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ZZZURXWOHGJHFRP
Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul
Dedicated to
JOHN SMEDLEY
D R SetR W M
edited by
The authors have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Figures vii
Contributors viii
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Map of Late Antique Gaul xiii
Introduction
Danuta Shanzer, Ralph W. Mathisen 1
3 Not the Theodosian Code: Euric’s Law and Late Fifth-Century Gaul
Jill Harries 39
Index 313
Figures
4.1 Folio 110v from ms. "L" of the Gallic Chronicle o f 452 83
4.2 Folio 54r from ms. "B" of the Gallic Chronicle o f 452 84
This volume was conceived at the International Medieval Studies Congress at Kalamazoo
in May, 1998, when John Smedley, noticing the large number of papers dealing with
Late Antiquity in general and late antique Gaul in particular suggested that a published
volume might be in order. The rest, they say, is history. Using as a starting point persons
present at the conference, such as Michael Kulikowski, Andreas Schwarcz, and Ian
Wood, the two of us began to seek out contributors for a book that, at John’s suggestion,
would focus on new ways of looking at both existing and newly discovered source
material relating to late antique Gaul. Gallic specialists whom we approached were
remarkably supportive of the project. Although the press of research and other business
prohibited some from participating, most not only eagerly agreed to do so, but also
made time in their already full schedules to craft their contributions. For that we are
most grateful.
The resulting book fits nicely into what has become something of a tradition of
collected studies relating to late antique Gaul. It all started in 1992 with the publication
of J. Drinkwater and H. Elton’s Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis o f Identity? by Cambridge
University Press; indeed, six of the contributors to that volume authored seven of
the sixteen studies in this one. Subsequently, several collaborative efforts relating
all or in part to late antique Gaul have appeared, including, inter alia, F. Vallet, M.
Kazanski eds., L'armée romaine et les barbares du Ille au Vile siècle (Paris, 1993);
F. Vallet, M. Kazanski eds., La noblesse Romaine et les chefs barbares du IIle au
Vile siècle (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1995); R. Mathisen, H. Sivan eds., Shifting Frontiers
in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, 1996); F. Paschoud, J. Szidat eds., Usurpationen in der
Spatantike (Stuttgart, 1997); N. Gauthier, H. Galinié eds, Grégoire de Tours et l'espace
gaulois (Tours, 1997); M. Rouche ed., Clovis, le Romain, le chrétien, l'Européen
(Paris, 1998); W.E. Klingshim, M. Vessey eds., The Limits o f Ancient Christianity:
Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor ofR.A. Markus (Ann Arbor,
1999) ; A. Ferreiro ed., The Visigoths. Studies in Culture and Society (Leiden, 1999);
C. de Dreuille ed., L'Eglise et la Mission au VIe siècle. La mission d'Augustin de
Cantorbéry et les Eglises de Gaule sous l'impulsion de Grégoire le Grand (Paris,
2000) ; and R.W. Mathisen ed., Law, Society, and Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford,
2001) . Moreover, particular attention should be paid to the many volumes resulting
from the European "Transformation of the Roman World" project, including L. Webster,
M. Michelle Brown eds., The Transformation o f the Roman World AD 400-900
X PREFACE
(Berkeley, 1997); W. Pohl ed., Kingdoms o f the Empire (Leiden, 1998); W. Pohl ed.,
Strategies o f Distinction. The Construction o f Ethnic Communities, 300-800 (Leiden,
1998); E. Chrysos, I. Wood eds., East and West: Modes o f Communication. Proceedings
o f the First Plenary Conference at Merida (Leiden, 1999); W. Pohl, I. Wood, H. Reimitz
eds., The Transformation o f Frontiers from Late Antiquity to the Carolingians (Leiden,
2000); G.P. Brogiolo, N. Gauthier, N. Christie eds., Towns and Their Territories between
Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Leiden, 2000); and F. Theuws, J.L. Nelson
eds., Rituals o f Rower: From Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (Leiden, 2000).
Finally, it should go without saying that we are grateful not only to our contributors,
but also to the staff at Ashgate Press, including Ruth Peters, Celia Hoare, and M.
Murphy, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in seeing this volume
through to publication. Particular thanks, finally, is due to John Smedley, who not
only had the original idea for this project, but also took it under his wing, and shepherded
it along at times when the two of us might have been inclined to stray "off the royal
road, either to the right or to the left," as Faustus of Riez said. We have lost track
of the conferences (Byzantine Studies at Cambridge, Mass., International Medieval
at Kalamazoo, Medieval at Leeds, Patristic at Oxford, and the British Academy in
London) at which John’s familiar wild-haired head popped up from behind display-stalls
or around columns to hunt us down, and of the innumerable e-mails tactfully inquiring
"How things were going." So, for his dedication, commitment, and, in particular,
his perseverance, it is to John Smedley that this libellus is dedicated.
CJ Codex Justinianus
Clavis E. Dekkers and A. Gaar eds., Clavis patrum Latino rum (3rd
ed.) (Steenbrugge, 1995)
Jones, LRE A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire A.D. 284-640. A Social,
Economie, and Administrative Survey (Norman, 1964).
SC Sources chrétiennes
This is the first volume since 1992 to focus specifically on the transformations that
occurred in late antique Gaul.1Since then, historical research into the area has evolved.
Rather than focusing on the extent to which Gaul was or was not a part of the Roman
Empire during the fifth century,2 this volume expands the chronological framework
to include the subsequent century, and takes a rather broader view of the transformation
process. There is no presumption here that Roman authority could, or should, have
continued: the Gallic future undeniably lay under barbarian rule. But there likewise
is no attempt to deny or minimize the Roman heritage; indeed, every one of the
contributions to this volume in some way or other engages itself with the continuities
of Roman culture and tradition in barbarian Gaul. This does not mean, however, that
the transition process is seen as manifesting an opposition, overt or implied, of
"continuity versus change." Nor, indeed (and this not at all our design, but a consequence
of the studies that were contributed), is there much evidence of another kind of conflict,
"on the ground," so to speak. Nearly all of the processes of change discussed in this
volume, even the settlement of the barbarian peoples, took place in a natural, organic,
and generally eirenic manner.
Thus we highlight not theory, or a particular methodological approach, or any
question (or questions) about late antique Gaul,3 but the specialised techniques of
many disciplines (archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, literary studies, history,
philosophy, and philology) as applied to the manifold sources for the fifth and sixth
1J. Drinkwater, H. Elton eds., Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis o f Identity? (Cambridge, 1992).
2 "The factors that so radically altered the position of Gaul in the empire": Drinkwater-Elton, Fifth-Century
Gaul, 1.
3 See Drinkwater-Elton, Fifth-Century Gaul, 1, on the search for factors that influenced the change
in the position of Gaul within the empire. Also E.D. Hunt, "Gaul and the Holy Land in the Early Fifth
Century," ibid., 264-74 at 266, on the genesis of the volume: "It emerged from a conference whose
central question was the extent to which Gaul may be said to have still been a part of the Roman empire
after 31 December 406."
2 INTRODUCTION
centuries. Specialists on Gaul (as well as in their respective disciplines) have had
the opportunity, and space, to develop and present mature and fully-documented studies.
We generally have eschewed treating the "usual suspects" as regards both subjects
and sources. This is not the place, for example, where all Gaul smokes in a single
funeral-pyre.4 The studies presented here take a less melodramatic, more reasoned
and nuanced approach. Nor is this the place to find yet one more look at literary sources
that have been well-thumbed in the past. For example, the fine letter collection of
Sidonius Apollinaris has received comprehensive, and well deserved, attention, but
the price has been the neglect of other, equally important, but (until recently)
untranslated collections, such as those of Avitus of Vienne and Ruricius of Limoges,
not to mention that of Ennodius of Pavia.5Likewise, the Histories of Gregory of Tours
has been exhaustively studied, but less attention has been given to the chronicles which
often are the best source for fifth and early sixth-century Gaul. If one is to gain a
richer and more representative image of late antique Gaul, this imbalance needs to
be redressed. We therefore concentrate on sources that have been too little studied
and appreciated in their own right. By doing so, it often is possible to coax penetrating
conclusions from sources that previously have been passed over. Where a "usual
suspect," such as the Visigothic Settlement or Childeric’s Grave, is considered, it is
with fresh eyes in a critical way that can lead to reinterpretation.
Rather than attempting to present a unitary image of late antique Gaul, or to come
up with yet one more "model" for the barbarian settlement, we aim to take the reader
back to what really matters: the sources. Doing so allows one to experience not only
the physical realia - coins, epitaphs, basilicas, and burials - but also the religious,
literary, philosophical, and social life. Much use was made, naturally, of literary sources,
although in this regard our intention was to focus on the sources-qua-sources in their
own contexts rather than merely as mines from which nuggets of information could
be excavated. Literary genres that receive special attention include epistolography
(Bartlett, Mathisen, Shanzer, Vessey), chronicles (Burgess [bis], Kulikowski, Schwarcz),
poetry (Roberts, Wood), a law code (Harries), and a philosophical-theological polemic
(Brittain). But we particularly wanted to give attention to non-literary culture, and
as a consequence five of the sixteen contributions deal in detail with the topics of
numismatics (Uhalde), epigraphy (Handley), and archaeology (Halsall, Schwarcz,
Young).
The picture that emerges demonstrates that during Late Antiquity Gaul was rich
and diverse. Life went on much as before after the invasion of 406/7. Nor did Gaul
become an isolated cultural backwater, separate from the rest of the Mediterranean
4 The spectacularly overstated assertion of bishop Orientius of Auch ca. the 440s: uno fum avit Gallia
tota rogo {Comm. 2.5.184: CSEL 16.234), which long has served as a starting-point for those wanting
to demonize the barbarians and problematize the barbarian settlement. Cf. Ennodius, VEpiphanii 98,
tota civitas quasi rogus ejfulgurat ("The entire city blazed like a funeral pyre"), speaking of Pavia.
5 See D.R. Shanzer, I.N. Wood, The Letters o f Avitus o f Vienne (forthcoming, Liverpool); and R.W.
Mathisen, Ruricius o f Limoges and Friends: A Collection o f Lettersfrom Visigothic Aquitania (Liverpool,
1999).
INTRODUCTION 3
world. In the early sixth century some of her bishops looked to the Pope at Rome
as a source of guidance and authority (Avitus, Epp. 40-1). Some of her barbarian
rulers sought, and received, patronage further afield, in Byzantium.6 Relics were
imported from Jerusalem and Constantinople (Avitus, Epp. 20, 25; Ven.Fort.
VRadegundis). Golden church plate is said to have traveled (with some mishaps on
the way) from Byzantium to Lyon.7 Indeed, in the Merovingian imagination, an intrepid
proto- Aetherian "matron of Gaul" was first on the scene at the death of John the Baptist:
she caught the Baptist’s blood in her silver conca and brought it back to Bazas.8
The first panel of our Gallic triptych contains papers on how Roman Gaul became
barbarian Gaul, dealing with topics ranging from archeological realia and the date
of the Visigothic settlement and the reasons behind it; to laws and letters in Visigothic
territory; to the mysterious notables, both Roman and barbarian, of northern Gaul
in the late fifth century, Syagrius, Aegidius, and Childeric; and, finally, to a firmly-
entrenched and powerful Patrician of Provence glimpsed through his gold coinage.
The first two studies explore the settlement of Aquitania through material culture
and literary sources. Andreas Schwarcz looks at dating, archaeology, and group-
ethnography. He starts with a surprise, arguing that the settlement of the Visigoths
in Aquitania happened in 419, not 418. Mommsen got it wrong, and all followed the
great man. Two related issues then are discussed: not all Goths are the same, and
migration-history, not genes, must have determined their appearance, equipment,
and material remains. Hence one should not be surprised that the Goths who settled
in Gaul in 419 left no distinctively Gothic vestigia.9 They had been sojourning in
Roman territory for over forty years and had been equipped by Roman generals. On
the other side of the coin, the strong Danubian affinities of Gothic archaeological
remains in fifth-century Spain support the Jordanian shadow-mythology of Amal-cum-
Ostrogothic contact with, and presence among, the Visigoths in Spain.
Michael Kulikowski deconstructs not dating, but the idea of any unified Gallo-Roman
interest in the Gothic settlement in Aquitania. Because all non-Romans were barbarians,
and the latter were a diverse group whose voices and interests cannot be recovered,
6 For Clovis, see Greg.Tur. Hist. 2.38; for Gundobad’s and Sigismund’s titles, see Avitus, Epp. 78,
93-4; and for the later sixth century note the embassies documented in the Epistulae Austrasiacae.
7 Greg.Tur. Glor.conf. 62. The story presents the emperor, Leo, as if he were at Rome, and could
suggest that the original story may have concerned not the emperor Leo I (458-74), but pope Leo
I (440-61).
8 See Greg.Tur. Glor.mart. 11 for the a Galliis matrona, a more imaginative and ambitious figure
than Sidonius’ queen Ragnahild of Ep. 4.8, who likewise owned a silver shell-basin. She however
was to use it more conventionally - to wash her face.
9The "intriguing puzzle" of C.E.V. Nixon, "Relations between Visigoths and Romans in Fifth-Century
Gaul," in Drinkwater-Elton, Fifth-Century Gaul, 64-74 at 64. For him, however (71), the answer may
lie in the way "industrious farmers" are wont to disappear from history.
4 INTRODUCTION
he likewise dismisses claims of any coherent interest among barbarians. The only
entity whose purposes and desires can be documented, studied, and controlled by
examining comparable situations, an entity with a history and institutional continuity,
was the imperial government. Kulikowski constructs a paranoid, but plausible, concern
on its part about usurpers in Gaul. The latter, after all, not Britain, was the real fertilis
provincia tyrannorum.10The Gauls were settled in Aquitania to fight potential usurpers
(much as Stilicho had hoped to employ Alaric against Constantine). And as to the
question "Why Aquitania?," Kulikowski responds, on the one hand, that it was located
next to areas that had shown rebellious tendencies in the past, but, on the other, that
it did not block any essential lines of communication. The creative consideration given
by the imperial government to political and geographical expedience speaks clearly.
The study of law in the barbarian kingdoms can tell us much about the process
of cohabitation, acculturation, and integration. Jill Harries goes back to an important,
though desperately fragmentary, source, the Code of Euric, king of the Visigoths from
466 until 484. Regarding the question of "how Roman, how barbarian?", Harries suggests
that even if Euric’s Code was not overtly Roman and demonstrated an erosion of
understanding of some fundamental Roman legal institutions it nonetheless embodied
many principles of Roman law. It reflected not so much a "compromise" between
Roman and barbarian practice, as "the law as it worked in late fifth-century Gaul."
She suggests that, even though he might have been involved in some phase or other
of its publication, the pedestrian language of the Code is unlikely to be the work of
Sidonius’eloquent friend, the Roman jurist Leo. But, whoever wrote it, its political
agenda was to replace emperor with king and to airbrush the overt Romanitas out
of what was, in reality, largely based on Roman law. Harries eschews the conventional
view that barbarian law was for barbarians and law from Roman law codes for Romans,
and concludes that any laws issued by the Visigothic king applied to all of the people
under his authority.
Texts are central to any understanding of late antique Gaul, and Richard Burgess
reedits two related Gallic Chronicles, those of 452 and 511, that cover the fifth and
early sixth century. The Gallic Chronicle of 452 survives in several manuscripts, and
Burgess provides a conservative reconstruction of its archetypal rather than its authorial
text. In the process he demonstrates that, by misreading the manuscripts, Mommsen,
once again, got it wrong. As a result several crucial passages receive new dates. The
Gallic Chronicle of 511, on the other hand, survives in but a single manuscript, and
Burgess places its origin in Arles. Both chronicles give a sense, in late antique "sound
bites," of what mattered to the inhabitants of Gaul during the trying years of the century
following the barbarian crossing of the Rhine: emperors, barbarians, creeping heresies,
and ecclesiastical writers were all considered newsworthy and worthy of mention
in the jejune year-by-year entries.
We continue with a different type of source, namely the letter-collection of Ruricius
10 Jerome, Ep. 133.9. See R.W. Mathisen, "Fifth-Century Visitors to Italy: Business or Pleasure?,"
in Drinkwater-Elton, Fifth-Century Gaul, 228-38 at 237, for a possible cause of Gallic separatism:
the Gauls’ abandonment by the imperial government.
INTRODUCTION 5
of Limoges. More than an employer of the cursus and a middle-brow Sidonian epigone,11
Ruricius has much to tell, not of emperors, kings, and great matters of state, but of
life at the local level in the Visigothic kingdom: wayward children, fugitive slaves,
and stolen pigs. Were it not for the presence of two Visigothic friends, the reader
would scarcely even know that Ruricius lived under barbarian rule. At first, life went
on very much as it had under Roman authority. Only at the end of his life, on the
verge of Clovis’defeat of Alaric II and the destruction of the Kingdom of Toulouse,
does Ruricius begin to indicate that something might be amiss.
Unlike his shadowy opponent Alaric, Clovis, king of the Franks ca.481-511, has
star appeal, be it with regard to his ruthlessness, his religion, or the date of his baptism.
But, just as there would have been no Alexander without Philip, nor an Augustus
Caesar without Julius, likewise there would have been no Clovis without his dimly-
illuminated father, Childeric, about whom one would dearly love to know more.
Childeric’s career, chronology, and policy have to be reconstructed primarily from
Gregory of Tours, much of whose account has a strong whiff of folktale. Guy Halsall
begins by casting doubt on the one thing we thought we knew so well about Childeric,
his date of death, customarily placed in 481. By deconstructing Gregory of Tours’
chronology, Halsall suggests that all one can say for sure is that Childeric died sometime
between 474 and 491. This means that the chronology of events whose date is based
upon the now-suspect 481, including Remigius of Reims’letter to Clovis and Clovis’
defeat of Syagrius (in the fifth year of Clovis’reign, traditionally dated to 486, a date
Halsall eschews citing at all), likewise become suspect. The earliest fixed date in
Clovis’chronology, which provides a terminus post quem for his accession, now becomes
28 December 484, the inception of the rule of the Visigothic king Alaric II, with whom
Syagrius took refuge after his defeat by Clovis.12
Halsall then turns to the archaeological evidence, which, if read with both a critical
and imaginative eye, is most suggestive. Childeric’s grave was excavated and first
published in the seventeenth century, but the finds were subsequently stolen.13 The
magnificence of the furnishings with which Childeric went to his reward bespeaks
a need for display, which, Halsall suggests, occurred at a time of political stress. He
reminds us of an obvious, though rarely appreciated, fact: Childeric’s "pagan" (of
so it seems) burial must have been stage-managed by his son Clovis who (from ca.
481) listened to bishops, just as his father had before him. The grave is thus a document
of Clovis’own transition to power, suggesting that in his early years he faced serious
challenges to his authority. One of the first came from Syagrius, son of the Roman
general, and rebel, Aegidius. Halsall suggests that Syagrius’significance in the mid-480s
has been overstated. But so, too, may have been Clovis’. Both were young men on
the make, and the first to fall by the wayside was the Roman, whose army of "Romans"
then fell into the hands of Clovis, who used it to good effect against Alamans, Visigoths,
and, in particular, fellow Franks.
Objects without voices or full sentences can, happily, still be read. Kevin Uhalde
provides the first comprehensive corpus in nearly fifty years of the so-called "Quasi-
Imperial" solidi and tremisses of Merovingian Provence. Minted in Marseille, Arles,
Viviers, Uzes, Sisteron, Valence, Venasque, and Vienne, they bore two marks of
distinction: a globus cruciger on the reverse, and a weight that was markedly less
than other, similar, coins in circulation. Indeed, they departed from the weight standard
that had been in use ever since the early fourth century. Yet, rather than being denied
entry to the marketplace they served as harbingers of the future, for it was their standard,
not the Byzantine, Mediterranean, one, that was to be used by Merovingian kings
in the future. In addition to considering their economic significance, Uhalde asks
the crucial question: who was responsible for issuing them? Discarding the suggestion
that they were coined using the revenues from papal estates in Gaul (there simply
would not have been enough income for this), Uhalde nominates the Merovingian
Patrician, whose distance from any of the royal courts allowed him throughout Provence
an unprecedented autonomy that would continue on into the seventh century.
The second leaf of the triptych uses both material and literary evidence to illuminate
social aspects of Christianity in later Roman Gaul starting with its transition from
Gallia Romana to Gallia Christiana during the second through fourth centuries. In
the first two contributions the mute stones speak; in the second two evidence for Gallic
asceticism (or lack thereof) is documented from Ennodius' and Avitus' letter-collections.
Bailey Young explores Christian funerary architecture in Autun, the Rhone Valley,
the Auvergne, and Geneva. He paints a picture not of glacial continuity, nor of the
13 J. Chifflet, Anastasis Childerici primi (1655). See E. James, The Franks (London-Oxford, 1988)
61, for the theft of many of the finds in 1831. For Romano-Germanic burials of this period and area,
see also F. Naumann-Steckner, "Death on the Rhine: Changing Burial Customs in Cologne, 3rd-7th
Century," in L. Webster, M. Michelle Brown eds., The Transformation o f the Roman World AD 400-900
(Berkeley, 1997) 143-79.
INTRODUCTION 7
conflict over sacred space attested in Mark the Deacon’s Life o f Porphyry o f Gaza,
or in Philostorgius’ account of Daphne at Antioch and the troublesome remains of
St. Babylas. Instead, the third century saw disjunction and discontinuity, with buildings
abandoned under barbarian attack, and the fourth new directions, when Christians
built their basilicas on different sites: the resting places of their "venerated martyrs,"
which were often located away from the city centers and customary places of pagan
worship. When local talent was lacking, bishops imported foreign relics to increase
the sum of sanctity and create Christian sites of power. Only later did ecclesiastical
complexes occupy the prime real estate within the city walls.
Mark Handley likewise works from funerary monuments, although not architectural
ones, but inscriptions. This methodologically lucid case-study cautions against the
perils of using hagiography to write history. The voices of Gregory of Tours and other
hagiographers are loud, to be sure, but they speak from a single viewpoint and leave
much unsaid. Handley employs the later Roman and early medieval Christian inscriptions
of Trier to correct and flesh out our understanding of the cults of local saints. Handley’s
quantitative analysis depicts the fickle dynamics of popularity: desuetude affecting
burial ad sanctos in the cemeteries of saints Eucharius, Paulinus, Maximinus. The
religious graffiti and epitaphs show us the vox populi acclaiming its saints, not the
top-down workings of the episcopal saint-makers.
The ancient letter-writer lurked like a spider in the center of his web-like network.
Richard Bartlett looks at the correspondence of Magnus Felix Ennodius, that rara
avis, a Gallic aristocrat who left his homeland voluntarily, in his case to make a career
in Ostrogothic Italy. Bartlett uses his correspondence to analyze the striking divergence
between the ascetic and aristocratic Gallic church and the more secular and less
aristocratic Italian one. In Gaul, bishops owned theology, whereas in Italy a layman
such as Boethius could engage in theological controversy at the highest level. Indeed,
Gallic bishops, when they failed to obtain information about theological controversies
through regular Italian ecclesiastical channels, had recourse to secular ones.14Bartlett
suggests that the reason for the difference came not from political considerations,
such as different experiences during the barbarian occupations, but from variant cultural
perspectives. The ascetic tone of the Gallic church, moreover, emanated not from
St. Martin, but from the charismatic Honoratus of Lerins and his network of Gallic
aristocrats, such as Eucherius of Lyon, Maximus and Faustus of Riez, and Lupus
of Troyes. Italy lacked both the precedent and the inclination for the establishment
of a centre of ascetic influence and authority, even though Ennodius, despite his exile,
continued to feel the tug of the ascetic tradition of his homeland.
Danuta Shanzer portrays late fifth- and early sixth-century Gallic episcopal religieux
at gastronomic and literary play. She creates a corpus of letters accompanying gifts
of food (particularly fish) exchanged by Sidonius Apollinaris of Clermont, Ruricius
of Limoges, and Avitus of Vienne. The centerpiece is the translation of a riotous and
comical jeu d ’e sprit of Avitus, who writes in the persona of a greedy parasite forced
14 Avitus, Ep. 34, to Faustus and Symmachus, and Ep. 39, to Senarius.
8 INTRODUCTION
INTELLECTUAL LIFE
The final triptych tablet moves from the ridiculous to the sublime. How high was
the "high" culture in a late Roman province? How many languages did educated people
speak or at least read? There are plausible candidates for the title of "best-educated
extant late fifth-century writer" from later Roman Africa (Martianus Capella) and
Italy (Boethius). But what of Gaul? A central problem in late antique intellectual
history is the fate of Latin-language philosophy between Seneca and Boethius.
Claudianus Mamertus, author of a treatise attacking Faustus of Riez’s corporealist
views on the soul, comes under close inspection from Charles Brittain. He investigates
several questions: did Claudianus know Greek, that is, is Sidonian puffery about his
triplex bibliotheca likely to be true? Was Claudianus a philosopher in the strong sense,
as opposed to a religious writer or theologian? What were the sources of his writings?
As much as many cling to the notion of a heavily Grecicized southeastern Gaul (as
attested, for example, by the Pectorius inscription and the eastern ties of the second-
century church of Lyon, as discussed by Bailey Young), it is not seen here. Claudianus
cannot be shown to have used any untranslated Greek sources. Although he did use
Porphyry in a Latin translation, Augustine is his main source. Yet, his Augustine was
not copied verbatim, but read deeply and thoroughly, absorbed, and assimilated. Working
in Latin from Latin material, Claudianus emerges as an original and interesting mind
- "the first Latin philosopher who was entirely a product of the Christian culture of
the western empire."
The exposure to high culture, and the products of the top-drawer élite figures,
continues with Ian Wood's reexamination of Avitus of Vienne's biblical epic, De
spiritalis historiae gestis, a magificent versification of Biblical history from Fall to
Flood that probably influenced Milton's Paradise Lost. Hitherto, the SHG has largely
been a quarry for the study of biblical paraphrase and Christian narrative verse. Wood
instead considers its main non-poetic sources and detects one that is exegetical,
Augustinian, and clearly identifiable, namely the De Genesi ad litteram. Even when
Avitus is compelled to do without his faithful Augustinian guide in his latter books,
Wood shows how strongly the work is structured around exegetical points and figurae.
This is not surprising given that the whole of the SHG shows signs of a deeper
acquaintance with the works of Augustine than has been documented by previous
INTRODUCTION 9
source-criticism.15Work on Avitus has regrettably been split between those who study
the verse and those who address the considerably less alluring prose and its historical
context. Wood examines the interface between the two corpora, with has much of
interest to say about Avitus’interest in lex and sententia and their possible connections
with Gundobad’s famed lawgiving. However much the bishop of Vienne in later life
might have employed modesty-topoi to discuss his poetic oeuvre, everything points
to an educated, episcopal, or soon-to-be episcopal audience for this deeply serious
(although much-ornamented) poem. This piece, like Brittain’s, shows Augustine’s
profound influence in Gaul, at least in the area of Vienne. Literary circles continued
to define and circumscribe: in both of these cases, the Augustine flowed from one
fount, for Avitus may well have studied with Claudianus Mamertus.
In the 430s, an otherwise unknown (it seems) priest Rusticus wrote to Eucherius
of Lyons to praise his ancillae to scripture. The letter spoke of an image of Vergil
with an epigram vindicating the poet’s own works as a better monument than any
statue. Rusticus had seen the ensemble in a pagan library in his youth and recalled
it to tell Eucherius that his fame would live for ever. In Sidonius’letters (Ep. 2.9.4-5)
appeared another library (in a villa) with significant groupings of similis scientiae
viri ("men of similar learning"), Varro and Augustine, and Horace and Prudentius,
polymaths and poets who used lyric metres, paired pagan and Christian counterparts.
But in Rusticus’ letter the grouping is messier. Vergil, the greatest Roman poet, is
juxtaposed with Eucherius, the Christian exegete with no apparent concern for genre
or stature. But this perhaps reflects the confrontation, not of authors and statues, but,
as Vessey argues, of canonical corpora, pagan and Christian. The (multi-authored)
Bible would replace Vergil’s works as the central text for authoritative and serious
exegesis. Now, ancient libraries did not just feature books, but manuscript author-
portraits and also busts and statues.16Indeed the concern with author-qua-figure, and
work or authoritative "mot," could be found in venues as humble as the tavern of
15There is some new material in A. Arweiler, Die Imitation antiker und spatantiker Literatur in der
Dichtung D e spiritalis historiae gestis' des Alcimus Avitus (Berlin, 1999); and in L. Morisi, Alcimi
Aviti de mundi initio (Bologna, 1996). But more could be added, e.g. Carm. 1.142, usibus vs. cultibus
may reflect the Augustinian doctrine of usus and fruitio, see Doct.chr. 1.3.3 and passim; Carm. 2.284-87,
horoscopes and twins, may reflect Conf. 7.6.8 and especially Civ.dei 5.2-4; Carm. 3.60-65 and 256,
and Carm. 4.658, eternal punishment of the damned, may reflect Aug. Civ.dei. 20.14 and 22,21.9-13
and 17-25; Carm. 3.187-93, the struggle of Cain and Abel prefigured: see Civ.dei. 15.1 for Cain and
Abel as City of Man and City of God; Carm. 3.365ffl: the drachma, lost sheep, and prodigal may
go back to Conf. 8.36; and Carm. 4.62-77, human depravity as a river, may be compared to Conf.
1.16.25. And see also N. Hecquet-Noti, Avit de Vienne, Histoire spirituelle, Tome 1 (Chants i-iii),
SC 444 (Paris, 1999).
16See N. Hannestad, "How Did Rising Christianity Cope with Pagan Sculpture?," in E. Chrysos, I.N.
Wood eds., East and West: Modes o f Communication. Proceedings o f the First Plenary Conference
at Merida (Leiden, 1999) 173-203 at 191. Hannestad, rightly puzzled at the lack of literary men among
the sculptural finds at the late Roman Villa at Chiragan, conjectures that the owner may not have
had a taste for literature or, alternatively, that the library pit has yet to be found. The Villa at Welschbillig,
on the contrary, had many men of letters (ibid., 193).
10 INTRODUCTION
the Seven Sages in Ostia, where a painted Thales urged the constipated to "strain
good and hard."17Vessey sees the Epistle to Eucherius as documenting a significant
moment in the "canonization" of Christian writers that would eventually lead to the
sanctorum veneranda cohors and their mystica dicta in pope Agapetus’ library in
Rome. Although Eucherius is not yet an "autotype" here, he, like Vergil, will endure
as long as his scriptural works survive to teach future generations.
Finally, some secular poetry. In 567 the Visigothic princess Galswintha was sent
north to marry Chilperic I, king of the Franks. Shortly after arrival she was garrotted
- apparently at the command of her husband. Michael Roberts’ contribution points
to die rhetorical, indeed specifically declamatory, elements underlying the poet Venantius
Fortunatus’ Elegy on Galswintha. Its author was more interested in the ethopoieic
depiction of the emotions of mother and sister than in Galswintha’s murder (which
is not even mentioned). Our knowledge of epikedion and its conventions nonetheless
allows us to conclude that Fortunatus knew perfectly well that Chilperic had caused
his bride to be murdered: there is no leave-taking from, or consolation of, the bereaved
spouse. Roberts sensitively finds covert messages in oddities, an implicit comparison
invited between the careers of Radegundis (whose cloistered fate was far happier)
and Galswintha, and those of Fortunatus and his subject, both of whom had crossed
lofty snow-capped mountains to live as strangers in the strange land of what was now
Merovingian Gaul.
Gregory of Tours narrated Galswintha’s story with ironic innuendo in Hist. 4.28.
Chilperic had loved her greatly, he straight-facedly reports, "because she brought
a great dowry with her." Gregory emphasized such crass considerations in royal
marriage-alliances on another, later, occasion, when the Frankish princess Rigunth
was sent south accompanied by a miserable group of press-ganged slaves.18The princess
was reluctant, and her flashy, sordid, bridal progress from Paris to Spain was ill-fated
from the start. She was kidnapped in Toulouse by the duke Desiderius and exiled,
her treasure seized by the usurper Gundovald. But her formidable mother, Fredegund,
contrived her eventual return - only to attempt to murder her rude, presumably frustrated,
and promiscuous offspring herself, greed for treasure the deadly lure.19
Now, Gregory was a personal friend of Fortunatus, and presumably was familiar
with the Elegy,20a tragic treatment in a minor key, with its description of Galswintha’s
departure from Spain and the mourning of her closest female relatives, Goiswintha
and Brunichildis, mother and sister (Carm. 6.5). Yet Gregory has not one word to
say about the journey. One wonders whether he intentionally omitted Galswintha’s
bridal progress northward, already described by Fortunatus,21 to concentrate on an
17 Durum cacantes monuit ut nitant Thales. See R. Meiggs, Roman Ostia (Oxford, 1960) 429 and
pi. xxix.
18 The tale is spread out like a soap opera, at Hist. 6.45, 7.9, 15, 32, 35, 37.
19 The method had worked in the case of Sigibert the Lame’s son Chloderic (Greg.Tur. Hist. 2.40).
20See Hist. 5.8 for Gregory’s knowledge of Fortunatus’ VGermani; and J. George, Venantius Fortunatus:
A Poet in Merovingian Gaul (Oxford, 1992) 124-31, for the relationship between the men.
21 The journey in Fortunatus, by contrast, is dignified by lofty poeticized Pyrenees {Carm. 6.5.209
INTRODUCTION 11
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arweiler, A., D ie Im itation antiker und spatantiker Literatur in d er D ichtung 'De spiritalis
historiae g estis' des A lcim us A vitus (Berlin, 1999)
Chifflet, J., A nastasis C hilderici p rim i (1655)
Drinkwater, J.F., H. Elton, eds., Fifth-C entury Gaul: A Crisis o f Identity? (Cambridge, 1992)
George, J., Venantius F ortunatus: A P oet in M erovingian G aul (Oxford, 1992)
Hagendahl, H., La correspondance de R uricius (Uppsala, 1952)
Hannestad, N., "How Did Rising Christianity Cope with Pagan Sculpture?," in E. Chrysos,
I.N. Wood eds., East and West: M odes o f Communication. Proceedings o f the First Plenary
C onference a t M erida (Leiden, 1999) 173-203
Hunt, E.D., "Gaul and the Holy Land in the Early Fifth Century," in Drinkwater-Elton, Fifth-
C entury G aul , 264-74
James, E., The F ranks (London-Oxford, 1988)
Mathisen, R.W., "Fifth-Century Visitors to Italy: Business or Pleasure?" in Drinkwater-Elton,
F ifth-C entury G aul , 228-38
Meiggs, R., R om an Ostia (Oxford, 1960)
Morisi, L., A lcim i A viti de m undi initio (Bologna, 1996)
Nixon, C.E.V., "Relations between Visigoths and Romans in Fifth-Centuiy Gaul," in Drinkwater-
Elton, F ifth-C entury G aul , 64-74
Naumann-Steckner, F., "Death on the Rhine: Changing Burial Customs in Cologne, 3rd-7th
Century," in L. Webster, M. Michelle Brown eds., The Transformation o f the Rom an World
A D 400-900 (Berkeley, 1997) 143-79
ff.) and dignified visits to places with religious associations: Poitiers (St. Hilary and Radegund) and
Tours (St. Martin).
Part I
VOORWOORD. VII
GEBEZIGDE LITTERATUUR. XI
INHOUD. XIII
LIJST VAN ILLUSTRATIES. XV
VERBETERINGEN. XVI
I. INDIANEN-BEVOLKING VAN WEST-INDIË. 1
Inleidende beschouwingen. 1
Inhoud der verhalen 7
Lijst der in dezen bundel opgenomen mondelinge
overleveringen der Indianen. 14
Indianen-Vertellingen. 66
1. De sage van Haboeri (W.) 66
2. De oorsprong der eerste menschen (C.) 73
3. De oorsprong van het menschdom (W.) 75
4. De oorsprong der Caraïben. (C.) 76
5. Hoe de Caraïben gekweekte planten leerden
kennen. (C.) 77
6. De dochter van den geestenbezweerder. 79
7. Hoe lichaamspijnen, dood en ellende in de wereld
kwamen. (C.) 81
8. Het hoofd van den Boschgeest en de nachtzwaluw.
(A.) 83
9. De vrouw, die een Boschgeest nabootste. (A.) 84
10. De Geest van een schimmelplant* redt een 86
Indiaansch meisje. (C.)
11. Een jagoear, die in een vrouw veranderde. (A.) 89
12. De man met een Baboen-vrouw. (A.) 91
13. Schildpad, die Boschrat er in liet loopen. (C.) 94
14. De bedrieger bedrogen. (C.) 95
15. Tijger en Miereneter. (C.) 96
16. Hariwali en de Wonderboom. (A.) 98
17. De legende van den Ouden man’s val. 103
18. Amanna en haar praatzieke man. (C.) 105
19. De zon en zijn beide tweelingzoons. (C.) 107
20. De Legende van den Vleermuis-berg. (M.) 111
21. De Uil en zijn schoonbroeders vleermuis. (W.) 112
22. De Lichtkever en de verdwaalde Jager. (C.) 114
23. De bina, de weder in het leven geroepen vader en de
slechte vrouw. (W.) 116
24. Hoe een jong Warrau-Indiaantje uit de handen der
Caraïben ontkwam. (W.) 119
25. Sluit de oogen en doe een wensch. (C.) 121
26. De gelukspot. (W.) 122
27. De honigbij en de zoete drank. (W.) 124
28. De piaiman en de stinkvogels*. (A.) 125
29. Hoe het ongeluk over de menschen kwam. De
geschiedenis van Maconaura en Anoeannaïtoe. (A.) 131
30. De kolibri, die tabak brengt aan den eersten piaiman.
(W.) 140
31. Het ontstaan der vrouwennaties. 145
32. Het gebroken ei. 146
33. De geest van den pasgeborene. 146
34. De huid van den Reuzenslang of Hoe de vogels hun 147
tegenwoordig gevederte kregen.
35. Een waarschuwing voor de vrouwen. (A.) 148
36. Hoe een man van zijn luiheid genezen werd. (W.) 155
37. Zwarte Tijger, Wau-oeta en de gebroken boog. (W.) 157
38. De Legende van Letterhoutstomp. 162
39. De Legende van Arimoribo en Jorobodie. (C.) 165
40. Uitdrijven van een priester uit den Indiaanschen
hemel. 170
41. Uitdrijving der Indianen uit den Hemel der Paters. 174
42. Bezoek van Caraïben aan Macoesiland. (C.) 178
43. Legende van Paramaribo. 179
44. De Legende van Post Sommelsdijk. 180
45. Einde van den Indiaanschen broederoorlog. (A.) 182
46. De groote bloedzuigende vleermuis. (A.) 183
47. Legende van Mapajawari of de uitroeiing der
menscheneters. (C.) 184
48. Migratie-legende van den Kasi’hta-stam der Creek-
Indianen, 189
II. West-Indische neger-folklore. 197
Inleidende beschouwingen. 197
De Surinaamsche Anansi-tori’s en hare oorsprong. 203
LIJST DER NEGERVERTELLINGEN. 235
Inhoud der Surinaamsche Negervertellingen. 237
De anansi-tori en het bijgeloof. 246
VERTELLINGEN DER SURINAAMSCHE
STADSNEGERS. 258
1. Anansi, die een half dorp verovert. 258
2. Spin en de Prinses. 266
3. Het huwelijk van Heer Spin. 271
4. Anansi, Tijger en de doode Koe. 273
5. Anansi en zijn kinderen. 276
6. Hoe Spin zijn schuldeischers betaalt. 277
7. Een feest bij de Waternimf. 281
8. Anansi en Kat. 282
9. Spin en Krekel. 285
10. Heer Spin als Geestelijke. 286
11. Heer Spin als roeier. 287
12. Spin neemt Tijger gevangen. 289
13. Heer Spin en Hond. 291
14. Tijger’s verjaardag. 293
15. Spin voert den Dood in. 295
16. Spin wedt, Tijger te berijden. 297
17. Verhaal uit het leven van vriend Spin. 299
18. Anansi als Amerikaan verkleed. 303
19. Heer Spin en de Waternimf. 305
20. Anansi, Hert en Kikvorsch. 306
21. Heer Spin als landbouwer. 308
22. Anansi en de Bliksem. 310
23. Ieder volwassen man moet een rood zitvlak hebben. 315
24. Hoe Anansi aan schapenvleesch wist te komen. 318
25. De geschiedenis van Fini Foetoe, Bigi bere en Bigi
hede. 321
26. Legende van Leisah I. 323
27. Legende van Leisah. II. 325
28. Verhaal van het land van „Moeder Soemba”. 327
29. Boen no habi tangi. 330
30. Geschiedenis van Kopro Kanon*. 332
31. De Meermin of Watramama. 335
32. De Boa in de gedaante van een schoonen jongeling. 337
33. Het huwelijk van Aap. 339
DE ANANSI-TORI DER SURINAAMSCHE
BOSCHNEGERS. 342
Hoe Heer Spin door zijn bekwaamheid als
geneesheer de mooie dochter van den Landvoogd
wist te krijgen. 345
NEGER-VERTELLINGEN UIT HET WEST-INDISCHE
EILANDENGEBIED. 350
Curaçaosche Negervertellingen. Cuenta di Nansi. 350
Nansi en Temekóe-Temebè. 354
Creoolsche folk-lore van St.-Eustatius. 360
Braha- Nanci en Braha-Toekema. 362
Neger-vertellingen van Jamaica. Nancy-Stories. 367
1. Annancy in Krabbenland. 371
2. Reiger. 373
3. Annancy, Poes en Rat. 377
BIJVOEGSELS. 379
I. NEGER-SPREEKWOORDEN. 379
Suriname. 379
West-Afrika. 381
II. AVOND OP HET WATER in Sierra Leone 384
Spin, Olifant en Hippopotamus. 389
III. DIEREN-FABEL, 393
Wie zijn Krokodil’s verwanten? 393
VERKLAREND REGISTER. 396
A. 396
B. 397
C. 399
D. 400
E. 400
F. 400
G. 401
H. 401
I. 402
J. 402
K. 403
L. 406
M. 407
N. 408
O. 408
P. 409
R. 411
S. 411
T. 413
V. 414
W. 415
Y. 416
Z. 416
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Metadata
Titel: Mythen en
sagen uit
West-Indië
Auteur: Herman Info https://viaf.org/viaf/45474713/
van
Cappelle
Jr. (1857–
1932)
Illustrator: Willem Info
Antonius https://viaf.org/viaf/3295167202597667930008/
Josef
Backer
(1901–
1971)
Aanmaakdatum 2023-11-14
bestand: 20:38:53
UTC
Taal: Nederlands
(Spelling
De Vries-
Te Winkel)
Oorspronkelijke 1926
uitgiftedatum:
Codering
Documentgeschiedenis
2023-10-19 Begonnen.
Externe Referenties
Bladzijde URL
n.v.t. https://archive.org/details/BNA-DIG-CARI-918-CAPP
n.v.t. https://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:948616
n.v.t. https://www.delpher.nl/nl/boeken/view?
identifier=MMKB02:000123099:00004
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W.-I. West-Indië
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