160. Cf. V. vi. 2, where Chilperic is described as magister militum (V. vi; cf. VII. xvii).
161. Cf. L. Schmidt, Geschichte, p. 271. Prof. Schmidt considers that the Visigoths treated the Gallo-Romans almost on a footing of equality before the law (ibid. p. 279), while the Burgundians certainly conceded equal rights (ibid. p. 403).
162. Salvian, holding a brief for barbaric integrity against Roman corruption, may exaggerate the virtue of his clients; but his attribution of hospitality, chastity, and honesty to various tribes was probably founded on contemporary experience. He does not altogether close his eyes to their faults, styling the Goths perfidious, and the Franks untruthful. (For Salvian, see Hodgkin, i. 504.) Ammianus (XXII. vii) confirms Salvian on the national perfidy of the Goths (XXII. 7); and it is interesting to note that after the Frankish Conquest the Goths were regarded as poor fighting men, shunning close quarters, and relying on the bow (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. ii. 27, 37).
163. As already noted, Avitus' son Ecdicius showed, during the last struggle for Auvergne, that the race of heroes was not extinct (III. iii). Under Gothic rule, Gallo-Romans were probably exempt from military service (see note 64. 1, p. 238), but they served in the Burgundian ranks (Schmidt, Geschichte, p. 40).
164. Cf. VI. iv. 1. The Vargi in many ways resembled the Bagaudae of an earlier time. Cf. Salvian, De Gub. Dei, v. 24, 25; Sirmond, Notes, p. 65; Dill, p. 315; Hodgkin, ii. 104.
165. But at its worst how different from the fate which ultimately befell our own country (cf. Haverfield in C. M. H., pp. 378 ff.; C. W. C. Oman, England before the Norman Conquest, Bk. III, ch. xi).
166. Sidonius says that Euric was not so much the prince as the chief-priest of his nation (VII. vi. 6 ut ambigas, ampliusne suae gentis an suae sectae teneat principatum ).
167. Leo probably combined in his own person the functions of the Quaestor Sacri Palati (the highest legal officer) and the magister officiorum or head of the Civil Service (cf. Schmidt, C. M. H. i. 290).
168. For the Visigothic administration of justice, with its twofold system for Goth and Gallo-Roman respectively, see L. Schmidt, Geschichte, pp. 295-6; for the Burgundian, ibid. p. 423.
169. Cf. II. x; IV. xvii.
170. Syagrius, if not an official, was a persona grata at Lyons (V.v).
171. Sidonius' rather fulsome poem on Euric reached the king's eyes through being written in a letter to Lampridius, who was intended to exhibit it (VIII. ix). Cf. above, p. xlvi.
172. V. vi, vii. Sidonius' denunciation of these men, though written in his most artificial style, breathes a genuine and righteous indignation.
173. So, perhaps, the Vandals, whose raiding habits he describes in the Panegyric of Majorian (11. 386 ff.).
174. VII. xiv. In Carm. XII. vi he asks how he is to write verses in six feet, with seven-foot giants all about him. The Burgundians also greased their hair with rancid butter, had enormous appetites, and spoke in stentorian tones. The poem is translated by Fertig (Part ii, p. 17).
175. We may recall Anthemius' complaint (cf. p. xxxiii above).
176. Hodgkin has accentuated this point (ii, p. 372).
177. See below, note 35. I, p. 233. Chateaubriand, in Le Martyrs, adapts Sidonius' description of the Franks.
178. Cf. Carm. vii. 236. Cf. note 155. 2, p. 247.
179. VIII. vi. 15, and cf. Carm. vii. 369.
180. Carm. vii. 236: also Pan. Mai, 210 ff.
181. VIII. ix, 11. 28 ff. of the poem. The term 'Sigambrian' is used generically for the tribes of the lower Rhine (W. Schul tze, Deutsche Gesch. ii. 38), and the present captives may have been taken during some expedition of Euric's troops against the Franks.
182. Carm. ii. 243.
183. In the letter to Namatius, VIII. vi.
184. Perhaps there were sleeping-rooms for the daily siesta as well as for the nightly rest, as was the case at the villa of Caninius Rufus on the shores of Como, described in one of Pliny's letters ( Ep. I. iii). The account of the open apartment at Avitacum looking out on the lake, where the guest might sit in contemplation at any hour, suggests a place adapted for the siesta.