Exploring the Origins of the Vandals, The Great Destroyers

The word vandal today may be defined as a person who deliberately destroys or damages property.  Historically speaking, a Vandal was “a member of a Germanic people who lived in the area south of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and the Oder rivers, overran Gaul, Spain, and northern Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, and in 455 sacked Rome.” It is said that due to this infamous ‘sacking of Rome’ in 455 AD, the word ‘vandal’ was later used to describe people who destroyed or damaged property.

The Uncertain Origins of the Vandals

Little is known about the early history of the Vandals. It has been speculated that the Vandals originated in Scandinavia (in central Sweden, there is a parish called Vendel which may be related), migrated southwards into the region of Silesia, and eventually came into contact with the Romans.

The first literary reference to this group of people by the Romans can be found in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. According to this writer, the Vandals, or Vandili, were one of the five groups of Germanic peoples, and consisted of several smaller tribes: