Genseric, Master of the Mediterranean, King of the Vandals – coming in 2017

Historical Fiction based on A True Story. To be published 2017

During the early Byzantine era Genseric ‘King of the Vandals’, from Germania, dominated the Mediterranean and conquered Rome without a fight. Chased by the Visigoths, Genseric led his Germanic tribe out of poverty and obscurity into Hispania. Crossing over the ocean to North Africa on boats he designed and built himself, he promised a better life for his wife, and the prospect of land ownership for those who would follow him.

His boat building knowledge learned while a young man, and the fall of Adrianople, changed his strategy on warfare against the Roman Empire. After conquering Carthage, he challenged the Mediterranean fleets of Emperor Valentinian III, and several brilliant battles later, he ruled the seas unchallenged. These events forced an unholy alliance with the Catholic Church in Rome and Constantinople. Within the machinations of the Empire his own people murdered Valentinian and Petronius Maximus usurped him.

The Holy Roman Church thought if propitious to renege on its agreement with Genseric, and canceled their deal. In response Genseric attacked important Roman Mediterranean ports, conquered city after city until he sailed his army to the very Gates of Rome. While under siege Pope Leo I pleaded with him not to destroy Rome. Because he adopted his wife’s Christian faith he agreed not to brutalize the city. Without a fight Rome opened its gates to the conqueror.

For several months, he and his North African armies occupied the city taking what rightfully the church promised him, including the hand in marriage to his son, Huneric, of the beautiful daughter of Empress Licinia Eudoxia, now the widow of Valentinian. When the conqueror left Rome, contrary to the church’s slanderous and maligned version of history, the city was intact, not burned, and the citizens not brutalized.  He did take Licinia and all her daughters back to Carthage, hoping to live in peace for his remaining days.

In revenge for this act, both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire took up arms, and attempted to target him and his armies. The Romans won many skirmishes and small battles against Genseric, but could not totally defeat him. Then, the Romans mustered a great naval fleet, outnumbering Genseric’s ships ten to one, led by the famous Roman General Basiliseus. This new perspective of history uncovers the truth of the Vandals, and shreds the commonly held Holy Roman Church version of the Vandals. Read the end of the book, and find out the thrilling conclusion of “Genseric, Master of the Mediterranean, King of the Vandals.”