The fall of the Vandals is closely linked to changes in the political direction of the penultimate king of Africa, Hilderic, who departed from the previous principles of autonomy and autarky - politically, religiously and culturally - to move closer to the Empire and the Emperor. This policy met with strong resistance, all the more so as Hildéric failed against the Moors. In 532 AD, Gelimer's coup d'état led to the intervention of Justinian (who presented himself as Hilderic's protector) and the invasion of Belisarius. The latter's short but effective campaign exposed the military weaknesses of the Vandal kingdom, still basking in the glory of Genseric. It also revealed that, despite a hundred years of reign, Vandal power had not yet taken root in Africa.
The Vandal catastrophe shows, as if in a converging mirror, the profound difficulties encountered elsewhere by the Gothic kingdoms. But the Vandals' difficulties were more precise and radical. We rob them of their specificity - we might even say, their tragic specificity - if we make of them, at first, somewhat subordinate auxiliary troops, then "local" Romans, integrated into the empire. In reality, after Belisarius' victory and years of difficult apprenticeship, it was the Byzantines who became the heirs to Roman Africa, and more intensely and permanently than the Vandals.
