Sidonius and Salvian 427 



moved the last of the titular Western emperors. We find him anxiously 

 concerned 1 with the old food-question, like his predecessor Symmachus, 

 and not less endeavouring to cooperate harmoniously with \hepraefectus 

 annonae. For a hungry rabble, no doubt fewer in number, still hung 

 about the Eternal city, though its services in the way of applause were 

 no longer in appreciable demand. 



From about 471 Sidonius was bishop 2 of Arverni (Clermont in 

 Auvergne), and performed his difficult duties with efficiency and dignity, 

 a sincerely pious man with a good deal of the grand seigneur about 

 him. Moving about on duty or seeking restful change, he was often 

 visiting country houses, his own or those of friends, receiving or re- 

 turning hospitality. His references to these visits lead to descriptions 3 

 of many pleasant places, and pictures of life in the society of cultivated 

 gentlemen to which he belonged. There is hardly any mention of the 

 suffering farmers of whom Salvian speaks so eloquently. Yet I hesitate 

 to charge Salvian with gross exaggeration and imaginative untruth. 

 Not only do the two men look from different points of view. Sidonius 

 is writing some twenty years later than Salvian, and much had hap- 

 pened in the meantime. The defeat of Attila in 45 1 by the armies of 

 the Romans and Western Goths had not only saved Gaul from the 

 Huns, but had greatly improved the relations between Goth and Roman. 

 And it is to be noted that, in a passage 4 mentioning the victory of the 

 allies and the reception of Thorismund the Gothic king as a guest 

 at Lugudunum, Sidonius praises his correspondent 5 for his share in 

 lightening the burdens of the landowners. Now Salvian knows nothing 

 of the battle of 451, and indeed does not regard the Huns as being 

 necessarily enemies of Rome. It seems certain that for the rustics 

 things were changed for the better. Not that the farmer was his own 

 master, but that the great Roman taxing-machine was no longer in 

 effective action. A great part of Gaul had passed under Teutonic lords. 

 If the subjects were exposed to their caprice, it was of a more personal 

 character, varying with individuals and likely to be modified by their 

 personal qualities. This was a very different thing from the pressure 

 of the Roman official hierarchy, the lower grades of which were them- 

 selves squeezed to satisfy the demands of the higher, and not in a 

 position to spare their victims, however merciful their own inclinations 

 might be. 



But though the establishment of barbarian kingdoms, once the 

 raiding invasions were over, had its good side from the working farmer's 

 point of view, much of the old imperial system still lingered on. The 



1 Sidon epist I 10. 



2 See Dill, Roman Society in the last century of the Western Empire, p 179. 



3 See epist n 2, 9, 14, iv 24, vm 4 . epist vn 12 3. 



5 quia sic habenas Galliarum moderarere ut possessor exhatistus tribtitario iiigo rdevaretur. 



