Vandalic War

Vandalic War
Part of Justinian's wars of Reconquest
Campaign map of the war
Date June 533 – March 534 Location North Africa, Sardinia Result Byzantine victory Territorial changes Byzantines annex Vandal territory Establishment of Byzantine North Africa
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Vandal Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Belisarius Calonymus	Gelimer
Strength
10,000 infantry 5,000–7,000 cavalry	est.20,000–25,000 or 30,000–40,000, mostly cavalry

The Vandalic War (533–534) was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire) and the Germanic Vandal Kingdom. It was the first war of Emperor Justinian I's Renovatio imperii Romanorum, wherein the Byzantines attempted to reassert Roman sovereignty over territory formerly controlled by the Western Roman Empire.

The Vandals occupied Roman North Africa in the early 5th century and established an independent kingdom there. Under their king, Geiseric, the Vandal navy carried out pirate attacks across the Mediterranean, sacked Rome in 455, and defeated a Roman invasion in 468. After Geiseric's death in 477, relations with the Eastern Roman Empire were normalized, although tensions flared up occasionally due to the Vandals' adherence to Arianism and their persecution of the Nicene native population. In 530, a palace coup happened in Carthage due to a defeat against the Moorish Chieftain and war chief of the Frexes tribe Antalas that made Gelimer blaming Hilderic due to his defeat against the Moors and the Vandals overthrew the pro-Roman Hilderic and replaced him with his cousin Gelimer.^[1] The Eastern Roman emperor Justinian took this as a pretext to intervene in Vandal affairs, and after securing the eastern frontier with Sassanid Persia in 532 he began preparing an expedition under general Belisarius, whose secretary Procopius wrote the main historical narrative of the war. Justinian took advantage of rebellions in the remote Vandal provinces of Sardinia and Tripolitania. These not only distracted Gelimer from Justinian's preparations but significantly weakened Vandal defenses through the dispatch of the bulk of the Vandal navy and army under Gelimer's brother Tzazon to Sardinia.

The Byzantine expeditionary force set sail from Constantinople in late June 533, and after a sea voyage along the coasts of Greece and southern Italy, landed on the African coast at Caputvada in early September, catching Gelimer completely by surprise. The Vandal king hastily gathered his forces and met the Roman army at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, on 13 September. Gelimer's elaborate plan to encircle and destroy the Roman army came close to success, but Belisarius was able to drive the Vandal army to flight and occupy Carthage. Gelimer withdrew to Bulla Regia, where he gathered his remaining strength, including the army of Tzazon, which returned from Sardinia. In December, Gelimer advanced towards Carthage and met the Romans at the Battle of Tricamarum. The battle resulted in a Roman victory and the death of Tzazon. Gelimer fled to a remote mountain fortress, where he was blockaded until he surrendered in the spring.

Belisarius returned to Constantinople with the Vandals' royal treasury and the captive Gelimer to enjoy a triumph, while Africa was formally restored to the imperial rule as the praetorian prefecture of Africa. Imperial control scarcely reached beyond the old Vandal kingdom, however, and the Mauri tribes of the interior, unwilling to accept Roman rule, soon rose up in rebellion. The new province was shaken by the wars with the Mauri and military rebellions, and it was not until 548 that peace was restored and the Roman government firmly established.