Introduction

Patrick Weimann: North Africa was as much a part of the Roman world as regions like Gaul, Hispania and Britain. The Vandals' initial takeover of North Africa in the year 429 fitted their name. But to the average tenant farmer tending groves of olive trees or sailor crewing one of the ships that carried agricultural produce across the Mediterranean, the conquest might not have made much of a difference at all. To help us wrap our heads around these two stories, we'll follow the lives of two hypothetical people. First will be a Vandal warrior born around the year 415,. Second, we'll see the province firmly under Vandal rule from the point of view of a sailor