THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 163
The End of the Vandal Migration
11-2. The End of the Vandal Migration
The Germans first met with the sternest resistance when they entered Numidia in the year 430: Bonifacius opposed them here with 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 £8 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 fleet 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 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.
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