Gaiseric

Gaiseric transformed the Vandals and Alans from a migrating coalition in Hispania into the rulers of Roman Africa. Hughes follows the crossing into Africa, the wars with imperial and local forces and the capture of Carthage in 439. Control of the province’s revenue, grain and ports gave the new kingdom resources that the Western Empire could not afford to lose and enabled Gaiseric to build a fleet capable of intervention across the Mediterranean.

The biography examines his diplomacy with Aëtius and Valentinian III, the dynastic crisis that preceded the sack of Rome in 455 and later Roman attempts to recover Africa. The destruction of the invasion fleet at Cape Bon in 468 confirmed the kingdom’s strategic position. Hughes presents Gaiseric not only as a destroyer of Roman power but as a ruler who appropriated Roman institutions and maintained a durable state until his death in 477.