Astral Codex Ten

Vandals

5 min read

Vandals

Article

Vandals is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between May 06, 2021 and February 05, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as “Vandals conquered wealthy north Africa”; “In the 430s, the Vandals snuck into north Africa”; “because the Vandals took North Africa”. It most often appears alongside Romans, Rome, Africa.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: May 06, 2021
  • Last seen: February 05, 2026

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Through The Eye Of A Needle
May 06, 2021 · Original source
Within a generation, much of the wealth of great senators like Symmachus was lost or slipped into the Christian church. Goths sacked the city of Rome. Vandals conquered wealthy north Africa and the great city of Carthage. Over the next hundred years, western Europe and north Africa completed their transformation from a classical pagan society to a medieval Christian one. It was not only a political revolution. "It was in this world that the conglomerate of ideas that medieval persons took for granted was first formed." This period rivals the Enlightenment as the most dramatic transformation of the West.
In the 430s, the Vandals snuck into north Africa. They took prosperous Carthage and the surrounding region by surprise. The loss of the extraordinary wealthy region broke the “tax spine” of the western empire. “By 431, the tax revenues of the empire had probably dropped by 50 percent. After the loss of Carthage, they dropped further. The Respublica was left with a quarter of the resources it had enjoyed under the emperor Valentinian I [in 375 AD].”
Another inefficient equilibrium was north Africa growing grain for the Roman annona. The land should have been put to more productive uses. As soon as the Vandals took control of north Africa, the land was put to more productive uses. The annona was a system originally used to secure the loyalty of the citizens of Rome. Early in the history of the Respublica, the political whims of Rome determined who could rule. By the late empire, Rome was politically irrelevant. Still, the annona lived on. North Africa was required to grow grains for the politically irrelevant citizens of Rome. When the Vandals conquered north Africa, they unlocked “synergies” by allowing north Africa to become more productive. If the Respublica had used north Africa more productively, there would have been extra resources to maintain the empire.
Your Book Review: The Weirdest People in the World
August 11, 2023 · Original source
It is worth thinking how a historian might tell the story of “the West getting prosperous” in the bicycling-up-a-mountain genre. One response is that narrative just isn’t good enough to prove causality. A bunch of bloody stories aren’t a substitute for real science! But that seems too negative. In court, the facts of a case are established by narrative: you can’t run a randomized trial to decide whether Colonel Mustard did it in the pantry with the candlestick. I think at best, historical narrative can establish causality the same way. In doing so it leans on existing human knowledge. The Western Empire ultimately collapsed because the Vandals took North Africa. We think so because of simple physical facts: how much grain a human needs to survive, the Empire’s population, the agricultural capacity of Europe with Africa cut off. Other historical claims are based on common sense psychology. The First Crusade doesn’t happen without Urban II’s speech to the assembled French nobility at Clermont, because no sensible knight would set off to fight the Saracens on his own.
Links For February 2026
February 05, 2026 · Original source
45: Where is the original menorah from the Second Temple? We know the Romans took it when they sacked Jerusalem. We think the Vandals took it when they sacked Rome, and brought it to their capital of Carthage. The Byzantines might have taken it when they sacked Carthage, and maybe brought it back to Jerusalem? After the Persians sacked Jerusalem in 614, the trail goes completely dark, although there are the usual legends that it was hidden away, to be returned in the age of the Messiah (or something). Other people say it never left Rome, and is still hidden somewhere in the Vatican.
Inline links: Where is the original menorah from the Second Temple?