Rome\'s Public Enemy #1

[Robert Vermaat]

The vandals were not more or less destructive than any other Germanic group.

The most savage sackers of Rome ? They left the city in ruins. As I said, what they couldn't conquer they destroyed.
They didn't build cities in their kingdom. The Goths did create new cities and were infinately more agreeable to the
Roman state. The Vandals could not be brought to terms for any great length of time. At most there was a decade of
cease fire between them and the West. How can one simply lump them with other germanic groups. Someone is the
worst, no one is equally bad.

I still don't see that as proving your statement that 'what they couldn't conquer they destroyed'. Rome was apparently not rebuilt in a grand scheme afterwards (I'd say because it did not need to be rebuilt), so either we live in a parallel universe or the city was not so much 'in ruins' as you claim. Besides, that was just one city. Did they raze everything the could not conquer to the ground? But of course not. That statement is a huge overreaction, and everybody knows that the equation of 'vandal' with 'mindless destruction' was coined much, much later.

What did the Goths create? Remember that the Vandals controlled Africa for only a much shorter time (roughly a century, 429-534) than the Goths controlled Spain, for instance. What cities did the Goths build in 100 years? Or the Franks? The Lombards? The Burgundians? Or the Huns?

I'm sure that the Vandals were a formidable enemy of the Romans during the 5thc century. But Public enemy no. 1?

In that case I would vote for the Turks because in the end they really did

I can't agree. The Turks finally took it because even then the Romans were fighting among themselves.

The reason why does not matter. The Turks took it and the Arabs did not. The Arabs did hardly besiege Constantinople when it was in her prime, right? Besides, when the Turks finally breached her walls, there was hardly anything left to conquer besides and overstretched city state.

Neither Turk nor Arab figure as my choice for 'Public enemy no 1'. Much of their achievements were due to Roman weakness at the time.