Vandal Heaven

Reinterpreting Post-Roman North Africa

Simon Elliott, Simon Elliot

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Hardback

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English

Casemate
01 March 2024

History; African history; Early history: c 500 to c 1450&1500

North Africa was one of the richest parts of the Roman Empire, the agricultural powerhouse of the Mediterranean. It was also home to some of the emperor's biggest imperial estates, and prosperous cities of all kinds. Its loss to the Vandals in the first half of the 5th century AD was the mortal blow which both precipitated the fall of the western empire, and set the eastern empire back for decades. Its reconquest then became an obsession with each new emperor in Constantinople. Time and again the eastern Romans failed in this goal, until Justinian I finally succeeded in the AD 530s. Although North Africa's restoration to the world of Rome only lasted a short time, it has widely been regarded as a positive development.

However, new research published here for the first time shows that post-Roman North Africa thrived under the Vandals. To them it was Vandal heaven, a place where they found a way as the new incumbent elite to live comfortably alongside the late Roman inhabitants, despite their different interpretations of Christianity. Together, the two cultures flourished.

When the eastern Romans now styled Byzantines returned, they weren't welcome. This is evidenced in the surviving built environments of this new period of North African history, namely chains of small forts along the frontier and interior, where the Byzantines used mounted troops to keep an unhappy local population under control.

Dr Elliott not only presents a brand-new interpretation of post-Roman North Africa, but makes the case that the Arab Conquest was so successful in this region because the Byzantine overlords were so unpopular. Furthermore his argument explains how the region today came to be part of the Arab world, in contrast to the regions along the northern Mediterranean freeboard, which maintain their Roman-ness to this day.

AUTHOR: Dr Simon Elliott is an award-winning and best-selling archaeologist, historian and broadcaster. He has written numerous books on themes related to the classical world and military history, and frequently appears on broadcast media as a presenter and expert. Amongst others, his books published by Casemate Publishers include Ancient Greeks at War (2021), Old Testament Warriors (2021) and Romans at War (2020). He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent, Trustee of the Council for British Archaeology, Ambassador for Museum of London Archaeology, President of the Society of Ancients, and Guide Lecturer for Andante Travels and Hidden History Travel.

By: Simon Elliott, Simon Elliot
Imprint: Casemate
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781636242873
ISBN 10: 1636242871
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 01 March 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Dr Simon Elliott is an award-winning and best-selling archaeologist, historian and broadcaster. He has written numerous books on themes related to the classical world and military history, and frequently appears on broadcast media as a presenter and expert. Amongst others, his books published by Casemate Publishers include Ancient Greeks at War (2021), Old Testament Warriors (2021) and Romans at War (2020). He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent, Trustee of the Council for British Archaeology, Ambassador for Museum of London Archaeology, President of the Society of Ancients, and Guide Lecturer for Andante Travels and Hidden History Travel.

Reviews for Vandal Heaven: Reinterpreting Post-Roman North Africa

""Before tackling the Vandals, the book provides a wide-ranging overview of Roman society and culture, including the rise of the Latin language, shifting religions that culminated in the official Christian religion, and pre-Vandal Roman wars against the Gauls, Cimbri, Germans, and Marcomanni. For all of us without this in brain-ram, this is an excellent overview.""-- ""Historical Miniatures Gaming Society""