Vandal Kingdom

Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans Regnum Vandalorum et Alanorum Vandaliric
435–534
Coin depicting Gelimer (530–534)
The Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in 526 AD
Capital	Hippo Regius 435–439[1] Carthage 439–534[2][3]
Common languages	Latin (spoken by elite and clergy) Vulgar Latin and African Romance (spoken by common people) Vandalic (spoken among elite) Punic (spoken among common people) Alanic (spoken among Alanic elite) Numidian (spoken among common people in rural areas) Medieval Greek (spoken among common people)
Religion	Arianism (among elite) Nicene Christianity then Chalcedonian Christianity
Government	Pre-feudal Monarchy
King
• 435–477	Gaiseric
• 477–484	Huneric
• 484–496	Gunthamund
• 496–523	Thrasamund
• 523–530	Hilderic
• 530–534	Gelimer
History
• Vandalic conquest of Roman Africa	435
• Conquest by the Byzantine Empire	534
Preceded by Succeeded by Africa (Roman province) Sicilia (Roman province) Praetorian prefecture of Africa Kingdom of the Aurès
Today part of	France Italy Spain Algeria Tunisia Libya

The Vandal Kingdom (Latin: Regnum Vandalum) or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans (Latin: Regnum Vandalorum et Alanorum) was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and the Mediterranean for 99 years from 435 to 534 AD.

In 429 AD, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Hispania to North Africa. They advanced eastward, conquering the coastal regions of what is now Tunisia, and Algeria. In 435, the Western Roman Empire, then ruling North Africa, allowed the Vandals to settle in the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania when it became clear that the Vandal army could not be defeated by Roman military forces. In 439, the Vandals renewed their advance eastward and captured Carthage, the most important city of North Africa. The fledgling kingdom then conquered the Roman-ruled islands of Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the western Mediterranean. In the 460s, the Romans launched two unsuccessful military expeditions by sea in an attempt to overthrow the Vandals and reclaim North Africa. The conquest of North Africa by the Vandals was a blow to the beleaguered Western Roman Empire, as North Africa was a major source of revenue and a supplier of grain (mostly wheat) to the city of Rome.

Although primarily remembered for the sack of Rome in 455 and their persecution of Nicene Christians in favor of Arian Christianity, the Vandals also supported the continued construction of educational institutions in their kingdom. According to historian Richard Miles, North Africa hosted "many of the most innovative writers and natural scientists" of the late Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire.^[4]

The Vandal Kingdom ended in 534, when it was conquered by Belisarius in the Vandalic War and incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire). The surviving Vandals either assimilated into the indigenous African population or were dispersed among the Byzantine territories.^[5]