History of the Wars, Books III and IV | Page 5

of the imperial
court in Rome chose one of the soldiers there, John by name, as
emperor. This man was both gentle and well-endowed with sagacity
and thoroughly capable of valorous deeds. At any rate he held the
tyranny five years[20] and directed it with moderation, and he neither
gave ear to slanderers nor did he do any unjust murder, willingly at
least, nor did he set his hand to robbing men of money; but he did not
prove able to do anything at all against the barbarians, since his
relations with Byzantium were hostile. Against this John, Theodosius,
the son of Arcadius, sent a great army and Aspar and Ardaburius, the
son of Aspar, as generals, and wrested from him the tyranny and gave
over the royal power to Valentinian, who was still a child. And
Valentinian took John alive, and he brought him out in the hippodrome
of Aquileia with one of his hands cut off and caused him to ride in state
on an ass, and then after he had suffered much ill treatment from the
stage-performers there, both in word and in deed, he put him to death.
[426 A.D.] Thus Valentinian took over the power of the West. But
Placidia, his mother, had reared this emperor and educated him in an
altogether effeminate manner, and in consequence he was filled with
wickedness from childhood. For he associated mostly with sorcerers
and those who busy themselves with the stars, and, being an
extraordinarily zealous pursuer of love affairs with other men's wives,
he conducted himself in a most indecent manner, although 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 that, if possible, he
might have a defensive alliance with the Vandals, who, as previously
stated, had established themselves in Spain not far from Libya. There
Godigisclus had died and the royal power had fallen to his sons,
Gontharis, who was born to him from his wedded wife, and Gizeric,[21]
of illegitimate birth. But the former was still a child and not of very
energetic temper, while Gizeric had been excellently trained in warfare,
and was the cleverest