Where did the vandals? No, not modern, have "nothing is sacred"and "it", which eventually became known as barbarians and hooligans.

Revenge revenge kick

Known for its profligacy Roman Emperor Valentinian III suddenly took it into his head to master virtuous wife of Senator Petronius Maxim. Invited the Emperor then Senator's Palace, and offered to play chess on a personal ring. To adversity, the Emperor was a good player. Maybe Senator felt that the ring is a form of bribes, and succumbed. Taking into account the identity of Maxim, and quite possibly is. Winning the ring, Valentinian was sent to his wife maxima servants with a stretcher: that the husband calls her to the Palace, and in confirmation of his words sends his ring. Not suspecting anything wrong, wife of the Senator sat down in a stretcher and carried to the far rooms of the Palace, to the Valentinian...

The wife of such a shame he died. Disgraced husband decided to take revenge. He made a conspiracy, and at the military parade Valentinian III was killed by a dagger in the back. The Emperor was he, Petronius Maxim! And, being by the time a widower, of course, married the widow-Empress, whose name was Eudoxia. But one day, a clever, careful Maxim made a mistake, in a fit of openness pooltables new wife that he organized the murder of Valentinian. Now decided to take revenge Eudoxia. She sent a secret letter to Carthage to the leader of the vandals Geiseri, requesting him to arrive with the army in Rome, in order to punish the murderer, and reported that troops in Rome now almost there.

Geiseri was little, crippled (fell from a horse), very reserved, taciturn, violent anger. Despising luxury, he was greedy for wealth, but it is very far-sighted when it was necessary to fill the tribes and to sow the seeds of discord. The whole world knew about the great riches of Rome, and Geiseri, having received this unexpected and flattering invitation from the Empress, quickly and secretly prepared a large fleet. Well, he only performed the request of the widow legitimate Emperor.

Ships vandals have crossed the sea, entered the mouth of the river Tiber and 12 June 455 years appeared in front of the walls of the great Rome.

The barbarians no one expected the troops were not, the city began a wild panic, about the resistance, there was nothing. The Emperor Petronius Max tried to elope doomed from the capital, but recognized him and stoned themselves Romans. Pope Leo I went to beg the vandals to take pity on residents not to enter the city, offered a ransom. Because only three years ago came from the North of the Turkic tribes of Huns, stood up in the hills and sleepy eyes looked with his shaggy horses on the great Rome, took the ransom and went back home. But this time the pleas of the Pope were in vain.

June 15 Geiseri headed wild and greedy Horde became the richest city of the ancient world. On the whole 14 it Rome was given to complete looting.

Invaders " looted the Treasury of temples, palaces of the nobility and the houses of the citizens; subjected to violence of all women, turned into slaves and maidservants the proud Romans. Only one gold vandals took not less than 400 tons! On the ships pulled statues and works of art, gilded copper sheets from the roofs of the temples. But even a huge fleet could not take all the treasures. Then vandals broke and destroyed the rest. As "gratitude" Geiseri brought with him his Royal correspondent together with two daughters. (Actually, what else could she expect, sending his invitation?) The overloaded extraction ships barely made up of Carthage, one loaded with marble statues, sunk at the entrance to the port.

Vandals apparently managed to put a kind of "record" even for those cruel times. After such a defeat of Rome to recover already failed. In 20 years came groups of Germans, led by Odoacer, and the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist. Strange there are sometimes special benefit history: the last Emperor of Rome was the name as its founder. Romulus started, Romulus and over.

But the memory about the last visit vandals eclipsed even this peaceful end. Although the destruction of the Western Empire "had a hand" and the Turks and the Germans, all of dubious fame got it vandals. 15 years ago they disappeared from the face of the earth, but suddenly centuries later came the word "vandalism".

In 1812 Russians called the vandals French, wildly plundered and destroyed Moscow and only by accident that not blew up the Kremlin. In the second world war vandals deservedly named the Germans.

Who, what clan were those first vandals?

The Germans, you say.

Now, the first vandals were Slavs.

However, as the Slavs came in Africa? And even glorious Carthage captured?

What language robbed vandals?

This tribe lived once on the banks of Meotida - Azov sea. But the terrible annual drought forced the vandals removed from long-occupied places. Joined them and lived East of the Alans, the ancestors of the modern Ossetians. Fleeing from drought, these people moved to the North towards the Baltic sea.

It should be noted that two thousand years ago on the vast areas of Central Europe, from the Adriatic to the North and Baltic seas - lived numerous Slavic tribes: antes sklavyny (South), Veneti, Wendy, vanity, Vinoly - to the North and along the coasts of the Baltic and North seas. With venitemi and Vanelli living "on coast of Ocean, and that had a huge fleet", fought back in the first century BC Gaius Julius Caesar. About Slavs-Veneto resembles the name of the Italian city of Venice. German Chronicles report that vast city of Veneto called Veneto and located at the mouth of the Oder, was destroyed by a terrible storm and earthquake November 1 1304. Medieval German Chronicles refer vandals to the same group of Western Slavs and clearly distinguish them from the Germans. The descendants of the Slavs - Veneto, window and vandals - are still living in Germany, they are called Sorbian (white) Serbs, the number of this ethnic group - about 150 thousand people. They are a relic of the once great tribe of Western Avan, ruthlessly destroyed moving to the East German tribes.

At the turn of the IV-V centuries, the vandals and Alans were present territory of Hungary, 407 year they faced in battle with the Franks on the Rhine and continued to move westward until autumn 409 year did not come to Spain.

Ironically, the traces of vandalism can be found even on modern maps. Thanks place names. Thus, the present name of Andalucia, province of Spain, is a slightly modified the Slavic word "Andalusia", which means "light vandals". Perhaps from the old Slavic root "puddles" - "white light" was the ancient name Portugal - Lusitania, "light country".

In addition, there are over hundreds of words vandal language, virtually indistinguishable from the Russians. Among them "Baba", "brother", "the trouble", "melon" (watermelon), "mount", pear", "Mare", "Kurva" (prostitute), "text", "med", "the water", "sister", "the wolf", "see", "Sveti", "the plyasati", "pozivati", "pracovat" (to work) and so on

But the German tribes of the Visigoths prevented the Slavs and Ossetians to gain a foothold on the Iberian Peninsula, they forced them to Africa. In the year 429 hordes of vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to North Africa, defeated the Roman army and conquered Libya. Ten years have taken the famous Carthage, first destroyed by the Romans, and later rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 BC and from Here they did pirate raids throughout the Mediterranean. Was not here in the V century the country, capable to give a rebuff to 80 thousand army of Hazaria. Huge booty seized in Rome, only whetted the appetite, and Geiseri then robbed Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Balearic Islands, Italy and Greece. Tell that routes his campaigns he was kept in secrecy until the last minute and told about them by going into the sea. You can imagine how the helmsman, looking at the sails, screws up his eyes slyly,

- Who the father is, therefore, to Rob, now will we? Greeks Ali fraza what?

Not from the scraping of orders on some German dialect, trembled in that age shores of the Mediterranean, and from the evil screams, like "Sarin on the bun!". In General, robbed then "Slavic". It was a joke. It is not a joke that the Kingdom of the vandals have turned into such a terrible state of pirates that trade on the Mediterranean sea is almost completely ceased.

Conquest, Pogues warriors

But in 477 year Geiseri died. And his heirs killed luxury and idleness. Plundered all the Mediterranean, Skopje in Carthage countless treasures, vandals started hanging out in endless orgies and drinking, theatre, baths and racetracks. All in gold and silk, among countless slaves and concubines, surrounded by musicians, mimes and dancers-homosexuals, they quickly lost power and masculinity.

The payment has come soon. Byzantium was secretly preparing a powerful blow to Carthage. In 533 year Byzantine fleet under the command of the famous General Belisarius appeared before the Carthage as suddenly as it ships Hazarika - before Rome. The Belisarius one stroke disbanded the army fattened idlers and another year caught in the mountains rulers once the terrible state. In the Treasury of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian received hundreds of tons of gold of the Western Roman Empire, and the state vandals have disappeared from the face of the earth. So ultralightsvanam and failed to settle in Africa.

But why vandals still read a Germanic tribe?

The fact that the darkness of the middle ages eclipsed the memory of them. Remembered only after thirteen centuries, when after the overthrow of Napoleon old aristocracy together with the old Bourbon dynasty returned to France and saw their ruined palaces. Then them, "nothing is forgotten and nothing understood", use of the word "vandalism".

However, the French thought vandals by the Germans. It revealed the native enmity of the Gauls to the aggressive and dangerous Germanic tribe, and the influence of ancient historians that in the epoch of classicism was read educated French. The Romans did not actually know of the Slavs and unable to distinguish them among hundreds "barbaric" tribes. For example, Julius Caesar was called the druids and other Slavs Gauls, Pliny the Elder - the Germans, and Tacitus - Sarmatians, that is, the Alans.

In contrast, the Byzantine historians, contemporaries of the vandals, who lived side by side with the Slavs, be sure to distinguish it from the Germans. This historian was and Procopius of Caesarea, Advisor to the General Belisarius, who walked with him to war, including at Carthage. He told fifteen centuries ago, in hot pursuit, a truly amazing story vandals.

If you look at the map of Europe, we can only marvel energy, "passionarity" the whole nation, which in the short term with the fighting went on the Azov sea coast of Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Libya, and defeated the great Rome. This would diligence Yes good works. But disgracefully disappeared, lost their enormous power to drunkenness, theft, debauchery, the once great warriors, leaving the edification only his name.