Vandals Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by
- •
- Legal History, Roman Law, Late Antiquity, Late Roman Empire

Composite Belts in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Basin. Composite belts are a special and characteristic form of early medieval dress accessories. They were believed to have a nomadic origin for several decades, but currently a strong Byzantine influence is favoured. However, the material evidence indicates a clear geographical
concentration in the Black Sea region and on the Danube frontier as well as on the northern Barbarian periphery. Metal fittings of composite belts from the eastern and southern provinces of the Byzantine Empire were quite rare or almost entirely lacking. However, finds from recent excavations in the Near East and a num ber of still unpublished finds in various North African museums suggest that the composite belts were widely known in the Byzantine world. Nevertheless, their limited number compared to simple belt sets indicates that this type was not for daily use, but restricted to a certain circle of wearers. Although difficult to prove because of a lack of clear-cut contexts, the military use of composite belt seems likely.

The last imperial period of Roman North Africa begins and ends in narratives of invasion and conquest: Belisarius' campaign of 533/4, celebrated in glorious and oddly archaic triumph in Constantinople, and the bumbling imperial defense – or daring Muslim conquest, depending on perspective – ending in the fall of Roman Carthage, not once, but twice, in 695 and again in 698. Much emphasis in the historiography of late Roman North Africa has been placed on military events, both traditionally and also more recently in Walter Kaegi's 2010 study on Byzantine collapse and Muslim conquest. And yet, looking beyond high drama and hyperbole in both contemporary and more modern accounts, one cannot fail but wonder at the relatively minor forces engaged both in the 530s and in the late seventh century. North Africa, especially Proconsularis and Byzacena, was arguably the most wealthy and most densely urbanised territory of the Roman West. Its loss in the fifth century precipitated the fall of western imperial government, and in the seventh century it was capable of sponsoring Heraclius' successful bid for the imperial throne. So, should not the Vandal kingdom have been capable of a much stronger opposition against Justinian's reconquest, should not Justinian II and Leontius have done much more to defend North Africa? In order to gain a better understanding of how North Africa rather easily re-entered and re-exited imperial control, this paper is looking at the interaction between imperial institutions and regional socioeconomic development. Two questions are going to be examined. First we are looking at the outcomes of a century of Vandal government: to what extent did the Vandal kingdom, despite its strongly imperial ideology, weaken structures of state government and administration, thus perhaps strengthening control by socioeconomic elites, both "Vandal" and "Afro-Roman" landowners, over bureaucratic and institutional government? Secondly we have to ask whether the imperial government in the sixth and seventh century ever was truly successful in what Justinian's legislation proudly proclaimed was a reestablishment of the status quo ante. Did North Africa really become fully integrated into bureaucratic imperial government, did it become an "ordinary" part of the Empire? That the West in general and North Africa in particular remained important to Constantinople is not in question, one could point to Constans II move to Syracuse in the 660s, but what we are going to argue is that the imperial government in the long run failed to demonstrate its essential relevance for the efficient administration of North Africa to the local elites. North Africa was imperial, but imperial institutions remained weak.

- by Hartmut G Ziche
- •
- Late Antiquity, Vandals, Roman institutional history, Byzantine North Africa
- by Salvatore Costanza
- •
- Acculturation, Archeologia, Storia Romana, Vandals

The major seven Latin chronicles of the 5th and 6th centuries provide 63 mentions about Vandalic Africa, between 429 and 534 AD. Their authors emphasize on five kinds of events: Vandalic conquest, relationship with the Roman emperors, Vandalic piratery, religious fact (with the prominent persecution of Huneric), and Justinian’s reconquista. The chroniclers have obviously selected events reflecting a conflictuous relationship with a destructor and persecutor people, and the fact that reconquering Africa closed a deplorable time. As a matter of fact, Latin chronicles seem to transmit the memory of a secular plague, assimiling African Romans with the Jewish people, prisoner of tyrants, and their recovered freedom as God’s plan.

- by Bertrand Lançon
- •
- African Studies, Late Antiquity, Vandals, Chronicles
- by Yitzhak Hen
- •
- Iconoclasm, Early Medieval History, Visigothic Spain, Merovingian and Carolingian
- by Eric Fournier
- •
- Rhetoric, Intertextuality, Religious Persecution, Vandals

This article examines the overlooked Council of Carthage of 525 to show how its convener, Bishop Boniface of Carthage, used the council in an attempt to re-establish power over North Africa's Nicene bishops, who lacked clear lines of authority due to Vandal Homoian rule. This article reconstructs the council's dramatic, complicated, and highly orchestrated two days of discussion. The bishops spent day one re-stating Boniface's basis of authority and assembling earlier canons into precedents to confirm his power. On day two, the bishops heard a complex jurisdictional case involving a certain Abbot Peter and his monastery, which Boniface used to confirm the power the council had granted him. When this council is discussed, Abbot Peter's case is stripped from its context as a simple precedent for medieval privileges and immunities. I demonstrate how Merovingian Gallic bishops made the council into a precedent by ignoring Boniface's goals. Notably, the article illustrates how a North African late antique bishop's attempt to expand his power outside of state support became an ideal way for early medieval Gallic bishops to claim continuity with the past that actually created a break in their present.

- by Eric Fournier
- •
- Late Antiquity, Mediterranean and North Africa, Vandals

This research paper presents an overview of the late Roman naval warfare in 284-565. It is based on five forthcoming books due to be published by Pen & Sword. The aim is to give an overview of the deployment and use of the naval forces in 284-565 and to explain why this deployment pattern had been adopted and how the fleets were used. In addition, the paper gives a summary of the types of ships used and their comparative strengths vis-à-vis the enemy fleets together with a summary of the Roman naval tactics, operations and strategy.

- by Ilkka Syvänne
- •
- Ancient History, Military History, Military Science, Logistics (Military Science)
- by Uta Heil
- •
- Augustine, Vandals
- by Horia Ion Ciugudean
- •
- Migration Studies, Celtic Archaeology, Iron Age, Celtic Art
- by Geraldo Rosolen Junior
- •
- History, Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Early Christianity

PANTELLERIAN WARE AND ITS CIRCULATION IN LATE ROMAN TIME
This research concerning the cooking pottery production in late roman time in the Island of Pantelleria, located in the Sicily Channel. This coarse ware consisted in pans, pots, casseroles and lids and large jars, useful to cook food and other raw materials as bitumen and pitch. This high refractoriness is given to the ceramic mixture by the vulcanic minerals peculiars form the clay of the island. The archaeological excavations conducted until now, discovered the ruins of a large settlement in the Scauri Bay placed in the S-W coast of the island, datable from the second half of the IV to the end of the V century. The village based its economical activity on the cooking pottery production and its export, as evidenced by the shipwreck in the harbor of Scauri. The pottery materials found in the site and in the shipwreck, come from reliable contexts and it has been helpful to a thorough tipological and chronological study of this local ware production. The analysis of the attestations in the Central and Western Mediterranean, through the bibliography and some unpublished datas from Sicily, led to create some circulation maps across the centuries. This has allowed me to make some considerations and conclusions. It has been possible to realize a diachronic study, to distinguish forms and types from the III cent. B.C. to the V cent. A.D.. The pottery had a wide circulation in the Mediterranean, mostly from the second half of the IV to the beginning of the VI century

Clothing and outward appearance as a means of expressing individual and collective identity were of great importance in Late Antiquity. This publication is the first interdisciplinary overview of source material and provides a critical view of opposing statements on the value of written sources, images, and archaeological finds on habitus barbarus . Based on these sources, the book develops not only a new perspective on the meaning of “barbaric” clothing but also sheds new light on the Late Roman “barbarians” themselves.

Nowadays, the perception of the Vandals, an ancient Germanic people who settled in Roman soil during the Late Empire, is conceived alongside with the term «vandalism» that currently means arbitrary violence. Nevertheless, that noun wasn’t originated in ancient times, but during French Revolution. The purpose of these pages is to qualify, demystify and elucidate Vandals’ past to separate their reality with the present view associated with this term, which is clearly unfair to the Vandals memory.

This article offers a historical reassessment of the obscure commander Constantius and a new translation with textual analysis of his epitaph. Two Carolingian manuscripts preserve the text of a now lost inscription, which is our only source of information for this individual, and the only extant epitaph of a fifth century commander. A recent study attempted to identify Constantius as a junior officer serving the magister militum Felix in the late 420s. This article argues instead that the inscription points to a commander of the emperors Avitus and Majorian in the late 450s, who most likely ended his military career as comes domesticorum. The lost epitaph provides us with a distinct Italian perspective on the twilight years of the withering western empire.

- by Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele and +1
- •
- Ancient History, Roman History, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
- by Daniel G König
- •
- Christianity, Medieval History, History of Christianity, Early Medieval History

There are two objectives behind this article. First, it seeks to trace down the pedigree of a theory described in scholarly discourse as the 'ethnogenesis model'. As is often believed, the theory originally was, essentially, an innovative concept proposed by Reinhard Wenskus, the German researcher. My article puts forth the idea whereby it was Walter Schlesinger who had laid the foundations for the theory, whose concept was further developed by Wenskus. My other purpose was to verify the basics of the theory itself, based on relevant empirical material; specifi cally, I mainly deal with original sources reporting on the ethnic composition and history of the Vandal people.

- by Robert Kasperski
- •
- History, Ancient History, Ethnohistory, Ethnic Studies

,,Oparta na materiale źródłowym dość luźna praca z pogranicza dzieł naukowych i popularnonaukowych, zachowująca wiarygodność i rzetelność Autora. [...] Główny cel pracy stanowiła synteza dostępnych informacji z perspektywy... more

- by Kazimierz Jan Paczesny
- •
- Vandals, Barbaricum, Lugii, Lugiorum nomen
- by Bruno Pottier
- •
- Vandals, Roman North Africa, Donatism

This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same. By taking this stance, the dissertation challenges the view found in many recent studies on Late Roman masculinity that a Christian ideal of manliness based on extreme ascetic virtues and pacifism had superseded militarism and courage as the dominant component of hegemonic masculine ideology.

- by Michael E Stewart
- •
- Philology, Religion, History, Ancient History

Using a combination of archaeological evidence and historical linguistics, this paper argues that the Moorish raids on late Roman, Vandal, and Byzantine North Africa in the fourth to sixth centuries AD were carried out by groups migrating... more

- by Elizabeth Fentress and +1
- •
- History, Archaeology, Late Antique and Byzantine History, North Africa Studies
- by Maurizio Tani
- •
- Philology, Religion, History, European History

A close reading of sources documenting the Vandal conquest (429–39 ce) reveals that contemporary authors did not present the event as a persecution. To be sure, they insisted on the devastation that the Vandals caused, the typical woes of war, but not on its religious motivation. The article argues that it was Augustine who, in his ep. ccxxviii, first presented a theological interpretation of the event that allowed later sources writing within the Augustinian tradition to frame the conquest retroactively as a persecution.

- by Eric Fournier
- •
- Augustine, Late Antiquity, Mediterranean and North Africa, Vandals
- by Richard North
- •
- Gender Studies, Old English Literature, Mythology (Old Norse Literature), Vandals
- by Wolfgang David
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Celtic Studies, Romanian History
- by Stefan Donecker
- •
- Early Modern History, History of Historiography, Swedish History, Vandals

In 405 CE, an enormous barbarian confederation led by a certain Radagaisus invaded Italy. The western Roman generalissimo Stilicho managed to overcome them near Florence in 406. Historians have treated this war casually, considering it as resolved successfully and soon overshadowed by greater conflicts. However, scholarly consensus on Radagaisus’s defeat is largely dependent on Orosius’s testimony that describes it as the outcome of a Fabian strategy conducted with minimal bloodshed near Faesulae. This report is at odds with other sources which indicate that Stilicho struggled to contain Radagaisus and ultimately inflicted a great slaughter on his forces near Florence. Orosius’s testimony cannot be accepted and internal cross- examination reveals major inconsistencies. A careful analysis of the various stages of Radagaisus’s invasion has major new implications for our understanding of the careers of key protagonists such as Alaric, Uldin, and Sarus, as well as of the breach of the Rhine frontier in 406.

This paper revisits the minimi found in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and the mixed assemblages that include not only Visigothic bronzes but also other coins, especially late Roman, Byzantine and Vandal pieces. The interpretative framework of these minimi is expanded by including new geographical and chronological information. The numismatic information is contextualised with the evidence provided by ceramics. The aim is to complement both sources of information in order to reach a clearer picture of the transitional period between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the territory under consideration.

- by Ruth Pliego
- •
- Numismatics, Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages (History), Mediterranean archaeology

Some questions must be answered to determine the extent of the great linguistic change in Western Mediterranean between the 5th and the 10th centuries: 1) the extent of the contacts between Latin and Berber between the 2nd c. B.C and 711 JC; 2) the continuity of Latin in north-West Africa after the 5th century, and the Latin connection between
Visigoths and Vandals. Which data are consistent with the presence of Berbers, Afro-Romanic speakers, in Al-Andalus? To what extent Afro-Romanic may have exerted an influence on Andalusi Romance? The study of codices offers new insights. Another addition will come from a change in perspective by admitting that the Basquization (eusquerización) of the traditionally considered Basque territories occurred because of migrations in the sixth century. north of Al-Andalus
there was a contact among Afro-Romanic, Ibero-Romance (also Andalusi Romance) and Basque-Romance in addition to other situations of bilingualism, whose assessment requires redefining the origins of Spanish.
Key words: African Latin, Afro-Romanic, Basque, codex, Latinization, literature, loanword.

This article wishes to reexamine the early career of Aëtius, with special emphasis on his elimination of the magister utriusque militiae Felix in 430. Scholars have often treated this episode superficially, but it is of fundamental importance to understand how Aëtius managed to break the western Roman court's monopoly of violence. By carefully considering the historiographical record of Aëtius' campaigns during the late 420s, the chronology of his itinerary, and the wider context of the Vandal invasion of Africa, it will both offer a new interpretation of how Aëtius managed to achieve Felix' murder and its implications for western Roman unity.

Проаналізована історіографія питання виділення германського компонента
черняхівської культури за археологічними даними. Інтерпретація матеріалів
черняхівської культури в західноєвропейській та радянській науці суттєво різнилася. У
довоєнний та воєнний період більшість німецьких дослідників трактували черняхівські
пам’ятки, як такі, що належали переважно готським племенам. У післявоєнний час
радянські науковці розглядали черняхівську культуру як таку, що належить винятково
слов’янам. В останні десятиліття утвердилося твердження щодо поліетнічності
черняхівської культури, у складі якої германці займали не останнє місце. В
археологічній літературі з часом виділено низку ознак, котрі пов’язують із прийшлим
германським компонентом черняхівської культури. Північно-західний компонент
представлений двома великими пластами старожитностей вельбарської та пшеворської
культур, котрі часто синкретичні; окремі категорії археологічного матеріалу свідчать
про присутність населення зі Скандинавії та Центральної Німеччини.
Скандинавськими можна вважати пам’ятки рунічного письма, металеві гребені,
фібули Альмгрен/VII–216 “Монструозо”, окремі форми ліпної та гончарної кераміки,
тринефні “великі” житла.
Із центральноєвропейськими старожитностями пов’язують окремі форми
гончарної кераміки – миски із двома пружками та із пружком у місці максимального
діаметра, посудини типу Schaleurnen, двонефні “великі” житла, рогові гребені із
трикутною спинкою, використання дерев’яних стовпових конструкцій у поховальних
камерах.
Із впливами пшеворської культури пов’язують: поховання із ритуально
пошкодженою зброєю, гострореберні ліпні посудини із максимальним діаметром у
верхній третині висоти, певні типи триручних ваз, замки, ключі від скриньок, поховання
із вторинно перепаленими фрагментами кераміки, переважно урнові кремації, посудини-
відра добродзеньківського типу, зброя та залізні вироби у похованнях. До вельбарських ознак залічені: біритуальність могильників, двофібульна модель
жіночого костюма, переважно ямні кремації, певні типи ліпної кераміки, відсутність
зброї у похованнях, переважання бронзових, а не залізних виробів.
До спільних вельбарсько-пшеворських ознак відносять: спільні типи кремацій,
поширення певних типів металевих виробів (фібули, пряжки, шийні гривні, підвіски-
“ємності”, ножиці, пінцети та ін.), бурштинові “грибоподібні” підвіски, курганні
поховання типу Військове-Башмачка.

- by Alexandr Mylashevskyi
- •
- Vandals, Goths, Przeworsk culture, Wielbark Culture

Kırklareli Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Tarih Ana Bilim Dalı Yüksek Lisans Tezi - "Hunların Doğu Avrupa'ya Gelişleri ve Got Toplulukları ile Münasebetleri" - (2021) | Kırklareli University Institute of Social Sciences History... more

- by Bahar Zeren
- •
- Roman History, Eastern Europe, Late Roman Empire, Barbarians

During his four decades of rule, Genseric appears to many Africans – Catholic and pro-Roman – as the incarnation of the Antichrist. For the African municipal aristocracy he represented the image of a greedy barbarian obsessed with power, the persecutor and the gravedigger of Romanitas. If we look closely, Genseric had learned from the Romans how to manage strength and diplomacy, for negotiating with the Romans in particular. He sought to perpetuate his conquests by organising treaties with Ravenna and Constantinople, which did not prevent him from launching parallel plundering campaigns in Africa and along the coast that brought him respect and financial gain. First king of the vandals, he managed to create the first barbaric state on the territory of the empire. He was the type of leader who can be considered a visionary, bringing to fulfilment the material, political and spiritual conquests of a new era, the Spätantike.

- by Mohamed Arbi Nsiri
- •
- North Africa Studies, Early Christianity, Late Antiquity, Church History

La captivité de guerre, bien qu'apparaissant de manière incidente dans de nombreux travaux, n'a jamais fait l'objet d'une recherche en tant qu'objet historique autonome. L'Antiquité tardive offre pour cela un cadre particulièrement fécond, puisqu'elle permet d'observer comment le cadre juridique et conceptuel de la captivité a évolué dans le contexte géopolitique nouveau qui suit l'arrivée des Goths à l'intérieur des frontières de l'Empire et la défaite d'Andrinople en 378. Elle permet aussi l'étude comparative des pratiques barbares et romaines. Sont d'abord envisagés les aspects juridiques, en particulier le postliminium et la notion d'ennemi à partir desquels il est possible de définir la captivité. La captivité présente l'originalité de relever à la fois du ius gentium (par la seruitus hostium) et du ius ciuile par le postliminium et la lex Corneliae qui organise la succession du romain mort en captivité. La condition du captif racheté dans le cadre de la constitutio de redemptis est aussi envisagée. L'étude s'attache ensuite à proposer des typologies de la captivité (circonstances de la capture, victimes, méthodes de coercition) pour aboutir à la conclusion que la captivité touche avant tout les civils dans le cadre de la guerre de prédation. La libération et la fuite posent la question de l'affranchissement et du statut du captif dans la société qui l'a capturé. Le rachat des captifs par les chrétiens se développe au confluent d'une théologie de la Rédemption et de réseaux ecclésiastiques liés à Lérins, Milan ou Carthage. Le travail s'achève sur la question de la mort en captivité.

- by Hervé Huntzinger
- •
- Law, Roman History, War Studies, Roman Law

This article addresses a few archaeological finds from the earliest stage of the Great Migration Period (late fourth to the first half of the fifth century AD) in the territory of the Western Roman Empire related to Central Europe by origin, which could testify to the migration of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman West in 406 AD. These finds comprise different types of crossbow brooches discovered in the Roman provinces in Gallia, Spain, and North Africa, which parallels originate from the lands to the north of the Danube, in the zone where the Vandals and the Suebi lived by the moment of the migration to the West in 406 AD. Besides, some features of the funeral rite discovered in the early Great Migration Period in Eastern Gallia, particularly ritually destroyed weapons, meet with analogies in the cemeteries of Central European barbarians, particularly in the Przeworsk culture. These archaeological pieces of evidence were partially related to the arrival of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman Empire's territory in 406 AD, and also reflected the presence of the Central European barbarians in the Roman military service.

- by Michel Kazanski
- •
- Vandals, Great Migration period, Barbaricum, Völkerwanderungszeit
- by Andy Merrills
- •
- Colonial America, Vandals, Classical Tradition