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Eudocia was the daughter of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III. As the wife of Huneric, son of the Vandal King Gaiseric, she lived in Carthage and was destined to become Queen of the Vandals of Carthage. Later on, her son Hilderic becale King of the Vandals.
Origins and childhood
Eudocia was born in Rome around 440. She was the eldest daughter of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III and his wife Licinia Eudoxia. She was of pure Imperial blood on both sides of her family: her father was the son of the Roman general Constantius and Galla Placidia, daughter of Emperor Theodosius the Great, while her mother was the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II.
In 442, the Roman Empire concluded a peace treaty with the Vandals, recognizing their sovereignty over North Africa. To seal this agreement, Eudocia, who was just a child, was promised in marriage to Huneric, the son of the Vandal King Gaiseric.
Eudocia in Carthage
In 455, Valentinian III was assassinated by the Senator Petronius Maximus, who took the throne. The new Emperor married Valentinian III’s widow Licinia Eudoxia, and forced their daughter Eudocia to marry his son Palladius.
To the Vandals, the broken engagement between Eudocia and Huneric invalidated the peace treaty. When the Vandal King Gaiseric heard the news, he decided to attack Rome and pillaged the city. Eudocia, together with her mother and her sister Placidia, was kidnapped and taken prisoner to Carthage, where she was married to Huneric.
Little is known about the years Eudocia spent in Carthage. We only know that her relationship with her husband Huneric was difficult. Apart from the fact that Eudocia was forced to marry Huneric against her will, the main reason for the tensions between them was their religious difference: Huneric was an Arian, Eudocia a Catholic Christian.
Around 460, Eudocia gave birth to a son, Hilderic. Shortly after Hilderic was born, Eudocia, who could no longer stand the tensions with her husband, decided to leave Carthage. Eudocia thus never became Queen of the Vandals, as she left Huneric before he became King. Her son Hilderic grew up at his father’s court and became King of the Vandals from 523 to 530.
After her departure from Carthage, Eudocia settled in Jerusalem, where her grandmother Eudoxia, the wife of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, had a domain. Eudoxia, a famous Hellenistic poetess, had been exiled from the Imperial court after she was falsely accused of being unfaithful to her husband. She then retired to Jerusalem, where she devoted the last years of her life to her literary work and to religion. When Eudocia arrived in Jerusalem, her grandmother was already dead, but she settled on her domain. At her death, she was buried in her grandmother’s tomb.
