Amongst ze Germans

So this what it was like to be an educated 5th century Roman amongst the Germans. Sidonius Apollinaris writes:

Why... do you bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among the long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair? ... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn ... by a crowd of giants.