HERE BEGINS THE SD^TH BOOK, STARTING WITH THE SIXTH YEAR OF KING CHILDEBERT [i. Childebert allies himself with Chilperic instead of with Gunthram ; a synod meets at Lyons.] 2. Meantime king Chilperic's legates, who had gone three years before to the emperor Tiberius, returned, but not without severe loss and danger. For as they did not dare to enter the harbor of Marseilles on account of the quarrels among the kings, they made for Agde ^ which is situated in the Gothic kingdom. But before they could reach the shore the ship was driven by the wind and dashed on the land and broken to fragments. The legates and their men, seeing they were in danger, seized planks and with difficulty reached the shore, many of the men being lost; but most escaped. The inhabitants took the articles that the waves carried ashore, but they recovered the more valuable of them and carried them to king Chilperic. The people of Agde never- theless kept much. At that time I had gone to the villa of Nogent to see the king, and there he showed me a great basin of fifty pounds' weight which he had made of gold and gems and he said :
- ^I made this to bring honor and glory to the Frankish people.
And I shall make many more if I live." He showed me also gold coins each of a pound's weight sent by the emperor having on one side the likeness of the emperor and the inscription in a circle : Tiber ii Constantini Perpetui Augusti and on the other a four-horse chariot and charioteer with the inscription : Gloria Romanorum. He showed me also many other beautiful things brought by the legates. [3. The alliance between Chilperic and Childebert is confirmed and they agree to take Gunthram's kingdom away from him.] 4. Now Lupus, duke of Champagne, had long been continually harassed and plundered by his enemies and especially by Ursio ^ West of Marseilles in Septimania. 145
