407–455

The Vandals: from the Rhine to Carthage, and the sack of Rome

The Vandals crossed the Rhine in 406–407 and moved through Gaul and Spain. Under King Genseric they crossed into Africa in 429. In 439 they took Carthage, also occupying Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia.

As fanatical Arians, the Vandals persecuted Nicene Christians, closing churches and expelling bishops. In this they had the support of local Donatists. The African church never recovered from this devastation. Augustine died in 430 in Vandal-besieged Hippo.

In 455 the Vandals sacked Rome even more harshly than the Goths had in 410, though Leo the Great persuaded them not to burn the city. Nearly a century later the Byzantine general Belisarius reconquered Africa, and at the end of the 7th century Muslims took it.