The Vandals: Book 6 – the Sack of Rome

The Vandals – The sack of Rome
The Asding Vandals were an insignificant Germanic tribe with an undistinguished military record who lost most of their battles. Somehow this small tribe not only survived a great migration from modern day Hungary to Africa but also created a Mediterranean kingdom so powerful it could sack Rome. Few books or films feature the Vandals as the key catalyst in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Yet, if one man can be held responsible for the fall of Rome, then the Vandal King Gaeseric would be the choice of many historians.
The sixth and final book in the series begins in the winter of 448 with the Vandal kingdom firmly in control of Carthage and the former Roman provinces of Africa Proconsolaris, Numidia and Byzacena, equivalent to modern day Tunisia and eastern Algeria. By the terms of a personal treaty between the western Roman emperor Valentinian and the Vandal king Gaeseric, the Vandal realm is not only recognised as an independent kingdom but also as an ally and friend of Rome. Valentinian’s infant daughter is betrothed to King Gaeseric’s son. The death of the emperor Valentinian in 455 changes everything. Rome is sacked by the Vandals and a conflict commences which one contemporary commentator described as the fourth Punic war.
The Vandal kingdom expands to encompass the entire African coastline from modern day Morocco in the west to Libya in the east as well as the islands of Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearics. The western Roman empire under the emperor Majorian launch a huge campaign to invade Africa from Spain but are defeated by the Vandal navy near Cartegena. The eastern Roman empire launch an even bigger campaign to retake Carthage eight years later. At the battle of Cape Bon off the coast of Tunisia the Vandals have their greatest triumph and, once again, the Vandal navy reign supreme.