Vandalism is a term synonymous with significant property damage and destruction in today’s society. It refers to indiscriminate destruction.
The term comes from a Germanic tribe that sacked Rome in 455 — the Vandals. The Vandals, like other Germanic groups that invaded the Roman Empire, were referred to as “barbarians” simply because they weren’t Roman.
Erin Andrews at History says the Vandals had good reasons for sacking Rome, as Roman Emperor Valentinian III had just been assassinated, and his daughter was promised to the son of the Vandal king, Genseric.
As popular history goes, the Vandals did not slaughter the famous city’s inhabitants after making a deal with the pope. However, they got their money’s worth. For two weeks, they looted the city barren, ransacking the imperial palace, taking all the gold and silver they could carry.
This is why “vandalism” as a term does not refer to sheer slaughter and killing, but just to property damage.
But according to Erin Blakemore at National Geographic, Vandals might not deserve the reputation of complete destruction. Despite looting the city’s wealth, they stuck close to their deal of leaving buildings intact, taking very few prisoners, and not killing people.
Needless to say, other “barbarians” sacked the city much worse than the Vandals ever did, according to Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen, author of A History of the Vandals.
Who were the Vandals?
Jacobsen says the Vandals most likely came from Southern Scandinavia. They were farming and cattle-herding people who migrated to Central Europe later on. In fact, the British Museum says the Vandals were forced to interact more with the Roman Empire, like other “barbarian” groups, due to the incursion of the Huns in central Europe in the early 5th century.
The invasion of the Huns changed everything. Both the Vandals and Goths advanced into Roman territory. One Vandal named Stillicho was part of the West Roman army and became a general in the Roman army. He married a prominent Roman woman named Serena and defended the Roman Empire from these incursions. In particular, one of Stillicho’s main enemies was Alaric, the Visigothic warlord who sacked Rome in 410.
However, in 408, Stillicho was executed by the Roman Empire, as well as many other “barbarians” protected by treaty under the Romans. Two years later, Rome was sacked and captured by barbarians for the first time in eight centuries.
The Vandals weren’t really that barbarian by Roman standards. They had converted to Christianity but disagreed with the Church on Arianism versus Trinitarianism. The Vandals did not see Christ as equivalent to God, which flew in the face of Roman Catholic beliefs, and the Vandals and Catholic Church stood in opposition as a result. The Catholics saw the Vandals as heretics, and in Vandal-held territory, Roman Catholic clergy were persecuted.
In 406 and 407, the Vandals successfully advanced into Gaul (modern day France) and conquered it. They also advanced into Iberia (modern-day Spain and Portugal). They would engage in several battles against the Romans and other barbarian groups, and because of several military conflicts in the region, the Vandals migrated within two decades.
In 428, a Vandal leader named Genseric became the King of the Vandals and decided to invade North Africa. They would conquer North Africa (aided by Roman infighting), and take the famous city of Carthage as their capital.
This incursion into northern Africa devastated the Roman Empire, as, according to Own Jarus at Live Science, this was a region that was very wealthy, where most of the Roman Empire’s grain was provided. The Vandals would go on to take more territory around Rome prior to actually sacking Rome.
Genseric’s son, Huneric, had an arranged marriage to Roman princess Eudocia, but the promise was revoked when Emperor Valentinian III was killed.
The subsequent sack of Rome, as previously stated, plundered the city of its wealth, but did not destroy buildings or kill anyone. However, Genseric and the Vandals took thousands of Romans prisoner and were rumored to have brought home slaves.
The Vandals would prosper for decades, but eventually, decline after a series of succession crises after the death of Genseric. By 534, the Eastern Roman Empire would defeat the Vandals and take over Northern Africa.
Reputation
History is written by the victors, and in our Western view of the Romans as the civilized and everyone who sacked Rome as uncouth and uncivilized barbarians, the nuance of the Vandals’ actual invasion of Rome goes unremembered.
In reality, the Vandals took a lot of property. They stole a lot of property and wealth from Rome. But did they actually destroy a lot of it? No.
However, vandalism would be a much less provocative term if it only referred to stealing property — especially since there’s already a word in the English language for that (theft).
Museum curator Barry Ager argues the Vandals suffered from pretty bad press. Ager notes surviving accounts of the sack of Rome come from the Roman and Byzantine Empires, as well as the Church. The Romans and the Vandals feuded over their faith, leading to “bitter religious strife.”
In all their conquered territory in northern Africa, there is little evidence of destruction, but agriculture and olive oil production continued at a steady rate. The region remained wealthy and prosperous and manufacturing remained the same.
So largely, the Vandals did not gain their reputation for destruction based on actual destruction and property damage, but on bitter religious differences with the Romans and religious persecution of Catholics.
Vandalism, then, may be a term that results from propaganda and bad press.
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This post was previously published on Frame of Reference.
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