Note 056 Sidonius gives a tedious account (1. i. Epist. xi. p. 25-31) of a supper at Arles, to which he was invited by Majorian a short time before his death. He had no intention of praising a deceased emperor; but a casual disinterested remark, "Subrisit Augustus; ut erat, auctoritate servata, cum se communioni dedisset, joci plenus," outweighs the six hundred lines of his venal panegyric.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 36