 In 468 , Leo chose Basiliscus as leader of the famous military expedition against Carthage . The invasion of the kingdom of the Vandals was one of the greatest military undertakings recorded in the annals of history , a combined amphibious operation with over ten thousand ships and one hundred thousand soldiers . The purpose of the operation was to punish the Vandal king Geiseric for the sacking of Rome in 455 , in which the former capital of the Western Roman Empire had been overwhelmed , and the Empress <unk> Eudoxia ( widow of Emperor Valentinian III ) and her daughters had been taken as hostages . 
