56. 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.