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400 THE DECLINE AND FALL Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons : to the one he repre- sented the order as a sentence of death ; to the other he stated the refusal as a signal of revolt ; and, when tlie credulous and unsuspectful count had armed the ])rovince in his defence, Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion which his own perfidy had excited. A temperate inquiry into the real motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant to his duty and to the republic ; but the arts of Aetius still continued to betray and to inflame, and the count was urged by 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 desj^ise. After some hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface disj)atched a [Guntheric] 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. He invites the After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had Vandals AD 'J 428 ■ ■ obtained a precarious establishment in Spain ; except only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had [AD. 419] fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed ; and their adversaries were besieged in [AD. 420] the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the victorious Barbarians to remove the scene of the war to the plains of Baetica. The rapid progress of the ^'^andals soon required a [A.D. 422] more effectual opposition ; and the master-general Castinus marched against them with a numerous army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior enemy, Castinus [Tarraco] fled with disliouour to Tarragona ; and this memorable defeat, which has been represented as the punishment, was most raispaiis probably the effect, of his rash presumption.^^ Seville and thago]°^ Carthagena became the reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors, and the vessels which they found in the harbour of Carthagena might easily transport them to the isles [A.D. 425] of Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed theirfamilies and their fortunes, 13 See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius. Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, 1. vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608) ascribes the victory of the Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted, they prayed, they carried a Bible in the front of the Host, with the design, perhaps, of reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of their enemies.