Vandals

[Viggen]

What made them so special that we till today use them in our language (englisch as well german [maybe other languages as well?]), why dont we say "this is an act of hunnism, or vikingnism, but no we say vandalism, i mean they didnt last all that long and surely other "barbarians" did as many gruel things then the vandals, any particular reason, why this tribe has made itself immortal in our language?

 

cheers

viggen

[Gaius Octavius]

Hun was applied to German soldiers in WWI, in a derogatory fashion. I believe that it still is used as an aspersion in re Germans.

[Kosmo]

Vandals were remebered for the sacking of Rome. The city still held enormous symbolic significance and the brutal pillage and the destruction that followed made the name vandal immortal.

[Gaius Octavius]

In addition to destroying The City, the Vandals destroyed all of the cultural artifacts of Rome. That has not been forgotten.

[Ludovicus]

In addition to destroying The City, the Vandals destroyed all of the cultural artifacts of Rome. That has not been forgotten.

 

 

Wasn't it during the Gothic War (535-554 AD) that the ancient City was dealt another deadly blow? Up to that time many civic buildings were still in use.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rome#_note-0

"The continual war around Rome in the 530s and 540s left it in a state of total disrepair

Edited December 29, 2007 by Ludovicus

[DecimusCaesar]

The Vandals were immortalised as destroyers after the Gordon Riots in London in 1780. The poet William Cowper used the term to describe those who attacked the supporters of the Catholic emancipation group. Cowper, who had been given a Church education had read about the sacking of Rome in AD 455, and he imagined the Vandals as sackers of the churches of the city. The word Vandal has since stuck in the English language to describe anyone who attacks or defaces property.

 

Oddly enough the ancient Vandals were not renowned for their military prowess (having lost 20,000 warriors and their king in a battle against the Franks), and were certainly considered to be rather meek in comparison to the Goths or Huns. They would later prove that image wrong when they invaded Hispania, captured Carthage and sacked Rome.