The Fall Of The West (COMPLETED)

Part 3: The Fall of Africa

The Vandals were initially divided into two groups, the Silingi and the Hasdingi. After crossing the Pyrenees, the Silingi and the Alans received from the Romans the richer south of Spain, Baetica and Lusitania, while the Hasdingi and Suebi received lands in Asturia and Gallaecia.

However, the Visigoths who were in Septimania attacked the Alans and killed their king Attaces. In the process the Silingi were also almost wiped out. The Alans and Silingi then appealed to Gunderic, king of the Vandals, to accept the Alan crown. From then on, all the Vandal kings were styled "Rex Wandalrum et Alanroum", meaning "King of the Vandals and Alans".

In the Vandal court, the second most powerful man was Geiseric, the bastard son of Godigisel. He started building a Vandal fleet in Carthago Nova and began piracy in Mauretania and the Balearic Islands.

In 419 AD, Gunderic was defeated by a Roman-Suebi coalition, and he fled to Baetica. However in 422 AD, he defeated a Roman-Gothic force at the Battle of Tarraco, causing many Roman and Gothic troops to defect to the Vandals. In the next five years, Vandal activity around the western Mediterranean intensified, and with the capture of Cartagena and many other maritime ports, the Vandals acquired many good ships which enabled then to build up a very powerful fleet. In fact, they were the first Teutonic people to gain a Mediterranean fleet.

However, Gunderic passed away while laying siege to the church of Hispalis. He was succeeded by Geiseric, who would come to be the greatest barbarian king of the Migration Period. Shortly after his ascension, the Vandals were attacked in the rear by the Suebi, led by one Heremigarius, but this force was then defeated at Merida and Heremigarius was drowned in the Guadiana River.

Geiseric. He is arguably the most successful barbarian leader of the Migration Period.

Seeing that the Visigoths and Suebi wanted Hispania so badly, Geiseric decided to leave it to them, and prepared to make good use of his fleet and move his people to North Africa. About 80000 people crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Mauretania.

At the same time, political struggles in the Roman Empire resumed. Joannes succeeded Honorius as Western Roman emperor in 423 AD, but after an uprising in Gaul, the cutting off of grain supplies from Africa to Italy by comes Bonifacius, and a revolt by the general Aetius, Joannes was overthrown. In his place, the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II placed his young cousin, Valentinian III, on the Western Roman throne, under the regency of his mother Galla Placidia.

Aetius had been brought up as a hostage first in Alaric's court, and then in the Hunnic court of Uldin. As a result, he was much more militaristic than most of his counterparts. Placidia conferred upon him the rank of magister militum per Gallias, an equivalent of a field marshal of the forces in Gaul.

Aetius defeated a rival, Flavius Felix, by spreading rumors that he was plotting against Aetius, and had him killed. Then, only Aetius and Bonifacius were the two most influential men in the empire. Under the influence of Aetius, Placidia accused Bonifacius of treason and plotting against her life. Aetius did so by forging a letter from Bonifacius, but his fraud was soon discovered and Bonifacius was returned to favor. However, he might have called in the Vandals as mercenaries against a possible invasion of Africa by imperial forces. Instead, the Vandals crossed into Africa as a whole and refused to leave.

The Vandals raided extensively in Mauretania as they advanced towards Roman territory. They were confronted by Bonifacius at the Numidian border in 430 AD. Conflict broke out and Bonifacius was defeated. He subsequently barricaded himself in Hippo Regius, where the Vandals proceeded to lay siege. St Augustine and the priests inside prayed for release from the besiegers, but Augustine died months into the siege, probably due to stress and starvation.

Placidia raised a new army in Italy and convinced Theodosius II to send another force led by Aspar to defeat the Vandals. The African provinces were literally the breadbasket of the Western Empire, as it was its main source of grain. Their loss would severely cripple the empire.

Geiseric raised the siege of Hippo Regius, allowing Bonifacius to retreat to Carthage, where he was joined by Aspar's army. In 432, Aspar and Bonifacius met Geiseric in battle, but were soundly defeated. Geiseric captured Hippo Regius, and in 435 AD peace was negotiated between the Vandals and Romans.

Upon his return to Ravenna, Bonifacius was received warmly by Placidia and given the rank of patricius, and Aetius, fearing dismissal, marched against Bonifacius with his army of Germanic foederati. They clashed at the Battle of Rimini, and Bonifacius won the battle. However, he soon died of a mortal wound sustained from Aetius's spear. Aetius then escaped to Pannonia and the protection of the Huns under his friend and king of the Huns, Rua. With his help Aetius returned to power and gained the rank of comes et magister utrisque militum. From then on he was the most powerful man in the empire.

Hippo Regius was a strategic port for Vandal raids in the western Mediterranean. As they extended their naval influence into Sicily and the Balearic Islands, even regular pirates and raiders had to pay a portion of their loot to the Vandals. Geiseric, interested in Carthage's port with many good ships ready for battle, reneged on the agreement and invaded Africa Proconsularis in 439 AD. It was captured without a fight, as most of the population were at the hippodrome attending the races. The Vandals then had access to large numbers of galleys that made it the equal of both the Eastern and Western Roman navies. For the first time in six centuries, Carthage became the greatest danger to the Roman Empire. The capture of Carthage was such a great victory that the Vandals marked 439 AD as the first year of a new calendar. It also marked the end of Roman rule in west Africa.