Vandals

The Vandals is the first book available in the English Language dedicated to exploring the sudden rise and dramatic fall of this complex North African Kingdom. This complete history provides a full account of the Vandals and re-evaluates key aspects of the society including:§ Political and economic structures such as the complex foreign policy which combined diplomatic alliances and marriages with brutal raiding§ The extraordinary cultural development of secular learning, and the religious struggles that threatened to tear the state apart§ The nature of Vandal identity from a social and gender perspective.The Vandals is the first book available in the English language dedicated to exploring the sudden rise and dramatic fall of this complex North African Kingdom. This complete history provides a full account of the Vandals and re-evaluates key aspects of the society. The book examines the extraordinary cultural development of secular learning, and the religious struggles that threatened to tear the state apart. The nature of Vandal identity from a social and gender perspective is also discussed.The Vandals is the first book available in the English Language dedicated to exploring the sudden rise and dramatic fall of this complex North African Kingdom. Today, the Vandals are remembered primarily as a metaphor for violent and uncultured destruction, but as the Roman Empire came to an end, the Vandals began to exert considerable influence, occupying Carthage and establishing one of the richest kingdoms of the early medieval world.§§This complete history provides a full account of the Vandals and re-evaluates key aspects of the society including political and economic structures; the complex foreign policy which combined diplomatic alliances and marriages with brutal raiding; the extraordinary cultural development of secular learning; the religious struggles that threatened to tear the state apart; and the nature of Vandal identity, examined from a social and gender perspective. Drawing upon new archaeological findings, as well as textual evidence, the authors present a provocative reinterpretation of this long-forgotten chapter of late antiquity.