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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
nb3
Prologue. Arius. The career of the famous heresiarch is related by Gibbon in his twenty-first chapter. The story of his death, which occurred in 336, is derived from Athanasius. The hostility between the Catholics of Merovingian Gaul and the Arians of the Visigothic kingdom was bitter until the conversion of Recared in 587 put an end to the long dispute. Arius and his beliefs were abominated by Gregory, and the arguments with which he met and confounded members of the sect are recorded by him with much complacency.
Driven into exile. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, was banished to Phrygia in 356 because he had requested the Emperor Constantius to stop the persecution of Catholics by Arians. He continued his protests during his banishment, took an active part on the Catholic side at the Council of Seleucia in 359, and after visiting Constantinople issued a powerful invective against the emperor. He was allowed to return to Poitiers in 360, and remained the chief pillar of the faith, as established at the Council of Nicaea, until his death in 368. For the literature concerning S. Hilary, see U. Chevalier, Rép. des sources hist. du Moyen Âge: Bio-bibliographie, cols. 2147-9.
Godigisel, Gundobad, and Godomar. These were kings of Burgundy. Godigisel certainly points Gregory’s moral, since he played traitor to Gundobad his brother, by whom he was finally slain (II. 24 (33)). But Gundobad himself does not provide so apposite an instance, since he had a long and prosperous reign, though never renouncing his Arian belief. Godomar, a son of Gundobad, and last king of Burgundy, may more justly be claimed by Gregory. For though he defeated and slew Chlodomir at Vézeronce, preserving his kingdom for ten years, he was overthrown by the Franks in 534 (III. 11).
The omission by Gregory of Sigismund, son and successor of Gundobad, causes some surprise. For Sigismund renounced Arianism, restored the monastery of Agaunum (S. Maurice d’Agaune, in the Valais), and reformed the Church at the Council at Epaône in 517. Yet not only was he defeated by the Frankish kings Chlodomir, Childebert, and Lothar in 523, but taken as a prisoner to Gaul and flung by order of Chlodomir into a well, together with his wife and children. For the Burgundian kings mentioned above, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxviii; Pfister in C. M. H. ii, ch. iv, pp. 112, 117.
1. And divided it in equal measure between them. This was the first of the two great divisions of Gaul between the descendants of Clovis. Cf. Introduction, p. 137.
Of a good presence and capacity. The promise of capacity was fulfilled. Cf. Introduction, p. 49.
Amalaric... asked of them their sister in marriage. Amalaric was the son of Alaric II, defeated and slain at Vouillé (II. 27 (37)). During his minority his kingdom had been protected and ruled in his name by Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
2. Licinius, bishop of Tours. In X. 31 Gregory calls him a native of Angers. He was ninth bishop, his date being given as 511 (Gams, Series episcoporum, p. 639).
Eufrasius or Euphrasius, saint, was bishop of Clermont from 506 to 514-15.
Quintianus. This saint, who was bishop of Rodez in 506 (cf. V. P., ch. iv), was driven out in the manner described in ch. 36 of this book. He became bishop of Clermont about 515, and died in 525. See Bennett in Dict. Christ. Biogr., s. v. Quintianus.
Alcima and Placidina. Alcima was the sister, and Placidina the wife (cf. Dalton, Letters of Sidonius, vol. i, pp. xiv, xv). In G. M., ch. 64, Gregory tells of a magnificent ciborium over an altar in a church at Clermont erected by these two ladies.
Apollinaris. The son of Sidonius, who was present at the battle of Vouillé (II. 27 (37)). Cf. Dalton, as above, p. xiv and vol. ii, p. 177. Four letters of Avitus, bishop of Vienne, are addressed to Apollinaris (Nos. 33, 36, 51, and 52, M. G. H., Auct. antiquiss., vi, pt. i, ed. O. Seeck (Berlin, 1883)).
Obtained the succession to the bishopric. For the theory and practice of episcopal elections in Gaul see Intr., p. 288. The present is one of the obvious cases of abuse. The king in question is Theuderic, king of the Ripuarian Franks, to whom Auvergne had fallen at the division of Gaul after the death of Clovis.
3. The Danes and their king. ‘Chlochilaich’ or Chrochilaich, the ‘king’ here mentioned, is otherwise known as Hygelac, kinsman of the Beowulf of the Anglo-Saxon epic; this raid of his against the Frisians was one of his great exploits. Six obscure tribes in the middle part of the Cimbric promontory or peninsula, between the Cimbri and the Saxons, were united as early as the sixth century under the national appellation of Danes.
4. The Thuringians. Cf. third note to ch. 7, and Introduction, p. 171.
Radegund. The story of Radegund (cf. Introduction, p. 67) is chiefly derived from the Vita Sanctae Radegundis Reginae by her friend and adviser Fortunatus, and from the supplementary Life by Baudonivia, also a contemporary, and a nun of the queen’s monastery of the Holy Cross. Baudonivia’s ‘Life’ was written in the early years of the seventh century with the object of recording incidents not elsewhere recorded; it is published in M. G. H., Scriptores rer. Merov. ii (1885), pp. 364 ff. There is also much of interest in the minor poems of Fortunatus (cf. Introduction, p. 84), and in incidental passages of Gregory’s works. A bibliography of works relating to Radegund will be found under Radegonde in U. Chevalier’s Rép. des sources hist.: Bio-bibliographie, col. 3864.
Amalaberg. Daughter of Amalafred, sister of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. After Hermanfrid’s death, she returned to Italy with her children, and was afterwards brought to Constantinople by Belisarius (Procopius, De bell. Goth. i. 31-2; iv. 12). A daughter of hers married Audoin, king of the Lombards.
5. Sigismund. This prince had first married Ariagna or Ostrogotho, daughter of Theodoric, king of Italy. He was converted to Catholicism by Avitus, bishop of Vienne (II. 25 (34)), and after his death was canonized. (The Passio Sigismundi is published in M. G. H., Script. rer. Merov. ii, pp. 333 ff. See also Jahn, Geschichte der Burgundionen, ii, pp. 504 ff.) The story of the murder of his son Sigeric is told by Gregory in a way which suggests amplifications and legendary additions; but the fact of the murder is attested by Marius of Aventicum under the year 522. According to Fredegar (Chron. iii. 33), Sigismund was raised to the kingdom (sublimatur in regnum) at the domain of Quadruvium (Carouge, or le Carre) near Geneva. For the literature relating to S. Sigismund, see U. Chevalier, Rép. des sources hist., as above: Bio-bibliographie, col. 4247.
The monastery of Agaune. Now S. Maurice d’Agaune (cf. M. Besson, Monasterium Acaunense, Freiburg, 1913). The monastery lies in the Valais, not far from the foot of the S. Bernard. S. Maurice was leader of the Theban legion (legio felix), said to have been martyred on the spot. It had long been a place of pilgrimage when Sigismund enlarged or rebuilt the monastery in 515. Cf. also n. on p. 604; Longnon, Géogr. de la Gaule, p. 239; and the bibliography in U. Chevalier, Répertoire, &c.: Topo-bibliographie, col. 2735. The treasure of the abbey is described by E. Aubert, Le trésor de l’abbaye de St. Maurice d’Agaune, and by M. Besson, as above.
Perpetual chants. The text has psallentium, meaning, primarily, chanting of psalms.
His daughter. Her name was Suavegotha.
6. My father and my mother. Chilperic and his queen. Gundobad, Chilperic’s brother, had caused Chilperic to be put to the sword and his consort, Clotild’s mother, to be drowned (II. 19 (28)). King Sigismund was cousin of Clotild, but, as son of her father’s murderer, the object of her blood-revenge.
The blessed abbot Avitus. This was S. Avitus, abbot of S. Mesmin de Micy, near Orleans, whose day is 17 June. See Analecta Bolland. (1883), ii, Appendix, pp. 57-63, and other references given by Chevalier, as above, Bio-bibliogr., col. 396.
His father-in-law. He had married Sigismund’s daughter, Suavegotha (cf. the end of ch. 5).
S. Péravy-la-Colombe, just north of Saint-Sigismond (formerly called Saint-Simond), canton of Patay, arrondissement of Orleans, Loire (Longnon, Geogr., p. 345). The bones of Sigismund were brought back to Agaune by Venerandus, fifth abbot (Passio Sigismundi, ch. 10). The murder of Sigismund is mentioned by Marius of Aventicum under the year 523, Maximus being consul (cf. M. G. H., Auct. antiquiss. xi: Chronica Minora, ii, p. 235).
Vézeronce. On the Isère, in the ancient diocese of Vienne (cf. Longnon, Géogr., as above, p. 425).
Theudovald...Gunthar...Chlodovald. It follows from ch. 18 that these boys were regarded as joint heirs of Chlodomir. Apparently their uncles were their guardians.
7. The murder of your kinsfolk. The allusion is probably to Ripuarians slain in old wars with the Thuringians.
Possession of that region. The part of the Thuringian kingdom lying north of the Unstrut came into the hands of the Saxons, who are said to have aided Theuderic. That king kept for himself the region south of the river; the land in the Main valley did not become Frankish until later. The name Thuringia was now attached only to the middle of the old kingdom, from the Unstrut to the crest of the Waldgebirge. The conquest of Thuringia forms the subject of a poem by Fortunatus, De excidio Toringae, the poem being placed in the mouth of Radegund. Cf. D. R. Liebmann, Der Untergang des thüringischen Königreichs in den Jahren 531-5 (Meiningen, 1911).
Built... a monastery in Poitiers. See IX. 42.
That her name was held great among the peoples. For her contemporary biographers see above, n. to ch. 4, p. 506.
8. The city of Zülpich (Civitas Tulbiacensis, oppidum Tulbiacense). Cf. II. 27 (37). Zülpich is in Rhenish Prussia, about 25 kilometres south-south-east of Cologne, a circumstance which makes it unlikely that it really had a bishop, as the use of the word civitas implies. Nothing is known of a bishopric here, and we may assume that the word civitas is loosely used.
9. Arcadius, a man of senatorial family in the city. This family was no other than that of the well-known Sidonius Apollinaris, whose grandson the unworthy Arcadius was (cf. Letters of Sidonius, trs. O. M. Dalton, Introduction, p. li). His father was the younger Apollinaris, who had fought at Vouillé (ch. 2, above), and had afterwards, through social pressure applied by his wife, Placidina the elder, and his sister Alcima, been consecrated bishop of Clermont. His four months’ tenure of that office before his death was very far from creditable, and it would seem that the bad character of his son was in part inherited. Arcadius, having instigated the plot to detach Auvergne from Austrasia and hand it over to Childebert, king of Paris, was the first to desert the cause which exposed the country to the vengeance of Theuderic (ch. 12, below). He fled to Bourges, and afterwards appeared at Childebert’s Court at Paris. Here we find him playing a servile part as the instrument of his new master in the events leading to the foul murder of Chlodomir’s young sons (ch. 18, below). Arcadius is mentioned by Avitus of Vienne in two letters addressed to his father Apollinaris (Letters xxxvi and li in M. G. H., Auct. antiquiss. vi, pt. i).
A few yards. Text: super duabus iugeri partibus, hardly appropriate to the description of a dense mist. Giesebrecht would read perticis for partibus; pertica iugeri would mean a pole. Cf. B. Guérard, Le polyptyque de l’abbé Irminon, pp. 176 ff., and Ducange, s. v. Pertica and Iugis, where the pertica arpennalis or agripennalis and the pertica iugialis are discussed.
The Limagne of Auvergne. This is a valley of lower Auvergne opening to the north. Its rich volcanic soil has caused it to be compared to one great orchard, and made its fertility famous throughout France. Cf. V. 25 (33).
10. Went to Spain. The text says Hispania, meaning any territory of the Visigothic kings of Spain. It may be either Septimania (cf. Intr., p. 145), the land held by the Visigoths north of the Alps between the Pyrenees and the Rhône, or the north-east corner of Spain. A pleasing episode, a visit of Childebert to the eremite Eusicius, as he passed on this expedition, is mentioned in G. C., ch. 81.
Amalaric. See II. 27 (37); III. 1, note.
The city. Barcelona. Fredegar (Chron. iii. 30) says by an error that ‘Childeric’ killed the Visigothic king. In the same book (ch. 41) he gives the place as Barcelona.
Near her father Clovis. In the church of the Holy Apostles, afterwards Ste Geneviève. Cf. II. 32.
All of pure gold and adorned with precious stones. For the silversmith’s work and jewellery of the Merovingian period, see Introduction, p. 430. The work of the Goths was, if anything, superior, as we know from the fine examples at Monza and Ravenna and from the votive crowns of Guarrazar, Madrid, and in the Musée de Cluny, Paris.
To cathedral and monastic churches. Though Childebert was guilty of many crimes, Fortunatus gives him a character for piety (Carm. ii. 14; vi. 8). See Introduction, p. 48. Gregory uses here two distinctive words for church: ecclesia and basilica. As above observed, he usually confines the former word to the main church of the civitas, i.e. the cathedral church, basilica being used for other churches, including those of monasteries.
11. We shall desert thee. An instance of the independent spirit of the Austrasians. Cf. Introduction, p. 195.
Lothar and Childebert marched into Burgundy and besieged Autun. This was in 534. Cf. Marius of Aventicum, for that year; and Introduction, p. 103.
12. Quintianus. Cf. II. 36; III. 2, above.
Which were brought together there. For the use of churches as depositories in times of danger, see Introduction, p. 321.
13. The strong place of Vollore (Lovolautrum, or Involautrum castrum). There are two communes, Vollore Montagne and Vollore Ville, 4 kilometres south-south-east of Thiers (Thigernadus). Cf. V. P. iv, § 6; A. de Valois, Notitia Galliarum, p. 288; and Longnon, Géogr. de la Gaule au VIe siècle, p. 503.
Chastel-Marlhac (Meroliacense castrum). The place is in Cantal, arrondissement Mauriac, canton of Saignes (Longnon, as above, pp. 505-6).
A ransom of one triens for each man’s head (adquiverunt obsessi... singulos trientes dare in redemptionem). The triens was a small gold coin, as its name implies, the third of a solidus or aureus (cf. Introduction, p. 223). As the solidus was not so large as the English sovereign, the total sum for the fifty men seems very small.
An official (quidam Litigius ex monitoribus). The word monitor has apparently the general sense of overseer. Possibly the duties of such monitores under the Frankish kings were connected with the raising of men required for the king’s armies (Giesebrecht).
14. A king like himself (quia rex sum, sicut et ille). Members of Frankish royal families were apt to speak of themselves as kings or queens. We may compare the proud claims of the two nun-princesses in the monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers: Nolite super me, quaeso vim inferre, quae sum regina, filia regis, regisque alterius consubrina, says Clotild, who had never been a queen in the usual sense (X. 15). Munderic may, however, have been the son or grandson of one of the petty kings killed by Clovis when he was securing his position as sole ruler of the Franks (cf. II. 30 (41), 31 (42)).
Vitry (Victoriacum castrum). This is Vitry-le-Brûlé in the department of the Marne, arrondissement and canton of Vitry-le-François. This Vitry was the only Victoriacus in the Frankish part of Theuderic’s dominions described in medieval documents as castrum or castellum (Longnon, as above, pp. 408-10).
15. Slaves of those to whose custody they had been committed. The text is: ad servicium publicum sunt addicti, et quicumque eos ad custodiendum accepit. Servitium publicum would imply servitude on a royal domain, since in Merovingian times the king was the State. The hostages were enslaved when Childebert I and Theuderic broke a treaty of peace to which they had sworn (cf. Fredegar, Chron. iii. 37).
Nephew of the blessed Gregory, bishop of Langres. Consequently, Attalus was remotely connected with Gregory of Tours, a fact which may have made his story traditional in the family of Armentaria, Gregory’s mother. This would explain the fullness of the narrative.
Ten pounds of gold. Cf. Introduction, p. 224.
The ford of the Moselle. Giesebrecht, ad loc., thinks that Gregory should have written Maas.
If on His holy day we beg thee for some food. On Sunday nothing was eaten before Mass.
He enfranchised Leo. This chapter is of interest in connexion with servitude in Gaul in the sixth century.
16. Bongéat. Formerly written Bonghéat, 32 kilometres east-south-east of Clermont; the church of the village is still dedicated to S. Julian (Longnon, Géogr., as above, p. 496).
A carriage. The word is basterna, properly a litter, carried sometimes by mules. But the word is probably here used for a wheeled vehicle.
17. Injuriosus... fifteenth bishop after the blessed Martin. This does not agree with the statement in the list of bishops of Tours at the end of the History. Injuriosus was consecrated in 529, dying in 546.
18. Whether we should cut their long locks. The wearing of the hair long was the sign of royal blood among the Franks. Cf. II. 8, 30 (41); IV. 24; VIII. 10.
Governors (nutritores). The royal nutritor, or nutricius, was a person of gentle or noble birth, appointed generally to supervise the welfare and conduct of young princes. The appointment of the nutritor to a king during his minority was a matter of State importance. Thus after the death of Sigibert in 574, the Austrasian notables nominated Gogo, one of their own number, to the post (V. 46; VI. 1). On the death of Gogo’s successor, Wandalen (VIII. 22), Brunhild, the queen-mother, always in opposition to the notables, announced that she herself intended henceforth to undertake the duties, with which act her period of independent policy began (Introduction, p. 70).
Church of Saint Peter. This church, built by Clovis and Clotild, was identical with that sometimes called the Holy Apostles, and was afterwards Ste Geneviève (G. C., ch. 89). Here met the Council before which Bishop Praetextatus was tried (V. 12 (18), and in it the miserable Leudast took sanctuary (V. 49).
The third child, Chlodovald. This boy Chlodovald, or Clodoald, was canonized, and is known as S. Cloud. His Life, written in the monastery of S. Cloud in the ninth century, is based upon this chapter (M. G. H., Script. rer. Merov. ii (1888), pp. 349 ff.).
Cut off his hair. Which was worn long, he being a prince of royal blood. Cf. above, p. 510.
19. This bishop. Cf. above, ch. 15, and below, IV. 15, V. 5; Gregory of Langres was an ancestor of Gregory of Tours. See also Introduction, p. 3.
A fortified place (castrum). This word usually signifies a town of the second rank, but here stress is laid on the walls. Cf. Introduction, p. 160. For Dijon see Longnon, Géogr., as above, pp. 210 ff.; cf. II. 23 (32).
(A) smaller stream. The Suzon.
Why the place is not styled a city, I cannot say. Langres was the seat of the bishopric, and the civitas of the region.
20. A certain king. This was Wacho, king of the Lombards, who at this time dwelt beyond the Danube. He was an ally of the East Roman emperor, and refused to aid the Goths against him in Italy in 539. (See Procopius, De bell. Goth. ii. 22; Procopius calls him Waces.)
21. The strong place of Dio (Deae castrum). Dio is in Hérault, arrondissement of Béziers, canton of Lunas (Thomas, Dict. topographique du départment de l Hérault, p. 57; Longnon, p. 611).
Cabrières (Capraria). The commune of Cabrières is also in Hérault and the arrondissement of Béziers, but in the canton of Montagnac.
Béziers (Biterris urbs). This place is also called by Gregory civitas, and more correctly, since it had bishops from about 400. It seems to have reverted to the Visigoths, for its bishops did not attend Frankish Councils, while the holder of the see was present at the Council of Toledo in 589 (Longnon, as above, p. 611).
24. Dogs. This is a conjecture, supposing that the catinis (dishes, probably of silver) may be a mistake in the MS. for catulis. The combination of horse and dog is natural; that of horse and silver bowl improbable.
25. Showed himself a great king. For the career of this prince, probably the most capable of all the Merovingians, see Introduction, p. 49. His private character was hardly as perfect as Gregory would have us believe; here, as in other cases, such as that of Guntram, benefaction to the Church cancelled many defects. The History itself records actions on the part of Theudebert which detract from a character otherwise much above the Merovingian average (cf. III. 31 and Introduction, p. 50). G. Kurth, Études franques (1917), p. 255, observes that, with the exception of the Thuringian expedition, the events in the lives of Theuderic, Theudebert, and Theudebald form but a thin narrative in the History, where these kings move ‘as in a penumbra ’.
27. Met in assembly. This passage is one of those which show us the free Franks jealous of their old right of counsel and criticism as against the Crown. Another conspicuous case occurred when Lothar, Theudebert’s uncle, refused to march against the Saxons, while the Ripuarians were determined that he should (IV. 9 (14)). On this question of the rivalry between the throne and the free Franks, represented by the notables, see Introduction, pp. 191 ff.
28. In a forest. Fredegar describes this as Arelaunum. It is identified with the forest of Brotonne on the south side of the Seine opposite Caudebec (Longnon, p. 137).
Twenty stadia. More than two miles and a quarter, the stadium measuring approximately 202 yards. Cf. p. 517.
29. King Childebert went into Spain. There seems to be some doubt as to the date of the expedition. It has often been ascribed to 542 (as by Pfister, in C. M. H. ii, p. 119), but Altamira gives the year as 533 (ibid., p. 162), and this makes it follow naturally, at short interval, Childebert’s victory over Amalaric in Septimania. The kings left Gaul by way of Novempopulana, and before advancing to Saragossa, took Pampeluna. The resistance of the people of Saragossa gave the Visigoths time to send two armies to their relief, one under King Theuda, the other under his general Theudegisel. It was the approach of these armies which really caused the Frankish retreat. The Franks were roughly handled by the Visigoths; but Theudegisel was bribed to let them cross the Pyrenees in safety, carrying with the spoils of their campaign the magna spolia mentioned by Gregory. Among these spoils was the stole of S. Vincent, patron saint of Saragossa, who died at Valencia in 304. It may be noted that Lothar struck coins with the legend: Victory over the Goths.
It will be seen that essential facts as to the campaign are omitted by Gregory. They are recorded by Isidore of Seville (d. 636) in his History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi, which goes down to 624; his chief sources were Orosius, Prosper, Idatius, Maximus of Saragossa, and John of Biclar. Isidore is the principal authority for the period from the first quarter of the sixth century to 624; he is edited by Mommsen (M.G.H., Chronica Minora, ii, pp. 241 ff.); cf. also H. Hertsberg, Die Historien und die Chroniken des Isidorus von Seville, 1874.
The tunic of the blessed martyr Vincent. Childebert founded a church in which were placed the relics which he had brought from his expeditions to Spain; among the most important of these was the stola of S. Vincent. The church was first known as the church of the Holy Cross and S. Vincent, the former title probably given in honour of a cross taken from Amalaric (see next page), but by the seventh century it was known as S. Vincent alone. When S. Germain (d. 576) was buried there it became known as Saint-Germain; and though the building of Childebert was destroyed by fire in 856, the name of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has ever since been preserved. From the poem of Fortunatus, De horto Ultrogothae reginae (Carm. v. 8), we know that the original building adjoined the gardens of the royal palace of the Thermae, which Childebert made his principal residence. It was a large church of great magnificence, rivalling the ecclesia or cathedral of Paris close to the site of Nôtre-Dame (P. Batiffol, Études de littérature et d’arch. chrét. (Paris, 1919), Étude on the cathedral church). The poem of Fortunatus, De ecclesia Parisiaca (Carm. ii. 14), describes S. Vincent, and not, as the title would suggest, the cathedral. The relics and plate of S. Vincent were famous, the plate containing many of the Visigothic gold chalices, patens, and other vessels taken by Childebert from Amalaric (III. 10). The famous ‘Charter of Childebert’ has been shown to date from long after the death of the founder (J. Quicherat, Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, xxvi (1865), pp. 513 ff.). In S. Germain were buried many of the Merovingian kings and queens: Childebert I, Ultrogotha, Chilperic, his queen Fredegund, Childeric II, his queen Bilichild, and their young son Dagobert. Little or nothing now remains. For the history of these tombs, see Montfaucon, Les monuments de la monarchie française, vol. i; Ruinart, Appendix to his edition of Gregory of Tours, cols. 1370 ff.; Bouillart, Hist. de l’Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés; and the summary, with references, by Dom Leclercq in Cabrol’s Dict. d’arch. chrét., article ‘Saint-Germain-des-Prés’, section vi. The register of the estates of the abbey by Abbot Irmino c. A.D. 800, known as the Polyptych of Irmino, often cited in these pages, is the source of much of our information as to agricultural economy in Frankish times (ed. B. Guérard, Paris, 1844).
30. Theuda. This king, whose name is sometimes written Theudis, was an Ostrogoth who had governed the Visigothic kingdom for Theodoric when that king was regent for the young Amalaric. He had settled in Spain and married a wealthy woman. After the defeat of Amalaric by Childebert (III. 10), and his subsequent death in 531 at the hands of his soldiers (Chron. Caesarum in M. G. H., Chronica Minora, ii, p. 223), Theuda was called to the Visigothic throne (cf. Altamira, in C. M. H. ii. 162; Bury, Hist. of the Later Roman Empire, ii, p. 286). Theuda reigned from 531 to 548. He was murdered at Seville in the latter year by a man who simulated madness.
Theudigisel was raised. Apart from his military service, we know no more of him than that he was a man of immoral conduct, and that in 549 he too was assassinated in Seville (Altamira, as above, p. 163). The verb used for his elevation by Gregory is levare. But as raising on the shield was a practice common to the Teutonic kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire, and was, among the Franks, the method of proclaiming a king who did not succeed in the normal way of inheritance (cf. note to II. 29 (40), we may perhaps assume that it is indicated here.
While they lay at the board (in recubitu). Cf. V. 20; the Roman recumbent position was apparently preserved, as by aristocratic Gallo-Romans in Gaul.
31. And left his queen with a little daughter. This chapter is full of inaccuracies. The queen of Theodoric was Albofled or Audofled, who, as Gregory says, was sister of Clovis. But she was dead in 526, the year of his own death, and her daughter Amalasuntha, far from being a little girl (parvula filia), had been married ten or eleven years to Eutharic, an Ostrogoth of royal lineage. She had a son, Athalaric, eight years of age, during whose minority she acted as regent. She had received a Roman education, and attempted to bring up the boy in the Roman manner, which made her unpopular. In 534 the death of Athalaric made her position so dangerous that she proposed marriage to Theudahad, her cousin, a cultivated but rapacious man, whom she had previously offended by forcing him to make certain restitutions. The marriage took place, and Theudahad was proclaimed king. Once secure of his position, he proceeded to revenge the injuries which he conceived himself to have suffered at her hands. She was seized and imprisoned on an island in Lake Bolsena in Tuscany, probably his own property; there she was killed by the relatives of certain Goths whom she had caused to be slain for conspiring against her. The Secret History of Procopius suggests that it was the Empress Theodora, not Theudahad, who instigated the murder of Amalasuntha. The latter, as regent, had been in diplomatic relations with Justinian; the empress, therefore, feared that the Ostrogothic queen might obtain too much influence over the emperor. (Cf. Bury, Hist. of the Later Roman Empire, ii. 165-6, who thinks the story less incredible than Hodgkin and others.) Apart from the facts of her relationship to Theodoric, and of her death while Theudahad was upon the throne, Gregory’s paragraphs about Amalasuntha are fantastic. Her private character, so far as history reveals it, was untarnished; her fault was the ambition of a strong mind, which sometimes led her into cruel political actions. Fredegar (Chron. iii. 46) says that Childebert I and Theudebert received from ‘Theothatus ’ fifty thousand solidi as wergeld for her death.
It should nothing harm us. This story and the deduction from it illustrate the intensity of Gregory’s feeling against the Arians.
Caused a bath to be heated. This would be a vapour bath, in the form of a chamber heated by hypocausts.
If thou make not composition. The wergeld for a person of royal blood was not fixed at a regular sum, as in the case of those of lower rank: a special bargain had to be made. Giesebrecht (ad loc.) cites the tale in Fredegar, that in the time of Clovis the Goths came secretly armed to a conference between that king and Alaric the Visigoth. The Franks discovering this, declared that there had been a plot to murder Clovis, and demanded a wergeld for their king. Theoderic the Ostrogoth, who was called upon to fix the amount, decided that a mounted Frank should ride to the Court of Alaric holding his spear erect, and that the wergeld should consist of such a quantity of gold pieces as should bury horse, rider, and spear in one great heap of coins.
32. Marched into Italy. For Theudebert’s ambiguous conduct during this expedition, see Introduction, p. 105.
As far as Pavia (Ticina civitas). This invasion took place in 539.
Buccelin. For the adventures of Buccelin and Leuthar, which really took place after Theudebert’s death, see Introduction, p. 107. Agathias, the principal authority, gives his name as Butilin.
Lesser Italy... Greater Italy. These expressions are here used for the northern plain and the rest of the country respectively.
To humiliate Belisarius, he put him once more in his old post of count of the stables. This is another error. Belisarius was given a post of great dignity, being made commander of the imperial bodyguard. Fredegar (Chron. ii. 61) says that after his defeat by Buccelin ‘he lost his fame and his life’ (nomen vitamque amisit).
To Theudebert. It was really to Theudebald, the son and successor of Theudebert.
Took Sicily. This is a fiction. The island was not even entered by Buccelin, who died on the Volturno in 533. See IV. 19.
33. Versed in rhetoric. Rhetoric here is used in the wider sense of classical times, and practically means polite knowledge.
34. As soon as, by exercise of their industry, they have won such a return, &c. This chapter is of interest for the light it throws on commercial activity in sixth-century Gaul.
35. Agyric, or Ageric. S. Airy, bishop in 554. Syrivald, his persecutor, had been a subject of Theuderic, and it was the death of this king which enabled Ageric’s son Syagrius to revenge his father.
Syrivald’s estate named Floriacus. This is Fleurey-sur-Ouche, 15 kilometres west of Dijon (Longnon, p. 213).
36. King Theudebert fell ill. Agathias says that a savage buffalo charged a tree while Theudebert was hunting, and caused a heavy branch to fall on him, inflicting mortal injury. This account may be easily reconciled with that of Procopius (De bell. Goth. iv. 24) and the statement of Gregory, both of whom ascribe the king’s death to lingering illness, for such injuries need not have been immediately fatal.
Parthenius. This man, as his name shows, was one of those educated Gallo-Romans employed by the more masterful of the Frankish princes to further the aggrandizement of the royal power at the expense of the privileges enjoyed by the free Franks. One of these was an immunity from certain taxation, which the kings, with their ever-increasing expenditure, were most anxious to abolish. The clever Gallo-Romans showed them the financial possibilities of the Roman fiscal system, and the bolder spirits, a Theudebert and a Brunhild, were not slow to follow their advice. But it proved a dangerous course, both for the princes and for their instruments. Cf. Introduction, p. 192.