282. Carm. XI. xv.
283. Baret, p. 102; Germain, pp. 112, 113.
284. Ep. xxxviii.
285. Hist. Franc. II. xxii.
286. Ennodius, in his In Natali S. Epiphanii, adapts four lines from the Panegyric on Anthemius, v. 69 ff.
287. The portrait of Attila (Get. c. 24, 25) is indebted to the Panegyric of Avitus.
288. In the excerpts from mediaeval writers (Elogia Veterum) at the beginning of his edition.
289. See Baret, p. 105.
290. Sidonius had critics, and apparently sharp ones. Cf. I. i; III. xiv; IV. xxii; VIII. i; IX. iv. But his attitude to criticism is sane: namque aut minimum ex hisce metuendum est, aut per omnia omnino conticescendum,
291. Unless it is excelled by the poem to Consentius (Carm. xxiii), of which Dill says that he is ashamed to transcribe the absurdities (p. 362). Cf. also IV. iii. 22; VIII. i, x, xi, xiii; IX. iii, vii.
292. We may remember, too, that even Mme de Sévigné once compared her daughter's style to that of Tacitus.
293. That such indiscriminate eulogy was really a convention, and not natural to Sidonius, is shown by his readiness at all times to speak a frank word in season (IV. iv, xiv; V. xix; VII. vii). His practice did not contradict his theory that outspokenness is generally best (VII. xviii).
294. Incandui (VII. xiv. i).
295. Cf. V. iii, vi, ix, xii.
296. Condicionis humanae per omnia memor (IV. xi. 4).
297. Hist. franc. II. xxii.
298. In his judgements of Origen and Apollonius of Tyana (II. ix. 5; VIII. iii. 4) we mark a distinct freedom of judgement.
299. In his earlier life he could enjoy good cheer, and evidently appreciated the refinements of luxury.
300. Cf. his remarks on friendship (V. iii; IX. xiv), on happiness (VI. xii), and prudence (IV. vi).
301. See the Summary by Dr. P. Mohr, Praefatio to the Teubner edition, pp. iii-vi; and Lutjohann and Löwe in Mon. Germ. Hist. VIII (Auct. Antiq.), pp. vi-xiv.
302. Chaix, ii, p. 272.
303. Petronius had the privilege of revising this book, but, like those which had preceded, it appeared under the auspices of Constantius.
304. Chaix, ii, p. 306.
305. The number was imposed upon him as a professed admirer and imitator of Pliny. Cf. note, 176. i, p. 250.
306. Pliny seems to have acted on the same principle: his letters in like manner are not chronological.