DBWI: Seafaring Barbarians

What if one of the barbarian groups that invaded the Western Roman Empire was able to use ships, such as the Vandals or Alans? Could they have possibly invaded North Africa or Sicily, or is this simply way too ASB?
 
It's definitely not ASB, non-civilized peoples have adapted in other instances to naval warfare. For example, the Anglo-Celts plundered the shores of Saxony and Burgundy for hundreds of years.

But if say the Vandals built a fleet and crossed over to North Africa, I honestly could not say what the consequences could be.
 
The Vandals did actually try to build a navy- the trouble was that the Romans realised that they needed a lot less troops in North Africa if they kept naval supremacy. The Visigoths invaded, and they got about their buisness...
 
Well, we do now that if the Vandals succeeded in taking North Africa that it would have been dire for the Western Roman empire, and it might have fallen sooner than 652, perhaps sometime in the 400s?
 

mowque

Banned
I'm still thinking the 500's. I doubt North Africa is going to fall that easily, and the barbarians are greatly over stretching themselves. Granted, once the Romans lose it, they are out of luck. Well, we HAVE butterflied away some important people. Wasn't that one important general from North Africa?
 
I'm still thinking the 500's. I doubt North Africa is going to fall that easily, and the barbarians are greatly over stretching themselves. Granted, once the Romans lose it, they are out of luck. Well, we HAVE butterflied away some important people. Wasn't that one important general from North Africa?
You mean Gnaeus Duronius Sejanus? He was from Numidia, IIRC, and won, among other things, the battle of Samarobriva (modern Amiens), where his forces were out numbered by (depending on which historian you believe) either four to one or seven to one.
 
Top