حرب الوندال Vandalic War نشبت في شمال أفريقيا (معظمها في تونس الحالية) بين قوات الرومانية الشرقية ("البيزنطية") ومملكة قرطاج الوندالية، في 533–534. وكانت أولى حروب جستنيان لإعادة فتح الامبراطورية الرومانية الغربية المفقودة.

The Vandals had occupied Roman North Africa in the early 5th century, and established an independent kingdom there. Under their first king, Geiseric, the formidable Vandal navy carried out pirate attacks across the Mediterranean, sacked Rome and defeated a massive Roman invasion in 468. After Geiseric's death, relations with the surviving Eastern Roman Empire normalized, although tensions flared up occasionally due to the Vandals' militant adherence to Arianism and their persecution of the Chalcedonian native population. In 530, a palace coup in Carthage overthrew the pro-Roman Hilderic and replaced him with his cousin Gelimer. The Eastern Roman emperor Justinian took this as a pretext to interfere in Vandal affairs, and after he secured his eastern frontier with Sassanid Persia in 532, he began preparing an expedition under general Belisarius, whose secretary Procopius wrote the main historical narrative of the war. Justinian took advantage of, or even instigated, rebellions in the remote Vandal provinces of Sardinia and Tripolitania. These not only distracted Gelimer from the Emperor's preparations, but also weakened Vandal defences through the dispatch of the bulk of the Vandal navy and a large portion of their army under Gelimer's brother Tzazon to Sardinia.

The Roman expeditionary force set sail from Constantinople in late June 533, and after a sea voyage along the coasts of Greece and southern Italy, landed on the African coast at Caputvada in early September, to Gelimer's complete surprise. The Vandal king gathered his forces and met the Roman army at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, on 13 September. Gelimer's elaborate plan to encircle and destroy the Roman army came close to success, but Belisarius was able to drive the Vandal army to flight and occupy Carthage. Gelimer withdrew to Bulla Regia, where he gathered his remaining strength, including the army of Tzazon, which returned from Sardinia. In December, Gelimer advanced towards Carthage and met the Romans at the Battle of Tricamarum. The battle resulted in a Roman victory and the death of Tzazon. Gelimer fled to a remote mountain fortress, where he was blockaded until he surrendered in the spring.

Belisarius returned to Constantinople with the Vandals' royal treasure and the captive Gelimer to enjoy a triumph, while Africa was formally restored to imperial rule as the praetorian prefecture of Africa. Imperial control scarcely reached beyond the old Vandal kingdom, however, and the Moorish tribes of the interior proved unwilling to accept imperial rule and soon rose up in rebellion. The new province was shaken by the wars with the Moors and military rebellions, and it was not until 548 that peace was restored and Roman government firmly established.

الخلفية

تأسيس مملكة الوندال

In the course of the gradual decline and dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in the early 5th century, the Germanic tribe of the Vandals, allied with the Alans, had established themselves in the Iberian peninsula. In 429, the Roman governor of the Diocese of Africa, Bonifacius, who had rebelled against the West Roman emperor Valentinian III (r. 425–455) and was facing an invasion by imperial troops, called upon the Vandalic King Geiseric for aid. Thus, in May 429, Geiseric crossed the straits of Gibraltar with his entire people, reportedly 80,000 in total. Geiseric's Vandals and Alans, however, had their own plans, and aimed to conquer the African provinces outright. Their possession of Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis and most of Numidia was recognized in 435 by the Western Roman court, but this was only a temporary expedient. Warfare soon recommenced, and in October 439, the capital of Africa, Carthage, fell to the Vandals. In 442, another treaty exchanged the provinces hitherto held by the Vandals with the core of the African diocese, the rich provinces of Zeugitana and Byzacena, which the Vandals received no longer as foederati of the Empire, but as their own possessions. These events marked the foundation of the Vandalic Kingdom, as the Vandals made Carthage their capital and settled around it. Although the Vandals now gained control of the lucrative African grain trade with Italy, they also launched raids on the coasts of the Mediterranean that ranged as far as the Aegean Sea and culminated in their sack of Rome itself in 455, which allegedly lasted for two weeks. Taking advantage of the chaos that followed Valentinian's death in 455, Geiseric then regained control—albeit rather tenuous—of the Mauretanian provinces, and with his fleet took over Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands. Sicily barely escaped the same fate through the presence there of Ricimer.

Throughout this period, the Vandals survived several Roman attempts at a counterstrike: the Eastern Roman general Aspar had led an unsuccessful expedition in 431, an expedition assembled by the Western emperor Majorian (r. 457–461) off the coast of Spain in 460 was scattered or captured by the Vandals before it could set sail, and finally, in 468, Geiseric defeated a huge joint expedition by both western and eastern empires under Basiliscus. In the aftermath of this disaster, and following further Vandal raids against the shores of Greece, the eastern emperor Zeno (r. 474–491) concluded a "perpetual peace" with Geiseric (474/476).

العلاقات الرومانية-الوندالية حتى 533

الاستعدادات الدبلوماسية والثورات في طرابلس وسردينيا

كان جيسريك قد توفى بعد حكم دام تسعة وثلاثين عاما 477، وعادت أفريقيا الوندالية بعد موته إلى معظم أساليبها الرومانية. فكانت اللاتينية لغتها الرسمية، وكان الشعراء يخطون فيها شعراً ميتاً ليكرموا به الملوك المنسيين. وأعيد بناء دار التمثيل في قرطاجة، وعاد الأهلون يمثلون المسرحيات اليونانية، ويعظموا آثار الفن القديم، ويقيمون مباني جديدة فخمة. ويصف المؤرخون الطبقات الحاكمة بأنها من رجال مهذبين متحضرين، تظهر عليهم في بعض الأحيان مسحة من البرونزية ولكنهم في الأغلب الأعم قد أهملوا فنون الحرب، وأخذوا يضعفون ويضمحلون شيئاً فشيئاً تحت أشعة الشمس.

القوات المتقابلة

سير الحرب

جيش بليساريوس يبحر إلى أفريقيا

واجتمعت في البسفور في شهر يونية من عام 533 خمسمائة سفينة ننطقة، وتسع وتسعون بارجة حربية، وتلقت أوامر الإمبراطور، وبركات البطريق، وأبحرت إلى قرطاجة. وكان پروكوپيوس من الذين صحبوا بليساريوس، وخط وصفاً رائعاً "لحرب الوندال". ونزل بليساريوس في أفريقيا بما لا يزيد على خمسمائة من الفرسان.

الزحف على قرطاج ومعركة أد دكيموم

اكتسح بليساريوس وسائل الدفاع الواهية عن قرطاجة، ولم تمض أكثر من بضعة أشهر حتى قضى على قوة الوندال. وعجل جستنيان فنادىه إلى احتفال بالنصر يقام بالقسطنطينية، فانقض المغاربة من التلال على الحاميات الرومانية، وأسرع بليساريوس بالعودة في الوقت المناسب القضاء على فتنة قامت بين جنوده، وقادهم بعدها للنصر، وبقيت أفريقيا (قرطاج) من ذاك الحين خاضعة للحكم الروماني إلى حتى اتى العرب فاتحين.

التبعات

فوز بليساريوس

الهامش

المصادر

• ول ديورانت. سيرة الحضارة. ترجمة بقيادة زكي نجيب محمود. Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

الرئيسية

• Procopius of Caesarea: title name on Wikisource

الثانوية

• Browning, Robert (1992). . Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press. ISBN .
• Bury, John Bagnell (1923). . London: MacMillan & Co. ISBN .
• Diehl, Charles (1896). (in French). Paris, France: Ernest Leroux.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Hughes, Ian (2009). Belisarius: The Last Roman General. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, LLC. ISBN .
• Merrils, Andy; Miles, Richard (2010). The Vandals. Chichester, U.K.; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN .