Ancient States of Iberia: Map & History

Differences between the Arian Vandals and their Trinitarian subjects (including both Catholics and Donatists) were a constant source of tension in their African state. Catholic bishops were exiled or killed by Genseric and laymen were excluded from office and frequently suffered confiscation of their property. He protected his Catholic subjects when his relations with Rome and Constantinople were friendly, as during the years 454–457, when the Catholic community at Carthage, being without a head, elected Deogratias bishop. The same was also the case during the years 476–477, when Bishop Victor of Cartenna sent him, during a period of peace, a sharp refutation of Arianism and suffered no punishment. Huneric, Genseric's successor, issued edicts against Catholics in 483 and 484 in an effort to marginalise them and make Arianism the primary religion in North Africa.

From Wikipedia: Vandals · Kingdom in North Africa: Domestic religious tensions (CC BY-SA 4.0)

According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: "Genseric, one of the most powerful personalities of the "era of the Migrations", died on 25 January 477, at the great age of around 88 years. According to the law of succession that he had promulgated, the oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed. Thus he was succeeded by his son Huneric (477–484), who at first tolerated Catholics, owing to his fear of Constantinople, but after 482 began to persecute Manichaeans and Catholics."

From Wikipedia: Vandals · Kingdom in North Africa: Decline (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Since the Middle Ages, kings of Denmark were styled "King of Denmark, the Goths and the Wends", the Wends being a group of West Slavs formerly living in Mecklenburg and eastern Holstein in modern Germany. The title "King of the Wends" is translated as vandalorum rex in Latin. The title was shortened to "King of Denmark" in 1972. Starting in 1540, Swedish kings (following Denmark) were styled Suecorum, Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex ("King of the Swedes, Geats, and Wends"). Carl XVI Gustaf dropped the title in 1973 and now styles himself simply as "King of Sweden".

From Wikipedia: Vandals · Legacy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae, a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who previously invaded Bactria in the 2nd century BC, the Alans were pushed west by the Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Ἰαξάρται Iaxártai in Greek, and the Iaxartae in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region.

From Wikipedia: Alans · History: Origin (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian polytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understood Scythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form of Zoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.

From Wikipedia: Alans · Religion (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Alans were famed for their elite and highly mobile cavalry, a fighting style they inherited from their Sarmatian relatives. The Alans' influence on mounted warfare was widespread, with their tactics and equipment impacting the Roman and Germanic armies, among others.

From Wikipedia: Alans · The Alans and warfare (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Little is known about the Suebi who crossed the Rhine on the night of 31 December 405 AD and entered the Roman Empire. It is speculated that these Suevi are the same group as the Quadi, who are mentioned in early writings as living north of the middle Danube, in what is now lower Austria and western Slovakia, and who played an important part in the Germanic Wars of the 2nd century, when, allied with the Marcomanni, they fought fiercely against the Romans under Marcus Aurelius. The main reason behind the identification of the Suevi and Quadi as the same group comes from a letter written by St. Jerome to Ageruchia, listing the invaders who were in Gaul in 409, in which the Quadi are listed and the Suevi are not.

From Wikipedia: Kingdom of the Suebi · History: Origins (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The ruins of the Monastery of Dumio in Braga, an early paleo-Christian church constructed by the Suebic king Chararic.

From Wikipedia: Kingdom of the Suebi · Architecture and art: Architecture (CC BY-SA 4.0)

As the Suebi quickly adopted the local Vulgar Latin language, few traces were left of their Germanic tongue in the Galician and Portuguese languages. Distinguishing between loanwords from Gothic or Suevic is difficult, but there is a series of words, characteristic of Galicia and northern half of Portugal, which are attributed either to the Suebi or to the Goths, although no major Visigothic immigration into Gallaecia is known before the 8th century.

From Wikipedia: Kingdom of the Suebi · Linguistic and toponymic legacy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 711, Tariq ibn Ziyad, a Muslim Berber client of Musa bin Nusair, the governor of Islamic Africa, invaded Spain with about 7,000 Berber men, while Roderic was in the north fighting the Basques. The tale that Julian, Count of Ceuta, facilitated the invasion because one of his daughters had been dishonored by Roderic is possibly mythical. By late July, a battle took place at the Guadalete River in the province of Cádiz. Roderic was betrayed by his troops, who sided with his enemies, and the king was killed in battle. The Muslims then took much of southern Spain with little resistance and went on to capture Toledo, where they executed several Visigothic nobles. In 712, Musa, the governor of Ifriqiya, arrived with another army of 18,000, with large Arab contingents. He took Mérida in 713 and invaded the north, taking Zaragoza and León, which were still under King Ardo, in 714.

From Wikipedia: Visigothic Kingdom · History: Muslim conquest (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Visigothic rule has often been misattributed to be a part of the so-called Dark Ages, a time of supposedly cultural and scientific decay. Through the course of their existence the Visigoths supposedly remained "men of the woods never strayed too far from there," as Thomas F. Glick puts it.

From Wikipedia: Visigothic Kingdom · Culture and classical heritage (CC BY-SA 4.0)