But on his arrival at Aries, or Lyons, he
was confounded by the intelligence that the Visigoths, refusing to
embrace the defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within their own
territories, the formidable invader, whom they professed to despise.
The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of the praetorian
prefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was persuaded to
accept the important embassy, which he executed with ability and
success. He represented to Theodoric that an ambitious conqueror, who
aspired to the dominion of the earth, could be resisted only by the firm
and unanimous alliance of the powers whom he labored to oppress. The
lively eloquence of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors by the
description of the injuries which their ancestors had suffered from the
Huns, whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to the
foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged that it was the duty of every
Christian to save from sacrilegious violation the churches of God and
the relics of the saints; that it was the interest of every barbarian
who had acquired a settlement in Gaul, to defend the fields and
vineyards, which were cultivated for his use, against the desolation of
the Scythian shepherds.
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