Geiseric

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Vandal King Geiserich, portrayed by Julius Naue (1869)

Geiserich (also Genserich , Gaiserich or wandalisch Gaisarīks means "spear Prince"; * to 389 , † 25 January 477 in Carthage ) was king or rex of the Vandals 428-477 and founder of the Vandal kingdom in Roman Africa .

Life

Geiserich was born around 389 as the illegitimate son of the vandal leader Godigisel and an unfree person. Godegisel was one of the leaders ( rex ) of a mainly, but not only, warrior association consisting of Vandals and Alans , which had been in Hispania since 409. Whether one can translate rex as “king” is controversial in the context of the migration period .

After the death of his half-brother Gunderich , Geiserich succeeded him in 428 as rex Vandalorum et Alanorum (King of the Vandals and Alans ). He had Gunderich's widow and sons murdered in order to secure his rule. Geiserich had three sons, namely Hunerich , Theuderik († 479/81) and Gento († before 477), and possibly a daughter who was not known by name. The names of his wives are not known.

The Vandal Association was still in Spain at this time, but was harassed, among other things, by the Visigoths, who served as foederati in Roman service . In 429 the Vandals crossed with the Alans from Iulia Traducta to North Africa (see also Migration ). The background is controversial. According to the late antique historian Prokopios of Caesarea , Geiseric was supposedly called for help by the Western Roman general Bonifatius , who had fallen out with Flavius ​​Felix , the supreme master of the western empire. In modern research, however, it is controversial whether the story of Prokop is essentially based on facts. Many researchers believe that it was a carefully planned undertaking that took advantage of Rome's current military weaknesses. Other military leaders such as Alaric I and Athaulf had previously tried to take the strategically very important Africa ; so the idea was obvious. The Vandals had already demonstrated their nautical skills as early as 425 and sailed as far as the province of Mauretania . Salvianus of Massilia even claims that Geiseric saw the conquest of Africa as a task given to him by God.

15,000 to 20,000 warriors with their wives and children - around 80,000 people in total - went ashore in Africa (perhaps in Tingis , but perhaps also further east) and began their march east towards Carthage . In addition to Vandals and Alans, the association also included soldiers of other origins, in particular probably Goths. Unable to take the heavily fortified city of Carthage, they turned back west and moved along the coast to Hippo Regius . On their way there came a fight with Bonifatius, who had meanwhile been confirmed by the emperor as comes Africae , in which the Vandals remained victorious. Boniface, who had only weak troop contingents, had to retreat to the city with the rest of his forces. The church father Augustine was bishop of the city at that time . In June 430 the Vandals began the siege of the city, which fell after fourteen months in 431. Boniface, who had managed to escape from the city before the fall, joined forces with the army master Aspar , who was sent by the Eastern Roman Empire . Two years later (432) there was another battle between the Romans and the Vandals; but again the latter remained the winners. While Aspar now took over the defense of Carthage, Boniface returned to the court in Ravenna to take over the post of supreme army master of the western empire and to fight against his rival Flavius ​​Aëtius . In this civil war, however, he found death.

Vandal empire around 455

In 435 Geiseric was finally able to conclude an official alliance treaty ( foedus ) with Ravenna, where Aëtius was meanwhile the strong man, which gave him control of important areas. After the Romans had suffered a heavy defeat against the Visigoths four years later (439), Geiseric seized the opportunity, broke the foedus and took the metropolis of Carthage on October 19, 439 . In 441 a Roman counter-offensive failed, and in the following year (442) Geiseric was the first rex of a "Germanic" empire on the soil of the empire by the western Roman emperor Valentinian III by a new foedus . in fact recognized as an independent ruler, even if Africa officially remained part of the Roman Empire . The contract also stipulated that Geiserich's son Hunerich should marry the Emperor's daughter Eudocia as soon as she was old enough. Hunerich's previous wife, a daughter of the Visigoth rex , was sent to her father, mutilated. Geiseric later did not support Aëtius in his battles against the Huns, but rather seems to have allied himself with Attila against Aëtius and the Visigoths in 450 .

In Africa , Geiseric, who still had to bloodily suppress a conspiracy in 442 (perhaps the mutilation of the Gothic princess also belongs to this context), established an empire that existed for almost a hundred years and, above all, a serious one for the western Roman state and Italy Posed a threat. Africa was densely populated and was considered the granary of Rome and Italy; it was therefore of enormous strategic and economic importance and generated enormous tax revenues, which Westrom now lacked, which was to have fatal consequences. Geiseric could now blackmail the emperor, intervened again and again in western Roman domestic politics since 440 and for this purpose repeatedly stopped the vital grain deliveries to Rome. However, the Vandal warriors only made up a thin upper class - modern estimates assume around 10 million Romans or Romans and barely 100,000 vandals. The latest research also emphasizes that the Vandals were thoroughly Romanized early on and the Vandal language quickly died out. Carthage became the capital, in which Geiseric increasingly settled the vandals. Latin poetry and rhetoric flourished. The city, which before 439 had over 200,000 inhabitants, shrank; but the economy benefited from the fact that the surpluses no longer had to be transferred to Italy. The king created an important fleet and conquered bases in Sardinia , Corsica and the Balearic Islands as well as part of Sicily .

In 455, Geiseric attacked the after the assassination of Valentinian III. turmoil that broke out in Italy. After the sack of Rome , he brought the Western Roman empress widow Licinia Eudoxia , who was said to have called Geiserich to help against the usurper Petronius Maximus , with her two daughters Eudocia and Placidia to Africa . Hunerich married Eudocia there, to whom he had been engaged for over ten years. His son from this marriage would later be the penultimate vandal rex .

Attempts were made again and again to expel Geiserich from Africa in order to restore the ability of the Western Roman government to act. In the year 460, Geiseric destroyed large parts of a western Roman fleet in Spain that had been marched against him by the Emperor Majorian ( Battle of Cartagena ). Another, much larger, landing operation in the west and east of the river , Geiseric was able to repel in 468 with a lot of luck and thanks to the failure of the Roman general Basiliscus . In 472 he succeeded in getting his relative Olybrius , brother-in-law of Eudocia, to become the new emperor of the west; however, he died shortly afterwards. Geiserich crowned his life's work two years later (474) with a foedus with the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno , in which he and his legitimate successors were guaranteed rule over Carthage.

Geiserich died on January 25, 477, and was succeeded by his son Hunerich . His successor, according to his regulations, was from then on regulated as a seniorate . The Vandal Empire continued to exist as a contractual partner of the Roman Empire until his grandson Hilderich was dethroned by the usurper Gelimer in 530 . In the years that followed, the Eastern Empire was militarily crushed.

Geiseric was one of the most important figures of the Migration Period , he is described in the sources as warlike and yet wise; He had proven his organizational talent with the transfer of the Vandals and the settlement in Africa , even if there were strong tensions in the country between the Arian Vandals and the Catholic Romans. His goal was to secure the permanent possession of rich Africa for his association ; For this reason he repeatedly intervened in the civil wars that shaped the last decades of Western Rome, and thus contributed decisively to the destabilization of the empire.

Monuments

Memory of Geiserich in the Walhalla

A memorial plaque for him was included in the Walhalla near Regensburg , since Geiserich, as a Teuton in the 19th century, was considered the "ancestor of the Germans".

swell

There is no historical work that describes the life of Geiserich in detail; rather, there are scattered information in several late antique sources. The following are to be mentioned:

literature

Web links

Commons : Genseric  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Martina Hartmann : The Queen in the Early Middle Ages . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-17-018473-2 , pp. 5-7
  2. ↑ Cf. Castritius, Vandalen , p. 83. For the fact that Bonifatius Geiserich's warriors made the crossing possible, however, argues with logistical arguments Roland Steinacher: Die Vandalen. The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Stuttgart 2016, p. 92f.
  3. ↑ Timo Stickler: Aetius . Munich 2002, p. 235.
  4. ↑ a b c PLRE vol. 1, 496ff
  5. ↑ In general, see also Timo Stickler: Aetius . Munich 2002, p. 232ff.
  6. ↑ See also PLRE.
  7. ^ A b Roger C. Blockley: The fragmentary classicizing historians of the later Roman Empire. Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus. Liverpool 1981-1983
predecessor Office successor
Gunderich King of the Vandals
428–477 		Hunerich
personal data
SURNAME Geiseric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Genserich; Gaiserich; Goosey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Vandals
DATE OF BIRTH at 389
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 477
Place of death Carthage