The Sack of 455 was the third of four ancient sacks of Rome; it was conducted by the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

, who were then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus.

Background

In the 440s, the Vandal king Genseric and the Roman Emperor Valentinian III had betrothed their children, Huneric and Eudocia, to strengthen their alliance, reached in 442 with a

peace treaty A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surre ...

(the marriage was delayed as Eudocia was too young). In 455 Valentinian was killed, and Petronius Maximus rose to the throne. Petronius married Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, and had his son Palladius marry Eudocia; in this way Petronius was to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. Unhappy, however, with her husband's murder and the usurpation of Maximus, Eudoxia turned to aid from the Vandals to remove Maximus from the throne. The overture was favorably met, because Maximus' revolution was damaging to Genseric's ambitions. The king of the Vandals claimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia invalidated his peace treaty with Valentinian, and set sail to attack Rome, landing at Ostia at the mouth of the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by th ...

The sack

Before approaching the city, the Vandals knocked down all of the city's aqueducts. At the sight of the approaching Vandals, Maximus and his soldiers tried to flee the city, but he was spotted and killed by a Roman mob outside the city, possibly together with his son Palladius. Upon the Vandal arrival, according to the chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine,

Pope Leo I Pope Leo I ( 400 – 10 November 461), also known as Leo the Great, was bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history." Leo was ...

requested that Genseric not destroy the ancient city nor murder its inhabitants. Genseric agreed and the gates of Rome were thrown open to him and his men. While Genseric kept his promise not to burn the city and slaughter its inhabitants, he did carry some off to be

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, and during that time Genseric managed to capture Empress Licinia Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, and her daughters, Eudocia and

Placidia Placidia () was a daughter of Valentinian III, Roman emperor of the West from 425 to 455, and from 454/455 the wife of Olybrius, who became western Roman emperor in 472. She was one of the last imperial spouses in the Roman west, during the Fa ...

as they tried to escape. Eudoxia and her children were the last of Rome's imperial family. Eudocia would later marry Huneric.

Aftermath

Archive-ugent-be-79D46426-CC9D-11E3-B56B-4FBAD43445F2 DS-213 (cropped)

It is accepted that Genseric looted great amounts of treasure from the city, damaging objects of cultural significance such as the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus by stripping away the gilt bronze roof tiles, hence the modern term

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The ter ...

. The sack of 455 is generally seen as being more destructive than the

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

sack of 410, because the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days whereas the Visigoths spent only three days in the city.

Assessment of the sack

Despite the popular image of Vandals as destructors, the severity of the sack is debatable. A cause of significant controversy is the claim that the sack was relatively "clean", in that there was little murder and violence, and the Vandals did not burn the buildings of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

. This interpretation seems to stem from Prosper's claim that Pope Leo I managed to persuade Genseric to refrain from

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

. However, Victor of Vita records that a number of shiploads of captives arrived in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

from Rome, with the purpose of being sold into

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Similarly, the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historian Procopius reports that a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

was burned down. Some modern historians like John Henry Haaren stated that temples, public buildings, private houses and even the emperor's palace were sacked.Genseric the Vandal King from 427–477 AD
Besides taking many Romans as slaves, the Vandals also committed other depredations like taking immense quantities of gold, silver, jewels and furniture, destroying works of art, and killing a number of citizens.

References

Citations

Sources

* Procopius, 'The Vandalic War' in ''The History of the Wars'', Books III & IV, trans. H.B Dewing (Cambridge; Mass. 1916) * Muhlberger, S., ''The Fifth Century Chroniclers: Prosper, Hydatius and the Gallic Chronicler of 452'' (Leeds, 1990) — for Prosper's hagiographic portrayal of Leo. * Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, trans. J. Moorhead (Liverpool, 1992). * Ward-Perkins, B., ''The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilisation'' (Oxford, 2005) pp. 17 & 189. {{authority control 455 450s conflicts Ancient city of Rome Rome 455 Rome 455 Rome 455 5th century in Italy 450s in the Roman Empire Military history of Rome Vandal Kingdom Western Roman Empire Looting