ABSTRACT
How could they be surprised that God had given them Aquitaine and almost the whole of the Empire, inasmuch as they were accomplishing therein a wholesome work? S In short, theirs was a purifying role: "Barbari ad emendandam nostrarum turpidinum labem extiterunt." 3
This comparison between Romania and Barbary all to the honour of the latter marks a new development in the evolution sketched by Orosius. Salvianus already was half resigned to the fall of Rome. Certain historians, like Haureau,4 have angrily reproached him for this kind of treason. Even among the Gallo-Roman aristocracy such instances of turning round were by no means rare in the Vth century.a Moreover, we must guard ourselves against unreserved agreement with the fervid paradoxes of Salvianus. One or two generations after him St Cresarius gives us a lively picture of the bestiality of these barbarians who were so dear to the heart of Salvianus, and of their propensity to drunkenness, homicide and sensuality. But it would not be surprising if, with his fiery eloquence, his highly-coloured fervour and thundering rhetoric formed in the school of the Fathers more than in that of the classics, Salvianus contributed to incline men's minds to accept the new state of' things which was in process of' formation amid so many tribulations and trials.
