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 408 THE DECLINE AND FALL [M agister utriusque militiae] His death. A.D. 432 country had been exhausted ])yii'remilar rapine, the besiegers them- selves were compel led by famine to relin(juish their enterprise. The importance and da!i<rer of Africa were deeply felt by the re/rent of the West. Placidia implored the assistance of her eastern ally ; antl the Italian fleet and army were reinforced by Aspar, who sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as the force of the two empires was united under the command of Boniface he boldly marclied against the 'andals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair, and the people of Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were either slain or made prisoners by the 'andals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank of patrician, and the dignity of master-general of the Roman armies ; but he must have blushed at the sight of those medals in which he was represented with the name and attributes of victory."^ The discovery of his fraud, the dis- pleasure of the empress, and the distinguished favour of his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Aetius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a retinue, or rather with an army, of Barbarian followers ; and such was the weak- ness of the government that the two generals decided their private quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was successful; but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such Chris- tian and charitable sentiments that he exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Aetius for her second husband. But Aetius could not derive any immediate advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy ; he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia, and, though he attempted to defend some strong fortresses erected on his patrimonial estate, the Imperial poAver soon compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived, by ^ Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side the head of Valentinian ; on the reverse, Boniface, with a scourge in one hand, and'a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which is drawn by four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags : an unlucky emblem ! I should doubt whether another example can be found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an Imperial medal. See Science des M^dailles, by the Pere Jobert, torn. i. p. 132-150, edit, of 1739, by the Baron de la Bastie. [Eckhel, 8, 293, explains these as private medals issued in honour of a charioteer named Bonifatius.]