above that, even in earlier times, the cumbrous toga was discarded as soon as possible.
208. II. ii. 2 Endromidatus exterius, intrinsecus fasceatus.
209. IV. xx. 1. The Teutonic princes and nobles became very fond of wearing silk in later times; but the mention of it here is interesting from the comparatively early date (perhaps A. D. 470) at which the letter was written. Cf. what has been said above of the silk textiles of oriental style used by contemporary Gallo-Romans. The excavation of Frankish graves has abundantly illustrated the fondness of the Franks for gold ornaments, a taste which was shared by all the Teutonic peoples, notably the Goths. The whole passage is so important for the student of early Teutonic archaeology that it is worth while to give the original words: pedes primi perone saetoso tales adusque vinciebantur; genua crura suraeque sine tegmine; praeter hoc vestis alia stricta versicolor, vix appropinquans poplitibus exertis; manicae sola brachiorum principia celantes; viridantia saga limbis marginata puniceis; penduli ex humero gladii balleis supercurrentibus strinxerant clausa bullatis latera rhenonibus. . . . For Visigothic and Burgundian weapons and personal ornaments, see Barrière Flavy, Les arts industriels des peuples barbares de la Gaule, vol. 1; Feuvrier et Févret, Les cimetières bourgondes de Chaussin et de Wriande, 1902.
210. Cf. above, p. xxxiii, also I. ii. The Greeks had a similar notion that the use of furs was a barbaric habit.
211. The Gothic princes do not seem to have allowed their hair to grow so long as to fall on their shoulders as the Merovingians did (Lindenschmit, Handbuch der deutschen Altertumskunde, i. 330). The Gallo-Roman Germanicus had his hair cut 'wheel-fashion', whatever that may mean (IV. xiii. I crinis in rotae specimen accisus ): perhaps the effect was similar to that of the male coiffure on late Roman diptychs and on tombs of the fifteenth century, as exemplified by the monuments of English knights whose hair is cut across the forehead, as if a basin had been used by the barber.
212. The hood is said by Cassian to have been adopted in imitation of children's dress, to suggest innocence and simplicity (Inst. Coen. I, ch. iii).
213. The none too serious sportmanship of Namatius may perhaps be compared to that of the younger Pliny, who sat by the net armed, not with a boar-spear, but with his tablets, and recommended Tacitus to do the same, providing himself in addition with a luncheon-basket and a bottle of wine (Ep. I. vi).
214. The peasants set night-lines in the lake at Avitacum, where fish were plentiful and of good quality (II. ii. 12); in other places Sidonius alludes to streams containing good fish. Beyond the fact that Euric had ships on the Atlantic to protect his shores from the attack of the swift myoparones of the Saxons (VIII. vi. 13), we learn nothing of naval matters: Sidonius enters into no particulars as to the style of the ships or the tactics pursued. His reference in the Poems to the Vandal raiders has been already noticed (p. xci above).
215. On the Ticino and Po in Italy there was a service of 'packet' boats (cursoriae) (I. v. 3). Such services were kept up in Italy under Theodoric the Great. Cf. Cassiodorus, Varias, II. xxi, IV. xv, where the crews (dromonarii) are in question.
216. In this there was a board (tabula) used both with dice and men, as appears to have been the case with Theo-doric's game (see note, 5.1, p. 216). A tabula, with 'men' of two colours, is again mentioned as one of the attractions on the river-boat in which the luxurious Trygetius is to travel (VIII. xii. 5).
217. Pyrgi (V. xvi. 6); fritiili (II. ix. 4). But in the second of these passages tesserae are mentioned as well as the dice-boxes; and in the first there is also a tabula, so that perhaps in neither case have we to do with mere hazard. Cf. I; V. xvii.
218. There were regular grounds, sphaeristeria, at all considerable villas. Pliny had them at both his principal country-houses (Ep. II. xvii; V. vi).
219. It may have been the harpastum ( a(rpasto&n ) . See note 73- 2, p. 239.
220. Majorian held them at Arles (I. xi. 10). Cf. Carm. xxiii. 268.
221. Papyrus was the common material for letters; it was not adapted for use on both sides, as parchment was (cf. Marquardt, Privatleben, pp. 807 ff.).
222. Possibly shorthand was used on such occasions. Shorthand was certainly employed by copyists of manuscripts; and in the episode of Sidonius' chase after the mysterious book by Lupus, which Riochatus had concealed from him, shorthand writers were used to make excerpts on the spot (IX. ix. 8 Tribuit et quoddam dictare celeranti scribarum sequacitas saltuosa compendium, qui comprehendebant signis quod litteris non tenebant): Exceptores were of great service in the Church, and Ennodius in his life of Epiphanius relates that the Bishop of Pavia in his youth was an expert in tachygraphy. For the class of civil servants named exceptores see Hodgkin, The Letters of Cassiodorus, p. 110.
223. Mme de Sévigné records the same thing as occurring at Grignan in Provence during her visit to her daughter, the Comtesse de Grignan.
224. It would seem from III. xii. 5 that the tomb of Apollinaris was to be a flat slab, and therefore unlike the large structural tombs erected by the earlier Romans, and perhaps exemplified in Lyons by the Conditorium of Syagrius, mentioned in V. xvii. 4. This Conditorium was perhaps one of the monuments lining the high road, which ran close to the church; but the grave of Sidonius' ancestor would appear to have been in a crowded cemetery. It is a rather curious fact that Sidonius and his father should have allowed the remains of the elder Apollinaris to lie unmarked until the traces of the mound above it were almost obliterated.
225. From the phrase used in III. ii, angustiae mansionum, we may infer that the accommodation was not luxurious. In Italy, as we should expect from the continuance of the river service, the Cursus publicus was maintained under the Ostrogoths as the references in the Variae of Cassiodorus show (e.g. I. xxix; IV. xlvii).
226. e.g. VIII. xi, lines 41 ff. of the poem: Ne, si destituor domo negata, Maerens ad madidas eam tabernas, Et claudens gemmas subinde nares Profiter fumificas gemam culinas, &c., &c.
227. On education in the fifth century, see Dill, pp. 338 ff. The principal academic centres in Gaul were now Bordeaux, Toulouse, Narbonne, Arles, Lyons, Clermont (Arverni), and Vienne. The first had been the most important, prior to the Visigothic occupation.
228. As already observed, the most original work in philosophy was done by ecclesiastics like Claudianus Mamertus and Faustus. Sidonius had perhaps more than a smattering of philosophy. Several passages indicate his general information, and one of his letters (VII. xiv) contains long passages in the sententious style of Seneca. In certain Gallic circles there was an interest in Platonism (Collegium Conplatonicorum, IV. xi. 1), and there were real enthusiasts for abstract thought, but the spirit which governed much philosophizing of the day was evidently that of Martianus Capella.
229. Cf. Cassiodorus, Varias, IV. xxii, xxiii, where Theodoric orders the trial of two Romans of rank, Basilius and Praetextatus, for practising magical arts.
230. IX. xiii. If Sidonius translated Philostratus, and did not merely transcribe him, he must himself have been an adequate Greek scholar.
231. Carm. xxiii. 100 ff.