Hunerich

Hunerich (also Hunericus, Hunirix ; * around 420; † 484 ) was the son of Geiserich (389–477) and from 477 to 484 King of the Vandals .

The sources on the life of Hunerich are very poor and only a few data can be determined with relative certainty. The most important source is Victor von Vita , whose presentation is not always objective due to Hunerich's religious policy.

About the year Hunerich was born around 420, there is only one source that suggests that he was born in Spain before the vandal transition to Africa 429. In 435 or 442 he was a hostage at the Western Roman court. In 442 he was engaged to the three-year-old Princess Eudocia (439-466 / 474), the daughter of Emperor Valentinian III. (419-455). Before that, Hunerich was already engaged or married to the daughter of the Visigoth king Theodoric I , which suggests that Hunerich's birth date was even earlier. His father Geiserich, however, broke the connection and sent the bride mutilated back to Theodoric because she allegedly tried to poison him. Presumably Geiseric wanted a better match for his son with the Emperor's daughter Eudocia and a connection to influential relatives.

After the vandals sacked Rome in 455 , Geiseric abducted the widowed empress Licinia Eudoxia (422–462) with her daughters Eudocia and Placidia to Africa. Eudoxia was said to have called Geiseric out of revenge; However, this rumor has already met with considerable skepticism in the sources and is also not credible. One reason for Geiserich's visit to Rome was probably the return home of Princess Eudocia, his son's fiancé, in order to finally keep the promise of marriage - because she was already 16 years old. From 455/456 they were married. They had a son Hilderich (455 / 460-533), who was King of the Vandals from 523 to 530. Eudocia went to Jerusalem in 464 or 472 , allegedly on the run from her Arian husband, where she died in 466 or 474.

In 477, Hunerich succeeded Geiserich as King of the Vandals (correct would be “King of Vandals and Alans”). He was judged negatively by the sources and is said to have banished possible candidates to the throne such as his brother Theuderik and his nephew Godagis in order to secure the succession to the throne for his son Hilderich.

In the years 483/484 Hunerich, who was an Arian Christian , ordered the persecution of Catholics in his empire. For this, the Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae , written a little later by the Catholic Bishop Victor von Vita (North African province of Byzacena), is the most important source, which is admittedly not completely objective. Despite the subjective coloring, the persecution was evidently carried out with great severity. The vandals met resistance in the mountains of Numidia , where the Berbers set up their own business under their leader Masties .

The background to the persecution was presumably less religious fanaticism than Hunerich was probably guided by realpolitical motives. The still close ties of the Catholic Church in North Africa to the Roman Emperor and the associated Roman idea of ​​an empire , which posed a threat to the legitimacy of the Vandal Empire , were likely to be severed by persecution. It fits that Hunerich first tried to reach an understanding and also allowed the occupation of vacant Catholic bishops. Victor von Vita also reports on religious talks between Catholics and Arians that Hunerich summoned to Carthage on February 1, 484. One of the invited bishops was Vigilius von Thapsus , from whom some theological pamphlets come. After the failure of the talks, on February 7th and 25th, Hunerich issued 484 edicts to persecute Catholics, which closely followed the imperial heretic legislation.

At the same time, Hunerich presented himself in the Vandal Empire as the successor to the Roman emperors, for example by enacting laws that closely followed the Roman models or renaming the port city of Hadrumetum to Uniricopolis .

Hunerich died on December 23, 484. He was succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund , the son of his younger brother Gento .

literature

• Helmut Castritius : The Vandals . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 2007.
• Hans-Joachim Diesner : Vandals VI a (Hunerich). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume X, Stuttgart 1965, Sp. 957-962.
• Hermann Reichert , Helmut Reimitz :  Hunerich. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 15, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016649-6 , pp. 241-243. ( online )
• John Robert Martindale: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, pp. 572f. ( online )
• Roland Steinacher: The vandals. The rise and fall of a barbarian empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-94851-6 , pp. 235ff.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Hans-Joachim Diesner : Vandalen VI a (Hunerich) . In: RE Supplement X. Stuttgart 1965, Sp. 957; PLRE Vol. 1, 572f.
2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Diesner: Vandalen VI a (Hunerich) . In: RE Supplement X. Stuttgart 1965, Sp. 957.
3. ↑ Martina Hartmann : The Queen in the Early Middle Ages . Stuttgart 2009, p. 6ff.
4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Diesner: Vandalen VI a (Hunerich) . In: RE Supplement X. Stuttgart 1965, Sp. 961f.
5. ↑ See PLRE vol. 1, p. 573. Depending on the source, the summer of 484 may also be the time of death, cf. also Martina Hartmann: The queen in the early Middle Ages . Stuttgart 2009, p. 8.

predecessor	Office	successor
Geiseric	King of the Vandals 477–484	Gunthamund