110. Theodoric II, the Visigoth, who evidently conformed in many ways to Roman usage, hunted before the midday meal; he too began the day very early with a religious service, and then transacted state-business, which must have been over before 10 A. M. (I. ii). Sport with hawk and hound is mentioned in connexion with the beautiful country-house of Gonsentius near Narbonne (VIII. iv), and with the estates of Namatius, Euric's admiral in Oleron (VIII. vi).
111. II. ix; villas of Tonantius Ferreolus and Apollinaris. For the disposition of the wealthy Roman's day, little changed from early imperial times, cf. J. Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer, p. 258.
112. It is hard to say from the writings of Sidonius whether or not the Roman matron was still the commanding figure of the earlier empire. She was much occupied with domestic concerns: thus the wife of the wealthy Leontius of Bordeaux spins Syrian wool, and works embroidery (Carm. xxii. 195). But there are examples of ladies with intellectual interests. Sidonius expects Eulalia, wife of his friend Probus, to read his poems; and the expectation implies in her more than a slight tincture of letters (Carm. xxiv. 95). He tells a friend about to marry, that wedlock need imply no break in his literary work, since his future wife may encourage and aid his studies. Probably the influence of the materfamilias was none the less effective for being exerted in an inconspicuous way.
113. I. vi; II. xiv. For Eutropius, who bade fair to become a 'country bumpkin', Sidonius draws an admonitory picture of the future, when the man who has allowed all his opportunities to go by, will have to stand in his old age silent at the back of the hall, an inglorius rusticus, while younger men, without his advantages of birth, sit in the front places and express their judgement.
114. Verses were often enclosed or incorporated in letters until, as in the correspondence of M. de Coulanges, they must have seemed 'as numerous as Sibylline leaves' (Mme de Sévigné, Letter 1177).
115. II. ix. 4, 5.
116. Cf. IV. xii. 1.
117. His friends are mostly of his own rank, but he may make exception in favour of rhetors or grammarians, a class whose company was eagerly sought in a society devoted to parlour-rhetoric. Cf. the cordial invitation to Domitius, the Grammarian of Camerius (II. ii).
118. But even as late as the end of the fifth century the Christianity of some among the nobles was probably more a matter of conformity than conviction, as it had been with Ansonius at an earlier date (cf. Ausonius, Ep. ii. 15; X. xvii).
119. Cf. II. xiii, where Sidonius speaks of doctors who conscientiously kill off their patients, and quarrel across the invalid's bed.
120. Cf. Sidonius' apologia for the long neglect to erect a monument over his grandfather's remains (III. xii. 6).
121. Gallula Roma Arelas: Ordo urbium nobilium, X. 2.
122. The banquet of Majorian (II. xi) and that of a sodalis quidam at Arles during the imperial sojourn in the town (IX. xiii).
123. VIII. xii. copiosissima penus aggeratis opipare farta deliciis.
124. Difficile discernitur, domini plusne sit cultum rus an ingenium (VIII. iv. i).
125. The distinction of 'senatorial' rank had ceased to bear any direct relation to the Senate; the title implied the status conferred by the possession of a certain amount of landed property, or the previous tenure of some honorary office or dignity. After Constantine's time the class rapidly increased in the provinces (cf. J. S. Reid, C. M. H. i. 49).
126. The Gallic estates were not so large as the Italian, but Ausonius had one, described as small, which exceeded a thousand acres; and the great nobles owned numerous properties. It may be assumed that Sidonius was a proprietor on rather a large scale. Symmachus is thought to have had about £60,000 a year of our money; if Sidonius had only a third of that amount, he would still be a wealthy man according to our ideas. The really opulent members of the senatorial class had anything between £100,000 and £200,000 a year (cf. Dill, p. 126).
127. Though they paid a land-tax (follis senatorius), the aurum oblaticium, and other taxes imposed in the province where they resided (cf. J. S. Reid, C. M. H. i. 50).
128. The mortgagor generally became dependent on the mortgagee. In this relation may be sought one of the beginnings of the feudal system (Dill, p. 218).
129. Cf. Dill, pp. 224 ff. The less scrupulous among the senatorial class, indirectly engaged in commerce though trading was forbidden to them, patronized usurers and fraudulent creditors, winked at dishonest action on the part of their agents, and overbore the lesser officials of the state by their local prestige.
130. A great part of the estate was tilled by slaves; and such part as was cultivated by coloni must have yielded the landowner a very handsome profit. Some labour was paid by wages, but not a high proportion (J. Marquardt, Privatleben, p. 139).
131. Probably the relations of the average master to his servants were as a rule not unkindly: but there are exceptions, both good and bad. The admirable Vectius has a devoted household (IV. ix. 1); the violent Lampridius is murdered by his slaves (VIII. xi. 11). Sidonius was almost certainly a good master, though once at least he shows excitability (IV. xii. 2). An interesting Letter (V. xix) deals with the abduction of a freed woman by a man in the servile state. Sidonius, from whose house she had been taken, insists with Pudens, whose slave the abductor was, that the man should be also freed and so be promoted from the class of coloni to that of plebeian clients ( mox cliens factus, e tributario plebeiam potius incipiat habere personam quam colonariam). The tenth Letter of Book IX is also of interest in this regard. Injuriosus, who may have been a clerk, left Sidonius for Aprunculus, bishop of Langres, without ceremony and without the proper litterae commendatoriae, Sidonius stipulates that if the offender should ever treat Aprunculus in a similar way, both of them should prosecute him as a fugitive servant.
132. The reader will find references to the principal works on the subject in Dill, p. 208; cf. also C. M. H. i. 52; J. Marquardt, already quoted, Römische Staatsverwaltung, i. 92 ff. For the municipality,see Prof. J.S. Reid, The Municipalities of the Roman Empire, 1913. The decurions had not only to control municipal finance, but were responsible for the collection of imperial taxes. They had liabilities in connexion with enlistment for the army, and with the maintenance of the posting service on the great roads. During the fifth century the imperial government made worthy efforts to improve jurisdiction and administration, but over-centralization neutralized their effect in the provinces, where old abuses persisted and reforms were not easily applied (cf. C. M. H. i. 396).
133. Hist. de la civilisation en France, ed. 1846, i. 91. For the organization of the Church, see C. H. Turner, in C. M. H. i. 145. For the Catholic Church in barbaric territory, see F. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, vi. 367 ff.; L. Schmidt, Gesch. der deutschen Stamme, Part I, p. 300 f. Of Arian organization, either in the Visigothic or the Burgundian State, practically nothing is known.
134. We see from VIII. xi (line 8 in the poem) that visitors to the town who could not find accommodation with their friends sometimes expected the bishop to find room for them. Many letters show the bishop in a most pleasant light as mediator in family disagreements, or as patron of worthy aspirants.