Category: Article

Santelia on the Burgus of Pontius Leontius

Stefania Santelia discusses Sidonius’ description of Pontius Leontius’ Burgus villa: ‘”Est locus …”: Verbindung di realtà, mito ed elogio nella descrizione di Burgus (Sidon. Apoll. carm. 22,101-220a)’, in: Borgna, Alice, and Maurizio Lana, Epistulae a familiaribus. Per Raffaella Tabacco, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2022, 475-88.

Marolla on Sidonius in Leopardi

Giulia Marolla has written an article about the traces of Sidonius (and Mamertus Claudianus) in Giacomo Leopardi’s early works: ‘Leopardi lettore di Sidonio Apollinare e Mamerto Claudiano’, Bollettino di Studi Latini 52 (2022) 592-600.

Abstract: This paper analyses the quotations of Sidonius Apollinaris and Mamertus Claudianus in the works of Giacomo Leopardi, whose interest for the two late Latin authors can be traced back to the years he spent studying at his father’s library in Recanati (in particular to 1815-1823). As can be inferred from his epistolary exchange with Niebuhr, for Giacomo, Sidonius constitutes a useful source. He is also an author the young Leopardi admires in light of the peculiar details he relates and because of his refined word choice. Together with Mamertus Claudianus, Sidonius is in particular cited as a source on Fronto and on the evolution of Latin in Late Antiquity. Furthermore, the paper suggests to link one entry in Leopardi’s autograph document C.L.XV.31 (Claudianus= 1762) to Mansi’s 1762 edition of Mamertus Claudianus, which was owned by Leopardi, as can be inferred from his Lettera al Giordani sopra il Frontone del Mai.

Oppedisano on the Legatio Arverna (Ep. 1.9)

Fabrizio Oppedisano published ‘Une note sur la legatio Arverna à Rome (467 ap. J.-C.)’ in Marie-Pierre Chambon et al., L’Antiquité tardive dans le centre et le centre-ouest de la Gaule (IIIe-VIIe siècles), Revue Archéologique du Centre de la France, Supplement 82, 2022, 69-75.

Abstract
At the end of 467, Sidonius Apollinaris came to Rome to bring petitions from the Arverni to the court of Anthemius. This paper aims to reconstruct the legatio and to place it within the framework of the relations between central government and provincial communities in the specific context of the last years of the Western Roman Empire.

Gender Fluidity in Ep. 2.9

In an article entitled ‘Personification and Gender Fluidity in the Psychomachia and Its Early Reception’ (Speculum 97/4, Oct. 2022), Katherine Breen points out that Sidonius, in Ep. 2.9.4, shelves Prudentius’ works ambiguously between the men’s and the women’s side of the library.

‘Their Christian subject matter classifies them as feminine even as their epic verse form and dense classical allusions situate them within the Roman literary tradition, and so make them appropriate for male readers. Given the association between rhetorical and bodily ornament, one might see Prudentius’s texts as cross-dressing, clothing feminine religious doctrine in a masculine and classical style.’

Stover & Woudhuysen and Sidonius in the HA

In a new article on ‘The Poet Nemesianus and the Historia Augusta‘, centred on onomastics in the Life of Carus (JRS 2022, open access), Justin Stover and George Woudhuysen, in passing (fn. 4), advocate some renewed confidence in the hypothesis that Sidonius Apollinaris is reflected in the HA:

‘The argument of Domaszewski (Die Personennamen bei den Scriptores historiae Augustae, Heidelberg, 1918: 19, here), that Aurelius Apollinaris was inspired by Sidonius Apollinaris, who did write about the deeds of Carus (Carm. 23.88–96), has been treated with greater contempt than it perhaps deserves’.