, publicly, and even with the Chief of the State!
For when by chance, in the presence of the Emperor Nerva, the
conversation had turned on young men of worth, and several persons spoke
in praise of me, he kept silence for a little, which gave him the more
authority. Then in the weighty manner you know, "I must needs," he said,
"say all the less about Secundus[65] because he never does anything but
by my advice." By saying this he gave me the credit (which it would have
been extravagant in me to hope for) of never doing anything in other
than the wisest way, seeing that I always acted on the advice of the
wisest man. Moreover, when dying, he said to his daughter, as she is
wont to declare, "I have provided you, as if I were myself to live
longer, many friends: but for the chief of them Secundus and Cornutus."
Now when I remember this, I see I must take care not in any way to
disappoint the trust in me of this most fore-thoughtful man. Therefore I
will come to Corellia's help without the least delay and will not refuse
to undergo inconveniences: though I think I shall secure not merely
pardon but even praise from the very person who as you say is bringing
a new action as against a woman, if it should happen to me to say these
same things in court more amply and fully than the narrow room of a
letter permits, either to excuse or indeed commend myself. Farewell.

LETTER OF THE "DARK" AGES

SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (431?-482-4)

Caius Sollius Sidonius Apollinaris is one of the most
interesting figures of the troubled and obscure period
intervening between the fall of the Roman Empire _proper_
and the rise of mediaeval Europe. He was born at Lyons,
married Papianilla, daughter of Flavius Avitus, who was to
be one of the ephemeral "Emperors" of the West and the
Decadence, but was not injured by his father-in-law's
dethronement, and enjoyed various civil honours and posts.
In 471, though a married layman, he was peremptorily made a
bishop, and accordingly took orders, put away his wife, and
discharged his sacred duties as creditably as he had
discharged his profane ones. Sidonius was a not contemptible
poet, and an interesting letter-writer. Like most literary
men of his class he was given to what we call flattery; and
this Ecdicius, of whom he made a sort of Dark Age Admirable
Crichton, was his brother-in-law, an Emperor's son, and
Count or