Paving Over the Past: A History and Guide to Civil War Battlefield Preservation Book

I picked up this book because it was often refenced as a primary source in Vandal history books. As such, I expected it to be informative but dry. In reality, it was very moving. It describes the end of the Vandals as a people from the conqueror's point of view, but even so, it is very sympathetic to them as a people. Parts of the account are very emotional, expressing the despair of a people coming to an end. At one point, when the remnants of the Vandal army had gathered together, the author says:

"And indeed they did not make any mention even of their own wives and children, knowing well that whoever of theirs was not there had either died or fallen into the hands of the enemy." (p. 207)

It sounds truly horrifying, and it was - this battle marked the end of the Vandals as a people. They were slaughtered, in the main, and the survivors deported. But these are the Vandals, someone might say, whose very name is now a word for destructive behavior. That may have been the case in Gaiseric's day, but by this time they had become far more sophistocated. Again, it's worth quotingl:

"For of all the nations which we know that of the Vandals is the most luxurious, and that of the Moors the most hardy. For the Vandals, since the time when they gained possession of Libya, used to indulge in baths, all of them, every day, and enjoyed a table abounding in all things, the sweetest and best that the earth and sea produce. And they wore gold very generally, and clothed themselves in the Medic garments, which now they call "seric," and passed their time, thus dressed, in theatres and hippodromes and in other pleasureable pursuits, and above all else in hunting. And they had dancers and mimes and all other things to hear and see which are of a musical nature or otherwise merit attention among men. And the most of them dwelt in parks, which were well supplied with water and trees..." (p. 257)

According to the index, this is supposed to show the "effeminacy" of the Vandals, but to this modern ear, at least, it sounds like they had a very cultured society. Especially considering the state of the rest of the Western Roman Empire at that time.

Once the Vandal kingdom was destroyed, the Romans turned their attentions toward the Moors. At first I felt sorry for them as well. Then, due to the lack of Vandal protection, and increasingly incompetent Roman administration, the Moors turned out to be just as bad as Justinian's army. In fact, the people to really feel sorry for were the non-comabatant population. Those that weren't killed off - which, according to the author, weren't many - were left exceedingly poor. And this in a region that was once the breadbasket and cultural center of the West.

This was a great book, but a terrible book. It chronicles the genocide of an entire cultural group, and the slaughter and impoverishment of a whole region. It truly was one of the most pointless and tragic wars in history.