Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the north-western provinces 521
hands of the bishop or the comes, however, local administration was largely
derived from Roman antecedents.
There are other indications of continuing Roman practice at a higher
level of government, not least in tax collection, which continued in attenuated
forms, apparently organized by Gallo-Romans. Theudebert, who
ruled over the east Frankish kingdom with his capital at Rheims, had as his
right-hand man the Roman aristocrat Parthenius. On Theudebert’s death,
those who had suffered at Parthenius’ hands, Franks who thought they
should not be subject to taxation, took advantage of the absence of royal
protection and lynched him. 209 His case is an interesting one, for it shows
a Roman aristocrat involving himself in governmental affairs. Clearly, he
was attempting to keep certain types of Roman administration running;
but he was also thought to be doing something new in taxing the Franks. 210
This was something more than mere continuity. The same may be true of
Chilperic’s attempts to collect taxes: not content with old tax registers, he
attempted to draw up new registers. In Limoges, at least, the attempt was
not appreciated, and the tax-gatherer, Mark, narrowly escaped lynching. 211
Although Chilperic is described as imposing new taxes, Childebert II is said
to have revised the tax registers not long afterwards, merely to make them
more equitable. 212
In the course of the sixth century romanitas did not merely continue. It
was positively cultivated, perhaps even revived, at the Frankish court. On
Childeric’s death, the Gallo-Roman bishop of Rheims, Remigius, wrote to
his son, Clovis, advising him of his duties as governor of Belgica
Secunda. 213 Twenty-seven years later, in 508, Clovis was supposedly hailed
as consul aut augustus. 214 Childeric had belonged to a transitional world: presumably
Remigius addressed him much as he was to address his son, but
his grave reveals him as being at least as much a pagan warrior as a Roman
federate. 215 Clovis, at the end of his reign, appears far more Romanized, as
well as Christian. While his father had been in conflict with Genovefa,
Clovis is said to have freed prisoners at her request, and ultimately built a
church in her honour. 216 Like Feletheus on the Danube, he is said to have
sought the advice of holy men, notably of Vedast, later bishop of Arras, 217
but it is clear from the letters of Remigius that Clovis often got his own way
with the clergy. 218
Saints continued to advise and inveigh against Merovingian kings in the
sixth century, 219 but the background to their confrontations was by then a
well-established state rather than war-torn Paris or the undefended banks
209 Greg. Tur. Hist. iii.36. 210 Greg. Tur. Hist. iii.36. 211 Greg. Tur. Hist. v.28.
212 Greg. Tur. Hist. ix.30. 213 Epist. Austras. 2. 214 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.38.
215 Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 40. 216 Vita Genovefae 56: Daly (1994) 629–31.
217 Jonas, Vita Vedastis 3, ed. B. Krusch, MGH, SRM 3. 218 Epist. Austras. 3.
219 Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 73.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008