plinam ponere; vel venumdare, aut quod vobis placuerit de me
facere Marculf. Formul. l. ii. 28, in tom. iv. p. 497. The Formula of
Lindenbrogius, (p. 559,) and that of Anjou, (p. 565,) are to the same
effect Gregory of Tours (l. vii. c. 45, in tom. ii. p. 311) speak of
many person who sold themselves for bread, in a great famine.]

The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed
by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular example of
a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly
maintained a just preeminence among the independent states and cities
of Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants displayed a singular trophy;
the sword of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed
before the walls of Gergovia. [100] As the common offspring of Troy,
they claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans; [101] and if each
province had imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of
the Western empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly
maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn to the
Visigoths, out when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle of
Poitiers, they accepted, without resistance, a victorious and Catholic
sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved and possessed
by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis: but the remote province was
separated from his Austrasian dominions, by the intermediate kingdoms of
Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which formed, after their father's death,
the inheritance of his three brothers. The king of Paris, Childebert,
was tempted by the neighborhood and beauty of Auvergne. [102] The
Upper country, which rises towards the south into the mountains of the
Cevennes, presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures;
the sides of the hills were clothed with vines; and each eminence was
crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the River
Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne; and the
inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and still supplies,
without any interval of repose, the constant repetition of the same
harvests. [103] On the false report, that their lawful sovereign had
been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed
by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris. Childebert enjoyed this
clandestine victory; and the free subjects of Theodoric threatened to
desert his standard, if he indulged his private resentment