Cadili on the Consular Robe

Luca Cadili, ‘In tunica Iouis: Sidoine Apollinaire et les antiquités romaines’, RET 12 (2022-2023) 39-50.

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Abstract: In the panegyrics in honor of Avitus, Majorian, and Anthemius (carm. 7, 5, and 2), Sidonius Apollinaris gives detailed accounts of the consular robe the three emperors donned on different official occasions, proving a strong acquaintance with the ceremonies and the rituals of power involved in the imperial court protocol of his time. Such a familiarity has enabled him to retrace even the remotest history of this topic, as can be inferred from his reworking of a passage from Juvenal, which provides us with a most vivid and thorough description of the Roman triumphator’s garments and the celebration of his victory, as occurring in the Republican and early Imperial Age. By doing so, in a very original way, Sidonius shows that the military cloak the late antique consuls used to wear to make known their social status, the trabea or palmata, had indeed a very revered ancestor, having stemmed from the tunica palmata, the palm decked-robe in which, since the oldest times, victorious generals were shrouded on the very day their triumph was solemnized by their fellow citizens.

Clay on Wilderness and Civilization

John-Henry Clay, ‘Claiming the Wilderness in Late Roman Gaul’, JECS 30 (2022) 403-32.

Abstract. To the educated classical mind, the cosmos was built on a dichotomy between order and chaos that permeated the physical and natural world. Wilderness was a manifestation of chaos, while human civilization reflected the principles of order. Due to a tradition of classical education, this dichotomy helped structure the response of educated Gallo-Romans to the Christian desert tradition as its ideals spread to the west. Despite the appeal of monastic asceticism, its association with the desert provoked suspicion among those trained to regard wilderness as the antithesis of civilization and culture. It is, however, possible to detect an evolution in attitudes over the last century of Roman rule in Gaul, as successive generations responded to social and political transformations and developed new ways of relating to the natural world. Includes discussion of Paulinus of Nola, Sulpicius Severus, Rutilius Namatianus, John Cassian, Eucherius, Sidonius Apollinaris, and other authors.

Sidonius in Darwin’s Beagle Library

After extensive research, the original contents of Charles Darwin’s Library have recently been uncovered. It contained many more than the 1,480 books that have long been known about. Darwin’s complete Library had more than 7,350 titles across 13,000 volumes/items, on a wide variety of topics.

Are there any authors from classical antiquity? In his notebooks, Darwin lists Virgil’s Georgics as ‘read’ and he flags Lucretius 5.847-75 for ‘natural selection according to Lucretius’. In The Origin of Species he cites Pliny for the ‘immense prices … given for pigeons’. So, not much and certainly not Sidonius. Indirectly, though, there is something,

Among the 300 books that accompanied him on the voyage on the Beagle, there are three worth mentioning for references:

1. J.R. Forster, Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World (London, 1778), p. 589 adduces the Panegyric of Avitus for the habit of the Huns who ‘wounded their cheeks … to testify their grief for the loss of a great man or a relation’.

2. C. Daubeny, A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos (London, 1826), p. 14-15 [about the volcanoes in the Auvergne]:

The high antiquity of the most modern of these volcanos is indeed sufficiently obvious. Had any of them been in a state of activity in the age of Julius Cæsar, that general, who encamped upon the plains of Auvergne, and laid siege to its principal city [fn.: Gergovia, near Clermont], could hardly have failed to notice them. Had there been even any record of their existence in the time of Pliny or Sidonius Apollinaris, the one would scarcely have omitted to make mention of it in his Natural History, nor the other to introduce some allusion to it among his descriptions of this his native province.

The case is even stronger, when we recollect that the poet’s residence was on the borders of the Lake Aidat, which, owed its very existence to one of the most modern volcanos; and that he was aware of the nature of such phænomena, appears from a letter extant of his addressed to the Bishop of Vienne [fn.: See Sidon. Apoll. Lib. 7. Epist. 1. ad Mamertum], in which, under the apprehension of an attack from the Goths, he informs him that he is going to enjoin public prayers, similar to those which the bishop had established, at the time when earthquakes demolished the walls of Vienne, when the mountains opened and vomited forth torrents of inflamed materials, and the wild beasts, driven from the woods by fire and terror, retired into the towns, where they made great ravages.

3. C. Lyell, Principles of Geology (London, 1833), p. 269:

Dr. Daubeny has justly observed, that had any of these French volcanos been in a state of activity in the age of Julius Cæsar, that general, who encamped upon the plains of Auvergne, and laid siege to its principal city, (Gergovia, near Clermont,) could hardly have failed to notice them. Had there been even any record of their existence in the time of Pliny or Sidonius Apollinaris, the one would scarcely have omitted to make mention of it in his Natural History, nor the other to introduce some allusion to it among the descriptions of this his native province. This poet’s residence was on the borders of the Lake Aidat, which owed its very existence to the damming up of a river by one of the most modern lava currents.

We may conclude that it is not unlikely that Darwin knew the locus classicus of the natural disasters in Vienne at the time of Mamertus and Sidonius, and their not being ascribable to volcanic activity in the Auvergne, from the famous, pioneering study of Charles Daubeny, an early supporter of natural selection with whom he later corresponded.

Becker on the Power of Humility

Audrey Becker writes on ‘The Power of Humility: Fifth-Century Gallic Bishops in Negotiations with Barbarian Kings’ in the latest thematic issue of Studies in Late Antiquity.

Abstract. This essay examines the diplomatic efforts of Gallic bishops with barbarian kings, in the tense period after 406 CE and during the raids of Attila in Gaul in 451. The first part of this essay seeks to understand the narrative strategies at work in five late antique Gallic hagiographies. Written decades after the events narrated in them occurred, under different political circumstances, these texts re-imagined and re-interpreted these diplomatic encounters, bolstering claims of episcopal authority. The second part of this essay contextualizes the hagiographic claims of Gallic bishops’ involvement in diplomacy, paying particular attention to the role of episcopal humility in diplomatic encounters. It shows that this humility was not only a topos but also a useful diplomatic and religious tool.

Benedetti on Provincials and Barbarians

Pedro Benedetti took his doctorate at the University of São Paulo with a thesis on the relations between the Roman provincial populations and the barbarians in 4th- and 5th-century Gaul: ‘As relações entre as populações provinciais romanas e os bárbaros nas Gálias dos séculos IV e V (c. 350–475 d.C.)’.

It can be found in the repository of the USP.

The author explains: ‘In the 4th chapter, I discuss Sidonius’ use of frontier terminology relating to the Gothic presence in Aquitania to argue that, although scholars debate the precise date when we can talk about a “Visigothic Kingdom”, his perception of the nature of the Gothic domain varied according to his own judgement of the kings’ loyalty to the “federate” treaty. In the 5th chapter, I argue that Sidonius’ depiction of the sieges of Clermont as a clash between the freedom of the Roman life and the servitude under barbarian rule mirrors the accounts of 4th-century sieges of Gallic cities and, although we can see some continuity in the way the urban resistance is mobilized, the context of 5th-century Auvergne is very different.’

Benedetti is currently working on an article on popular and subaltern experiences in Sidonius’ letters. Email address: benedetti190 AT hotmail.com.

In memoriam Bruno Luiselli

The Sapienza University and the Lincei Academy will hold a conference to the memory of Bruno Luiselli, who died in 2021. Its title is: Tra Romani e Germani. Speakers include Leopoldo Gamberale, Antonella Bruzzone, Alessandro Fo, Giorgio Piras, Luigi Piacente and Umberto Roberto.

Date: Thursday, 22 February 2024. The morning session is hosted by the Sapienza University, the afternoon session by the Lincei.

Everybody is welcome. For the afternoon session, registration is required. The programme and further information are available here

Furbetta on Interactional Dynamics

Luciana Furbetta wrote ‘Dinamiche interazionali tra le élites e il potere a partire dalla testimonianza delle epistole di Sidonio Apollinare e Avito di Vienne’, Rivista Storica dell’Antichità 53 (2023) 297-313.

Abstract. The paper proposes some reflections on the possibility of combining the linguistic-philological analysis of late antique letter collections with the study of communication processes. In particular, we aim to study the modes of social interaction and mechanisms of action orientation within aristocratic circles between the power (with reference to the courts of barbarian kings and the ecclesiastics). The field of application chosen as a case study are the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris and Avitus of Vienne.

Read it here