Thrasamund, king of the Vandals

Ben M. Angel notes: Hasdingi was not a family name. It was the name of one of two tribal groups that consisted of the Vandals. The Silingi were the other. Both took part in the invasion westward and into Africa. Thrasamund's ancestors were from the Hasdingi tribe, but again, Hasdingi was not the name of a dynasty. Also, Thrasamund was clearly born in Africa, and not Gaul, given that the Vandals left Gaul in 409, 51 years before his estimated birth.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrasamund (28 languages)

Thrasamund (450–523), King of the Vandals and Alans (496–523), was the fourth king of the north African Kingdom of the Vandals, and reigned longer than any other Vandal king in Africa other than his grandfather Genseric.

Thrasamund was the third son born to Genseric's fourth son, Gento, and became king in 496 after all of Genseric's sons and his own brother, King Gunthamund, had died. Upon Gunthamund's death, he was one of only two living grandsons of Genseric, and inherited the throne in accordance with a law enacted by his grandfather, which bestowed the kingship on the eldest male member of a deceased king's family.

Theoderic the Great married his widowed sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund, providing a dowry consisting of the promontory of Lilybaeum in Sicily, and a retinue of a thousand elite troops and five thousand armed retainers.[1] Herwig Wolfram believes this happened in 500, "immediately after his [Theoderic] Roman tricennial". Despite this alliance, Thrasamund failed to aid Theoderic when the Byzantine Navy ravaged the coast of southern Italy, preventing him from coming to the assistance of King Alaric of the Visigoths in the Battle of Vouillé, which contributed to Alaric's defeat.[2]

Procopius describes a battle between the Berbers of Tripoli under Cabaon and the Vandals, in which the Berbers used unusual tactics to defeat the Vandal cavalry.[3] In the final year of his reign, the important port city of Leptis Magna was sacked by the Berbers.

Thrasamund also ended many years of persecution of the Catholic Chourch which had begun under his uncle Huneric, a move which improved the Vandals' relations with the Byzantine Empire. Procopius states that he was "a very special friend of the Emperor Anastasius."[4]

Thrasamund died in 523 and was succeeded by his cousin Hilderic, the firstborn son of Huneric.

• http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/VANDALS,%20SUEVI,%20VISIGOTHS.htm#T...

c) THRASAMUND (before 460-523). Laterculus regum Vandalorum et Alanorum names "Trasamundus Gentunis filius" and "Trasamundus frater Guntamundi regis" when recording his accession and reign of 26 years[53]. Iordanes names "Thrasamundus" as fourth Vandal king in Africa but does not specify his relationship to Gundamund, his predecessor[54]. He succeeded [his presumed brother] in 496 as THRASAMUND King of the Vandals in Africa. The Victoris Tonnennensis Epsicopi Chronicon records that "Trasamundus" succeeded "Gunthamundo Wandalorum rege Carthagine" in 497 and reigned 27 years and 4 months[55]. He agreed an alliance with Theodoric King of Italy, confirmed by his marriage to the latter's sister, but failed to provide effective aid to the Ostrogoth king when he was attacked by the imperial navy in 507. He also supported Gesalic, pretender to the Visigothic throne, against King Amalric the grandson of King Theodoric. Gregory of Tours records the persecution of Christians by Thrasamund King of the Vandals and his imposition of Arianism on Spain[56], but his account is anachronistic as he places Thrasamund before Huneric and assumes that the former reigned before the Vandals emigrated from Spain to Africa. The Victoris Tonnennensis Epsicopi Chronicon records the death in 523 of "Trasamundus Wandalorum rex Carthagine"[57].

m ( [500] ) as her second husband, AMALAFRIDA, widow of ---, daughter of THEODEMIR King of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia (-murdered [523/25]). Iordanes names "Amalfridam germanam suam [Theoderici]" as the mother of "Theodehadi" and wife of "Africa regi Vandalorum…Thrasamundo"[58]. This marriage was arranged by her half-brother, Theodoric King of Italy, as part of his efforts to foster the support of the Vandals. Amalafrida's dowry was Lilybæum in western Sicily[59]. After the death of her husband, she unsuccessfully protested his successor's withdrawal of support from her brother, but she was outmanœuvred and killed[60]. The Victoris Tonnennensis Epsicopi Chronicon records that "uxor Amalfrida" fled after the death of her husband but was captured at Capsa and killed[61].

From the English Wikipedia page on the Vandals:

Their history from the arrival in Gaul to Thrasamund's time:

In Gaul (Note: 406-409)

In 406 the Vandals advanced from Pannonia travelling west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who populated and controlled Romanized regions in northern Gaul. Twenty thousand Vandals, including Godigisel himself, died in the resulting battle, but then with the help of the Alans they managed to defeat the Franks, and on December 31, 406 the Vandals crossed the Rhine to invade Gaul, which they devastated terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

In Hispania (Note: 409-429)

On October 13, 409 they crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula. There, the Hasdingi received land from the Romans, as foederati, in Gallaecia (Northwest) and the Silingi in Hispania Baetica (South), while the Alans got lands in Lusitania (West) and the region around Carthago Nova. The Suebi also controlled part of Gallaecia. The Visigoths, who invaded Iberia before receiving lands in Septimania (Southern France), crushed the Alans in 416, killing the western Alan king Attaces. The remainder of his people subsequently appealed to the Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. Later Vandal kings in North Africa styled themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum ("King of the Vandals and Alans").

The Arabic term for Muslim Iberia Al Andalus, and its derivative Andalusia, may be derived from the Berber pronunciation of Vandal: "Wandal". However, the theory has been disputed, and alternative etymologies for Andalusia have been proposed.[9][10]

The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa

Establishment (Note - 429 onward)

The Vandals under their new king Genseric (also known as Geiseric) crossed to Africa in 429.[11] Although numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates, based on Procopius' assertion that the Vandals and Alans numbered 80,000 when they moved to North Africa,[12] Heather estimates that they could have fielded an army of around 15,000–20,000.[13] According to Procopius, the Vandals came to Africa at the request of Boniface, the military ruler of the region.[14] 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. Advancing eastwards along the coast, the Vandals lay siege to Hippo Regius in 430.[11] Inside Saint Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the invaders, knowing full well that the fall of the city would spell conversion or death for many Roman Christians. On 28 August 430, three months into the siege, St. Augustine (who was 75 years old) died,[15] perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. After 14 months, hunger and the inevitable diseases were ravaging both the city inhabitants and the Vandals outside the city walls.

Peace was made between the Romans and the Vandals in 435 through a treaty giving the Vandals control of coastal Numidia. Geiseric chose to break the treaty in 439 when he invaded the province of Africa Proconsularis and laid siege to Carthage.[16] The city was captured without a fight; the Vandals entered the city while most of the inhabitants were attending the races at the hippodrome. Genseric made it his capital, and styled himself the King of the Vandals and Alans, to denote the inclusion of the Alans of northern Africa into his alliance.[citation needed] Conquering Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, he built his kingdom into a powerful state. Historian Camerson suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcomed by the population of North Africa as the previous landowners were generally unpopular.[17]

The impression given by ancient sources such as Victor of Vita, Quodvultdeus, and Fulgentius of Ruspe was that the Vandal take-over of Carthage and North Africa led to widespread destruction. However, recent archaeological investigations have challenged this assertion. Although Carthage's Odeon was destroyed, the street pattern remained the same and some public buildings were renovated. The political centre of Carthage was the Byrsa Hill. New industrial centres emerged within towns during this period.[18] Historian Andy Merrills uses the large amounts of African Red Slip ware discovered across the Mediterranean dating from the Vandal period of North Africa to challenge the assumption that the Vandal rule of North Africa was a time of economic instability.[19] The Vandals raided Sicily in 440, however the Western Roman Empire was too preoccupied with war with Gaul to react. Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441, however it only progressed as far as Sicily. The Western Empire under Valentinian III secured peace with the Vandals in 442.[20] Under the treaty the Vandals gained Byzacena, Tripolitania, part of Numidia, and confirmed their control of Proconsular Africa.[21]

Sack of Rome (455)

During the next 35 years, with a large fleet, Genseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western Empires. After Attila the Hun's death, however, the Romans could afford to turn their attention back to the Vandals, who were in control of some of the richest lands of their former empire.

In an effort to bring the Vandals into the fold of the Empire, Valentinian III offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Genseric's son. Before this "treaty" could be carried out, however, politics again played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome. Petronius Maximus, the usurper, killed Valentinian III in an effort to control the Empire. Diplomacy between the two factions broke down, and in 455 with a letter from the Empress Licinia Eudoxia, begging Genseric's son to rescue her, the Vandals took Rome, along with the Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia.

The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine[22] offers the only fifth-century report that on 2 June 455, Pope Leo the Great received Genseric and implored him to abstain from murder and destruction by fire, and to be satisfied with pillage. Whether the pope's influence saved Rome is, however, questioned. The Vandals departed with countless valuables, including the spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem booty brought to Rome by Titus.[citation needed] Eudoxia and her daughter Eudocia were taken to North Africa.[21]

Consolidation

As a result of the Vandal sack of Rome and piracy in the Mediterranean, it became important to the Roman Empire to destroy the Vandal kingdom. the first retaliation was in 460, when both Western and Eastern empires sent fleets against the Vandals. The Vandals captured the Western fleet, and destroyed the Eastern through the use of fire ships.[20] Following up the attack, the Vandals tried to invade the Peloponnese but were driven back by the Maniots at Kenipolis with heavy losses.[23] In retaliation, the Vandals took 500 hostages at Zakynthos, hacked them to pieces and threw the pieces overboard on the way to Carthage.[23] In the 470s, the Romans abandoned their policy of war against the Vandals. The Western general Ricimer reached a treaty with the Vandals,[20] and in 476 Genseric was able to conclude a "perpetual peace" with Constantinople. Relations between the two states assumed a veneer of normality.[24] From 477 onwards, the Vandals produced their own coinage. It was restricted to bronze and silver low-denomination coins. Although the low-denomination imperial money was replaced, the high-denomination was not, demonstrating in the words of Merrills "reluctance to usurp the imperial prerogative".[25]

Although the Vandals had fended off attacks from the Romans and established hegemony over the islands of the western Mediterranean, they were less successful in their conflict with the Berbers. Situated south of the Vandal kingdom, the Berbers inflicted two major defeats on the Vandals in the period 496–530[20]

Domestic religious tensions

Differences between the Arian Vandals and their Trinitarian subjects (including both Catholics and Donatists) were a constant source of tension in their African state. Catholic bishops were exiled or killed by Genseric and laymen were excluded from office and frequently suffered confiscation of their property.[26] He protected his Catholic subjects when his relations with Rome and Constantinople were friendly, as during the years 454–57, when the Catholic community at Carthage, being without a head, elected Deogratias bishop. The same was also the case during the years 476–477 when Bishop Victor of Cartenna sent him, during a period of peace, a sharp refutation of Arianism and suffered no punishment.[citation needed] Huneric, Genseric's successor, issued edicts against Catholics in 483 and 484 in an effort to marginalise them and make Arianism the primary religion in North Africa.[27] Generally most Vandal kings, except Hilderic, persecuted Trinitarian Christians to a greater or lesser extent, banning conversion for Vandals, exiling bishops and generally making life difficult for Trinitarians.[citation needed]

Decline

According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: "Genseric, one of the most powerful personalities of the "era of the Migrations", died on 25 January 477, at the great age of around 88 years. According to the law of succession which he had promulgated, the oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed. Thus he was succeeded by his son Huneric (477–484), who at first tolerated Catholics, owing to his fear of Constantinople, but after 482 began to persecute Manichaeans and Catholics."[28]

Gunthamund (484 – 496), his cousin and successor, sought internal peace with the Catholics and ceased persecution once more. Externally, the Vandal power had been declining since Genseric's death, and Gunthamund lost large parts of Sicily to the Ostrogoths and had to withstand increasing pressure from the autochthonous Moors.

According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: "While Thrasamund (496–523), owing to his religious fanaticism, was hostile to Catholics, he contented himself with bloodless persecutions".[28]

Thrasimond Der Vandalen

• 450 - 523
• Birth: 450 Carthago, Tunesië
• Death: May 26 523 Carthago, Tunesië
• Family members
• Father: Genzo Der Vandalen
• Wife: Amalafrieda Der Vandalen (geboren Balthes Der Ostrogoten)465 - ?
• Daughter: Amalaberge Van Thüringen (geboren Der Vandalen)480 - 540

Thrasimond Der Vandalen

• MyHeritage Family Trees
• Cammel Web Site, managed by Harm Cammel
• Birth: 450 - Carthago, Tunis, Tunesië
• Death: May 26 523 - Carthago, Tunis, Tunesië
• Parents: Genzo Der Vandalen, Eurica Der Vandalen (geboren Der Gothen)
• Wife: Amalafrieda Bathes Der Vandalen (geboren Der Ostrogoten)
• Daughter: Amalaberge Van Thüringen (geboren Der Vandalen)

Thrasimond Der Vandalen

• MyHeritage Family Trees
• stamboom van Tweel 29 juni 2013 in van Tweel Web Site, managed by J.J. van Tweel
• Birth: 450
• Death: 523
• Father: Genzo Der Vandalen
• Wife: Amalafrieda Der Vandalen (geboren Balthes Der Ostrogoten)
• Children: Amalaberge Van De Vandalen, Amfleda Der Vandalen