The Invasion of Gaul: A New Wave of Destruction

The Vandals, Suebi, and Alani, having crossed the Rhine in 406 CE, are quickly followed by a second wave of invaders—the Burgundians and non-federated Alemanni. Unlike the earlier groups, these new arrivals have no prior agreements with Rome and come as unchecked raiders and conquerors, adding to the chaos engulfing Gaul.

As they sweep across Roman territory, these Germanic groups easily overrun the federated Franks and Alemanni, who had been tasked with defending the empire’s northern frontiers. The Roman border defenses—already strained and reliant on these federate forces—crumble in the face of relentless assaults.

With the imperial legions unable to mount an effective response, Gaul descends into anarchy, its cities and countryside devastated by raiders and settlers alike. This breakdown of Roman authority further accelerates the decline of the Western Roman Empire, leaving vast territories beyond effective imperial control.

The tribes that had overrun the Rhine defenses in 406 and spent the intervening years burning and plundering their way through Gaul, have reached the Pyrenees, where, led by king Gunderic, they break through Constantine's garrisons and enter Hispania in September 409.

While Constantine prepares to send his son Constans back to deal with this crisis, word comes that his general Gerontius has rebelled, raising his own man as co-emperor.

The Vandals, Alans, and some Suebi (Suevi), taking advantage of the Visigothic threat to Italy, had crossed into Gaul and then into Hispania, and have ravaged the country for the past two years.

The Siling Vandals have occupied Baetica in the south, making the former administrative center Hispalis (present Sevilla) their capital, and …

…the Alans have settled in the central provinces of Lusitania and …

…Carthaginiensis.

The Vandals, following a series of defeats inflicted by the Visigoths, had moved in 417 to the region of present Andalusia, giving the southeastern Spanish province its name.

The Visigoths under Wallia, who had invaded Iberia before receiving lands in Septimania (Southern France), destroy the Siling Vandals and crush the Alans in 418, killing the western Alan king Attaces, the successor of Respendial, who had led the Alans, together with the Vandals and Suebi, on an invasion of the western Roman Empire beginning in 406.

The remainder of his people subsequently appeal to Gunderic, king of the Hasdingi, or Asding Vandals to accept the Alan crown.

Later Vandal kings in North Africa will style themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum ("King of the Vandals and Alans").

Attacks by allies of the Romans have dissipated the strength of the Alani and Silingi Vandals, making the Asdingi Vandals under King Gunderic the ascendant group in Hispania.

Gunderic has established his people in the Roman province of Baetica, the part of Spain now known as Andalusia. (Thus, some scholars state that this name is derived from "Vandalusia" because it was once ruled by the Vandals.)

The Vandals have begun to clash more and more with the Visigoths, often getting the worse of these battles because the Visigoths are so much more numerous.

Attaces, the king of the Alans, with whom the Vandals had crossed the Pyrenees from Gaul, had fallen in battle against the Visigoths around 426, and most of the surviving Alans had appealed to Gunderic.

Accepting their crown, he thus became King of the Vandals and Alans.

He dies in early 428; his half-brother Genseric, an Arian Christian, is elected as his successor.

Genseric, who seems to have started building a Vandal fleet even before being raised to kinghood, is so hard pressed by the Visigoths that he abandons Baetica in May and transports all his people, to Africa, evidently on the invitation of Bonifacius.

It is more likely that the Vandals are attracted to Africa by its wealth and need no such formal excuse.

The effect of the Donatist controversy on the economy and administration of the African provinces cannot be measured, but it is certainly profound.

At the very moment of the effective victory of the African church, the rest of the Roman Empire is crumbling to ruin.

The retention of Africa becomes ever more vital to the survival of what is left of imperial authority.

In this situation, the comites Africae are increasingly tempted to intrigue for their own advantage.

The indicted Bonifacius, rather than surrender to probable execution, calls in the support of Vandal mercenaries from their grazing grounds in Hispania.

The Vandals and Alans numbered eighty thousand when they moved to North Africa, according to assertions by the historian Procopius.

Peter Heather will therefore estimate that they could have fielded an army of around fifteen thousand to twenty thousand, although numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates.

According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Bonifacius, who wished to use the military strength of the Vandals in his struggle against the imperial government.

However, it has been suggested that the Vandals migrated to Africa in search of safety; they had been attacked by a Roman army in 422 and had failed to seal a treaty with them.

The motley army of invaders comprises a mixed group of “barbarians” and adventurers searching for a home.

Most of those Alani who had not settled in Orléans and Valence go to North Africa with the Vandals, causing the official title of the Vandal kings in Africa to be “kings of the Vandals and the Alani.”