United States or Dominica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
AVITUS: there was a strong friendship between the elder Africanus and Masinissa, king of Numidia, who in 206 B.C. passed over from the Carthaginian alliance to that of the Romans. He was richly rewarded by Scipio, and remained loyal to Rome till his death. He lived to welcome the younger Scipio in Africa during the last Punic war, and to see the utter ruin of Carthage. See Sall. Iug. 5, 4.
He was received with courteous hospitality by Theodoric, the king of the Goths; but while Avitus laid the foundations of a solid alliance with that powerful nation, he was astonished by the intelligence, that the emperor Maximus was slain, and that Rome had been pillaged by the Vandals.
Scarcely less remarkable than the words of Pope Anastasius were those addressed to the new convert by a bishop, the temporal subject of the Burgundian prince, Gundobald, an Arian, that is, by St. Avitus of Vienna, grandson of the emperor of that name. Before the baptismal waters were dry on the forehead of the Frankish king, he wrote to him in these words:
In fact, not to go through all his merits, if you were to hear Avitus, you would wish nothing added, withdrawn or altered of anything that he says. I see, Maximus, with what pleasure you listen to the recital of the virtues which you recognize your friend Avitus to possess. Your courtesy invited me to say a few words about him.
Word Of The Day