F. M. Clover has argued that his mother was Pelagia, a Gothic noblewoman and the widow of Bonifacius.
Scholars identify him as the unnamed subject of a poem of Flavius Merobaudes.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.