61. The claim of Trojan descent is more than once mentioned by Sidonius (cf. II. ii. 19; VII. vii. 2. Cf. also Pliny, Nat. Hist. IV. xxxi).
62. Seronatus was perhaps governor of Aquitanica I (Schmidt, Gesch., Part I, p. 261), where he openly acted in the interests of the Goths (cf. VI. i. l; V. xiii. i, 4; VII. vii. 2). He also was brought to justice, and lacking Arvandus' useful friendships, underwent sentence of death (cf. Chaix, i. 377).
63. Arverni is the general form for Clermont, though Jornandes uses Arverna. The earlier name was Augustonemetum. When autumn set in the Goths raised the siege, and drew off into winter quarters.
64. Cf. VIII. vii, addressed to Audax, Prefect of Rome.
Nepos, nephew of Verina, consort of the Emperor Leo, was proclaimed in Constantinople in 473, and landed in Italy in the following year, Glycerius being consecrated bishop of Salona. He only reigned a year and two months; in 475 he was dethroned by Orestes, who invested his own son Romulus Augustus with the purple. Nepos, at the beginning of his reign, appears to have endeavoured to rejuvenate the Civil Service, and secure a more efficient administration. But the effort came too late.
65. III. i. 5. The efforts of Avitus may have been made in concert with Licinianus (Schmidt, Geschichte, as above, p. 265). The memory of the Emperor Avitus, the friend of the first Theodoric and instructor of the second, must still have been fresh among the Visigoths. This younger Avitus may himself have had a personal influence among them; the degree of his kinship to the emperor is unknown.
66. Fertig, i. 12.
67. III. iii. The episode is also related by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc, II. xxiv), who allows Ecdicius only ten men. Ecdicius seems to have been successful, at some time during the operations, in bringing up Burgundian support (Chaix, ii. 176); he also engaged troops at his own expense (III. iii. 7).
68. VI. xii. Cf. Gregory of Tours, loc. cit.
69. This may have been done by letter. It is possible that the personal visit of Sidonius to Lyons and Vienne took place in some interlude between the sieges, though we may doubt whether he would have left the city at so critical a moment. Cf. below, p. xlii.
70. III. ii. This is the same Constantius to whom the earlier books of the Letters are dedicated.
71. V. xiv; VII. i.
72. The dignity had been promised by Anthemius. Several writers have remarked that though the Roman dominion was on the point of disappearing, and though the titles which Rome conferred were about to become emptier names than ever, Sidonius and Papianilla regarded the augmentation of the family honours as a matter of serious importance. In spite of the threatening aspect of affairs, they could not even now persuade themselves that Auvergne was really to be abandoned by the empire. Perhaps it was this ineradicable confidence in Roman stability which enabled Sidonius to write several cheerful letters during this time of suspense, e.g. III. viii and VII. i. We may note as an example of a similar confidence manifested by others, that a friend whom he asks to attend the Rogations is taking the waters at a bathing resort (V. xiv. 1).
73. IV. v.
74. But cf. p. xl, note 3.
75. Schmidt, Geschichte, as above, p. 265. But if the four bishops made a firm stand for Auvergne, why was Sidonius so indignant with Graecus? The account of Epiphanius' proceedings given by Ennodius is uninforming ( Vita Epiph. §81).
76. Sees had been left vacant; churches were allowed to fall in ruins; cattle grazed about the altars (VII. vi). Gregory of Tours ( Hist. Franc, ii. 25) says that bishops and priests were actually put to death, but it is doubtful whether things were pushed to this extremity; cf. Chaix, ii. 182.
77. VII. vii. Hodgkin compares the protest of betrayed Auvergne with that of the city of Nisibis, surrendered to Persia by Jovian against the will of the inhabitants. The reproach directed by Sidonius against Graecus, that he considered nothing but his own interest, seems hardly justified. It is probable that as a result of the treaty, to which the Burgundians appear to have been parties, the whole territory between the Loire, the Rhône, the Pyrenees, and the two seas passed to Euric, who now possessed Aquitanica I and II, Novempopulana, Narbonensis I, and part of Lugdunensis III (Schmidt, p. 265).
78. The treaty still left Rome the country between the Mediterranean and the Durance, and from the Rhône to the Alps; but a part of this at least was taken by Euric in 476, when he renewed the war, and drove the Burgundians beyond the Durance (Schmidt, Geschichte, p. 377).
79. Victorius may have degenerated (cf. Chaix, ii. 504). Gregory (Hist. Franc. II. xx) states that he was obliged to fly to Italy; the young Apollinaris followed him (cf. note 3, p. xiv, above).
80. In the Peutinger chart it is called Liviana, and placed twelve miles from Carcassonne. Cf. the Index Locorum in Mommsen's Praefatio.
81. In VIII. iii and IX. iii Sidonius speaks of officia which occupied a great part of his day during his captivity.
82. The task which he suggested was an edition of Philostratus' work in honour of Apollonius of Tyana (VIII. iii. i; cf. Fertig, ii. 22). Sidonius had a far higher opinion of Apollonius than that entertained by the Catholic Church in later times (cf. note, 140. i, p. 245). It is questioned whether he undertook a regular translation from the Greek, or merely a transcription, as Sirmond thought.
83. Chaix thinks that Sidonius returned to Clermont on his release from Livia; and that the visit to Bordeaux was undertaken later, with the express object of presenting a petition with regard to his confiscated property (ii. 227).
84. VIII. ix. The Visigoths, in accordance with precedent, probably appropriated a fixed proportion of the conquered territory (cf. p. lvi below). But Sidonius' active share in the war may have led to the confiscation of his land.