Gunderic

Gunderic (Germania, 379 - Hispalis, Hispania, 428), king of the Vandals (407–428) and of the Alans (419-428). He is the son of Godegisilio, king of the Asdingo Vandals, and his wife Flora.

Biography

He succeeded his father, who died on the last day of the year 406 fighting against the Ripuarian Franks, who defended, as foederati of the Roman Empire, the border of the Rhine River in the limits of Germany and the Gaul.

Together with his Swabian allies and the heavy cavalry provided by several Alan clans, Gunderico defeated a force of 3,000 francs and thus managed to force his way into Gaul, which he ran through looting, among others, cities such as Mogontiacum (Mainz) or Amiens. However, under joint pressure from the Franks and the British-Roman troops of the usurper Constantine III, he was pushed south and crossed the Pyrenees in October 409.

In Hispania, the vandals left such a trail of violence, destruction and cruelty that their name has remained in Spanish associated with the term vandalism. According to Hidacio, the massacres after the looting of villages and cities included all the women and children that they captured and caused the appearance of plagues and infectious diseases associated with the thousands of unburied corpses that were left everywhere. He even talks about how the wild beasts got so used to human flesh that they later attacked the living as well.

Two years later, in 411, a treaty with Rome established the Asdingo Vandals in Gallaecia Asturiacensis, the Suevi in Lugo and Braga, the Alans in Lusitania and Carthaginense, and the Silingo Vandals in Baetica. This situation, however, did not last long, due to the intervention of the Visigoths who, led by Walia and as foederati of Rome, intervened militarily in Hispania.

In the year 417 Walia penetrated into Carthaginian and defeated the silingo vandals in Baetica, capturing their king Fredebaldo. In 418 comes the turn of the Alans, whose king Atax dies at the hands of the Visigoths. As a consequence of all this, Gunderico ended up assuming the title of Rex Wandalorum Et Alanorum ("King of Vandals and Alanos") in 419 and installing his people in Baetica as foederati .

In 422, Gunderico defeated a Roman army that, under the command of Flavio Castino, tried to recover Baetica. Cartagena is devastated and numerous Mediterranean ports fall into the hands of the vandals, who develop a fleet with which they make incursions into the Balearic Islands and North Africa. In 426 they manage to take Hispalis (Seville), where Gunderico will die two years later in dark circumstances, being succeeded by his illegitimate brother, Genserico.

According to Hidacio, Gunderico's death was a divine punishment for desecrating the Basilica of San Vicente, the main church in Seville at that time. His wife and his children were murdered a few years later in Numidia by order of Gaiseric, the new king of the Vandals.