Huneric

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Huneric (d. December 23, 484) was King of the Vandals (477 – 484) and the oldest son of Geiseric. He dropped the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to Eudocia, daughter of western Roman Emperor Valentinian III (419–455), but she left him probably in 472. She had one son with him, Hilderic.

Despite his adherence to Arian Christianity, at the beginning of his reign Huneric allowed the election of a new Catholic bishop of Carthage and persecuted the Manichaean sect. Then he started persecuting Catholics: he punished all Catholic Vandals. Furthermore, he tried to make Catholic property fall to the state, but when this caused too much protest from the Byzantine emperor, he chose to banish a number of Catholics to a faraway province instead. On February 1, 484 he organised a meeting of Catholic bishops with Arian bishops, but on February 24, 484 he proclaimed Catholics heretics. A number of Catholic bishops were banished to Corsica, most others were removed from their office but allowed to stay near their former diocese. A few were martyred. Catholic tradition states that Victorian, a former proconsul under Huneric, was martyred at Hadrumetum after refusing to become an Arian, along with Frumentius and other wealthy merchants.[1]

Huneric also murdered many members of Hasdingi dynasty. Huneric was the first Vandal king who used title of king of Vandals and Alans. He was succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund (reigned 484–496), and was little mourned by either the Vandals or their subjects due to his cruelty.

In his relations with other states, Huneric did not have the prestige that his father Geiseric had enjoyed. Nevertheless, the Vandals maintained their seapower and their hold on the islands of the western Mediterranean Sea. But the Moors in the inlands of Algeria, who had been quiet in Geiseric's days, managed to conquer some Vandal outposts in their area, thus severing the connection between the Vandal heartland around Carthage and their westernmost possessions around Tangiers.