UNNERICO

UNNERICO. — King of the Vandals in Africa, son of Gaiseric (v.), husband of Eudoxia, daughter of Valentinian III.
In the final years of his reign Gaiseric had sought to secure for his kingdom conditions of peace and stability, thanks to the friendly treaties concluded by his father with the Eastern Emperor Zeno and with the new lord of Italy, Odoacer. U. was able to appear peaceful and faithful to those agreements which aimed to free the Italian and Greek coasts from piracy and to achieve religious peace in Africa by suspending the measures against Catholics taken with barbaric violence by the Arian Gaiseric. This mildness was counselled by his sense of the progressive weakening of the savage vigour of his people and by the concerns arising from the indigenous populations of the interior, who were in perpetual rebellion and often successful in attacking Vandal territories. That indeed mildness and love of peace were inspired only by considerations of expediency soon became evident in his behaviour towards his own relatives and their friends, whom he removed by exile, death sentences, and assassinations, in order to secure the throne for himself and the succession for his son Hildeeric. And when the progressive, incurable weakness of the Eastern Empire persuaded him that he could defy its susceptibilities with impunity, he did not fail to resume the policy of persecution against the Catholics, which was urged upon him by the fanaticism of the Arian clergy and his own greed for money, which found ample satisfaction in the confiscation of the goods of Catholics and their institutions. Non-Arians were forbidden to hold offices and dignities at court; Catholic officials who refused to convert to the Arian Church were exiled and lost their property through confiscation; bishops and priests were imprisoned, exiled, and some killed. Nor did the interventions of Emperor Zeno avail anything, though he, urged by the Pope, sent more than one embassy to demand respect for the treaties. In February 484 a Vandal edict applied against Catholics all the provisions that the Roman emperors had issued against heretics. The enforcement of these orders, however, was short-lived, for in December of that same year U. died.