Gaudentius (c. 440 in Rome – after 455) was the son of Flavius Aetius. F. M. Clover has argued that his mother was Pelagia, a Gothic noblewoman and the widow of Bonifacius.F. M. Clover, "Flavius Merobaudes: a Translation and Historical Commentary", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 61, No. 1 (1971), pp. 30 - 32
He was born in Rome, probably in 440, and was baptized before his first birthday. Scholars identify him as the unnamed subject of a poem of Flavius Merobaudes.Clover, "Flavius Merobaudes", pp. 29f In 454 his father and emperor Valentinian III arranged a marriage alliance, which included the marriage between Gaudentius and Placidia, but that year his father was killed by Valentinian himself.Stewart I. Oost, Galla Placidia Augusta: a biographical essay (Chicago: University Press, 1968), p. 287 In 455, the Vandals sacked Rome; Gaudentius was one of the countless thousands made a prisoner and brought back to Africa. Gaiseric claimed that his following attacks to Italy were to recover Gaudentius's legacy.
Notes
Further reading Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Gaudentius 7", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1980, , p. 494.