85. Sidonius may have been really impressed by the visible signs of Euric's power, and forced into a kind of enthusiasm, despite his private feelings. But the verses bear the signs of exaggeration, and historical evidence hardly confirms their claim that Euric was arbiter of the destinies of half the world.
86. Another letter containing verses (IV. viii) addressed to Evodius was probably composed at Bordeaux. Evodius, who at a later time may have risen high in the Gothic service (Chaix, ii. 290), was presenting a silver cup to Ragnahild, Euric's consort, for which he desired a poetical inscription. Sidonius, who realized as fully as his friend the great influence wielded over their lords by the Teutonic queens, complied with a few couplets well calculated to attain their object. But in a tone of irony which betrays his real sentiment with regard to Teutons, he remarks at the end of the letter that the verses themselves hardly matter, since in the place where the cup is going there will be eyes only for the silver of which it is made.
87. Cf. the visits to Vectius and Germanicus (IV. ix, xiii; cf. Chaix, ii. 239, 241). He paid other visits beyond his diocese, e.g. those to Elaphius and Maximus (IV. xv, xxiv; cf. Chaix, ii. 234, 236).
88. See below, p. cliii.
89. VIII. i. 1; xvi. 1.
90. IX. i, xvi.
91. He says himself that after his entrance into the Church, his prose style suffered, but he was ' more of a bad poet than ever ' (IV. Hi. 9).
92. Cf. the convivial verses written at a late period for Tonantius, son of Tonantius Ferreolus (IX. xiii).
93. The request came from Prosper, Bishop of Orleans (VIII. xv).
94. De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, xcii. The theological writings of Sidonius are not the only works of his which are lost to us. He mentions epigrams and satires from his pen----evidently composed in earlier life (cf. Chaix, ii. 310). In the verses included in the last of all his letters, he alludes to certain juvenile productions: unde pars maior utinam faceri | possit et abdi!
95. V. xv; cf. Germain, p. 117.
96. It is argued that he must have been writing after 480, because in a letter to Oresius (IX. xii) he says that he has given up secular poetry for three Olympiads, and the period of abandonment to which he alludes must be the year of his election as bishop. Mommsen, however, considers him to have died in 479 ( Praefatio, p. xlix), in which Prof. Schmidt follows him ( Geschichte der deutschen Stämme, p. 378). But his argument is chiefly based on a conjectural emendation of the vague date at the end of the epitaph ( XII Kal. Sept. Zenone imperatore ), and his conclusion appears to accord no better with facts than that of Tillemont (see next page).
97. The Catholicism of the Franks was of great assistance to them in their final struggle with the Arian Teutonic tribes. There is no doubt that their orthodoxy led the Gallo-Roman population to favour their projects and to desire their supremacy, and that Alaric II regarded the Catholic bishops as formidable, if secret adversaries.
98. Earlier authorities, the Benedictines ( Histoire litt. de la France, ii. 557) and Tillemont (Mémoires, xvi. 274 and 755), were in favour of about 489 as the date of Sidonius' death. Gregory of Tours says that in Sidonius' lifetime the echo of Frankish arms resounded in Gaul, and that Arvernians desired their arrival in Auvergne: this seems to point to a period later than the battle of Soissons (cf. Germain, p. 181). It might also be contended that the references which Sidonius himself makes to advancing age seem difficult of explanation if he did not survive the year 479, when he would only have been about fifty (V. ix. 4; IX. xvi, line 45 of the poem. Cf. also Hodgkin, ii, p. 317).
99. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. II. xxiii.
100. Gregory, as above. On Sidonius' decease, the infamous Hermanchius usurped the bishopric, but was struck dead at a banquet while he was celebrating his success. Aprunculus, formerly Bishop of Langres (cf. IX. x), only held the see for a short time, being succeeded by Euphrasius, whose tenure was also brief. Cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. III. ix, xii, xviii.
101. Cf. p. xiv above, and Gregory, III. c. ii; Chaix, ii. 379. Placidina, the wife, and Alcima, the sister, of Apollinaris, are said by Gregory to have visited the newly-elected bishop and persuaded him that he did not possess the qualities required for the efficient government of the see; it would be better, therefore, if he withdrew in favour of Apollinaris. He agreed with them, and effaced himself.
102. Gregory tells us that the younger Apollinaris had a son, Arcadius, whose daughter was named, like her grandmother, Placidina, and is mentioned by Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. i. 15, 45). It has been supposed that the family of Polignac represents the line of Apollinaris, but this is disputed.
103. Codex Matritensis, known as C; tenth to eleventh century (see p. clii below; and cf. E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, I, no. 562). It is quoted by Sirmond, and by later writers on Sidonius, e. g. Germain, p. 36 (cf. Baret, Introduction, p. 101). The placing of this long metrical epitaph over his remains would probably have accorded with his own wishes. Did he not compose one of similar length for his grandfather's tomb, with the comment that 'a learned shade does not reject a poetic tribute' ( Anima perita musicas non refutat inferias. III. xi)?
104. But, as observed below (p. cli), the Letters have never ceased to be accessible, if only to a limited number of readers.
105. Sidonius' description of Avitacum, with its fine baths, winter and summer dining-rooms, women's quarters and weaving-chamber, imitates Pliny's accounts of his two chief country-homes, the Laurentinum near Ostia, and the larger Tusculanum at the foot of the Apennines in the upper Tiber valley (Ep. II. xvii; VI. vi). It is rather curious that he makes no mention of his garden, though such must surely have existed. Pliny, on the other hand, is very detailed in his description of the gardens of his villas. He speaks of walks bordered with box and rosemary, topiary-work, a 'wilderness', fountains and marble seats, summer-houses, &c. (cf. also Sir A. Geikie, The Love of Nature among the Romans, pp. 132ff.).
106. Cf. II. xiv.
107. Even Theodoric II had shown his desire of territorial aggrandizement in Gaul (Schmidt, in C. M. H. i. 283).
108. It is generally held that when the Visigoths first settled in Aquitaine, they appropriated two-thirds of the tilled land, and one-half of the woodland, while such land as was not thus partitioned was divided equally between Goth and provincial. When the Goths annexed large new territories, the division probably became less ruinous to the Gallo-Roman, because the barbaric numbers had not increased in proportion to the fresh land seized (Schmidt, Geschichte , pp. 281,287). For the Burgundian division, see Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, vi. 56; and for the partition of lands in Italy by the Ostrogoths, cf. Dumoulin, ibid. p. 447. The Visigothic Code issued by Euric in 475, of which only a part is preserved, was drawn up by Roman jurists. It borrowed much from the provisions of Roman law with regard to property; with regard to moral offences, it retained much of the old Teutonic severity. From the time of Theodoric I, Gothic law had already begun to be romanized, but the effect of long contact with Roman custom was now much more obvious (cf. C. Zeumer, Leges Visigothorum antiquiores, 1894; L.Schmidt, Geschichte , pp. 296ff.; F. Dahn, as above, vi. 226 ff.).
109. e. g. at the house of Magnus at Narbonne ( Carm. xxiii).