la légende des siecles

(sac), whence the name was derived. It afterwards became used of any recluse. In
Notre-Dame de Paris Hugo applies it to the half-crazy inhabitant of the Tour-Roland.
cruzade, an old Portuguese coin, so called because it was marked with a cross. There
was an old cruzade worth about 3 fr. 30, and a new cruzade worth not quite 3 fr.
Narse, or Narses, was king of Persia A.D. 294-303.
Tigrane, the name of an Armenian, not a Persian dynasty. There were seven kings of
this name, and they occupied the Armenian throne from 565 to 161 B.C.
nonce. This word is in strictness used only of the emissaries of the Pope. Its use in any
sense is an anachronism, as it was not introduced till the sixteenth century.
Ratbert is thus described at the beginning of the poem:—
Ratbert, fils de Rodolphe et petit-fils de Charles,
Qui se dit empereur et qui n'est que roi d'Arles.
Arles, which Hugo spells with or without the s according to the exigencies of the metre,
was the capital of the kingdom of Provence, one of the kingdoms formed out of the
fragments of Charlemagne's empire. It embraced most of S.E. France, and lasted from
A.D. 855 to 1032. This kingdom was frequently called le royaume d'Arle. Roy d'Arle is
therefore a historical title, but the names Ratbert and Rodolphe, as grandson and son
respectively of Charlemagne, are imaginary.
Macchabée. Judas Maccabaeus, the Jewish hero, who freed his country from the
tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes.
Amadis See note on EVIRADNUS.
Aétius, a Roman general who lived in the fifth century A.D. One of the last heroes and
defenders of ancient Rome, he fought Franks, Burgundians, Huns, and succeeded in
uniting the German kings of Gaul against Attila, and inflicting a crushing defeat upon
him (A. D. 451).
latobrige. The Latobriges were an ancient German tribe who lived in what is now
Wurtemberg and Baden.
Platon: the Athenian philosopher Plato, justly placed amongst the poets.
Plaute: Plautus, the Roman writer of comedies, who lived in the second century B.C.
Scaeva Memor, a Roman poet and tragedian of the first century A.D., rescued from
oblivion by this line. The three make a bizarre trio; see note on BOOZ ENDORMI.
Sicambre. The Sicambres were the German tribe who in Roman times lived on the
Rhine.