Invasion of Gaul by Vandals

Date: December 31, 406 • Location: Berlin, Germany

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 406–409.

Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.

The Vandals were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned in passing by a small number of Roman writers in the first and second centuries, but became more prominent starting in the late second century during the tumultuous Marcomannic Wars of the Romans against many of the Germanic peoples north of the Danube, when Hasdingi-led Vandals took the side of the Romans, in exchange for territory in or near Dacia. It was also under Hasdingi leadership that large numbers of Vandals later migrated and formed a powerful Vandal Kingdom that ruled Roman North Africa for several generations until it was conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in 534.