h he was married
to a woman of exceptional beauty. [455 A.D.] And not only was this true,
but he also failed to recover for the empire anything of what had been
wrested from it before, and he both lost Libya in addition to the
territory previously lost and was himself destroyed. And when he
perished, it fell to the lot of his wife and his children to become
captives. Now the disaster in Libya came about as follows.

There were two Roman generals, Aetius and Boniface, especially valiant
men and in experience of many wars inferior to none of that time at
least. These two came to be at variance in regard to matters of state,
but they attained to such a degree of highmindedness and excellence in
every respect that if one should call either of them "the last of the
Romans" he would not err, so true was it that all the excellent
qualities of the Romans were summed up in these two men. One of these,
Boniface, was appointed by Placidia general of all Libya. Now this was
not in accord with the wishes of Aetius, but he by no means disclosed
the fact that it did not please him. For their hostility had not as yet
come to light, but was concealed behind the countenance of each. But
when Boniface had got out of the way, Aetius slandered him to Placidia,
saying that he was setting up a tyranny and had robbed her and the
emperor of all Libya, and he said that it was very easy for her to find
out the truth; for if she should summon Boniface to Rome, he would never
come. And when the woman heard this, Aetius seemed to her to speak well
and she acted accordingly. But Aetius, anticipating her, wrote to
Boniface secretly that the mother of the emperor was plotting against
him and wished to put him out of the way. And he predicted to him that
there would be convincing proof of the plot; for he would be summoned
very shortly for no reason at all. Such was the announcement of the
letter. And Boniface did not disregard the message, for as soon as those
arrived who were summoning him to the emperor, he refused to give heed
to the emperor and his mother, disclosing to no one the warning of
Aetius. So when Placidia heard this, she thought that Aetius was
exceedingly well-disposed towards the emperor's cause and took under
consideration the question of Boniface. But Boniface, since it did not
seem to him that he was able to array himself against the emperor, and
since if he returned to Rome there was clearly no safety for him, began
to lay plans so