September
10
/ 2017
Meet one of the most important late antiquity kings you’ve never heard of: Gaiseric (a.k.a. Genseric), a Germanic kinglet who transformed his tribal affiliations into a massive realm in the 5th century AD. In the 4th and 5th centuries, those Rome might have deemed “barbarians” in previous centuries were, in fact, more Roman in attitude than the Romans themselves. Oftentimes, warriors of Germanic or Gallic descent became important officials in the Roman military fixture. For example, Stilicho, son of a Vandal soldier, swiftly climbed the ranks after serving in the imperial bodyguard. He married into the royal family and became the magister utriusque militiae, master of both infantry and cavalry (a.k.a. the most important general in the Roman forces); in
