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Europe · Antiquity and the Roman world

Vandals

drawn on the map AD 337–438

The Vandals were an East Germanic people (this entry focuses on their European phase; their African kingdom lies beyond it). They comprised two main groups, the Hasdingi and the Silingi, and by around 400 were moving westward, probably under Hunnic pressure.

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Shown on the map
AD 337–438
Peak area
419k km²
Region
Europe

Overview

The Vandals were an East Germanic people (this entry focuses on their European phase; their African kingdom lies beyond it). They comprised two main groups, the Hasdingi and the Silingi, and by around 400 were moving westward, probably under Hunnic pressure. On the last day of 406 (31 December, though 405 is an alternative date) the Hasdingi and Silingi Vandals, together with the Alans and Suebi, forced the crossing of the Rhine near Mainz (Mogontiacum). Just before the crossing the Hasdingi under King Godigisel were badly mauled by the Roman-allied Franks (the Vandal–Frankish war), Godigisel being killed; the Hasdingi survived only through the intervention of the Alans under Respendial. Godigisel's son Gunderic then led the crossing.

Decline and legacy

The crossing shattered the Rhine frontier and unleashed years of devastation across Gaul. In 409 the Vandals, Alans, and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees into Hispania, where the Hasdingi and Silingi and the Alans carved out short-lived holdings. Roman-directed Visigothic campaigns (416–418) crushed the Silingi and the Alans, whose survivors placed themselves under Hasdingi leadership; Gaiseric (Geiseric), Godigisel's son, thus came to lead a combined Vandal–Alan people. In 429 Gaiseric led this force across the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa. The often-quoted figure of 80,000 people is Procopius's estimate; Walter Goffart called it "the one piece of certain information we have about the size of barbarian groups in the age of the invasions... vouched for by apparently independent informants, one Latin, the other Greek," while Peter Heather cautions that it implies a fighting force of only about 15,000–20,000 warriors. In Africa the Vandals would found a powerful kingdom centred on Carthage and eventually sack Rome (455); the European phase thus ends with the 429 crossing.

Common questions

What were the Vandals?
The Vandals were an East Germanic people (this entry focuses on their European phase; their African kingdom lies beyond it). They comprised two main groups, the Hasdingi and the Silingi, and by around 400 were moving westward, probably under Hunnic pressure.
When are the Vandals shown on the map?
The border data draws the Vandals AD 337–438. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large were the Vandals?
At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Vandals covered about 419,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.
How did the Vandals end?
The crossing shattered the Rhine frontier and unleashed years of devastation across Gaul. In 409 the Vandals, Alans, and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees into Hispania, where the Hasdingi and Silingi and the Alans carved out short-lived holdings.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory and its key figures as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, and academic and primary sources — Jordanes, Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Ammianus and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, read through the secondary literature. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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