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Rh bishops were almost universally banished, and the congregations were forbidden to elect their successors, so that the greater part of the churches of Africa remained “widowed” for a whole generation. In 476, at the very close of Gaiseric's life, by a treaty concluded with the Eastern emperor, the bishops were permitted to return. There was then a short lull in the persecution; but on the death of Gaiseric (477) and the accession of Hunneric it broke out again with greater violence than ever, the ferocity of Hunneric being more thoroughly stupid and brutal than the calculating cruelty of his father.

On the death of Hunneric (484) he was succeeded by his cousin Gunthamund, Gaiseric having established seniority among his own descendants as the law of succession to his throne. Gunthamund (484-96) and his brother Thrasamund (406-523), though Arians, abated some of the rigour of the persecution, and maintained the external credit of the monarchy. Internally, however, it was rapidly declining, the once chaste and hardy Vandals being demoralized by the fervid climate of Africa and the sinful delights of their new capital, and falling ever lower into sloth, effeminacy and vice. On the death of Thrasamund, Hilderic (523-31), the son of Hunneric and Eudocia, at length succeeded to the throne. He adhered to the creed of his mother rather than to that of his father; and, in spite of a solemn oath sworn to his predecessor that he would not restore the Catholic churches to their owners, he at once proceeded to do so and to recall the bishops. Hilderic, elderly, Catholic and timid, was very unpopular with his subjects, and after a reign of eight years he was thrust into prison by his warlike cousin Gelimer (531-34).

The wrongs of Hilderic, a Catholic, and with the blood of Theodosius in his veins, afforded to Justinian a long-coveted pretext for overthrowing the Vandal dominion, the latent weakness of which was probably known to the statesmen of Constantinople. A great expedition under the command of Belisarius (in whose train was the historian Procopius) sailed from the Bosporus in June 533, and after touching at Catana in Sicily finally reached Africa in the beginning of September. Gelimer, who was strangely ignorant of the plans of Justinian, had sent his brother Tzazo with some of his best troops to quell a rebellion in Sardinia (that island as well as the Balearic Isles forming part of the Vandal dominions), and the landing of Belisarius was entirely unopposed. He marched rapidly towards Carthage and on the 13th of September was confronted by Gelimer at Ad Decimum, 10 m. from Carthage. The battle did not reflect any great credit either on Byzantine or Vandal generalship. It was in fact a series of blunders on both sides, but Belisarius made the fewest and victory remained with him. On the 14th of September 533 the imperial general entered Carthage and ate the feast prepared in Gelimer's palace for its lord. Belisarius, however, was too late to save the life of Hilderic, who had been slain by his rival's orders as soon as the news came of the landing of the imperial army. Still Gelimer with many of the Vandal warriors was at liberty. On the return of Tzazo from Sardinia a force was collected considerably larger than the imperial army, and Gelimer met Belisarius in battle at a place about 20 m. from Carthage, called Tricamarum (December 533). This battle was far more stubbornly contested than that of Ad Decimum, but it ended in the utter rout of the Vandals and the flight of Gelimer. He took refuge in a mountain fortress called Pappua on the Numidian frontier, and there, after enduring great hardships in the squalid dwellings of the Moors, surrendered to his pursuers in March 534. The well-known stories of his laughter when he was introduced to Belisarius, and his chant, “Vanitas vanitatum,” when he walked before the triumphal car of his conqueror through the streets of Constantinople, probably point to an intellect disordered by his reverses and hardships. The Vandals who were carried captive to Constantinople were enlisted in five squadrons of cavalry and sent to serve against the Parthians under the title “Justiniani Vandali.” Four hundred escaped to Africa and took part in a mutiny of the imperial troops, which was with difficulty quelled by Belisarius (536). After this the Vandals disappear from history. The overthrow of their kingdom undoubtedly rendered easier the spread of Saracen conquest along the northern shore of Africa in the following century. In this as in many other fields Justinian sowed that Mahomet might reap.

See Pliny, Natural History, iv. 99; Tacitus, Germania, cc. 2, 43; Ptolemy, ii. c. 11, §§ 18 ff.; Julius Capitolinus, De Bello Marcomannico, 17; Vopiscus, Probus, 18; Dexippus, Excerpta, pp. 19 ff. (Bonn); and Jordanes, 4, 16, 22; Procopius, De Bello Vandalico, a first-rate authority for contemporary events, must be used with caution for the history of the two or three generations before his time. The chroniclers Idatius, Prosper and Victor Tunnunensis supply some facts, and for the persecution of the Catholics Victor Vitensis and the Vita Augustini of Posidius may be consulted. See also E Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chaps, xxxiii. and xli.; Papencordt, Geschichte der vandalischen Herrschaft in Afrika (Berlin. 1837); T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (1880-99); L. Schmidt, Geschichte der Wandalen (Leipzig, 1901); and F. Martroye, L'Occident à l’époque byzantine (1904). VANDAMME, DOMINIQUE RENÉ, (1770-1830), French soldier, was born at Cassel, near Dunkirk, on the 5th of November 1770. He enlisted in the army in 1786, served in Martinique in 1788 and on returning to France entered into the Revolutionary movement, raising a company of light infantry at his native place. His extraordinary bravery and vigour in the campaign of 1793 ensured his rapid promotion, and after Hondschoote he was made a general of brigade. He served in this rank in the campaigns of 1794 in the Low Countries, 1795 on the Rhine and 1796 in Germany, and at the outbreak of the war in 1799 he was promoted general of division. In that year and in 1800 he served under Brune, Moreau and Macdonald in Holland, Germany and Switzerland. He was renowned for his tenacity and fearlessness as a fighting general as well as for his frank, rough manners and plundering and dissolute life, but once he came under Napoleon's influence he was (unlike most of the Rhine Army officers) his absolutely devoted servant. In 1805, for his splendid leadership at Austerlitz, he was given the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour, and in 1806-7 he commanded a small corps of the Grande Armée which reduced the Silesian fortresses. In 1808 he was made count of Unebourg. In 1809 he served in the Eckmühl campaign with distinction, but in 1812, while commanding the Westphalian contingent he quarrelled with King Jerome Bonaparte and returned to France. He returned to the army in 1813. But his corps, sent against the line of retreat of the Allies at the time of the battle of Dresden, was entangled in the mountains, surrounded and after a fierce resistance compelled to surrender at Kulm (see ). In his captivity he appears to have been treated with especial harshness, and when the end of the war released him he was forbidden to enter Paris, and sent to Cassel by Louis XVIII. He was thus free of all obligations towards the Bourbons, and when Napoleon returned, joined him without hesitation. The emperor made him a peer of France and placed him at the head of the III. corps in the Army of the North (see ). After Waterloo, under Grouchy's command, he brought back his corps in good order to Paris and thence to the Loire. The Restoration first imprisoned and then exiled him, and unlike most of his comrades he was never reemployed as a general. He died at Cassel on the 15th of July 1830.

VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS (1794-1877), American capitalist, was born near Stapleton, Staten Island, New York, on the 27th of May 1794. He was a descendant of Jan Aersten Van der Bilt, who emigrated from Holland about 1650 and settled near Brooklyn. The family removed to Staten Island in 1715. At the age of 16 he bought a sailboat, in which he carried farm produce and passengers between Staten Island and New York. He was soon doing a profitable carrying business, and in 1813 carried supplies to fortifications in New York Harbour and the adjacent waters. Recognizing the superiority of steam over sailing vessels, he sold his sloops and schooners, and in 1817-1829 was a captain on a steam ferry between New York and New Brunswick. During the next twenty years he developed an extensive carrying trade along