Justinian

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In AD 468, organized by both the Eastern and the Western Roman Empires, a mighty seaborne expedition — the largest the Ancient World had ever seen, set sail from Constantinople. Its aim: to expel from Africa the Vandals, a ferocious and destructive German tribe who had occupied the Western diocese some forty years before. If successful, the enterprise had the potential to save the Western Empire, crumbling under the onslaught of other German peoples — Franks, Visigoths, Suevi, Alamanni, et al. Prior to the Vandal invasion, Africa had been the West’s richest and most productive possession. Liberated, she would have the potential again to provide revenue sufficient to revive the West’s economy and to replenish her decimated armies, enabling them to drive out, or at least contain, the barbarian invaders.

In the event however, the expedition was a total disaster. Pinned by contrary winds against a lee shore, the Roman fleet was scattered by Vandal fireships, its vessels doomed to burn, founder on rocks, or be picked off by Vandal boarding parties who had the wind in their favour. With the funds of both empires now exhausted, no further rescue attempts could be forthcoming. Immediately grasping this fact, the barbarians proceeded swiftly to overrun the remaining Western enclaves. In only eight short years the West went from something to nothing; in 476 the last Western emperor was deposed, and the empire he nominally ruled came to an end.

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