y persecution, to
embrace the most desperate counsels. The success with which he eluded or
repelled the first attacks, could not inspire a vain confidence, that
at the head of some loose, disorderly Africans, he should be able to
withstand the regular forces of the West, commanded by a rival, whose
military character it was impossible for him to despise. After some
hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface
despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the camp, of
Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the proposal of a strict alliance,
and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual settlement.

[Footnote 8: Cassiodorus (Variar. l. xi. Epist. i. p. 238) has compared
the regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns the weakness
of the mother of Valentinian, and praises the virtues of his royal
mistress. On this occasion, flattery seems to have spoken the language
of truth.]

[Footnote 9: Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy's Dissertat. p.
493, &c.; and Renatus Frigeridus, apud Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 8, in
tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetius was Gaudentius, an illustrious
citizen of the province of Scythia, and master-general of the cavalry;
his mother was a rich and noble Italian. From his earliest youth,
Aetius, as a soldier and a hostage, had conversed with the Barbarians.]

[Footnote 10: For the character of Boniface, see Olympiodorus, apud
Phot. p. 196; and St. Augustin apud Tillemont, Memoires Eccles. tom.
xiii. p. 712-715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at length deplored the fall
of his friend, who, after a solemn vow of chastity, had married a
second wife of the Arian sect, and who was suspected of keeping several
concubines in his house.]

[Footnote 11: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 3, 4, p. 182-186)
relates the fraud of Aetius, the revolt of Boniface, and the loss of
Africa. This anecdote, which is supported by some collateral testimony,
(see Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. p. 420, 421,) seems agreeable
to the practice of ancient and modern courts, and would be naturally
revealed by the repentance of Boniface.]

After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had obtained
a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in the province of
Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had fortified their camps,
in mutual discord and hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed; and
their adversaries were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon
and O