of forty years had been four times besieged and pillaged, was
disposed to lose the memory of her afflictions in the vain amusements
of the Circus. [25] The death of Clodion, after a reign of twenty
years, exposed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his two sons.
Meroveus, the younger, [26] was persuaded to implore the protection of
Rome; he was received at the Imperial court, as the ally of Valentinian,
and the adopted son of the patrician Aetius; and dismissed to his native
country, with splendid gifts, and the strongest assurances of friendship
and support. During his absence, his elder brother had solicited, with
equal ardor, the formidable aid of Attila; and the king of the Huns
embraced an alliance, which facilitated the passage of the Rhine, and
justified, by a specious and honorable pretence, the invasion of Gaul.
[27]

[Footnote 16: Reges Crinitos se creavisse de prima, et ut ita dicam
nobiliori suorum familia, (Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, p. 166, of the
second volume of the Historians of France.) Gregory himself does not
mention the Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the
beginning of the seventh century, as the distinctive appellation of the
royal family, and even of the French monarchy. An ingenious critic has
deduced the Merovingians from the great Maroboduus; and he has clearly
proved, that the prince, who gave his name to the first race, was more
ancient than the father of Childeric. See Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 52-90, tom. xxx. p. 557-587.]

[Footnote 17: This German custom, which may be traced from Tacitus
to Gregory of Tours, was at length adopted by the emperors of
Constantinople. From a MS. of the tenth century, Montfaucon has
delineated the representation of a similar ceremony, which the ignorance
of the age had applied to King David. See Monumens de la Monarchie
Francoise, tom. i. Discours Preliminaire.]

[Footnote 18: Caesaries prolixa... crinium flagellis per terga dimissis,
&c. See the Preface to the third volume of the Historians of France,
and the Abbe Le Boeuf, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 47-79.) This peculiar
fashion of the Merovingians has been remarked by natives and strangers;
by Priscus, (tom. i. p. 608,) by Agathias, (tom. ii. p. 49,) and by
Gregory of Tours, (l. viii. 18, vi. 24, viii. 10, tom. ii. p. 196, 278,
316.)]

[Footnote 19: See an original picture of the figure, dress, arms,
and temper of the ancient Franks, in Sidonius Apollina