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(Krahe 1964, pp. 21 ff.). So where such a river runs with a meandering pace,
according to Venantius, we may imagine the battlefield. Among the tributaries of
the lower Lahn between Giessen and Lahnstein, the river Ahr (Aar) is the most
suitable candidate from a geographical, topographical and even linguistic point of
view. Ahr is the same word as the suffix -aa in Bordaa, and the fact that we know
of an Aar-Moor, ‘the moor of the Aar’, (Faust 1965, p. 1) makes it possible that the
river could have been called Bordaa at least in its lower parts.
A conventional panegyric to a courtier would not have needed all this detail, and,
as it is, it does in fact clash with the more commonplace flattery. We can see that
Venantius has baked factual information about the campaign, i.e., what he has heard
in Metz, into the text mostly to point out Lupus’ strategic skill in such a way that it
matched what the Merovingians thought had actually happened.
The kind of people we meet fits the time and space structure nicely. When we are
far off, people are republican Roman heroes of obvious symbolic quality—the genuinely
republican Cato, the splendid servant Scipio and the brilliant, as well as faithful
leader of the republican army, Pompey. When we reach Austrasia and the present
day, people are immediately divided into two groups, outsiders and insiders. The
first group consists of Saxons and Danes and, probably, their emissaries.
The insiders are first and foremost the King, his advisors and servants (among
them Lupus), but they are also the dukes and it so happens that Lupus belongs to this
group too. The men in the army are also among the insiders and they are led by
Lupus.
Lupus is at the centre of the action, but although he acts independently his actions
are always in complete agreement with King Sigibert’s will, and in spite of the fact
that Sigibert does virtually nothing, Venantius hints that the King is in effect behind all
that happens. The hints are carefully veiled, but they give the impression that the King
is passive in a strange way:
pectore sub cuius firmantur pondera regis,
(Venantius Book VII, poem 7, l. 19)
The King’s power is founded in your bosom
pro requie regis dulce putatur onus.
(Venantius Book VII, poem 7, l. 22)
for the King’s peace the burden seems sweet to you.
quis tibi digna loqui valeat, quem voce potente
rex pius ornatum praedicat esse suum?
(Venantius Book VII, poem 7, ll. 79–80)
may your great honour, during his reign, last for ever and may he enjoy his present
life and think about the coming.
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