Peter Heather

Yes, they have two more goes.

461, the Vandals see that coming and burn the shipping, which had been gathered in Spain.

And then 468 is the big one.

And the Eastern Empire really burns the money on that.

Huge expedition.

But they're caught against the lee shore in a storm, and the Vandals throw in fire ships.

Wow.

So it's like the Spanish Armada in spades.

It really could have worked because only, what, 60 years after that, an East Roman expedition does manage to land and does conquer Vandal, North Africa.

It's not an impossibility.

It could have happened in the 460s.

And if it happened in the 460s, while Italy, Sicily, Southern Gaul,

and the Adriatic coast are all still part of a functioning rump Western Empire.

It would have led to something.

It is the defeat of that expedition in 468, which clearly changes perceptions.

That's what makes it clear that...

the Western center, imperial center, is not going to be revivified in any major way.

So immediately in 469, the Goths break out of their Gallic reservation, start conquering Spain for themselves.

Yes.

It really is.