See also: Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...

 (Bonifacius in Latin).

Comes

Comes

Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...

Bonifacius (anglicized in Count Boniface) (died 432) was a Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 general and governor of the Diocese of Africa

Diocese of Africa

The Diocese of Africa was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of North Africa, except Mauretania Tingitana. Its seat was at Carthage, and it was subordinate to the Praetorian prefecture of Italy....

. Along with his rival, Flavius Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...

, he is sometimes termed "the last of the Romans."

After the death of Emperor Honorius

Honorius (emperor)

Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

 in 423, primicerius notariorum Joannes

Joannes

Ioannes, known in English as Joannes, was a Roman usurper against Valentinian III.On the death of the Emperor Honorius , Theodosius II, the remaining ruler of the House of Theodosius hesitated in announcing his uncle's death...

 was elevated to the throne. Bonifacius refused to acknowledge him, and prevented the plentiful shipments of African grain from reaching Italia

Italia (Roman province)

Italia was the name of the Italian peninsula of the Roman Empire.-Under the Republic and Augustan organization:During the Republic and the first centuries of the empire, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status: for example, military...

. After a revolt in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

, and an uprising by general Aëtius, Joannes was overthrown, Valentinian III

Valentinian III

-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....

, nephew of Honorius, was made Western emperor by the Eastern Roman Emperor, Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

. Bonifacius supported him, and resumed grain shipments.

Under the influence of Aëtius, the emperor's mother Galla Placidia

Galla Placidia

Aelia Galla Placidia , daughter of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, was the Regent for Emperor Valentinian III from 423 until his majority in 437, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life...

 convicted Bonifacius of treason against the emperor. Rather than surrender to probable execution, however, Bonifacius called in the support of Vandal mercenaries from their grazing grounds in Hispania

Hispania

Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....

. The entire tribe migrated en masse into Africa. However, by the time they arrived, Bonifacius had returned to Placidia's favor, and she had granted him the title of Patricius. He informed the Vandals that their services were no longer needed, but instead of returning to Hispania, they revolted and drove the Roman Empire out of Africa. The Vandals would rule the diocese until the Eastern Romans under Flavius Belisarius recaptured it in 534.

Bonifacius had been recalled to Italy before the Vandals had seized the province, elevated to the rank of magister militum praesentalis and to the dignity of Patricius. Fearing an imminent dismissal, Aëtius and his army of Germanic mercenaries

Foederati

Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...

 marched against Bonifacius, descending upon Italy; the result was the Battle of Ravenna (432)

Battle of Ravenna (432)

The Battle of Ravenna also known as the Battle of Rimini was fought in 432 between the two strong men of the Western Roman Empire, general Flavius Aëtius and comes Bonifacius ....

, which Bonifacius won, despite being mortally wounded. He died several months later, being succeeded by his son-in-law Sebastianus

Sebastianus (magister militum)

Sebastianus was a general of the Western Roman Empire, son-in-law of Bonifacius.A good soldier and advisor, and an orthodox catholic, Sebastianus was son-in-law of the powerful Bonifacius, comes Africae in 420s, nominated magister militum praesentalis and patrician by the Empress Galla Placidia in...

. However, the following year Aëtius would depose Sebastianus and become the de facto ruler of the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

.

Books

• John M. O'Flynn, Generalissimos of the Western Roman Empire
• Stewart I. Oost, ' 'Galla Placidia Augusta' '