Note 79 — Chapter I

Most historians make Meroveus, the younger of the two sons of Clodion; and, after his father’s death, they send him to Rome to implore the protection of Ætius. Now, it is next to impossible that the beardless youth, whom Priscus states to have seen at Rome (about 449 or 450), could have been Meroveus, since the son of that prince, Childeric, was within ten years after exiled by the Franks on account of his excesses and his despotic sway. The young man whom Priscus saw was most probably Childeric, who may have been sent to Rome by his father, Meroveus, to renew the alliance which Clodion had made with Ætius.