Gaiseric, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetGaiseric
King of the Vandals and Alans
Date of Birth: 01-Jan-0389
Place of Birth: Lake Balaton, Hungary
Date of Death: 01-Jan-0477
Profession: sovereign
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Gaiseric
- Gaiseric (c.
- 389 – 25 January 477), also known as Geiseric or Genseric (Latin: Gaisericus, Geisericus; reconstructed Vandalic: *Gaisarix), was King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477) who established the Vandal Kingdom and was one of the key players in the troubles of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.
- During his nearly 50 years of rule, he raised a relatively insignificant Germanic tribe to the status of a major Mediterranean power.
- Succeeding his brother Gunderic at a time when the Vandals were settled in Baetica, Roman Hispania (modern Andalusia, Spain), Gaiseric successfully defended himself against a Suebian attack and transported most of his people, around 80,000, to Northern Africa in 428.
- He might have been invited by the Roman governor Bonifacius, who wished to use the military strength of the Vandals in his struggle against the imperial government. Gaiseric caused great devastation as he moved eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar across Africa.
- He turned on Bonifacius, defeated his army in 430, and then crushed the joint forces of the Eastern and Western empires that had been sent against him.
- In 435 Gaiseric concluded a treaty with the Romans under which the Vandals retained Mauretania and part of Numidia as foederati (allies under special treaty) of Rome.
- In a surprise move on 19 October 439, Gaiseric captured Carthage, striking a devastating blow at imperial power.
- In a 442 treaty with Rome, the Vandals were recognized as the independent rulers of Byzacena and part of Numidia.
- He besieged Panormus (Palermo, Sicily) in 440 AD but was repulsed, and made an incursion near Agrigento in 456 but was repulsed there and defeated by Ricimer in a naval battle off the coast of Corsica.
- In 455, he seized the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, and Malta, and Gaiseric's fleet soon came to control much of the western Mediterranean.
- He occupied Sicily in 468 for 8 years until the island was ceded in 476 to Odavacer except for a toehold on the far west coast, Lilybaeum, which was ceded in 491 to Theodoric.p.
- 410.His most famous exploit, however, was the capture and plundering of Rome in June 455.
- Subsequently, the King defeated two major efforts by the Romans to overthrow him, that of the emperor Majorian in 460 or 461 and that led by Basiliscus at the Battle of Cape Bon in 468.
- After dying in Carthage at the age of 88, Gaiseric was succeeded by his son Huneric.
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