108 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii liberal gift with some ostentation of power, and without any real loss of revenue or dominion. The lawful pretensions of Euric were justified by ambition and success ; and the Gothic nation might aspire, under his command, to the monarchy of Spain and Gaul. Aries and Marseilles surrendered to his arms; he op- pressed the freedom of Auvergne ; and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant, praise. Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants ; and their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power and the renown of the king of the Visigoths. The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their naked bodies with its cserulean colour, im- plored his protection ; and the Saxons respected the maritime provinces of a prince who was destitute of any naval force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his authority ; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till he had imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship; and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of the neighbouring Huns. The North (such are the lofty strains of the poet) was agitated, or appeased, by the nod of Euric ; the great king of Persia consulted the oracle of the West ; and the aged god of the Tiber was protected by the swelling genius of the Garonne. 6 The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents ; and France may ascribe her greatness to the pre- mature death of the Gothic king, at a time when his son Alaric was an helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis 7 an ambitious and valiant youth, ciovis.king While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in Ger- Franka. many, he was hospitably entertained by the queen as well as [5ii] by the king of the Thuringians. After his restoration, Basina escaped from her husband's bed to the arms of her lover ; freely declaring that, if she had known a man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful than Childeric, that man should have been the object 'PoSavov, but several inferior Mss. have ijpiSavov, which probably suggested to Gro- tius his unnecessary guess 'Prjvov.'] 6 Sidonius, 1. viii. epist. 3, 9, in torn. i. p. 800. Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 47, p. 680) justifies, in some measure, this portrait of the Gothic hero. 7 I use the familiar appellation of Clovis, from the Latin Chlodovechus, or Chlodovaeus. But the Ch expresses only the German aspiration ; and the true name is not different from Luduin, or Lewis (Mem. de PAcademie des Inscriptions, torn. xx. p. 68).
