(Γελίμερ), last king of the Vandals (A. D. 530-534), son of Gelaris, grandson of Genzo, and great-grandson of Genseric, who, bv the imprisonment and subsequent murder of Hilderic, the reigning sovereign, usurped the throne of Carthage, A. D. 530. (Procop. Bell. Vaud. 1.9.) Justinian, who had formed an alliance with Hilderic, in consequence of the protection afforded by him to the Catholics in Africa, commenced a war upon Gelimer, under the command of Belisarius, which, after the two battles of Carthage and Bulla, ended in the overthrow of the Vandal kingdom in Africa, A. D. 534 (Ibid. 1.10, 2.9); thus fulfilling a current prophecy, of which the first half had been accomplished in the defeat of Bonifacius by Genseric [GENSERIC] : " G. shall conquer B., and then B. shall conquer G." (Ibid. 1.21.)
His brother, Zano, was killed at Bulla. (Ibid. 2.3.) He himself fled to Mount Pappua (2.4), was taken after a severe siege (2.7), carried to Constantinople, compelled to perform obeisance to Justinian, and then, though precluded by his Arianism from the Patrician order, was treated kindly, and passed the rest of his life in an estate which was allowed to him in Galatia. (2.9.)
His general character resembled the mingled cunning and cruelty which marked the princes of the Vandal tribes. But it can hardly be accident that has preserved so many traits of an almost romantic strain of thought and feeling. Such is his interview with his brother at Bulla, when they embraced each other in tears, with clasped hands, and without speaking a word (2.25). Such, when on Mount Pappua, is his request to the besieging general for a loaf, as not having seen bread for many days; a sponge to wipe his inflamed eyes, and a harp, to sing a dirge composed by himself on his own miseries (2.6); or, again, his determination to surrender at the moving sight of the two children fighting in the extremity of hunger for a cake (2.7). Such (if we adopt the interpretation of his friends) was the hysterical laugh in which, on his capture, he indulged at this sudden reverse of human fortune (2.7.), and his reiterated exclamation, without tear or sigh, as he walked in Belisarius' triumphal procession, " Vanity of vanities--all is vanity." (2.9. Comp. Gibbon, 100.41.)
[A.P.S]