Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "MOROCCO Country NORTH AFRICA" .
TINGIS (Ancient city) MOROCCO
Genseric (Gizeikos), king of the Vandals, and the most terrible of any of the
barbarian invaders of the empire. He was the bastard son of Godigisdns (Procop.
Bell. Vand. i. 3) or Modigisdus (Hist. Miscell. 14), king of the Vandal settlers
in Spain, and left, in conjunction with his brother Gontharis or Gonderic. in
possession of the throne.
His life divides itself into two parts: 1st, the conquest of Africa (A. D. 429-439);
2nd, the naval attacks on the empire itself (A. D. 439-477).
1. In May A. D. 429 (Idatii Chronic.), at the invitation of Bonifacius, Genseric
crossed the straits of Gibraltar, at the head of 50,000 men, to take possession
of the Roman provinces in the north of Africa. Joined by the Moors and the Donatists,
of whom the fornier disgraced his march by their savage licentiousness, and the
latter by their fanatical cruelties, lie ravaged the whole country with frightful
severity. Of the two chief cities, Hippo fell before him. After the death of Augustin,
and the flight of Bonifacius, in 431, and the capture of Carthage, in October
439, the whole province was divided amongst the Vandals, and every city, except
Carthage, dismantled. (Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 3, 5; Chronicles of Idatius, Prosper,
Marcellinus; Victor Vitensis, ap. Ruinart.)
2. The fleets of Genseric were the same terror to the coasts of the Mediterranean
as those of Carthage had been six centuries before, and as those of the Normans
were four centuries afterwards. In June 455, invited by the empress Eudocia to
aid her against the usurper Maximus, Genseric sailed to Ostia; and, although somewhat
mitigated by the supplications of Pope Leo, who again interceded for his country
at the gates of Rome, he attacked and sacked the city for fourteen days and nights,
and returned, carrying with him the statues from the Capitol, the vessels of the
Temple of I Jerusalem from the Temple of Peace, and thousands of captives--amongst
them the empress and her daughters, whose sufferings have become famous through
the alleviation which they received from the Christian charity of Deogratias,
bishop of Carthage. In the same invasion were destroyed Capua, Nola, and Neapolis.
(Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 4, 5; Jornandes, Reb. Get. c. 45; Chronicles of Idalius,
&c.; Hist. Miscell. 15)
Twice the empire endeavored to revenge itself, and twice it foiled: the first
was the attempt of the Western emperor Majorian (A. D. 457), whose i fleet was
destroyed in the bay of Carthagena. The second was the expedition sent by the
Eastern emperor Leo, under the command of Heraclius, Marcellinus, and Bantiscus
(A. D. 468), which was also baffled by the burning of the fleet off Bona. After
this securing all his conquests, and finally making peace with Zeno, the Eastern
emperor. he died A. D. 477. at a great age, leaving in his will instructicis that
his kinadomn should always desceend in the li le of the eldest rualle i heir.
(Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 6, 7)
In person Genseric was of short stature, and lame, from a fill from
his horse; of few words, austere life, fierce, covetous, and cunning. In religion
he shared the Arianism of all the Gothic tribes; and in the cruelties exercised
under his orders against his Catholic subjects lie exhibited the first instance
of persecution carried on upon a large scale by one body of Christians against
another (Victor Vitensis, ap. Ruinart.). Of his general cruelty, the most notable
instance is the cold-blooded murder of 500 Zacynthian nobles, in revenge for his
repulse at Taenarus (Procop. bell. Vand. i. 22). So also his cruelties to Gonderic's
widow and sons (Prosp. A. D. 442). The story of the murder of Gonderic himself
was disputed by the Vandals (Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 4). His skill in generalship
is indicated by the ingenious concealment of the fewness of his forces in by giving
his commanders the name of Chiliarchs (Ib. 5). The two most striking personal
anecdotes recorded of him are, first, the interview with )Majorian, when not discovering
his imperial guest, through the disguise which lie had assumed, Genseric was startled
by the spontaneous clashing of the arms in the arsenal, and took it to be caused
by an earthquake (ib. 7); the second, his answer to the pilot, who asked him,
as they left the port of Carthage, on one of his marauding expeditions, where
they should go ? "Against whomsoever God's anger is directed" (Ib. 5).
His name long remained as the glory of the Vandal nation (Procop. Bell. Vand.
ii. 2). But his career in Africa was shorn of its natural effects by the reconquest
of that province under Belisarius. In works of art, the city of Rome lost more
by his attack than by that of any other of the barbarian invaders (Comp. Gibbon,
c. 33, 36).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hunneric (Honorichos), king of the Vandals in Africa (A. D. 477-484) son of Genseric. He succeeded his father A. D. 477, and married Eudocia, daughter of the emperor Valentinian, in whose court he had been a hostage. His reign was chiefly marked by his savage persecution of the Catholics--rendered famous by the alleged miracle of the confession of Tipasa; and he died of a loathsome disease, A. D. 484. (Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 5, 8; Victor Vitensis, apud Ruinart.; Gibbon, c. 37.)
Gundamund (Goundamoundos), son of Genzo, and grandson of Genseric, succeeded his uncle Hunneric as king of the Vandals, and reigned from A. D. 484 to 496. He persecuted the African Catholics. (Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 8; Ruinart, Hist. Pers. Vandal.; comp. Gibbon, c. 37.)
Hilderic (Hilderichos), king of the Vandals, son of Hunncric, and grandson of Hilderic, successor of Trasamund, reigned A. D. 523-530. He was of a gentle disposition, and by his lenity to the African Catholics won the favour of Justinian, though there is no reason for believing the assertion of Nicephorus (xvii. 11) that he was not an Arian. He was deposed, and finally murdered, by Gelimer. There is a scarce silver coin of this prince, bearing his head on the obverse, with D. N. Hilderic Rex, and the figure of a female on the reverse, with Felix Kart. (Procop. Bell. Vand. i. 9)
Gelimer, last king of the Vandals (A. D. 530-534), son of Gelaris, grandson of
Genzo, and great-grandson of Genseric, who, bv the imprisonment and subsequent
murder of Hilderic, the reigning sovereign, usurped the throne of Carthage, A.
D. 530 (Procop. Bell. Vaud. i. 9). Justinian, who had formed an alliance with
Hilderic, in consequence of the protection afforded by him to the Catholics in
Africa, commenced a war upon Gelimer, under the command of Belisarius, which,
after the two battles of Carthage and Bulla, ended in the overthrow of the Vandal
kingdom in Africa, A. D. 534 (Ibid. i. 10, ii. 9); thus fulfilling a current prophecy,
of which the first half had been accomplished in the defeat of Bonifacius by Genseric:
"G. shall conquer B., and then B. shall conquer G" (Ibid. i. 21).
His brother, Zano, was killed at Bulla (Ibid. ii. 3). He himself fled
to Mount Pappua (ii. 4), was taken after a severe siege (ii. 7), carried to Constantinople,
compelled to perform obeisance to Justinian, and then, though precluded by his
Arianism from the Patrician order, was treated kindly, and passed the rest of
his life in an estate which was allowed to him in Galatia. (ii. 9)
His general character resembled the mingled cunning and cruelty which
marked the princes of the Vandal tribes. But it can hardly be accident that has
preserved so many traits of an almost romantic strain of thought and feeling.
Such is his interview with his brother at Bulla, when they embraced each other
in tears, with clasped hands, and without speaking a word (ii. 25). Such, when
on Mount Pappua, is his request to the besieging general for a loaf, as not having
seen bread for many days; a sponge to wipe his inflamed eyes, and a harp, to sing
a dirge composed by himself on his own miseries (ii. 6); or, again, his determination
to surrender at the moving sight of the two children fighting in the extremity
of hunger for a cake (ii. 7). Such (if we adopt the interpretation of his friends)
was the hysterical laugh in which, on his capture, he indulged at this sudden
reverse of human fortune (ii. 7.), and his reiterated exclamation, without tear
or sigh, as he walked in Belisarius' triumphal procession, "Vanity of vanities--all
is vanity" (ii. 9. Comp. Gibbon, c. 41).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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