And yet ... it had gone a long way downhill since the days of Ausonius, and Sidonius could not now ignore the very existence of the barbarians.  He has indeed left notable protraits of them, especially of the king of the Visigoths and of the Burgundians who ruled Lyons, where he was born.  Whenever he went to stay there, he complains, they flocked about him in embarrassing friendliness, breathing leeks and onions and dressing their hair with rancid butter (they were not, it appears, constrained to choose between spears and butter).  How can he compose six foot metres, he asks, with so many seven foot patrons around him, all singing and all expecting him to admire their uncouth stream of non-Latin words?  The shrug of the shoulder, the genial contempt of one conscious of an infinite superiority—­how clear it is.  One is reminded of a verse of Verlaine

Je suis l’empire a la fin de la decadence
qui regarde passer les grands barbares blancs

But Sidonius’s good nature was to be rudely shaken.  All barbarians were not friendly giants, and the Visigoths next door, under their new king Euric, turned covetous eyes upon Auvergne.  Sidonius had not been two years bishop of Clermont before he had to organize the defence of the city against their attack.  The Avernians stood out gallantly; they would fight and they would starve, but they would defend this last stronghold of Rome in Gaul.  But they were a small people; to resist successfully they must have help from Rome itself.  Lest anyone should suspect me of twisting the story, I give it in the words of Sidonius’s editor, writing twenty years ago.

Julius Nepos was alive to the danger that Euric might cross the Rhone; but weak as his resources were he could only hope to secure peace by negotiation.  The quaestor Licinianus had been sent into Gaul to investigate the condition of affairs on the spot....  He had now returned and it was soon only too clear that hopes based on his intervention were not likely to be fulfilled.  We find Sidonius writing for information....  He began to fear that something was going on behind his back, and that the real danger to Auvergne came no longer from determined enemies but from pusillanimous friends.  His suspicions were only too well founded.  On receipt of the quaestor’s report a Council was held to determine the policy of the Empire towards the Visigothic king....  The empire did not feel strong enough to support Auvergne and it was decided to cede the whole territory to Euric, apparently without condition.

The despair of Sidonius knew no bounds and he writes a nobly indignant letter to a bishop who had been concerned in the negotiations: