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Chap, xxxviii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 109 of her preference. 8 Clovis was the offspring of this voluntary union ; and, when he was no more than fifteen years of age, he succeeded, by his father's death, to the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom 9 were confined to the island of the Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and Arras ; 10 and, at the baptism of Clovis, the number of his warriors could not exceed five thousand. The kindred tribes of the Franks, who had seated themselves along the Belgic rivers, the Scheld, the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Ehine, were governed by their independent kings of the Merovingian race ; [Gau- the equals, the allies, and sometimes the enemies, of the Salic prince. 11 But the Germans, who obeyed, in peace, the heredi- tary jurisdiction of their chiefs, were free to follow the standard of a popular and victorious general ; and the superior merit of Clovis attracted the respect and allegiance of the national con- federacy. When he first took the field, he had neither gold and silver in his coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazines ; 12 but he imitated the example of Caesar, who, in the same country, had acquired wealth by the sword and purchased soldiers with the fruits of conquest. After each successful battle or expedition, the spoils were accumulated in one common mass ; every warrior 8 Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 12, in torn. i. p. 168. Basina speaks the language of Nature : Franks, who had seen her in their youth, might converse with Gregory in their old age ; and the bishop of Tours oould not wish to defame the mother of the first Christian king. [The story told by Gregory will not sustain criticism and has all the look of being derived from a popular song on the birth of Chlodwig. One of the most striking improbabilities in it is that on expelling Childeric the Franks elected iEgidius as their king. See Junghans, Hist. crit. des regnes de Childerich et de Chlodovech (trans, by G. Monod), p. 8-9. The differences between the account of Gregory and those of the later sources (the Chronica of Fredegarius and the Liber historiae Francorum) are unimportant. There is no reason to call in ques- tion the name of Chlodwig' s mother — Basina ; but her connexion with Basinus or Bisinus, king of the Thuringians (who is also historical, see Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Radegundis, 1), seems to be legendary. Compare G. Kurth's interesting analysis of this story of Childeric's youth in Histoire poetique des Merovingiens, 194 sqq.] 9 The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchic Francois dans les Gaules, torn. i. p. 630-650) has the merit of defining the primitive kingdom of Clovis, and of ascertaining the genuine number of his subjects. 10 Ecclesiam incultam ac negligentia civium Paganorum praatermissam, veprium densitate oppletam, &c. Vit. Vedasti, in torn. iii. p. 372 [p. 314, Kruseh ed. minor]. This description supposes that Arras was possessed by the Pagans, many years be- fore the baptism of Clovis. 11 [It has been conjectured that the dominions of Chlodwig, Ragnachar (whose residence was at Cambrai, Greg. 2, 42), and Chararich, corresponded respectively to Brabant, Hainault, and Flanders ; Junghans, op. cit. p. 21.] 13 Gregory of Tours (1. v. o. 1, in torn. ii. p. 232) contrasts the poverty of Clovis with the wealth of his grandsons. Yet Remigius (in torn. iv. p. 52) mentions his patemas opes, as sufficient for the redemption of captives.