Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the north-western provinces 517
are somewhat doom-laden landscapes. On the other hand, it may be that
Gallaecia suffered precisely because no charismatic religious leader
emerged to outface the Suevic kings.
Gallaecia may have been unusual among the peripheral zones of the
Roman west in not having a charismatic leader. In the south Spanish city of
Mérida a line of bishops established themselves as leaders of their community,
although their holiness was perhaps secondary to the economic
resources they built up. 177 Nor was the periphery the only area where there
were saints capable of taking on, and supposedly outfacing, barbarians.
Caesarius of Arles was a match for Theoderic the Amal, 178 and, already in
the chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, pope Leo is said to have impressed
Attila. 179 A century earlier, of course, Ambrose had outfaced Theodosius.
In general, however, the role of the charismatics in the transition from
Roman empire to barbarian kingdom in southern Gaul and Italy seems to
have been less than it was in some of the more peripheral regions. Yet here,
too, bishops generally played a very conspicuous role in the many diplomatic
negotiations which went on during this period. Epiphanius of Pavia,
for instance, negotiated with Euric as well as with Gundobad. 180 Equally
significantly, four bishops were entrusted with negotiating the final stages
of the cession of Clermont to the Visigoths. 181
Although our sources suggest that it was charismatic clerics who stepped
into the breach caused by the failure of the Roman empire, there were other
individuals who attempted to use the remnants of imperial authority. The
barbarians themselves often acted as officials of the old empire, both
before and after becoming kings – and their kingdoms were built on
Roman foundations, which in the south had been less shaken than further
north. These southern leaders, the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in
Aquitaine and the Burgundians in the Rhône valley, were also drawn to
some extent into the established social patterns of the upper classes of the
late Roman empire. We can see this as early as the mid 450s in Sidonius’
picture of the daily routine of the Visigothic king Theoderic: church attendance
and official duties, followed by inspection of the stables, hunting, the
midday meal, then a short siesta – or, even better, a game of dice – then a
resumption of royal duties before dinner. As Sidonius remarked, it was
advisable to lose a game against the king to get one’s suit preferred. 182
Theoderic’s brother, the rather more rebarbative Euric, was in time the
focus of an equally Romanized court, centred on the Roman city of
Toulouse, where the verses of Sidonius were well received. 183 Meanwhile,
at the same court, more northerly barbarians – Saxons, Franks, maritime
177 Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium ed. J. N. Garvin (Washington 1946).
178 Vita Caesarii i.36–8. 179 Prosper, s.a. 452, ed. T. Mommsen, MGH, AA 9 (Berlin 1892).
180 Ennod. Vita Epiph. 85–94, 136–77, ed. F. Vogel, MGH, AA 7 (Berlin 1885).
181 Sid. Ap. Ep. 7.6.10. 182 Sid. Ap. Ep. 1.2.4–10. 183 Sid. Ap. Epp. 4.8.1; 8.9.
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