Life in rustic scenes 429 



own consumption. If we admit this supposition, it follows that their 

 operations, like those of other successful invaders, would be directed 

 mainly to the lowland districts, where most of the food-stuffs were 

 produced. Now the country houses of Sidonius and his friends were, 

 at least most of them, situated in hilly country, often at a considerable 

 distance from the main 1 roads, among pleasant surroundings which 

 these kindly and cultivated gentlemen were well qualified to enjoy. 

 It is evident that some, perhaps many, of these snug retreats were not 

 seriously 2 molested, at all events in southern and south-eastern Gaul. 

 Roughly speaking, the old and most thoroughly Romanized provinces, 

 the chief cities of which were Lugudunum and Narbo, were still seats 

 (indeed the chief seats) of Roman civilization. It was there that the 

 culture of the age survived in literary effort sedulously feeding on the 

 products and traditions of the past. Sidonius thinks it a pity 3 that men 

 of education and refinement should be disposed to bury their talents 

 and capacity for public service in rural retreats, whether suburban or 

 remote. The truth probably was that town life had ceased to be at- 

 tractive to men unconcerned in trade and not warmly interested in 

 religious partisanship. The lord of a country manor, surrounded by his 

 dependants, could fill his store-rooms and granaries 4 with the produce 

 of their labour. He still had slaves 5 to wait on him, sometimes even 

 to work on the land. With reasonable kindliness and care on his part, 

 he could be assured of comfort and respect, the head of a happy rustic 

 community. The mansions of these gentry, sometimes architecturally 8 

 fine buildings, were planted in spots chosen for local advantages, and 

 the library was almost as normal a part of the establishment as the 

 larder. Some of the owners of these places gave quite as much of their 

 time and attention to literary trifling as to the management of their 

 estates. The writing of letters, self-conscious and meant for publication, 

 after the example of Pliny the younger, was a practice of Sidonius. 

 The best specimen of this kind is perhaps the long epistle 7 in which 

 he describes minutely a place among the foot-hills of the Alps. Every 

 attraction of nature seconded by art is particularized, down to the 

 drowsy tinkling of the bells on the mountain flocks accompanied by 

 the shepherd's pipe. No doubt the effective agriculture 8 of Gaul had 

 little in common with these Arcadian scenes. The toiling coloni, serfs 

 of a barbarian chief or a Roman noble, were all the while producing 



1 aggeres publici, cf epist n 9 2, IV 24 2. It is an official expression, used by jurists. 



2 No doubt some were castles, more or less defensible. The burgus of Leontius by the 

 Garonne was such, cf carm xxii 121-5. 



3 epist I 6, vn 15, vni 8. 4 epist n 14. 



6 epist iv 9 i, vii 14 ii. liberti mentioned vn 16. See Dill p 178. 

 6 epist vni 4 i. 7 epist u 2. Cf Dill pp 168-72. 



8 In epist Hi 9 is a curious case of a farmer who owned slaves and in his slack simplicity 

 let them be enticed away to Britain. 



