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Eumenius says, "he is the second and equal glory of Roman eloquence;" and Macrobius says, "There are four styles of speech; the copious, of which Cicero is chief; the terse, in which Sallust holds sway; the dry, which is assigned to Fronto; the florid, in which Pliny luxuriates."
The province at that time was a prosperous and civilized region, where Latin speech and culture might be expected to prevail widely. Diocl. xix. 36. Compare Eumenius, Paneg. Constantino Aug., 9 pecorum innumerabilis multitudo ... onusta velleribus, and Constantio Caesari, 11 tanto laeta munere pastionum. No golden age lasts long.
Then, as Eumenius tells us, skilled artisans abounded in Britain far more than in Gaul, and were fetched from the island to build public and private edifices as far south as Autun. Then also, and, indeed, as late as 360, British corn was largely exported to the Rhine Valley, and British cloth earned a notice in the eastern Edict of Diocletian.
A florid Ciceronianism was the style most in vogue, and the phraseology, at least, of the old State religion was, until the formal adoption of Christianity by the government, not only retained, but put prominently forward. Eumenius of Autun, the author of five or more pieces in the collection, delivered at dates between the years 297 and 311, is the most distinguished figure of the group.
The sea had no limits; the rivers no beds nor banks; the earth no solidity; for according to an author of the third century of our era, there was not, in the whole of too immense plain, a spot of ground that did not yield under the footsteps of man. Eumenius. It was not the same in the southern parts, which form at present the Walloon country.
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