1,600 years ago, the Vandals invaded Gaul
Three years later, in 409, the Vandals, Suebians and Alans crossed the Pyrenees. The Suebians and a group of the Vandals (the Asdings) settled in Galicia. The Alans and the rest of the Vandals (the Silings) moved on and settled in the south of Spain – a region which came to be called after them: Vandalucia (later renamed al-Andalus by the Arabs).
The Vandals were Christians, though they belonged to the Arian sect which denies the divinity of Christ. In 429 an army of 80,000 Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and invaded North Africa. Ten years later they conquered Carthage. Another 16 years later, in 455, they crossed the Mediterranean and attacked Rome from the sea. They sacked Rome in an orgy of violence that lasted two weeks and earned their reputation as “vandals.”
By 462 the Vandals ruled North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. In 468 they defeated a Byzantine (Eastern Roman) fleet, but from 477 onwards their power began to wane. In 534 they surrendered to the Byzantines and North Africa returned to the Roman Empire until 648, when it was overrun by the Arabs.
Cogito