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A History of the Vandals
The First General History in English of the Germanic People Who Sacked Rome in the Fifth Century AD and Established a Kingdom in North Africa
The fifth century AD was a time of great changes in the Mediterranean world. In the early 400s, the Roman Empire ranged from the lowlands of Scotland to the Upper Nile and from Portugal to the Caucasus. It was almost at its widest extent, and although ruled by two emperors—one in the West and one in the East—it was still a single empire. One hundred years later, Roman control of Western Europe and Western North Africa had been lost. In its place, a number of Germanic kingdoms had been established in these regions, with hundreds of thousands of Germanic and other peoples settling permanently inside the former borders of the Western Roman Empire.
One of the most fascinating of these tribes of late antiquity were the Vandals, who over a period of six hundred years had migrated from the woodland regions of Scandinavia across Europe and ended in the deserts of North Africa. In A History of the Vandals, the first general account in English covering the entire story of the Vandals from their emergence to the end of their kingdom, historian Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen pieces together what we know about the Vandals, sifting fact from fiction. In the middle of the fifth century the Vandals, who professed Arianism, a form of Christianity considered heretical by the Roman emperor, created the first permanent Germanic successor state in the West and were one of the deciding factors in the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. Later Christian historians described their sack of Rome in 455 and their vehement persecution of Catholics in their kingdom, accounts that were sensationalized and gave birth to the term “vandalism.”
In the mid-sixth century, the Vandals and their North African kingdom were the first target of Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s ambitious plan to reconquer the lost territories of the fallen Western Empire. In less than four months, what had been considered one of the strongest Germanic kingdoms had been defeated by a small Roman army led by the general Belisarius. Despite later rebellions, this was the end of the Germanic presence in North Africa, and in many ways the end of the Arian heresy of Christianity. For the Romans it was the incredibly successful start of the reconquest of the lost lands of the Western Empire.
The fifth century AD was a time of great changes in the Mediterranean world. In the early 400s, the Roman Empire ranged from the lowlands of Scotland to the Upper Nile and from Portugal to the Caucasus. It was almost at its widest extent, and although ruled by two emperors—one in the West and one in the East—it was still a single empire. One hundred years later, Roman control of Western Europe and Western North Africa had been lost. In its place, a number of Germanic kingdoms had been established in these regions, with hundreds of thousands of Germanic and other peoples settling permanently inside the former borders of the Western Roman Empire.
One of the most fascinating of these tribes of late antiquity were the Vandals, who over a period of six hundred years had migrated from the woodland regions of Scandinavia across Europe and ended in the deserts of North Africa. In A History of the Vandals, the first general account in English covering the entire story of the Vandals from their emergence to the end of their kingdom, historian Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen pieces together what we know about the Vandals, sifting fact from fiction. In the middle of the fifth century the Vandals, who professed Arianism, a form of Christianity considered heretical by the Roman emperor, created the first permanent Germanic successor state in the West and were one of the deciding factors in the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. Later Christian historians described their sack of Rome in 455 and their vehement persecution of Catholics in their kingdom, accounts that were sensationalized and gave birth to the term “vandalism.”
In the mid-sixth century, the Vandals and their North African kingdom were the first target of Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s ambitious plan to reconquer the lost territories of the fallen Western Empire. In less than four months, what had been considered one of the strongest Germanic kingdoms had been defeated by a small Roman army led by the general Belisarius. Despite later rebellions, this was the end of the Germanic presence in North Africa, and in many ways the end of the Arian heresy of Christianity. For the Romans it was the incredibly successful start of the reconquest of the lost lands of the Western Empire.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published May 10, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 25, 2026
Although not personally inclined to “vandalism” I was curious to learn if the modern term is justly derived from these barbarians. The answer, of course, is no. Nevertheless the Vandals were involved in some epic sacks, of both Rome and Carthage, and were responsible for a huge amount of destruction and pillage. But their motivation was not the mindless desire to smash things up – at least not primarily. (But who has not felt the desire to hurl a brick through the window of a derelict building?)
Their origins were with two south Scandinavian groups, the Hasdings (“long haired”) and the Sillings (from Zealand island in modern Denmark, probably). Their migrations south began in the second century BC and ultimately took them as far as modern Algeria and Tunisia where they founded a kingdom which was destroyed by the Byzantines in 534 AD.
The pagan religion of the Vandals seems to have been based on “sacred twins” (Castor and Pollux?) and, like the Spartans, they had double kings. But later this was discarded and they adopted Arianism. This became a distinguishing mark of Vandals and much trouble was caused by sectarian strife between Arianism and Catholicism. Both sides conducted vigorous persecutions of the the other, but as the Arians eventually lost many of their records were destroyed. Sadly little detail remains of, for example, the nature and organisation of the Arian church in North Africa. Catholic/Orthodox triumph was short lived, as within a century the whole of North Africa was subsumed under the tidal wave of militant Islam.
The Vandals considered Geiseric (428-477) their greatest King, and certainly he made them rich, secure and powerful. He was intelligent and brave, but also cruel. It was Geiseric who conducted the famous sack of Rome in 455. As a sacking it was a very comprehensive one, but the Pope helped to ensure there was no bloodshed.
Once they established their North African kingdom the Vandals became accustomed to softness and luxury which many thought led to their degeneracy and ultimate defeat. But their numbers were never large and except under the reign of Geiseric they were often defeated in battle. They were a light cavalry army of excellent morale and fighting ability, but hampered by non Vandalic infantry levies, poor logistics, no horse archers, and no siege equipment.
This is a good history and I haven’t found anything else like it in English. I did raise my eyebrows at the author’s statement that “ethnicity is a social construction.” This is a live topic in Europe today, of course. I think the statement is misleading, because the Vandals were conscious of blood lines: all their Kings were Hasdings, for example. The case of the Alans is curious: these people allied with the Vandals and became an important component of the Vandalic kingdom, supplying heavy lancers, but maintaining their separate identity: they were not Scandinavian in origin at all, but spoke a form of Iranian. On the one hand this suggests there was a kind of “civic Vandalism” (if the Vandals were exclusively ethnocentric the Alans wouldn’t have been there at all). On the other hand it suggests the importance of preserving biological ethnicity (or the Alans would not have retained their separate identity centuries after their incorporation).
We know next to nothing of the Vandalic language, alas – only a few words – though it was almost certainly a dialect of Gothic. They loved luxury, daily baths, fine dining, gold jewellery, good clothes, hunting, and music. They had a hereditary nobility, although the King could create new nobles, even from slaves. It is true they could be immensely cruel and were not averse to murdering one another in various succession crises. But, on the whole, I find them rather admirable.
Their origins were with two south Scandinavian groups, the Hasdings (“long haired”) and the Sillings (from Zealand island in modern Denmark, probably). Their migrations south began in the second century BC and ultimately took them as far as modern Algeria and Tunisia where they founded a kingdom which was destroyed by the Byzantines in 534 AD.
The pagan religion of the Vandals seems to have been based on “sacred twins” (Castor and Pollux?) and, like the Spartans, they had double kings. But later this was discarded and they adopted Arianism. This became a distinguishing mark of Vandals and much trouble was caused by sectarian strife between Arianism and Catholicism. Both sides conducted vigorous persecutions of the the other, but as the Arians eventually lost many of their records were destroyed. Sadly little detail remains of, for example, the nature and organisation of the Arian church in North Africa. Catholic/Orthodox triumph was short lived, as within a century the whole of North Africa was subsumed under the tidal wave of militant Islam.
The Vandals considered Geiseric (428-477) their greatest King, and certainly he made them rich, secure and powerful. He was intelligent and brave, but also cruel. It was Geiseric who conducted the famous sack of Rome in 455. As a sacking it was a very comprehensive one, but the Pope helped to ensure there was no bloodshed.
Once they established their North African kingdom the Vandals became accustomed to softness and luxury which many thought led to their degeneracy and ultimate defeat. But their numbers were never large and except under the reign of Geiseric they were often defeated in battle. They were a light cavalry army of excellent morale and fighting ability, but hampered by non Vandalic infantry levies, poor logistics, no horse archers, and no siege equipment.
This is a good history and I haven’t found anything else like it in English. I did raise my eyebrows at the author’s statement that “ethnicity is a social construction.” This is a live topic in Europe today, of course. I think the statement is misleading, because the Vandals were conscious of blood lines: all their Kings were Hasdings, for example. The case of the Alans is curious: these people allied with the Vandals and became an important component of the Vandalic kingdom, supplying heavy lancers, but maintaining their separate identity: they were not Scandinavian in origin at all, but spoke a form of Iranian. On the one hand this suggests there was a kind of “civic Vandalism” (if the Vandals were exclusively ethnocentric the Alans wouldn’t have been there at all). On the other hand it suggests the importance of preserving biological ethnicity (or the Alans would not have retained their separate identity centuries after their incorporation).
We know next to nothing of the Vandalic language, alas – only a few words – though it was almost certainly a dialect of Gothic. They loved luxury, daily baths, fine dining, gold jewellery, good clothes, hunting, and music. They had a hereditary nobility, although the King could create new nobles, even from slaves. It is true they could be immensely cruel and were not averse to murdering one another in various succession crises. But, on the whole, I find them rather admirable.
February 11, 2018
This book gives a rare English language look at the Vandal tribe from its earliest known migrations in northern Europe until the last dying out of its rebellions against restored Roman rule in North Africa. Personally, I always found the Vandals to be the most fascinating of the tribes of this era due to the length of their migration and that they became a mixed cavalry/naval power when starting out as neither of those things. Naturally this made me pleased to find this book. Geiseric is one of the more overlooked military leaders/state founders in the history of this time period.
September 2, 2012
A great book on the subject. While it seems more like a popular history book (as opposed to strict academic), there were certainly enough cited sources to not only show that the author knew the subject, but also lead to further study (in fact, the book I just added by Victor of Vita was a primary source used often in this book). An informative study of a period that had much more source material than I thought existed.
November 12, 2020
Tracking the history of ancient “people” that did not leave literary records is a very complicated task. Specially when the concepts of tribe or nation is very fluid, as it was in late antiquity. Sources and observers were not putting much attention on the barbarians differences more as when they were a political thread. The history of the vandals has the same problem, at least until their north African kingdom rose and even then, the sources are contradictory and scant. The author attempts to present this history as a narrative of events in a way that is targeted to a common reader and not to a scholar. This is in many instances good, but sometimes may turn the lecture a little bit monotonous, with many names and years told one after the other without any deep discussion into the characters or background. The redaction of some parts could be a bit boring.
In his attempt to recount the history of the vandal people he gives a big chunk of the book in detailing the situation of the roman empire, which during the rise of the vandal kingdom would see its western half terminated. Sometimes the background on the romans is of big importance in order to understand the political world in which the vandals as wanderers or in their kingdom were situated, but in some parts it could feel more as it the story were centered on the romans instead of the vandals. Nevertheless, the insights on the romans should be interesting parts of the book for any history lover, that would also learn a great of the last years of the western roman empire history.
A big interesting part of the book is the description of the possible route of migration across centuries from Scandinavia onto the edges of the roman empire at the danubian frontier and the cultures that could have been involved, separating the vandals into their 2 branches: the Hasdings and the Silings. Thence, triggered by the Huns we are presented with their most known migration along the Sueves and the Alans into western Europe, crossing through Spain into North Africa, taking Carthage and initiating the 100 year-odd vandal reign of North Africa and some Mediterranean isles. Across the book we are presented with many useful maps that helps to understand battles, places’ names, migration routes and ancient spread of some tribes, which makes the reading all the way lighter.
It is clear by the amount of information presented that we have many more sources of the reign of Gaiseric as for any of its successors, nonetheless the author tells us about the mainly known events happening during the rule of each of Gaiseric’s successors. After Gaiseric’s death as it happened with so many other powerful states in history, the kingdom began a slow decline, culminating with the Justinian restauration and his reclaim of North Africa for the romans by the roman general Belisarius.
Although interesting and still in place with the story, the chapters of the aftermath of the kingdom’s fall, which talk about rebellions on the romans by vandals after the fall of vandal Carthage felt like it could have been better written. Nonetheless, we are presented with the fate of the vandals and of North Africa shortly after the downfall of the vandal Kingdom and almost until the Islamic conquest, showing how much the Romans struggle to retain their new gains in North Africa.
The book even tries to dive into the vandal people and its kingdom’s culture (including the afro-romans, the moors, the Alans and other Germanic tribes). We get a full appendix on their laws, military and society structure, as well as other cultural characteristics that go away from the typical political chronology of events which probably many would fine interesting. On average is a very good book for learning of North Africa and the vandals during the 5th and 6th centuries, but some people may find it not scholarly enough.
In his attempt to recount the history of the vandal people he gives a big chunk of the book in detailing the situation of the roman empire, which during the rise of the vandal kingdom would see its western half terminated. Sometimes the background on the romans is of big importance in order to understand the political world in which the vandals as wanderers or in their kingdom were situated, but in some parts it could feel more as it the story were centered on the romans instead of the vandals. Nevertheless, the insights on the romans should be interesting parts of the book for any history lover, that would also learn a great of the last years of the western roman empire history.
A big interesting part of the book is the description of the possible route of migration across centuries from Scandinavia onto the edges of the roman empire at the danubian frontier and the cultures that could have been involved, separating the vandals into their 2 branches: the Hasdings and the Silings. Thence, triggered by the Huns we are presented with their most known migration along the Sueves and the Alans into western Europe, crossing through Spain into North Africa, taking Carthage and initiating the 100 year-odd vandal reign of North Africa and some Mediterranean isles. Across the book we are presented with many useful maps that helps to understand battles, places’ names, migration routes and ancient spread of some tribes, which makes the reading all the way lighter.
It is clear by the amount of information presented that we have many more sources of the reign of Gaiseric as for any of its successors, nonetheless the author tells us about the mainly known events happening during the rule of each of Gaiseric’s successors. After Gaiseric’s death as it happened with so many other powerful states in history, the kingdom began a slow decline, culminating with the Justinian restauration and his reclaim of North Africa for the romans by the roman general Belisarius.
Although interesting and still in place with the story, the chapters of the aftermath of the kingdom’s fall, which talk about rebellions on the romans by vandals after the fall of vandal Carthage felt like it could have been better written. Nonetheless, we are presented with the fate of the vandals and of North Africa shortly after the downfall of the vandal Kingdom and almost until the Islamic conquest, showing how much the Romans struggle to retain their new gains in North Africa.
The book even tries to dive into the vandal people and its kingdom’s culture (including the afro-romans, the moors, the Alans and other Germanic tribes). We get a full appendix on their laws, military and society structure, as well as other cultural characteristics that go away from the typical political chronology of events which probably many would fine interesting. On average is a very good book for learning of North Africa and the vandals during the 5th and 6th centuries, but some people may find it not scholarly enough.
June 22, 2024
The casual history reader probably should pass on this book, but for someone deeply interested in the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the barbarian tribes, this is a must-read. While it follows the Vandals through their final defeat, it also traces the complexities and horrors of the final century of the Western Roman Empire. It is not a pretty picture. While the Vandals were just another Germanic tribe, they stand out for their conquest and rule of North Africa. They also have earned a decidedly bad reputation from history. Were they worse than other tribes? No, but they and their fellow tribes destroyed civilization in the West. I personally found this history fascinating, not only in shedding light on the Vandals but the demise of Rome itself.
December 31, 2024
By a Danish historian, former curator of the Royal Danish Military Museum. A comprehensive history of the Vandals from their origins in Scandinavia to their end in North Africa, though because there are virtually no sources by Vandals themselves, it’s as much or more a history of the world in which they moved, especially Roman, and what we do see is through the eyes of others, especially Catholics, who had many reasons to dislike and therefore misrepresent them. Judging by the extensive bibliography, Jacobsen has read all the primary and secondary material, the latter especially extensively in German.
June 11, 2021
An extensive and informative history of the Vandals from their beginnings to their end.
February 25, 2013
Towards the end of the book, after the Vandals have lost their kingdom, Jacobsen follows the warfare of groups other than the Vandals which had small groups of Vandals fighting with them. This seems unnecessary and a bit confusing. The appendix is the best part of the book--Jacobsen explains and summarizes all the information from the rest of the book with such clarity you wish he'd written the rest of the book that way (ethnicity, language, etc.).
February 11, 2013
The book provides incite into the Roman world immediately after the sacking of Rome by Alerac in 411. Sheds much light on the migration of the Germanic tribes (Ostrogoth, Visigoths, Alans and Vandals) and why they migrated west. It also provides excellent information on Justinian the Byzantine Emperor's Western ambitions to re-unite the western empire with the eastern empire.
June 24, 2014
This book is one of the few in English to detail the history of the Vandals and in my opinion it's the best one. The author paints a fair picture of the tribes outside of Rome and doesn't automatically paint them as uncivilized thugs that older books have done. If you are interested in the Vandals this is the place to start.
January 10, 2013
Was an interesting read. Did not know much about sailing barbarians or the laws against teaching them sailing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews