rs of the
Roman consulship. The emperor Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the
most powerful rival of Theodoric the title and ensigns of that eminent
dignity; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been
inscribed in the Fasti either of the East or West. [57] On the solemn
day, the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested, in
the church of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence
he proceeded on horseback to the cathedral of Tours; and, as he passed
through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a donative
of gold and silver to the joyful multitude, who incessantly repeated
their acclamations of Consul and Augustus. The actual or legal authority
of Clovis could not receive any new accessions from the consular
dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant; and if the conqueror
had been instructed to claim the ancient prerogatives of that high
office, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration.
But the Romans were disposed to revere, in the person of their master,
that antique title which the emperors condescended to assume: the
Barbarian himself seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect the
majesty of the republic; and the successors of Theodosius, by soliciting
his friendship, tacitly forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of
Gaul.

[Footnote 57: The Fasti of Italy would naturally reject a consul,
the enemy of their sovereign; but any ingenious hypothesis that might
explain the silence of Constantinople and Egypt, (the Chronicle of
Marcellinus, and the Paschal,) is overturned by the similar silence
of Marius, bishop of Avenche, who composed his Fasti in the kingdom
of Burgundy. If the evidence of Gregory of Tours were less weighty
and positive, (l. ii. c. 38, in tom. ii. p. 183,) I could believe
that Clovis, like Odoacer, received the lasting title and honors of
Patrician, (Pagi Critica, tom. ii. p. 474, 492.)]

Twenty-five years after the death of Clovis this important concession
was more formally declared, in a treaty between his sons and the emperor
Justinian. The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their distant
acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks the cities of Arles and
Marseilles; of Arles, still adorned with the seat of a Praetorian
praefect, and of Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade
and navigation. [58] This transaction was confirmed by the Imperial
authority; and Justinian, generously yie