36. For the events attending this change of policy, see Hodgkin, ii. 440; C. M. H. i. 426.
37. The name of the bride was unknown until the discovery of the (fragmentary) History of John of Antioch (cf. C. Müller, Fragt. Hist. Gr. IV, pp. 535 ff., Frag. 209; Bury's edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. iv, appendix, p. 552). For the pedigree of Anthemius, see Hodgkin, p. 461. For Sidonius' description of Rome at the time of the wedding, see I. v. 10.
38. These are dated 461-7 in the translation. Chaix would reduce the number by assigning a few to the period after 475. In a few cases 1 have followed his opinion in preference to that of Baret, whose dating I have generally accepted.
39. He probably felt in his own person all the discontent with which, in the moment of his success, he endeavoured to inspire his friend Polemius (I. vi).
40. Successor of Theodoric in 466. The imperial policy included an alliance with the Armoricans under Riothamus (cf. III. ix), whose part it would be to hold Berry against the Visigoths; and also an understanding with the Franks.
41. The enlarged Burgundian territory was bounded, now or shortly afterwards, on the south by the Visigoths of Aquitanica Prima and by Narbonensis Secunda, on the north by the weak state of Aegidius and Syagrius in Belgica, soon destined to be absorbed by the Franks (Schmidt, Geschichte, pp. 375-7). It included the Viennensis, Maxima Sequanorum, Alpes Graiae et Poeninae, Lugdunensis Prima, including Nevers, and part of Narbonensis Secunda between the Rhône and the Durance.
42. Anthemius had been consul for the first time thirteen years earlier, at Constantinople.
43. Cf. I. i: sufficientis gloriae anchora sedet.
44. The letters to Polemius and Gaudentius illustrate this (IV. xiv; I. iii, iv). In the case of both, the persuasion appears to have been effective. Gaudentius became a vicarius; Polemius was the last Roman prefect in Gaul.
45. The duties of the Prefect of Rome are defined in the Notifia Dignitatum, c. iv; cf. also Cassiodorus, Var. vi. 4; Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung , ii. 131; C. M. H. i. 50.
46. The impeachment was decided upon by the Council ot the Seven Provinces, established by Honorius (Carette, Les assemblées provinciales de la Gaule romaine, 1895, p. 333; cf. also above, p. xviii). For the whole affair cf. Gibbon, ch. xxxvi ff.; Chaix, i. 299 ff. Arvandus seems to have completed a first tenure of office with credit; his disgrace began with the second. He was perhaps a man with certain good qualities, but a spendthrift, and incurably vain. During his second tenure he was embarrassed by debt, and this was the origin of his downfall. Äs we shall see, the advice which he gave to Euric was actually carried out by that king.
47. Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi.
48. Cf. Chaix, i. 303. Yet the leanings of Arvandus towards the Goths can hardly have been altogether unknown to any of his acquaintances.
49. It has been suggested by Martroye ( Genséric, pp. 234-5) that Arvandus may not have been so stupid as he appeared, and that the correspondence with Euric may have been undertaken with the approval of Ricimer. The king-maker's privity to his treason would explain Arvandus' arrogant confidence on his arrival in Rome, as well as his sudden dejection, when he found himself left in the lurch by the powerful personage on whom he counted (cf. Prof. Bury's note in his edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, iv. 44, n. 108).
50. When the breach soon afterwards occurred Ricimer alluded Anthemius as Graeculus, while the emperor deplored the necessity which had made him give his daughter in marriage to a 'skin-clad barbarian' (pellito Getae). In 470 a rupture was averted by the intercession of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia; but in 472 Ricimer proclaimed Olybrius, and marched on Rome. Anthemius was slain, but after little more than a month the victor himself died (Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, s. v. Anthemius ).
51. It is generally assumed that he retired in 469. Fertig (i. 19) thinks he may have remained till 471.
52. A similar conversion occurred in the case of Sidonius' friend Maximus, who also was called to the Church by the voice of his fellow citizens (IV. xxiv. i); cf. Fertig, ii. 6.
53. He may have passed the lower ecclesiastical grades per saltum like Ambrose, who rose from baptism to the episcopate in a week (C. H. Turner, in C. M. H. i. 151).
54. The length of the interval between the return of Sidonius from Rome and his entry into the Church depends upon the view adopted as to the date of his retirement from the prefecture. Mommsen reduces it to less than a year (Praefatio, p. xlviii). Schmidt seems to be of the same opinion (Geschichte, p. 264). Others, while accepting the date of departure from Rome as 469, consider that three years elapsed, and that the episcopate of Sidonius began in 472. They argue from the passage in VI. i, where Sidonius says that at this time Lupus had been a bishop for forty-five years; now Lupus was elected to the see of Troyes in 427 (cf. Chaix, i. 439; Dill, p. 179). Tillemont (Mémoires, p. 750), followed by Germain (p. 19), makes Sidonius' ecclesiastical career begin a few months earlier, at the close of 471, on the ground that when the letter was written he must already have been bishop some little time.
55. V. viii. 3 Utpote cui indignissimo tantae professionis pondus impactum est. Cf. VII. ix; VI. vii. This language, as Germain remarks, recalls that of St. Ambrose, when raised in a similar manner to the episcopal throne of Milan.
56. The see of the Metropolitan was at Bourges.
57. Baret, pp. 32-3.
58. Cf. note, p. xxviii above. About this time Gundioc was succeeded by his brother Chilperic I, who had no children. Gundioc left four sons, called on Chilperic's death the 'tetrarchs': Gundobad ruling at Lyons, Chilperic II at Vienne, Godgisel at Besançon, and Gundomar at Geneva.
59. Riothamus, to whom one of the letters (III. ix) is addressed, foolishly provoked the attack of Euric and was crushed at Bourg-de-Déols on the Indre, not far from Châteauroux, whence he fled with the remnant of his force to the Burgundians. This may have been in 470, or perhaps in 469, for Euric's aggression was probably hastened by the failure of the Roman expedition against the Vandals in 468. Cf. Gregory, Hist. Franc. II. xviii; Jornandes, Getica, xlv; Dill, pp. 302, 316; Fauriel, v. 314; Schmidt, in C. M. H., p. 283.
60. The Burgundians may even have driven him by force from this district (Schmidt, Geschichte, p. 377). It may be that Euric was to some degree influenced by a desire to avenge Arvandus and Seronatus, who had given him such practical advice. Except that he had not come to terms with the Burgundians, his present policy was that recommended by Arvandus in the famous letter which caused his condemnation (cf. p. xxxi above, and Fauriel, Hist. de la Gaule méridionale, i. 214).