Editing Huneric

{{short description|King of the Vandals}}
[[File:Huneric BMC 012 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Coin of Huneric]]
'''Huneric,''' '''Hunneric''' or '''Honeric''' (died December 23, 484) was [[King]] of the (North African) [[Vandal Kingdom]] (477–484) and the oldest son of [[Gaiseric]]. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to [[Eudocia (daughter of Valentinian III)|Eudocia]], daughter of [[western Roman Emperor]] [[Valentinian III]] (419–455) and [[Licinia Eudoxia]]. The couple had one child, a son named [[Hilderic]].

Huneric was the first Vandal king who used the title ''King of the Vandals and [[Alans]]''. Despite adopting this style, and that of the Vandals of maintaining their sea-power and their hold on the islands of the western Mediterranean, Huneric did not have the prestige that his father Gaiseric had enjoyed with other states.

==Early life==
Huneric was a son of King Gaiseric, and was sent to Italy as a hostage in 435, when his father made a treaty with the Western emperor Valentinian III. Huneric became king of the Vandals on his father's death on 25 January 477. Like Gaiseric he was an Arian, and his reign is chiefly memorable for his persecution of Nicene Christians in his dominions.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=x|wstitle=Hunneric|volume=13|page=932}}</ref>

A peace treaty was signed between the Vandals and Romans in 442, in which the Vandals acquired the most fertile regions of Roman Africa. A marriage alliance between Huneric and [[Eudocia (daughter of Valentinian III)|Eudocia]], the four-year old daughter of Emperor [[Valentinian III]], was also made. However, Huneric was already married to the daughter of King [[Theodoric I]]. He divorced her under the claim that she attempted to poison somebody. She returned to the Visigothic Kingdom after her nose and ears were cut off. This action soured relations between the Vandals and Visigoths, who are not known to have attempted contact until 467. Huneric married Eudocia in 455 or 456, after she was taken following the [[Sack of Rome (455)|Sack of Rome]].{{sfn|Conant|2012|pp=21-27}} Huneric renounced his claims to Eudocia's inheritance in 478.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=38}}

[[Hilderic]] was born from this marriage between c.456 and c.471.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=34}} Eudocia died after sixteen years of marriage according to the 9th century chronicler [[Theophanes the Confessor]].{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=32}}

==Reign==
Huneric conducted a purge in 479. He had his older brother Theoderic, along with his daughters and younger son, and the eldest son of his brother [[Gento (son of Genseric)|Gento]], along with his wife, exiled. Theoderic's wife and eldest son were executed along with Heldica, one of Gaiseric's officials, and his family. Jucundus, the Arian patriarch of Carthage and a supporter of Theoderic, was publicly burned to death.{{sfn|Conant|2012|pp=177-178}}

Huneric was a fervent adherent to [[Arianism]]. Yet his reign opened with making a number of positive overtures towards the local Roman population. Following the visit of a diplomatic mission from the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] led by Alexander, Huneric restored properties seized by his father from the merchants of [[Carthage]].<ref>Malchus, fragment 13. Translated by C.D. Gordon, ''Age of Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1966), p.&nbsp;125f</ref> 

[[Quodvultdeus]], the bishop of Carthage, was expelled to [[Campania]] by the Vandals in 439.{{sfn|Fournier|2017|p=692}} The position remained vacant for fifteen years until Gaiseric allowed [[Deogratias (bishop)|Deogratias]] to be appointed on 24 October 454 at the request of Valentinian III. The position was made vacant again for twenty-four years after the death of Deogratias. Huneric lifted the policy of persecuting the [[Nicene Christians]], allowing them to hold a synod wherein they elected [[Eugenius of Carthage]] as the bishop of Carthage.{{sfn|Szada|2024|p=79}}{{sfn|Conant|2012|pp=164-165}}<ref>[[Victor of Vita]], 2.3–6; translated by {{cite book |translator-last=Moorhead |translator-first=John |date=1992 |title=Victor of Vita: History of the Vandal Persecution |publisher=Liverpool University Press |pages=25f |isbn=0-85323-127-3}} John Moorhead, ''Victor of Vita: History of the Vandal Persecution'' (Liverpool: University Press, 1992), pp. 25f</ref> However, not long after the ordination of Eugenius, Huneric reversed himself and began to once again persecute Nicenes.<ref>Victor of Vita, 2.23–46; translated by Moorhead, pp.&nbsp;32–40</ref> In 484, he ordered that the tongues and right hand of all Nicenes in [[Tipasa]] be cut off due to them celebrating the [[liturgy]].{{sfn|Conant|2012|pp=76-77}}

Furthermore, he tried to make Nicene property fall to the state, but when this caused too much protest from the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman]] Emperor, he chose to banish a number of Nicene Christians to a faraway province instead. On February 1, 484 he organized a [[Council of Carthage (484)|meeting of Nicene bishops with Arian bishop]]s, but on February 24, 484 he forcibly removed the Nicene bishops from their offices and banished some to [[Corsica]]. A few were executed, including the former [[proconsul]] [[Victorian, Frumentius and Companions|Victorian along with Frumentius and other wealthy merchants]], who were killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0323.shtml |title=Saint Patrick's Church: Saints of March 23 |access-date=2012-03-08 |archive-date=2017-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613110343/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0323.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Yves Modéran]] estimated that around 20% of the bishops in Africa converted to Arianism in response to the persecution.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=172}} However, Huneric died that year and his successor, [[Gunthamund]], allowed those exiled to return.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=162}} Among those exiled was [[Vigilius of Thapsus|Vigilius]], bishop of [[Thapsus]], who published a theological treatise against Arianism.

Additionally, Huneric murdered many members of the [[Hasdingi]] dynasty and also persecuted [[Manichaeism|Manichaeans]].<ref>''Persecution of the Hasdingi'': Victor of Vita, 2.12–17; translated by Moorhead, pp.&nbsp;28–30. ''Persecution of the Manichaeans'': Victor of Vita, 2.1–2; translated by Moorhead, p.&nbsp;24</ref>
[[File:Honoricus, koning der Vandalen, sterft, van de wormen gegeten, in het jaar 477, RP-P-2017-7198.jpg|thumb|right|A 17th century engraving depicting the death of Huneric from putrefaction by [[Jan Luyken]], 1685.]]
Towards the end of his reign, the [[Moors]] in the [[Aurès Mountains]] (in modern-day [[Algeria]]) successfully rebelled from Vandal rule.<ref>Procopius, ''De Bellus'' III.8.5. Translated by H.B. Dewing, ''Procopius'' (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, 1979), vol. 2 p.&nbsp;75</ref> 

Only three pieces of legislation from the Vandal Kingdom exist today in partial or total form and all three came from the reign of Huneric.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=45}}

Huneric renamed [[Hadrumetum]] to Unuricopolis, in honor of himself.{{sfn|Conant|2012|p=45}}
 
Upon his death Huneric was succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who reigned until 496. A lurid account of Huneric's death by putrefaction and "an abundance of worms" is included in the ''Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Genserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum'' (''History of the African Province Persecution, in the Times of Genseric and Huneric, the Kings of the Vandals''), written by his contemporary, [[Victor of Vita]], although it is probable that this particular section was added at a later date.<ref>Moorhead, ''Victor of Vita'', p.&nbsp;xvi</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hunericopolis]], the Nicene Metropolitan Archbishopric Hadrumetum renamed after him

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Works cited==
* {{cite book|last=Conant |first=Jonathan |title=Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2012 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/staying-roman/C3C93E5592A6765714E7C6CB922A3557 |isbn=9781139048101}}
* {{cite journal|last=Fournier |first=Éric |title=The Vandal Conquest of North Africa: The Origins of a Historiographical Persona |journal=[[The Journal of Ecclesiastical History]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2017 |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=687–718 |doi=10.1017/S0022046916002827 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-ecclesiastical-history/article/abs/vandal-conquest-of-north-africa-the-origins-of-a-historiographical-persona/88B8A503C6FAADDE3742C8FF616C12DA}}
* {{cite book|last=Szada |first=Marta |title=Conversion and the Contest of Creeds in Early Medieval Christianity |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2024 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/conversion-and-the-contest-of-creeds-in-early-medieval-christianity/4450A3BD2E0B5D9B90570FC788B56B54 |isbn=9781009426435}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Gaiseric]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[King of the Vandals]]|years=25 January 477 – 23 December 484}}
{{s-aft| after = [[Gunthamund]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:5th-century Arian Christians]]
[[Category:Christian monarchs]]
[[Category:5th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:484 deaths]]
[[Category:Christian anti-Gnosticism]]
[[Category:Kings of the Vandals]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]