Vandal campaign
| date | 468 AD |
|---|---|
| place | Today's Tunisia , Eastern Algeria , Sicily |
| output | Vandal Victory |
| Territorial changes | Rome recaptures Tripolitania and Sicily |
| consequences | Peace treaty of 474 |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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The vandal campaign of 468 was a failed invasion venture in which the Romans attempted to conquer the North African vandal empire. It was the largest and most expensive military operation to date against the Vandals 'warriors' association led by Geiserich and was jointly commanded by the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I and his Western Roman colleague Anthemius . The temporary reconquest of Sicily and Tripolitania was successful, but the catastrophic failure of the campaign led indirectly to the peace treaty ( foedus ) of 474, in which Emperor Zenon effectively recognized Geiseric's rule over Africa . It was not until 533, in the course of the wars of reconquest of Eastern Rome under Justinian I , that the end of Vandal rule in the Vandal War took place .
background
Vandal area of influence
In the early summer of 455, Geiseric intervened in the turmoil within Rome that followed the murder of Emperor Valentinian III. had broken out and sacked Rome with his warriors . According to the historian Victor von Vita , the Vandals then succeeded in extending their rule to all of Africa (ie western North Africa) and numerous Mediterranean islands, including Sardinia , Corsica , Sicily and the Balearic Islands . The historian Helmut Castritius, however, classifies this description of an area actually under vandal control as “hardly trustworthy” and assumes that under this sphere of influence “a whole series of bases and ports that they could approach more or less undisturbed and one for them loose control over the western Mediterranean allowed “to be understood. According to the prevailing research opinion, the vandal presence in the constantly contested Sicily was mostly limited to a few bases in the west of the island. On the other hand, vandal control over Corsica and Sardinia was more secure. Corsica, which was interesting for Vandal shipbuilding because of its forests, and Sardinia served the Vandals as a penal exile for Moorish rebels. In North Africa, Geiseric had most of Africa firmly under control, but the periphery was threatened by Moors.
Vandal looting trains
Since 455 the Vandals have been at war with the Western Roman government of Italy. Geiseric wanted to give his warriors permanent access to rich North Africa; To this end, he repeatedly intervened in the domestic politics of the western Roman Empire, shattered by endless civil wars, in order to force the imperial government to officially recognize the status quo . Among other things, since 455 he repeatedly demanded the installation of his relative Olybrius as emperor of the west; He tried to enforce this demand by repeatedly cutting Italy off from North African grain and also repeatedly attacking its fleet. His main enemy was since 456 of Heermeister Ricimer , the de facto head of the Western Roman government. After several raids in southern Italy and Sicily, against which Rome "occasionally took diplomatic and military action", the Western Roman government was forced "in the western and central Mediterranean to establish a defense zone at sea". The campaign of 468 was preceded by an attempt by the Western Roman Emperor Majorian to recapture North Africa in 460 , but implementation failed because the Vandals destroyed the invasion fleet that Majorian had assembled in the Battle of Cartagena . When Majorian's successor Libius Severus died in 465 , Geiseric again vehemently demanded the elevation of Olybrius and reinforced this demand through naval operations in the east and west. In 466/7 there was a major raid by the Vandals in the eastern Mediterranean as far as Cape Tainaron . It is unclear whether the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I took this as an opportunity to intervene in the western part of the empire in a satisfactory manner, or whether the vandal attack was rather a reaction to the already hostile attitude of the Eastern Emperor.
Sardinia campaign around 465/6
Even before the vandal campaign in 468, the Western Roman general Marcellinus succeeded in capturing Sardinia in 467 and claiming it for the Eastern Roman Empire. Marcellinus, who had actually been at odds with the Western Roman government in Ravenna since the fall of Majorian (461), was able to militarily end a raid by the Vandals in Sicily as early as 465. After he had come to an understanding with his previous enemy Ricimer, he was therefore entrusted with the reconquest of Sicily in the great campaign. In 467 Ricimer agreed with Emperor Leo I on a joint action against Geiserich: Anthemius was sent from the east as the new West Emperor Anthemius - with whom the army master was related by marriage - with strong troops to Italy. Immediately, preparations began for the major attack on North Africa, the control of which was indispensable if the west of Rome was to be stabilized again.
course
The vandal campaign of 468 was ordered by the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I and supported by Anthemius. According to tradition, which is considered reliable, there were over 100,000 soldiers, 7,000 sailors and 1,100 ships available for the war. Ostrom, who paid the lion's share of the cost, provided 65,000 pounds of gold and 700,000 pounds of silver alone; the enterprise was thus the most extensive attack on Geiseric until then and the next to the Persian Wars of Julians (363) and Anastasios I (503) probably the most costly Roman military operation of the entire late antiquity .
The invasion was planned as a three-part military operation:
- Invasion of Cape Bon
- Invasion of Sicily
- Invasion of Tripoli
The tripartite division should encircle Carthage ; on the one hand, to prevent a concentration of the vandal forces, on the other hand, because military auxiliaries from Sicily and Tripoli were feared, which in turn could encircle the invaders in the event of an incursion into North Africa.
Invasion of Cape Bon
The main force of the campaign moved by sea towards Carthage. He was under the command of General Basiliscus , Leo I's brother-in-law. The fleet anchored at what is now Cape Bon , but Geiseric succeeded in negotiating with Basiliscus, and he achieved a five-day period which he used to prepare a counterattack. With the help of ignited unmanned ships, which Geiserich had steered against the Eastern Roman warships, he was able to set fire to or scatter the enemy fleet and thus force the Eastern Romans to retreat. According to Theophanes (AM 5961), Geiseric had previously bribed Basiliskos with 2000 gold pounds.
Invasion of Sicily
The Western Roman general Marcellinus, who a few years earlier had recaptured Sardinia from the Vandals, was able to take Sicily with the help of Germanic foederati . In addition to strategic motives, the incursion on Sicily was intended to prevent a vandalized retreat after the reconquest of Carthage. To what extent Sicily was actually under the control of the vandals at this point in time can hardly be reconstructed. The fact of a military invasion, however, speaks for the presence of a significant group of vandalism warriors. Marcellinus, who was an old enemy of Ricimer, was murdered by his own officers in Sicily in August of the same year after news of the defeat of the fleet had arrived.
Invasion of Tripoli
A third platoon of Eastern Roman troops, led by Heraclius, landed in Tripoli, which at that time belonged to the eastern end of the Vandal Empire. After the capture of Tripoli, the army moved westwards towards Byzacena to unite with the main troop under Basiliscus. After the news of a failed invasion of Cape Bon, Heraclius, who shied away from attempting to conquer himself and believed he had to rely on the support of a navy, led his army back to Tripoli and annexed the territories he had acquired for the Eastern Roman Empire.
Effects
Despite the temporarily lost territories around Sicily and Tripolitania, the campaign strengthened Geiseric's position. The failed military operation did not lead directly to a peace treaty as both sides remained in an offensive position. After a reconquest of Sardinia and Sicily by the Vandals and a possibly second failed attempt in 470 to "attack by land from Tripolitania from Carthage", as well as a failed aristocratic uprising in Carthage, the final peace treaty followed in 474, after Ostrom through additional military interventions in the Balkans and was militarily and politically weakened due to internal disagreement: After Leo I's death, his successor Zenon made peace with Geiseric at the beginning of his reign.
The indirect consequences of the defeat were grave. The fact that the combined power of both emperors had not succeeded in defeating Geiseric seems to have been a beacon for many contemporaries: As Hydatius von Aquae Flaviae testified, great hopes had been placed in the operation, but now it seemed sealed that the The emperor's rule over the west was lost. Immediately after the catastrophe, the Visigoth foederati in Gaul broke away from the government in Ravenna and began large-scale conquests. Faced with this new threat, after the death of Anthemius in 472, Ricimer declared himself ready to fulfill Geiseric's old demand and finally to make Olybrius emperor of the west; but he died after a few months. Ultimately, the loss of prestige that accompanied the failure of the attack in 468 led to the end of the Western Roman Empire eight years later.
Eastern Roman loss of the conquered territories
In the 470s, the Vandals were able to regain control of Sardinia and Sicily without the reconquest being explicitly mentioned in historiography. The conquered Tripolitania remained in Roman possession until 470, before a military operation in the Balkans made a withdrawal of African troops necessary. Historians Merrills and Miles believe that a formal peace agreement with the Vandal Empire is likely at this point in time.
peace contract
In 474, after the death of Leo I, a peace treaty was concluded between the Vandal Empire and the East under the new Emperor Zenon. The Vandal Empire had to make certain concessions to the Catholic population in Africa. In return, all areas occupied by the Vandals up to that point were recognized as Vandal territory by Ostrom. Geiseric and his legitimate descendants were confirmed as lords of Africa , even if the emperor undoubtedly persisted in being formally the overlord. In addition to vandalism in North Africa, the area also included the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands. An eternity formula ensured that the contract would be kept even after Geiseric's death. After Zenon's death, however, there were again vandal attacks on Italy in 491.
The Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian finally conquered the Vandal Empire in 533/534 in the Vandal War. As a legitimation for the breach of the “eternal alliance” he used the putsch of Gelimer 530, which violated Geiserich's succession regulation. The general Belisarius probably only had the task of forcing the conclusion of a new, cheaper foedus by means of a limited military operation , but instead it came to the smashing of the Vandal warrior association and the reconquest of Northwest Africa.
literature
- Henning Börm : Westrom. From Honorius to Justinian . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2013.
- Dariusz Brodka: Priscus and the campaign of Basiliscus against Geiseric (468) . In: Bruno Bleckmann , Timo Stickler (Hrsg.): Greek profane historians of the fifth century AD . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2014, p. 103 ff.
- Helmut Castritius : The Vandals. Stages of a search for clues . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007.
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The Kingdom of the Vandals. Heirs to the empire in North Africa . From Zabern, Mainz 2009.
- Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Blackwell, Malden / Oxford 2010.
Remarks
- ↑ Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae 1, 13.
- ↑ Helmut Castritius: The Vandals. Stages of a search for clues . Stuttgart 2007, p. 110.
- ↑ Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, p. 111.
- ↑ See Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, p. 116.
- ↑ See Henning Börm: Westrom. From Honorius to Justinian. Stuttgart 2013.
- ↑ Frank M. Clover: "Enemies of Souls and Bodies". The vandals in Africa . In: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The Kingdom of the Vandals. Heirs to the empire in North Africa. Mainz 2009, p. 211.
- ↑ See Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 121.
- ↑ Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, pp. 118f.
- ↑ This is reported independently by Johannes Lydos (De Magist. 3,43) and Suda (X 245).
- ↑ See Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 121.
- ↑ See Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, p. 119f.
- ↑ See Alexander Demandt: Die Spätantike . 2nd edition CH Beck, Munich 2007, pp. 222f.
- ↑ Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 121.
- ↑ Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 121.
- ↑ Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, p. 120.
- ↑ Cf. Herwig Wolfram : Die Germanen . Munich 2009, pp. 99-101.
- ↑ See Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 123; Helmut Castritius: The Vandals . Stuttgart 2007, p. 116 places the date on the early 480s at the latest.
- ↑ Andy Merrills, Richard Miles: The Vandals . Malden / Oxford 2010, p. 122.
- ^ Dirk Henning: Periclitans res publica. Empire and elites in the crisis of the Western Empire 454 / 5-493 n. Chr . Stuttgart 1999, p. 239.
- ^ Helmut Castritius: The history of the Vandal empire - Geiseric and his dynasty in North Africa . In: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The Kingdom of the Vandals. Heirs to the empire in North Africa. Mainz 2009, p. 198.