Thrasamund

Thrasamund (lived 450-523), King of the Vandals and Alans (reigned 496-523), was the fourth king of the north African Kingdom of the Vandals.

He was the third son born to Genseric's fourth son, Gento, and became king in 496 after all of Genseric's sons and his own brother, King Gunthamund, had died.

Theoderic the Great married his widowed sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund, providing a dowry consisting of the promontory of Lilybaeum in Sicily, and a retinue of a thousand elite troops and five thousand armed retainers.. Despite this alliance, Thrasamund failed to aid Theoderic when the Byzantine Navy ravaged the coast of southern Italy.

In the final year of his reign, the important port city of Leptis Magna was sacked by the Berbers.

Thrasamund also ended many years of persecution of the Catholic Church which had begun under his uncle Huneric, a move which improved the Vandals' relations with the Byzantine Empire. Procopius states that he was "a very special friend of the Emperor Anastasius."

Thrasamund died in 523 and was succeeded by his cousin Hilderic, the firstborn son of Huneric.