Sack of Rome (455)

Sack of Rome
Part of the fall of the Western Roman Empire
Genseric sacking Rome, by Karl Briullov
Date 2 – c. 16 June 455 AD Location Rome, Italy Result Vandalic victory
Belligerents
Vandal Kingdom	Western Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gaiseric	Petronius Maximus †

The sack of Rome in 455 AD marked a pivotal moment in European history when the Vandals, a Germanic tribe led by King Genseric, invaded the city. The Vandals pillaged the city for two weeks, causing widespread destruction. The event, following the Visigothic sack of 410, shocked the Roman world and symbolized the decline and impending fall of the Western Roman Empire.

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 (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 to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. Eudoxia, however, in revenge for her husband's murder and the usurpation of the throne, conspired with the Vandals against Maximus. This coincided with Genseric's ambitions, and the king of the Vandals proclaimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia invalidated the peace treaty. He sailed to attack Rome, landing at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber.

Sack

Before approaching the city, the Vandals knocked down the aqueducts. At the sight of the approaching Vandals, Maximus and his soldiers tried to flee, 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 pleaded for mercy for the ancient city and its inhabitants. Genseric agreed and the gates of Rome were thrown open.

While Genseric kept his promise not to burn and slaughter, he did carry off some inhabitants as slaves, and also managed to capture Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia as they tried to escape. Eudoxia would later marry Huneric.

Aftermath

Genseric looted great amounts of treasure from the city, damaging monuments such as the Temple of Jupiter by stripping away the gilt bronze roof tiles, hence the modern term vandalism. The fourteen-day sack of 455 is generally considered more destructive than the three-day Visigothic sack of 410.

Assessment of the sack

Despite the popular image of Vandal destroyers, the severity of the sack is debatable, with claims that the it inflicted little murder, violence, or arson. This interpretation seems to stem from Prosper's claim of the promise of leniency which Pope Leo I coaxed from Genseric. However, Victor of Vita records that several shiploads of slave captives arrived in Africa from Rome. The Byzantine historian Procopius reported the burning of a church. Some modern historians like John Henry Haaren maintain that temples, public buildings, private houses and even the emperor's palace were sacked. The Vandals also took immense quantities of gold, silver, jewels and furniture, destroyed works of art, and killed a number of citizens.