This article is a reconsideration of the Epistulae Austrasicae. We critique the widespread notion that the constituent letters were compiled by a courtier in the late sixth century at Metz as a book of models for use in the Austrasian chancellery. We argue instead that a monk from the monastery of Lorsch assembled the letters in the early ninth century from individual exemplars and groupings that he found in archives at Trier. We conclude by outlining some implications of this rereading for the edition and interpretation of the letters as sources for the Merovingian period, and point out some avenues for future research on their reception in the Carolingian period.

Remi et la 'nouvelle importante' de Clovis réécrits Cet article est un nouvel examen de laThe lyric glorification of a misunderstood text does not commend itself to a sober mind; and it often happens that those who sneer at the deadness of the mere grammarian mistake disdain of the interpreter of the beautiful for indifference to the beautiful itself.Basil Gildersleeve 1 * We should like to express our gratitude here to

In this article, I examine the name of a friend and correspondent of the fourth-century poet Rufius Festus Avienius, commonly identified hitherto as Flavianus Myrmeicus. After summarising the current state of research and translating the verse epistle which he received, I argue that, for a variety of reasons, Myrmeicus cannot be his name. Instead, it should be emended to Myrmecius, which was his signum: an example of a type of nickname which many Romans of elevated status in late antiquity bore in addition to their birth names. I examine Myrmecius as a signum within the context of late-Roman supernomina more generally, in the process clarifying how and in what circumstances and combinations they were used, and suggesting several sources from which they might be derived. I then explain how Myrmecius’ signum might have been mangled in the course of transmission, and conclude by noting that while the bulk of attested signa are found on inscriptions, Myrmecius suggests that many more may currently lie concealed in literary texts.

One of the most curious manuscripts of the De uiris illustribus is Biblioteca dei Girolamini, XL pil. VI, no. XIII. This manuscript has been thought either to go back to the early Veronese humanist Giovanni de Matociis, or to contain authentic ancient information. We demonstrate that the manuscript has nothing to do with Matoci, but is closely linked to Giacomo Filippo Foresti, a latefifteenth-century historian. Its chief feature of interest is that it shares some readings with another branch of the tradition of the DVI, the Corpus Aurelianum, thus providing new evidence for the circulation of that text.

Gibbon among the Barbarians:In 1781, at the end of volumes II and III of The Decline and Fall, Gibbon delivered to the public his 'General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West'. The previous 1,000 pages, advertised as 'elegantly printed in quarto ... Price two guineas in boards', swept the reader from the age of Constantine to that of King Arthur. 1 Here, Gibbon turned aside from the 'simple and obvious' story of the empire's ruin to ask 'with anxious curiosity' whether Europe, 'one great republic', was threatened by the savage nations which had overthrown the Romans. 2 He bustled through how civilization had contracted barbarism to a narrow span, how (perhaps paradoxically) European division, and the vigorous competition it encouraged, was a source of strength, and arrived finally at the vast improvements in the military arts, which formed an impregnable barrier against any would be Attilas. He concluded, with that warm optimism frequently surprising in an historian of so much bloodshed and despotism, that 'Europe is secure from any future irruption of barbarians; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous'. 3 The advance of European civilization had constricted the number of awful things that could happen: there had been progress. 4 Kings were not exempt from this general felicity and happy contraction of the range of historical outcomes, and Gibbon confidently asserted that the 'smooth and solid temper of the modern world' made it very unlikely that another Alexander would triumph, or another Darius fall. 5 One must imagine that the king of France, 'the absolute monarch of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people', was included amongst the number of these contented and secure sovereigns. 6 Quite a prediction to publish in 1788. The rumbles that began to emerge from Paris in 1789 did not at first repel Gibbon: on 22 July, just over a week after the storming of the Bastille, he posed the question to his friend Lord Sheffield, of whether the French had the moderation 'to establish a good constitution'. 7 After that, however, his view of events rapidly soured, and by the end of the year Gibbon lamented the misuse by the French of their 'glorious opportunity', and noted that no Richelieu or Cromwell had emerged to restore or subvert the monarchy. 8 Gibbon's letters to Lord Sheffield of the following years are thick with despair for France -'the state is dissolved, the nation is mad' -and concern for England -'If this tremendous warning has no effect on the men of property in England ... you will deserve your fate'. 9 By 1792, historical possibility had begun to expand again: 'You will allow me to be a tolerable historian, yet on a fair review of ancient and modern times I can find none that bear any affinity with the present'. 10 Unsurprisingly, as events began to move outside the happy 1 All references are to David Womersley's edition (henceforth D&F