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Auvergne 144 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii and plebeians, to whom they imputed the imaginary disgrace of a Gallic, or Roman, extraction. Example : The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the par- ticular example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly maintained a just pre-eminence 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 be- fore the walls of Gergovia. 106 As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans ; 107 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 ; but, 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 neighbourhood and beauty of Auvergne. 108 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, 106 When Caesar saw it, he laughed (Plutarch, in Caesar, in torn. i. p. 409 [c. 26]) ; yet he relates his unsuccessful siege of Gergovia with less frankness than we might expect from a great man to whom victory was familiar. He acknowledges, however, that in one attack he lost forty-six centurions and seven hundred men (de Bell. Gallico, 1. vi. c. 44-53, in torn. i. p. 270-272). 107 Audebant se quondam fratres Latio dicere, et sanguine ab Iliaco populos computare (Sidon. Apollinar. 1. vii. epist. 7, in torn. i. p. 799). I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this fabulous pedigree. 108 Either the first or second partition among the sons of Clovis had given Berry to Childebert (Greg. Turon. 1. iii. c. 12, in torn. ii. p. 192). Velim (said he) Arvernam Lemanem, quae tanta jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur oculis cernere (1. iii. c. 9, p. 191). The face of the country was concealed by a thick fog, when the king of Paris made his entry into Clermont.