The structures of state power in the Vandal kingdom were not limited to the person of the king and his family. A complex administration had developed in the later Roman empire to maintain the military and bureaucratic commitments of the state, and the Vandals came into possession of much of this governmental infrastructure. It is impossible to gauge the scale of the administration in place during the Vandal century, but details from the Justinianic reconstruction are instructive. When he created a new Praetorian Prefecture for Africa after the conquest, Justinian envisaged a central administrative staff of around 400, working for the Praetorian Prefect, together with a smaller office of around 50 bureaucrats for each of the constituent provinces of the region.81 While these numbers reflect the norms of early Byzantine government, rather than those of the Vandal administration, they do provide an order of magnitude for the scale of government in this period. The Vandal administration may not have been as extensive as later Roman or Byzantine rule, but North Africa could not be ruled without a government of some kind.
The royal court
The king and his immediate entourage were at the heart of the Vandal kingdom. It is tempting, but misguided, to imagine the Hasding court as a barbarian feasting hall, familiar from Beowulf or Tacitus’ Germania. The court culture at Carthage was very much a product of its wider Mediterranean setting.82 The movement of individuals between Ravenna, Constantinople and the households of the barbarian kings led to a cultural homogenization. At different times the Vandal court entertained a future eastern emperor, a Visigothic princess, the imperial widow Eudoxia and her two daughters, a number of prominent aristocratic hostages including (perhaps) a future western emperor, an Ostrogothic queen and her substantial entourage, and an exiled Visigothic pretender.83 Huneric was a guest of Valentinian III in Ravenna and Hilderic may well have been a familiar figure in Constantinople.84 Geiseric’s advisors included the far-travelled Count Sebastian, who had previously spent time in Constantinople, and the Visigothic court of Toulouse, as well as a strikingly cosmopolitan array of advisors.
Alongside these well-known figures, we must consider the large population of envoys, who shuttled more or less constantly between the different Mediterranean capitals, and the episcopal and secular aristocracies who provided further links between Carthage and the world beyond.
This ‘imperial’ context was exemplified by the physical setting of Hasding power. The principal Vandal court was located in the old proconsular palace on Byrsa Hill in Carthage, and this structure remained in use down to the Justinianic conquest: indeed, it was in this building that Belisarius established the provisional Byzantine government in 534.85 But smaller royal centres also remained important: Geiseric, Thrasamund, Hilderic and Gelimer all maintained royal estates away from Carthage, and conducted royal business upon them.86 While the Vandal kings never adopted the peripatetic rule of their Frankish or Visigothic contemporaries, they were not tied to Carthage and, when they did move, the political focus of the kingdom moved with them. Rather less prominent, but still politically significant, were the smaller courts of the minor members of the Hasding family. It was at such courts that the revolt of 481 seems to have been hatched, and the rising of 531 developed. The king provided the principal focus of government within the Vandal kingdom, but this did not preclude the emergence of other centres of royal power.
World History
