportunity to cross the
mountains (autumn 409). For two whole years the four peoples wandered
about devastating the flourishing country, especially the western and
southern provinces, without settling anywhere; it was only when famine
and disease broke out and menaced their own existence that they were
persuaded to more peaceful relations. They concluded a treaty in the
year 411 with the Emperor, according to which they received land to
settle on as foederati, i. e. as subjects of the Empire with the duty of
defending Spain against attacks from without. The assignment of the
provinces in which the different peoples should settle was decided by
lot; Galicia fell to the Asdingians and the Sueves, while the Silingians
received Baetica (southern Spain), and the Alans, numerically the strongest
people, Lusitania (Portugal) and Carthaginensis (capital Carthagena).
Probably they divided the land with the Roman proprietors. The
peace brought about in this way did not however last long; the
Imperial Government had professed only to regard the arrangement as
a temporary expedient. As early as the year 416 the Visigoth king,
Wallia, appeared in Spain with a considerable army to free the land
from the barbarians in the name of the Emperor. First of all the
Silingians were attacked and, after repeated combats, completely destroyed
(418), their king, Fredbal, being carried to Italy as prisoner. As a
tribal name the name of Asdingians disappears: it only survived as the
appellation of members of the royal family. The Alans also, against
whom Wallia next marched, were severely beaten and so much weakened
that after the death of King Addac the people decided not to choose
another head but to join the Asdingian Vandals, whose kings from that
time bore the title Reges Vandalorum et Alanorum (418). Only the
recall of Wallia (end of 418) saved the Asdingians and the Sueves
## p. 305 (#335) ############################################
419–430]
Passage into Africa
305
from the extermination which menaced them. The former rallied
wonderfully: they first of all turned against their Suevian neighbours,
then under the rule of Hermeric, who had once more made overtures
to the Emperor, and pressed them back into the Cantabrian Mountains
from which they were only extricated by a Roman army which hurriedly
came to their assistance (419). Obliged to retreat to Baetica, the Vandals
encountered in 421 or 422 a strong Roman army under Castinus, but
owing to the treachery of the Visigoth troops who were fighting on the
Roman side they gained a brilliant victory. This success immensely
stimulated the power of the Vandals and their desire for expansion.
They then laid the foundation of their maritime power, afterwards so
formidable; we understand that they infested the Balearic Isles and the
coast of Mauretania in the year 425. At that time Carthagena and
Seville, the last bulwarks of the Romans in southern Spain, also fell into
their
power.
Three years later died Gunderic who had ruled over the Vandals
since 406. He was succeeded on the throne by his brother Gaiseric
(born about 400), one of the most famous figures in the Wandering of the
Nations (428). A year after his accession Gaiseric led his people over
to Africa. This undertaking sprang from the same political considera-
tions as had earlier moved the Visigoth kings, Alaric and Wallia : the
rulers of that province, whose main function it was to supply Italy with
corn, had the fate of the Roman Empire in their hands, but they were
themselves in an almost unassailable position so long as a good navy
was at their disposal. The immediate occasion was furnished by the
confusion which then reigned in Africa—the revolt of the Moors, the
revolutionary upheaval of the severely oppressed peasantry, the revolt
of the ecclesiastical sects, particularly the Donatists (Circumcelliones),
the manifest weakness of the Roman system of defence everywhere, and,
finally, a quarrel between the military governor of Africa, Bonifacius,
and the Imperial Government. The well-known story that Bonifacius
himself had called the Vandals into the land to revenge the wrongs he
had suffered is a fable, which first appeared in Roman authorities of a
later time and was invented to veil the real reason. The crossing took
place at Julia Traducta, now Tarifa, in May 429. Shortly before
embarking the Vandal king turned back with a division of his army
and totally defeated the Sueves in a bloody fight near Merida. The
Sueves had taken advantage of the departure of their enemies to invade
Lusitania.
According to a trustworthy account, Gaiseric's people
numbered at that time about 80,000 souls, i. e. about 15,000 armed men;
their numbers were made up of Vandals, Alans, and Visigoth stragglers
who had remained behind in Spain.
The Germans first met with the sternest resistance when they
entered Numidia in the year 430: Bonifacius opposed them here with
Correctly Gaisarix. The frequent form Genseric is philologically impossible.
-
1
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. XI.
20
## p. 306 (#336) ############################################
306
Capture of Carthage
[ 430-441
1
some hurriedly collected troops, but was defeated. The open country was
then completely given over to the enemy; only a few forts-Hippo
Regius (now Bona), Cirta (Constantine) and Carthage-were kept by
the Romans, Hippo mainly through the influence of St Augustine who
died during the siege 28 August 430. As it was impossible for
the barbarians to take these strongholds owing to their inexperience
in siege-work, and as the Romans in the meantime sent reinforcements
under Aspar into Carthage by sea, Gaiseric, after heavy losses, resolved
to enter into negotiations with the Emperor. On 11 Feb. 435, at
Hippo Regius, a treaty was concluded with the imperial agent Trigetius,
according to which the Vandals entered the service of the Empire as
foederati and were settled in the proconsulate of Numidia (capital Hippo),
probably in the same way as earlier in Spain, for here too no formal
cession of territory took place.
Gaiseric, however, no doubt regarded the situation thus produced
as only temporary. After he had again to some extent united his forces,
he posed as a perfectly independent ruler in the district assigned to him.
The arbitrary actions in which he indulged comprised the deposition of a
number of orthodox clergy who had tried to hinder the performance of
the Arian service. Vandal pirates scoured the Mediterranean and even
plundered the coasts of Sicily in 437. But on 19 Oct. 439, Gaiseric
unexpectedly attacked Carthage and captured the city without a stroke.
The occupation was followed by a general pillage which naturally did
not end without deeds of violence, even if we are not told of any
deliberate destruction or damage to particular buildings. The Catholic
clergy and the noble inhabitants of Carthage experienced the fate of
banishment or slavery. All the churches inside the town as well as
some outside were closed for orthodox services and given over to the
Arian clergy together with the ecclesiastical property.
Gaiseric must have expected that after these proceedings the Imperial
Government would use every possible means of chastising the bold
raiders of its most valuable province. To prevent this and to reduce
the Western Empire to a state of permanent helplessness by continuously
harassing it, he fitted out a powerful feet in the harbour of Carthage in
the spring of 440 with the special aim of attacking Sardinia and Sicily,
which were
now primarily relied upon to supply Italy with corn.
Although extensive preparations for defence had been arranged the
Vandals landed in Sicily without encountering any resistance and moved
to and fro, burning and laying waste, but returned to Africa in the same
year, 440, on hearing tidings of the approach of powerful Byzantine
succours. The expected Greek fleet certainly appeared in Sicilian waters
.
in 441, but the commanders wasted their time there in useless delay,
and when the Persians and the Huns invaded the borderlands which
had been denuded of troops, the whole fighting force was called back
without having effected anything. Under these circumstances the
5
## p. 307 (#337) ############################################
442-455]
Settlement in Africa
307
Emperor of Western Rome found himself obliged to conclude a peace
with Gaiseric, whose rule was officially recognised as independent, 442.
It is stated by some authorities that Africa was divided between the
two powers. The best parts of the country: Tingitian Mauretania (by
which the Straits of Gibraltar were controlled), Zeugitana or Proconsularis,
Byzacena and Numidia proconsularis fell to the Vandals, whilst
Mauretania Caesariensis and Sitifensis, Cirtan Numidia and Tripolis
remained to the Roman Empire.
This treaty forms an important epoch in the history of the Vandals
and marks the end of their migration. A final settlement of the
conditions for colonisation now took place. The Vandals settled down
definitely in the country districts of Zeugitana in the neighbourhood of
Carthage. Military reasons, which made a settlement of the people
desirable, especially in the neighbourhood of the capital city, as well as
the circumstance that the most fertile arable land lay there, were of
principal weight in this step. The former landowners---as many as had
not been slain or exiled during the conquest—had to choose whether,
after the loss of their property, they would make their home as freemen
elsewhere or remain as servants, i. e. probably as coloni, on their former
estates. The Catholic clergy, if they resided within the so-called Vandal
allotment, met with the same fate as the landowners, a measure which
was principally directed against their suspected political propaganda.
In the other provinces and especially in the towns the Roman conditions
of property remained as a rule undisturbed, although the Romans were
considered as a subject people and the land the property of the State or
the king. In order to deprive his enemies, internal or external, of every
possible gathering-point, Gaiseric next had the fortifications of most of the
towns demolished, with the exception of the Castle Septa in the Straits
of Gibraltar, and the towns Hippo Regius and Carthage. The last was
looked upon as the principal bulwark of the Vandal power. The
sovereign position which Vandal power had now attained found expression
in the legal dating of the regnal years from 19 Oct. 439, the date of
the taking of Carthage, which was reckoned as New Year's Day. There
is no trace here of any reckoning according to the consular years or
indictions, as was the custom, for example, in the kingdom of the
Burgundians, who continued to consider themselves formally as citizens
of the Roman Empire.
How powerful the kingdom of Gaiseric was at this epoch is seen
from the fact that the Visigoth king, Theodoric I, sought to form
alliance with him by marrying his daughter to the king's son Huneric,
the heir-presumptive to the throne. This state of affairs however did
not last long, for Gaiseric, under the pretext that his daughter-in-law
wanted to poison him, sent her back to her father after having cut off
her nose and her ears. Probably the dissolution of this coalition, so
menacing to Rome, was brought about by a diplomatic move on the part
CH. XI.
20--2
## p. 308 (#338) ############################################
308
The Sack of Rome
[455
of the West-Roman minister Aëtius, who held out prospects to the king
of the Vandals of a marriage between his son and a daughter of the
Emperor Valentinian III. Although the projected wedding did not
take place, friendly relations were begun between the Vandals and the
Romans which lasted until the year 455. Gaiseric was even induced to
allow the see of Carthage, which had been vacant since 439, to be again
filled.
But this friendly connexion ceased at once when the Emperor
Valentinian, the murderer of Aëtius, was himself slain by that general's
following (16 March 455). Gaiseric announced that he could not
recognise the new Emperor Maximus, who had had a hand in the
murders of Aëtius and Valentinian and had forced the widowed Empress
Eudoxia to marry him, as a fit inheritor of the imperial throne.
Under this pretext he immediately sailed to Italy with a large fleet,
which seems to have been long since equipped in readiness for coming
events. That he came in response to an appeal from Eudoxia cannot
be for a moment supposed. Without meeting with any resistance the
Vandals, amongst whom also were Moors, landed in the harbour of
Portus, and marched along the Via Portuensis to the Eternal City. A
great number of the inhabitants took to flight; when Maximus prepared
to do likewise he was killed by one of the soldiers of his body-guard
(31 May). On 2 June Gaiseric marched into Rome. At the Porta
Portuensis he was received by Pope Leo I, who is said to have prevailed
upon the king to refrain at least from fire and slaughter and content
himself merely with plundering.
The Vandals stayed a fortnight (June 455) in Rome, long enough to
take all the treasures which had been left by the Visigoths in the year 410
or restored since. First of all the imperial palace was fallen upon, all
,
that was there was brought to the ships to adorn the royal residence in
Carthage, among other things the insignia of imperial dignity. The
same fate befell the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, of which even the
half of the gilded roof was taken away. Among the plundered treasure
the vessels of Solomon's Temple, formerly brought to Rome by Titus,
took a conspicuous place. On the other hand, the Christian churches as
a rulé were spared. Murder and incendiarism also, as has been certainly
proved, did not take place, neither was there any wanton destruction of
buildings or works of art. It is therefore very unjust to brand Gaiseric's
people with the word “Vandalism,” which indeed came into use in
France no earlier than the end of the eighteenth century. Besides the
enormous spoil which the Vandals carried away were numerous prisoners,
in particular the widowed Empress Eudoxia with her two daughters,
Eudoxia and Placidia, as well as Gaudentius, the son of Aëtius. The
Vandals and the Moors divided the prisoners between them on their
return; nevertheless Bishop Deogratias raised funds to ransom many of
them by selling the vessels of the churches.
## p. 309 (#339) ############################################
465–460]
Avitus and Majorian
309
The capture of the Empress Eudoxia and her daughters gave the
king valuable hostages against the hostile invasion of his kingdom
which might now be expected. He was now fully master of the situation ;
his personality is from this time the centre of Western history. The
Vandal fleet ruled the Mediterranean and cut off all supplies from Italy,
so that a great famine broke out. In order to put an end to this
intolerable state of affairs, Avitus the new Emperor of Western Rome
(from 9 July 455) sent an embassy to Byzantium to induce the Emperor
to take part in a joint attack against the Vandal Empire, for in an
attack on Africa he could not dispense with the East-Roman fleet. But
Marcian, probably influenced by the chief general Aspar, all-powerful
in the East, still clung to inactivity and contented himself with asking
Gaiseric to refrain from further hostilities towards Italy and to deliver
up the prisoners of the imperial house, a proceeding which of course
was quite ineffectual.
The result of this lethargy on the part of both empires was that
the Vandals were in a position to seize the rest of the African provinces
belonging to Rome; even the Moorish tribes seem to have acknowledged
the Vandal sovereignty without positive resistance. Moreover Gaiseric
made an alliance with the Spanish Sueves who had invaded and
plundered the province of Tarraconensis (456) which belonged to the
Roman Empire. At the same time a Vandal fleet laid waste Sicily and
the bordering coast territory of South Italy. It is true that on land the
Romans succeeded, under Ricimer, in defeating a hostile division at
Agrigentum, as well as one at sea in Corsican waters, but these successes
had no lasting effect, for the Vandals still commanded the Mediterranean
as before. The populace, furious from the continued famine, compelled
Avitus to fly to Gaul, where he died at the end of the year 456.
His successor on the imperial throne, Majorian (from 1 April 457),
at once began in real earnest to consider schemes for the destruction of
the Vandal Empire. It might be looked upon as auspicious that not
long after his accession a body of Roman troops succeeded in defeating
a band of Vandals and Moors, led by Gaiseric's brother-in-law, who were
engaged in desultory plunder in South Italy. The Emperor himself
marched with a large army, which he had not got together without
difficulty, from Italy to Gaul, in November 458, in order to exact
recognition of his authority from the Visigoths and Burgundians who
had seceded from Rome, and his success in this task at once rendered
nugatory Gaiseric's conclusion of a Visigoth, Suevian and Vandal alliance.
In May 460 Majorian crossed the Pyrenees and moved upon Zaragoza
to Carthagena in order to cross from thence to Africa. The force that
had been raised was so impressive that the king of the Vandals did not
feel himself a match for it and sent messengers to sue for peace. When
peace was refused he laid waste Mauretania and poisoned the wells in
order to delay the advance of the enemy as much as possible. The
01. A.
## p. 310 (#340) ############################################
310
Majorian
[460–468
Roman attack, however, could not be carried out, for the Vandals
managed by means of treachery to seize a great number of the Roman
ships which were lying outside the naval harbour near the modern Elche.
Majorian had no alternative but to make peace with Gaiseric; his
authority, however, was so shaken by this failure that he was divested
of his dignity by Ricimer in August 461.
The result of the elevation of a new Emperor, Libius Severus, was that
Gaiseric once more declared the agreement he had but just made to be at
an end. He again began his naval attacks on Italy and Sicily. The
embassies sent to him by the West-Roman as well as by the Byzantine
Emperor Leo had no further result than the deliverance of Valentinian's
widow and her daughter Placidia, for he had previously given the elder
princess Eudoxia to his son Huneric in marriage.
The king received
as ransom a part of the treasure of Valentinian. It also seems that an
agreement was come to with the East-Roman Empire. On the other
hand the hostile relations with West-Rome continued, for Ricimer
refused to comply with Gaiseric's principal demand, the bestowal of the
imperial throne of the West upon Olybrius, Huneric's brother-in-law.
Every year in the beginning of spring detachments of the Vandal fleet
left the African harbours to infest the Mediterranean coasts. Unpro-
tected places were plundered and destroyed, while the garrisoned places
were carefully avoided.
The danger threatening the Western Empire reached its height
when the commander Aegidius, who maintained an independent position
in Gaul, made an alliance with Gaiseric and prepared to attack Italy in
conjunction with him. This scheme was not carried out, for Aegidius
died prematurely (464), but the situation still remained dangerous.
These miserable conditions lasted until the end of 467. The
energetic Emperor Leo had by this time succeeded in overcoming the
influence of Aspar, who had always been a hindrance to hostile measures
against the Vandals. He despatched a fleet under the command of
Marcellinus to convey the newly-created Western Emperor Anthemius
to Italy and afterwards proceed to Africa. But first he sent an embassy
to Gaiseric to inform him of the accession of Anthemius and to threaten
him with war unless he would relinquish his marauding expeditions.
The king instantly refused the demand and declared the agreements
made with Byzantium at an end. His ships no longer sought Italy, but
the coasts of the Eastern Empire: Illyria, the Peloponnesus and all
the rest of Greece felt his powerful arm, and even Alexandria felt
itself menaced. But when the attempt of Marcellinus to advance
against Africa miscarried on account of contrary winds, Leo determined
to make great warlike preparations and to destroy his terrible opponent
at one blow. Eleven hundred ships were got together and an army
of 100,000 men raised. The plan of campaign was to attack the Vandal
Empire on three sides. The main army was to march under Basiliscus
## p. 311 (#341) ############################################
468—477]
Last years of Gaiseric
311
direct to Carthage, another body under Heraclius and Marsus was to
advance overland from Egypt to the West, while Marcellinus with his
fleet was to strike at the Vandal centre in the Mediterranean. But
once more fortune favoured the Vandals. They succeeded under cover
of night in surprising Basiliscus' fleet, which was already anchored at
the Promontorium Mercurii (now Cape Bon), and destroyed a part
of it by fire. The rest took to flight and scarcely one-half of the fine
armada managed to escape to Sicily (468). The not unimportant
successes which the other Byzantine generals had in the meantime
achieved could not balance this catastrophe, and as a crowning mis-
fortune the able Marcellinus when on the point of sailing for Carthage
was murdered (August 468). Leo was therefore obliged to relinquish
further undertakings and make peace once more with Gaiseric.
The peace, however, only lasted a few years. After Leo's death
(Jan. 474) the Vandals again devastated the coast of Greece in frequent
expeditions. The Emperor Zeno, who was not prepared to punish the
marauders, was obliged to sue for peace, and sent the Senator Severus
to Carthage to superintend negotiations. It was agreed that the two
empires from that time should not be hostile to each other. The king
promised to guarantee freedom of worship to the Catholics in Carthage
and to permit the return of the clergy who had been banished for
political intrigues, although he could not be prevailed upon to allow
new appointment to the Carthaginian bishopric, vacant since
Deogratias' death (457). Besides this he restored without ransom the
Roman prisoners who had been allotted to him and his family, and gave
Severus permission to buy back the slaves allotted as booty among the
Vandals with the goodwill of their owners. In return the Byzantine
Emperor, as the overlord of both halves of the Empire, no doubt formally
recognised the Vandal kingdom in its then extent-it comprised the
entire Roman province of Africa, the Balearic Isles, Pithyusae, Corsica,
Sardinia and Sicily (autumn 476). Gaiseric soon afterwards made
.
over Sicily to Odovacar in return for the payment of a yearly tribute,
only reserving for himself the town of Lilybaeum, which had a strategical
importance as a starting-point for Africa.
On 25 January 477, Gaiseric died at a very great age after he
had raised the Vandal Empire to the height of its power. What he
accomplished, as general and politician, in his active life is beyond praise
and is unreservedly acknowledged by contemporaries. On the other
hand, a less favourable verdict must be pronounced on his statesmanship.
The Empire he established was a hybrid State and therefore bore from
the beginning the seeds of decay in itself. The nations under his rule
were kept strictly separate from each other, and the possibility of an
amalgamation, which might have been the foundation of a new political
organisation, was thus prevented. Herein is seen the truth found
by experience, that the existence of all kingdoms erected by conquest is
a
CB, XI.
## p. 312 (#342) ############################################
312
Huneric and Gunthamund
[477–487
bound
up
with the life of their creator unless the latter can succeed
in creating a united organism on a national, constitutional or economic
basis.
The decline was already noticeable under Gaiseric's eldest son and
successor, Huneric, the husband of the imperial princess Eudoxia. The
Moorish tribes living in the Aures mountains, after fighting for some
time with varying fortune, succeeded at last in shaking off the Vandal
rule. In a quarrel with the Eastern Empire over the surrender of
Eudoxia's fortune, Huneric early gave in; he was even willing to
permit the episcopal see at Carthage to be filled again (481) and grant
the Catholics in his Empire still greater freedom of movement. Only
when he learned that he had not to fear hostilities from Byzantium did
he shew himself in his true colours, a tyrant of the worst, most blood-
thirsty type. Then he raged against the members of his own house
and against his father's friends. Some of them he banished, others he
murdered in a horrible manner in order to secure the succession to his
son Hilderic. When nothing more remained for him to do in this
direction he proceeded to oppress his Catholic subjects. Among some
of the measures taken by him the most important is the notorious
Edict of 24 January 484, in which the king ordered that the edicts
made by the Roman Emperors against heresy should be applied to all
his Catholic subjects unless they adopted Arianism by 1 June in
that year. Next, orthodox priests were forbidden to hold religious
services, to possess churches or build new ones, to baptise, consecrate
and so forth, and they were especially forbidden to reside in any towns
or villages. The property of all Catholic churches and the churches
themselves were bestowed on the Arian clergy. Laymen were disabled
from making or receiving gifts or legacies ; court officials of the Catholic
creed were deprived of their dignity and declared infamous. For the
several classes of the people graduated money-fines were established
according to rank; but in case of persistence all were condemned to
transportation and confiscation of property. Huneric gave the execution
of these provisions into the hands of the Arian clergy, who carried out
the punishments threatened with the most revolting cruelty, and even
went beyond them. Repeated intervention on the part of the Emperor
and the Pope remained quite ineffectual, for they confined themselves
to representations. Perhaps Catholicism might have been quite rooted
out in Africa if the king had not died prematurely on 23 December 484.
Under his successor Gunthamund, better times began for the oppressed
orthodox Church. As early as the year 487 most of the Catholic
churches were opened again and the banished priests recalled. The
reason for these changed circumstances lay partly in the personal
character of the king, partly in the Emperor's separation from the Roman
Church which appeared to debar Gunthamund's Catholic subjects from
conspiring with Byzantium, and partly in the now ever-increasing
## p. 313 (#343) ############################################
484-523
Thrasamund
313
dimensions of Moorish rebellion. Gunthamund was very fortunate in
driving back these last to their haunts, but he did not succeed in com-
pletely defeating them. He absolutely failed when he attempted to
regain possession of Sicily during the struggle between Odovacar and
Theodoric the Great. The expedition sent thither was expelled by the
Ostrogoths, and the king was compelled even to relinquish the tribute
which had hitherto been paid to him (491).
Gunthamund died 3 September 496; Thrasamund, his brother,
distinguished for his beauty, amiability, wisdom and general culture,
succeeded him on the throne. He pursued yet a different course
from that of his predecessors with regard to the Catholics. He tried,
like Huneric, to spread Arianism in his kingdom, yet as a rule he avoided
the violent measures to which that king had recourse. Thus several
bishops, among whom was the bishop of Carthage, were once more
banished, but they were well treated in their exile. His action was
mainly due to religious fanaticism, for there was no ground for political
suspicion, at least during the greater part of his reign; the king was
on friendly terms with the schismatical Emperor Anastasius. After
the accession of the orthodox Emperor Justin (518) Thrasamund's
aversion to the Catholics is easier to understand, especially when
the Emperor took steps to improve the position of the orthodox
episcopate in Africa. The Vandal kingdom found a real support in
the alliance with the Ostrogoths in Italy. Theodoric the Great, swayed
by the desire to bring about an alliance of all German princes of the
Arian faith, wedded his widowed sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund,
whose first wife had died childless ; she came to Carthage with a retinue
of 1000 distinguished Goths as her body-guard as well as 5000 slaves
capable of bearing arms, and brought her royal husband a dowry of the
part of the island of Sicily round Lilybaeum (500). A temporary
interruption occurred in the alliance between the two States in 510-511,
because Thrasamund gave pecuniary support to Gesalech the pretender
to the Visigothic throne, who was not recognised by Theodoric; but on
the representation of his brother-in-law he repented and apologised.
Serious difficulties occurred in the Vandal kingdom once more through
the Moors. The tribes of Tripolis really succeeded in making them-
selves independent. At the end of his reign the king himself took the
field against them, but suffered defeat.
Thrasamund died on 6 May 523; he was succeeded by the al-
ready aged, utterly effeminate son of Huneric and Eudoxia, Hilderic,
who was averse from warfare. Thrasamund, having a presentiment of
future events, had exacted an oath from him not to restore to the
banished Catholics either their churches or their privileges, but Hilderic
evaded his pledge, for even before his formal accession, he recalled the
exiled clergy and ordered fresh elections in the place of those who had
died. In foreign politics also the new king turned entirely from the system
а
6. A.
## p. 314 (#344) ############################################
314
Hilderic
[ 523–530
hitherto followed, of alliance with the Ostrogoth kingdom, and entered
into a close connexion with the Byzantine Empire where Justinian, the
nephew of the ageing Emperor Justin, already practically wielded the
sceptre. Inasmuch as he had coins struck bearing the effigy of Justin I,
Hilderic formally gave the impression of recognising a kind of suzerainty
of the Byzantine Empire. To the opposition of Amalafrida and her
following he replied by slaughtering the Goths and Ainging the sister
of Theodoric into prison. To avenge this insult the Gothic king fitted
out a strong fleet, but his death (526) prevented the despatch of the
expedition, which would probably have been fatal to the Vandal kingdom.
Theodoric's grandson and successor Athalarich, or rather his mother
Amalasuntha, was content with making remonstrances, which of course
received no attention.
Though there was nothing to fear from the Ostrogoths, the danger
from the Moors waxed ever greater. After the year
525 it
appears
that
they had acquired control over Mauretania Caesariensis with the exception
of its capital city, of the Sitifensis Province and of southern Numidia
as well—Mauretania Tingitana had already been given up. But especially
momentous in its widespread results was the rise of Antalas who at the
head of some tribes in the southern part of Byzacene infested this
province more and more, and at last severely defeated the relieving
Vandal troops commanded by Oamer, a cousin of Hilderic. The dislike
of the Vandals to their king, which had been existent long before this
event, shewed itself fully at this failure. Hilderic was deposed by the
defeated army on its return home and was imprisoned together with his
followers, and in his stead the next heir to the throne Gelimer', a great-
grandson of Gaiseric, was called upon to rule (19 May 530). Doubtless
this usurpation was mainly the result of Gelimer's ambition and love of
power, but on the whole it was sustained by the will of the people.
They were discontented with the policy hitherto pursued towards the
Catholics and Byzantium as well as with the unwarlike, inconsistent
character of Hilderic, who was to Teutonic ideas utterly unworthy of
royalty.
This course of events was most welcome to the Byzantine Emperor,
who in any case had for some time past harboured some idea of the
plan which later he definitely announced for joining all the lands
belonging to the old Roman Empire under his own sceptre. Just as
he afterwards posed as the avenger of Amalasuntha, so he now became
the official protector of the rights of the deposed king of the Vandals.
He asked Gelimer in the most courteous manner not openly to violate
the law regarding the succession to the throne, which had been decreed
by Gaiseric and had been always hitherto respected, but to be satisfied
with the actual exercise of power and to let the old king, whose death
1 More correctly Geilamir as the name reads in inscriptions and on coins.
## p. 315 (#345) ############################################
530-533]
Gelimer
315
might shortly be expected, remain as nominal ruler. Gelimer did not
deign at first to answer the Emperor; when, however, the latter took
a sharper tone and demanded the surrender of the prisoners he haughtily
rejected the interference, emphatically claimed validity for his own
succession and declared that he was ready to oppose with the utmost
vigour any attack which might occur. Justinian was now firmly resolved
to bring matters to an armed decision, but first took steps to end the
war which had been begun against the Persians. In the year
532
peace
was concluded with them.
The scheme directed against the Vandal kingdom found no approval
from the body of crown councillors before whom Justinian laid it for an
opinion. They objected to the chronic want of money in the state
treasury and that the same fate might easily be prepared for the
Byzantines as had befallen Basiliscus under Gaiseric. The troops, too,
which had just sustained the fatigues of the Persian campaign, were little
fit to be again sent to an uncertain conflict against a powerful and
famous kingdom on the other side of the sea. Justinian was almost
persuaded to give up the undertaking when a fresh impulse, that of
religion, made itself felt. An oriental bishop appeared at Court and
declared that God himself had, in a dream, commanded him to reproach
the Emperor on account of his indecision and to tell him that he might
count on the support of Heaven if he would march forth to liberate the
Christian (that is, the orthodox) people of Africa from the dominion of
the heretics.
Through this kind of influence on the part of the Catholic clergy, and
through the endeavours of the Roman nobility who had been reinstated
by Hilderic but driven forth again by Gelimer, Justinian was entirely
brought round. Belisarius, previously commander-in-chief in the Persian
war, was placed at the head of the expedition with unlimited authority.
It was very fortunate for the Emperor that, in the first place, the Ostro-
goth queen Amalasuntha declared for him and held out prospects of
supplying provisions and horses in Sicily, and, further, that the Vandal
governor of Sardinia, Godas, rose against Gelimer and asked for troops
to enable him to hold his own, and finally that the population of
Tripolis, led by a distinguished Roman, Prudentius, declared itself in
favour of union with Byzantium.
In June 533 the preparations for war were completed. The army
mustered reckoned 10,000 infantry under Johannes of Epidamnus and
about 5000 cavalry, also the 5000 men of Belisarius' powerfully mounted
guard, 400 Heruls and 600 Huns. The fleet was composed of 500
transport vessels and 92 battleships under the command of Kalonymus.
Among Belisarius' attendants was the historian Procopius of Caesarea,
to whom we owe the vivid and trustworthy description of the campaign.
The departure of the ships took place at the end of July, and the last
hour of the kingdom which was once so powerful had struck.
CH, XI.
## p. 316 (#346) ############################################
316
Vandals and Romans
It is only in Africa that we are well acquainted with the internal
circumstances of the Vandal kingdom ; for of the parallel conditions in
the Spanish communities of the Sueves, Alans and the Silingian and
Asdingian Vandals we only know, at the present time, that they were
under monarchical rule. The centre of Vandal rule in Africa was Carthage;
here all the threads of the government converged, here the king also
held court. The Roman division of the land into provinces (Mauretania :
Tingitana, Caesariensis, Sitifensis ; Numidia ; Proconsularis or Zeugitana;
Byzacene; Tripolitana) remained the same. The districts assigned to
the Vandals, the so-called “Sortes Vandalorum,” were separated as
especial commands. The governing people were the Vandals of the
Asdingian branch which now alone survived, with whom were joined the
Alans and contingents from different peoples, among whom in particular
were Goths. The Alans, who probably were already Germanised at the
time of the transference to Africa, seem to have maintained a kind of
independence for a while, but in Procopius' time these foreign elements
had become completely merged in the Vandals. The Romans were by
far more numerous. These were by no means looked upon as having
equal privileges, but were treated as conquered subjects according to the
usages of war. Marriages between them and the Vandals were forbidden,
as they were in all the German States founded on Roman soil except
among the Franks. If, however, the hitherto existing arrangements
outside the Vandal settlements remained the same in the main and
indeed even the high offices were left in the hands of the Romans—this
only happened because the Vandal kings proved themselves incapable of
providing a fresh political organisation. On the other hand, the numerous
Moorish tribes were to a great extent held in only slight subjection.
They retained their autonomy, as they did in the time of the Romans,
but their princes received from the hands of the Vandal kings the
insignia of their dignity. Under Gaiseric's stern government they
conducted themselves quietly and completely left off their raids into
civilised districts, which had occurred so frequently in the last years of the
Roman rule, but even under Huneric they began with ever-increasing
success to struggle for their independence. The destruction which befell
the works of ancient civilisation in Africa must be placed to the account
of the Moors, not of the Vandals.
The first settlement of the Vandals in Africa was on the basis of a
treaty with the Roman Empire, when the people were settled among the
Roman landowners and as an equivalent became liable to land tax and
military service. The land settlement which took place after the
recognition of the Vandal sovereignty was carried out as by right of
conquest; the largest and most valuable estates of the country land-
owners in the province of Zeugitana were taken possession of and given
to individual Vandal households. Further particulars of the details are
wanting, yet it is certain that the Roman organisation arranged on the
## p. 317 (#347) ############################################
The Sortes Vandalorum
317
basis of landed property grants was not disturbed. The property only
changed hands, otherwise the conditions were the same as they had been
under Roman government. Of the villa, the manor house on the
Roman estate, a Vandal with his family now took possession, and the
coloni had to pay the necessary dues to the landed proprietor or his
representative and render the usual compulsory service. The profits of
the single estates were in any case on an average not insignificant, for
they made the development of a luxurious mode of life possible even
after an increase in the number of the population. The management of
the estate was, as formerly, directed only in a minority of cases by the
new masters themselves, for they lacked the necessary knowledge, and
service in the Court and in the army compelled them to be absent
frequently from their property. More often the management was
entrusted to stewards or farmers (conductores) who were survivals from
the earlier state of things. Nevertheless the position of the dependents
of the manor, wherever they were directly under the Vandal rule, must
have been materially improved in comparison with what it had been
forinerly, for we know from various authorities that the country people
were in no way content with the reintroduction of the old system of
oppression by the Byzantines after the fall of the Vandal kingdom.
The Vandals like the other German races were divided into three
classes slaves, freemen and nobles. The nobleman as he now appears
is a noble by service who derives his privileged position from serving the
king, not as earlier from birth. The freemen comprised the bulk of
the people, nevertheless they had, in comparison with earlier times, lost
considerably in political importance while the rights of the popular
assembly had devolved in the strengthened monarchy. The slaves were
entirely without rights, they were reckoned not as persons but as
alienable chattels. The position of the coloni who were taken over
from the Roman settlement was wholly foreign to the Vandals ; they
remained tied to the soil but were personally free peasants who kept
their former constitutional status.
At the head of the State was the King, whose power had gradually
become unlimited and differed but little from that of the Byzantine
Roman Emperor. His full official title was Rex Vandalorum et Alanorum.
His mark of distinction and that of his kindred was, as with the
Merwings, long hair falling to the shoulders. While the earlier rulers
dressed in the customary Vandal costume, Gelimer wore the purple
mantle, like the Emperor.
The succession to the throne was legally settled by Gaiseric's so-called
testament. Gaiseric, who himself had obtained the throne through the
choice of the people, ignoring probably the sons of his predecessor
Gunderic, who were still minors, considered himself after he had fully
grasped monarchical power as the new founder of the Vandal kingship,
as the originator of a dynasty. The sovereignty was looked upon as an
CH. XI.
## p. 318 (#348) ############################################
318
The King
inheritance for his family over which no right of disposal belonged to
the people. As however the existence of several heirs threatened the by
no means solidly established kingdom with the risk of subdivision into
several portions, Gaiseric established the principle of individual succession;
moreover he provided that the crown should pass to the eldest of his
male issue at the time being. By this last provision the government of
a minor, unable to bear arms, was made, humanly speaking, impossible.
The Vandal kingdom was the first and for a long time the only State in
which the idea of a permanent rule of succession came to be realised -
and rightly is Gaiseric's family statute reckoned in history among the
most remarkable facts relating to public law. It remained valid until
the end of the kingdom. Gaiseric himself was succeeded by his eldest
son Huneric who was succeeded in turns by two of his nephews
Gunthamund and Thrasamund, and only after the death of the latter
came Huneric's son Hilderic. Gelimer obtained the throne, on the
other hand, in a direct and irregular way, and his endeavours to represent
a
himself to Justinian as a legitimate ruler did not succeed.
The scope of the royal power comprised the national army, the
convening of the assembly, justice, legislation and executive, the appoint-
ments to the praefecture, the supreme control of finance, of police and of
the Church. Of any co-operation in the government by the people-
by the Vandals (not of course by the Romans) such as obtained in
olden times, there is no sign whatever.
The development of absolute government seems to have been com-
pleted in the year 442; according to the brief but significant statements
of our authorities several nobles, who had twice risen against the king
because he had overstepped the limits of his authority, were put to
death with a good many of the people. The origin of the royal power
is traceable to God; the dominant centre of the State is the king and
his court.
In war the king is in chief command over the troops and issues the
summons to the weapon-bearing freemen. The arrangement of the
army was, like that of the nation, by thousands and hundreds. Larger
divisions of troops were placed under commanders appointed especially
by the monarch and generally selected from the royal family. The
Vandals had been even in their settlements in Hungary a nation of
horsemen, and they remained so in Africa. They were chiefly armed
with long spears and swords, and were little suited to long campaigns.
Their principal strength lay in their feet. The ships they commanded
were usually small, lightly built, fast sailing cruisers which did not hold
more than about 40 persons. In the great mobility of the army as well
as of the navy lay the secret of the surprising successes which the
Vandals achieved.
But immediately after Gaiseric's death, a general
military decline began. Enervated by the hot climate and the luxury
into which they had been allured by the produce of a rich country,
## p. 319 (#349) ############################################
The Law
319
they lost their warlike capacity more and more, and thus sank before
the attack of the Byzantines in a manner almost unique in history.
The king is the director of the whole external polity. He sends
forth and receives envoys, concludes alliances, decides war and peace.
On single and peculiarly important questions he may take counsel
beforehand with the chiefs of his following, but the royal will alone is
absolute.
The Vandals were judged according to their national principles of
jurisprudence in the separate hundred districts by the leaders of the
thousands. Sentences for political offences were reserved for the king
as executor of justice in the national assembly. Legal procedure for the
Romans remained the same as before. Judgment was passed on trivial
matters by the town magistrates, on greater by provincial governors
according to Roman law but in the name of the king. Quarrels between
Vandals and Romans were of course settled only in the Vandal court of
justice according to the law of the victor. That the king often inter-
fered arbitrarily in the regular legal proceedings of the Romans is not
surprising, considering the state of affairs, but a similar arbitrary inter-
ference among the Vandals is a circumstance of political importance :
treason, treachery against the person of the king and his house, apostasy
from the Arian Church come into prominence, so that the life and
freedom of individuals were almost at the mercy of the monarch's
will.
The laws which the Vandal kings enacted were, as far as we know,
for the most part directed against the Romans and the Catholics. In
addition to the numerous edicts concerning religion the regulations
issued against the immorality so widespread in Africa are especially
worthy of remark, but like all regulations of the kind only possessed a
temporary efficiency. On the other hand, the law of royal succession
which we have already alluded to possessed universal validity.
The officials in the service of the Court and State as also those in
the Church are all subject to the royal power; they are nominated by
the monarch or at least confirmed by him, and can be deprived of their
functions by peremptory royal decree. The members belonging to the
household of the king represent different elements, spiritual and lay,
German and Roman, free and unfree together. The highest official in
the Vandal Court was the praepositus regni, whose importance lay entirely
in the sphere of the government of the kingdom; his position corresponded
to that of a prime minister. As holders of this office appear, so far as
is known, only persons of Teutonic nationality. An important post was
also that of head of the Chancery of the Cabinet, who had to draw up
the king's written edicts and was besides frequently entrusted with
different missions of especial political importance. The existence of a
special Arian court clergy is to be inferred from the fact that at the
princely courts house chaplains are mentioned. Besides these there
H. XI.
## p. 320 (#350) ############################################
320
The Officials
lived permanently at the Vandal Court a supernumerary class of men
who without holding any definite office enjoyed the favour of the king
and were employed by him in different ways. A number of them seem
to have borne the title comes as among the Franks, Ostrogoths and
others; from among them were taken, for example, the envoys sent to
foreign nations. Together with the provincial officials, who might be
temporarily present at the Court, and the Arian bishops, the persons of
principal position in the king's circle frequently co-operated in the
decision of important questions of state affairs. As a general designation
for these persons when they belonged to the laity the expression domestici
appears. Admittance into the royal household required an oath of
fealty.
