<P> In 428 the Vandals and Alans were united under the able, ferocious, and long - lived king Genseric; he moved his entire people to Tarifa near Gibraltar, divided them into 80 groups nominally of 1,000 people, (perhaps 20,000 warriors in total), and crossed from Hispania to Mauretania without opposition . (The Straits of Gibraltar were not an important thoroughfare at the time, and there were no significant fortifications nor military presence at this end of the Mediterranean .) They spent a year moving slowly to Numidia, defeating Boniface . He returned to Italy where Aetius had recently had Felix executed . Boniface was promoted to magister militum and earned the enmity of Aetius, who may have been absent in Gaul at the time . In 432 the two met at the Battle of Ravenna which left Aetius's forces defeated and Boniface mortally wounded . Aetius temporarily retired to his estates, but after an attempt to murder him he raised another Hunnic army (probably by conceding parts of Pannonia to them) and in 433 he returned to Italy, overcoming all rivals . He never threatened to become an Augustus himself and thus maintained the support of the Eastern court, where Valentinian's cousin Theodosius II reigned until 450 . </P> <P> Aetius campaigned vigorously, somewhat stabilizing the situation in Gaul and in Hispania . He relied heavily on his forces of Huns . With a ferocity celebrated centuries later in the Nibelungenlied, the Huns slaughtered many Burgundians on the middle Rhine, re-establishing the survivors as Roman allies, the first Kingdom of the Burgundians . This may have returned some sort of Roman authority to Trier . Eastern troops reinforced Carthage, temporarily halting the Vandals, who in 435 agreed to limit themselves to Numidia and leave the most fertile parts of North Africa in peace . Aetius concentrated his limited military resources to defeat the Visigoths again, and his diplomacy restored a degree of order to Hispania . However, his general Litorius was badly defeated by the Visigoths at Toulouse, and a new Suevic king, Rechiar, began vigorous assaults on what remained of Roman Hispania . At one point Rechiar even allied with Bagaudae . These were Romans not under imperial control; some of their reasons for rebellion may be indicated by the remarks of a Roman captive under Attila who was happy in his lot, giving a lively account of </P> <P> the vices of a declining empire, of which he had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes, unable to protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable weight of taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased the influence of the rich, and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor . </P> <P> A religious polemic of about this time complains bitterly of the oppression and extortion suffered by all but the richest Romans . Many wished to flee to the Bagaudae or even to foul - smelling barbarians . </P>

When did the roman empire begin its decline