Category: Article

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’.

Furbetta on Letter Epigrams

Luciana Furbetta contributed ‘L’usage des procédés rhétoriques et leur fonction communicative dans l’épigramme latine: l’“épigramme lettre” comme cas d’étude’ to Florence Garambois-Vasquez and Daniel Vallat (eds), Stylistique et poétique de l’épigramme latine. Nouvelles études, Lyon: MOM, 2022, 181-201. Examples are drawn from Ausonius, Sidonius (Carm. 17 and 20) and Venantius Fortunatus.

The publication is freely accessible on OpenEdition

Formisano on Carmen 1

Marco Formisano, in ‘The King Listens: Origins, Noises, and Panegyric in Sidonius Apollinaris’ Carmen 1’ (Arethusa 54 (2021) 275-90), contends “that the opening position of Carmen 1 is relevant, not only to its own interpretation, but also to the interpretation of the subsequent panegyric and to Sidonius’s poetry as a whole”. “Noise” precedes “meaning” in poetry, and in panegyric above all.

Go to this issue of Arethusa.

Van Waarden and Symmachus’ ‘You and I’

Joop van Waarden has published the second part of his series on ‘You and I’ in epistolary usage: ‘Symmachus and the Metamorphosis of “You and I” in Epistolary Usage’, in: Antonella Bruzzone, Alessandro Fo and Luigi Piacente (eds), Metamorfosi del Classico in età romanobarbarica, Nuova biblioteca di cultura romanobarbarica 2, Florence: Sismel–Galluzzo, 2021, 145-61.

Info volume here

The first, and central, part of this series is chapter 13 in the Sidonius Companion: ‘“You” and “I” in Sidonius’ Correspondence’ (pp. 418-39). The third part is to follow soon: ‘A Gentleman Weighs His “You” and “I”: Inclusion in the Letters of Faustus, Mamertus Claudianus, Ruricius, Avitus and Ennodius’, in: Veronika Egetenmeyr and Tabea L. Meurer (eds), Gallia docta? Learning and Its Limitations in Late Antique Gaul. Proceedings of the International Conference Greifswald, 17.03.2021 – 20.03.2021, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

Kelly Edits Paratexts

Gavin Kelly has put out the first ever edition of the paratexts of Sidonius’ panegyrics and carmina minora: ‘Titles and Paratexts in the Collection of Sidonius’ Poems’, in: Antonella Bruzzone, Alessandro Fo and Luigi Piacente (eds), Metamorfosi del Classico in età romanobarbarica, Nuova biblioteca di cultura romanobarbarica 2, Florence: Sismel–Galluzzo, 2021, 77-97.

Info volume here