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The Vandals, though, were not a people who could not resist the thrill and financial benefits of plunder and pillage. They were compelled to vandalize more lands, but the success of their conquests meant that there were few lands left to pillage that they did not rule. In 455, Gaiseric decided to turn his sights toward the greatest prize of all – Rome. After Rome was sacked by the Goths in AD 410, it was a shell of its former glory, but still a prize for any warlord who dared to attempt a repeat performance. According to the sixth century Byzantine historian Procopius, Gaiseric sacked Rome like the Goths before him, but followed up the feat by kidnapping the entire imperial family.
"But Gizeric took Eudoxia captive, together with Eudocia and Placidia, the children of herself and Valentinian, and placing an exceedingly great amount of gold and other treasures in his ships and sailed to Carthage, having spared neither bronze nor anything else whatsoever in the palace. He plundered also the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and tore off half of the roof. Now this roof was of bronze of the finest quality, and since gold was laid over it exceedingly think, it shone as a magnificent and wonderful spectacle. But of the ships with Gizeric, one, which was bearing the statues, was lost, they say, but with all the others the Vandals reached the port in the harbour of Carthage."<ref> Procopius of Caesarea. <i>History of the Wars.</i> Translated by H. B. Dewing. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1916), III, v. 1-5</ref>
For the Vandals, the sack of Rome was their high point. In less than 100 years the Vandals were obliterated by the Byzantine Empire, but the memory of their violent deeds were carried on by generations of Europeans until the modern period.
