Did the Vandals really vandalize North Africa?

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The Vandals, a Germanic people who conquered North Africa in the 5th Century, are known as ruthless warriors who pillaged and destroyed many of the cities they conquered. Nowadays, the word “vandalism” means the destruction of others’ property. Is this reputation well-founded? Most historians believe that the ancient sources exaggerated Vandal violence.

Cover picture: ruins of Hippo (Annaba), a city destroyed by the Vandals

Our main ancient sources on the Vandals are Roman (Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Sevilla) or Byzantine (Procopius of Caesarea, Jordanes). Those authors were enemies of the Vandals, and the way they depict them is certainly exaggerated.

According to most modern historians, the Vandal conquest and occupation of North Africa wasn’t particularly violent, compared to what was common at the time. The only city that was mostly destroyed was Hippo (Annaba), where whole neighborhoods and public buildings were burned after the 430-431 siege. The city survived, but never regained its former prosperity. However, there is no sign of massacres or other large-scale atrocities against the civil population.

In Carthage, the Vandals destroyed important buildings like the theater, the odeon and the Antonine Baths; but military strategy offers a good explanation for this: such monuments could easily be transformed into fortresses in case of an urban uprising. In other cities, the city walls were destroyed, for the same reason.

Several North African cities were pillaged, including Constantine, Hadrumetum (Sousse) and Leptis Magna. This pillage accelerated the decline of urban life. Most of those cities were punished for resisting the Vandals. Other cities, like Carthage, Utica, Hippo Diarrhytus (Bizerte) and Sicca (El Kef), were not only preserved, but developed and embellished by the Vandals, especially close to the end of the Vandal era, once their domination was well established. The Vandals were dependent on Roman urban infrastructure and had nothing to gain in destroying cities, except if they encountered resistance.

In 455, the Vandals invaded Rome and pillaged the city for two weeks. The sack of Rome by the Vandals was even more destructive than the 410 sack by the Goths. The Vandals tore off half the roof of the Temple of Jupiter Capitoline, the largest temple in Rome, to take its gilded bronze tiles. They also destroyed the aqueducts that provided water to Rome. However, even during the sack of Rome, there were no exactions against the population: the bishop of Rome Leo I negotiated with the Vandal King Gaiseric, and convinced him to spare the inhabitants who didn’t resist, not to burn the buildings and not to torture prisoners.

On the other hand, the religious persecution against the North African Christians is very well attested. The Christian bishop Victor of Vita wrote a book that gives a detailed account of the persecution. It is however important to keep in mind that the North African bishops were often also political leaders of the resistance against the Vandals, so that the violence against them had both political and religious motivations.

The Vandal reputation is mostly due to their love for pillage. It is however important to remember here that in their historical context, a people group that was finally entering history after having long lived at the margins of civilisation naturally aspired to enjoy the riches they had so long been deprived of. Especially in major cities, the Vandals saw their appropriation of the treasures previously confiscated by the Roman urban elite as nothing more than legitimate wealth redistribution.