Note 507 — Chapter XV · THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF TEUTONIC AND GREEK HEROIC POETRY.

Cf. Germ. 14: cum uentum in aciem turpe principi uirtute uinci, turpe comitatui uirtutem principis non adaequare. It is not to be doubted that princes of the Heroic Age did seek to display their prowess in single combats. The story of Theodric's combat with an Avar champion named Xerxer (Fredegar, Chron. II 57) appears to be based on an exploit for which we have contemporary evidence in Ennodius' Panegyric (p. 266 in Hartel's edition; cf. Jiriczek, Deutsche Heldensagen, I p. 140 f.), where the defeated warrior is called Bulgarum ductor. It is well known also that the princes of the ancient Gauls were in the habit of engaging their enemies in single combat. There is satisfactory historical evidence for two cases in which distinguished Romans proved victorious in such encounters (cf. D'Arbois de Jubainville, La Civilisation des Celtes, p. 17 ff.). The period to which these notices refer may be described as a Gaulish Heroic Age (cf. p. 427 ff.).