¹ I have used the text edited by Levison, Wilhelm in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, vol. 7 (Hanover, 1920), pp. 247–283Google Scholar. The work was translated into English by Hoare, F. R., The Western Fathers (New York, 1954), pp. 283–320Google Scholar. I have used his translation throughout. A French translation with a full discussion and notes has been prepared by Borius, René, Vie de Saint German d'Auxerre (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar.

² The date and purpose are confirmed in Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronicle s.a. 429. See also Prosper, , Contra Collatorem 21Google Scholar.

³ Germanus appears in British history and legend as the opponent of Vortigern, the maker and breaker of early dynasties, even a teacher of St. Patrick. See Chadwick, Nora, Poetry and Letters in Early Christian Gaul (Cambridge, 1955), ch. 9Google Scholar. Also see idem., Studies in Early British History (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 25, 17, 93, 262.

⁴ For two recent and contrasting views see Thompson, E. A., Saint Germanus ofAuxerre and the End of Roman Britain (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1984)Google Scholar; Wood, Ian, “The End of Roman Britain: Continental Evidence and Parallels,” in Gildas: New Approaches, ed, Lapidge, Michael and Dumville, David (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1984), pp. 9–14Google Scholar. Wood dismisses the actions of St. Germanus from actual military operations and treats the Alleluja Victory as an allegory of the triumph of orthodoxy over heresy. On Constantius' work as homily see Gessel, W., “Germanus von Auxerre (um 378 bis 448): Die Vita des Konstantius von Lyon als homiletische Paränese in hagiographischer Form,” Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 65 (1970): 1–14Google Scholar.

⁵ Constantius, Vita Germani 13Google Scholar.

⁶ Ibid., 17-18.

⁷ I have relied heavily on Hornus, Jean-Michel, It Is Not Lawful For Me to Fight: Early Christian Attitudes Toward War, Violence and the State, rev. ed. (Scottdale, PA., 1980)Google ScholarPubMed.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 213-26.

⁹ Stancliffe, Clare, St. Martin and his Hagiographer (Oxford, 1983), pp. 265 ffGoogle Scholar. Wood places Constantius and his work in the camp of the activist bishops, viewing the Life of St. Germanus as something like a practical handbook with “an eye to the role which a cleric might play in times of political crisis” (“The End of Roman Britain,” p. 9). On the relation between bishops and military officials see Mathisen, R. W., “Hilarius, Germanus and Lupus: the Aristocratic Background of the Chelidonius Affair,” Phoenix 33 (1979): 160–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Hornus, , It Is Not Lawful, pp. 220, 142 ffGoogle ScholarPubMed. Hoare, F. R. has translated Sulpicius Severus' Life of St. Martin into English (The Western Fathers, pp. 3–44)Google Scholar.

¹¹ Severus, SulpiciusLife of St. Martin 4Google Scholar.

¹² Hornus, , It Is Not Lawful, p. 147Google ScholarPubMed; Paulinus, Ep. 18, 25, 37Google Scholar.

¹³ Sulpicius Severus Dialogues 3.15.

¹⁴ Fontaine, J., “Vérité et fiction dans la chronologie de la Vita Martin,” Studia Anselmiana 46 (1961): 189–236Google Scholar. The question is discussed in Stancliffe, St. Martin, pp. 127, 138 ff. Cf. Hornus, , It Is Not Lawful, pp. 146 ffGoogle ScholarPubMed.

¹⁵ Chadwick, , Poetry and Letters, pp. 272 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹⁶ Levison, Wilhelm, “Bischof Germanus von Auxerre und die Quellen zu seiner Geschichte,” Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 29 (1904): pp. 115 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹⁷ Hoare, , Western Fathers, p. 293 n.4Google Scholar.

¹⁸ See note 32 below.

¹⁹ Some of the references are discussed by Stancliffe, , St. Martin, p. 259Google Scholar. Cf. Hornus, , It Is Not Lawful, pp. 190 ffGoogle ScholarPubMed.

²⁰ Vita Germani 2.

²¹ Ibid., 17-18.

²² Webster, Graham, The Roman Imperial Army (London, 1969), pp. 221 ffGoogle Scholar. Austin, N. J. E., Ammianus on Warfare (Bruxelles, 1979), pp. 52 ffGoogle Scholar. This last contains an excellent bibliography on the subject of warfare in the later empire.

²³ Ammianus 28.3. See Austin's, comments, Ammianus on Warfare, pp. 45 ffGoogle Scholar.

²⁴ Austin, , Ammianus on Warfare, pp. 52–53Google Scholar.

²⁵ Webster, , Roman Imperial Army, p. 221Google Scholar.

²⁶ Vegetius Epitoma rei militaris. The sixth century Strategikon is attributed to Maurice. See Gildas, D.e. 18.2.

²⁷ See Webster's, comments, Roman Imperial Army, pp. 221–230Google Scholar. The date of Vegetius' work is disputed. If a later, fifth century date is accepted, then it is contemporary with Constantius.

²⁸ Strategikon (trans. George T. Dennis), 9.1.

²⁹ Ibid., 11.3.

³⁰ Ibid. Light armed troops (9.3, 12.20); terrain (8.2.88); riverbanks (9.3); defiles (9.3, 9.4, 12.20); escape route (9.2); trumpets (9.2); fortified camp (9.2, 12.22).

³¹ Vita Germani 17-18. For example: Germanus announces he will be the Britons' general. He chooses the troops and places the ambush. Germanus invents the Alleluja shout and times the ambush. Constantius describes the British force after Germanus' arrival as “an army on a new model, under his own command.”

³² Vita Germani 1. Ordinarily the term dux would indicate a military command. Use of this term in a title of office in the fourth and fifth centuries was not ambiguous. The difficulty of the title in Constantius' account lies in the fact that Germanus' early career was civil (the law) not military. Ordinarily, in the later empire civil and military careers were segregated and distinct. Critics argue, therefore, that Constantius' use of the term dux in this case must be mistaken. They suggest Germanus was a praeses, a civilian provincial governor (see Levison, M.G.H., vol. 7, p. 231Google Scholar; Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire, vol. 2 [Norman, Oklahoma, 1964\, p. 1386 n. 135Google Scholar; Salway, Peter, Roman Britain [Oxford, 1981\, p. 470)Google Scholar.

Constantius, however, does not obviously misuse or confuse titles and offices elsewhere in his account. The other examples of the word dux as a title have military contexts. Thus Germanus is dux (general) of the British military forces (V.G. 17). He is dux (general) over the soldiers of God (V. G. 9). Wood makes unnecessary difficulty over a third occurrence of the word dux in V. G. 10. There the word is clearly not a title but the mundane meaning of guide, as both Hoare and Borius saw (see Wood, , “End of Roman Britain,” pp. 11–12Google Scholar). Other references in Constantius seem to confirm Germanus' military service. He abandoned the earthly militia for the heavenly one (V. G. 2). Militia might mean civil office here, but a military context is the more natural inference. Germanus sleeps on his old sagulum in his later years (V. G. 4). The sagulum would ordinarily have been a military officer's cloak.

A compromise between the military and civilian alternatives has been suggested. Civilian governors (praesides) of frontier provinces were sometimes given military and civilian commands together. “Their chiefs were allowed to exercise civil as well as military functions and were naturally described by the ordinary name for an army commander (dux)” (Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 1, p. 30Google Scholar).

Constantius, however, clearly states that Germanus was dux over more than one province (V. G. 1). This wpuld be nonsense for a civil governor of a province, even one with military duties. On the other hand, several ducal commands did involve more than one province. The Notitia Dignitatum provides a likely candidate for Constantius' description, the dux tractus Armoricani et Nervicani (see Martindale, J. R., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2 [Cambridge, 1980\, p. 504Google Scholar). The problems raised by Constantius' description of Germanus' secular career are discussed by Gaudemet. Parallels between the civil careers of Ambrose of Milan and Germanus are so suspiciously close that one might suspect Constantius cribbed his model from the more famous Life of St. Ambrose. In this context, the military office of dux is a crucial distinction unique to St. Germanus which seems to validate Constantius. Gaudemet's critical discussion provides one helpful observation—Auxerre would be a naturally strategic headquarters for the dux tractus Armoricani et Nervicani (“La carriere civile de Saint Germain,” in Saint Germain d'Auxerre et son temps [Auxerre, 1950\, pp. 115–116Google Scholar). Germanus' later actions strengthen this identification of his ducal office. The campaign against the Saxons in Britain and a later intercession on behalf of the rebelling Armoricans with the imperial government would be natural extensions of his former command. The simplest and most convincing solution to the meaning of dux in Constantius' description is to take him at his word. In the turbulent conditions of the fifth century, constitutional proprieties such as segregating civil from military careers were less important than finding an effective commander. St. Germanus' elevation to bishop demonstrates this principle.

³³ Orosius 7.37.

³⁴ Ammianus 27.10.1.

³⁵ Hydatius 199.

³⁶ Hoare, , Western Fathers, pp. xii–xvGoogle Scholar.

³⁷ Fisher, D. J. V., The Anglo-Saxon Age (London, 1973), p. 56Google Scholar; Collingwood, R. G. and Myres, J. N. L., Roman Britain and the English Settlements, 2d ed. (Oxford, 1937), p. 435Google Scholar. Alternatively, the Picts and Saxons may have heard simply that Germanus was in camp and preaching. In this case, surprise would not necessarily indicate pagan or Christian presumption.

³⁸ Bury, J. B., History of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 1 (New York, 1958), p. 38Google Scholar.

³⁹ Tacitus, Germania 3Google Scholar; Agricola 34; Hist. 5.22; Ammianus 31.7.11, 6.12.43. Yet another possibility lies in the practice of the eastern Roman army. They chanted Trisagion (Thrice Holy) early in the morning and late in the evening each day (Strategikon, 7.17, 13.22).

⁴⁰ Ammianus 27.2.2; Tacitus Agricola 35.2.

⁴¹ Some other minor objections have been made against details of Constantius' account. The combination of Picts and Saxons, for example, seems an unlikely alliance. Ammianus, however, seems to associate the Saxons and Picts with the barbarian conspiracy of 367 A.D. (Ammianus 27.8). Thompson puts a different interpretation on this passage (Saint Germanus of Auxerre, pp. 44-45). In the context of barbarian cooperation Gildas' comments concerning the Picts and Scots seem relevant: “They were to some extent different in their customs, but they were in perfect accord in their greed for bloodshed.” Gildas D.e. (trans. M. Winterbottom) 19.1.

I have not found either of the following articles useful: Evans, John, “S. Germanus in Britain,” Archaeologia Cantiana 80 (1965): 175–85Google Scholar; Robeson, John, “On the Alleluja Victory and the State of England in the Fifth Century,” Archaeological Journal 14 (1857): 320–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Evans dismisses the Alleluja incident as allegory, in part because he finds it inconceivable that a real general in a real battle would allow the enemy to flee. Of course, this is precisely what Vegetius and the Strategikon advise Roman generals to do.