In the 460s, the Romans launched two unsuccessful military expeditions by sea in an attempt to overthrow the Vandals and reclaim North Africa.

According to historian Richard Miles, North Africa hosted "many of the most innovative writers and natural scientists" of the late Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire.

[10] However, it has been suggested that the Vandals migrated to Africa in search of safety; they had been attacked by a Roman army in 422 and had failed to seal a treaty with them.

On 28 August 430, three months into the siege, the 75-year-old St. Augustine died[11] — perhaps from starvation or stress, as the wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested.

Averil Cameron suggests that the new Vandal rule may not have been unwelcome to the population of North Africa, as the previous landowners were generally unpopular.

[13]The impression given by sources such as Victor of Vita, Possidius,[14] Quodvultdeus, and Fulgentius of Ruspe was that the Vandal takeover of Carthage and North Africa led to widespread destruction.

Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, dispatched an expedition to deal with the Vandals in 441, but it progressed only as far as Sicily.

French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) Algerian War (1954–1962) 1990s–2000s 2010s to present Historians since Edward Gibbon have seen the capture of North Africa by the Vandals and Alans as the "deathblow"[19] and "the greatest single blow"[20] to the Western Roman Empire in its struggle to survive.

After Attila the Hun's death in 453, however, the Romans turned their attention back to the Vandals, who were now in control of some of the richest lands formerly ruled by Rome.

Timeline The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine[23] offers the only 5th-century report that on 2 June 455, Pope Leo the Great received Gaiseric and implored him to abstain from murder and destruction by fire, and to be satisfied with pillage.

A maritime force staged from Cartagena in Hispania would take Mauretania and then march on Carthage, while a simultaneous assault, commanded by Marcellinus, would retake Sicily.

The Emperor assembled his fleet in 460, but Gaiseric learned of the impending assault and "put a scorched earth policy into effect in Mauretania – scouring the land and poisoning the wells in advance of the planned imperial offensive."

Externally, Vandal power had been declining since Gaiseric's death; Gunthamund lost large parts of Sicily to Theodoric's Ostrogoths and had to withstand increasing pressure from the native Berbers, who raided everything inland up to the coast.

[29] In 510 the Frexenses Berber tribe under king Guenfan seized a portion of territory south of Thugga and established the kingdom of Dorsale, pushing the Vandals further out of inland.

While an expedition was en route, Gelimer's brother Tzazo led a large part of the Vandal army and navy to Sardinia to deal with a rebellion by the Gothic nobleman Godas.

This persecution began with the unfettered violence inflicted against the church during Gaiseric's invasion, but, with the legitimization of the Vandal Kingdom, the oppression became entrenched in "more coherent religious policies."

"[46] He has also argued along with Richard Miles that the Vandals initially targeted the Nicene Church for financial rather than religious reasons, seeking to rob it of its wealth.

[45] Once Gaiseric secured his hold over Numidia and Mauretania in the treaty of 435, he worked "to destroy the power of the Nicene church in his new territories by seizing the basilicas of three of the most intransigent bishops and expelling them from their cities.

"[47] Similar policies continued with the capture of Carthage in 439 as the Vandal king made efforts to simultaneously advance the Arian church and oppress Nicene practices.

Heather notes that four major churches within the city walls were confiscated for the Arians, and a ban was imposed on all Nicene services in areas in which Vandals settled; Gaiseric also had Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage, and many of his clergy exiled from Africa and refused "to allow replacements to be ordained… so that the total number of Nicene bishops within the Vandal kingdom suffered a decline.

In 454, at the request of Valentinian III, Gaiseric installed Deogratius as the new Bishop of Carthage, a position that had been left empty since Quodvultdeus's departure.

Heather argues that this accession was intended to improve Vandal–Roman relations as Gaiseric negotiated the marriage of his son Huneric to the Princess Eudocia.

[49] However, after Valentinian was killed and Vandal relations with Rome and Constantinople worsened, Gaiseric renewed his oppressive religious policies, leaving the bishopric empty once again when Deogratius died in 457.

He notes a "key distinction" between "the anti-Nicene character" of Gaiseric's actions in Proconsularis and the rest of his kingdom; persecution was most intense when it was in proximity to his Arian followers.

[43] Heather suggests that Arianism was a means for Gaiseric to keep his followers united and under control; wherever his people interacted with Nicenes, this strategy was threatened.

[51] Violence continued with "men and women… subjected to a series of torments including scalping, forced labour and execution by sword and fire.

[citation needed] While primary sources reveal little about Gunthamund's religious policies, existing evidence does suggest that the new king was "generally better disposed towards the Chalcedonian faith than his predecessor [Huneric] had been" and maintained a period of tolerance.

[52] Gunthamund ended the desert exile of a bishop called Eugenius and also restored the Nicene shrine of Saint Agileus in Carthage.

He reintroduced "harsh measures against the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy" but "worked to maintain positive relations with the Romano-African lay elite," his intention being to split the loyalties of the two groups.

The wealth that the Vandal leaders accumulated was spent on luxurious town houses and religious buildings, according to literary sources and archeology.