Harold Purcell, age 15, of Jackson, Miss., for his question:
WHO WERE THE VANDALS?
One of the seven groups of Teutonic tribes who helped to destroy the Roman Empire were the Vandals. They had originally come from the basin of the Oder, where they had fought with the Goths.
In the time of Constantine I, the Vandals were defeated by the Goths and were then allowed by the Romans to settle as a subject people in the area known as Pannonia, which included the northeastern part of the present Austria and the western part of Hungary.
For 60 years the Vandals stayed in Pannonia, but then they emigrated to Gaul, where the Franks defeated them in A.D. 400.
Next, the Vandals, under the leadership of Gunderic, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain. The Silingian Vandals settled in Andalusia and the Asdingians in Galicia. The Silingians were wiped out by the Goths but the Asdingians prospered. Finally they marched across Spain and took the place of their kindred in Andalusia.
Bonifacius, the count of Africa who was having a quarrel with Rome, invited the Vandals to settle in his province in 428. More than 80,000 of them went over to Africa under their king Gaiseric.
Very soon Bonifaciua found that his guests were more to be feared than the Romans. But when he asked them to return to Spain, he discovered that it was too late. The Vandals proceeded to conquer all of northern Africa for themselves.
Gaiseric made a treaty with Rome in 435 that Carthage was to remain Roman while the Vandals were to occupy the other six provinces. But Gaiseric did not observe the treaty. In 439 he seized Carthage and reigned over all of Roman Africa.
In 455, the widow of Emperor Valentinian made the same mistake as Bonifacius. She invited Gaiseric to give her his support at Rome. Gaiseric occupied the city and looted it for 14 days. There was no resistance.
In 477 Gaiseric was succeeded by his son Huaneric.
In 523 Hilderic became king. Ha was a Catholic and restored the bishops to their churches. But he was unpopular and was soon imprisoned and deposed by his cousin Gelimsr.
This gave Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine army a chance to intervene. In 533 they landed. One Vandal army was away in Sardinia, and the second was defeated, allowing entry into Carthage.
When the Sardinian army returned, the Vandals met the enemy with their full strength at Tricameron. But after a stubborn battle, they were defeated.
Gelimer took flight, finally surrendering in 535.
Many of the Vandals were taken into the Byzantine army sad the rest of them simply disappeared from history.