them,
under Wallia. Worried and incensed, the Vandals turned against the Romans,
and routed them, and got possession of the peninsula.

(M1175) It was then that Aetius, the general of Valentinian III.,
persuaded the emperor,--or rather his mother, Placidia, the real ruler,--to
recall Boniface from the government of Africa. He refused the summons,
revolted, and called to his aid the Vandals, who had possession of Spain.
They were commanded by Genseric, one of those hideous monsters, who
combined great military talents with every vice. He responded to the call
of Boniface, and invaded Africa, rich in farms and cities, whose capital,
Carthage, was once more the rival of Rome, and had even outgrown
Alexandria as a commercial city. With fifty thousand warriors, Genseric
devastated the country, and Boniface, too late repenting of his error,
turned against the common foe, but was defeated, and obliged to cede to
the barbarians three important provinces, A.D. 432.

(M1176) Peace was not of long duration, and the Vandals renewed the war,
on the retreat of Boniface to Italy, where he was killed in a duel, by
Aetius. All Africa was overrun, and Carthage was taken and plundered, and
met a doom as awful as Tyre and Jerusalem, for her iniquities were
flagrant, and called to heaven for vengeance. In the sack of the city, the
writings of Augustine, bishop of Hippo, were fortunately preserved as a
thesaurus of Christian theological literature, the influence of which can
hardly be overrated in the dark period which succeeded, A.D. 439.

(M1177) The Vandals then turned their eyes to Rome, and landed on the
Italian coast. The last hope of the imperial city, now threatened by an
overwhelming force, was her Christian bishop--the great Leo, who hastened
to the barbarians' camp, and in his pontifical robes, sought the mercy of
the unrelenting and savage foe. But he could secure no better terms, than
that the unresisting should be spared, the buildings protected from fire,
and the captives from torture. But this promise was only partially
fulfilled. The pillage lasted fourteen days and fourteen nights, and all
that the Goths had spared was transported to the ships of Genseric. The
statues of the old pagan gods, which adorned the capitol, the holy vessels
of the Jewish temple, which Titus had brought from Jerusalem, the shrines
and altars of the Christian churches, the costly ornaments of the imperial
palace, the sideboards of massive silver fr