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Introduction into the Roman Empire

In the 2nd century, two or three distinct Vandal peoples came to the attention of Roman authors, the Silingi, the Hasdingi, and possibly the Lacringi, who appear together with the Hasdingi. Only the Silingi had been mentioned in early Roman works, and are associated with Silesia.

These peoples appeared during the Marcomannic Wars, which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. During the Marcomannic Wars (166–180) the Hasdingi (or Astingi), led by the kings Raus and Rapt (or Rhaus and Raptus) moved south, entering Dacia as allies of Rome. However they eventually caused problems in Dacia and moved further south, towards the lower Danube area. Together with the Hasdingi were the Lacringi, who were possibly also Vandals.

In about 271 AD the Roman Emperor Aurelian was obliged to protect the middle course of the Danube against Vandals. They made peace and stayed on the eastern bank of the Danube.

In 278, Zosimus reported that emperor Probus had defeated the Vandals and Burgundians near a river (sometimes proposed to be the Lech, and sent many of them to Britain. During this same period, the 11th panegyric to Maximian delivered in 291, reported two different conflicts outside the empire wherein Burgundians were associated with Alamanni, and other Vandals, probably Hasdingi in the Carpathian region, were associated with Gepids.

According to Jordanes ' Getica, the Hasdingi came into conflict with the Goths around the time of Constantine the Great. At the time, these Vandals were living in lands later inhabited by the Gepids, where they were surrounded "on the east the Goths, on the west the Marcomanni, on the north the Hermanduri and on the south the Hister (Danube)." The Vandals were attacked by the Gothic king Geberic, and their king Visimar was killed. The Vandals then migrated to neighbouring Pannonia, where, after Constantine the Great (in about 330) granted them lands on the right bank of the Danube, they lived for the next sixty years.

In the late 4th century and early 5th, the famous magister militum Stilicho (died 408), the chief minister of the Emperor Honorius, was described as being of Vandal descent. Vandals raided the Roman province of Raetia in the winter of 401/402. From this, historian Peter Heather concludes that at this time the Vandals were located in the region around the Middle and Upper Danube. It is possible that such Middle Danubian Vandals were part of the Gothic king Radagaisus ' invasion of Italy in 405–406 AD.

While the Hasdingian Vandals were already established in the Middle Danube for centuries, it is less clear where the Silingian Vandals had been living though it may have been in Silesia.