From The Student Room

TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > The vandals and the decline of mediterranean navigation

• 439 Gaiseric an Vandals conquer Carthage with a fleet they had been using for destructive raids on Sicily. Romans try to make agreements with Gaiseric, he broke, and 3 unsuccessful expeditions to try and get it back.
• Persistently pillaged Sicily in fifties and sixties 0 took land Sardinia, Baleari, Corsica etc. Rome in 455. Eventually put down by Justinian in 533 huge fleet, not naval power, but land logistics.
• Rouge - Gradual decline shipping in Med from 3^rd century - decline before Vandals foregone conclusion. Linked to virtual disappearance of effect military fleet. Capable of policing the waters. Vandals, with piracy, step into this vacuum.
• Hodges and Whitehouse show some trade, maybe small flotillas but re-emergence of trade end 5^th century coincides with Vandal peace Justinian’s wars of reconquest that really slowed trade
• Vandal domination of Western waters was a political and military problem, not an economic or commercial one linked to decline in Med. Navigation as this allowed Vandals to operate without obstruction at sea. Economic point of view Justinian’s war entirely indispensable peace with Vandal realm contributed to relative prosperity under Anastasius in B. and Theoderic in West at turn 5^th century.
• Long run military and political view Eastern emperors, imbued with Roman heritage, could not take peace and stability of Eats procured at expense of cessation of its stern part to forces beyond Constantinople’s control.
• Vandals more of a psychological factor like piracy on BCE sharpened awareness of importance Mediterranean in minds of people who dreamt of Roman unification.
• Justinian: intolerable dilemma - urge to reconquer Empire greater than political convenience. Attempt to reconquer tore apart economic fabric of Mediterranean basic. West suffered first but then East itself suffered, vulnerable to attacks from neighbours.
• Sassanid Persians still most dangerous enemy. B relations with SP and commitments in MB totally linked made a confrontation between these two great power os late antiquity entirely unavoidable.

Comments