Under their leader Genseric, the Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa and captured Hippo Regius in August 431, which they made the capital of their kingdom.

[4] In 406, the Vandals advanced from Pannonia travelling west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who populated and controlled Romanized regions in northern Gaul.

The Silingian Vandals were almost exterminated, but the remains of the Alani, a Turanian people from Iran,[6] marched across Spain and took possession of Andalusia.

They set sail later that year upon receiving an invitation from Bonifacius, count of Africa (although this is disputed by some scholars), who had fallen out of favor with the imperial court at Ravenna, and may have provided the ships needed to make the voyage.

Leading a mixed army of Roman African and Gothic origin, he was defeated by Genseric near the town of Calama and retreated with the survivors of the battle to the city of Hippo Regius.

Gaiseric's sack of Rome in 455, undertaken in response to the call of Licinia Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian, was only the greatest of his marauding exploits.

One of the princesses, Eudocia, was married to Hunneric, eldest son of Gaiseric; her mother and sister, after long and tedious negotiations, were sent to Constantinople.