The Vandals took Carthage while its citizens were watching the races
In 439 Gaiseric's Vandals walked into Carthage, Rome's greatest city in Africa, without a fight, because most residents were at the hippodrome. From that base a migrating people built a sea power that sacked Rome itself, starved the empire of grain and taxes, and left behind the word vandalism.
The Vandals and their Alan allies crossed from Spain to Africa in 429 under Gaiseric. Procopius put their number at 80,000, a figure some historians doubt; Peter Heather suggests they could field perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 fighters. Whether they came at the invitation of the Roman commander Bonifacius or simply seeking safety after a Roman attack in 422 is debated. They besieged Hippo Regius in 430 while Saint Augustine prayed inside. A treaty in 435 granted them coastal Numidia and parts of Mauretania, but Gaiseric broke it four years later, seized Carthage, made it his capital and added Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta and the Balearics.
Historians since Edward Gibbon have called the loss of Africa the greatest single blow to the Western Empire. The province had been peaceful, lightly garrisoned and a major source of taxes and grain; Josephus claimed in the first century that it fed Rome for eight months of each year. Some modern scholars note that Rome's shrinking population may have reduced its dependence by the fifth century.
Politics triggered the famous sack. Emperor Valentinian III had promised his daughter Eudocia to Gaiseric's son Huneric, but after Valentinian's murder in 455 the usurper Petronius Maximus cancelled the match. Gaiseric declared the treaty void and descended on Rome; according to Prosper of Aquitaine, Pope Leo the Great persuaded him to plunder rather than burn and kill. The Vandals left with vast treasure, including spoils Titus had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem.
Rome struck back and failed. Gaiseric wrecked Emperor Majorian's fleet at Cartagena around 460, and in 468 a vast joint Western and Eastern armada was destroyed by fire ships off Cape Bon. After Gaiseric died in 477, aged 88, Berber revolts ate into the kingdom. Belisarius finally conquered it in 534, ending a state that had lasted 99 years. Its reputation for mindless ruin sits oddly beside its record of supporting schools and scholarship.
Source: Vandal Kingdom
