Bonifacius, Count of Africa

Bonifacius was the Roman governor of Africa whose quarrel with the court at Ravenna coincided with the Vandal crossing into his province in 429, and the ancient sources cannot agree whether the coincidence was one. He was a professional soldier of the late western army, praised by Augustine of Hippo, who wrote to him more than once and whose letters are much of what is known about him. He defended Marseille against the Visigoths and governed Africa as comes Africae from about 423. In the confusion after the death of the emperor Honorius he backed Galla Placidia and her son against the usurper John, and Placidia's victory left him powerful and distrusted. Procopius, writing a century later, tells a story in which Aetius played the count and the court against each other with forged letters until Bonifacius, believing himself condemned, invited Geiseric and the Vandals from Spain as allies. Most modern historians treat that story as too neat to be history, and note that Geiseric brought his entire people - some 80,000 by the chroniclers' count - which is not what an ally brings. What is certain is that Bonifacius then fought the Vandals, was beaten in the open field in 430, and was besieged in Hippo Regius for fourteen months. Augustine died inside the walls during the siege. He escaped, was recalled to Italy and given the rank of patrician, and beat Aetius at Rimini in 432 in a straightforward civil war between two generals. He died a few months later of a wound taken in that battle. Africa, which supplied Rome's grain, was gone within a decade.

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