Vandal tribe. Who are the medieval vandals?

Vandals – German people, probably mixed with Slavs. He first lived in what is now Lusatia, an area at the junction of the borders of Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. At the end of the second century, some Vandal tribes were allies of Rome, along with the Marcomanni and Quadi. Then they waged war with the emperors Aurelian And Trying, were defeated and partly exterminated, partly transferred to Britain. Northeastern Vandals, around 272, settled in what is now Transylvania and eastern Hungary, but were driven out goths, received permission from Emperor Constantine the Great to settle further west, in Pannonia, pledging to help the Romans in wars.

In 406, the Vandals, under the leadership of Gunderic, left their new homes, and united along the way with Alans and the Suevi, entered Gaul; They devastated Argentorat (Strasbourg), Mogontsiak (Mainz) and other cities, defeated the Franks, and, crossing the Pyrenees Mountains in 409, invaded Spain. Here the Suevi established themselves in the present Old Castile, Alans in Portugal, and Vandals in Galicia. Around 420, these latter conquered the Alans, defeated the Suevi, but pressed by new newcomers, the Visigoths, were forced to retire to Betica, the southern coastal region of Spain, later named after them, Vandalusia, or Andalusia.

Barbarians. Vandals. Video

Their king then was brave and enterprising Genserich, brother and successor of Gunderic. Summoned to North Africa by the Roman commander of that province Boniface, Genseric sailed there in 429 with all his people. Boniface, having made peace with Empress Placidia, did not want to fulfill the promises made to the Vandals, and tried to drive them away with weapons, but was defeated, and Genseric, with the assistance of the native inhabitants, little by little conquered the entire northern coast of Africa, from Tangier to Libyan Tripoli. Carthage became the capital of his new state. Soon Genseric annexed the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Majorca and Minorca to his possessions. His fleet dominated the Mediterranean, and spread terror along the shores of Italy, even Rome was taken and plundered by vandals(at 455).

Genseric died in 477, and soon afterwards the fall of his state began, accelerated by Genseric's will that the throne should always belong to the eldest of the royal house. His son, Gunneric, and nephews, Gundamund and Trasimund (from 478 to 523), reigned cruelly, and belonging to the Arians sect, oppressed their Orthodox subjects. Hilderic, the successor of Trasimund, was tolerant and meek in relation to the conquered Roman population of Africa, but having thereby lost the love of the people, he was overthrown from the throne by his relative in 530 Gelimer. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian took advantage of this circumstance to, under the pretext of returning supreme power to Hilderic, send his famous commander Belisarius with 20,000 troops to Africa. During the Vandal War that began in this way, Gelimer was defeated in two battles, forced to surrender (534) and brought to Constantinople in triumph; With him, the Vandal kingdom in Africa, which existed for 106 years, also disappeared. The remnants of the Vandals were partly transferred to the Roman legions settled on the border of Persia, and partly mixed with the peoples of North Africa.

group of tribes eastern Germans (mainly - Silings and Asdings). Original lived on Skand. peninsula. At the turn of the 2nd and 1st centuries. BC. moved to the south. coast of the Baltic Sea. In the 1st - 3rd centuries. AD occupied the region Wed. and Top. Oder and further south up to the Danube. We entered into time. alliances with other Germans. tribes, in the 2nd century. participation in the Marcomannic War with Rome. In 270, together with the Sarmatians, they invaded the territory. Rome. Pannonia. Having suffered defeat, conclusion. peace treaty with the empire, according to which obligations. supply cavalry for Rome. auxiliary troops. In 335 the emperors were settled. Constantine in Pannonia as federates. By this time, V. had already gone far into the process of decomposition of the genera. relations, a wealthy person stood out. ancestral nobility. However, state the organization was just beginning to take shape: the king’s functions did not go beyond the military. leads In the 4th century. ed. with the Alans. In the beginning. 5th century V. and the Alans, under pressure from the Goths advancing from the East, moved to the West, passed through Gaul and in 409 settled in Spain. By 405, the Visigoths pushed them back to the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Capture. military personnel in Gaul and Spain. V. were turned into slaves. Means. The process of formation of V. classes and state accelerated. The queens have strengthened. power, especially under King Geiseric (428 - 477); he recognized the Arianism of the official. religion. In 429 V. they crossed Gibraltar and, using. weakened authorities of Rome Empires in this region have been captured. part of rome Africa (its center, Carthage, was captured in 439). In 442 between East and Rome. The empire concluded a peace treaty, according to which the Proconsular Province, Byzacena and Vostochny went to V. Numidia (territory of modern Tunisia and Eastern Algeria). In 455 Geiseric captured the rest of Numidia, Mauretania and Tripolitania. Kingdom of V. in the North. Africa to mid. 5th century turned into the strongest state. Mediterranean. V. captured Sicily, in 455 they sacked Rome (hence the expression “vandalism”), in 468 they destroyed a large fleet, sent. Vost against them. Rome. empire. In 476 Rome. imp. Zenon official recognized Geiseric's rights to Africa, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. King Huniric (477 - 484) banned orthodoxy. religion However, as the earth develops. V.'s aristocracy is drawing closer to Rome. nobility. Under kings Guntamund (484 - 496) and Thrasamund (496 - 523), a policy of religions was pursued. religious tolerance, plural Rome. the aristocrats were returned to the previous confiscations. possessions. Simultaneously contradictions grew between enrichers. nobles and ordinary soldiers, which led to the end. 5 - beginning 6th centuries k means. weakened Vandalsk. kingdoms. Berber tribes captured Mauretania, Numidia, part of Byzacena and Tripolitania from Britain. King Childeric (523 - 530) pursued a policy of subordination. vandalsk kingdom of Byzantium, which caused resistance. troops that overthrew Childeric and proclaimed. king of Gelimer (530 - 534). In 533 - 534 the kingdom of V. was defeated. Byzantine military leader Belisarius. In the 30s - 40s. 6th century V. took part in the uprisings against the Byzantines. will conquer (Stotza's rebellion). Part of V. was sold into slavery, the rest were stolen. V local population.

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I spoke with the vandals and provided the following information on their early history: « The Vandals formerly lived near Meotida [Sea of Azov]. Suffering from hunger, they headed to the Germans, now called Franks, and to the Rhine River, adding to themselves the Gothic tribe of Alans.»

Archeology and place names

Historians localize the Vandals in the first centuries AD somewhere in the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers (Poland territory). There is ongoing debate among archaeologists about ethnic background archaeological cultures in those places in the first centuries AD. German scientists attributed the carriers of the Przeworsk culture to the Germanic Vandals and Lugians, Polish and Soviet archaeologists tried to prove its Slavic origin. Soviet archaeologist V.V. Sedov admitted the German-Slavic polyethnicity of the Przeworsk culture, but most archaeologists now recognize its non-Slavic character. If the Przeworsk archaeological culture belongs to the Vandals, then this indicates that the Vandals lived between the Oder and the Vistula before the beginning of our era. Through their lands in - centuries. The Goths migrated from Scandinavia and left their mark in the form of monuments of the Wielbar archaeological culture.

Presumably, the name of Silesia, the region around the upper reaches of the Oder (modern southwest Poland), came from the name of one of the Vandal Siling tribes. The historian at the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries Dio Cassius calls the Gigantic Mountains, which separate the Czech Republic from Silesia, the Vandal Mountains.

Vandals on early stage were a related group of tribes with their own leaders. Among the tribes in the chronicles of different years, Asdings, Silings and possibly Lakrings are noted. Jordan reported that one of the Vandal kings at the beginning of the 4th century came from the Asting family. When the Vandals invaded Spain in 409, they had two kings: one led by the Vandals (traditionally referred to as the Asdings), and the other by the Siling Vandals.

There are no complete monuments of the Vandal language; quite a few proper names are known and the beginning of one Vandal prayer (froja armes - “Lord, have mercy”). This meager information was enough to create an almost complete phonetic picture of the Vandal language. It follows from them that the language of the Vandals represented an independent branch of the eastern or Gothic branch of Germanic dialects.

II-III centuries

A little later, Emperor Probus again fights with the Vandals on the Danube; he allowed some of them to settle on Roman territory. At the same time, at the end of the 3rd century, wars between the Vandals and the Goths and Taifals were noted.

IV century

Jordanes reported the first known by name king of the Vandals, Vizimar, from the glorious family of Astings. Vizimar and a large number of his fellow tribesmen died in a battle with the Gothic king Geberich on the banks of the Marosh River (the left tributary of the Tisza). The battle took place in the 330s. The surviving Vandals moved under Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) to the right bank of the Danube in Pannonia (modern Hungary and Austria), where they lived as subjects of the Roman Empire for 60 years.

Gregory of Tours does not have a time reference for when the unsuccessful battle for the Vandals took place, although he noted that Frigerides reported it along with a description of Alaric’s capture of Rome, that is, closer to 410. This account is usually dated to 406, when other sources record the invasion of Gaul by Vandals, Alans and Suevi across the Rhine. On the other hand, the Venerable Bede noticed that the Vandals and Alans invaded Gaul, defeating the Franks. Perhaps by the victorious Franks Frigerides meant the barbarian troops of the usurper from Britain Constantine, who captured Britain, Gaul and Spain from the Western Roman emperor Honorius. The 2nd half of the 5th century historian Zosimus reported an invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, Suevi and Alans in 406. Immediately after this he describes Constantine's defeat of the barbarians:

“The Romans won victory by destroying most of the barbarians; however, they did not pursue those who managed to escape (otherwise they would have killed everyone before one person) and thus gave them the opportunity to make up for their losses by recruiting other barbarians fit for battle."

One of the most important military leaders of the Western Roman Empire, Stilicho, was descended from the Vandals on his father's side. Probably, this fact later served to accuse him of inviting the Vandals to Gaul in order to transfer imperial power to his son with their help.

The forces of the western Roman Empire were diverted from Gaul to defend Italy itself. In the summer of 406, near Florence, Stilicho managed to defeat the crowds of German barbarians Radagais, but from the side of Illyria the Goth Alaric loomed over Italy, who besieged Rome already in and plundered it in .

The Asding Vandals were led by Godagisl's youngest son Gunderic, who became the new leader along with his brother Geiseric. According to the chronicler Idatius, the Alans played the main role in the alliance of barbarian tribes until 418.

The poet Orientius described the invasion briefly: “ all of Gaul began to smoke with one fire" Contemporaries of the invasion, Orosius and Jerome, reported that the relatively densely populated and rich country was completely destroyed by crowds of aliens.

The barbarian raids were facilitated by the difficult internal political situation in the empire, which had recently been divided into Western and Eastern. In 410, 6 rulers reigned simultaneously: the legitimate emperors Honorius in the west and Theodosius in the east, father and son Constantine and Constant in Gaul and Britain, Maximus in the north of Spain in Tarragona, and the protege of the Gothic leader Alaric Attalus in Rome. The barbarians were used in the struggle for power, ceding some territories to them.

Isidore described the misfortunes of the Spaniards from the newcomers:

“Killing and devastating, far and wide, they set fire to cities and devoured looted supplies, so that the population, out of hunger, even ate human flesh. Mothers ate their children; wild animals, accustomed to feasting on the bodies of those who had fallen from the sword, hunger or pestilence, even attacked the living..."

“organized a grandiose massacre of barbarians in the name of Rome. He defeated the Siling Vandals in Baetica in battle. He destroyed the Alans, who ruled the Vandals and Suevi, so thoroughly that when their king Ataxes was killed, the few who survived forgot the name of their kingdom and submitted to the Vandal king of Galicia, Gunderic.

When the Goths retired to Gaul, Gunderic attacked the neighbors of the Sueves in 419. After this, he left mountainous Galicia and headed to the richer Baetica, which was deserted after the extermination of the Silings there.

Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in Africa. 439-534

Sources differ about the reasons that prompted the vandals to move to northern Africa. Cassiodorus connected the resettlement of the Vandals with the arrival of the Visigoths in Spain. Most other authors conveyed the version that the Vandals came at the invitation of the Roman governor in Libya, Comite Africa Boniface, who decided to usurp power in the African provinces and called for the help of the barbarians, promising them 2/3 of the territory. In 429, 80 thousand people crossed Gibraltar under the leadership of King Geiseric. After a series of battles with the troops of Boniface and the Empire, the Vandals captured a number of provinces. According to the peace treaty of 435, the Emperor of the West, Valentinian III, recognized the Vandals for their acquisitions in exchange for an annual tribute to the empire.

The kingdom of Vandals and Alans with almost 100 years of history, which became one of the first German states, ceased to exist. North Africa came under the rule of Byzantium, and 5 detachments were formed from 2 thousand captured Vandals for the war with the Persians. Byzantine soldiers for the most part from the barbarians, they took the Vandal women as wives. The Byzantine governor in North Africa expelled the unreliable vandals outside Libya. The remnants of the Vandals disappeared without a trace among the much larger native population of North Africa.

Vandals, Vends, Slavs. VIII-XVI centuries

Mixing Vandals with Avars and Vendas

Several hundred years after the fall of the Vandal kingdom, with the end of the Dark Ages, interest in historiography awakens in Western Europe. National chronicles, chronicle data and historical works retold in the narrative genre, medieval writers replace the absence of written sources with oral legends and sometimes speculation. The Vandal tribe left a noticeable mark on the history of the Great Migration; the Vandal raids and especially the sack of Rome aroused interest in this people, who in the last decades of their history found themselves geographically isolated from other Germanic tribes.

Mixing Vandals with Poles and Russians

“Wanda, having received oaths of allegiance and vassalage from the Alemanni, returned home and brought sacrifices to the gods corresponding to her great glory and outstanding successes. Jumping into the Vistula River, she paid tribute human nature and crossed the threshold of the underworld. From then on, the Vistula River received the name Vandal after Queen Wanda, and from this name the Poles and others Slavic peoples, adjacent to their states, began to be called not Lechites, but Vandalites.”

The author of the Greater Poland Chronicle used popular works of the 13th century, in which Attila appeared as the leader of the Slavs, and the Hungarians were also a Slavic people.

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Notes

Pliny the Elder
Idatsii
Vigilan Codex:
Preserved in the ancient Germanic epic as component the name "sea of vandals". See N. Francovich Onesti, Vandali: Lingua e Storia.
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, 4.28
N. Francovich Onesti, Vandali: Lingua e Storia. Roma: Carocci editore, 2002: professor's monograph Germanic philology University of Siena
Kossina, 1914, s. 141; La Baume, 1934, s. 108
Kostrzewski, 1946, p. 71-76; Lehr-Spławiński, 1948, s. 266, Tretyakov, 1953, p. 105
Hachmann et al., 1962, s. 56; Godlowski, 1984, p. 327; V.D. Baran, 1990, p. 326
"Ουανδαλικα όρη": Dio Cass., Hist. Rom., 55.1
Wiktionary: water|See.
Procopius, “War with the Vandals”, book 1, 2.2
Brockhaus and Efron. Encyclopedic Dictionary. St. Petersburg, 1880
Dio Cassius writes ’Αστιγγοι, that is, astings. Dion does not use the name Vandals, but apparently the Astings meant the Vandal tribe, traditionally called the Asdingi.
Historians sometimes consider the Lakrings to be one of the Vandal tribes (Article by Yu. K. Kolosovskaya in the collection “History of Europe in eight volumes. From ancient times to the present day.” Volume 1, chapter 15. - M. Nauka, 1988). According to Dio Cassius, the Lacringi already lived near or on the territory of Dacia, while the Astingi were newcomers.
Cassius Dio, Roman History, 72.12:
Cassius Dio, Roman History, 78.20:
Jordanes, "Getica", 91
« Both kings and with them others, not much inferior to them in dignity": Fragments from Dexippus's essay on the Scythian war: Exc. De legat gent Nieb. eleven; Mul. 24. Mai II. 319
: “Another part of the Goths, reinforced by a detachment of Taifals, enters into battle with the Vandals and Hypides...”
Marcellinus Comite brought the news in 427 that Pannonia had been returned to Rome after the Huns had held it for 50 years.
Zosimus, Historia Nova, 6.3
Orosius, VII.38.1
Orosius, VII.38.4
The exact day of the invasion is given in the chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, author of the 1st half of the 5th century: Wandali et Halani Gallias trajecto Rheno ingressi II k. Jan.
Procopius of Caesarea reports that both brothers ruled simultaneously. But since Geiseric was born of a concubine, Godagisl’s legitimate son Gunderic was recognized as king, although he was still a child.
The date of the invasion of Spain was reported by an eyewitness, the Spanish Bishop Idatius: “ Some call the 4th day before the Kalends (September 28), others - the 3rd day (October 13) before the Ides of October, on Tuesday, the eighth consulate of Honorius and the third of Theodosius, son of Arcadius.» Idat. Chron., a. 409
Sozomen, " Church history", 9.11
Isidore of Seville, "History of the Vandals", 72
Wandali cognomine Silingic
Orosius, 7.41: barbari exsecrate gladios suos ad aratra
Isidore of Seville, “History of the Goths,” 22. According to the chronicle of Idation: 418.
Idatius reports the capture of Fridubald under 416, and the destruction of the Silings in the entry under 418:
The title of the Vandal king Huniric is recorded in a document from 483: rex Hunirix Wandalorum et Alanorum
Idatius, XXVIII; Paul the Deacon, "Roman History", 13.6; Prosper, 422
Idatius, 429
See article Boniface (Roman general)
Chronicle Ave. Aqu. ,sub a. 435
G.-I. Disney in his book “Kingdom of the Vandals” gave the following description of this mosaic: “ Many people give an idea of Vandal horse breeding written sources, but first of all, a mosaic discovered near Carthage (Borj Djedid), which depicts, although unarmed, but definitely a Vandal horseman in a jacket and tight pants, undoubtedly belonging to the serving nobility.»
The adherents of the Nicene Creed were known by this name. IN modern literature they are called “Nicene”, Orthodox, Orthodox, Catholic. Before the Great Schism, there were no modern Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Procopius Kes., “War with the Vandals,” book. 2
Pepin went to the region of the Vandals, and the Vandals came out to meet him [with weapons in their hands]
Lorsch Annals, Annals of St. Amand.
A selection of references to the Slavs/Vandals by medieval German chroniclers is contained in the review work of R. Steinacher:
A selection of references by medieval German chroniclers to the Slavic Vandals is contained in the review work of R. Steinacher:
The Greater Poland Chronicle relies on the work of Gall Anonymus, a late 11th-century author, to describe the early history of Poland, but Gall lacks the legend of Wanda and the Vandals, which first appeared in the later work of the Polish chronicler Wincenta Kadlubek.
Merkulov V. I. Where are the Varangian guests from? (genealogical reconstruction based on German sources). - M., 2005. - P. 23-27. - 119 p.
Orbini M.// Slavic kingdom. - M.: OLMA Media Group, 2010. - pp. 118-126. - 528 p. - 2000 copies.
Merkulov V. I.- ISBN 978-5-373-0271-4.

Where are the Varangian guests from? (genealogical reconstruction based on German sources). - M., 2005. - P. 53-57. - 119 p.

Sources
Sources
. Eastern Literature. Retrieved February 18, 2011. .
: in addition to Jordan’s essay, the publication contains detailed comments on the vandals of E. Ch. Skrzhinskaya.
: Chronicle of Bishop Idatius in Latin. : 1889 academic publication on the history of the late Roman Empire and barbarian peoples

with detailed links to primary sources.

Literature F. A. Brown.
// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907. Alphan L.
Barbarians. From the great migration of peoples to the Turkic conquests of the 11th century. - St. Petersburg. , 2003. Diligensky G. G.
North Africa in the IV-V centuries. - M., 1961. Disner G.-I.
. - St. Petersburg. : Eurasia, 2002. Korsunsky A. R., Gunter R.
Decline and death of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of the German kingdoms. - M., 1984. Sirotenko V. T. Story international relations
Decline and death of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of the German kingdoms. - M., 1984. in Europe in the second half of the 4th - early 6th centuries. - Perm, 1975. Popular movements

in North Africa and the kingdom of the Vandals and Alans: Textbook. allowance. - Dnepropetrovsk, 1990.

Excerpt characterizing the Vandals
Balashev dined that day with the marshal in the same barn, on the same board on barrels.
After four days of solitude, boredom, a sense of subordination and insignificance, especially palpable after the environment of power in which he had so recently found himself, after several marches along with the marshal’s luggage, with the French troops occupying the entire area, Balashev was brought to Vilna, now occupied by the French , to the same outpost where he left four days ago.
The next day, the imperial chamberlain, monsieur de Turenne, came to Balashev and conveyed to him the desire of Emperor Napoleon to honor him with an audience.
Four days ago, at the house to which Balashev was taken, there were sentries of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, but now there were two French grenadiers in blue uniforms open on their chests and in shaggy hats, a convoy of hussars and lancers and a brilliant retinue of adjutants, pages and generals waiting to leave Napoleon around a riding horse standing at the porch and his Mameluke Rustav. Napoleon received Balashev in the very house in Vilva from which Alexander sent him.

Despite Balashev's habit of court solemnity, the luxury and pomp of Emperor Napoleon's court amazed him.
Count Turen led him into a large reception room, where many generals, chamberlains and Polish magnates were waiting, many of whom Balashev had seen at the court of the Russian emperor. Duroc said that Emperor Napoleon would receive the Russian general before his walk.
After several minutes of waiting, the chamberlain on duty came out into the large reception room and, bowing politely to Balashev, invited him to follow him.
Balashev entered a small reception room, from which there was one door to an office, the very office from which the Russian emperor sent him. Balashev stood there for about two minutes, waiting. Hasty steps were heard outside the door. Both halves of the door quickly opened, the chamberlain who opened it stopped respectfully, waiting, everything became quiet, and other, firm, decisive steps sounded from the office: it was Napoleon. He had just finished his riding toilet. He was in blue uniform, open over a white vest that hung down to his round belly, wearing white leggings that hugged the fat thighs of his short legs, and boots. His short hair had obviously just been combed, but one strand of hair hung down over the middle wide forehead. His white, plump neck protruded sharply from behind the black collar of his uniform; he smelled of cologne. On his youthful, plump face with a prominent chin there was an expression of gracious and majestic imperial greeting.
He walked out, shaking quickly with every step and throwing his head back a little. His entire plump, short figure with wide, thick shoulders and an involuntarily protruding belly and chest had that representative, dignified appearance that forty-year-old people living in the hallway have. In addition, it was clear that he was in the best spirits that day.
He nodded his head, responding to Balashev’s low and respectful bow, and, approaching him, immediately began to speak like a man who treasures every minute of his time and does not deign to prepare his speeches, but is confident in what he will always say ok and what needs to be said.
- Hello, general! - he said. “I received the letter from Emperor Alexander that you delivered, and I am very glad to see you.” – He looked into Balashev’s face with his big eyes and immediately began to look ahead past him.
It was obvious that he was not at all interested in Balashev’s personality. It was clear that only what was happening in his soul was of interest to him. Everything that was outside of him did not matter to him, because everything in the world, as it seemed to him, depended only on his will.
“I do not want and did not want war,” he said, “but I was forced into it.” Even now (he said this word with emphasis) I am ready to accept all the explanations that you can give me. - And he clearly and briefly began to state the reasons for his displeasure against the Russian government.
Judging by the moderately calm and friendly tone with which the French emperor spoke, Balashev was firmly convinced that he wanted peace and intended to enter into negotiations.
- Sire! L "Empereur, mon maitre, [Your Majesty! The Emperor, my lord,] - Balashev began a long-prepared speech when Napoleon, having finished his speech, looked questioningly at the Russian ambassador; but the look of the emperor’s eyes fixed on him confused him. “You are confused “Get over yourself,” Napoleon seemed to say, looking at Balashev’s uniform and sword with a barely noticeable smile. Balashev recovered and began to say that Emperor Alexander did not consider Kurakin’s demand for passports a sufficient reason for the war, that Kurakin acted this way on his own. without the consent of the sovereign, that Emperor Alexander does not want war and that there are no relations with England.
“Not yet,” Napoleon interjected and, as if afraid to give in to his feelings, he frowned and nodded his head slightly, thereby letting Balashev feel that he could continue.
Having expressed everything that was ordered to him, Balashev said that Emperor Alexander wants peace, but will not begin negotiations except on the condition that... Here Balashev hesitated: he remembered those words that Emperor Alexander did not write in the letter, but which he certainly ordered that Saltykov be inserted into the rescript and which Balashev ordered to hand over to Napoleon. Balashev remembered these words: “until not a single armed enemy remains on Russian land,” but some complex feeling held him back. He could not say these words, although he wanted to do so. He hesitated and said: on the condition that French troops retreated beyond the Neman.
Napoleon noticed Balashev's embarrassment when uttering his last words; his face trembled, his left calf began to tremble rhythmically. Without leaving his place, he began to speak in a voice higher and more hasty than before. During the subsequent speech, Balashev, more than once lowering his eyes, involuntarily observed the trembling of the calf in Napoleon’s left leg, which intensified the more he raised his voice.
“I wish peace no less than Emperor Alexander,” he began. “Isn’t it me who has been doing everything for eighteen months to get it?” I've been waiting eighteen months for an explanation. But in order to start negotiations, what is required of me? - he said, frowning and making an energetic questioning gesture with his small, white and plump hand.
“The retreat of the troops beyond the Neman, sir,” said Balashev.
- For Neman? - Napoleon repeated. - So now you want them to retreat beyond the Neman - only beyond the Neman? – Napoleon repeated, looking directly at Balashev.
Balashev bowed his head respectfully.
Instead of the demand four months ago to retreat from Numberania, now they demanded to retreat only beyond the Neman. Napoleon quickly turned and began to walk around the room.
– You say that they require me to retreat beyond the Neman to begin negotiations; but they demanded of me in exactly the same way two months ago to retreat beyond the Oder and Vistula, and, despite this, you agree to negotiate.
He silently walked from one corner of the room to the other and again stopped opposite Balashev. His face seemed to harden in its stern expression, and his left leg trembled even faster than before. Napoleon knew this trembling of his left calf. “La vibration de mon mollet gauche est un grand signe chez moi,” he said later.
“Such proposals as clearing the Oder and the Vistula can be made to the Prince of Baden, and not to me,” Napoleon almost cried out, completely unexpectedly for himself. – If you had given me St. Petersburg and Moscow, I would not have accepted these conditions. Are you saying I started the war? Who came to the army first? - Emperor Alexander, not me. And you offer me negotiations when I have spent millions, while you are in an alliance with England and when your position is bad - you offer me negotiations! What is the purpose of your alliance with England? What did she give you? - he said hastily, obviously already directing his speech not in order to express the benefits of concluding peace and discussing its possibility, but only in order to prove both his rightness and his strength, and to prove Alexander’s wrongness and mistakes.
The introduction of his speech was made, obviously, with the aim of showing the advantage of his position and showing that, despite the fact, he accepted the opening of negotiations. But he had already begun to speak, and the more he spoke, the less able he was to control his speech.
The whole purpose of his speech now, obviously, was only to exalt himself and insult Alexander, that is, to do exactly what he least wanted at the beginning of the date.
- They say you made peace with the Turks?
Balashev tilted his head affirmatively.
“The world is concluded...” he began. But Napoleon did not let him speak. He apparently needed to speak on his own, alone, and he continued to speak with that eloquence and intemperance of irritation to which spoiled people are so prone.
– Yes, I know, you made peace with the Turks without receiving Moldavia and Wallachia. And I would give these provinces to your sovereign just as I gave him Finland. Yes,” he continued, “I promised and would have given Moldavia and Wallachia to Emperor Alexander, but now he will not have these beautiful provinces. He could, however, annex them to his empire, and in one reign he would expand Russia from the Gulf of Bothnia to the mouth of the Danube. “Katherine the Great could not have done more,” said Napoleon, becoming more and more excited, walking around the room and repeating to Balashev almost the same words that he said to Alexander himself in Tilsit. “Tout cela il l"aurait du a mon amitie... Ah! quel beau regne, quel beau regne!” he repeated several times, stopped, took a gold snuff box out of his pocket and greedily sniffed from it.
- Quel beau regne aurait pu etre celui de l "Empereur Alexandre! [He would owe all this to my friendship... Oh, what a wonderful reign, what a wonderful reign! Oh, what a wonderful reign the reign of Emperor Alexander could have been!]
He looked at Balashev with regret, and just as Balashev was about to notice something, he again hastily interrupted him.
“What could he want and seek that he would not find in my friendship?..” said Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders in bewilderment. - No, he found it best to surround himself with my enemies, and who? - he continued. - He called to him the Steins, Armfelds, Wintzingerode, Bennigsenov, Stein - a traitor driven out of his fatherland, Armfeld - a libertine and intriguer, Wintzingerode - a fugitive subject of France, Bennigsen somewhat more military than the others, but still incapable, who could not do anything to do in 1807 and which should arouse terrible memories in Emperor Alexander... Suppose, if they were capable, one could use them, - continued Napoleon, barely managing to keep up with the words that constantly arise, showing him his rightness or strength (which in in his concept were one and the same) - but even that is not the case: they are not suitable for either war or peace. Barclay, they say, is more efficient than all of them; but I won’t say that, judging by his first movements. What are they doing? What are all these courtiers doing! Pfuhl proposes, Armfeld argues, Bennigsen considers, and Barclay, called to act, does not know what to decide on, and time passes. One Bagration is a military man. He is stupid, but he has experience, an eye and determination... And what role does your young sovereign play in this ugly crowd. They compromise him and blame him for everything that happens. “Un souverain ne doit etre a l"armee que quand il est general, [The sovereign should be with the army only when he is a commander,] he said, obviously sending these words directly as a challenge to the sovereign’s face. Napoleon knew how the emperor wanted Alexander to be a commander.
– It’s already been a week since the campaign began, and you have failed to defend Vilna. You are cut in two and driven out of the Polish provinces. Your army is grumbling...
“On the contrary, Your Majesty,” said Balashev, who barely had time to remember what was said to him and had difficulty following this fireworks of words, “the troops are burning with desire...
“I know everything,” Napoleon interrupted him, “I know everything, and I know the number of your battalions as accurately as mine.” You don’t have two hundred thousand troops, but I have three times that much. “I give you my word of honor,” said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor could not have any meaning, “I give you ma parole d"honneur que j"ai cinq cent trente mille hommes de ce cote de la Vistule. [on my word of honor that I have five hundred and thirty thousand people on this side of the Vistula.] The Turks are no help to you: they are no good and have proven this by making peace with you. The Swedes are destined to be ruled by crazy kings. Their king was mad; they changed him and took another - Bernadotte, who immediately went crazy, because a crazy person only being a Swede can enter into alliances with Russia. “Napoleon grinned viciously and again brought the snuffbox to his nose.
To each of Napoleon’s phrases, Balashev wanted and had something to object to; He constantly made the movement of a man who wanted to say something, but Napoleon interrupted him. For example, about the madness of the Swedes, Balashev wanted to say that Sweden is an island when Russia is for it; but Napoleon shouted angrily to drown out his voice. Napoleon was in that state of irritation in which you need to talk, talk and talk, only in order to prove to yourself that you are right. It became difficult for Balashev: he, as an ambassador, was afraid of losing his dignity and felt the need to object; but, as a person, he shrank morally before forgetting the causeless anger in which Napoleon, obviously, was. He knew that all the words now spoken by Napoleon did not matter, that he himself, when he came to his senses, would be ashamed of them. Balashev stood with his eyes downcast, looking at Napoleon's moving thick legs, and tried to avoid his gaze.
– What do these allies of yours mean to me? - said Napoleon. – My allies are the Poles: there are eighty thousand of them, they fight like lions. And there will be two hundred thousand of them.
And, probably even more indignant that, having said this, he told an obvious lie and that Balashev stood silently in front of him in the same pose submissive to his fate, he turned sharply back, walked up to Balashev’s very face and, making energetic and quick gestures with his white hands, he almost shouted:
“Know that if you shake Prussia against me, know that I will erase it from the map of Europe,” he said with a pale face distorted with anger, striking the other with an energetic gesture of one small hand. - Yes, I will throw you beyond the Dvina, beyond the Dnieper and will restore against you that barrier that Europe was criminal and blind in allowing to be destroyed. Yes, that’s what will happen to you, that’s what you won by moving away from me,” he said and silently walked around the room several times, trembling his thick shoulders. He put a snuff box in his vest pocket, took it out again, put it to his nose several times and stopped in front of Balashev. He paused, looked mockingly straight into Balashev’s eyes and said in a quiet voice: – Et cependant quel beau regne aurait pu avoir votre maitre!
Balashev, feeling the need to object, said that from the Russian side things were not presented in such a gloomy way. Napoleon was silent, continuing to look at him mockingly and, obviously, not listening to him. Balashev said that in Russia they expect all the best from the war. Napoleon condescendingly nodded his head, as if saying: “I know, it’s your duty to say so, but you yourself don’t believe in it, you’re convinced by me.”
At the end of Balashev’s speech, Napoleon took out his snuffbox again, sniffed from it and, as a signal, tapped his foot twice on the floor. The door opened; a respectfully bending chamberlain handed the emperor his hat and gloves, another handed him a handkerchief. Napoleon, not looking at them, turned to Balashev.
“Assure Emperor Alexander on my behalf,” said the father, taking his hat, “that I am as devoted to him as before: I admire him completely and highly value his high qualities.” Je ne vous retiens plus, general, vous recevrez ma lettre a l "Empereur. [I will not hold you back, general, you will receive my letter to the sovereign.] - And Napoleon walked quickly to the door. From the reception room everyone rushed forward and down the stairs.

After everything that Napoleon said to him, after these outbursts of anger and after the last dryly spoken words:
“Je ne vous retiens plus, general, vous recevrez ma lettre,” Balashev was sure that Napoleon not only would not want to see him, but would try not to see him - the offended ambassador and, most importantly, a witness to his obscene fervor. But, to his surprise, Balashev, through Duroc, received an invitation to the emperor’s table that day.
Bessieres, Caulaincourt and Berthier were at dinner. Napoleon met Balashev with a cheerful and affectionate look. Not only did he not show any expression of shyness or self-reproach for the morning outburst, but, on the contrary, he tried to encourage Balashev. It was clear that for a long time now the possibility of mistakes did not exist for Napoleon in his belief and that in his concept everything that he did was good, not because it coincided with the idea of what is good and bad, but because he did This.
The Emperor was very cheerful after his horseback ride through Vilna, in which crowds of people enthusiastically greeted and saw him off. In all the windows of the streets along which he passed, his carpets, banners, and monograms were displayed, and the Polish ladies, welcoming him, waved their scarves at him.
At dinner, having seated Balashev next to him, he treated him not only kindly, but treated him as if he considered Balashev among his courtiers, among those people who sympathized with his plans and should have rejoiced at his successes. Among other things, he started talking about Moscow and began asking Balashev about the Russian capital, not only as an inquisitive traveler asks about a new place that he intends to visit, but as if with the conviction that Balashev, as a Russian, should be flattered by this curiosity.
– How many residents are there in Moscow, how many houses? Is it true that Moscow is called Moscou la sainte? [saint?] How many churches are there in Moscow? - he asked.
And in response to the fact that there are more than two hundred churches, he said:
– Why such an abyss of churches?
“Russians are very pious,” answered Balashev.
- However, a large number of monasteries and churches are always a sign of the backwardness of the people,” said Napoleon, looking back at Caulaincourt for an assessment of this judgment.
Balashev respectfully allowed himself to disagree with the opinion of the French emperor.
“Every country has its own customs,” he said.
“But nowhere in Europe is there anything like this,” said Napoleon.
“I apologize to your Majesty,” said Balashev, “besides Russia, there is also Spain, where there are also many churches and monasteries.”
This answer from Balashev, which hinted at the recent defeat of the French in Spain, was highly appreciated later, according to Balashev’s stories, at the court of Emperor Alexander and was appreciated very little now, at Napoleon’s dinner, and passed unnoticed.
It was clear from the indifferent and perplexed faces of the gentlemen marshals that they were perplexed as to what the joke was, which Balashev’s intonation hinted at. “If there was one, then we did not understand her or she is not at all witty,” said the expressions on the faces of the marshals. This answer was so little appreciated that Napoleon did not even notice it and naively asked Balashev about which cities there is a direct road to Moscow from here. Balashev, who was on the alert all the time during dinner, replied that comme tout chemin mene a Rome, tout chemin mene a Moscow, [just as every road, according to the proverb, leads to Rome, so all roads lead to Moscow,] that there are many roads, and that among these different paths there is a road to Poltava, which he chose Charles XII, said Balashev, involuntarily flushing with pleasure at the success of this answer. Before Balashev had time to finish the last words: “Poltawa,” Caulaincourt began talking about the inconveniences of the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow and about his St. Petersburg memories.
After lunch we went to have coffee in Napoleon's office, four days ago former cabinet Emperor Alexander. Napoleon sat down, touching the coffee in a Sevres cup, and pointed to Balashev’s chair.
There is a certain after-dinner mood in a person that is stronger than any reasonable reasons makes a person feel good about himself and consider everyone his friends. Napoleon was in this position. It seemed to him that he was surrounded by people who adored him. He was convinced that Balashev, after his dinner, was his friend and admirer. Napoleon turned to him with a pleasant and slightly mocking smile.
– This is the same room, as I was told, in which Emperor Alexander lived. Strange, isn't it, General? - he said, obviously without doubting that this address could not but be pleasant to his interlocutor, since it proved the superiority of him, Napoleon, over Alexander.
Balashev could not answer this and silently bowed his head.
“Yes, in this room, four days ago, Wintzingerode and Stein conferred,” Napoleon continued with the same mocking, confident smile. “What I cannot understand,” he said, “is that Emperor Alexander brought all my personal enemies closer to himself.” I do not understand this. Didn't he think that I could do the same? - he asked Balashev with a question, and, obviously, this memory pushed him again into that trace of morning anger that was still fresh in him.
“And let him know that I will do it,” said Napoleon, standing up and pushing his cup away with his hand. - I will expel all his relatives from Germany, Wirtemberg, Baden, Weimar... yes, I will expel them. Let him prepare refuge for them in Russia!
Balashev bowed his head, showing with his appearance that he would like to take his leave and is listening only because he cannot help but listen to what is being said to him. Napoleon did not notice this expression; he addressed Balashev not as an ambassador of his enemy, but as a man who was now completely devoted to him and should rejoice at the humiliation of his former master.
– And why did Emperor Alexander take command of the troops? What is this for? War is my craft, and his business is to reign, not to command troops. Why did he take on such responsibility?
Napoleon again took the snuff-box, silently walked around the room several times and suddenly suddenly approached Balashev and with a slight smile, so confidently, quickly, simply, as if he were doing something not only important, but also pleasant for Balashev, he raised his hand to the face of the forty-year-old Russian general and, taking him by the ear, tugged him slightly, smiling with only his lips.
– Avoir l"oreille tiree par l"Empereur [Being torn out by the ear by the emperor] was considered the greatest honor and favor at the French court.
“Eh bien, vous ne dites rien, admirateur et courtisan de l"Empereur Alexandre? [Well, why aren’t you saying anything, admirer and courtier of Emperor Alexander?] - he said, as if it was funny to be someone else’s in his presence courtisan and admirateur [court and admirer], except for him, Napoleon.
– Are the horses ready for the general? – he added, slightly bowing his head in response to Balashev’s bow.
- Give him mine, he has a long way to go...
The letter brought by Balashev was last letter Napoleon to Alexander. All the details of the conversation were conveyed to the Russian emperor, and the war began.

After his meeting in Moscow with Pierre, Prince Andrey left for St. Petersburg on business, as he told his relatives, but, in essence, in order to meet there Prince Anatoly Kuragin, whom he considered necessary to meet. Kuragin, whom he inquired about when he arrived in St. Petersburg, was no longer there. Pierre let his brother-in-law know that Prince Andrei was coming to pick him up. Anatol Kuragin immediately received an appointment from the Minister of War and left for the Moldavian Army. At the same time, in St. Petersburg, Prince Andrei met Kutuzov, his former general, always disposed towards him, and Kutuzov invited him to go with him to the Moldavian Army, where the old general was appointed commander-in-chief. Prince Andrei, having received the appointment to be at the headquarters of the main apartment, left for Turkey.
Prince Andrei considered it inconvenient to write to Kuragin and summon him. Without giving a new reason for the duel, Prince Andrei considered the challenge on his part to be compromising Countess Rostov, and therefore he sought a personal meeting with Kuragin, in which he intended to find new reason to a duel. But in the Turkish army he also failed to meet Kuragin, who, soon after Prince Andrei’s arrival in Turkish army returned to Russia. IN new country and in the new living conditions, life became easier for Prince Andrei. After the betrayal of his bride, which struck him the more diligently the more diligently he hid the effect it had on him from everyone, the living conditions in which he was happy were difficult for him, and even more difficult were the freedom and independence that he had so valued before. Not only did he not think those previous thoughts that first came to him while looking at the sky on the Field of Austerlitz, which he loved to develop with Pierre and which filled his solitude in Bogucharovo, and then in Switzerland and Rome; but he was even afraid to remember these thoughts, which revealed endless and bright horizons. He was now interested only in the most immediate, practical interests, unrelated to his previous ones, which he grabbed with the greater greed, the more closed from him the previous ones were. It was as if that endless receding vault of the sky that had previously stood above him suddenly turned into a low, definite, oppressive vault, in which everything was clear, but there was nothing eternal and mysterious.
Of the activities presented to him, military service was the simplest and most familiar to him. Holding the position of general on duty at Kutuzov's headquarters, he persistently and diligently went about his business, surprising Kutuzov with his willingness to work and accuracy. Not finding Kuragin in Turkey, Prince Andrei did not consider it necessary to jump after him again to Russia; but for all that, he knew that, no matter how much time passed, he could not, having met Kuragin, despite all the contempt that he had for him, despite all the proofs that he made to himself that he should not humiliate himself to the point of confrontation with him, he knew that, having met him, he could not help but call him, just as a hungry man could not help but rush to food. And this consciousness that the insult had not yet been taken out, that the anger had not been poured out, but lay in the heart, poisoned the artificial calm that Prince Andrei had arranged for himself in Turkey in the form of preoccupied, busy and somewhat ambitious and vain activities.
In the 12th year, when news of the war with Napoleon reached Bukarest (where Kutuzov lived for two months, spending days and nights with his Wallachian), Prince Andrei asked Kutuzov for a transfer to Western army. Kutuzov, who was already tired of Bolkonsky with his activities, which served as a reproach for his idleness, Kutuzov very willingly let him go and gave him an assignment to Barclay de Tolly.
Before going to the army, which was in the Drissa camp in May, Prince Andrei stopped at Bald Mountains, which were on his very road, located three miles from the Smolensk highway. The last three years and the life of Prince Andrei there were so many upheavals, he changed his mind, experienced so much, re-saw (he traveled both west and east), that he was strangely and unexpectedly struck when entering Bald Mountains - everything was exactly the same, down to the smallest detail - exactly the same course of life. As if he were entering an enchanted, sleeping castle, he drove into the alley and into the stone gates of the Lysogorsk house. The same sedateness, the same cleanliness, the same silence were in this house, the same furniture, the same walls, the same sounds, the same smell and the same timid faces, only somewhat older. Princess Marya was still the same timid, ugly, aging girl, in fear and eternal moral suffering, living without benefit and joy best years own life. Bourienne was the same flirtatious girl, joyfully enjoying every minute of her life and filled with the most joyful hopes for herself, pleased with herself. She only became more confident, as it seemed to Prince Andrei. The teacher Desalles brought from Switzerland was dressed in a frock coat of Russian cut, distorting the language, spoke Russian with the servants, but he was still the same limitedly intelligent, educated, virtuous and pedantic teacher. The old prince changed physically only in that the lack of one tooth became noticeable on the side of his mouth; morally he was still the same as before, only with even greater embitterment and distrust of the reality of what was happening in the world. Only Nikolushka grew up, changed, became flushed, acquired curly dark hair and, without knowing it, laughing and having fun, raised the upper lip of his pretty mouth in the same way as the deceased little princess raised it. He alone did not obey the law of immutability in this enchanted, sleeping castle. But although in appearance everything remained the same, the internal relations of all these persons had changed since Prince Andrei had not seen them. The members of the family were divided into two camps, alien and hostile to each other, which now converged only in his presence, changing their usual way of life for him. belonged to one old prince, m lle Bourienne and the architect, to another - Princess Marya, Desalles, Nikolushka and all the nannies and mothers.
During his stay in Bald Mountains, everyone at home dined together, but everyone felt awkward, and Prince Andrei felt that he was a guest for whom they were making an exception, that he was embarrassing everyone with his presence. During lunch on the first day, Prince Andrei, involuntarily feeling this, was silent, and the old prince, noticing the unnaturalness of his state, also fell gloomily silent and now after lunch went to his room. When Prince Andrei came to him in the evening and, trying to stir him up, began to tell him about the campaign of the young Count Kamensky, the old prince unexpectedly began a conversation with him about Princess Marya, condemning her for her superstition, for her dislike for m lle Bourienne, who, according to According to him, there was one truly devoted to him.
The old prince said that if he was sick, it was only because of Princess Marya; that she deliberately torments and irritates him; that she spoils with self-indulgence and stupid speeches little prince Nicholas. The old prince knew very well that he was torturing his daughter, that her life was very hard, but he also knew that he could not help but torment her and that she deserved it. “Why doesn’t Prince Andrei, who sees this, tell me anything about his sister? - thought the old prince. - What does he think, that I’m a villain or an old fool, I moved away from my daughter for no reason and brought the French woman closer to me? He doesn’t understand, and therefore we need to explain to him, we need him to listen,” thought the old prince. And he began to explain the reasons why he could not stand his daughter’s stupid character.
“If you ask me,” said Prince Andrey, without looking at his father (he condemned his father for the first time in his life), “I didn’t want to talk; but if you ask me, then I will tell you frankly my opinion about all this. If there are misunderstandings and discord between you and Masha, then I can’t blame her at all - I know how much she loves and respects you. If you ask me,” continued Prince Andrei, getting irritated, because he was always ready for irritation lately, “then I can say one thing: if there are misunderstandings, then the reason for them is an insignificant woman, who should not have been her sister’s friend.” .
At first the old man looked at his son with fixed eyes and unnaturally revealed with a smile a new tooth deficiency, which Prince Andrei could not get used to.
- What kind of girlfriend, darling? A? I've already spoken! A?
“Father, I didn’t want to be a judge,” said Prince Andrei in a bilious and harsh tone, “but you called me, and I said and will always say that Princess Marya is not to blame, but it’s the fault... this Frenchwoman is to blame...”
“And he awarded!.. he awarded!” the old man said in a quiet voice and, as it seemed to Prince Andrei, with embarrassment, but then suddenly he jumped up and shouted: “Get out, get out!” May your spirit not be here!..

Prince Andrey wanted to leave immediately, but Princess Marya begged him to stay another day. On this day, Prince Andrei did not see his father, who did not go out and did not allow anyone to see him except M lle Bourienne and Tikhon, and asked several times whether his son had left. The next day, before leaving, Prince Andrei went to see his son's half. A healthy, curly-haired boy sat on his lap. Prince Andrei began to tell him the tale of Bluebeard, but, without finishing it, he became lost in thought. He was not thinking about this pretty boy son while he was holding him on his lap, but was thinking about himself. He searched in horror and found in himself neither remorse for having irritated his father, nor regret that he (in a quarrel for the first time in his life) was leaving him. The most important thing for him was that he was looking for and did not find that former tenderness for his son, which he hoped to arouse in himself by caressing the boy and sitting him on his lap.
“Well, tell me,” said the son. Prince Andrei, without answering him, took him down from the pillars and left the room.
As soon as Prince Andrei left his daily activities, especially as soon as he entered into the previous conditions of life in which he had been even when he was happy, the melancholy of life gripped him with the same force, and he hurried to quickly get away from these memories and find something to do quickly.
– Are you going decisively, Andre? - his sister told him.
“Thank God I can go,” said Prince Andrey, “I’m very sorry that you can’t.”
- Why are you saying this! - said Princess Marya. - Why are you saying this now, when you are going to this terrible war and he is so old! M lle Bourienne said that he asked about you... - As soon as she began to talk about this, her lips trembled and tears began to fall. Prince Andrei turned away from her and began to walk around the room.
- Oh my god! My God! - he said. – And just think about what and who – what insignificance can be the cause of people’s misfortune! - he said with anger, which frightened Princess Marya.
She realized that, speaking about the people whom he called nonentities, he meant not only m lle Bourienne, who made him misfortune, but also the person who ruined his happiness.
“Andre, I ask one thing, I beg you,” she said, touching his elbow and looking at him with shining eyes through tears. – I understand you (Princess Marya lowered her eyes). Don't think that it was people who caused the grief. People are his instrument. “She looked a little higher than Prince Andrei’s head with that confident, familiar look with which they look at familiar place portrait. - The grief was sent to them, not people. People are his tools, they are not to blame. If it seems to you that someone is to blame for you, forget it and forgive. We have no right to punish. And you will understand the happiness of forgiving.
– If I were a woman, I would do this, Marie. This is the virtue of a woman. But a man should not and cannot forget and forgive,” he said, and, although he had not thought about Kuragin until that moment, all the unresolved anger suddenly rose in his heart. “If Princess Marya is already trying to persuade me to forgive me, then it means I should have been punished a long time ago,” he thought. And, no longer answering Princess Marya, he now began to think about that joyful, angry moment when he would meet Kuragin, who (he knew) was in the army.

Perhaps the most interesting point The history of the Vandal tribe was the sack of Rome in 455, which lasted more than two weeks. Everyone was taken away from the Eternal City cultural values, which could only be loaded onto ships, thousands free citizens were captured and sold into slavery.

This act would be remembered later, in the 18th century, by one of the leaders of the Great French Revolution- Abbot Henri Gregoire. In his report to States General he will introduce the term “vandalism”, denoting merciless barbarity and wanton destruction of cultural monuments.

However, in fairness it is worth noting that the acts of vandals in Rome have nothing to do with vandalism in modern understanding this term. The sack of the city by Geiseric, on the contrary, was distinguished by its methodical nature, in contrast to the previous one, carried out by the Gothic leader Alaric, when his army destroyed half of the Eternal City. Geiseric, in response to the bloodless surrender of the city, did not expose it to fires and saved the lives of the townspeople. True, this did not stop him from taking out most of the working population from there as future slaves, as well as everything valuable that could be sold.

It must be said that the enemy was called to the city by the Romans themselves, or rather by the wife of the late Emperor Valentian III, Eudoxia, who sought revenge on the usurper, Senator Petronius Maximus, who killed her husband and carried out a coup.

The Roman historian Prosper of Aquitaine claims that Maxim “added fuel to the fire” by allegedly declaring to Eudoxia that he had decided to commit treachery for the sake of his love for her. Angry, she tried to find an ally who could avenge her dishonor and shame. The choice fell on the Vandal king Geiseric - at that time the most influential of the kings of the West. He was already over sixty, and under his leadership the tribe had controlled Africa for about a quarter of a century. His other powerful contemporaries - Attila and Theodoric - were already history, but he still inspired horror and awe in his neighbors.

It was to him that Eudoxia turned to him with a request to become her defender and avenger for his ally Valentinian. According to Prosper: “She persistently insisted that for him, as a friend and ally, since such a great crime had been committed against the royal house, it would be unworthy and wicked not to be an avenger.”

She partially achieved her goal - the usurper Maxim was killed by his own slaves even before the approach of the Vandals. The latter were by no means going to return home empty-handed. Eudoxia herself and other members of the imperial family were also taken by Geiseric to Carthage, and one of the daughters was married to the heir to the throne.

Wentil) (preserved in the ancient Germanic epic as an integral part of the name “sea of the Vendals”), adjacent to the East Germanic (Gothic, Vandal) group and mentioned for the first time by Pliny (1st century AD). In their oldest scientifically established place of residence - on both banks of the middle reaches of the Oder, where they probably came from the shores of the Baltic Sea - they split into two sharply different parts, the Asdings and the Silings, who merged into one political whole only in Spain, at the beginning V century. The memory of the Silingians is preserved in the name of Silesia, representing a Slavic adaptation of this name. The mountain range separating Bohemia from Silesia dates back to the 2nd century. according to R. Chr. name "Vandal Mountains". The eviction of Vandals from the banks of the Oder to the south began in the second half of the 2nd century. They take part in the Marcomannic War, and in 174 Emperor Marcus Aurelius allocates lands in Dacia to the Asdings. Silings probably also took part in this movement, although we have no direct indications of the latter. The Vandals remained in Dacia until the thirties of the 4th century; During all this time, peace with the Romans was interrupted, as far as is known, only once, in 271, under Aurelian. At the conclusion of peace, at the head of the Vandals we find two kings, one of whom is probably Asding, the other is Siling. The Vandals were driven out of Dacia by the Goths, who, under the leadership of King Geberich (331-337), inflicted a strong defeat on them, and the king of the Asdings, Vizimar, fell. The Vandals turned to Emperor Constantine for help, who transferred the entire people to the right bank of the Danube, to Pannonia. For this they had to supply the empire with auxiliary troops (the Vandals were famous for their cavalry). But they did not remain in Pannonia for long. At the very beginning of the 5th century, pressed probably by the Huns, they, under the leadership of Godegisel (Vand. G ô dagisl), probably the king of the Asdings, sent the whole people up the Danube to the Rhine, to Gaul. They were joined on the road by part of the Suevi (i.e., Marcomanni who lived in present-day Bohemia) and part of the Alans (Turkic tribe); both of them still retained political independence. King Godegisel fell already in 406, in the fight against the Franks on the Rhine, after which the united hordes of Vandals, Suevi and Alans, having devastated Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees into flourishing Spain, which they divided among themselves by lot. The Asdingi (with King Guntarikh - Vand. Gunthar î x - at the head), together with the Suevi, received the northwestern part of the peninsula (Gallecia), the Alans settled in the middle and southwestern zone (Lusitania), and finally the Silingi (with King Friubald , vand. Fridubalth) received southern part(Betik). The memory of their stay here is preserved in the name “Andalusia”. The Roman government was forced to acknowledge this state of affairs officially, but secretly sought means to get rid of uninvited guests; in 416, it called for help against the Vandals of the Visigothic king Valya, who actually defeated the Silings and, having captured their king, sent him to the emperor. Deprived of a leader and weakened by an overwhelming struggle, the Silings abandoned political independence and voluntarily submitted to the king of the Asdings. The Alans did exactly the same thing in 418, whose king also fell in the fight against the Goths. The power of the king of the Asdings, who from that time bore the title of king of the Vandals and Alans, greatly increased as a result of these events. However, the Vandals did not remain in Spain for long: in 427, the Roman governor in Africa, Boniface, who rebelled against the government, invited the Vandals to Africa, one of the most prosperous provinces of the Roman Empire, promising to cede part of it to them. The Vandals accepted this proposal, and in May 429, King Genseric (or rather Geisaric, Vand. Geisar î x), brother and successor of Guntaric, who fell in 427, with all his people (according to some sources - 50,000, according to others - 80,000 souls) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Boniface, who had meanwhile managed to reconcile with Empress Placidia, mother of Valentinian III, wanted to persuade him to return; but it was already too late. Meeting almost no serious resistance, Geisaric quickly occupied most of the Roman possessions; his conquests were officially recognized for him by a treaty concluded with Rome in 434. In 442, Valentinian also ceded to him Carthage, a city occupied by the Vandals, however, already three years earlier: the residence of the kings was now moved here. In 450, Geisaric, taking advantage of the unrest that arose in Rome, occupied and plundered this city, and the victims were mainly Catholic churches, whose treasures were all taken away by vandals. The vandals owe this event to the fact that their name became a common noun to designate wild, unsparing robbers (see Vandalism). Among the captives taken by Geisaric to Africa was the Empress Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian, with two daughters: one of the latter, Eudoxia, the king subsequently married to his son Gunaric (Vand. H û narix). Following this, Geisaric occupied those areas in Africa that were still in the power of the Romans. After numerous wars and predatory raids on all the provinces of the empire adjacent to Mediterranean Sea, Geisarikh died in 477. His successor was his eldest son Gunaric (477-484), whose reign was marked, on the one hand, by the fall of the military power of the Vandals, on the other, by the brutal persecution of Catholics (the Vandals were adherents of Arianism) and members royal dynasty which seemed dangerous to the king. After him, his nephew Gunthamund (Vand. Gunthamund, 484-496) reigned, then the latter’s brother Thrasamund (Vand. Thrasamund, 496-523), who temporarily returned the kingdom of the Vandals to its former splendor and glory. He was supported by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, to whose sister, Amalafrida, he was married. Upon death, his throne was taken by the weak-willed Hilderic (Vand. Hildir î x, 526-530); he patronized Catholics and, in contrast to his predecessors, sought an alliance with Byzantium. His cousin Gelimer (Vand. Geilam îr), taking advantage of the displeasure of the national party, overthrew him from the throne, which gave Emperor Justinian a reason to intervene in the affairs of the Vandal kingdom. Gedimer was the last king vandals (530-534). In June 533, Justinian's commander, Belisarius, appeared in Africa, and already in May 534 he could return to Byzantium, destroying the kingdom of the Vandals and capturing King Gelimer. The remnants of the Vandals, not exterminated by Byzantine weapons, disappeared without a trace among the native population of North Africa. Such a fast fall and disappearance without a trace The Vandal state - Belisarius met almost no courageous resistance - would, of course, have been impossible if it had not been preceded by the complete physical and moral exhaustion of the entire people. Cut off from communication with kindred tribes, having taken possession of the richest province, in which the traditions of the refined and luxurious life of Rome during the flourishing times of the empire were preserved in full force, the Vandals completely indulged in the pleasures and pleasures that their dominant position in the country allowed. In delicacy and luxury, without knowing the limits, they soon surpassed their teachers, rich African provincials. Already King Geisaric, with a series of strict edicts, tried to stop this hobby, which threatened to destroy the strength of his people forever, but in vain. The Byzantine historian Procopius, who accompanied Belisarius on his campaign and compiled a detailed description of his war against the Vandals, vividly depicts to us the moral decline of this people, once strong and instilling fear and horror in their enemies ("On the Vandal War", book II, chapter 6) . Only the royal family of Asdings, in the person of Gelimer and his closest associates, sets an example of heroic courage, while the entire people are immersed in luxury and debauchery. It goes without saying that alongside this there was a strong Romanization of the Vandals, despite the religious antagonism between the barbarians -