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oddfeett t1_iyieejm wrote

Reply to comment by Iconoclasteach in How was the Vandalic Kingdom (a "Germanic" tribal confederation, nowhere near coastlines) able to establish itself as the predominant naval power in the Mediterranean in such a short amount of time? by Forcecoaster99

Yeah, it was actually better for the North African inhabitants for the North African centre of power to be in... North Africa. They basically had been eating shit for awhile and the Romans were unable to do much, so fuck it, why not give the Vandals a chance? Hence there was little in the ways of rebellion.

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Get_Swifty t1_iyjr051 wrote

Yeah no, this was definitely not the case with the Vandals. They crossed over the straights of Gibraltar after their confederation in Iberia was destroyed and plundered their way all the way to Carthage. Their naval tradition may have started in Spain but after capturing the major maritime port of Carthage (along with a sizable quantity of ships), they became the defacto power.

The romans in North Africa were definitely not happy with vandal rule opposed to Roman. Just read some of the ecclesiastical accounts of the vandal migration. St. Augustine was literally dying in Hippo while the vandals were en route. There were also letters sent from rome detailing the amounts of dead, and various members of the church who were killed (and nuns SA’d) by the vandals. They were of a heretical denomination of Christianity (Arians) and didn’t take kindly to those who were nicean.

There were more accepting circumstances in the migration period but not in regards to the Vandals in Africa

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oddfeett t1_iyjwnmc wrote

The Vandals ruled successfully for 100 years, in which period renovation and economic growth took place, the archaeological evidence bares this out, though the written evidence is contrary. There may be something of a conflict of interest in relying on ecclesiastical and Roman accounts with an uncritical eye as regards the Vandal occupation of AP, especially given that still then a great mass of Donatists which inhabited the region were already being actively suppressed by the very same, and found kinship in the anti Niceanism of one another. Funny also you should mention Hippo, where Donatism still flourished to a good extent. The Roman governors and administration in AP were corrupt, Bonifatius and others were disliked by the inhabitants, their ability to govern and protect the region was minimal and they were constantly getting by on the skin of their teeth. One may forget that not the whole mass of inhabitants of AP were Nicene Christians. For your perusal, I have another document I'd like to share but I'll have to wait until I'm on desktop and then we can take it further from there. You may have to wait until tomorrow for me to actually sit down, find them, translate etc, but remind me and I will get around to it.

https://www.academia.edu/27135277/The_Vandal_impact_on_North_Africa

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